Most difficult HARD MODE of last 2 years

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

Frostvault

im amazed how many people consider fang lair to be hard since the only "hard" part is to look around yourself?...seriously...frostvault on the other hand...solo tanking the ablative fallout with major defile 90% of the time on you is really fun zos.
and no I dont use healers in my groups, the game doesnt need them in 4 man content, and yes this should change.

TheNightflame

not using a healer makes that fight un-necessarily hard, my friends used to farm on 3 dps and 1 tank, then they replaced their 3rd dps with me on heals and clears got faster and more relaxed.

Sometimes not using a healer is stubborn (but I agree they're often not more helpful than a third dd)

Masty_Spy

Scalecaller Peak

Yesterday we tried FL HM. Thats really challenging. 30 tries - best result - 30% on last phase. We have a couple issues:
1) Huge poison aoe sometimes drops on crystall
2) 2 or 3 colossi at the same time.
3) I am solo-target range dd and i CANT target shalkssometimes even with TAB button. All skills go into huge hitbox of the boss
4) Orryn spawns 1 km away from us and we cant interrupt him.

Any pro tips? Best practice with shalks and colossi?

frozzzen101

Frostvault

Easiest might as well be MoS and DoM.

As for hardest, as tank main, FV hardmode absolutely takes the cake. And tbh, it's not just final boss hardmode that is ugly, the entire dungeon is meatgrinder. Every boss has capacity to wipe you, and trash is not harmless either. That might have affected my vote in a way.

I'm kinda happy that people still think Fang Lair is hard. While I don't think it's too hard nowadays, it's still one of best structured fights in 4 man content. Yeah, you can bruteforce execute phase with high dps, but all things considered it aged quite well.

Darkenarlol

Fang Lair

highest number of crossing unforgiving mechanics at once

Darkenarlol

Fang Lair

Masty_Spy wrote: »

Yesterday we tried FL HM. Thats really challenging. 30 tries - best result - 30% on last phase. We have a couple issues:
1) Huge poison aoe sometimes drops on crystall
2) 2 or 3 colossi at the same time.
3) me as solo-target range dd CANT target slaks even with TAB button. All skills go into huge hitbox of the boss
4) Orryn spawns 1 km away from us and we cant interrupt him.

Any pro tips? Best practice with shalks and colossi?

1) keep your tank with the boss in the center of the room

2) you are too low on dps in 1st phase (one colossus spawns immediately,

second one in ~8-10 sec if crystal is not destroyed if i remember correctly)

or you are too fast on last phase (colossus spawns at 40 30 20 and 10 % of remaining boss' health)

3) they die in aoe (if they don't let your healer or even 1 of dds focus them)

4) range interrupts such as crushing shock from healer works fine here


as you asked here is a pro tip - tank doesn't have to taunt the colossus

dds just kill him while dodge rolling his charged attacks (it is kinda delayed so

dodge after ~1.5 sec after he starts charging his heavy)

ccfeeling

Frostvault

I can't pick MF and LOM , because all my friends left the game after Scalebreaker released , pug ? Impossible !

I would say FV is harder , it's not about the boss , it's the mickey phase ... we can't skip this phase by high dps .

tsaescishoeshiner

Fang Lair

quadraxis666 wrote: »

Fang Lair imo remains the hardest hardmode on live. It's the only one where RNG plays a part that puts elements of the fight beyond any players control, during the 2nd phase with the constant ghost walls where you're never sure where the gaps are going to be, potentially putting you in lose-lose situations where you have nowhere to go.

Divines, this 100%. The amount of rng is wild - our group's strategies all entailed how to LOWER the rng (play it safer) but it was never 100% due to the overlapping mechanics

Higher dps mitigates the amount of time you have to deal with rng for, which might be why some people don't find it as hard as others. But it's not just challenging like the other hard modes, just random - and with multiple phases with completely different mechanics.

Other hardmodes are fun and make me want to try them again and again! Fang Lair tho ... Fang Lair ...

code65536

Lair of Maarselok

1) Huge poison aoe sometimes drops on crystall

Keep the boss away from the crystal.

