Dragon Raid strategy

[Bedroc the Hero]

Here is the strategy for the dragon raid. The full strategy guide can be read here. There I also link to the sites I read about the successful dragon raids i was inspired by. It will change a little during the next week but this is how we are going to take the beast down:

Who can come?
Id love to take everybody! And I can certainly not stop anyone from tagging along. But to be able to help on the raid I think you need to be 40+ for wardens/druids/bards and 45+ for all others. Lower than that and you will have very difficult to help us. You have a week to gain a lvl or 2 if thats what you need See you on the raid.

Main rules
We are following three main rules on this raid.

• Never ever pull aggro from the dragon if he cant reach you. If you do you'll trigger the AoE.
• Kill adds first! The adds must!be our first priority. If you see a glimmer you turn to kill it.
• Ressing is a huge aggro builder. Ressers should work from as far away as they possibly can.
• Be silent and listen. Dont spam the Raid Leader ( that would be me ) with tells. Your group leader will know what to do. Talk in group chat. If you dont hear any news then ask your groupleader about whats happening. Pay attention to your cg.

The groups
To bring the beast down we will be divided into 4 different groups with different goals on the raid. Each group will have their own CG and the CG leaders ( top 2 ) will be in the Raid Leader group.

• Add Control Groups ( AC groups ) - This will be six strong PBAE groups of lvl 50 Chars. These will protect the ressurection and ranger teams.
• Ranger Groups ( Rng Groups ) - These will be the guys that really damage the dragon. Hes vulnerable to arrows ( except slash dmg type ). Spread out around the dragon they fire away, all with dmg add.
• Ressurection Groups - This is the team that gives us stamina. Working as far away from the dragon as possible they ressurect any person that goes down and rebuff him. Ressurect supportclasses first. Everyone that can ress goes into this group ( sorry wardens, no tanking for you this time )
• Dragon Fight Groups - Here we have our brave heros ( aka cannon fodder ). They will aggro the dragon and keep him busy with melee so he won't throw spells on the rangers/ressers. Their job will be to keep the dragon away from its mound. All people in DF groups will disband and go solo against the dragon. If grouped the ressers will pull aggro when they ressurect players.

The Strategy

• Meet in Innis
• Construct groups - This is always a boring process and will inevitably take some time. I have done my best to plan it so well do it as fast as possible. Ill also entertain you ( oh yeah! ) with retelling the strategy over and over . Please stay alert until you are grouped and things will go smoother.
• Construct chat groups - We use chat groups for communicating as soon as we leave Innis. The groupleaders will be invited to the raid chat group and will relay the information to the groups. If you want to ask anything, ask your group-leader.
• Inform everyone about the strategy - Will tell you in Innis. GL will tell you on the way to the lair.
• Moving to the Dragons lair - We will move in three waves. We wont wait very long for LDs.
• Groupleader inform group - about their role ( several times ) on the way to the lair.
• Kill off adds near campsite - Kill all the adds outside the lair. We will spread out with the three forces spread out around the three openings.
• Buff up and cast damage add - Damage add on all rangers/tanks/NS, MR on all ressers / mages. Jump up and down if you lack a buff.
• Pull dragon - We will send one ranger to pull the dragon of his mound. Raids in US have shown that the dragon will cast far less AoE spells if hes not on his mound. Well ress him and send him in until he wont get AoE on him.
• Move all groups into place - when the RL gives the signal. See map on the link. Rush in to take your place. Force 1 will move first ( as we want to keep the dragon of his mound )
  
• Dragon Fight groups start fighting the dragon as soon as they are in melee range. Always use /stick. Be sure to be under his belly if you are going to cast spells. Debuff him as much as you can, sometimes they land and they do help. Use bleeding styles if you can as these are very helpful. GTAoE always hits ( dont know if we have this yet though ).
  
  Remember to keep the dragon from the mound. If you face his mound back away slowly when you have his attention. If you have the mound behind you just move towards the dragon when he aggros you.
  
  Remember the adds. If you see them close by do attack them. Never cast spells that can hurt the dragon from a distance ( such as AoE on a glimmer add )
  
  Never hurt the dragon from a distance!
• Ress groups ress from a distance - Ress groups focus on ressing. Ress druid/wardens/bards when you can. If you see glimmers you cast root on them until the AC groups can take em down.
• Ranger groups pluck away from a distance when several tanks have been killed. Use slash/thrust arrows as he resists crush. Make sure to be buffed with dmg add.
• Add control groups kill off adds - Will have a lot to do. Fight of all pops. Keep close to your assigned position. Pull adds away from the dragon and PBAE them to death.
  
