I would like to make a request to the raider/high end group community to share strategies and methods for successfully adventuring in the plane of war. Discuss. Note: this thread is not for talking about what needs to be changed in plane of war or why it is a good or bad zone but to discuss ways of progressing and being successful in the zone.
General tips: Play defensively (I use AC songs and bard 1st spire here, for the first time outside of raids in ages). If you are/have a cleric, don't be stingy with DI and don't be afraid to disc. Dispel everything, the buffs NPCs get make them ridiculous Burn zerker mobs before they burn you (a Rulnavian fury / a Gindan berserker), and make an audio trigger for "____ begins to cast a spell. <Counterattack>" - this disc is basically the return of NPC enrage. Ogres see invis Ogres, minotaurs, pigs, worgs, and muddites are mezzable. Everything else I can think of is not (goblins, orcs, kobolds). Contrary to popular belief, boxing, group geared tanks, and pet tanks are all possibilities here (though you will be limited in what you can do) Be friendly/cooperative with others, they will return the favor. It's not a zone to be approached alone.
All the strategy guide I needed: Situational Awareness Everything that hangs people up on this zone is more then likely due to a lack of it. Basically Sirene's Entire list can be summed by those 2 words (even the be friendly/cooperative part, you never know when a player might be an asset to you, don't go out of your way to be a knob) ** Also as a side note: unless it was fixed Theres 2 classes that can pet tank quite well here due to other abilities then just /pet attack.
Have some forms of dispell ready ( but you probably noticed their buff). their social aggro range is quite large. Be patient if you wanna do the quest. If you want to tackle the commanders of both castle... be prepared. they are no joke.
I try to to bring back all pulls debuffed and I am selective on what I pulls... there is no reason to pulls zerker or fury... if you want to spawn champions then just train them on the other side faction and let them kill them for you but ya if you end up with with fury or a zerker burn the hell out of them and be attentive to there 30 secs mode and be rdy to dispell it. As a healer dont be shy add in all you can, group hot before pullers goes, renewal when you can fit one, crit heal disc on a bad pulls and keep everyone high HP.. DI the tank even the puller, VIe the group, shine the MT etc... As the tank you need to be aware of what is inc to you next... some of them are very weak but as a surprise every now and then while others are just not tankable without discing and a healer preped for it. Phantom agressor and projection of fury are your best friend on that agro debuffs... Wiz often pay the price for not been oor of it but unless you are in the field there is not many camp inside castle where casters can be oor without ending up with a respawn or roamer on there head. Only way of doing better is to make a couple mistake but aslong as you dont reproduce them over again you are on the right track. Im use to play game that can not be won but can only try do a better score. PoWar is almost it lol.
The only thing I have found to negate boisterousness as a caster is to use silent casting when it's up.
Corwyhn Lionheart ------I would like to make a request to the raider/high end group community to share strategies and methods for successfully adventuring in the plane of war. Discuss =========================== basicly this is the info i gave my guild and they are flaging peeps and helping other guild members get flaged but i have not even zoned it yet. maps http://eqresource.com/board/index.php?topic=3055.0 Did you add the named locs to the map if missing http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=7488 Did you see this thread https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...to-deal-with-a-150k-hitter-in-a-group.209717/ P.S Currently the plan is to NOT have the Anniversary Mission and Raid gated behind anything in Plane of War. The Plane of War Mission is currently planned to start in Plane of Tranquility with a special Anniversary NPC, Commander Gorok. This will allow level 65 and up players to access the NPC to start this mission and participate in their own piece of the Plane of War. This mission will scale with the level of players. The Plane of War raid will start with a special Anniversary NPC, Jorgar the Pacifist. We're tuning this raid for level 100 raid geared players, and there are no current plans to require any keys or flagging to participate. The Plane of War mission and raid are planned to go live on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. Like other EverQuest anniversary content, these will be available in game for a limited time. These will be available in game for approximately six weeks after they go live.
Goblins on the north end, pigs on the south end are the quickest way to flag for both E/W castles if you're a less than ideal group / box / etc ----- even mages can do it!!!! These mobs don't cast the aggro wonk spells.
Are there downsides to using mercs in PoW other then not being able to form raids? Is there anything special about merc using in PoW that people should know?
Obviously healer mercs suck. Wizard mercs do about a half or a quarter of the dps a real toon would on a named. Tank mercs, 0 experience cannot comment. Can you zerg through named/trash with mercs in the group though? Of course you can, but if your using healers its about 1/2 or so of the healing potential of a halfway adequately played box healer and maybe a 1/4 of the healing potential of a real healer. < If your above the gear check (Maybe some raid tanks are? In max group gear i am most def not) you can probably get by. Wizard mercs? I use 3 of them with my Pally/Chant/Wiz box team when i am grinding faction on Boars/Worgs all 3 of them combined put out about the DPS of my wiz, let alone the dps from my chanter... I don't use em on burn though in war due to mechanics (thanks boisterousness) < I do lazily cycle through my burns on my wizard and play it moderately attentively. Tank mercs? Haven't tried it, Maybe i will when i start bringing my alts through here in a month or two. I've done Judicators, Thokk, and The Barb with just my box team + mercs. So I'd say they function well enough. The barb was the worst though since I pulled the entire room to the corner and had to mez lock it and I forgot to set myself to MA, resulting in a couple mez breaks (kinda nasty when you have 4 trash mobs + 1 unmezzable + the named in the room...) One thing though... Mercs will decimate your group if you use them against The Blade due to his run away mechanic. And they are next to useless on Thokk since they don't duck when they are told too... The other issue: mercs are not situationally aware, they can't hold back when they get boisterousness, or stop attack when the mob casts counterattack, or a handful of other things that can/will decimate you if left unchecked. You can plan around that, but plans only last until engage. They also do not appreciate AE's since their health pool is a joke.
There is no punishment mechanic if that is what you are thinking of, although I admit that would be funny. Mercs might not be able to handle the DPS output of a reaver or a berserker/fury and fail to heal you in time, depending on your gear and AAs. As for named, there has been a couple occasions where we did not form a raid and had two groups with mercs. The positive side to this is that we bumped up the numbers to take it down. The downside was that if you're going after the Hunter achievement (which will be retroactive when it is released,) one group won't get credit since you are not in raid format. Another downside is that there are certain named that have emotes which your mercs will not respond to and will easily wipe your raid because of them.
You can take down a Judi with an under-powered group. I was in a group with a bard, mage, myself (wizzy) a DPS merc and a healing merc and one boxed warrior (who just sat there and did not tank), and we consistently took down Judis. There are ways.
It will not necessarilly be retroactive. The day before hunter went to Test (my group got kills) I did Rolfronn, Heart of Narikor, and The Blade. I had to repeat them after Hunter went to Test. I confirmed in logs that the group I was in got XP message for said kills. Just a forewarning for those of you who intend to finish hunter, and already have some kills knocked out.
I had a group-geared warrior tanking stuff in Plane of War. Despite constant chain healing he died nearly every-other pull, but during the Judicator fight he tanked like champ. I'm guessing he may have used a defensive disc during that fight, but it just goes to show that RoF/CotF group geared tanks can do it right.
