For those of you who know me, not like many of you do, I am not the most avid MMO player. Shocking, yes. I try; really I do, but until RIFT it never seemed to pan out for me. I am or was, as you probably could have guessed from the title, an altist/altaholic. Before I started playing RIFT I never really used a character for very long, my previous record being around 3 months. In fact it was usually much shorter than that. I’m sure many of you know someone just like me; someone mostly incapable of staying with the same character for any period of time. Afterwards, they get burned out creating a few characters and just bail. After finally being able to stick with a character for some time, I think I have narrowed the causes of my problems, and maybe they’re yours or a friend’s as well.

Firstly the problem stems from a lack of investment in the character. I try to make a character “mine” but the vast majority of MMOs don’t really allow you to make a character your own, with a few exceptions. I feel that this is really part of the problem, everyone looks the same, you have next to nothing invested in your character aside from time, and let’s face it, you probably have some to spare. Customization is great to an extent. However, when a character creator is too detailed it makes it even harder to stick with a character. I could make any combination of traits and designs, and I just keep making new and different characters, playing them for only a small amount of time. A character has to be yours, so time must be spent to really decide what you want. Otherwise things spiral out of control and all of a sudden you have the max allowable characters and you don’t want to play any of them. What I have started to do is to make a character and then just walk away. I’ll walk away for about 10 minutes and sit back down and see if I still like the character’s appearance. If I do like the character I continue on, and if I don’t I start over and repeat the process. It’s just a simple trick to see if I like my creation after I’ve had time to wander.

The next seed of my destruction revolves around the old adage “the grass is always greener.” I’ll see a class that looks cool or I got killed by a certain class and think to myself “that looks pretty sweet. I have to try that.” This process will repeat itself ad nauseam until I have at least one of every class which isn’t always a bad thing. I just tend to take it to the extreme in that I’m always switching characters, never staying with the same class or making multiples of the same one. I’ll play the same areas, doing the same quests over and over again and it gets tiring. However, having multiple classes in the beginning isn’t so bad, because the descriptions never really do the class justice. If you haven’t decided on a class then try all of them out, taking the time to really get the feel of the class and its abilities. Then make the decision based around what you want to play and don’t pick a class just because someone tells you to pick that one. Just because someone says a class is better at “blank” doesn’t mean it’s actually fun to play. Choose what you want and screw all those other people who say otherwise.

Next… well, it’s friends. Not what you’re thinking though, they aren’t the cause. When I play alone I switch around classes a lot, constantly even. I feel no obligation to a class or a character and well, that’s why this is getting written. After establishing your class with friends it’s easier to stick to it. They all know you as that class and if you start over you can’t play with your friends, and if you don’t want to play with your friends… well, I don’t know what to tell you. Get better friends? If none of your friends really play MMOs then try to find a guild that fits your play style and interests and join up; this will help keep you accountable to your class choice.

What helps me the most though is to just become invested in your character. Make up a back story or persona for them. I’m not telling you to start roleplaying, unless that’s your thing, then more power to you if so. Make it so that you want to play as this character, this character who is an extension of you, or maybe they’re the opposite of you. Just don’t view your character as simply a conglomeration of pixels but as something more meaningful. That’s probably simple for most of you, or obvious even, but when I was in all those MMOs I never really did it or thought to do it.

Now these aren’t the only things that may cause my or even your altism or altaholic tendencies but it’s a start. “But Dr. Klassi until RIFT you’ve only played a character for 3 months or so,” well shut up, no one is asking you. That ended not through my altism, but the game being broken after a certain level. That character was the start of the decline of my altist tendencies. I’ll let you try to guess which MMO. No hints for you!

Dr. Klassi M.D. PHD (not really, it would be impressive though, right?)

The build is 30 Riftblade / 20 Champion / 16 Void Knight.  While I made changes to the original build Xvvt (a.k.a. Zin) posted based on patch 1.6 and personal preference, the foundation is still the same as it used to be:  “RAGEEEEEEEEEEstorm”!  The key ability, as you can guess, is Ragestorm.  I read that with the recent changes in patch 1.6 this ability is not as effective and I can honestly say I don’t know if that is true or not.  I am still testing its effectiveness.  However, I feel like an absolute beast in this build and I only just hit rank 3 a few days ago!

