What did we do to deserve Pirate Jones?

[Mojo]

<p>I tried to kill Pirate Jones last night.  Some friends from one of my server's raiding guilds offered to help.</p><p> Let me repeat that...I went in with a solid raid-equipped group.  Several times we got him deep into the red, but then the adds came, and the bird, and that was the end.  Mobs resisted mez, and Jones' AOE appeared to hit right through our AOE blockers.  We wiped numerous times.  Several times they swapped out group members with other (raid-equipped, remember) guidies from different classes. They spent over two hours trying and retrying that fight before giving it up.</p><p> I am told that the fight was marginally doable before the last patch because it was possible to pull the adds separately and just have to deal with Jones and the bird, but that was changed and the adds are no longer targetable until they actually *add*.  </p><p> The way it is currently configured, I'd say that this fight is not winnable.</p><p> I've helped other friends get their epics, and the final fight, while difficult, is at least possible.  This one is not.</p><p> No epic for me, I guess....</p>

[Stabbath]

I can't get past the octopus part, which is like the 2nd or 3rd step. Be glad you made it as far as you have. I imagine SOE will change the encounter. Way too many complaints about Pirate Jones.

[Meinen]

<p>it is quite possible...a lot of it is luck, but it is possible.  take lots of aoe power and aoe block.  </p>

[Mojo]

Did you do it before or after the last patch?  As of this past Wednesday, the encounter was changed.  It was possible before the change (though it did need a lot of luck).  It is not possible now.

[PakMonyet]

...we're juuuusst waaay toooo SEXAH for soe!

[Margen]

<p>I finally got to this stage and its stupidly hard at this point.  This guy stuns, stiffles, mezzes and fears, with adds and that stupid bird.</p><p>My group was a pally tanking, with a enchanter, a troub, inquistor and defiler and my self.  We are all good players and know our classes.  We took the clear voice symbol and aoe blocker symbol.  And we got our butts kicked repeatedly.  </p><p> The adds would not run across the gang plank they just appeared around priate jones.  The stupid bird was taunting even if mezzed.  Jones mezzes, fears and stiffles are not curable and he seems to chain cast them.  Tank was getting mezzed, feared and stiffled contiounsly, with the troubs aoe blocker and my own we could get him down to 70 pct, then adds would just appear around him and most times Jones would then cast fear or mezz on the tank so the chanter would have no time to mezz before the mobs where in the group.  </p><p>We are a tier one raid equiped group, so its not like our gear is the suck.  I've helped numerous guildies with thier epics and its not even close to what this POS brings to a fight.  Including tanking their end mobs with my SK who is only legendary equiped.</p><p>I love a good challenge for a fight, but having to have the perfect group and be extremley lucky is stupid.  Since they "FIXED" this encounter with not being able to pull the adds, I have no clue how you can beat it.  I am truly ticked off right now, they need to look at this encounter, because since you can't prepull the adds I bet not many if any swashys are getting updates!</p><p>Make the fight tough .... But not insane!</p>

[Mojo]

<p>You know what frustrates me the most about this?</p><p> The fact that it requires me to waste my friends' time.  And not just a little of it, a LOT, a whole bunch.  I've had several groups of friends spend, at this point, at least 5 hours trying to get this epic for me, and I still don't have it.  How do I ask them to keep doing this?</p><p>After the last group gave up, I ended up in tears because this is past being a reasonable thing to ask of my friends.  They get no benefit from this headache.  I am imposing on them now.  </p><p>I have helped many others get their epics, and none of the final battles were anything like this one.  One class, I gather, can even solo their final fight...it's a hard fight, but at least the only time being wasted is that of the one who will benefit from the fight.  </p><p>I, on the other hand, am being forced into a position where my friends are starting to avoid me because they're afraid I will ask them to help me yet again and they know how awful it is.</p><p>Truly I don't think I can bring myself to keep begging them for help, when we all know the chances of winning are so slim.   I'd rather do without my epic than alienate all of my friends.</p>

[Klantic5]

<p>This is not a complaining session, just informational:</p><p> I've completed Prismatic, Peacock, Claymore, SoD (fabled), 32 HQ's, Gate Builder, you name it in the game.   I've done every (up to) T7 and most T8 raids, and nothing in the game is as difficult and as frustrating as this instance.</p><p>I've taken T7-T8 raider experienced players and friends to this.  Before and after the "fix" we have been unable to complete this.  With all the information out there, group configurations, you name it, we are still unable to complete this. 23+ attempts is too much to ask of my friends.   Honestly.</p><p>As most stated, I have truely given up on getting my epic.  As most stated, I like difficult tests, but futile is not fun.</p><p>I've helped with Berseker (pretty darn tough actually), Ranger, Guardian, Assassin, Dirge, Templar and it's not even close to difficulty of the Swashbuckler.</p><p>What a shame... I feel bad for all of the swashbuckling friends out there.</p><p>~Quilem Quickblade, Blackburrow</p>

