Midgard Focus Farmin

Crown of Zahur - Artifact

2006-01-21T00:03:00.000-08:00

For basic encounter information see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/zahur.html

The first thing to do when you get to the encounter is set a groundtarget directly in the middle of the four mobs. It's not easy to do this alone so set your groundtarget with your SM and then place your bot where he has a view of the four mobs at a 90-degree different view from your SM. Then do a /groundassist . If the groundtarget appears centered from your SM's view and your Shaman's view, you can be pretty certain it's right. Now set up about 1000 units off to one side (where you can see the closes mob's name) and buff up (including resists).

When you're ready to begin, disband (so all 4 mobs go after the same target) and drop a Crystal Titan at your groundtarget. If you've placed it correctly, all 4 mobs should attack it. Buff it with str, str/con, and AF if you have the concentration left.

The first minion to kill is Danthena, a caster. Send your pet in to fight her and put up your damage shield. She will drop quickly, but you want her to be away from the rock when she dies so you have time to kill her energy. So drop her to about 10-20% then put your pet on Passive to allow her to run off. Since she's nearly dead she won't be able to outrun you. Just let her get about 1500 units from the rock then kill her and then her energy. You'll likely have to help nuke the energy in order to kill it with your pet before it gets back to the rock. Then head back over by your bot and power up again.

Pull Boekide, the tank, and Gohron, the healer with separate regular pulls to your power font, then kill their essences before they get back to the rock. Both are pretty weak compared to your pet.

Now take a break and rest in your power font. Zahur with either kill your Crystal Titan or it will time out and die on it's own, but Zahur won't aggro you when this happens.

Just let your ML9 ability run out and come back up again. Zahur will sit peacefully and alone on his rock for about 20 minutes before his minions respawn so you have time for ML9 to come back up.

Once you are ready and rebuffed, leave your bot in the power font with your pet targetted and go off a bit and send your pet in to kill Zahur. He will melee and cast AE DDs on your pet, but only the spells will hurt your pet for any real damage. Just keep your focus sheild up and Zahur will drop pretty quickly. Zahur has a few tricks though. He will occassionally send a little floating blue bolt out to your SM or shaman where it will explode doing AE damage. It hurts but you can heal it up with friggs and small heals easily (big heals might draw Zahur's aggro). He also teleports around a few times during the fight and sometimes leaves a clone behind to AE stun. Your pet will stay on the real Zahur, though. Just keep your pet healed but don't go overboard to avoid peeling aggro. Be careful to avoid being too far to heal when Zahur ports, and if he ports on top of you, get away from him to avoid the AE DDs.

Once Zahur gets to about 20%, he'll go to his rock and launch his special attack. Any energy you didn't kill will launch from the rock and hunt down members of the class it represents (melee, seer, caster). If it's just you and your bot, you don't have to worry about the tank energy, but the seer or caster energy could do some serious damage. So kill those energies when you have the chance! If you killed all the energies, the special attack will fail.

I've seen some people say they just ignore the minions and leave them attacking the Crystal Titan and then just kill Zahur. If you do this and Zahur uses his special attack, the other 3 minions will die and you get nailed pretty hard. I prefer to not have to deal with that.

Zahur always drops a cold legendary component, but usually only drops ROG axes to go with it. However, he will sometimes drop some highly coveted items including a necklace and a ring.

Foppish Sleeves - Artifact

2005-06-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter, see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/fop.html

This one is a lot of work. If you're lucky, you can simply buy the Kibisis (looks like a bag) and Kerubis' Scythe off of CMs. If you're not so lucky, ask around or you'll have to farm them. The Kibisis drops off of taurs and maybe siam-hes in Volcanus. Farming taurs with a ML9 pet is pretty easy really and could be quite profitable - I got a Regarding Shades 3/3 while looking for a Kibisis. Kerubis' Scythe drops fairly rarely from all manners of tritons.

Next you need to kill one of the 3 named gorgons in the little ruins SW of Aerus Haven. I prefer Kasora (~10k, 17k Green Glades) because the other 2 may root or mez you. Once you kill one of the named gorgons, if you have the scythe and bag in your inventory, you'll automatically chop the head off the gorgon and put it in the bag. Have a speed class or horses because you'll need to get to Bergopes before the head rots. As the head rots, it will spawn red snakes behind it so keep moving!

Bergopes is way out at 52k, 9k in Arbor Glen. The route I take is pretty much straight north from the gorgon ruins, past the gorgon maiden camp, then NW til I'm passing Aerus Haven on the left - dodge the centaur messengers that may be in the woods there. Then I skirt along the north end of the Green Glades and Arbor Glen zones until I get to Bergopes' hill.

