Problem - ToFS Frustration

[sirkenshin]

Hello Everyone,

My 115 WAR/CLR/ENC/MAG/BST/WIZ is wiping repeatedly on ToFS third floor as we are trying to do ToV progression in the Tier 2 zones. This mostly happens when my WAR gets unlucky spikes of damage from adds while my ENC is trying to do some CC. What I don't understand is how I can further prevent these massive spikes of damage. My WAR with RGMercs on with buffs starts at 330k HP/8k AC and maxxed AA's up to ToV expansion. My gear is a mixture of group ToV Tier 1 and Tier 2. I've tried the sword and board with similar results. Type 5/7/13 Augs, power source, mount and tribute buffs are all being utilized to boost my HP/AC.

I do not plan to purchase expansions until the pre-order for the next one is available later this year. 1 expansion purchase on 6 accounts in my opinion would be better than 2 for 1 year.

Are there any suggestions for improving my survivability in ToFS? Would tradeskills/gear make a difference compared to group gear? Thanks in advance for your feedback!

 

[Sic]

if you are getting rocked, you should use a shield "trying sword and board" doesn't sound like a commitment there :p

type 5/7/13 --- but what, what are your AC augs like? what are your type 5s like?

are you using ac food/drink also?

jann's veil or empowered campfire can give you a smidge boost there.

are you dying cause tofs sucks and adds come through walls?

 

[Kookies]

How many adds are you getting that are causing the wipes?

Have you considered single pulling on the enchanter?

Is your enchanter debuffing before mezzing? That could be slowing it down.

You could turn the beast/mage pet taunt on to help spread damage.

Is your cleric using Ward of Righteousness and their bp? Those can both soak some damage.

Depending on your plat situation, you can look at buying some TOL 115 gear.

If you don't have a set of type 5s - definitely look at doing some TBM heroic adventures and funneling some to your tank.

 

[sirkenshin]

Thanks for responses I will try to answer them:
- Type 5 Augs: Topaz Infused Velium Jewel or Mortal Corporeal Vigorous Zephyr until I can get all from ToV vendor purchases
- Type 7 Augs: Went to raidloot and looked for highest ac up to ToV and grabbed what I could for all gear like Sleeper's Essence and Jetsam of the Darkened Sea
- Type 13 Augs: Extra Planar Potential Shard all gear with Velium Protector Source as my power source
- Food buffs I keep forgetting so any suggestions there would help!
- I was using Jann's Veil and Emperor Ganak Familiar
- Some wipes were caused when whole room aggrod while running into a corner of a room
- Other wipes when fighting 2 armored shadows or a skeleton sleeper with 1 add. I might check to see if ENC is debuffing before CC that could slow things down.
- I'm seeing ward from CLR so looks like that is functioning properly

 

[Gohast]

Qwalla's Casserole Delight ​

Delightful Luclin Smoothie​

Make sure you are using MQ2Feedme

 

[dewey2461]

Boxing is rough. Especially when things start going wrong.

General advice to really understand what your team is doing.

#1 - Boxhud or similar. At a minimum you want some from of hud that shows each character , their target, and their action ( melee, ranged, spell they are casting, etc). Its also very helpful to include things like sitting, standing, invis , etc.


#2 - OBS or other recording software. It is extremely helpful be able to look over a video session showing a wipe. In conjunction with the hud you should be able to see exactly what your team is doing ( or not doing ).

Specific to your situation.

I would spend some time with your characters in some easier zones and practice pulling multiple mobs and watching how your team reacts.

You have an enchanter, pull and watch what the enchanter is doing with respect to adds.
You have pets, maybe turn on pet taunt so they can soak up a bit of damage.

It sounds like your warrior may not be using everything they have, verify you have all your warrior discs up to your level.

On your cleric, there may be a HP threshold for when to throw heals. See if you can get your cleric's threshold higher.

Double check you have all the spells RG Merc expects you to be using. If RGMercs is user configurable then you might want to change up your cleric's casting line up to use more fast single target spells.

Good luck !

 

[hackzimus]

My three guesses:
1) chanter may not be prioritizing CC
2) Cleric is using lights instead of Remedies so heals are landing slower. this or heal threshold in ini is set too low. Setting Cleric to use just remedies and group heals at a high threshold of like 95 really changed my ability to handle newer content.
3) in the rush of a pull while boxing, forgetting to pop a defensive CD to help mitigation on warrior ( by 105/110 you can have a disc rolling at all times if you got the OoW BP)

Gearwise you're not doing anything wrong, keep doing sword and board if its rough.

