Asardes wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

Well, there are already hard barriers against soloing some dungeons, like mechanics that catch or disable one or more players in certain ways and the others in the team need to free them or work together to beat the respective mechanic. For example:
Gamyne Bandu in Fungal Grotto 2 - adds catch one of the players and the others have to free him
Dranos Valedor in Cradle of Shaddows - similar mechanic, no way to defeat it solo
Captain Blackheart in Blackheart Haven - transforms one of the players into a skeleton and he can use only light attacks
Direfrost Keep - 2 players have to stand on the plates to open a gate
Ruins of Mazzatun - you need at least 2 players to carry the spice to the spring at Xal-Nur.

The soft barriers are mostly DPS races, and resource checks. For example it's extremely hard for a single player to burn the flesh atronachs in Imperial City Prison fast enough to prevent them from enraging even when they come with trash mobs around them, and impossible when they come with a harvester, two hoarvors and plenty of trash zombies right before the penultimate boss. Also the lava slingers in Ruins of Mazzatun have a very hard fear & enrage mechanic, that's hard to interrupt even for good tank with adequate support.

I like this! You use logic!

You are correct, though Gamyne Bandu's chaining mobs (Fungral Grotto II) can be killed by stacking AoE DoTs prior to being locked down.

Are you sure Dranos Valedor's lockdown cannot be passed? He kills you with his Heavy attack, which you must dodge/block upon escaping. Utilizing the Glory set maybe pass this (must also test on Nerien'eth).

It's probably possible to kill Bandu's adds by stacking AoE right before she CCs you because the adds are quite weak. For example liquid lightning and blockade of fire probably throwing a meteor on her and letting the DoT stack as well and will kill the adds before the sword reaches you. The problem is that while the adds are holding you down and the spectral sword is coming she still keeps attacking you - as a single player you automatically have the aggro - and she may well kill you even before the sword animation ends. It happened to me quite a few times actually, when I was in PuGs that were so weak they couldn't even kill the adds. And there are still two problematic bosses in the same dungeon. The Spawn of Mephala sends one player in the spider cave - if none goes of his one volition she picks a random one and throws him there - and if the other 3 all die during his time in the cave the boss simply resets and the surviving one is booted out of the cave regardless if he killed the spiders or not - also happened to me. If you are alone it will probably reset every time you are thrown i. Keeping the boss near the bridge/water ditch sometimes prevents the mechanic, but also may result in resetting her. The next boss is a "soft" barrier - when he does his special attack drains all magicka. You will be unable to attack him, or even recover health during this phase. Staking DoTs just before he does it may also work. End boss is quite soloable if you can self heal.

Regarding Dranos in Cradle, his attack is indeed a heavy attack and can be blocked/interrupted. It's even required to do that because just blocking still results in one-shot death most of the times. I don't know exactly how his mechanics is implemented, or what happens if he doesn't outright kill you with the first attack because the Glorious Defender set procs (9% if you hit him just prior). The game may bug, keeping you permanently CCd until killed by the other mechanics (ex. the rolling red balls) or he will most likely attack you again and kill you, since the adds don't disappear until killed or interrupted. And of course there is the part where he is invulnerable, just before the CC phase. He hits like a truck with his "steel tornado" attack, and has to be dodged/interrupted. You can probably kite him around the room killing the adds in the process though but it's very difficult. Velidreth itself has no "hard" barrier, but a set of very strong "soft" ones. For example she hits very hard, resulting in significant damage even to a fully blocking tank which is spamming shields at the same time. If she hits a DD or healer because of lost aggro it's one-shot for sure. In addition to that there are the balls that suck stamina and magicka and lower resistance, a bleed and a healing reduction (has the same icon as the meatbag catapult in the death recap). And then there's the ultimate devouring mechanic that can't be interrupted and since you are alone she will pick you every time.

On Nerien'eth I'm sure his attack can't be interrupted or avoided by set procs because it's not a heavy attack, but a special animation, like the spectral sword at Bandu. Stacking DoTs right before he catches you won't work either, as his damage shield is quite strong and requires at least two people with decent DPS bursting it quite hard to interrupt.