DoA Stygian Veil Group for Jan 20, 2007

[Volitar]

This weekend a group of Scouts went into the Stygian Veil and twice we had great success. However, due to how long it took we were unable to complete it. So, I want to organize a group to the Stygian Veil for this coming weekend.

When: Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 12pm EST, 6 PM GMT. (Please correct me if I am wrong about the GMT)

Where: Gate of Anguish International Dis 1

You must have completed the Nightfall campaign to gain access to the Domain of Anguish. To get here, go to the Chantry of Secrets and speak to the Whispers NPC guarding a large wooden door. Go into the secret area, kneel before the statue, talk to the NPC and then you will be in the Gate of Anguish outpost.

Please post here if you wish to come and what you will bring. Also, if you all feel that the time or date should be changed please post that here as well. Please know that this place can take many hours to complete so give yourself a large chunk of time to complete it.

What I will be bringing I'll be bringing my Monk and I will set up for my Healer's Boon build.

Please also use this thread to discuss any strategies for this place.

I have one suggestion for our next trip. I believe that the Warrior should bring Ward Against Foes. That way the enemies are slowed down and do not break aggro so easily. Or we can bring a Water Ele to use AoE slowdowns. I also feel that bringing a trapper would really help since the knockdowns, cripple and blindness really help out with controlling the monsters.

Lastly, anyone who hasn't been here yet but wants to come, please check out this link to give an idea of what to expect. Please note that we will not be fighting any of the Shadow Army there. We can easily avoid them.

gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Stygian_Veil

And here is what we brought last time to give an idea of party setup; Healing Monk, Protect Monk, Tank Warrior, Nuking Ele, Spirit Spam Rit with Painful Bond, SS Necro, Battery Necro, Support Paragon.

[Twisted Sister Jane]

I can probably come as Rit Noa, but as ranger Jane as alternative.

[Zalis]

Two reasons why I, unfortunately, cannot attend said meeting:

1) Not quite done w/ NF yet.

2) Lan party that day.

[Lago Mortis]

I'll try to join!

I can go as BiP or SS (or anything else necro related),

Last time I used the following, which seemed to work nicely:
Arcane Echo
Spiteful Spirit
Descreate Enchantments
Defile Enchantments
Lightbringers Gaze
Parasitic bond
Signet of Lost Souls
Sunspear Rez Sig

A spirit Rit was very nice last time, helped me a lot with energy.

Since touch skills count as attack reckless haste is probably a nice curse to bring. Maybe also Meekness if spiking the tank is a problem. A BiP'er can very well take those to support curses.

As bipper I would probably go:
Blood is power
Blood Renewal
Heal Area
Signet of Lost Souls
Meekness
Protective Spirit
Lightbringers Gaze
Rebirth



Regards
Lago Mortis

[Khorrax]

I will probably be available and I'm already thinking of ways to improve my build (which wasn't very efficient so far )

[mercia]

Unfortunately I'm not going to be about on the 20th so gl hf. I'll certainly be available for future DoA adventures - monk or para just now but I'll a mes available soon as well.

[Starbuck]

Same as Zalis, I am not quite done with NightFall (even that may be an understatement).

Zalis, what was a lan party again?

[Jersey Angel]

I'll go ..... ...my Rt just finished the game.....she cut through the game like butter....so count me in...i will check it out the link you sent Vol....cus...I have not had the pleasure yet of going there...but if I have a week maybe Stepp can take me there for a test run.....;)oh and I can knockdown, interrupt and blind very well too....


Angel

[mercia]

Some thoughts on last night's run in DoA -

The sheer number of enemies plus their colossal dmg output suggests we could use a front line/back line strategy similar to that used in GvG.

The following could be the core of the team if a balanced build is to be used in DoA:

1 x Tank
1 x Trapper
1 x Rit Lord Spirit Spammer

In other words, the Tank stands on the traps backed by a wall of spirits.

As for the rest of the team, well there are plenty of possibilities although two would have to be monks. Also smite does double dmg v undead - we should find out if this holds true in DoA.

As for how to deal with so many touchers - std defences in pvp are mesmers with Diversion and Blackout - but that's for dealing with only one or two touchers, not mobs. The other defence is to run about a lot (I'm not joking) so Ranger and/or Water Ele snares could be useful.