• When dragon is at 25% HP : He will now start to cast stun and teleport. To lessen the effect of this we move everyone with a bow away from the dragon. If you have a bow you back off and leave the heroic Champs / NS to battle the dragon. This way we will get far less people stunned. Spread out and fight him.
  
  If you are teleported tell your GL, disband, team up with others that are teleported, rest up and head back together. You wont make it on y our own. You will either be teleported straight North, or straight West. Its not very far to the dragon. Head East or South.
• When Dragon hp is at 10% At this point he will start calling for help. He will send a courier that brings an army of UBER glimmers. Find and kill that courier! All but Champs + NS turn to fight adds if they come in force.
• When the dragon is killed : Group leaders run and grab loot.
• If the dragon refuse to die : If he gets stuck on 0% HP we start pulling him away from the mound and out of the lair. As a last resort we retreat and go again.

Dividing up the loot
All loot should be handed to the Loot man. ( appointed on raid, trusted person not in Legends of Camelot ). After the raid we all meet up in mBeo and lotto all items. Not only dragon unique items but all that is picked up.

We do the lotto like this:
For each type of item ( i.e spears, leather armor, mage staff etc ) the Loot man calls on /br - anyone interested in staffs?
The first one responding will get all the staffs. Then you PM that person for staff CG. In that CG the Loot holder first lists all items and stats, then you start to lotto. Use the /random X to get a random nr between 1 and X

I wont claim any item for myself, everything is on lotto. Although if you want to thank me for doing the raid you could enter lotto for dragon spear and give it to me if you win

 

[censi]

If anything is pre claimed/taken you will loose roughly about 25-50% of the people, b4 the raid even starts....

It turns a 200+ raid into a 100+ raid....

sucess all hinges on how u deal with the dragon once it gets to the last 10%.. the stun and subsequent invulnerablilty mean that you need to kill it very fast... suggest you hold a massive researve force untill the dragon hits 4-5% and then start trickling that researve force in to maintain the damage output...

You also need a a force to cope with those uber guards at the end.

NErf the dragon.

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Thank you Censi. Wont claim any drops then

I think keeping the adds under control is key to success. If the dragon gets healed by dying hibs we need to keep our casualities low. So focus will be on killing the adds first.

 

[Tyka]

Originally posted by censi
If anything is pre claimed/taken you will loose roughly about 25-50% of the people, b4 the raid even starts....

Just want to tell my opinion here, since this is not a legion raid where u can tell on as "all come DF gogo gank legion ktx"

Look how much work this guy put up for us, to have fun, i know bedroc really been working his ass of for this, all the things he will go through, i just want to see the hib dragon slayed on excal servers, then i would be really glad.

Bedroc if you ask me, you are welcome to claim any item you would like, that's MO.

And btw of course this silly thing come up first, is this all ppl care about, sure loot are great etc but its a great experience and a great night just killing dragon, lets drop the worries about loot.

 

[Tyka]

Just want to bump this post.

Everyone who are willing to do dragon raids/relic raids in hib will get my full support in whatever way they want to do it.

 

[censi]

No bedroc, this is your baby m8... its down to you what rules etc you put on the raid... But just stating a fact, that if you announce b4 the raid that one of the dragon items is going to you, loads of people wont bother showing up... (right or wrong??? who knows)

Having orgainsed the odd raid myself, I apprecaite both sides of the arguement...

Theres a big difference between leading a raid and organising it than just turning up and participating... Leading these type of thing is generally a thankless task...

 

[saltymcpepper]

 

[censi]

peeps should read that guide its good....

However, co-ordinating 3 main armies and 6 sub grps is gonna be hard... (hard to get them to do anything fast)

1 think b4 u try to set that attack formation up inside the ring....

send in one lowbie mage first.. he will get blasted with the aoe (1st person into the ring always gets blasted)

you then have 1 minute to get army into position b4 it blasts again...

 

[boni_ofdavoid]

Originally posted by Bedroc the Hero

[*]Dragon Fight groups start fighting the dragon as soon as they are in melee range. Always use /stick. Be sure to be under his belly if you are going to cast spells. Debuff him as much as you can, sometimes they land and they do help. Use bleeding styles if you can as these are very helpful. GTAoE always hits ( dont know if we have this yet though ).

