Congrats to Marn and Blackhorn

[Treesh]

Marn Truehorn of Lurkers and Blackhorn of the Keepers of the Dusk both managed to get their Rhok's tonight. Congrats to both of them and many thanks to all the wonderful folks who helped out, whether it was supplying potions, mats for potions, buffs, or just helping clear adds and cheering Marn on.

[Kevin]

Marn Truehorn of Lurkers and Blackhorn of the Keepers of the Dusk both managed to get their Rhok's tonight. Congrats to both of them and many thanks to all the wonderful folks who helped out, whether it was supplying potions, mats for potions, buffs, or just helping clear adds and cheering Marn on.

The guild was wonderfully supportive letting me turn a Tuesday guild night into kill Marns demons. So here's the story.

I had avoided trying to read anything on these demons since this was something I really wanted to learn and figure out and have fun with and since they are only 20 minute respawns that is much easier to do. You can read my post in this thread on the Keepers board to see what I learned. Looking back at Bini's post in that thread and the TKA link that Drec posted in there it appears that I figured most of it out. And while I have some of the story in that thread I'm going to get pretty much all of it laid out here.

I got the leaf and the sinew 2 weeks ago on Friday the 25th (leaf) and Sunday the 27th (sinew). I made my first dry runs on the demons the following Wednesday. I tried the Winterspring demon first. I still can't jump shot to save my life even now so I did the strafe approach. I had done mob rounding up for Mirajj on this one on my paladin once and I did remember the path he used so that is what I tried. I had some luck on that first night getting him down to 30% on my last attempt but he despawned from too much time active. I figured he he wouldn't be too bad after that and maybe getting a few consumables might help. Boy was that a wrong assumption as you'll see later.

I then traveled to Burning Steppes to check out that demon. I spawned him on the road where there were no mobs to deal with and did some playing around. I got pwned by his enrage but I did learn about scorpid sting taking the tranq of and making him a major wimp by luck since on my shot test sequence it got fired right after he enraged and he got to close to me and hit me so I that made learning easier. (I tested tranq later on as well). Seeing that I adopted what appears to be standard strat naturally and without any buffs or consumables got him down to to around 40% before I made a mistake and just feigned him off. He despawned after that. So I rode back to the FP to get to a blimp and try the Un'Goro and Silithus ones. Well the server crashed just after I got back to town. When I logged back in after the crash I was back by where I had fought him in the condition I was just before I had tried my final attempt (about 1/4 healh and 1/2 mana because I had feigned him off then fired him up again before my very last attempt where I FD'd him with about 1/3 health and 1/3 mana). He also happened to be pathing up there so I thought. Eh what the heck.

So I spawned him still didn't have any buffs and didn't even have any healing or mana pots on him. I got into a grove and ended up killing him. Only using mana for wing clips and scorpid stings the rest was just auto shoot and auto attacks. I head my first head and a lot of confidence. :)

So then it was on to Un'Goro and Simone. I found her at the north of Terror Run and thought, bleh I'll never find a spot to even work on her. Well she kindly pathed all the way south so I spawned her by a big tree that only had a couple of little dinos and a one stegadon nearby. I killed them off dismissed the pet then started testing on her. Since she had a pet I played with freezing the pet, freezing her, trying to kite them both. Trying to melee them down. Toyed around with her lightning bolt. Noticed the silence effect of viper sting. Noticed that if I let her get too close she could hit me with a -1500 ranged attack power debuff (I note that most resources say it is 1400 but it was most definitely 1500 on me). But she looked like she was potentially kitable or meleable. Since I had no help clearing I did most of my practice on melee. She was easy to reset with FD. I managed to get her down to around 50% while never dipping below 1500 of my (at the time) just over 4000 unbuffed HP. So I figured that with buffs and a few pots, and some of my NR gear in case I didn't time things right to stop the lightning that I could kill her.

So I went off to Silithus to play with Solenar. I had to follow him around a bit and then spawned him just north of the southern most twilight camp since that looked like the only spot with any room without spiders or scorpions. This guy gave me some fits. Flat out killed me quick while trying to figure him out. The little blender that was the bugs, and the death coil like fears, the enrages. I found that pulling him into a slowing trap (mainly I was trying to slow the bugs more when I put it down even though they are slow to begin with). I did manage to get a wingclip on him and saw that made him not move, but he still hit to hard to melee. On my last attempt before he despawn though I did manage to knock him down to about 80%. But he had me worried.

