Dragon Flight Raid - Lets talk strategy

[Ziek88]

I would like to propose a kill clock that may remove some of the issues we're having at the end and allow for black dragon killers to have an easier time.

At the start, both black and red parties hammer their dragons with everything they have. At 30% HP black party should stop using any damage over time abilities. At 20% They should start slowing damage. At 10% the secondary party can leave and head to green. The remaining few carefully beat black dragon to 5% leaving the killers alone to drop him to 3%. Then a full stop at black and the killers wait.

At green, resume hammering with everything the party has. When green gets to ~20% black should start killing their dragon. That last 20% goes quick so it is okay. Ideally, black dies first.

Green and red should base off of black. Red is likely waiting at 5%. When black gets to 1% red can start killing. Green should finish their kill at about the same time as black with this timing. That last 20% goes fast but will be a big enough buffer for black to have some room to spare if they need say an extra 30 seconds.

[Ziek88]

This is the good old Fred and Barney seeing doubles technique.

This is what I have so far. These are the people who show up every week except maybe Nem and Nimblee but I am pretty sure we see them too. We can achieve this with 5 groups totalling 22 people. This breakdown will slow us a little but give us stacked teams at both dragon sets. We have been finishing with 3.5 minutes to spare so the slow down is no problem. Black / green has been going with no vizier or prophet the last two weeks so if need be we could likely do without.

If we know we'll have Hroth and Nors they would be good to add to the DPS list. I would slot them with Kermit or Tyr. Ideally Tyr has the highest DPS for maximum ITF buffing and kermit gets the other two.

If we have Elth, his bubble pally could take Kermit's place and Kermit could Deathlock it.

I will also add, we only get rabbit if the time is not at 9:30 EST. She works till 10:00 EST with a possible later variation pending how her day goes. Saturday actually had one of the best turnouts we've seen. Maybe we do the normal triple on friday and schedule a Saturday same timeslot as this last weekend for the quad?

Tanks - need 4
GF - Ziek88
GF - Tundrra
GF - Tyr
Pally - Kermit

Highs - 2 each
High Prohpet - Phel
High Prophet -
High Vizier - Aratech
High Vizier -

Heals - need 4
Pally - Blue
DC - Gina
DC - Juez

DPS - need 8
SW - Rabbit
GWF - Hector
GWF - Q
GWF - Destroyer
CW - Benn

Dragon Slayers - need 4
TR - Udo
TR - Rain
TR - Nimblee
TR - Nem


Dragon Slayer party
DS 1 - Udokas
DS 2 - Rain
DS 3 - Nimblee
DS 4 - Nem

Black/Green party
Group 2
Tank - Ziek
Heals - Blue
High Vizier - Aratech
DPS - Rabbit
DPS - Hector

Group 3
Tank - Tundrra
Heals -
High prophet - ?????
DPS - Benn
DPS -

Dragon Slayers
DS 1 - Udokas
DS 2 -

Red/Blue party
Group 4
Tank - Tyr
Heals - Gina
High Prophet - Phel
DPS - Q
DPS - Destroyer

Group 5
Tank - Kermit
Heals - Juez
High Vizier -
DPS -
DPS -

Dragon Slayers
DS 3 - Rain
DS 4 -

[RJC9000]

Methinks I'm late on the strategy (yesyes, I'm on Spring Break and I'm not creating a plan, sue me).
Here's my take on the tipping of the scales (both metaphorical and draconic scales)

The way I see it, our strategy doesn't change very much, regardless of a bigger roster.

-Poke Red, Poke Black, Poke Green. Whittle them down to 3-2%, have the main Green/Black group converge on Blue, leave some players to execute other dragons, poke Blue Dragon, then (insert Shao Khan voice) FINISH THEM!

(Be mindful of who you pick to fatality the dragons, since you need very high burst damage like Executioner TRs or Thaumaturge CWs. Remember that not all players are the same spec.)

-As for moving the Green team to the Blue Dragon, you still lose time. However, my plan was to liberally abuse the travel signpost trick, where switching from any zone back to the Stronghold resets you to the Stronghold entrance (and thus, puts you closer to the Blue Dragon with slightly less travel time).

As soon as we whittle green, we use signpost, travel to Neverdeath (or some other zone with little load times), turn around and use the zone gate to return to the Stronghold (puts us at the caravan/entrance), then move on to Blue. Sure, we may not save "that" much time, but every second counts when we need to make up for our small roster.

-I would highly advise a High Set travel with the Green/Black group to speed up the whittling process (so we have less of a worry with running out of time for killing the Blue Dragon). Said High Set user would likely want to keep their regular Level 70 armor set handy for when the teams converge on the Blue Dragon, since the High Sets will not stack twice, even if multiple players are applying the set.

(As for the whole "refresh set bonus" argument: Tab Chill Strike or any DC DoT should keep the set bonus active with relative ease)

Although Ziek points out that the Green + Black Groups have 3-4 minutes to spare, if the team is traveling, we may waste a minute or more, even with the signpost trick. That's not counting the team's (relative) inexperience with the Blue Dragon (deaths, etc.), which may result in more wasted time (deaths, disconnects, dodging attacks, etc.). We wouldn't our efforts to go to naught where we attempt 4 dragons and end with none?


