Most will say there are not enough of the mobs or that the drop rate for mobs in question aren't high enough. Well, there are PLENTY of the mobs, they just happen to be difficult to get at. The drop rate I suspect is no better or worse than any other drop rate. The reason there is a shortage of these comps is because so few are hunting them. Those that do primarily supply guilds, leaving the community at large at the mercy of Nadia.
Why do so few players hunt these mobs? I suspect, and this is by no means meant to be insulting or belittling, it is because they simply don't know HOW to hunt them. These mobs are dangerous, they live in dangerous places and going after them with same plan one uses for fyakkis and taratulas simply WILL NOT work.
So, I offer my experiences, tips, tricks and tactics for any and all who can use them. As I am a multiclassed biped I don't know what , if any, of what I offer would be of use to dragons. I do hope some dragons reply and offer their tips and tricks, also offer their comparisons of both of our styles. Futhermore, as my build is primarily caster with melee secondary, some of my tips and tricks may not apply to all biped classes. However, some adaptation of these tips and tricks is possible and can be of use.
To hunt T5 mobs, and especially T5 WA mobs, effectively requires thought and preparation that can be divided into 3 separate categories:
1) Gear...to include armor, spells, weapons, potions
2) Reconnaisance...you have to know where they are, where you are and where it is safe for you to be
3) The tactics
Gear...this is the expensive part. Having the right gear is essential to survival. Arguably the most important gear one possesses is armor (including jewelry). To hunt T5 effectively you really need the best. Not the best you can afford but, the best period. T5 armor with 3x T5 teching. To try to hunt the mobs in question with anything less is asking for trouble.
In a fight, 3 things keep you alive...not getting hit at all, damage reduction and hit points. Not getting hit at all can happen if the mob never gets close enough to hit. This is done with roots and will be addressed further later. Evasion, dexerity and block are contributers to not getting hit. Evasion can only only be gotten from leveling up a school with high evasion and/or using Training Points. Dexerity can be had the same way and through the use of techs. Leveling a school for dexerity is a far better option than wasting TP or tech slots for added dexerity. Block comes from shields and is limited in its effectiveness and also whether or not one can or will carry a shield. Damage reduction is a function of your armor rating, the higher the rating, the more damage is reduced. Resistances also reduce damage. Hit points...the more you have, the more damage you can take and survive.
So, when teching one's armor one should consider damage reduction first, health second and only then consider adventure teching. I highly reccommend armor teching each piece. As the greatest majority of mobs use some form of crush or slash attack, crush and slash resistance should be on every piece that will take them. Put health techs on shoulder pads and boots at the very least. Put a socket in the helm and get yourself an Aroah's Health Crystal. The rest of the tech slots can be used to enhance stats and/or adventure skills.
Jewlery...health jewelry is, IMO, the ONLY jewelry one should wear while hunting. Socket the necklace and stick a health crystal in it. Put armor tech on each piece. Put a good adventure tech or stat tech in the remaining necklace slot. This will be the only necklace you will ever need for hunting. Use the rings, earrings and bracelets to specialize. I personally have 4 sets of mithril health jewelry. The necklace is as described above. All pieces have armor V tech. I have one set of rings, earrings, and bracelets with crush and slash resist. This set is for golems, treants, gruoks, purple spiders, Selen Forest dire wolves etc. Another has ice resistance combined with the crush and slash resist. Yet another uses flame resist. There are obvious places where each of those sets has it's purpose. The last set was tricky. It is for fighting undead, up to and including wraith groups. The 6 pieces all have armor V leaving 12 open tech slots. One has mind resistance, a little help against mezzes. 4 have spirit resistance. 5 have blight resistance and the last 2 have nature resistance. While this set is not proof against the worst the undead can throw at me, it does counter enough to make taking wraith groups doable solo and I simply own single undead. I also had a cape made for each set that is teched to match the jewelry. This was an expensive and time consuming effort to obtain the comps and have the gear made. It is well worth the effort.
Spells...arguably almost every multiclassed biped has some offensive casting ability. I reccommend putting the approriate range V tech on the spell with the shortest casting time. Range V extends the range of a spell up to 55 meters in most cases. This is your reach into the middle of spawn and pull something spell. Bow users can use whatever variation of Longshot they may have to accomplish the same thing.
