full warsong for veno?

I guess since mystic can solo pav, veno should be able to do it too.

Xainou - Sanctuary wrote: »

Can't say I did it myself on veno, I just did one full run so far and that was on cleric, helping out a friend. She's a veno and defended the fire path. But I guess Desdi can tell you more once she posts. b:avoid

b:chuckle

Let's see;
Are you required to solo a Pavilion?
Not necessarily but most likely yes. It highly depends on the squad set up though. There were times that I had to solo defend, other times that I had a helper and other times that I was assisting someone.

If it's a wc squad, you'll most likely have to solo defend as you'll probably fill the position for defending metal or fire. In squads with faction/friends/people you know things may be different as well as with squads that switch out toons (eg. defend with a toon and then switch to something else for the bosses).


Can a Venomancer do it?
A Venomancer can solo a Pavilion just fine. In particular Metal or Fire since the mobs are magic (ranged).

Summer sprint (also Demon Fox Form) should help you move fast enough to avoid head. Lucky Scarab (also Demon Frost Scarab) should help you slow down the "Head" sometimes, usually when it gets dangerously close to you. I wouldn't suggest using Holy Path as I prefer to save it for AD or Tree of Protection or even Extreme Poison sometimes. I also try to time Parasitic Nova, when possible, in such way that the head is caught up in the freeze/seal as well and gives me more time to DD.

Pet can be used, Hercules in particular; any other pet will most likely die too fast, but in no way should you depend on it. I use it for the extra little DD or to occupy the Magic Resistance mob(s) while I kill the rest if it's necessary. Hercules is also the only pet who can survive if the mob explodes (when they say "Let's die together!"). If it dies don't try to revive it unless you do have enough time for it.

I have honestly never solo defended Metal (but if I recall correctly those mobs bramble) so I have no experience on it, however I've done several Fire (either solo or with an assistant). There's nothing in particular with them, except that they occasionally buff themselves (frenzy or increased attack etc.). I usually purge those and throw in an amp sometimes, usually to Magic Resistance or Increased Life mobs.

What are the requirements?
You need good magic attack (read; good weapon) so you can kill the mobs relatively fast otherwise you'll end up with too many mobs after your butt that will most likely end up killing you. If you're HA and focus on melee attacks you'd probably not be in Metal/Fire to begin with, mostly likely one of those melee Pavilions I assume (I'll let a HA Venomancer further comment on this).

You also, obviously, need decent gear so that you can survive. The mobs per se may not hurt much but if you end up with more than a couple, things will get tougher. Also, it's good to be able to survive a hit or two from the "Head" in case, for some reason, it gets close to you without you noticing/not having time to run/casting a skill at that moment etc.

I carry around Sutra Powders, Ironguards (Demon Summer Sprint makes them easy to use) when things get gloomy. I tend not to use Feral Concentration there because I prefer save the chi for sparks or Parasitic Nova but I do use it if the situation calls for it.

What about bosses & mobs?
Once the Pavilions have been defended successfully the rest of the run is rather easy, provided you have a competent squad and a decent tank person. There's not much you need to worry about the bosses except for Adv. Fire one (needs to be purged at the start) and Water one (normal bubbles you like FCC 2nd boss, keep ToP ready, Adv. one stuns at the beginning use Natural Synergy if you have pet, AD, Demon Summer Sprint if you're Demon etc. etc.)

Mobs are generally easy if you have a tank/puller. Some of them might hurt so I'd advice you not to steal aggro unless you think you can tank a couple of them should that happen.

The big deal is the last boss where adds should be killed as soon as possible or the squad will be pretty much wiped. What is your job here? That depends on your squad. For slower squads I'd advice you using amp on the adds instead of the boss. On fast squads just amp the boss. You'll also have to purge the boss at some point. Adv. version of this boss is really really easy fortunately.


Side note, if you don't think you can do this as a Venomancer you can also defend the Pavilion with a different toon if you have alts and then switch for the bosses. That's a very common case in my usual squads.

Hope this wall of text is of any use XD

Sirrobert - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Veno's don't have a knockback, mystics do.
The reason defending is so easy for wizzys is that we can knock back the head before it reaches us, so it's never a problem.

I could do it without my knockback.

Desdi - Sanctuary wrote: »

I have honestly never solo defended Metal (but if I recall correctly those mobs bramble) so I have no experience on it, however I've done several Fire (either solo or with an assistant). There's nothing in particular with them, except that they occasionally buff themselves (frenzy or increased attack etc.). I usually purge those and throw in an amp sometimes, usually to Magic Resistance or Increased Life mobs.

Metal doesn't bramble or i didn't really paid attention, Fire is more easy than Metal cause there's no place to kite in Metal the area is really small while in fire it's huge and you have place to run to don't have the head on you.

Metal mobs bramble sometimes yes. And they do anti-APS buf sometimes. Not sure if that effects a pet though
They also seem to blow up more than fire, but I'm not sure about that.

Metal has less room to kite indeed, making it harder if you don't have a knockback (with a knockback fast enough to keep the head off you, room is not a problem).
The upside is that metal mobs seem to have 0 defences (exact same damage on a inc mag ress mob as on a normal one)

Sirrobert - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Metal mobs bramble sometimes yes. And they do anti-APS buf sometimes. Not sure if that effects a pet though
They also seem to blow up more than fire, but I'm not sure about that.

Metal has less room to kite indeed, making it harder if you don't have a knockback (with a knockback fast enough to keep the head off you, room is not a problem).
The upside is that metal mobs seem to have 0 defences (exact same damage on a inc mag ress mob as on a normal one)

+1 I barely move in eitheir fire or metal. And only reason I would do fire is if the other caster defender is weaker than myself and don't need the walking room eitheir.

Speaking of faction run, one time I got dragged to a 1 bm, 1 cleric, 2 R9 archer and a 2nd psy squad. For the pav phase, one of the archer was on a sin alt for wood while the other archer said he was gonna take metal and send the psy to fire, while re-asking if I was fine with trying earth for the 1st time. I was fine with that since I had gotten bored of easy fire/metal, but only after making those two switch pav. I say that often, but metal mob got zero mdef and fire mob seem to have zero pdef also, while the other defense is quite big, so said archer and psy later thanked for me having found it easier that way. Earth went fine for me alone, lot of slow/freeze spam, some holy path here and there, knockback the head as usual, use some hp potion as soon as a mob poke me cause my freeze failed(psywill on CD), it sure did keep me on my toes for once. Well, having a nirv G16 +10 weapon might had helped a little also.

I solo defended Metal path today and it was easier than I expected. I have Earthquake on my PvE genie which helped knocking back the head when it was getting really close (I totally forgot to mention that in my previous posts).