Beastlord epic only for raiders apparently

Thanks guys, and good luck to you all on your epic claws

Just hit 90 yesterday on bl and started looking at the requirements to start working on this.
Zam says you need 24,000 Clan Stormshield faction
Wiki says you need 45,000 Clan Stormshield faction
Which is correct?

You need to finish ALL the current Clan Stormshield questline in both JW areas. You should end up with 40K faction and a "Hunter of the Wastes" title.
You'll know when you're finished - he'll just stop offering any more. You won't get the quest that is part of the BL epic weapon line until you're at that point in the line.

Didn't think the Viax fight was all that hard, just long.

Took a few tips into consideration.
• Superior Mending runes in both weapons. (Tip: Don't use greater, they won't crit.)
• Bear pet with 10 healing, 10 HP, 10 Armor, 1 Spirit Drain, 1 Soulbreath (never used in the fight), Truespirit Strike. (Tip)
• Use the 4th advantage a lot, and used primals when savagery was between 4 and 6. (Tip)
• Spiritual stance, of course. Fought him right where he spawned. No kiting or anything.
• Ry'gorr armor with average greater runes. Nothing special.

Have solo'd quite a lot - the reason why I luv the Beastlord class - so was used to hard encounters. Never got below half HP at any one time. Used normal attacks, kept on the 4th advantage. Used Ferocious Roar, Courageous Scarring, Grinning Onslaught, and Truespirit Strike. Never once had to use Soulbreath so it was always available.

First try, Viax and Firebrand died. (Firebrand was from Gargoyle's Revenge eh?)

Kept hearing about how bad he was and was preparing for a lot worse. Wasn't hard, just long.


- Cheena
Freeport

That was basically my experience, as well. I heard all the horror stories about how impossible the fight is, so I prepared for the worst. I got Crystal Studded Band of Gall, Caetaxan Facesmasher, 2 superior mending adorns, Gwarthlea's Hoop of Matriarchy, Lifespike, and Gleaming Satchel of the Master. In other words, I piled on enough heal and ward procs to survive a nuclear holocaust.
Let me just say, I am really glad that I can still make use of that stuff for farming epics, because it was the very definition of overkill. Viax went down like a chump and I never got below 90% health. The battle took something like 20min, so I AFK'ed during part of it.
In summation: if you're anything like me, and don't consider a character to be worth your time to level unless you can farm Kunark epics with it, you're probably not going to have any trouble at all with Viax.
I should probably clarify that other than what I mentioned above, my beastlord was in Thurgadin armor, a Drunder heroic chestpiece, and jewelry from pools/ascent. Had about 200 AAs at the time, as I recall.

I just started my epic but with the sounds of it, as long as I know what I am doing I should be ok when I get to Viax. I have 290 AAs at the moment with 4 peices of thurg, chest and bracers from the reactant, and drunder leggings. Now my jewelry is only mix between DoV quest and Ascent but that may change before I get to Viax.

This fight is actually pretty easy. I was kind of amazed on it. Had 30k hp, most of my jewelry was Great Divide quest and maybe 3 from Ascent. Drunder leggings, reactant breastplate and bracers, and 4 thurgadin. One weapon was Ascent and the other was Great Divide quest. Throwing weapon was great divide quest as well so with that said, I only had 1 mending adorn. Grandmaster bear and really close to 300 AAs. Just spec defense and go in spiritual stance, keep casting advantage 4 for the little heal, savage resilience?, and use your healing primals when needed and you should be ok. I don't think I would have been able to kite it like some people has advised, but that could just be me.

The epic as a whole was a pain for me. When I started it, I was essentially alone in the guild. Just the wife and I. The few friends I have either raid or play odd hours, so I couldn't rely on them as much. After a month of the quest sitting in my journal, I finally started pushing for it. My gear has undergone massive upgrades since I got the quest, however I do not think that was the key in me completing the final fight. It only took two tries, and adapting to the problem. My first go, I had forgotten to re-equip my necklace and belt, something I knew well in advance I would need to do. Also I had my gm6 warboar, which for some reason was against proc'ing weakness. I swapped to my gm6 bovid (2 heals plus the AA heal) and alternated between the heal advantage and the mana advantage when i was low. the second try was not only easier (the first time i tried to kill the pet first... lol) but didn't really seem to take as long. I am confident that in my old gear I would still have been fine mostly thanks to the bovid lol.

To look at this from the opposite perspective, by the time I was ready for the Viax fight, I was already in half EM armor and jewelry with 2 em weapons.
I had been so used to being overpowered through to level 90 and given that I had reasonable level of gear, I thought it would be a breeze so I didn't bother to adorn overly or prepare. I thought I could just breeze in, kill him and his pet and leave with two shiny new fabled weps.
Boy, was I wrong! First time I tried he pwnd me easily lol. Second time, I prepped properly, added adorns, used the GM bovid in spiritual instead of the GM Drake and did the fight properly. Took 5 mins, never got close to losing.
So indeed, the epic is definitely not only for raiders. The key to beating Viax is preparation and knowing how to play the class. That is how it should be. On the whole the quest is well balanced and the final fight even more so. Great rewards should only be given for commensurate effort. If you can't be bothered, you shouldn't get them. Period.
The addition of mending runes (don't have to be superior, I used greater) is a wise recommendation.

I just got my epic a week ago. I was impatient and wanted my epic so did not take the fight serious and wiped on the first attempt. On my second attempt I was wearing Legendary quest gear from DOV, no Rygorr or raid gear and was missing a neck item.
I popped my Bovid and engaged Viax, I then used chilling armor at the very beginning of fight and and not once even l;ooked at my hp or his, I perfectly timed my auto attacks and made got my Savegery to 6 and spammed abilitys as they were available. During the fight there were quite a few times when my hp got pretty low, but was always able to recover spamming spirituals. I was able to use chilling armor a total of 3 times during the fight, so I really recomend popping it on incoming. I had no Diety or power regen items and hoinestly never went below 75% power.
Yes the fight was challenging, but it really is easy if you pay attention and know what all you're abilitys do. This fight is not about dps and is more about endurance and you're ability to play you're beast.

The fight is easy-- IF your prepared (geared) properly. If you're over-geared, it's trivial.

Assuming you've not gotten bad A$$ yet... You should have AT LEAST (MIIIIIINIMUM) 180AA.. I recommend 220+ish..but I did it with 180...
First..use a healer pet (Bovid/Bear) and spiritual stance, and make sure the pet is GM. If its not..go level your pet.

Setup your hot-bars for all the heal/chilling wards/etc...

Stand there and fight for 15 minutes... get your epic.
It's really not that tough PROVIDED you can spam your heals... and engage VIAX first..his pet last.