To Anyone Planning Epic Raids In Albion (SPOILERS!!!!)

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Here's the Albion Encounters Guide (Version 0.1):

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=45888307

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Albion Encounters Guide, Version 0.1

First off, this is a work in progress, so bear with me. Second, there may be minor errors in this document – even Team Leads do not have complete access to all information. Finally, for the suggested number of players for an encounter (and other issues, such as tactics), some of you will disagree with me – that’s fine. Different servers will have different tactics, different equipment available, etc. and the numbers required for any specific monster cannot be completely predicted.

This document was copied and pasted from Microsoft Word, so the format may be unclear in certain locations.

Certain areas will be missing from the first versions of this report. This is primarily because I feel these areas are inefficient compared to other areas in the game, or I have not yet explored them enough that I feel confident in making a comment on their Encounters. Feedback on this document or information on zones I haven’t explored (or monsters not listed that should be) is welcome. I am avoiding tactics that are “exploits” of bugs or the like, so those will not be listed in this document.

I will primarily be covering “Epic Encounters” in Albion, however, some cross-realm Encounters will be discussed as well if these monsters can be targeted by Albion. At a later time, it is possible that strategies for lower level monsters and encounters will be added to this document if there is an interest in them.

There a lot of “spoilers” in this document. If a player wishes to discover the methods of fighting certain monsters on their own, I would highly suggest they do not read this, especially for the Shrouded Isles areas. Monster names in bold indicate I consider the monster to be a difficult Epic, usually harder than Legion.

General Tactics
These tactics have served me well in the past, and some may apply to all three realms.

Relog Pulling: This tactic, almost essential in the new Epic Dungeons, is something I came across when first hunting Callieach Urgaig before the Epic Armor Quests were put in. While many others probably used this tactic before I did, it’s become something that I’ve used very frequently in my raids since my own personal discovery. Essentially, if a person disbands and logs off between pulls, they will almost always get a single monster on a pull, even with BAF (Bring a Friend) mobs. If someone casts a healing spell on the puller, invites them to the group, or attacks the monster target immediately, the BAF code could be triggered. Also, if the puller is killed, this tends to serve the same purpose as relogging as long as the player is not healed after they are resurrected. For this reason, it’s often good to have a dedicated healer with 100% resurrect for the puller.

Focus Damage Shields: Cabalists (and other focus casters in other realms) are extremely effective against Epic Monsters if they can get the monster to aggro on their pet. With a high spec in the focus damage shield, the damage dealt per hit can be quite impressive. Having one or more dedicated buffers/healers for the pet is often necessary if this tactic is being used.

“Zerging”: Believe it or not, there is some tactical basis for what many players call “Zerging”. Why? Each attacker, regardless of level, class, or the like contributes to a “# of attackers count” which determines how difficult a monster is to hit at any given time. For example, when fighting Legion, a single group would have an extremely difficult time constantly landing melee attacks or spells, while a 50 person raid would have a easier time, and a 100 person raid an even easier time. There is often a “threshold” for a number of attackers virtually “required” to hit a monster, generally based on that monster’s level more than anything else. This is why Beliathan (AKA “The Worm in DF”) used to require a massive number of people to hit, but once that number of people was reached, his difficulty was marginal at best. His level was set far higher than the rest of his difficulty, and as such, any large group of players would kill him easily, but a smaller group would find him to be “invincible”.

Theurgist Pet Spam: For the reasons outlined in “Zerging”, above, Theurgists have a great deal to contribute to any epic raid. Their ability to rapidly summon more attackers can turn a nearly impossible fight into an easy one, since a few theurgists can easily add 15-20 extra attackers for a limited duration.

Ressurection Groups: For large-scale raids, having a “Resurrection Group” can be extremely helpful. These groups do not fight, they simply resurrect fallen players during and/or after the battle, depending on the situation. In some cases, these groups are just for resurrection post wipeouts, in other cases they are made to rapidly resurrect players during combat. Most resurrection groups are primarily composed of high rejuvenation clerics, for obvious reasons, and contain a minstrel (or now, a Sorcerer) for power regeneration. Necromancers can also be extremely useful in this setup, for power transfer. Sometimes, a tank will /duel a necromancer and allow them to powertap them in order to regain power for power transfer – I’m not entirely sure if this is considered a legitimate “tactic” or an “exploit” at this point in time, however. =)

Debuffs: Any debuffing spell, if successfully cast, is a major advantage in an Epic Monster fight. This is especially true of the Necromancer “Armor Factor Debuff” spells, since hit rate and damage are often so low in Epic Encounters.

Avoiding Parry: Many Epic Monsters, including Bellum (the second horseman in Caer Sidi), Mordred (in Llyn Barfog), and the Grand Summoner (in the Summoner’s Hall) have an extremely high parry rate. Simple solution – stand behind them. This will decrease or negate their parry rate.