Bergopes is a tall cyclops at the top of a tall slanted spire of ruins. If you attack him without using the gorgon head, you can't get him below 50% because of his heal field. To deactivate the heal field for 15 minutes, you must use the gorgon head while standing between the two walls about halfway up the spire. Park your bot there in a power font - he can heal at will from there as Bergopes doesn't move and doesn't use ranged attacks. Have your bot target your pet at all times.

Run up to right next to Bergopes and put your pet on Stay, pop ML9, and send the pet after Bergopes. You must be within about 700 radius of Bergopes in order to attack him with the pet and with your focus shield. Put up your realm-castable damage shield and then your focus shield. During the fight, Bergopes will AE stun those around him, though it's hard to notice when you get hit with it. Pay attention to your buff bar at the top of the screen for when it happens, then just keep putting your shields back up as you can.

Also during the fight, Bergopes will pick you up and throw you in random directions, but not very far. When you land, you'll only have 1 hit point left. This will happen about 6-8 times during the fight. When it does, spam group heal on your bot to get back up to speed quickly. Run back up the spire and get in range of Bergopes again and recast your shields. Since your pet was on Stay, Bergopes will be hitting him the whole time you're running back, so keep your realm-castable damage shield up as much as possible so you're doing at least a little damage while you are out of commission. Heal the SM up to full with the bot so when you get thrown again you won't die.

There is some kind of code in play with Bergopes so that he throws more when more people are attacking him. So you may want to play around with other people attacking him, especially if they can't otherwise contribute. You'll probably want them to get out of Bergopes' range when you get thrown so the pet retains aggro.

If you brought anyone with you, put them to work if you can. A healer type can run to wherever you were thrown and heal you to get you back up the spire faster. A speed class can help you move faster. Other classes have some kind of RA or artifact that can heal you. Also, if you can, keep the single-target friggs on your SM while you're not healing, that will get you back up quicker as well.

Bergopes has a lot of hits but he doesn't hit particularly hard. Just keep at it. He'll likely live through the first ML9 pet, so don't panic. Just keep your shields up and get back in action quickly when you get thrown. When ML9 comes back up, pop it again. You'll get a one minute warning when Bergopes' heal field is coming back up. The fight will also probably outlast your power font so recast it when you get a chance.

Bergopes drops the artifact, a spirit legendary component, some Lightning-Etched armor, and ROG shields.

Eirene's Hauberk - Artifact

2005-06-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter, see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/eirene.html

The good news: Linos is pretty lightweight vs a buffed ML9 pet + focus shield. He does block a lot, so the focus shield comes in handy to actually damage him.

The bad news: You may spend all day collecting the five idols of Sobek and tracking down Linos only to get some ROG item.

Guard of Valor - Artifact

2005-06-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/gift.html

This is the first encounter I'm writing about that I can't do on my own - though if you have the right 3rd person, you can do it with just you, your bot, and a kiter.

I can only recommend doing this encounter at the nighttime location as the daytime location is fraught with peril from random wandering aggro. Set up a power font near, but not in the treeline. Pull as many of the patrollers, arcanists, etc as you can and kill them.

Now ungroup a puller, preferably a shaman with end5 or a RM or skald. Have the puller run in and hit one of Danos' friends with a spell and then run out of the trees and near you but not near enough to get a tick from the power font. When he runs by you, either send your pet in after Danos or hit him with a debuff to get him running at you and put the pet on him. Danos will give up the chase pretty quick so be ready to grab him before he turns back to his camp. If the kiter does his job well, killing Danos with a ML9 pet + focus shield is pretty easy - I did it with less than a full power bar - takes just 2-3 minutes.

The key is the kiter. He must run down past the Braggart's bow encounter. This person's job is to watch behind him and when the mobs stop chasing to turn back and hit them again. Keep them running after him and not turning back until Danos is dead. If you have more people, have them stay with the SM and grab anything that the kiter can't keep chasing him - have them kite off anything that returns.

Danos drops some fairly nice armor and weapons, the artifact, and a spirit legendary component.

Cloudsong - Artifact

2005-06-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/cloudsong.html

This one is pretty much a straight-up focus kill. The hard part is finding Eremai up. Wait until he gets clear of the trees but before he gets to the fallen island so you don't get any of his fellow centaurs. Give him the music box then beat him down with ML9 pet + focus shield. Even his PBAE didn't hit the pet very hard.

He drops a lot of ROG cloth items that you may find some useful Summon SM gear in. The artifact is not a guaranteed drop though it seems less rare than it once was.

Cyclops' Eye Shield - Artifact

2005-05-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

For basic information on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/cyclops.html

The few times I had previously done this encounter, I had only done the easy method - killing the neutral cyclops to deactivate the statues and then killing Kertom. A ML9 pet makes doing it that way trivial. I didn't even know about the Kleps/Klops method until Bloodfang on my server sent me a walkthrough for it. Thanks!

