The Hidden Forest

Disclaimer: This was written back in November(ish) of 2009 for my guilds forum. Some of this data may be outdated, but it should still be fairly accurate. Hopefully this will help new raiders. Good luck!

Eashen of the Sky

He's a straight up tank and spank mob, but don't underestimate his damage output. He has very high DPS, as well as massive HP's.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 2 clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 3.

Aaryonar

Aary is a beast when he is unslowed, but luckily he is slowable. For this fight position the healers up on the ledge right before you drop in, the reason for this is to avoid the nasty AE mana drain that he has. Once healers are in position (bots also), have the first cleric in the CH rot call the ch. After 3-4 seconds, have the tank pull Aaryonar and position him facing *away* from the clerics, that way DPS will be close enough for group heals. Group heals do not reach as far as cheals do, so having melee closer to healers than the tank is a general rule of thumb on AE mobs.

Key to the fight is Malos/Tashing ASAP, then slow. Do not send DPS in until he is slowed! Ramp is brutal when unslowed, so make sure you have DPS hold until he is slowed with at least BoD.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 2 clerics, 2-3 patchers (for DPS/tank)
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 3.

Lord Feshlak

This one's trickier, as he has a mean AE nuke as well as AE ramp. His AE nuke is only 80 range, so the best way to go about positioning healers is to find your max heal range. To do this you target the mob and see how far away you can be with CH being castable. Make sure you fully cast CH because it does occasionally let you begin casting, but it will not fire (will say out of range). Once you find max distance, move up a few more feet to give you leeway for healing the tank.

Have the shamans pre-slow with balance of discord if you have tash, if not then use disease slow. Keep him slowed the whole fight, and make sure you slow him well before it's actually going to fade because he has massive MR. Once he's slowed, have the tank rush in and stand as close to the center as possible, but face him *away* from the clerics (again, the rule of thumb for DPS to be close to healerS).

Recommended # of Tanks: 1-2
Recommended # of Healers: 2-3 clerics, 2-3 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 3.

Dagarn the Destroyer

Brutal! As you guys know, he's a beast to kill. With his massive AE damage as well as spikey tank damage he is easily the toughest mob in ToV if done incorrectly. Position healers just outside his little room, but behind the land that sticks up. Put all your ranged DPS in LoS of him, but make sure theyr'e close to the ledge because Dagarn has a HUGE AE ramp range. This fights all about killing him before he kills you. Have a cleric spam AHL on the tank, and then 1 other person patching (a shaman will do just fine). Group setups should have all melee dps in the same group as another cleric whose sole job is to spam group heals when they are needed. The melee DPS will get hammered this fight, and they'll need as many heals as they can get.

Call a heal inc on the MT, then have the tank pop def and run in. Have rangers pop TS, but have your melee save their discs for the next fight.

Recommended # of Tanks: 1
Recommended # of Healers: 2-3 clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 4-5.

Lord Kreizenn

This one is easily the toughest in ToV, but only if you are unprepared! He is really easy once you get the strat down, so let me try my best to explain this. The first thing to do is to pull his first two drakes, but beware! His AE is targeted and it will severely damage an unexpecting raid force. The trick to this is to keep the person with aggro out of LoS of Kreizenn while you kill the other drakes. He aggro's whoever is closest to him due to his perma rooted status.

First set up your raid back by Dagarn the Destroyer and have them wait there. Then grab the 2 tanks who will be tanking the drakes, and get them their targets. Once they have the targets, have one of them aggro Kreizenn, and be aware that the 2 drakes will come when you do this! The other tank needs to be ready to cast on their drake and run back to the raid. Make sure each tank is assigned a cleric, these drakes are no joke.