Friday I decided to go after the WS demon again solo. I never managed to get him under 50%. We had an MC run that night and we took down Rags for the first time but I was feeling like I didn't contribute as much to the run as I could have. So I broke down and read the strats on them that were posted in the thread I linked earlier. I learned that I was doing the Artorius, the WS demon, the best I could. I tried to do more jump shot stuff but I still suck at it. It looked like my approach to Simone in Un'Goro would work with buffs. And the whole use greater shadow protection pots for Solenar made me go, hmm maybe I can handle the bugs then.

So on Saturday I couldn't really get a full crew but Skky and Mogo were on and willing so we tried the WS demon again. I got some restorative potions to see if they would clear me since moist towlettes don't work as I found out on my first go (despite what some resources say). I tried a couple of different paths that I thought might make strafing easier. I never did better than about 40% health left, and while I found that resto pots did work, sometimes it didn't mater because I wouldn't have enough mana. I was starting to despair a bit. We spawned him 2 or 3 times and I just didn't make any progress.

Last night I got mats ready for pots and Skky made me a bunch of stuff and I got some stuff from other people and I told everyone that I was trying again tonight and would they be around to help. Tris, Xarhud, VorLord, Conc, Voiceman, and Treesh all said they would. I had priests, druids, mages, warlocks and shaman (warrior and another hunter too if people wanted to swap) at my disposal. I was ready. Since many of us were in Silithus we went to Solenar first. It went OK but I messed up positioning a few times or had bad luck getting feared right as I was trying to do some kind of AoE to the bugs and would get blendered. Feign was resisted every time I tried and I ran out of shadow protection potions. So Solenar still eluded me.

So we trooped over to Un'Goro. Simone took her grand out time spawning (I now believe that is because Blackhorn of the Keepers who got his leaf on Friday had just killed her). I got her to my spot, I got buffed, and I killed her with only 150 or so HP left I did a loot immediately but I hadn't shift click so the head didn't get in my inventory and her pet killed me but I got rezzed and looted her head so it was a win. 2 demons down.

The mage got us to Org and we hit winterspring. I tried a few methods again even tried jump shots again but I'm still teh suck and I failed. I even had the demon despawned on my by an alliance hunter that was pleasent. But I didn't make any real progress. On one attempt poor Necrali saw me get demoned and cleansed me despawning the demon. I was fine with that, I was frustrated.

So we talked and found out that I could get more shadow protection pots. Skky was kind enough to leave her instance run to whip some up since I had sent some mats to her to pay her back for stuff she had made me earlier and we got some more mats to make even more. Blackhorn ran into me in Org and mentioned he had his bow already and gave me some pots and EZ-throw (I already had crystal charges). I actually returned all the pots he gave me, but was cool of him to do.

So wo get back to Un'Goro more pots in hand. I get him and am placing my frosty trap to start but body pulled him since I was too close. I FD and see that he isn't enraged anymore so I put down an explosive trap and pulled him. (I just got done fully reading the TKA site as I'm posting this and see this is the published strat, LOL. Yeah even in reading about them I did some skimming). So that helped with the bugs. I had my full shadow gear and the buff on just like the other attempts so I was at 160, and the first pot I think chewed the full 3200 damage as well. I had a few close calls with the blender bugs thanks to fears but I was still at 1500+ health and he was down to 500, then he feared me. I come out of fear and see a mage winding up frost bolt (I think someone on TS actually pointed it out) so I though "Oh crap!" and fired a multi shot even though the bugs were on top of me, just hoping. The bugs blendered me and I didn't see the sparklies on the body so I thought I was boned that I had been griefed at the very last second. I was PISSED. I did a profanity in /say to the mage. Treesh whispered him. Then I noticed the body was sparkling. I got rezzed and got the head. The mage honestly didn't know the deal so I apologized as did he. It was an honest mistake and I felt bad for assuming a grief since I had been griefed before (when they attack the demon then do a /laugh at you that's a grief).