Start on the corner of the ramp leading up to Kertom. Pop ML9 pet and move up with the SM on the left side of the ramp in order to activate the statues. If you stay to the left side and put the pet on the left statue, the right one usually aggros the pet as it goes for the left one. Once the left statue is on the pet, send the pet after the right one. At this point, you'll get 3 more red statues on the pet, but they don't hit hard enought to make trouble. Once they are down, put the pet on Go To Target to collect the last 3 red statues (Kertom won't aggro).

Now disband the bot and put the pet on Kertom. Take him down to under 5% (the lower the better) and then release the pet and suicide the SM on Kertom. A cyclops agnomon will run up the ramp and attack Kertom. If he beats Kertom, he will take the Cyclops' Eye Shield and run off. Rez the SM and start down the ramp and you'll be teleported to the ground. Head due south and you'll see the cyclops running to a hill. When he gets there Kleps/Klops will spawn.

Set up with a power font nearby and pull each of them in turn. One of them will have the shield. Both drop some decent loot - certainly better than the ROG staves you'd get off of Kertom.

Some notes about being on Kertom's platform. If any of the statues respawn before the SM dies, the cyclops won't come up and attack Kertom. You'll need to set up on the ramp and start over. If Kertom wins the fight with the cyclops, you'll have to wait for that cyclops to respawn or just kill Kertom.

Crocodile's Tooth Dagger - Artifact

2005-05-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/croctooth.html

From my previous dealings with Itet I thought this encounter would be tougher, but it really wasn't. Once I found Itet I set up a power font in a nearby area that was free of aggro. I first tried pulling Itet with a debuff, but even the ML9 pet sometimes didn't make contact before I died. So I sent my pet in to get him. Even with a couple sobekite adds, the pet stayed up fairly easily and Itet died before I went through an entire power bar. You probably want to start out with small heals, but later in the fight you can use the bigger heals.

The only thing to worry about are the crocodile minions Itet spawns through the fight. I haven't yet had more than 4 or 5. They spawn near Itet and aggro on what is closest. If you stand at a good distance away from the fight with the SM and bot, the pet should always be the one that gets the aggro. If you happen to get aggro, the pet can easily pull it off of you. I set up a Prescience Node nearby before the fight so that I'd have something to send the pet to if I got aggro and wanted to push the fight away from the power font, but I ended up not needing it this time.

I cleared the crocodile minion adds that were left over from someone's previous failure, but I don't know if that's strictly necessary. Probably not a bad idea anyhow.

One last thing to mention: once Itet turns into a djinn during the fight, you occassionally get spam about a PBAE that is supposed to happen. However, I have yet to see it actually happen. The pet got stunned a couple times, but Itet stayed on him, so that wasn't a problem.

Itet drops the artifact, a matter legendary component, and a few high-quality ROG weapons of various worth.

Belt of Sun/Moon - Artifact

2005-05-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/sun.html
and
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/moon.html

Don't even bother setting up a power font. Just roam around the island out of range of the archers in the center and pull all the lights until you kill them all and get the key.

At this point I set up a Prescience Node near the archers and sent my pet to it and followed him in to grab the belt (you pick it up like loot). Then I realized the archers were only doing about 15-30 damage a shot to my pet so I let him loose. With the focus damage shield up and a few heals, he pretty easily wiped the lot of them.

Traldor's Oracle - Artifact

2005-05-19T23:51:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/traldor.html

See the link above for the easy way to get the traldoran mercenaries to bash down the door to Traldor's Temple. Once inside, clean up the oj/red mobs on the sides and then wipe out Traldor himself. Only challenge at all in this encounter is the adds coming for you or your bot when you attack Traldor, but the ML9 pet easily pulled them off well before I was in jeopardy.

Traitor's Dagger - Artifact

2005-05-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/traitor.html

As you might expect from a red mob, Sadri the Traitor is hardly a match for a ML9 pet once you find him. In fact, I didn't even bother popping the ML9 ability. Super easy.

A Note About Responsible Farming...

2005-05-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Far too often I hear someone say something like:

"Shades of Mist, Malice, Battler, and Mad Scalars are down on all 3 servers. Someone must be farming."

While ML9 pets are great fun and equally great for accumulating cash, please be kind to your realmmates when you farm. Farming encounters just because you can is selfish. At least send out a call to your realm asking if anyone needs credit.

If being called "selfish" isn't enough to stop you, consider that Mythic has punished people in the past for overuse of powerful abilities. Majestic Will was a very powerful farming tool until someone decided to farm the dragon repeatedly with a small group of MW casters. Mythic soon after remove MW from the game completely.

Respect your power, don't abuse it.

Thanks!

Ring of Dances - Artifact

2005-05-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/ring.html

Approach Desmona's Island from the Aerus Haven (east) side and come on shore at 32256, 48228 Notos. If any invisible harpies attack you, your pet should aggro them if he's on Defense. Stop where you are and let him tank it down before you move on. Once you're in the spot, type /dig with both your SM and Shaman until you uncover a Revelation Token. Pick it up and you should now be able to see the harpies on the island.

