I’ve now done three instances/raid dungeons in Runes of Magic (ROM). Only one was full raid in size, which is Blood Gallery. The rest are party size instanced content. That’s six players in ROM. With the exception of the abomination known as Blood Gallery (warm-body mad dash), the other two have been more traditional in nature – classic holy trinity class compositions, tank-n-spank and clear trash to boss encounter. This is good news for those of you who have been wondering about the group PVE content. This puts ROM somewhere in the middle of “Bring the Player” vs. “Bring the Class” designed content. I say that because I’ve yet to have a traditional full warrior as a tank. Rogues are tanking. And the healers can come as their combination and the group will survive as long as everyone plays smart. Let’s take a look at the second tier instance you’ll encounter in ROM, Forsaken Abbey.
The Forsaken Abbey
Location - Silverspring
Size - 5 to 6 players
Level - 22 to 28
Duration - 30 to 60 mins
Highlights
- Ideal composition: Full tank, full healer and 3 DPS
- Alternate composition: two off-tank specs, two off healer specs and 2 DPS
- Dual-specs make it important to establish roles before you start
- Easily do-able at the appropriate level when everyone knows how to play their class
- Everyone keep their buffs on the party at all times
- Assign an off-tank to be responsible for pulling adds off the healers
- Establish who pulls
- Communicate the “when in doubt use a potion” edict to avoid unnecessary deaths
- Make sure everyone knows typical jargon: aggro, LOS, AOE, de-buff, HOT, adds
- Explain the special encounters – stuns, mass AOE, debuffs and priests getting silenced
- DO NOT CLICK quest objects until chambers are clear – they spawn mobs
- Drops crystals needed for level 25 Elite Skills
- Establish loot rules – when you can “need” items
- Decent high level guide
- Video of last and hardest boss - not my video
- Relax, be courteous and have fun
Group Composition
Group composition is very tricky in ROM. If you have full class players in the tank and healing roles, then you only need one of each in a 6-man instance. However, most players are still concerned with leveling and as a result, are more offensively spec’d regardless of class. This often means that it takes two half-spec classes to act as the one you really need.
In a nutshell you need a tank, off-tank, healer and DPS. If you have no real tank – Warrior full or Warrior primary, then you may need to double up. The same thing goes for the healing. If you have a Priest that is spec’d to heal you only need one. If you have Priests with a majority of their Training Points in offensive spells and buffs, then you need two healers. There are multi-mob pulls, bosses with AOE and a couple of fights where the trash-mobs run for the healer. A single off-spec healer who is exactly the right level for the instance will struggle to keep everyone alive.
To run with a single Priest of the right level, they should be max Regenerate, deep points into Heal, half-way level in Group Heal and carrying about 30 to 50 mana potions depending on spec and group know-how. On the other hand, aggro management doesn’t seem to be a problem at all. No one seems to pull aggro off the boss unless a tank dies. Additional mobs will flock to healers and DPS based on casting a single spell so it has nothing to do with aggro management which is good but someone needs to be assigned to get mobs off healers quickly when it happens.
Visual Design, Pacing & Encounters
The interior of Forsaken Abbey (FA) isn’t memorable. It’s on par with the inside of the EverQuest II instances I’ve done. It’s as good as the lower tiered dungeons in World of Warcraft. The level 15 instance Windmill, reminded me of Burning Furnace. FA reminded me of Scholomance. Biggest difference is the ROM dungeons lack the same level of detail you find in WOW. The level of detail and sophistication is along the lines of Shadowfang Keep.
You have very classic mob encounters. You clear trash mobs in hallways, corridors and chambers while making your way to a boss fight. Some of the trash encounters complete quests while others offer starting new quests – think Uldaman kill this, find that, click this item then go kill a boss. I found the pacing typical of other group instances which was fine. We moved along at a good rate since we had someone who was familiar with the instance.
For many players, ROM is going to be the first game with coordinated group PVE (dungeons/instances) content. You need to take that into consideration when executing the run. Be sure people understand their role within the group. Be cognizant of everyone’s health and mana before doing large pulls. Explain an encounter if something usual happens like Priests getting silenced, damaging area of effects, debilitating debuffs, line of sight hazards, etc, all of which occur in FA. If you race head-long with noob raiders you’re going to wipe. Luckily for me, we had someone who knew the instance well so the fact that we had two players who’d never done an instance before wasn’t a debilitating factor.
The instance itself is comprised of five boss encounters with chambers and corridors of trash along the way. The first two encounters are clear trash to boss then it’s just the boss. The third was carefully pick-off the trash in the chamber with the boss then kill the boss. Followed by, clear a chamber of trash then send the tank to taunt the boss back into the chamber and kill him. And finally, deal with the boss while some adds spawn too. Keep them off the freaking healers then heal forever because the boss has high health and if you don’t have 3 pure DPS in the party it’s going to take a while to DPS him down.
