Guide to raiding Pande

[dododo2]

This guide is intended only as a supplement to that provided at http://wiki.aodevs.com/wiki/Pandemonium. I do not wish to repeat any of that information and assume the reader has first familiarised himself with that guide.

My aim here is to give some helpful advice on how to conquer the zone with a relatively small raid force, for example with your organisation. It is primarily aimed at raid leaders, but should be relevant to all raiders.

For those who are already experienced in the zone.. feel free to reply with anything you think could be added, f.ex. other strategies or tricks you've used while raiding which may be helpful to future orgs/coops who wish to take on the challenge of Pandemonium.

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GUI and Settings

Before you and your org venture into pande, make sure you are doing the following:

Using 3rd person lock view. It may take some getting used to, but with it you can have a much better awareness of what is around you - something crucial to moving around in Pande.

Have their mini map open at all times. Also try to have the map upgrades - they help.

Have their raid chat window in a separate window so it is easy to read and does not include messages such as your or others’ damage..

Have 'show target's target' turned on (F10 settings..) so that you can quickly spot which member has aggro.

Have ‘show nano effects’ turned on (also F10) so that you can see when mobs are calmed (if doing this, even in a small group, causes your fps to slow down to the extent that the game is not running smoothly, leave this effect turned off).

Make sure ‘auto attack’ is off (also F10), so you can call or assist at will.

Raid force and Team setup

Its important to plan the team setup. How you arrange this will depend almost entirely on what professions are available to you. There are some general guidlines I use when setting up teams which may be of help to you:

Firstly, have a doc in each team - easiest way to do this is to start the teams with the doctors (a doctor is then the ‘leader’ of his team).

Secondly, put a soldier in each team to provide a reflect aura (when not enough solds, use an engi, otherwise ask the team(s) without reflect auras to use a reflect graft once they have zoned to pande).

Thirdly, put the enforcer (if you have one), the calmer (if you have one) and the caller/raid leader (yourself I assume) into team 1. The purpose of having the key professions in one team, is so that you can monitor their whereabouts and health, thus being in a position to make faster and better decisions. You may also wish to throw in a profession who can supply nano to the enforcer and do place a fixer in his team also, so that he will not suffer so much from using MUB (which slows their runspeed down). If you have an engineer remaining at your disposal, then it would be useful to put him in team 1 also, so his special blockers will guard the tank against the occasional FA/burst which may come his way from the blues.

Fourthly, spread around the ‘high dds’ (shades) in all teams other than the 1st (ie. To the 2nd team, or also the 3rd if you have a doc in it..). This is so that the doctor in team 1 will not have to worry about healing dmg profs and can focus his attention on the enforcer, and the calmer/caller if need be.

Finally, fill up the remaining spots from T1 to Tx..

IF you have no enforcer, then spread out all toons you believe can ‘offtank’ among your teams, so the work of each doc will be approximately the same.

There are an infinite number of possibilities (incl. varying professions available, their levels, skills as players..) and solutions to team setups which are beyond the scope of this guide. The more experience you have in Pande and in general raiding with your org (getting to know your raiders individually), the more you will get a feel for how to build strong teams, letting your intuition guide you..

[dododo2]

THE PLAN - and assigning responsibility to your raiders

Caller

Assign a caller. This person should be you, the same person who is leading the raid. Ideally you should also have set up the teams, since you will need to be familiar with the raid force so you can accurately access the risks involved in decisions to be made as the raid progresses.

UBTs

It is most efficient if there is an UBT plan made. Depending on how many doctors you have, assign to them the responsibility of UBTing certain mobs. For example you have 2 doctors: “UBTs: doc1 on hiisis, blues / doc2 on spiders, bosses” (and on pinks if you have no calmer). If you are short on docs yet have agent(s) at your disposal, you can assign the mob UBTs to agent(s) fp doc, while the doctors focus on healing.

Mongo or calm/offtank?

How you get from A to B in pande will differ, depending on whether you have an enforcer or a calmer.

Let’s say you have an enforcer tank:

You should have your enforcer taunt any mobs that come his way - the safest and easiest method is to have him spam Imongo, so that he takes all aggro and keeps all members free from harm. Having a good enforcer makes the doctors’ job easier and is the recommended plan especially for orgs new to the zone, or to any raid force which does not have sufficient offtanking professions. The enforcer should have MUB at his disposal, and if he has IMUB make sure he uses that particularly upon entering Antenera (the zone where TNH spawns), since that zone is not only the most difficult, but also the most unpredictable. Its best to be prepared than to be sorry.