Head over to 25469, 42889 killing any harpies you need to along the way. Once you're in the right spot, if you /dig it you'll either start digging or it will say "You can't do that right now". If you get the message, you'll have to come back later. If you start digging, the encounter is up. Get a power font up.

You may have to /dig several times before the Harpy of the Dance spawns. When it spawns it aggros on the person doing the digging, so only dig with your SM. When it spawns, your pet should aggro on it and you'll need to chain heal with your shaman. Pop your ML9 ability and let the pet kill it while the SM "tanks". It took a few minutes and I actually got pretty low on power on my shaman and had to use a power heal pot, but only one. Heal all you want, your bot won't get aggro.

No special drops from this other than the artifact.

Note: The first time I dug up the harpy I wasn't fast enough with the heals and died, but the shaman didn't get aggro even though he was standing in melee range. The harpy stuck around for about 30 seconds after that. So I think you could rez the SM and quickly pop your ML9 pet and send it in and use focus shield to kill it. Just get some quick Con buffs on the pet. I'm just not gonna spend another hour digging to find out if that works. ;)

Tablet of Atlantis - Artifact

2005-05-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/atlantistablet.html

Go to 43794, 58839 Meso and drop a ground target with your Shaman. This is where you are going to heal from later and you want to get back to this spot quickly. From here you can heal inside the temple without getting guard aggro. Make sure you are ungrouped.

Cast a pet and buff it up. Put it on Passive and use Go Target to send it at one of the guards. While the guards are pounding on it, run inside the temple and swim up to the roof above the chests, avoiding any leftover mobs if they're there. If the pet does no damage to the guards, they won't come after you once the pet is dead.

Drop a power font. If there are any leftover Guardians of Atlantis, you can kill them, but if you open the right chest, they will despawn, so I just leave them up. If any are there, you'll need to summon a pet and send it in to run interference for you as you open the chests. Now send in the SM to open a chest. If it's the wrong one, you'll die to a big blast and a triton agaeus will pop. Rez quickly and immediately send the SM back down to be killed by the agaeus, who will then disappear. Repeat this until you find the chest with the Guardian of Atlantis in it and die to it too.

Now you're working against the clock - the Guardian of Atlantis is going to despawn in a few minutes and you'll have to do the chests all over again. So get the SM up fast and put up a spirit fighter pet. Only buff the pet - buffing the SM is just a waste of time. Now go down to 43629, 60503 making sure to stay safely between the Guardian and the guards at the door. Put a groundtarget between the guards and drop a Battlewarder. The guards will aggro on it giving your bot time to get out. Put him on the groundtarget you laid earlier for him and drop a power font.

Target the Guardian and use Passive and Go Target to send the pet to it. As soon as the Guardian aggros, put the pet on Passive and Here. You want the pet standing right where you're standing but not hitting the Guardian. Put up your focus damage shield if you haven't yet. Now it's just a straight focus kill.

The Guardian hits pretty hard, but pretty slow, so you can keep up with healing with no power problems. Heal to your heart's content - the shaman is safe outside the temple. I've only had one split when the pet was on Passive in the 3 times I've done the encounter. If you're standing at the location above, the splits will stay in the center of the room and not aggro the pet - they'll just stand there healing themselves but not the Guardian. The Guardian goes down in about 5 minutes. The only time the focus shield didn't work on her was when she said she was weak to body. During that period, the shield did no damage - so when you see that message, feel free to sit down to conserve power. During the fight she also said she was weak to slashing, thrusting, crushing, matter, cold, energy, and heat and the shield still worked fine.

If you got any splits, it's kind to clean them up before leaving since they don't despawn on their own for the next person.

The Tablet is not a guaranteed drop.

Tartaros' Gift - Artifact

2005-04-30T16:08:00.000-07:00

7/4/2005 note: This encounter appears to have been stealth fixed/nerfed in 1.76. Now salamanders spawn too fast to duo this with a bot.
=====
For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/tart.html

I'd gotten pretty frustrated with this encounter (mostly because there's way too much misleading folklore about this encounter floating around out there) but Niiitro-Bedevere of ExploiT showed me a workable strategy, so thanks to him! :)

1) Set up your bot in a power font about 2500 units from the edge of the platform. I set up to the SW of the platform, but I don't think it matters which direction you approach from as long as it's free from random aggro. Do all your buffs (heat/cold resists especially) and UNGROUP. You must be SOLO when you attack or you'll get excess summoned salamanders.

2) Clear out any nearby uraeuses or siam-he if there are any. Nothing like getting Akil to 10% then getting random aggro on your bot.