[Dreadpatch]

It's not impossible, we did this with a swashy tank, and me as a swashy, and we did NOT use the exploit to pull the add first. There are threads that give advice, I can just tell you how we did it. If guild level is high enough, get the status items from city merchant that prevent stifle/ stun affects for one minute. You can get one or two depending on guild level. (I actually did not have one when we beat it) Use it right before Jones is going to become agro. You need a mezzer to concentrate 100% on the bird and keeping it mezzed. It can be glitched so that is the luck piece of it (bird glitches under boat sometimes). Use expert's caustic poison and deagro poison, and another of your choice, maybe gracelessness. Bring the heaviest dps with burns you can get. Try not to worry about the adds, they will most likely kill you in the end anyways (Jones alone will update with you even if you wipe after he's dead). Instead focus on dealing all possible damage to Jones, don't even worry about the adds. Your tank needs to keep agro on themselves at all times. If you have the aa that prevent aoe, I would suggest trying to use it after the minute is up on your status item to buy yourself just a little bit more burning time. As a swashy do everything you can do to debuff and stun to reduce damage on your tank. It's a very very tough fight, the toughest I've ever done, but it can be done.

[Rippitt]

It's really not that tough. I had a bruiser tank it. No bard, no chanter, no status clickies, no miracles, no pulling adds from the other boat. Try it like this: Tank - stay alive more Priests - heal more You - dps more

[Graywindnz]

<cite>Rippitt@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote>It's really not that tough. I had a bruiser tank it. No bard, no chanter, no status clickies, no miracles, no pulling adds from the other boat.Try it like this:Tank - stay alive morePriests - heal moreYou - dps more</blockquote>Wow that was helpfull.... havent heard that before..

[Korwyn]

<cite>Rippitt@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote>It's really not that tough. I had a bruiser tank it. No bard, no chanter, no status clickies, no miracles, no pulling adds from the other boat.Try it like this:Tank - stay alive morePriests - heal moreYou - dps more</blockquote>Wow it is advice like this that got us to the moon!  You sir are a genius!

[Jeger_Wulf]

<p>> I, on the other hand, am being forced into a position where my > friends are starting to avoid me because they're afraid I will ask > them to help me yet again and they know how awful it is.</p><p>LOL - I feel for you guys. </p><p>I have a friend who needs it, and I have gone over 10% in debt trying to help him with it. I don't hide from him yet, but I'm not looking forward to trying it again.</p><p>> It's really not that tough. I had a bruiser tank it. No bard, no chanter, > no status clickies, no miracles, no pulling adds from the other boat.</p><p>I think it's all luck-of-the-draw. Usually the fight goes something like this</p><p>Pirate Jones: 100% burst damage on tankPirate Jones: 90% tank is stable, everyone doing their jobPirate Jones: 80% things are looking stablePirate Jones: 70% hey we could do this!</p><p>BAM!!!!!! one group member down. three damagedBAM!!!!!! three more group members down. two trying to hang onEveryone is dead</p><p>When it goes bad, things happen suddenly. If you never trigger that bad combo, I can see taking him down easy.</p>

[mastter_kaos]

What I find funny is that the majority of the people that say it "isn't tough" are all in the top raiding guilds on their server. The rest of the people that say it isnt tough got extremely lucky with the parrot not spawning.Obviously this encounter IS tough or there wouldn't be so many [Removed for Content] threads about it.I was fortunate enough to complete this back before the last update where  you could use the AOE trick.... I literally have no idea how I would do it now.This is the only way I can think:  Pull jones, when first set of adds come focus 100% on killing the first set of adds (so 3 of them)If you wipe, someone stay in instance while rest come.. those first set of adds will be dead and wont have to deal with them.You can now do the same strat on the 2nd set of adds.Now you will only have Jones to worry about. Have enchanter create a macro to Mez the parrot, and have him keep 100% focus on mezzing parrot.If he can get parrot mezzed (with the 6 adds dead) it should be fairly trivial at this point.

[Talazar]

Oh.  Is pulling the adds first an exploit?

