TBL Stratos summary for casuals and groupers

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by NeverPayForLag, Dec 26, 2018.

  1. NeverPayForLag Augur

    TBL has some nice and very affording parts. But to reach it, this is a borderline action where casuals and groupers will struggle a lot. It has so many design flaws which makes a casual die often and a boxer curse the devs. Here are some ideas and hints how to reach at least T2 zones and could make advantage of the insane good equipment which is dropping from time to time and even rotting meanwhile - instead of the usual good-vs-bad posts - perhaps that helps some who struggle:

    Stratos - the zone:

    - don't fall over the cliffs, they are deadly
    - if you box, never use "auto-follow" - it will kill all your toons fast - the pathing is terrible
    - the pathing is sometimes so bad that the mobs fall of the cliff and then appear from the other side (they warp around) and they can bring friends - reminds me on Plane of Hate (TBM) - can have its charms;)
    - if you have aggro and fall down then you could possibly (out of any stupid reason) have aggro at the entrance point, if you manage to Exodus/Succor
    - Mage CoH / Group-CoH is helping extremely in traveling in Stratos
    - Fellowship is a must - the only safe way to travel through Stratos (if you box 3+ toons)
    - once the progression in Stratos is done then you have your port-in into Plane of Smoke - you don't need to travel Stratos anymore - click again on the small clicky and it is a free port from wherever you are (!!!!)
    - take care about the merchant point - out of any reason it is possible to fall to death in front of the merchant/quest giver at start
    - mobs somehow push you with the AE - rarely but they do - always fight in the middle of the biggest islands or in a corner where you get push into a bridge - else you could get a 200k fly-down

    /pickzone - your own instance

    - if too many people are in Stratos and you get AE'd too often, use /pickzone to get into an instance which is a bit lesser populated
    - /pickzone has some issues: if everybody is killed in that zone then prepare to Guildhall-Rezz because your corpse vanishes if the zone shuts down after some tries to get into it and need to leave because of mobs at the entrance
    - prepare lockout times of about 5min because /pickzone is bugged if you get entry via rezz/zonein etc.. .this seem to count like the usage of /pickzone (really annoying bug)

    Nameds:

    - if you are a casual or a grouper in poor equipped group and die on names: roll and get the TBL T1 equipment to get over the magic number around 170k HP - else take care that mitigation buffs and runes are up (e.g. from Enchanters)
    - if you can, find somebody with a fellowship and let you drag into Empyr or better Aalishai. There are people who regularly farm nameds for the loot - and I got some rotting loot too (sad that they not always announce it)
    - with a bit better equipment - and it is a fine line like I posted before - the survival will be much better in these zones.
    - if you box, have the money and still struggle: use a healer merc on every of your toons. Give a sh.. on XP and simply have all heal the group though while your little army beats down the named - there are always mercs which get killed but some stay alive - it looks wired but it can drag you through the AEs even if the mercs have no mitigation buffs and only they own buffs - simply use them as damage shield, as patch healer, as first aggro shield or whatever and accept that they die for that - your own personal one way bodyguard or bodyguard buff
    - get an army if you have no chance - as a grouper - collect more people and make a raid like structure - 18 people with 18 mercs seems overkill but if you have no chance then simply play like a raider and get enough people together to kill a named - I know you could join a guild too but the bigger the group, the lower the chance for a successful roll

    Empyr/Aalishai

    - porting seems not to work - neither Zephyr nor Port - as long as you do not have a Trial
    - mobs hit a bit harder - even if you don't realize it anymore because you have slightly better gear after Stratos
    - named are a bit harder - even if you don't realize it anymore because you have slightly better gear after Stratos
    - try to get a fellowship going inside - it ports you always into the T2 zones
    - try to get rotting stuff if you cannot do anything
    - find the collection items to have something to do
    - use forage so you have something to do
    - if you get hand on "dimininshed inhabited muhbi" (for TS/T3 gear) then I suggest that you get first on the most important thing: DPS and HP (for the AE). So weapons and shield is the way as melee. A ranger will go for the bow. A caster will go perhaps also for the weapons which have focus stuff on them to boost their DPS output while all have INSANE stats on them - but you need one tradeskilled muhbi for it and thats a thing for the tradeskill section (s. below).

