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Elite Chronicles: Rogues Guide To Elite Rockhorn Summit
Elite Rockhorn Summit - home of Rendtail and juicy Magma Armor loot. To be honest, this is a rather difficult map, and not necessarily designed for solo play, but small details like that won't keep us Rogues away....especially when there is good loot to be had!
My recommendation is that you have full, upgraded Mythic gear, or top-of-the-line Magma gear. In my case, I was using the following gear:
Weapon: Expedition Recurve of Potency (super gemmed)
Helm: Upgraded Mythic (super gemmed)
Armor: Upgraded Mythic (super gemmed)
Ring: Archon of Potency (super gemmed) [Though I can easily recommend a super gemmed Fangmaster of Warfare as well]
Amulet: Tarlok Heart of Potency (super gemmed)
Even with the best gear available, this is not a trivial map to solo artists. If you aren't packing the best gear around, I would wait to solo this map.
I strongly recommend either a speed elixir/kit or a speed pet. In my case, I used Scorch, but Abbaddon and Haze are suitable alternatives.
As it stands, I found that running with a 30% Damage Kit really helps avoid deaths, because with this map, we will be heavily reliant on Nox Poison to do a considerable amount of the overall damage. These 30% Damage Kits can be had for around 11k at auction, so stock up whenever you see the price drop below 10k. In my case, I purchased one for 11.5k, so bad timing on my part.
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With or damage kit in hand, we start up the map, and are immediately greeted by an imposing room full of Scorns, Trolls and Whelps. Start at range, and aggro the first pack of 3 Scorns and the troll. Unless stated otherwise, you will always want to charge Aimed and Nox. Fire off your first volley of charged attacks and start retreating.
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Run halfway down the corridor, then RUN THROUGH THE PACK TO THE OTHER SIDE! Yes, sounds crazy, I know, but the intent here is to keep the group packed closely together, maximizing the number of targets affected by Nox poison. Clear through to the other side of the pack, firing charged Aimed and charged Nox behind you. Once you reach the entrance of the room, go through the pack again.
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Keep repeating this process of running halfway down the hallway then run through the mobs and draw them up to the room entrance, all while shooting charged Aimed and Nox behind you.
If you get stuck, because the Troll keeps stunning you, you can employ a separation strategy by firing off a single bow shot towards the group and retreat back to the entrance. Because the Scorns run so quickly, and the troll is so slow, you can wait for the Scorns to reset while the Troll is still approaching...
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INTERESTING FACT: The Scorns only have a melee range attack. Because of this fact, this run through strategy only puts you in harms way for a second or two, so while you are outside of melee range, you are in very little danger. Just beware, if you see lightning sparking in the mouths of any of the scorns, don't charge through yet - this is their wind-up attack, and if you run though the pack at the wrong moment, their bites have a very high chance of one-hitting you.
Next, we will proceed to the group of 4 whelps to the left. We will use the same run through strategy we employed before. Aggro them with a charged Aimed and charged Nox to get them to chase you.
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Proceed to the wall on your right, firing shots behind you. Once you reach the wall, charge straight through the group and continue to the left wall. Keep repeating this process until all the whelps are dealt with.
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INTERESTING FACT: These whelps, like the Scorns, do not have a ranged attack, so as long as you stay outside of melee range, they aren't much of a threat.
Next, we have a group of 5 whelps and a troll. Again, we will be kiting this group, circling them and staying outside of melee range as much as possible. These trolls have an annoying habit of stunning you, which often leads to deaths, so stay outside of their attack range and you will be fine. Just fire off a charged volley of Aimed and Nox, then start running in circles.
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Use the lava pool as a choke point if you want. I generally like to use the terrain to my advantage, so if you use this pool correctly, then only one or two mobs will be in range to attack you, while you are safely shielded from the trailing mobs who are on the other side of the pool.
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Proceed to the clutch of snakes ahead. Be warned, these guys hit hard, so you will definitely want to use the lava pool as a choke point. Fire off a volley and retreat back to the lava pool.
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Run large circles around the lava pool, firing Aimed and Nox behind you. Keep circling until the snakes are dealt with.
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INTERESTING FACT: These snakes do not attack while they are moving, they are only able to attack when standing still. Also, these snakes have two different attacks, a ranged attack and a melee attack. The melee attack actually hits for less damage than the ranged attack, but the preference here is to keep the snakes moving, which minimizes the number of attacks you have to pot through.
Continue ahead...here, we need a little bit of patience. There are three Scorns and two whelps to handle. Of course you could aggro them together, but my preference is to pick off the whelps when they reposition to an area where they are isolated, that way you can pick the two whelps off one at a time.
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If you run out of patience, waiting for the Whelps to reposition, just aggro the whole group and start retreating.
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The reset point for this group is right about the centerline of the lava pool. Retreat back to the start of the pool, then charge through the group and run back up to the clutch of eggs. Going any further risks aggroing the pack hanging out in the top left. Don't aggro them - if you accidentally do, reset the entire group.
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Once the whelps and scorns are handled, continue ahead to the right corridor. Fire off a shot as soon as you get into range and start retreating, the Whelp (if you didn't handle him earlier) will join along with the Troll and snake. Use the run through strategy, or, if you are brave, you can certainly drop a Shadow Veil and try to overpower the group of three.
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My preference is to use the run through strategy, which saves a few pots.
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Once in the corridor to the right, there are three Scorns to deal with, and sometimes an annoying whelp decides to reposition right into aggro range. Aggro the group and retreat back just a little bit.
