Guide to Frost-Covered City (Frost)
Alphae - Lost City
Posts: 1,512 Arc User
Too many venos and just people in general are big giant failures in FCC so lets see if I can make a guide on it. This guide is intended for people to read BEFORE they do Frost, or to read during a TRAINING run, so they won't be clueless later in pick-up squads (the unfortunate reality for a lot of people).
I know that this guide is long, but I tried to be really thorough. Again, it's intended to be basically a step-by-step walkthrough for squads that have little or no experience in Frost. If you need tricks for a particular boss, just use Ctrl+F to find the boss name. If you want recommendations on squads, genie skills, or apo items to bring, Crtl+F and type in "What you need"--it should be the first result.
INTRODUCTION
What is it?
Frost-covered City (FCC or Frost) is an instance intended for the 80-85+ crowd. The new version of FCC has few drops except The Past of Frostcovered City. Very occasionally, a boss will drop a green armor or weapon such as this. Each weapon and armor piece drop from 1 boss only, and it's a not terrible, but not great chance either. But people don't run FCC for drops, they run it for experience. The mobs in FCC give really great experience, and combined with 12x hyper, you can level up really freaking fast in here.
Some definitions (for those that have a little knowledge of FCC, but want to learn more, otherwise you won't understand these):
Shade = Glacial shade mob, these are door guards, and doors won't open until you kill them
Exp room = really huge room full of mobs and a boss, as well as a quest to kill 1-hit mobs that give stupidly high experience
Big room = exp room
Bishop boss = 4th boss
Heads = 1 hit mobs that appear for a quest in the exp room
Hands = suicide mobs that need to be killed during the 7th boss
Can't think of any more, if you have terms you're finding people don't understand, lemme know and I'll add them.
It is expected that you are 85+ at this point and know what I am talking about when I say spark, BB, RB, ToP, etc. I will not be explaining this, if you need me to, you're probably too low to be reading this. I also expect you to know how to use hyper stones, I won't be explaining it. I will be explaining WHERE to hyper, nothing more.
Recommended squad
In lower levels, you tend to have a more rigid squad structure since your alt tanks don't have enough HP to pull properly.
I still prefer a barb for pulling due to their ability to turtle as well as a permanently fast run speed that saves genie skills and apo pots for more useful buffs, plus with them in the squad you get an HP buff that stays around.
In general, I'd recommend:
Barbarian
Cleric
Blademaster
Venomancer
DD of your choice, I really assassins.
DD of your choice, I like archers or wizards.
If I could pick a squad it would be:
Barb
Cleric
BM
Myself (Veno)
Sin
Wizard OR Archer
Some notes:
--Barbs can be replaced with BMs and even sins at high levels but even at 105 I will always prefer them. Their perm fast run speed saves apo pots and genie skills a BM or sin might use to keep moving fast, and they can turtle. Plus having one in a squad keeps that awesome HP buff around.
--Clerics are pretty damn necessary unless you're all 5aps with bloodpaint, or are a ****. Then again you probably won't be reading this if you are.
--If your barb prefers to tank and the cleric doesn't mind popping chi pills, the veno can be replaced by another DD, but a good veno can make it go a lot faster.
--You do NOT need a herc to tank FCC as a veno, you don't even need herc skills, you just have to not be a failure. Reflect is helpful on a non-herc in higher levels as it helps the pet keep aggro (longer), but in higher levels, a resentful 5aps or even 4aps will steal even if you have a herc, just deal with it, you can't heal them anyway so it's the cleric's business to keep them alive, don't stress it.
--A sin is much more helpful 89+ when they can 3-spark, unless they really like eating HP food and/or spamming Tree of Protection.
--Psychics are pretty damn useful and while they are not quite interchangeable with Wizards, they rank a close second. While they have no zhen, they do have some nice aoes including one that stuns.
Class roles (in general)
Barb: pull mobs, HP buff ****
Cleric: heal, blue ball, buff ****
BM: stun as pulls are coming in with roar of the pride, then aoe DD, throw heaven's flame when appropriate
Veno: tank w/ pet, pass chi to cleric (anyone else who needs chi needs to ask, you should be building chi most of the time, except for BMs), bramble ****. Nova for a second stun, start it 3 seconds after roar of the pride goes off
Sin: Tank first 2 shades by yourself, use a bow on harpies and possibly heads/hands, DD, bloodpaint buff ****
Archer: zhen at pulls, DD at bosses, harpies/heads/hands. If you have 79 speed buffs, you should buff the puller, also refresh that 600 sec speed buff on regular archer buff before pulls.
Wizard : zhen at pulls, DD at bosses. buff melees with that cool glowy hand skill (and me too, it looks cool)
Psychic: aoe at pulls, DD at bosses. use charm/pot buff on tanking barbs.
BEGINNING
Before you start
There are a couple things you need to realize about this instance.
1. You need to pay attention.
You really cannot go semi-afk and complete a successful frost run. Everyone needs to do their job properly for a run to go smoothly. Likewise...
2. You need to know your job.
No one really cares if you are "learning" if you tell a squad that you have been here before and know your job, and then wipe or **** off the squad doing something stupid (read: aoe at big room boss, taking quest before pull, more). Know what your job is, and if you don't, say so so that you can be helped.
3. You need to have the time.
Nothing slows a frost down more than the infamous "brb 1 sec." Seriously. If you don't have time to do it, don't do it. If I'm squad leader in a pick-up squad, I generally say everyone gets a single 2 minute brb. Otherwise we move on without them, and if they're not back and rejoining us in 10 minutes they're kicked and replaced. If they're a necessary class like the cleric or barb, they're kicked and replaced after 5 minutes of brb. A good frost run (full) should take a little more than an hour for a very modestly geared squad. There is no reason anyone should be adding 10 or 15% to that time by going afk all the damn time.
What you need
I would recommend that EVERYONE bring at least most the following. How much of the consumables you bring is to your own judgment, and the apothecary pills are optional. I am also going to recommend some genie skills that are good for either everyone or at least 1 person to have.
EVERYONE should have a BOW, except the cleric who doesn't need one. If you're a sin/BM/barb, use as high a level bow as you can. Even magic classes should have one though.
Potions:
HP food (L75 food)
MP food (L75 food)
Apothecary:
Chi pills (barb and cleric)
Speed pills (cleric)
Purify pills (tanking veno)
Genie:
Holy Path (everyone - if the cleric don't have this or you're not a demon veno w/ demon fox form, he MUST bring apothecary speed spills, they are essential because you MUST keep up with the barb)
Tangling Mire (at least 1--this is really nice at the big room because it's aoe)
Extreme Poison (at least 1)
Tree of Protection/Second Wind (discretionary, there bosses that aoe sleep or random sleep, and if this happens to the cleric, you may need to heal yourself)
Relentless Courage (tanking veno)
Absolute Domain (at least 1, as many as possible)
Expel (zhenning wizards and archers, but a useful save skill for any class)
Cloud Eruption (barbs and clerics, mostly, but a BM may also find useful, and it's good for any class)
If there's other stuff you like to bring along, please post it.
To start
So you have your squad, they're all in Frost and you're all buffed up and pretty. It takes an 85+ squad leader to open the door, so if you're leader and not 85+, pass it to someone who is, if you're all below 85, I'm pretty sure you can just borrow someone to open the door and then re-invite back your last person (but I've never tried this). Everyone who is 85+ take the NPC's quest, or you won't get your box tokens later in the run (or you'll only get 1, which is worse than useless).
The door is open, kill the little patrol dude and go kill the shade and the two little ice midgets, the door will open.
PART 1
First pull(s)
If you've got a decent (89+) sin in your squad, his job will be to stealth past all the mobs into the first door on the left, go to the back of the room, and kill the shade and his two little minion friends, then go back out in stealth to the next room up the hall (again on the left), and again kill the shade in the back of the room and his two little minions. The barb can then pull mobs all the way the the next shade, which I'll describe in a minute.
If you have no sin or he doesn't feel comfortable tanking, the barb will pull mobs in the first room (including shade) to the cleric's BB, which should be up at the first door/passageway on the left. Everyone aoes, they die in like 2 seconds. DO NOT DROP YOUR BB, CLERICS. The barb will then pull the next set of mobs from the next shade room (the next left) back to the cleric, again aoe, they go down pretty fast.
Now two doors on the right side of the hall are open. All should wait in the first passage except the barb who should go down the second passage and wait there. Veno, if you haven't already passed your cleric a spark, do so now, they need BB again straight away.
Barb will pull the mobs in the room in front of you, down a hall, and up to a shade. EVERYONE FOLLOW HIM, DO NOT BE SLOW. If you don't have Holy Path on genie, bring apo pills (or be a demon veno, lol). ESPECIALLY the cleric. Cleric, as soon as you see barb's aoe aggro skill fire (looks like swords going into mobs), put up that BB. BM stun, veno nova (if possible), everyone aoe/zhen, they again die pretty quickly.
First boss: Thunderclaw (Booby Trap boss)
This guy will shout some random **** that doesn't matter when you start attacking him. The main thing about to know about this guy is that these orange circles pop up at pretty regular intervals in random areas of the room. They are bombs that blow up in 5 seconds, so cancel your skills if one pops up under you and get out of it. Alternatively, you can count to 3 (4 is cutting it a bit close due to lag) and then triple spark, but that's not as reliable as just getting out of the damn circle. Even at the end after the boss is dead, and circles spawned will still blow up, so move out of them.
Venos can tank this boss, but you should have your pet on manual so you can pull him out of the circles easily. As a veno, I much prefer a barb tanking on this one. He goes down fast, and is NOT worth hypering.
After you kill him, run out into the main hall and then up the ramp at the end.
PART 2
Second set of pulls
This barely even counts as a pull but I'll put it in here. There's a few melee mobs and a shade in the next room, any noob can pull these, a herc can do it and BB really isn't necessary, just AOE heal (save those sparks, cleric). Magic DDs, you may want to keep the melees off you because they attack pretty fast and can cancel your skills. If you're in trouble, just kite them in a circle until the BM or barb grabs them. Once they're dead, the door should open with a ramp in front of you.
After that again go up the ramp and the barb will see 4 groups of mobs, one in front close, one in front back (with a shade), one to left, one to right. I personally think barb does best if he pulls front close, left, front back, right. Those pink dudes are magic and they hurt him pretty bad, so BB here cleric. Veno, don't nova here, instead pass sparks as often as you can, especially if you like quick runs, because there really isn't even a harpy to build chi on for cleric, he'll have to build chi probably anyway after this. Once they're dead, door at the right of the room should open (this will be right next to you if barb pulls like I suggested).
This next hall is where I find, if your barb is going to die he is going to do it here. it is full of magic mobs and the last half of the hallway has mobs that aoe damage and freeze. The whole hall should NOT be pulled at once. If your barb knows where to stop, he can pull half the hall, but I generally don't even like to do that, even though its slower in the long run, so I will be describing how I consider it safest.
