EQDiva

I've done Steps 1-7 solo as another class (currently doing them on my bard), and it'll be easier for sure with the bard than the SK. Looking for advice to go further. I imagine 8 is a no brainer, invis in, single pull, slow, and melee/dot chief down. Any complications here? e.g. fight takes too long, etc. Has anyone done all/most of 9 solo, and has anyone been suicidal enough to try a 10th war solo or with a small group now that everyone is 65th level?

8th war can be done solo by a lvl 65 monk. So I would wager a bard could no sweat. The 9th can be done duo at best. Ya gotta do the plate cycle in Kael... only real hard part here IMO. Not saying a 65 bard with the gear and the AA couldnt solo it... it just would be easier to take a cleric/shaman along to help. I duo'd the 9th ring as a 65 monk with my 65 beastlord friend. We didnt find anything very challenging.

Problem with the 10th war is that an unengaged giant heads straight for Thurgadin. No matter how uber you are, you can only attack one giant at a time. So numbers are needed, not for DPS as much as for simply controlling the numbers of NPCs.

the 10th parts I don,t think you could solo it nvm fi you have all best PoT, GOD gear in game but tis so easy toget a raid for the 10th ring war with all the loot.

I've never done this myself either, however keeping agro of all the giants would seem to be very easy as a bard. Just go grab em all then run around chant kiting them down till they all die?

There is a possible complication in 8th. Make sure to snare the chief before he deathwalks. I had him walk into the wall and poof to parts unknown. Was still on target but could not be tracked. Got reimbursed tho.

I would imagine that getting summoned in the 10th ring war would mean death for almost any bard?

Do you actaully have to kill all of the spawned giants? They'll only summon after 96%, so if you use, say, a small, undrummed chant for singles or aoe slow for groups, you can keep them off of the protect mob.

The 10th Ring War isn't gonna happen solo. I don't care how good you are. Too many summon. And getting Narandi killed wouldn't be a piece of cake solo for any class, much less while trying to kite the rest of the War around. AEs would very likely agro the coldain that run all over the place, so you'd end up with not only all the Giants chasing you around, but all the Coldain too. It isn't gonna happen. The more you have on this raid the better. For every giant that isn't engaged by people he'll run straight to Thurg and attack the heros. Something you don't want happening very much.

I disagree. The giants will only summon if you get them to 96%. If you use AoE slow to pull, you'll never be summoned, so long as you get them before they take damage from the war itself. I'm not saying it's easy, but I am saying that I think it's possible.

you would need to kite the whole mess around the zone, avoiding the while steering very clear of the dorfs (who will try to smack the giants if they can -- which would let the giants start summoning) as well as the ranks of range-attacking giants (that will be interesting unless you can avoid them entirely... not sure if they ever head for thurg. Doing the final fight with half the zone in tow and trying to avoid the other half would certainly make for an interesting experiment. Pulling with AE slow? You mean the level 54 PBAE slow/snare? I would have thought that the melee range of giants would make that unhealthy, not to mention the snare component making it harder to keep them out of the dorf's hands. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would be quite a feat.

No real risk to attempting the 10th war (dont lose your 9th ring) so go for it. You don't need to keep the heroes alive (they are just for loot) only need to keep one dwarf alive. So... a theory (I may test one day if bored): Spawn the war, agro ALL the coldain and park them in a tight clumb right in front of Thurgardin. (oh move the one you want to save first.) Then try to aggro kite as many giants as you can at a time and let the tight pack of coldain destroy any Thurg charging giant. I use this method to clean up the 8th war after turnins are done and it works flawlessly (although is far easier as the giants/orcs all stand in nice formation).

I've never done any of the coldain war type stuff but here's a tactic that i've done on many of the grimling war quest if you need to keep somone alive.... Charm the bastard, and have him fallow you around untill your done w/ the war.. Then when your ready to end the quest, break the charm and fade off all the agro. This will allow you to keep the poor bastage from fighting giants.

Some important info is missing here. With the exception of Narandi himself, Kiting is NOT possible. If you get out of melee range of any giant, it will head to thurgadin, so pulling is not an option either. You can charm mobs to prevent them from running to thurgadin, but there's only so many you can stop at one time. If ANY giant reaches thurgadin, it will despawn the zone for 24 real hours, so bear this in mind before inconveniencing your server.

Kiting is NOT possible. If you get out of melee range of any giant, it will head to thurgadin, so pulling is not an option either.

Yup, the giants will head for the dwarves if not actively engaged for the most part.

You can charm mobs to prevent them from running to thurgadin, but there's only so many you can stop at one time.

The last wave (2nd wave to a degree too) is very MR. I doubt you'd be doing reliable charming. Even with OOS on the mobs trying to gate them can take 10+ resists.

If ANY giant reaches thurgadin, it will despawn the zone for 24 real hours, so bear this in mind before inconveniencing your server.

Thurg despawns for 2ish hours. If it lasts longer than 2-2.5 hours there is a bug and a GM should be contacted.