We gotta stack every bonus and advantage in our favor to finish them all off.

If we have Elth, his bubble pally could take Kermit's place and Kermit could Deathlock it.

Inb4 Elth/Kermit's Binding Oath oneshots the Blue dragon (that would be hilarious and a game changer. Too bad Binding Oath's going to get nerf'd with the Bubble).

[Ziek88]

The way I balanced it should make nobody need to go from green to blue. Tyr was very successful in both tests tanking blue. If we give him a bubble pally that should be very smooth. Red dragon will be the easiest finish of the 4 so they with what I listed for their group, should be able to shred it within ~ 4 minutes. That puts black at about the same timeframe.

Should be Green ---> black and Red ---> blue

The selected members for killing the red and green at the end are based off of who has already done it. Some duo combo of those 4 have been the killers each week.

I think the biggest catch for this success is we really need all the people listed. Without it, we will have a much harder time. I know Rabbit, for one cannot make friday night dragonflight with daylight savings time changes and I think we often miss some of the others on friday night as well. It is a challenge to get the numbers we need for 4.

Ideally, if we could find a way to get each party to 8 (including killers) that would bring is in to a closer realm of reality. If Rain and Udo can solo kill red and black, I think we can do this. With careful timing I believe they can. Just need to find one more DPS for my party unless we try the quad later when Rabbit can join. Odds are a few other heavy hitters will show but I only listed people I see every week. As others show, we will split them evenly between the groups and if enough show, we'll add a second person to the res/black dragon kill.


Black/Green party

Black killer - Rain

Group 1
Tank - Ziek
Heals - Blue
High Vizier - Aratech
DPS -
DPS - Hector

Group 2
Tank - Tundrra
Heals -
High prophet - ?????
DPS - Benn
DPS - Rain

Red/Blue party

Red killer - Udo

Group 3
Tank - Tyr
Heals - Gina
High Prophet - Phel
DPS - Q
DPS - Destroyer

Group 4
Tank - Kermit
Heals - Juez
High Vizier -
DPS - Udokas
DPS -

That said, I think we will need to wait to quad kill till next week. Gina is not with us this week and I suspect Blue and Benn may be out as well as they had some family fly in to town this week if I remember correctly.

[Phelaia]

Things I noticed when multiple parties attacked Blue on the test run...

There are two large AOE Lightning attacks:
1. small columns of lightning shooting out from the ground (you've seen this in Rothe Valley). This one has red circles attached to it, but they tend to flicker somewhat because of terrain.
2. large AOE of burst lightning that covers the entire arena. This one has no warning or red. You just eat in the face and drop. The caveat here is that the it wipes everyone in the party, but not the entire arena.

Here's my suggestion: We don't have to have 5-man parties for Blue. We may want to try multiple parties of 3-4 to hedge against full parties being killed.

In any case, I have two CWs with High Viz, one MoF (main), and one Thaum. I also have a heal DC and a Righteous DC, both with High Prophet. So take your pick.

[Kermit]

I'm also out this week,

Beer night with friends...

Can't wait to give this 4 dragon a try!

[Phelaia]

Wait...I have a wacky idea:

Since I have 2 DCs with High Prophet and 2 CWs with High Vizier, I can park one at each corner of the map *before* the fight, I can just log between the dragons and help as needed. I would need to coordinate with each team to figure out which toon to park where though. Hector and Ziek, any ideas?

[bluebutton]

Wait...I have a wacky idea:

Since I have 2 DCs with High Prophet and 2 CWs with High Vizier, I can park one at each corner of the map *before* the fight, I can just log between the dragons and help as needed. I would need to coordinate with each team to figure out which toon to park where though. Hector and Ziek, any ideas?

I did this last night, parking my GF next to the fight and going in with my OP healer. When it seemed we were better off with me tanking, I swiiched quickly and there I was, still next to the fight and ready to roll.

That was cool! And killing the dragon was cooler.

[tornnomar]

It seems to work very well having a "dragon finisher" left back at the dragons.

Udo and I work well together as a Scoundrel/Exe mix at black, but we may have to test leaving a TR alone at Black and Red. This could work, but the dragon(s) would have to be whittled down a but further than our usual 10% then take off.
Each "killer" would have to continue attacking because knocking that much health off a dragon solo is going to take the rest of the time event is active probably.

[Phelaia]

Red is remarkably tough-skinned, but he's also pretty slow and has the most simple and traditional mechanic. There are also no wandering ghosts. IMHO, just one guy with good burst damage isn't going to cut it. Perhaps the pair that gets left on Red can be one DPS geared to the teeth, plus a buff/heal DC. I would nominate Q and Juez, as Juez is our most sturdy DC with an AC that rivals a GF.

Another idea: on a slower night, the typical Red team can practice on just Red and Blue on a free run.

Any ideas?