Zhen Guide

Rule - Heavens Tear

Zhen is where MP charms are converted to XP very quickly. Its an inefficient trade in most cases but the XP climbs fast. If you've got the $$ this is the way to go.

A Zhen party consists of 6 people usually.
************
2 Lurers
2 Clerics
2 Direct Dmg

This is not a static build and can easily incorporate Archers or more DD and less clerics. More on that later.

Basic requirements and suggestions
*******************************
1. All members of the party be at a minimum level 59 and strongly suggested 60 (for TT wep)

2. The closer in level you are the lower XP loss due to level difference.

3. Every member in AOE have a HP charm. (You'll understand this if you pull aggro..and unless your VERY underpowered YOU WILL PULL) No matter how good the cleric this really is a life saver. If your a Lurer and have good hp and def you can get along with pots and stops in the BB (don't stay too long)

4. Every member using AOE MUST MUST MUST have a MP charm. No exceptions. This is what Zhen is about. Clerics and DD both, it doesn't hurt for the lurers to have one but is in no way essential.

5. Archers must have many arrows...a good starting figure is 10k. Quality is not that important.


Where to do it?
*************
west of Dreamweaver port amongst the wolves (lev 78 Earth res\Phys dmg)
In Dreamweaver, board a ship and your off to a nice sunny locale known as NightScream Island Over across from the ship(lev 78 Fire res\Phys dmg)
NightScream Island just past the bridge on your left. (lev 79 Water res\phy dmg) Expert Lurers mix BM\Barb req due to prevalent ranged attackers.
Just East of Sanctuary (lev 72 no details) 673 568
Outside Immolation camp Rockenwolves (lev 84)
Spiders lvl 89 at 229 812
Feel free to list out other great spots.


How to do it.
*************
This varies on makeup of the party but the basics are simple.

The 2 Wizards and 2 clerics all huddle up together as close as possible so that thier spheres will overlap. The Clerics kick off BB (Blue Ball is AOE healing, not sure of actual name) The Lurers run off and bring back mobs. When the mobs are close the Wizards start thier Dragon's Breath. The lurers run through the flames and the mobs follow, are aggro'd towards the damage and stay to die. The lurers run off to get more mobs. (THIS IS BEST WHEN YOUR NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOUR PARTY IF SOMEONE IS WEAK OR TOO STRONG)

When you KNOW your party:
A modification to this that I find helps save HP charms is to setup in a diamond or triangle. This will be explained later.
..................Cleric............|............Cleric
..........Wiz..............Wiz....|...Wiz..............Wiz
......................................|...........Cleric

*************
Alright, so how do archers fit in here? Simple answer, Barrage of Arrows.
More complex, a method is exploited to allow Barrage of Arrows to go on for an indefinant amount of time.
This part is important so pay attention:

The glitch has been reported to PWI and is an approved ussage of barrage of arrows. There is an 18 page thread regarding it on the main forums.

First thing, make sure that the Archer has enough MP. The number we've come up with for a stable barrage is 1600mp for barrage lev 1. With less than this the barrage tends to break during the zhen. Sometimes quickly, sometimes after 10 mins.

The archer should target another player, start a duel, the player should not in any way defend themselves. Wait until the target is around 1/2-1/4 hp, and start barrage of arrows as a finisher. The opponent will die and lose the duel. The barrage of arrows will continue.

To take best advantage of this the clerics should arrange BB at the very edge of the archers damage, so that the archer is covered in BB and that the edge of thier damage goes just past the clerics to draw aggro away. Archers do thier best damage at the edge of the barrage. As you get too close to the archer the damage is halved.

Setup your Wizards spheres to both be covered by BB and to have the archer in the very edge of the AOE.

This will tend to create a diamond shape or a triangle, or a straight line...which is really a squished diamond.

.....Cleric ..........|..............Cleric............|...........Cleric
wiz.........wiz......|......Archer.....Archer.....|...Archer.....Archer
....Archer..........|................Wiz...............|..........Cleric

.....Archer........|...........Wiz....................|.............Archer
.....Cleric.........|........Cleric....................|.......Wizard..Cleric
Wiz........Wiz....|...Archer....Archer...........|............Archer

COOL AWESOME TRICK, IF YOU ARE NOT ON NIGHTSCREAM ISLAND, THEN HAVE YOUR CLERIC FLY WHILE DOING BB!!