Generally barb, you should pull like this, all in ONE pull (everyone FOLLOW):
1. Pull mobs up to first left, take it and keep pulling
2. Pull the passageway
3. Pull the FIRST GROUP OF MOBS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU in the room, do NOT 4. Pull the other groups
5. Take your first right and pull up to the shade
BM and cleric, you should be right behind him. BM, stun immediately, and cleric, get that BB up. Veno, nova. Archers and wizzies, get your zhens up BUT NOT EXACTLY IN THE SAME PLACE--a lot of the mobs are magic only so they will be more spread out. Barb, you may need to turtle here until aggro spreads off you. Psychics, make use of that stun aoe but know your other classes' skills and if they fire a stun skill, don't waste your stun until theirs goes off (that really goes for all classes). Kill all the mobs and the shade, the door at the bottom of the ramp will open.
Second boss: Diabolic Shocktrooper
This is a pain in the ***. When you get into his room, there is an NPC. DO NOT TALK TO HIM RIGHT AWAY IF THE SQUAD IS NOT READY.
There is a platform to your left as you run in, with the boss in the middle frozen in ice. All should run over to the platform except 1 person, cleric needs at least 1 spark, but as much chi as possible. Once people are over there (or if you know what you're doing, as people are heading over) and the cleric has enough spark, 1 person talk to the NPC. Colored lights will appear around the boss, red (back) and green (front) on your left (boss's right), yellow (back) and blue (front) on your right (boss's left), and purple behind him.
If your squad has most members in the 85 range, I would recommend everyone doing "one side." If you have most or all 90+ members, especially if you have good bms and/or sins, you can do "both sides." You'll see what I mean in a minute.
Glacix Elementos (or whatever their name is) appear and start "bashing" the ice around the boss trying to free him. You need to kill them off to weaken the boss. Each one only stays around for 30 seconds so you need to kill them before this, otherwise they will disappear and you won't get credit for them.
I have never counted the number of elementos you have to kill to get tough versus weakened on this guy. If someone knows that, I'd appreciate the info.
His stages are Frenzy (if you kill no elementos, I believe), Tough, and Weakened, depending on the number of elementos you kill before the boss is "let out." Cleric should put up red bubble on the center of the platform, just under the boss--if you have high APS users in your squad, the cleric should RB ONLY on the right side, and the APS user(s) should DD the left side (but if you're reading this, I doubt you have enough APS to make this an issue--you need 2APS+ I believe). DO NOT SPARK OF ANY KIND IN RED BUBBLE, IT GETS OVERWRITTEN. You should be chi-building here, possibly using chi consuming skills, but don't spark, it's useless. Anyway:
1 SIDE ELEMENTOS
All should crowd around the blue color on your right and kill the elementos as they spawn, 5 of them will spawn. After that, all should move forward to the yellow color and kill those as they spawn. You should get "Tough Diabolic Shocktrooper."
2 SIDE ELEMENTOS
Your highest 2 DDs should go and stand on the left side of the boss to the red color beam, and the barb veno and whoever else should go on the right side to the blue color beam. Make sure you're in RB range, and again, NO SPARKING. Kill the elementos as they pop up in the color beams. The left side people are responsible for the red and green color beam elementos, while the right side people are responsible for the blue and yellow beam elementos. The left side DDs should clear out the their elementos before the right side and should quickly run over and help the right side with the yellow beam elementos. There is no need to kill the purple beam elementos. You should get "Weakened Diabolic Shocktrooper."
Eventually the colored beams will go away and the boss will wave his arms. This is your cue that he's about to be set free so several things should happen. Melees, position yourself under him, cleric drop bb and run back, and I would recommend that ranged/magic classes (with the possible exception of the amping veno) keep near-ish to the cleric. Everyone but the cleric should 3 spark.
When the boss pops out, debuffs should land. Tangling mire, extreme poison, amp damage, heaven's flame as soon as the BM can get it off. Barb, try to keep aggro on you, but this guy seems to have bouts of random aggro (not proven, and some people don't think so). He also does a pretty damn nasty skill that puts you in a bubble a la Tangling Mire and sleeps you, as well as doing damage over time. The cleric should watch for the little tangling mire leaf indicator on the squad bars and purify this quickly, then pop that person an ironheart before going back to the barb. I've seen higher level clerics just constantly aoe heal when not purifying, it works as well. The boss will also randomly sleep people without putting the bubble on them. Generally you're just left asleep, so don't whine about it. If you keep debuffs on this guy, he goes down fast. He's also not worth hypering.
After he's dead, blue foxes will spawn in the back of the room. You can use the NPC on the platform to get chi, then sneak past them (quite easy), up the ramp, back through the room, through the passage, and back into the main hall.
PART 3
Hall of doom (or really annoying hall, whatever)
Now that you're back in the hall, you have all these groups of hard hitting magic mobs to deal with. I find it easiest to deal with them in single groups. Cleric should aoe heal, everyone should aoe. The bm should stun as often as possible. DO NOT push the mobs back, wizards/pyschics/archers, this just makes life incredibly annoying.
When you get about half-way up the hall the mobs will change to a single priest-looking mob surrounded by foxes. These are the famous Frost Bishops (hereafter, just bishops), and they do aoe magic damage, and they freeze. This makes them incredibly annoying for melee classes and in large groups they can easily wipe a squad. My recommendation for dealing with each of these groups would be to have the sin stealth, run forward, and sleep the bishop then 3 spark. The bm should then run in and stun all the mobs, followed by everyone else coming in and aoe-ing. The bishop should always be your aoe target until he is dead, then get rid of the other mobs.
You will come to a passage on your right that leads to a room with two NPCs, but I like to kill all the mob groups in the hall before going down the passage. It's up to you.
Third boss: Cyclotra Syren
When you come into the room on the right of the hall of doom, there is an NPC. DO NOT TALK TO IT UNTIL THE SQUAD IS READY. It will spawn a boss, and everyone needs to talk to it in order to get their first box token, Faithfulness. Once everyone is around the NPC, decide who is tanking. Often, the veno tanks this boss, but the barb is welcome too, just decide who it will be. Then, everyone take the quest at once, and the tank should quickly run back and be ready to catch the boss as it comes down the ramp into the room. When you catch it, a dragoon will spawn that will stun the party if not killed quickly. This is why it is preferred for the veno to tank, as it frees the cleric to DD on the dragons. Everyone should attack the dragoon until it's dead, then attack the boss, and then attack any dragoons that spawn.
Cleric, there is a channeling debuff that the boss gives, if it ends up on the veno and they're tanking, if you want them to love you forever, purify it, it makes it about 20 times easier to heal the boss. Also, the boss does do some weak damage to players, just drop an aoe heal or an ironheart every once in a while so the players don't have to eat hp food.
This guy gives decent experience, so hyper him if you want to use the activation. After killing the boss, MAKE SURE TO TALK TO THE OTHER NPC FOR YOUR BOX TOKEN.
PART 4
Hyper pull #1 (4th group of mob pulls):
After doing Syren, go into the next room. Don't bother with the mobs, just go over and kill the shade and his two foxes, and the door will open.
This next hall is fantastic, it's all melee mobs. The barb should have 2 sparks just in case, and make sure he is brambled. Some request the cleric 79 skill for damage protection. The barb should run all the way to the end of the hall, then back again and take the first left, while everyone else should follow to the first left and wait for him to come back. The barb should then go down the hall, and all should follow. When he comes out into the room, he should veer left to avoid the patrolling boss, and gather the mobs at the other side of the room in the middle of the left side. The cleric should put up BB, the bm should stun, and everyone should aoe. I like to hyper this pull, and leave my hyper on until the boss in this room is dead.
4th boss: Dreadindra (Bishop Boss)
Once you're finished with the pull, decide who is tanking. Veno often tanks this boss, but your pet needs enough HP for you to be slept a little while and not spam heal 100% of the time.
IMPORTANT: No matter who tanks, everyone needs to be in a TIGHT group. This does NOT mean with a little space. I know it's a bit disconcerting for magic classes to be so close to a boss, clerics too. DEAL WITH IT. Get right on top of the tank, everyone. Venos, if you're tanking, get right on top of your pet, and everyone else, get right on top of the veno.
This is important because this boss spawns Frost bishops on a random player. If you all are spread out, the bishops will freeze the melees, they won't die fast enough, and I guarantee the squad will wipe. The bishops spawn pretty fast. The main goal is to kill the bishops as fast as possible, and to kill the boss. When a bishop is up, everyone except the tank (and cleric if a player is tanking or veno if a pet is tanking) should attack it and debuff to kill as fast as possible. Then go back to the boss.
This boss also strips players of buffs. Don't bother rebuffing, because he tends to strip them just as fast. Finally, Dread seems to sleep randomly, and he does an aoe. He dies pretty fast, the main concern for the squad should be to kill the bishops he spawns as quickly as possible. If you let them build up the squad is in trouble and can wipe very quickly.
--Note for barbs: Dread's skills can be interrupted. There is apparently a "circle" that appears under players that are about to be debuffed--interrupt the boss when you see this. The boss also says "Let it all fade away" when bishops are spawned, and this can apparently be interrupted.
If you didn't hyper the pull before this and leave your hyper on, hyper this guy, he gives good experience.
After the boss, don't everyone go scurrying off. Everyone just freeze where you are, and everyone gets rebuffed. Good, now continue.
PART 5
Hyper pull #2 (5th group of mob pulls):
After this guy, run back out and up the ramp. The barb/whoever should pull the two groups of mobs, DO NOT GO UP TO THE SHADE. Kill these guys, cleric aoe heal.
The shade has 2 frost bishops as minions, this is the most annoying shade. The BM can run up with cloud sprint and stun the bishops for the melees to get close, or the sin can stealth, run up, sleep one and stun the other, which also allows the melees to get close. Regardless, you should aoe targeting the bishops first until they are dead, then the shade. Cleric should aoe heal. When the shade is dead the door behind him will open.
This next pull is COMPLETELY the same as the last hyper pull, so I don't see a need to completely repeat myself. Again, I like to hyper the pull and leave on until the boss is dead.
5th boss: Asoteric Runewolf (The slash boss)
This guy is pretty fun and also causes a lot of QQing. Barb should tank here, but veno you should have your pet out, buffed (if applicable) and on melee ready to tank if barb lags and dies.
This guy random aggros, but that's not the worst. He does an "ultimate" aoe that will 1 shot you, and it has a rage of about 25 meters. He will NOT run around when he does this aoe, instead he will freeze in place. He gives you warning too, he will start yelling in common chat (so have it on):
SUPER...
POWERFUL...
MIGHTY...
WHIRLING...
SLASH!
