Dev Team's thoughts on the Darkhold?

[Tezz_Xivectro]

As many are aware, the final instanced raid dungeon has started pigeonholing a community requirement on class preference. Most notably is the strategy of using Gladiator, Conjurers & Archers.

Community team, what is the Development Team's thoughts on how the dungeon has been laid out & the way players have been approaching it? We don't want it made easy, but what sort of adjustments/additions are to come? Why are there so many trash mobs which serve no real purpose?

Clearly, you can tell us that we are free to use whatever classes we think is the best strategy, but it seems as if the dungeon itself isn't balanced well enough for the community to even want to utilize other classes. Additionally, high demands are placed on the need for having multiple actions from other classes (to be expected, perhaps jobs will level this out).

Last of all is the enmity issue that has been plaguing a few of us lately. Most notably "Cure 3" and the massive amount of enmity it raises causing even some healers to not utilize it.
One cannot think of adjusting the dungeon without thinking about enmity, please update us on the situation.

[tachikoma]

Most notably is the strategy of using Gladiator, Conjurers & Archers.

To be fair the only reason ppl want arc/con/gladiator for ogre is because it requires the least thought. If you want the betraal win you probably dont' want ARCx4,CONx3,GLAx1 its really hard to take the skelly's that way w/o a TON of cross classing. Personally I have never done a run with this setup.

LNC is excellent for a semi-ranged attack which can hit the ogre from below the south ledge, MRD is excellent for both dmg, dots, and ability to AOE skelly's latter on. PUG is excellent for betraal since you can solo skelly's w/o much trouble. THM is excellent for both ogre/betraal for its ability to enfeeble and dot. slow is a nice one to stick on betraal, still offereing solid dps as a thm and able to toss out heals is NICE.

Why are there so many trash mobs which serve no real purpose?

IMO so we can grind them down the line for SP.

Last of all is the enmity issue that has been plaguing a few of us lately. Most notably "Cure 3" and the massive amount of enmity it raises

I'm not sure what you mean by massive hate? I know after the first 5% of a fight I can cast both tier 3 sac/cure w/o any hate issues. Maybe your tanks need some work on hate? After 25% of ogre I can spam through 10-15 consecutive tier 3's. I think its just an adjustment of using all those abilities that people never bothered to try before this patch.

Out of Site, soughspeak-II, chameleon => excellent to reduce hate

[Xenor]

Having all ARC and CON is not the best setup. Obviously CON is your best healer now, it was designed to be that way. But for DD you really don't need more than one ARC. I recommend at least one for Bloodletter and ranged pulling. But pretty much anything works for the rest, MRD does crazy damage on par with ARC when it comes to AoEing skeletons. LNC has also worked well for us. I really think a mix of classes is the way to go, that way you can battle regimen Batraal down.

[Tezz_Xivectro]

It's nice to hear you guys talking of other classes (i've heard of LNC for Skeles), but i just wish everyone else could see things that way.

Maybe it's still too early on setups, but i still would like to know the dev's thoughts so far.

[Delsus]

It's nice to hear you guys talking of other classes (i've heard of LNC for Skeles), but i just wish everyone else could see things that way.

Maybe it's still too early on setups, but i still would like to know the dev's thoughts so far.

I found a linkshell that takes me as LNC now, and it works really well, I usually set wide volley for skeles at the end, but if i postion myself properly then leg sweep should beable to take care of them as well (except the recast) also if your timing is right then leg sweep can work wonders on the ogre.

[Keftenk]

People don't know what the hell they're talking about lol.

1. ARCx4,CONx3,GLAx1 would be amazing for skeletons and would mow them down in mere seconds. We usually run 3 Archers if we can and we clear the phase skeletons on Batraal in 30 seconds or so. Not sure why 3 Conjurers would be taken, but hey whatever. Simply put, Multishot is by far still as over powered as ever in this game as it was pre-1.18

2. Any competent player can solo a skeleton without help, not just PUG. Again, often we'll take only 2 mages, a Conjurer and a Thaumaturge to our runs with the THM on full nuke or full debuff duty.

3. Out of Site, soughspeak-II, chameleon => excellent to reduce hate is ok, but just having a melee or the tank to Accomplice you is by far easier and better then needing to equip 6 AP worth of abilities to reduce your hate.

Some points are right though, Archer is the safest damage since it's at range, as well as Conjurer and Thaumaturge. It's much easier healing one target that is built to mitigate damage then trying to heal 3 targets that aren't. Not only that but when it comes to Batraal and the skeletons, Archer trumps any and every other class soley because of Multishot. If the skeletons aren't dead in 30-60 seconds, you don't have Archers (you could mow them down with a bunch of mages though...) lol. This isn't to say that melee can't come, no. Archer just does everything better because they don't have to worry about death from high-powered AOE mechanics.