Slavers' Exile and Duncan the Black [MERGED]

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Quick question...if you do the other 4 dungeons in nm and Duncan in hm, do you still get full eotn points for it or do you need to do all 5 dungeons in hm for the full points? I have real trouble doing forge or selve in hm, weather with pug's or h/h, I just can't seem to get it done..

I ran this build today to do the two bosses in the Justicar Thommas part of Slavers' Exile. I used 3 necros (myself + 2 heroes), then I had a channelling damage ritualist, earth, archer, warrior, and healing henches. In general I had enough damage to take most groups (the only group I had trouble with had a Modoniir Priest, a Stone Summit Priest, a Stone Summit Defender, and a Stone Summit Warder.

More important than the build were the pulling and flagging tactics. People keep saying this, but I haven't really seen many suggestions on how this works for people who don't know. Here's what I did.

Basically I found a defensible location - preferably an area wide enough to stand apart in, but narrow enough to encourage the enemies to bunch together. Failing that a corner or high ground will do. Do not set up on low ground if you have the option. Also don't set up behind a doorway - your heroes and henchmen will end up shooting at obstructed targets. I set up a front, middle, and back line with my heroes and henchmen - basically the MM and all the henchmen were the front line (the monk will run away from damage, so that turned out okay since you can't flag them separately). Myself and the channeling rit were the mid line, and the restoration rit was the back line. I flagged my henchmen together in the front line, with the MM a few steps to the left of them and the channeling rit to the right and slightly behind. I flagged the restoration N/Rt well to the rear, but still in range to heal. I then dropped frozen soil somewhat behind the restoration rit but still well within range of the front lines and switched to a longbow to pull groups in 1 at a time. You need to pull the groups a good distance, which will cause them to be spread out and possibly to get confused and try to run away again. It is better to set up too far back and have to move again than to set up too far forward the first time.

Normally I scanned the targets before pulling to identify priority targets. I treated them in this order: Protector, Summit Priest, Modoniir Priest, Warder, Dominator (they have reuseable res), and then other targets. When the enemies approach, i use ctrl+shift+space or ctrl+mark of pain to get all my heroes/henchmen to target the priority target. If there is a warder in the group, I slapped them with Pain Inverter in case they cast AoE (which they tend to do on the minions). Modoniir priests will also run into a group and use trample, so pain inverter works wonders on them as well.

I plan on doing more of the dungeons this weekend, I'll post any updates.

Me: N/R Spiteful
12+3+1 curses magic
9+1 soul reaping
9 wilderness survival
[skill]Spiteful Spirit[/skill][skill]Mark of Pain[/skill][skill]Enfeebling Blood[/skill][skill]Reckless Haste[/skill][skill]Pain Inverter[/skill][skill]Great Dwarf Weapon[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Frozen Soil[/skill]

N/Rt - Restoration necro
Soul Reaping: 12+1+1
Restoration Magic: 12
[skill]Weapon of Remedy[/skill][skill]Vengeful Weapon[/skill][skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill][skill]Spirit Light[/skill][skill]Protective was Kaolai[/skill][skill]Life[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill]

N/Rt - Putrid MM
Death Magic: 12+1+3
Soul Reaping: 12+1
[skill]Icy Veins[/skill][skill]Putrid Bile[/skill][skill]Rising Bile[/skill][skill]Animate Bone Minions[/skill][skill]Animate Bone Horror[/skill][skill]Death Nova[/skill][skill]Signet of Lost Souls[/skill][skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill]

Rt/N - Channeling damage
Spawning Power: 10+1
Communing: 8+1
Channeling Magic: 12+3+1
[skill]Ancestors' Rage[/skill][skill]Channeled Strike[/skill][skill]Renewing Surge[/skill][skill]Spirit Rift[/skill][skill]Mighty was Vorizun[/skill][skill]Empowerment[/skill][skill]Ghostly Haste[/skill][skill]Grenth's Balance[/skill]

Hi All

I have been reading your posts about this dungeon and really want to try it, I completed Prophecies only a couple of weeks ago using Henchmen only for all missions, me as a Basic Cleave warrior. I also completed Eye of the north at the weekend using only H / H, again me as a cleave warrior and the following Heroes
Odgen Stonehealer
Vekk
Pyre Fierceshot

(I have another 3 heroes unlocked, Jora, Liva and Gwen)

1 protector Hench, 1 Healer Hench, 1 Ranger Hench and 1 Mage Hench, me as the only melee character allowed me to flag the group a bit away me pulll back into the group and take out mobs.

Only 2 missions gave me problems,
Heart of the Shiverpeeks, That damn Cyndr got on my nerves, didnt seem to have the firepower to kill him quickly before he dissapeared into the ground, that changed once he spawned next to the keg of powder, after that, he died very easily.
A time for heroes, took me 3 attempts on this one, was wiped out quickly first two times then I changed my armour to have sentinel insignias, used Protective Spirit with Odgen and used Pain Invertor on my Skill bar, with that it was very easy..