[mastter_kaos]

It was debatable, but since they fixed it so you cant anymore, it must have been.However you can still kills the adds while you are fighting jones, and they wont reset if you wipe as long as 1 person keeps instance open

[Ristan]

<p>All I can say is I am so sorry swashies lol.</p><p>I've been helping a guildie try to win this fight for about 2-3 weeks now.</p><p>so far: Swashie 0  -  Pirate Jones 134</p><p>We have tried several class combos, pulling adds first (when you could) mezing the bird taking pirates as pets, aoe blockers, burn dps...and still nothing.  our best shot was 35% before he totaled us with aoes/parrot combo</p><p>1st group: Swashie, Monk, Necro, Templar, Fury, Troubie- no luck</p><p>2nd group:Swashie, Coercer, Paladin, Templar, warden, necro - no luck</p><p>3rd group: Swashie, Swashie, Paladin, Templar, Defiler, Necro - no luck</p><p>4th group: Swashie, Coercer, Paladin, templar, defiler, necro - no luck</p><p>5th group: Swashie, Dirge, Paladin, Warden, Templar, Warlock - no luck</p><p>6th Group: Swashie, Guardian, Defiler, Fury, Necro, Troubie - no luck</p><p>Unfortunately our guild lacks a Heavy hitting wizard,  However, this is nuts....we have tried everything (swashie, bruiser, and necro parse for 2500 in groups, fury and paladin 1600) and we still couldn't burn this guy down fast enough his [Removed for Content] parrot kept killing the dps, or aoes, or whatever on and on and on.</p><p>We are going to attempt again friday but this guy is way over done for a group epic.  If you want to make him this tough put him out doors so people can help fromt he outside like most of the other final guys.  I'm not even a swashie and i am tired of trying to kill this guy and getting face punched every time <---is the necro</p><p><img src="http://kyrainetheranger.tripod.com/animatedsig.gif" alt="" width="400" height="100" border="0" /></p>

[Trojenn]

<p>Well have done it again and with another setup.. </p><p>Guard Templay Ward Assasin Swash Swash..  === Massive DPS...</p><p>The best we have done it so far is with massive amounts of DPS, we ran it with this grp setup last night and burned him down with a grp wide DPS of 18K. This was by far the easiest i have seen him go down..</p><p>We had everyone target Jones and did not even worrie with anything else ( I took a beating and so did the assasin but kill Jones before you die lol..) Trick being is i think you need DPS that can parse on average 4K-8K grp parses.. I can average a 4K Grp parse consitantly with spikes up to 6K and the Assasin well he's an assasin 4K-8K and the swash who needed the Epic well ...no comment... she sucked lol....  </p>

[Korwyn]

<p>OK please tell me how one group with nobody (Dirge, Coercer, Inq) to up your dps got to 18k?  </p><p>I am sorry I do not think that 18k is attainable by even most above average groups. (except on rare occasions)</p><p>And it sure is not required by the other epic fights.</p><p>Kilbane</p>

[Errolflynn]

<cite>121 dirtybird wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Well have done it again and with another setup.. </p><p>Guard Templay Ward Assasin Swash Swash..  === Massive DPS...</p><p>The best we have done it so far is with massive amounts of DPS, we ran it with this grp setup last night and burned him down with a grp wide DPS of 18K. This was by far the easiest i have seen him go down..</p><p>We had everyone target Jones and did not even worrie with anything else ( I took a beating and so did the assasin but kill Jones before you die lol..) Trick being is i think you need DPS that can parse on average 4K-8K grp parses.. I can average a 4K Grp parse consitantly with spikes up to 6K and the Assasin well he's an assasin 4K-8K and the swash who needed the Epic well ...no comment... she sucked lol....  </p></blockquote>I think this post just about sums it up. this is not really doable for average group players.When I guild group I usually top the parse on either my Warlock or my Swashie even then I rarely beats 4k on any one fight. Zone wides normally somewhere between 1.5K to 2K.On a slightly different note I believe that the Epic quests are all lvl 85 (Have only started my Warlock one) and most of the final mobs are all that sort of lvl, so of course it will be hard for non uber group players to complete until the next lvl raise.So SOE please nerf this encounter for when I try it on my Swashi. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Trojenn]

<cite>Kilbane@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>OK please tell me how one group with nobody (Dirge, Coercer, Inq) to up your dps got to 18k?  </p><p>I am sorry I do not think that 18k is attainable by even most above average groups. (except on rare occasions)</p><p>And it sure is not required by the other epic fights.</p><p>Kilbane</p></blockquote><p>Well in all honesty I do have to say that most of that grp was atleast Tier 1 Fabled.. I have my Epic Along with Betrayals and the Assasin has his Epic along with Segemented. It is not to hard to break 18K grp Parse as long as your temp buffs are all up.</p><p>Now you are correct in any of the other epic fights I have not encountered this hard of a fight and trust me i have ran all of them exept maybe the Troubs and a couple of healers..</p>

