Phoenix Valley as XP Instance?

Phii - Harshlands

Heya, i'll start a new char on the new server in europe the next week and wanted to know if it's worth doing PV at level 30+ or is it better to simply stick to the quests which are given.

Palmerdale - Raging Tide

It seems that practically no one has done a PV30-44, and everyone is adverse to try it. So, I don't know that there is any good answer to your question, Phil. I spent about 12 hours this weekend trying to get a squad to go in PV. No luck. The only info I can find on the internet tells me that a Seeker tried to solo it, but failed. After a lot of disappointment, I gave up and took a solo peek inside. Twice. Here's what I saw of the 30-44 level PV.

This does indeed use the map for the Firecrag Grotto (lvl 19 dungeon), but with level 35 and level 40 melee types and level 45 casters. All are relatively tough for their level, and none of these dropped anything, not even cash. I did get approximately 300xp and 50sp per mob. All of these mobs appear to have 2x the number of HPs as an equivalent mob would have. If you die (and that is likely if you're solo), you will respawn back in Archosaur, although it put me in some different locations.

A character can only enter PV 1 time per day. This does not count deaths while in PV. You can re-enter the dungeon from Khoan while the instance is running. The initial entry is pretty particular about restrictions -- if any character in the party is outside the level range, or if someone in the squad has already been inside PV on that day, the entire group may be prevented from entering.

When you enter the instance, there are two guardians standing there, offering you quests. Accepting one quest will port you directly back to Archosaur. Accepting the quest from the NPC named R.O.C. will put a special stone in your pack. The stone has a timer on it -- you have 15 minutes to enter the instance... but exactly where and how you do this is quite unknown to me. My guess is the instance zone it is where the Xenobeast is in the normal Firecrag Grotto map. As a 44 Blademaster, I could get to the first big room, but the timer ran out.

So, I doubt that I have ever been in Phoenix Valley proper. I certainly did not figure out what to do with the stone with its 15 minute timer. Once that time expires, the mission fails and you are unceremoniously dumped back in Archosaur.

Addressing the 'is it worth it' portion of your question, I do not think so. The experience for killing the creatures is a slight bit above average, I think. And with them not dropping anything, my two efforts were costly, due to the number of potions I needed just to stay alive. You could do a lot better just grinding mobs without running a quest. Quests will outpace what I accomplished, easily.

Unless you happen to hit on the day when everyone gets curious about PV, it will likely take you a very long time to set up a run. Everyone seems to have the preset notion that PV isn't worth it. I suspect this bias came from one or two high level groups experiences from when the PV instance was introduced. From there on, word-of-mouth has kept people away. (reminds me about LDoN raids in EQ -- a high-level guild tried it as soon as they could, then no one else tried them for years based on their opinions)

I wish you luck with PV. And I would certainly love to hear any more details of the 30-44 version of Phoenix Valley. If you have done PV with a squad, please add your observations to this discussion. I have only one more opportunity to get into this version before I level to 45 and then have to find the next version of PV. Maybe I can convince some people to give this a try.

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear

Palmerdale - Raging Tide wrote: »

It seems that practically no one has done a PV30-44, and everyone is adverse to try it.

i've done one, on my seeker before she leveled out of that range, and there's no reason to be averse towards the instance. it's actually fairly easy, three people can handle it --- maybe two if one's a cleric. there's just no real reason to do it either, the XP reward is not really worth the time.

what you saw was the PV instance; there's no extra bits to it, in fact parts of the FB19 map it's based on are walled off and unreachable. the stone you're given is for getting back into PV if you die before its timer expires --- die in there after the stone times out and you can't get in again. that's ALL the stone does, as far as anyone knows. survive in there after the stone expires, and nothing fails --- you can happily go on to clear the instance stoneless, just so long as you don't die.

clearing the instance is a big anticlimax, by the way. you just end up standing there in an empty instance with a bit more XP than before, and... that's it. town tele to archosaur, or go back to the start of PV to talk to the NPC for a teleport out, is all you can do.