Aggro Management/Aggro Groups: Most fights are much easier if you can keep the target monster on a specific player. The best candidate for this tends to be a defensively speced Paladin, but defensive Armsmen and two-handed paladins can also work. One effective group for aggro management would be: Defensive Paladin, Two Earth Theurgists (stacking PBT), One Minstrel (Ablative/Power), Defensive Armsman (Guards the Paladin), Three Rejuvenation Clerics. Your mileage may vary. Necromancer absorption buffs are also helpful. In many cases, it can be helpful to have this “Aggro Group” attack the target for several seconds before the main group in order to insure the Paladin or Armsman gets aggro.

 

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Albion Mainland Encounters

Dartmoor: While this was considered to be one of the three “Epic Zones” at release, the difficulty is now sub-par compared to more recent areas. The loot was marginal at best until the most recent patch, 1.60, which increased the Bonus % on old area loot significantly. If you’re looking for easy to obtain level 50, 35% bonus items, these should be available in Dartmoor now. Most items are only 90% quality, however, so larger groups wouldn’t have much to gain.

Moran the Mighty: Moran isn’t terribly difficult anymore, especially considering the fact that he is rarely killed outside of dragon raids. Nevertheless, if someone would like to fight him outside one of these raids, he does drop 0-2 items on a moderately frequent basis. One to two groups of level 50s are probably quite enough for this encounter. It’s easiest to use a relog puller and get the adds first, then focus on Moran.

“Standard” Dartmoor Named Monsters: These monsters are usually slightly more difficult than a non-named of their type, and drop a single random Dartmoor item. Beyond that, they do not appear to have any unusual qualities.

Golestandt: This is the final boss of Dartmoor, and the Mainland dragon for Albion. I have had more failures than successes against Golestandt, however, most of my raids were not recent by any standards (most were before there were Realm Abilities or Epic Armor, for example). My successes (I’ve had four) had a number of players ranging between 125 and 160. In the case of one of my smaller raids, we also had almost all of the relics. I have not run any raids on Golestandt since the recent decrease in Epic Monster resistances, but he did seem significantly easier to affect on the raids I attended after this time.

General Tactics to use: Resurrection Groups, Debuffs, Zerging, Pet Spam.
Specific Tactics to use: Golestandt will patrol approximately once per hour (this number may be way off, I haven’t sat around and observed it). During this time, he will come near several of the entrances of his “Keep”, so be sure to try to avoid those areas. This is a good time to try to clear the giants inside his keep – there are typically four, one in each of the four corners. The four entrances to his keep are in the center of each of the directional sides, so they aren’t hard to find. I typically place one group at the north side, and divide my forces evenly over the other three entrances. When the giants are clear, I have the north side charge first.
The north side is simply a distraction to draw aggro, and potentially eat the breath weapon. The chance to use the breath weapon seems highest on the initial approach, since Golestandt tends to breathe more frequently when the target he aggro on is at range. Balena observed this on the Guinevere server, and it seems to hold true. All players should be charging into melee range of the dragon, but they should not all be meleeing. Characters can do whatever they please – the rumors of spellcasting, archery, and the like triggering dragon breath are false. These seem to have primarily sprung from the fact that Golestandt does seem to use his breath more when targeting someone at range, and typically spellcasters and archers attack at a distance. As such, procing weapons do not necessarily need to be avoided. Last I checked, heat damage does not heal Golestandt, but it isn’t terribly effective either.
If possible, most of the fighting should be taking place under Golestandt, or behind him from within melee range. Pet Spam is extremely helpful for increasing hit rate and giving Golestandt additional melee targets. The way his breath weapon is coded now, I’m fairly sure he’ll still use it in melee, just infrequently. Constantly moving seems to lessen the damage from his breath weapon, as you will typically be transitioning in and out of range. Golestandt also has several other special abilities. Throwing players into the air will deal them falling damage, and is typically the least deadly. Golestandt also teleports players to nearby areas of the zone fairly frequently now – this is an annoyance as well as a potential problem if Golestandt re-aggroes on these players as they charge in, since this may trigger another use of his breath weapon.
At low health, Golestandt frequently uses a Point Blank Area of Effect (PBAOE) stun spell, which will stun all attackers in melee range for about thirty seconds. Purge is an effective counter, if available. He also calls for help – I would highly suggest that if he calls Giants, they are cleared first, as their damage dealing capabilities are high and they will fall much faster than Golestandt himself.
Rewards: Four 100% Quality “Dragon Items”, Twelve “Normal” Dartmoor items, and 50 Respec Stones.


