Is the Zoo boss of Fang Lair meant to be so hard?

Bigevilpeter

I didnt know what else to call it tbh, its a bunch of different animals all attacking you at the same time and their mechanics just counteract each other.

We tried it for almost 2 hours yesterday, did every possible method but it feels so cheap.

The schence jump ruins all possible mechachanics and everything just respwans.

We had around 2 20k dps, but it just wasn't happening.

Is it really just a dps race?? because there is no reliable mechanic that will keep you alive for too long.

From what I understand its even harder than the last boss, so is that intended or does this fight need to be nerfed?

Menelaos

It's not really a DPS race, more like outracing the wolves while killing the panther first and then bombing the other two in a heapload of aoe. Try to rez people only after the wolves are dead, because they take a few seconds to 'activate' their hunting cycle again. This is a bit simplified, though. It's an engaging fight, no doubt.

Xuhora

Try to controll the exposion of the little hounds.
Works as follows: little hounds spawn -> little hounds target a player -> that player kites hounds away from the others
-> the kiting player stays still and waits for the AoE rings to appear -> kiting player dodges out of it or gets blown away by the first explosion.

further explenations:
-the focused player doesnt get oneshot by the explosions, he just gets pushed away. but only the focused player, the other 3 wont be pushed away.
-the hounds either explode when killed or when they had time to activate their AoE which only happens when they stood still for like half a second.

further help:
-allways focus the senche when up. the leap+stun combo leads to imminent death most of the times.
-healer could slot healing ward to ward the guy that gets jumped on by senche.
-the big boss can be pulled to the guarmob, so the guar goes down in the AoE and doesnt need to be killed separatly.

Edit: Spacing

Stinkyremy

I disagree with ^^Xuhora

The method I found that works the best.
Tank stands at guar, everyone stands behind tank so when they awake the tiger and bear make a b-bine directly into the guar/tank (tiger is untauntable) nuke guar/tiger/bear with ults and aoe while focusing on the tiger or specifically the bear when it's shield is down. When the wolves spawn, stay behind tank so they all b-line into the frey too. Tank can take 2 of the explosions no problem. Guar and tiger should be dead by then anyway.
If any wolves get through, just slowly walk and kite them around the guar/tiger/bear in an anticlockwise motion so they die in aoe.
Standing still creates their explosion, and when they explode more will spawn, so don't stand still!

Nothing but the guar aoe and tiger pounce can damage you at all, the healer can heal you through all but the pounce as it is an insta-kill if not interrupted, more importantly the tiger drops an aoe dot so you need heals and interrupt while pinned.
Best to have all mag dds and healer with crushing shock to interrupt the tiger if it pounces, any stam dd or the tank can run to you if you get pinned.
Thing is here if you didn't do what I said above, you are out of place, or with wolves following you, you are dead anyway, you will be too far away for a bash. In most cases the tiger focuses the furthest player. Don't be out of place.
The only thing you really have to watch out for here is the tiger fearing you off of the edge.
You can eliminate this chance by doing all the same as above but tanks stands on the other side of the arena so the guar runs over to him and stands in the middle of the arena, tank gathers them all in the middle.

Voxicity

It's not hard

ArchMikem

Voxicity wrote: »

It's not hard

Very informative post. Much enlightening.

ak_pvp

All rotate counterclockwise, aoe when wolves are up, kill senche first and then bear, guard sux so ignore.

Violynne

Voxicity wrote: »

It's not hard

There's a pill for that, you know.

Gnozo

Stack bear, guar and senche. Ulti dump them. Dd and healer cycle the boss to avoid wolves while doing their thing

jypcy

I personally like the method similar to what Stinkyremy described above, where you stack all of the bosses and aoe them down, focusing any single target damage on the senche then the bear. But if you want easy mode, have the tank just camp the wolf spawn and lay an aoe down so that she always gets the wolf aggro. Senche can be killed before it jumps and if interrupted won’t 1 shot anybody anyways, and the other two aren’t all that threatening. Dps and heals just hang out on the other side and kill them without any kiting.

Also it’s not a dps race but more dps makes it easier so if the heals can either swap to doing dps or just bring a dps character, you can kill the senche quicker and nuke everything else.

Kuramas9tails

My group had issues on the first try. Second try was easy.

