Rare Breed versus the Three Fat Elephants
I have been thinking about this encounter since we tried it unsuccessfully the other night and I had some ideas (not promising they are good ones) that I wanted to throw out. Since I have only done this encounter a few times and during those times, I spent most of my time looking at Oliphant legs, I very open to input or correction. The encounter seems to have three major elements of risk as outlined below:
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Mumaks have archer circles, stuns, and punts that in general wreak havoc upon the raid group. They can indiscriminately kill important elements of the raid if the targeted player is stunned or fails to react quickly. They can punt player into the chargers for an instant death.
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Spawned Adds are created by damage to the Mumaks and at a certain point, reinforcements begin spawning every minute. If the Adds are not dealt with, they can quickly overcome the raid.
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Fog of War – The mumaks block visibility and generally cause confusion. Their punts cause players to be spread out and disoriented about their location. Tanks do not have clear sight to Adds and players move or are tossed out of heal range.
During my limited experience I noticed two important elements. First, it was difficult for one Tank to kite two elephants while the group killed the other. Even with a dedicated kiter, we always seemed to have two or more Mumaks in camp. Secondly, the Raid seemed to remain in a state of semi-recovery as attrition from archer circles, stuns, and charger deaths took it’s toll. I throw out the strategy below for discussion.
The Raid is broken into two teams; the Kite Team and the Kill Team.
The Kite Team consists of 4 players; Two Kiters, a Healer, and a DPS.
Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 – The Kiters are responsible for keeping all the Mumaks away from the main raid group. No Mumaks will be pulled to the main group and if they head to the raid group, they should be pulled away as soon as possible. These Kiters should have combat run buffs. I would appreciate some input from players that have kited the Mumaks as to what the dangers are.
Bravo 1 – The Healer is the quarterback of this encounter and likely has the toughest job. This player will be responsible for healing the Kite Team. In addition, since the Mumaks are being kited, I am assuming that most of the Adds will spawn out in the Kite area and many will likely head directly toward the healer. The Healer should kite them to the Tank in the Kill Team.
Charlie 1 – This is where the poor abused hunter can really shine. The hunters job is to do steady and concentrated damage on the Mumaks. This damage will wear down the Mumaks while also causing the Adds to spawn. The Hunter is an excellent choice because they are somewhat durable, have decent DPS, and good mobility. I suspect that the Hunter could actually do damage to the best available Mumak target since each Mumak spawns 4 sets of Adds and they all eventually have to be dealt with.
The Kill Team would consist of one tank, healers and DPS (preferably with good AOE damage).
The Kill Team is solely responsible for killing the Adds. The Tank will gather adds and pull them to the AOE kill spot. He may have to extract any Adds that are intermingled with the Kite Team. The Kill Team does not focus on the Mumaks at all, letting the Kite team drag them away whenever possible.
If the Mumak’s are successfully being kited as I suggest above, the raid area should be clean with offer excellent visibility and Adds can be disposed of quickly and efficiently. This strategy requires some patience as the desired result is a methodical wilting of the Mumak’s while eliminating all three risk associated with the encounter. If pulled off with good skill and precision, it might actually be a bit boring.