Lyonesse: Another of the “Old” zones, this area benefits from the same loot upgrade as Dartmoor, as well as some new monsters for standard hunting. The “trees” and “pygmy goblin” camps here are extremely popular for hunting at high levels. The loot in the zone is of comparable quality to Dartmoor, as they were itemized simultaneously. Overall, due to how well the spawns are spread out and how easily controlled and predicted the BAF can be, this can be an excellent zone to hunt in for experience.

Callieach Urgaig: I consider this to be a “fun” encounter. It’s used for one of the Epic Quests now, and her drop rate seems to have been decreased since that time. Callieach is usually a one to two group encounter, with less players necessary if Relog pulling is used. Typically, she can be pulled alone if one side of the area she is in is pulled before she is. She calls for help at low health, however, and this can be extremely painful for a small group of players. In addition, the four pillars surrounding her will shoot fireballs from the top. These fireballs deal low damage, and are supposedly something from her father, Mithras, to protect her.
Rewards for Callieach Urgaig: Celestial Cailiondar armor, which pre-Epic, was some of the best in the game. The armor AF100, with 94% quality and excellent statistics, however, she only drops Breastplates. Pre-Epic, she had a drop rate of about 50% overall. Presumably, the Bonus% on these items has now been increased to 35% from 25%, but I can’t confirm that yet.

Sister Blythe: Not much outstanding about this mob, just be well aware she hits like a truck (700+ per hit, if I recall). No unique loot at the time that I hunted her, but she may be itemized by now. She is also part of an Epic Quest.

Llyn Barfog: There are six “Epic Monsters” in Llyn Barfog, all of which are fairly easy by current standards. There also are several high level places to hunt now, with loot comparable to Dartmoor and Lyonesse, but with “Charges” on the weapons.

Mouth: One of the easier Epic Monsters, but they seem to have a large spawn level range or some other variable that affects their difficulty somewhat.

King of Barfog Hills: Generally considered to be the easiest of the “Barfog Epics”.

Fester: Fester has a fast attack rate, but low health. They typically drop mage items, such as cloth and focus staves.

Teaz—(Can’t remember the spelling =P): High defense and damage, slow attack rate. Moderate overall difficulty.

Afanc: Afanc is the second hardest “Epic Monster” in Llyn Barfog, and while even a small group or even a duo or trio with a Cabalist focus damage shield can easily defeat most of the other monsters, Afanc typically works best with a full group. Their melee damage is extremely high (over a thousand), which makes healing and pet damage shield tactics difficult in many cases.

Wrath of Mordred: Mordred is the most difficult “Epic Monster” in Llyn Barfog. He parries, frequently “double hits”, and procs a direct damage spell for approximately 800 damage. These factors mean that the cabalist focus damage shield isn’t terribly effective. Depending on how difficult Mordred’s current spawn is, one group or more is suggested.
Rewards: Seems to be about a 50%+ chance of dropping a single item for the first four Epics, with a slightly higher chance for Mordred and Afanc, and chance for Mordred and Afanc to drop two (or possibly even three) items. Afanc’s loot seems to be randomly chosen from the loot tables of all of the other Epics, as well as a few items of his own, particularly cloaks. Mordred drops Plate Mail and two-handed weapons. Note that Llyn Barfog weapons lack particle effects, making them less attractive than Dartmoor or Darkness Falls ones. All Barfog Epic items are 93% Quality, and pre-1.60, they were 30% bonus. Presumably, this bonus % has been increased to 35% now.

 

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Halls of the Corrupt: This area has items created by the Random Object Generator (ROG) system. As such, the loot Quality and Bonus% are unreliable, but potentially powerful items are possible. Statistics on the items also many not be optimum, as you may find statistics meant for more than one character class on any given item. The zone’s difficulty is moderate, and it is primarily meant as a method of reaching the other “RvR Dungeons” and the central area between them, the “Summoner’s Hall”.

Archwizard: A fairly difficult boss, good for about two groups, in my experience. During the fight, he will split and make weaker duplicates of himself. Only the real wizard will drop items, however.
Rewards: Fairly mediocre. Not sure what the quality is if he has any unique drops, I only remember seeing ROG items.

Summoner’s Hall: I don’t know this area well enough to really comment at this time.

Grand Summoner: Quite difficult, a good fight for approximately four to five full groups. Since his aggro can be held on a single target, it’s possible to kill him with fewer players, but much more time consuming. He will change his form when he loses about 35% of his health, but this change appears to primarily be cosmetic. He parries, so it’s good to keep most attackers behind him. He is also capable of healing himself and a few other minor spells.
Rewards: The Grand Summoner’s item drops are 93% quality – not sufficient to be worth the effort, in my opinion. The Grand Summoner’s Silken Mantle, his cloak, is one of the best in the game, however. This item alone makes hunting him worthwhile in many cases.