Let’s say you don’t have an enforcer tank:

In that case you will need to offtank all mobs that come your way with suitable toons, so that the unsuitable ones do not end up going splat. Its very important here that the teams are appropriately set up, with the offtanking toons being spread out evenly amongst the teams. Its also important that the raid leader makes an 'offtank plan' prior to beginning the raid. Generally speaking, solds, keepers, enforcers (not every enf is ready to tank pande, so you may need to do offtanking even with an enf present) can tank the more difficult mobs such as hiisis without problems. Other mobs can be divided up between adventurers, martial artists, and if needed then shades and fixers too (f.ex. on spiders, which do not hit hard).

The main thing is to have a list, so that offtanks know which mobs they are responsible for tanking, so that not all your offtanks jump on the same mob (or don't jump on any mob), leaving others untanked and inevitably beating up your doctors! For example let's say you have 2 solds, a keeper, an advie and 2 MAs whom you can trust to do what you ask them. Your offtank plan would then look something like this: "Offtanks: Sold1+Keeper = Hiisis / Sold2+Adv = Blues / MA1 = Spiders / MA2 = Pinks". Everybody not on the offtank list should assist the caller.

Let’s say you have a calmer:

Having a calmer (crat, trader or nano-technician) is very useful in Pande, since it means you have the option to calm the pinks and the portal bosses! If you have no enforcer then calming all pinks and UBTing+offtanking+calling the remaining mobs will be your plan. If you do have an enforcer however, its generally better to choose to ‘mongo tank’ all mobs that come your way, including the pinks then among your UBT list and calling them first. In that case you would generally not plan to calm the pinks en route - unless they are alone as you pass them, which they are sometimes, for example the 2 pinks you pass once you turn left otw to the 2nd middle - since the mongo would break them anyhow (its also possible - but more risky - that for much of the raid you calm pinks while the enforcer uses the his LE single taunts on the other mobs present. Provided the enforcer is quick and your raiders are set up well enough to take the occasional hit, this is faster. I do not recommend it for orgs/enforcers new to the zone though).

Inform your raiders!

With all of the above variations, its crucial that your raid force know what the plan is before moving out. They need to know whether you’re going to mongo and UBT pinks, or calm them. They need to know if/what to offtank, or whether to assist the caller only (as is done with mongo tanking). These things need to be decided in detail before moving out. And also before each and every zone, they need to know exactly where they are going, what to expect and how they should deal with it. They are unlikely to ask - you need to tell them!

[dododo2]

Getting from A to B


“Pull. Kill. Move.”

Mobs in Pande respawn 4-5 mins after killing them. So basically, if you want to move forward you need to make sure you don’t stay in the same place too long. This requires a cartain amount of damage. You will soon discover what amount of dmg is needed to beat the respawns once you begin exploring Pande as an org.

Essentially the way to move is a ‘pull, kill, move’ technique. You kill mobs where you are. You pull those ahead of you, and then you have your raiders follow you to the next spot, ball up in a tight group so that no unwanted adds are attracted, and then repeat the process again. As you get to know the zone, you will realise that there are some spots which are better to stand in than others. You will also get to know exactly which mobs to pull in advance of moving, and get a feel for the timer on the mob respawns, placing yourself and your raid force ahead and clear of their aggro range.

Dealing with regular mobs

Pinks (Corrupted Xan-Len): Being the doctors of Pande, with the ability to heal both themselves and other mobs in their vicinity, pinks need to be dealt with fast. They are easily calmed. If not calmed however, they are best killed immediately. Doctor’s UBT and soldier’s RI are effective in reducing their ability to heal.

Hiisis (Corrupted Hiisi Berserker): Being the ‘big guns’, enforcer like in nature, these are best killed after pinks (or first, if pinks are being calmed).

Blues (Corrupted Xan-Cur): These are the soldiers of Pande, having the ability to ‘TMS’. So, watch your damage window.. if it uses a TMS its better to kill other mobs and return to that blue later when their reflects are down.

Spiders (Corrupted Xan-Kuir): These mobs being non-aggressive, they’ll only aggro you when there is aggro in their vicinity. Thus if you wish to pull them, you will need to aggro them or a nearby mob. Whilst these are the weakest of regular mobs, they do have the ability to AoE nuke. The nuke is relatively low in damage however, and so these mobs are usually killed among the last.

Dogs (Pandemonium Geosurvey Dog): These are inherently non aggressive mobs and should be ignored unless they are aggroed in which case they will defend themselves. Posing little threat even when aggressive however, they should be killed last.

Dealing with Portal Bosses

There are two important things to know here. Firstly, as mentioned above, all portal bosses can be calmed. Calming means you can deal with the surrounding adds without worrying about tanking/healing the aggro from the bosses. If using an enforcer mongo, you will need to position your raid force far enough away from the calmed boss while dealing its adds since otherwise the mongo would break the calm.

