How can we defeat (dungeon Blackthorn) Sean the Macer?

[J. E. Tamer]

Setting: Blackthorn basement, under Trammel

How can we defeat Sean the Macer?
He was highlighting "red" and therefore attackable, but...
We had a non-partied group comprising one fencer, two mage-mystics, two tamers with pets, and one archer.
We did very little damage to Sean the Macer, and he regenerated faster than we could damage him.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Discord?

 

[elster]

I remember doing blackthorns town areas a lot when it first came about. This sounds like one of the ones by the town areas, correct? There used to be so many people down there at once fighting those things when it was new and they still seemed to die very slowly. If you are just trying to get blackthorn artifacts, you can get them from any of the spawn down there. If you are looking to fight them for fun (which I actually do remember it being a lot of fun), I remember tamers and ABC archers doing very well against them. Maybe more people? Sorry, this answer probably isn't very helpful.

 

[Merlin]

There are certain Captains, usually the Macers and Fencers, which essentially Consume Physical damage and convert it back to hit points. In the event you get one of those captains, the only way to defeat them is by using elemental damage only... meaning no RC's, GD's, etc. I brought this up some time ago thinking that it was a bug, but it was just a change in the way that some of those Captains work.

 

[BeaIank]

Pure paladin with healing and a 100% poison/energy/fire/cold weapon with hit lightning.
And a good dose of good positioning, moving away when he hits too hard and pray that it isn't the Minoc pod that is active and his minions aren't fey.

 

[Ox AO]

Merlin is correct. They have a very large kinetic eater. The way I kill him is with one dragon three mystics/mage/spellweaver (one with some necro)
get the macer on the dragon and all stop all stay the dragon. Dragons gives him health more then he loses it.

Some of these macers also have massive resistance. Use corp skin then flame strikes and about 15 to 20 minutes latter on four characters you can do word of death. I also use pixies on the macer they stay out a long time and do a lot of small spells and poison.


If your group isn't four characters or more you're best off killing the mages. using time per drop.

Macers are way over powered.
This change in the Macers took placed around the time they changed the smaller monster drop rate in the dungeon.
They used to hit hard but now there eater and resistances are nuts.

 

[MalagAste]

Merlin is correct. They have a very large kinetic eater. The way I kill him is with one dragon three mystics/mage/spellweaver (one with some necro)
get the macer on the dragon and all stop all stay the dragon. Dragons gives him health more then he loses it.

Some of these macers also have massive resistance. Use corp skin then flame strikes and about 15 to 20 minutes latter on four characters you can do word of death. I also use pixies on the macer they stay out a long time and do a lot of small spells and poison.


If your group isn't four characters or more you're best off killing the mages. using time per drop.

Macers are way over powered.
This change in the Macers took placed around the time they changed the smaller monster drop rate in the dungeon.
They used to hit hard but now there eater and resistances are nuts.

This... and this is also the main reason most folk WON'T go down and do that anymore. I gave up trying to get friends to go down there with me.

 

[Parnoc]

If a town has been left idle for several days, the captain's gain strength and are almost unkillable, we had a macer that was like that and we called a GM and they came and I guess deleted that one and gave us a new one which was normal. They're hard to kill but when you get one on a little used shard that has been there for several days it cannot be killed by any "normal" group. @Kyronix, would you look at this please?

 

[drcossack]

If a town has been left idle for several days, the captain's gain strength and are almost unkillable, we had a macer that was like that and we called a GM and they came and I guess deleted that one and gave us a new one which was normal. They're hard to kill but when you get one on a little used shard that has been there for several days it cannot be killed by any "normal" group. @Kyronix, would you look at this please?

This doesn't sound likely. How big was your group, and were you using any physical damage weapons/pets? Macers aren't the only ones that have consume damage, so you'll need elemental weapons or pets that don't do 100% physical damage (i.e. Rune Beetle) for all of them. It also sounds like they had normal resists, which would explain why it was tough to kill.

 

[J. E. Tamer]

I thank thee Merlin. I'll try to remember that... 'tis not easy to get a group together these days.

Bashing the evil mages, I am getting about two minax items per hour now.

 

[THP]

nobody saying .. what they 2 hit dead with they... use there template.. jesus whats happening....

 

[BeaIank]

Unfortunately, the only efficient template to kill the captains are dexxer builds.
I got 40 minax drop today this morning by finishing and clearing the Minoc pod on Legends with my pure paladin. The pod sadly had fey spawn. I hate fey spawn, so that took quite a while to finish. About 2 and a half hours to finish the whole thing.

 

[Merlin]

UWF doesn't seem to have problems bringing any templates down there, but we usually roll with 6 or more. If you do it in a group, having Tamers or Mystics that can throw up RC's work fine to tank one of them down while everyone else hits it with spells / arrows / whatever. The real challenge is hoping a noob or someone not in our TS channel runs all the way to the back and lets all the spawn and yellow captains follow them.

