NORMAL - Act One
Session One
The USEast Elemental Strike Team is underway. The first gaming session was completed without a hitch, up to the Dark Wood waypoint and character level 7. One player arrived late, due to work pressures, but this was known in advance. The team played harmoniously and effectively, and there was only one tactical error leading to a single death, resulting from all the Quest 2 mercs encountering Rak and churning out the sparks. After this incident, the team paused to discuss LEB strategy, as LEBs were the only things that even remotely threatened the team (Blood Raven literally died in two seconds -- the fastest I have ever seen personally).
The new LEB protocol will be the Necro and the two Amazons taking on LEBs with the rest of the team backing off. We will see how that works and adjust in future as needed.
One player was unable to get the roles on the team that interested him and decided to bow out after the first session. As fate would have it, we had one alternate standing by, so he will take up that role.
The EST Roster:
Fire Sorceress - "Flame-Vixen" - Jaffa-Tamerin Cold Sorceress - "FrostyBeer" - Espy Lacopa Lightning Sorceress - "StaticField-X" - Chukles Poison Necromancer - "Leader-EST" - Sirian Bow Amazon - "Trefflix" - zParticle Javelin Amazon - "Rogjia" - Rogjard Barbarian Protector - Chesspiece_face Elemental Paladin - "Cy-Cleric" - Cyrene
Our fortunes so far have been good, not only with team unity and performance, but also within the game. We have already found two uniques (Blinkbat's Form, Pelta Lunata) and a nice rare scimitar.
Session Two
Session 2 went well, overall. The team rekilled Rak without any deaths this time, and proceeded through Tristram and the Cain quest without any problems.
The Marsh and the Hole likewise were cleared like clockwork, with good teamwork in play. With Cy's Prayer in force, the healing potions really started piling up and we had lots of extras. I even sold some.
We encountered a LEB on tower level 1 and incurred two deaths. The LEB protocol was not followed. The fight sort of just happened. After the two deaths, the team did back off to some degree, but there was no real coordination and this nearly resulted in two more deaths. I saw health bars on the verge at least twice.
This is going to continue to be a source of team deaths unless a strategy is agreed upon AND adhered to in the heat of the moment. This is the one situation where simply piling on will not overwhelm the enemy. Think of it as a monster with spraying Thorns or Iron Maiden if that helps. The threat is NOT the LEB itself, but uncoordinated attacking that can get yourself or your teammates killed. The more, and more rapidly, you attack, the higher the threat becomes.
Not having our Javazon around perhaps rendered the LEB protocol we worked up ineffective, but even so it was not actually given a chance.
It really doesn't matter WHO takes on the LEB, from an absolute standpoint. Anyone CAN do it and succeed. What is important is that whoever is doing it, does it ALONE, with curse help from the Necro, and everyone else steers clear. The only way to safely coordinate a LEB assault is to let the people in the line of fire do the attacking so they can manage their own risks and back off to give potions time to do their thing. Two players at range, or one up close, is the maximum optimal LEB-fighting formation. One up close and one at range is simply too risky, and anything more is only riskier.
The following things should NOT be done when fighting a LEB unless and until you are 100% CERTAIN that all team allies are clear of spark dangers:
* Fire Sorceress casting any attack spells at all: Inferno, Blaze, Firewall, Meteor, and Hydra will ALL make lots and lots and lots of little bitty sparks spraying ALL over.
* Cold Sorceress casting Frost Nova, or repeat casting any other attack spell. There are some exceptions to this, such as a LEB Hephasto, Maffer Dragonhand, or Bloodwitch the Wild in NM/Hell modes, but for general LEBs, the LEB itself is a minor threat, while the sparks can be lethal very quickly. In most cases, it does NOT help to slow the LEB, making extra sparks in the process.
* Lightning Sorceress rapid-casting Static Field. LEBs have max lightning resistance. Static can hurt them, but not very quickly. This is another no-no unless everybody else is clear.
* Bowazon pumping arrows into the LEB. That attack rate can be murder, literally. Allies should honestly be OFF the screen before you start shooting. If in doubt, hold your fire.
* Paladin attacking with Zeal, or Barbarian standing toe to toe and attacking.
* ANY combination of players attacking in some sort of instinctual rush to kill the LEB as soon as possible.
These things are ALL dangerous and WILL get teammates killed.
The best way to handle LEBs is to BACK OFF, everyone back off, until the situation can be turned into one where the team has a controlled space and one, or at most two attackers taking on the LEB while everyone else stays out of spark range.
If the situation does not allow for backing off, then you IGNORE the LEB, kill off minions and other threats, until you can make space enough, or at the very least get everyone aware of the LEB threat and get most of the team to safely disengage or seek a safer battleground.
The danger lies in too many players attacking the LEB too soon. Now we came up with a LEB protocol, and everyone was there except for Chesspiece and we all agreed. So what happened tonight? :) What went wrong? :)
No need to point fingers. I think everyone just does the best they can in the heat of the moment. But if players are not remembering our plans when it comes crunch time, and disorganized battle is undertaken, we WILL continue to see more LEB deaths.
If anyone has comments, suggestions or questions, feel free.
After the tower was completed, really without a hitch except for that one LEB, Espy took his leave for the night and the rest of us continued on to the Highland.
There we encountered another LEB and incurred a third death and some more close calls. That makes four team deaths so far, all of them to LEBs. The Pit was cleared out, and we found two rares down there. Several gems dropped in this game... at least half a dozen or more. One might think that the nasty Pit level 2 would be a problem, but the team effectively coordinated that fight and won overwhelmingly.
Chesspiece then took his leave, and the rest of us merely headed straight for the Outer Cloister waypoint then called it a night. Not all of the Highland was cleared -- as much as 40% remained undone.
A good session on the whole. :) With everything working out well except for a few LEB fights.
Session Three
We had nearly our full complement for Session 3: everyone except Rogjard, who was out of action all week and has a lot to catch up on. :)
Things started quickly and moved along swiftly. We finished the undone portion of the Highland, then clobbered the Smith. The one or two times that large fights happened, the team worked well together and prevailed.
We got separated a bit more than usual at one point in the jail and a stack of wraiths jumped on a sorceress and got a kill. I feel that this was my shortcoming, as I was too far away to lend aid and should not have been. Things had been going so smoothly that perhaps I was getting a bit overconfident. On the up side, we did not repeat this mistake and the team stayed closer together thereafter.
Dim Vision effectively neutered most of the more dire ambush packs in the Catacombs. There was one point down on level three, however, when some ghouls cornered a sorcie and got the kill before I could react with some life-saving Terror. There was literally a cry for a help and then a moment later one dead teammate. IMO, this was the first actual kill against us that didn't arise from strategic breakdown on our part. Instead it seemed to be a matter of misfortune... the wrong EST member getting isolated and trapped by the wrong monsters in the wrong place at the wrong time, adding up to a death. Change any one of those factors and the situation probably wouldn't have been lethal. But this happens sometimes. Crowded spaces may have contributed in cutting off an escape route, or perhaps not. I'm not sure.
There were no other problems, and we pretty much butchered Andariel in about the same relative way as we nabbed Blood Raven. Andi went down and went down quickly.
EST has been a lot of fun so far, and I'm pleased with the way things have been turning out. We were not tested in Session 3 by any more LEBs, so whether or not we've ironed out our approach to that problem remains to be seen.
- Sirian
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