Soo after that long story, my question is, with what I have available any advice for me tackling the dungeon? Again it will be a H/H group.

Cheers

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I'm wondering if someone would be willing to please help and give some advice.

I was able to clear the entire dungeon with H/H *except* for Duncan himself. Reading about the corner by the stairs... I tried to stand there but kept getting killed by duncan or the spirits behind me. When I was able to stay alive and spam Backfire/empathy/pain inverter no luck, he took almost no damage. When I took the spirits out, 5 seconds later they reappeared.

here's a little map, D= duncan, s=spirits, me = me, === are the stairs

D s
||me s
s ===

What did I do wrong?

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I figured prot becuz he was doing like 300-400 dmg. ah, swap tho... I didn't know that would prevent them from rebirthing.

Thanks!

any other tips/tactics welcome as well.

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uber, thanks!

Beat Duncan for the first time last night. Took a while to get him down, but it was lots of fun (using some different tactics for once is always good). It might just be me, but this dungeon seemed a lot easier than other elite areas, being fun and interesting rather than butt rapingly hard.

For all areas before duncan use these.


Sin tank - OwVTESf+ZSnZJgHBEINbFUrBiBA
Mes 1 - OQZDAcwzMCVIAuAZ4LAG9CcG
Mes 2 - OQZDAcwzMCVIAuAZMNYa9C1B
Rit - OAKjghhMpOSzhZ1biJ5uOWukLA
Necro 1 - OAVDQqhHTsBOBXC9ioOfCcBdCA
Necro 2 - OAVDQqhHTCNXC2BOBoO9iyMdCA
Healer - OwYS0YITxVbE/OZE5gIDfE2E
Bonder - OwAS8YITpEbaFE1DyExDyD5g

For Duncan, substitute necro 2 with this - OAdDQspHSqQTVcB9ioO2BdC1ZA

currently trying to get a group to test this build - OQajkwmM6MajkxXtG3Kyx+4WMA

Anyone have a H/H build with a monk the playable character, along with 3 synergizing hero builds and henchman, or would Sab's hero builds work exactly as they're posted, along with henchman?

Has anyone tried this with just henchmen?
I.E. no heroes or other players?

I would be interested to see if it could be done.

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I've done all slavers dungeons in NM with henchies, and I know for sure that others have done Duncan HM with henchies. Duncan is actually pretty easy with henchies in NM - you just need to have a decent team composition, and good aggro skills to deal with the mixed summit groups. PS can be micro'd onto your hero Nec for Duncan himself. Takes a while, but it's easy and reliable.

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Oh yeah >< missed that

Not sure WHY anyone would bother trying to do that though.

Ya lol I thought it would be useful for people who don't have heroes. But duh! if you have GWEN you have heroes.

Edit: I guess it could just be a good challenge?

It might *just* be possible if you were a nec primary, assassin secondary for swap. The hero monk *ought* to PS you if you flag them properly behind you, but you'd have to kill duncan with nothing but SS / SoLS as there would be no easy way to drop a corpse on top of him. The first summit group would present a real challenge without any skills to stop ressing, but it might be doable with a little luck. You'd probably have to aggro lock them at the far back of the dungeon, so the ressers run back before resurrecting any of the group that you manage to pick off.

Does Pain Inverter trigger off Duncan's Defenses? It ripped through Charr Effigies in seconds, and they have a similar one.

Woot!! Finally finished duncan with H/H!! Took many trys but i got the right builds and ended up finishing him at 10% morale boost (Except for me cause i sacrificed myself to leave a corpse near duncan for [/skill]signet of sorrow[/skill]).

Once again - proving that PUG "Formula" builds are out-dated.

I managed to beat this (All 5 bosses) (not easily I might add) with a modified SAB build (yes - that build is truly amazing) - Thanks SAB for posting your findings here !.

I made some bad skill choices - and at the end all I had to bring down Duncan was a Necro with SV and syphon.

Once I had cleared the dungeon, and swapped spirits waaaay into the corner, It took 1 hr for him to go down.

Flagged the SV Necro in range, Flagged the rt Necro behind him, and flagged the henches off to side - that way Healer hench could rez/heal both while being out of range, and the Prot hench (Thank goodness I brought one of these henches) occasionally threw a protection - although not often enough.

for the record, this was a -60%DP success. So even with bad choices, bad luck and other things thrown in, it IS possible to succeed without formula PUG builds. Thanks to all posting in this thread (and again to SAB) for giving me the encouragement to try - and then to succeed.

I could post a screenshot - but a screenshot of a hulking warrior on his knees praying to Glint to get the Necro to goddamn hurry up and kill him already is not necessary !

holy wrath/retribution method does not work as of this morning, both in normal mode and hard mode. Duncan's wanding doesn't trigger it anymore.

Seems Anet is hell bent to only make the sacrificing/SoS gimmick the only method to defeat him now.