Heal spells...you want them to provide maximum healing and to recycle fast. CLeanse tech is all well and good on heal spells however, it is better on raise/enhance health. Raise/enhance health has a 5 second recycle which beats the fastest recycling heal spell by a considerable margin.
Weapons...Well, if ya want to get those fringes and toes ya gotta go to the Satyr Islands. Each island has it's own little green meanie going by names like Palsy, Famine etc. Get yourself 2 indentical weapons. One is your main battle weapon. You know best what to do with it. The other is specfically for the little green meanie. Make sure it's socketed and install the appropriate Talisman for whatever island you may be on. Hotkey both weapons. Now if that little green rat bugger attacks you, you are able to return the favor in very short order.
Potions...I love potions. I use the entire Bolter Line. There is one for each stat including armor. They are expensive, hard to come by and can mean the difference between winning and losing in a tough fight. Quints is an extra go faster, Speed is life. Vestia's is a really nice little heal over time potion. While each little heal doesn't amount to much, over the duration of the potion they often add up to life-saver. Ginesh and Latros provide some crush, slash and pierce resistance and ward. The more the merrier for those.
Reconnaissance...All the levels and great gear, spells, weapons etc in the world aren't going to do you one bit of good if you don't know where to hunt. Spend some time on the islands. Get a good map. Find yourself locations where the mobs won't aggro you for just standing there but, from where you can use that range teched spell or long shooting bow to pull one to you. Many spots on the islands contain all the mobs you might be after. Clean it out and move on to the next. HINT: Some of the islands have spawns near shallow water. Standing in the water to pull, fight and kill expands the battlefield. Mobs don't spawn in water nor do they patrol it. Use this to your advantage.
Some of the better spots on the smaller islands are in the interior or on the opposite sides of the islands from the landing pads. Finding safe routes to these spots can be difficult and in some cases impossible. However, you can still get there. Use Quint's and Swift Feet and take the road right through the spawns that are between you and where you want to be. As the spawns are dynamic, you have a little grace time after mobs spawn and before they will attack. Once the mobs start spawning use Sprint to blow by the rest to get where you're going. Be ready to detox if you should be attacked. If you don't have Detox, get it.
Lastly, while doing recon, make sure you find yourself some good escape routes. If the fight goes against you and you have to run, it's nice to have a safe escape route.
Ok, now you have the gear and know the islands. Let's start looking at the mobs and how to kill them.
Hunting the Satyr Islands for vexators, undead, kwellans etc is NOT like doing the bug hunts. You try the bug hunt tactics on those boys and you, and your group, will probably wind up dead. These mobs are best done solo or in a small group of no more than 4. And 4 is really 1 too many. You need to be able to pull from a distance, cast for massive damage, do reasonable melee damage and be able to heal and detox. Hunting these tougher mobs on the Satyr Islands is all about the surgical strike. A solo hunter or a small group can achieve an amazing kill rate with very little risk to life or limb pulling and killing one mob or one group at a time. All it takes are the proper preparations and proper tactics. TIP: Be advised that pulling one critter may get you 2 or 3 of his buddies too. It doesn't happen often. Be ready if does though.
Undead...ghosts, skeletons, mummies, and zombies. Singly they are easy. If you can root the casters and back off past 40 meters and still hit em, do so. It seems range it not something the casters of WA consider critical. Of course, this requires you to have a bow that can hit at that distance or a line of spells with at least Range III. Or, you can pull the caster, close to melee range and watch the goof stop casting and start meleeing. Yep, they do that! Those are weaknesses, exploit them.
Zombies drop zombie werewolf skulls. They aren't the only zombies WA has either. There are zombie ogres. Pick a spawn of undead and start killing off the zombies. Sooner or later, sooner in most cases, rarely not at all, a zombie ogre or 2 will spawn. If you are lucky, the spawn will stay relatively stable for an hour or so, 3-8 regular zombies, then an ogre or 2. If this doesn't happen for you, move to a different spawn.
Wraith groups...are predictable. To kill off a wraith group you will need a little room to manouver. Wraith groups patrol a set course and stop before they change direction. You will need a good arcane caster to take these boys out. Use Sprint to close to 30 meters, use Perfect Spell and cast Daunting Mist on group while they are stopped. Back away using fusion burn and multicast. Stop at over 40 meters range and start slinging bombs at them. If you are in a group, the group members should be attacking the casters from a distance. Once the casters, especially any shamans, are down move in and finish off what's left.
