Proetus
01-12-2003, 07:41 AM
Kinda a long read buts its full of good info and gives a good idea of how things will play out.
TACTICS **Long Read, Good info though**
There are many ways of doing the War, but I'll describe the way our guild does it. Many successes (and a couple of failures) have fine tuned this.
1. Have a tracker or two placed up the river towards the Wurm cave entrance. Their job is to TRACK. Not fight. The only fight they should do is Narandi (who has no faction hit btw). When a wave pops, it's their responsability to say where, how big and what direction it's heading in. It's best for them to stay invis/out of the way if they can, because a dead tracker cannot call new pops. We use a +Giant faction tracker so she can run around them as she wishes. And she always gets the solo exp kill on Narandi as well. Damn AM3/disc Rangers.
2. Do NOT command the dwarfs around (using the Zrelik the Scout). It causes lag, they are pretty useless, they get in the way of KOS people and you can lose hero's doing it. See (how to use the Dwarfs) below.
3. Do NOT split your forces unless you get multiple spawns at the same time. See more tactics below.
4. Kill the spearmen with one group during the first "major" wave during gaps between waves or at the end of the 1st major wave.
If you can spare a group (healer, slower, damage) have them start on the East side spear men, and work their way down the line killing them. When the small east side is dead, move to the larger West side. They have to be careful not to get trapped by a pop.
This helps hugely at later stages of the war. It reduces lag, and gives you far more freedom of movement. Being able to engage a pop earlier helps a lot to reduce the risk of wave overlap. We now always do this every war, and the difference it makes in being able to move to engage is significant.
5. When fighting the giants, try and keep then as closely packed together as possible. If able, try and draw them close together. If your off 100 yards away on your own, heals may not be incoming, and it's hard for another tank to come to your aid.
6. DO NOT TRAIN Thurgadin. I don't know how many times this has to be said, but do NOT train Thurgadin if your in trouble. If a giant reaches Thurg, you lose. This goes for anyone in the zone. Train the opposite way, towards the wurm caves and/or other groups away from Thurg. Better to die and get a rez than lose the war.
Be very careful of sowed newbs doing this. Giants run at sow speed, and if someone agro's one, and runs for Thurg the giant can be hard to catch. The newb will/can train the giant all the way to Thurg.
7. Make sure you know how many groups you have and who generally is in them. If you get a multi-pop, you will have to split your forces, so will have to know which groups to send.
Also be aware of what warriors you have, and if they have defensive up or not. Very important for the Warlords and Narandi.
8. If you die, get a /loc before you do, and consent your group and say where you died. It's their responsability to drag you back to the buff station for a rez.
At the start of the War we have everyone waiting at the buff station, and the tracker calls out when a pop occurs. The will be one of 3 options.
A. "POP SOUTH. All go South and engage". Everyone should run south down the river and engage.
B. "POP WEST.. Please wait for more info." Option 2 can then be further defined as.. "WEST POP Heading E to river. please go South and engage" Everyone should run south west heading towards where the ring is, and engage. "WEST POP Heading N to Tizmark. All go West and engage". Everyone should head directly east up the hill towards the tizmak caves.
C. "POP EAST. Please wait for more info." Option 3 can then be further defined as.. "EAST POP Heading west to river. Please go South and engage" Everyone should run down the river and engage when they get there. "EAST POP Heading N to needle. All go East and engage". Everyone should run East towards the needle in the valley.
For "almost" all of the fights you will only have a single "mini" wave spawn at any one time Rarely you can have two mini waves pop at once, or overlap. So the way we generally do it is have everyone run to the fight and engage the giants.
If you have 5 good groups, you very rarely have any overlap between waves as you can kill them reasonably fast.
I've seen strategies where you split your forces and have one group east, one west and three middle. Personally I think it's a waste of resource and your better off having most of the one force moving together.
However, the tracker MUST keep a lookout for more spawns. If an extra mini wave pops, then (by group number) the raid force should be split and the 2nd pop engaged. That's why it's important that the tracker keeps on the lookout, everyone listens to orders and you know how/when to split your forces.
However, in every War we have done we get very few overlaps/multi-pops per war and it's usually not that bad. Just keep on your toes and only split your forces when you need to.
For mini-waves, you should always kill clerics first, warrior giants 2nd and leave the "boss" mobs till last (ie, Warlords).
