I'm posting this one because I had to leave the shard for a few days, just to be reminded of why I feel like I have it so good on UOPF. I'm generally fairly accepting of the fact that, when it comes to high-end custom content, the shard is not balanced for mages. Sometimes this is in our favor, more often it isn't. At the best of times, it offers an even greater challenge and sense of success for pulling through.
Then there's Gwenno.
So the Gwenno quest is in Elysium, the shard's custom facet. It's a short quest; get a guy his arm and he'll open a gate to Gwenno, who you can fight for a shot at some nice artifacts (for dexers, of course) and fulfill the quest for Sir Kenshin's cloak as well.
The first part of the quest is easy. The guy who has your questgiver's arm is a pushover. So much of one that I was deluded into thinking I could solo Gwenno as a Mage. So I proceed into the portal to Gwenno, jump another hoop or two, and our fight begins.
It starts off pretty tame. I went in with Mirrors going because I was expecting something like Dread Horn or worse. I sic them on the dead king, throw down a fire field on him, and mostly watch what's going on while mixing in a few fireballs. The mirrors aren't doing a ton of damage to him, and neither are the fireballs honestly, so I'm putting his (Fire) resist at around 80~85, same as Ancient Dragons. (He's human and I only have 115 Animal Lore, so I can't get exact numbers) I try throwing a Corpse Skin on him, but it doesn't change the fireball damage at all.
He's also not exactly melting the faces off my mirrors, so I'm fairly sure he doesn't melee very great. This is confirmed when I toy around with him and he hits me for about 40~ish. That's all well and good, but I still don't like being melee'd, so I change tactics. Out comes my Cu Sidhe. He also isn't doing great damage, but we're finally seeing a bit of red on the life bar. I'm healing him pretty well, but I still have a lot of time for fireballs. Gwenno is apparently poison immune, or so damn resistant that he might as well be, and he loves the Heal spell. Still, things are okay, we're making progress.
Then he WTF-one-hits my Cu. This is, at the least, 600 damage to a creature with 70-ish in all resists (some a bit better, some worse). I'm stunned by this and, having dropped my mirroring, left alone with this guy. So, figuring it was some sort of special move, I start my standard run-n-gun style Magery. He's not super fast, so I'm not having trouble playing keep-away, but his heals are better than three of my fireballs, so this is pretty much a losing battle at this point.
Then he WTF-one-hit me. With HP-based Firebreath.
Son of a...
That's it. That officially ENDS any chance I have. You will not beat Gwenno as a mage.
It was enough when he had crazy Resists, Spell Resist, and spammed a strong heal, but now he also has Firebreath? It's over. You can't compete with that. In the time that you get res'd from being hit with it, he will have healed all the damage you did (I know this for fact; he chain cast heal like six times when I died, right back to full health).
You will not beat him as a Tamer. This fireball either ignores resists or does such massive damage that even at 95% resist you would still need a boatload of health on your pet for it to survive a hit. Then you have to full heal the thing before it gets HPB'd again. If you can find a pet that can take a hit like that, please let me know what it is because I don't believe it exists. *Maybe* a stage 7 Merc?
The only realistic way to beat this guy is to have full DI, HCI, DCI, SSI, and whatever else dexers use, and spam Mirror Image. You'll also need Mortal Strike, assuming it works on him, to keep him from healing. Unless I've missed my guess, Skullthunker just happens to be a scepter, which has Mortal Strike.
GG, Dexers. GG. /quit
- Update 06/10/10 -
I've put some more thought into this fight, and I stand by the 'no Mage can do it' thing. However, this is working off of my definition of a Mage. If yours includes Mirror Image then you can make it work. It just requires spamming MI and Fireballs. You'd simply need to keep stocked on a massive amount of Mana Potions (I sometimes forget they're on the shard because I don't have a PS for Alchemy yet). This is the only way you'll have the fuel to burn him down and avoid still the HPB.
Still, for as much "strategy" as that is, you might as well just go dexer all the same. It's really a stupid boss and I don't foresee myself doing this one again unless I can bring my second account in with me to act as a second Fireball cannon. Maybe give it a "If Mana < 15 drink pot / else / Corpse Skin / For Loop 15 Cast Fireball / End Loop / End If" macro and let turn him loose. I could add in Mirrors with him just to be safe, but he would only have three and that would take more mana off him for little gain. It would be far easier and faster to just let him blaze and handle the mirroring myself. Gwenno doesn't kill them on a fixed schedule. I actually had a few time out in my fight with him.
I really don't expect I'll bother. I already have (and don't use) a Kenshin Cloak and I don't care about the sword or shield. Like so many other things, it's really a no-gain thing for me.
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