Just curious if this is intentional but should Ahrmatal's charms (such as Ahrmatal's Red Scale and Ahrmatal's Ringmail Purse) drop off Ahrmatal instead of Geradin the Grotesque. Other than for the obvious fact that those items have Ahrmatal's name in it, he is also quite a bit harder to kill than Geradin is. Yet Geradin drops these nice charms and Ahrmatal drops crummy cloaks (I'm sure he also has a rare item but I've only killed him 4 times and have yet to see it drop). Seems kind of backwards. Is this intentional?
All of Vulak'aerr's is a bit backwards by design but I have wondered that too. Arhmatal is a stupid fight currently (best I've gotten is 60% which means my groups DPS is slacking). Fights based entirely around Temping before you die are horrible encounter ideas.
So you're telling me that because a tank has to actually use the tools that their class gets to complete the Hardest instance that is supposed to challenge players its a horrible encounter idea?
No, I am saying that being forced to Chain them back to back because if you are hit there is a 90% chance of your death is horrible encounter design. At least in DoV-Raids you could prepare to be Deathshot it wasn't based of Autoattacks so much. They had to patch many encounters to fix the "MA of Death" in early DoV which was one-shotting all tanks except Brawlers. Using Temps and Tools is great, forcing the use of them is fine, but when your encounter requires "the tank cannot take damage" as part of the script. That's just bad and shoehorns very specific group make ups.
I actually quite like the fight, it is the only heroic fight that is slightly challenging (even thou it is just damage, nothing too interesting). My static group is an SK (me), Mystic, Templar, Illusionist, Troubador and Conjy. Honestly when we first went to the mob it was pretty clear that it wasn't an sk friendly fight. I decided to get a new spec that included yelinak's focus so I could double up my riposte and use scales of justice/perjury each pull. I start off by using furor, then hit yelanik's focus so it resets furor, pull the mob. Then as soon as furor ends I use it again, when that goes down I chain Crusader's Faith with Divine light and True faith. Once that runs out the mystic hits spirit tap and I hit perjury so that I can reduce the dmg by 30% more and spirit tap keeps my mana full (even thou it goes to 0 every time I'm hit) and then we finish it off with deathsaves, bloodletter and perseverance of the divine. We can first pull it every time now because as long as we do that combo its basically a guaranteed 2.5 minutes of dps. (none of us have much raid armor). Pretty fun to have to think about a heroic fight, even if it is just the once. Sure beats the coe heroics. Thumbs up for that fight I hope it stays that way.
You see the difference is the game is entirely different since DoV-Raids which for some reason you bring up. Chaining temps has always been something that good tanks do and coordinate with their healers, i apologize that the game has evolved to a state where you cant just stand there as a tank and just hit buttons and you have to plan out temps and fully understand what is the best button to press when.
A perfect example of understanding the tools that your class has combined with others can accomplish a zone.
I referenced DoV because it did Deathshots fairly well, you had warning. Attempts I have made at Arhmatal have ended when our temps ended, both mine and my healers. I have yet to try the Yelinak's Focus strategy but I already watched the outrage at Auto-Attack based Oneshots back in DoV. The design behind ToV was billed as that Healers are playing Tug-o-War with the Boss to keep a tank alive, one-shots circumvent that. Guardian Stoneskins also do not properly show how many triggers they have left, so I as a tank cannot call when my "temp" is about to run out. The difference between 1,000,000 average damage and 800,000 average damage is that a Tank can survive one or two hits maximum versus being dead. Chaining temps would still be highly advised but not an utter requirement. I have bigger beef with how nebulous his script is. I have yet to see or hear about a group successful removing the "black screen" detriment.
Yea, I mean, it's not like the tanks that had to endure Gen'Ra HM didn't almost universally hate the encounter and the stupidity of the playstyle. I'm sure everyone is super happy SOE decided to continue that theme.
Don't remind me of Gen'Ra please. I still hate that fight but it's more of a proper test of a guilds coordination than any stuff in AS and really SG should still be on Progress, many items from there are STILL relevant.
I honestly like the idea of gen'ra to an extent of having to try to stay alive and not hey lets just spam heals, co-ordination is what made that fight happen.
I mean i've pulled it for about 40 hours now between unrivaled and zenith, i love that fight. (As a main tank warden doing the co-coordinating.)
