Power Drains useful in PvE now?

agressiv · 12-01-2007, 06:17 PM

So we were fighting in Vaults, and got up to the devourer, Bi'lithu of the Old Ways. This is the mob that teleports you every 25% of his health and can hit someone with an uncurable trauma which can do massive damage.

A guildie mentioned that we could power drain him and just burn him. I had said that power drains were largely useless in PvE, but we decided to give it a go. He has a low health and mana pool, and after a few minutes, we managed to get him to 0% power.

At that point, we did a full burn. Zero teleports, zero traumas. Died REALLY fast. Just don't dps him at all and have everyone who has drains use em.

Maybe this is a good sign? Maybe mobs at zero power won't do anything but autoattack now?

agressiv

Pinski · 12-01-2007, 06:18 PM

Or you can not suck and kill the encounter a lot faster by knowing how it works. If you can kill the mob easier and faster without power drains, they are still garbage.

agressiv · 12-01-2007, 08:16 PM

That wasn't the point, we can kill it the normal way. Its just the fact that we could get him drained and he actually didn't use his special abilities like most mobs (used to) do.

agressiv

TANGARTH · 12-03-2007, 03:29 AM

You put the w in waste of time.

broccol

Cloakntuna · 12-03-2007, 04:47 PM

If you are looking for some way to make an illusionist pretty usefull in this fight, there are easier ways.

The way we usually do it is to have the illy in group mez the named, then we yell the mob, jump up on his platform and go down the ladder that is in the hole behind him. There are some mobs down there to kill, 1 mob encounter and 1 3 mob encounter. Once those are cleared though we climb back up and start the fight. We usually AOE avoid the first AE, and the second if we have a dirge, but once all our avoidances are down we just jump down the hole and continue the fight once he ports us. This usually avoids it, but sometimes we get hit w/ it on the fall, depends on if our illy gets a stun/stifle off before jumping.

docpaulpur · 12-06-2007, 07:04 AM

You make this sound like an x4 mob..Never realized that it's anything different from the usual burn-through-it nameds , apart from the occasional ae.

Lolthinae · 12-06-2007, 08:27 AM

I think you all missed the point. The OP is not discussing strats for this particular encounter, he is questioning whether there has been a change to the way mobs can/cannot cast, do CAs, and any other tricks they may have up their sleeves, if they have no power. This is the point:

Quote:

Originally Posted by agressiv

Maybe mobs at zero power won't do anything but autoattack now?

I don't know the answer, neither does the OP obviously. Does it apply to this mob only? Or is it a result of a wider ranging change?

Latpow681 · 12-07-2007, 02:45 PM

I won't classify power drain as useful, but viable when needed. I think stifle has a bigger role in this expansion though. For example in CoA, if you stifle on INC then you avoid that annoying mana drain DoT. In Maidens, stifle also seems to delay Sandstorm from summoning his adds... thus leaving him him a lower health after his stoneskin to have to burn him down before the next wave.

Manyak · 12-07-2007, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Latpow681

I won't classify power drain as useful, but viable when needed. I think stifle has a bigger role in this expansion though. For example in CoA, if you stifle on INC then you avoid that annoying mana drain DoT. In Maidens, stifle also seems to delay Sandstorm from summoning his adds... thus leaving him him a lower health after his stoneskin to have to burn him down before the next wave.

power drains viable my ass. between stuns and stifles mobs dont cast anyway. no use draining power on a mob that doesnt cast.