HoT capable?

[ChrisDaTank]

Just lately my guild has acquired a few more "high-end n00bs". AKA, none of us have done anything higher than lets say, Vindi, or somewhere abouts. There are about 15 of us total, ranging from 56-62. On to the question: Are we HoT capable? We easily romp through UP, Kael, Seb, and do relatively well in CoD. Our biggest accomplishment so far was Umbral Plains when we took down Zelthinak with 12 people. Seeing how we are only a week old, we found this to be a good start. Here's what we got

62 Warrior
58 Warrior(Myself and Guild Leader)
58 Cleric
60 Cleric
62 Shaman
61 Beastlord
58 Beastlord
61 Mage
59 Monk
60 Druid
57 Necro
56 Ranger
56 Ranger
58 Shadowknight
56 Enchanter
48 Monk(who probaly wont be attending due to AE's)

We are all fairly well equipped but shaman does not have Malo. Both tanks buff to 5800(me) and 6100(62 War). It took us roughly 7-8 mins to take down Zelthinak, for whatever thats worth.

Thanks in advance guys/gals.

[Bashiae]

You can definately do HoT with relative ease once you learn the hardest part; positioning and pulling the first two static wurms/roamers. After those are dead, you can either stay at the entrance or move inside some direction. I find it easier to move personally, but that's probably because the pulls are easier and there's a lot more areas with easy walls/corners to hide from AE damage. That and I've been kos to CoV most the time I've done HoT, so it's a pain to avoid agroing the CoV mobs outside the door.

I don't recall exactly how many HP I had when my guild first started ToV farming (we did west wing, but basically the same), but I believe it was somewhere around the area of your 62 warrior. Neither of you should have any particular problem tanking any of the mobs there, just make sure your cleric heals early enough before slow lands. On that subject, once your enc tashes your shaman should have no problem landing slow on everything. Just remember the 'clear' drakes, generally druid mobs, are basically magic immune so you'll have to use disease slow on them.

Most the named in HoT are really just slight upgrades from the regular mobs with significantly more HP and a bit of a higher max hit. However, they present no problems over a regular mob as long as you have adequate time to kill them before repops or roamers.

Also, be weary of gater mobs as that can quickly ruin your raid if one should get off gate. One slight disadvantage to farming armor is the more people you have, the faster the kills, which means the less time the mobs have to cast spells and deplete their mana. Therefore, any caster mobs, save the Shadow Knights (which I believe are always wyverns in HoT), should be mana sieved consistently. Just ensure they end the fight with no mana and cast once more before gate health so it's impossible to regen enough.

The only thing you may be lacking a bit is healing power, but that depends on your mana regen and how fast you kill things. A good rule of thumb, however, is to remember no matter what, you can usually take as long as you need to kill a mob, just keep it slowed and keep your MT alive. If your secondary healers get low on mana from healing AE damage, have all the melees back around the corner out of the AE and let them med, just the MT should be taking damage and you should have no problem reengaging when mana permits to finish them off.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is if you choose to move from the entrance to fight, you will be roamers eventually from repops. It's very likely you'll get a roamer add on your raid during another fight. With two tanks, this shouldn't be a huge problem, just make sure the other tank is ready to engage asap. Probably a good idea to have them throw up Evasive and have their cleric start CHing early; once slowed it's just like fighting one mob but both clerics have a tank to heal. If mana is running low due to AE damage, again, just have everyone else sit out for a bit until they can come back and finish the mob(s). Btw, as I recall, there are no roamer wurms in HoT; I believe all the roamers are wyverns/racnars, if I recall correctly wurms are all static spawns (but someone may correct me on that) so generally you shouldn't have to worry about fighting two AE mobs at once. Obviously, if not, finish the AE mob off first then the non-AE next.