Some of the other key abilities in this build:

• Spell Sunder – One of my favorite PvP abilities!  It strips up to 3 buffs off your target.  This includes active HoTs!
• Battlefield Intimidation – Big AoE fear that lasts for up to 6 seconds.  In PvP, 6 seconds is an annoyingly long time.
• Riftwalk – A great charge ability that also deals damage, roots the target, and breaks any “roots, snares, stuns, mesmerizes, and incapacitates” (on yourself, I assume).
• Planar Blade – This Blade spell will not only return some power, but also refreshes the cooldown of Riftwalk!
• Bull Rush + Blitz + Lingering Wounds – Oh yeah…  In-combat charge that roots the target and decreases healing they receive when they are critically hit!

Stats:  Strength and Physical Crit seem to be the more important stats for this build to work, since most of the abilities are based around your strength or proc off your critical hits.

Weapon:  I set the build up to not be weapon-dependent although it was originally intended for using a two-handed weapon.  I myself am still undecided between a two-handed or dual-wielding one-handed weapons.  Whichever you prefer should be fine with this build, I think!

Buffs:  I usually run with Slayer’s Bearing, Avatar of Water, Void, and Planar Blade.  Which bearing you use is up to you – I prefer Slayer’s because my goal is to do as many critical strikes as possible for Planar Blade, so why not make those crits really count.  The Avatar buffs are mostly situational is another “up to you” buff.  I usually do Wind in circumstances where running around and/or chasing people is part of my strategy.  Otherwise, if I plan to stand and guard somewhere, I’ll switch to Water to reduce some of the incoming damage.

Abilities:  The three most important abilities to use the moment their cooldown wears off, in my opinion, are Riftwalk, Bull Rush, and Spell Sunder.  If they are up I absolutely want to use them.  I also want to smash face with Ragestorm when it is up.  Other than all of that it is up to you — I try to amp up the DPS with Frost Strike + Thunder Strike and the Spears.  I would recommend making sure Stonespear is in there regardless of what you decide, because if both Riftwalk and Bull Rush are down and the target is too far away, you might be able to root them with it and catch up.

Finishers:  When I have three attack points, I want to make sure Rift Surge is used, then Rift Tap, and then whatever DPS I can squeeze in between from the Riftblade’s Burst abilities.

So far I have really enjoyed this build, much more than I would have thought.  I was really attached to my Paladin/Beastmaster/Void Knight and while I will probably alter that build to continue to use when I duo with Ferrel, I think this one is the one for when I PvP!

The Good

The purifier is the healing soul that received wards/shields in Rift. I have always been a fan of wards in MMORPGs because they do something that no other type of healing can do: negate damage. Frequently people try to gloss over how important that is but, as a long-time healer, I can tell you it is huge. If a ward protects a tank from 1000 damage and a HoT heals from 2000 I still feel the ward is better. How can that be? When you use a ward the tank never took the damage. You can’t waste it to over heal. The tank’s health remains in position and there is no catching up. That HoT might “heal” more but it takes time, which leaves the tank vulnerable. It also goes to waste if there isn’t 2000 damage to heal. The purifier commands all of the wards in the game and I enjoy that style of healing.

Surging Flames is an outstanding final ability in the tree. You place this on the main tank and all healing you do on them spills over into other players. This drastically reduces the waste of over healing and gives a soul that is focused on single-target healing some versatility. You can also use it creatively by placing it on someone who doesn’t take much damage so that the heals are always spilling over. This ability is percentage based so as you get better so does it.

Ancestral Flame is another strong ability. It adds a ward to the purifier’s main heal. It is also percentage based and can grow as the cleric does. It helps further reduce the waste of over heal since even if your target doesn’t get the maximum benefit of the heal itself they still get a ward. It is pretty much a must-have for all purifier builds.

Tank Healing is the strength of the soul. When you need immediate, large healing on a single target look no further than the purifier. The soul might not be the best in a long distance run but on the sprint it is excellent. Regardless of what I view as bad or deficient the purifier can still complete its primary task and do so well. It might not always be the best at certain things but it does well.

