Traps are a pain, but manageable. If you sneak when you first enter, you can disarm several in the main area before the fight starts. Have everyone take part in this - it helps.

Round 1 (normal cats), don't even worry about doing damage to the boss, wait until he comes down.

Round 2:

CC's, talon's requires you to be close. Shattering doesn't work as well as Restraining prison (you get more time with them slowed, even more if you have the points in the passive that extends time for DM skills, and it also doubles as a minor self heal - again with the passive enabled) Negate will drop them all for at least 9 seconds.

Ice staves can help here too. Wall of elements (either morph) will slow them and help you keep some distance. Heavy attacks, as well.

The kitties are not immune to knockback (enter Fire Destructive Touch). Volc Rune (Mages guild line) helps as well.

Again, wall of elements is useful here, as you can direct it in front of you.

Rune prison is ok for a couple at most - anything anything breaks RP, so anyone is AoEing, you're likely to waste the spell.

Weakness to elements (only one of you needs this) will help the boss go down faster. Siphon, if you're using restro, will give everyone some free heals when attacking the boss. Anytime you're not healing/casting, use a full heavy for resource return.

Beyond that, avoid Longclaw's AoE posion circles and chip away. If you can lay down the occasional DoT (Damage over time - Impulse, or the AoE from the Bow line) and get the boss in there as well, then you're getting double duty.

The main thing with the spirit cats is that they continue to spawn, so don't overfocus your efforts eliminating them.

Kill a couple of them to take the edge off, then restrain/rune prison, etc.

Knock back if they get to close and you can't take the hits, Volc Rune if they're overwhelming your party members.

Once the boss dies, they die with him.

Keep moving (in the areas your disabled the traps) and you'll be fine. (You can continue to disable more of them by sneaking, if you find yourself free of aggro from time to time.)

Last thing, Daedric mines and Crystal Frags (use on insta cast only) will also do damage and disable temporarily, plus provide small self heal. They are generally cost prohibitive, but can be added if you're still having trouble dealing with the spirit cats.

Try some of these out, and let us know how you fare.

Talons are effective, but has shorter range. If you use it and then step out, you should be fine. (Remember there is a lot of poison AoE)

Generally, CC is used for one of two purposes: To keep something there so you can beat on it, or to keep something away from you.

From what you've told me, I'm gathering your intent is the 2nd.

Depending on which you're having issue with will help determine whether or not Talons is a good fit (and determining what you're replacing it with).

The other CC's mentioned have good range without requiring you to be right on top of the enemy (so they can be used by your healer, for instance)

The spirit cats used to work by respawning after the 4th was dispatched. How it seems to work more consistently now is that it's a timed thing. (Kill one, after a time period, another respawns)

They will continue to respawn as long as LongClaw lives - they're intended to snare/damage/distract you from the boss.

By killing two of them but not all, you reduce the amount of things targeting you (less damage taken, less chance for snare) without completely taking your focus off the boss. Five targets targeting 1-4 people is considerably different than 3 targets targeting 1-4 people.

This keeps you from focusing on the endless adds (and doing minimal boss damage) and makes your healing simpler. Think you'll find handling 2 adds is much more manageable than handling four, and you can focus where you need to - killing the boss.

The other beauty of Restraining Prison is that you get 15% (?) additional chance for critical if you have the passives maxed. This is huge if it's your DPS laying it down. (So, with passives and morph, you get self Heal, Root x 6, Snare x 6, and increased Crit chance x 6 in one skill...What's not to love?)

The short version is, there are a lot of CC options that will help your group keep some distance and not get overwhelmed. Volcanic Rune is wonderful here, just don't let it use all your resources (esp if you're healing). It can save the day if someone is getting overwhelmed by adds and steps in a trap at low health. You can also drop it point blank at your feet.

Something else I didn't mention, many of the Bow morphs offer snare, disorient, and knockback (single target) options.

Depending on your group, try some of these. Keep moving, chip away at the boss, heals, heals, heals.

You'll get there.

LongClaw, as it is in many of the group dungeons, is yet another mid-way boss that's actually harder than the end boss is.

Good luck

Thanks Dagoth for your thoughts on tanking Longclaw. I'll be sure to pass those along to our group tank so he can try some of your tactics next time. We really appreciate the time the both of you have taken to help us out. I see that we were doing a lot of things wrong in our tactics and hopefully with a few changes we can turn the table the next time.

HA - where the heck was I for this last week? Longclaw is the one boss that I could not tank. Obviously I was doing it all wrong. LOL I haven't even gone back in weeks so I could try and improve my tanking skills. I don't know if it helped them, but it did me. Thanks.

Cambridge_Spy wrote: »

Seriously, ZeniMax, you need to do someting about Longclaw's adds. I read what you did in the patch notes, and I'm very angry. Longclaw is the main reason why I can't beat Selene's Web, and instead of making things easier, you make our lives very difficult to the point where conquering Longclaw is like trying to control a sneeze. Please, do something about the Senche Spirits. Make them easier to kill or have a certain number spawn at a time or something.

Well, I know that frustration. However, if you follow the guide above, you will "control the sneeze". I had a rough time, see post above, but have figured the mechanics out and gotten it done. Group dynamics also play a part, but IMO, that boss gets easier and easier the more I run it. I hope they keep challenges like that in the game. It forces people to "play" the game, rather than just steam roll through things for better gear.

Well done @Morshire and @Cambridge_Spy !

Actually.... this is how you do it... man I love my NB XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbk9MrwcxGg&feature=youtu.be

I've had it up to here with this dungeon! While the abilities described above help at keeping Longclaw's cats at bay, I have only been able to beat him twice. Seriously ZeniMax, you need to nerf the fight with Longclaw. The same with Selene. I've been anxiously hoping the latest updates mention Selene's Web, but in the end, it does not get a mention whatsoever. When it does, it's either "Longclaw is now immune during certain stages" or "The Spirit Senches move faster now". I don't want that sort of thing, I want the damn things nerfed. Toned down.

And I don't care what others say about welcoming that kind of a challenge, in the end it just makes it a lot harder, nay impossible, to take the bosses down fast enough. Selene's Web is a giant thorn in the backside for me. Somehow having fights with a heavy emphasis on Group Dyanmics is a very, very bad idea.

I am very disappointed in you for making this very difficult.

Long story short. Tank slots a range taunt and drags the cats away so everyone can target the boss easier. Everyone dps the boss and ignore the cats while the tank keeps taunting the boss and any cats that spawn.

New comers still struggle with this is why I responded. Q up for this on your level 20 and you will see.

The short version:
1) Kill the black panthers, don't shoot at boss at this stage because he reflects back (like the Netch boss in Darkshade 2)
2) Have the tank distract the ghost adds and kite them away from boss, and if he can restrain them
3) Burn boss as fast as possible because once an add is killed another spawns right away to take its place.
Don't stay in the green puddles, they can poison you quite fast.

Hybrid builds work only for tank, which needs both stamina and magicka pool, as well as high health and he is not expected to do much damage, but aggro, debuff and CC the enemies. For DD though most attributes/enchants should be in either magicka or stamina, and armor should be light or medium respectively because your damage of your abilities scales of the resource they use as well as spell or weapon power & critical rating respectively. If you don't have enough DPS to kill stuff quickly, the group will be overwhelmed in some fights. The healer is just a magicka DD who mostly uses his spells for healing & support instead of pure damage.