Literally just kite the Dogs (except Tank) as tank stacks Bear and Guar (at Guar because Guar doesn't move well). Kitty will do what Kitty wants so put that mofo down first. If Kitty pounds on someone, bash that cat to Oblivion. Show that Kitty who's boss. Try to do close circles with Dogs around tank so if Kitty pounces, you have time to bash. Once the Kitty is stunned, you have plenty of time to focus on boss and let AOEs take care of the rest.

Become the Zoo master.

Mureel

I explained this a lot of times but one easy way if your healer has inner fire, they taunt bear, the tank deals with wolves/taunts guar.
the dps put the cat inactive ASAP and then just focus bear, who the healer keeps taunt on. Think last boss VDSA.
Healer need no special skills/gear just inner fire to keep taunt, and keep combat prayer, orbs and ele drain on. Blow a BOL and/or shards to the tank when need be, but that's like 1-2 times whole fight.

When cat pops, interrupt then focus cat til it's again inactive (repeat each time cat pops, but should only be 1-2 times before bear is down) and then finish bear.

Especially for healer: Strategically blow up the spore plants near you so you're not just standing in their aoe.
DPS: just pay attention and stay tf off plants or move if you touch one.
Tank: boop and pop dogs from their spawn point, keep taunt on guar.

As healer - I step in plant then walk the bosss slightly to the side (beware to not walk out of ultis/aoe) and repeat to avoid the poison dot debuff.

Or: tank tanks all
dps run around and cope with dogs, cat and bear - regardless leave the guar alone.
Healer does the usual and helps boop dogs. I find this way incredibly messy.

My group cleared this before the first emergency maintenance using this method we devised and a group along side us, cleared right after we told them in discord what we did.

It works. Should take you less than 3 min, less than 2 if you have normal-good dps.

If you don't like the above method - Alcast wrote out a different one.

Key to dogs is 'pet them and gtfo'

Bigevilpeter

That all sound good on paper, but in practice it gets so complicated with all the mechanics specially of dps it not high, will try again i guess.

our healer didnt know how to kite boss so one our dps did it, so that dropped dps a bit. i tried as a tank to take away the dogs, but schence jump me and ruin the whole strategy

Mureel

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

That all sound good on paper, but in practice it gets so complicated with all the mechanics specially of dps it not high, will try again i guess.

our healer didnt know how to kite boss so one our dps did it, so that dropped dps a bit. i tried as a tank to take away the dogs, but schence jump me and ruin the whole strategy

No need to kite- bear hits like wet noodle. Just inner fire, near exit gate, stand there and block when he rears up- otherwise keep taunt and just do. Tank stays on dog platform area where they spawn; dps should be directly in front of healer/behind bear like any other turn and burn- just watch for cat pop; disable and continue.

Yes I am speaking vet - I've not yet done normal so idk what is different there.

Mureel

Oh yeah - they need to interrupt senche- I slotted Crushing Shock and I interrupt it. (Healer) and also one DPS put CS (he's a NB so he did since he use funnel) in case.

Really tanking bear is just a matter of keep taunt and block only when he rears; because he knock you down - but is not bad even so.

Bear is much health but weak and anyone can taunt him in place. Just watch plants.

Mureel

Perhaps first time coms might be best to call cat pop. Also he pop to furthest guy- is why we disable him as away from bear/exit as possible - so he will pop on dps stack- then anyone just bash, kinda run back a bit, disable cat and done. If your dps can just focus bear; even combined 50k group dps is enough.

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

The animal menagerie is not hard, you are just too weak.

AlnilamE

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

That all sound good on paper, but in practice it gets so complicated with all the mechanics specially of dps it not high, will try again i guess.

our healer didnt know how to kite boss so one our dps did it, so that dropped dps a bit. i tried as a tank to take away the dogs, but schence jump me and ruin the whole strategy

For some fights, they are hard until you develop the muscle memory. When you've done it a couple of times, you learn to react to the cues.

So it will definitely get better with practice.

r3turn2s3nd3r

It's so so so much easier if you can just run 1 tank 3 dps. You don't really need a healer in there on vet as long as you have a competent tank and 3 dps who know how to stay out of red.

Running with a healer and having 40K group dps is going to mean you will see the senche mechanic probably often and that is the mechanic that is the end of most groups.

I've ran it both ways, granted our 2 dps when we ran with a healer both pull 35K, so we had no problem getting the cat to sit down before 30 seconds. But with 3 dps that fight is over quickly.

