Illusionist Mezz

[larrydoyle]

I like botting groups through instances. I have conquered about every instance in the game, except Maidens. I can kill the first named, but seem unable to get Sandman. I find that my Illusionist can mezz the first 2 adds, but can't seem to keep all 4 mezzed when the second set arrives. I keep him near the healers (since that's where the adds tend to go), and make sure the healers are only healing, not doing any DPS. So I don't think they are interrupting the mezzes, but it is hard to know for sure (at least I can't seem to find if that is the case in ACT). The illusionist himself may be breaking mezzes, since I see him using some of his stuns/stiffles for dmg, but don't have any setting to "turn off" all dps that I can see for him.

Has anybody been successful at getting this named with botted toons? If so, any info on group makeup, in-room toon placement, bot settings, etc. would be appreciated. Happy to share any of my strategies for other instances with those who are interested.

Appreciate any ideas or help

 

[Pygar]

I've boxed him many times with no problem.

Now, I'm using a coercer instead of an illusionist, but honestly the illus has one more mez than coercer...

The key here is the MT needs to never target an add, so that an add doesn't get set as a kill target.

Also, kill it before the 3rd set of adds come

You want to be sure your not using 'dps mode' on the enchanter as its not going to check mezes as often in that config.

Also, can't proc items break mezes? Ie the illusionist can proc damage on his own mez cast?

You can filter mez messages to your chat window, so you can see what toon is breaking it.

 

[bjcasey]

Procs only break mezz under 2 circumstances:

1. The proc is a dot. Meaning that the 2nd tick will break the mezz.
2. The mezz is resisted, but procs a DD.

Procs are applied before the mezz so if a mezz procs it will do damage first then mezz it. Of course the damage first will wake the mob up if it is mezzed and that is what becomes a problem if the mezz gets resisted.

 

[Amadeus]

That stupid Druid AA ability will break mez too.

 

[bjcasey]

More specifically, do you mean the INT end line ability Infusion? Cause just turning it off works great

 

[larrydoyle]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll try him again. Just a followup on positioning: in a non-bot group, healers and mezzer stay back and the main tank and DPS fight Sandman just in front of his beginning spot. Do you do the same with a botted group, or do you pile everyone in a back corner to avoid all the knockback issues? Can't wait to go try him again, especially now that I know it is possible. Then, I'll be back for advice on the sisters and Drusella (if anybody has successfully botted them!) hehe

 

[Pygar]

For sandman, I position roughly the same as a non-bot group.

Sisters are easy. Just leave the bots in the hall, then activate them.

Keep pulling them and running out of room till your get 'D' spawned at one of the in range points. Then just start the fight with your mezer mezing 'D' and have tank on other 2.

It can be annoying if you get taunted to the wrong mob initially as they have to be killed in order.

I have killed drusella with bots, but it was incredibly annoying.

I updated defiler script not to do things vs drusella, and if you uncheck offensive and pets, it will heal just fine for it. Warden works in pure heal mode no pets as well.

Now, I generally shut down all other bots and just dps him down slowly with the tank. I use a regular expression in ACT to create a timer for her ability, and I just dps for the 17 seconds the timer shows as safe.

It takes a while, and you need well geared tank and healers with good regen going to last it out. But yes, it has been done.

 

[larrydoyle]

That is exactly what I had planned with Drusella. Group was going to be templar, defiler, fury for healing, troub and illusionist for power regen, and then my tank (which is a pretty good tank with T8 raid gear) to take him down. Fight probably lasts 15-20 minutes hehe. I'm more worried about how to get the illusionist to mezz D first, but guess if my tank targets/taunts other two it will work out. Thanks a lot for the great tips, and special thanks for the incredible script work you do.

 

[jondough]

Reset the encounter until D is in front on one side, have illusionist target D, manually hit mez to start the fight, as its about to land engage with your tank (not on D obviously). Or that's how I'd start it.

