Some tactical notes for Tiamat

kieranmtorn

Notes on Tactics for Tiamat.

I normally play a CW or a GWF, so these notes are mainly from that view.

• Spawn points: camp on them, Grab the mob as they spawn. Don't scatter them unless it's over a clift. If I have the mob under control at the spawn point and you scatter them (ie Ice Storm/Sunburst/Repel/Frontline Surge/Roar), I'll let the mob have you. If the mob gets past me, do what you want with it (some will get past). If things go well, the mob will stay on the spawn point with me (and I'll survive if I don't screw up). Generally 2 competent well geared Toons can handle a spawn point. (gwf + tr or hr, cw + gf, ...), lesser geared groups will need more. The important thing is don't take agro if you can't handle what you get.
  
  
• Bring Buffs & Debuffs: ie as CW you should be proc'ing HV against the Dragon heads. HV debuff will last 6 seconds, so bring 2 skills to rotate between (I use Steal Time, Chill Strike, and Oppressive Force all proc HV). You may dislike High Vizier for a multitude of reasons (stats aren't great), but for this fight, nothing is better (zerg damage * HV). And HV is now dirt cheap on the Auction House. Ray of enfeeblement provides additional debuffs, works well. Ice Storm only has 2 uses: get the mobs off of clerics and to clean mobs away from the dragon heads. Use anywhere else and I'll let the mob eat you. Same things apply to Sunburst & Repel & Shield Pop...
  
  
• As GWF you can bring no effective buffs or debuffs (ie party/zerg wide). So bring Plague Fire or Terror & Mark your targets (I may be missing something, but that's the best you can do).
  
  
• During the protect the clerics phase, try to concentrate the mobs and control/kill. So ROAR, Frontline Surge, Repel, Sunburst, and similar mob scattering skills are making things harder. Also killing controlled mobs causes them to respawn, so don't hurry...
  
  
• If DC, please put Chains on the spawn point, it makes collecting the mobs so much easier.
  
  
• Skill swapping while running to/from the dragon heads is a nightmare.

A side notes for DC's. Healing & DPS is secondary. Bring Buffs & Debuffs (High Prophet for example). A 10% damage buff to the Zerg is greater than any DPS you can do (and you can bring multiple bonuses). A 10% mitigation buff is more valuable than healing, since 1-shot kills are the real risk (not attrition damage) at the spawn point. Don't use Astral Seal, the zerg aggravates lag, don't make it worse (I may be wrong, but the AS on heads is a lag kill on the zerg).

Resurrection: Don't expect me to bother, I'm generally agro'd and if I stop DPS'ing I die. It's faster for you to respawn and ride back. Just respawn, it's faster and less a loss of DPS in a DPS race to do so (there are special cases but I'm ignoring them).

I'm ignoring the Dragon Breath weapons, since things will be chaotic when those are in effect. But use the appropriate gem.

Other things are possible, but these are my observations (I'm ignoring the things that take a good group to operate). Some of this may be wrong, but it's what I think.


Anything other people can think of should probably added below

archsinner81

as a SS CW
Summoner phase
1) A well placed icestorm on the summoner, will save time killing mobs

Cleric Phase
1) Casting icy terrain on spawn point will help grab mobs
2) OF/Steal Time/Sudden Storm/ Icy Terrain will do wonders on groups mobs. Love a Sing too, but you need to time it, as Sing causes lots of skill to be void when it pulling the mobs together
3) For DC/CW sunburst/repel/ice storm is only used when too many mobs on the cleric and nobody pulling aggro from them. Roar/frontline will still basically keep them in 1 direction, instead of throwing them all over ( which is ok for me)

Head Phase
1) Try to keep the mobs on the cleric phase on the minimum, as having lot of them alive will result in instant death of a dps class, when running dragon to dragon or rez back from campfire.
2) buff/debuff skills is a must, help with the dps alot.
3) Please use the correct gem on the dragon, Black/White gems are use after the aoe of the breath to cure ppl of the debuff/freeze. Green/Blue/Red act as a shield. Dragon breath timing is a at 1.30/1.00/0.30
4) At the end of the head phase, if you get a head health to less than 10%( 2 bar) it will regen back to 25% on the next phase. (might be wrong on the amount of health)
5) If you kill any head, but not Tiamat, All head below 25% will regen back to 25%. (Do correct me if i'm wrong)