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A GWF guide to successful CN
pandapaul
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 424 Bounty Hunter
Disclaimer
Firstly I am a pve orientated destroyer GWF, most will be aware of that and I want to share my experiences with farming CN and how I have managed to get consistent high end parties to do this, before you say I'm in a good guild to do CN runs.. 90% of the CN runs I do are not with guildies and are with Pugs or friends I Have made in game through running a lot of pug CNs
Castle Never
Now what I believe is the main reason why GWFs find it difficult to get CN runs is exploits.. there are other reasons but I believe this is the main one.. Running through dungeons is something a TR is pro at and glitching adds is something CWs excel at.. GWF are good at doing legit dungeons and lets face it 90% of the server does not do this.. I'm hoping that once module 2 comes out with the various fixes.. running dungeons legit is necessary and I think this will bring a lot of life to the life of a GWF in CN
Party Design
If you plan on running pug CNs then lets face it the party design is fairly set is stone for most people especially pugs. 3*CW and 1* DC.. that isn't going to change.. it's seen as necessary to do successful CN runs. Im not saying that other parties cant do it and do it well.. I'm just saying almost all pugs.. at least experienced ones will start with these 4 slots as set.. So that leaves 1 slot... mostly taken by the TR but available to those keen GWFs that want to have a shot
Your Role
So now that you are replacing a TR in a CN party you pretty much have to do the role of a TR, this includes making a couple of critical and expected runs in CN and tanking bosses in the correct way. By including a gwf instead of a TR the party can benefit from a few things. Your clearing dps is much higher and efficient also in boss fights a TR is a lot more squishy so you can let the DC focus more on the CWs than you which is very helpful.. however you do lose some boss fight dps.. with the right build and gear u wont lose a lot and in most pugs this wont be an issue if you do what is needed well enough
Inside Castle Never
Once you enter CN straight away you will be expected to do the first run to next campfire. this run isn't that hard.. I do switch to my 2 titan/2 imposing scrapper set just so the run is easy. I also make sure bravery is slotted as a passive and also the Battle fury is slotted so I can refill my stamina. Just start running.... follow the sparkles on the floor until you reach the door.. not I generally save some stamina for when I pass archers along the way, these are the only real dangerous adds on the run.. Once you reach the door just die and respawn and you will be at the first campfire.. make sure u go back and go down and up the stairs to activate the next phase of the dungeon. let the party know you are ready to proceed and make sure u reslot your dps gear and encounters/feats
Next is a small clearing phase.. just pull medium sized groups of adds and continue to burn.. let the CWs pull the 2 groups of spiders next to the first boss and clear them before you start the first boss.
First Boss
This boss is very easy I just slot my aoe dps skills here and most groups tend to keep all the adds ontop of the boss. just do your best to keep the burn on the adds and boss. Keep in mind the boss will jump so try and keep your unstoppable for when its animation starts for this so that you are immune to the CC. If your party cant do this boss easily chances are you can't finish CN
After this boss is just another clearing phase... depending on the experience of the group depends on the size of the groups they will pull... if you are a destroyer try not to pull all yourself as you will die easily instead follow the CW or DC to where they want to go
Second Boss
This boss is slightly more challenging and will give you a good indication on how the party will go at the last boss as some of the cooperation is similar. I usually save a daily to start this boss to pull the agro.. make sure the party is ready before you initiate the boss fight as most CWs will change there encounters and charge there AP and make a Arcane Singularity order so keep the adds busy. Once ready initiate the fight and turn the boss around so it isn't facing the rest of the party. this boss has only 2 encounters to worry about and they are clearly marked on the red zone, save your stamina to avoid these red zones by moving side to side and dps the boss once you are out of them, you may not die if you are caught in the red but you will likely lose agro from the boss with the CC that you will get and this can be risky to the party. Again this boss is quite easy and the burn is very quick as long as you keep the boss faced away.