Alright I need more head. But I'm honestly down on myself at this point. I'm not coordinated and the jump shot that everyone says is so simple I still can't do. But I had back to Winterspring with the crew anyway. I decide that I'm spawning him on the bottom of the hill nearest the road and just trying the road kiting again. I've still got my 7 mana pots, everyone is being very supportive. So I try again. There is an unguilded priest with Bene and most of the T2 stuff out there as well. He mentions he has an L60 hunter as well and that the Silithus demon kicked his ass for the longest time. We believe he was a member of one of the major horde raiding guilds that left the server a few months back because of the horrible performance but he didn't go for whatever reason. He stuck around as part of the clearing crew for quite a few bad attempts. Then when I knew we were getting close to him despawning again I was bemoaning my lack of skill at not being able to jump shot, which would make it sooo much easier becaause I could see where I was going I hunkered down and had a really good attempt going. I got him down to about 5000 life left but I had already used a pot and they were cooling and screwed up and he got too close and killed me.

But it was a really good attempt. My best ever actually finally did better than I had done on that very first night. So everyone said they would stay. I went to the bank and got the other heads out. I figured that might just give me the power. :)

He pops back up and I had a few bungled attempts with feign resets. Then I get one good attempt but I had to FD out of it late because of a bungle and the restorative pot didn't clear it. I would have run out of mana anyway though. I look and realize I have one shadow prot potion left. Since demonic doom is shadow I decide to drink it. I was getting mad. I knew I wasn't that bad. Sure I can't jump shot but I had to be good enough to beat this guy. Lots of hunters say he is the easiest (though I give that title to Kilnfran in Burning Steppes myself) and he's kicking my ass. Maybe a shadow prot potion would help me if I made a mistake it could absorb enough damage. Well I do mess up at one point but Treesh calls on on TS 'demonic doom resisted!' (I was running about 120 buffed shadow, not quite the 160 I could reach but I wanted a bigger mana pool) and I just keep going. I get him to the road things are going good, get down on mana and pot a mana pot. I'm still going good. I'm getting health updates and a few obstacle warnings on TS. I'm getting near everlook and I'm nearly out of mana. Necrali says "demonic rune" knowing that I always carry those (what horde hunter doesn't?). I pop it, I've got a healthstone still if I need it. The suddenly I'm getting alot of out out of range messages so I'm getting worried that I'm just running to fast. My heart is just pounding since the call went out that he had only a few K left. I fire my last shot and I'm out of mana and I realize the out of range stuff was because he was waddling from being wounded. So I run in, get demonic doomed and swing at him and he dies.

I was so happy and excited. That guy had kicked my ass so much. It was great that he was the last to die. I had to take a moment to catch my breath.

I got his head and we headed over to Felwood. I bungled around trying to talk to the trees (they are a pain to talk to sometimes) and finally got my bow and staff! I still don't have a blue sinew even though I've farmed those blues a crap load already but I'll get back on that.

We get back to org and after much bungling around I got my scope and encants done. So Marn is quite the uber hunter now. I just need a few ZG enchants to make up for the loss of +hit on the bow. :) (a +7 scope should be about 5.5 DPS more on a shot cycle and there isn't anyone that I know on Terenas that can do a Biznaks anyway).


And this bow allows me to be lazy with shot cycles as it does more DPS with a clipped shot cycle than a full shot cycle anyway. :) I can just let the cooldowns do the best cycle for me now. :) I may hat to start FD'ing on trash mobs in MC again or else I just have to poke the MT to put out more aggro. :)


And again I have to thank Caswyndiana, Xarhud, Necrali, Fazuul, Mogoraindyn, Conciliane, Liane, and Skky (toon names) for all the help. You guys rock. Was very cool of you all to give up your guild instance night to help me get that bow.

[Mirajj]

Good job, GG! Those demons are a fun fight, indeed.

Moist Towellettes USED to take Art's buff off, but no longer do. Most folks haven't updated their strat guides.

Art was a pain for me, too. It took me 13 tries to kill him. For some, he's the easiest, for other's he's not. Depends on the player. The respawn timer being set to something reasonable sure is nice, too. A large part of my frusteration with him was the enormous wait between attempts. I also found that kiting down the road AWAY from Everlook to be 'better'. The road is straighter, and you don't have to deal with the canyon or the "helpful" folks around Everlook.

I never did jumpshot him (I did waste several spawns attempting it) but strafed him to death.