 

[Pygar]

Yeah, thats exactly what I was trying to say

 

[larrydoyle]

Woot! Made it to Drusella. Tried her a couple of times, but kept working through all the buffs I need to turn off to ensure I don't have proc damage occuring, so didn't get her down this time. The defiler does seem to do best just healing .. had problems with the Templar and Fury getting them to just heal and not use anything that procs damage. Is the warden the only other healer who will just heal, or is there anything I can do with Templar or Fury to use them (aside as buff bots)? Hope I can eventually get her

Thanks for all the info and strats guys!

 

[Pygar]

Hmm, would have to look but I would think it would be possible on Fury as well. Just a matter of disabling everything but heals.

The real trick is starting and stopping on MT at the right times.

 

[jondough]

The only damage my Fury does is via infusion, if that was toggle-able he wouldn't do any damage at all in cure/heal mode (and he heals very, very well in my opinion).

 

[bob_the_builder]

What is the tip/trick/suggestion for 6 boxing B'lithu The Old Ways (the sperm who ports you and blows you up if close).


Seems I cant move my bots fast enough and I wipe.

Bob

 

[larrydoyle]

I just do that fight pretty much like a normal group. The only difference is this .. I have my plate tank and chain healer AF the tank (which I am playing), and then the other 3 toons (DPS) AF on the plate healer. This ensures they are not "bunched" too closely which reduces the amount of AOE damage done after porting. When I'm ported, I just move to the side of the platform very quickly. Most of the time, the bots follow in enough time and come with me, and we just heal through the AOE. Occasionally the aoe hits too quick and they may end up on the other side of the room. No real problem .. by that time the named is very debuffed and my tank can take the hits to move to the other side of the platform and continue the fight getting the team together. Then, it is just rinse and repeat until named is dead. Often, based on stuns and enough DPS, I only get ported 2 times, which makes it even better. As long as I don't lose both healers, I'm good. And yes, very occasionally a toon gets hit by the aoe and falls down into the pit, aggroing those guys. That typically is a wipe .. but it does not happen often. GL.

 

[bob_the_builder]

Thanks for the info, I like the AF follow, just put each person on a different AF.

Do they still follow though after the port / while in-combat though?


Also, how about the sisters?

That X sister and her AOE rain just owns me. I can't get X mezzed or rooted. I play with only one Tank, two healers, a mezzer, wizard, and someone else.

Is there a certain class that maybe I should be bringing? Like for the LeviathanGlamar mob I found that just putting my Troub in the group with her BladeDance makes that encounter trivial.

Well, thanks in adv if anyone answers... I like posting here over eq2flames

Bob

 

[Acapella75]

Procs only break mezz under 2 circumstances:

1. The proc is a dot. Meaning that the 2nd tick will break the mezz.
2. The mezz is resisted, but procs a DD.

Procs are applied before the mezz so if a mezz procs it will do damage first then mezz it. Of course the damage first will wake the mob up if it is mezzed and that is what becomes a problem if the mezz gets resisted.

One item of note in regards to procs. If a proc lands, your mez will always land too. Sony changed this awhile back in T7 for us encs. So you will see frequent messages that you have awakened such and such but know that you are remezzing the mob.

 

[larrydoyle]

1) They do re-autofollow after port .. it may take a sec or two for them to restablish the af, just like if you zone. If you move the tank quickly (assuming you are playing the tank), then they will reaquire the af and then move to tank on side of platform

2) jondough and previous posts describe how to do sisters. Just mezz D and fight the other 2, killing T first. I pull T and X to the side away from cloth wearers .. never had an issue with AOE. I don't know how strong your toons are from a healing/tank perspective. My team has a reasonable amount of T8 fabled gear with adornments. If AOEs are a big deal, suggest looking at resists and getting a bunch of OLH stuff on your healers. I don't use a troub on that fight, since I swap in the mezzer. Have tank, 2 healers, 2 DPS and mezzer. If you dont have one of your healers as a defiler/mystic, that fight may be hard on heals

 

[bob_the_builder]