3) Stand about 1500 units from the platform. Use /groundset with various numbers to find out how far it is to the edge of the platform (your groundtarget will disappear when it moves under the platform). Subtract 750 from that number and do a final /groundset with the result. That groundtarget marks the edge of the circle around the platform inside which you must be to attack Akil.

4) Make sure the sacrificial escorts that occasionally use the portal aren't nearby. Then, once Akil wanders around the platform and is at the point nearest you, put your individual damage shield on your pet, pop ML9, and run towards Akil spamming your pet Attack button. Once you get the message that the pet is successfully on it's way to attacking Akil, stop and walk backwards to just inside your groundtarget. Akil will instanuke you a couple times but should stop when your pet hits him or when he tries to hit the pet and hits the damage shield. Line yourself up so that your pet is between you and the platform so that any salamanders that are summoned will attack him instead of you. Now put up your focus damage shield. Don't step outside your groundtarget or you pet will stop attacking Akil. Cast a frigg from your Shaman on your SM to heal any damage done. If you get any salamander aggro, put the pet on it for a second to draw aggro to the pet then refocus on Akil.

Addendum: I just did Tartaros' Gift again and didn't get a single salamander this time. Some of the portal priests were out of position for some reason, so maybe that had something to do with it. There also weren't any lingering salamaders sitting around from a previous failure, so maybe that had something to do with it too.

5) Akil hits your pet very weakly and won't stay up for more than a minute or so. The summoned salamanders don't hit hard either, but once they start bunching up, that little damage can add up. Wait until your pet is at about 30% health to start healing and then only use small heals. Try not to heal until a new salamander gets a couple shots from the damage shield to avoid bot aggro.

6) Once Akil gets down to about 10% health, you'll start really seeing some salamanders get summoned. Fortunately, your pet and damage shield will go through 10% very quickly. Once Akil goes down, run in and grab the loot very quickly because the salamanders don't despawn. Then get the hell outta Dodge! :)

Note: /groundset is a command to set your ground target to X units in front of you. For example, typing /groundset 1500 will set a ground target 1500 units in front of you.

Eerie Darkness Lighting Stone - Artifact

2005-04-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/eerie.html

Looks like they've changed this encounter so that you can't draw Rougart to the mouth of the cave any more, so you can't stand outside the cave and heal from there any more. But if you wait until Rougart scares his little friends off, your ML9 pet will whack him down before they get back and will barely need a heal. Damage shields (like any spells) won't work, but melee damage alone is more than sufficient. If you do get yellow croc aggro, just put the pet on them. He'll smack them down quick then turn back to Rougart. One of the easier encounters out there.

Rougart doesn't always drop the artifact, but he has some decent named cloth drops (I've seen the sleeves and vest thus far).

Dream Sphere - Artifact

2005-04-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/dream.html

Put your pet on Passive before you get near this encounter. Once a burning lengui gets near you and your clothes burn, he'll run after one. Put up your resists too to minimize the damage from the burns.

Try to find a spot relatively free of the lengui and send your pet in to attack the dream bound daos one a time. With ML9 pet and FDS up, they go down in 15 seconds each. Don't try to pull them or they'll nuke you down quick. And once your pet is on one, don't try to pull him off or he'll get nuked. You'll probably get some lengui aggro too, so just kill them when you can (they didn't seem to respawn when I killed them so try clearing them out if they bother you). If you die, just release and come back from Stygia Haven. The encounter stays up and doesn't reset for a long time.

Once they're all down, the burning lenguis will despawn and you just have to talk to Torih in the camp to get the Dream Sphere.

Scepter of the Meritorious - Artifact

2005-04-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/scepter.html

This encounter was pretty rough until I figured out the mobs didn't automatically attack you when they spawn - you have to pull them or be in their aggro radius. So I just moved out to the edge of the arena (near one of those disks on the ground) and worked from there. I set up a power font and did all my buffs including the pet mez reduction buff since these mobs mez.

I put my ML9 pet on Aggro and Stay and then ran up and pulled the mobs that popped one at a time with my level 1 lifetap - the idea was to get them into melee range and interrupt them without using too much power, not to hurt them. Once they got to me the pet quickly jumped on them and got aggro. He was killing the blues and yellows fast enough that I could just move up and pull the next one - don't even worry about focus shield on them. If I ever got 2 at once, I'd mez the first one and start lifetapping the 2nd one. I'm secondary Supp so I have a green single mez which worked pretty reliably on these mobs. I'd say they're probably spread out enough to use AE mez if you're Dark secondary, but that won't last long enough probably - you'll likely have to lifetap 2 at once at some point and get them in range so your pet can take over. Once a bit of life is off them, don't be afraid to use your Shaman's DoT to help out.

I fought long enough that my ML9 pet ran out, my power font dropped, and my resists dropped. When that happens, just recast the font and resists and be more careful with your pulls. You're working against a timer, but it doesn't move so fast that you can't be sensible. Take your time on the oranges and reds and focus them down - they have a lot of hit points and hit pretty hard so you don't want to rush. You're ML9 ability should recycle eventually and you can go back to faster work.