At "slash" he buffs his magic attack and does a several hit aoe that will pretty much kill you. You need to run out of his range before he does this. Archers and wizards at max range (28.5m for wizards at least) will be out of range, but they need to make SURE that they are at max range for this to work. It is safest for all to run away anyway. When the boss starts moving again, he will random aggro, and it is safe to run towards him again. If you do choose to DD on the boss during the aoe (at max range), it seems like he has a higher change to aggro you. You need to be ready for this, and run towards the tank so that he can pick up aggro off you.
After a little while, he will start doing a "normal" aoe that also does decent damage. If you want healed by the cleric after this hits, RUN THE SAME DIRECTION AS THEM DURING THE ULTIMATE AOE. If you don't, don't cry about it when you don't get healed and just take the charm tick next aoe, or eat HP food. Barb especially should keep an eye on where there cleric is and run in that direction so they can stack you with ironhearts while waiting for the aoe to be done.
--Note to barbs: DO NOT attempt to interrupt the Wolf unless you are experienced. If you time your skill wrong, you can cause the ultimate AOE to fire early and you'll pretty much wipe all the melees.
Other than the aoe and random aggro, just kill the dude. He gives good exp, so hyper if you wish.
PART 6
6th mob pull
After killing the boss, run out into the hall and build chi killing the harpy. Then run up the ramp. The barb should pull the mobs (all melee) to the shade, bb should go up, aoe and kill the mobs and the shade.
6th boss: Messenger of Fear (Sleep boss)
This guy has a big claw on his hand, I think he looks pretty cool. If you're a veno and want to tank, you need to either be able to not heal for a pretty good amount of time, or bring purify pills.
This guy does an attack after he says "Drown in the endless nightmare!"--he does a pretty hard hitting aoe and then aoe sleeps.
--Note to barbs: This aoe can be canceled! DO IT when possible!
It seems to me fairly random who gets slept, but it doesn't land all the time. Still, it does land in my experience on about 4/6 squad members, and you can count on luck (or lack thereof) to have the cleric slept. Don't freak out though. If you're a barb and tanking, hit Tree of Protection or eat an HP food, the sleep isn't that long and the boss doesn't hit that hard. If you're tanking as a veno, if you know your pet can't survive several hits from the boss, make sure to heal IMMEDIATELY when you see him say his line, and then after you're slept pop a purify pill. Sins, you can use your Tidal Protection skill to avoid the sleep, and if you time your 3 spark right, any class to use to to avoid the sleep as well. Anyway, when the sleep wears off, cleric should aoe heal (or if not slept, aoe heal immediately). There is a pretty long time between these attacks so it shouldn't be a problem.
Otherwise, this guy is easy and gives good exp. Hyper him if you can spare the activation. Afterward, talk to the NPC if you're 85+ to get teleported to the next area. If you're less than 85 you have to walk to the next area.
PART 7
7th mob pull
After you teleport, the barb will pull the melee mobs on the outside of the room at the bottom of the ramp to the middle at the shade. Put BB up and aoe them, that's all there is to it. The door will open and let you into the big room!
PART 8: THE EXPERIENCE ROOM
Harpies
Once in the big room, the sin and/or archer's responsibility to collect the harpies and pull them back to the party at the opening of the room. There are 5 in all, 4 that are stationary and 1 that patrols (thanks Gryphyyn). Just DD on them, cleric try and heal those people tanking the harpies, especially squishies, but also DD.
Boss #7: Oceania Master
This boss is easy, but everyone needs to know what they are doing. You need to establish these things:
1. Who is tanking.
Often the veno tanks, and that makes things go a lot faster because the cleric can DD and barb can use DD skills if he wishes, as well as attacking in human for more damage. Barb is welcome to tank though.
2. Who is doing hands.
This boss will spawn clapping hands on random players during the fight, similar to the hands in TT. They need to be killed IMMEDIATELY before the clap, because they will kill most of the squad. One person needs to be devoted to this. Usually, they use a bow to accomplish this more quickly. A lot of people say archer should do this, but the hands have only 15HP so anyone with a bow can do it. MAKE SURE YOU DECIDE BEFORE STARTING.
The boss can be attacked where he is, there is no need to pull him to the opening of the room.
When the boss is attacked, once again EVERYONE NEEDS TO STAND TOGETHER, just like in the bishop boss. That way, hands will always spawn close, and not all over the place. (Some people will say this also allows a melee player to do the hands, but I still don't care for that and would prefer hands person to use a bow.)
DO NOT AOE THIS BOSS EVER. This is incredibly important. The boss will spawn a little clone of himself that keeps telling you to hit him. If you do, he will explode and kill most of the squad. So DO NOT AOE EVER.
Otherwise, this boss does an aoe the cleric can aoe heal through.
--Note to barbs: This AOE can be cancelled, though it might be difficult. He does it just after he says whatever he says about "despair."
The cleric needs to make sure that he has 399 (or 299) chi by the end of the battle. You will need it. Hyper at the end of the boss, and leave it on.
The experience pull
After the boss is dead, the barb should start pulling the room. If the cleric has their 79 shield skill, they should cast it on the barb. Venos, make sure the barb is brambled as well. How the barb pulls is his responsibility, but he should end up at the NPC that spawns behind the boss.
DO NOT TALK TO THE NPC OR YOU WILL LIKELY BE KICKED FROM THE SQUAD AND QQ'D ABOUT ON WC, AND ON MY SERVER YOU'LL PROBABLY GET PK'D. So don't do it.
Everyone else should gather there, hopefully you all have full chi. Cleric, get BB up right away (DON'T wait until the barb is right butt-up on you). As soon as they get BB up, veno pass the cleric one of your sparks. Barb, before you pull the group into aggro range, turtle and then fire your 79 aoe aggro skill, then pull the group in. When the pull comes back, the BM stun is absolutely critical. The bm should then immediately drop a heaven's flame. Zhens should go up, archers and wizards, and venos should fire their nova. Everyone else, DD like crazy, and watch your exp bar fill like you're level 20 again. After all the mobs are dead, everyone switch to their bows.
Heads
After the mobs are dead and bows are out, everyone talk to the NPC. The cleric should run to the middle of the room and red ball (you should have 2 sparks bc the veno should have passed you one before the pull, or at least 199 chi, just IH yourself quickly). Everyone else spread out at the outer range of red ball.
Mobs that look like shrunken heads will pop up all over the room that even a magic class with a bow should be able to 1-hit with red ball--they have 100 HP. These guys are worth 5 digit experience each under 12x hyper, and it's imperative that you kill them as fast as possible. After a certain period of time, the heads will stop spawning, and hypers should be paused after the last ones are dead. Then everyone should talk to the NPC to get their second box token, Sincerity.
===THIS COMPLETES A "HALF RUN"===
(If you quit here, next time you do a full run, bring your Faithfulness and Sincerity tokens to use at the end. You'll see what I mean.)
PART 9
Boss #8: Decaying Fragrance
This guy is up the ramp way to the right of the big room. There is a harpy in the hall, build chi on it.
This boss CANNOT be tanked by a veno, it debuffs and even a herc will die (similar to Polearm in FB69). A barb should tank this one. He also aoe stuns. Cleric, be double sure to purify the barb right away. He also aoes, clerics can easily aoe heal through it. Just kill him, debuff, etc., and he's worth a hyper if you like (though I don't generally hyper him).
PART 10
Boss #9: Asoteric Runephoenix
Again, a harpy in the hall, build chi.
This guy flies around the ceiling, someone with a bow should lure him down and into the hallway. A veno can tank, but it's annoying because this boss aoe seals which causes the pet to run backwards. Anyway, he also does AOE fire damage. Kill him.
Then, Infernobird Soul will spawn in the middle of the room. This is a 1-hit mob that needs to be killed before the door will open. If your squad is well-planned, you can hyper this guy (the actual boss, not just the Soul -.-) and leave it on for the next step.
PART 10
Dragoons
**I would only recommend doing a dragoon pull to a 90+ squad. If you're in a lower-level squad, just go through as we did in the hall of doom (lol) section killing groups of mobs 1 at a time. (Also, make sure you pause your hypers lol)**
This is probably the second best place for the barb to die. His job is to run down the hall and pull all the dragoons as he goes, using his anti-stun skill if needed, as well as turtle. He should NOT pull the mobs at this time. Everyone should follow him to the last room of frost; again he should only be pulling the dragoons at this point.
At the door of the boss room, barb should pull the last dragoons from the back of the boss room out to party. BB CANNOT be used here, it will just be stunned off. Cleric should aoe heal. Those with Domain on their genies should keep it ready and use it for stun immunity. Other than that, spark and AOE to kill these guys as fast as you can (Tangling Mire is great here), and remember, have your hypers on. The dragoons give really nice experience. Pause hypers after they're all dead.
Mob pull
After killing the dragons, the barb should go back and collect the mobs, bringing them back to the group. Cleric should be able to AOE heal through this, and they should go down fairly quickly.
PART 11
Holeen's Body
There should be two mobs in this room, a big one and a small one. The veno should lure out the large one and then can either tank it or let the barb tank it. It's a fairly normal boss, it does not aoe or do anything special.
After this, a really freaking huge yeti looking dude will spawn. This is...
Boss #10: Holeen, Champion of Fientazzar
This is the final boss of FCC. Again, he should be lured out, but the barb can do this since the little dude has disappeared. The cleric should jump up on the rock by the door and put up BB, and everyone else should stand close to the rock. The barb (or whoever wants to pull it) should drag the big guy over to BB range (make sure he doesn't go up on the rock or he could reset, thanks Escorian) and everyone should begin to DD.
Holeen random aggros, AOE seals, and does a nasty hard AOE that hits for half your HP (no matter how much you have), even under bb conditions. As soon as the cleric gets bb up, the veno should pass him spark, and another as soon as possible, in case the cleric gets knocked out. Otherwise, people should be eating HP food in addition to BB, or be willing to see your charm tick. The veno should also be on the lookout as Holeen will buff himself simliar to Cosmoforce in TT 2-x. This should be purged immediately. As always, if the cleric gets knocked out of bb, he should have 2 spark thanks to the veno, and as soon as he gets it back up, the veno should again pass him 2 spark asap. Otherwise, debuff and kill this guy, and hyper him if you like.
Chests of Sincerity
After Holeen is dead, an NPC will spawn in the back of the room, go talk to him. He will exchange 1 Faithfulness and 1 Sincerity for a Chest of Sincerity. The rewards can be seen here.
===THIS CONCLUDES A FULL FROST RUN===
Hopefully this is helpful to everyone. If anyone has anything to add or wants to make fun of me or whatever (x_x) just post and if it should be added, I'll add it with credit.