But as everyone above has already said, tank stacks them all, dps / heals 'soft stack' and circle the group when the wolves come. Keep AoE on the group. Focus the senche with single target, when it sits, focus the bear. Ignore the guar.

Mureel

^ hogwash. It's not at all easier that way; just faster if no one dies/derps.
Except they usually do until they know it well, and on first clear, they don't.

r3turn2s3nd3r

Mureel wrote: »

^ hogwash. It's not at all easier that way; just faster if no one dies/derps.

Agree to disagree then, we run 3 dps now and never see the senche mechanic anymore. And I did say IF the 3 dps can stay out of red.

Make2k15

For a good group it's not that hard fight. It's hard to carry PUG group through that fight though. In fact last time Fang Lair was the pledge I was able to for the first time carry totally noobs through it without giving about any instructions for them (as dd).

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

...
The schence jump ruins all possible mechachanics and everything just respwans.
...

The trick is to rez really fast the one who got killed. Just pop up the shield up and let the senche agro u while rezzing. That way the senche is soon again at the starting point and you can continue taking it down.

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

...

We had around 2 20k dps, but it just wasn't happening.

Is it really just a dps race??
...

Well, if your group does good dps and applies it wisely (target priority: (1) senche, (2) guar/bear) then the senche will only get one single leap attack on u. So I would say that not a totally dps race, but good dps will make the fight a lot easier.

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

...
because there is no reliable mechanic that will keep you alive for too long.
...

If you can figure out how the senche chooses his target for the leap attack (maybe the furthest group member from it or something like that?) then you can just avoid the attack yourself and rez the one who got down asap. That way I would imagine it would be pretty easy fight, right? In fact, that's the way I did carry those noobs through that fight when Fang Lair was the pledge last time. Just get the one up who died before the senche does that leap attack again and the senche is not that much of a threat.

Merlin13KAGL

Bigevilpeter wrote: »

That all sound good on paper, but in practice it gets so complicated with all the mechanics specially of dps it not high, will try again i guess.

our healer didnt know how to kite boss so one our dps did it, so that dropped dps a bit. i tried as a tank to take away the dogs, but schence jump me and ruin the whole strategy

It comes down to group synergy on this one, really.

You have to move as a unit - if everyone gets spread out, it goes to hell in a quick hurry.

The senche and the dire wolves are the key to this fight. Staying close to one another will make heals and senche interrupts easier. With the dire wolves, as has been mentioned, you either try to control the proc (forced explosion) or you kite. If you're forcing the proc, it's either proximity or by killing them. I don't think motion has anything to do with it, other than that they eventually close the distance on you (thus proximity)

Even with lower DPS (I assume you mean 40k group with 2x20k) it can be done. You can drop AoE in front of you and move as a group in a wide circle. Drop them in such a way that the bosses in the middle take damage, but the wolves do as well. And if one's close to dying, thus close to exploding, don't bring it near the group.

If you work as a team with the motion and interrupts, you can get these down. You'll have arguably better luck with one of the two methods - you'll just have to figure out which based on the group at the time.

As heals, I literally spent the majority of the fight strafing and turning my camera. I was orbiting the bosses and the group members.

As has also been mentioned, the biggest boss actually poses the least threat. And to this day, I still don't know the significance or function of the arcing projectile he'll place on one person at random.

The good news is, up to the last fight, the rest of them are easy, with the lich boss to follow being an absolute joke (even on vet)

*About the senche - he always goes for the furthest party member. Fear followed by pounce, followed by interrupt or death. Also, try not to linger too close to the edge. He's got no qualms about fearing you right off of it.

You can effectively disregard the puffballs, unless you eat multiples of them.

A couple other subtle things to consider:

• If your tank can eat the dire wolve explosions, standing near their spawn point will lead to their quick demise, and thus faster time to cooldown.
• If not, being further away will give more distance, and thus more time that you won't have to kite yet as they respawn.

This fight is about communication, cooperation, and group coordination. It does not have to be a DPS race.

BuddyAces

Having an interrupt on any range dps and the healer is a big help. Focus that darn cat down. Just kite circles from those arse hat exploding adds. When cat drops then focus boss. Rinse and repeat. This is a good strat if you have low group dps. If someone mentioned this before me then ignore me.

If you go for a no death run then get ready to laugh when the cat pounces on someone and pushes them into a mushroom. That happened a couple times to us.