Melee tactics Generally wherever possible every melee should engage a mob. If you have limited numbers of people, you will often find that you end up with 10 mobs and 10 melee. It's important that all mobs are engaged, else they run for Thurg and you lose.
Be careful when you engage as the giants start out close together, and you can end up with three on you at once.. and for the 3rd wave this can be fatal. So try and split one out if possible and then tank it until help comes.
Keep an eye out for solo casters, especially later in the war, as they will die very quickly.
Cleric tactics It's going to be hard for you, as mobs are spread out, and melee are spread out. Communication and vigilance is the key. If a cleric is near 2 mobs engaged by 2 melee, then you are not needed there. Look for single/lone people tanking mobs. Make sure you have a good spread of spells loaded, CH, Celestial and a fast heal (DL or whatever). Don't bother with Stuns, they don't work. Also have DA and DB loaded because if you have 2 mobs on 1 person, and you CH one will usually jump you.
MoK/MoR lands fine on the first two waves of mobs, but not Vets.
Slower tactics It's the slowers job to slow as many mobs as possible. This includes enchanters. However the veterans in the 3rd wave are very magic resistant, and usually only shammies disease slow will traditionally stick. With the new resist changes, if the mob is sufficiently debuffed first however magic based slows land.
Watch your agro slowing so many mobs.
Forget trying to nuke etc. Slowing everything is your number 1 priority. Once slowed just about any of the mobs can be solo tanked so your first minute of any wave will be running around slowing things. Make sure if there are multiple slowers you split up the battlefield and know where each of you is going.
Nukers tactics Normal tactics apply. Don't over agro. Also have snare loaded. The first two major waves can be snared.
Keep an eye out for runners. We usually leave runners to the casters to catch, and then throw a melee onto them.
Buffers Tactics Make sure you have your buffs loaded when your at the rest spot. Aego/Focus/Sta/KEI/VoG/CoP/SoE/BMB/Regen are the most common. Try not to have the whole raid force's buffs fade at once, as you will have to refresh them at regular intervals. MGB helps enormously.
It's a 2+ hour fight, so be prepared to refresh buffs several times, especially haste.
You should generally try and leave a group at the buff spot. This serves a few purposes.
1. If anyone dies, their corpses can be dragged back and rezed.
2. Anyone who needs buffs can generally get them there.
3. Runners. It's possible for a runner to break away from the main force and make a charge for Thurgadin. It's therefore vital that these runner giants are stopped before they reach Thurg.
After each mini wave is killed have everyone run back to the central buff station and wait for the next pop. Whilst there you can rez and re-buff.
Make sure everyone keeps their buffs up !!
Here are the timestamps/log extracts from my own war to give you an idea of the frequency of waves etc. As you can see, we get just over a minute rest between each mini wave, and around 10 minutes rest between each major wave. Each wave consists of between 6 and 11 giants, so your looking at around 180 giants in total for a whole war. Which means your killing on average a giant every 40 seconds.
FIRST WAVE STARTS
<20:32:25> Shiannan tells the guild, 'POP SOUTH'
<20:32:25> You say to your guild, 'Dwarf armies pop' (end of wave)
<20:35:03> You gain party experience!!
<20:36:33> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop east and pop spearmen' (end of wave)
<20:38:28> You gain party experience!!
<20:41:44> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop true east'
(Got a overlap on end of wave here, so rolled straight into..).
<20:44:14> Shiannan tells the guild, 'large pop west' (end of wave)
<20:47:08> Kromrif Recruit has been slain by Ztin!
<20:48:40> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop west' (end of wave)
<20:51:31> Your faction standing with Claws of Veeshan got better.
<20:52:11> Shiannan tells the guild, 'big pop centre' (end of wave)
<20:54:58> Kromrif Recruit has been slain by Bruke!
<20:56:24> Shiannan tells the guild, 'lol pop east'
(Double wave pop here !.. forces are split!)
<20:56:58> Shiannan tells the guild, 'gah pop west~' (end of wave)
<21:00:16> You gain party experience!!
FIRST WAVE OVER.
(So we go and finish off the Spearmen that are left (lots killed already). (last Spearman dies).
<21:06:26> Kromrif Spearman has been slain by Trime!