CREDITS:
Gryphyyn--suggesting the coloring of warnings and hyper suggestions
Dyskrasia--thanks for catching those coding mistakes
Escorian--pointing out that I should clarify Boss #10's instructions
Gromskull--pointing out I said "dragon" instead of the correct "dragoon" (now changed)
Elviron--some additional useful genie skill recommendations, a note for Runewolf, and a note on Holeen's AOE. Also convincing me to mention the archer 79 speed buff, rofl
Notgood--note about Tidal Protection for sins during the Messenger of Fear fight
Ulvhedner--"Note to barb" sections about boss skills that can be interrupted--thanks!
I know that this guide is long, but I tried to be really thorough. Again, it's intended to be basically a step-by-step walkthrough for squads that have little or no experience in Frost. If you need tricks for a particular boss, just use Ctrl+F to find the boss name. If you want recommendations on squads, genie skills, or apo items to bring, Crtl+F and type in "What you need"--it should be the first result.
INTRODUCTION
What is it?
Frost-covered City (FCC or Frost) is an instance intended for the 80-85+ crowd. The new version of FCC has few drops except The Past of Frostcovered City. Very occasionally, a boss will drop a green armor or weapon such as this. Each weapon and armor piece drop from 1 boss only, and it's a not terrible, but not great chance either. But people don't run FCC for drops, they run it for experience. The mobs in FCC give really great experience, and combined with 12x hyper, you can level up really freaking fast in here.
Some definitions (for those that have a little knowledge of FCC, but want to learn more, otherwise you won't understand these):
Shade = Glacial shade mob, these are door guards, and doors won't open until you kill them
Exp room = really huge room full of mobs and a boss, as well as a quest to kill 1-hit mobs that give stupidly high experience
Big room = exp room
Bishop boss = 4th boss
Heads = 1 hit mobs that appear for a quest in the exp room
Hands = suicide mobs that need to be killed during the 7th boss
Can't think of any more, if you have terms you're finding people don't understand, lemme know and I'll add them.
It is expected that you are 85+ at this point and know what I am talking about when I say spark, BB, RB, ToP, etc. I will not be explaining this, if you need me to, you're probably too low to be reading this. I also expect you to know how to use hyper stones, I won't be explaining it. I will be explaining WHERE to hyper, nothing more.
Recommended squad
In lower levels, you tend to have a more rigid squad structure since your alt tanks don't have enough HP to pull properly.
I still prefer a barb for pulling due to their ability to turtle as well as a permanently fast run speed that saves genie skills and apo pots for more useful buffs, plus with them in the squad you get an HP buff that stays around.
In general, I'd recommend:
Barbarian
Cleric
Blademaster
Venomancer
DD of your choice, I really assassins.
DD of your choice, I like archers or wizards.
If I could pick a squad it would be:
Barb
Cleric
BM
Myself (Veno)
Sin
Wizard OR Archer
Some notes:
--Barbs can be replaced with BMs and even sins at high levels but even at 105 I will always prefer them. Their perm fast run speed saves apo pots and genie skills a BM or sin might use to keep moving fast, and they can turtle. Plus having one in a squad keeps that awesome HP buff around.
--Clerics are pretty damn necessary unless you're all 5aps with bloodpaint, or are a ****. Then again you probably won't be reading this if you are.
--If your barb prefers to tank and the cleric doesn't mind popping chi pills, the veno can be replaced by another DD, but a good veno can make it go a lot faster.
--You do NOT need a herc to tank FCC as a veno, you don't even need herc skills, you just have to not be a failure. Reflect is helpful on a non-herc in higher levels as it helps the pet keep aggro (longer), but in higher levels, a resentful 5aps or even 4aps will steal even if you have a herc, just deal with it, you can't heal them anyway so it's the cleric's business to keep them alive, don't stress it.
--A sin is much more helpful 89+ when they can 3-spark, unless they really like eating HP food and/or spamming Tree of Protection.
--Psychics are pretty damn useful and while they are not quite interchangeable with Wizards, they rank a close second. While they have no zhen, they do have some nice aoes including one that stuns.
Class roles (in general)
Barb: pull mobs, HP buff ****
Cleric: heal, blue ball, buff ****
BM: stun as pulls are coming in with roar of the pride, then aoe DD, throw heaven's flame when appropriate
Veno: tank w/ pet, pass chi to cleric (anyone else who needs chi needs to ask, you should be building chi most of the time, except for BMs), bramble ****. Nova for a second stun, start it 3 seconds after roar of the pride goes off
Sin: Tank first 2 shades by yourself, use a bow on harpies and possibly heads/hands, DD, bloodpaint buff ****
Archer: zhen at pulls, DD at bosses, harpies/heads/hands. If you have 79 speed buffs, you should buff the puller, also refresh that 600 sec speed buff on regular archer buff before pulls.
Wizard : zhen at pulls, DD at bosses. buff melees with that cool glowy hand skill (and me too, it looks cool)
Psychic: aoe at pulls, DD at bosses. use charm/pot buff on tanking barbs.
BEGINNING
Before you start
There are a couple things you need to realize about this instance.
1. You need to pay attention.
You really cannot go semi-afk and complete a successful frost run. Everyone needs to do their job properly for a run to go smoothly. Likewise...
2. You need to know your job.
No one really cares if you are "learning" if you tell a squad that you have been here before and know your job, and then wipe or **** off the squad doing something stupid (read: aoe at big room boss, taking quest before pull, more). Know what your job is, and if you don't, say so so that you can be helped.
3. You need to have the time.
Nothing slows a frost down more than the infamous "brb 1 sec." Seriously. If you don't have time to do it, don't do it. If I'm squad leader in a pick-up squad, I generally say everyone gets a single 2 minute brb. Otherwise we move on without them, and if they're not back and rejoining us in 10 minutes they're kicked and replaced. If they're a necessary class like the cleric or barb, they're kicked and replaced after 5 minutes of brb. A good frost run (full) should take a little more than an hour for a very modestly geared squad. There is no reason anyone should be adding 10 or 15% to that time by going afk all the damn time.
What you need
I would recommend that EVERYONE bring at least most the following. How much of the consumables you bring is to your own judgment, and the apothecary pills are optional. I am also going to recommend some genie skills that are good for either everyone or at least 1 person to have.
EVERYONE should have a BOW, except the cleric who doesn't need one. If you're a sin/BM/barb, use as high a level bow as you can. Even magic classes should have one though.
Potions:
HP food (L75 food)
MP food (L75 food)
Apothecary:
Chi pills (barb and cleric)
Speed pills (cleric)
Purify pills (tanking veno)
Genie:
Holy Path (everyone - if the cleric don't have this or you're not a demon veno w/ demon fox form, he MUST bring apothecary speed spills, they are essential because you MUST keep up with the barb)
Tangling Mire (at least 1--this is really nice at the big room because it's aoe)
Extreme Poison (at least 1)
Tree of Protection/Second Wind (discretionary, there bosses that aoe sleep or random sleep, and if this happens to the cleric, you may need to heal yourself)
Relentless Courage (tanking veno)
Absolute Domain (at least 1, as many as possible)
Expel (zhenning wizards and archers, but a useful save skill for any class)
Cloud Eruption (barbs and clerics, mostly, but a BM may also find useful, and it's good for any class)
If there's other stuff you like to bring along, please post it.
To start
So you have your squad, they're all in Frost and you're all buffed up and pretty. It takes an 85+ squad leader to open the door, so if you're leader and not 85+, pass it to someone who is, if you're all below 85, I'm pretty sure you can just borrow someone to open the door and then re-invite back your last person (but I've never tried this). Everyone who is 85+ take the NPC's quest, or you won't get your box tokens later in the run (or you'll only get 1, which is worse than useless).
The door is open, kill the little patrol dude and go kill the shade and the two little ice midgets, the door will open.
PART 1
First pull(s)
If you've got a decent (89+) sin in your squad, his job will be to stealth past all the mobs into the first door on the left, go to the back of the room, and kill the shade and his two little minion friends, then go back out in stealth to the next room up the hall (again on the left), and again kill the shade in the back of the room and his two little minions. The barb can then pull mobs all the way the the next shade, which I'll describe in a minute.
If you have no sin or he doesn't feel comfortable tanking, the barb will pull mobs in the first room (including shade) to the cleric's BB, which should be up at the first door/passageway on the left. Everyone aoes, they die in like 2 seconds. DO NOT DROP YOUR BB, CLERICS. The barb will then pull the next set of mobs from the next shade room (the next left) back to the cleric, again aoe, they go down pretty fast.
Now two doors on the right side of the hall are open. All should wait in the first passage except the barb who should go down the second passage and wait there. Veno, if you haven't already passed your cleric a spark, do so now, they need BB again straight away.
Barb will pull the mobs in the room in front of you, down a hall, and up to a shade. EVERYONE FOLLOW HIM, DO NOT BE SLOW. If you don't have Holy Path on genie, bring apo pills (or be a demon veno, lol). ESPECIALLY the cleric. Cleric, as soon as you see barb's aoe aggro skill fire (looks like swords going into mobs), put up that BB. BM stun, veno nova (if possible), everyone aoe/zhen, they again die pretty quickly.
First boss: Thunderclaw (Booby Trap boss)
This guy will shout some random **** that doesn't matter when you start attacking him. The main thing about to know about this guy is that these orange circles pop up at pretty regular intervals in random areas of the room. They are bombs that blow up in 5 seconds, so cancel your skills if one pops up under you and get out of it. Alternatively, you can count to 3 (4 is cutting it a bit close due to lag) and then triple spark, but that's not as reliable as just getting out of the damn circle. Even at the end after the boss is dead, and circles spawned will still blow up, so move out of them.
Venos can tank this boss, but you should have your pet on manual so you can pull him out of the circles easily. As a veno, I much prefer a barb tanking on this one. He goes down fast, and is NOT worth hypering.
After you kill him, run out into the main hall and then up the ramp at the end.
PART 2
Second set of pulls
This barely even counts as a pull but I'll put it in here. There's a few melee mobs and a shade in the next room, any noob can pull these, a herc can do it and BB really isn't necessary, just AOE heal (save those sparks, cleric). Magic DDs, you may want to keep the melees off you because they attack pretty fast and can cancel your skills. If you're in trouble, just kite them in a circle until the BM or barb grabs them. Once they're dead, the door should open with a ramp in front of you.
After that again go up the ramp and the barb will see 4 groups of mobs, one in front close, one in front back (with a shade), one to left, one to right. I personally think barb does best if he pulls front close, left, front back, right. Those pink dudes are magic and they hurt him pretty bad, so BB here cleric. Veno, don't nova here, instead pass sparks as often as you can, especially if you like quick runs, because there really isn't even a harpy to build chi on for cleric, he'll have to build chi probably anyway after this. Once they're dead, door at the right of the room should open (this will be right next to you if barb pulls like I suggested).
This next hall is where I find, if your barb is going to die he is going to do it here. it is full of magic mobs and the last half of the hallway has mobs that aoe damage and freeze. The whole hall should NOT be pulled at once. If your barb knows where to stop, he can pull half the hall, but I generally don't even like to do that, even though its slower in the long run, so I will be describing how I consider it safest.
