Castle Highhold [Advanced Solo] and [Solo]

[Chrol]

Garavic said: ↑

“Also as I revive over and over

It would be nice if when you die in Gudre's room the game presented you with the Hall of Trade as the closest revive point and not the Entrance you zone into the zone from.”

You should be seeing the Hall of Trade as an available location to revive to once you've reached Gudre.

[Chrol]

Upcoming changes, which will be reflected in update notes...

• Gudre Blackhand will inflict less auto-attack damage.
• Smouldering Combustion inflicts less heat damage, but letting yourself burn for too long would be a bad idea..

Thanks for the feedback. Keep 'em coming!

[Rett]

So tried Blackhand again after the patches.....still a waste of time for my necro. It's not even remotely close to being soloable at lvl 99. The tapestries still don't become active until it's too late, which doesn't matter anyway since his auto attack and that Pelican crap hit hard enough to make my merc useless as a healer (if it's even still alive). Tried to pull to different areas of the room, tried to tank him where he stands..doesn't matter, can't get past the first Combustion. Between this zone and Bilgewater Falls, I've died so many times in supposedly solo zones that this expac is no longer fun or interesting. Think I'll keep my money and call it a day.

[Chrol]

Update notes can be read here.

Blackhand's updates aren't in yet.

[Garavic]

“Garavic said: ↑

“Also as I revive over and over

It would be nice if when you die in Gudre's room the game presented you with the Hall of Trade as the closest revive point and not the Entrance you zone into the zone from.”

You should be seeing the Hall of Trade as an available location to revive to once you've reached Gudre.”

I do see it, but depending on where you are in the room it's not the top option as the closest. I wouldn't have even probably noticed, but usually I am in a hurry trying to revive if my merc didn't die before me so I don't have to summon again and all too often I grab the wrong revive point. It's certainly not game breaking or anything and I am sure when you done the deaths on this will be a few at most

[Rhymehouse]

Well I was trying before update and after and while it is marginally easier I still cannot kill him solo with Perrin the rare merc I will have to get another person but that isn't really solo.
Probs I'm having are:-
I'm dying after I catch fire before I can click the Tapestry it's very quick. The clicking of the tapestry is fine just the damage wipes me out in secs before I get the chance. Managed to get the gremlin down twice so far, different fights. But no further.
Also found I was getting interrupted from a kick back it seemed when I was positioned close to tapestry ready for click happens just before being roasted.
Apart from that not sure had about 20 attempts and got no closer
Running a Level 100 Ranger doing about 4mil dps - wearing full potent some overcharged and energized armor.

I agree with other posts, would be nice to have the trade hall revive point as default option.

[Mineeme]

Re: Blackhand

On the revive point issue: How about just making it one choice? Why would anyone want to revive anywhere except the trade hall once you're fighting Blackhand?

I (illy) still haven't killed him. If I use pots to cure the trauma I sometimes get far enough to get one gremlin down, but I've never gotten further than that. Tried Archon Construct and Daeron Ashenwing mercs. If there's a way to avoid that pelican, I'm still looking for it.

[Foretold]

I've managed to use every tapestry pull in the room. There are none left. And guy is still at 30% health. What exactly am I supposed to do now but die?

If there are only gonna be 8 pulls, maybe they should become reusable again after a point?

[Uncle]

chrol

I revised this zone this morning can you revisit the auto attack damage as it is still a tad high I tried him on my brigand fully def set up. ALSO maybe have the ticks to have smoldering combusting tick a little bit slower so merc have enough time to at least try to keep you healed up.

Also the new prestige Mystical Redirection is not trigging off Smoldering combustion and it should be as it is elemental damage and would help off sec some of the damage there

[Rett]

Against my better judgement, I decided to give the Blackhand fight another go on my necro. I'd get better results ramming my head into a brick wall. After 15 more deaths, this fight is still not soloable by a mage. The damage redux from the patch is barely noticeable. My necro pets get 2-shotted right off the bat and the mercs can't heal enough for all the damage being dealt, then throw in yet more damage from the unnecessary adds if you manage to click a tapestry. On 2 separate pulls, I was able to keep my health up and merc alive to get him down around 50% health, only to inexplicably get 1 shotted by who knows what. I looked in my combat logs and it doesn't show anything. Here's a basic breakdown of the damage I see in my logs:

Diving Pelican - from 55-85k per hit
auto attack - 104 - 130k per hit
Combustion - 30-55k per tick
Grimmling adds - 50-75k per hit

Doesn't seem like much here, but all happening at the same time to someone with 462k hps is just too much for a merc to handle along with trying to cure the traumas.

Clicking the tapestries still takes too long.
The knockback is annoying, but not that big a deal (I haven't had the problem with it hitting me while on fire, usually just prior)

[Garavic]

I have fought Gudre about a dozen more times and twice I was able to get to the third tapestry, but not by much. The incoming damage is certainly less, but that has increased my average fight from 10 seconds to about 25.