Pennine Mountains: A fairly good hunting area in the Albion frontier. The drop quality tends to be 89%, which is mediocre at best for high levels, but the experience is pretty good and the area has some interesting monsters. Good for variety, and protecting the keeps there, but not the best hunting zone in Albion overall. Hadrian’s Wall is a similar story.

Ellyl Lord: This is an Epic Quest monster, and he doesn’t seem to have much other use or reward. Ellyls do have a particle effect longsword that they occasionally drop, however, and a few other items. This particular named is best handled with at least one full group, since there can be massive BAF in the area. Relog pulling may be possible, but it’s difficult due to the respawn rate in the area.

Green Knight: Though he is technically in Forest Sauvage, this monster is on the zone border between the zones and actually moves between them during combat. The difficulty equivalent of the Glacier Giant and Evern, he’s quite difficult, and probably requires about the same number of people as the Grand Summoner. Due to his high melee damage, speed, and styles, the fatality rate will probably be higher, however. The Green Knight teleports fairly frequently, making combat that much more confusing. He also summons trees, which typically con yellow at level 50, and casts a low damage heat Area of Effect Spell. He is capable of healing himself, and parries quite frequently. Overall, a fairly difficult encounter, but he is easily accessible from the mainland. This makes him much more convenient to gather people for than most Epic Monsters.
Rewards for the Green Knight: The Green Knight drops Quality 93% gear, with particle effects for the weapons. This is not necessarily sufficient for the difficulty of his encounter, but probably necessary to balance how easy he is to reach from the mainland.


Darkness Falls
Since this is not technically an Albion zone, I’ve chosen to give the area its own section. There are also some very unique aspects of Darkness Falls worth mentioning, especially in terms of item availability. First off, the items purchased with Diamond Seals from this zone are 91% Quality and 30% Bonus, which makes them superior in Quality to standard level 50 drops, but inferior in Bonus due to the recent increase in Bonus percentages.
The items from the Princes and High Lords in Darkness Falls, however, are fairly easily obtainable, and they should be Quality 94% and Bonus 35% now – significantly above even that of Llyn Barfog’s Epics, the Grand Summoner, or the Green Knight. In addition, the majority of these weapons also have procs and particle effects. This makes hunting in Darkness Falls extremely efficient, due to the low number of players required to obtain moderately high quality loot. High Lords tend to drop about two items and seals, Princes tend to drop three.

Albion Prince: A fairly “straight fight”, though you can get a lot of adds if Relog pulling is not used. One to two groups of level 50 characters should be sufficient depending on group makeup and tactics used, but three is safer.

Midgard Prince: I tend to find this prince somewhat harder, since he uses pets, and they can kill off a main tank much more easily than the other princes if they are all on the same target. That being said, I would suggest about two groups for this guy. His bridge area is the easiest, but it appears to have the fastest respawn rate.

Hibernian Prince: This prince has the hardest bridge area, and there are two possible paths to the Prince on it, which can cause groups to get split up a bit if there isn’t a clear leader.

Beliathan: This worm is still significantly harder than the princes, but now that he’s been decreased in level, he can be taken safely with about four to five groups. His loot is a bit better than Princes – 95% quality weapons and such, as well as some excellent bracers with very high resistances. (Wormskin Wraps, with +8% to three resistances and about 22 con, if I recall)

High Lord A (Iro or something?): Can’t remember the name offhand, you’ll know him when you see him. =) This boss has two illusionary duplicates of himself, which deal damage and such, but do not drop items. They are significantly weaker than the actual boss himself. He’s roughly comparable in difficulty to the Princes.

High Lord B: Alright, I’m not very good with names. The second high lord is a fairly standard fight – I’ve never noticed anything particularly outstanding about this guy.

High Lord Baln: Big demon guy. Little bit harder than the previous two High Lords, and he uses a Point Blank Area of Effect attack sometimes.

High Lord Saeor: This “vampire” type boss attacks fairly quickly and for high damage, as well as regaining life whenever they kill a player, making them the most difficult of the four high lords.

Grand Chancellor: Just a standard melee boss, really. They drop prince quality loot, and guard the entrance to Legion’s chamber.