1) They do re-autofollow after port .. it may take a sec or two for them to restablish the af, just like if you zone. If you move the tank quickly (assuming you are playing the tank), then they will reaquire the af and then move to tank on side of platform

2) jondough and previous posts describe how to do sisters. Just mezz D and fight the other 2, killing T first. I pull T and X to the side away from cloth wearers .. never had an issue with AOE. I don't know how strong your toons are from a healing/tank perspective. My team has a reasonable amount of T8 fabled gear with adornments. If AOEs are a big deal, suggest looking at resists and getting a bunch of OLH stuff on your healers. I don't use a troub on that fight, since I swap in the mezzer. Have tank, 2 healers, 2 DPS and mezzer. If you dont have one of your healers as a defiler/mystic, that fight may be hard on heals

Did sisters and Drusella with 6 bots, wife played four, I played 2.

Maybe my gear got better since last time I tried but sisters were a cake walk. I didnt even mex the one sister we just focused on each one and used AOEs.

For Drusella I used the ACT trigger and the fight was simple. I set healers to no offense or debuff and my coercer just used root/snap and mana feeds. Was a little tough for my SHD to keep agro a few times but root worked so well. Oh and I had the anti-hate coercer buff on everyone except SHD.

My wife's wizard did all the real damage.

I thought the sperm guy is still the hardest mob in there, guess its just a freak out when I am all sudden somewhere else.

Bob

 

[larrydoyle]

Gratz. I'm surprised you never asked about Sandman. IMO, he is the hardest, cause you either need another person to play the mezzing toon, or you have to get a bit lucky on when/where the adds spawn and whether an EQ2 controlled bot picks them up and keeps them mezzed. Plus, you really need the DPS to bring him down before the third set of adds spawn. Its the hardest fight for me when playing alone due to the mezzing issues.

Anybody get Slamhammer down? I have done it once, but I was very, very lucky and got only 2 waves of adds, and the first set not until about 60% through the fight. Would love any strategies for making that fight doable consistently

 

[bob_the_builder]

Gratz. I'm surprised you never asked about Sandman. IMO, he is the hardest, cause you either need another person to play the mezzing toon, or you have to get a bit lucky on when/where the adds spawn and whether an EQ2 controlled bot picks them up and keeps them mezzed. Plus, you really need the DPS to bring him down before the third set of adds spawn. Its the hardest fight for me when playing alone due to the mezzing issues.

Anybody get Slamhammer down? I have done it once, but I was very, very lucky and got only 2 waves of adds, and the first set not until about 60% through the fight. Would love any strategies for making that fight doable consistently

I use a coercer and I set it up for mez mode for Sandman. Never really had an issue with him except when I don't get him to 99% and my Coercer doesnt 'start'. If he drops the stoneskin at the begining I can't get him down any and none of the bots start. I usually evac out and then try again so I can get his life down a tad. I have never had an issue with the Coercer not mezzing the adds. I usually get 6 (gah it takes for ever to kill the adds). I play a SHD so I just rotate out with Death March.

Anyone know the trigger for sandman's stoneskin for ACT?

My toughest mob is that damn windking. Its worse than the sperm guy from Maidens. If one of my bots get kick back far away it takes me to long to move them up to the windking again. Same as with sperm guy, if I loose track of one of my bots I am all done.

Btw, someone posted in here about bots moving during atk/combat and I just can't get them to do it. I usually just set one CA to use '1' for close combat and then they run in, but like with windking if they are too far away from the mob they never run in regardless.

Bob

 

[Pygar]

run shadow mytank 10

This will move them to that distance in combat.

Just endscript shadow after the fight.

 

[larrydoyle]

For windking, i find lodging everybody in the tunnel (closer to room so he does not leash) is the best. It also reduces the group aoe. Just lodge everybody up with their backs against the wall. If you push the toons up, there are places where they are almost 100% lodged and can't move. Then just pet pull him to the group. I use all magic DPS since you can't have toons that want to backstab him moving around, or they get punted somewhere and it takes too long to kill him. Once I got the positioning right, it's now a 100% certain kill without deaths.