 

[WiseTrapper]

Ok, I'm going to give the best tip ever for TOFS - learn to pet pull.
There are probably lot of guides and help videos out there for pet pulling technique.
I can creep the maps in ToFS, but there are adds and my tank is sturdy and over leveled for it.
Even so, I prefer to pet pull.

 

[pasthiml]

ToFS sucked at level, and the third floor was the worse. I got thru it by asking a friend to go with me with his group. Between us, we could manage the adds with only 1 wipe. Also, use double invis when when moving group in there.

 

[Many_Whelps]

I did all of ToV progression with a 111-113 warrior in TBL gear, so you're already ahead of that gear wise. It's not gear that's holding you back. I recommend using the enchanter to pull with lull so you can ensure singles. If you can't stand up to single pulls, you'll need to reevaluate your setup. But if you can keep it to 1 mob in camp consistently, you should be able to get through all of progression until to you get filled out with T3 gear.

 

[Zeusdracco]

ya the progression stuff will really help thanks to the H+ stuff. start at lower tier if u havent done already. the difference it will make is massive once u get a few of them done. pet pulls, fd splits etc are also a nice thing if u have them available.

gonna be that guy for a sec here. i reread your group and gear. at level, Tofs was not fun at all. alot going on and if you weren't geared you had no room for error. even at a higher lv with more hp/ac/aa's its still going to be a nightmare.

I honestly never remember whether the droppable gear is limited to people who have the expac for that gear.. ie can u buy waxing visibles etc off bazaar, get someone with ToL+ expacs to go buy your components in Maidens Eye and wear that gear? or are u stuck strictly with ToV related gear. If you can do the waxing gear and the like gear for non visible slots, that would put you over the top. ( still recommend going back and spending some time doing earlier expac progression for H stats and benefits though).

If you have the patience, do the campfire shimmy. move your campfire as u move to other areas that u can save at ( like in traditional video games ). it will buy u time. cost u negligible amount of plat for what you are doing... even if u buy 10 campfires, thats 10k... nothing in the grand scheme of things. means you wont have to redo hours of work if u wipe. u just gotta get your cr going and done before the closest mobs u killed respawn.

You a cleric heal and an ench CC and a tank that was made to get punched in the face. just gotta work it out. go back do some little things. max out correct aa lines for tank and heals and cc. dont forget your beast can also drop heals and quite effectively all things considered. you have 2 pets that can easily offtank 1-2 adds if CC isnt on the mark right away. Keep your special spells on your tank and heals and ench. example, any rune is a good rune. any hot is a good hot. dont forget your auras as well.

Oh and as mentioned above, Spank cant always tank. Use sword and board. Your tank isn't there right now to be dps, he's there to keep the dps/heals alive. takes a split second for things to go awry in ToFs. that split second can almost always be avoided with the little things. they stack up and create continuity for your tank and heals if you aren't burning them needlessly because your tank was trying to DPS. saving things like shield flash, avoidance type aa's for bad pulls makes a huge difference when put up against an extra 100-200k dps.

all the small things add up. take some time and evaluate what you have and use versus what you have and could use. If you still believe you are behind for what you need, go back and get those small gains.

Best of Luck man.

 

[CheshireGat]

I honestly never remember whether the droppable gear is limited to people who have the expac for that gear.. ie can u buy waxing visibles etc off bazaar, get someone with ToL+ expacs to go buy your components in Maidens Eye and wear that gear? or are u stuck strictly with ToV related gear.

Free to play (limited to ToV expansion) can wear Waxing and the tradable non-visibles.

 

[519helvis]

what @pasthiml said about pet pulling is truth. i did the prog with a group of raid geared toons and still wiped once or twice... the pathing is horrid and adds seem to appear out of nowhere. i found using a pet to traget and return limited the pathing issues.

 

[Zeusdracco]

there ya go can wear the ToL t1 gear. thats perfect. grab that and things will change probably alot. do pet pulls. slow down. set yourself every once in a while to a new campfire. use S&B, save those defensive, life saving cooldowns for when they r needed by not using less defensive oriented stance and equipment and u might pull this one through. If its still rough, consider those H+ stats from earlier progression.

 

[dewey2461]

FYI Here is the spell line up for my cleric. This is taken from our raid cleric write up.


It is better to be using lots of very fast small heals than slower big heals.

