How to Pug Dread Vualt as melee

exiledtyrant

The final fight always goes horribly for me and I am looking for tips on how to complete it. Every Pug I get into has us run to the back and with adds on us and try to navigate a space about a hair's width big. Myself and the other melee always die as 1 miss step gets your hammered by tentacles and mobs till death.

I saw this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zFX8PGAURE

Is this still relevant? Clearing out a tentacle seems way safer than all this blind running to the back to try and balance on a rock and fight. I haven't had this much trouble in a dungeon since lair of the mad dragon.

lking73

you do not attack the tentacles.....go to the back left corner away from the tentacles and fight the mobs. when mobs are dead attack the brain until mini bosses arrive and back away to fight them, repeat....

exiledtyrant

That never seems to work and the space we get to fight on back there is ridiculously small. It's very close range of two thrashing tentacles as well =\. Why is no one fighting in front of the brain?

chaoscourtesan

I've only ever done this on my GF, but I did it about 8 times and we never had any trouble with the final boss at all. Getting to that fight was the hardest part.

There may be a better way than we did it, but we all ran in, to the back corner. I was able to avoid the red on my slow, non-jumping GF, and if she can do it, anyone can do it. Once we got there, the adds had to come to us, and we swatted them fairly easily. The space isn't all that small. Then when the mini-boss is defeated, run in and dps the brain. Honestly, I never noticed the tentacles at all once we made the initial dash past their red bars, I think they are pretty irrelevant.

Just saying what I've seen. If there's a better way, I just don't know what that is.

w00trandomsnoobi

Wheter you fight the tentacles or avoid them in a corner, I've always found the best strategy is for ranged fighters to dps the tentacles/brain and melee types to keep the adds off them and fight the bosses when they spawn.

pitshade

I take it this is normal DV because no one mentions Thoon Hulks. There is a line from the back left corner to the brain where the tentacles don't hit. Melees follow that line when adds are gone and attack brain, return for mini-bosses and adds. Epic version, melees stay on or very close to the cube and act as bodyguards for the ranged classes. Going away from the cube (raised area) will make it impossible not to aggro Thoon Hulks, which are the single most dangerous thing.

Back in Beta DV was the first dungeon I ever ran (ouch). (CW) At that point, we fought right in front of the brain from the entrance. Melees acted as bodyguards, as the only real ranged attacker (rainbow party) I just attacked the brain while everyone else kept the adds off of me. It's been a long time and I can't remember if the tentacle couldn't hit so close to the brain or if Astral Shield was keeping me alive from that. I suspect the former.

helpimblindinrl

The aoe marker on the tentacles will also rotate on epic so moving to the left and waiting till they start slapping will probably lead to Help! Aiuoto! etc I suggest not going anywhere near them

chaoscourtesan

I believe it is normal, because he's pugging it and getting in. XD

drscone

I always used to PUG normal DV for the daily dungeon award and dashing to the back always worked. Occasionally someone would stop on the way and get crushed, but assuming that you can avoid the tentacles on the way over it's not a problem at all.

The spot you're looking for is at the 10:30 spot. Melees stand right next to the brain. Healers and ranged stand about 40' away and no-one can be hit by tentacles.

refracted0dawn

The normal level 58-60 is easy.

Ignore the tentacles completely - I don't think you can even hurt them - just avoid getting slapped by them.

The first time I did this was a piece of cake - the GF said "All know the strategy?" We said no. He said "Just follow me".

So I did.

Cake walk. Not a hard fight if everyone knows what to do.

Other times, it was a tedious mess as people did not know what they were doing and would not be told. It does not help if they do not use the Chat or have all channels blaring so they can't read it anyway. Or if they do not speak English, of course.

But seeing a GF or GWF chasing down Ustilagor makes me sink with despair. No amount of screaming:

"TANK THE BRAIN! TANK THE @%#*#! BRAIN!! BRAIN!! BRAIN" helps.

I play a Cleric, and I can kill an Ustilagor in 3 or 4 hits most of the time. And Cleric damage sucks. I also shower everyone with temporary hp while I do it.

I am seriously thinking of translating "Tank the Brain" into all 279 European and Asia Minor languages just to avoid spending 2 hours dying 8 times in that place ever again.


