Post by Kitsunenotsume on Nov 9, 2016 4:07:50 GMT -5
On the first level, beetles nearly wiped the party twice and required something on the order of a dozen defibs, Trolls were effectively minor speed-bumps. The regen on the beetles is far more noticeable than the regen on the trolls, because it can't be suppressed, and the reasonably consistent acid-mortar every 3-4 rounds dropped anyone who had been recently revived and ate through the armor of anyone who remained standing in short order.
Second level was rather procedural: Locate a ledge, drop oil/acid/pyro, lightning guns at the first target in line, and occasional stamina clouds for Kitara and the medic. Three repetitions cleared the floor. Pressure plates under the mounds of corpses posed a higher party threat than the fights as the trolls basically waited in a queue for a mulching machine.
Spiders were pretty good, though seemed a bit scarce on the east side. Umberhulk was its usual stompy self against a party and a fun encounter (still less challenging than the beetles on L1).
Frostilith was interesting: only two party members had Insulation, which probably could have made a difference if more had it. The ripple attack was probably avoidable by a light-load ranged character, but I was walking and got whomped each time. The two abilities I noticed (ice-ripple and earth-stomp) were being used every other round, such that after we engaged, it didn't move but was happily dealing 30-110 damage a round to whoever it pleased as a side-effect of getting hit multiple times by the ripple. Anyone who had been defibbed back up was effectively painted as the next target for Ripple, dooming them, potentially their savior, and anyone stuck in an ice-block next to or in line with them to another pair of hits dealing up to 40 physical and 40 cold damage each.
First time we went down, it was an attrition fight that we survived through spread out numbers (7ish party). This time, the 'lith was a DPS/Armor-check that we flat out failed. The two ranged were engaged from the cave entrance (due to how combat engaged), the two melee were flanking, and the medic (5-man) was supporting the melee, and we were all getting hit on the ripple-attacks.
I think that the fight can be overcome with another try and proper coordination and planning, but is very much a hefty difficulty spike for the dungeon.
Party consisted of Kitara, Khannon, Carter, James, and Sarah Bishop. Kitara and Khannon I'm pretty sure have almost all their combat skills above 50, Carter was ranged and managed to pass the minimum rank for the area in marksmanship out there, and Sarah and James probably are completely under-rank for the zone.
[Edit]: Ammendum regarding XP
Regarding XP: For keeping fire/Acid up constantly between pyro, acidfog, and shuriken on every trollfight we had, I did not notice any change in Hunting XP, which is at 20. My Marksmanship remained at 33 (got about half a level there) and I got one rank of Demo (~75% of rank 40 to ~60% rank 41). Given that my standard contribution is remaining behind the front, tossing appropriate vulnerable elements via grenade and thrown, this seems about right, but somewhat lacking considering the overall output.
I'm somewhat guessing that troll and beetle regen throw the XP numbers off, since enough damage to mine all the XP from the encounter can be dealt and still have the mobs at full HP.
Second level was rather procedural: Locate a ledge, drop oil/acid/pyro, lightning guns at the first target in line, and occasional stamina clouds for Kitara and the medic. Three repetitions cleared the floor. Pressure plates under the mounds of corpses posed a higher party threat than the fights as the trolls basically waited in a queue for a mulching machine.
Spiders were pretty good, though seemed a bit scarce on the east side. Umberhulk was its usual stompy self against a party and a fun encounter (still less challenging than the beetles on L1).
Frostilith was interesting: only two party members had Insulation, which probably could have made a difference if more had it. The ripple attack was probably avoidable by a light-load ranged character, but I was walking and got whomped each time. The two abilities I noticed (ice-ripple and earth-stomp) were being used every other round, such that after we engaged, it didn't move but was happily dealing 30-110 damage a round to whoever it pleased as a side-effect of getting hit multiple times by the ripple. Anyone who had been defibbed back up was effectively painted as the next target for Ripple, dooming them, potentially their savior, and anyone stuck in an ice-block next to or in line with them to another pair of hits dealing up to 40 physical and 40 cold damage each.
First time we went down, it was an attrition fight that we survived through spread out numbers (7ish party). This time, the 'lith was a DPS/Armor-check that we flat out failed. The two ranged were engaged from the cave entrance (due to how combat engaged), the two melee were flanking, and the medic (5-man) was supporting the melee, and we were all getting hit on the ripple-attacks.
I think that the fight can be overcome with another try and proper coordination and planning, but is very much a hefty difficulty spike for the dungeon.
Party consisted of Kitara, Khannon, Carter, James, and Sarah Bishop. Kitara and Khannon I'm pretty sure have almost all their combat skills above 50, Carter was ranged and managed to pass the minimum rank for the area in marksmanship out there, and Sarah and James probably are completely under-rank for the zone.
[Edit]: Ammendum regarding XP
Regarding XP: For keeping fire/Acid up constantly between pyro, acidfog, and shuriken on every trollfight we had, I did not notice any change in Hunting XP, which is at 20. My Marksmanship remained at 33 (got about half a level there) and I got one rank of Demo (~75% of rank 40 to ~60% rank 41). Given that my standard contribution is remaining behind the front, tossing appropriate vulnerable elements via grenade and thrown, this seems about right, but somewhat lacking considering the overall output.
I'm somewhat guessing that troll and beetle regen throw the XP numbers off, since enough damage to mine all the XP from the encounter can be dealt and still have the mobs at full HP.