Legion: The final boss of the dungeon. Legion can be defeated by as few as about three groups, but this takes an incredibly long period of time in most cases, and I would suggest a group of about fifty players in order to get the best multiple attacker bonuses possible.
Standard Tactics: Theurgist pet spam, Debuffs, Resurrection Groups, Aggro Management.
Specific Tactics: I generally send in one group initially to draw Legion’s aggro onto the main tank. This should be done as soon as the rest of the room is cleared, to prevent an early respawn. Legion melees for up to about 800 damage, which isn’t horrible considering you can block some of it with block, guard, PBT, etc. This is especially important because Legion regains health whenever he kills a player, thus making the fight much slower if he is allowed to attack freely. Legion occasionally teleports a group into the Behemoth’s chamber – this group of players, who are seemingly randomly selected, should run across the room to the portal on the other side to be teleported back to Legion’s chamber. Behemoth is invincible, and hits for a ton of damage, so don’t try to play with him. The clinging monsters in Behemoth’s room also root, so be careful. If there is a respawn, I would highly suggest the lesser monsters are killed first, since Legion himself can be easily controlled into hitting a specific target, and the rest of the monsters pose a greater thret. Legion’s main challenge is simply to outlast him, due to his strong defensive capabilities and the ability to regain health after a kill.
Rewards:Legion drops four 100% Quality items, Eight Prince-Quality items, and a lot of seals (what, 500?). The 100% Quality items have a fairly low spellcrafting value, but their particle effects are often quite spectacular. Legion’s one-handed sword, the Ensorcelled Blade of Power, looks like a “lightsabre” and is often considered extremely valuable. Overall, he is the easiest mainland monster to kill for 100% Quality drops, if not the easiest one overall.

 

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Shrouded Isles
Shrouded Isles areas in general have Random Object Generator equipment, of higher quality than the items available in the “RvR Dungeons”. This makes them excellent to hunt in overall, especially when a large “raid” type group is not available.

Gwyddneau: This zone, which borders Aldland and Caldey, has a bit of each of them. There are several types of monsters here, so it can be very interesting due to the variety available. It’s also the location of Clifton, the Lammia city. This is a faction town, and you can gain enough faction to shop there by hunting Orcs, Drakoran, and Undead.

Self-Proclaimed King Dulgar: Getting to this boss is fairly difficult, due to the line of sight issues in the area, and I do not feel his drops are currently worth the effort. He is a pure melee boss, as far as I can tell, and he seems to be a good fight for about two groups of level 50s (due to the adds in the area). I’ve only seen low quality ROG drops from him so far.

Colialt: Colialt is an extremely powerful lich, and probably comparable to Legion in difficulty. I’ve only killed him during Beta, so I don’t know what his item drops are. He has been imprisoned by the Lammias, but he grows powerful enough to free himself at midnight each night and attacks the Lammias. If you have high enough faction, you can fight on the side of the Lammias against his undead minions here and have an easier time overall. Otherwise, he will continue spawning minions and kill all the Lammias. The hard part here is that Colialt is totally invulnerable from Midnight to 6:00AM, at which point you have a small window to kill him. Again, this is easier if you can keep the Lammias alive, but that’s not completely necessary.

Dales of Devwy:
Tower Keeper & Tower Guardian: These are fairly easy monsters, even for a small group, but they are listed here because they drop Epic quality equipment. Most of their items are approximately 95% Quality, which is very hard to find in the old world.

Cabalist Meical: This “Boss” generally requires a full group of eight. He parries and casts some spells, and the other monsters in the room will help him.

Ris’Nir Cruss: A fairly powerful Drakoran, who uses lightning PBAOE attacks and casts area of effect mezz spells occasionally. His offense is quite strong overall, and he’s a good fight for about two groups of 50s.

Valnir Modreth: Valnir is a powerful lich, usually requiring at least two groups of level 50s, if not significantly more. His essence ghouls need to be targeted first. Beyond that, this guy is still pretty nasty overall – he uses lifetaps and other spells, which make him much more difficult to kill overall.

Aldland: In my (limited) experience, this seems to be a fairly good area for faction based hunting, but there isn’t much by way of epic encounters.

Krondon: I’m not familiar with the drops in this dungeon, as it was not itemized when I hunted there in Beta. The only boss I’ve killed during live is Scurceol Hyrde, who seems to drop about two items, and is the boss for the Ogre’s Might quest. Most of the bosses, with the exception of Scurceol and Orylle, can be taken down with only a few groups of players.

Scurceol Hyrde – One of the two main bosses of this dungeon. I would suggest about fifty players in order to be able to get a reasonable hit rate, because the level of the Nodes, which must be destroyed, is quite high. There are four Nodes, and while they are around, Scurceol is invulnerable. Pet spam and such are very effective. The nodes are stationary, and “fight” by throwing players into the air and using similar attacks. /stick will help minimize the falling damage you take. Once the four nodes are cleared, Scurceol can be harmed.

Beran the Supply Master – This ogre ignites the barrels around the room, causing sections of the room to explode and deal damage to players in that area. Not very difficult overall.

Morgus Urgalorg – This guy is an ogre wizard, who is training several other ogre wizards. No specific tactics seem to be necessary.