And yes, getting Rhok is when I started encountering "aggro problems".;)Move your FD to where it's easily accessible. The tanks will thank you. ;P

[Tal]

Congrats GG. I just wish I had been big enough to come out and help clear mobs with the big kids.:)

[Jester]

Marn Truehorn of Lurkers and Blackhorn of the Keepers of the Dusk both managed to get their Rhok's tonight. Congrats to both of them and many thanks to all the wonderful folks who helped out, whether it was supplying potions, mats for potions, buffs, or just helping clear adds and cheering Marn on.

Very nice indeed!

Congratulations, and I look forward to seeing Marn in all his new spiffies. One more week!

-Jester

[Tuftears]

Congratulations! Artorius gave Lagkitten fits as well - about 10 tries, before I got my winning kite run down. A lot of luck is involved there, and I used concussive frequently to put him out of range - better safe than sorry, with Demonic Doom. I also used Lesser Mana Oil on my weapon for mana, and snagged a Blessing of Wisdom. (yeah, yeah, I know)

A mix of strafe and jump-shot IMO is the best way to go. You can strafe him up to the road, stopping when he gets out of range (I had the Hakkar buff for extra runspeed), then at the point where you have to get onto the road, I chose to jumpshot and get the heck up on there. One big problem of strafing is that if you turn too much one way, you'll get 'not in front of you' errors, that's why jumpshot helps. You don't have to turn 180 degrees to jumpshoot, just 120 degrees to the side. But of course you're done with this... It really seems to be just luck.

Restorative potions and moist towelettes weren't working for me there, oddly.

Lagkitten is at 3/4 - just needs Solenor. Looks like I need to stack up on the shadow protection potions...

[Kevin]

Congratulations! Artorius gave Lagkitten fits as well - about 10 tries, before I got my winning kite run down. A lot of luck is involved there, and I used concussive frequently to put him out of range - better safe than sorry, with Demonic Doom. I also used Lesser Mana Oil on my weapon for mana, and snagged a Blessing of Wisdom. (yeah, yeah, I know)

A mix of strafe and jump-shot IMO is the best way to go. You can strafe him up to the road, stopping when he gets out of range (I had the Hakkar buff for extra runspeed), then at the point where you have to get onto the road, I chose to jumpshot and get the heck up on there. One big problem of strafing is that if you turn too much one way, you'll get 'not in front of you' errors, that's why jumpshot helps. You don't have to turn 180 degrees to jumpshoot, just 120 degrees to the side. But of course you're done with this... It really seems to be just luck.

Restorative potions and moist towelettes weren't working for me there, oddly.

Lagkitten is at 3/4 - just needs Solenor. Looks like I need to stack up on the shadow protection potions...

Greater shadow protection pots help A LOT on him as you don't take damage from the fears. If you can get up to about 160 shadow resist that helps a fair bit too, I did resist a few of the fears. EZ-thorw and crystal charge (or whatever the bomb one is) can help, but they have a small AoE. Clearing the bugs a volley once or twice is what really helps, just try to do it right after a fear so you don't get feared setting it up. :)

But yeah I just can't get the jump shot to work more than about 1 out of 5. Mouse issues and skill issues. So I just made sure to hit with the conc shot for every corner to help make sure I had space. I still sucked at it though.

You'll get Solenar. :)

[Sabra]

[Walkiry]

Greater shadow protection pots help A LOT on him as you don't take damage from the fears. If you can get up to about 160 shadow resist that helps a fair bit too, I did resist a few of the fears. EZ-thorw and crystal charge (or whatever the bomb one is) can help, but they have a small AoE. Clearing the bugs a volley once or twice is what really helps, just try to do it right after a fear so you don't get feared setting it up. :)

But yeah I just can't get the jump shot to work more than about 1 out of 5. Mouse issues and skill issues. So I just made sure to hit with the conc shot for every corner to help make sure I had space. I still sucked at it though.

You'll get Solenar. :)

There's another way to deal with Solenar's bugs (wherever it's better or not is left as an exercise to the reader), which works best if you have fast fingers.

