Has anyone beaten UW since skeletons?

optymind

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2008

A/E

HM or NM, has anyone actually done it? I just want to know if at the end Dhuum appears considering he has a skillset in the .dat file.

Keep this on topic please... just talking about beating UW.

drkn

drkn

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2009

Wroc??aw, Poland

Midnight Mayhem

Me/

yes, no dhuum.

snowman relic

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2009

your just a meatsheild to me

N/Mo

end of event or next quest he will prob be officially added then announced to slow or stop UWSC

IronSheik

IronSheik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Wolfenstein: Goldrush

Zombies Go Nom Nom [Nom]

N/

If only dhuum were harder than mallyx...something in gw that might be challenging again.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by IronSheik View Post
If only dhuum were harder than mallyx...something in gw that might be challenging again.
1. Mallyx is a terribly designed boss and I hope Dhuum in no way resembles him. Mallyx's "hoser" skillset invalidated a wide majority of build possibilities and forced people into a very, very narrow team build. "Gee, this guy hoses the skills we normally use" is only fun for as long as it takes for the first person to figure out the solution and post it online. "Run this or fail" is no fun at all, particularly for those who want to use a class outside the optimal team build. Additionally, having to fight through a long gauntlet with sub-optimal builds because you need to optimize for the boss at the end is just obnoxious.

2. It's more-or-less impossible to make a good "hard boss" given the way GW is designed. It's 8-on-1 and the player skillset is so broad that, anything you give the boss, the players will bring a hoser for it. You can increase the difficulty by heading in the cheese direction with monster skills a la Mallyx, but that decreases the fun proportionally. IMO, the best you can ever manage with a boss in GW is to make them look cool, put up some resistance against a balanced team, and try to hose totally degenerate tactics.

With that in mind, I'm hoping for a Mox/Rox/Pox/Splox/Whateverox with adequate enchant removal and some SF-piercing damage.

3. If you take people's word for it, his skillset is already in the .dat. What's posted is obviously for a Halloween quest. Hopefully there's a permanent UW quest coming in the next update.

IronSheik

IronSheik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Wolfenstein: Goldrush

Zombies Go Nom Nom [Nom]

N/

Of course mallyx is a bad boss, he can be beat by paragon heroes chucking spears at him for 5 minutes, but at this point he is the hardest enemy in my eyes at the moment, as nothing else in GW is much of a challenge.

Zahr Dalsk

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Aug 2007

Canada

Quote:
Originally Posted by IronSheik View Post
If only dhuum were harder than mallyx...something in gw that might be challenging again.
I hope not. Domain of Anguish is an incredibly poorly designed mission.

It's always been dominated by particular builds that you must run if you want to get a group. For example, "balanced" (a misnomer) where only a few classes were allowed to play, and Ursan, which eventually degenerated into a few specific classes despite being originally intended to help get rid of class discrimination.

And then I'm sure Shadow Form was used for a while, but by that point I'd given up on DoA. I've always wanted to try it, but I can't: no group to play with, and doing it with only heroes is, as far as I know, impossible.

David Wooding

David Wooding

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2006

W/

Almost beat it last night, had just the Chaos Planes and the Bone pits left, we got mobbed by two groups of Mindblade Spectres, with a full group it's not hard to get through the Skeleton's of Dhuum.

Reformed

Reformed

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zahr Dalsk View Post
And then I'm sure Shadow Form was used for a while, but by that point I'd given up on DoA. I've always wanted to try it, but I can't: no group to play with, and doing it with only heroes is, as far as I know, impossible.
SF is only good for farming rep and maybe some gemstones down there between city/gloom. 2+6 is possible in a full normal clear but you get to rely on 2 more broken as hell PvE gimmicks, a modified sabway and an imbagon. When it comes time to fight Mallyx you obviously can't rely on sabs/discord being primarily hex and condition based. It's all about a communing rit and imba to mitigate some of the beating along with lots of physicals/direct damage the same way some of the Ursan teams were doing it. Mallyx's biggest single weakness is probably that he has absolutely no way to deal with rit and para buffs. He is just a giant purple foil to classic tank and spank.

