VoA - Pillars - Unearthing Alra

[Furro]

Corrected triggers:

http://eqfreelance.net/ssark/voa-alra-trigs.gtt

Updated main post with new GTT file.

For those wondering, the change is Shadow pillar, one of the patterns was incorrect.

[Furro]

 
Furthered our progress on this event last Friday.  It'll be a higher priority from now on until we get it down.

Practice, practice, and more practice.  This raid is no different then anything we've tackled in the past.  Focus, push the envelope of your play and it'll come together.  You can already see it in the few attempts made so far.

See you at raids!

[Furro]

 

Light Trial Adjusts:

• MTs, position each Herald as indicated on map.

 

• Add tanks, snag adds before they reach Herald MTs.  Do not fight adds near Heralds (AE Rampage is tearing up our melee DPS).

 

• DPS, have proper burns setup for initial adds pop.  Subsequent pops continue burns, do ordered Spice/etc, as available.  It's critical we keep kill pace with adds or we quickly become overwhelmed and wipe.

 

• Tanks & Healers, it helps to communicate.  On initial engage, knowing if your tank is running deflection can make a difference in your heal tactics.  If your MTs deflect is available/used, then you can save your heal burn for when deflect drops and not waste a portion of it. 

 

• IF we have a bard available, they will be doing single-cures by request via /tell.  IF no bard is available, then we'll revert to hotkey in group asking for cure if you're not able to self cure.  We'll go over which method we'll use during prep given our setup. 

Clerics - Just before port in, I do the following:

• Silent Casting AA
• PR, Galvos on MT
• After port in, when MT deflect down, use heal burn.

Shaman - Before port in:

• Apathy on each MT + Add tank (work out who's covering who)

Druids - Not likely you'll be in this trial, but if you are:

• Debuffs on Heralds, work out before hand who's covering which one.

Paladins - Before port in, buff healers with Marr's Salvation


GTT - Trigger for adds spawning, with a 60 second overlay.  Adjust it to fit your needs:

voa-alra-light-adds-spawn-with-timer.gtt

[Ssark]

Arcane (Updated 10/13/2012)

Favors: Warriors, Clerics, Bards, Enchanters, Wizards, Magicians.

Objective:

Kill the unstable coalescence (crystal looking), while dealing with gargoyles and an alaran Arcward of Melretia.

Enemies:

Coalescence (crystal) - Only takes damage from direct damage spells.

Gargoyles:

• Spawn at one of the six points of the glass hexagon on floor
• MEZ to kill (acts as DoT, 7% damage per tick, much higher if close to crystal).
• Rootable; but immune to snare.
• Summon at 100% after being moved for about 10 seconds.
• Immune to spells until they have the electric look to them.
  
• When one dies, two or three wil spawn in center of room as above.  Five seconds later; they activate and must be dealt with
• Maximum of 5 gargoyles up at once
• Will wake each other if too close together

Alaran - Arcward of Melretia:

• Non-aggro NPC; walks around BREAKING MEZ on the gargoyles.
• They spawn at random intervals.
• Charmable, and causes damage (like mez does to gargoyles).
• Can still break mez even when charmed

Group makeup:

Group 4

Warrior LEFT
Enchanter LEFT
Druid
Ranger
Nuker
Nuker

Group 5

Warrior RIGHT (optional) - could be replaced by Nuker
Enchanter RIGHT
Druid
Bard/Enchanter CHARM - essential for Arcward
Nuker
Nuker

Actions:

Nukers

Simply target the unstable coalescence and bomb away.  It does not fight back.  Do not attempt to engage gargoyle constructors or arcwards.

Druids

Put entire opposite group in your ETW
Your heals will suck, no focus bonuses
Keep warriors, ranger, enchanters alive at all costs
One should debuff the crystal on entry, otherwise focus 100% heals

Warriors (Both)

Do not attack mobs
Your job is to position gargoyles, not tank or dps them
Position as marked on map and as below.  Do not position where are a gargoyle already is!
Always move back to center for next gargoyle once yours has been mezzed.
Do not go too far forward or gargoyles can spawn behind you!

Warrior LEFT

Grab first gargoyle, bring to crystal for mez, move back into center position.
Grab left gargoyle on first split, also bring to crystal for mez
Continue to grab gargoyles on left side of a 2-pop and move to locations on left side of room or at crystal.

Warrior RIGHT

Wait for first split, grab right gargoyle on first split, bring to right side position.
Continue to grab gargoyles on right side of 2-pop and move to empty locations on right side of room.

