Victory lap guide :)

[Superzarop]

Hi guys, I am going to teach nubs how to play victory lap in this thread. The guide is pretty rough but still understandable.


Group setup:
First of all is the group setup. Here are some requirements that, if followed, almost always gives a good setup:

No less than 2 birds (make sure non of them have a talon as main weapon)
No less than 1 mage (if there is only one, make sure he does not use 2h weapon)
No more than 1 bears (dual bears are better)
No more than 2 int guys
Everyone must have full lvl 50 pinks (its like 3k gold for full pinks)

After you have checked those, your group should be fine. And also, a int mage with cyber gear is better than a int mage with mirage. But bears and birds with set bonus are better than bears and birds with cyber.


What bosses?
There are many ways to run vl. Here are a few examples:

Overlord farm: this is the fastest way to get money imo. Skip middle, clear des to around 116, kill Plot, and pot rush Ol. You can follow up with a gurg if you want*to make more use of your pot, but i dont recommend it.

King Ol: another good way to get gold. Skip mid, clear all the mobs in King, kill King and rush Ol. Again you can follow up with a gurg if you want.

Totem/shard farm: skip mid, at least tank will use a tank pot, kill sniper lorekeeper duo, rush to keeper, kill some small mobs and then focus on keeper when he spawns.*


How to kill each boss?*
Desert: the mobs are easy, kill according to your needs. Killing Plot requires a pretty solid tank if no one wants to die. But for better groups, just pull and nuke. Make sure to always keep Plot between you and the wall.*

Overlord: all group members buy a tank pot and rush to Ol. Birds will keep their eyes on Ol and use a blast shot as soon as his mana shield is on. Mages must constanly spam heal. Everyone should watch their hp and use a pot when under 60% hp.

Gurgox: for a not so experienced group, designate an orb to every mage, and the mages will camp beside their orbs. When gurg starts to roar, wait a second or so and then grab an orb. After the explosion, immediately revive anyone dead teammates and resume fighting/camping beside the orb. More experienced groups can do anything they want and still win within 2 or 3 roars :)

Keeper: really easy boss here. The hard part is killing his snipers and lorekeepers, but a well organized group should have no problems. Have a bird tank Keeper. Mages spam heal and the bird tank will use health pot when needed. If he shields up, take the time to kill any remainijg mobs beside Keeper.

King: king is also an easy boss. Rushing him is the hard part. If you do not have a bear, warbird or paladin, a bird or mage with shields can also lead the rush. But one thing i cannot stress enough is to not attack barels!! No one except for the one leading the rush shall use any offensive spells at all. A bad barel kill can easily lead to a chain of death where everyone dies 2-4 times before being able to regroup. Once you get to king, you can tank n spank him normally or have a bird kite him.*

Other things to notice:
Mages shall spam heal during any fight involving a yellow alien, a mini boss or a boss.
During a rush, mages should heal teammates when needed, but excesive healing will attract unwanted attention.
Mages should buff whenever the party enters *a new portal, whenever a barel explodes on a teammate and at the beginning of every boss/mini boss fight.
Do not die in an Ol fight, especially if you are a bird.
Do not take an orb during a gurg fight if a mage is beside that orb.
The guy with the most rift pieces in the party should always be leading the rush.
Bears with rift will constantly spam taunt during any fight.
Use the partay emote after any boss fight for better luck!!

Fell free to write any suggestions.
-Tekei

[Arterra]

lol party emote for luck. nice little guide, a little strict on guidelines of party members, but oh well.

[ciss]

Why not go keep, skip middle, clear the way to keep and kill him, then tank pot ol rush? This seems the most efficient for totems/shards quests. Gurg can be also done as ol goes down fast.

[GoofyYno]

During a rush, mages should heal teammates when needed, but excesive healing will attract unwanted attention.

-Tekei

Is this true? I never knew this.

[Arterra]

Is this true? I never knew this.

I refuse to heal during rush if not using rift gear. I will Rez if forced to, but heal is like a slap to their faces If noone else is doing anything.

[Seratonin]

Why not go keep, skip middle, clear the way to keep and kill him, then tank pot ol rush? This seems the most efficient for totems/shards quests. Gurg can be also done as ol goes down fast.

