Maulers and the need to activate them.

[Ogrelin Blodig]

I think I read somewhere that each realm have to finish some kind of encounter down in the labyrinth. Does every realm on a server have to do this encounter or is the activasion for all three realms at once?

Or is there no activasion at all?

 

[Flimgoblin]

each realm on each server/cluster has to capture a number of minotaur relics and bring them to the surface before they can roll maulers.

The number of relics started off around 17 (rather hard to do) on the US servers, dropping down slowly so that eventually it was fairly easy to activate the mauler... but obviously the sooner you activate it the better.

 

[Ogrelin Blodig]

Won't this be hard for low pop realms?

 

[Flimgoblin]

Won't this be hard for low pop realms?

it'll be hard to get it the first day...

it won't be hard to activate eventually. Might need someone to organise something for it though...

Edit: looks like it was reduced from 18 to 15 10 and eventually 7....

couldn't find any more mention of it so even the lowest pop realms on the US activated it at 7.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

On the US they learnt quickly that 17 was way too high, heres from the grab bag:

The plan was to make unlocking the Mauler class unlikely for opening night, and possible for the combined efforts of the weekend crowd. The plan was to reduce the number of relics required to unlock the class over the coming days until everyone could get the new toy. Given that the current record for simultaneous relic holdings is 14, I suspect we're going to start seeing Maulers soon.
However, the feedback is clear - many of you are worried that it will be weeks before you see the Mauler. So let me show you the exact schedule:

Fri. 11/1 – Reduce count to 15
Tues. 11/21 – Reduce count to 10
Tues. 11/28 – Reduce count to 7

So each week they will reduce the amount required, but hopefully GOA will have the sense to set the initial goal at something more sensible than 17. Lets hope.

 

[Kami]

incidentally Maulers and Friars are now both utterly obscene on classic servers. Maulers might even be the same on TOA ones :-P

 

[Andrilyn]

1v1 Maulers can basically beat every single melee class (granted it's played by a decent person in decent gear), just need to wait let's say 6 months till enough people rolled them and then the big nerfs will hit and we'll see alot of whines from certain people again

 

[eble@work]

I doubt very much that GOA will make any consideration for the low pop on Hib at least, they will just say hang in there guys in 3 weeks you too can activate the mauler when the relic counts hit 7.

By which time the new alb zerg of mauler's will be roaming everywhere.

GOA prove us wrong for a change 'listen" to your customers.

But ofcourse they wont

Eble

 

[Everz]

pop doesnt matter, i played hib/tint and we were the first to get em yet we are majorly underpop

 

[eble@work]

pop doesnt matter, i played hib/tint and we were the first to get em yet we are majorly underpop

You missed our massive relic raid force of 16 people then the other day.

I hope your right mate.

Eble

 

[Everz]

You missed our massive relic raid force of 16 people then the other day.

I hope your right mate.

Eble

true, but there are some great leader of hib/tint which helped, plus low pop is like /who hib = 350ish.. heh..

 

[Basic_X]

incidentally Maulers and Friars are now both utterly obscene on classic servers. Maulers might even be the same on TOA ones :-P

the only thing that realy could kill my unbuffed mauler on merlin are other buffed maulers and casters

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

Something regarding that lovely class i posted on the VN's a while ago:

My champ is rr5, with all resists at cap or very close to it, 90+con, hard capped hits, hard capped str and 50LW 42 shield 39 Valor X Parry. I had druid resists during all of these fights, and had cl resists for backups also in case the timers ran down. SoM was active, as was a 50% abs charge from a ring.

I got charged by the same rr3, reasonably well templated Mauler (from his total hps/resists and reading my logs) twice in one afternoon. Both times i had all toys up, so I blew everything in an effort to kill him - BoV/ST/RR5/Banespike/IP2/Purge/Valor debuffs etc, and en regen pot (as i saw him running in) and after my end bar emptied an instant end pot. I also had a heal potion (mend) running at the time.
(Edit: - Also had the CL damage add running and dumped the CL shield of war in the first 30 secs of both fights).