Enchanters

Mez, mez, and mez more.  Single target only, AE is too small radius and gargoyles will wake.
Target your tanks' (LEFT or RIGHT, in your group) target and just before positioned, start casting mez and time it so it gets mezzed just as it reaches the position.
Be quick!  It's controlled chaos.
One mez should kill a gargoyle anywhere in room, as long as it remains mezzed.  Set and forget.

Enchanter LEFT

You have first two gargoyles at crystal, so set Arcane Disjunction aura at crystal
Stay more to left side or back, move around if needed

Enchanter RIGHT

You have time, so put Arcane Disjunction aura at center of glass floor, and tash the crystal
Stay more to right side of the room, move around if needed

Ranger

You control the chaos.  Punt/position gargoyles that get loose.  If RIGHT warrior is not in group, you must always punt and position the RIGHT side gargoyle.
Use long-term root, but remember, they summon after 10 seconds.  If you find an unmezzed stray, make a hotkey with "mez my target" for channel so enchanters can quickly get on it.

Enchanter/bard CHARM

Your first priority is to find the Arcward when it spawns and move toward it, then charm it.
Charm acts as a DOT, so eventually it will die.
Drag it (follow) away from any gargoyle in room (good position on stairs?)
Make it sit and stay
Remember to re-charm, and remember it *can* break mez even when it is charmed.
Help mez any stray gargoyles

Triggers:

voa-alra-arcane.gtt - For enchanters/ranger/warriors (mezgargoyle.wav also needed)

-- identifies when Arcward breaks mez, when gargoyles are too close, and when gargoyles are unmezzed and heal crystal

voa-alra-arcane-spec.gtt - For counting HP unlocks (optional)[/list]

[Furro]

 
For the record, I purposely toned down my Light Pillar diagram, so that Ssarks would look better! Honest!  </blush>

Progress Update

Got more time in on this event this past week, and it was productive.

Aside from some minor adjusts to fill in different roles or to tweak our performance, we're careful to keep the same players in each trial every run.  It's paying off; the first timers to their areas have acclimated, the regulars are improving and our tactics are coming together.  It's becoming second nature, and that's what we want.  Less time to think what to do, and more time to instinctively react.

Arcane, lead by Ssark; has improved on the CC front.  With a DPS push, this area will be completed very soon.

Nature, lead by Dimbly; has steadily improved.  They have taken Anriella to 22-23% on several occasions and 6 LTs killed.  I'm confident they can close the needed DPS gaps with some extra umph!

Light, lead by myself, had our best run to date on Saturday.  Heralds around 57%, with 6-7 adds killed.  Our DPS push helped to keep pace with the adds, but we need to go further and take it to another level.  All those who are regular to this trial, take advantage of some banked AA for Glyphs, and look for ways to improve your own personal DPS performance (including being on the ball, reacting to adds immediately without delay and be there on queue for adps buffs).  This is the trial we need a perfect score in more then any other.  People are relying on us.  We will not let them down.

Shadow, this trial is in standby mode; pending a few more bodies complimenting our current raid makeup.  When this happens, they will engage it further and rip it to pieces! 

We know what to do.  We know how to do it.  Now is not the time to wimp out.  If you're standing on the sidelines missing the action, it's up to YOU to step up and join us.

Challenges are meant to be overcome, and Freelance raiders are fearless when it comes to facing any such challenge in our path.  My confidence is unwavering.  I know what we have, I know what we're capable of.  Face the challenge by standing along side your fellow Freelancers; push the envelope of your game; be a team player, and show your true Freelance raiding spirit!

See you at our next raid!

[Ssark]

Just a quick Arcane update...

We managed to kill off all the gargoyles so none were left spawning.  Problem was, we hadn't done such a good job controlling them so they healed the crystal a bit, and we were short nukers, so even with all of us bombing away at the end it was still about 74% and the score was a 5.

I'm confident the strategy is correct.  With a little bit more practice on CC, and a lot more stress on nukage, we should be able to start scoring regularly below 5.

The team is real excited to jump back in there and finish this darn thing off!

[Ssark]

Arcane learned this week, it's really tough to do with just 2 enchanters.  They're very busy with the gargoyles and don't have time for the Arcward.  I think we either need a third enchanter (in place of a warrior), or a bard.  I've edit the post above to reflect this.

Also, the DPS from the robe-crew was fantastic.  Before we wiped, we had the crystal down to under 60% in 3-4 minutes.  Well done NUKE CREW!

[Furro]

Defeated Friday, February 1, 2013

Nice work everyone!

[Buddii]

Is there any chance of FL hitting this one more time for those of us that missed the win?

[Furro]

Is there any chance of FL hitting this one more time for those of us that missed the win?

 

Unlikely in the near future; if at all, that we'll revisit this event.  We just have too much progression ahead of us at this junction unfortunately to return to anything pre-Sep.