Fell Foliage Strategy Help

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Aurmoon, Jul 11, 2018.

  1. Aurmoon Augur

    Hey folks, we’re really struggling with this one, although we did manage to get the Cactus down to 8% on one attempt and 12% on another before catastrophe hit. Any help understanding this mission and establishing an effective strategy would be greatly appreciated!

    Group: Shadowknight (me) | Shaman (boxed) | Wizard | Mage | Ranger | Bard (boxed)
    Gear: Almost 100% Conflagrant or EoK T2 Group gear. A few EoK chase items here or there. The SK (me) has a full set of the best tanking augs from EoK and T1 RoS, plus other goodies such as Coldain Prayer Shawl, Tears of Alaris, etc.
    AA: We have 99% of our relevant AA.

    The problem we’re encountering is the consistency at which the adds spawn and what types of adds. There doesn’t appear to be any write-up that explains the patterns. Sometimes we get burgeoning succulents right from the get-go, other times it is just a single add immediately, but no pattern. We’ve tried a straight burn on the boss (just barely fall short on DPS before lock), killing all adds (DPS insufficient to keep up after burns are used up), and killing the first 2-3 adds but otherwise focusing on the boss. Even tried dropping the bard for a cleric merc. We fight in the city to avoid wandering rhinoceros and what not (learned that lesson the hard way). We’re trying to develop a strategy to actually put the event on farm status rather than relying on a lucky run to secure a win.

    Any thoughts from the community?

    Please note: Not trying to turn this into a discussion on whether or not the mission itself is “too difficult” or needs to be changed — looking for solid feedback. Thanks so much.
  2. Dreadmore Augur

    I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you not considering burgeoning succulents as adds? You should--they count toward the big guy becoming invulnerable. And I've always gotten a burgeoning succulent at the start.

    Every time a burgeoning succulent spawns, there is a sproutling that also spawns somewhere nearby. Every time a burgeoning succulent dies, another sproutling spawns somewhere nearby. The sproutlings can grow into one of a few different add types after some time if not killed first. They each have different abilities and are named differently but I don't recall them all because I usually kill them before they manage to display those abilities. And you should too. One of them charms. It's pretty bad. I've never seen a pattern for which one they grow into. I've never timed how often burgeoning succulents spawn either.

    You've only tried three different methods: Burn on boss, killing all adds, and killing the first 2-3 adds. Why not try killing more than the first 2-3 adds?

    Depending on the DPS of my group, I'll usually stop killing adds when it becomes unnecessary.
    • Low DPS: I try to kill all sproutlings before they grow
    • OK DPS: I kill adds as they come and then ignore them once Cactikii is maybe around 20%
    • High DPS: I kill adds as they come and then ignore them once Cactikii is maybe around 50%
    To me it looks like you have high DPS.
  3. Aurmoon Augur

    What I meant was sometimes spourtlings appear when we engage the boss. Sometimes it is just a burgeoning and sprouting start coming later. Maybe we just don’t end up seeing them. Either way, this is definitely helpful and the sort of thing we’re looking for. I personally was not aware that the sproutings can grow into a different add type and that the death of a burgeoning means the spawn of a sproutling.
  4. ShadowMan Augur

    2 adds always pop to start. Bergeoning and a sprouting. The sprouting can spawn anywhere and pretty far away. You have around 60 seconds before the next add pops and then locks Cactiiki hps.

    With that group your strategy should be ignore adds and burn down Cactiiki in 60s. Should not be the case but if the dps is not good then make sure your dps is AE'ing so you kill one add while burning to buy more time before it locks.
  5. Thoxsel Djess' Pet Warrior

    Do you parse? If you are able to hit 1Mil dps minimum you can just burn down the boss and ignore the adds entirely. My typical burn for my team is on average 2M. If I’m lazy and don’t want to do min max everything it’s usually 1.5M. (Not boasting just saying that a full group similar to yours and with the gear and as you describe should be able to hit over 1M so you could simply ignore all mechanics and just burn the boss.)

    Unless of course you want to go for the achievement or you are below this in dps. The easiest thing you can do however will be simply try to increase your dps actually.

    Example: wiz and mage should both be able to handle 400k+ each. If you manage to squeeze out some more from all other 4 characters then you are golden. If you aren’t hitting those numbers let us know and it’s time to look at your burn setup for the classes.
  6. Liin Edud (Tunare) Augur

    Agree with Shadowman. Just did this mission last night so its pretty fresh.

    We had 2 shamans, Beast, War, Rogue and cleric merc. All 110 and group gear with a few chase except the beast. Not exactly the ideal DPS setup but it was a breeze once we got everything set.

    Don't even give him a chance. Burn with everything you've got and it should drop before the adds are an issue that lock Cactiiki hps. Don't forget to grab anything that can give you an edge in DPS or any extra buttons/AAs/discs (HT, spire, fleeting spirit, mana-burn, swarm-pets, etc.)