Battler procced in the first few swings each fight (i find it procs a lot). And with the high dps burst from the champ i was able to batter the mauler down to about 20-40 both times. At which point the last of your end/power gets drained away, and their HoT's kick in.

First time around i got the Mauler down to around 20% I died with the Mauler on 80% again - which is quite frankly rediculous. After the first fight he got jumped by a rr6/7 BM that was running in towards the end. I didnt release and watched the fight - he also beat the BM with ease (BM's dps burst trailed off when the Mauler was on around 25% again as i still had him targeted somehow). Mauler finishes the fight with the BM, on 96%....

(Edit: Something someone pointed out - yes i /slam then /annhiliate then /frontal slash or parry chain depending on the situation - figured thats common sense. Killing em in the stun duration is v difficult as they have quite a few hps.

Similar story second time around - except this time i barely get him to 40% (possibly had more power so the HoT's kicked in earlier?) by blowing everything again and this time i even blew my 5% regen ability at the start of the fight to try and counter-act his HoTs. Mine ran out, so did his, then he simply recasts his and my our hp bars star to get further apart again...

I'm sorry but i dont think theres a tank in the game that can kill a well templated, well played Mauler. As far as i know, stealths generally cant - watched more than a few 1-1s with maulers vs stealthers and the mauler's won 99% of the time. Also once they reach melee range on most casters it's lights out for the caster. Sure the mauler gets nuked to hell OTW into melee, but as long as they reach melee the HoT's will have them close to full hps again in <1 min. A caster can take 4-5 hits absolute max from a good FW spec mauler from what i've seen - they hit fairly hard - comparable to a low RR frontloader/charge tank.

So, mythic, i'm intruiged to know where the Mauler fits in the Rock / Paper / Scissors model. Stealthers should eat Casters, Casters should eat Tanks, Tanks should eat stealthers. Support (most of it) shouldnt be fighting anything directly so that doesnt factor in.

So, what can kill a well played mauler with Purge up 1-1 except perhaps a Bonie or a MoC lifetapper?

This is a warning of what's to come i guess for those of you that enjoy your solo action - in the FG rvr scene they dont make a huge difference tbh even when well played - in solo theyre incredibly powerful - so much so that a lot of the high rr vamps on the US clusters are complaining about them - that should give you an idea of what we're talking about...

And yes it was 17 but no realm could control more than about 9/10 of the relics it seemed - think it got activated at 11 by a sustained bg raid in the third week.

A final heads up with Labyrinth - Bainshees can shut off an entire entrance due to the very small stairwell access points to the hub - ideally they need to make them twice as big and double the stair size to make coning the base more difficult. Not that i'm complaining as i've done silly, silly rps there in said groups

 

[[HB]Jpeg]

Maulers are a VERY VERY strong class 1v1 (prolly top of the foodchain) but in grp setup they are average and i personally would put them on par with tic/friars/thanes/champs.. when it comes to usefullnes in a grp.. depends on sped tho id guess. maybe if high mag/fw then maybe more usefull than the cookie cutter fw/aura maulers.

 

[Flimgoblin]

1v1 Maulers can basically beat every single melee class (granted it's played by a decent person in decent gear), just need to wait let's say 6 months till enough people rolled them and then the big nerfs will hit and we'll see alot of whines from certain people again

until the defensive changes at which point they can fight against a shield tank for a year with neither dying

 

[Flimgoblin]

Something regarding that lovely class i posted on the VN's a while ago:



This is a warning of what's to come i guess for those of you that enjoy your solo action - in the FG rvr scene they dont make a huge difference tbh even when well played - in solo theyre incredibly powerful - so much so that a lot of the high rr vamps on the US clusters are complaining about them - that should give you an idea of what we're talking about...

And yes it was 17 but no realm could control more than about 9/10 of the relics it seemed - think it got activated at 11 by a sustained bg raid in the third week.