Next is another clearing phase.. most groups will move quickly through here and toss the adds of the side, once u get around the corner to the right and get to the gates be careful a slime cube will spawn here.. I usually initiate the fight on the slime and pull it away so the rest of the group can get past. I also slot Mighty Leap here as there are a couple of jumps for the group to make.. which is easy on with mighty leap. The group will then enter the "shadowfell" then exit and make another jump and enter again from the other side. If you do this make sure you are ready to exit as soon as possible otherwise you will pull the adds
Third Boss
Now this boss is a lot more challenging and again make sure the group is ready and ask them if the want to fight on either the bridge/ in the middle or on the left side.. different groups will prefer to fight in different locations. For this fight I slot my defensive set as this boss has an aoe skill that will pretty much wipe u away if you catch any bit of it so I prefer to be abit safer. back to the titan/imposing scrapper set for me. The group will fight either in 2 ways... on the left side or bridge the CWs will throw the adds off the edge and best thing here to do is to tank the boss and keep him faced away from the group or they might prefer to toss all the adds onto the boss and just burn the whole lot. Avoiding most of his attacks is easy enough to avoid the red but when he throws his hands up in the air make sure you have stamina to sprint ASAP he will aoe in a red circle around him, a life drain AoE that will kill you almost instantly if you don't sprint out.. Again do your best to tank the boss away from facing the group and watch for his animation to sprint away.
After this boss there is another expected run.. Here I slot all my defensive set again, bravery, steely defense, battle fury and punishing charge. I also keep a daily ready here too so that I get the 5 seconds immunity from steely defense and only use this as an emergency if the run doesn't go perfectly... As this run isn't easy. I always ask the group the clear the first group.. It has a lot of archers and clearing this first group makes the run a lot easier. Once this is cleared start running. Save your stamina for when you either pass archers or turn corners. also try and save your unstoppable for these moments. Turning corners allow the archers to get a lot of hits in so make sure you are ready for that. As a last resort use your daily for the 5 seconds immunity. Also make sure your sprint off the ledge because there is a slime cube under there... if you don't get enough air you might fall straight into it and probably end the run... again if you die first time.. try again a few runs you will learn where to use your stamina and unstoppable. Once you get to the door die and respawn and notify the group
Draco
Now this boss isn't too hard if you have experienced CWs in the group.. I slot all my single target dps encounters here with bravery and destroyer for some extra dps. Almost all groups will move to the left hand side of the arena when you enter so move to the right side and dps draco from the back. he will probably do 1 or 2 aoe before he turns around.. then do your best to try and pull him as far away from the group as possible.. he can be hard to move sometimes.. just hit him then move away to the ledge away from the group.. eventually he will move. Once over here just keep him faced away for the CWs to do what they need to do.. this may take 5 minutes or so. just avoid the red here. a lot of the time you wont be able to avoid his wing attack but the damage isn't too high and will only really build your determination. just run back in and keep him faced away.. also do your best not to hit any of the adds that spawn so the group can get the agro of them easily. Now at 75% hp he will start to spawn hands.. if you keep him faced to the ledge there wont be many to avoid but please do avoid them, they do hit hard. he will spawn these hands just after his wing attack by this stage the whole party will be attacking draco so try and keep damage on him as much as possible or you might lose agro. the next phase he will start to spawn to phases of the hands, again you need to avoid them at all costs. there is no rush here just hit him when you can and don't risk getting hit by the hands.
If you get here well you have finished CN and likely the party will want you in the future..
