Wednesday night we did the second of the Crystal Tower raids, Sycrus Tower. Let me tell you, it was as crazy and wacky as the first one if not more so. It really is a shame people never get to see the mechanics of those fights cause they were interesting.
First off, the first pull. Again, things went just a BIT wayward and before I knew it, everyone in my party was dead for some reason except for me. (I still don't know what the hell happened to cause it) Trying to survive, I was running around the arena like crazy, kiting the mobs focused on me and DOTing them down. The dead people were amused by my actions, wondering when I was going to eventually die. But I DIDN'T die, HA! I managed to kill the mobs and rez the other healer and tank, and eventually we cleared it. Lala power! ;p
(Ok, in retrospect, I probably could have raised the healer while I was running for my life, but I was KIND of distracted with staying ALIVE people! ;-) )
So first boss, Scylla. This one was surprisingly crazy and we actually wiped on her. It turns out that there were a LOT of mechanics involved with this and if you don't do them right, you get in serious trouble. ;-)
As you know, people get linked with balls of various sorts that need to be put in or dragged to places. In normal mode you see a few of these, but in MINE mode, you see a LOT of these, a LOT! So much so, it REALLY caught us off guard just how many we had to deal with and they slaughtered us. (You know, once you are frozen, you are screwed unless someone saves you!)
And of course there are also those wands doing the donuts while this is all going on. and there are a LOT of donuts too! It was a chaotic mess having something like 10 orbs being dragged around at once while dodging donuts and Scylla's attacks. Eventually we did it well enough that Scylla went down and it was on to the next area.
The next set of trash gave us no issues, it was pretty much same as normal mode, just longer to kill.
Now the second boss, Glasya, he was a hoot! Seriously, it's a shame people burn him down so quick because his mechanics are a lot of fun to do.
Do you ever notice all the platforms around his arena? Well, it turns out they are VERY much used in a proper fight with him.
First off, these clockwork things come and start empowering Glasya. You got to have one person get stunned so the rest can kill the thing. Keep doing it until they are all gone. If you did it fast enough, when ol' Glas does his big attack, it won't kill you all because he didn't get enough power.
Then more clockwork thingys come out and you have to position them to disrupt the generators that are making Glas invincible, and which will allow the clockworks to be killed too. Once again, you do it too slow and it is a wipe.
Finally, BIG AOE attack happens and you got to get out of that arena QUICK. Luckily you have platforms to go to, yay! So head on out and start bouncing away, dodging AOE attacks on each platform area and killing the spawning enemies on each area. Yes, it's as nutty as it sounds bouncing all over the place and a lot of fun. ;p
Eventually you will end up back in the center arena, and by that time Glasya should be almost dead. We managed to do this one without a wipe.
Another dragon trash pull, this one did not give us trouble either, thought he actually would, but didn't happen.
And now everyone favorite dapper dresser, Amon. We all thought he would be a real pain in MINE mode, but it turns out it was a bit meh. It turns out it was not that different than normal mode. Everyone was too on point with dealing with the adds and orbs , and honestly, he has no real tricks apart from those. Even the big explosion was nothing. All and all a bit of a disappointment.
And finally the last one, Xande. He too was kind of lame and not very different from the normal fight, just longer. The orbs were easily dealt with as well as the starfalls, Also, the stack markers are also the same. Yeah, pretty much what you see in normal mode is what you get in MINE mode. As you can expect, we had no problem with him.
So there you go, Sycrus Tower done! Next week, World of Darkness. Now this one will be interesting since it STILL messes up groups even today. MINE level will probably be hell! ;p