[g0thiC_iCe_cReaM]

<p>The only time I've sucessfully tanked this for a swash is having the following:</p><p>Dirge, Swash (duh), Illusionist, Defiler, Warden and me (pally)</p><p>Dirge AE blocker, Swash AE blocker, Defiler dog AE blocker, Warden stuffs...</p><p>Still wiped 5 times before we took him down on the last run.</p><p>Prior to that we've done it with similar makeups but I posted more detail and opinions in this thread:</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=411176" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=411176</a></p><p>When I did finish this encounter, none of us had tier 1 raid gear, and I actually had lesser gear on than I do now.</p><p>(edit b/c speak and spell worked for me!)</p>

[Lochr]

<p>It's a real problem trying to find help for this instance. With the recent increase(!) in difficulty, an enchanter is almost a necessity. Those are always hard to find. The instance offers absolutely nothing to everyone else in the group except the very, very real possibility of a lot of exp debt.</p><p>Most people don't like dieing. The swashie epic fight's got an awful reputation among the playerbase and people stay as far away from it as possible. </p>

[Korwyn]

<p>Has anyone seen any Dev response to our concerns?</p><p>That actually bothers me more than anything else.</p><p>Kilbane </p>

[Couching]

We did this quest with monk, mystic, inq, ranger, swashy and illy. The hardest part of this fight is incurable fear and aoe stifle. Adds are annoyed but if your mezzer is not stifled, your group should be fine. The trick of this fight is everyone should has potion of free mind. Also, brawler is awesome tank in this fight since monk can self cure every 2 minutes and bruiser can immune to stifle for 30 sec. Another trick is to fully debuff pirate of jones with different dolls before first wave of adds. If you really have problem of being stifled, you can buy stifle immunity signet from city merchant. Once it's debuffed and healers can heal your tank without being stifled, this fight is really easy.This fight is about strategy rather than blunt kill.

[Froed20]

<cite>Couching@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote>We did this quest with monk, mystic, inq, ranger, swashy and illy. The hardest part of this fight is incurable fear and aoe stifle. Adds are annoyed but if your mezzer is not stifled, your group should be fine. The trick of this fight is everyone should has potion of free mind. Also, brawler is awesome tank in this fight since monk can self cure every 2 minutes and bruiser can immune to stifle for 30 sec. Another trick is to fully debuff pirate of jones with different dolls before first wave of adds. If you really have problem of being stifled, you can buy stifle immunity signet from city merchant. Once it's debuffed and healers can heal your tank without being stifled, this fight is really easy.This fight is about strategy rather than blunt kill.</blockquote>I know it's been said a few times, but not everyone is in a high enough level guild for those items, and that can make a huge difference in how well the fight goes.

[Lochr]

<cite>Couching@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote>We did this quest with monk, mystic, inq, ranger, swashy and illy. </blockquote><p>Couching's in a guild that has cleared VP. One of the generally successful strategies is to have a full group of RoK-fabled characters in a guild that has cleared all the T1 raids. Couching's group was much better equipped then that.</p><p>All the swashies in VP-flagged guilds on Crushbone have their epic. Grats to them. It would be nice if some of the swashies who aren't in a Chamber of Destiny-level guild at least had a reasonable shot at their epic. You shouldn't have to try an encounter over 100 times to succeed at it.</p>

[Couching]

Gear did help you beat encounters easier but strategy and skill are more important.Focusing on strategy and player skill are more important than on gear since a lot of casual players have already beat this encounter without raid gear. PS: My friend, a swashy, has done his fabled epic in crushbone with his guildies. He is not in a vp flaged guild.

[Whotookfrobo]

We did this the other night...got Jones on second pull..first pull we got him to 20%...we had a Zerk, swash, assasin,Temp,Coercer,Inqui(lvl7<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />....used Sanc on pull...temp called when we had 10s on sanctuary left..used relic of clear voice....burned jones ..ignored everything else....I got smashed at around 25% the second time..group finished him off...the coercer got the kill....I got my update..  We are not vp flagged...big part here is to keep your eye on the prize....Jones is the target....keep focused on him and ignore the rest of the encounter...use whatever you need to to avoid the stifle...aoe was tough but not horrible..only hit for like 4.k or so....healers picked it up easy...Its a good fight...the most fun I have had inawhile....