Last thing is pulling, which luckily isn't too difficult in HoT due to the layout of the area and the placement of the mobs. You don't often have to split mobs, save the initial breakin, so if you choose your fighting grounds wisely, you'll be able to single pull most readily, regardless of who pulls (Monk or otherwise). I personally find the best 'spot' is a little cubby that generally has nothing in it, but two named mobs spawn inside it (not often enough to worry about popping on you if they aren't up.) To get there, when you come into HoT through the door, you drop off the left side, and hug the left wall through the left door. Once through the door, you'll be facing a long hallway with doors on either side, and a static wurm at the far end guarding another door. Kill that wurm (casters/clerics can hide behind the small 'pillars' on the sides) and then go through the door he was guarding and take a right. There's likely to be another wurm right there, and if so you probably don't want to try to pull it through the door (it just gets stuck and can be a pain.) Just have casters/clerics on the previous side of the door and melees push the wurm towards the door (Not the other direction). Once that's dead, continue that direction (south) and a few feet from the door you just came through is a cubby hole on your right side. Be sure to have your monk or someone check if there's anything up there. If not, that's a great place to put everyone as it's safe (no roamers go inside the cubby and nothing will agro people inside if they're against the front walls. There are a few roamers outside in that hallway, but just keep track of them and you'll be fine.

Good luck and hope you get some nice drops!

[1ludor]

mala is much more common and about as good if your mage is there, mage should always mala/sini while shaman trys to slow as general rule anyways. its not essential, but does help a ton, if you have no mala or malo there, should disease slow. mobs arent even worth trying to get full slow in without mala or malo though. your crew could definately do this either way.

1. i wouldnt move from the HoT entrance, easy CR and no roamers to worry about.

2. breaking is only tricky part, everyone sets up on left or right side with their back to the wall, tagger inches up on the other side and pulls. if you get two, tagger should have evacuate/succer in his group, run back in and retry. raid should know instantly if its a good pull since they can watch the mob on their side. sometimes it takes a try or two, but the wurms can be single pulled.

3. DONT drag other ppls corspses while you are in line of sight of the door, door mobs will agro for corpse dragging OTHER ppls corpses. FD person to pull corpses is best, anyone can do it however if you make sure the door isnt in line of sight, should never do it during a fight just to be safe though.

4. its possible for ppl to avoid the ae by standing on the otherside from where the pull was and around the corner "slightly" - if you move very deep around the corner you are in agro range of pit mobs, i believe the first 3 tiles are safe.

5. at least one cleric should bind at ntov entrance

[Slashem]

A 61+ Warrior can single pull the 2 statics at the entrance with a bow, just hug the outside wall to do it. Make sure to pull the red wurm first if you have a red and white up together. This is so that when you are fighting the white wurm and if he manages to gate, you can run down and kill him, hope for no wanderers and no worry about the 2nd wurm raining hellfire down on your head.

We've taken to farming it with 1 and a half groups, levels are approximately in the same range. Just make sure to have the resist gear on hand.

Slowing the mobs is critical, and rotating out defensive tanks cuts down on the mana use and speeds up the pulls and kills.

When tanking the wurms, make sure to get between the mob and the pit then have everyone push his butt into the firepot.

Gating mobs can be ganked with a necro casting ignite bones on them, also makes moving the mob really easy.

we normally have the chanter tash the mob so that the slow can go in easily.

Not necessary to "crawl" hot as any decent monk can single pull the entire left side. We haven't tried this with the right side as yet. To get up back to the HoT entrance, you jump up on the pillar by the stairs in the pit, then run up the stairs to your tank.

all good. :)

[Casai]

farmable with 3 ppl 61tank+healer(cleric/druid)+slower(ench/sham/bst/bard)

[Slashem]

I'm not so sure about farmable there with 3 people. Doable yes, but hardly what I'd call efficient farming. Missing the DPS there to kill the mobs fast enough to make it worthwhile.

[Raunstonecutter]

55+, and M/F/C should be a min of 100 unbuffed. Once you have 2-3 groups for that, then make sure you have a bard, the more the merrier, with AE resist.

Post 60, the AEs in ToV are a bad joke. When my guild raids North ToV, we rarely pull out resist gear just because we resist it so much. So keep packing levels on your people as much as you can. Anyone below 55 will get chewed up by the AE and you will spend more mana/time/dots rebuffing them than you would leaving them, and pulling their body at the end of the raid.

Keep a cleric or two on the MT. Like has been said, debuff (more bard goodness) with OOS - Bard, Malo-shaman/mala-mag, and Tash-Ench. Just make sure they come up with MT to debuffed so they don't get summoned too far, move the mob and kill everyone with the AE.

Find a map of HoT, and enjoy. I went on a ton of HoT raids, and aslong as you keep yourself challenged, it will remain fun. Like one time, on a farming trip, we accidnetly got three named. Killed all three, with maybe one or two deathes. It was a huge thrill, woke and focused the entire raid up =)

Good luck and enjoy it =)