SECOND WAVE STARTS
<21:09:20> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop centre' (end wave)
<21:13:10> You have slain Kromrif Warrior!
<21:15:05> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop centre' (end wave)
<21:18:45> You have slain Kromrif Warrior!
<21:21:01> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop east' (end wave)
<21:24:52> Kromrif Warrior has been slain by Velinia!
<21:26:58> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop east' (end wave)
<21:29:42> You gain party experience!!
<21:32:43> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop west' (end wave)
<21:36:32> You gain party experience!!
<21:38:05> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop west' (end wave)
<21:42:15> Kromrif Warrior has been slain by Pippi!
SECOND WAVE OVER, THIRD WAVE STARTS
<21:51:50> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop south' (end wave)
<21:56:18> Kromrif Warlord has been slain by Wory!
<21:58:01> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop south with wl'
<22:02:22> Kementar tells the guild, 'warlord dead in a sec' (end wave)
<22:04:37> Shiannan tells the guild, 'large pop west' (end wave)
<22:09:10> Kromrif Veteran has been slain by Arielle!
<22:11:10> Shiannan tells the guild, 'small pop east' (end wave)
<22:15:25> Kromrif Veteran has been slain by Garet!
<22:17:38> Shiannan tells the guild, 'large pop west'
<22:22:03> Jeanna tells the guild, 'POP Narandi the Wretched'
(OVERLAP WITH END OF WAVE.. A few still alive, nearly dead). (Kill last Giant)
<22:22:29> Your faction standing with Claws of Veeshan got better.
ENDAGE NARANDI
<22:22:54> Narandi the Wretched begins to cast a spell.
NARANDI
Narandi is the final "boss" mob. He's easily recognizable because he's Vindi sized with a huge lance they you could barbecue a dragon on.
He's lvl 63+ (red con to 60), and quads for 460 and flurries. Estimates put his HP's at around 150,000.
Narandi pops at the end of the third "major" wave, after 4 Warlords have popped. He pops South down the river near the Wurm caves, and starts to slowly walk East.
You have around 5 minutes now to engage him before he reaches the EW zone and de-pops.
He often pops right in the middle of the last mini wave of Vets (incl a Warlord), and you won't have much time. Finish off the current mobs as quickly as possible, and have everyone move down the river towards him.. but make sure NO ONE engages him. If someone agro's him they have a life expectancy of 2 seconds, and will often agro onto someone else, causing mayhem.
For Narandi, use Vindi tactics, except you have to do it in the open space so no pinning in a corner. You WILL need a CH chain on your MA. Also have someone with Cure Disease up. Narandi casts/procs a slow which needs removing for the MA to keep agro effectively.
He flurries and enrages, and if your not careful can eat people very quickly. Make sure you keep people away from him until the MA has built up enough agro. Make sure you have a standby MA in case the 1st goes down.
I'd suggest having a paladin or two with LoH ready for the first two heals so that the MA can build agro before the 1st cleric CH goes off saving them from being summoned/eaten.
It's very easy for people at this stage of the war to get very excited and forget very basic things like agro range, waiting for assist etc etc. Remind them, calm them down. The point is NOT to be the one who gets the killing blow, or the group that gets the exp. The point is to act together to kill Narandi.
It's very very important that people control their agro, because he only summons so often, and if he's just summoned he will run to the person, causing issues for the MA and clerics, making it so rogues cannot backstab and people can quickly die.
You really don't want to be loosing at this stage.
Don't forget to remind your 60th GB enabled wizards that Narandi CAN be Giant Baned.
From my War...
(Narandi is engaged....)
<22:22:54> Narandi the Wretched begins to cast a spell.
(as you can see, kills people so quick he attacks their corpses.. just like Vindi etc).
<22:23:07> Narandi the Wretched executes a FLURRY of attacks on Shindeiru's corpse!
(Bruke was in our group. Was at 5K hp, one second later was dead. So watch your agro !)
<22:24:11> Narandi the Wretched executes a FLURRY of attacks on Bruke!
<22:24:12> Narandi the Wretched says 'One more trophy for my collection! Good riddance, puny one.'
<22:24:12> Bruke has been slain by Narandi the Wretched!
(Typical. Wizard gets the kill).
<22:25:12> Narandi the Wretched has been slain by Ztin!
<22:25:12> Narandi the Wretched's corpse says 'Rallos! Please accept my soul... I pray that you may find me worthy.'