[Korwyn]

<p>Kinda hard to ignore the rest of the encounter if your healers are stifled and can't heal and you all die...it is very random...either you luck out or you have to do it over and over seems to be a theme with this encounter.  </p><p>I for one am happy the devs are going to tune this encounter to be in line with the other classes epic fights.</p><p> I just hope they don't take to long to do it.</p><p>Kilbane </p>

[Meinen]

<p>if there is a scout or 2 that have bristlebane as their deity, could get the miracle or blessing that drops the anvils that stun for 30 sec.  as long as no one aoe's, that should give you enough time to burn down jones.  </p>

[ThedocAV]

 The problem with these epics is the total lack of consistency of difficulty. The reason is the god awful way they do them. They give these to their dev's who play that class if one is available. The problem with that is they build the encounters to their current level of what "They" consider tough.I would bet the Dev's that made the easy epics are from low-mid level guilds.Guessing if you look up who was the very first to complete "got the discovery for" the swashy epic that will be the Dev who made this quest with his super guild.

[OpethPA]

<cite>Kilbane@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Kinda hard to ignore the rest of the encounter if your healers are stifled and can't heal and you all die...</p><p>Kilbane </p></blockquote><p>This is when city faction symbols/signets that prevent stifle are your friend. </p><p>Everyone in group should have them, depending on guild level you can either get 1 min or 1 min and 30 seconds...using both you can get over 2 mins stifle prevent. </p>

[Korwyn]

<p>The whole point is you dont have to do that on any of the other epic fights...why should we?</p><p> This fight is out of wack...and I am glad they have acknowledged it and are re-tuning it.</p><p>Kilbane</p>

[Spite]

<p>I have done this fight several times now. It is hard but doable. In the 4 times I have done it, we have never used signat or anything special. </p><p> First i did it in the first week of the epics being put in on my Swashie, Group was Dirge, Guard, Templar, brig, Mystic and of coarse swash. I mezzed the bird (had to put the spell on my hotbar). Full burn named and allow tank to control the adds. Took about 8 pulls to get him. </p><p>Next time group was the same except i replaced the brig with my swash. One pull, one kill. Good timing in AoE avoids and Sanctuary.</p><p>Last night (23 Mar) i tanked it on my Zerker for two other swashies updates. Had Dirge, Zerker, Swashie, Swashie, Mystic, Templar. Strat was as such: Sanct on the pull - followed by Adv Warning from the swashies in turn. I gibbed the first set of adds and open wounds and aoed the second. Noone ever changes target from Jones except on to mez the bird. Took two pulls because first time I was feared two times back to back by Jones with the bird resisting mez. Kill jones and then cycle through the pirates.</p><p>Honestly the keys to this fight are just what everyone has been saying from the start:</p><p>1. Full burn. <b>Every successfull kill has happened in under 1 minute that I have participated in.</b> Jones has about 350k HP so about 6k groupwide dps is your goal. Take out the two healers and everyone else needs to average 1500 DPS. </p><p>2. Healers. templar IMHO is a must for sanctuary (unless you use the status items i guess). Also they have a group trauma cure. Also your healers have to be uber. Last night our mystic healed for about 100k and still did about 300dps. The Templar healed for about 40k and 100dps as he took the fear and such.</p><p>3. Tank. The tank has to understand the encounter - all you have to do is kill jones. You dont even have to live through the encounter. Since it is a 1 minute encounter (see item 1) have him plan his actions acordingly. For example - i popped adrinaline on the first set of adds because 32 seconds of 1/2 damage is great when the encounter should be ending when the power drain happens. I also tanked him in offensive (pretty much like i do everything else lol)</p><p>4. Dirge - IMHO they are a must like the templar. The dps they add to the group and the hate for the tank are worth taking them over a pure dps class. Ours isnt specced for bladedance so it isnt nessicary but having ti wouldnt hurt either.</p><p>Yes I am in a T2 raiding guild and fairly well geared on my toons, but the people saying this encounter is not doable in its current form are plainly wrong. It is doable but it isn't a cake walk. You need coordination and skill. </p>

[m0ya]

People whined too much.... yay it's getting nerfed!!! Pirate Jones is hard cause he's a swashbuckler, that's why he's hard. Notice that you dont see any mob that are swashbuckler since T2..... yeah... Anyway... he wasn't that hard, just need to have good players and everyone doing their job. If you suck it's not SOE problem, they at least expect that people that make it to 80 to KINDA know how to play. Just saying...