Eventually, Ferenc should charge while your ML9 pet is still up. He's just like the others only a little tougher, though not by a lot - my Shaman's DoT actually landed on him on the first cast. When he dies, he'll drop the Scepter and a ROG item (at least he did for me).

Alvarus Leggings - Artifact

2005-04-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/alvarus.html

You can kill Razorfin easy, but he's sometimes hard to find. Minkhat has some oj/red con friends so he's not easy to do. The Thieving Octopus is low purple and only has 3 or 4 blue con friends, so I'll assume he's the one of the three mobs you'll kill. Of course you can kill Razorfin or Minkhat if you want - I'm only providing what I consider an easy solution, not the only solution.

To be able to turn in the amulet you get from the Thieving Octopus, you'll need at least neutral Naxos faction. If you don't have that, then get it by killing Skyros or Melos or doing the Naxos faction quest (over and over). You can kill the Thieving Octopus without talking to Casyndra or getting neutral Naxos faction first.

When I attacked the Thieving Octopus, I got him solo. Only after he died did I get aggro from his 3 langorous octopus friends. Even if you get them all at once, a ML9 pet can easily 2 shot the blue cons. The Thieving Octopus himself has some spells, but nothing that can't be handled pretty easily with standard Summon SM tactics.

The Thieving Octopus will usually drop one ROG item in addition to Casyndra's Amulet. Take the amulet back to Casyndra and (assuming you have at least neutral Naxos faction) she'll give you a key for a nearby chest. Just right-click the chest with the key in your inventory. You'll either get the artifact, some random junk loot, or even nothing at all. If you don't get the artifact, there's nothing to do but do it again (unless you can find Minkhat's head, Casyndra's amulet, or Razorfin's fin on a CM).

Notice that you never actually need to talk to Casyndra. All she gives is backstory, not an actual quest. If you don't care about it, skip it.

Battler - Artifact

2005-04-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/battler.html

This one took me a week to figure out and I found the critical bit in, of all places, the Trials of Atlantis Prima Guide! What follows may not be exactly how he works, but using this theory worked for me. Read slow - this is a bit complicated.

When Battler kills people he not only levels, but he absorbs a power from them. Killing an archer, for instance, gives him a bow. Killing a caster gives him a spell. If he doesn't have a certain ability, he will choose someone in his vicinity that has it and go after them until he kills them or decides it's time to pick another target. But here's the key part: once he has all of the abilities from a class arch-type, he won't be interested in members of that class arch-type any more. According to the Prima Guide, there are 6 class arch-types. I won't go into all of them, but SMs fall into the Heavy Caster arch-type.

If you put your pet on Battler before he has "eaten" enough of Heavy Casters, he will jump from the pet to you. If he has eaten enough Heavy Casters, he'll stay on the pet unless some other class arch-type comes into his range (around 1500 units I'd estimate). So what you need to do is find Battler at his smallest (this may not be necessary but it makes things easier) and feed yourself to him 5 times. After the 5th time, he won't level again. Rez yourself with your Shaman each time. If Battler comes for your Shaman, have him run off the flat area of the island. Battler won't pursue him past that edge. (Note: It's OK if Battler kills your Shaman once. All he gets from that is the ability to mez your pet, but that won't matter since he still melees it.)

Once you've fed Battler enough times, it's time to take him down. Set up your power font as far as possible from where the fight is going to take place. Buff up your pet (don't forget resists) and keep him targetted by the Shaman. Run over to Battler and send your pet in and pop ML9 and your focus damage shield. The trick is to keep your Shaman in heal range but out of Battler's awareness - this is probably somewhere between 1500 and 2000 units. Battler will nuke your pet but with resists it's not hard to keep up. And since you fed him only casters, he won't hit hard in melee either. If Battler goes for your Shaman, then you were just too close. Run for the edge and try again. (Note: If you have ML9, your pet should be able to stay up long enough that you can run your Shaman in after the fight starts and set up a power font. Bringing your Shaman in after the fight starts makes it easier to maintain maximum distance.)

The fight isn't terribly complicated once it starts successfully, but it took the full 6 minutes 15 seconds I could get out of my ML9 pet with +25% duration gear. It also took just over 2 bars of power with +70% power pool. If ML9 runs out, you'll have to heal faster and it will take a lot longer, but it can still be done so don't panic. (Note: I've since done this encounter where I messed up on the initial pull so my ML9 pet went down with about 30% life left on Battler. I had to heal a lot more, but kept up easily. When Battler has eaten so many casters, he spends a lot of time casting instead of meleeing with his wicked double-hits.)