    Tradeskills

    - if you are no tradeskiller and have no money then forget at moment TS/T3 group gear

    - T3 went for around 2Mill and jumped now down to around 350k-1Mill, some parts still around 1,5-2Mill pp - so if you don't have a truckload of money or sold Krono to get some then this is out of reach without a solid group - it will go more down as the people start farming the area - some with the right gear are done with progression meanwhile - so expect to prices to drop - but still you need the drop from a T2+ zone for getting your gear(!). If you have the money and don't care then you can buy your way through all Muhbis for sure. But visible gear will take a truckload on items and fails so don't expect them sold so early. Stick on T2 drops

    - you can forage and fish your way through and make the Muhbis or Statfood (1k+ HP/Mana). But like usual the first round with the high price selling is gone and if you didn't made your first 10Mill until now then you have now much competition with people selling it much cheaper and the revenue is much lower - that happens if people want to compete with prices. As "diminished inhabited muhbis" drop so rarely this could sell high price for a good deal of time - expect that. And you need money if you want to make the T1 or even T2 armor. It is like the darn RoS Aug3. If you have no endless resouce on loyal points to remove them you have to spend a lot of money on it - that will be a bottleneck for itself - most will not be able to avoid Krono if they are not at the top with their tradeskill ability or their gear to get it

    - without high tradeskills (300+, Trophy maxed) you will have a very bad time to do them. And you will fail a lot. Use a nonfail potion from market place (again money...) if you don't want to fail it

    - if you want to go into tradeskills then go to 51, then get your trophy quest, then after trophy is done - THEN go up with your skills - if you do the easy way then your are screwed with doing a ton of more difficult quests after that

    - nonfail potion can max your tradeskills after the trophy (or max the trophy) very easily. But prepare everything so that you don't waste any bit for buying/collecting stuff. Made my research skill to 300 in about 1-2 hours with conflagrant recipes.

    Clickies, Goodies, Items

    TBL, like the RoS Missions NEED equipment. Regardless what people in that forum are saying. they are so used either to these goodies or simply got dragged somehow through the core missions or have a near perfect group setup, so in my experience this is a vital point. If you don't have them to get over this very fine line of success then get them. And there are a ton of them. Tucoh did a nice thread. There was a "Burn Baby Burn" thread for optimization too. There are a ton of information. This is only a glimpse to give ideas:

    - all small clickies which gives a boost
    - all clickies which gives permanent stats (from e.g. old raids, like Ancestral Memories from L80/85 raids, 16% overhaste - you don't get temporary hands on Cloak of the Ancients with 17%)
    - if a friend gives you temporary such items you can unattune it with the loyal points and the unattuner to give it back and you have your permanent boosts - or he does it for money or trades that for an item - if you have somebody to trust
    - Breastplate clickies of old expansions, not only new ones (from Anquish up to RoS/TBL)
    - Epic 2.0
    - Plane of War Dodge 10% Augment
    - Artizans Prize (is works without... I still need it)
    - Resist boosts (Mata Muram Trials, DoN progression parts, etc.)
    - get the Aura clickies (Aura of Mana/Circle/Life/Power I-IV)
    - get e.g. the Ancient Weapon from EoK with the 1750 point permanent damage mitigation - and conflagrant shield from RoS. This has tanked perfect and worked better than Conflagrant Sword (for Warrior) - it has rotted a lot in the past

    - get items from old expansion which are the result of progression like
    • Dicho 3 (TBM)
    • Heroes Fortitude/Resolution/Vitality (look in the Special Tab of the AAs)
    • get Golden Frontier Rhinoceros Saddle (EOK PROGRESSION) if you do not have bought the Jann-Illusion which is beyond the most boosts you can get (!)
    - if you have no lack on money - then buy the collectors edition, get your Jann illusion and have even for level 1 the best stats you can every imagine - it is like partly buying your progression because you get your Jann illusion through progression too

    So everybody can add to this thread his ideas and hints which are not so obvious and could help somebody especially in TBL who are struggling and at the brink of getting the trick (leave the rants out here, people need help more than that). This is not perfect, this is not complete, this are only some ideas which helped me for the first couple of zones.

    my 2 cents...
  2. NeverPayForLag Augur

    Addon:

    Non-Prestige vs. Prestige

    - get for your F2P and Silver accounts the Stratos T1 gear. It is the only thing which is Non-Prestige (sadly) but it is slighty better than Conflagrant Gear

    - If you don't have it at least get all up with tradeskilled Conflagrant Gear if you don't want these toons or the "alts" rezzs all the time (which is also a nice solution as long as they are only running around in Negligé)

    Merry Christmas...
  3. NeverPayForLag Augur

    Addon:

    Boxing/Tanking:

