Cazic Thule AE knock back..

[Enoah35]

Hello,

I am now facing CT as my obstacle of progression but since this is the first Tier 6 I am doing (bad choice I guess!) its probably a matter of practice. I just wanted some more information.

My Raid configuration (Yes I am aware its quite melee heavy):

Group 1: War, Clr, Brd, Rog, Mnk, Bst
Group 2: Shm, Sk, Mag, Nec, Rng, Ench
Raid Gear: Mostly Tier 3-5.
MT Stats: 9.8k AC, 32k Hp unbuffed.
AA: MT has 1.3k AA, The rest has between 500-1k AA

Issue: Position handling, not comprehending 100% the mechanic.
Best Attempt: 80% (pure chaos... mostly was pet and tank damage)
Number of Attempts: 9

Attempt 1-2 = Did not know he was rooted. First the keyboard got berserk screwed and somehow I sent my shaman to charge cazic.
Attempt 3-4 = Positioned the raid to Hourglass. Ended up the entire raid spread appart the zone.
Attempt 5-7 = Positioned the raid in front of the large tree behind Cazic (where he is visible). Same result as attempt 3-4.
Last 2 attempt = Positioned Raid "behind" the large tree, used levitate (!). Result were better, although overall result were the same. Found out that Cazic does indeed have los issues to hit the raid, but so does the raid (doh). Have to micro manage the DPS/healer.

What I found out:

1. He is rooted (2 wipes. Yes wiki did not mentioned this so I thought he was pullable)
2. Safe to say there are no 100% safespot to avoid his knockback.
3. When no one is near him, before 97% he just spams AE (confirmation needed)
4. The Large tree just behind him can block his LoS. Thus not hitting with AE.

What I would like to know:

1. He AE more than once in a row? My tank sometimes got Knocked back and then got knocked back again soon after. (could be the pets messing things?)
2. His AE has a dispelling component. Does he dispell 1 or 2 buffs at once?
3. Lastly. His AE happens every how often? I felt it was around 20-30 sec.

What I will try on next attempt:

1. Do the pulls right. Pull pet on safe spot and kill there.
2. Back off pets on each knock back.
3. Use levitate more often. (bard levitate is too unreliable)
4. Send few DPS at a time.
5. Shrink MT healer and place it near the broken altar where cazic is. (Reliable?)
6. Use Mage fire pet? (using water. Tier 8 with God Rk1)
7. Attempt to Charm out if things go bad (the entire process of running back, buff, buff pets with weapon etc etc is just tedious but thats EQ...)

Point 4 needs information on "What I would like to know". Depending on the timer, I could send a DPS (say melee), use Disc, then pull back behind the tree to avoid further knockback. Repeat with others. Since there are no real 100% safespot, I guess I need to do the Hit and Hide tactic.

Over all for the first time stepping into Tier 6 was OK experience. Was expecting to wipe in the first place and my plan was to get the scroll and not to start the instance itself. I recall raiding this zone in classic, that people had to watch the zone line due to mobs having absurd aggro range. I still hate with passion those tentacles that strips your entire buff in a blink of an eye. (and glarelords...) I would like some more advices if there are any.

[bishbash]

CT is mainly a ranged fight. If you are trying to box him with melee your going to find it very rough with the knockback. Range is the key for this fight. There are a few places around tree stumps that offer some kind of protection from the AE knockback, but even the best of these you will spend some time running back in.

I tend not to use pets, and just use my warrior as the main tank. I build up a little agro then start the rangers off. CT will AE knockback then summon my warrior back in. I spend more times trying to run my wizards to a decent spot than they spend nuking.

He dispells 2 buffs at a time from memory. Best to load up junk buffs and have some nice clickys to refresh on the tank only. Position is the key for this fight. There are a few places (all by trees i have found) that offer limited protection form the ae knockback while providing line of sight. None of these are 100% though and most of your toons will be knocked back during the fight at some point.

