8th Shawl Escort Question

[Vinadin]

Can anyone provide some insight to the size of the raid force I will need to complete the 8th shawl escort? My normal group consists of a 65 warrior, 64 cleric, 64 enchanter, 64 necro, 55 shaman, and myself a 64 magician. Can it be done with this group or am I waaay off? I could most likely add a 61 magician, 58 bard, and a 59 cleric to the mix as well (if needed).

Thank you in advance for any comments and or tips.

- Vin

[Hibashira]

I've done 8th shawl walk about a dozen times. You'll need several things:

1) You need to control the general. He suicide attacks and he also walk off without waiting. The most efficient way to control him is monk aggro + FD + chanter mem blur.

2a) Multiple tank/healer to split tank the mobs. The wolfs and giants are not exactly trivial, especially the waves that has named giants. Some mobs are not mezzable so split tanking or 1 tank tanking multiples would be necessary.

2b) Short of that, you'll need a kiter to tag the rest and kite them around until the main tank/healer is ready to peel the next one off. Remember, a lot of the spawns are not snarable or rootable, if you go this route, you'll need to kite at full speed.

Taking the above into consideration, let's look at your group:

The necro will have to be petless to deal with the general. Unless you use the bard but he'll be very busy if he's a bot.

The warr will be MT, can probably tank 2 if not 3 at a time. The adds and the 4th will quickly aggro on the clerics. The 55 shaman might not be able to land slows quickly on blood red mobs. The 2 mages will add damage but not much else.

So I'd say your group, even with the 3 adds, would be a little short.

[Vinadin]

Thanks for the info

Few more questions for you though...

1) Are any of the mobs casters?

2) Would you say they are comparable to Kael Arena type mobs? If not, can you give an example of a mob that is similar in hit points, max hit, etc?

3) Do they summon?

4) Would a valid solution be for the enchanter to AE Tash and run like hell to kite the mobs around while the warrior peels them off one by one?


Thanks for the help!

-Vin

[Thorvari]

If the chanter AE tashes, he'll probably hit the General...not a good thing. This is a pure melee fight, no casters.

Most of the times I have done the escort, we have done it with ~3 groups, and this has been overkill. Since there are at most 4-5 pops at each stage, we just stuck a tank/hybrid on each one. The DPS of the mobs isn't too bad, except maybe the named giants, and once slowed they are fairly easy. The problem comes when all of the unslowed mobs are concentrated on one target.

You seem low on PC tanks, but the pets might work out fairly well, since they are the higher level PoP pets.

One method for getting quick agro for the tanks is to sit at the spawn spots. The giants will agro a sitting person before they agro the dwarf.

Also be aware that some of the giants enrage, so face them away from the dwarf if he is beating on them.

[borblefoot furtoe]

Another thing to remember is that your gonna have the green roaming trashmobs in iceclad to deal with to. While they in themselves are not a serioius threat an interrupted spell at the wrong time could be a problem.

1 or 2 groups of level 65's with great gear and people who no how to play their class would not have too many difficulties doint this alone.

However, For the normal average everyday mixture of groups and people. I usually recommend a minimum of 15 up to as many people as you can get to come. I have done the walk three times and the fewest I have had was 21. All three times we went through with no problems. The extra people are real nice to have for clearing out the green roamers ahead of time which makes it easier to deal with the spawned waves.

Having the extra people means its a fairly easy encounter but I am not doing the walk to see how few people I can do it with. I am doing it to get someone their shawl.

Borblefoot Furtoe
62nd season Druid
Firiona Vie Server

[GraemeFaelban]

When I did mine, we had 13 people, average level 63. It was quite trivial to do really with that force. I would recommend overkill, just because it's a lot of work to remake the armor.

[Haradur]

I just recently finished my 8th shawl. I did the walk with 3 level 65 BST, 1 65 bard, 1 65 chanter, 1 55 mage, and me 63 cleric. We all know and play our classes well. I really wouldn't recommend doing it with less than that. These mobs can not be rooted or snared, so you need enough people that can take some hits on board. They don't hit incredibly hard by todays standards, but can still wax a caster type if allowed.

[Loralin]

I'd also make sure that no one is KoS to coldain, it's causes more problems than it's worth.

[Hibashira]

1) Are any of the mobs casters?

No.

2) Would you say they are comparable to Kael Arena type mobs? If not, can you give an example of a mob that is similar in hit points, max hit, etc?

The wolfs and unnamed giants are a tad above arena level. The named might be similar to the Prophets.

3) Do they summon?

The giants do. The wolves don't.

4) Would a valid solution be for the enchanter to AE Tash and run like hell to kite the mobs around while the warrior peels them off one by one?

Thor is right, AE Tash will hit the general, almost guaranteed.

You are not too far from it. A couple more tanks/healers and a higher level slower will make this encounter much more comfortable.

[splunge]

Actually having a monk or Sk thats kos to coldain helps a lot.

They usually stay out of the generals aggro range, but when giants/wolves spawn, they just aggro the general and stand there like a punching bag. When wolves/giants are dea, they FD and general continues on his way.

Oh, and make sure each person assists a tank. Last time we did it for a wizzy friend, a necro accidently stuck his pet on the general and killed him. =(

[Aavar]

Who needs a KOS monk , i ususlly aggro the general with my enchanter,(tash usually) general doesn't do enough damage to hurt you though runes and then just mem blur when you need to continue.

[Cigarskunk]

You should be able to barely pull it with that crew, but I'd want atleast another group for padding, if only to deal with the misc adds that you're bound to get during the walk.

[Britneyy]

I could have done my 8th war with 3 people me a lv65 clr, a KOS-65enc 450aa (used for kiting), and a 65pal with 6400hp unbuffed, We would have easily finished it but found some friends to help.

[Vinadin]

Well, the 2 previous times I've tried the quest the general hasn't been up. I'm just now getting back around to trying again (tomorrow nite). Our group has increased in power slightly:

65 WAR
65 CLR
65 ENC
65 NEC
65 MAG (me)
59 SHM
62 MAG
59 CLR
59 BRD

We are going to give it a go with this group and see what happens. I'll post the results if the general happens to be up this time. I think we've found a pretty good solution for controlling the general. We are just going to stick the necro's pet on him (/pet hold) and let the general beat on the pet while we fight.

One last question I have is this: Do the waves spawn out of aggro range? In other words, as soon as we see a wave spawn can we /pet attack the general (to stop him from walking), /pet hold and then go pull the giants/wolves at our leisure?

Thanks again for the help!

-Vin

[GraemeFaelban]

The waves spawn when the General reaches the appropriate spots, within aggro range.