In a perfect world, the DD's will draw aggro from the lurer when the mobs wander in. If they go for the mages, they will be pulled by the cleric or the archer because of thier increased damage. If the mob goes to the cleric it reaches the outside range of the archer and is pulled towards. When it gets close to the archer the damage lowers and the mob pulls towards the mages who now have higher damage. As it approaches them it then is pulled back by the archer who now has increased damage. Playing pingpong with the mobs.
Normally, the archer or cleric will draw aggro and keep it depending on which is stronger.


Lurers
*****
Lurers need to bring the mobs into the center of the Zhen party, to be caught by a wizards AOE, which it heads towards and is then bounced by the varying aggro pulls of the cleric and archer. This will dramatically reduce damage for the party.

If the mobs are brought into the clerics or the archers field first they will aggro to them and hit them at least once or possibly several times depending on the pulls before being dragged elsewhere. This can get painful!

If the mobs are brought into the sides of the party usually the mage's sphere will get them first, but the cleric and archer will draw the mobs away, giving several ticks of damage before the mobs get to hit someone.

When you've gone out and brought back a large party of pulls, you might need to stay and stun the mobs when they arrive, to reduce damage and to lower the chance of HP charms going off. This can also keep a cleric or archer alive in case of too large a pull or an offside pull.

Next, after a pull, hang around for a few seconds and pickup drops. After too many drops things will start to dissappear, so its important to clean up. This also gives a chance for you to get a heal in from the clerics BB.

When there are two lurers, get one of them a mount! You'll travel much faster and be more efficient!.Have the mounted party member stay CLOSE and get all the local mobs to keep up a steady stream. Have the barbarian or AOE BM pull long range. Every few seconds getting thier attention to bring in those long distance pulls. GO GET EM! Bring in the hordes.

Keep in mind most mobs will only follow for 15 seconds without additional irritation.

Finally, DO NOT TAKE THE PARTY'S ABUSE SERIOUSLY. DO PAY ATTENTION. DO AS THEY ASK. THEY ARE PAYING YOU TO BE HERE!!
Keep in mind, they are possibly VERY stressed over DMG,XP gain, or $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. This is serious business for them!

The mages/clerics/archers are paying a hell of alot of coins\cash for thier MP charms, XP scrolls, arrows and repair bills. They are also betting thier lives on the Lurer to keep track of what is going on! The lurers are doing the work of pulling mobs but aren't really in danger or particularly invested financially outside of thier one XP scroll.
You are responsible for the Zhen working or not. Whether its profitable or a complete wipe. PAY ATTENTION. You get a free ride on this one, if you do a great job at it you'll have many many more opportunities for free XP and drops.


Important things to remember
*************************

If the party is unbalanced with a weak member or someone too strong...someone is going to take a hell of a beating as they pull the aggro from the weakling...or the party will get little XP due to the higher lev...OR Party Wipe.


I've done 50+ Zhen parties so far, just a few hours in the nature of things. This is not the be all end all of guides! This is a compilation of information I've picked up in forums from observation and from helpful players. If you know something I don't then throw down with the knowledge! If something is inaccurate say so! I'll adjust accordingly.

Finally, if you don't like my syntax, word usage, run on sentences or spelling...(FOAD) keep your opinions to yourself. Flamers will be roasted, nit pickers will be pulled.

Literature - Harshlands

Could a veno get taken into a zhen party as a lurer? ;o

hawk

Awesome guide, thanks for writing this up

RedsRose - Lost City

Literature - Harshlands wrote: »

Could a veno get taken into a zhen party as a lurer? ;o

I have had veno's in my zhen party, however they are not highly sought after. Although, one of my veno friends is a better puller then many of the BM's and Barbs that I have worked with.