I am pleased to tell you that we do have GTAoE, and it works very nicely against big monsters. The damage on both negative mailstrom eldtrich ra and void GTAoE seem unaffected by their targets level. Last week I was spamming juggernaught with both for average damage when nukes where hitting for 1 point. So... debuff cold please if u get a chance

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Thank you Tyka, You are marvelous. Im really happy you are coming on the raid.

Censi, I respect your opinion as I know you lead many raids. I mainly do this cause I want to see the dragon killed. I would have loved the dragon spear ( its pink you know ) but if this will cause people not to show Its just not worth it. ( I think you might be correct here. )

Regarding communication speed. It will be a 2 stage order. Where all the groupleaders and one extra in each group is invited to the raid chat group. When we pull the dragon and shall go inside Ill state first. "Prepare to charge", which the GL can relay, then I state "GO!" and the GL issues that command to their groups. Should be fairly quick. Has the advantage of reaching everyone even if they are outside Yelling distance.

Boni, thanks for clearing that up for me. Was GTAoE in the last patch? we didnt always have it did we? ( as a hero i wouldnt now ) US reports that GTAoE is very nice against the dragon! ( if your in melee range. )

 

[boni_ofdavoid]

Originally posted by Bedroc the Hero

Boni, thanks for clearing that up for me. Was GTAoE in the last patch? we didnt always have it did we? ( as a hero i wouldnt now ) US reports that GTAoE is very nice against the dragon! ( if your in melee range. )

Aye, GTAoE came in last patch for voidies, but most of the mages who would have qualified for the top one respecced due to a few too many ... err ... 'challenges' in the void spec

Ill make sure I'm right by him so he can easily bite my head off

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

LOL

Thats great Boni, hehe You can take comfort in the fact you wont be alone to have your head bitten off

See you on the raid!

 

[Garnet]

just send all ya mooses in and zerg the bitch! Im sure its not that hard.

 

[shadowyn]

Really good work here, i say you deserve a choice of item.

Please hapily count me in, i belive most of Spirits of d'anu are looking forward to it. Just remind me date and time

 

[Gorguss]

Many Champions DD and debuff from a distance.
Is it very important that we only do this when we are in melee?

Heard somewhere that Champion DD's and debuffs could trigger AOE?

 

[Alkoran]

Would it be possible to use rams at all?
Would if be worth using them if we can?
I don't know how the dragon moves in combat, or how much difference rams would make to dmg output.......anyone have any ideas?

....just as a note if rams are possible they must be controled from between the dragon and the ram...otherwise the distance could pull AoE and if the dragon is no longer in range...you'd have to dump the ram and get back in range...

...would loook pretty funny in the screenshots

 

[Gorguss]

Maby glimmers would pop up bringing ballistaes, not THAT would be kewl in the screenshots.

Hope the only bring some scorpions

 

[Brennik]

One small comment: forget the northern (well, more like NE) entrance into the lair. Nasty scouts who bring adds there. The two southern entrances are the safest bet.

 

[thefunkrocket]

Spam him to death.....

What about, and listen carefully to this...
If we took every calss in the realm with a pet and constantly:

Summon Pet

Buff Pet

Send Pet to death

Repeat

Or would pets do nowhere near enough damage?

It might look a bit like this:

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Shadowyn, Thank you m8! Im very glad that your guild will join us. I have many friends among your ranks and will be proud to fight this battle with you.

Gorguss, aye. it IS very important to only debuff the dragon when in melee range.. it can all be summed up in

NEVER aggro the dragon when your not in melee range! ( only rangers are allowed to work from a distance and thats when the tanks have established aggro.

so move in under him. then start debuffing.

Alkoran, aye, you can build rams and the rams will hit the dragon. He is resistant to crush damage thou. On Drysts raid they used a ram and it worked for the entire session. WHen they summed up the rams damage it had only done like 35 hp of damage which is really puny.. Would be interesting to try a trebuche though.


Brennik, We need to be able to handle all entrances. the ne entrance adds can be managed with one strong PBAE group. we bring at least 4 to the NE entrance. ( strongest force go from NE as this is the best guarded entrance. )

I want to attack the dragon from several directions if she manages to throw an AoE on us.

The fun rocket: I think it could work. Would take ages though. And not nearly as fun as charging the dragon.

