Ok, Cazic-Thule spoiler time.
I DO NOT CONDONE THESE TACTICS (sorry Harm), but knowing how the pathing
works in any zone is very important to being successful there, the Archon
Temple top is no exception. The Archon Temple is fun to hold and great
experience when held in a sportsmanlike fashion, however, I am only human
and have used these pieces of information to save my cute bardic ass a few
times when I've gotten into a jam.
Crier Sharpsong
The Archon Temple is very buggy pathwise. There are two primary ways in
which groups exploit this:
1) A puller is SoWed and (with or without levitation) runs down the tiers
and away from the Archon's steps to pull. He punches a lizard in the nose
and runs back to the group at the base of the steps. Generally speaking
that lizard hasn't followed him back, it is somewhere away from the Archon
steps, aggrod and "frozen". Quite often groups will curse the bad pathing
and run to the lizard to defeat it (nothing wrong with that). However, if
the puller stands *on the steps* themselves at the Archon Temple top, the
lizard will unfreeze and run to the puller at the steps. To be perfectly
clear: You MUST stand upon the steps for the mobs to come to you.
Therefore, the puller's presence on the steps becomes something of an on/off
switch for mob activity and movement. The exploit part of this occurs once
these lizards have come to the puller at the steps. If the puller to whom
the lizards are aggrod removes himself from the steps they will once again
"freeze" due to the pathing bug. The group can now fire at will with little
chance of the lizards leaving the steps to actively engaging them in melee.
Other melee members of the party can sometimes melee the lizard on the steps
in safety - it's as though the hate list of these buggy lizards doesn't
reorganize itself. Regardless of the damage others do to them, the lizards
remain aggrod on the first guy that bonked them on the head. If the lizards
*do* engage in melee, the entire party can move away from the steps to the
first 90 degree corner (either seems to work) and the lizards have another
very good chance of freezing when the party reaches the corner. A group
that knows how to work the pathing of the lizards up there can have a *very*
safe time of taking out lizzies.
I have been in groups that had the puller deliberately go out and smack as
many lizzies as possible to create a 12 liz train to the Archon. Once
there, the puller stands on the steps and takes a bit of abuse while all the
lizards catch up. Then the puller does his best to arrange the lizards into
as closely knit a group as possible on the steps, then jumps from the steps
freezing them all in place. Wizards and Mages then AE the whole bundle down
at their leisure. I quickly departed these groups because this is BORING as
hell, and actually not any faster (I'd argue slower) than a good
old-fashioned fight or three. The only reason I was invited was as a mana
pump for the casters. Basically I was to stand around watching and playing
Clarity continuously. Forget it - the Throne Room is more fun and better
potential loot in that case.
2) Mobs that are aggrod to a party cannot reach the actual flat top of the
temple. If (when) trains of lizards occur, simply run up the sloped walls
of the Archon's Temple and you will be both out of melee range and out of
spell range. The mobs will remain aggrod on you, but will mill around on
the Archon steps. Casters can cast on the lizards from here in relative
safety (this is an confirmed exploit by Verant, you can get BANNED if caught
doing this). Large races will either need a levitation (maybe a shrink
would work too) or old Guise of the Deceiver in order for them to reach the
top. If the situation with the lizards gets unmanageable, simply camp out
up here and come back to clear their aggro lists. All members of your party
must camp for this to work. I have camped overnight on the top here many
times. Lizards simply cannot get up here, and the two or three times that
I've seen it they 32k (suicide) themselves. I have *never* heard that
running to the top to escape lizards is an exploit, only that casting from
here is.
Use your knowledge wisely.
> From: "Reece, Tom - 25IDL G4" <g4mntofcr@...>
>
> So what you are saying is that because pathing is screwed up at the top of
> the temple, mobs standing on the steps will not move down to the bottom of
> the steps and attack anyone standing there? That may explain why I rarely
> got attacked. I was standing at the bottom of the steps along with the
> cleric and enchanter. The other three characters were on the steps
> meleeing.