Here is a Guide my Veno friend wrote: by AineGoddess

A Veno's Guide to Zhen

What's ironic is that the "overpowered" class is basically useless in zhen.What I do to make myself not completely useless is what I call being a “pretendBarb,” a venobarb..FTW! It's expensive, and you'll have a few heart attacks, but when you get abigger pull then the tank in the party it's all worth it. Smile

First off, a HP charm is a must. Preferably a gold charm. MP charms are up to you, depends on how many pots you carry, I get by on my jade powder and recently the event pots. And, we always have nature's grace...if there’s a few sec of down time to cast it. Secondly, you must always have pots. Lots and lots of pots. The event pots are the best,especially when you back it up with a charm and some chaos powder. I go throughabout 80 or so pots in 2hrs of zhen, so be sure to stock up on your pot of choice.

Ok, so now on to Pulling. I’ve tried several
different ways of pulling so I’m just going to list what I’ve found to work.
Firstly make sure your bramble guard is on, and your speed buff as well. Unlike
usual tanks we don’t have a high phy res or a kick **** knock back aoe skill or
aoe stuns, so you’re going to take a lot of hits. We do however have the
advantage of speed. Therefore, it is all about knowing what you can handle and what
you can’t. I’m still working on this too…just ask Rose. Just experiment until
you find your limit, and stay in it.

When you go to pull you’re basically running
into a **** storm. Gain initial agro and cast noxious gas. If there are more
than 4 mobs on the initial cast I drop a pot before I cast, because you’re
basically getting hit once for each mob you have. If it’s a massive pull I
stack chaos with pots to try to avoid wiping. Long pulls are the hardest b/c you
have to cast every 6-8 sec to keep them all chasing you. There’s not always
going to be enough chi for the bramble hood, but when there is we’re capable of
massive pulls. When you do throw hood don’t waste it, remember you still need
to cast your noxious gas every 6-8sec to keep agro on the mobs. Interrupt will
make you lose mobs, and sometimes get you killed *shrugs* it happens.
-Channeling gear is probably a lifesaver here, unfortunately I don’t have any
yet so I wouldn’t know.

In a good pull you’re casting 3-4 times to keep
agro to get them all back to the bubble, so keep an eye on your hp and try to
avoid agroing new mobs while you’re casting….it’s like asking for an
interrupt. Once they are in the bubble
the wizard/archer’s aoe will take them out, but if it’s massive or another
puller is coming back at the same time your parasitic nova will finally have a
purpose. So now that you know how to
pull, you need to know what to pull. There are always magic mobs around…these
are very bad. When they are pulled to the bubble they cast from outside the aoe
so they have to be killed separately from the rest. I know one or two
occasionally can’t be avoided, especially on NS, but make sure if you do pull
one you stick around and help take it out before your next pull. I don’t know
how many times I’ve seen too many magical mobs pulled and the cleric goes down.


First priority in any instance is to keep the
cleric safe, so be conscious of what you’re pulling. Remember to listen to what
your party is saying, especially the cleric. Sometimes the bubble needs to come
down for one reason or another so when they say last pull…you need to hear it.
Lastly I just want to say that practice makes perfect. We’re all still learning
here so any questions you have are always welcome.

Rule - Heavens Tear

Literature - Harshlands wrote: »

Could a veno get taken into a zhen party as a lurer? ;o

Sure, cast deflect skill on everyone except the cleric then get on your mount and round up all the local mobs.

Its important your party be robust for this to work. You can't get in there and stun a group of mobs if things go south or AOE knockback. With a good party and a good 2nd lure, there is not a good reason you can't be involved.

RedRose has explained an alternate method that is much more robust than my simple one. I've not seen a veno try the above method but it sounds interesting.

XHappyBunnyx - Sanctuary

as a Veno you shouldnt want to Zhen. Since you are the solo master of the game, you can make much more money on your own.
Also the biggest thing to point out - Your Pets Wont Level! Veno has to do the most dmg on the mob to get xp for their pets.

Rule - Heavens Tear

XHappyBunnyx - Sanctuary wrote: »

as a Veno you shouldnt want to Zhen. Since you are the solo master of the game, you can make much more money on your own.
Also the biggest thing to point out - Your Pets Wont Level! Veno has to do the most dmg on the mob to get xp for their pets.

Kinda off topic there XHappyBunnyx. No reason for a veno player to not WANT to try zhen. Let them make up thier own minds.

Rule - Heavens Tear

Any cleanup or clarification from the pro-lurers out there? DD+Cleric portion are pretty simple really.