The Bad

As a primary healing soul the purifier tends to be a one trick pony (like me!). If you go too deep into the soul tree you’re going to have trouble keeping anyone other than the main tank alive. You have to almost split your points evenly with another soul to be be effective in a group situation. That isn’t necessarily bad but it begs to ask the question: if the purifier is a one trick pony shouldn’t it be the undisputed champion of that trick? In my eyes, yes. Currently, outside of a few specific fights, there isn’t a place for a 51 point purifier. Once your tank gears to a certain point even the fights that require it also evaporate. There should be a compelling reason to max out each soul. You trade variety and versatility for a powerful niche. I WANT to be a 51 purifier but I just can’t see a reason to be outside of the aforementioned few fights.

The purifier cannot invest too deeply into their tree and receive a battle resurrection spell. You have to spend either 32 points in sentinel or 31 points in justicar just to pick up the ability to resurrect in combat. A sentinel fits better with a purifier but that resurrection spell has a ten minute recast. Compare this against the chloromancer. A chloromancer needs to spend only 20 points in the their soul to get a five minute recast battle resurrection. They can then spend 46 points in any other soul. This is one point where all of the arguments that the battle resurrection situation is fine just fall apart. How can that be fine? You can basically splash chloromancer in any DPS build to get a superior battle resurrection but you have to commit 50% to a cleric soul to do the same? Every cleric healing soul should have access to a battle resurrection through either their own tree or by moving the one in the sentinel tree down. It should also only be on a five minute cooldown.

The Ugly

The main handicap of the purifier soul are the blessings (Healing Blessing, Caregiver’s Blessing, Fiery Blessing). It is clear that these are the intended niche of the class. Each one is intended to, in some way, give the purifier an advantage. In the soul tree 14 points are geared towards blessing. That is almost 25% of the entire 51 point build and they don’t live up to expectations. I view Fiery Blessing as the best of the group as it significantly increases your potential to critically heal. Beyond that, these are niche abilities that don’t make a big enough difference in the fight for most people to even bother using. In hybrid builds they are almost universally ignored. For something that is a big portion of the class I am shocked at how underwhelming these abilities are.

This may not be an entirely fair point but I have to make it. In MMORPGs we have a preconceived notion that healers are also adequate buffers. The purifier does not have a single group/raid buff that is not completely overwritten by someone else. I would really like to see the soul have at least one buff that was at least competitive. Let a soul that is viewed only as a main tank healer at least offer something else to the raid to make it desirable. A little bit would go a long way in this regard!

Still Useful

I said in the beginning that one of the good things about the purifier soul is that it works. That is true. It does work. We can get the job done. Does that mean we should be completely ignored? Absolutely not! There are some issues that need to be resolved and I hope to see that in the future!

Have you seen our Kickstart Project? Ferrel is currently raising funds for his second book, The Raider’s Companion! Check it out and please consider supporting, sharing, or both!

The Tanking Dream Team

Almost every “uber best I’m-right-you’re-wrong” build you see for tanking involves one, two, or all of the following three souls: Paladin, Void Knight, and Warlord. Each one has something to it that most will tell you that you just can’t live without. Some people deviate and go heavier into Paladin while others focus more on Void Knight. Most builds don’t go too far into Warlord but even so, it’s still considered very important for its golden ability — for the time being, anyway.

Paladin – Can’t Touch This

The Paladin is undeniably pretty awesome. The main feature to this soul is that it is a blocking god. Through this soul alone you can increase your block chance by 15% and reduce the damage taken on blocked attacks by 20%. When it comes to Paladins, you just can’t touch them with physical damage.

So what’s going to happen to them? Increased magic mitigation, of course! As if they weren’t “untouchable” before, now the one thing they were really hurt by is going to hurt them less. For example, Hardened Will gives you up to 9% magic mitigation currently and with the changes, you can get that number up to 16%.

Void Knight – Dance, Magic, Dance

Paladin and Void Knight are often paired together because as it currently stands, Paladins are pretty susceptible to magic damage (and even with the changes, I think they still will be). Void Knights laugh in the face of magic and punt it with an iron-toed boot. That said, even in fights where magic is not a concern, Void Knights rock for one feature above all else: pacts.

However, something is happening to my strength nectar and defense ambrosia — my sweet, sweet pact buffs! While they’re not going anywhere they are changing. Ravenous Defense no longer increases armor but instead reduces damage, which is fine by me, but it’s the addendum that makes me gasp: “[...] with the reduction amount increased with additional points spent in Void Knight.” Ravenous Strength still has its same effect, but it is also now based on points spent in this soul. Tricky, tricky developers!

Warlord – Don’t You Want Me, Baby?