Orylle and Orshom Brong – Orshom and Orylle are both very powerful. Orshrom can generally be pulled first and fought separately, at least for a while, which makes things much easier. I’d suggest at least 50 or more players for this encounter. The fire that Orshom keeps lit can be put out by ice damage, which makes Orylle significantly less dangerous, since throwing players in the fire is one of her most frequent attacks. They both parry, so those tactics apply. Pet spam, Debuffs, etc. will probably be helpful for Orylle. Aggro management will be difficult, as Orylle has simply massive melee damage.

Fuladl – A named blob, which splits into several smaller blobs when attacked. The main monster has high defensive abilities, so the adds should be taken out first.

Deben se Gyende – A military commander, who commands several ogre fighters and mages. The AI in this encounter is excellent, and as such, it may be wise to Relog pull as many of his guards as possible before aggroing the boss and starting the main fight.

Fulafeallan - Another named blob, which splits into several smaller blobs when attacked. The main monster has high defensive abilities, so the adds should be taken out first.

Lurfos the Herald – He is a fairly strong attacker, who is capable of putting fire and ice effects onto his weapon for additional attacking power. Not horribly difficult, but interesting.

Ulor and Jehrog se Bysen – These are two ogres that work in tandem. Ulor casts offensive magic, while Jehrog melees. It would be wise to pet spam and attack Ulor first, then target Jehrog.

Krevo Ricik – Nothing really significant that I remember about this fight.

Drihten Elreden – This is an ogre friar, and he uses a significant number of styles. His students will stand by and watch, for the most part, so you don’t necessarily have to attack them immediately. Just be careful for potential adds, and you should be fine.

 

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Avalon City: There are five major bosses in this zone, each of which corresponds to one of the five Drakoran clans. By targeting one specific clan, you can gain faction with one other clan, and thereby be safe in a small part of the city. In addition to this safety, I suspect the clan leaders may give quests at some point in time. The Crystal Caves are under this zone. I haven’t seen anything other than ROG items here yet, but the bosses tend to drop good quality ROG.

Dra'argus the Mighty: Probably the hardest of the Avalon City bosses. In order to harm this boss, you must first destroy the powerful Orb upstairs in his building; he is invulnerable until after this happens. Be wary, if you destroy the orb and do not quickly assault Dra’argus, he will flee and disappear. The Orb is the real danger, due to its powerful fire PBAOE. I would suggest 40-50 players for this encounter, if not more.

Weno'iak the Enlightened: He has some lightning effects and such that deal extra damage, but this is essentially a straight fight as far as I remember.

Sys'sro the Ruthless: Easiest one, as far as I recall. One solid group can take him if they hug the wall and don’t aggro adds. He throws players into the pit in his area, so be very careful. Resurrect fallen players from outside the pit. Clearing his area before you fight him is possible, and probably helpful.

Dura'ek the Empowered: His adds can be cleared before the fight, except for the last two. A fairly straight fight otherwise.

Vera'erius the Brave: Vera’erius is an interesting encounter, because there are two main ways to fight him. The first would be to treat him like a standard fight, and simply attack with everything as normal. The second option is to fight “honorably” as he asks, and only use melee attacks, buffs, and healing. The second way will prevent any of his adds from attacking, making that part significantly easier. If anyone retreats outside his tower, however, or casts the wrong type of spell, you’ll get several powerful adds. In order to use the second method, you’ll have to be very careful, but it should be worth the effort if you can coordinate it.

Crystal Caves: Your average Avalon group is not going to want to wander in here. There are three Elites as soon as you walk in, the center one being a roaming mob. If you’re a bit unlucky, you may get aggro the moment you walk in, and each of these monsters is nearly as powerful as Legion. There are only about eleven mobs here, total (ten Elites and Xanxicar, more if you count what Xanxicar calls for help), so it’s not a “hunting” zone.

Xanxicaran Elites: These are essentially level 75+ Reavers. They use Reaver chants, hit for massive damage, and take massive damage to kill. They drop ROG items on occasion as well.

Xanxicar: The destroyer of Avalon himself. This is one of the hardest bosses in the expansion, and the Dragon of Albion SI. I would suggest a raid of well over a hundred players to fight him.
General Tactics to use: Resurrection Groups, Debuffs, Zerging, Pet Spam.
Specific Tactics: Xanxicar is a Lightning dragon, and thus, get high energy resistances. He appears to be weak to Spirit damage, so smite and the like are effective. He calls for help at approximately 50% health, and throws much more frequently than Golestandt. His Breath Weapon is a PBAOE, making it horribly dangerous. He broadcasts that he is stomping the ground before PBAOEing, so run away when he does that if possible. His melee damage is low enough that you could keep him on a single tank if they were capable of getting his attention. After Xanxicar is killed, get the loot and run, or you’re in for a surprise. Like other high level monsters, pet spam is almost a must here, especially as the fight draws to a close. The call for help will often distract many of your attackers, and as such, you will need the pet spam to prevent him from regenerating.
Rewards: Two ROG items. Not nearly enough, in my opinion.