Insteald of immobilizing him always at the same spot and dance around him (i.e., the standard recommended strategy), kite him away from the train of bugs between every immobilize, as follows:

1. Spawn him at the Northwest corner of the Ahn'Qiraj gates.
2. Cold trap, feign, explosive trap, and immobilize him when he gets to you.
3. When he breaks the immobilize, move away towards the Ahn'Qiraj gate and Wingclip him with rank 2 to slow him down when he gets to you.
4. When he catches up again, immobilize.

At this point, you've left a whole bunch of scarabs so far behind that they'll never bother you again.

5. When he breaks, kite him again to the Ahn'Qiraj gate, with Wingclip 2.
6. Immobilize him right under the gate itself. That will make the fears send you towards the wall harmelessly most of the time.

7. Again, do the same rank 2/3 thing and nail him at the ramp towards the Temple entrance.
8. And again, kite him and nail him close to the entry to the Ruins entrance.

You'll basically describe a huge counter-clockwise circle inside the area, where no mobs will bother you.

9. If he's still alive, keep doing the circle and kite him back to the entrance. The bugs will be at the center of the Ahn'Qiraj area, and safely away.
10. If after _that_ immobilize he's still alive, kite him back the same way you came, and immobilize him after the corner of the structure outside the gate.

The "fast fingers" part comes with the fact that this works best if you alternate aspects (between ranged and melee ones) when necessary, and if you can strafe so that he doesn't daze you. The advantage of this method is that you don't worry about bugs left behind, only the few groups he spawns on each immobilize, and that you leave more time between fears so that the cooldown of the pots can be available.

[Kevin]

There's another way to deal with Solenar's bugs (wherever it's better or not is left as an exercise to the reader), which works best if you have fast fingers.

Insteald of immobilizing him always at the same spot and dance around him (i.e., the standard recommended strategy), kite him away from the train of bugs between every immobilize, as follows:

1. Spawn him at the Northwest corner of the Ahn'Qiraj gates.
2. Cold trap, feign, explosive trap, and immobilize him when he gets to you.
3. When he breaks the immobilize, move away towards the Ahn'Qiraj gate and Wingclip him with rank 2 to slow him down when he gets to you.
4. When he catches up again, immobilize.

At this point, you've left a whole bunch of scarabs so far behind that they'll never bother you again.

5. When he breaks, kite him again to the Ahn'Qiraj gate, with Wingclip 2.
6. Immobilize him right under the gate itself. That will make the fears send you towards the wall harmelessly most of the time.

7. Again, do the same rank 2/3 thing and nail him at the ramp towards the Temple entrance.
8. And again, kite him and nail him close to the entry to the Ruins entrance.

You'll basically describe a huge counter-clockwise circle inside the area, where no mobs will bother you.

9. If he's still alive, keep doing the circle and kite him back to the entrance. The bugs will be at the center of the Ahn'Qiraj area, and safely away.
10. If after _that_ immobilize he's still alive, kite him back the same way you came, and immobilize him after the corner of the structure outside the gate.

The "fast fingers" part comes with the fact that this works best if you alternate aspects (between ranged and melee ones) when necessary, and if you can strafe so that he doesn't daze you. The advantage of this method is that you don't worry about bugs left behind, only the few groups he spawns on each immobilize, and that you leave more time between fears so that the cooldown of the pots can be available.

The very first try, when he broke I would actually run towards him to wing clip him back then strafe around. I actually started to move more and let him move more and leave the bugs. But since I was wanting to get DPS on him as much as possible if the fears took me closer too him and the bugs were clear I just started to DPS him.

But yeah that makes a lot of sense. The bugs are only an issue if you get near them. You only get near them if you get feared into them.

A couple GSPP will soak all the shadow damage easily if you have any shadow resist at all. So yeah I think more kiting on him would be better. The problem I can see with this is that he doesn't always like to follow because he does cast stuff of spawn beetles. And yeah you will take more damage but it will be more consistent and easier to deal with damage. And as mentioned get your shadow to 120+ buffed and get some pots and you'll soak/resist a lot of it and you shouldn't have any incidental bug damage.

[Mirajj]

1. Spawn him at the Northwest corner of the Ahn'Qiraj gates.
2. Cold trap, feign, explosive trap, and immobilize him when he gets to you.
3. When he breaks the immobilize, move away towards the Ahn'Qiraj gate and Wingclip him with rank 2 to slow him down when he gets to you.
4. When he catches up again, immobilize.