Not really, Warlord! I’ve never really cared to have this soul in my build. Actually, I tried to create a new build a few weeks ago because I just feel like the Warlord is a waste of my points. This attempt was met with a small outcry by the DPS folk because apparently Spotter’s Orders is their nectary ambrosia and because I know I’d cry if I lost my pacts, I nixed my hopes and dreams and returned to my standard build.

But not anymore! The great decision-makers in the sky have stripped Spotter’s Orders of its rank as a Call ability so the Battlefield Awareness buff no longer wants to be its friend. They even gave its DPS-pleasing ability to another class! Since those were the only reasons I kept Warlord around, I might finally wave good-bye to the little lonely mop of a soul.

What Does It Mean?

I think the developers are quite intentionally doing what I believe they’re doing (inconceivable, I know!). To me, it feels like they’re trying to gently force without actually forcing tanks to choose a side: Paladin or Void Knight. If you don’t, you still get a balanced plate of benefits of both like before, but to really gain the advantages of the souls, you should consider spending points in one more than the other. The Void Knight pact benefits now depend on points spent in the tree, though I’m uncertain how many points you need to spend to have them really make a difference. However, on the other side of the coin, they also made Paladin slightly more magic resilient if you choose to be its best friend instead.

Personally, I am torn all sorts of ways. A part of me wants to stay evenly spread in Paladin and Void Knight and ignore the dangling fruit of the 30+ point benefits. I do know that I really want to ditch Warlord and pick up Reaver to get the Plague Bringer + Sinister Intent combo pack for multi-target taunting. Decisions, decisions – with these changes they almost make me want to go pure Void Knight and stray from Paladin, but it’s so hard to lose the comfort of having high block.

Have you seen our Kickstart Project? Ferrel is currently raising funds for his second book, The Raider’s Companion! Check it out and please consider supporting, sharing, or both!

Graphics

Graphically DragonVale is a big improvement over most iPhone/iPad games. I was quite impressed to be honest. This type of game has come a long way from the “click this button and stare at a static graphic” systems I’m accustomed to (think Epic Pet Wars). Game animations are very smooth with some really deep textures. The art style is cutesy but also very impressive. There are plenty of dragons that will make some people squee and others that seem manly! I found both Aure and I could enjoy the game for that reason. She can have the cute ones and I can have the mean looking ones.

Truly Free

Thus far DragonVale is truly free. You can get and/or do everything if you’re willing to wait. I’ve yet to see any item or building that can’t be purchased by gold. The pay portion comes in for the impatient. If you want something NOW you can pay. As an example, breeding dragons is tedious. You don’t always get the species you want on the first try. That means waiting and trying repeatedly. If you want to drop some cash you can remove both the random and time elements. In my eyes this is perfect. This is the definition of how a cash shop should work. If you want instant gratification you have to pay. If you work hard and invest time you can also get the same reward. Trade Nations does not operate in this fashion and it always annoyed me that the best stuff required cash to be spent.

Pretty Fun

DragonVale is enjoyable. I like the challenge of patiently breeding dragons to produce the desired offspring. I also like the theory craft behind maximizing your resources to get the best possible result. If you like, you can specialize in a few natural elements or expand into every kind. There is a little something for everyone here. There is plenty of room for decorating, achievement hunting, min/maxing, and most other play-styles. The game is certainly geared towards the Farmville audience but as a hardcore MMORPG player I still find it entertaining. It has levels after all and people love earning levels!

In the future

I’m not certain if or how Backflip Studios plans to progress the game. I’m certain that they would want to support a great game such as this that offers a lot of opportunity for revenue. For my money (or lack there of) I would like to see new activities for the dragons to engage in. At this time they can do one challenge a day (it takes 24 hours). It is one of those “assign this here” type things and there isn’t much to it. It would be interesting to see an Epic Pet Wars type event where you could actually control your dragons in an arena of some type. Of course that goes way outside of the scope of the game but you never know! The background is here. Certain elements counter other elements. The dragons have levels. Why not have a battle system?

Be my friend?

Like all freemium games there are perks to having friends. I would like to be your friend! If you’re a DragonVale player why not friend FerrelES?

Have you seen my Kickstart Project? I’m currently raising funds for my second book, The Raider’s Companion! Check it out and please consider supporting, sharing, or both!