Experience has taught us that there is an ideal position for the raid force to stand while doing this. It differs for each boss. These places are as follows. Zodiac: remain near statues. TSS: once you go up the stairs bear right, standing near the edge on the east side. From there you can calm the boss and pink, leaving the other mobs come to you. SS: Once you go up the stairs, bear left and ball up in that corner (SE from SS). TPS: As you pass through the thin passage towards the TPS, bear left and ball in that corner.

A trick for avoiding pink repops on portal bosses is, once you have cleared the other regular mobs which came to you after you calmed the boss, to shoot pull the pinks to the position you have been in, calming them again there. This is very effective on the harder bosses (SS, TPS), enabling you to move to the boss and mongo the regular mobs which pop there while not breaking the calms on the pinks (which therefore won't 'respawn'). The calmer should bear in mind btw, that calmed mobs do reset to their original positions after some time, so they need to be 'recalmed' regularly to avoid this.

If you have no calmer, then your raid force will need to move together to the boss and ball up there.

The second thing to know, is that the SS - if not calmed - has the ability to warp raiders once its aware of your presence. It can even do this before it sees you, while you are below the stairs - so be prepared to improvise since you may need to run up and deal with him sooner than you were planning to.

In either scenario, using a clan trox SB3 is very helpful during the initial rush up to the SS or to the corner by it. It gives docs time to UBT without having to spend their precious time (they are limited by their nano recharges) on healing ppl. By the time the SB finishes, you have calmed the boss and pinks (if calmer) and have all regular mobs UBTd.. which makes it a lot easier to deal with then.

Zoning through the Portals

It is easy to loose men here due to respawns of mobs while your raid force is zoning (having aggro at the portal bosses, with the exception of the first one, will make you unable to zone).

Generally speaking you can kill the mobs and then kill the boss and then zone unharmed. With the SS and TPS however, you will soon find that you will not have sufficient damage to take them down before the adds around them repop. You will therefore have to use some strategy to ensure nobody has aggro there and can zone successfully. As usual, your strategy depends on what professions are available to you. It also depends on whether you are clan or omni.. The omni trox SB3 calms all mobs in the vicinity - so once the portal opens, pop the SB and zone on through. For clan (or omnis without a trox SB at their disposal) here are some tips:

If crat (and if that crat has the LE boss calm!), then while you are fighting the boss and mobs pop, call and kill those mobs. The enforcer, docs, crat and even shades if you can spare them, can remain on the boss to debuff him, but the rest should assist you and take down the adds. Once the portal is up, give a clear instruction to zone through, and have your crat zone last, calming any mobs (any mob can be calmed for 30 secs) which may pop before he zones.

If no crat but enforcer present, you can use a method called ‘stacking’ to get through together. This strategie is such that you actually don’t kill the mobs which repop around the boss, you bring them down to 2-3 bars of hp and recall/reassist to another mob (soldiers save your FA for the new mobs!) - the exception are pinks (unless you had a calmer who previously calmed them outside the mongo range - see above), whom you must kill, otherwise they heal the boss. Pinks are killed and a timer set on the first one (there are 2 at SS, each respawning every 4:10) so you know when to expect them next. Once the SS is at a bar or so of hp, or down, you can kill quickly the mobs you have prepared. If you have been successful, no others will reappear for a few mins, giving you plenty of time to zone. Just watch out for those pinks.. If they are due to spawn soonish then consider waiting to kill them rather than opening/moving through, or if you have a calmer then ask them to zone last since they can calm the pinks if they pop.

If no crat and no Enforcer present, you must kill all mobs (except pinks if you have a calmer) as they pop. Have your raiders left click the portal when it appears and on your command hit ‘e’ which will zone them instantly. Just make sure when you give the command that there are no adds inc. It does require an element of luck.

In the worst case scenario, choose a raider to sacrifice. His function would be to get aggro on any mobs which appear, either zoning last.. or not at all. It will at least ensure the safety of the other key professions. If you have no calmer or enforcer or too poor healing to stack, consider having someone duel log a toon which they can sacrifice at SS if need be

Dealing with Zodiacs and The Night Heart

These cannot be calmed (except for 30 sec crat calm). They have the ability to warp raiders whom they have seen. This is most noticeable on the ‘1st mid’ (or ‘middle’ in aowiki), so be careful peeking around the corner! The raid force will need to move together and at once, balling up at the boss (same as approaching portal bosses with no calmer).

Dealing with The Beast

In addition to hefty punches, this boss has many tricks up its sleeve, including large AoE nukes (up to 15k, although usually c. 9k), an AMS with 1000 reflect, the ability to cancel/remove certain buffs from raiders nearby and also to warp raiders in its vicinity. Whilst UBT will not land, docs’ procs will however, as will crats’ initiative debuffs and stuns.

First of all, its very important that everyone stand back out of nuke range unless necessary to enter it. Its imperative that doctors wear a deck range increaser.