“I'll throw a spell on Blackhand that you can read to let you know he can be rooted, as he can be, currently. The grimlings can all be controlled as well (not charmed, however), once you get them off the ceiling.”

This is good to know, but doesn't help classes with no crowd control. For giggles I did mez the add, but it accomplishes nothing as the fight hasn't changed by the time the mez wears off. So basically I am postponing the inevitable.

I mentioned this repeatedly within the Bilgewater feedback and I'll say it more plainly here. I utterly breaks my heart that you guys have to neuter fun encounters, because of mercenaries. It's almost like a Solo zone needs to be just that, no mercs allowed and balanced accordingly. When "Advanced Solo" became a duo player zones something went terribly wrong.

[Garavic]

This is a pretty typical "long" Gudre fight.


I'm not sure what Perrin decided to do the last 14 seconds. It maybe a union thing, guaranteed breaks? It is just a perfect example of the randomness of mercenary healing that some of us literally live and die by.

Never mind I give up trying to get images in here...

[Chrol]

Look out for these changes on beta...

• Grimling Vialtossers will hit you slightly less often with Smouldering Combustion, and you will combust once every 5 seconds instead of once every 4 seconds.
• You will no longer be knocked back by Gudre Blackhand while on fire from full stacks of Smouldering Combustion.
• Gudre Blackhand's Diving Pelican inflicts slightly less damage now.
• Lowered Gudre Blackhand's and grimling vialtossers' auto-attack damage even more.
• Smouldering Combustion will now trigger reactives.

Regarding revive points - if there was a way for me to arrange the locations of the points without removing the Entrance option, I would.

[Kalika]

Rett said: ↑

“So tried Blackhand again after the patches.....still a waste of time for my necro. It's not even remotely close to being soloable at lvl 99. The tapestries still don't become active until it's too late, which doesn't matter anyway since his auto attack and that Pelican crap hit hard enough to make my merc useless as a healer (if it's even still alive). Tried to pull to different areas of the room, tried to tank him where he stands..doesn't matter, can't get past the first Combustion. Between this zone and Bilgewater Falls, I've died so many times in supposedly solo zones that this expac is no longer fun or interesting. Think I'll keep my money and call it a day.”

Best i could was like 40% .....

I tried to let my mage pet tank but tainted heals are not enough even if I spam them, Gninja my monk dragonkind cannot hold agro. When i move to click curtains pet dies or I die ... cannot heal while running.

I tried to root but root breaks almost immediatly, snare does not really work well either anyway he KB me.

Best try was with me tanking and healing myself with transference, usual heal and my 2 taps.

The problem is since i cannot really dps much i end up with several adds, best try i clicked 3 curtains.

Tried with Stomper but he healed like a third of me. If monk could hold agro it would be quite quite easier.
Just imagine one minute that i have Lady then it's trivial. I can heal Gninja but he loose agro as soon as i start doing damage.

“I've died so many times in supposedly solo zones that this expac is no longer fun or interesting. Think I'll keep my money and call it a day.”

The issue is just that necros are totally broken .... we were designed to solo with a pet tank ...
we cannot use any of our big attacks : life burn , soulburn ...

My snare is like level 51 my root has not been updated either ...

[Kalika]

Last fight :

Me damage taken 3,5m, Gudre 72millions, Adds : 16m
hits on pet 100-200k, hits on me 120-140k

Used spec with 2 lifes and -50% hate necklace ... but monk still lost aggro very easily.
Used also spec with -20% agro on pet.

Main issue is that i cannot heal monk or pet or me when running to click curtains, moving monk is quite too messy.

Was better almost got him, forgot to cast second life before pull otherwise I may have gotten him.

Probably decreasing HPS would solve any issue.

Note that warden did on 1st pull with no issue tank and spank ..

[Chrol]

The tapestries are just to deal with Smouldering Combustion. Once they've all been pulled then you shouldn't have that detriment on you for the rest of the fight.

I'll throw a spell on Blackhand that you can read to let you know he can be rooted, as he can be, currently. The grimlings can all be controlled as well (not charmed, however), once you get them off the ceiling.

I'll also see about removing the knockback if you're on fire.

[Misia]

Is it intended that Blackhand is a double up level 100 Heroic - reads "This heroic encounter is well-matched to a group of three or more... you should get some friends for this." ??

Is this a solo (you and your merc or a friend) zone or a group zone?

Level 100, with 963k health, 87K resists, 4740 mitigation, 9330 avoidance - using fully defensive spec with all the hp aa and deathsave, regen ward etc... I can't kill this. I can't even hardly do anything to him before I end up dead.

I've tried templar and pally mercs.. no luck. Merc heals are no match for the slashing damage from the name and then if any adds it just gets so much worse.