Statistics Consideration

My major focus in this build is spell power. I want to increase it as much as possible and that means seeking out wisdom and raw spell power anywhere I can. This results in critical chance lagging behind but as the character progresses through the gear curve it will be increased eventually. I also avoid focus completely. Ferrel can’t hit the broad side of a dragon but that really isn’t the goal here. This build exists to heal others.

The Purifier Guide

The purifier soul is the major component in the balanced build and really dictates what will ultimately be chosen. On the first tier I fully populated both Spirit Guidance for the 5% wisdom and Flame Speaker for the 5% critical heal chance. These two abilities address the two major goals of increasing spell power and healing well. I never go anywhere without them! On the other side of that coin, I spend zero points on tier two. It can be argued that Protection of the Ancestors is worthwhile. I didn’t go that route but could easily see putting four points into it.

On the third tier I maxed out Enflamed Rejuvenation. This gives all single target heal spells a 10% chance to increase the heal amount of the next single target heal by 30%. This is a solid ability that triggers quite often. It also helps to max out your heals.

The forth tier brings us to the ability that really makes this (and most) purifier build: Ancestral Flame. Ancestral Flame adds a shield to Restorative Flame that absorbs damage equal to 60% of the purifier’s spell power. This is one of the places the purifier really shines. By using the largest heal in our arsenal we also shield our tank. Since this is an absorb ability it never goes to waste or over-heal. The larger the spell power the larger the absorption and as any healer will tell you, never taking the damage is better than being healed.

My fifth tier is the one where the most options comes in. I chose to go with four points in Life’s Blessing because I am a big fan of Fiery Blessing. I also put a point into Latent Blaze but I could take or leave that. You could skip either or both of these and go full points into Protection of the Ancestors on tier two. It is really a matter of where you see the most benefit.

Intense Flames received a full set of points and increases the healing of your direct spells by 5%. I also grabbed Fiery Blessing to increase my critical heal chance and Blessing of the Flame to help conserve mana. The chance isn’t high but I generally find this ability useful.

My final point went into Surging Flames which I feel is about the greatest ability you can get. This buff gives you all sorts of sneaky ways to heal the heck out of your group while doing what you do normally. I use it constantly and really can’t say enough good things about it.

The Sentinel Guide

The perfect partner for this purifier build is the sentinel. It helps bring up the spell power, critical healing, and adds a ton of utility. The first tier offers a solid choice in both Watchful Gaze, which increases spell power by 5% when maxed, and Benediction which increases healing by 5%!

Walk in the Light in the second tier is an exceptional use of points. It adds a 20% bonus to both the critical hit and healing bonus. Light Concentration reduces the cost of healing spells by 10%. This will help keep your cleric in the battle longer!

The third tier offers a lot of choice based on personal preference. To get to the 32 point mark some points will need to be spent here. I put mine into Light Efficiency to increase the power of my group healing. Embolden is just as valid and will increase the range of your group heals. It really comes down to preference!

On the forth tier I always grab Protect the Flock. This is a stellar ability that causes anyone you group heal to take 5% less damage. With certain combinations you can almost always have this running and reduce the total damage taken by your group. It really is worth the two points in my eyes. I’m also a fan of Enraptured Breath. This turns Healing Breath into a minor group heal without adding any cost. It helps to hit that emergency and catch a few extra people as well.

Empowering Light on the fifth tier is, without a doubt, the one ability that you must buy regardless of your build. It is a group cure that hits up to ten people. It is simply too useful to pass up and makes a world of difference in some dungeons and most raids.

I round out the rest of the sentinel tree with Serendipity on the sixth tree and Healer’s Haste as my final ability. Serendipity works really well when you start to build up your critical hit chance. Each time you manage to critically heal the next spell will cast 1.5 seconds faster. Healer’s Haste is a more controlled way to reduce your cast times. It is great for those emergency situations where your tank needs heals now! The biggest gain here is that you’ll be at 32 points in sentinel. That unlocks Life’s Return, an in combat resurrection spell. Don’t leave home without it!

Templar

I use templar as my third tree because I think Break Free is extremely useful. It works on a lot of PvE encounters and will completely save your hind end. I get more out of it than using Warden as my third, especially since it is a zero point ability.

The Build

Balanced Purifier Sentinel Build

Vote it up (or down)!