Kwellan groups...behave exactly like wraith groups. And same tactic works on kwellan groups. Strip away the blights and that kwellan is easy meat.
Abominations...these guys have some terrific offensive capabilities and lousy defense. If possible, after pulling it to the kill zone, root it and drop it like a bad habit. If rooting is not an option, then be ready for a fight, these guys hit hard and can kill you. However, due to their poor defense they are vulnerable to whatever you can hit them with. They don't seem to possess any heals, so if you can stay healed, you can kill it.
Aegrors...these butt-picking wierdos are fairly easy to deal with. It's those durned flies that run with them that can actually turn the tide against you. Be ready to heal and detox a lot in a fight with these guys. If possible, AoE is the way to go. Also rooting the aegror, killing off the flies and then knocking off the aegror is an effective tactic.
Vexators...are very weak vs. flame and slash attacks. They have a nasty little range nerf but, it's easily detoxed. They have a stun similar to the Bloodmage variety, and they have chain lightning. Chain lightning on a solo hunter is no big deal, it doesn't last very long. Chain lightning on a group can get nasty in a hurry. If you are in a group and fighting vexators try to keep about 20 meters of separation between group members. This will nullify chain lightning's ability to jump from player to player.
Ok, I've covered gear, recon and tactics. I know everything written above will not apply to all classes nor to dragons. However, I know some of it is adaptable and some of it can be used as is. I would hope if someone can make an adaptation work or find out something new that they will post it. I good hunting guide would be appreciated by all.
Practice makes perfect, just because you have the gear, did the recon and read this post doesn't mean you going to go out start whipping these critters butts. You aren't. A lot of these tactics, especially the pulling, and the tactic for wraith and kwellan groups, are all about timing. Get your timing right and you have every chance of winning. Get it wrong and you'll probably take a little dirt nap.
I suggest going to the Northern Continent, Trandusomethingorother, and start your practicing there. Aroah's Leap is not far from a nice undead spawn, Practice on them, observe how they react, note their tendencies. Not far from the T3 gem golem spawn is a fyakki and necrofly spawn. Near the bugs is a wraith group spawn. Practice on them, get your timing down. Go to Rift's Edge and practice on the Kwellan groups, get your timing right.
Then move on to the Western Deadlands. Practice on the undead and wraith groups out there, Get your timing right. Try out the Aegrors. Note how annoying and sometimes dangerous those flies can get. Go play with the kwellans and blights. Put in your practice time and get your timing right.
I would imagine some would say they don't get xp or good loot from T3 and T4 mobs. Ok, they may be right but, I can guarantee they won't get any xp or good loot if all they can do on the Satyr Islands is take dirt naps because they didn't practice their tactics. Those T5 critters aren't out to lay down and die for you. You have to kill them while are trying to kill you and you need be on top of your game to do it. So take the time to practice your tactics and get your timing right on the easy stuff. Then move on to the big boys.
TIP: T3 and T4 WA mobs use the same basic spells, tactics and abilities as their T5 big brothers. Knowing this is handy, if you discover a nice little dirty trick that works on T3 or T4, it will work on T5 as is or with only slight modifications.
*Fair Warning* It doesn't matter how good your gear is, how well you reconned, how good your tactics are; sometimes the Gods of Battle smile on the other guys. Have some ambrosia handy just in case
*Note on T6* While these tactics do work on T6 WA mobs, they are not as effective. This is primarily due to the fact you are taking on T6 mobs with T6 capabilities and you have at best T5.
*Note to Dragons and Devs* The dragon buff Promote Vitality. Correct me if I am wrong but, I think it is a spell. If it is, it should be modified to accept the cleanse tech. If it is not a spell, it should be for that reason. It should have the same casting time, recycle time and teching options as biped raise/enhance health. Or at least, create a dragon version of raise/enhance health. Basically, they need something with a 5 second recycle that will accept the cleanse tech. Dragons need this, IMO. Furthermore, it is possible for every biped to have the cleanse teched raise/enhance health AND Detox Self. Dragons deserve no less. Give them a Detox Self ability. These are essentials for fighting WA.
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Kwinn
Mortal Danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas... Erwin Rommel
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If it moves, I hunt it.
From : http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=85100
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