Once everyone is ready the enforcer should move in alone and given time (at least a bar, or two if they don't have the LE improved nanos) to establish himself as the tank. During that time other profs can land their debuffs however.

Once the command is given to attack, ranged should remain where they are and only melee with 15k+ hp move in closer. They must be instructed that if nuked, they should immediately move out of range and heal themselves up. The point being, that the doctors need to focus their attention on the tank.

The Beast has the ability to spawn 2 waves of adds while you attack him. The first wave is relatively mild, the second more dangerous, so do save your defensive tools for that 2nd wave. Adds always appear on each of the 4 sides (where you arrive and then to your left, right, and behind the beast). Its helpful before add spawns to have ‘tank toons’ at those sides to take the aggro from the adds before they reach the Beast and help him attack your main tank (your enforcer). Its also helpful to have your calmer calm all pinks. After you have called the regular mobs you can call the pinks - if no calmer is present then you must call pinks first and keep them away from the Beast.

[dododo2]

Tips

Calling

• Use a macro to focus raider's attention. Most bots have a built in caller macro which you can set up by typing '/macro call /tell [insert name of your raid bot] !target %t'. Alternatively, you can use aoscripter to make your own fancy macros, or without using any bots or other programs, simply use the following: /macro call / ATTACK %t!!

• Do not attack/call any mob until it is in melee range, since shooting them at a distance can drag unwanted mobs along with them.

• Switch target when the last called one is 1-2 bars (depending on how much dd you have, you will get a feel for when is best to switch). To do this, while attacking the last mob, target the new one and then hit 'shift+q' along with your caller macro to signal the new target to the group.

UBT-ing

• Be aware that your UBT generates aggro from both your nano target and the mobs around it. Be careful therefore to UBT only mobs which have already come over to (and therefore already aggroed) your raid force, to avoid pulling unwanted adds from afar. The surest way to avoid mistakes in that respect and also for general accuracy and success, is to target mobs with your mouse only, rather than tabbing around.

• When you use UBT, watch your your message window to see whether the nano program has executed successfully. If it has not, spam it again until you receive the appropriate confirmation.

[dododo2]

reserved...

[Avari]

Bump for input from people

[Vhax]

Bump for input from people

To have it deleted by a moderator again? :P

[Malosar]

To have it deleted by a moderator again? :P

oh noes, you discussed moderation! The OP's hard work will all be for nothing as the post disappears into the nethers from being locked.

[Sleincour]

Nice guide Dodo. Hoping to be able to move in pande with the guild some day.

[Avari]

To have it deleted by a moderator again? :P

Well some people apparently need to have it spelled out... insert word "constructive" in front of word "input" in my last post

[Chrys]

TLDR;

My guide: /follow /assist Q /afk

[Iyraclea]

Just read this guide ;P

Just one thing missing in "Zoning through the portals":

Omni Atrox SB 3 and its Fear effect.


Used by Omni Raids as standard procedure....


Oh and one other thing, never forget, the Blues are soldiers, once in a blue moon they do and have done some real nasty Full Autos, normally you put an engi with spec absorb along with your MT-enforcer if you use one, or you´ll get once in a blue moon some dead enforcer at your feet. Happened throughout the years sometimes at the points where you have up to 3-4 blues whacking your little enfo.

[ariiadne]

tab q tab q tab q tab q tab q

[Hacre]

Oh and one other thing, never forget, the Blues are soldiers, once in a blue moon they do and have done some real nasty Full Autos, normally you put an engi with spec absorb along with your MT-enforcer if you use one, or you´ll get once in a blue moon some dead enforcer at your feet. Happened throughout the years sometimes at the points where you have up to 3-4 blues whacking your little enfo.

Most soldier like thing I've seen these (or the other "profession" mobs) do in months is have TMS running. Sided mobs that used to burst/FA I haven't seen do in a while.

[dododo2]

Just read this guide ;P

Just one thing missing in "Zoning through the portals":

Omni Atrox SB 3 and its Fear effect.


Used by Omni Raids as standard procedure....


Oh and one other thing, never forget, the Blues are soldiers, once in a blue moon they do and have done some real nasty Full Autos, normally you put an engi with spec absorb along with your MT-enforcer if you use one, or you´ll get once in a blue moon some dead enforcer at your feet. Happened throughout the years sometimes at the points where you have up to 3-4 blues whacking your little enfo.

I did have the omni SB there, albeit 1 sentence which was easy to miss. I've now elaborating slightly on it, and bolded it to make it stand out more

Good point about the engi Updated.

[Iyraclea]

Oh sry, missed that one.

Well I have to admit that it has been a long time since I observed the full autos on the blues, cant really say if they still happen, thought just to mention it.