This ALWAYS works:

When you get in, ignore everything and run to the left and skirt around the edge until you are on the opposite far side you entered.
Clear all the mobs.
Warriors and high damage Wizards and everyone else Tank the Brain
Ustilagor will come, but Warriors TANK THE BRAIN.
Rogues, Clerics, Rangers etc pick off the Ustilagor, but Warriors TANK THE BRAIN until it sinks.
Cleric Anointed Champion (don't play Divine Oracle) will use divinely channeled Exaltation, Astral Shield, Sunburst and Anointed Army on the party, and Blessing of Battle, Sacred Flame and Divine Armour on the Brain, all of which also buff the party. Everyone else use whatever does most damage, but keep the Ustilagor off the Tanks so they can focus on the Brain.

When Illithid and mini bosses come, we need some help from the tanks, so every one with Knock Back powers blow them off the edge. Divinely Channelled Sunburst works. It just needs timing. GWF can sprint and everyone else but the GF can Dodge or Tumble - just don't get stunned in Psionic Blast cross-fire, so keep moving and hitting until you can blow them off the edge. It can be chaotic, but a lot of fun.

Just me and a Wizard survived alone until the mini-boss and Illithids came, because the others ran straight for the brain. Just too much damage to take for the two of us alone. When we got in again, there were only four of us, and the GWF and I screwed up and got killed. So the same Wizard and the new GF spend 30 minutes killing the thing. But they did it.


But I don't get it - there is plenty of space. You don't stand on one cube, you have to move and run and jump and dodge or you're gonna go down. One time, I jumped off the edge, but that was my own fault.

As for the Epic level 60 version - I tried it once. We got less than half way through. Someone left and a GWF with Epic gear arrived, and the Thoon Hulk one-shotted him. He logged out in disgust. We just had to give up as we weren't getting any further through those caverns.


"Boo! I think I need a bigger sword!"

~

pitshade

The Thoon Hulks in the epic version are really bad, especially since they spawn in pairs. Today's patch notes do say that they won't spam that horrible attack now, how much that will help remains to be seen.

As for standing on the cube, that's necessary for the epic version since Thoon Hulks will spawn and despawn throughout the fight. As long as everyone stays near the cube, they usually won't aggro. If melees are at the brain, there's not a lot you can do to stop that. If everyone stays back, any Thoons that aggro will be closer to the edge where they can be tossed. EDV is really a mess. The campfire at the beginning and the one at the end are the only ones that work as respawn points. If someone dies before you get to the final campfire, they have to run all the way back. To add injury to insult, if you wipe in the final fight, then redo it and win, a fair number of times the shard won't be there, so no boss drops.

tickdoff

Maelstrom of Chaos can actually be useful in eDV. The CW uses it to move the mobs near the brain to a location that they can be knocked off the edge. Many of the times that you try to knock mobs off in the last fight they get caught on little ledges that stop them from flying off the edge like you want them too, MoC will kick them over the ledge but will not throw them all the way off, use MoC to get them in position, the repel to finish them off. Takes some practice, but it works surprisingly well.

silverquick

tickdoff wrote: »

Maelstrom of Chaos can actually be useful in eDV. The CW uses it to move the mobs near the brain to a location that they can be knocked off the edge. Many of the times that you try to knock mobs off in the last fight they get caught on little ledges that stop them from flying off the edge like you want them too, MoC will kick them over the ledge but will not throw them all the way off, use MoC to get them in position, the repel to finish them off. Takes some practice, but it works surprisingly well.

I could see how that would work.

We just used Singularity and then hit them with repel right as Sing starts to drop them and while they are in the air. Its kind of like tossing a baseball in the air and then whacking it with a bat and letting it fly. It is funny to watch Thune Hulks fly through the air like that though.

exiledtyrant

Do companions trigger tentacle aggro? Would the final fight be a good time to turn them off? I've looked at another video utilizing the same strategy everyone is talking about seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_22IcsIQyWk

Now what I don't get is every time I've tried this the 2 tentacles go absolutely crazy on that part their melee is standing on, but on the video they don't get aggro at all.

beckylunatic

exiledtyrant wrote: »

Do companions trigger tentacle aggro? Would the final fight be a good time to turn them off?

Pretty much every dungeon ever is a good time to dismiss any companion that's not an augment. (Yes. Yes, they will aggro everything they possibly can.)

There are exceptions where having them out isn't going to screw you up too badly, but this isn't one of them.