What are the best methods for killing Awakened mobs in the Desolation without fatalities? That is, mobs that can't be reached with a Wurm.
The Dervs are almost completely invunerably to spells thanks to Vow of Silence and are extremely deadly to go with it.
The mobs constantly ressurect each other. Which can be stopped through Frozen Soil, but that tends to backfire on you more than anything. Interrupts will do the trick but you can't see every one.
The Necromancers screw over Shouts (least i think they use Vocal Minority, might be confused with the Sadistic Giants) and all forms of physical attacks with Faintheartedness.
The Mesmers are just annoying with hyper active Cry of Fustrations. They also Hex Eater Vortex any attempts at shutdown hexes. Could possibly be overcome through use of AoE hexes or low recharge like Parasitic and Suffering..
The Carvens seem to love the Gale spamming.
The Monks, while been shoddy healers love Life Bond and Shield of Absorption, aswell as spamming Scourge Healing and Signet of Judgement at all possible opportunities.
Gray Giants really do mess up the use of Wards thanks to Choking Gas.
I understand that using as few heros as possible would help with survival. They also have the bonus of having no enchantment removal.
Please, no counters that basically bring DoA to the Desolation.
Awakened Mobs (Desolation)
Evilsod
TedTheDead
Unfortunantly I have not found a method to deal with the Awakened mobs that did not involve basically bringing in some type of DoAish build. If I know I am going into the Desolation I do not set foot in there w/o at least my 2 Ele heroes setup with Searing Flames, Glowing Gaze, and Metor Shower, and myself with an Echo SS. As you said, they seem immortal against anything else.
There are too many of them at too high of a level to be taken out with "strategy", at least for my not to amazing tactis. I have tried many alternatives. The only other method, which I tried recently with my Ranger, was to run a Barrage/Pet group. I had myself and my lovely dire warthog, and then Acolyte Jin, Margrid the Sly as Barrage/Pet as well, and then setup Zenmai as a crittical Barrager and that had pretty good success. But not as good as the SF at all.
There are too many of them at too high of a level to be taken out with "strategy", at least for my not to amazing tactis. I have tried many alternatives. The only other method, which I tried recently with my Ranger, was to run a Barrage/Pet group. I had myself and my lovely dire warthog, and then Acolyte Jin, Margrid the Sly as Barrage/Pet as well, and then setup Zenmai as a crittical Barrager and that had pretty good success. But not as good as the SF at all.
Mark Nevermiss
A dervish or two with Avatar of Balthazar and holy AoE enchants rip through through these guys.
Evilsod
Signet of Humility (which is now no longer at lvl0) screws up an SF badly. Reduces the damage output to practically nothing once they take out your elite.
My trip for vanquishing Sulfurous Wastes, mainly focused my build around annihilating Bobhedi the Destructive. Took along 3 R/Ds with Heart of the Holy Flame and Barrage. Razah with 16 Channeling 13 Resto for Splinter and some weapon/spirit based heals.
It... went quite well, but in a very bizarre way. I ended up accidently tanking 3 Dune Carvers, luckily they were disintegrated by the first wave of Barrage/Splinter. Thanks to the wall all the casters grouped up onto the same spot which let the next Barrages with 1 or 2 Splinters wipe out most of the casters.
Still, been heros and hench... they still managed to die. Lost 2 people in that fight, mainly through Cry of Frustration, Deathly Swarm before i distracted it and a Dune Carver that i didn't see.
I was also thinking of running a 600 Mo/D Fleeting or Mo/Me Resolve to tank them before we moved in to stop the ressurects...
Seems they've turned the Desolation into the land of Gimmick builds tbh... Actual defensive builds eventually just fall apart.
My trip for vanquishing Sulfurous Wastes, mainly focused my build around annihilating Bobhedi the Destructive. Took along 3 R/Ds with Heart of the Holy Flame and Barrage. Razah with 16 Channeling 13 Resto for Splinter and some weapon/spirit based heals.
It... went quite well, but in a very bizarre way. I ended up accidently tanking 3 Dune Carvers, luckily they were disintegrated by the first wave of Barrage/Splinter. Thanks to the wall all the casters grouped up onto the same spot which let the next Barrages with 1 or 2 Splinters wipe out most of the casters.
Still, been heros and hench... they still managed to die. Lost 2 people in that fight, mainly through Cry of Frustration, Deathly Swarm before i distracted it and a Dune Carver that i didn't see.
I was also thinking of running a 600 Mo/D Fleeting or Mo/Me Resolve to tank them before we moved in to stop the ressurects...