Zahr Dalsk

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Aug 2007

Canada

Quote:
Originally Posted by Reformed View Post
He is just a giant purple foil to classic tank and spank.
Funny how people were using that in DoA for months, then. (That team with a warrior, a bunch of elementalists, a necro, and a couple monks.)

Reformed

Reformed

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zahr Dalsk View Post
Funny how people were using that in DoA for months, then. (That team with a warrior, a bunch of elementalists, a necro, and a couple monks.)
It works great until you get up to Mallyx and then you die very very fast. When the old door trick worked you just had the necro drop a golem with everyone in a line on the door for Mallyx's summon then SoS him to death. They fixed that little loophole up in a pretty big hurry. Good points about niche play, let's hope Dhuum doesn't go the same route. I digress though...

Zahr Dalsk

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Aug 2007

Canada

Quote:
Originally Posted by Reformed View Post
When the old door trick worked you just had the necro drop a golem with everyone in a line on the door for Mallyx's summon then SoS him to death.
Wat? This was WAY before EotN. There were no golems. SoS was an energy gain skill. We're talking, like, 2007 here.

upier

upier

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Done.

[JUNK]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zahr Dalsk View Post
Wat? This was WAY before EotN. There were no golems. SoS was an energy gain skill. We're talking, like, 2007 here.
Animate Flesh Golem.
Signet Of Sorrow.

Arduin

Arduin

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

The Netherlands

Limburgse Jagers [LJ]

R/

Gotta love them acronyms.

Zahr Dalsk

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Aug 2007

Canada

Quote:
Originally Posted by upier View Post
Animate Flesh Golem.
Signet Of Sorrow.
Dammit!

12chars

jensyea

jensyea

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2009

The Underworld

Mo/

As much as I love doing UWSC, I'm up for a new challenge in GW, and these UW changes hopefully will create a totally new experience, where it will take skill, and nothing but skill, to clear it. That means that it won't take hours to complete becouse the foes have 1k HP each or something, nor be done in 10 minutes becouse some guy posted a build on PvX that becomes meta and makes it possible for all noobs to roflstomp the area.

Anyways, we will see what comes our way. 1 thing is sure tho, those bastards made me curious

-Jens

Mason717

Mason717

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2008

Lion's Arch

Desolation Lords [DL]

A/

Quote:
Originally Posted by optymind View Post

Keep this on topic please... just talking about beating UW.
Lol. How did you know?

My New Name

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2008

so much on staying on topic lol

Axeman002

Axeman002

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2008

A/Mo

just had a guildrun today, while farming skeletons too...no Dhuum to be seen

Hooded Doom

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2007

IGN : Hooded Lfg Uwsc, Il H O O D E D Il

someones mad.

D/

Wait...Dhuum has a skillset in the .dat??

is this posted anywhere?

Mr. Undisclosed

Mr. Undisclosed

I phail

Join Date: Mar 2007

Phailville

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by X Xenox X View Post
Wait...Dhuum has a skillset in the .dat??

is this posted anywhere?
The new halloween quest info thread.

Eragon Zarroc

Eragon Zarroc

Atra estern?? ono thelduin

Join Date: Jan 2008

Madness Incarnate

[Duo]

W/P

Skeleton UWSC

apparently this, but the explanation of how it works exactly is very poor

Aba

Aba

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2006

Vancouver,Canada

Im already seeing
"Mobber LFG"
"Faci LFG"

Devonas big Sister

Devonas big Sister

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2006

Dutchman

W/

Did a few runs solo to with minor hero backup just to actually see how the skeletons skills function rather than reading a poor-on-insight wiki page.

I haven't tried it yet since getting people to help you test new stuff as long as they haven't read a wiki or guru page about it, this is what i would suggest for skills to beat UW (after seeing the pages about 'mobway')

1 regular sliver perma: won't need any details for common perma players.
5 Scythe perma's: won't need any details for common perma players.