Unlike Facebook where I can’t tell you how much I hate your smoothy update Raptr offers a Reddit-like voting system. Good stories can be voted up and bad ones can be quickly voted down. By including so many bloggers and websites early on Raptr has ensured that these tailored news feeds are going to be well stocked with things worth voting on. Now instead of checking a large amount of sites I can just look at my news feed and vote up the stories I care about. Raptr will learn about what I don’t like and be less inclined to send similar stories my way. Essentially, I can participate in the MMORPG genre but vote down every WoW story so I don’t have to see every single piece of news about it!

Follow like Twitter/Facebook

Raptr will also allow users to follow other users in a fashion similar to Facebook or Twitter. If there is a blogger you really like you can keep up with their activities. You’ll know when new stories are posted and be able to view their Twitter-like comments all in one place. This will essentially bind together several services and eliminate some need to join every social networking site on the planet. Of course Raptr also integrates fully with both Twitter and Facebook.

Stalk Find your Friends

If someone uses the Raptr client you’ll be able to see them when they’re online and know what game they’re playing. That will ensure your ability to keep tabs on other players! Is your main tank missing for raids? You can see on Raptr that the jerk is playing Rockband 12 (I kid, I kid)! In all seriousness it does help you see who is available to play a game with. Guilds can use it for out of game communication and that is something I’m all for.

Social Networking for Gamers

Raptr has always been a pretty cool product and I’ve used it now and again. I’m really pleased with all of the new services and will start working on the Epic Slant topic page (consider following it) as more options become available to do so. You can also follow/stalk/love me too! The changes to the service are great so why not head over and check it out!

Official Press Release

RAPTR LAUNCHES SOCIAL NEWS PLATFORM FOR GAMERS WITH PERSONALIZATION BASED ON WHAT YOU’RE PLAYING

Raptr to Rollout New Platform to Over Eight Million Users

San Francisco – May 26, 2011 – Raptr, the leading social network for gamers, has launched a social news platform, adding a significant new dimension to its popular service. The milestone expansion will enable users to submit stories that are then voted on by the community and automatically targeted based on a person’s gaming profile and gameplay activity. The evolved Raptr goes live today with its more than eight million user base at http://raptr.com.

“At Raptr we’re reinventing the way people stay connected and informed about the games they care about”, said Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr. “We’re excited by the launch of the new community-driven website because it builds upon the success of our existing service and provides a new way to discover and share content.”

Raptr now intelligently delivers the most relevant content based on the games and platforms you own, your recent gameplay, and what your friends are sharing. Raptr also helps players discover additional content by determining your gaming preferences, such as gaming genres, developers, and publishers that interest you. Users can submit and share a mix of content including news, videos, screenshots, status updates, and reviews.

Today, Raptr’s full feature set includes:

• Personalized news feed

• Community-curated content

• Expanded topics to include all things related to gaming

• Suggestion engine to help you discover new games

• Automatic gameplay and achievements tracker on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3

• Centralized buddy list and friend tracker

• In-game chat and web browsing for PC games

More than eight million people already use Raptr to track their gameplay and connect with their friends across PC, console, and web games. Raptr tracks more than 23 million gaming sessions and over a billion minutes of gameplay each month, providing users real-time insight into what’s hot in gaming.

About Raptr

Created by a world-class team led by CEO and founder Dennis Fong (co-founder of Xfire, Lithium, and Gamers.com), the award-winning Raptr service provides gamers with a central location to connect with both friends and the games they play. Since 2007, Raptr has raised more than $27 million in funding from investors Accel Partners, Founder’s Fund, DAG Ventures, and Tenaya Capital.

For more information about Raptr, please visit http://raptr.com.

Rorf

The first boss in expert Lantern hook is Rorf the feline tamer. He is accompanied by three feline companions who like to chew on tanks that aren’t careful to keep them on the front arch. Rorf only has one trick in this fight and that is to bounce away from your tank. By doing so he forces the group to move (or draw him back in) and increases the chance of your tank offering their hind end to the feline companions. Beyond that the fight is unremarkable and a textbook tank and spank encounter. Your tank should draw aggro on all four monsters and hold them while DPS works them down. Adjust as he ports away. If you kill Rorf before the three cats die you’ll receive an extra achievement.

