Toughest single group encounter by expansion?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Thundun, Jul 21, 2020.

  1. Thundun New Member

    What do you think is the toughest single group encounter per expansion (including the original game) that can be beaten with expansion-appropriate non-raid gear? Meaning gear that could be acquired by a single group in that expansion or before. If you think there's more than one that are all roughly equal that would be interesting, too.

    Background: Some family and I have come back to the game and are playing on TLP, but I thought it would also be fun to play on a live server under some "challenge" restrictions (I've seen such things on this board before). One challenge (among several) would be that we'd have to beat a hard encounter for that expansion before moving on to the next expansion. It's been so long I don't have a good feel for what the risks are in various encounters.

    Thank you in advance for your help!
  2. Derka Power Ranger

    Unfortunately a lot of missions have been nerfed over time and they are not nearly as difficult as they were when current but ill throw some out there as ideas.

    RoF: the chapterhouse missions were a pain. Also it was a huge thing for us to finally kill Xolok the Blind named.
    CotF: the fall of lord bayle mission.
    TDS: Bigger Fish in tempest temple was insanely hard. We had to 2 group it with extra mercs. Burden of the Past also posed some problems if you died in line of sight. Usually led to a reset.
    TBM: Anashti Sul, Enslaver of Souls and then Damsel of Decay
    EoK: nothing really jumps out except for The Bridgekeeper named in Chardok. The Lceanium mission might stress your tank with 6 at a time.
    RoS: very challenging expansion. All of the missions will keep you on your toes specifically Fell Foliage and then End of Empire.
    TBL: another very challenging expansion. Various named mobs have 100k+ rain spells, hit like trucks. All smoke trials except maybe wending ways will be difficult. The missions were not easy either.
    ToV: nothing really super difficult

    Sorry for thr erratic text, I was going through each expansion on eqresource and looking at zone names to jog memory. Keep in mind I did all of those expansions in Era(and group gear except for chase weapon)and things have been nerfed since. Also what can make the missions truly hard is going for the special achievements.
  3. Jumbur Improved Familiar

    TBM: enslaver
    RoS: skyfire mission

    are the ones that I remember for the many wipes....
  4. Qbert Gallifreyan

    A lot depends upon group composition. Some of the named/missions/tasks referenced above were quite easy for me, whereas others were hard enough that I had to wait until 1-2 expansions later to be able to beat them (and there are others older than that that I still can't beat . . . i.e. dumb monster missions . . . again, depends on the group).
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  5. Thundun New Member

    Hey that's a big help, thank you! If you have any thoughts on memorable fights in early history (classic, kunark, etc.) I would love to hear your thoughts on those too. For example, I think Lord Doljonijiar___ was supposed to be one groupable, but the one time we tried it did not go well. . .
  6. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Xolok the blind is a freaking nightmare except for Necromancers & Shaman maybe.
    Any kind of melee on it requires some very heavy investment into corruption aug farming as without huge amounts of corruption resist it will rip you a new one fast.

    Can't really say as far as the CoTF/TDS/TBS stuff since on Phinny it's still borked.

    I will say that Doomscale Horde was impossible for me to 3 box as a Berserker/Bard/Shaman in era using a Tank Merc & Heal Merc, the NPC you need to protect was destroyed in seconds by the add waves & Bard CC was just not enough to try to do it with a CC approach, I did get to the third wave but by then I was already struggling. Tank Merc doesn't do much as it won't take aggro off the NPC which actively tries to hold aggro on itself & the abilities of the mobs are pretty nasty.
  7. Lubianx Augur

    It's funny how everyone's perception of the hardest differs in some cases and are the same in others.
    Here's my take (remembering things prior to RoF is a little challenging)

    ToV: - a shrouded bat/Malvus Darque named combo or any of the wolf nameds in Kael if attached to another named. Whilst not difficult as such, probably the hardest things in ToV.