This is my experience as a destroyer GWF that has completed CN around 150 times.. 75 times in the last month
Hope this guide has some use... any questions.. just ask
Firstly I am a pve orientated destroyer GWF, most will be aware of that and I want to share my experiences with farming CN and how I have managed to get consistent high end parties to do this, before you say I'm in a good guild to do CN runs.. 90% of the CN runs I do are not with guildies and are with Pugs or friends I Have made in game through running a lot of pug CNs
Castle Never
Now what I believe is the main reason why GWFs find it difficult to get CN runs is exploits.. there are other reasons but I believe this is the main one.. Running through dungeons is something a TR is pro at and glitching adds is something CWs excel at.. GWF are good at doing legit dungeons and lets face it 90% of the server does not do this.. I'm hoping that once module 2 comes out with the various fixes.. running dungeons legit is necessary and I think this will bring a lot of life to the life of a GWF in CN
Party Design
If you plan on running pug CNs then lets face it the party design is fairly set is stone for most people especially pugs. 3*CW and 1* DC.. that isn't going to change.. it's seen as necessary to do successful CN runs. Im not saying that other parties cant do it and do it well.. I'm just saying almost all pugs.. at least experienced ones will start with these 4 slots as set.. So that leaves 1 slot... mostly taken by the TR but available to those keen GWFs that want to have a shot
Your Role
So now that you are replacing a TR in a CN party you pretty much have to do the role of a TR, this includes making a couple of critical and expected runs in CN and tanking bosses in the correct way. By including a gwf instead of a TR the party can benefit from a few things. Your clearing dps is much higher and efficient also in boss fights a TR is a lot more squishy so you can let the DC focus more on the CWs than you which is very helpful.. however you do lose some boss fight dps.. with the right build and gear u wont lose a lot and in most pugs this wont be an issue if you do what is needed well enough
Inside Castle Never
Once you enter CN straight away you will be expected to do the first run to next campfire. this run isn't that hard.. I do switch to my 2 titan/2 imposing scrapper set just so the run is easy. I also make sure bravery is slotted as a passive and also the Battle fury is slotted so I can refill my stamina. Just start running.... follow the sparkles on the floor until you reach the door.. not I generally save some stamina for when I pass archers along the way, these are the only real dangerous adds on the run.. Once you reach the door just die and respawn and you will be at the first campfire.. make sure u go back and go down and up the stairs to activate the next phase of the dungeon. let the party know you are ready to proceed and make sure u reslot your dps gear and encounters/feats
Next is a small clearing phase.. just pull medium sized groups of adds and continue to burn.. let the CWs pull the 2 groups of spiders next to the first boss and clear them before you start the first boss.
First Boss
This boss is very easy I just slot my aoe dps skills here and most groups tend to keep all the adds ontop of the boss. just do your best to keep the burn on the adds and boss. Keep in mind the boss will jump so try and keep your unstoppable for when its animation starts for this so that you are immune to the CC. If your party cant do this boss easily chances are you can't finish CN
After this boss is just another clearing phase... depending on the experience of the group depends on the size of the groups they will pull... if you are a destroyer try not to pull all yourself as you will die easily instead follow the CW or DC to where they want to go
Second Boss
This boss is slightly more challenging and will give you a good indication on how the party will go at the last boss as some of the cooperation is similar. I usually save a daily to start this boss to pull the agro.. make sure the party is ready before you initiate the boss fight as most CWs will change there encounters and charge there AP and make a Arcane Singularity order so keep the adds busy. Once ready initiate the fight and turn the boss around so it isn't facing the rest of the party. this boss has only 2 encounters to worry about and they are clearly marked on the red zone, save your stamina to avoid these red zones by moving side to side and dps the boss once you are out of them, you may not die if you are caught in the red but you will likely lose agro from the boss with the CC that you will get and this can be risky to the party. Again this boss is quite easy and the burn is very quick as long as you keep the boss faced away.
Next is another clearing phase.. most groups will move quickly through here and toss the adds of the side, once u get around the corner to the right and get to the gates be careful a slime cube will spawn here.. I usually initiate the fight on the slime and pull it away so the rest of the group can get past. I also slot Mighty Leap here as there are a couple of jumps for the group to make.. which is easy on with mighty leap. The group will then enter the "shadowfell" then exit and make another jump and enter again from the other side. If you do this make sure you are ready to exit as soon as possible otherwise you will pull the adds
Third Boss
Now this boss is a lot more challenging and again make sure the group is ready and ask them if the want to fight on either the bridge/ in the middle or on the left side.. different groups will prefer to fight in different locations. For this fight I slot my defensive set as this boss has an aoe skill that will pretty much wipe u away if you catch any bit of it so I prefer to be abit safer. back to the titan/imposing scrapper set for me. The group will fight either in 2 ways... on the left side or bridge the CWs will throw the adds off the edge and best thing here to do is to tank the boss and keep him faced away from the group or they might prefer to toss all the adds onto the boss and just burn the whole lot. Avoiding most of his attacks is easy enough to avoid the red but when he throws his hands up in the air make sure you have stamina to sprint ASAP he will aoe in a red circle around him, a life drain AoE that will kill you almost instantly if you don't sprint out.. Again do your best to tank the boss away from facing the group and watch for his animation to sprint away.
