Murmur

[Darkly]

Just had a look this AM for strategies on this bugger (last boss Shadow Lab). There are two ways you can do it - run away from the AOE like we tried last night (he has this very nasty blast which drops 80% of your HP if caught in it for those who weren't there!) - or keep the tank on him all the time.

The guild page I was reading says both has their risks, but the problem with the Monty Python "run away!" method is if the tank doesn't get back quickly enough, without a melee to focus on Murmur gets all cross and drops resonance (which is what was killing us mostly - last fight it hit both me and las for 6000 and flattened us in one fell swoop).

If the tank stays in, Murmur will never use resonance, so only have to worry about keeping the tank alive after eating the AOE. That's done by me and Las both dropping renews on him, and a shield, just before the AOE goes off, before backing away for the blast and then rushing back to spam some heals; idea being the renews and shield should keep the tank standing after the bomb.

Reckon this is what we should try next time as resonance is a real bitch and a half.

**Oh yeah, question, anyone know a good casting bar mod? The ones that pop up the spell on your screen when enemy casting. For better warning of when boss aoes are gonna drop...

[Lasiien]

but i like monty python !

Yeah it was that resonance killing us, combined with touch of murmur also silencing its a bummer. However i've seen it done the running away method is all i can say.

There is an enemy casting bar built into the UI now, enable it in interface options i think - though i dont use it. Many options for casting bar mods - ecasting bars, antagonist etc - see eko's mod post.

[Darkly]

Yeah, the Python rules

Yep, it can be done both ways they were saying, just different approaches. Seeing that we were having some problems with resonance last night I just wondered if it's worth a go using the alternate method.

Ahh, ok, will look for that in the options then. Forgot about eko's post, my bad Really ought to sort some mods out only running a bare minimum really.

[Xan]

killed murmur twice with the "python" method now, just need a tank who can move quickly

Also, i need to do shadow labs again sometime this week, just to let u guys know  

[Darkly]

Ahh ok, fair enough....

Rocket-powered boots ftw!

Heh, cool.. we still need to do it as we didn't kill him (obviously... didn't help that it was getting late and everyone knacked...)

[eKo]

Never found Murmur to be that hard, especially compared to the third (and second) boss(es). Easiest is to have the tank just standing in melee and not moving, kinda need 2 healers for it though to deal with being silenced at the wrong time.

Also done it with the tank runnng in and out of the AoE, problem with it is that if the tank is too slow to run out he gets snared and can't return to melee fast enough to avoid Resonance.

I rather like Shadow Labyrinth, it's really a step up in difficulty .

[Darkly]

Hmm, weird, we had no trouble at all with the 3rd boss (touches wood )

The 2nd boss is bloody chaos though, we managed it first time, though it was a little touch and go. The good thing about him is he doesn't actually hit *that* hard (just as well o/wise it would be too tough prolly!). Really enjoyed that fight... the mass MC is kinda annoying but also fun (for a bit )

That's what happened to us last night I think, tank got snared. I guess there's risks both ways....

[Saxif]

We did Murmur last night after about 5 or 6 attempts, even I was rdy to throw the towl in and starting to get narked  :mad:

The team we had was Lasiien, Saxif, Aphaia (rogue), Razien (warlock-demo), and Taurenmuscle (warrior).  

We had TM stay in combat at all times with it, when it aoe'd Las (i think) put a shield on him and the rest of us legged it.  

Aphaia has Cloak of Shadows which made her immune to one of its aoe's, and I think she used dash/sprint to get out of range of another.

Myself Las and Raz where all very aware who had Touch of Murmur and when it was on us we made sure we moved away from each other.

Myself and Raz took turns in sending our pets into melee with Murmur after it had killed TM and Aphaia to stop it launching multiple resonance bolts at us, I think we used 3 pets doing this, but as long as someone/pet is in melee with it then the damage it dos to the grp is lessened (no bolts).

It still took everything we had to kill him and only 3 of us were left alive when we had finished and I died just after due to Touch of Murmur, but we downed him, barely.  Although good gear helps, its really nailing down the right tactics to use that allowed us to finish him off.

I think that melee's who need to run out should maybe try and get some potions of haste to speed them up, although then they won't be able to use potions of healing so ... If ppl still have the Nifty Stop Watch (quest reward in Burning Steppes I think) might be worth equiping that to help them get away also.

I know it can be done both ways, as Xanic has done the running away approach, but this seemed to work well and allowed us to keep everything under control.

If we were to do the running away approach then pet classes could send in pets (alternating) to keep something in melee with Murmur when tanks r legging it so he doesn't start kicking out Resonance Bolts.  I don't actually know if a tank can run out of range of his aoe without some kind of buff, but maybe when your melee'ing him it might be worth fighing inside him facing the grp so you can just run directly forwards in the future, assuming that works?

Just some info and thoughts for the morning

Sax.

[Darkly]

Ouchie, sounds like a close run thing. But grats

Yeah, we forgot about cloak of shadows, guess being tired didn't help....

