Tips/Strategy's -- Icebound Avatar - (Kael Drakkel Mission)

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Daedly, Dec 20, 2019.

  1. Daedly Augur

    I don't know if any of you folks who beat this are ready to share your knowledge yet, but I figured I would try anyways

    On the surface, this looked to be pretty easy going by description on EQresource. However, I haven't been able to get out of the first phase.

    First try: Did some recon before engage, knew there were adds. Seen that there were 4 - 5 giants looking in, figured they would be the adds. Started the mission. Was surprised at how quickly the avatar's health went down. Don't know if the add's are timed or HP based, but I quickly had 4 extra giants. Noticed some kind of floating axe too. Got 1 giant dead and ended up missing the emote on my cleric. Shortly after, wipe.

    Second try: Decided to try and slow and steady approach making sure to deal with adds first and focusing on emotes and then work on Avatar once they are done. This try went way better. Got down to 2 add's, 1 giant and an axe. Then I got confused, because I got more giant add's. I had just assumed that there wouldn't be any more adds than what were initially there. Struggling to get things positioned with my boxes on autofollow, missed an emote and lead to a wipe.

    Questions:
    What triggers when the adds come?
    What is with the floating axes?
    Is there a limit to how many giant and/or axe adds I will get?
    If there is no limit, how have some of you been doing this? Do you get Avatar down into the next phase as quickly as you can and then kill adds?
    KarmaKitty likes this.
  2. Lianeb Augur

    Take the 1st phase slow or get overwhelmed. The Adds are HP based and you get one giant one axe each time.
    Yinla, KarmaKitty and Daedly like this.
  3. Ashian Augur

    Happy to share some advice having beat it multiple times with about 100 times more planned for the future (ugh @ currency rate):

    1) I think adds are % based (it definitely is for the 2nd phase). Consider doing very, very slow DPS on the Avatar at the start of the battle. It doesn’t have that much health and drops super fast. It is my belief that the script takes a little while (10-15 seconds to get going) so you can have the Avatar at 80% by the time the adds start spawning ... and then you get 5+.
    2) Axes have low health relative to giants. Kill the axes first.
    3) Save shield flash for when your healer gets emoted to duck.
    4) Save deflection for when the Avatar ports to the other part of the zone. If you get your tank there and hit deflection, it will give you extra time to make sure your healer gets there in time.
    5) Careful with pets when the Avatar ports. I once had an SK pet chase the avatar, smack it, then my tank got summoned and blown apart while the rest of the group was still in route.

    Goodluck!
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  4. Fullwin Journeyman

    The giant adds you get are the ones above you in the stands, so on the first phase you can see how many are left to activate... the axes spawn around the same time so (I think) when you are out of giants you should be out of axes. The Avatar has a lot less HP than you might think so nearly all your DPS should be on the adds as they spawn. You want all the adds dead before his HP drops into the low 60s because then the fight shifts phases. I won't spoil the second phase for you but the principle is the same... for most groups you'll want to manage the adds before you bring his HP down too quickly.
    KarmaKitty likes this.
  5. ArtremasEQ Augur

    Observations:

    Adds are % based, approx 5% per add, though it varies a few % with server tics etc.

    You can sometimes have two at once, (axe and Giant / spectator etc) at same time. Use Discs here.

    AOW HP are actually low for the mob type, it is super easy to over DPS, so don't.

    Over DPS on AoW then overwhelmed with adds, is the #1 'mission fail' cause from what I'm hearing. Frankly you can likely DPS AoW with just the main tank. Other DPS need to resist their urges.

    Tank AoW in a corner. (at least I do, as I have a mob-push ability, your mileage may vary)
    Use mob push abilities to move adds out from corner if one gets 'behind' the tank. Spectators sometimes do.

    So far I've never been emoted to kneel as the tank in the group mission. I don't know if that is a mechanic, or an accident.

    Port clears all agro, but he will summon instantly on re-engage. So Tank first.
    Should only ever be one add up when he ports.

    Don't fail emotes, the punishment hurts in terms of deaths and extra adds.
    Tank disc for healer emotes and the move is a good plan.

    I can't/shouldn't comment on how much he hurts/disc usage for group geared tanks sorry.

