Some help for beginners against Vahzilok

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » April 27, 2004, 2:39 pm

For meleeing beginners.

I have found that Vahz are too tough for their level if you just wade in and take them.

However, and you probably already know this, you can kill the leadership and the cadavers are easy. I dont mean bosses.

I mean the reapers and the mortificators. Once they are dead, the cadavers are dumb puppies with no organization. Cut off the head of the serpent. Run in and get a single brawl (basic punch) on the exploding corpses and run, they will blow up even with one tap.

Run away to lose aggro. Repeat. Then power up and kill each mortificator one at a time, retreating the instant it is dead. Cadavers are slow so after you pull them a little (morti and reapers hang back) you can run to the back and slay one guy. Then withdraw. Rinse and repeat. Do the same with reapers. Once those units are gone, the cadavers are dumb and mostly stand there, engaging me maybe 1 or 2 at a time.

Ogbar · Post by **Ogbar** » April 27, 2004, 2:58 pm

Vahz suck - hands down the toughest mobs to have to fight starting out.

Cadavers puke on you for big damage, plus a three tick dot, and they seem to have a lot more hitpoints. Morts (LTs) shoot arrows that slow you, and they can rez the recently defeated! (watch out for that). Reapers have crossbows, too, though if they slow, the likelihood must be much less.

Good advice as to how to slice and dice em, Kwon. Anyone who picks science as an origin will have to do a few Vahz missions out of the gate.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » April 27, 2004, 4:28 pm

Good advice, but I wish you would have posted this in beta. My scrapper was getting fucking OWNED by these guys.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » April 27, 2004, 4:37 pm

They killed my Blaster plenty of times too. Couple times when they introduced me to their exploding zombies, but also just that damn projectile puke.

Winter · Post by **Winter** » April 27, 2004, 5:15 pm

Cover is your friend. Use any walls, stacks of crates, large pipes etc. to block line of sight vs. not only the undead, but any projectile heavy mobs (like the 5th). Pick a target, get its attention (via taunt, or whatever your toon uses to pull with), find cover, rinse n' repeat. If more than one mob comes with the pull, attempt to slow (caltrops etc), root (chiliban, ring of fire etc), or stop(mezz, freeze ray etc) the additional mobs. This is especially effective if you can slow, root, stop the extra mobs where they will not have l.o.s. to your "cover" position. If your toon does not have any crowd control of any kind, then attempt to "kite" the extra mobs after they have switched to melee mode (by 1st using cover), or team with someone who does have some crowd control.

How this helps the melee toon, is by forcing these projectile mobs to regain line of sight and thus, close into melee range. This helps by putting the mob not only within your striking range, but usually the mob will then change from a projectile attack to a melee attack of its own, which is usually less effective/accuarate.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » April 27, 2004, 6:34 pm

And if you see that the Embalmed ones start to vibrate in a constipated manner, back away quickly(think it's around three secs) and you will avoid the Blast, same goes for the Life Mages(they on the other hand will start to glow around their hands when they prepare for the boom!).

You will prevent Suiciders with Ice/Earth roots and with mez as well. <-- Useful to know for the teammembers.

Krimson Klaw · Post by **Krimson Klaw** » April 27, 2004, 6:46 pm

I could have sworn last night that those Life Mages got halted mid cast for suicide explosion by being frozen by our blaster. I thought that was cool. Blaster obviously knew what she was doing, cause that same mage tried to detonate 3 times and was frozen stiff 3 times. Maybe I'm wrong and they have another animation similar to the suicide buildup, but I thought it was cool nontheless

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » April 27, 2004, 6:51 pm

We have an ice blaster that we regularly group with (Winter), that is superb in freezing down both suiciders and runners. During the first days in Beta you used to die a lot to those bombers, but not now!

Oh and on another note, GRATZ DROLGIN!

He can now mutate us!

Ogbar · Post by **Ogbar** » April 27, 2004, 7:04 pm

masteen wrote:Good advice, but I wish you would have posted this in beta. My scrapper was getting fucking OWNED by these guys.

At one point in beta, those early missions were bugged, and every reaper was lvl 5! Imagine trying to do those missions, which are hard enough, with a red con reaper shooting arrows into your backside!

Did I mention that I hate vahz ...