Avatar of War questions

Our guild took down Vindi again last night for the fourth time. We had 4 groups, 5 clerics and I tanked it all the way.
I have over 7800 hps fully buffed, our number 2 warrior has about 7200 and our number 3 warrior has about 7100. At the end of the fight I asked our clerics what their mana was. Each of them had over 50 pct left and some of them had 60 to 65 mana left.
We have 10 clerics in our guild that have clickers and we can expect to get 8 clerics on really important raids. In fact for really big raids we can have 35 to 40 people on as a total. Our average level is probably between 62 to 63 although most players are either 65 or 61.
Are we ready for Avatar of War yet?
Also I need a very good spoiler for him if anyone can provide me with a direct link to one.

[Gallerus]

in order to spawn aow, you need to kill the idol of war. In order to spawn idol of war, you need to kill statue or rallos zek (5 day spawn).

If you can kill statue without slow & no nukes, try idol unslowed. If you win that fight you have a reasonable shot at aow.

Sounds to me like your clerics dont have big enough mana pools or you dps is lacking though to be honest, based on what your clerics mana pools were at for 24 people killing vindi.

Do Idol unslowed. That will tell you if you are ready for AoW.

Corner.
Aggro management.
3 second CH chain.
Divine Intervention.

Work on MT changes unless you have the clerics and manapool to go to a 2.5 sec CH chain when DEF drops.

Definitely try Idol unslowed without nukage (I think you can actually use anything but fire based nukes for the test, but I'm no wizzy so not too sure). He's pretty much the same fight as AoW when unslowed. You will probably need all 8 clerics that you spoke of. The hardest part to handle is if an MT switch is necessary. If your raid listens well and follows directions, things can go smoothly.

As Gallerus pointed out, you may need a little more dps or bigger healer mana pools. AoW is an order of magnitude harder than Vindi. He's a much longer fight. Overall, I'd suggest giving Idol a shot unslowed and seeing how it goes.

[wandor]

Only thing I would suggest different is to forget trying a tank switch. Even the slightest glitch in a tank switch = wipe and a blown spawn. If cleric mana is in question, then get 2 more clerics.

Better yet, make 4 cleric + 2 SK groups for Zevfeer's Bite (equavalent of FT10 per SK if chaincast). That coupled with AE bard mana, PotG(9), KEI+, and Blessed Armor of the Risen and your clerics should have no problem maintaining mana for a very long fight.

With 7k+ tanks, you should be able to single tank the AOW. Keep in mind that when the first AOW was killed, 7k tanks were all but nonexistant.

[1ludor]

even killing statue unslowed would be a good warm up, aow has about 2x times as much hp as statue to give you an idea.

yah, fire nukes dont land on aow so should do idol unslowed and with no fire nukes, why idol is slowable is beyond me though.

only strat u need is keep healing MT with 2 sec ch chain till he dies.

[Gallerus]

aow is an interesting hurdle...before you kill it its like this holy grail encounter...after you beat it like 6+ times you start to wonder why a gm just doesnt summon you every 5 days & hand out loots

[Danathor]

I think AoW resists the SK bite spells, I can't remember for sure though.

Basically just try idol unslowed, if you can do that with little or no problem you can kill AoW.

[Gunrack]

How does the MT maintaint Agro during a 2min CH chain casting parade? dont' get me wrong I know this is how some encounters are done... I am just wondering.. you simply fight alone at first and then call your CH's? /defensive is in order I assume and aside from taunt you just pray DPS keeps you there? (and procs if you have em of course)??

Get aggro by fighting alone for a few seconds, about 15 ish. Then calling in the troops. Troops stay at max range. Autoattack off if mob turns. Yada yada yada.

[Hulanta]

Unslowed idol is not equal to AoW -- the agro management issues are different on them.

Unslowed statue / idol will definately give you an idea of what kind of fight to expect with AoW. Also, I've noticed that if you can do Vindi easily and kill him before defensive drops, then you should have enough DPS to stick it to AoW.

If you're afraid of blowing the spawn, try statue unslowed. If you want the best shot at it, do idol unslowed. Of course this is all just practice and prep for the real deal.

[Gallerus]

the agro management issues are different on them.

I personally havent noticed any differences in agro management between the two - we pull/tank/kill both virtually the same way.

[Hulanta]

AoW is pretty much 100% proximity agro, while idol is not.

We have killed AoW ~ 8 times in the past, and I never saw anyone pull him off the first MT. Only time we had people die was when the MT up would die and there was a small period of time to get the next tank up and tanking. He is "undead" aggression or as Hulanta said "100% proximity agro".