 

[BeaIank]

Getting a group at Legends is tough, so I usually solo it with a pure paladin.
It is not too difficult, unless you get fey spawn or when the active pod is Minoc. It is tough to set up a beach head there to have free space to drag and fight a single captain at once. The ledge and the thick spawn at the entrance makes it much more challenging than it should be.
Still, the captains are a fun, challenging fight. Well worth doing it.

 

[Parnoc]

This doesn't sound likely. How big was your group, and were you using any physical damage weapons/pets? Macers aren't the only ones that have consume damage, so you'll need elemental weapons or pets that don't do 100% physical damage (i.e. Rune Beetle) for all of them. It also sounds like they had normal resists, which would explain why it was tough to kill.

It was not "tough to kill", it was invulnerable and it was enough that the GM watched and totally understood that this one had been left so long that he was virtually invulnerable. Then the GM deleted that one and gave us another and we had no problem defeating the new macer, that one was the same as normal. We do Blackthorn's all the time, have done it literally hundreds of times, it's one of our guild's favorite spots. We are on a small shard where this area gets no activity for sometimes weeks and the captains all gain the longer they're there, some more than others.

If you did this dungeon as much as we do and in the same circumstances we do it, you would understand and know what happens there. You probably have never seen this happen if you are on a "Blackthorn active" shard.

 

[Grazz't1970]

Bealank what temp do u use again?

 

[BeaIank]

120 swords/tactics/anatomy/chiv/parry/healing with max HCI and DCI.
For the captains you can leech life from and have normal resists, I use a 100% poison longsword with HLL/HML/HSL/Hit lightning. Against the necromancer and the assassin I use a long sword with HLD/HML/HSL/Hit lightning.
Against the ones with 5 times more HP and 1/10th of their normal resists I use 100% elemental scimitar with the same mods for each case.
And I carry appropriate super slayer broadswords to deal with the spawn of the captains.

 

[Ox AO]

Parnoc they can die it's just a matter of technique and time.

BeaIank how long does it take to kill a macer with massive resistance and a good eater on your fighter?

 

[drcossack]

It was not "tough to kill", it was invulnerable and it was enough that the GM watched and totally understood that this one had been left so long that he was virtually invulnerable. Then the GM deleted that one and gave us another and we had no problem defeating the new macer, that one was the same as normal. We do Blackthorn's all the time, have done it literally hundreds of times, it's one of our guild's favorite spots. We are on a small shard where this area gets no activity for sometimes weeks and the captains all gain the longer they're there, some more than others.

If you did this dungeon as much as we do and in the same circumstances we do it, you would understand and know what happens there. You probably have never seen this happen if you are on a "Blackthorn active" shard.

I actually do Blackthorn's quite often...when I'm in the mood to. I stick to mages though.

 

[Parnoc]

Parnoc they can die it's just a matter of technique and time.

I know they can, most of them, we've killed dozens of the high level ones that have been left, however this one was way over the limit.

 

[BeaIank]

Parnoc they can die it's just a matter of technique and time.

BeaIank how long does it take to kill a macer with massive resistance and a good eater on your fighter?

It takes me around 5 to 6 minutes. Since I am using 100% poison, their consume damage/eater doesn't trigger. I have about 80 mana on that character, so I am able to do a lot of armour ignore before I run out.
Could be a bit faster if the bloody thing didn't parry so darn much.
From time to time I need to run away to heal back because he can hit hard, and I have to cast divine fury from time to time to keep the stamina up, since his hits drain a lot more stamina than normal.
Macer usually don't give me too much headache. Fencers and their 75 damage attack on 75 physical resist and swampie barding though, surely do.

Swordsmen take me a bit less time because they parry a bit less. Squishy ones (mages, mystics, necro, rogues, assassins) take around 2 minute to die.

If you they have 5 times HP and 1/10th resist, it takes a bit longer per since you have a lot of HP to eat through.

And all this talk has given me an idea. I need to get some bullfish at the labyrinth to make bullfish pie and see if the 5 melee damage more will speed things up significantly.

 

[Ox AO]

It takes me around 5 to 6 minutes.

I will be setting something up to try that.
That is amazing

 

[BeaIank]

I will be setting something up to try that.
That is amazing

The key elements are 100% elemental longsword, lots of ssi (10 ssi shields are a blessing), hit lightning or hit harm (for double damage when it triggers) and chiv mastery for extra 15 mana. Onslaught is not of too much use there, so you are better off with chiv instead.

 

[BeaIank]

Now, if you want to mow through them, take a buddy using the same build and cross heal each other. They will go down so quickly it won't be even fun.

 

[Uvtha]

nobody saying .. what they 2 hit dead with they... use there template.. jesus whats happening....

 

[Ox AO]

The key elements are 100% elemental longsword, lots of ssi (10 ssi shields are a blessing), hit lightning or hit harm (for double damage when it triggers) and chiv mastery for extra 15 mana. Onslaught is not of too much use there, so you are better off with chiv instead.

Just to be clear before I build a character for this 6 minutes to kill. We're talking about the near invulnerable macers that can only be damaged with elemental types that kills any character in two hits. Right?

Thank you

 

[BeaIank]

Just to be clear before I build a character for this 6 minutes to kill. We're talking about the near invulnerable macers that can only be damaged with elemental types that kills any character in two hits. Right?