138 seconds kill. A little slow, but not too bad.
Once Narandi is killed, the following text should occur:
Seneschal Aldikar shouts 'Outlander! You've done it! The Kromrif invasion has been frustrated! Bring me the head of Narandi and your Hero's ring.
USING THE DWARFS
As I've previously stated, we never use the commands to move the dwarfs. Loads of them running around is not good. They get in the way, are hard to control, cause extra lag, and die, and as several of our guild are KOS to dwarfs would cause agro issues.
However that is not to say we do not use them at all.
If you can engage a giant within melee range of the static dwarf camps, then the giant will attack you, but the dwarfs will assist.. usually hitting the giant up the ass. This can be useful if you are engaged and being beaten on a little hard. Move close to the dwarfs and they will assist you. If they get the killing blow the giant poofs, no exp.
However, be warned. Each "group" of dwarfs has a dwarf hero with them, and if the hero dies, you will lose one "end item".
If you really want to use the Coldain armies, you should make 5 hot keys, titled "Garadain", "Dobbin", "Churn", "Corbin" and "ALL"; each one as follows:
/attack off
/target Zrelik
/pause 10
/say
The 5 "" are:
Garadain to my side!
Dobbin assist me!
Churn protect me!
Corbin, attack!
For the Dain, attack!
LOSING
There are two ways to lose;
1. Seneschal Alkidar is killed. This is by giants reaching Thurgadin.
If you lose the war, then two lines (one either side of the river) of giants will pop near Thurg guarding the entrance. Anyone exiting Thurg without invis will be in for a shock, and anyone approaching the waterfall will see it's not safe.
So it's usually best to at least have the decency to kill these giants to allow people inside to get out.
Additionally, Thurgadin itself will be completely clear of NPC's for approximately two hours. No banker, no traders.
Suck it up and learn from your mistake. Usually it's from not having enough forces, or having a particularly bad round of wave three mobs. Apologize to the zone for the disruption.
2. You kill all the giants, but wipe on Narandi, or never engage Narandi
He slowly walks to the EW/GD zone line. Upon reaching it, he will de-pop. So although you win the war, you will not loot the head so no 10th ring.
TACTICS **Long Read, Good info though**
There are many ways of doing the War, but I'll describe the way our guild does it. Many successes (and a couple of failures) have fine tuned this.
1. Have a tracker or two placed up the river towards the Wurm cave entrance. Their job is to TRACK. Not fight. The only fight they should do is Narandi (who has no faction hit btw). When a wave pops, it's their responsability to say where, how big and what direction it's heading in. It's best for them to stay invis/out of the way if they can, because a dead tracker cannot call new pops. We use a +Giant faction tracker so she can run around them as she wishes. And she always gets the solo exp kill on Narandi as well. Damn AM3/disc Rangers.
2. Do NOT command the dwarfs around (using the Zrelik the Scout). It causes lag, they are pretty useless, they get in the way of KOS people and you can lose hero's doing it. See (how to use the Dwarfs) below.
3. Do NOT split your forces unless you get multiple spawns at the same time. See more tactics below.
4. Kill the spearmen with one group during the first "major" wave during gaps between waves or at the end of the 1st major wave.
If you can spare a group (healer, slower, damage) have them start on the East side spear men, and work their way down the line killing them. When the small east side is dead, move to the larger West side. They have to be careful not to get trapped by a pop.
This helps hugely at later stages of the war. It reduces lag, and gives you far more freedom of movement. Being able to engage a pop earlier helps a lot to reduce the risk of wave overlap. We now always do this every war, and the difference it makes in being able to move to engage is significant.
5. When fighting the giants, try and keep then as closely packed together as possible. If able, try and draw them close together. If your off 100 yards away on your own, heals may not be incoming, and it's hard for another tank to come to your aid.
6. DO NOT TRAIN Thurgadin. I don't know how many times this has to be said, but do NOT train Thurgadin if your in trouble. If a giant reaches Thurg, you lose. This goes for anyone in the zone. Train the opposite way, towards the wurm caves and/or other groups away from Thurg. Better to die and get a rez than lose the war.
Be very careful of sowed newbs doing this. Giants run at sow speed, and if someone agro's one, and runs for Thurg the giant can be hard to catch. The newb will/can train the giant all the way to Thurg.