    You've already got the mage so I'm sure the shaman, mage and SK pets all have weapons, haste and DS. We also pulled out Draconicmagic Focus alchemy potions for anyone that can cast. Extra DD is a huge plus. Don't forget to click the epics (shaman 2.0 for melee and bard 2.0 for DD/DOT)
  7. Lianeb Augur

    Just keep in mind that a sprout spawns when a burgeoning does and also spawns when a burgeoning dies. If you are going to kill adds but don’t have the dps to kill named also then prioritize the sprouts before they can change to a succulent.

    The sprouts spawn succulents in a very specific order
    Renegade
    Pitiful
    Surreal
    Spiteful
    Not sure on the last two. Killing a sprout does not change what the next will be it only changes when it spawns. Ie...kill 2 sprouts and your first one to mature will still be a renegade
  8. Dreadmore Augur


    In case you don't have all the tools available to totally burn down Cactiikii before the adds overwhelm you, know that the sproutlings are always close enough to be within /targeting distance. You can keep the bard and ranger on the burgeoning succulents and the big guy while the wizard and magician nuke/pet-attack the sproutlings. It'll be less DPS on the on the main target, but it will prevent you from getting too many adds. Using this method, we're able to beat the mission with a SHD (tanking), PAL (stays on Cactiikii), WIZ and ENC (prioritizing sprouting succulents, then burgeoning succulents, then Cactiikii), a healer mercenary, and a caster DPS mercenary. So we are way low on DPS here, but are able to beat it by having the paladin slowly whittle down Cactiikii while the others do so opportunistically, with the priority of keeping adds at bay. Even with this and the small and short burn we can afford on Cactiikii, we only get three or four burgeoning succulents to spawn.
  9. Millianna Augur

    There are plenty of strategies to get past the FF mission, but do not waste your time. All you need is 850k dps to get by. Assuming your SK and Shaman pull a total of 150k, then the others would need to pull about 200k
  10. Waldagar Augur



    I played the BST in the group and my BST is mostly EoK raid geared with a few chase items. IIRC the group only managed 865K DPS and just got the cactus dead before the lock.
  11. Tiggold Augur

    Make sure you're at max melee range.
  12. Aurmoon Augur

    Thanks everyone. I’m going to start parsing and try to see where the problem is with the burn. 1M DPS seems like it should definitely be achievable given the group makeup. We’re still missing most of our Rank II spells (not surprisingly, still working on RoS Tier I). I know it isn’t much, but EQ is definitely one of those games where “every 0.1% adds up to a ton in the end.”
  13. Aurmoon Augur

    Just curious — why ?
  14. Thoxsel Djess' Pet Warrior

    Yea it certainly is a little by little things add up game. Let us know how the parse goes on a straight burn and then I’m sure the pros of the classes can chime in and suggest changes if you mention what each class is doing for their burn. If you are like you said so super close to win with how you are doing it now with a straight burn, some very small adjustments could certainly make it a win every time senario very soon for you. Look forward to get you over that hump. :)
  15. ShadowMan Augur

    The SK can do way more than that just on his own. And thats giving him the benefit of the doubt by assuming he is alt tab boxing the shaman and sk and assuming he has to go 1h and shield to survive. Otherwise sk's can put out dps classes level of dps on cactiiki with their full burn, 2h, plant dots and long reuse burn stuff.
  16. Aurmoon Augur

    Unfortunately Sword + Board is required to survive the fight, particularly trying to tank Cactiiki + add(s) + fighting through dmg shield. Between playing the SK and the shaman I’m really not in a position to throw DoTs from the shaman on the boss, the shaman is focused almost entirely on keeping the tank + group alive with an epic click and Talisman of the Sabretooth at the beginning of the fight.

    We’re going to give it another go tonight with the full burn strategy. The ranger picked up his second EoK chase weapon today and I believe our full burn attempts the ranger was going ranged instead of meleeing (due to DS). Any thoughts offhand if the ranger should melee vs. range to maximize dps (assuming he survives melee mode)? If we don’t win tonight, may wait until after the patch to get a little melee DPS boost and hopefully eek out a victory!
  17. Millianna Augur

    He is boxing.... I am sure most can hit at least 250k, but boxing not soo much
  18. segap Augur

    Let the mage pet tank (the water pet (at least with ros group focus, not sure about eok) can tank the boss just fine) at the start to give time for the SK to hit all the buttons. Once the buttons are hit, flip between the sk and shaman for taps and heals. Make sure the bard is rotating bellow and shout as well as using insults. Everyone in that group should be using any swarm pets they have to boost the mage. Keep the ranger ranged on the fight. They're just as strong if not stronger ranged right now and it's much safer with the damage shield that way.

    Don't waste any activated ability on the initial spawn. Go slow and easy on it. When it's around 20%, the mage should fire an RS off so that they can start the named with two, the SK should hit his epic and the mage/wizard should hit their burns as it nears 0. If using the mage pet as a temporary tank as I suggested above, throw a HoT on it from the shaman at this time as well.
  19. ShadowMan Augur

    If thats what you have to do thats fine but there is still a ton of burn potential to be had out of an sk in the first tick before then tabbing over for heals.
  20. Kolani Augur

    No melee from the shadowknight helps a lot. Open up with First-Malaise-Visage and hit him with Claret, Harm Touch and Thought Leech, then hold aggro with Terrors and taps.