Ambiguity of Roles
A huge difference in ROM vs. other games I’ve played is the ambiguity in roles dual-classes bring. I’ve yet to group with a Warrior/Knight or Knight/Warrior as a tank – the full on tank combinations. There are many Warrior/Rogue players for the boosted DPS. We had the higher level Rogue as main tank. Our Warrior/Rogue was the off-tank and protect the healers. The Knight/Priest, who was our guide and highest level player (27), acted as main healer. I was supposed to do melee damage as Priest/Warrior (Battle monk) but on the first pull after a corridor of trash, I could see that wasn’t going to work.
Even after confirming a second time that I should keep my Battle Monk Stance buff on and do DPS instead of healing, since there was only a Mage for pure DPS, I could see that the K/P wasn’t spec’d deep enough to keep the whole party alive. I dropped the buff, moved to the back and healed. I was ready for a disappointing time since once again, I was going to be stuck healing instead of playing a Monk but that’s not how things turned out. The only thing that bothered me about healing versus DPS is that you’re stuck starring at health bars and I didn’t get to look around or take many pictures.
With two healers in a 6-man, neither of them able to keep a non-traditional tank alive alone, we often had multiple heals hitting the same people at the same time while someone else was dropping below 30%. I took it upon myself to focus on the off-tank and the poor Mage who was getting close to death a lot. She was Mage/Rogue which lacks defensive options for mitigating AOE damage or being mauled by adds. She kept moving further back and a few times got into line-of-sight situations in an attempt to stop taking damage. Twice I shouted “LOS mage!” then realized she had no flippin’ idea what I was talking about. I had to figure out where she'd gone and run to her to apply a heal. Afterward I explained line-of-sight.
The other danger is that offensively spec’d classes will start doing damage and lose sight of whatever else they’re really supposed to be doing. A few times the fight seemed calm and the K/P started doing damage with our very mana-inefficient spells, when adds or an AOE dropped. He’s suddenly OOM and everyone is taking damage. I’m barely spec’d into Group Heal but saved it for “oh shit” moments, along with Soul Source which is a mana-less “heal party to full health” spell with a 10 minute cool down. When that wasn’t available, I at least had enough mana to bubble myself, HOT everyone once and the tank twice while we regained control.
Fun-factor
I have to say that for a pick-up-group (PUG) it was a hell of a run. I died once during a near wipe where only the K/P survived. He died another time after a horrible pull that grabbed a whole chamber of mobs. Other than those two times, we had no deaths. I had a good time even though I was healing. The group was calm, courteous and didn’t flame each other following those two mistakes. We learned what not to do the next time and moved on.
We moved along at a good pace – not slow or too brisk. I hate PUGs that try to rush-rush ever pull because they’re so anxious to be done with the instance but in the end they cause deaths and wipes that actually prolong the whole experience. Then of course, they’re the first people to rage quit the group. We didn’t’ have any of that sort of non-sense going on.
It was interesting to once again test the boundaries of healing while being offensively specialized. My primary healing spell is a HOT. As my bread-butter heal it stays at max level. The instant spell heal is too mana inefficient so I never use it and have no intention of putting points into it. My 1-second heal doesn’t pack enough juice to bother right now. It’s better to HOT, wait a second then HOT again. My group heal isn’t worth the 3-seconds for the HP either but when everyone is taking damage is better than nothing. Psychologically, I think it helps people not panic. They see that the healer realizes their losing health and is handling the situation. I use the Group Heal then start applying HOTs.
I’ve healed three 6-mans with this build and have done alright. I still have to find something better than the big-ass unit frames for selecting party members. When things get nasty, I love that I have my personal heals all on macros, so that to heal myself I don’t have to thing twice. I can heal, bubble, mitigate and then see to everyone else without skipping a beat. I admit to being impressed with this class combination.
Rewards
Players farm FA for two reasons. First is that the level 25 Elite Skill components drop in this instance which sucks. You need 15 of them per skill and the most I’ve ever gotten on a run was two. Good FA groups are hard to come by. Heck FA in general is hard to come by. I see people spamming chat for over an hour trying to get a group. Why? Horrible PUG adventures that are so bad players are insisting that party members be WAY over the recommended levels in the hopes of avoiding disaster. My experience in Blood Gallery had me planning to swear off the instances until end-game it was so bad. That being the case, it’s hard to find players in their 30s during BETA who need to do FA when you’re ready to do FA. This makes getting 30 crystals for your skills extremely difficult.
The other reason are the nice set pieces that come from the quest rewards and a few drops. I’d love to replace my 4-pc Ventis with the 4-cpc from FA but that won’t happen. And since breaking the set for 1-pc isn’t valuable, it’s an all or nothing situation. I might try another FA PUG but there are some tricky pulls in there that can lead to rage drama with the wrong party.
In closing, I had a good time in FA. I’d do it again with the same group no problem. We could get it on fast farm in another couple of runs. Unfortunately, I’m finding with BETA that people are coming and going in spurts. I see them all on the game again but never at the same time. The game hasn’t transitioned into their primary MMO which makes re-grouping with good people hit-n-miss.