[Serenade]

<cite>m0ya wrote:</cite><blockquote>People whined too much.... yay it's getting nerfed!!! Pirate Jones is hard cause he's a swashbuckler, that's why he's hard. Notice that you dont see any mob that are swashbuckler since T2..... yeah... Anyway... he wasn't that hard, just need to have good players and everyone doing their job. If you suck it's not SOE problem, they at least expect that people that make it to 80 to KINDA know how to play. Just saying...</blockquote> <p ><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Well, if you had paid attention to what was being said, it wasn't the difficulty that people where talking about, but that there was too much luck involved. So it wasn't an issue of people at level 80 not knowing how to play since the encounter was not based on skill but mostly on the luck of the draw. </span></p> <p ><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Since you missed the point of such an easy and simple concept, it seems that you’re the one that’s not as skilled as you think. Maybe you should learn how to comprehend what you read before slighting others. Just saying...</span></p>

[Korwyn]

<cite>Serenade wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>m0ya wrote:</cite><blockquote>People whined too much.... yay it's getting nerfed!!! Pirate Jones is hard cause he's a swashbuckler, that's why he's hard. Notice that you dont see any mob that are swashbuckler since T2..... yeah... Anyway... he wasn't that hard, just need to have good players and everyone doing their job. If you suck it's not SOE problem, they at least expect that people that make it to 80 to KINDA know how to play. Just saying...</blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Well, if you had paid attention to what was being said, it wasn't the difficulty that people where talking about, but that there was too much luck involved. So it wasn't an issue of people at level 80 not knowing how to play since the encounter was not based on skill but mostly on the luck of the draw. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Since you missed the point of such an easy and simple concept, it seems that you’re the one that’s not as skilled as you think. Maybe you should learn how to comprehend what you read before slighting others. Just saying...</span></p></blockquote>Exactly!!!!!

[m0ya]

<cite>Serenade wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>m0ya wrote:</cite><blockquote>People whined too much.... yay it's getting nerfed!!! Pirate Jones is hard cause he's a swashbuckler, that's why he's hard. Notice that you dont see any mob that are swashbuckler since T2..... yeah... Anyway... he wasn't that hard, just need to have good players and everyone doing their job. If you suck it's not SOE problem, they at least expect that people that make it to 80 to KINDA know how to play. Just saying...</blockquote> <p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Well, if you had paid attention to what was being said, it wasn't the difficulty that people where talking about, but that there was too much luck involved. So it wasn't an issue of people at level 80 not knowing how to play since the encounter was not based on skill but mostly on the luck of the draw. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Since you missed the point of such an easy and simple concept, it seems that you’re the one that’s not as skilled as you think. Maybe you should learn how to comprehend what you read before slighting others. Just saying...</span></p> </blockquote>I'm a french-canadian (Québec), therefore, english aint my primary language, but anyway. Which luck? We went in, pulled him 5-6 times and he died, Mezz the adds, handle the little bird and burn the [Removed for Content] out of Jones... We didn't even used guild merchant aoe blocker, stun/stifle blocker, etc. We could had tho...

[YeldarbSpiritbla]

<cite>Serenade wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>m0ya wrote:</cite><blockquote>People whined too much.... yay it's getting nerfed!!! Pirate Jones is hard cause he's a swashbuckler, that's why he's hard. Notice that you dont see any mob that are swashbuckler since T2..... yeah... Anyway... he wasn't that hard, just need to have good players and everyone doing their job. If you suck it's not SOE problem, they at least expect that people that make it to 80 to KINDA know how to play. Just saying...</blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Well, if you had paid attention to what was being said, it wasn't the difficulty that people where talking about, but that there was too much luck involved. So it wasn't an issue of people at level 80 not knowing how to play since the encounter was not based on skill but mostly on the luck of the draw. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Since you missed the point of such an easy and simple concept, it seems that you’re the one that’s not as skilled as you think. Maybe you should learn how to comprehend what you read before slighting others. Just saying...</span></p></blockquote><p>Wow, seems like you have big things to say now that the unskilled and bad players can get their epics too. He's right, if you couldn't beat Jones you don't deserve the epic. Too many suck players around anyways, maybe they should give you the epic for just rolling the character.</p><p>I did Pirate Jones 4 times, once for myself. Yes, it is a hard encounter, IT SHOULD BE. It's for an epic for crying out loud. All 4 times we killed it within a couple pulls and even had a brigand tank one of the encounters. Wearing Legendary instance gear and decent weapons. Don't blame luck for suck.</p>

[Serenade]

Since you also seem to have a hard time understanding simple concepts then let me restate it for you. Here, I'll even list it in easy to understand steps.<div></div><div>1. The issue people have with the encounter is not the difficulty.</div><div></div><div>2. The issue people have with the encounter is that there is more luck then skill involved.</div><div></div><div>The luck is mainly a result on who ends up getting stifled and/or feared at what point.</div><div></div><div>It's easy to come here acting like a tool talking about how leet your skills are and how everyone else sucks when you have no real proof of ether. The simple fact is, you got your epic due to more of combination of good gear and luck.</div>

