Well as I mentioned yesterday, last night saw the resumption of raiding for 2009.
I was logged in about 40 mins before raid. Dan pretty soon started pulling raid together and it was nice to chatter a wee bitty with folk while that happened.
All in all last night went nice and smooth. Healing felt very controlled, and I was happy with how it all felt. It was super gratifying that most of the raid was guildies – and comparitively few from out of guild.
The Dreadlord went down without a sweat really – and grats to one of the Pax clan for her new pretty Armlets of Misgivings (*sigh* no gloves for me :p)
Demetrious also went down in a blink – dropping the pretty Zerker/Guard buckler for Amai on her first raid *cheers* well done girlie!!
Then on to Master P’Tsa (hrms hope my spelling isnt too bad). Not quite as tidy, but still smooshed first pull without any raise in blood pressure. He dropped a beautiful Dirge earring and the Diamond Rod.
At that point, we were short of the appropriate tank classes to try the sisters but 2 members of the raid kindly offered to swap, and so we headed to give them a try.
I just dont know what it is that we need to do in order to get these nasty girls down. Today we tried having the MT and raid burning Malevolance down as quick as we could while MA just tried to hold Ire. Every time though, Ires script seemed to start, then with both of them running around it was virtually impossible to keep the fight under controll.
We have tried several strats, including having the MT hold Ire while the entire rest of the raid burns Malevolance. That did not seem to work either. Really we didnt break a sweat with the other 3 named that we conquered. These nasty ladies are well within our capabilities I know it – if only we could get that strat!!!
Tonight will see us heading to PR. This will give one of our guildies a mythical update, hopefully some new forearms for Arisha, and just give us a nice warm up for our first week back at raiding. Next week will see us leave PR and maybe Pawbuster/Thuuga or Kor’Sha.
As always happy hunting and crafting all!!
Dwarven Runes 
How many have you had when doing SoH? My guild is in a similar place but we have skipped the twins so far. Good luck on those Myth updates!
Hey Jalent,
Because we have been doing pick up raids, we have the full contingent of 24. We did actually get to see the Maestro last night and giggled about pulling him.
Truth is, it feels to me like we are just missing something with the strat. It feels like taking those bad girls down is SOOO within us. Any pointers / ideas from folk who have conquered this fight??
At that point, we were short of the appropriate tank classes to try the sisters but 2 members of the raid kindly offered to swap, and so we headed to give them a try.
You /must/ have 1 warrior, 1 crusader, 1 brawler, all decently geared. I would actually suggest not having more than one each until you get the strat down.
I just dont know what it is that we need to do in order to get these nasty girls down. Today we tried having the MT and raid burning Malevolance down as quick as we could while MA just tried to hold Ire. Every time though, Ires script seemed to start, then with both of them running around it was virtually impossible to keep the fight under controll.
We have tried several strats, including having the MT hold Ire while the entire rest of the raid burns Malevolance. That did not seem to work either. Really we didnt break a sweat with the other 3 named that we conquered. These nasty ladies are well within our capabilities I know it – if only we could get that strat!!!
OK ultra quick rundown from what we do.
First point, there is no way any tank can hold either Malevolence or Ire. It’s impossible as routinely throughout the fight, both mobs will decide they want to be tanked by a different fighter class and only that class can hold aggro on them, this is why you need 1 of each, warrior, crusader, brawler. If they go looking for that class and it’s not in your raid, or it’s dead, they will tear around the raid and kill everyone.
Second, you have to keep Malevolence and Ire seperated because if they get to close together an AE will go off and kill your raid.
Third, if a non-fighter class gets aggro on Mal or Ire, they’ll proc a mana drain on that person.
What we usually do is pull them both to the bottom of the steps, keeping Mal on one side near the pillar and Ire on the other side near the pillar.
A person in the raid is dedicated to calling out the tank switches. That person watches NPC say for Ire and Mal to annouce their target (for example Mal may say something like “Crusading fools yadda yadda and you know a crusader has to tank Mal). When Ire and Mal announce targets, a tank switch is called and the appropriate tank heads to the mob looking for them. Remember, you have to keep them apart so tanks have to be on the ball, moving and switching and getting aggro.
While this is going on, the rest of the raid focuses DPS on Malevolence. Once Malevolence is dead it’s cake from there on out.
This is not an easy encounter 😉
Hey there – been reading you for a while now off and on along with a few other eq2 related blogs.
As far as Mal and Ire go, they are scripted to run around and cause havoc. You have to listen to what they say as they start running around and let them go to where they want. Back off on dps while they are running and then unload on them again when they stop.
We have a triangle formation with warriors, crusaders and brawlers on each end of the triangle depending on what we have available (usually 2 warriors, 1 crusader and 1-2 brawlers). The MT (guardian) initiates the pull with Ire. The crusader picks Mal off a split second later and pulls her to his part of the triangle. MT stays near the steps with Ire. DPS stays with Mal and healers are split between the 2.
Sometime in the fight, both of them will say something about another tank class and run towards that class to their part of the triangle. When they do this, dps turn off auto-attack and let them go at will. The tanks stay in their corners. When they stop and the new tank has their respective mob (usually within 5-10 seconds), dps unloads on Mal again wherever she may be this time.
Rinse and repeat until Mal is dead and then focus attention on Ire. Depending on dps, Ire will still call out for another tank at least once, maybe twice during the fight so that tank has to pick her up. If said tank dies and is the only one of the type she is asking for, Ire will just randomly pick off people one by one. So you can’t let up on heals, dps, anything even after the first one is dead.
Our raid force is good enough now that we take a couple shortcuts on this fight now but when we started, the above was our winning strategy once we figured it out. Hope this helps and good luck!
Carmah – AB
Thanks guys.
We had it down with someone watching which of the three tank types the ladies were calling for … but I guess as I understood it Ires script didnt start until she took damage – she gets taunts only at the start???
We have been taking the approach of using absolutely NO pets so we dont accidentaly damage Ire and cause her script to start. Are you saying that no matter what we do Ire is always going to seek another tank class after about 45 Seconds so we should just throw absolutely EVERYTHING at Malevolence – pets and all?
And what about when they both call for the same type of tank and you only have one in the raid? Can MT and MA just taunt them back off after a time to separate them again?
Honestly, I have never heard that if you don’t damage Ire then she doesn’t start her script.
I’m not saying it isn’t true, I’ve just never heard of that (and I’ve been on raids with several different guilds for the sisters).
I’d really doubt the script can be defeated so easily though and especially if you’re still seeing them run all over the place, then it’s probabyl still activating :p
There will be times when Mal and Ire both go after the same tank, but that’s really rare. If that happens, you are usually just going to take a wipe and start over. I just think it’s easier only taking one of each tank (until you get the event down) because there are less people for healers to focus on, and there’s less positioning management and stuff.