Ahhh good old HK, man oh man have I spent hours and hours in there...

In HK there are 5 spots in order of increasing difficulty: Lookout room (2
spawn), Guard room (3 or 4 spawn), Warrior room (3 or 4 spawn), Ramp (1 or 2
spawn) & Raider room (4 spawn). At 27, you can get exp in War room or
Raider room. Depending on how many in the group and who well they have the
spawn separated in time, you can be fighting singles or multiples. A full
group with some decent healing can prolly handle even a 3 spawn if they
/assist and kill quickly.

Even though you hear alot of casting from other rooms (up stairs, etc), AE
is quite safe to use in HK pickclaw rooms. never once have I pulled or
agro'd an "accountant" or any of the names you hear casting from the
pickclaw rooms. Sometimes mobs will get trained to the guards and the
guards will chase resetting mobs down to the ramp even and then you have to
be carefull. More than once, I chased a train up to the guards and oppsie!
I had Largos playing and Capt Bozek took exception to his part time worker
(me). But down in the rooms with with multi-mobs, AE is fine as long as you
coordinate with the others in your group. Ie, if use /assist and dont
cancel each others spells (chain vs snare vs darkness, largos vs other
slowing spells, etc.)

If you have a good healer, you might want to try all instrument attack: CoD,
DDD, Largos and swap lute and brass horn. Or CoD, Hymn, DDD. The psalm of
warmth and the damage shield is a good thought. When I was tank heavy, I
played chant and guardian with a drum for tank stats and ac and mr as you
get some caster gobs too. And I would tell my group to look at their stats
when i was playing with drum equipped so they could see the great effects
(little did they know that agi dex were not really doing all that much.) So,
in retrospect, Anthem with the wep speed buff is maybe better.

Also, something I think that gets overlooked is Jig. If your group is
swinging heavy weps and losing sta, they may not realize what happens -
their dmg goes down as their speed gets slower. Yes, they keep swinging but
they get slower and slower. So, find out if they are dropping below a bub
of sta and have jig ready to weave in for a few ticks and you can keep their
dmg output maxxed.

At level 27, you have 3 songs that can do damage: CoD (2), BBB (12) & DDD
(18). You could go with all 3 and instruments and see: 18 + 15 + 23 for 56
max dmg per tick or 560 dmg per minute. You probably need a good healer to
keep you alive if there are 2 or more gobs in the fight. So, perhaps have 2
tactics, all instrument max damage for single mob fights and party buff/dmg
shield & largos to slow for multi-mob fights. Also, it will depend on the
room you are in. In the raider room mobs will resist more. In the war room
or guard room, they will be lower levels and your songs will stick better.
You need to have a different strategy for fighting reds vs fighting blues -
generally you switch to more melee and party buff/heal for the yellow and
reds (and dmg shields are not usually resisted so they are always good).

See http://www.sba.uwm.edu/jgs/sylly/songdmg.asp for est damage numbers for
songs at various levels.

There are some ideas for you - good luck and let us know what works best for
you.

Sylly

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elijah Meeker" <elijah@...>
To: <eqbards@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 11:19 AM
Subject: [eqbards] Highpass Keep

> I know we have covered this before but I have been looking for a while and
> can't find the thread. I am looking for Highpass Keep strategies (at level
> 27). I seem to recall Area Effect songs are okay...and if nothing else if
> that is false I would appreciate a heads up :o)
>
> TIA,
> Tszaaz E'Taurguin, 27, Povar