Syrano
02-23-2006, 09:02 PM
<div>I want to share this adventure with my fellow swashies. We all know I'm a Swash lover (yes Leise, I love other Swashies too!). But last night was just too cool not to brag about.</div><div> </div><div>My friends and I decide we want to explroe Barren Sky some, and I had run across the "Vaults of El'Arad" earlier in the day. So we head there. This is an instance dungeon, much like Poet's I guess in terms of its ultimate use. A little less puzzle driven though (at least, from what I've uncovered so far). It's on the Isle of Awakening if anyone is interested (can get there from Whisperwind isle). If you have EQ2 maps, it's clearly marked. Has a 10 hour reuse timer if you succeed, 30 minutes if you fail.</div><div> </div><div>***** SPOILER ALERT: While the story is cool, you will learn things about a zone you may not have explroed yet, do NOT read on if you don't want SPOILERS ******</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Most of the mobs in here were 65th level and higher, seperated into floors, not too many 68th level mobs, one or two 69th and the final fight being a 70th level encounter. We started at 60th level, a few of us close to 61. These were some tough fights, mobs are EVERYWHERE. But you know what? This is what is cool, we had a powerhouse group.</div><div> </div><div>1 Paladin</div><div>1 Swashbuckler (Me!)</div><div>1 Illusionist</div><div>1 Troubador</div><div>1 Fury</div><div>1 Inquisitor</div><div> </div><div>Now you'll note, I'm not usually a fan of the two-healer group. However, we had a 6th slot, had had some tough runs earlier and well the first person we found LFG via our inquisitor friend was the fury, so we said why not?</div><div> </div><div>Why was this a powerhouse group? Because we gelled.... no.. not Dr. Scholls. The mobs were 5+ levels above us, this made them tough little suns o' mothers to hit. But with my debuffs, the troubs buffs and the inquistors debuffs, I could still average up to 350 dps, even on the high 60's mobs. We had to go slow early on, but as soon as we all dinged 61, we started to maul through mobs. With the Illusionist, Swash and Troubador, crowd control as the tactic. The illusionist would lock down adds, if he had issues with resists, I plopped a hangman's noose on something or, more likely, the troubador would also help mez. If *they* had issues getting everything (there are some crazy fights here) I stepped in to lock down a mob as well. We flowed, like Kung Fu, it was amazing.</div><div> </div><div>I don't want to spoil one of the encounters in here too much, but there are some fights leading up to a named mob that have 2 or 3 ecnounters. A lot of the encounters in here are labled as "heroic" but have a triple up mob and two double ups, or two triple ups. The named mob fights are not what they appear to be at the start. Some of these mobs have encounter based AE's that use line of sight rather than range. It gets tricky!</div><div> </div><div>But what made things so cool was my swashy's mutli-role value. My debuffs allowed us to hit and damage these mobs, my interrupts helped contain the ridiculous number of caster based mobs, my mez helped with the CC overflow. Initially, as I had trouble doing damage, I felt pretty useless, but as we learned the mobs, the zone, and evolved our tactics I started to feel an integral part of the team. At some points I even off-tanked adds! It was a shining example of the power of our class, and other classes in a non-standard group make-up. Pally tank, illusionist actually using CC etc. </div><div> </div><div>I felt challenged, something I hadn't felt in some time. Learning and exploring an instance run, actually making it to the final encounter on our first try (no, we did *not* manage to take down the 70th level badass at the end, but it was fun trying). There were times I was ducking and weaving trying to get my debuffs on a mob, or running back to the illusionist to help mez a mob to get it locked down. I really felt like a Swashbuckler, diving around the fight. I gained a new found appreciation for Brazen Thrust. It's 6 second knockdown stun is a tremendous life saver, either to get a mob off the illusionist, or get a 6 second breather at the start of a hard fight. Our interrupt procs, cheapshot and admonish were invaluable tools to help contain the casting mobs in here. It felt like a zone designed for our group, it really was fun and made me happy to be a swash all over again.</div><div> </div><div>And no, for the record, I would *not* want to tank most of these mobs even with the STA line. I think I could tank some of the 65th level ones (especially with the illus. and that much healing power) but I think I'd definately want a maxed STA line to do it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.</div>