7/16

[Raveneye]

Slaver's Exile again this evening? I have not had a chance to play this week and thus have not changed my secondary to anything more useful. We need an answer for the elemental damage (especially the burning) that was causing us so much grief the last time.

[GravenStone]

I dropped the one ability I was using to increase damage output close to me, since I'm rarely near the tanks, and replaced it with Breath of the Great Dwarf to deal with the Burning. I'm debating whether to drop Olias in favor of an interruptor as well, since Meatwall doesn't work as well in the lower corpse count of those cavern.

[Raveneye]

Interrupt could make a big difference. The one nice thing about the elementals is that they drop fairly quickly, so if Koss, myself and Destrid are focused on them and we can get a few interrupts and mitigate the burning (BotGD sounds like a good plan) then the overall difficulty level should be dialed down a notch.

[GravenStone]

What sucks is the swarming dwarves as we get deeper in. Once we punch through the elemental crust, the center gets a little chewy...

[Erudite]

I will be around.

I'm still debating between the third monk or a ranger AE interruptor. I should have room in my own build for BotGD as well, though, and more than one copy shouldn't be overkill.

I was reading some threads at incgamer regarding the dungeon. In it's initial release, up through early-ish 2008, everything in the dungeon was susceptible to Lightbringer's Gaze. Imagine how much easier this place would be if everybody could load a 5e 100-point AE interrupt...

[Erudite]

Another painful attempt.

Thought about it some more last night.

(1) I really think Frozen Soil needs to be packed by somebody. Obviously it has a significant impact on us as well, but I think we need to stop the dorfs from rezzing. Three hard rezzers plus various one-time rezzers is just a bit much to overcome most of the time. If it's packed on a hero, it probably needs to be micro-managed (i.e., deactivated and manually clicked by the player) - there are obviously fights we won't need/want it.

(2) My ranger interruptor didn't seem to bring much. I need to either manage it more closely or scrap it entirely. And if I scrap it, do I bring back the third monk or go in a different direction entirely? I might be able to build a decent ritualist, which would strike a balance between offense and defense. Thoughts?

(3) Also rethinking the hydromancer build. Maelstrom is nice for the AE interrupts, but it doesn't come close to the DPS of pyromancing. The water hexes don't seem to be particularly effective, as most of the damage we're taking are from the casters anyway. I may play with a geomancer or aeromancer build.

(4) Summong stones aren't very effective when used by the puller (me). The summoned ally follows me rather than staying flagged with the party, and generally engages way too early - with predictable results of getting overrun or grabbing adds.

(5) This leg of the dungeon sucks. It makes the first leg seem like summer camp. I hate things that don't burn.

[GravenStone]

I'm going to explore a necro interrupt build. I just have to think it through since my main interrupt burns through my energy in record time. But it should mesh with a hydromancer build since the interrupt triggers each time the target takes cold damage. Maybe I'll take Ranger secondary again, to gain access to Frozen Soil. Otherwise we can toss as a hero secondary with tight control, as you suggested.

[Erudite]

Team build suggestion here (http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:Team_-_Slaver%27s_Exile).

This looks doable, albeit with a test run or two. Not sure how it would play with heroes instead of humans, and I suspect it would involve some elite skill farming for us to be able to put it together. Useful for some ideas, at least.

[GravenStone]

Odd SS builds. I'll see what I can do. I suppose the enchantment hate is due to the bonder mobs.

[Erudite]

Also found an interesting paragon build that might work in place of the third monk I've been bouncing back and forth about. It seems like this is a good mix of support healing and offensive effectiveness.

Song of Restoration Paragon (http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:P/any_Song_of_Restoration_Paragon)

I had to log on Tomas to buy a few of the skills, but I can run this on a hero.