    TBL: - Any mob with Fire Trap eg Final Blade Lord in Aalishai, Chamber of Tears mission also comes to mind if you don't have a beefy tank

    RoS: - End of Empire Mission

    EoK: - Kor'Sha lab mission maybe

    TBM: - Anashti Sul, Enslaver of Souls

    TDS: - This one is a bit from left field but I wiped so many times doing A Fickle Wind Blows partisan in Combine Dredge, I know there are harder things like the mission in Degmar

    RoF - Champion of Fear mission in Chelsith

    VoA: - I would say The Sound of Silence mission in Windsong

    HoT: - Maybe Catastrophic Power in Al'Kabor

    Underfoot: -Drawing a blank here, maybe some of Fungal Forest partisans

    SoD: -Just getting to Rathe Council Chambers was annoying

    SoF: - I would say some of the Crystallos nameds (but I did really like that zone)

    TBS: -Understanding the stupid portals o_O

    TSS: - I seemed to remember the Ashengate Access quests weren't overly easy (those 2 guardians at the gate were mean)

    PoR: - I would say anything in either Devastation or Sverag if giants had control

    DoDH: - Probably Rescue Cicero mission (all escort missions sucked), I am probably missing something

    DoN: - The Ascent had the hardest missions here (don't ask me to recall which ones)

    OoW: - This one is easy to remember, Shadowhunter in WoS

    GoD: - Tipt Trial (especially with no warrior, ranger or enchanter)

    I'm drawing a blank on those prior
  8. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    You misspelled "Bob" ;)
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  9. PhinigelKronoFarmer Journeyman

    I will second COTF Fall of Lord Bayle, in era group gear and AAs would be very hard.
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  10. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    Try to finish all of the Ikkinz group trials in GoD with a tank that only has access to group-level gear GoD and below.
  11. Sirene_Fippy Okayest Bard

    I'm gonna say A Successful Mistwielder in RoF. I suppose that is supposed to be a 2 group encounter.
    All the Chelsith special named were really fun and I have good memories of trying and failing to beat them.
  12. Bigstomp Augur

    Personally, in RoF. I had the most trouble with some mob in crystal caverns. Where my caster mercs nuked it and blew me up. Took me a bit to figure out to get rid of mercs and just slow roll it for dps. I dont' recall the named specifically.
  13. Buster_Shruggs Augur

    In SoF, Loping Plains, the last task for acquiring a 25 purity aug, "It Ends Now"... 1 person using the black crystal summons waves of orcs, with a named in the final wave. 2 orcs, 4 orcs and then 4 +named orc. Having everyone in the group summon their waves would make it really fun and crazy! In its current state, a SoF group geared/level 80 set of adventurers would be hard put to survive simultaneous waves especially because you get double of everything. I still do it to this day when leveling up alts... multiple toons summoning double waves of orcs is a really cool sight!
  14. Derka Power Ranger

    Honorable mention: anything to do with Plane of War lol. That zone was just a big nope until better geared.
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  15. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000

    No cotf?

    Andarriel
  16. Tucoh Augur

    ToV:

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  17. Broozer Augur

    I remember years ago in DoDH there were folks on the forums here that were a step short of pledging allegiance to Al-Qaeda over the 68.3 mission. They explained their mediocre group makeup, they're plain vanilla strategy (not even optimizing their class skills/abilities) and then yelling at how all raiders are stupid and how they were smarter than everyone so non-raiders can't win.
  18. aozs Augur


    You might want to try asking on the TLP forums. I made a post a few weeks ago about 1-groupable TLP content, but that was specific to boxing - you might find some useful info in there: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...tent-is-doable-for-a-single-box-group.268672/

    From what I can tell, the biggest challenges will be 1-grouping old raid content. Thankfully, it's easy to access raid encounters on TLP with Agents of Change. One of the problems with early EQ is that there is no clearly defined "group game" (as opposed to modern EQ which has a clear group progression and missions, which is a lot of what you see listed in the responses above). So I think it'll be helpful to be clear about exactly what "single group encounter" means, since that might define what is and isn't part of the challenge.
  19. Darchon_Xegony Augur

    Classic - Probably Fire Giants, maybe Kedge Keep Estrella

    Kunark - Tolapmuj probably, those dictates on your tank could be nasty.