So if you're bringing someone along to get them credit and/or the Battler artifact, keep them back with your bot so they also don't get in Battler's awareness range. Nothing will screw this up faster than some Skald that decides Armor of the Gods will help a lot if he just gets in range..... ;)
Battler drops some really nice sleeves, a heat legendary component, and a bunch of decent ROG gear.

Shades of Mist - Artifact

2005-04-20T00:39:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/shades.html

1) Set up a power font at 7394, 12556. This is just outside the circle of criosphinx witnesses but still within range to supply power to your bot while he stands in the circle.
2) Send in your ungrouped bot to get the cloak and have him run back to the edge of the circle near his power font but still inside the circle. Let him die. One of the sphinxes will pick up the cloak and they'll walk back to their perches.
3) When the sphinxes de-aggro, rez the bot with your SM.
4) Buff up fully and restore all your power via the power font. If you have the Perfecter cure rez sick, use it. Otherwise, just buff the pet.
5) Enter the circle (everyone you have with you - not just the SM - if anyone is outside the circle, the sphinxes will go into "god mode") and pull a sphinx and kill it. If it drops the Long Black Cloak, leave it on the ground until you heal fully.
6) When ready, pick up the cloak (and other loot). The other 2 sphinxes should aggro shortly. Send your pet to get aggro on them both.
7) Let the pet tank them down with damage shield up. Once they are dead, pick up the loot and run outside the circle to get the Shades of Mist cloak.

If you die at some point, just release back to Volcanus Haven and come back. You'll have enough time to rebuff, set up, and get your ML9 ability back before the encounter resets.

I've heard someone say they can tank all 3 sphinxes at once with a buffed ML9 pet. I haven't tried that yet, but the sphinxes don't hit too hard, so I can imagine it's possible. You'd likely have to retrieve the cloak with the SM initially and then send your pet on each sphinx in turn before you died.

Chan, Roshan, Kiran - ML9.8

2005-04-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/Master_Level_Nine.html#ml9t8
and this map:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/img/city_of_aerusname.jpg

You must be ML8 to get into Aerus City (the ML9 "dungeon").

It's more of a challenge to get to these sphinxes than it is to kill them. There are a number of yellow-red avriels on the route. You can bypass some of them by keeping to the edges (you can't fall off so stay as far over as possible). When you have to fight, you can get all the avriel aggro on your pet, run well past to a clear spot and then disband your pet. When you do this, the pet dies but the aggro that was on it doesn't come after you (if the pet dies before you disband it or if you're too close, they'll aggro on you). You want to avoid killing the avriels because each one you kill adds to the risk that Neola (ML9.9) will spawn and come after you. In the 2 times I've gone through Aerus City, this didn't happen for me. But apparently she comes to where the last avriel was killed so if you must kill avriels, keep on the move and you'll lessen your chances of running into her.

Once you get to Chan, don't go past him unless you already have credit for 9.8 or you'll face certain death. Either way, he's neutral so get up on the edge near him and lay down your power font and have the bot target the pet. Then go down in melee range of Chan (you can't send the pet in or keep the pet on him from outside melee range). Send the pet in and put up your damage shield. It will take a while to whittle him down, but you can heal as much as you want since Chan doesn't move.

Once he's done, move past to the next open area and you'll see Roshan and Kiran. They both act very similar to Chan so use the same strategy. They repop pretty quick too, in my experience.

These guys have probably the best reward-to-risk ratio in the game. They drop a lot of nice MP armor, weapons, and jewelry.

Best bot: Healer or Shaman?

2005-04-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Base buffs:
* Healers and Shamans share the same baseline buffs, though a Shaman's tend to be slightly better due to typically higher Aug spec.
Advantage: Draw if Healer is high Aug - slight advantage to Shaman otherwise.

Other buffs:
* Shamans get a Dex/Qui (70 delve) and Str/Con buff (69 delve). But a Summon SM has those buffs for the pet - Dex/Qui (66 delve) and Str/Con (64 delve). You don't get them on the SM or bot, but the effects there are somewhat negligible (mostly slight increase in casting speed).
* Shamans also get an Acuity buff, but that's only useful on the SM and not to increase power pool or damage shield damage - the only things a Summon SM truly cares about.
Advantage: Shaman, though not as much as you might think. (See test at end of post)

Heals:
* A healer will tend to heal for more at the top-end and has more different heals to work with, including instas. However, bigger heals aren't necessarily useful and if you have to use instas, the encounter is probably lost anyhow.
Advantage: Draw (maybe slight Healer)

Resists:
* Shamans have Heat/Cold/Matter resist buffs
* Healers have Spirit/Energy/Body resist buffs
Advantage: Shaman, slightly (depends on encounter, though heat/cold resists are often useful)

Group Speed:
* Shamans get an Endurance buff for perma-sprint
* Healers get group speed in Aug spec
Advantage: Draw (and not that important anyhow)

Emergency CC:
* Shaman - root
* Healer - stun/mez (maybe AE depending on spec)
Advantage: Healer

RAs:
* Shamans get Restorative Mind (at RR5) - power HoT would be very nice
* Healers get Barrier of Fortitude (works on pet), and Sputin's Legacy (at RR5 - self-rez for encounter gone bad) - Divine Intervention doesn't work on pets
Advantage: Healer - a Healer, regardless of spec, is a lot more groupable than a Aug/Mend Shaman and will thus get RPs faster.