Once the drakes are down, have the MT move in towards Kreizenn. After he goes down the slippery ramp, he needs to go in front of the wall that's right before the end of the slippery area. I can't really explain this any better, so I hope you remember! Once the tank is infront of that wall, you're free to move the rest of the raid up to the opposite side of the wall that the tank is on (the slippery side). Kreizenn is rooted, which means he aggros whoever is closest. As long as the tank stays on his side, he will be the only one getting hit by the AE. Keep in mind that if anyone gets in LoS of the tank when the AE fires, they WILL be hit! You have been warned!

Once the raid is in position, wait for Kreizenn to fire one last AE. After that AE, top the tank off and start the CH rot. The AE range is only about 100~It can be avoided if you're careful.

As for the rest of the dps, good luck to them! All melee will need a cleric who is ready to group heal in their group, if theirs 1 melee alone in a group then a shaman or druid should do just fine.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 3 clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 5.

"Lady M"

She is one of the easier ToV bosses luckily. Assign a drake to 2 seperate tanks who each have a cleric healer. Pull the drakes, kill them. Once the drakes are dead, move the raid into her little area and prepare to fight. You will need either 1 cleric spamming CH's and 1 more healer patching, or 2 clerics chain CHing the whole fight to do this. The melee dps will also need heals as she AE rampages.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 1- clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: 2-3

Lord Koi'Doken

The little fish in the water! Well he is not fun to pull, and pulling is half the battle to this guy. You have two options to get him out of the water. Option 1 is to have a monk stonestance , jump in, and run back to the raid. Option 2 is to have a bard DA, jump in, and run back to the raid. Either way would work fine, the point is to just get him out of the water and onto a more formitable playing ground for the raid.

The raid needs to be positioned behind any wall, he has an AE nuke so just make sure that healers/bots have a place to hide from that. Once you pull, have the clerics start the CH rot and tank tag ASAP. Be careful, don't let clerics heal too early or the tank may not have enough aggro and he will run straight for the healers! Have rangers TS, save all melee discs. They will be needed for Vyemm.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 2-3 clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 3-4.

Lord Vyemm

Vyemm is a BEAST in melee damage. He is a little easier than Dagarn, but he has massive HP. Luckily he does not AE rampage, but never the less his melee out put is just scary. It is recommended to have your best tank up to fight, and 3 clerics chain CHing him. If you cannot have 3 clerics, you need 2 then 2 patchers. Even with Jeido I have died on this mob with only 2 clerics and 1 patcher. It may be doable with such a low heal number, but it is very risky! Have melee burn max DPS on this mob, you need him dead ASAP. Rangers should also be in shaman groups with the other melee dps, and they should melee since it is perma rooted and does not AE ramp.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 3 clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 4.

Skipping all the easy ones!

Vulak`Aerr

Ok, now for the beast himself. He has an AE 7K nuke and it's also a debuff, disease based. It has a 300 range, so dont bother trying to move rangers far enough away to avoid it. Everyone will need to eat it. Basically, hide healers/bots before the bridge to the left inside the little nook. Have the tank pull it and position on the first half of the bridge, just make sure he is not close enough to ramp the healers! When the AE hits, tell your bot to cure disease at least 2-3 times, or until it fades. It has a lot of counters so it takes quite a few cures.

Vulak himself hits like a truck, has massive HP, and AE rampages/flurry's. He is the only mob that's been able to kill an enc charmed pet so far, so beware! Healers need to be on the ball the whole fight or you will wipe.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2-3
Recommended # of Healers: 2-3 clerics, 2-3 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 5.

Dain Frostreaver

The hardest part about Dain is getting him out of his castle and onto a good battle field for the raid. Position your raid at the ent, and have a cleric HoT your best tank. Send the tank in to round up the first two floors of the castle, and pull them back to the raid. Once those are dead, have the tank go back inside with a HoT on, and all the way up to the top floor. Make sure the tank is careful and stays to the side opposite of Dain, he has a BIG aggro range. Pull all of the royal guards and remaining councilers to the ent and kill them. The next step is to pull Dain himself.