Generally barb, you should pull like this, all in ONE pull (everyone FOLLOW):
1. Pull mobs up to first left, take it and keep pulling
2. Pull the passageway
3. Pull the FIRST GROUP OF MOBS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU in the room, do NOT 4. Pull the other groups
5. Take your first right and pull up to the shade
BM and cleric, you should be right behind him. BM, stun immediately, and cleric, get that BB up. Veno, nova. Archers and wizzies, get your zhens up BUT NOT EXACTLY IN THE SAME PLACE--a lot of the mobs are magic only so they will be more spread out. Barb, you may need to turtle here until aggro spreads off you. Psychics, make use of that stun aoe but know your other classes' skills and if they fire a stun skill, don't waste your stun until theirs goes off (that really goes for all classes). Kill all the mobs and the shade, the door at the bottom of the ramp will open.
Second boss: Diabolic Shocktrooper
This is a pain in the ***. When you get into his room, there is an NPC. DO NOT TALK TO HIM RIGHT AWAY IF THE SQUAD IS NOT READY.
There is a platform to your left as you run in, with the boss in the middle frozen in ice. All should run over to the platform except 1 person, cleric needs at least 1 spark, but as much chi as possible. Once people are over there (or if you know what you're doing, as people are heading over) and the cleric has enough spark, 1 person talk to the NPC. Colored lights will appear around the boss, red (back) and green (front) on your left (boss's right), yellow (back) and blue (front) on your right (boss's left), and purple behind him.
If your squad has most members in the 85 range, I would recommend everyone doing "one side." If you have most or all 90+ members, especially if you have good bms and/or sins, you can do "both sides." You'll see what I mean in a minute.
Glacix Elementos (or whatever their name is) appear and start "bashing" the ice around the boss trying to free him. You need to kill them off to weaken the boss. Each one only stays around for 30 seconds so you need to kill them before this, otherwise they will disappear and you won't get credit for them.
I have never counted the number of elementos you have to kill to get tough versus weakened on this guy. If someone knows that, I'd appreciate the info.
His stages are Frenzy (if you kill no elementos, I believe), Tough, and Weakened, depending on the number of elementos you kill before the boss is "let out." Cleric should put up red bubble on the center of the platform, just under the boss--if you have high APS users in your squad, the cleric should RB ONLY on the right side, and the APS user(s) should DD the left side (but if you're reading this, I doubt you have enough APS to make this an issue--you need 2APS+ I believe). DO NOT SPARK OF ANY KIND IN RED BUBBLE, IT GETS OVERWRITTEN. You should be chi-building here, possibly using chi consuming skills, but don't spark, it's useless. Anyway:
1 SIDE ELEMENTOS
All should crowd around the blue color on your right and kill the elementos as they spawn, 5 of them will spawn. After that, all should move forward to the yellow color and kill those as they spawn. You should get "Tough Diabolic Shocktrooper."
2 SIDE ELEMENTOS
Your highest 2 DDs should go and stand on the left side of the boss to the red color beam, and the barb veno and whoever else should go on the right side to the blue color beam. Make sure you're in RB range, and again, NO SPARKING. Kill the elementos as they pop up in the color beams. The left side people are responsible for the red and green color beam elementos, while the right side people are responsible for the blue and yellow beam elementos. The left side DDs should clear out the their elementos before the right side and should quickly run over and help the right side with the yellow beam elementos. There is no need to kill the purple beam elementos. You should get "Weakened Diabolic Shocktrooper."
Eventually the colored beams will go away and the boss will wave his arms. This is your cue that he's about to be set free so several things should happen. Melees, position yourself under him, cleric drop bb and run back, and I would recommend that ranged/magic classes (with the possible exception of the amping veno) keep near-ish to the cleric. Everyone but the cleric should 3 spark.
When the boss pops out, debuffs should land. Tangling mire, extreme poison, amp damage, heaven's flame as soon as the BM can get it off. Barb, try to keep aggro on you, but this guy seems to have bouts of random aggro (not proven, and some people don't think so). He also does a pretty damn nasty skill that puts you in a bubble a la Tangling Mire and sleeps you, as well as doing damage over time. The cleric should watch for the little tangling mire leaf indicator on the squad bars and purify this quickly, then pop that person an ironheart before going back to the barb. I've seen higher level clerics just constantly aoe heal when not purifying, it works as well. The boss will also randomly sleep people without putting the bubble on them. Generally you're just left asleep, so don't whine about it. If you keep debuffs on this guy, he goes down fast. He's also not worth hypering.
After he's dead, blue foxes will spawn in the back of the room. You can use the NPC on the platform to get chi, then sneak past them (quite easy), up the ramp, back through the room, through the passage, and back into the main hall.
PART 3
Hall of doom (or really annoying hall, whatever)
Now that you're back in the hall, you have all these groups of hard hitting magic mobs to deal with. I find it easiest to deal with them in single groups. Cleric should aoe heal, everyone should aoe. The bm should stun as often as possible. DO NOT push the mobs back, wizards/pyschics/archers, this just makes life incredibly annoying.
When you get about half-way up the hall the mobs will change to a single priest-looking mob surrounded by foxes. These are the famous Frost Bishops (hereafter, just bishops), and they do aoe magic damage, and they freeze. This makes them incredibly annoying for melee classes and in large groups they can easily wipe a squad. My recommendation for dealing with each of these groups would be to have the sin stealth, run forward, and sleep the bishop then 3 spark. The bm should then run in and stun all the mobs, followed by everyone else coming in and aoe-ing. The bishop should always be your aoe target until he is dead, then get rid of the other mobs.
You will come to a passage on your right that leads to a room with two NPCs, but I like to kill all the mob groups in the hall before going down the passage. It's up to you.
Third boss: Cyclotra Syren
When you come into the room on the right of the hall of doom, there is an NPC. DO NOT TALK TO IT UNTIL THE SQUAD IS READY. It will spawn a boss, and everyone needs to talk to it in order to get their first box token, Faithfulness. Once everyone is around the NPC, decide who is tanking. Often, the veno tanks this boss, but the barb is welcome too, just decide who it will be. Then, everyone take the quest at once, and the tank should quickly run back and be ready to catch the boss as it comes down the ramp into the room. When you catch it, a dragoon will spawn that will stun the party if not killed quickly. This is why it is preferred for the veno to tank, as it frees the cleric to DD on the dragons. Everyone should attack the dragoon until it's dead, then attack the boss, and then attack any dragoons that spawn.
Cleric, there is a channeling debuff that the boss gives, if it ends up on the veno and they're tanking, if you want them to love you forever, purify it, it makes it about 20 times easier to heal the boss. Also, the boss does do some weak damage to players, just drop an aoe heal or an ironheart every once in a while so the players don't have to eat hp food.
This guy gives decent experience, so hyper him if you want to use the activation. After killing the boss, MAKE SURE TO TALK TO THE OTHER NPC FOR YOUR BOX TOKEN.
PART 4
Hyper pull #1 (4th group of mob pulls):
After doing Syren, go into the next room. Don't bother with the mobs, just go over and kill the shade and his two foxes, and the door will open.
This next hall is fantastic, it's all melee mobs. The barb should have 2 sparks just in case, and make sure he is brambled. Some request the cleric 79 skill for damage protection. The barb should run all the way to the end of the hall, then back again and take the first left, while everyone else should follow to the first left and wait for him to come back. The barb should then go down the hall, and all should follow. When he comes out into the room, he should veer left to avoid the patrolling boss, and gather the mobs at the other side of the room in the middle of the left side. The cleric should put up BB, the bm should stun, and everyone should aoe. I like to hyper this pull, and leave my hyper on until the boss in this room is dead.
4th boss: Dreadindra (Bishop Boss)
Once you're finished with the pull, decide who is tanking. Veno often tanks this boss, but your pet needs enough HP for you to be slept a little while and not spam heal 100% of the time.
IMPORTANT: No matter who tanks, everyone needs to be in a TIGHT group. This does NOT mean with a little space. I know it's a bit disconcerting for magic classes to be so close to a boss, clerics too. DEAL WITH IT. Get right on top of the tank, everyone. Venos, if you're tanking, get right on top of your pet, and everyone else, get right on top of the veno.
This is important because this boss spawns Frost bishops on a random player. If you all are spread out, the bishops will freeze the melees, they won't die fast enough, and I guarantee the squad will wipe. The bishops spawn pretty fast. The main goal is to kill the bishops as fast as possible, and to kill the boss. When a bishop is up, everyone except the tank (and cleric if a player is tanking or veno if a pet is tanking) should attack it and debuff to kill as fast as possible. Then go back to the boss.
This boss also strips players of buffs. Don't bother rebuffing, because he tends to strip them just as fast. Finally, Dread seems to sleep randomly, and he does an aoe. He dies pretty fast, the main concern for the squad should be to kill the bishops he spawns as quickly as possible. If you let them build up the squad is in trouble and can wipe very quickly.
--Note for barbs: Dread's skills can be interrupted. There is apparently a "circle" that appears under players that are about to be debuffed--interrupt the boss when you see this. The boss also says "Let it all fade away" when bishops are spawned, and this can apparently be interrupted.
If you didn't hyper the pull before this and leave your hyper on, hyper this guy, he gives good experience.
After the boss, don't everyone go scurrying off. Everyone just freeze where you are, and everyone gets rebuffed. Good, now continue.
PART 5
Hyper pull #2 (5th group of mob pulls):
After this guy, run back out and up the ramp. The barb/whoever should pull the two groups of mobs, DO NOT GO UP TO THE SHADE. Kill these guys, cleric aoe heal.
The shade has 2 frost bishops as minions, this is the most annoying shade. The BM can run up with cloud sprint and stun the bishops for the melees to get close, or the sin can stealth, run up, sleep one and stun the other, which also allows the melees to get close. Regardless, you should aoe targeting the bishops first until they are dead, then the shade. Cleric should aoe heal. When the shade is dead the door behind him will open.
This next pull is COMPLETELY the same as the last hyper pull, so I don't see a need to completely repeat myself. Again, I like to hyper the pull and leave on until the boss is dead.
5th boss: Asoteric Runewolf (The slash boss)
This guy is pretty fun and also causes a lot of QQing. Barb should tank here, but veno you should have your pet out, buffed (if applicable) and on melee ready to tank if barb lags and dies.
This guy random aggros, but that's not the worst. He does an "ultimate" aoe that will 1 shot you, and it has a rage of about 25 meters. He will NOT run around when he does this aoe, instead he will freeze in place. He gives you warning too, he will start yelling in common chat (so have it on):
SUPER...
POWERFUL...
MIGHTY...
WHIRLING...
SLASH!
