LDoN raids - easiest one?

[EZ_Torali]

I raid with a group of people and we are considering doing LDoN raids but our raiding time is usually 2-3 hours max. Many people are concerned we are going to go in to these raids and waste all night on one that is unwinnable by us (largely pre-elemental/NToV gear).

But I've also heard that some of the raids are easier than others. So I was wondering if anyone could give me an opinion on which ones they would consider easiest. Not looking for spoilers atm. Just which one we might have the most success in. If we can get a win or even a good attempt under our belts I think everyone will have fun.

Lastly, it is true that now EVERY person in the raid needs 2 wins in that camp? That's what it sounded like in a recent patch message.

Thanks,
T

[EZ_Quiet]

First off camps...

Everfrost and Mistmore are both somewhat easier than other camps.
Lower Guk is somewhat harder than other camps.

The possible choices:

Kill mobs - most folks find this the easiest - killing mobs are predictable, you know how you are progressing and can adjust things, and all the other ones tend to cause you to kill nearly the same number of mobs.

Collection - some folks love collection others hate it. I find them more difficult - but they are trying to tune these. In general you need to collect drops by killing mobs. If you need to collect 30 items, then they tend to distribute 2 or 3x 30 of the things across all mobs in the dungeon. So... lots of mobs and you could end up having to kill lots of mobs. Get lucky, and you kill very few.... so ... do you feel lucky punk? (Sorry couldn't resist.)

Rescue - Kill mobs and pave a path to an NPC that you must then escort to the exit. Some maps this is very easy if you can find the NPC without taking wrong turns. You can easily eliminate killing 4/5 of the dungeon by always taking the right path on some maps. However, other maps you end up having to kill over half the mobs, so this can be one of the worst.

Assasinate - much like rescue except the boss does not spawn until you kill enough mobs, then he could spawn in front of you, behind you, or on a path you didn't take. So then you have to clear to him and kill him. Sometimes you can invis up and reach him also.

So... my personal opinion:

Kill mobs - easiest

Collection - if you feel lucky go for it, but don't expect to win every time.

Prisioner - Most the time the maps are not bad, and I would say this is only slightly harder than kill mobs.

Assassinate - If you have a good tank and slower and healer and dps, this is no worse than prisoner. Otherwise, don't waste time, there are often times mini-named that drop stuff that are easiliy killable by the group you describe.

Oh - never take a hard mission.

[EZ_Wandor K]

The "easiest" LDoN raids are geared to be a challenge for 6 groups of elementally geared people. If you are in NToV level gear, chances are that you will get slaughtered. These raids are hard.

To get an idea if you are prepared for LDoN raids, take a group and try a LGuk high risk adventure and see how you do. If you can't handle that, the raids are going to be too much for your crew.

Since the last patch, everyone needs 2 wins in the theme for the raid you are attempting. Edited by: Wandor K at: 10/28/03 5:14 pm

[EZ_Gurgeh]

You should be able to handle Tak VT lvl raid, kill the bejeweled guard, or something like this.
3 hours timer, there's a deathcount of 72 I think.
Mobs do not hit really harder than hard adventure one. It might be a little hard from a dps point of view in the last part of the raid, but nothing you can't overcome if you have good bazaar / Ntov / luclin / LDoN stuff.

Bring 4 / 5 encs - bards 1st time if you can and be ready for 12+ mobs pulls, easy mobs though.

[EZ_Deasissa]

During Beta, they said there should be some raids that Non-Elemental + geared folks can do. The Rujarkian is definitely not one of them ;-)

I do believe that they should have lower level raids, although people would most likely just do them instead of the harder ones that challenge them. Look at the leaderboards on your servers, and I bet that you see the top folks on "Normal" are in your upper tier guilds.

[EZ_Dubbo]

One problem with that is that all the Win/Loss calculations prior to putting in the Normal/Hard distinction, are considered win/loss on Normal setting, even if they weren't. When I came back online after moving and saw that they'd put in the distinction, I was surprised to see myself listed at 0-0 for Hard, which wasn't the case (I had wins as well as losses in Hard missions before the change).

