Not really forum thread material, but I wanted to scribble down a half-retrospective, half-idle-musing on our first foray into 4*-man Legendary raiding somewhere with our next set of TRs coming up imminently.
We had a very janky composition with no real tank, no expansions after Sharn (Black Friday can't come soon enough), half of us coming back after a couple years gone working out of our same old builds with some slight refitting to the times, and one brand new player. We're not great but we're not terrible either - mostly we just have a lot of other MMO experience to fall back on.
- 4x PL, HW Longbow, WE Rogue 13/Ranger 6/Paladin 1 - patterned after something in between Ying's old Reaper and First Life bow builds. I was notoriously neglectful of my defenses for a long while and tend to die at the slightest provocation but goddamn does this kill single targets good.
- 3x PL, DB Buff Bard/FVS/AotS - patterned after an older Strimtom build, I think? The most solid all-round of any of us, somehow.
- 3x PL, DB Shield Bash Paladin - also patterned after an old Strimtom build. Wound up being our jury-rigged tank but never actually had tank-appropriate HP or resists. Probably should have pivoted more fully into SD and done some retraining, but by that point we were already planning our exit.
- 0 PL, Drow Jade Fister Monk - for no lives this can do some scary funny stuff. Prone to dying on basically anything that does point blank cleaves.
You may have noticed the asterisk above: this is because I also have my 5-man 'bonus loot' follower fleet of a Spellsinger Bard + 4x Auralocks. Probably 90% of the time they're not very useful because their gear is apocalyptically bad and they're fully passive, but I'll note when that's otherwise untrue.
Tier 1
Fire on Thunder Peak (LE):Could probably clear on LE if things went right, but we're defensively weak enough that there's a tendency for Nev to periodically sneak in a one-shot on the melee with the Meridian buff. Cleared on LE on our last runthrough. Some sketchy moments but defensively we're a lot more stable than we were at the start! Thrax is just me dragging her in circles until the Meridian finally dies aside from the rare occasion in which I get fluke caught by a pounce (and instantly die if she's buffed). Follower fleet surprisingly useful at holding up clots of adds.
Temple of the Deathwyrm (LH): Positive we can clear on LE but we haven't bothered because the mirror puzzles just take too damn long even when you know the patterns and neither the augments nor the 18 threads seem worth the time? Fun to do a couple times, though. Follower fleet lets us one-cycle the phylactery shards but we weren't really under any pressure at any point.
Defiler of the Just (LH): Positive we can clear on LE, but we've only done it once. It exists, I guess? I don't like it because the blades have a blood vendetta against me and they're really annoying when you're dragging around a fleet of pet warlocks. Also because it's slow and feels like a regular quest that got upgraded to 12-man for no particular reason.
Didn't do the Mark of Death this life. Probably should have because the eQoA exists but whatever.
Tier 2
Riding the Storm Out (LN): We all agreed afterwards that we will never do this again. I don't think I'm going to elaborate any further because it would include way more profanity than belongs on these forums.
Didn't do anything else in this tier this life.
Tier 3
Old Baba's Hut (LH): We love a good hag fight. I feel like there could have been more in the second hut visit beyond just 'there's wisps now' but it's still fun. Follower fleet invaluable here for one reason: I can park them on a Giant Scarecrow spawn location and never have to worry about getting tiles turned. ps. right side > left side
The Curse of Strahd (LN): Absolutely impeccable in terms of the constant stress and sense of threat I felt during this one. Taking a follower fleet up the staircase added some grey hairs to my head. Ol' Strahd has shockingly low HP on Normal, though, even considering all the things that take place leading up to him.
Didn't do Killing Time this life.
Tier 4
Legendary Chronoscope (LH): Outside is still ResidentSleeper.png but the boss fights were a fun kick in the junk going in completely blind. I do wish Razor Arm was a little less aggressive about occasionally instantly deleting me from existence but really, that's my fault. Star Fragments for people without Saltmarsh is nice, but I do think this raid is a little under-rewarding for the time it takes, so it instantly fell out of our "must-do" rotation.
Legendary Vision of Destruction (LN): Suulomades nuts lmao. I wish the spike pit was less laggy to look at. Another "it exists, I guess" raid but it doesn't overstay its welcome comparatively (mostly, get down from there already man) and has stuff worth my time so whatever.
Legendary Lord of Blades (LN): Seeing this dude's HP bar for the first time was spooky. Thank god each mark restores him to like 10% instead of full. Easily has the highest kill count per fight of any boss so far - he'll kill the paladin, he'll kill the monk, he ran me over twice, Rain of Blades was a guaranteed follower fleet wipe, thank god for Beckon Divinity. Somehow we managed to hold up during the add rampage, though.
The Dryad and the Demigod (LN): RODENT! More games need a folk musical as a backdrop to a raid fight. Tossup between this and Curse of Strahd for my favorite that we've done. I think we could have potentially stepped difficulty up, but I had an acute problem with getting one-shot by Guardians that kept me from pulling the trigger. Next life!
Hunt or Be Hunted (no clear): Hard checked by Souls of the Hunted in P3. Genuinely not sure what we can do about it - the debuff scaling makes me think that our only real approachable solution is racing him down - there's just not enough time to reposition the follower fleet individually.
Project Nemesis (no clear): Massively skill issued by Irk and Zulkis. Maybe next life with our more defensively-minded setup, but there's a looooot going on here that's going to make it tricky at our reduced head count.
Didn't try Legendary Master Artificer or Too Hot to Handle this life.
No access to Tier 5 or 6 this life as our Monk doesn't have anything past Sharn.
