Clearing DoA - tips, tricks?

1st Official Post

    Hello Guildies!

    First of all, I am not sure whether this is the right place to pop this thread, but since I am not coming up with a build myself, I thought that this could work. If not, mods please move it to where it belongs, or at least before deleting tell me where it belongs.

    As that is out of the way, lets jump into my discussion!

    Basically I want to clear DoA. And nowadays it is difficult to find people who are willing to try it out without meta sc build.

    At my disposal I have an Assassin, Paragon and a Ranger, who have decently equipped heroes with weapon sets and runes etc. So which one would fit the most?

    What do you guys think I should be using and which heroes should I bring? Maybe, let me know what is essential for the run and what doesn't work (maybe minions are pointless..).

    In any case I would appreciate any input for this - tricks, tips, hints, build suggestions, locations, status effects etc. Hopefully i will be able to finish DoA areas over the weekend!

    Thanks!

    • Official Post

    Hello and welcome!

    DoA doesn't need to be scary. When I tried heroing it the first time I was surprised at how much easier it was than I was expecting. If you're comfortable doing vanquishes and other HM stuff then you should not fear jumping in and seeing how you go. It's been made significantly easier due to power creep (mainly the Mesmer update), the restriction of environment effects (1, 2, 3, 4) to HM and the lowering of health thresholds on Enraged. Aside from Foundry and the start of Gloom the difficulty is pretty much on par with standard vanquishes. In NM, it's more about not getting caught in bad positions rather than general toughness - you need to constantly be alert for instant spawns and patrols. Sometimes it's hard to know when these will occur, but if one causes you to wipe at least you'll know for the next time. In particular, take your time at the end of Veil when you're killing the tendril things and at the end of Gloom, as killing each Darkness results in five more enemies spawning.

    As for which profession, Assassin is the strongest option as per usual. Death Blossom + Save Yourselves > PvE. Slotting Lightbringer's Gaze might be worthwhile. As for heroes, there isn't anything in particular that you'll need that you wouldn't already have. SoS Rit + ST or SoGM Rit + 2-3 Mesmers + Minion Bomber/Master will form the core of your build as it typically should. Mobs tend to be larger than normal so there's a larger than normal priority on AoE damage, but again, you'll have plenty in a standard setup anyway. Do make sure to have Shatter Hex though.

    Don't forget to display your Lightbringer title for a free 5-40% damage and 1-8 points of damage reduction.

    FWIW, I'd start with City, then do Veil, then Gloom, then Foundry, which is conveniently the order they open up. You don't need to do all of them in one go though, but it does get you more rewards.

    Recent videos (links for other areas and builds are in the description). They're for HM so the defense will be overkill and some other elements would be different (namely, Asuran Scan isn't strictly necessary) for an ideal NM clear, but they'll provide functional builds if you're not comfortable bringing your own and show you what you'll be coming up against.

    (This forum is fine.)

    I mean, I don't think the NM would be extremely difficult. But its good to know that there are some skills that work better there than others. Also, I guess it is possible to fail DoA simply because you don't know the quest details (like invulnerable Vengeful Aataxes).
    Thanks for the input and encouragement.

    Gonna keep you updated how it went!

    Ello! Have been off the DoA thing for a while. But I had some time this afternoon and todays ZB were the Stygian lords and I decided to give a go to at least this part. I did it in NM and it wasn't that bad. Contrary to your advice I went on with a ranger, had a splinter barrager alongside with a pet to keep things interesting. As for heroes, I had 3 necros (the traditional discord team), panic and ineptitude mesmer, ST ritualist and commandogon - nothing too specific in the composition.

    Have to say that it went all right, but I noticed early on that I need to fine tune my team. I don't think it is the same for all the areas, but here the mobs are coming in huge chunks, and it feels like I should take some additional AoE spells/skills. Also, the tendrils almost wiped the team, as normaly minions were taking the aggro, but this time minions were dead and I was able to see 6/8 heroes wipe with a single blow from the larger tendril. Yeah, great that I had a resurrection signet with me!

    Anywho, hopefully I will be able to continue on with my DoA journey soon!