Torp/epic shaman - trouble with WW dragons!

[garfo]

Now that I've got a complete spell book (woo!!) I decided it's time to try my hand at every shammy's dream: soloing WW dragons. I've been focusing on Bravatar, the level 53 at an egg nest just north of the ToV ent.

Only problem is, I keep getting overpowered. I'm pulling with Malo, slowing before he gets to me, hitting with 'Sini, setting my pet on him, then epic and pox while canni/torping. But over time, inevitably I can only get one or two canni's off before I need to re-torp (due to damage taken), and I end up becoming mana negative over time to the point where I'm only epic'ing, torping myself, occasionally healing my pet with a torpor, and basically not being able to canni up enough mana between torpor casts to keep that sustainable (let alone having spare mana to toss on another dot).

I have my epic, full spell book, semi-respectable gear (epic, resists all 90+, vindi bp but no ss armor yet).

Also, semi-related, I have to bail on many attempts because of adds -- I'm pulling the dragons to the very cliff edge of the drop-down to the area where the +6s are. Are people pulling dragons all the way from the egg nests to the shoreline? How is that possible without getting trash adds along the way?

Some kind soul should really make a wiki guide for this...! Perhaps if we have some knowledgable answers in this thread, I'll compile them and submit a guide.

[bomaroast]

Get rid of the pet. The only damage you're going to be doing is with your epic. Just canni and torp yourself into eternity. The fight should take 30 minutes or so.

It's not really a feat. It's kind of boring.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Get rid of the pet. The only damage you're going to be doing is with your epic. Just canni and torp yourself into eternity. The fight should take 30 minutes or so.

It's not really a feat. It's kind of boring.

This is wrong. Pet is good in WW Dragon fights, you just need to change your strategy a bit. What I do is I summon the pet after I pull the dragon. That way, I can use invisibility to get around, and I don't have to worry about my pet. I just have the pet summon spell on hotbar.

Now that I've got a complete spell book (woo!!) I decided it's time to try my hand at every shammy's dream: soloing WW dragons. I've been focusing on Bravatar, the level 53 at an egg nest just north of the ToV ent.

Only problem is, I keep getting overpowered. I'm pulling with Malo, slowing before he gets to me, hitting with 'Sini, setting my pet on him, then epic and pox while canni/torping. But over time, inevitably I can only get one or two canni's off before I need to re-torp (due to damage taken), and I end up becoming mana negative over time to the point where I'm only epic'ing, torping myself, occasionally healing my pet with a torpor, and basically not being able to canni up enough mana between torpor casts to keep that sustainable (let alone having spare mana to toss on another dot).

I have my epic, full spell book, semi-respectable gear (epic, resists all 90+, vindi bp but no ss armor yet).

Also, semi-related, I have to bail on many attempts because of adds -- I'm pulling the dragons to the very cliff edge of the drop-down to the area where the +6s are. Are people pulling dragons all the way from the egg nests to the shoreline? How is that possible without getting trash adds along the way?

Some kind soul should really make a wiki guide for this...! Perhaps if we have some knowledgable answers in this thread, I'll compile them and submit a guide.

I have a video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEgFcImQ9XU

You need to pull the dragons to the shoreline. It is 100% doable, you just need to watch the roamers. There are often large breaks in the roamers that allow you to pull the dragon all the way to the shoreline without agroing anything. It takes some practice, but I do it all the time. Never fight in the 6+ area, there are just too many roamers that can get you from the cliff edge.

[bomaroast]

Oh ya, I should have mentioned, cast disease dot with whatever mana you have to spare.

[Tunabros]

i tried to kill WW dragons before on my epic shaman

I found it pretty difficult as I kept dying before I could even pop a torpor on

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Here is a video showing how I pull Bravatar and kill him at the shoreline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igpbLuNe0ls

[Baler]

I'm scared to talk about how to kill ww dragons with shaman.
My fear is the staff will make a change because "classic" environment.
*proceeds to talk about killing ww dragons*

There are atleast 2 spots to pull the dragon to that have zero adds. You just have to weave the dragon past adds to get them to this spot. (neither are in the water)

Before Buffing!!! remove all buffs, camp out entirely to login and log back in. (it's possible to have buffs shown in an incorrect order if you don't)
Always keep junk buffs up at the top, first buffs you apply. Then your important buffs at the bottom of your stack.
Make sure to have the proper resistances buffed for the particular dragon you're fighting. If it's breath is cold get your cold resist buffed up.

Using a pet is good but you want to be careful positioning them so they don't get hit by the ae breath.
Keep the pet hasted, what I do is buff it's STR and tell it to guard before I run out to grab the dragon. Then when im in camp I haste the pet and position it.
The pet can also be used as a mana battery use a mage focus item reclaim energy.

I focus my dps into Bane of Nife, My logic is I want to kill as fast as possible.
Epic dot. I try to pox but if pox isn't playing nice I don't use it.

Torpor on yourself 99.9% of the time. Your torpor should never be down once you have the dragon situated.
This is easier said than done. My logs show ~95-98% uptime on torpor.