Because that's what's smashing the economy! Why not do full runs? If you drop the keeper before he shields, or within 1-2 shields up, chances are, the other bosses, (besides Tpaxx) are going to be easy. Good advice here, but widen your party up. I have seen parties drop keeper without putting his shield up with 5 mages, 2 mages & 3 birds, 2 birds & 3 mages, 1 bear 1 bird 3 mages, 1 bear 2 birds 2 mages, 2 bears 1 mage 2 birds, 2 bears 2 mages 1bird. It's all in how you manage him... Moving him around a LOT helps with this fight, as in, if he isn't standing where he WANTS to stand, he won't shield up. This takes some coordination on different parties. Mages fireblast him around, archers can bump him really hard if you position yourself right, and bears easily stun and throw him around. If he does sheild up, you can save yourself some pots by kiting him around the pits until his shield is down again. TOO MANY people just spam him when his shield is up, and don't do any damage at all! Thus effectively wasting mana pots. Save your pots and mana! Mages can spam heal, or I prefer to just kite him around, then blast him when his shields go down. And there is no skill any character has that can take his shields down, so don't think that's the case! It's just like the mages skill, It's timed. I suspect that since he has A LOT of HP, he has A LOT of mana to back up that shield. He also probably dumped all of his skill points into INT too. And if it takes your a group a REALLY LONG time to drop him, chances are, you need to remake, and get a different group going with different party setup. =/

[Arterra]

I once got booted for running around too much at keeper. When his shield was up. I was locking him when up, and charging him when down.

I am an expert at locking him, but feel awkward if I'm standing there and they pound away still. Meh.

[Seratonin]

I once got booted for running around too much at keeper. When his shield was up. I was locking him when up, and charging him when down.

I am an expert at locking him, but feel awkward if I'm standing there and they pound away still. Meh.

Yeah, it really does save a lot of pot money if you kite instead. If I don't feel like kiting, I don't pot, and just die. Mage will rev me hopefully......

[Superzarop]

Birds are they best single target dpsers, and nowdays you done spend much time fighting big groups. A good bird can also tank every boss. So as long as you have a mage for reviving, the rest can be birds for more dps. One bird also cant handle ols shield very well, so the more birds the better.

[Bigsleazy]

Good guide- If people Say it's a little strict than they have low standards ;)

[Arterra]

Good guide- If people Say it's a little strict than they have low standards ;)

Or know how make up for the fact that most teams are not made uP of all birds and playing is more than continually spanking skills. ;)
I have booted a few people for not being birds when we had none at all. That is why I hate hosting...

[Superzarop]

Art if you follow my guide and dont accept too many bad noobs, victory lap will be no more than spanking skills ^.^

[Vaelma]

Is this true? I never knew this.

Absolutely! I'm pretty sure all bosses hate healer, but seems the desert guys really really don't like us and will switch targets to us.

During a rush, having to heal someone brings the wrath of the snipers on us, and having to backtrack to rev someone is usually certain death to the mage. (and a waste of pots lol).

If anyone has a better take on healers taking aggro while healing and ways to handle it, I'd love to hear them. :)

[Arterra]

Art if you follow my guide and dont accept too many bad noobs, victory lap will be no more than spanking skills ^.^

exactly. i dont want to be spanking skills all day lol (llv.v)

[Fyrce]

I think for clearing VL bosses, any group mix with at least one bird will work. It depends on how much dps the group can do. 5 mages works but I'm not that patient except for test cases.

I've been the only bird at OL several times or the only live bird, and it's been fine. Birds (and mages), a word about mobs with ranged attacks you cannot avoid: It's better to just try to sit on top of the mob. Your attacks will ALWAYS hit (very important) and it's not like they can hit you more. And for birds, your Avian Scream might actually be in range and stun minibosses. That's assuming they don't one-shot you. If they do one-shot you, you'll need a good bear to keep it stunned or to stay out of its range entirely, which is hard to do and attack at the same time. I don't really get one-shotted anymore so this isn't really a concern for me. YMMV.

As for healing, I always heal and I get complimented a lot on my healing. I don't think I die that much more on healing than other clerics who do not heal. The only time I notice dying more is when I'm using my Keeper. Then I have to make sure to watch my potting and hope for no lag. I'm not sure saying "spam" heal is accurate, since there IS a cool-down and I think some people misunderstand what spamming healing really is. As a mage, I try to stay within range of my group. As a non-mage, you should pay attention to the heal radius and stay within it if you really want to be healed. Otherwise, saying "spam heal" is meaningless.

As for staying alive, only thing I can think is keep yourself and group blessed, keep our finger on your pots, and use shield when your health starts to go down. If you have to, move out of range temporarily, though you don't want to do that too much because the mob then generally focuses on the bird(s). With a little attention and luck, you should be able to keep yourself healed up between pots, heal and drain life and shield.