XXZeonXx - Harshlands

I think that an AoE class like a Seeker may work well in PV at the lower levels (anything under 59) with a cleric. I suggest only bringing a cleric though, if you're looking for exp, because of course, bringing more people means less experience. Those classes who want to go alone and don't have AoEs to assist them would most likely have to lure one mob at a time, which would be very monotonous, but I'm not exactly sure as this Seeker is my first and only character.

I'm not sure about PV for any other classes at higher levels, though I have seen some people looking for PV squads in the 45-84 level range. I can only personally speak for Seekers, though. Once you get to 59 with any Seeker, you're capable of soloing PV. Yataghan Vortex is physical and therefore compatible with Bloodpaint, while Seekers also have the survivability to tank whatever else is needed. In the higher levels, the Equine Shades will start to immobilize and silence you, so you have to move quickly and set up vortex as fast as possible. With hypers at 59+, Seekers can solo PV with Bloodpaint for up to 600-800k spirit and 2mil+ experience per successful run.

I have a Sin partner that I do PV with every day he's available, and when he's not I solo. Eventually, after doing it for long enough, you start to get good at it. For Seekers, usually the process involves..

1. Build up enough chi for Vortex.
2. Lure out any shades that you can without getting close enough to take aggro from the other mobs using Heartseeker/Arme Nier/Battousai.
3. Tab or click on a the furthest Shade you can get to without running too close to other Shades that you couldn't reach to lue out. (If you run by these other shades they will either immobilize or silence, and in most cases you will die from this due to inability to set vortex up fast enough.)
4. Turn your hyper on.
5. Unfetter to this Shade as quickly as possible (If you run slowly, you have a higher chance of getting immobilized/silenced before you get close enough to vortex it.), grabbing as many non-Shade mobs as you can during the process before Unfetter wears out.
6. As you come near your target Shade, activate Blade Affinity.
7. Spam MP pots (and HP pots if you want to be extra careful) and watch everything around you die as you continuously heal yourself for thousands of HP per second with Bloodpaint.
8. If you have a Sin partner, keep up Vortex while they Maze Steps through another large group of mobs (Maze Steps in order to avoid the immobilize from the Shades) and bring as many as possible back into your vortex. Be careful to those Sins who play this role, as you may die as a result of taking too many hits along the way. I suggest using HP pots while you do this.
9. Watch all of the mobs around you die once again. Usually this is when my Sin partner uses Subsea Strike, and I'll have my genie use Tangling Mire, just to kill everything a bit faster.
10. Turn off hypers and repeat from step one by luring the closest mob with Heartseeker/Arme Nier/Battousai. Anything that can hit them without getting close enough to take aggro from everything around them.

Once you get to the boss, you may be able to tank it with vortex/crabs/Bloodpaint. Always debuff with Heart Shatter and Soulsever before setting up vortex at the boss, if you can. If you can't tank the boss, then it's fine, 95% or more of the experience from PV runs comes from the mobs, so you've pretty much had a successful run. That's..about it.

If you're soloing this instead of doing it with a partner Sin, then skip steps eight and nine. Also, soloers, your goal as a Seeker is this; "KILL EVERYTHING AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE SO THAT BLOODPAINT WON'T WEAR OFF." Usually if I'm soloing, I'll stop with about five minutes left on the Token to go outside into Archosaur and beg some Sin to refresh my Bloodpaint, just to be safe.

And if you are doing this with a partner Sin, then PLEASE remind this Sin to refresh your Bloodpaint every one or two lures, even if it seems excessive. The worst thing that can happen to you is to run out of Bloodpaint right in the middle of a vortex or a huge pull, only to die and watch your Sin partner (if you have one) go into stealth before a moment of silence eventually drags out the question, "..Cleric?", because you've noticed that your token to come back expired.

Because I just reached 85, I haven't gotten a chance to really do the 85-94 PV yet, although I do know that the dungeon and mobs are completely different. I also need to start learning how to make the use of more PvP pots, as I haven't looked into them at all yet, and I'm sure they'll be useful for PV and more.

I think I'm going to post this in the Seeker threads and try to get it stickied. xD

CrookedArrow - Raging Tide

Did in on archer and wizard basically without hypers it was a little better than a crazy stone quest. It does help work on squad dynamics but you also have BHs later to do that. It gets better in higher levels because u can do pulls rather than luring and not have very good aoes.