Sisyphus Toiling in Hell

There are going to be some things you can't beat down by yourself.

Joined a mid-30s PUG the other night as a Scrapper. Our leader was fighting Devouring Earth at +4.

Okay, well. Thought about that for a second. I'll be SSKed to him...they'll be +5 to me. All right, DE at +5, it's worth a laugh. At least the leader (the only one who'll be fighting at +4) is a Granite Tank.

In we go. Buff up, team gets ready, tank runs in...two guys die....third guy...then me. Then everyone dies.

Okay, fine. We recover and regroup. Mindful that when the DE dropped their Cairns, I was doing 9 points of damage with some of my Scrapper attacks, I explained the importance of attacking the Cairns (for the benefit of the uninitiated, Devouring Earth Cairns buff the DE with massive damage resistance, making them super tough).

We go back in. Again, everybody dies. Again, I see people valiantly spraying their SO-slotted Tier 2 attacks at +5 DE bosses protected by Cairns. Again, I explain that it's not optional -- we simply must clear the Cairns off in order to do enough damage. No one is going to win dealing out 9 damage and taking 264, 264, 500 before dealing another 9 damage.

This time I get a reply; one of the other players agrees we need to take out Cairns.

Back in again. I don't know why everyone pulled aggro off the Granite Tanker, but it kept happening. Maybe he did lots less damage; maybe he didn't have Mud Pots turned on. Everyone goes down again...except this time the Granite Tanker is standing. And fighting.

Okay. He has Recall Friend (he's a Granite Tanker, after all); he can rumble to a safe spot and then recall us one at a time so we can rebuild.

I wait.

He keeps fighting.

"Uh, you might want to go recall the team?" I suggest.

"Trying to clear these guys."

Say what? Um, did I mention he was a Granite/ICE Tanker?

Here's a Granite/Ice trying to beat down a bunch of +4 Lesser Devoured bosses without clearing the Cairns...he still had Cairns up.

The whole team of Blasters and Scrappers had bounced off these guys already, and the Tanker is going to do them in with an Ice sword and Granite's penalties and he's going to do it the hardest possible way?

I don't really have a point to this rant; just amused to see someone struggle up that steep a hill (and assume everyone else would wait indefinitely for it).

And that's why we love PUG groups (and why I have a dedicated chat channel to some of the best players on my server)

I think everybody does something that's a bit daft to somebody else. It's the ones you have to tell something to 3 times that are the worst.

From a tanker's PoV, it's very annoying when you're the one sounding the retreat and no one clears out. It's even sometimes for good intentions--they see you fighting valiantly on and don't want to abandon you, but they don't realize, as the tank, you should be the last one out, and as long as they don't clear out, you can't.

BTW, +4 DE is pure masochism if you don't coordinate to take out the emnations ASAP. If that Stony was Ice or Shields (or just out of Granite), he wouldn't have survived much longer than the squishiest blaster unless everyone knows to take out the quartzes first. Similarly, your controllers will be somewhat useless until getting rid of the fungi. And yeah, the stupid cairns.

I love this: "No one is going to win dealing out 9 damage and taking 264, 264, 500 before dealing another 9 damage."

Ah, PUGs.

Yeah, I remember badging DE in with my Brute (I think in RWZ), they were not +4, i think even level, or +1. I would grab 2 or 3 groups close to each other. Thankfully I had Aoe to take out those cairns, cause I couldnt see a damn thing. I knew I had to hit those cairns, and was fighting a nowhere fight until they were gone. Tiny little pains in the butt. I wish every class was as smooth as brutes, but I am somewhat bored with them now. I live for new powersets, and have tried about everything brute wise I have a concept for. Hmmm, maybe I should stretch my character writeup concept muscles. Hmmm. ((Runs off to create another alt))

I don't generally fight DE, as I hate them with a passion. They're like the Vahz to me... a weird, creepy group, and I don't enjoy them for that aspect. All their slows and emanators make them even worse.

If I was going to fight them (say, on the Numina TF), I sure wouldn't set them at +4. It's just not worth it. We'd probably still have some challenge at +2-3, and we'd go a lot faster/have more fun. If they were too easy then, I'd ratchet it up.

But hey, some people like hitting their heads... like those nightmare PUGs that had us fighting +4 CoT in the teens... couldn't hit squat with all those def debuffs and level disparagement.

Yep, DE are beasts... they're specifically designed to absolutely destroy defense based characters. I've a priority list on the emanators, Quartz die first, then Cairns and the Fungi I worry about last unless we're 'troller heavy. Killing mobs generally takes precedence over the Fungi.

NOTHING takes precedence over the Quartz or Cairns. And unless I was with a group of players I know to be highly capable I'd never face them as +4... +1-2 is plenty for DE, particularly on a PuG.

its also why i tank so much...i honestly only will trust a couple people in all the years ive been playing to actually tank...anyone can tank but to tank well takes a willingness to learn and adapt!

And some people like what they like. This is much more of a play what you want scenario.

I tend to do that, as I like it when other people are willing to jump in the tanker or eat the alpha role. I play plenty of Tankers, but I want to be able to give other ATs a spin, too. As it is, I usually find myself keeping a fast, aggressive pace with no matter what AT I play, so it's great when another Tanker will do that (kind of sad for the blaster to be more willing to engage in combat than the Tanker).

So yeah, good tankers are sometimes not always there. I know I had to stick in Dwarf form far more than I should have had to as I was leveling my tri-form Peacebringer. So I like it when there are others to count on for the role of tank.

This is the best thread title I've seen all week!

And yeah, DE in groups are absolutely hideous, since they neutralise Controllers, defence-based characters and burst damage as soon as you look at them pretty much.
It's kind of like fighting an all-Defender team.

The really wierd bit about them is how they only spawn Granites at level 45+, making them much easier and safer to fight, and they go from being dangerous to just a big grind every spawn.