Gem1=Guileless Remedy
Gem2=Sincere Remedy
Gem3=Merciful Remedy
Gem4=Atoned Intervention
Gem5=Sincere Intervention


Group heal:

Gem6=Syllable of Invigoration


Auras: I haven't looked at these recently. Might be better.

Spell: Aura of the Reverent - 4% damage mitigation
Spell: Aura of Divinity - Max HP increased by 14-15%


Other spells you might consider keeping on your tank:

Spell: Shining Fortitude --- Gives a defensive proc that lowers incoming damage.
Spell: Rallied Greater Blessing of Vie --- 10% Damage Mitigation

 

[Shadow]

What automation are you using? You mentioned RGMercs for the Warrior, but what else? I know it might be out of your price range...but CWTN plugins are a lifesaver. The investment is 100% worth it times 50. 5 CWTN plugins and a KA/RGMercs Wiz would literally decimate the place.

• Sword and Board 100%. From the entrance, you can work around the left side and have zero trouble keeping up with adds. Left side = less mob count overall.
• Augs: 1hDex=4AC=40HP - Apply this across the board. Augs are key.
• It is already pointed out to use ToL T1 pieces to give you an extra boost in stats. But will be costly. You can always farm more ToV T2 pieces as well. Was stupidly easy to farm them on my 1st go around.
• BST can off-heal, do not forget about that either, but you have arguably one of the best setups for the Holy Trinity. WAR/CLR/ENC. If you struggle with that setup, it is either automation choice, automation settings, or gear.
• Are you slowing mobs? Is slow preventing CC? Are you just landing a slow but by then, the mob is almost dead? Take a look at these things, and help us, help you.

My thoughts...

 

[sirkenshin]

Thanks for your responses everyone! I had to reinstall MQ since my EQ client kept crashing while attempting to make adjustments. I'm seeing improvements already and will try some of the strategies posted here such as pet pulling, duo invis and single pulls while recording. Boxhud is nice to have since it can see what spells/abilities are being used. I think I'm limited to ToV gear even at Bazaar. I'll see if waxing stuff shows up though. Everyone is using RGMercs but I think all with the exception of WIZ can use CWTN plugins once purchased. Once again thanks for your posts. ToFS has caused me to lose my temper multiple times now and will be glad to try these strategies and try to overcome these challenges.

 

[LorDeth]

Thanks for your responses everyone! I had to reinstall MQ since my EQ client kept crashing while attempting to make adjustments. I'm seeing improvements already and will try some of the strategies posted here such as pet pulling, duo invis and single pulls while recording. Boxhud is nice to have since it can see what spells/abilities are being used. I think I'm limited to ToV gear even at Bazaar. I'll see if waxing stuff shows up though. Everyone is using RGMercs but I think all with the exception of WIZ can use CWTN plugins once purchased. Once again thanks for your posts. ToFS has caused me to lose my temper multiple times now and will be glad to try these strategies and try to overcome these challenges.

as long as you meet the level requirement of the gear (ie the 115 min lvl of the ToL gear) , you will be restricted to only the tier 1 stuff ,and will also need someone to give you a hand and picking up the items that are used to combine with the raw armor pieces.. but they are tradable.. so its definitely doable.. plus all the non-vis and weaps/shields (also tier 1) are all tradable and you can buy via bazaar..

 

[sirkenshin]

I just discovered that I need to be more selective with my searches in the bazaar to find ToL gear. Previously I was doing searches and sorting by HP with very little results. Now I'll remember to keep searching for affordable upgrades and ask my guild for assistance when needed.

 

[Psy]

I just discovered that I need to be more selective with my searches in the bazaar to find ToL gear. Previously I was doing searches and sorting by HP with very little results. Now I'll remember to keep searching for affordable upgrades and ask my guild for assistance when needed.

Assuming your speaking about the ftp waxing armor, just a broad search of faded waxing will work

 

[sirkenshin]

Thanks for the tips everyone I finally made it to next floor. I noticed most of the wipes were from the room with the yearning zombie butler. The group kept navigating around in circles where the blood pool was while 5 adds where active. After pet pulling away from that room I was slowly able to get the key to the next floor.

 

[sirkenshin]

After some buffs, armor upgrades to my WAR and macro/plugin/Lua additions or adjustments I have completed the ToFS mercenary quests. This zone seems to have lots of issues with NPC behavior that gave my group many frustrating hours while attempting to get through it. Thanks again for your feedback!

 

[dewey2461]

Glad you got ToFS done. Our nick name for it was "Tower of Frozen Suck".