Resonance is an absolute killer, aye. Hopefully having the tank standing in with two healers might work better? Dunno though. Obviously I can heal at those critical moments such as after the blast, then switch back to DPS.

Stopwatch might help - forgot all about that, must rummage around in our banks and see if we kept it (or indeed got it in the first place... cant remember...)

[Lasiien]

I put shield and POM (and always had a renew going) on TM before running, he still ended up dying most of the time tbh. Not sure two healers add anything to that really. You cant get back into position quick enough to start healing again (shield and POM are only 2500 hps, it really isnt much tbh especially as the blast leaves the tank on 2k or so hps). One healer could also stay maybe and the other runs and heals him, only thing i can think of where two healers would make a difference, all of that is at the expense on dps though...

The best thing about the last attempt was indeed the pets. Do those pets have some kind of magic resist? I swear they didnt take damage from his AOE, just his normal melee - or perhaps i was going blind or something. Healing them was easier than healing TM, though he was 2H which i think accounted for allot of the healing needed (i was practically having to chain rank 7 Greater Heals on him).

[Xan]

if hes got the rage, tank should intercept back to the boss. he'll be immune to the stun, but ofc will be right in melee again. Running method works, and i'll be using it if i tank in the labs again  

[Darkly]

Ergh, heh. Aye all I'd add would be to double up renew, which I guess would help a little perhaps but not that much...

However you're right I think TM was 2H when we did it too.... so perhaps with shield and defensive gear the warrior might be more healable post-blast.... [maybe just switching in the 2H when murmur is actually casting his AE, as he doesn't attack then for 4-5 secs?]


[Edit: Either that or we take swift-boots-Xan ]

[Saxif]

The pet I was using has about 5.5K health and I think 8K armour, so not as much as a player, the VW has about 8K health and 9K armour, but moves slower, the Feguard has intercept which cuts down travel time which is what we needed.  The Felguard has about 35 in all resists but those that I increase on myself through gear and buffs (it gets a %).  However, even with the >200 nature resist my puppy has it never seemed to resist anything from Murmur so I am not convinced resist gear is worth it on this boss.  I did however notice that my Felguard totally resisted 1 aoe and I was also amazed at how long Raziens Felguard lasted on our first pet tank.

The Felguard has 350 defense also, so same sort of chance to block, dodge, parry as a normal player in crap kit I guess, maybe a lucky streak helped out in the end.

Sax.

edit:-  I think the aoe, may do 80% damage on those caught in it or something, not sure if I made this up.  

As Las said if we have 2 Priests healing then 1 should stay in range to heal tanks if we're doing the tank method.  However as Las also said we need constant dps, we had 4 ppl dps'ing on our successfull atempt and we where unloading everything till mana bars where gone then I was wanding in the end.  In a fight like that I prolly kicked out 30K damage at least, if we have to many healing and not enough dpsing then those that do dps have to make up for that shortfall, so its a fine line, especially in a caster heavy grp where staying alive aint gonna benefit anyone if we dont have mana and in a melee heavy grp just one person getting caught and dying in the aoe is even more dps we have to make up for ...

Darkly, I think that you and Las should work out a system where by when Las runs oom and out of potions you should save a potion to take over healing, else just dps the hell out of him, theres no way you'll take aggro imo you have Fade AND that trinket AND you will be competing for aggro with everyone else who is dps'ing thier little black hearts out  

[Darkly]

In the guide I read it did indeed say the AoE does 80% health dmg, so whatever your HP you will be reduced to 20%.

I'm sure I also read that nature resist gear doesn't have any effect which would bear out your conclusions Sax. Which really sucks tbh (tho prot potions will I think).

Yep, with me and Las I agree, DPS would fall short if I wasn't to nuke much. And yes I shouldn't take aggo, esp not from you! Maybe I should just go shadowform and keep VT up constantly* (as well as VE ofc), thereby refuelling las's mana and helping with the healing that way? At least for the first portion of the fight....

[*tho' that is a big aggro magnet isn't it? - but I do have the trinket as backup to fade now...]

And gonna install a castbar mod for Hel so she can clearly see when to run from AOEs next time, she found it hard to tell as in melee you're staring at the fat twat's ethereal feet

[Lasiien]

VT is the agro magnet spell now yeah, perhaps eko can give some pointers as I havent really raided/played much as a shadowpriest. I think though you are fairly safe on a boss as the tank is concentrating totally on him. I found i pulled VT agro on groups of normal mobs, and tbh i don't think its necessary on those kinda pulls anyway.

If we are grouped together I am fine with you being more aggressive, even if you pull agro you'll just die and i'll pick you up off the floor later TM pretty much did the whole instance 2H (using stuff like death wish/recklessness - whatever its called (the one where you get more crits but take more dmg)), and whilst it was not fun and i died from healing agro too much, it still shows that one healer is enough/capable (plus what you add in VE is always nice).

Interesting to know sax, I'm not sure if we just got lucky or what. It felt like the pets weren't taking the hit from his AOE to me, but yeah they were taking some dmg from his normal melee.