Now comes the 'new' part:
1 ritualist: kinda like the spirit farmer/mobile spirits build but with disenchantment and ebon assassin support;
disenchantment vs tortured spirits' illusionary weaponry and might help a little vs smites (but absolutely not a must as we all know depends if you want the sliver perma to go for it or mob the crowd)
ebon assassin vs the obsidian traps before mobbing them.
Mobile spirits to remove your spirits away from the skeleton projectiles while they attack them. Sins can jump in after spirits got aggro just to be on a safe side.

1 hybrid bonder/smite monk/mesmer or bonder/curse necro. the bond i refer to is Strength of Honor, since you will be mobbing and you got 5 scythe perma's to bond you should have no trouble keeping bonds up + keeping perma's in your screen. For the elite skill i got some doubts: Spiteful spirit has proven its use, but Ray/Signet of Judgment have crossed my mind too. (SignetOJ more vs skellies than the old foes.)
The rest of the skills as long as we keep it at monk skills would be party healing/signet healing vs skellies.

I was not looking at a build to maximize ecto drops but more a build to rush through the underworld and get the chest. I estimate that a skilled group could clear out UW with this in under 25 minutes and a trained group that splits up now and then could even make it less than 18 minutes.

Food for thought...
This is what came across my mind what I would get for a team after reading the first mobway posts.

FoxBat

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2006

Amazon Basin [AB]

Mo/Me

I'm not really getting the point of mass scythe permas if they are basically always together... the point of old SFway speedclear was to split up, and you brought your own self-defense so you could solo stuff. If you're traveling in a group, why not get some big damage balance or cryway team + 1.5 monks, and not have to deal with 33% damage reduction and so forth?

dr love

dr love

...is in denial

Join Date: Sep 2006

Hyperion

starcraft 2

P/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by FoxBat View Post
I'm not really getting the point of mass scythe permas if they are basically always together... the point of old SFway speedclear was to split up, and you brought your own self-defense so you could solo stuff. If you're traveling in a group, why not get some big damage balance or cryway team + 1.5 monks, and not have to deal with 33% damage reduction and so forth?
i'll make it easy for you. if you can make a build that beats the waste quest, then you can beat underworld. i really hope someone can make and prove a build with a nice balanced main team, but i don't see it happening.

btw, i like the idea of Mo/N with SS and strength of honor!

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Yes... If you are all running around together, you don't *really* need to use Shadow Form. It decreases your DPS anyway, and you can add support.

I recently did a 4+4 whip-round UW. 2x ER prot spammers with GDW and infuse and Protective Bond.

Then add either Orders or an MoP nuker And 5 physicals (Any profession will do.)

Incredibly fast and incredibly safe. You can also change the MoP or one of the physicals to a SoH maintainer for even more damagesz.

dr love

dr love

...is in denial

Join Date: Sep 2006

Hyperion

starcraft 2

P/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion View Post
Yes... If you are all running around together, you don't *really* need to use Shadow Form. It decreases your DPS anyway, and you can add support.
Yes that is true. Shadowform does allow freedom of movement though, and the only thing that causes trouble is the skeletons.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion View Post
I recently did a 4+4 whip-round UW.
I don't understand this. So you finished UW with your build? How was unwanted guests (uwg)?

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by dbulger View Post
Yes that is true. Shadowform does allow freedom of movement though, and the only thing that causes trouble is the skeletons.



I don't understand this. So you finished UW with your build? How was unwanted guests (uwg)?
Well, the annoying thing about it was the reaper in Mountains triggered a shit-load of traps, and just got raped. We had finished the rest apart from UWG; which would be easy anyway.

The only time it gets tough with ER bonding, is when there are alot of enchant strips. In UWG the vengeful aatxes will be hitting for about 23~ damage and with spirit bond active you can only gain health.

Quite simply for UWG, you could split into two teams of 1x ER and 3 physicals, to take out the Keepers.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion View Post
I recently did a 4+4 whip-round UW. 2x ER prot spammers with GDW and infuse and Protective Bond.

Then add either Orders or an MoP nuker And 5 physicals (Any profession will do.)
That's a pretty hardcore reinvention of the wheel right there. Definitely want some idea on speed.