To pull Dain you need a monk puller (or a skilled bard). What you do is send the monk up top and have him pacify the mob next to Dain (it AE blinds, and is lvl 255 so cannot be hit by spells or melee...basically invincible except for special abilities). As soon as that's pacified, pull dain and hit Stonestance of Voiddance disc to run back to the raid. It takes more than 12 seconds to get out of the castle, so this is semi luck based, but the monk needs to get back outside. Once the monk is outisde, have the MT tag and FURIOUS. Dain hits like a mack truck and you CANNOT tank him without slow. Have your shamans malos/BoD ASAP, and if theirs an enc make sure it is tashed. He has high MR, if you have no enchanter then have one shaman start off with diseased based slow. When furious is fading, have the MT spam defensive so that theirs no rounds that land without defensive. After it's slowed, pulled, then its much more managable and it's not so bad. Have your basic 2 cleric ch rot, with another cleric healing melee dps.

Recommended # of Tanks: 2
Recommended # of Healers: 3 clerics, 1-2 patchers
Recommended # of DPS: As many as possible, at least 5.

Some of the most notable changes made since this post that come to mind are:
• Kreizzenn is no longer nearly as difficult. He used to have a 4K AE rain (yes, 12k AE rain over ~6 seconds), and it would fire at least once a minute, if not more, and kill any undergeared DPS on the 3rd hit of the rain. This has been severely nerfed since I raided ToV, and it’s pretty laughable now.
• The two drakes near each boss have been nerfed HP wise, maybe DPS as well.
• Donor items are now in game – if you have donor items, then these named will all be considerably easier. This is especially true for DPS donors, as when this was written then the best weapons were epic 1.5’s and SSRA weapons.
• Vulak has been made easier from what I am told, so positioning may not be as crucial. I’m not sure what changes were made, but it was likely his AE that was toned down.
• Most of the “scariness” of ToV came from the nasty AE’s on the bosses. This can be negated fairly well now by farming the aug droppers in WW. Again, as the post says this was made back when the server was only 6 months old. There are now a lot of opportunities for farming some easier-to-obtain loot if you’re having trouble with ToV named.

One last thing is this: if you are really struggling in ToV then just spend a few days farming LDoN gear for your toons. LDoN is another great piece of content that unfortunately wasn't available back then -- even just a few pieces would make many of these names easily 1 groupable, especially if you get weapons.

Thanks! i'm looking to start clearing these but don't think my tank is up to it yet. What is the recommended AC for a warrior to start trying these fights?

Deadspirit wrote:Thanks! i'm looking to start clearing these but don't think my tank is up to it yet. What is the recommended AC for a warrior to start trying these fights?

Bare minimum, you need full ToV gear. You may be able to go without the BP, or as stated above if you get some good augs from WW, donor, or LDoN gear then it will be easier. In other words, I recommend 3-3.5k AC before trying to do these with less than 2 groups.

I got my warrior to ~3,750 buffed and I don't have trouble tanking 2 or so trash non-disc but I can't seem to stand up long enough to accept a CH on the red west wing dragon. It seems like my problem isn't armor as much as its healing... or hp.

Guess i gotta get my sham/clr in a different heal rotation.

Deadspirit wrote:I got my warrior to ~3,750 buffed and I don't have trouble tanking 2 or so trash non-disc but I can't seem to stand up long enough to accept a CH on the red west wing dragon. It seems like my problem isn't armor as much as its healing... or hp.

Guess i gotta get my sham/clr in a different heal rotation.

If you're 1 grouping these then having 1 cleric CH isn't going to cut it for these named. Your only option is to spam AHL with a secondary healer also spamming heals, and praying the mob dies before your mana pool does.

We needed 3ish clerics on average running a CH chain, with a few patchers on our tank when we did these raids. I couldn't imagine 1 grouping it with just Tier 1-2 gear (ssra/ToV only) personally, but you can always be surprised.