Pyromaster Cortinald

In comparison to Rorf the second boss, Pryomaster Cortinald is a bit more challenging and will require the full attention of everyone in your group. The fight unfolds in two stages. The first stage is all about killing small monsters quickly and dodging huge pillars of fire. Pryomaster Cortinald will stand on the ledge above you and summon dogs that like to melee and imps that like to toss fire. While this is occurring you’ll notice orange circles that will appear on the floor around one party member. That is the queue to move! In a few seconds that orange circle will become a pillar of flame. Make every effort to kill as many monsters as you can as fast as you can.

After throwing a few fire pillars and summoning a horde of monsters Pyromaster Cortinald will hop down to handle business himself. There are three abilities you need to be aware of. The most dangerous is Cinder Burst. This is a high damage nuke that can and should be interrupted. If your tank is not at full health expect a huge drop in health if you can’t interrupt in time. If the target is anyone other than the tank expect an appropriately geared character to die. The next ability to know is the self teleport. Throughout the fight Pyromaster Cortinald will jump to other portions of the room. Your tank and party will need to quickly get back to him. Often times he will start casting Cinder Burst once he is out of range. The final ability of note is Pillar of Fire. This is the same ability as before but will be cast continuously throughout the fight. At any given time you’ll have three pillar’s active. If you can avoid taking any damage to them you’ll get an achievement.

Flamebringer Druhl

The third boss in Lantern Hook is spawned after clearing a simple ring event. To complete this event your party will need to disable three portals in the room above Pyromaster Cortinald’s by killing the monsters that are associated with it. Initially it is a single monster but he’ll call in two friends to help. Be mindful that there is also a roaming team and once it is killed a second one will spawn. Kill both roaming groups and the three portals to spawn Flamebringer Druhl. This fight is a bit easier than Pyromaster Cortinald but still requires some attention to detail. Flamebringer Druhl has a couple of fun abilities that will kill your group in a hurry but are easily avoided by knowing how to stand. Group members should spread out around Flamebringer Druhl in a semi-circle and rely on ranged damage. There should be as much distance between each person as you can manage. The tank should be dead center and face Flamebringer Druhl away from the party. Everyone needs to be sure they’re not in the front 180 arch.

During the fight Flamebringer Druhl will use Molten Instability to tug all members of the group in on himself. At the same time an incurable effect will appear on each member with an invisible count down. When this occurs each member should immediately turn back to their original facing and run to their spot in the semi-circle. When the countdown expires an explosion will go off. How much damage each person takes is directly related to how close they are to other group members. If you’re doing the encounter correctly you should take no more than 300-500 damage. If you get hit for more than that you’re too close together. Flamebringer Druhl also has an effect he’ll place on anyone in his front 180 arch. A simple cure will remove it from your tank. Healers should be sure to keep their instant cast spells available for the tug effect. Running out makes it hard to heal! One final note. Flamebringer Druhl will build up Rage of Flame over the course of the fight. This increases out going damage. It can be purged.

Emberlord Ereetu

This guy represents the make or break point for expert Lantern Hook. Emberlord Ereetu is over tuned for the level of difficulty that this dungeon is intended for. If you’re just breaking into tier one dungeons your chance of success is very low. To put out the DPS required to win you’ll need to be halfway through the tier. Now before I go into the strategy let me note that there are at least two ways to do this fight and a third way that is basically an exploit. I will try to cover each one and explain the strengths and weaknesses after we look at what Emberlord Ereetu does.

Emberlord Ereetu has three major abilities that make this a very complex fight. The least of your worries is Explosive Bolt. This is a directed AE that is targeted on a single party member. Anyone nearby will also be hit by it. The next ability is a single target fear called Dark Invocation. It will generally last three to five seconds and cause the party member to run around (sometimes you won’t move) and be unable to cast. On top of those two manageable abilities Emberlord Ereetu also likes to throw crystal shards. Summon Scorching Shard will show a trail of light from his hand towards the person he is targeting. This makes it easy to plan where the shards land. That is, until the encounter bugs out halfway through and that trail disappears. Once the shared lands it is there for the duration of the fight. Anyone near it will take damage. Thanks to a graphical bug you can and will take damage even if you’re outside of the red bubble the shard puts up. Now that we know the abilities we’ll talk strategy.