7. Make sure you know how many groups you have and who generally is in them. If you get a multi-pop, you will have to split your forces, so will have to know which groups to send.
Also be aware of what warriors you have, and if they have defensive up or not. Very important for the Warlords and Narandi.
8. If you die, get a /loc before you do, and consent your group and say where you died. It's their responsability to drag you back to the buff station for a rez.
At the start of the War we have everyone waiting at the buff station, and the tracker calls out when a pop occurs. The will be one of 3 options.
A. "POP SOUTH. All go South and engage". Everyone should run south down the river and engage.
B. "POP WEST.. Please wait for more info." Option 2 can then be further defined as.. "WEST POP Heading E to river. please go South and engage" Everyone should run south west heading towards where the ring is, and engage. "WEST POP Heading N to Tizmark. All go West and engage". Everyone should head directly east up the hill towards the tizmak caves.
C. "POP EAST. Please wait for more info." Option 3 can then be further defined as.. "EAST POP Heading west to river. Please go South and engage" Everyone should run down the river and engage when they get there. "EAST POP Heading N to needle. All go East and engage". Everyone should run East towards the needle in the valley.
For "almost" all of the fights you will only have a single "mini" wave spawn at any one time Rarely you can have two mini waves pop at once, or overlap. So the way we generally do it is have everyone run to the fight and engage the giants.
If you have 5 good groups, you very rarely have any overlap between waves as you can kill them reasonably fast.
I've seen strategies where you split your forces and have one group east, one west and three middle. Personally I think it's a waste of resource and your better off having most of the one force moving together.
However, the tracker MUST keep a lookout for more spawns. If an extra mini wave pops, then (by group number) the raid force should be split and the 2nd pop engaged. That's why it's important that the tracker keeps on the lookout, everyone listens to orders and you know how/when to split your forces.
However, in every War we have done we get very few overlaps/multi-pops per war and it's usually not that bad. Just keep on your toes and only split your forces when you need to.
For mini-waves, you should always kill clerics first, warrior giants 2nd and leave the "boss" mobs till last (ie, Warlords).
Melee tactics Generally wherever possible every melee should engage a mob. If you have limited numbers of people, you will often find that you end up with 10 mobs and 10 melee. It's important that all mobs are engaged, else they run for Thurg and you lose.
Be careful when you engage as the giants start out close together, and you can end up with three on you at once.. and for the 3rd wave this can be fatal. So try and split one out if possible and then tank it until help comes.
Keep an eye out for solo casters, especially later in the war, as they will die very quickly.
Cleric tactics It's going to be hard for you, as mobs are spread out, and melee are spread out. Communication and vigilance is the key. If a cleric is near 2 mobs engaged by 2 melee, then you are not needed there. Look for single/lone people tanking mobs. Make sure you have a good spread of spells loaded, CH, Celestial and a fast heal (DL or whatever). Don't bother with Stuns, they don't work. Also have DA and DB loaded because if you have 2 mobs on 1 person, and you CH one will usually jump you.
MoK/MoR lands fine on the first two waves of mobs, but not Vets.
Slower tactics It's the slowers job to slow as many mobs as possible. This includes enchanters. However the veterans in the 3rd wave are very magic resistant, and usually only shammies disease slow will traditionally stick. With the new resist changes, if the mob is sufficiently debuffed first however magic based slows land.
Watch your agro slowing so many mobs.
Forget trying to nuke etc. Slowing everything is your number 1 priority. Once slowed just about any of the mobs can be solo tanked so your first minute of any wave will be running around slowing things. Make sure if there are multiple slowers you split up the battlefield and know where each of you is going.
Nukers tactics Normal tactics apply. Don't over agro. Also have snare loaded. The first two major waves can be snared.
Keep an eye out for runners. We usually leave runners to the casters to catch, and then throw a melee onto them.
Buffers Tactics Make sure you have your buffs loaded when your at the rest spot. Aego/Focus/Sta/KEI/VoG/CoP/SoE/BMB/Regen are the most common. Try not to have the whole raid force's buffs fade at once, as you will have to refresh them at regular intervals. MGB helps enormously.
It's a 2+ hour fight, so be prepared to refresh buffs several times, especially haste.
You should generally try and leave a group at the buff spot. This serves a few purposes.