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito View Post
That's a pretty hardcore reinvention of the wheel right there. Definitely want some idea on speed.
Sigh--

I did not say it was new, It's just a balanced setup for taking on anything. The damage comes from GDW+MoP and a mashup of any physicals. If you have MoP, best bet would be 100lols. If not then Dervs would be better, running whatever they want.

dr love

dr love

...is in denial

Join Date: Sep 2006

Hyperion

starcraft 2

P/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion View Post
4+4 whip-round UW
but what does that mean? 2 teams of 4?

btw your build sounds wicked fun! pm me if you need a 100 bizzer

Zeff Nut

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2007

Canada

Guild Of The Blue Goblin

W/N

Same here, I regularly use MoP + 100b in regular gameplay on my war, actually go W/N and have it on my bar, used with a mm it rolls pretty much everything without cons. If someone wanted to try a team build/run in UW I'd be more than happy to volunteer to be a guinea pig.

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by dbulger View Post
but what does that mean? 2 teams of 4?

btw your build sounds wicked fun! pm me if you need a 100 bizzer
the +x is just heroes.

Lishy

Lishy

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by IronSheik View Post
If only dhuum were harder than mallyx...something in gw that might be challenging again.
So you're basically saying you want a boss that counters so many skills, that only one, single, viable build can defeat him? Because as it stands right now, Mallyx is an incredibly overpowered boss and might be a mistake even. In fact, many professions are discriminated from fighting him and he is NOT fun OR challenging. It's actually an incredible flaw since it diminishes most of the strategy from gameplay, instead forcing you to rely on things like an Imbagon or cheap tactics to ensure victory. Not fun.

Overpoweredness!=Challenge
Too much challenge!= Fun

Just because you can defeat something doesn't mean it was easy for other players. When designing a game, developers must be able to make something have you on the tips of your feet, while still not defeating you to the point of frustration. It has to be fair. And I assure you, if something were stronger than Mallyx, you would be saying the opposite

More bosses like Abbaddon and the Mox quest golems are examples of what is needed. Not Mallyx. Having unique and memorable fights, not frustrating, is what I mean.


That said, I cannot wait to fight Dhuum.

Wild Rituals

Wild Rituals

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2008

NZ

Frenzy More [Plz]

Mo/W

Yes there was a way to do UW in both modes before UWSC and Ursan
if you can remember that far back
when people actually played the game

HigherMinion

HigherMinion

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

East Anglia, UK

Order of [Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Rituals View Post
Yes there was a way to do UW in both modes before UWSC and Ursan
if you can remember that far back
when people actually played the game
I think it was called "skill" or Balanced

If you know how to build a balanced team, you should have no problems with UW, it will just take 10-20 minutes longer. UW was not designed to be completed so fast, anyway.

IronSheik

IronSheik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Wolfenstein: Goldrush

Zombies Go Nom Nom [Nom]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kain Fz View Post
So you're basically saying you want a boss that counters so many skills, that only one, single, viable build can defeat him?
As far as what you quoted me on. No, that isn't what I said at all.

I've pugged mallyx on all 10 of my professions without ursan, it isn't hard not to discriminate on mallyx. You can bring any number of random bars and skills as long as you know what you're doing, it may not be the fastest easiest or best, but it's fun, challenging, and gets the job done.

Reformed

Reformed

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by IronSheik View Post
You can bring any number of random bars and skills...
Sure, you can do this. Then when you have 3+ skills on everyone's bar blacked out because you ran enchants/bonder or you constantly heal him for 1200+ because of a hex/condition stack you'll probably wonder why you can't win. The no frills way to beat Mallyx is to exploit the two main things he has no counter against, Rit and Para buffs combined with heavy physicals. You can't just run randomway against him if you expect to last more than a minute or two in the fight.

Wild Rituals

Wild Rituals

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2008

NZ

Frenzy More [Plz]

Mo/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion View Post
I think it was called "skill" or Balanced

If you know how to build a balanced team, you should have no problems with UW, it will just take 10-20 minutes longer. UW was not designed to be completed so fast, anyway.
Yes but getting people to remember what Denotes a Balanced UW team can be quite difficult.