On barrels, the way to do it is to deliberately blow them up. It's too difficult to work around them with bird skills (don't use blast shot, no screams. am I still a bird?) and mage skills (don't use ice storm, firestorm). You really cripple your two best damage classes if you do not count on barrels being blown up. So the best way is to be deliberate about when they explode. I use my mage and firestorm to blow barrels up or a bear can gather mobs to them and then blow them up. They're a great attack weapon and comparing groups that do/do not blow them up, using those weapons seems a better solution.

With a good group, Keeper should be down w/o shield. Not sure you really need to move him around that much, but everyone should be able to attack no matter where he is. He might spawn one shield just before his dies, but that's it. Some damage does get past his shield, so a little bit of damage while his shield is up is ok. Just make sure you've got lots of skills when his shield goes down. If it goes up a 2nd time, your group is either not paying attention (happens. LOL) or needs more damage. Mages should all switch to Keeper for Keeper; if you watch yourself and stick to the other healers, you should be ok. This also means, the second someone starts attacking the Keeper, ALL should be attacking the Keeper. Use your areas to keep/attack the minions, but your focus once the clock starts ticking is KEEPER. That means you, bird, in the corner, blasting the yellow alien. Come here and blast this BIG guy!

I always pot for OL but I've seen people survive who do not pot. Generally that does not include birds. The bird that does not pot usually needs a rez and will probably sit out the battle. I try to stick close to the OL, while also throwing areas to keep the Lorekeepers/yellows off the group. If I can heal, of course, I'm healing as fast as possible.

Gurg should go down before a scream. Maybe one scream, but probably not. Same thing in terms of clock here as with Keeper: once a group member starts on Gurg, ALL should start on Gurg. You can move around, use areas, knock backs to keep away/damge minions, but your focus once the clock starts ticking is Gurg. And of course, if you are near an orb, don't take it unless you're a mage. Though, of course, you're betting on killing before the roar. You'll know just by looking at how much damage you're doing.

Take orbs, of course, if you're the only one alive, you're not a mage, and you've got to stay that way until reinforcements arrive.

Use your areas to hit as many mobs as possible. Why waste your areas on one mob when you can hit 5? Which is also a strategy for lower levels: kite boss and go blast some minions while you're at it. And if there's a straggling mob, just leave it. It'll come back or maybe you don't even need to kill it.

Mynas is pretty easy, tank or not. Kite/knock back. Hit him and try not to get hit by him.

Oh, a word for healers, if you are healing that is: if your group splits in two to go after aliens or whatever, try to stay between the two so your heals can catch both groups of group members. And don't forget that heal removed STATUS effects as well. Important for Keeper and Mynas and Plohtoxx! If you haven't noticed, you haven't been paying attention.

[Rusalio]

Very good read!!! And for noobs this will help? Getting sort of tired of new noobs not knowing how this works.

So I heard a new word here and that was KITE. Is this running in circles around boss with spells? I love agrro as bird or Mage...so don't mind if I attract attention.

[Seratonin]

Wrote so much... @_@ great info though ;)

[Superzarop]

Fyrce wrote so much... I dont have time to edit the stuff into the guide cus i have to play Infinite Blade.

[Seratonin]

Infinite Blade= not so Infinite game.

[Pharcyde]

Why not go keep, skip middle, clear the way to keep and kill him, then tank pot ol rush? This seems the most efficient for totems/shards quests. Gurg can be also done as ol goes down fast.

For people who really want cyber fast, clear the desert first then just rush keeper. It saves like 30 seconds on alien clear times. (Also small chance of totem/shard from Desert boss)

[bladesword]

I Important for Keeper and Mynas and Plohtoxx! If you haven't noticed, you haven't been paying attention.

You haven't payed attention to the important part "Plohtoxx" Is spelled "Plothozz"..

[Riccits]

For people who really want cyber fast, clear the desert first then just rush keeper. It saves like 30 seconds on alien clear times. (Also small chance of totem/shard from Desert boss)

really drops totems??

rush to keeper with pot? if not did havent serveral problems with aliens (snipers, lorekeeper) at the boss?

[Fyrce]

LOL, I never remember those names. I just write an approximation of them :P

As for kiting, it's basically dragging a mob around, generally boss. Some people run all over the place dragging the boss. I like to drag him to other mobs so I can hit him and other mobs at the same time. Of course, that's assuming the other mobs aren't overly dangerous. You will also need to know mob/boss resets, because it's pointless to drag things only to have them reset. Well, unless you were running away :P

In some dungeons, I like to drag multiple (mini) bosses about. I might as well hit all of them, not just one :) This is where dual is very useful, so if you are generally melee, switch to ranged weapon for kiting.