DPS Race Method

In this method you’re betting that you have more DPS that Emberlord Ereetu has pillars. Each party member should spread out around the edge of the plateau with enough room to move. Melee DPS will need to be in with the tank. By spreading out you limit the damage of explosive bolt to a single person. Pour heavy DPS into Emberlord Ereetu once the tank locks aggro. Healers should be watching for the fear and curing it as fast as possible. When the trail of light comes at a group member they can still move and dictate where it will go. Keep the pillars along the edge of the room. As the fight progresses, wait till the trail gets close and then run near another shard (but not too near) to stack them. The longer the fight goes the more likely you are to fail due to all available space being filled with pillars. Tanks should move enough when the shard lands on them to give the DPS room behind Emberlord Ereetu without taking damage. Also note that due to a graphical bug you will eventually be unable to know where the shard will land. At that point do your best and hope he dies soon.

HLM Method

HLM stands for heal like mad and is the second method of choice for Emberlord Ereetu. Your DPS and healers all stack together opposite your tank. You accept that explosive bolt will light you up and plan to heal through it with group based heals. At the same time, each time summon scorching shard is cast you move as a group just enough to be out of its damage. By doing so carefully you can stake an insane amount of shards. Just be careful and be sure everyone moves together and at the same time as you’ll have no idea who the shard is after. Once the graphic bugs out, however, you can reliably know where to shard is coming. Be sure to keep dark invocation cured and the group heals slamming.

Border-line Exploit

As it stands now there is a bug in Emberlord Ereetu’s abilities. I’m not going to elaborate on what or how but it is there. If you wipe enough you’ll eventually find the fight to be extremely easy. This puts the fight below a level that is appropriate for the gear and level of the dungeon but does bring it in line. Just bare in mind this could be considered an exploit but more falls in line as a bug.

Oludare the Firehoof

Oludare is a much more manageable fight than Ereetu but still requires the same amount of attention and dedication. The key to point to know is that this centaur is a big fan of fire pits. Much like everyone else in the dungeon he is going to toss them about casually. To avoid this groups will generally find an elevated place to stand while the main tank stays in the main area to dodge the fire. The one we use is the ramp to the left of the zone in. You can hop from there to a slight balcony. Use what works for your group.

Oludare the Firehoof has two main abilities to know about. Both deal damage and cause him to jump away from the tank. Fiery Harpoon is a stun/silence with damage. Centaur Charge is just raw damage. Sometimes the same person will get both at once which can be very deadly. Group healing is important here. Once you find a good spot to stand there isn’t much to the fight beyond the tank staying out of the flame. Once Oludare is dead that will be the end of the dungeon!

Always remember to loot your plaques from the bodies!

The Pac-Man like appearance is purely coincidental.

Sentinel

It might not be fair to say but I think you have to take sentinel to 32 points. If you don’t you simply won’t have an in-combat resurrection spell and I’m not sure that is something I’d ever want to be without. At the same time the sentinel suffers from having slightly slower cast direct target spells when compared to the purifier over all. On the plus side you have a far easier time healing a group than a purifier might. In general I just can’t see not utilizing a sentinel into the 32 point range. The abilities in the tree seem very solid and healer focused.

Purifier

I like the idea of the purifier in principle. This seems like it is suppose to be the large direct healing soul but the tree is a train wreck. When I look at the purifier I see a lot of potential and a lot of soul abilities I don’t want to spend points in. That is not to say that they aren’t effective. Due to the fact that I feel the direct heals are a bit better than the sentinel’s I’ve been working a lot of builds around the purifier soul. They come out decently well but I always feel like something is missing. I like the fact that you get what is essentially a ward but I think the blessings need to be looked at again. They just aren’t super compelling.

Warden

The warden seems like a great back up healer soul. I’ve tried it out as my primary a few times now and I always find it lacking when it comes to keeping the main tank alive. It just doesn’t seem to do what I want and requires the cleric to spend a lot of time focusing on getting all of their HoTs on a target so they can then deluge. I’ve never been a heal over time sort of cleric so there is no wonder that this doesn’t fit. That said, it does seem to be a great secondary to either the sentinel or purifier. I’ve found that mixing those two leads to too much wasted overlap. The warden fills in when you want to get some efficiency.

I’m really wondering what everyone else out there is doing. I’m keeping the tank up but I just don’t like how the builds I’ve been using feel. Here is the current flavor of the week! All opinions and thoughts are welcome and I’m not married to this at all. My biggest concern is keeping the main tank alive. If I can keep the group up too that is fine but I can always leave that the the bards!