Regarding one piece, if there is not enough DD or no Archer and mag res mobs get into the zhen, those mobs can wander off due to no interest. Placing the cleric on the ground can alleviate that.

Also if a magic mob gets sucked into the zhen, the Lurers should either knock it into the zhen, or work the mob to keep the party from taking dmg they can't do anything about.

Celestyna - Heavens Tear

there is several places in 90+ mobs, and i hear some good ones in heaven and hell but i cant get there just yet b:sad I normally do a 5 person squad when i zhen. Veno, BM, Archer, Archer(maybe a LA wiz) and me slightly higher rate of xp with only 5 and the extra cleric really isn't needed. with wizards I am very picky, pure magic mages have low hp, and low phys def, along with very high damage so they tend to steal agro from the archer and die because thier hp charm cant keep up. i prefer a LA or vit hybrid with hp stones in thier armor or an archer who naturally has more phys def to handle the attacks better.

as far as veno puller we have another method we use. he sends his herc with reflect on out to round them up since herc can easily take all the hits, he can pull about the same as the bm with this method and hardly ever is damaged, the hard part is getting em to get off herc when they get to the bubble so he loots a second until the damage builds up before going back out. I am not sure if there is any special techniques other then that its hard to see around BB (btw its called Regeneration Aura ) and the dd's spells

Rule - Heavens Tear

that part is easy to fix, under your game console can turn off special effects

Tearvalerin - Sanctuary

a veno can zhen and pull easily with a herc :P i dont see why they arent prefered over barbs, seeing as they can pull the same amount ofmobs without trouble at all.
Just takes practice to learn how to control your pet

Celestyna - Heavens Tear

Tearvalerin - Sanctuary wrote: »

a veno can zhen and pull easily with a herc :P i dont see why they arent prefered over barbs, seeing as they can pull the same amount ofmobs without trouble at all.
Just takes practice to learn how to control your pet

Barb gives hp buff which can keep some low hp dd alive when they might otherwise die, imo only reason you really would choose a barb over bm or a good puller veno

Rule - Heavens Tear

Barb Buff, +30% movement rate. Also, barbs are able to bring in the longest range pulls the fastest imo. Also the AOE knockback when things go south is priceless. Maybe another class can do it better, but I've not seen it yet. Usually 1 barb, and a 2nd lure of whichever class is what I aim for.

Granrey - Sanctuary

I want to share my experience as low level BM invited to a zhen party just for fun, since I was late 40’s or early 50’s at the time, you don’t get much exps when zhen mates are high levels.

I think I made myself very usefull by doing the following:

1) I was luring all the mobs with my bow, it was way more efficient and faster than running around to agro the mobs.
2) If too many mobs were hitting somebody (needing help), I would knock them back one by one. If possible, I would send them closer to somebody else, lol.
3) When mobs are pack, you can use your AOE skills to help out.

Literature - Harshlands

RedsRose - Lost City wrote: »

What's ironic is that the "overpowered" class is basically useless in zhen.What I do to make myself not completely useless is what I call being a “pretendBarb,” a venobarb..FTW! It's expensive, and you'll have a few heart attacks, but when you get abigger pull then the tank in the party it's all worth it. Smile

Just did zhen a few times yesterday. All I did was stand near the party and gather the mobs with my herc. I was as efficient as the BM puller...if not better. b:laugh

Granrey - Sanctuary

Literature - Harshlands wrote: »

Just did zhen a few times yesterday. All I did was stand near the party and gather the mobs with my herc. I was as efficient as the BM puller...if not better. b:laugh

Just wondering, would a Bee pet be better for pulling at zhen parties?

The bee moves quickly from mob to mob.

Literature - Harshlands

Granrey - Sanctuary wrote: »

Just wondering, would a Bee pet be better for pulling at zhen parties?

The bee moves quickly from mob to mob.

Maybe...you would really have to watch his hp though. And then they get stuck in the ground all the time. b:shocked

There might be better options than a fly though. Try to find something fast but with the highest phys def possible.

Rule - Heavens Tear

heh, Pheonix.

Granrey - Sanctuary

Rule - Heavens Tear wrote: »

heh, Pheonix.

Wouldn't the phoenix kill every mob in one shot rather than pulling?
It would totally lose the reason for pulling.