A final heads up with Labyrinth - Bainshees can shut off an entire entrance due to the very small stairwell access points to the hub - ideally they need to make them twice as big and double the stair size to make coning the base more difficult. Not that i'm complaining as i've done silly, silly rps there in said groups

pretty much any dps caster can kill a mauler they're toast vs magic. Hib casters can ignore them pretty much that or CC them and ignore them. HoT's just don't fire fast enough. Plus no charge no stoicism.

If they get up close to a caster they should do as well as any other tank.. similar damage to a light tank as you said.

Plus bainshees are nerfed in 1.87...

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

Maulers are a VERY VERY strong class 1v1 (prolly top of the foodchain) but in grp setup they are average and i personally would put them on par with tic/friars/thanes/champs.. when it comes to usefullnes in a grp.. depends on sped tho id guess. maybe if high mag/fw then maybe more usefull than the cookie cutter fw/aura maulers.

Cough. So Tic is an average group char?

 

[Awarkle]

tics are great post rr5 (most classes are but tics better) the magic imunity they get is a winner.

ok a lot of albs do seem to love zombie rez too much

i loved my tic on alb pryd (hes deleted now) however there just wasnt any space in any group for him and the argument over

Damage shield breaks mezz just made me realise that some people never learn about class abilities.

TIcs are a good replacment for a friar pitty dont see more in rvr.

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

pretty much any dps caster can kill a mauler they're toast vs magic. Hib casters can ignore them pretty much that or CC them and ignore them. HoT's just don't fire fast enough. Plus no charge no stoicism.

If they get up close to a caster they should do as well as any other tank.. similar damage to a light tank as you said.

Plus bainshees are nerfed in 1.87...

Re:Bainshees - In all honesty its not as bad as most of the bainshee players made out. Theyre still in the upper echelons of the caster foodchain - its just harder to do a lot of the questionable things you could do with them before.

Re:Maulers - They mainly hit as hard as a LT due to being able to debuff to matter damage from the FW's. Their base damage is nice but not spectacular - but the gimped matter in most peoples templates combined with the debuff means pretty much 0% resists for some vs the FW dps.

Also, they have quite a few ranged interrupt toys - i had a few goes on my Eldie in solo vs some - most of them have at least a blue con insta-pbaoe snare, a blue con pulsing ranged castable snare, and a CAE 1000 range root as well as a casting time debuff. If they purge that stun it gets unpleasent fast I wouldnt mess with them on any nuker without lifetap or a stun though...

Suffice to say once a few get purge 3 its going to be messy to try and solo them.

PS Tics get my vote as damn good group chars, shame most groups have no idea just how good they can be as they dont use them

 

[Kagato]

Disease and HoT's seem to be mythic's favourite tool for bumping everyone back to top of the food chain each patch.

 

[Ballard]

Good Armsman are still beating maulers 1v1 comfortably.

 

[Thadius]

true, but there are some great leader of hib/tint which helped, plus low pop is like /who hib = 350ish.. heh..

Sounds like a regular night on eu cluster ;p

 

[QuickStix]

Good Armsman are still beating maulers 1v1 comfortably.

speaking from a classic view.. dps is whats needed to drop a mauler.. stun+dps = dead mauler.. unless he purges ofc.. but armsman do v well against me... where as most other classes die..

i hada fight with a rr11 pally other day i was on 80% and pally 15% before some adds came and finished pally off also beat a rr6 reaver who ip'd and i was left on 95% .. and my maulers only rr3 atm

 

[Flimgoblin]

Also, they have quite a few ranged interrupt toys - i had a few goes on my Eldie in solo vs some - most of them have at least a blue con insta-pbaoe snare, a blue con pulsing ranged castable snare, and a CAE 1000 range root as well as a casting time debuff. If they purge that stun it gets unpleasent fast I wouldnt mess with them on any nuker without lifetap or a stun though...