Thank you

I never got one that does something like this. I have gotten macers that I would hit for 6, 9 (upt to 18 when hit lightning triggered) damage tops without AI with my elemental sword, but it would take it at least 3.5 hits to kill me at most. Usually it takes 5 to 6 hits for me to die if I am careless.

 

[THP]

please dont let me down folks...

someones gotta post they kill this ''sean the macer'' in 3-4 hits....no hassle with there uber template...surely....

 

[BeaIank]

And it is fey spawn at Legends again. *sigh*
But the very first captain at the entrance is a macer. Hopefully it will be a macer with high resists. I will try to kill him during my lunch break with my paladin and record it to post here.

Edit:
Of course, OBS screwed up the recording settings and didn't capture the entire screen. I should have checked that before engaging the macer.
The screwed up footage is below, just to show the length of the battle:
http://www.smeenet.org/uo/2016-11-28-1212-24.flv

The macer went down in about 5 minutes. Normal hits were doing around 10 damage to him.

I will try to get another macer to spawn tonight and record properly.

Edit 2:
Two assassins later, a necro, a rogue and an archer spawned. I will only be able to get another macer tonight, it seems. Oh well.
I will update the post once I get a normal one to spawn and double check OBS is recording the freaking entire window.

 

[BeaIank]

Here's the new video. This macer was a bit weaker than the last.
Took me about 4:30 minutes to get rid of him.
Video quality is a bit poor since I captured in way too low bitrate for 1080p, but it shows the idea of how to deal with those pesky macers fairly easily.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

I use a Macer/Pally (120 Macing/GM Tact/GM Anat/GM Chiv/GM Parry/GM Resist/GM Healing) down there to solo them. The "Stagger" Mastery is very useful for the -60% SSI for 10 secs debuff it gives. Can bandy heal faster than the Macer Captain can hit me then. The perfect 2 man duo for there though, is a Macer and a Fencer. The Fencer uses 2 Pierces to annihilate the Captain's Stamina down to 0%, then the Macer uses Stagger for the -60% SSI debuff, while the Macer's hits continue to keep the Captain at low Stam, and the Captains become harmless then. Even the heavy hitting Captains like the Macer and Fencer, can't even begin to out damage cross healing when they're at 0% Stamina with -60% SSI. The Macer+Fencer duo, also works great for 2 manning Exodus.

 

[Max Blackoak]

I use a Macer/Pally (120 Macing/GM Tact/GM Anat/GM Chiv/GM Parry/GM Resist/GM Healing) down there to solo them.

what mace weapon are you using for this? Hammerpicks? Same mods as Bealank has on his sword? I assume you're using a shield too...

 

[Caitlyn Snow]

I use a Thrower template with 100% cold dame soul glaive. 120 Anatomy/chiv/healing/throwing/resistingspells/tactics. 60ssi between armor and weap and 210 stamina. Should glaive has HLD/SSI/HL/HML 100 cold. Macers go down in about 3 minutes. Lots of bandis and divine fury but goes down rather quickly. With 2 throwers ( my GL has exact same template) falls like a domino. Benefit of throwing is ranged with potions which come in mighty handy

 

[Yadd of Legends]

what mace weapon are you using for this? Hammerpicks? Same mods as Bealank has on his sword? I assume you're using a shield too...

"her sword" for BeaIank

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

what mace weapon are you using for this? Hammerpicks? Same mods as Bealank has on his sword? I assume you're using a shield too...

I have six different weapons for using against the Captains, depending on whether the Captain is low Resist/high Health, or high Resist/low health, and whether they're immune to Physical. Also whether i'm there solo or not.
Against Captains that have high Resist/low Health, and aren't immune to Physical, i use a War Axe with 70% Hit Lightning/42% HLA/50% HSL/75% HML/1% DI.
Against Captains with low Resist/high Health, and aren't immune to Physical, i use a Maul with 70% Hit Lightning/42% HLA/50% HSL/87% HML/1% DI.
Against Captains that have high Resist/low Health, but have Consume Physical Damage, i use a 100% Fire War Axe with 50% HLA/50% HSL/75% HML/50% Hit Lightning/20% DI.
Against Captains with low Resist/high Health, but have Consume Physical Damage, i use a 100% Fire Maul with 50% HLA/50% HSL/87% HML/50% Hit Lightning/20% DI.

If i'm there solo without a Fencer partner, then i use a War Axe or Maul with 60% Hit Fatigue/48% Hit Lightning/50% HSL/75 or 87% HML/1% DI, to drop the Captain down to 0% Stamina, then i switch to one of the previously mentioned weps, and finish off the Captain. My Shield has 12% Fire Eater/Reactive Paralyze/+5 Mana/3 MR/5% HCI/15% DCI/10% SSI/4% LMC/35% DI and 15% Physical Resist/1% Fire Resist.

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

I must be a masochist.... I do BT dungeon on a chiv archer....
Macers are tough but change the type of damage you doing and they are killable, its patience and skill and lots of kitting around!