At this point, you've left a whole bunch of scarabs so far behind that they'll never bother you again.

5. When he breaks, kite him again to the Ahn'Qiraj gate, with Wingclip 2.
6. Immobilize him right under the gate itself. That will make the fears send you towards the wall harmelessly most of the time.

7. Again, do the same rank 2/3 thing and nail him at the ramp towards the Temple entrance.
8. And again, kite him and nail him close to the entry to the Ruins entrance.

You'll basically describe a huge counter-clockwise circle inside the area, where no mobs will bother you.

9. If he's still alive, keep doing the circle and kite him back to the entrance. The bugs will be at the center of the Ahn'Qiraj area, and safely away.
10. If after _that_ immobilize he's still alive, kite him back the same way you came, and immobilize him after the corner of the structure outside the gate.

When I did this, it went something like this. Cold trap, run in, Immobilize him. Strafe out, shooting him. When he became mobile again, I'd run in and immobilize him. EZThrow II the bugs. Rinse, repeat 2x. Dead demon.

[Tuftears]

You'll get Solenar. :)

I borrowed Alystor, emaq123's dwarven priest, and got a Fortitude (54 stamina!) and fear ward, then took Solenor down on my second round of tries. It was an interesting setup, I had him at the far southest part of his path, near the AQ entrance structure. Pulled him up onto an explosive trap, wingclipped him there, strafed off and gunned him down.

I made use of the wingclip-rank1/runrunrun/rank3 tactic too, so that bought a lot of time free of bugs, in which I could aimed shot him, then rinse repeat. The AQ entrance area has a lot of space for this.

When things were getting tight on mana, I was just thinking that I needed to start circling around and using autoshot and wingclip, when I noticed how low he was on health... WOOT! A few normal shots, in, raptor strike and he was down.

Thanks for the many helpful hints on strategies! I quite like how this fight can be done in so many different ways, and enjoyed playing with the different pulls.

[Kevin]

I borrowed Alystor, emaq123's dwarven priest, and got a Fortitude (54 stamina!) and fear ward, then took Solenor down on my second round of tries. It was an interesting setup, I had him at the far southest part of his path, near the AQ entrance structure. Pulled him up onto an explosive trap, wingclipped him there, strafed off and gunned him down.

I made use of the wingclip-rank1/runrunrun/rank3 tactic too, so that bought a lot of time free of bugs, in which I could aimed shot him, then rinse repeat. The AQ entrance area has a lot of space for this.

When things were getting tight on mana, I was just thinking that I needed to start circling around and using autoshot and wingclip, when I noticed how low he was on health... WOOT! A few normal shots, in, raptor strike and he was down.

Thanks for the many helpful hints on strategies! I quite like how this fight can be done in so many different ways, and enjoyed playing with the different pulls.

Woot good deal. I had fun despite my frustrations with some of it. It was a good challenge, that just took work to overcome. And yeah most of them can be done with several strats. Simone I know can be kited or melee'd down. I was able to kite her pretty well on a practice run but without a cleaning squad got into trouble with adds, but I stayed far enough away and kept the silence up and she never got me with the ranged AP debuff. I did as mentioned decide to just get buffs and melee her down though. And yeah Solenar looks to have several options. I suppose you could kite Kilnfran (sp?) as well but I really liked the stick and move with him.

[Tuftears]

Yep, Klinfran was a lot of fun to melee/kite - I agree that's a lot more satisfying, it's also much easier on mana than constant kiting!

For Artorius, I think the only options are jumpshot/strafe, so it really comes down to execution, and strikes me as mostly lucky if you don't have great reflexes.

Simone: I set up just to 'practice', but popped my buffs since I figured, hey, might as well... turned out easy!

Solenor I did in two rounds, within 20 minutes of each other. A lot of times when he would just reset partway through the encounter - a bit irritating since that consumed the GSPP's protection. Having Alystor really helped here since I could use Power Word: Shield to eat the first fear's damage.

It was a lot of fun! I can now highly recommend challenging the demons for all our hunters. A good rite of passage with an awesome reward, and if I can do it, most of them should be able to. :lol:

[Walkiry]

I borrowed Alystor, emaq123's dwarven priest, and got a Fortitude (54 stamina!) and fear ward, then took Solenor down on my second round of tries.

Congratulations :-)