[Veskandar]

but why is the difeculty of MY epic based on how skillfull other people are, that has nothing to do with how good a swashy you are

[YeldarbSpiritbla]

<cite>Serenade wrote:</cite><blockquote>Since you also seem to have a hard time understanding simple concepts then let me restate it for you. Here, I'll even list it in easy to understand steps. <div></div><div>1. The issue people have with the encounter is not the difficulty.</div><div></div><div>2. The issue people have with the encounter is that there is more luck then skill involved.</div><div></div><div>The luck is mainly a result on who ends up getting stifled and/or feared at what point.</div><div></div><div>It's easy to come here acting like a tool talking about how leet your skills are and how everyone else sucks when you have no real proof of ether. The simple fact is, you got your epic due to more of combination of good gear and luck.</div></blockquote><p>Since you are demonstrating your ignorance in BASIC combat mechanics, and many people have tried to help and yet you still seem to stay ignorant, let me list it in easy to understand steps.</p><p>1. The issue people have with the encounter IS the difficulty.</p><p>2. There is no luck in KNOWING what the encounter will do, and reacting to those conditions. AE knockback and stifle and fear can be countered. Normal items available to everyone, and certain classes can counter these conditions.</p><p>If knowing how and who can counter basic combat conditions is leet, then I guess myself and the 80% of swashies on my server with epics are leet. I have proof, check my profile, Charm's Way in the main hand, that's all the proof I need. My "good" gear consists of LEGENDARY armor from group instances. I guess that make me "leet" as well.</p>

[Serenade]

<cite>YeldarbSpiritblade wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Serenade wrote:</cite><blockquote>Since you also seem to have a hard time understanding simple concepts then let me restate it for you. Here, I'll even list it in easy to understand steps. <div></div><div>1. The issue people have with the encounter is not the difficulty.</div><div></div><div>2. The issue people have with the encounter is that there is more luck then skill involved.</div><div></div><div>The luck is mainly a result on who ends up getting stifled and/or feared at what point.</div><div></div><div>It's easy to come here acting like a tool talking about how leet your skills are and how everyone else sucks when you have no real proof of ether. The simple fact is, you got your epic due to more of combination of good gear and luck.</div></blockquote><p>Since you are demonstrating your ignorance in BASIC combat mechanics, and many people have tried to help and yet you still seem to stay ignorant, let me list it in easy to understand steps.</p><span style="color: #009966;">I understand them fine. Theres more to the encounter then BASIC combat mechanics. I'm not surprised you missed that since you ether didn't read what others said or you simply can't understand what you read.</span><p>1. The issue people have with the encounter IS the difficulty.</p><span style="color: #009966;">No it's not. Again reread what people are saying. Here I'll restate it for you again in simple to understand steps.</span><div><span style="color: #009966;">1. The issue people have with the encounter is not the difficulty.</span></div><div><span style="color: #009966;"></span></div><div><span style="color: #009966;">2. The issue people have with the encounter is that there is more luck then skill involved.</span></div><div><span style="color: #009966;">Disagree with it all you want, the fact that not only have many people came here stating otherwise (some aren't even swashies) but also that the DEVS THEMSELVES have </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">decided</span><span style="color: #009966;"> that the encounter needs adjusting shows how disillusioned you are on this matter. </span></div><p>2. There is no luck in KNOWING what the encounter will do, and reacting to those conditions. AE knockback and stifle and fear can be countered. Normal items available to everyone, and certain classes can counter these conditions.</p><span style="color: #009966;">Yes, but what people have pointed out is that it doesn't matter what certain classes can counter if their the ones who get hit with the stifle and fear before they can do it. Since Jones cast it randomly an as often as he wants throughout the encounter, it's luck on who gets hit with it. That's really the only issue I see with the encounter as a whole, and it's something most agree on, to include many who do have their epic.Those normal items are helpful, but they don't always work with the exception of the status items which are not available to everyone.Also there's no skill in KNOWING what a encounter will do. Your simply copying those who already figured out how to do the encounter. Their the ones with any real skill, you're just riding their coat tails acting like a tool by pretending you have skill and slighting others many of whom I bet are much more skilled then you.</span><p>If knowing how and who can counter basic combat conditions is leet, then I guess myself and the 80% of swashies on my server with epics are leet. </p><p><span style="color: #009966;">I wasn't calling you leet, I was calling you a tool who thinks their leet. That assessment is based on your ignorant post used to slight others in order to make yourself look big, not the fact that you really are leet, because your not. Not even close.</span></p><p>I have proof, check my profile, Charm's Way in the main hand, that's all the proof I need. </p><span style="color: #009966;">Again that's not proof. You got lucky. Hell even if you didn't get lucky (which you did) you needed five other people to help you get Charm's Way. Even then, theres no telling when you got your Charm's way, which means you may have used the exploit to get it. That's hardly skill.</span><p>My "good" gear consists of LEGENDARY armor from group instances. I guess that make me "leet" as well.</p><span style="color: #009966;">Believe it or not, that LEGENDARY armor from group instances is quite good. In fact a lot if it is better then some of the lower tear FABLE armor from raiding. Most of the casual player base don't have the time to run the instances over and over again to get that gear. One of their arguments is that they should have a fair shot at the encounter without havening that gear. I agree with them. Lets face it, like most RPGs EQ2 is primarily based on stats more then skill. This isn't a FPS where everyone is on even ground. There is some skilled involved, but stats and luck make up for more in this game than skill.</span><span style="color: #009966;">I would have made that clear in my first post, but I figured someone as skilled as you would already have understood that.The real issue here is no longer the encounter though. It's tools like you coming here acting all  knowing and powerful when really your just</span><span style="color: #009966;"> relying on other player's skill to get you through the day.</span><p>Edit: standard spell correcting. If I missed others, meh. </p></blockquote>