MLs:
You'd be silly to go with anything but Perfecter and Shamans and Healers can both get that.
Advantage: Draw

Other:
Shamans get a damage add that adds about 15-20 points to a pets melee attacks.
Healers get haste (though only 40 & 50 Aug are better than best SM pet haste), crack or celerity or both depending on spec, and demez
Advantage: Healer, by a lot

Conclusion:
So a Shaman only has the advantage in buffs and resists, and only slightly in those areas. Healers have the advantage in emergency CC (only sometimes necessary), but especially in RAs and other spells.

So if you have a choice use a Shaman if you need just a little bit more survivability from your pet or heat/cold resists. In most other situations you'll want a Healer though.

Of course, the biggest thing a bot can have is ML5 Pefecter. A ML5 Perfecter Shaman is infinitely more valuable than a Healer at lower than ML5. All Healer advantages are rendered moot if he doesn't have ML5 and a Shaman does.

Test:
I did a test where I used a ML9 pet vs Roshan (one of the ML9 sphinxes). At first I used the SM pet buffs, then switched to Shaman buffs halfway through. The numbers below are averages per blow.

SM buffs - offense: 64.54 / defense: 82.59
Shaman buffs - offense: 68 / defense: 80.15

So the pet did slightly more damage and took slightly less damage using Shaman buffs. Though the difference is so small that it's unlikely to be the deciding factor in whether or not you succeed in an encounter.

You'll need to get 25% buff bonus on your SM, but you can easily get that with Cloudsong and a Stardrop - two things that are pretty easy to get with a Summon SM.

Ceremonial Bracers - Artifact

2005-04-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/artifacts/cbracer.html

I have thus far used my ML9 pet to take out the Skyros Dreadnaught and the Naxos Tidal Lord. Both were pretty easy, straight-up fights, though I can't imagine a non-ML9 pet could stand the pounding enough to prevent healer aggro. I took both down with a little power to spare on my first power bar. I haven't yet caught the Melos Wave Master in his spot, but I can't imagine he'd be much more challenging.

I hear the Ceremonial Bracers aren't a guaranteed drop but I've been lucky enough to get them (as well as some decent, though unspectacular ROG loot) both times I've tried thus far.

Kirkleis - ML1.6

2005-04-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/Master_Level_One.html#ml1t6

Before doing this encounter, see my previous posts about how to get a Nedfall Entrapment Gem from Fire Island (ML1.1) and a Negative Absolution Belt from Fadrin (ML1.4). The gem will allow you to disarm the nedfall traps on Kirkleis' island (make sure you bot is stuck to you so he won't set off the traps) and the belt will keep Kirkleis from firing his nasty AE attack.

Set up your power font at 41637, 24859 Anatole (this is right on the edge of Kirkleis' platform) and have your shaman target the pet. Send in your pet with your damage shield up. Kirkleis doesn't hit too hard but his DD attack will take a chunk off the pet's health. Feel free to keep the pet's health at max - Kirkleis doesn't leave his spot.

Kirkleis usually drops one named or ROG item and a ring called Kirkleis' Ring. The ring can be used to clear Cetus' aggro (ML1.10) if he jumps on a caster or healer, so it can be handy to keep around.

Note: I once tried to leave my shaman on the bridge but within heal range, but he got nuked when I engaged Kirkleis with the pet. So follow my instructions above on where to place the shaman.

Barrier/Fadrin - ML1.4

2005-04-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

For basic info on this encounter see:
http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/Master_Level_One.html#ml1t4

Go to 28532, 30890 Hesperos and dive to the ocean floor. Make sure you're all buffed up and ready before diving because the blues/yellows in the area like to aggro. Leave you shaman here with the pet targetted and run in and target the Barrier (it can't be targetted until you see the name), send your ML9 pet in, and then get back out of range near the shaman. I like to set up a heal font at this point because you're not going to run out of power, but the swarm of blues/yellows can make healing problematic at times.

You'll likely get some random aggro from the blues/yellows in the area. Just deal with them while your pet fights. When you're not dealing with aggro, put up your damage shield and heal the pet. Once the Barrier goes down, your pet will probably jump on Fadrin next, but you can target him to make sure.

Once Fadrin is dead, clean up any remaining aggro and run in for the loot. Fadrin doesn't drop much, but he always drops a Negative Absolution Belt that will allow you to take on Kirkleis (ML 1.6).