After this boss there is another expected run.. Here I slot all my defensive set again, bravery, steely defense, battle fury and punishing charge. I also keep a daily ready here too so that I get the 5 seconds immunity from steely defense and only use this as an emergency if the run doesn't go perfectly... As this run isn't easy. I always ask the group the clear the first group.. It has a lot of archers and clearing this first group makes the run a lot easier. Once this is cleared start running. Save your stamina for when you either pass archers or turn corners. also try and save your unstoppable for these moments. Turning corners allow the archers to get a lot of hits in so make sure you are ready for that. As a last resort use your daily for the 5 seconds immunity. Also make sure your sprint off the ledge because there is a slime cube under there... if you don't get enough air you might fall straight into it and probably end the run... again if you die first time.. try again a few runs you will learn where to use your stamina and unstoppable. Once you get to the door die and respawn and notify the group
Draco
Now this boss isn't too hard if you have experienced CWs in the group.. I slot all my single target dps encounters here with bravery and destroyer for some extra dps. Almost all groups will move to the left hand side of the arena when you enter so move to the right side and dps draco from the back. he will probably do 1 or 2 aoe before he turns around.. then do your best to try and pull him as far away from the group as possible.. he can be hard to move sometimes.. just hit him then move away to the ledge away from the group.. eventually he will move. Once over here just keep him faced away for the CWs to do what they need to do.. this may take 5 minutes or so. just avoid the red here. a lot of the time you wont be able to avoid his wing attack but the damage isn't too high and will only really build your determination. just run back in and keep him faced away.. also do your best not to hit any of the adds that spawn so the group can get the agro of them easily. Now at 75% hp he will start to spawn hands.. if you keep him faced to the ledge there wont be many to avoid but please do avoid them, they do hit hard. he will spawn these hands just after his wing attack by this stage the whole party will be attacking draco so try and keep damage on him as much as possible or you might lose agro. the next phase he will start to spawn to phases of the hands, again you need to avoid them at all costs. there is no rush here just hit him when you can and don't risk getting hit by the hands.
If you get here well you have finished CN and likely the party will want you in the future..
This is my experience as a destroyer GWF that has completed CN around 150 times.. 75 times in the last month
Hope this guide has some use... any questions.. just ask
Post edited by pandapaul on
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Comments
Biggest problem is, every party ask for "exped" anything, so if you didn't run the dungeons before, you're pretty much left out.
Queue is useless for CN, you are just joined and kicked by TRs who want to solo the 1st boss.
But if i can join a decent CN party after module 2 is released, i'm sure your guide will be useful.
TR is king of running dungeons (btw it is hard to find something in the game this class is not king of)
3 CW and 1 DC is an imperative pre-requisite
Then the rest of the wall of text seems pretty much destined to the Art and Fiction part of the forum.
It only takes one lag spike...or player mistake to turn 2 minutes into 15.
Yes right now there is a major exploit going on and has existed for some time.. only recently hit the mainstream. Some people are absolutely exploiting it like crazy.. I wouldn't say they are all elite guild because I know a lot who wont do this. I know for a fact Cryptic are aware of it and I hope that they hand out some bans for people that have taken it too far
Now this boss is a lot more challenging and again make sure the group is ready and ask them if the want to fight on either the bridge/ in the middle or on the left side.. different groups will prefer to fight in different locations. For this fight I slot my defensive set as this boss has an aoe skill that will pretty much wipe u away if you catch any bit of it so I prefer to be abit safer. back to the titan/imposing scrapper set for me. "
I'll try to get these sets. this boss is a great torment for me.
nice that the running should be fixed, at least judging from preview patch notes, or at least reduced