Hey Everyone,

Tonight I'm leading a guild run of ToD elite.  We're beating Hard pretty easily, and want to get an elite in before it gets super hard.  Any tips?

Here's the plan:

Judge/Jailor:
Kill Judge in the lava by the gate so we don't get blown up into the spikes.
AC Tank will hold Jailor under the entrance platform.  This is new to us anyone have experience here?

Shadows:
WF wizard will tank the shadows, have a spare healer on him just in case.

Horoth/Suluu:
Standard plan, but no WF tank on Suluu.  That's just a guild preference.  Drop Suluu too.

Party Makeup:
AC/HP Tank
3x Healers
Bard
WF CC Arcane
5x DPS
light path monk (tentative, may be another DPS)

Live or Lamania?

We do live all the time, I think the area by the shrine is a death-trap.  We kill the Judge first by the doggie-doors off the to right and stand in the lava.  The spikes will KILL YOU, you're better off with the burnt feet.   The traps are by far the most dangerous part of this on teh current live servers.

Part 2:  Have one DPS hold aggro on the BFD while everyone else hits in the back, isn't relaly needed but keeps it easier to control in case stuff goes nuts.  Tanking the shadows works just fine.

Part 3:  We've used meat-bag tanks on Elite before but it's costly and doesn't seem to be possible next update so get int he habbit of not using them.  My 88 AC 740 HP tank still gets his ass kicked but it's not that hard on the healer, have the bard assist with scrolls just in case.  I consider a light monk mandatory for this on elite but I'm a fairly conservative player and my guild has a ton of them (they are better than dark monks anyway . . .).

Sulu . . . my same 88 AC 740 HP fighter makes Elite Sulu his bitch every time (we usually use my fighter on Sulu when we do elite and put a different Stalwart on Horoth).  We usually get him dead in 7-8 haste boosts.

If your caster is decent, and you can handle the trash in pt1 without CC, just have him dot up and kite the orthon upstairs on the platform where you start. As long as you keep kiting him around that hole in the middle of the platform you're safe - he only throws if you allow him to get into melee range (that hole seems to trick his pathing a bit, he very very rarely teleports, and if he does you usually have enough time to step away)

The Judge/Jailor fight was the one that was rough.  We got past that on our third try, then (relatively) sailed on to the end.

Part I:
We got stuck here for a while.  The first time was a communication thing.  I didn't explain strategy very well.  Sticking our best tank on the jailor was a bad idea.  In the end our arcane kited the jailor up top while we beat down the judge on the bottom.  At first we tried to take the judge under the entry point, so that when we got pushed up in the air we would hit the walkway.  That didn't work so well, so we wound up tanking him by the gate.

Part II:
No noticable difference in shadow tanking, other than in the end there were a lot of shadows.  Our WF wizard did need some healer support at the end.  Beating down the BFD was a piece of cake.

Part III:
Abandoned Suluu after our Suluu tank died.  I kited on my rogue, but one of our clerics was having healing issues.  Six (6!) deaths in here.  Brute force though, and we killed Horoth.  Two rings, Gnawed and Morah's.  Our AC tank was getting missed about 50% with a mid 80's AC.

We're doing a debrief on it, but for now I don't see any reason to run elite.

Basic strategy is ok, but this is what I have fleshed it out to (only have issues when people do not listen or start pt1 before I have explained it). This is how I lead Hard and Elite (we have access to a few ac builds):

Pt1:

Reliable caster or spare healer kite jailor, other caster/s on trash. Maybe a monk or other evasion dps and 1 healer if not enough casters. Trash killers drop down and clear trash while everyone else waits up top. This avoids stray fireballs killing bard/healer etc.

Once the ellies are dead, ALL casters dot/kite the jailor and clear doggy trash.
Safer than tanking him and caster aggro on the Judge is a horrid waste of time and resources.

Fight the Judge in the west or south doggy room. Healers cycle mass protection from elements. Use fire absorb gear if possible (greaves, trinket, cloak of ice). When the room opens, move inside. This keeps max dps on the boss and no one dies due to spikes. Very very easy to heal if you cycle mass protection elements.

Pt2:

Standard. I Tank on my wizard, most others kite. This is where you REALLY find out if you will kill Sulu or skip him. Last Elite run I did we skipped Sulu as a heap of people brought less than their best toons. When you cannot see your WF while tanking shadows, it's time to skip Sulu.

Pt3:

90+ac tank with 600+ hp on Horoth. 2 healers scroll healing will end up with SP left depending on Sulu party DPS.

ac tank on Sulu too, otherwise WF tank with 1 caster 1 bard scroll reconning, and 2nd caster on trash. Scroll recon arcane can wail/circle of death orthons easily at Sulu party.

We have used a Human Barbarian with max heal amp, hamstring and 800+hp to tank Elite Horoth too, this works pretty well. Hamstring is the key, along with heal amp.

I would always put the top DPS on Sulu, WF Barb or fighter with brute fighting and high DPS will need no time to build aggro. Best option if you have 2 or 3 casters.

I would always make sure you have the 2 tank roles sorted out first. If 2 ac tanks you can get away with 1 arcane. If WF 2 casters is ideal, unless you have a 3rd healer to kite/implode/destruct the Orthons instead.
Just make sure you have this sorted, pt1 roles will flow down from pt3 roles.

I had some whingers when I was running pt1 Normal ToD like Elite, but now we do Hard/Elite I get no complaints.

I am still new to running Elite ToD, but I feel I have a pretty decent strategy now.

I can only hope the new raids will allow AC tanking too.

EDIT: CLOUDKILL MOTHERFUCKER DO YOU CAST IT!! Cloudkill is an awesome way to save mana pots and close calls. Make the arcane/s cast it. Standard in a lot of raids but way too many forget.

You miss me yet? 

Calvet wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2011 at 5:47am:



Are you positive, specifically orthons in part 3?

I went and checked u9 release notes to see if maybe true.

Hmmm... good to know. Got confirmation from someone in game. Seems to be obvious I haven't done TOD since u9.

Sham wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2011 at 5:26am:



You obviously haven't played since U9 jackass.  You might want to get out a bit and learn the game.

Inkblack wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2011 at 11:20pm:


The reason; practice.  You don't get better if you don't push yourself.  Elite ToD is a good challenge for a solid guild group.  It forces you to work as a team and practice resource management that is useful elsewhere.  I wouldn't want to do it all the time or with every group but it's a solid test that gives you a feeling of accomplishment when complete.  Plus, there is that minute increase in odds for a +4.

Felgor wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2011 at 3:34am:


So true, it's complacency.  Things become so easy and routine that people stop doing the basic things that help preserve resources.

With an AC tank, waves of exhaustion would have been a useful thing for the arcane to prep.

I've tanked elite Horoth before - my Pali DoS AC tank can hit 96 AC with CE on dual wielding, around 650hp.  Smites and the Pali Divine ability for +100% hate gen pretty much ensures keeping agro.

Things like CK help, waves if you can land it, hamstring if it still works.

It's more the dots/badges that are troublesome.  Elite means they do more damage, and at a kinda low 650hp it means I need to be fairly full health if I were to roll a 1 on disintegrate.  (Raid saves are all 40+)

Sham wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2011 at 5:26am:


Yes you can.  Have you played a caster in part 3 of ToD?