Clickies use them.
Get those Resist Flowers from PoM
I'm not so proud that I can't admit using wort pot to save a wipe attempt.

cannibalize is different when soloing a hard target. It's a balance game of life vs mana vs life.
Canni too much, you'll die. Canni too little, you'll die. Play it by feel for how much life and mana you have.

Never get too low on HP. One of my theories about p99 is that with low hp you're more likely to take high hitting damage. Note this is not classic or eq but I have a gut feeling that it is this way on p99.

Enter Dragons Necropolis if get 1 add. Be careful not to train anyone.

Troll Shaman innoruuk get's a clickie snare necklace that DOES work on WW Dragons!! Never have to chase dragons into the water!
Plus Troll Regen helps mitigate some damage and keep your HP higher than barb/ogre
Iksar is technically the most min-max meta shaman race if you can get velious BiS
Troll gets Regen and Stats
Ogre gets FSI and stats

The FSI is NOT required to do WW dragons.

I can't share videos because people will harass me in game. :(
I'm forgetting somethings that could have been included in this post.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I'm scared to talk about how to kill ww dragons with shaman.
My fear is the staff will make a change because "classic" environment.


The strategy I show in the video has been around for 3+ years at least. I doubt the devs do not know about it by now.


Troll Shaman innoruuk get's a clickie snare necklace that DOES work on WW Dragons!! Never have to chase dragons into the water!

You can just root the dragon if you don't want to chase it. If you can get a WW dragon down to 20%, you should be able to go the rest of the way no problem. Here is a video showing rooting the dragon for no chase:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLhe3KQXke0

[Baler]

The strategy I show in the video has been around for 3+ years at least. I doubt the devs do not know about it by now.

Yeah the running to the shoreline is a proven strat that I won't argue about.
There are just a couple nicer spots, until then shoreline for 99% of people.

Also Shoreline is a safer pull simply because it's a shorter distance. For those who aren't confident weaving a dragon through adds, shoreline is the goto.

I've seen Necros killing WW dragons using the shoreline.

You can just root the dragon if you don't want to chase it. If you can get a WW dragon down to 20%, you should be able to go the rest of the way no problem. Here is a video showing rooting the dragon for no chase:

Snared fleeing WW dragon does 0 damage.
Rooted fleeing WW dragon can hit you and do damage. But you prob wont be standing near it. Watch out for breath.

I'll take the snared ww dragon which eliminates the possibility. Especially since I do use a pet.
Mostly personal preference tbh.

blahblahblah,... The Troll Shm clickie snare is mana free. Sure it's a longer cast time but you're using zero mana to cast it.

@DeathsSilkyMist thank you for continuing to help people on the forums with shaman.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

@DeathsSilkyMist thank you for continuing to help people on the forums with shaman.

You too, Baler. Good to see you back!:)

[Danth]

I reported the "stick it in the water to cheese the AE" trick as a possible 'sploit in '15 or maybe early '16. It's still here. I wouldn't worry about it getting changed, although I wish it would. I don't use it myself on general principle. However, since it has remained in-place for so long I regard it as having defacto sanction from P99 staff.

You don't need to be over-geared. The wife's shaman can do those and she has stuff like Thurgadin armor. Don't need Skyshrine, Temple Veeshan, Vindicator, Plane of Mischief, etc. People were solo'ing 'em wearing Kunark gear. I do recommend having the epic. The wife doesn't use the Shaman pet on the rare occasions she solo's them but you can use it if you want to. Main thing is to pace your mana use, not run yourself out from excessive amounts of damage spell usage. It's a marathon fight.

You do want sufficient junk buff clickies. You'll need about your first four slots or so filled that way. Also, some buffs you might not use often (like the AC buff) are useful here, so don't forget about it.

If you want to practice, use a shoreline dragon (Gafala, Pantrilla, Vitaela, Haecheva, etc) since they're easy pulls. Bratavar has a nicer drop but he's a trickier pull and in many cases the pull is the toughest part of it. Yeldema is the absolute easest to start with because it's an easy pull, doesn't have an AE effect, and doesn't flee until very low health due to waiting for enrage. You can try using Cripple (whatever equivalent is highest level) to see if it lowers your average DI roll intake some. There are differing opinions as to whether it works. Snare is great, root them if you have to, but it's a bit of a nightmare if they get into the water while fleeing so try to prevent that from happening.

Do NOT use some of the more rare plus 4's you might see on the P99 wiki for practice if you see them up (like Bufa) as some of them hit dramatically harder than the regular ones.

------------------------------------

On balance, these guys are dramatically more fun to duo than solo. Compared to the wife's Shaman, My Shadow Knight is a vastly superior puller in Western Wastes. Same would go for a Monk or Ranger or similar class.

Danth

[mattydef]

I’ve killed WW dragons dozens of times in the past, but let me tell you, there was a time in the beginning where I would get my ass whooped half the time. It definitely takes a bit to get down which spells to use and when. Keep slow and malo up, keep pet alive and epic dot on, make sure to torp yourself above 70%, toss in a bane/pox wmp and keep a chloroblast on your bar just in case you need a fast heal between torps. Don’t be afraid to let your pet and epic dot do all the damage for long periods of time, it’s a marathon not a sprint.