1. If anyone dies, their corpses can be dragged back and rezed.
2. Anyone who needs buffs can generally get them there.
3. Runners. It's possible for a runner to break away from the main force and make a charge for Thurgadin. It's therefore vital that these runner giants are stopped before they reach Thurg.
After each mini wave is killed have everyone run back to the central buff station and wait for the next pop. Whilst there you can rez and re-buff.
Make sure everyone keeps their buffs up !!
Here are the timestamps/log extracts from my own war to give you an idea of the frequency of waves etc. As you can see, we get just over a minute rest between each mini wave, and around 10 minutes rest between each major wave. Each wave consists of between 6 and 11 giants, so your looking at around 180 giants in total for a whole war. Which means your killing on average a giant every 40 seconds.
FIRST WAVE STARTS
<20:32:25> Shiannan tells the guild, 'POP SOUTH'
<20:32:25> You say to your guild, 'Dwarf armies pop' (end of wave)
<20:35:03> You gain party experience!!
<20:36:33> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop east and pop spearmen' (end of wave)
<20:38:28> You gain party experience!!
<20:41:44> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop true east'
(Got a overlap on end of wave here, so rolled straight into..).
<20:44:14> Shiannan tells the guild, 'large pop west' (end of wave)
<20:47:08> Kromrif Recruit has been slain by Ztin!
<20:48:40> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop west' (end of wave)
<20:51:31> Your faction standing with Claws of Veeshan got better.
<20:52:11> Shiannan tells the guild, 'big pop centre' (end of wave)
<20:54:58> Kromrif Recruit has been slain by Bruke!
<20:56:24> Shiannan tells the guild, 'lol pop east'
(Double wave pop here !.. forces are split!)
<20:56:58> Shiannan tells the guild, 'gah pop west~' (end of wave)
<21:00:16> You gain party experience!!
FIRST WAVE OVER.
(So we go and finish off the Spearmen that are left (lots killed already). (last Spearman dies).
<21:06:26> Kromrif Spearman has been slain by Trime!
SECOND WAVE STARTS
<21:09:20> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop centre' (end wave)
<21:13:10> You have slain Kromrif Warrior!
<21:15:05> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop centre' (end wave)
<21:18:45> You have slain Kromrif Warrior!
<21:21:01> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop east' (end wave)
<21:24:52> Kromrif Warrior has been slain by Velinia!
<21:26:58> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop east' (end wave)
<21:29:42> You gain party experience!!
<21:32:43> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop west' (end wave)
<21:36:32> You gain party experience!!
<21:38:05> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop west' (end wave)
<21:42:15> Kromrif Warrior has been slain by Pippi!
SECOND WAVE OVER, THIRD WAVE STARTS
<21:51:50> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop south' (end wave)
<21:56:18> Kromrif Warlord has been slain by Wory!
<21:58:01> Shiannan tells the guild, 'pop south with wl'
<22:02:22> Kementar tells the guild, 'warlord dead in a sec' (end wave)
<22:04:37> Shiannan tells the guild, 'large pop west' (end wave)
<22:09:10> Kromrif Veteran has been slain by Arielle!
<22:11:10> Shiannan tells the guild, 'small pop east' (end wave)
<22:15:25> Kromrif Veteran has been slain by Garet!
<22:17:38> Shiannan tells the guild, 'large pop west'
<22:22:03> Jeanna tells the guild, 'POP Narandi the Wretched'
(OVERLAP WITH END OF WAVE.. A few still alive, nearly dead). (Kill last Giant)
<22:22:29> Your faction standing with Claws of Veeshan got better.
ENDAGE NARANDI
<22:22:54> Narandi the Wretched begins to cast a spell.
NARANDI
Narandi is the final "boss" mob. He's easily recognizable because he's Vindi sized with a huge lance they you could barbecue a dragon on.
He's lvl 63+ (red con to 60), and quads for 460 and flurries. Estimates put his HP's at around 150,000.
Narandi pops at the end of the third "major" wave, after 4 Warlords have popped. He pops South down the river near the Wurm caves, and starts to slowly walk East.
You have around 5 minutes now to engage him before he reaches the EW zone and de-pops.