2) 2 or 3 colossi at the same time.

During the first phase, the only DPS race are the crystals. Take too long, and the crystal will spawn an additional Colossus. Don't let that happen.

The crystals activate at boss health percentages. So as soon as a crystal activates, disengage from the boss and destroy the crystal. A common mistake of inexperienced players is that they will not shift focus to the crystals. So not only does the crystal take too long to die, the boss gets pushed and now you have two crystals active. In fact, you can even just stand around and do nothing--just recharge resources and recharge ultimates--during the time between crystals.

For inexperienced groups, I would strongly recommend keeping the boss away from the crystals--this means the boss mechanics (e.g., poison circle) won't interfere and it will limit cleave damage and prevent you from accidentally pushing the boss to the next crystal activation while you're dealing with the current crystal.

Keeping the boss away does mean that the tank won't be taunting the Colossi. But that's fine. Having the Colossus aggroed onto a DD means the Colossus will stay with the crystal and get cleaved down. And it makes life easier for the tank. The Colossus poses no threat except for its 1-shot heavy attack, which everyone should just learn to dodge roll.

During the second phase, Colossi spawn at health percentages (40, 30, 20, and 10%). You could either kill or ignore the 10% Colossus. But for the first three Colossi, focus it down as soon as it spawns and avoid pushing the boss to the next spawn until it's dead.

The common theme in both the first and second phase is simple: Boss DPS is not important, and in fact, too much DPS on the boss will cause things to spiral out of your control.

3) me as solo-target range dd CANT target slaks even with TAB button. All skills go into huge hitbox of the boss

Ignore the scarabs. They die on their own after a short period of time. Don't waste your time with them. Instead, the tank should immobilize or CC the scarabs and just run away. For example, a DK tank can use Talons, a NB tank can use Mass Hysteria, a Sorc tank can use Encase, etc.

Remember, maintaining DPS on the boss is not important. So it doesn't matter if the tank moves the boss all around the room as they run away from the shalks. Holding the boss in-place when shalks are out makes things unnecessarily difficult for the tank.

4) Orryn spawns 1 km away from us and we cant interrupt him.

If you can't interrupt him, then ignore him. In our runs, if he channels far from us and none of us bothered to slot a ranged interrupt (or if the dragon is in the way of a ranged interrupt), we just dodge roll a few times and avoid the damage. For the healer and magicka DDs, they can also spam their shield a few times. The damage could also be blocked, if you don't have the stam to dodge. It's not a big deal.


In summary... (and I'm addressing this to everyone who voted FL as the hardest)

The most important advice that I can give is that FLHM is not a DPS race. The only part that is timed is dispatching each crystal before it spawn additional Colossi, but even for casual players, that should be easy, since you can just slowly light-attack the boss between each crystal phase and have ults ready to drop for every crystal.

This is a fight where you, the players, have complete control over the pacing. Use that to your advantage! If your group need time to rebuild resources, recover, etc., then just stop damage on the boss. Since key mechanics--crystal activation in the first phase and Colossus spawn in the second phase--happen at boss health percentages, you have the ability to make those things happen when you're ready for them to happen.

When the ghost walls start appearing in the second phase, make that your only priority. Again, DPS doesn't matter. So if focusing on avoiding the wall means not paying attention to your rotation or even stopping damage completely, then that's completely fine.

People often complain about RNG in FLHM. That's just a poor scapegoat. There is no "unlucky" wall if you're paying attention. There is no "unlucky" golden circle if you have assigned circle quadrants. There is no "unlucky" mechanics overlap if you exercise good control of the pacing.

In general, I'm surprised at how FL is currently voted as the hardest HM. It's not that hard if you approach it correctly. Don't make it much harder than it needs to be.

Canadagreen

Fang Lair

@code65536 Great text guide, man. great explanation, thank you for tips, it will be super useful for me as tank.
(I play with OP in a group)

p.s. Thank you for your Combat alerts add-on too.

Nefas

Frostvault

I’d say Frostvault.