[EZ_saoshen]

I don't think he is asking about single group adventures, he is asking about which Raids are easier.

[EZ_Quiet]

Ooops - yep - my bad. Mine was aimed at the single group.

As for the raids - as other have said - better be elemental geared.

[EZ_Phantron]

They did not start tracking the # of hard adventures you've done until the filters were implemented so all adventures previous to when the high risk/normal filters are in simply count as normal risk.

[EZ_Kemora Kementari]

I don't know if a pre-VT level guild (or perhaps even VT) would have much of a shot at the "VT" level Tak Raid.

You have 3 rooms where 5 mobs that double for around 1000 spawn, and there's ~5 waves of those and then the boss.

You seem to have probably no more then 2 minutes to kill each wave beofre the next wave pops. They are unmezzable. After the last wave, the 3 bosses pop... they are no problem for any guild that could survive the rings.

When the mobs were unleashed this was a pretty easy raid... the fact that they leashed all three boss rooms upped the difficulty enough that I don't see any pre-VT guild being able to handle the rings. You need solid tanks, lots of heal power, and tons of DPS.

And if you mess up, you just blew 3 hours because the mobs keep popping =o

And to add, you have to win all three to be able to open the loot chests.. if you just drop 2, but loose the 3rd.. no lewt for you! Edited by: Kemora Kementari at: 10/29/03 11:26 am

[EZ_Hwalei]

Do the dungeons for raids scale to the number in the raid? For example, if you take in 3 groups instead of 6, do you have 3 mobs up in the boss room instead of the 5?

[EZ_Wandor K]

The raids are the same difficulty regardless of how many are in the raid. AFAIK, the raid difficulty is the same even if the level of the raiders is lower than 65.

[EZ_Torali]

We are more than willing to be slaughtered so that isn't a concern. The Dust air ring did an efficent job of that last night. :) I just figured if we are going to take a shot it may as well be a decent one. No use trying the most difficult raid out there just because I didn't do my homework.

Thanks for the info. I'll let you know how it goes when we give it a shot.

T

[EZ_ProphetOmniz]

"(largely pre-elemental/NToV gear)."

"The Dust air ring did an efficent job of that last night"

huh? are you in elementals with ntov equipped people?

[EZ_Torali]

Well I said pre-elemental/NToV gear so it is more than just NToV stuff. But yes that is accurate. The AC/haste on on some NToV stuff is nice and the hps and weapons from pre-elemental raids in PoP are pretty good. Ornate does a good job filling in many of the armor gaps. And I admit it helps that rangers can buy such nice elemental trade skill bows. VT can definitely be bypassed equipment wise (though no doubt it helps). And I said "largely" because only through recent backflagging have most of our raiders become elemental.

The hard part now is competing with all the other guilds for elemental armor dropping mobs. =P That is why LDoN is so appealing to me.

T Edited by: Torali at: 10/30/03 4:05 am

[EZ_Lomack]

Unfortunately, LDon "Raids" weren't ment to be a steping stone device. They were designed as less of a challanging mechanism but more of a something to do when other more strategic targets weren't available.

A raid might be worth a shot if you field a full complement of raiders, but expect it to be quite hard without a majority of the raiders in at least partial elemental gear.

[EZ_Torali]

Quote:Since the last patch, everyone needs 2 wins in the theme for the raid you are attempting.

Anyone know for sure if this is true? Someone told me that each raider needs 2 wins in EVERY theme to raid. Just want to see if anyone has any experience with it.

Thanks,
T

[EZ_Sebbi Fyrewalker]

I can confirm you do NOT need two wins in EVERY theme, to do any particular raid. I have heard repeatedly that the two wins in the raid theme are now needed, but can't say yes definitively.

[EZ_Balise]

Just two wins in the raid theme.

[EZ_Kalledar]

Yep, just 2 wins in the same theme as the raid.