Did the Herioc zone Blackhand sneak in the zone?

[Shadowscale]

crashing on entering solo, character now stuck.

[Shadowscale]

lowered graphics got unstuck. cant run on anything higher then low quality or crash.

[Shadowscale]

made it to gudre.... hits WAY to hard for a solo zone.

[Kalika]

Misia said: ↑

“Is it intended that Blackhand is a double up level 100 Heroic - reads "This heroic encounter is well-matched to a group of three or more... you should get some friends for this." ??

Is this a solo (you and your merc or a friend) zone or a group zone?

Level 100, with 963k health, 87K resists, 4740 mitigation, 9330 avoidance - using fully defensive spec with all the hp aa and deathsave, regen ward etc... I can't kill this. I can't even hardly do anything to him before I end up dead.

I've tried templar and pally mercs.. no luck. Merc heals are no match for the slashing damage from the name and then if any adds it just gets so much worse.

Did the Herioc zone Blackhand sneak in the zone?”

level 97 necro here similar mit (cause i use tov gear) took 3.7millions of damage on last try. Did 40K hps, tried everything root, snare, etc ...

Wondering if it is easier for wiz/warlocks .... may be they can stun/chain it better and also they can use bit hits (i cannot use soulburn or lifeburn). Tried all my CC : root, 6 sec mezz, fear but all break on damage and since we have so many proc and little hit all broke almost immediatly.

Main issue is his HPS, since we cannot dps much it's very significant.

I think i could have done it, but after 10 tries or something like that i gave up and called for help.

If healer mercenaries would do a small 30K hps or if tanks (other than lady which is only available to very few people) could tanks it would be much easier.

[Nadarie]

Although I appreciate the challenge of the new advanced solo, I am a bit surprised that in a 2 person max dungeon it would nearly require that you bring a healer.. at least until you get gear. Duo'd Va'tak (I believe his name is) with SK and Coercer puts a curse on both members in the party. We killed him in just under 13 seconds and it still wasn't fast enough for my maged friend to live since we can't cure curse. I like a challenge but I don't believe a curse belongs in a solo or advanced solo unless there is a built in mechanic to avoid the damage or should we all re-roll fury and merc win these things?? ;-p

[Cluna]

Tried the solo version... this is ok, well enough balanced till you get to the last mob. Totally undoable for a conjy at lvl 100 with better tov gear than the quest rewards. Had the inquis merc. Seemed just about healable until the dots started hitting. Pulling the tapestry brings a grimling add into the fight and it's all over...

If your intention is that this cannot be done/will be extremely difficult to do solo, then make it a heroic update that requires a group and not the solo zone update. If you intend solo players with a merc to be able to do this encounter it needs a major damage output nerf.

[Misia]

Another problem in the zone at zone boss I see the two NPCs on the ground. However, approaching Captain Greymast does not give an update. Also, there is no indication that killing the name will update the quest either. Everything in the building with Blackhand is for a group of 3 or more.

[Misia]

Is there a way to clear the stacks off of my merc?

[Misia]

It seems like the only way for most mages to do this part of the questline is to go to the Heroic zone and skip this all together.

[Garavic]

Looking forward to the changes you have coming.

I was trying it a bit for giggles and wanted to say I like the changes to Diving Pelican. I try to pot cure it quickly and sometimes Perrin accidently cures it so I hadn't seen the mana drain message before. Is that new and does that only happen if it expires naturally? Seems to be the case. If so might be nice to add a hint on that in the description.

[Garavic]

5th pull tonight and I was actually able to do it, Gudre is no more. Until the next time...

Now for what will probably frustrate you Chrol.
I didn't do anything significantly different. I died just as quickly on some of the pulls as normal. Twice I made it to the 4th tapestry. The first time he was still around 35% and the second time I was able to get him to 10%.

The things that did change:
From the time I started trying this days ago until now I did go from 98 to 100, but those changes are pretty minor really with the same gear.
I did use the new Shadow prestige ability, but honestly because of how I had to use him he cost me more DPS than he added because I am not used to him yet and he buggered up my Walk the Planks and by he I mean I did as I need to remember to offset him from it.

It was mainly all down to Perrin deciding what he was going to cast and when.

I look forward to running this again with the new tweaks!

[dooya]

This is really frustrating for a solo zone. I'm a paladin in mostly potent gear. I am in with the werewolf healer and can't get past Va'Tak Telaris. You need to make it doable for people who aren't raid geared. This is stupid.

[Uncle]

ok went back in on the brig today between 125k auto burning (fill in what ever explitave you want) the add damage wasn't too bad but it all adds up hits me for roughly 215k a round on top of running grabbing flag etc etc..

recommend another look at the auto attack damage cause ive tried Templar and inq mercs now neither are able to keep me aalive