Seems they've turned the Desolation into the land of Gimmick builds tbh... Actual defensive builds eventually just fall apart.
The Legg
Defensive builds do work.
When working through the desolation with guildies we found that before you pull an awakened mob dropping a dust trap and barbed trap at the backline helps wonderes. The dervishes will rush the backline and become blinded long enough to concentrate on killing the monks and paragons. They cannot have their conditions removed due to VoS. Also we brought the standard ward against melee and elements on an earth ele, with unsteady ground, eruption and churning earth.
This combined with effcetive pulling/holding and use of terrain took us through all deslation areas with relative ease even though constantly flagging heros around to reduce their stupidness was a bit grating.
The ranged attackers can have their dps reduced by terrain usage and careful pulling.
Thats about it really for the desolation, nothing else special was required. Just usual stuff for the rest.
When working through the desolation with guildies we found that before you pull an awakened mob dropping a dust trap and barbed trap at the backline helps wonderes. The dervishes will rush the backline and become blinded long enough to concentrate on killing the monks and paragons. They cannot have their conditions removed due to VoS. Also we brought the standard ward against melee and elements on an earth ele, with unsteady ground, eruption and churning earth.
This combined with effcetive pulling/holding and use of terrain took us through all deslation areas with relative ease even though constantly flagging heros around to reduce their stupidness was a bit grating.
The ranged attackers can have their dps reduced by terrain usage and careful pulling.
Thats about it really for the desolation, nothing else special was required. Just usual stuff for the rest.
LONGA
Bring a smite monk.Undead are weak aganist holy damage.Take double damge from holy damge.
I usually run melonni with rending aura just to deal with those awakened dervish
Or Zenami with Shadow apotasy.which work well rending throught monk protection spell as well.
As for the awakened paragon and monks basic inteurpt ranger work well becuse 2-5 sec skill are easy to interupt.
You can alomost ignore the necro since all they do is spam low damge hex.A few removal should be sufficient.
The Mesmer. Usually my last target since I dont use Any SF ele on this area.
Well thats for normal mode.Good luck for hard mode.
I usually run melonni with rending aura just to deal with those awakened dervish
Or Zenami with Shadow apotasy.which work well rending throught monk protection spell as well.
As for the awakened paragon and monks basic inteurpt ranger work well becuse 2-5 sec skill are easy to interupt.
You can alomost ignore the necro since all they do is spam low damge hex.A few removal should be sufficient.
The Mesmer. Usually my last target since I dont use Any SF ele on this area.
Well thats for normal mode.Good luck for hard mode.
Evilsod
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Legg
Defensive builds do work.
When working through the desolation with guildies we found that before you pull an awakened mob dropping a dust trap and barbed trap at the backline helps wonderes. The dervishes will rush the backline and become blinded long enough to concentrate on killing the monks and paragons. They cannot have their conditions removed due to VoS. Also we brought the standard ward against melee and elements on an earth ele, with unsteady ground, eruption and churning earth.
This combined with effcetive pulling/holding and use of terrain took us through all deslation areas with relative ease even though constantly flagging heros around to reduce their stupidness was a bit grating.
The ranged attackers can have their dps reduced by terrain usage and careful pulling.
Thats about it really for the desolation, nothing else special was required. Just usual stuff for the rest. Can we get just 1 thing straight about VoS... you can still cast spells on them. Awakened just have no condition removal. I did use an Earth ele with the majority of the skills you listed, but it made no difference. If we stood in the wards, CoF and the dervs, even with a 50% miss would alot of damage. That and heros continually kite out of them.
The main area i was thinking of was Poisoned Outcrops, lots of Awakened boss groups in there and its completely unwurmable. I never really saw there to be that many useful obstacles either in the areas containing Awakened.
But i guess we did lack a significant amount of pulling when we cleared Shattered Ravines (yeah... those 2 or 3 mobs, lol). That and poor priotization and even poorer focus fire.
When working through the desolation with guildies we found that before you pull an awakened mob dropping a dust trap and barbed trap at the backline helps wonderes. The dervishes will rush the backline and become blinded long enough to concentrate on killing the monks and paragons. They cannot have their conditions removed due to VoS. Also we brought the standard ward against melee and elements on an earth ele, with unsteady ground, eruption and churning earth.
This combined with effcetive pulling/holding and use of terrain took us through all deslation areas with relative ease even though constantly flagging heros around to reduce their stupidness was a bit grating.
The ranged attackers can have their dps reduced by terrain usage and careful pulling.