At "slash" he buffs his magic attack and does a several hit aoe that will pretty much kill you. You need to run out of his range before he does this. Archers and wizards at max range (28.5m for wizards at least) will be out of range, but they need to make SURE that they are at max range for this to work. It is safest for all to run away anyway. When the boss starts moving again, he will random aggro, and it is safe to run towards him again. If you do choose to DD on the boss during the aoe (at max range), it seems like he has a higher change to aggro you. You need to be ready for this, and run towards the tank so that he can pick up aggro off you.
After a little while, he will start doing a "normal" aoe that also does decent damage. If you want healed by the cleric after this hits, RUN THE SAME DIRECTION AS THEM DURING THE ULTIMATE AOE. If you don't, don't cry about it when you don't get healed and just take the charm tick next aoe, or eat HP food. Barb especially should keep an eye on where there cleric is and run in that direction so they can stack you with ironhearts while waiting for the aoe to be done.
--Note to barbs: DO NOT attempt to interrupt the Wolf unless you are experienced. If you time your skill wrong, you can cause the ultimate AOE to fire early and you'll pretty much wipe all the melees.
Other than the aoe and random aggro, just kill the dude. He gives good exp, so hyper if you wish.
PART 6
6th mob pull
After killing the boss, run out into the hall and build chi killing the harpy. Then run up the ramp. The barb should pull the mobs (all melee) to the shade, bb should go up, aoe and kill the mobs and the shade.
6th boss: Messenger of Fear (Sleep boss)
This guy has a big claw on his hand, I think he looks pretty cool. If you're a veno and want to tank, you need to either be able to not heal for a pretty good amount of time, or bring purify pills.
This guy does an attack after he says "Drown in the endless nightmare!"--he does a pretty hard hitting aoe and then aoe sleeps.
--Note to barbs: This aoe can be canceled! DO IT when possible!
It seems to me fairly random who gets slept, but it doesn't land all the time. Still, it does land in my experience on about 4/6 squad members, and you can count on luck (or lack thereof) to have the cleric slept. Don't freak out though. If you're a barb and tanking, hit Tree of Protection or eat an HP food, the sleep isn't that long and the boss doesn't hit that hard. If you're tanking as a veno, if you know your pet can't survive several hits from the boss, make sure to heal IMMEDIATELY when you see him say his line, and then after you're slept pop a purify pill. Sins, you can use your Tidal Protection skill to avoid the sleep, and if you time your 3 spark right, any class to use to to avoid the sleep as well. Anyway, when the sleep wears off, cleric should aoe heal (or if not slept, aoe heal immediately). There is a pretty long time between these attacks so it shouldn't be a problem.
Otherwise, this guy is easy and gives good exp. Hyper him if you can spare the activation. Afterward, talk to the NPC if you're 85+ to get teleported to the next area. If you're less than 85 you have to walk to the next area.
PART 7
7th mob pull
After you teleport, the barb will pull the melee mobs on the outside of the room at the bottom of the ramp to the middle at the shade. Put BB up and aoe them, that's all there is to it. The door will open and let you into the big room!
PART 8: THE EXPERIENCE ROOM
Harpies
Once in the big room, the sin and/or archer's responsibility to collect the harpies and pull them back to the party at the opening of the room. There are 5 in all, 4 that are stationary and 1 that patrols (thanks Gryphyyn). Just DD on them, cleric try and heal those people tanking the harpies, especially squishies, but also DD.
Boss #7: Oceania Master
This boss is easy, but everyone needs to know what they are doing. You need to establish these things:
1. Who is tanking.
Often the veno tanks, and that makes things go a lot faster because the cleric can DD and barb can use DD skills if he wishes, as well as attacking in human for more damage. Barb is welcome to tank though.
2. Who is doing hands.
This boss will spawn clapping hands on random players during the fight, similar to the hands in TT. They need to be killed IMMEDIATELY before the clap, because they will kill most of the squad. One person needs to be devoted to this. Usually, they use a bow to accomplish this more quickly. A lot of people say archer should do this, but the hands have only 15HP so anyone with a bow can do it. MAKE SURE YOU DECIDE BEFORE STARTING.
The boss can be attacked where he is, there is no need to pull him to the opening of the room.
When the boss is attacked, once again EVERYONE NEEDS TO STAND TOGETHER, just like in the bishop boss. That way, hands will always spawn close, and not all over the place. (Some people will say this also allows a melee player to do the hands, but I still don't care for that and would prefer hands person to use a bow.)
DO NOT AOE THIS BOSS EVER. This is incredibly important. The boss will spawn a little clone of himself that keeps telling you to hit him. If you do, he will explode and kill most of the squad. So DO NOT AOE EVER.
Otherwise, this boss does an aoe the cleric can aoe heal through.
--Note to barbs: This AOE can be cancelled, though it might be difficult. He does it just after he says whatever he says about "despair."
The cleric needs to make sure that he has 399 (or 299) chi by the end of the battle. You will need it. Hyper at the end of the boss, and leave it on.
The experience pull
After the boss is dead, the barb should start pulling the room. If the cleric has their 79 shield skill, they should cast it on the barb. Venos, make sure the barb is brambled as well. How the barb pulls is his responsibility, but he should end up at the NPC that spawns behind the boss.
DO NOT TALK TO THE NPC OR YOU WILL LIKELY BE KICKED FROM THE SQUAD AND QQ'D ABOUT ON WC, AND ON MY SERVER YOU'LL PROBABLY GET PK'D. So don't do it.
Everyone else should gather there, hopefully you all have full chi. Cleric, get BB up right away (DON'T wait until the barb is right butt-up on you). As soon as they get BB up, veno pass the cleric one of your sparks. Barb, before you pull the group into aggro range, turtle and then fire your 79 aoe aggro skill, then pull the group in. When the pull comes back, the BM stun is absolutely critical. The bm should then immediately drop a heaven's flame. Zhens should go up, archers and wizards, and venos should fire their nova. Everyone else, DD like crazy, and watch your exp bar fill like you're level 20 again. After all the mobs are dead, everyone switch to their bows.
Heads
After the mobs are dead and bows are out, everyone talk to the NPC. The cleric should run to the middle of the room and red ball (you should have 2 sparks bc the veno should have passed you one before the pull, or at least 199 chi, just IH yourself quickly). Everyone else spread out at the outer range of red ball.
Mobs that look like shrunken heads will pop up all over the room that even a magic class with a bow should be able to 1-hit with red ball--they have 100 HP. These guys are worth 5 digit experience each under 12x hyper, and it's imperative that you kill them as fast as possible. After a certain period of time, the heads will stop spawning, and hypers should be paused after the last ones are dead. Then everyone should talk to the NPC to get their second box token, Sincerity.
===THIS COMPLETES A "HALF RUN"===
(If you quit here, next time you do a full run, bring your Faithfulness and Sincerity tokens to use at the end. You'll see what I mean.)
PART 9
Boss #8: Decaying Fragrance
This guy is up the ramp way to the right of the big room. There is a harpy in the hall, build chi on it.
This boss CANNOT be tanked by a veno, it debuffs and even a herc will die (similar to Polearm in FB69). A barb should tank this one. He also aoe stuns. Cleric, be double sure to purify the barb right away. He also aoes, clerics can easily aoe heal through it. Just kill him, debuff, etc., and he's worth a hyper if you like (though I don't generally hyper him).
PART 10
Boss #9: Asoteric Runephoenix
Again, a harpy in the hall, build chi.
This guy flies around the ceiling, someone with a bow should lure him down and into the hallway. A veno can tank, but it's annoying because this boss aoe seals which causes the pet to run backwards. Anyway, he also does AOE fire damage. Kill him.
Then, Infernobird Soul will spawn in the middle of the room. This is a 1-hit mob that needs to be killed before the door will open. If your squad is well-planned, you can hyper this guy (the actual boss, not just the Soul -.-) and leave it on for the next step.
PART 10
Dragoons
**I would only recommend doing a dragoon pull to a 90+ squad. If you're in a lower-level squad, just go through as we did in the hall of doom (lol) section killing groups of mobs 1 at a time. (Also, make sure you pause your hypers lol)**
This is probably the second best place for the barb to die. His job is to run down the hall and pull all the dragoons as he goes, using his anti-stun skill if needed, as well as turtle. He should NOT pull the mobs at this time. Everyone should follow him to the last room of frost; again he should only be pulling the dragoons at this point.
At the door of the boss room, barb should pull the last dragoons from the back of the boss room out to party. BB CANNOT be used here, it will just be stunned off. Cleric should aoe heal. Those with Domain on their genies should keep it ready and use it for stun immunity. Other than that, spark and AOE to kill these guys as fast as you can (Tangling Mire is great here), and remember, have your hypers on. The dragoons give really nice experience. Pause hypers after they're all dead.
Mob pull
After killing the dragons, the barb should go back and collect the mobs, bringing them back to the group. Cleric should be able to AOE heal through this, and they should go down fairly quickly.
PART 11
Holeen's Body
There should be two mobs in this room, a big one and a small one. The veno should lure out the large one and then can either tank it or let the barb tank it. It's a fairly normal boss, it does not aoe or do anything special.
After this, a really freaking huge yeti looking dude will spawn. This is...
Boss #10: Holeen, Champion of Fientazzar
This is the final boss of FCC. Again, he should be lured out, but the barb can do this since the little dude has disappeared. The cleric should jump up on the rock by the door and put up BB, and everyone else should stand close to the rock. The barb (or whoever wants to pull it) should drag the big guy over to BB range (make sure he doesn't go up on the rock or he could reset, thanks Escorian) and everyone should begin to DD.
Holeen random aggros, AOE seals, and does a nasty hard AOE that hits for half your HP (no matter how much you have), even under bb conditions. As soon as the cleric gets bb up, the veno should pass him spark, and another as soon as possible, in case the cleric gets knocked out. Otherwise, people should be eating HP food in addition to BB, or be willing to see your charm tick. The veno should also be on the lookout as Holeen will buff himself simliar to Cosmoforce in TT 2-x. This should be purged immediately. As always, if the cleric gets knocked out of bb, he should have 2 spark thanks to the veno, and as soon as he gets it back up, the veno should again pass him 2 spark asap. Otherwise, debuff and kill this guy, and hyper him if you like.
Chests of Sincerity
After Holeen is dead, an NPC will spawn in the back of the room, go talk to him. He will exchange 1 Faithfulness and 1 Sincerity for a Chest of Sincerity. The rewards can be seen here.
===THIS CONCLUDES A FULL FROST RUN===
Hopefully this is helpful to everyone. If anyone has anything to add or wants to make fun of me or whatever (x_x) just post and if it should be added, I'll add it with credit.
