Wind is the Trick to... existing, in Skyfire?

edit.. "What is..."

Ive entered this zone to work on Partisan 2, 3 times now... Every time I have Im fighting a cromodrake and a skyfire drake comes out of the sky and insta-wipes my entire group, repeatedly... I've spent more time corpse-dragging here than fighting.

What is the deal with this zone, and what kind of sick designed it?

I started partisan in OT and did just fine... I enter skyfire, and difficultly finish partisan 1... On to Partisan 2... fighting, Drake Add & Dead. Fighting, Drake Add & Dead. Fighting, Drake Add & Dead.

I Left the zone to do other stuff for 2 weeks out of frustration. Re-entered to start progression again. Fighting, Drake Add & Dead. Fighting, Drake Add & Dead. Fighting, Drake Add & Dead.

This zone is nothing but instawipes and guild hall corpse-rez trips. My group can kill RoS named just fine but Im insta-wiped in this zone by Trash mobs before I can fight.

Is there some sort of trick to this zone? Or is 2/3s of it literally just a no-go zone? You just supposed to snipe at mobs repeatedly between deaths until you finish the tasks and never enter the zone again?

Have you noticed the bid red rings on the ground? When you see them move out of them.

The drakes don't cover the entire zone. Find safe spots. Use pulling (which is it's own fun game with the pathing).
If you identify a spot you think is safe, hang for a couple minutes to be sure before you start pulling.

No because I have particle graphics & target rings set to low/off for performance reasons, which has never ever been a problem, not even in raiding... Did they literally make an Atom-bomb AE that is invisible on low graphics settings? I cant believe they're that stupid.

I don't own this expansion, but I'll go out on a limb and say no.

I don't know what the settings are for it, but there can be a red ring where the drakes can see you and nuke you from orbit, but won't actually aggro you. It's great at breaking invis and dropping a nuke on you as they fly way overhead.
I don't think it's particle effects but I'm not sure. it's their new decal thing, which makes a big circle on the ground showing you where to avoid. If you're raiding modern content they used it in almost every raid in RoS. Some in EoK too.

Sounds like an Environment Effect. Maybe try upping these settings a bit:

The trick is, as always, to be aware of your surroundings - and look UP every once in a while on the move.

I agree in that this zone is THE most annoying one (well, cannot comment on VP yet, but for all others that's true imo) in the RoS expansion. There are next to no "safe spots" (well, there are a FEW but chances are you will endanger some others when actually camping there) and this zone, almost in it's entirety is boxing UNfriendly. It's also very unforgiving for going afk at a normal XP spot.
As you have apparently felt.

As others have said, the reason for what you experienced are the drakes, usually high up in the air (but they can be somewhat lower too, "merging" with their surroundings almost) and they don't "atombomb" but they do a 40k AE or so.
You are supposed to see a rather big AE ring above the ground where their AE will land in a tick or so.
If you do not move outside that ring, the AE will hit you, and - as was said - break your invis.
Which in turn might agro nearby adds/wanderers.
And no, you are NOT safe from that AE even when you are invis and the drake does not SI, nor when you are SoS2 of FD's. This has been reported as a bug but not acknowledged as such yet.
Adding to that are the random (but not too rare) SI mobs you have to avoid while moving - i.e. moving in a straight line from a to b there is likely to get you killed or at least to agro a lot of "followers"; and that kind of followers isn't as welcome as those you get elsewhere in the digital world.

So first thing, if you do not see the big target rings, ensure that you do by adjusting your settings as others said.
(ALT+O,Display: i am not sure which it is, first try the "particles" as was suggested - but you might have to open the "advanced" window and "enable post effects" too as we have to for some raid-effects)
Then, always carry some invis potions with you and make sure to have them in your potion belt for ready access (or a /useitem hotkey) so you can re-invis self WHILE running. Also, make sure to never leave home without Talatak on you so you can at least try to outrun the train that follows you.
Next, spend some time in the zone, not AFK and not XPing - but just /con'ing the mobs and observing their pathing. Look up and target some of the flying drakes (same mechanic as the wasps in scorched woods) and see where their targetring is and observe their movement/pathing.
These drakes can and will AE you from a range that is beyond their actual agro range - so when you see that AE-ring, do not panic but use the time until the spell actually hits and choose the direction you evade in wisely - else your dodging the AE might just well make things much, much worse.
When in doubt, stand your ground and "simply" overheal it, it's not THAT much of a bother (only 40k or maybe 60 - nothing you can not survive) but a near-constant nuissance.
And keep in mind that, once a drake as started to AE you, he will continue to do so until you have left his spell range, killed him or were killed by it/adds - but unless it is on your agro list already (i.e. you moved from inside it's spellrange further into his agro range), you can always still evade it.

The biggest thing is:
Be prepared ("always prepared!") and "don't panic!"

you can pull the wall in some places to avoid drakes also - the tunnels also work - but yeah skyfire = sucksfire

I say screw SF screw Progression to get in VP. Just grind in EoK hunt rare if you can or take EQ brake till next x-pac. I am seriously considering brake on my 5 accounts, no idea what i payed for here total copy/pace suck fest for raiders. DB don't bother fixing anything, they to preoccupied with some old content nerfs or some low progression servers........MAD here how about you?

LOL...
Sure do that - it's your right. It's also your peril.

Well, i wouldn't say "they don't bother fixing anything".
But they're sure taking their time after - wantonly as it seems - ripping something apart to "fix" it that hasn't been considered broken. That actionism has side-effects and those side-effects happen to be very bothersome not for a few, but for many.
It's just that much easier to "beak" something than to (properly?) "fix" it - every parent knows that.

Yeah, some people might say i'm mad.
Angry i am too, apparently over some of your points - and then some.
I just draw a different conclusion, still.
And over all, i am just quite disappointed *sigh*

Nope, not mad here. Are some of the designs not well thought out and such? Sure. Have some bad decisions been made? Sure. But for me, most of them I have been able to adapt to, and have been grouping with people that adapt to them as well. And just because we adapt to these things doesn't mean that we like them, we just refuse to throw our keyboard to the ground and give up.

Some good advice here, it is in fact a 120k AE though, Drake Fireball, look it up on ZAM. and it's instantly wiped my 150k hp+ caster group multiple times... Maybe I got hit by 2 ? Dunno but it ain't 40k

keep looking up, if you see a reddish or black/purple drakes flying overhead even remotely close, they will try to nuke you. just pull those drakes and kill them 1st.

the only other option is making sure you can see the fire rings and move out of them

The tricks pretty simple.

1. Pay attention to your surroundings..

2. Kill every single every stuff round ya ..even way up high in the sky..

3. Loot ya riches!!

Sounds like someone needs to look at Shield of Order spell, memorize it, and cast it on each of their casters and refresh it once it fades...

I'm not sure the fireball is effected by mitigation. I keep SOO memd in my bottom gem and reapply often, I was really cognizant of this when entering Skyfire.

Its definitely a more hazardous layout than OT, but thats a good thing.
Everything should not be the same with different colors.

The issue is that this was supposed to be a tier 1 zone. Yet it is far more difficult than most t2 zones

So ya think that its worse then howling stones.. Or sathirs tomb ??

Are you serious?