As noted above, if it's too difficult for you then consider farming LDoN's or WW augs before trying named on your own. They're definitely not a pushover, especially heal wise.

I've noticed that a small difference in AC can change the entire game.

I started stillmoon with ~2.5kac and couldn't solo one without disc. With 3600 unbuffed I can easily tank them (With the exception of the FREAK spiders which can almost 1-round me). Im guessing that when I get the 4 other pieces of glowing armor with sturdiness and replace the 8ac type 1 augs with 21ac and i'll be around 4k buffed.

(I know tov armor is better but farming glowing armor gives instant gratification!)

I also got a PM from someone recommending that I stop buying stupid AAs like Flurry and go with the +hp ones that I omitted.

Im sure the Shaman donor would solve alot of my problems but the game has to be somewhat challenging to be fun!

Deadspirit wrote:I've noticed that a small difference in AC can change the entire game.

I started stillmoon with ~2.5kac and couldn't solo one without disc. With 3600 unbuffed I can easily tank them (With the exception of the FREAK spiders which can almost 1-round me). Im guessing that when I get the 4 other pieces of glowing armor with sturdiness and replace the 8ac type 1 augs with 21ac and i'll be around 4k buffed.

(I know tov armor is better but farming glowing armor gives instant gratification!)

I also got a PM from someone recommending that I stop buying stupid AAs like Flurry and go with the +hp ones that I omitted.

Im sure the Shaman donor would solve alot of my problems but the game has to be somewhat challenging to be fun!

I agree! Those donor weapons are tempting but it is a lot of fun to see if you can go through the progression without them!

I have been doing a little ToV lately with a friend and our bots. We basically use 1 tank 21.5khp/3.2kac buffed to tank. He has pretty much full ToV armor (from NToV, not ToV plate specific armor). He has a few tier 4 pieces as well. But either way he's still a little smooshy. For healing we have a cleric with about 200 aa's all healing aa's done and now working on mana regen/hotkeyed aa's. My primary heal is Ancient Hallowed Light. I want to say her mana is about 14k or so. She's primarily t3-t5 geared w/ epic 1.5. I have a shaman donor as well, so basically our healing is Word of Alchemist and the 1 cleric.

As for for the complete setup I'll list below

Monk - 400 aa's w/donor t2/t5 geared mainly.
Monk - 225 aa's t2/t5 geared.
Ranger - 125 aa's w/donor bow seb/t2 geared mainly.
Ranger - 125 aa's w/ donor bow NToV geared some t3.
Rogue- 225 aa's w/donor t2/t5 geared.
Wizard - 150 aa's w/ 1.5 t1/t2 geared maybe.

Warrior - 225 aa's NToV geared few t4 pieces. 21.5khp 3.2k ac buffed.
Cleric - 200 aa's t3-t5 geared w/1.5

So that's our main setup. We have killd about 5 NToV named in our first attempt. Our biggest issue was it seemed 1-2 of the dragons would seem to drop threat, or at least felt that way and would turn on dps the moment they would atk. Our other issue was the tank. He needs more AC. I have to be defensive/cleric def. spell to keep him up easily. Even with shaman donor he gets beat fairly bad on a few dragons. Lady M and Lord Kriezen were cake, while Lord F and another were a bit tougher and required non stop healing from the cleric.

As for the our DPS that's not an issue, as long as we keep tank alive, the dragons die quickly. I think what keeps the cleric from running oom on a few is her gear and the fact we kill it so fast. 2 ranger with Donor's eat through their health + the monk duo and rogue/wizzie duo just adds in.

The guide posted above is still good to use as far as hiding from AE etc.. They may be easier, but they still aren't pushovers if you're not geared.

make sure that your melee dps is @ max melee range on any bosses that are rooted. Rooted mobs in EQ act odd - basically their threat isnt based on Hate, but rather on proximity to the middle of the target.

So make sure your tank is hugging as close as possible, and your melee dps is @ max range, otherwise they will be dropping fast ><