CREDITS:
Gryphyyn--suggesting the coloring of warnings and hyper suggestions
Dyskrasia--thanks for catching those coding mistakes
Escorian--pointing out that I should clarify Boss #10's instructions
Gromskull--pointing out I said "dragon" instead of the correct "dragoon" (now changed)
Elviron--some additional useful genie skill recommendations, a note for Runewolf, and a note on Holeen's AOE. Also convincing me to mention the archer 79 speed buff, rofl
Notgood--note about Tidal Protection for sins during the Messenger of Fear fight
Ulvhedner--"Note to barb" sections about boss skills that can be interrupted--thanks!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by Alphae - Lost City on
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Comments
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TL;DR, but I skimmed it and seems very thorough! A couple of suggestions to make it even more awesome:
-Maybe you could add screenshots of the bosses (at the beginning of the particular section) to make it easier for people to refer to a specific boss as they are scanning for info. This would make it easier on readers to quickly identify which boss and how to approach him instead of reading through the whole guide.
-You could write in color/bold letters "HYPER: Turn on hyper for this boss/mob" so its quick to identify which boss to hyper and which is not. I think best place would be to write this at the end of the appropriate boss. Suggested colors that stand out - yellow.
-Any specific warnings (ie. DO NOT AOE THIS BOSS) - you can write in RED so its a visible warning sign
-In regards to Asoteric Runewolf: ranged-classes (ie. archers/wizzies/psychics(?)) can continuously attack from MAX range while the melee classes run for cover on the boss AOE; this can greatly reduce time taken to kill this boss.
-I generally like to do the experience room in the following order, harpies -> mobs -> boss -> heads (exp). This prevents the archers or person doing the hands from *accidently* hitting the mobs while killing hands during the boss; if this happens, it could prove disastrous to the squad since majority of the hyper exp comes here (aside from the heads). I noticed you wrote this in a different order, so just suggesting you my order from a perspective being an archer that always does hands.
-I believe there are 5 harpies in the experience room - 4 stationary and 1 patrol that moves horizontally along the room.
In any case, awesome job and effort in developing this guide. I definitely wished I had something like this when I had first started doing FF back several months. b:victory
Cheers![SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Karma | ex-GoldDigrz | ex-xWaRx | ex-Reunited | ex-Tao
Status: Semi-Active | Mood: Apathetic
Gryphyyn (10x Archer) | Tyyphoon (10x Assassin) | Ryyft (8x Seeker)
Fearless. | karmapwi.com0 -
Yeah it is long xDGryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »TL;DR, but I skimmed it and seems very thorough! A couple of suggestions to make it even more awesome:
Mmm screenshots require me to go do a frost atm lol, perhaps in a few days (or if anyone has screenies LOL)Gryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »-Maybe you could add screenshots of the bosses (at the beginning of the particular section) to make it easier for people to refer to a specific boss as they are scanning for info. This would make it easier on readers to quickly identify which boss and how to approach him instead of reading through the whole guide.
Mm, not a bad idea. Doing that.Gryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »-You could write in color/bold letters "HYPER: Turn on hyper for this boss/mob" so its quick to identify which boss to hyper and which is not. I think best place would be to write this at the end of the appropriate boss. Suggested colors that stand out - yellow.
I thought making it huge was enough xD I can make some of the warnings for each boss red and bold though.Gryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »-Any specific warnings (ie. DO NOT AOE THIS BOSS) - you can write in RED so its a visible warning sign
I don't like depending on this because sometimes the boss moves around, which can change if they're at max range. Like I said this is for people who haven't run frost, or are looking for something to guide them through a training run (and I did mention that max range DDs are safe).Gryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »-In regards to Asoteric Runewolf: ranged-classes (ie. archers/wizzies/psychics(?)) can continuously attack from MAX range while the melee classes run for cover on the boss AOE; this can greatly reduce time taken to kill this boss.
My order saves an activation on your hyper, and if you're in that tight group I suggested there should be no chance of you clicking a mob (I hope b:shocked).Gryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »-I generally like to do the experience room in the following order, harpies -> mobs -> boss -> heads (exp). This prevents the archers or person doing the hands from *accidently* hitting the mobs while killing hands during the boss; if this happens, it could prove disastrous to the squad since majority of the hyper exp comes here (aside from the heads). I noticed you wrote this in a different order, so just suggesting you my order from a perspective being an archer that always does hands.
Changed, thanks. I don't count, I just DD. lolGryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »-I believe there are 5 harpies in the experience room - 4 stationary and 1 patrol that moves horizontally along the room.
Thanks b:kissGryphyyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »In any case, awesome job and effort in developing this guide. I definitely wished I had something like this when I had first started doing FF back several months. b:victory
Cheers![SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
TL;DR. I skimmed through most of the stuff and have to say this is a very well thought out and explained guide.
I'm usually having to pull both cleric and barbs out of my *** and some of them are super new to FF. So i have to go along and explain what to do at each set, which skills are really needed, what to pull and where to pull it. I've also had to tell a few DD's who like to kill everything that they need to stop, wait, and listen for command or for barb.
I've trained many classes, though, cleric is by far the easiest to train.
Given all the classes...I'd say I've personally trained;
Barb
Cleric
BM
Sin
Psychic (On what to DD and not to DD)
Archer (Spots for barrage)
other than that the other classes I run into seem to understand and know what to do. I personally hate being the only person in the squad who knows what the hell their doing
So, I thank you for the guide. I'll be linking a **** load of people to this place
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Part 2 and 6 have coding errors.
I'm not gonna read it all, but I'm assuming you know what you're talking about and it looks well put together, so good job Hopefully people that need this will actually read it. I've been trying to do frost runs on my cleric (82) and so far it's been nothing but traumatic because so many don't know what they're doing. [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Evict is a sexy chalupa.
retired, etc0 -
Dyskrasia - Heavens Tear wrote: »Part 2 and 6 have coding errors.
I'm not gonna read it all, but I'm assuming you know what you're talking about and it looks well put together, so good job Hopefully people that need this will actually read it. I've been trying to do frost runs on my cleric (82) and so far it's been nothing but traumatic because so many don't know what they're doing.
Yeah, thanks for catching that, fixed. the color system is a pain, and I originally wrote this for my guild forums so it's a little different there.
I don't mind teaching tbh, but I do mind people who won't effing listen. -.-[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
Alphae - Lost City wrote: »Yeah, thanks for catching that, fixed. the color system is a pain, and I originally wrote this for my guild forums so it's a little different there.
I don't mind teaching tbh, but I do might people who won't effing listen. -.-
mind*
figured i'd catch ya on that.
Later on tonight I plan to read through the whole guide. I'll keep a word pad open and mark down any types of errors or anything I notice. This way I can point them out in a new reply (or edit this one) and help ya get all the bugs fixed
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LifeHunting - Lost City wrote: »mind*
figured i'd catch ya on that.
Later on tonight I plan to read through the whole guide. I'll keep a word pad open and mark down any types of errors or anything I notice. This way I can point them out in a new reply (or edit this one) and help ya get all the bugs fixed
I type fast b:surrender[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=527862
i made a guide awhile agoThe barb (or whoever wants to pull it) should drag the big guy over to the rock and everyone should begin to DD.
this is a very bad idea if the boss gets too near the rock he can go up on top of it and reset.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
ty Nowitsawn
Everything has its beginnings, but it doesn't start at one. It starts long before that... The world is born From zero. The moment zero becomes one is the moment the world springs to life. One becomes 2. 2 becomes 10. 10 becomes 100. taking it all back to one solves nothing. so long as zero remains... One.. Will eventually grow to 100 again.0 -
forums need to go suck on a **** and stop being so picky >:(
*EDIT*
Going to slap forums with a fish if it don't calm it's *** down with this pickiness >:(0 -
I think I've got a tad more info than you b:surrender
I've never seen Holeen go up on the rock o_o I didn't mean you should drag the boss over on top of the rock, I just meant you should drag him over to get into BB range since the cleric is on the rock.
I'll clarify.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
One minute. I forgot the forum doesn't like C&P.
EDIT*
GAH >.<!!!!! I really hate the forums. Stupid thing won't let me Copy and Paste from the document I used.0 -
Copy and paste it from Word into NotePad, then into the forums.
If you've got any apostrophes, Word makes them pretty and curvy and the forums don't like that.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
Really awesome guide.Helped me a lot.b:thanks
I vote for sticky.b:victory0 -
LifeHunting - Lost City wrote: »forums need to go suck on a **** and stop being so picky >:(
*EDIT*
Going to slap forums with a fish if it don't calm it's *** down with this pickiness >:(
You're going to slap it with yourself? b:shocked
just paste in pieces if it's giving you that much trouble, and remember, paste into notepad BEFORE pasting into the forums
@Night_Wind_
Thanks, if it helps people then I succeeded, I know it's long, so thanks for reading ^_^;[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
I really hate these forums jackass pickyness on C&P =.=....0
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I always end up doing frost in less than an hour using my fav expd squad.
Barb, Cleric, BM, Psy, Sin, Herc Veno.AP classes are a real butt pounding...0 -
Wow, that was a bit of work. Didn't really read it all, but seems good. I like your minimal use of colors and using the colors to maintain specific points. That makes it 10x than most guides that just randomly use colors for no apparent reason other than they can xP
Good job!I post in forums. This one and others. That's why I post.0 -
ArchSaber - Sanctuary wrote: »I always end up doing frost in less than an hour using my fav expd squad.
Barb, Cleric, BM, Psy, Sin, Herc Veno.
Mm, Psy and wizzy are close for me. But if I could pick I'd take an archer just for zhen.Michael_Dark - Lost City wrote: »Wow, that was a bit of work. Didn't really read it all, but seems good. I like your minimal use of colors and using the colors to maintain specific points. That makes it 10x than most guides that just randomly use colors for no apparent reason other than they can xP
Good job!
Lol, people keep saying that. xD
Yeah, colors are overrated. You can accomplish a lot with a little, and colors can actually overwhelm. Before Gryffn suggested it, I didn't have any color except the subheadings xD[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
ty for the guild going to be using it when i do fc (for the first time) with my sin xD[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Move along..move along0
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Great job, I'm gonna need this soon!0
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At part 3, the boss, Cyclotra Syren, spawns dragoons (means mounted infantry) not dragons lol. Also aplies for part 10
Eather way, great guide. Just keep it to the basics of a FC run. As people will gain lvl and experience they will learn to speed up the run.
My personal best is a 23 min run in a squad of: barb, cleric, bm, sin, sin, sin) 0 -
Gromskull - Harshlands wrote: »At part 3, the boss, Cyclotra Syren, spawns dragoons (means mounted infantry) not dragons lol. Also aplies for part 10
Eather way, great guide. Just keep it to the basics of a FC run. As people will gain lvl and experience they will learn to speed up the run.
My personal best is a 23 min run in a squad of: barb, cleric, bm, sin, sin, sin)
lol I guess you are correct but I've always said dragons, I'll change it[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
hi alphie nice guide i like it.
srry when i asked u for frost the ather day we did with 3 veno 2 herc 1 non herc veno and we did full run in 35min 1 bm me barb and a bm b:bye sin is overratedb:pleased.
b:shocked imagine how great it was i asked for chi from no sprak next second 3 spark.
wana do more frost with meb:kiss0 -
@Alphae
Firstly I must say its very well written and props to you for making this factoring the new classes as well.