Healers should be able to stay hidden & heal without a problem if you have the range focus. I allways park my healers behind a big tree thats infront of the fallen log by CT. Seems you can have limited success with casters in front of this tree also. The tree does provide a little knockback protection if you get it just right, as they get knocked back into the tree rather than out into the wilderness.

Dont try and box too many toons on this fight. Just 2-3 DPS is enough for this fight as you are better off spending the time keeping their DPS going and keeping buffs upon your main tank than trying to keep all your DPS going.

I used to burn through 3-4 Defensive rings before running out of clickies & dying. Now he dies within 3 minutes. He is one of the more tricky ones to box until your find the perfect position. Keep trying, and keep trying different positions. Remember, hug a tree save the world.

[Enoah35]

Thanks for the Tips.

Will try this fight with Ranger, Necro, Mage without pets. Maybe pull in some melee dps when I am able.

[bishbash]

Dont waste your time with melle DPS. You wont get close enough to do anything worthwhile. Stick to keeping buffs on your tank and ranged dps doing their thing and you should be fine.

Can stick them all in 1 group and hide the rest so your not wasting time healing/running back toons that dont do doing anything worthwhile.

I box 22 toons, and for this fight I use 3-4 ranged dps. The rest just hide behind a tree and put the kettle on waiting for the win.

Here is my attempt at trying to show where I place my toons:


...........................CT (Big Bad Boss)

........................FALLEN-LOG

................x-range
..............TREE ON................TREE
.............Little HILL...............x-Healers behind tree out of AE

[Enoah35]

Thanks for the diagram. Yes its clear enough.

Guess I need to grind some Enchanter AA for Spell casting fury line.

[Stickybuds]

less is best in this fight. I know that is easier said than done when you don't outgear it, but only use tank, some healers, and a couple dps. stuff like bards for buffs are not going to help much b/c of the KB and you will have less dps and heals trying to manage those un-needed classes.

I also highly recommend hitting up some if not all of the VP bosses 1st and get some of that ancient armor and other items from VP. This will be a nice boost over your current gear and while those bosses are T6 as well, compared to the CT fight they are much easier.

Regards,
Sticky

[bishbash]

+1 what stickybuds said.

I cleared VP a few times before I even tried CT. Each full clear yields a toon with great new T6 armour, and also empties your pockets of 60kpp but it's well worth it. Less really is more when boxing this fight.

[Enoah35]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Since Plane of Fear was the first Tier 6 I have entered, was trying to figure out if I clear first or try out other Tier 6 content then come back. I will check out VP and see if I can upgrade my characters further since I have not received any considerable upgrade since ST during my farming on T4 (Fenin Ring mainly, some minis) and T5 (mostly weapon upgrade but not much armor upgrade here). Elemental Gear was not very convincing.

[Noren]

I've come up with many strategies for CT. Some that I liked, some that I didn't. The three consistent things I can recommend are:

1. Kill his pet and then 1-by-1, waltz each debuff class up by him and stack everything you've got. Then pull them back to safety.

2. If you don't have the dps to burn him, then try using webtools/items.php?id=7622 to help you maintain position with the environment backboards.

3. Make sure levitate is one of your last buffs so that it doesn't get dispelled until his second or third aoe.

[Deadspirit]

You're boxing 2 groups so you probably use MQ2. Have you used the addon that allows you to keep your instacast clickie buffs up? If a buff is dispelled the program will automatically click it back up. The fight is easier when fully buffed.

Also, you can keep your melee running into max melee range with the correct /stick range. Your tank will continually be summoned, but sticking at 1 will certainly keep him the main tank.

If your buffs are up and everyone is on the boss you should get him down in no time.

Bard and Healer behind in-heal-range AoE-blocking tree.

Forget using casters or ranged dps. Its a pipedream.

I have never used my own advice with MQ2 but I have seen the addons and know anything is possible with the correct programming. My bro and I kill him without MQ2 - we keep the clickies rolling and focus on less toons.