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+--- Thread: Eternity Vault: SOA (/thread-503.html)
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Celoth - 02-23-2012 02:58 AM
So, my guild is working on Soa, I'm the main tank, and I just cannot seem to hit all the pylons... I miss half of them just because it's so hard to tell exactly where they will land. Any tips from you experienced tanks out there??
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Petrus - 02-23-2012 03:14 AM
(02-23-2012 02:58 AM)Celoth Wrote: So, my guild is working on Soa, I'm the main tank, and I just cannot seem to hit all the pylons... I miss half of them just because it's so hard to tell exactly where they will land. Any tips from you experienced tanks out there??
Hey Celoth. The best way I've found to do it is to zoom your camera out (make sure you have the 100% zoom set in your settings), tilt it up, and rotate 360 degrees. It's really hard to have good depth perception on this mechanic, so if you can rotate your camera it you can see it from several different angles, which should really help narrow down where it's at by providing you with several different perspectives.
Basically think front/side/top view like in 3D modeling. You can triangulate the position of the pylon by looking at it from three different angles. That probably sounds kinda complicated, but it's pretty easy to do. Also keep an eye out for people around it, and as you rotate your camera you can judge where they are compared to where it is, and when you go back to your normal view you can adjust based on where other people or props are standing.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Rynoh - 02-23-2012 03:56 AM
(02-23-2012 02:58 AM)Celoth Wrote: So, my guild is working on Soa, I'm the main tank, and I just cannot seem to hit all the pylons... I miss half of them just because it's so hard to tell exactly where they will land. Any tips from you experienced tanks out there??
I've found the best way for me to line it up is to always bring soa back to the middle and then don't get there to early. I get him in the general area of the pillar and then run under it and out the other side as it gets closer to crashing. My problem was always when the pylon was all the way over on one edge and i couldn't get a camera angle to line it up. By just holding off a bit and then running through and out the other side once its stopped moving I quit having to worry about the camera angle and haven't missed a pylon in a while.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - licensetochill - 02-23-2012 04:47 AM
(02-23-2012 02:58 AM)Celoth Wrote: So, my guild is working on Soa, I'm the main tank, and I just cannot seem to hit all the pylons... I miss half of them just because it's so hard to tell exactly where they will land. Any tips from you experienced tanks out there??
As the main tank for my guild, I'll add what advice I can to the two people above me.
For one thing, Petrus is definitely right in that you need to have your camera zoomed well out in order to keep an eye on the pylons. Having it zoomed out at a reasonable distance makes things much easier. Rynoh is also correct that it's best to keep Soa in the middle of the platform until you see the pylon being lifted, as it gives you more time to adjust.
From my own experience, here are the other tips to keep in mind:
1. Tell your guildies to shout out in vent if they see the pylon get lifted. I'm usually circling around the room looking for it, so I'll occasionally fail to see it rise up. It never hurts to have an extra warning.
2. In pulling Soa into range, it's easiest to just run directly under the pylon and look up briefly to make sure you're right underneath. If you then back out the other side, it's almost impossible for it to miss him.
3. Once you're sure Soa is under the pylon, it can help to run in circles around him rather than standing stationary. Oftentimes when he's not casting lightning orbs or mind traps he'll be moving slightly and "sliding" to your left or right, possibly moving just outside of the AOE.
4. Depending on how geared you are this might not be a viable tactic for you, but I'll mention it anyway: in my experience, it's better for you to risk staying in AOE range and taking the hit from the pylon dropping than it is for you to move out of range and have the pylon miss Soa. Pylon hits usually do around 8k to me on HM, so if you tell your healers to keep you above 50% at all times you usually won't die from a single hit. Over time I've gotten much better at getting him in range and avoiding the hits myself, but I'd still estimate I'm taking the pylon damage about 20% of the time. In the end it's not all that risky, since Soa really doesn't do much damage.
5. Soa will enrage after the 4th pylon drops, but don't just assume it's a wipe after that. Since the stupid aggro drop mechanic made life harder I've had to tank him through 2 pylons while enraged in a previous fight, and as long as you're getting focus heals you can keep kiting him for quite a while. I wouldn't be surprised if you could tank him through 3 or 4 extra pylons after he's enraged.
Lastly, keep in mind that phase 3 is much harder since he started dropping aggro when he casts mind trap, but today's patch was supposed to eliminate that mechanic. Positioning him properly under the pylons was, historically, far easier when you didn't also have to keep watching him to make sure he hadn't randomly decided to chase another raid member on the other side of the room. So, starting today, you should notice that you have much more time to adjust than you have over the last 2 weeks.
Hope this helps!
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Cosmic Osmo - 02-23-2012 05:35 AM
I locate the general area of the pylon by looking up (putting the camera against the floor) as others have said, but once I get Soa to the general vicinity of the pylon, I zoom all the way out and look straight down. This puts the camera just above the pylon, so you get a bird's-eye-view for fine tuning your positioning.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Fud - 02-23-2012 08:00 AM
(02-23-2012 04:47 AM)licensetochill Wrote: 5. Soa will enrage after the 4th pylon drops, but don't just assume it's a wipe after that. Since the stupid aggro drop mechanic made life harder I've had to tank him through 2 pylons while enraged in a previous fight, and as long as you're getting focus heals you can keep kiting him for quite a while. I wouldn't be surprised if you could tank him through 3 or 4 extra pylons after he's enraged.
The enrage really doesnt have a huge impact once you've gotten good at the fight. Our first kill on Nightmare I think was around 9-10 pylons. (Thanks to 2 pylon drops being ignored, and missing a 3rd one completely, and then having 2 dps die)
It's worth noting however, on Nightmare once he is enraged, you cannot risk getting hit by the Pylon drop aoe as the tank. It will kill you unless you have a major cooldown active.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Petrus - 02-23-2012 11:28 PM
(02-23-2012 08:00 AM)Fud Wrote: It's worth noting however, on Nightmare once he is enraged, you cannot risk getting hit by the Pylon drop aoe as the tank. It will kill you unless you have a major cooldown active.
Yeah, we just generally have our tank pop a CD and take the pylon hit every single time, just to insure that the boss is underneath. It's not like there's anything else to save your CD for in p3.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Sturrm - 02-24-2012 03:49 AM
Anybody that can share their experience with SOA after the changes made in 1.1.4? Did they break anything after this small "fix"? Im wondering if the tank that has aggro on SOA is still being tossed into mindtraps in P3. My guild is working on NiM SOA and wont be going back to him till Monday, but wouldnt want to be surprised by some new unintended changes to the fight.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Diomed - 02-24-2012 06:42 AM
My guild killed him last night and it went beautifully on Nightmare. He stuck to me well during his mind trap casts although I had intentionally remind myself that I didn't need to taunt during the channel. No aggro drops save me screwing up and "out ranging" him on one of the pylons He still really likes the tank to stay close to him to get a good follow. I didn't notice any new oddities and old favorites like the P2 floor not spawning were not seen. To their credit I think Bioware may have finally figured out how to debug this complex fight.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Shifft - 02-24-2012 07:22 AM
(02-24-2012 06:42 AM)Diomed Wrote: My guild killed him last night and it went beautifully on Nightmare. He stuck to me well during his mind trap casts although I had intentionally remind myself that I didn't need to taunt during the channel. No aggro drops save me screwing up and "out ranging" him on one of the pylons He still really likes the tank to stay close to him to get a good follow. I didn't notice any new oddities and old favorites like the P2 floor not spawning were not seen. To their credit I think Bioware may have finally figured out how to debug this complex fight.
P2 floor didn't spawn for us yesterday, so definitely not fixed yet.