Hrm, coulda sworn everything was sub 500 range in beta... but checking delves on pendragon it's 700 for the focus snare and 1000 for the cone (though it's on a 10m timer)... the taps are 500 range so must have been that I was thinking of. Still that's one spell at 1000 range every 10m...

The chants are nasty if they get close but they're chant range (ala reavers). Keep >1000 distance and you should be able to toast them at will, they're good inside the labyrinth/closed though where it's hard to keep your distance.

Might have just been the RR differences or the crap suit I was wearing on pendragon but in beta any hib caster would vapourise me before I could get near enough to snare them never mind anything else.... Then again they do have stun as you said

Edit:
I have to say all my RvR thoughts are from conjecture and a couple of tiny fights in the labyrinth - pendragon doesn't do RvR a mauler with purge 3 will be scary but if you get the same amount of RA's on a caster... I'm not convinced they'll be a danger to most current casters unless you get the drop on them at close range. MoCLifetap/stun nuke and/or possibly an intercepting pet... Wiz/theurg/runemaster beware I suppose

 

[Everz]

Sounds like a regular night on eu cluster ;p

yeh,but there the pop is mid>hib>alb.. with mids having double the pop of alb.

 

[QuickStix]

Re:Bainshees - In all honesty its not as bad as most of the bainshee players made out. Theyre still in the upper echelons of the caster foodchain - its just harder to do a lot of the questionable things you could do with them before.

Re:Maulers - They mainly hit as hard as a LT due to being able to debuff to matter damage from the FW's. Their base damage is nice but not spectacular - but the gimped matter in most peoples templates combined with the debuff means pretty much 0% resists for some vs the FW dps.

Also, they have quite a few ranged interrupt toys - i had a few goes on my Eldie in solo vs some - most of them have at least a blue con insta-pbaoe snare, a blue con pulsing ranged castable snare, and a CAE 1000 range root as well as a casting time debuff. If they purge that stun it gets unpleasent fast I wouldnt mess with them on any nuker without lifetap or a stun though...

Suffice to say once a few get purge 3 its going to be messy to try and solo them.

PS Tics get my vote as damn good group chars, shame most groups have no idea just how good they can be as they dont use them

HARDLY ANY maulers go high enough to get the matter debuff.. most go for 50 fw.. the pheonix strike proc is VERY NICE!! and lots of aura for self buff/abs/hots/evade only knwo of one matter debuff mauler on gareth and he ONLY went that spec cos he bridge camps with a WL pb grp so debuffs for em.

 

[QuickStix]

Hrm, coulda sworn everything was sub 500 range in beta... but checking delves on pendragon it's 700 for the focus snare and 1000 for the cone (though it's on a 10m timer)... the taps are 500 range so must have been that I was thinking of. Still that's one spell at 1000 range every 10m...

The chants are nasty if they get close but they're chant range (ala reavers). Keep >1000 distance and you should be able to toast them at will, they're good inside the labyrinth/closed though where it's hard to keep your distance.

Might have just been the RR differences or the crap suit I was wearing on pendragon but in beta any hib caster would vapourise me before I could get near enough to snare them never mind anything else.... Then again they do have stun as you said

Edit:
I have to say all my RvR thoughts are from conjecture and a couple of tiny fights in the labyrinth - pendragon doesn't do RvR a mauler with purge 3 will be scary but if you get the same amount of RA's on a caster... I'm not convinced they'll be a danger to most current casters unless you get the drop on them at close range. MoCLifetap/stun nuke and/or possibly an intercepting pet... Wiz/theurg/runemaster beware I suppose

IMO on toa cluster any decent templated fully buffed caster will tear a mauler a new arse... yes the hots r good.. but they wont keep a mauler alive if anything with high dps is hitting it.

 

[Flimgoblin]

IMO on toa cluster any decent templated fully buffed caster will tear a mauler a new arse... yes the hots r good.. but they wont keep a mauler alive if anything with high dps is hitting it.

that was my experience in beta but as I said - tiny population and I had a far from perfect suit.