He often pops right in the middle of the last mini wave of Vets (incl a Warlord), and you won't have much time. Finish off the current mobs as quickly as possible, and have everyone move down the river towards him.. but make sure NO ONE engages him. If someone agro's him they have a life expectancy of 2 seconds, and will often agro onto someone else, causing mayhem.
For Narandi, use Vindi tactics, except you have to do it in the open space so no pinning in a corner. You WILL need a CH chain on your MA. Also have someone with Cure Disease up. Narandi casts/procs a slow which needs removing for the MA to keep agro effectively.
He flurries and enrages, and if your not careful can eat people very quickly. Make sure you keep people away from him until the MA has built up enough agro. Make sure you have a standby MA in case the 1st goes down.
I'd suggest having a paladin or two with LoH ready for the first two heals so that the MA can build agro before the 1st cleric CH goes off saving them from being summoned/eaten.
It's very easy for people at this stage of the war to get very excited and forget very basic things like agro range, waiting for assist etc etc. Remind them, calm them down. The point is NOT to be the one who gets the killing blow, or the group that gets the exp. The point is to act together to kill Narandi.
It's very very important that people control their agro, because he only summons so often, and if he's just summoned he will run to the person, causing issues for the MA and clerics, making it so rogues cannot backstab and people can quickly die.
You really don't want to be loosing at this stage.
Don't forget to remind your 60th GB enabled wizards that Narandi CAN be Giant Baned.
From my War...
(Narandi is engaged....)
<22:22:54> Narandi the Wretched begins to cast a spell.
(as you can see, kills people so quick he attacks their corpses.. just like Vindi etc).
<22:23:07> Narandi the Wretched executes a FLURRY of attacks on Shindeiru's corpse!
(Bruke was in our group. Was at 5K hp, one second later was dead. So watch your agro !)
<22:24:11> Narandi the Wretched executes a FLURRY of attacks on Bruke!
<22:24:12> Narandi the Wretched says 'One more trophy for my collection! Good riddance, puny one.'
<22:24:12> Bruke has been slain by Narandi the Wretched!
(Typical. Wizard gets the kill).
<22:25:12> Narandi the Wretched has been slain by Ztin!
<22:25:12> Narandi the Wretched's corpse says 'Rallos! Please accept my soul... I pray that you may find me worthy.'
138 seconds kill. A little slow, but not too bad.
Once Narandi is killed, the following text should occur:
Seneschal Aldikar shouts 'Outlander! You've done it! The Kromrif invasion has been frustrated! Bring me the head of Narandi and your Hero's ring.
USING THE DWARFS
As I've previously stated, we never use the commands to move the dwarfs. Loads of them running around is not good. They get in the way, are hard to control, cause extra lag, and die, and as several of our guild are KOS to dwarfs would cause agro issues.
However that is not to say we do not use them at all.
If you can engage a giant within melee range of the static dwarf camps, then the giant will attack you, but the dwarfs will assist.. usually hitting the giant up the ass. This can be useful if you are engaged and being beaten on a little hard. Move close to the dwarfs and they will assist you. If they get the killing blow the giant poofs, no exp.
However, be warned. Each "group" of dwarfs has a dwarf hero with them, and if the hero dies, you will lose one "end item".
If you really want to use the Coldain armies, you should make 5 hot keys, titled "Garadain", "Dobbin", "Churn", "Corbin" and "ALL"; each one as follows:
/attack off
/target Zrelik
/pause 10
/say
The 5 "" are:
Garadain to my side!
Dobbin assist me!
Churn protect me!
Corbin, attack!
For the Dain, attack!
LOSING
There are two ways to lose;
1. Seneschal Alkidar is killed. This is by giants reaching Thurgadin.
If you lose the war, then two lines (one either side of the river) of giants will pop near Thurg guarding the entrance. Anyone exiting Thurg without invis will be in for a shock, and anyone approaching the waterfall will see it's not safe.
So it's usually best to at least have the decency to kill these giants to allow people inside to get out.
Additionally, Thurgadin itself will be completely clear of NPC's for approximately two hours. No banker, no traders.
Suck it up and learn from your mistake. Usually it's from not having enough forces, or having a particularly bad round of wave three mobs. Apologize to the zone for the disruption.
2. You kill all the giants, but wipe on Narandi, or never engage Narandi
He slowly walks to the EW/GD zone line. Upon reaching it, he will de-pop. So although you win the war, you will not loot the head so no 10th ring.