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I never played elite missions but I would say bring the consumable that makes -60 to +10 and use some armor of salvations, increse attack speed and stuff. Because the money used on them are gonna make you succeed. Its better to use gold then try again

Just a quick question(s), but do you have to redo all of the other dungeons to get to Duncan's again after beating him? Also, does everyone in the party need to have beaten the other 3 dungeons before getting to Duncan?

Yes and Yes... and people who dont know this are an endless source of frustration for Duncan PuGs

A question: do you get EOTN mastery points only for final Duncan dungeon, or u get them for every other of the 4 areas?
Cuz as a Dervish (my primary char) i have little or no way of doing Duncan in HM, no PUG will take me. But i already have him in NM (from the time when you could get taxi, so i didnt kill other bosses).
Did him many times NM and HM with ma monk tho.
So i'm thinking on skipping Duncan HM for MAster of the north title, if possible...just dont know if i have to kill other 4 bossess to get points or only Duncan counts towards title...

I have a monk suggestion that I think many folks that play a OF tank team build, used in many places such as Slaver's, should take to heart. First off, even though they have nerfed the skill time, from 8 seconds to now 4-5 seconds depending on your level of Sunspear, Seed of Life should be taken. Also monks should be using an enchantment extension weapon, Enchantments last 20% longer.

Two monks that are often used are an HB and a Bonder. The typical Bonder is the following (although some put dismiss condition instead of VB):
Protection: 12 + 1 + 3 Divine Favor: 12 + 1
[skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill][skill]protective spirit[/skill][skill]blessed signet[/skill][skill]vital blessing[/skill][skill]life bond[/skill][skill]balthazar's spirit[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill]

And I propose a one skill change for the HB monk that will make a large difference from the typical build. Often either Holy Haste or some other skill is brought, but I suggest having the HB monk bring Life Bond as well.

Healing: 12 + 1 + 3 Divine Favor: 12 + 1
[skill]Healer's Boon[/skill][skill]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill][skill]ethereal light[/skill][skill]heal party[/skill][skill]glyph of lesser energy[/skill][skill]life bond[/skill][skill]rebirth[/skill]

This Life Bond on the HB monk serves two purposes, primarily benefiting the monks, but it willl take cooperation of the monks. So the the bonder monks typically puts all three bonds on the tank, vital blessing, life bond, and balthazar's spirit. In addition, the bonder should put balthazar's spirit on themselves, which I am not sure inexperience bonder know to do. As, putting balthazar spirit on themselves will give them energy everytime the tank is hit, since a little damage is passed on to the bonder through Life Bond which will trigger Balthazar's Spirit.

Well similar to this energy gain method, the HB monk will put Life Bond on the tank and the Bonder Monk then should put Balthazar's Spirit on the HB monk. So you may ask why not just use Essence Bond for the HB monk, and here is why, since both monks have Life Bond, Seed of Life will trigger through the bonds. In that way the monks can cast Seed of Life on each other which will trigger Seed of Life to work, healing the whole party. That way the monks do not have to be close to the tank to heal and it will heal the whole party in addition to the tank, this is especially true for the bonder monk, who can help with the healing by putting Seed of Life on the HB monk.

(The higher protection Life Bond takes precidence, so the tank will get the full benefit of the bonders high protection, but LB are not stackable.)
Bonder Monk Bond Target:
Tank: Vital Blessing, Life Bond, Balthazar's Spirit
Bonder Monk: Balthazar's Spirit
HB Monk: Balthazar's Spirit

HB Monk Bond Target:
Tank: Life Bond

The optimum way to do this is to have an understanding which monk goes first with Seed of Life, and then to alternate trying to avoid having it up simultaneously so to maximize the time it is up all the time. Swapping it on each other, the monks can tell when its up and when its down because it was put on them. When, Seed of Life, was at 8 seconds, with an enchantment extensions weapon (1.2*8=10),(and Divine Blessing on one monk), you could keep this up allmost all the time with two monks. Now with the nerf to 4-5 seconds, 1.2*5=6, you can cover about 1/2 the recharge time of the seed of life skill, but that is still very good. The only thing to watch out for is when the bonds are stripped it will not obviously work as intended, and for toucher (life draining skill), as this is not triggered as damage, so seed of life will not heal regardless of the whether applied through bonds or directly. So for Restless Dead direct healing skills are necessary, such as Dwayna's Kiss, and the key here is to rubber band cast this so that you avoid breaking aggro (or having the restless shadowstep to you).

So with this one skill change of the typical HB build and applying the tactics described, it can have a huge impact on the success, aggro risk, energy management, and work of the monks. Having Life Bond on the HB monk provided 3 major opportunites.
1. With Balthazar's Spirit on the Monk it will provide energy
2. Will allow swaping of Seed of Life on each monk, maximizing time applied
3. Minimizes need to be near tank so avoids breaking aggro

I know many folks know this already, so it may be nothing new, but I know many folks in my guild that have played monks have not bonded much nor played much in OF Tank teams.