    Enjoy.
    KarmaKitty likes this.
  6. FawnTemplar Augur

    If you get the giants down to about 25% AoW will kill them for you when he does his rage emote.
    KarmaKitty likes this.
  7. Repthor Augur

    theres 5 gaints and axes, they are hp based triggered

    rallos does his big AE every 2.5 minutes this AE does 25% of the gaints hp so if u can tank a cuple you only need to dps them down to 25% then wait for rallos to kill them for you. kill axes as they spawn, if you have dotters/necro in your group tell them to be carefull with the boss if you have adds up when boss ports at 60% he takes them with him to the next spot you might not like that.

    rotate your defensives

    good luck on phase 2 its easyer then first phase (adds there is also %hp based)
    Whulfgar and KarmaKitty like this.
  8. Goburs The Filthy Casualz Leader

    As Ashian stated above, Axes die first. They have much less HP, so smash em quick.

    Get the Giants down to about 23% or so, and AoW will AE and kill the giants, this is also an achievement IIRC.

    Take things slow the first time, once you get it down, you can go back for achievements. Expansion isn't going anywhere.
    KarmaKitty likes this.
  9. Tucoh Augur

    What NOT to do:
    1. Burn the boss and see what happens. I got like 10 adds when he ported and started summoning my party.
    2. Forget to unduck your healer.
    3. Run your mage up at 65% to coth your party and get aggro from swarm pets and get killed mid-coth.
    4. Chase down a restless giant that's aggro'd onto a swarm pet on the wrong side of the arena and let the rooted icebound avatar kill your group.

    I think I got lucky the first night when I killed this the second try, and then got unlucky the next night when I found new ways to fail the encounter.

    I found the damage the giants have (and maybe all the mobs in ToV from what other threads are saying?) is pretty spiky. I got hit for ~20k per swing most of the time, but got caught sleeping and died due to a sudden ~45k per swing round from the restless giant that blew up my warrior.


    I think as long as you can kill the giants before damaging the boss and avoid swarm pets / DoTs on the changeover, it's not a hard fight.
    KarmaKitty likes this.
  10. Duder Augur



    DoTs also cause this. If he warps with a DoT on, it ticks and he summons the owner of the DoT, no bueno
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  11. Mintalie Augur

    There appears to be some sort of bug on pets on the bend the knee call. Had it happen repeatedly. All PCs were bending yet there was a punishment anyway. Suspended all pets and used no swarm pets and got it the first try (after like five failures).

    So, pro tip, don't use pets on this if you're going for the bend the knee achieve and/or if you don't want to get the punishment.
  12. Drogba Augur

    only the emoted player needs to bend the knee, not everyone. It tells you if that player was/wasn't successful. Done this mission with plenty of pets, plenty of times, I don't believe that's a thing.
    Szilent, Sancus and svann like this.
  13. Tucoh Augur

  14. Symbius Augur

    When he emotes to bend the knee, it really should cause his damage output to drop considerably.

    Worst thing about this mission is the Healer having to duck and then praying the tank can survive it, especially if a spectator/axe are up at the same time.
  15. svann Augur

    When I notice cleric getting called I try to hit deftdance then dissonant chord (bard taunt) to take some stress off the tank. Im sure other classes must have some things they can pull out of the hat.
  16. Mintalie Augur

    I'm aware of the mechanics of one PC at a time ducking. I did it without issues before as well, then had a run of issues with two mages in the group. We checked the logs, the PCs did not fail, therefore we were left to surmise that it was some sort of pet bug.

    Since this thread is about tips and strategies, I thought this might be helpful to someone.
  17. SubEffect An Original Lord of Fizzle and Whiff

    Some more tips from a tank's perspective.

    1. MT doesn't seem to ever get the knee emote (agree with earlier post)
    2. Mercs do not seem to be affected by knee emote (they get targeted but do not seem to take damage). we used 2 mercs last run and neither were affected.
    3. Keep adds close to MT if offtanking so MT can tank Avatar and help dps the adds, if needed. When AE emote comes up, OT can back away but MT should snag aggro on the adds so the AE hits them.
    4. Don't delay running to "spot 2" as you only get maybe 30 seconds, barely enough to run and engage.
  18. Deathly Elder


    Solid advice. We always have the tank and ONE dps on the Avatar during the first phase.
    The adds seem to spawn every 5% and can be delayed spawn a % or so. Once the adds spawn kill them fast as you can, unless you are doing the achievement.. You should never have more the 2 adds up and once the Avatar is around 65% make sure all the adds are dead before you slowly dps him down to make him port.
  19. Deathly Elder

    If you kill all the giants this way, you get the achievement.
  20. TYBARIS Journeyman

    Great video Tucoh
    kinda gives you a heads up on what to expect and where to move to.
    Tucoh likes this.