    Velious - Halls of Testing or any mobs in ToV. Though that is more raid content, outside of that the Dragon Necropolis tunnels are rough, lots of roamers and some higher level mobs.

    Luclin - Umbral Plains minis

    PoP - Depth3 in water, near Ofossaa spawn. Especially back on the PoP era client where you couldn’t see but 5 feet in front of you. Castle 2 in POFire was also a challenge

    LoY - Nothing really stands out. Everything was easier than PoP for sure

    LDoNs - Hard boss kills were tedious because of the time to spawn a boss then to find out he spawns in a different path than you cleared maybe causing you to run out of time

    GoD - Ikkinz 2 group trial where you need 2 tanks is probably the most difficult. All 9 group trials in GoD were pretty difficult. The Qvic goats are worthy mentions for one groupable difficult content, but those mostly just took forever to kill with one group.

    OoW - CoA aug minis probably the hardest single group content. I think some people did Chailak in era with a single group as well. MPG trials specifically efficiency but the difficulty really varied based on group makeup.

    DoN - Not sure really here. Most people just farmed creator for crystals. I don’t recall any specific group mission standing out

    DoDH - 68.4 the rescue mission I recall struggling with in era. 70.3 the monster mission always sucked. 70.4 hard was the named dervish in open world you could farm I recall lower end guilds raiding this target but it was a tough single group mob

    PoR - Any Theatre of Blood named mob. They all had very annoying abilities and tons of HP for a single group.

    TSS - I’m not sure any Ashengate or Frostcrypt named really stands out above the rest for difficulty. The guardians at Ashengate were tough though

    TBS - I think the 2nd to last mission before Solteris access was difficult? The first one in the Zhissa zone?

    SoF - Geartop probably due to the adds spawning and needing huge DPS to overpower. Spark Bolt was also tough due to the adds. The Crystallos Squires were difficult but probably not on the tier of the 35 AC aug named

    SoD - There was one mission in Korafax that was rough but it may have been a 12man one. The aneuk named one Korafax also with its dumb charm AE ability.

    UF - The Fungal Bloom mission was really time consuming and difficult without a decent puller. The final Convorteum mission also difficult but 12 man.

    HoT - Morell’s Castle 2nd mission was pretty challenging without any CC because you kept having to face 4-5 mobs simultaneously. No named really stood out here. HoT Upper Raid with 1 group was the hardest groupable target of the expansion but it was designed as raid content.

    VoA - Rubak mission was rough, so was basically any camp in Sepulcher, arguably one of the worst zones ever designed from a mob ability standpoint. Random mobs roaming around buffing everything with 100x the HP was stupid. The 12 man Pillars and Triunity missions were also rough even for 2 groups

    RoF - The named in Xorbb that Nuked you for the DPS you put in was tough, don’t recall any mission being extremely bad.

    CoTF - Fall of Bayle achievements for sure. The mana pres killer and all the adds you needed to CC but Mez lasted only a tick was very difficult in era.

    TDS - Nothing really stands out to me, the HAs felt very Grindy and long though.

    TBM - Anashti Enslaver achievements are rough, so were the Anashti Decay achievements. As for named two from demiplane that drained mana were stupidly OP, especially once they scaled up to ROS tier models. Losing an entire mana pool in two ticks was awful.

    Will update once Phinigel unlocks further expansions!
  20. Derka Power Ranger

    Render named from The Handmaiden was one of those. If you didnt kill him in under maybe 24 seconds you were screwed lol. And that was in era, I am not sure how he is with scaling.
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