Overall, I was pretty surprised by how approachable some of these raids wound up being - I know, I know, normal lmao, but still. Nice to get some thread farming in and pick up the occasional useful thing here and there. If you're out there reading this and you play in a small group and don't like to PUG but wish you had some Threads of Fate - polish your build up and give it a try. You might be as surprised as I was!
We had a very janky composition with no real tank, no expansions after Sharn (Black Friday can't come soon enough), half of us coming back after a couple years gone working out of our same old builds with some slight refitting to the times, and one brand new player. We're not great but we're not terrible either - mostly we just have a lot of other MMO experience to fall back on.
- 4x PL, HW Longbow, WE Rogue 13/Ranger 6/Paladin 1 - patterned after something in between Ying's old Reaper and First Life bow builds. I was notoriously neglectful of my defenses for a long while and tend to die at the slightest provocation but goddamn does this kill single targets good.
- 3x PL, DB Buff Bard/FVS/AotS - patterned after an older Strimtom build, I think? The most solid all-round of any of us, somehow.
- 3x PL, DB Shield Bash Paladin - also patterned after an old Strimtom build. Wound up being our jury-rigged tank but never actually had tank-appropriate HP or resists. Probably should have pivoted more fully into SD and done some retraining, but by that point we were already planning our exit.
- 0 PL, Drow Jade Fister Monk - for no lives this can do some scary funny stuff. Prone to dying on basically anything that does point blank cleaves.
You may have noticed the asterisk above: this is because I also have my 5-man 'bonus loot' follower fleet of a Spellsinger Bard + 4x Auralocks. Probably 90% of the time they're not very useful because their gear is apocalyptically bad and they're fully passive, but I'll note when that's otherwise untrue.
Tier 1
Fire on Thunder Peak (LE):
Temple of the Deathwyrm (LH): Positive we can clear on LE but we haven't bothered because the mirror puzzles just take too damn long even when you know the patterns and neither the augments nor the 18 threads seem worth the time? Fun to do a couple times, though. Follower fleet lets us one-cycle the phylactery shards but we weren't really under any pressure at any point.
Defiler of the Just (LH): Positive we can clear on LE, but we've only done it once. It exists, I guess? I don't like it because the blades have a blood vendetta against me and they're really annoying when you're dragging around a fleet of pet warlocks. Also because it's slow and feels like a regular quest that got upgraded to 12-man for no particular reason.
Didn't do the Mark of Death this life. Probably should have because the eQoA exists but whatever.
Tier 2
Riding the Storm Out (LN): We all agreed afterwards that we will never do this again. I don't think I'm going to elaborate any further because it would include way more profanity than belongs on these forums.
Didn't do anything else in this tier this life.
Tier 3
Old Baba's Hut (LH): We love a good hag fight. I feel like there could have been more in the second hut visit beyond just 'there's wisps now' but it's still fun. Follower fleet invaluable here for one reason: I can park them on a Giant Scarecrow spawn location and never have to worry about getting tiles turned. ps. right side > left side
The Curse of Strahd (LN): Absolutely impeccable in terms of the constant stress and sense of threat I felt during this one. Taking a follower fleet up the staircase added some grey hairs to my head. Ol' Strahd has shockingly low HP on Normal, though, even considering all the things that take place leading up to him.
Didn't do Killing Time this life.
Tier 4
Legendary Chronoscope (LH): Outside is still ResidentSleeper.png but the boss fights were a fun kick in the junk going in completely blind. I do wish Razor Arm was a little less aggressive about occasionally instantly deleting me from existence but really, that's my fault. Star Fragments for people without Saltmarsh is nice, but I do think this raid is a little under-rewarding for the time it takes, so it instantly fell out of our "must-do" rotation.
Legendary Vision of Destruction (LN): Suulomades nuts lmao. I wish the spike pit was less laggy to look at. Another "it exists, I guess" raid but it doesn't overstay its welcome comparatively (mostly, get down from there already man) and has stuff worth my time so whatever.
Legendary Lord of Blades (LN): Seeing this dude's HP bar for the first time was spooky. Thank god each mark restores him to like 10% instead of full. Easily has the highest kill count per fight of any boss so far - he'll kill the paladin, he'll kill the monk, he ran me over twice, Rain of Blades was a guaranteed follower fleet wipe, thank god for Beckon Divinity. Somehow we managed to hold up during the add rampage, though.
The Dryad and the Demigod (LN): RODENT! More games need a folk musical as a backdrop to a raid fight. Tossup between this and Curse of Strahd for my favorite that we've done. I think we could have potentially stepped difficulty up, but I had an acute problem with getting one-shot by Guardians that kept me from pulling the trigger. Next life!
Hunt or Be Hunted (no clear): Hard checked by Souls of the Hunted in P3. Genuinely not sure what we can do about it - the debuff scaling makes me think that our only real approachable solution is racing him down - there's just not enough time to reposition the follower fleet individually.
Project Nemesis (no clear): Massively skill issued by Irk and Zulkis. Maybe next life with our more defensively-minded setup, but there's a looooot going on here that's going to make it tricky at our reduced head count.
Didn't try Legendary Master Artificer or Too Hot to Handle this life.
No access to Tier 5 or 6 this life as our Monk doesn't have anything past Sharn.
Overall, I was pretty surprised by how approachable some of these raids wound up being - I know, I know, normal lmao, but still. Nice to get some thread farming in and pick up the occasional useful thing here and there. If you're out there reading this and you play in a small group and don't like to PUG but wish you had some Threads of Fate - polish your build up and give it a try. You might be as surprised as I was!