I thought about what ANet are trying to achieve with DoA and it struck me that the dmg output by the various Stygians is comparable to the spike dmg in HA. An infuser is essential.

Just a thought but perhaps we could try a blood spike team - 6 Necro monks, 1 Trapper and a Rit Lord Spirit Spammer. This is a variation on the old HA build which used an Oath Shot Interrupter with a variety of Nature Rituals. The problem would be getting 6 nec/monks with the required elites - for those of you who don't know these would be Monk elites.

[Toku]

Hey all, I'm in for another try in DoA. My fire Elementalist has some unfinished business with that "wabbling jelly tooth thing with tentacles"!

[Zalis]

starbuck said:

Same as Zalis, I am not quite done with NightFall (even that may be an understatement).

Zalis, what was a lan party again?

It's when you bring your computers to one place and network them together to play games. Mostly for FPS games etc.

And I'm up for tanking whenever I finally get access.

[Twisted Sister Jane]

After my only two times in the Stygnian Gem Forest, my impression is that this area will get easier for us as we get the hang of it. I believe that the party must consist of certain types of skills/professions, as definitely healing - tanking - immense quick damage are needed. But I would not think that a party needs to be fine tuned to an exact recipe, provided that we are doing this for the fun of it.

We did amazingly well with the party we had during my two times in, considering our lack of experience. Yes, we died a lot and we ran like hell a lot, but we managed.

I think the problems we had where a number of monsters ran around the tanks to go after the squishies is due to our lack of experience in getting out of the aggro zone in time. I needed to be in our tank's aggro to set my last spirits and to cast painful bond on the mob (this affects nearby enemy as well, so should best be cast on a group) and it took me a while to figure out how to do this and get out of the aggro completely so the enemy did not follow me. I think I got the hang of it now. But I think some of our other party members were hanging in there a little too long, attracting attention of some enemy.

One thing I did notice about being a Rit (perhaps common knowledge to others but I just discovered it): A few times when I was running away from an enemy and managed to drop a spirit or two in the way, the enemy would ignore the spirit and keep running after me unless I could activate the spirit to attack that enemy. And to do that, I needed to attack the enemy myself. It seems that the spirit would not attack the enemy if I was just running away. If the spirit did not attack, the enemy ignored it. As soon as the spirit started to attack, the enemy forgot about me and went after the spirit, letting me escape.

[Volitar]

Here is the current list of people who are coming. Thank you very much for joining!

1.) Healing Monk: Volitar
2.) Ranger or Rit: Jane
3.) Necromancer: Lago Mortis
4.) Tank: Khorrax
5.) Ritualist: Jersey Angel
6.) Elementalist: Anarvin
7.) Not filled
8.) Not filled

It looks like we definatly need one protect monk and one other type of damage dealer or support type of character. I hope it is alright Jane if you can go as a Ranger trapper? Or can two Rit Spirit Spammers work? I really don't know since I do not have much experience as a Ritualist so it is really your call.

I have one suggestion for whoever is able to trap though. It is something I picked up when trapping The Underworld a while ago. I joined a group of four trappers and two left for reasons I cannot remember. However, with just two trappers we cleared the Ice Wastes and all the Aatxes. What we did was lay our traps as usual, pull and then the monsters hit the traps which will knock them down with Spike Trap. Then as they are about to stand up lay down another Spike Trap to knock them down again. This should provide enough aggro control to nuke them before they can even get off one attack. The Meteor Showers will knock them down some more and with cripple they won't be able to get away very easily. Just a suggestion

And Mercia, thanks for your suggestions. I am going to make sure to bring Infuse Health this time. I will take out Inspired Hex since I barely needed to use it due to the lack of hexes.

[Twisted Sister Jane]

Two Rits could also be very effective. I am thinking here of the various attacking spirits: Anguish, Pain, Bloodsong, Shadowsong, Wanderlust, Dissonance, Disenchant. All of these will do damage or extra damage when the foes are hexed with painful bond. Might be good if both Rits would then divide these spirits between them (some are very expensive energy-wise) and both took painful bond and tried to spread them, like one cast to the left and one to the right, or one wait some seconds before casting. Shelter taken by both Rits would also be good, again with taking turns casting it.

But if there are no other rangers along, I can also come as Jane.

[mercia]

If you have two rits they need to take different spirits or closely coordinate as they raise the spirits. If one rit raises Pain and the other does the same, the first Pain dies.

