Strategy for Dain 3? Anyone?

[Amun Rhah]

Ok so i've had Dain 1 & 2 done for quite some time. But we've NEVER been able to finish Dain 3. I've looked around and have seen a few write ups but they seem to be quite vague about the details. Can anyone here, give me complete updated detailed instructions on how to complete dain 3? Please! I want to finish my augment from there, and can't without finishing this mission.

[Itek]

Um.... ok.

Step one, have someone NOT the Dain pick maximum run and something to get agro. (there's a couple, one has a looong cool down, not that one)

The Dain mana regen buffs the two clerics.

The Dain then goes AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE from the battle, like under or behind the waterfall. I'm serious. No, it's not a joke or a typo. If the Dain gets NEAR a giant he's dead and you lose. You have been warned. Honest. Really. 4realz y'all.

The guy with the best run speed and agro moves over to the Wiz Spires and waits to tag the Lead Giant (the "named" in each wave) and run JUST ahead of them STRAIGHT WEST to the river. Straight West. DO NOT take the shortest route.

Once you hit the river turn NORTH and run INTO THE MIDDLE of the army. Don't stop in front of the army. Don't stop when you "reach" the army. Into .... the ... MIDDLE. You want the ENTIRE army to engage ALL AT ONCE when the LEAD GIANT gets in range.

The other player dwarves engage on the named and healers as best they can. (DPS .... does damage.... healers.... heal...)

DO NOT HAVE AUTO ATTACK ON ASSIST TURNED ON. (you will wind up hitting an army dude and both get smoked and divert the army from the giants, this is BAD. don't do it)

Target ONE giant and burn it down. When it's dead "cycle nearest NPC" with AUTO ATTACK OFF. You will wind up with a giant or a dwarf. If a dwarf /assist ... bingo you are now for sure targeting a bad guy. Auto-attack. (the dps players may be attacking different mobs, so be it... targeting healers is a bonus and if things are going well you can try to manually target them while auto-attack is off... but to start you want to be doing as much damage as possible)

LOOK UP. It's nearly impossible to target giants by their feet / ankles in a sea of the army dudes. Pan up, and suddenly there's only these big, tall, evil things that must die in your line of sight. Kill them.

NO MATTER WHAT .... DO NOT EVER ATTEMPT TO GIVE ORDERS TO THE ARMY. This is the second fastest way to lose, after sending the Dain out to face the giants.

10 for 14 on Dain MM 3. Your mileage may vary.

[Nolrog]

That's a great write up. I was doing Dain 3 missions with a pair that was able to bring the named back to the camp solo every time. They were great at it, but unfortunately, I never did learn their trick.

Anyway, the only thing that I'd add to that, is that the Dain is the last line of defense. If a giant breaks thru, and heads for Thurg, the Dain MUST engage him, because if a giant makes it to Thurg, you also lose.

[KyrosKrane]

How long ago did you guys use this strat? Nodyin (I think) posted on the Sony boards that he's specifically coded the dwarven armies to get quite weak if they fight at base camp, or if you attempt to pull the giants to the armies. Also, the giant generals are supposed to be resisant to splitting; I forget the exact mechanic, but in theory you shouldn't be able to separate the giant commanders from their armies.

The last time I did Dain 3 was quite a while back, but I think after Nodyin's last round of tweaking. The solution that worked for us was to have the Dain remain at base camp and constantly issue orders for the four dwarven armies to move forward. That's all the Dain does, the entire fight. If he ever stops issuing the orders, the army gets bored and tries to wander back to base camp. Everyone else sets up a little off to the side from where the giants spawn. As soon as the giants are done spawning, they will activate and the dwarves will engage them. Have the player using the warrior dwarf (I think -- whatever the non-dain tank is) engage the named giant and get aggro. Everyone else heals or assists this toon. If you can manage to kill off the named giant, the dwarven army will usually decimate the giant troops. Once the named for each wave is dead, feel free to pick off a few other giants.