I have never seen a phoenix in action. So, I just go for what I have heard.b:surrender

Rule - Heavens Tear

While they are powerful, dont think quite that bad. Also, mobs are going to be as close to 11 levs over the party level as possible for max XP.

Literature - Harshlands

Granrey - Sanctuary wrote: »

Wouldn't the phoenix kill every mob in one shot rather than pulling?
It would totally lose the reason for pulling.

I have never seen a phoenix in action. So, I just go for what I have heard.b:surrender

Nix would actually be the best. I didn't wanna suggest a legendary pet since you were talking about a sawfly.

But a nix has like 10m/s speed. And I think they are as tanky as a non-buffed herc.

Rule - Heavens Tear

I will go back and re-integrate some of this at a later time.

Zhen mobs need to be all phys, to respawn very quickly, and to be ideally +11 levels higher than the squad.

The XP and droprates are effected by this. Link is below.

http://www.pwdatabase.com/my/drop

Rule - Heavens Tear

Sad to see this thread die. b:cry

Asparagus - Harshlands

Rule - Heavens Tear wrote: »

1)...THEY ARE PAYING YOU TO BE HERE!!...

2)...You are responsible for the Zhen working or not....

1) I've done probably more than 30 hours of zhenning on my warrior and nobody ever payed me. How can you claim that the other people in the party are paying you, as a lurer, to be there?

Also

2) Correct. Without lurers, zhen would not work, and because of them doing most of the job, DD's and Clerics should not complain about it being cheap for lurers. Honestly, if you want to lvl up doing pretty much nothing at all, it comes with a price.

Cheers
Arn

Angerr - Harshlands

RedsRose - Lost City wrote: »

I have had veno's in my zhen party, however they are not highly sought after. Although, one of my veno friends is a better puller then many of the BM's and Barbs that I have worked with.

Here is a Guide my Veno friend wrote: by AineGoddess

A Veno's Guide to Zhen

snip

Very nice, but its a lot easier and cheaper to just buy a land mount and pull. Faster, easier and you don't need a hp charm or mp charm. b:victory

Rule - Heavens Tear

Asparagus - Harshlands wrote: »

1) I've done probably more than 30 hours of zhenning on my warrior and nobody ever payed me. How can you claim that the other people in the party are paying you, as a lurer, to be there?

Also

2) Correct. Without lurers, zhen would not work, and because of them doing most of the job, DD's and Clerics should not complain about it being cheap for lurers. Honestly, if you want to lvl up doing pretty much nothing at all, it comes with a price.

Cheers
Arn

Erm, perhaps we are having a problem in translation. There is literally no expense to being a lure except a minor repair bill. The rest of the party is paying a huge price to kill things as quickly as possible. Your riding thier expense for free, you gain the benefits of thier money. For your time you get a massive XP gain as well as an equal split of drops for things you didn't kill.

Your payment is the XP+drops from the zhen. You can not gain these doing solo anything without expenditure.

AdvanceZero - Heavens Tear

Lures do expend there HP charm and pots. As well as take damage before getting to bubble and in bubble. Now compared to what the formation peeps its really nothing. But on the flip side you have to take into consideration that lures are doing all the leg work. Often times I see AFK above someones head...and who knows how long they are gone. I've also seen someone pull a big group and someone dies....and they are not there...for a long while..and they never even let anyone know they went afk. Anyways..when someone is AFK you have to pay even more attention...I do big pulls...its more efficient for me. For thieves I take one whole side and bring it back bubble...i get there...i'm aggro'd so I am taking the damage....I aoe a couple times..and then stun...to make sure the others don't die...and aoe till all dead...pick up loot....jump up and look for more..usually they respawn so fast that you can run right back out after picking up the loot..at times the whole map is dead...bur only for a few moments.

Now here's a better lay out on how to lure as a BM.