[Jersey Angel]

ok ...so if I'm taking my Rt and someone else is too we need to get together...and Mercia, if you could give me some suggestions on lord spamming that would help and is there an elite that i need to get for this to work.......I mostly use communing skills like Pain, Bloodsong, Shadowsong, Earthbind, Dissonance and Shelter, my health is 495 and eng. 54....I think I'm fairly good at managing my eng. I'm going to make a template for spamming too......

[Lago Mortis]

Many good ideas!
Nice with all the interest.

Infuse health may be a very nice help.

But I am a bit uncertain about how viable a necro spike is, if we ever try it. The touchers are many, have probably high health, and can use Grenths balance for a fast big heal, in addition to the other lifesteal. I guess spiketeams are better when facing a opponent with a mixed team. Then you can one by one take out the most important support and damage dealers first.

Have anyone tried a coordinated 8 ppl Lightbringer Gaze Spike? I bet it could do massive damage, and at higher levels it would do instant +1000 dmg to a big group of monsters. Spike trap + Ward against foe + Lightbringer Spike + rest of massive dmg might be pretty effective. :-)

Regards,
Lago Mortis

[Twisted Sister Jane]

mercia said:

If you have two rits they need to take different spirits or closely coordinate as they raise the spirits. If one rit raises Pain and the other does the same, the first Pain dies.

Yes, I think that fact is well known among Rits that have gotten this far in the game

Two rits can work well together and not need to take the same spirits. As I said in my previous post, there are many spirits that have the effect of attacking, or throwing something at the enemy, and all of these will give damage respectively extra damage when the enemy is hexed with painfull bond. Dissonnance, Disenchantment, Anguish, Pain, Bloodsong, Shadowsong, Wanderlust make 7. One Rit takes 3 of them, the other Rit takes 4.

Both Rits can take Shelter and make some sort of agreement about who casts first. Shelter has a long life of about 50 or more seconds, but each time Shelter rescues an ally from damage it loses HP, so in effect, a Shelter spirit will not stay alive too long in DOA so it would be great if both Rits had it and one casted when the first Rit's Shelter died (which can be seen by the icon in the upper left of the screen when it is alive).

Both Rits could also take Shadowsong, because this only has a lifetime of 30 seconds, but some coordination of who casts when is needed.

The other Rit skills can be usefull stuff like a weapon skill or Spirit Rift, or that skill that lets you gain energy from a spirit (what else does a spirit use energy for?), flesh of my flesh, and both Rits could take Painfull Bond and just coordinate on where to cast it since it affects adjacent enemy.

I think two Rits could work fine.

I can't remember my attributes offhand, but I have about 14 I think in Channelling (for painful bond) and a lot of points in Communing (for the spirits) and the rest in Spawning power. I have a Sup Rune of channelling and a Major Rune of Communing, but I have a green focus item that gives me an extra 30 HP (plus a Major Vitae rune). The main point of this build is the extra damage given by Painful Bond, where even Wanderlust and Shadowsong will do 18 damage per hit where they normally only knock down or blind the enemy. All other spirits give an extra 18 damage per hit with Painful Bond over what they normally do. Anguish gives extra damage if the enemy is hexed, and Painful Bond is a hex, so these work great together. It is just amazing to see all the yellow damage numbers that fly when I have about 4 spirits up and have cast Painful Bond on a group of enemy.

[mercia]

Ritual Lord is a Spawning Power elite. It's a factions skill (unsurprisingly) and you can get it from:

Spiritroot Mossbeard - The Eternal Grove - Undergrowth
Whispering Ritual Lord - Silent Surf - Irukandji (Does NOT Spawn if 'The Dragon Hunter' Quest is Active)

The idea is that you cast Boon of Creation, then Rit Lord and then start laying the spirits. I usually run +16 communing and +13 spawning so your binding rituals recharge really quickly - 63% faster with Spawning +13.

It's easy to run. Obviously you can't have Wanderlust in the build which is a shame but if we use two Rits in DoA then one could go with Rit Lord and the other with Wanderlust.

I think a Rit Lord spirit spammer could help because one of the main reasons for taking spirits to DoA is that we can build a blocking wall with them and the faster spirits go down the better.

[Jersey Angel]

Thanks for the info. Mercia ..... ....now I just have to work on the timing.....