Caldey:
Vortanos: A moderately powerful Lich. He’s not really intended to be a boss for level 50s, but it still would take a small group of them or a larger group of lower levels to take him down. Excellent loot for his challenge, he tends to have 95% Quality items.

Amphiptere(s): These creatures are all different, and they seem to correspond to the four elements. Each of them will cast different spells. I would suggest a full group of level 50s for each of these.

Caer Sidi: Caer Sidi is the “Epic Dungeon” for Albion, and located inside Caldey. It is intended for very large groups of players, however, as few as three full groups can generally fight the first bosses. There are fifteen Epic Bosses inside, so be ready for a long night. The respawn time in Caer Sidi is 8-10 hours after the first Keylord (the weakest type of boss) is killed, and the whole place respawns at once, so moving through is a race against the clock. To be safe, I suggest having two to three dedicated Relog pullers to pull the monsters continuously as your progress through the dungeon.
Keylords:
Skeletal S.: This boss calls for help and runs away at high speed – that’s about it. If you’ve cleared his whole area beforehand, you’re safe. Try to wall him between two groups, so he keeps turning around and gets stuck. I suggest two groups minimum.

Spectral Provisioner: This guy actually fights back, but he’s not too difficult. He will drop items in your backpack to encumber you and run away sometimes, so make sure you watch your backpacks. I suggest at least three groups.

Lich Lord Irion: This boss is far harder than the previous two, and probably harder than the next several as well, in my experience. I suggest you keep your raid at the central staircase until the pullers have brought over everything except the boss. When the boss fight begins, Irion will create several duplicates of himself, all of which will attack. If the real Irion (who will appear solid, and the others ghostly) is killed, they will all die. This can be difficult, however, since selecting them can be hard in a small area, so assisting the leader here is a must. Also, this boss will cast Area of Effect mezz spells, which can make the fight much more difficult. I suggest at least four to five groups.

Warlord D.: This is a straight melee fight. The boss does significant damage and has quite a few hit points, and he also parries. This encounter is similar to a harder version of the Wrath of Mordred fight in Llyn Barfog overall.

Silencer: This ooze boss adapts to damage types. If that damage type is used, the Silencer will teleport the offender to a pit nearby. I suggest that the pit is cleared before you enter this area, to make the teleportation much safer. Due to his high level, this can often require a large number of people, but Silencer’s offensive capabilities are generally unimpressive. Four to five groups is fine.

Bane of Hope: The Bane of Hope is another straightforward melee fight, however, they will teleport to another area nearby when heavily wounded and regenerate, which can make the fight much longer in duration if you do not have players ready in several locations. Three to four groups could probably take this guy down without difficulty.

Lich Lord Sanguis: This boss begins as a Archwizard, but when you kill him, several adds will spawn and the Archwizard will respawn as the Lich Lord. This boss parries, and he is vulnerable to crush and thrust, but strong to slash and most magic types. At least four groups is probably a good idea.

Crypt Lord: This boss isn’t very difficult, but you will get massive numbers of adds in the area if you do not clear all of it before you get his aggro. This has the potential to be very dangerous. The boss himself simply melees for moderate damage.

Soul Reckoner: Similar to the Crypt Lord in terms of adds, however, this boss fights very differently. There are several Reckoned Souls surrounding the boss, and these must be killed before he becomes vulnerable to attack. He seems to gain life back when killing players, much like Legion, or he simply has a high regeneration rate.

The Host: The Host is actually several separate powerful mobs that travel as a group. If any one of them is killed, they all die, but they all fight together and are quite powerful. If you don’t clear the entire area before aggroing the Host, you can get some rather impressive aggro in this area.
Rewards: One 100% Quality item per Keylord, plus random drops. These drops are very powerful, some of which are better than Epic class-specific armor. Almost all the weapons have particle effects as well. If a full suit of the class specific armor is obtained, one can wear one of the powerful necklaces from Apocalypse (see below). Each Keylord has their own specific drops, as well as some of the class armor.

 

[Pin]

Horsemen
If you intend to take on the Horsemen, I suggest you get reinforcements beforehand unless you have a very large group of players already. Remember, the respawn should be eight to ten hours after the first Keylord (Skeletal S.) was killed. When entering the Horsmen’s room, the encounter will trigger, and they will begin a speech. Respond to their question, and the Horsemen will prepare to fight. You will be given about a minute between each Horseman to prepare – they are invincible during this time.

First Horseman (Fames): Simple melee fight, and the easiest of the Horsemen.