Thats about it really for the desolation, nothing else special was required. Just usual stuff for the rest. Can we get just 1 thing straight about VoS... you can still cast spells on them. Awakened just have no condition removal. I did use an Earth ele with the majority of the skills you listed, but it made no difference. If we stood in the wards, CoF and the dervs, even with a 50% miss would alot of damage. That and heros continually kite out of them.
The main area i was thinking of was Poisoned Outcrops, lots of Awakened boss groups in there and its completely unwurmable. I never really saw there to be that many useful obstacles either in the areas containing Awakened.
But i guess we did lack a significant amount of pulling when we cleared Shattered Ravines (yeah... those 2 or 3 mobs, lol). That and poor priotization and even poorer focus fire.
Benster
I managed to find a strategy that works pretty well when vanquishing those areas with my ranger. All you need is a flatbow. You'll notice that they have a radius in which they will chase you that is fairly large, but not infinite. If you flag your hench just about an agro bubble outside of this distance, then you can run up and shoot a flatbow shot to pull them towards you. They will start to chase.
Once they get near the edge, they will start to get confused when you flatbow them. Some will hang out near the edge of the chase zone, while others will return to the original position SO LONG AS YOU CONTINUE SHOOTING AND RUNNING BACK A LITTLE. It takes a little time and patience, but isn't to bad, because occasionally you will get one or two that will over extend and come outside of the chase zone. That is when your heros and hench who are waiting can demolish them individually. Just make sure to take out the acolytes that stray too far sooner than later.
With that said, it helped me to have my ranger use Empathy and Throw Dirt on the dervishes that came too far, and to use Broad Head Arrow on the mez and acolytes that came too far, which was enormously helpful.... Apply Poison helped too. You might have to pick your skills wisely to reproduce a somewhat similar effect. Fortunately, you are in worms most of the time, so you can pick your skills just for this situation.
That was how I did it. There was a Mez boss in Alkalai Pan that I happened to get to last. My party wiped a few times trying to take them out conventionally, and we were all at -55% or more when I figured the strategy out. Not a single death after that. Cupcakes were helpful.
Also, usually there is a rez shrine near the edge of the chase zone... I tend to pull them towards that just in case so I can get back to them quicker before they reorganize.
It also worked on the Necro group in the north west corner of the area south of Remains of S. There, you can also pull them down to the edge of the rock where they will stay, and then get in works and Seige a few of them to death by sacrificing one hero to pull with flagging.
The AI in hard mode is pretty good, but if you act erratically enough you can confuse it.
If you were curious, I was using Gerhaz, Khim, Mehnlo, and Devona, and my heros were Talkhora as healer (probably should go protector though), Sosuke and Zhed with meteor shower, liquid flame, SF, and whatever the cheap version of Rodgort's is(can't recall name at the moment, but its the one that makes them catch fire...)
I don't know what class you are using, but let me know if you want my build...
Once they get near the edge, they will start to get confused when you flatbow them. Some will hang out near the edge of the chase zone, while others will return to the original position SO LONG AS YOU CONTINUE SHOOTING AND RUNNING BACK A LITTLE. It takes a little time and patience, but isn't to bad, because occasionally you will get one or two that will over extend and come outside of the chase zone. That is when your heros and hench who are waiting can demolish them individually. Just make sure to take out the acolytes that stray too far sooner than later.
With that said, it helped me to have my ranger use Empathy and Throw Dirt on the dervishes that came too far, and to use Broad Head Arrow on the mez and acolytes that came too far, which was enormously helpful.... Apply Poison helped too. You might have to pick your skills wisely to reproduce a somewhat similar effect. Fortunately, you are in worms most of the time, so you can pick your skills just for this situation.
That was how I did it. There was a Mez boss in Alkalai Pan that I happened to get to last. My party wiped a few times trying to take them out conventionally, and we were all at -55% or more when I figured the strategy out. Not a single death after that. Cupcakes were helpful.
Also, usually there is a rez shrine near the edge of the chase zone... I tend to pull them towards that just in case so I can get back to them quicker before they reorganize.
It also worked on the Necro group in the north west corner of the area south of Remains of S. There, you can also pull them down to the edge of the rock where they will stay, and then get in works and Seige a few of them to death by sacrificing one hero to pull with flagging.
The AI in hard mode is pretty good, but if you act erratically enough you can confuse it.
If you were curious, I was using Gerhaz, Khim, Mehnlo, and Devona, and my heros were Talkhora as healer (probably should go protector though), Sosuke and Zhed with meteor shower, liquid flame, SF, and whatever the cheap version of Rodgort's is(can't recall name at the moment, but its the one that makes them catch fire...)
I don't know what class you are using, but let me know if you want my build...