User talk:JJMC89/2017/4

The Curse of Strahd
I don't know how to make a page for this.

We did the new Raid with Strahd. We had exceptionally well geared and prepared players, went in on normal and had over 70 deaths. This raid is TOUGH. Of course we were learning it, so that contributes to deaths.

We had Redjointz as the main tank. His build is stupidly durable. PRR and MRR over 250 as a Warlock (pure) with Spellpower near 1100 when fully amped up and tanking with Aura. He died a lot. Everyone did.

I need to include the following information for others:

Memorize the cards at the entrance, they are critically important later.

Grab the Sunsword on a melee that will use it on Strahd often and is quick with a Conversation Window.

2 others grab Sigils for removing the Darth Vader Strahd Grip that kills after 1 minute of paralysis. Hotslot them for quick use.

Part 1: Main Hall: Standard beatdown like in the Castle in part 1: The Steward and his two hate demons (with 4 heck dogs).

Part 2: Steps: Trapper is absolutely mandatory. I had no problem disabling with a +106. Spears deal Force damage, no save. Floor spikes also have no save (I have Epic Reflexes feat and a combat log open to watch, there is no save). Make sure your trapper can Spot because there are at least 10 boxes. This part can wreck a party with no trapper. Ascend the steps to the Heart of the Castle the Enter it after the one with the Sunblade uses the Sunblade.

2a: Inside the Heart of the Castle: Beatdown but avoid the mist, it will kill you. Small room, no kiting. Need a good tank with aggro control. Mind the blue circles, they hurt. Hate demons first then Strahd. Strahd's DR is only broken by the Sunblade, which debuffs him briefly and allows others to do damage as well.

In the room with the shrine: Shrine because you won't be able to later. Is use/lose because it locks.

Part 3: Main Hall: Strahd beatdown with hate demons and floating skulls, all trash is orange named. Red mist will kill you but only appears in center.

Light the torches hidden in the crypts (doors have to be opened, prefer a rogue assassin because of speed and stealth) in the order of the cards while the main party stands up to Strahd. The torches are the *only* way to finish part 2. They must be done in exactly the right order.

Part 2 Note: Trash spawns are infinite. Possible to just tank the hate demons without killing. Mind the big blue circles, they hurt. Flaming skulls spawn regardless and will overwhelm the party if not culled.

Part 4: Strahd's Tomb: Prep Strahd then prep the Brides. Take Strahd down then Brides within 2 seconds of each other then Conversation Dialog with the Sunblade to kill Strahd. Raid complete.

Part 4 Note: Brides are immortal. Red mist safe zone cycles north/center/south. Best not to have folks kiting brides because you can be forced to beat Strahd down again (from full HP) if you miss the window of all 3 of them being down for 10 seconds. If one Bride goes down and the other 2 go down 8 seconds later the coffin where Strahd recuperates will only open for a fraction of a second.

We had trouble coordinating the Part 3 puzzle so I hastily made a guide in MS Paint with the skills of a partly trained circus dog wearing a sombrero that was 3 sizes too large while riding a llama in a room full of marijuana smoke and doritos.

File:StrahdTorchesGridPoorlyMade.png

Even a trained monkey could do better.

Hard run: Redjointz made sure to correct me that his PRR was 312. Red makes a note for 3 tanks: 1 for Strahd, 1 for Hate Demons and 1 to tank Trash. Permanent Shield helps for trash in part 3 as the Flaming Skulls do spam magic missile.

The Stairs had an additional spawn of Hate Demons with a red barrier. Similar trap DCs.

Death Timer was 1:26 and this caused the raid to become uncompletable. The Developers need to remove that timer for Hard and apply it at a maximum of 30 seconds on Elite only if the Dev Team refuses to remove it entirely. The monsters are so ridiculously fast and overpowered and respawn so quickly that such a death timer is just too much. Wipe in part 3 main hall trying to light the torches.

— previous unsigned Please sign posts using ~    comment by Xeraphim (&thinsp;c&thinsp;&#124; &thinsp;e&thinsp;&#124; &thinsp;d&thinsp; &#124;&thinsp;r&thinsp; &#124;&thinsp;b&thinsp; ) &#32; at 23:01, December 8, 2017 (UTC)
 * Curse of Strahd created. -- &rArr; Cru121 (Contribs • Message • Email ) 01:21, December 9, 2017 (EST)
 * Thanks Cru. Xeraphim, you can update The Curse of Strahd as needed. —&thinsp; Zav 00:45, December 10, 2017 (EST)

Problems with the AI finding sneak mode rogues too easily and the aggro table causing lag out wipes. Lower spot/listen detect of Flaming Skulls and Hate Shadows/Greater Hate Shadows so that a solid Sneaker can get by with decent gear (Hide/Move Silent around 100) on Normal for those newer players trying to keep up. AI Aggro allocation on a rogue with hide/move silent of 114/115 caused assignment looping when rogue got too far out of range of the main fight and wiped the party, then every critter knew where the rogue was despite not being aware of where the rogue was. Possibly cause a 6 second timeout for losing aggro completely to Stealth to remove the AI causing lagout by looping assignments.

Torches keep bugging out and fizzling despite the proper order used. Caused a party wipe in Hard.

Death timer in Hard is entirely too extreme. Needs removal on Hard and if no removal on Elite, maximize at 30 seconds due to the extreme settings of enemy HP, guard bypass and DPS. If the monsters get a heavy nerf, especially to their ludicrous speed (They've gone plaid!), then a death timer could remain in Hard without being the sole implement that makes it uncompletable by real-world gamers without /immortal on. I understand you made a perfect raid group with perfect characters that had perfect gear but that doesn't happen in the real world. The values are just too high to get it done by the server's best. Your population is not what it once was.

HP totals on Greater Hate critters are insane but understandable if they do not respawn. Skulls too numerous over time, please set a max spawned quota.

Vader Grip (Curse of Strahd) needs to have no death timer as it is unavoidable and the trinkets do not last long enough to be of benefit (3 charges is nowhere near enough). Voice chat latency, equipment change latency and reaction time negates the usefulness of the trinkets. Might be better implemented as a % damage after the timer rather than instant death.

Brides don't stay down long enough and move too quickly. Very difficult to melee for a Rogue staying ignored, causes in-combat latency and missed attacks 40-60% of the time when they are not casting something and sometimes extreme difficulty coordinating their downfall with Strahd when all latencies considered. Make sure QA has 120ms latency and variable 2-5% packet loss when doing this fight and that they cannot /immortal on. These are real-world latency figures. Maybe lower their speed a bit. Probably. That would fix a lot of things. Make them not faster than a speeding bullet.

Needs attention by SSG.

-- &rArr; Xeraphim (Contribs • Message • Email ) 02:26, December 9, 2017 (EST)
 * We (DDO wiki editors) cannot do anything about game bugs. You'll need to report bugs here. —&thinsp; Zav 00:45, December 10, 2017 (EST)