Second Horseman (Bellum): Bellum immediately summons several animated weapons, which are extremely deadly. Kill Bellum as fast as possible and the adds will disappear. I suggest at least six groups from this point on.

Third Horseman (Morbus): When Morbus attacks, he will create several adds. Unlike with Bellum, you must kill these adds before you can harm Morbus. Fortuantely, their attacks are not quite as bad as the adds from Bellum. Assist here and all should go well.

Fourth Horsman (Funus): This boss can only be harmed by clerics, all other character classes instantly restore him to full health if they attack.
Rewards: Two 100% quality drops per Horseman, including some that cannot be found on the Keylords.

Apocalypse

Apocalypse may well be the single hardest boss in the game, since the other Epic Dungeon Bosses are designed differently. As such, at least a dragon-sized raid is probably required. Due to Apocalypse’s extremely high level, a minimum of about 100 people is required simply to have a reasonable hit rate on him, so any amount of strategy will not get a raid very far without at least 70-100 players. The lowest number I have killed Apocalypse with on a live server is 105.
General Strategies: Pet Spam, Debuffs (especially AF), Zerging, Avoiding Parry, Aggro Management.
Specific Strategies: When the fight begins, Apocalypse will fly up and cause fire to rain from the ceiling. This will persist for the duration of the battle. When four (?) players have been killed, Harbringers of Fate will begin to spawn. These powerful creatures should be taken down before Apocalypse is, as they have much less health and almost as great of attack power. A total of four Harbringers will spawn, two at a time. For Apocalypse himself, holding his aggro on a single tank is possible, but unlikely. Just try to keep as many attackers on him as possible at all times, and keep him debuffed and pet spammed. I do not suggest resurrection groups here, as they will decrease the number of attackers, and there’s no real way to resurrect after a failure here. Apocalypse teleports characters who move too far away into the center of the room, so don’t run away. Good luck.
Rewards:Three to four 100% quality items, with the highest imbue point values in the game (aside from the other Epic Dungeon final bosses for Midgard and Hibernia). Apocalypse has several powerful weapons, the class-specific breastplates for Caer Sidi, and several necklaces that are essentially the most powerful items in the realm. These necklaces require a full suit of the class-specific armor to use, but provide the wearer with unlimited charges of a powerful buff (such as 75 points of strength/constitution or permanent power regeneration.)


I hope this has been helpful. If anyone has additions or comments, feel free to send me a private message, and I’ll try to keep this document updated. I hope you find this document helpful.

 

[**Aligro**]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeet

 

[Trinilim]

a mob that can only be damaged by clerics...

ROFL!

Mythic nerfs smite clerics and now they're needed

 

[Khalen]

Nice one Pin, LOADS of info in this post

 

[Arnor]

Great post, now make one for mid too! :whip:

 

[old.krane]

nice one pin

really usefull

 

[Aussie-]

yeah nice c/p work :great:

 

[Trubble]

really great, please make it a sticky.

 

[trailblazer]

Fantastic post mate!

See, its this type of thing that makes this game so great. Even after you achieve level 50, there is a plethora of things to do.

And thank you for opening my eyes, I had no idea there were so many epic monsters!

Once again, good job on the post and thanks for giving some of us up and coming players a bit of a headstart with planning when we are finally able to take on these critters

 

[Draylor]

Originally posted by Trinilim
a mob that can only be damaged by clerics...

ROFL!

Mythic nerfs smite clerics and now they're needed

Heh, first time I heard about that mob I assumed it was just a little encouragement to get people to take their buffbots along

 

[g0ldenbone]

Brilliant work mate!

So many epic monsters to kill....

 

[Belomar]

Originally posted by Aussie-
yeah nice c/p work :great:

Thanks for your input, Aussie. Look closely and you will see that Pin did include a reference to his source. If others here assume it's his work, that's because they are lazy readers, it's not Pin's fault.

 

[Pin]

Originally posted by Aussie-
yeah nice c/p work :great:

OI! Now clearly you have no idea how arduous the task of breaking this 45000 character post down into 5 different posts (purely to inform people, and in no way attempting to boost my BW postcount ), then adding some bold tags.

In fact, I think it would have been an easier task if I had actually wrote the whole thing out myself - and I would have probably got more of the names right . Let people thank and congratulate me, for it was I that did all the real work here!!

 

[just.thebrave]

Originally posted by Pin


OI! Now clearly you have no idea how arduous the task of breaking this 45000 character post down into 5 different posts (purely to inform people, and in no way attempting to boost my BW postcount ), then adding some bold tags.

In fact, I think it would have been an easier task if I had actually wrote the whole thing out myself - and I would have probably got more of the names right . Let people thank and congratulate me, for it was I that did all the real work here!!

KK ask him who he got it from !! )