I read the guide, as much as I can, and I do have some suggestions. The guide overall seems to be geared for 90+ people. Is this accurate? I got this feeling because some of these things cannot be done by normal 8x people going in there for the first time.
So my suggestion would be to indicate what lvl range could possibly try it. For an 8x squad, I would suggest pulling small batches (I know its slow) to be on the safe side until the tank is competant on his/her abilities. I would also suggest 8x squads to use Sharptooth Arrow on the mobs which would reduce the running time eventhough it reduces the exp as well.
For the bishop boss (Dreadindra)
It is quiet imperative that everyone stick close together so that the bishops spawn nearby. For archers, they can switch to fists and melee the bishops once they stun it or something. 9x archers like myself usually triple spark and kill the frost bishops asap and then continue on the boss.
For Asoteric Runewolf (The 5th boss iirc)
Ranged DDs can continue to attack from max range when hes doing his special 1 hit KO attacks. But people must take care of the aggro since if he comes after you, you better start running towards the tank so that they can regain aggro.
For archer's role
They can also be used to stun frost bishops from range if the BM or sin have their skills on cooldown. This is rarely done but is still a possibility.
I would also recommend them (and wizards) to have expel on their genie. Continuous AoEs like barrage and dragon's breath can continue to cast after casting expel. So basically what happens is melee mobs do no damage to u while the zhen is still up and running. This is particularly good for the big room is the BM doesnt stun the mobs successfully.
They can also, at times, provide their elven alacrity buff (79 skill with a 1 spark cost) to the puller which would give additional speed boost and saving on holy path, speed pills, etc.
You also have 4 AoEs, depending on what youve levelled, Thunderous Blast, Barrage of Arrows, Wingspan ( I know it knocks mobs back but this is useful when the cleric is getting hammered), Sharpened Tooth Arrow. If the BM uses heaven's flame, a lvl10 Thunderous Blast is more than sufficient for most passages except the big room and magic mobs thereby saving you the sparks from not using BoA.
For the last boss
Ive never seen the boss being pulled to the rock but i could care less about it. It should also be noted that the AoE debuff the boss does decreases attack rate and channeling. So for archer's capable of weilding fists, it is recommended to use those instead and use the triple spark to purify the debuff.
Also the so called AoE always reduces hp by 50%...doesnt matter if ur a barb with 12k hp or a squishy with 3k hp. Say goodbye to 50% hp which would probably **** off most charm users.
For the foods and genie skills needed
Till date I have never used the lvl75 foods, just managed with normal lvl80 hp/mp potions and I dont even use a charm. My equips are mostly +2s save for my weapons which arent much higher either. For most 9x people, hp/mp foods are barely even needed (for the last boss or otherwise).
Also while the genie skills mentioned are pretty darn useful, its not an absolute necessity for a squad to be successful. Except in the case of the cleric having holy path.
Other genie skills that might be useful:-
Water Bubble - Makes you immune to Water damage (useful against Asoteric Runewolf)
Second Wind - Heals you instantly
Spark Eruption - Lets you gain chi faster
Wind Shield - increases atk rate and reduces dmg taken (useful for fist BMs, sins, barbs and archers)
Heart of Steel - Makes you immune to metal damage (Useful against the magic mobs in the passages, shades, frost bishops, etc)
Anyways these have been my past experiences with FC squads and I have had about 1 failure till now where the squad didnt know what they were doing and over-estimated their abilities.0 -
Ima put this to a good use after few more lvls. Well done b:thanksb:victory0
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yes yes I do! xD PM me_Ghoul_ - Lost City wrote: »hi alphie nice guide i like it.
srry when i asked u for frost the ather day we did with 3 veno 2 herc 1 non herc veno and we did full run in 35min 1 bm me barb and a bm b:bye sin is overratedb:pleased.
b:shocked imagine how great it was i asked for chi from no sprak next second 3 spark.
wana do more frost with meb:kiss
I think frost is most EFFICIENT in the 90-95 range, but the return from hyper drops significantly at 90 (I have been frosting on and off since 86). I did try to make notes of where I think the strategy should differ for an 8x squad vs a 9x squad, i.e. at Diabolic Shocktrooper, at the dragoon pull, etc.Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »@Alphae
Firstly I must say its very well written and props to you for making this factoring the new classes as well.
I read the guide, as much as I can, and I do have some suggestions. The guide overall seems to be geared for 90+ people. Is this accurate? I got this feeling because some of these things cannot be done by normal 8x people going in there for the first time.
So my suggestion would be to indicate what lvl range could possibly try it. For an 8x squad, I would suggest pulling small batches (I know its slow) to be on the safe side until the tank is competant on his/her abilities. I would also suggest 8x squads to use Sharptooth Arrow on the mobs which would reduce the running time eventhough it reduces the exp as well.
As for STA tbh on the mobs it reduces little enough HP I wouldn't bother with it, even for 8x squads. I don't think it's worth the experience loss.
I made a BIG note on staying close together, rofl. And that everyone should attack the bishops when they spawn.Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »For the bishop boss (Dreadindra)
It is quiet imperative that everyone stick close together so that the bishops spawn nearby. For archers, they can switch to fists and melee the bishops once they stun it or something. 9x archers like myself usually triple spark and kill the frost bishops asap and then continue on the boss.
That's a good point. I kind of made this guide for first timers/frost newbs to come read so they have kind of a walkthrough--at that stage, I wouldn't recommend that they DD, but instead run away, because when rushing around trying to remember everything, often the last thing you notice is if he random aggros someone and moves 4m towards you, and then you die at AOE because you think you're still maxed out.Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »For Asoteric Runewolf (The 5th boss iirc)
Ranged DDs can continue to attack from max range when hes doing his special 1 hit KO attacks. But people must take care of the aggro since if he comes after you, you better start running towards the tank so that they can regain aggro.
I did make a note of the fact that DDs should run to the tank after he begins moving, so the tank can catch--that's a good strategy.
Again, I wouldn't recommend STA, because the amount it shortens the run by is inconsequential compared to the exp loss, when you're running frost SPECIFICALLY for exp.Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »For archer's role
They can also be used to stun frost bishops from range if the BM or sin have their skills on cooldown. This is rarely done but is still a possibility.
I would also recommend them (and wizards) to have expel on their genie. Continuous AoEs like barrage and dragon's breath can continue to cast after casting expel. So basically what happens is melee mobs do no damage to u while the zhen is still up and running. This is particularly good for the big room is the BM doesnt stun the mobs successfully.
They can also, at times, provide their elven alacrity buff (79 skill with a 1 spark cost) to the puller which would give additional speed boost and saving on holy path, speed pills, etc.
You also have 4 AoEs, depending on what youve levelled, Thunderous Blast, Barrage of Arrows, Wingspan ( I know it knocks mobs back but this is useful when the cleric is getting hammered), Sharpened Tooth Arrow. If the BM uses heaven's flame, a lvl10 Thunderous Blast is more than sufficient for most passages except the big room and magic mobs thereby saving you the sparks from not using BoA.
Expel is a good recommendation, I'll add that. I'm not going to add the archer 79 skill, because unlike other classes, archers are rarely recommended to get their 79 skills due to cost for fairly situational skills. I think the normal speed buff is quite sufficient with all the other speed increasing options available, especially if a barb is pulling.
I don't care to have archers stun bishops though, because it causes all the other mobs to run forward towards him, making AOEs on the mob groups less effective.
Thanks, I'll make a note of that.Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »For the last boss
Ive never seen the boss being pulled to the rock but i could care less about it. It should also be noted that the AoE debuff the boss does decreases attack rate and channeling. So for archer's capable of weilding fists, it is recommended to use those instead and use the triple spark to purify the debuff.
Also the so called AoE always reduces hp by 50%...doesnt matter if ur a barb with 12k hp or a squishy with 3k hp. Say goodbye to 50% hp which would probably **** off most charm users.
No, it's not necessary to use any genie skills, but they both speed up a run and make it easier.Elviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »For the foods and genie skills needed
Till date I have never used the lvl75 foods, just managed with normal lvl80 hp/mp potions and I dont even use a charm. My equips are mostly +2s save for my weapons which arent much higher either. For most 9x people, hp/mp foods are barely even needed (for the last boss or otherwise).
Also while the genie skills mentioned are pretty darn useful, its not an absolute necessity for a squad to be successful. Except in the case of the cleric having holy path.
I suggested the 75 foods because they're more cost effective. I get ANNOYED if my charm ticks anywhere other than Holeen, though. That should never happen, so charm users shouldn't be afraid to run frost.
Water Bubble--not worth the genie slot just for frost, but if you already have it for some reason, utilize itElviron - Dreamweaver wrote: »Other genie skills that might be useful:-
Water Bubble - Makes you immune to Water damage (useful against Asoteric Runewolf)
Second Wind - Heals you instantly
Spark Eruption - Lets you gain chi faster
Wind Shield - increases atk rate and reduces dmg taken (useful for fist BMs, sins, barbs and archers)
Heart of Steel - Makes you immune to metal damage (Useful against the magic mobs in the passages, shades, frost bishops, etc)
Second Wind--on there in the same slot as ToP
Cloud Eruption--it's incredibly embarrassing that I didn't include this. I'd mostly recommend it for the cleric and barb, and possibly the BM.
Wind Shield--mmm, if you have it I'd definitely use it but I wouldn't say it's so important that you should stat it if you don't have it.
Heart of Steel--Again, if you have it, use it, but don't add it just for frost.
Thanks for your comments [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
GrimReaperHC wrote: »Ima put this to a good use after few more lvls. Well done b:thanksb:victory
Can you sickie this thread then?
This guide will be very useful for first time frosters or people who forgot about how frost works. b:victory[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
✰The Nostradamus of PWI ✰
★ A not so Retired Veteran of PWI ★
✰ ~SilverCleric~ ✰0 -
@Alphae
Well my comments were more from my experience.
I used STA the first time around when me and my factionmates went it. You must understand that we were all below 85 with just 1 cleric of lvl85 (none of us charmed or having awesome genie skills). So yea it was useful then (10~12% off of 100k hp mobs and mil+ bosses was useful).
Ofc at 9x its not required and frowned upon due to the exp loss.
As for the 79 skills, IF an archer has it (like I do), it might be useful
As for genie skills, well i have 4 genies so yea, I switch them between bosses and passages depending upon what am doing.
In any case, some of them are useful while some not really applicable. Just helping out b:victory0 -
Thread stickied ^^
Well done Alph, keep up the good work!0 -
I know you can trade 999 pasts of FC for an Aquadash, my question is where?? Apparently its an NPC but no one seems to know..0
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