We will use pets though. Enchanter pets ( thank you Vulcan! ) with dmg shield and buffed by a druid is really uber. So well use all the tank pets we can.

ps, love your pic I bet it would look something like that..

 

[elerand]

Bedroc, I'm more than happy that5 you claim a drop, no one from my guild who goes will turn around and head out of ez if you do, think unlike legion raids killing the dragon is of primary importance, loot secondary.

At least handle the loot distro with censi after and we will know that it's going to be fair.

Think aside from plain tactics, we should spend a little time co-ordinating outside the lair, last few times we spent all of 5 mins waiting there, we can get a good idea of how many people we have, how many grps etc

The organisation on this one is impressive, last few times we got close, we can do this

 

[elerand]

Originally posted by old.Garnet
just send all ya mooses in and zerg the bitch! Im sure its not that hard.

It's harder than you could possibly imagine, soft albs/mids got soft dragon, not us hibs, ours is a complete bitch

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Thank you very much Elerand. I appreciat you showing up for the raid! I agree with you. It is doabel even if we dont get a 300 person raid like they used on the german server. We just have to make sure everyone knows what to do. Thats why the planning session tomorrow, saturday 14th, 21.00 CET in mBeo is so important. The people therewill be group leaders and will be told the strategy and be able to prepare a few macros with information they can spam on their group. This will help a lot i hope.

*smile *

I get sooo eager to take him down! was playing my menta today and i heard the message in TNN that the dragon awaits us! there is some kind of event with this.

 

[old.giriam]

hia bedroc, still going strong i see.

just one thing you should know from the last attempt:

me and a couple of casters tested our spells on him when all hope was lost anyway. the result: we all completly drained our mana pools and all those spells apart from a single debuff was resisted. thats 1 out of something like ~50 spells.

having 50 casters standing under the belly of the beast each of them landing a single DD (doing 1 damage im sure) is not very efficient.

the last attempt was pre-gtaoe ofcourse, im not sure if the gtaoe handles resists differently (as someone suggested above). if gtaoe indeed ignores the mob-level then the scenario changes, just make sure the gtaoers all know that they need to stand within melee-range.

G

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Ahh Giriam! So nice to see you again! Are you coming on the raid?

I know that the dragon will resist a lot of spells, It will be fixed in a future patch ( lowering the effect of dmg add and dmg shield and landing more spells on him ).

What I read was that GTAoE always land ( although for very lil dmg.

There will be very few real damage dealers here. Top ranking will probably be the rangers. they are very efficient against the dragon ( no crush arrows mind you ). Shades , BMs using bleeding styles also hurt him pretty bad. And the pets might be able to hurt him a lot with the reflective damage shield.

The rest of will just be there as snacks, keeping him aggrod. If your a mage you might as well nuke a lil for what its worth

Hope to see you on the raid Giri! We all miss you

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Found out dragon is resistant to slash, not to pierce/crush. So try to stay of slash damage if you can.


After much thought Ive also decided that we are probably better of if the DF teams go solo against the dragon. If grouped they risk pulling aggro to the Ress teams. ( If grouped and players are still alive in the group the dead char belongs to, that groups aggro will transfer to the healer resurecting him ) I also think that grouping is not very helpful for the DF teams. ( Thanks for making me think this one over once again Danita. )

 

[twist]

Just a quick thought on the chanter pets - surely the damage shield idea, although good in theory, will only work if the pets have the aggro (i.e. are being hit) ?

I would have thought it may prove more useful the use them for adds and thus free up more people for actual Dragon Bashing? (tho that's probably easier said than done if the chanters are going to be stood under the dragon!)

 

[Danya]

Dots also appear to land for normal damage regardless of mob level. I hit purps and greys for the same damage with my dots.

 

[Bedroc the Hero]

Your probably right twist, thanks for your input.

I think that the six AC groups can handle the adds in the lair. It will be very complicated as you indicate stear the pets against adds. Let them hit away on the dragon. some of em might get aggro. They will help keep the dragon busy and every effort helps here.

 

[twist]

btw DA will probably have a contingent on the raid - GM's are discussing it at the mo.

As for loot - given the amount of effort you have obviously put in to this i say if you want 1 item then have it - i'll be there for the experience - any loot is simply a bonus!

The slash resistance is going to be a real pain for a lot of the Hero's who <cough> haven't specced in CS...

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Twist - lvl 45 SnB Hero : DA officer