| Title:
Forest Lord Spawn Location:
Oaks Altar through Vesper Cemetary Time to complete:
45 mins to 1:00 hour Number of people required:
On average, 9-12 |
The Champion
Oaks will spawn as a giant ethereal warrior, and begin slowly moving around. He will not attack until he himself is attacked, providing you have positive karma. Anyone with Negative will be auto targeted right off. As champs go he isn't too terribly hard to kill, but he does pack a mean number of hit points, and when he does hit, he hits hard. He doesn't really have a special attack per-say but there is a special tactic needed to defeat him, as when he first spawns he will be nearly invulnerable.
Special Attacks/Tactics
Oaks special attack isn't really an attack at all. When he spawns he will be somewhat immune to harm until his Queen has been killed. And she will spawn after Oaks has taken a few hits. So tamers, make good and sure you don't send those pets in at Oaks just yet. You want the mages in the group to toss a couple MBs at him and force his queen to spawn. Then turn your attention to her. As long as the queen is alive, everytime you hit Oaks, he will summon a group of 5 pixies to attack you that generally means insta-death. So leave Oaks alone until Silvani has gone down. She hits pretty hard and has some wicked powerful magic but very low HP, so she should drop pretty quickly. As soon as she's down, Oaks is vulnerable and can be killed the same as any other champ. Note that if you have a very large group of spawners (mainly tamers) you can still kill Oaks while the Queen is alive but alchemists will do no damage throwing pots at him unless Silvani is dead.
Tactics to Defeat
Group Tactics at Oaks are easy; Tamers will want to hold back when he first spawns while the mages lay a few MBs on him to force his queen to spawn. When she's up, the tamers should send their pets at her while everyone, tamers and mages included, sit back and heal the pets. They will kill her quickly enough by themselves. Dexers should just hold back at this stage. When the queen is down, Oaks is ready to be killed. Tamers, send in the pets. Ideally, all tamers should also be alchemists and archers to pack in maximum damage and thus increase their chances of securing the coveted Oaks skull. Make sure your party waits a moment here until the pets have engaged him. That way Oaks is sitting still. If he's targeted on a player he wanders around chasing them and makes a general nuisance of himself. When the pets have engaged, Mages, start a mana dump of MB and/or Fireball on him. Cast as fast as your mana will let you. Bards, there's really not much use for your barding skills at the moment except if you are being crashed, in which case you should peace the pets of the crashers. Dexers, Charge right in. Oaks isn't too terribly hard to defeat, but expect crashers to show up.
The Spawn Itself
The Oaks spawn is in itself the easiest and most annoying of all the champ monster spawns. Everyone in your party should have high karma first off. Everyone. Negative karma characters are a liability in this spawn, and wont last very long unless they work together, as everyone, from first level to fourth is a high level magic caster. It should also be noted that if you have low karma, you should only be killing the GREY creatures in this spawn as a general rule. Each level has one blue creature that will spawn, and one grey. Killing the blues will eat your karma up pretty quickly so don't do it yet unless you came to the spawn at glorious level. Also note that while in party, if a single member of the party kills a blue creature, EVERYONE in the party will lose karma. So that is a total and complete no no. If you wish to kill blue creatures, leave the party first so only you lose karma while sparing the rest of the group.
First level will spawn Shadow Wisps and Pixies. You're going to want to kill the Shadow wisps only here if you have low karma. Fireballs are excellent and usually kill them in one hit (use MB if you have no eval). Avoid EVs and area of effects, as it will hit the blues as well.
Second level is the hardest level to move the spawn along at. Wisps and Ki-rins will be spawning now, and you want to focus on killing the wisps for a while. They're kind of tough little buggers so be careful. MB works well on them, and bards should be provoking them against each other when able. About midway through the second level of the spawn, those will exceptionally high karma (illustrious or better) should leave the party and begin to kill the wisps AND Ki-rins. You will lose karma pretty fast, so keep an eye on it, but it will really help move the spawn along.
Third level is a lot easier. Centaurs and Unicorns will begin to spawn. Just kill the Centaurs. MB, Explode and Harm work well against them. Again, bards should be provoking them whenever able.
Fourth level is a little tough. Serpentine Dragons and Ethereal Warriors will begin spawning. You really want to stick to killing the serpentine dragons. This is where tamers really shine. Bards peace the Serpentines and tamers send in the pets. Warriors if you have a dragon slaying weapon, throw it on, enemy of one and charge on in. It shouldn't take long now before Oaks spawns. Just make sure to watch your Karma and don't go negative. You'll be seeing grey before you know what happened. Always keep at least one ethereal warrior around as he will rez you when you die (even if he's the one that killed you) as long as you have positive karma.