You jump and find a good path to take that will allow you to aggro a ton of monsters....you want to aggro closest or farthest first..you'll understand why...hit your speed as you get close and run till you make it to your path end...turn and start running back...hit your Roar of Pride...you will have aggro'd the first mob you ran by and automatically start going towards them to stun....if there aggro reset..the stun will re-aggro them...(attacks don't seem to work) you then aoe...and start your way back to bubble. Depending on distance you will want to stop to aoe again (aoe as many times as you think is needed..you'll learn with exp what you need to do...i usually do about 2-3 times on the way back. You don't want to waste time...getting the mobs again.) to keep mobs following you. Make sure you are using your marrow physical...and pot as needed( charm seems to work fine if you don't mind it ticking)

Once you get mobs back to bubble and assuming you have two lurers you help kill mobs as fast as possible..aoe and stun as needed...stunning is good especially if you see someones life drop hard all of a sudden..gives chance for BB to heal/and or charm to cool down. Pick up loot and run another route.

With the above mentioned method. You will have a good sized repair bill. And use up a lot of your HP and MP charm. But when you looking for speed...the faster you kill the faster they respawn the more EXP everyone gets.

Zhenning isn't about making money its about EXP. I make more money aoe grinding with a cleric then zhenning.

Nubble - Heavens Tear

for ur zhen guides...grinding in party or alone u get same amount of exp as in zhen party also its like 100x cheaper to grind..i made 11% at lvl78 in grind party in 1hr and now making abt 5% in 1hr alone

Rule - Heavens Tear

Nubble - Heavens Tear wrote: »

for ur zhen guides...grinding in party or alone u get same amount of exp as in zhen party also its like 100x cheaper to grind..i made 11% at lvl78 in grind party in 1hr and now making abt 5% in 1hr alone

Doesn't actually apply to the topic. For a foot note though, for a wiz hard-core grinding is MORE expensive. Can't speak for the other classes.

*Breaking to meditate does not qualify as hard-core.

Rule - Heavens Tear

AdvanceZero - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Lures do expend there HP charm and pots. As well as take damage before getting to bubble and in bubble. Now compared to what the formation peeps its really nothing. But on the flip side you have to take into consideration that lures are doing all the leg work. Often times I see AFK above someones head...and who knows how long they are gone. I've also seen someone pull a big group and someone dies....and they are not there...for a long while..and they never even let anyone know they went afk. Anyways..when someone is AFK you have to pay even more attention...I do big pulls...its more efficient for me. For thieves I take one whole side and bring it back bubble...i get there...i'm aggro'd so I am taking the damage....I aoe a couple times..and then stun...to make sure the others don't die...and aoe till all dead...pick up loot....jump up and look for more..usually they respawn so fast that you can run right back out after picking up the loot..at times the whole map is dead...bur only for a few moments.

Now here's a better lay out on how to lure as a BM.

You jump and find a good path to take that will allow you to aggro a ton of monsters....you want to aggro closest or farthest first..you'll understand why...hit your speed as you get close and run till you make it to your path end...turn and start running back...hit your Roar of Pride...you will have aggro'd the first mob you ran by and automatically start going towards them to stun....if there aggro reset..the stun will re-aggro them...(attacks don't seem to work) you then aoe...and start your way back to bubble. Depending on distance you will want to stop to aoe again (aoe as many times as you think is needed..you'll learn with exp what you need to do...i usually do about 2-3 times on the way back. You don't want to waste time...getting the mobs again.) to keep mobs following you. Make sure you are using your marrow physical...and pot as needed( charm seems to work fine if you don't mind it ticking)

Once you get mobs back to bubble and assuming you have two lurers you help kill mobs as fast as possible..aoe and stun as needed...stunning is good especially if you see someones life drop hard all of a sudden..gives chance for BB to heal/and or charm to cool down. Pick up loot and run another route.

With the above mentioned method. You will have a good sized repair bill. And use up a lot of your HP and MP charm. But when you looking for speed...the faster you kill the faster they respawn the more EXP everyone gets.

Zhenning isn't about making money its about EXP. I make more money aoe grinding with a cleric then zhenning.

A good lure is not to be discarded. You are correct regarding the $$ vs xp. But your drops should more than cover your repair bill and charm tick.
Though it happens, people should not do prolonged AFK during zhen, besides violationg TOS, its just not smart. At higher levs its not as big a deal, still not brilliant.

I'd like to add your bit on luring to the zhen guide body a bit later btw.

Maddrox - Harshlands

I have been wondering.. how good exactly is the xp? Like for a good zhen party, about in how long could you estimate leveling as a lvl 60 barb.