lvl 60 scholar quest "Forward, the Royal Marines"

I'm trying to do this quest, but it seems impossible. Item level 198

It doesn't matter how fast I cleanse these NPCs. I run in circles spamming Esuna. I use the Fairy's AOE Cleanse. I try and heal.

But the NPCs will jump up from zero stacks to 3 in a single hit (5 stacks and I fail). They will lose about 30% of their health in an instant and my strongest heal restores about 2% of their health (if any die, I fail).

I am almost ready to give up. I have watched a guide and followed it, but this just seems like something that would be difficult if I were allowed to be level 70!

Dorion, your item level should be more than good enough.

However, if your weapon's item level is too low and/or if your accessories don't have Mind, you're bound to have trouble.

The problem definitely isn't your ilevel. All the level 60 quests were designed to be doable in i145-ish leveling gear after all. Just keep spamming Esuna as needed.

Initially back in HW, it was really easy to just take in Stoneskin to prevent the debuff from actually sticking in the first place; I'd suggest maybe trying to keep Adlo/Succor up as much as possible on the NPCs

Although ilvl shouldn't matter honestly you might find it easier having 230/240 or 260/270 gear if you can. It will at least guarantee you stronger Galvanize shields to protect the npcs from dot damage, and the extra Piety no doubt we'll help with the Esunas.

You should be fine, what you want to do is, keep away from the NPCs and Boss, when the adds spawn, make sure to put bio and other DoTs on boss then Bane to kill the adds fast, you can also run to the boss and Miasma 2 to kill them all quickly, and just esuna any NPCs that get targeted with that nasty poison, don't stand near the NPCs for long!

Thanks for the responses. I wound up defeating it by having a fellow scholar share my screen through Discord. She watched me do a couple of attempts and then gave me suggestions and guidance.

My only suggestion is that you stay far from NPCs and kill all adds as fast as you can.

My sister had the same problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chimeric

Initially back in HW, it was really easy to just take in Stoneskin to prevent the debuff from actually sticking in the first place; I'd suggest maybe trying to keep Adlo/Succor up as much as possible on the NPCs

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The amount of stuff I cheesed with Stoneskin on NPC's with millions of health. Good times.

I've known several SCHs to have some difficulty with this quest, and what I don't really see advised is that there really isn't a way to do this solo instance with finesse. You have to dish out a certain amount of DPS and do it before the npcs turn into tonberries.

If you spend too much time cleansing you will fail. If you tunnel vision on DPS, you will fail. Even doses of each and a little bit of fairy management and you'll get through it.

Grats on your clear OP.

The topic is a bit old, so sorry for necroing, but it was the top aswer google gave me when looking for the quest so best place to share with other people to find the "strategy" I found to do it really easilly.
Had tried a number of times and even with the tips of staying away and all I had still some trouble even with good gear, so almost by accident I found this "strategy":

Get aggro hitting him with all dots and attacking with all you can, when the boss go after you start kiting him and keep him running in circles after you while spaming Ruin II and keeping Bio II up till he dies.
That's it.

I know sound stupid, but he will not attack, do his AoE, summon adds or use his debuffs while walking after you, so even if the NPCs can't hit him or do anything at all, he will not hit them back and cause the mission to fail.
It's stupid but was the easiest way totally no brainer I found for doing it.

I did this at ilevel 113 (not my main job). Took a few goes :)

So many of these guides are way out of date..

For the current build; Shadowbringers Patch 5.3 here's a rundown-

Leeches does not exist, it was redesigned as Esuna.
Selene/ Eos have been changed- setting them on Pet Hotbar to Guard now has either faerie use Embrace on the weakest party member. Also they use Whispering Dawn (AoE HoT Area of Effect Heal Over Time) on the entire team and cast Fey Illumination often as it buffs heal potency. No other skills we can set as Fey Blessing may replace Whispering Dawn but not for this quest as it's earned at 76.

So the- kite boss... failed. Focus healing- failed. I had 4 Augmented Hailstorm pieces on too (iLvl 240, Idyllshire in Dravania gear) as you must focus not on boss but his three Plague pets. So my strategy was simple.

Only cast Emergency Tactics > Adloquium at start, Bio the Boss and then it just becomes a case of watching. Use Succor to Barrier each in turn, then watch for plague pets. I got on boss's back so the Marines easily kept aggro and cast Art of War (160 unaspected damage to all under the AoE) until the minions were dead. That was it in the end :P .

All other guides to this I found were very much outdated with only the tip about getting at least four Idyllshire pieces being relevant at all.