PUG: DOA in HM
Well the picture is a ring of Titans gems after a HM Quad run of DOA. The whole team got on Ventrilo and the key to finish was communication especially some of the rooms in foundry, 3rd and 4th specifically. A couple of times we were down to 1 or 2, but mostly because folks were grabbing two groups or not pulling a group back and a patrol came in. One thing I am always open to is learning from folks, and even though I would say this PUG group had a lot of people issues, there were a few that were genuine, knowledgeable, and helpful. I learned a proven method for Foundry rooms 3 and validated a method I suscribed to on room 4 and we had little problems with these areas. Getting 8 titans, 6 torments, 4 Stygian, and 2 Margonite gems may be desirable to those that want to get an armbrace and that tormented weapon. If there is interest maybe the alliance would be interested in a run. All we need is 5 ursans at rank 10/8 and 3 HB monks. The run took just under 3 hours, but that was with a break and a few rez episodes, since like I said the PUG group had some issues. so I think it could be done in a little less time. I whited out the names of the others as I did not get permision to publish.

yes, ursanless teams are available, but the areas take three times as long. Personally, I don't mind a few non perfect UB/LB folks in the group.

For NM, not perfect Norn/LB is fine, but for HM you don't even want to take many if any classes that have low armor. So if Jet speaks for WPG, looks like there is not much interested. Just thought it would be fun to tackle these challenges within the Alliance. For me its seems less and less alignment with my interests in playing with real people in challenging areas than where the Alliance seems to be. With the nerf bat continuing to come, I think many have gotten tired of it and either have abondoned the game or a number of classes/characters. I think Ursan may get nerfed, but its likely it will not get nerfed completly. The problem that Ursan has given is nothing comes close to the low time you can do these missions and the fast team formation and inclusion of all classes.

I agree with the quick team set ups and such, to a point. Some variety, is more fun. Playing the same build again and again makes, at least for me, even the challenging areas less exciting. I would actually prefer a trinity team, at this point, over Ursan. I think the real problem is the lack of new content. Someone posted a suggestion on guru for monsters that vary thier skill bars. That would be more interesting, and might prompt more balanced teams. Someone else had a Randomish idea, Starting in NF, complete Cantha before reaching level 20.

We use to do Foundry in HM, one of the toughest areas, with a Smite, 600, Famine team with two echo trapper rangers, and at least one of the rangers can be heros. This can do Foundry in about 1.5 to 2 hours and is actually easier to do in HM. The unfortunate thing is a Ursan team can do this in less than an 45 minutes in HM. There is a Cry team now doing parts if not all of DOA. This uses a CoP mesmer spikers, Template code: OQBSA4ATCVLB2gsgaAIgAAiOA. It might be fun to try this team as I have not tried this and would be a reason to bring my Mesmer up from Kamadan. There are all kind of teams that can do DOA given some coordination and more time, especially in NM. I remember my first time in DOA, we echo trapped Veil, which took like 4.5 hours. Problem is like Wormsy said, the lure of fast is very attractive.

Personally I've been dying to do some DoA, from the last time we did it as a guild I only need to finish the Mallyx part. I do have an R10 Ursan, but only one :) I have been thinking about trying with a pug, but needing only the Mallyx part might make for a difficult group to find, unless I just started all over.

There are always groups doing Mallyx Only and other parts of DOA. You should be able to finish Mallyx, but there are a few key things to do in Mallyx. First bring 2 WoH instead of HB, and only 1 HB as you want to minimize Enchants when you face Mallyx himself. The 18 groups ahead of Mallyx you do the same as usual, but when you face Mallyx at the end you need to do the following: 1. No weapons, just off hands 2. Use Ursan Skill 1 Only 3. No Enchants, Shouts, or Stances 4. Stay in Corner By door and if teleported run back to door. 5. Kill Mallyx First by door, you should kill him in 1 minute or less or you will likely fail. 6. After Mallyx is dead, run out and kill the rest of the spawns off to get to the chest. If everyone in the group does this you should be fine.

I have always had interest in DoA. And I have always wished there was more activity in the alliance in this area. I have tried HM pug groups and failed miserably every time. I have had great success with NM pug teams and had some very fast and profitable runs. I would very much like to get in some more DoA runs before the potential Ursan nerf. I have a 10/8 ele (low armor :? ) I use mantras depending on what we are facing and I have a +10 armor vs demons inscription in the shield I use in DoA. Wonder if it would be better for me to go /W and up my tactics to meet the full req on my shield, or take the 8(not meeting shield req) +10(vs demons) and use the mantras.

HM DoA with a pug is more of a miss, I've found. I was lucky to be part of a nice group who didn't really care about whether we messed up and even though we failed in Veil, it was still fun (for me at least). But for the most part, either the groups are too reckless or they are so "1337" that playing with them seems like work and they are constantly talking down to people. So I'd be interested in doing a HM DoA run. Just so I can say I did it. :D

I could use a run as well. I am 3/4 of the way to an armbrace. Monk needs just Foundry, but I can do all of the others again. Or, I can bring my good 'ol UB Ranger. Don't Mantras make up for low armor? Doesn't non max Norn/LB just make things take a little longer? I am not suggesting R1, but R6 Norn is 4 less armor, 40 less health, 30 less damage for Rage and 14*2 less damage for strike. I realize that the damage, in total, adds up over time but the additional time it takes for me is not that big a deal to accommodate guildies that will not take a break in the middle of the outing. By the way, you have three monks, so my monk is the one that gets to take a break after you are too far along to start over.

The unexpected happens often in these runs. Just finished another quad run, starting in veil. Before we even finished Veil, two of the Ursans DCed never to come back. The team went on and completed the full run in about the same time. The only difficulty was at the very end of City we ran out of cons, since two of the Ursans were gone (the normally users of the cons). So the final groups, the most difficult part of City, starting right before the second part we were 3 Ursans 3 monks and no cons and finished fine. This last part took a little longer and a death hear or there. Just goes to show how a fairly experience team, even with some missing numbers can finish a quad run. This was NM, so it is pretty forgiving.

Who says Ursan is overpowered?

Ursan will get the nerf bat, just a matter of time. It may be a different nerf than folks expect, like Shadow Form. I expected Shadow Form just to go back to what it was before they extended the time, instead they nerfed the damage you could do in that form.