    - get two tanks in your group. It is possible to do it with one tank but it will save you so much trouble if you are at the borderline to do something. The expac is full of stuns, mezzes and get used to loose xp for rezzes. If you do it by only one then get very familiar with all measurements against it (if they work, like Sk/Pal for tanking, anti mezz/stun AAs, anti mezz/stun songs/spells)

    - if you do the trials, two real tanks are recommended. Pets are not really able to hold aggro - they are somehow not even able to do anything really good in the Trials

    - outside the trials (nameds), a Mage pet can do quite well and is a replacement or addition for a normal tank, who has not really enough gear (I take into consideration that somebody can play a tank at least with his mitigation buttons)

    (... and yes, it is Christmas, I have a bit more time now to write ;) )
  4. Anastasis Elder

    Thank you. This help a lot.
  5. Daedly Augur

    With the exception of the Ash trial, which is still doable with one, you shouldn't need two tanks for trials. If you bring two tanks, you are going to hamper your dps(usually), which seems to be more important given the amount of HP some of the boss/mini mobs have.

    I ran through them all this past Saturday night, 3 of them for the first time. Ash, i almost wiped on though. I think i am far from having Ash on farm until i get my peeps geared and AA'd up some more.
  6. akomode New Member

    Ok to start off you have a good post to help ppl out so for that I will say thank you for the time you spent. How ever when you said "Pets are not really able to hold aggro - they are somehow not even able to do anything really good in the Trials" I have to Strongly disagree!!

    With my chanter / Bst I am able to Box a lot of the stuff. The pets can hold aggro the trouble in missions is that they follow the PoW rules (old school rules) That is if a live player is closer then the pet it will attack the player that doesn't mean they are not use-able rather it means you need to know how to use then. If you want to pet tank make sure you have your PET AA, and consider gearing them I have tanked with them and not using gear but it does help if you need the extra push.

    The best Tank for many of the Task and Missions is a Chanter charmed pet so play with your charm spell ( hit one of the chanter TBL spells is a new charm ) These pets rock for both DPS and tanking so if you group gear like my chanter then invest in pet AA and start charming yes. please not charming is a skill not an easy button so it takes learning but if done right makes chanter one of the best solo classes in the game even in group gear.

    So before you just check pets off the list as off tanks and back up tanks maybe spend some time learning to how to play with a pet.
    NeverPayForLag likes this.
  7. Feznik Elder

    Tradeskill i.e. T3 gear (player made container)

    It is pointless to even buy the Muhbis container for Armor, Augments, or Weapons, unless you have the required NO TRADE T3 drop - Diminished Inhabited Muhbis

    Save yourself plat by waiting till you have the drop required to make the final piece, as the prices will fall sharply on the containers because without the No Trade dropped item, there is no value in buying the player made Muhbis containers early. People haven't realized this yet, but expect the market on these to drop from 1-2 million plat for the containers down to less than 100k plat per container.

    Unless you just enjoy taking up bag space, there is no point to hold onto the containers until you are ready to make the final T3 product.
    Pirlo and NeverPayForLag like this.
  8. WorriedinNorrath Elder

    Most condescending post of the year award goes to Neverpayforlag.
  9. NeverPayForLag Augur

    Did you do the Trial of Three? I only refer at moment to Trial of Three to come to the new zones and get some decent gear. I have normally no trouble if the tank goes down with pets. Mage Pet takes over aggro because it is always on taunt. As long as Tank is active he can always take aggro better than the pet. If he goes down, pet is there. But in Trial of Three the pet got pushed back and didn't do anything.
    Charming is useless in this mission. I use this mission as entry point to Empyr. I normally rely heavily on Pets, regardless if it is the Mage, Necro or even Enchanter pet. They saved my butt often enough. If I change the main weapon into a non aggro weapon and avoid too many taunts then damage is divided between tank and pet. With that trick it is even possible to deal with real trouble Named, if the damage output is the main problem.

    Nothing there is condescending. The only condescending post is yours. If you cannot write something useful instead of trolling then choose a different thread. If my english is to bad for you then I can write in my language and you can use google translate (was that condescending enough for you?).

    add: if condescending was the wrong translated word then never mind.
    Zamiam and Pirlo like this.
  10. Took2summmit Elder

    English isnt nevers native language but apparently it's not yours either. Nothing about this post is condescending. I picture never as a somewhat grumpy dude but you can absolutely tell this post is genuinely trying to help people. You really think he went so into detail with everything to be condescending?
    Pirlo likes this.
  11. Brohg Augur

    welp, there's your problem. go Cyclone instead ;-)
    Daedly likes this.