[Itek]

Um... Late July / Early Aug ... after the last round of "fixes" of which I was aware. I know i'd seen the "the army won't fight as well" patch and succeded after that patch using this strat. (HINT: Notice I said "the runner is JUST ahead of the giants" ...)

I'd try to do it again but most of my guild has the Dain MM aug completed now, though I did hear someone begging for more people in the Cleric channel. And I sooo love pick up groups.

If it doesn't work... /shrug

All I know is... the order system was kluge before they messed with it, and messing with it probably didn't improve it a ton. So if orders are the only way to win... best of luck.

[Tobynn]

I've had absolutely zero problems winning Dain 3 over and over again, merely by running the script as intended and issuing troop orders in a logical fashion.

As mentioned above, Dain hangs back. Dain's role in the script is to buff and issue orders, period. Remaining group members set up camp straight down river near the flags area. I typically group up right on the river's edge.

The rythmic crunching sound emote indicates the giants are en route, you want one person to act as scout (not puller) to be the Dain's eyes. The giants will always path from the spires directly towards the river. With scout up on high ground, call for the Dain to dispatch ALL of the dwarves just as the named giant exits the open ground of the spires and crests the first hill on the choppy valley path. You want to dispatch the dwarves in reverse order D C B A. In this manner they all arrive in a pack. If you send them A B C D they tend to arrive in single file line and you will lose some. You don't want to send the dwarves to a specific flag area, just send them to attack (forward) so they head directly towards the giants.

In timing the release of the dwarves precisely, the dwarf army crest over the top of the hill just behind the advancing giants, which causes all giants except the named to agro the dwarves. The named keeps advancing towards the river. At this point, your MT pulls the named. Once named goes agro, then all of the trash giants will rush you as well, but now they're all taking massive damage from the dwarves already.

Regardless of your timing, you must engage the named giant before it goes agro on the dwarves. Under no circumstance do you want to allow the named to be tanked by one of the dwarves. The named giant is the dwarf killer. You keep the named occupied and the dwarves will clean house on the rest, no sweat. Most times your MT will only need couple heals and its all over for the giants. Oh, your rogue dies almost every time btw .. makes a good scout!

Once all of the giants are dead, DONT FORGET to bring the dwarves back to base camp so they can heal up. The dwarves' DPS sucks at base camp. They have no haste while in camp. You take them out into the field and they push out some unbelievable DPS. If you forget to call them back to camp, and next wave spawns while they're out roaming, you are screwed.

On final wave, expect your group will die. Certainly throw a HoT on your MT before the pull, and do try to chain some heals, but again all you need to do is keep the named occupied. You're merely buying time so the dwarves can decimate most of the giants. When you die, and you will, just run back and re-engage the giants if any are left standing. The named giant summons from WAY out, so its imperative Dain stays deep back. Dain gets curious and creeps up to take a peek, Dain gets summoned, game over. Wasted time.

I've probably won Dain 3 .. oh I dunno, 30 consectutive times now. Have won it often with group of four, and have won it many many times with all dead except Dain. After dying and running back to re-engage is typically when I see the task completed message, before I even get all the way back down river the named is already dead.

[Bobaten]

Basically there are many ways to do this mission.
My preferred method is to send the dwarves all the way to the forward position right away. You will encounter the first wave of giants at the spires, and for the additional waves the dwarves will be sitting right in front of the giants, so they will engage as soon as the giants go active. They have plenty of time to regen between waves. Like most people, I prefer the Dain stay at base camp, often even have a boxed character play the Dain. I've done it this way with as few as 4 chars (both clerics, warrior, dain).
I have also done it fighting at base camp, but it was much slower that way.
Last time I did this (and as far as I know it is still true) the giants aggroed the last person to zone in when they went active. So make sure the warriors zone in last (or Dain since he will be nowhere near the giants).