[Zebbin]

<p> Feel free to tell me I suck if you want. Tell me I'm stupid and my guild is stupid I dont care. I think there is one very simple point that can easily justify the need to dial the encoutner down a little bit. </p><p>A handful of my guild's most dedicated, knowlegeable and skilled players all have thier epics, except the swashbuckler.  They have all died upwards of 30 times on this encounter.</p><p>To everyone who has beat this encounter, grats. You have great friends you are skilled, they are skilled and I hope you have a nice and fulfilling life.  But seriously, isn't it enough that you have had your epic and been using it for months now? Whats so bad about bringing it inline with other epic fights?</p><p>And to Mister, "learn how to swashbuckle"</p><p> You think, it doesn't show dedication to get a group of people together and lead them to thier death again and agian and again, and have them still keep coming to help? You think you are such a masterful swasbuckler, dedicated to your purpose, set on winning, never giving up, b/c you got the encounter after a handful of attempts? Is simply having enough DPS to kill the encounter in under 1 min truly a demonstration of skill? There is no strategy, no tactic. You simply burn the mob and then many of you whipe to the adds. So grats on taking a hard encoutner and effectivly zerging it with dps to avoid the parts that make it hard. </p><p> SOE, make it hard, no one is asking for handouts. We don't play WOW b/c we like a challenge. But seriously bring it inline with other epics. </p><p>Thanks</p>

[Karinna]

<p>I am a level 80 Swashie in ROK Legendary/Fabeled gear in a pretty good guild. and in most groups if there is no caster I am the top DPS i do an average of 4k DPS per fight. I know my class well. </p><p>This fight is out of balance, and has been since the epics were put in. As a matter of fact this whole epic story line is out of balance. I have a Fury who once she reaches level 80 will get her epic before my Swashie sees hers. The fury epic is soloable down to the last 2 or 3 encounters. </p><p>My guild is very reluctant to help with this fight, and hardly any one on the server will help with this fight becuase of the win/loss ration of this encounter. Folks avoid this last fight like it's the 1700's and its plague season.</p><p>I am glad to hear they are looking into adjusting this final encounter. I honestly think they need to look into all the epics and adjust them all. When you have some that can be totaly solo'd and ones that require a raid equipped group for every encounter there is no balance. </p><p>And if this is how Swashbucklers are supposed to be, then I want an upgrade on my class to be on par with Jones. </p>

[Death0Matic]

<cite>Karinna@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I am a level 80 Swashie in ROK Legendary/Fabeled gear in a pretty good guild. and in most groups if there is no caster I am the top DPS i do an average of 4k DPS per fight. I know my class well. </p><p>This fight is out of balance, and has been since the epics were put in. As a matter of fact this whole epic story line is out of balance. I have a Fury who once she reaches level 80 will get her epic before my Swashie sees hers. The fury epic is soloable down to the last 2 or 3 encounters. </p><p>My guild is very reluctant to help with this fight, and hardly any one on the server will help with this fight becuase of the win/loss ration of this encounter. Folks avoid this last fight like it's the 1700's and its plague season.</p><p>I am glad to hear they are looking into adjusting this final encounter. I honestly think they need to look into all the epics and adjust them all. When you have some that can be totaly solo'd and ones that require a raid equipped group for every encounter there is no balance. </p><p>And if this is how Swashbucklers are supposed to be, then I want an upgrade on my class to be on par with Jones. </p></blockquote>Roll a swash on a pvp server, level up to 80.  Go out and pvp, you will feel just like Pirate Jones.