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In this confined area, circling can be difficult, but your best bet is simply to keep moving, hugging the walls as much as you can, and keep the pack of mobs packed tightly inside of the circle.
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Press forward to the two scorns. Aggro them and retreat back into the corridor. Sometimes that annoying whelp wants to join in, but either way, the strategy remains the same.
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Keep circling, hugging the walls as much as you can, firing off Nox and Aimed. As with every step in this entire map, NEVER STOP POTTING!
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On your left, there is a group of 3 Scorns and possibly a whelp (if you didn't pick him up earlier). Aggro them, retreat back into the corridor and circle until this group has been dealt with.
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Up ahead are three Scorns and some snakes. Aggro them. Chances are very good that you will aggro the closest snake. Draw the pack back into the hallway and begin circling. While the snake is present, it is best to keep the snake moving - don't give it a chance to set up and do it's ranged attacks, make your kiting circle (rectangle?) wide enough so the snake doesn't get to set up for an attack.
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With the Scorns and snake handled, proceed ahead to the clutch of three snakes. If you are patient, and allow the lead snake to reposition, you can draw just the one snake - this will make the pull a little bit easier, since you have enough firepower to overwhelm a single mob.
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Up ahead, be patient and wait to draw aggro when the whelp is not nearby. Once you have the two snakes attention, retreat backward, making them follow you. Once you have drawn them to the lava waterfall, charge in, drop veil and you will be able to overpower them both.
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Continue ahead and take on the three whelps. You can choose whether you want to use a run-through strategy (since the corridor is now clear), or you can just drop a veil and overpower them one at a time.
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Up ahead is a room full of Scorns. This can be a dangerous room, so there are two options. First option is to aggro everything and run around the room, using the lava pools as choke points. This is a risky tactic, but will shave off a few minutes on your run.
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The alternative strategy is picking them off in small, more manageable groups. Start by attacking the center Scorn and pull him back into the corridor.
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Next, hug the left wall, and proceed up to the egg, at which point, you will attract the Scorn on the far left.
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Return back to the entrance of the room, and attack the two Scorns on your right. Again, once you have aggro, retreat back into the corridor and deal with them together.
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From here, you should be able to pick off the rest, using a similar strategy.
Now, we start the single, most difficult part of this entire map - the run to the boss.
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Now, if you are a plat user, I would recommend that if you die, wait for a few seconds for the mobs to reset - this should give you just a fraction of a second of breathing room. Either way, expect to make several attempts at this, because this is a very challenging run. Between the hard hitting mobs (snakes and Scorns), plus the annoying trolls that have a habit of stunning you as you run past them, this run will probably require several attempts.
If you do manage to clear all mobs, run straight ahead to the nook on the left side of the boss room. This will reset the scorn and whelp, leaving you with two snakes to deal with.
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Once the two snakes are disposed of, return back to the corridor and aggro the whelp and Scorn. Kill the whelp. Once the whelp is dead, Rendtail will spawn. When that happens, run back to the nook on the left to reset the Scorn.
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With a clear room and Rendtail ready, stand by the first row of eggs. Inch ahead SLOWLY until your pet goes to attack the boss. Once you have found this point, DO NOT MOVE AGAIN! DO NOT USE PIERCE and DO NOT GO ANY CLOSER TO THE BOSS (trust me on this....).
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When Rendtail loses about a third of his HP, there is the possibility that the eggs could begin hatching. You will notice the yellow mist glowing near the eggs - if this happens, you will need to retreat. I'm not sure what the trigger is, but it seems like 25% of the time I solo this map, the eggs will hatch.
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Retreat back to the corner/alcove pictured here. This will keep you out of line-of-sight on half of the eggs that hatch. It will still be a very difficult fight, but this strategy will at least give you a chance to survive.
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After you kill the first mob, wait patiently, more will be coming. Do not leave this little corner, or you will risk aggroing everything that spawns, and that will mean death 99% of the time.
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When the snakes start spawning, drop veil - you will need the added armor while they reposition into melee range.
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At this point, while still outside of line-of-sight, nothing else should approach. Now, you can enter the room and pick off the remaining hatchlings one or two at a time.
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With all hatchlings disposed of, you can now proceed back to Rendtail. Again, get to the first row of eggs, and slowly inch ahead until your pet decides to attack the boss. Granted, you don't actually need your pet to attack, but every little bit of damage helps.
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Keep attacking the boss until you kill him - remember to equip your Lep and use reroll elixirs/kits. This is one of the very few times where you can relax and swap load-outs without fear of being killed by the boss.
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Now, as I'm sure you can tell from the screen shots - this guide was a hodge-podge of about 6 or 7 solo runs. I'm sure you could tell how amused I was that I was disconnected from the server when the update happened and I was about to enter the boss room, forcing me to run the map solo, yet again, so I could get all the screenshots together.
MY THOUGHTS: This is a challenging map, and the use of a run-through strategy is pretty crucial to success, which is odd, because I haven't used it anywhere other than Tindirin. The difficulty comes, mainly from the run to the boss, and the probability of eggs hatching. If those two elements were removed from this map, then I would say that this can be run with mostly crate gear and epic rings/amulets. As it stands now, I don't think that this map is for everyone. The run in particular is simply too challenging for non-plat or mainstream geared players.
To be honest, unless you get lucky and loot one of the Magma armors, the cost of running this map is too high - both in pots consumed (about 1k hp and 1k mana) and time (20-25 mins if eggs don't hatch, 30-35+ if they do); especially for a mobile game.
Worse, you could get "lucky" and roll a Locked Crate like I did, which just makes me leave the map in disgust.
