The Black Dragon Post Thoughts and Discussion + how you won thread

[Zulastar]

In the first EQ block and in the first run, admittedly I made some mistakes with the Laconia Sword. Someone left during the cannon phase, and we got nuked by the second fireball. Somehow we only took one death. I stayed in because I thought 3/4 wouldn't be a problem (people have won this solo), but the run ended in 3 deaths and ran long.

I remember that time. It was me who left 'cause there were 2 Bravers with zero dps both + no wing break after first meteor = 100% fail and just a wasting of time.

How ideal run looks like:

Spoiler!

[Flaoc]

not sure how this qualifies as 1st but ok ill take it.. must have been no one around if a pug run got 1st (and 1 guy was a hardcore leech) and wasnt even nearly as quick as a pug i once had as well

Spoiler!

[Loveless62]

I remember that time. It was me who left 'cause there were 2 Bravers with zero dps both + no wing break after first meteor = 100% fail and just a wasting of time.

How ideal run looks like:

Spoiler!

I knew it was you I just didn't want to call you out or anything.

Like I said, I screwed up with the Laconia Sword. After I unsealed the chest, I held onto the sword hoping for a quick wing break, but the sword expired as soon as the chest broke, and sword takes a couple seconds to respawn. That's why the wing was still sealed as he flew away (better braver DPS could have helped with this of course). Oh well, live and learn.

[SteveCZ]

Like I said, I screwed up with the Laconia Sword. After I unsealed the chest, I held onto the sword hoping for a quick wing break, but the sword expired as soon as the chest broke, and sword takes a couple seconds to respawn. That's why the wing was still sealed as he flew away (better braver DPS could have helped with this of course). Oh well, live and learn.

If you're doing this in pug, remove the blue sword and wait until the dragon side-stepped at least 2 - 3 times. Never hold the sword after breaking the chest in pug, unless you have a dedicated party with precise timing where you need to hold it. Cause not only you lose DPS on your side (... unless you're weaker than the blue sword itself which is omg), you'll lose the sword by the time the chest breaks, as you've experienced.

[ZER0 DX]

I should probably just play Te/Hu.

I will probably need to pug this to continue to participate. I tend to be a lone wolf with few people active on my friends list, so I can't really stack a party that way. I could't get a party together from my team, since the team activity seemed to be really slow this weekend (someone blamed the release of Monster Hunter World, but I am not so sure). My team is new-player friendly and genuinely casual (unlike the so-called "hardcore-casual" team we seem to have plenty of, LUL), so frankly we don't tend to have the best players anyway.

I am considering not running this, but I probably will anyways, knowing how I am. But this EQ has been of the most frustrating experiences I have had with this game.

Literally in the same boat and switching to play Te / Hu for the rematch was how I solved every problem I was having with it. Sacrificing my own DPS to keep everyone topped off on buffs and heals has resulted in 0 death pug runs so far. Probably just lucky but it has made a huge difference.

[Loveless62]

I am thinking that I need to avoid B11 pugs. I am worried that B11 has become the "Carry Me" block that it used to be before multi-block matching was implemented. That is, B11 was so crowded with weaker players looking to get carried that there were very few stronger players there to actually perform the carrying. Back then, it seemed like B11 would yield weaker performing MPAs, yielding fewer runs for seasonal EQs for example.

If you're doing this in pug, remove the blue sword and wait until the dragon side-stepped at least 2 - 3 times. Never hold the sword after breaking the chest in pug, unless you have a dedicated party with precise timing where you need to hold it. Cause not only you lose DPS on your side (... unless you're weaker than the blue sword itself which is omg), you'll lose the sword by the time the chest breaks, as you've experienced.

This is pretty much how I handled the blue sword after my first run.

Literally in the same boat and switching to play Te / Hu for the rematch was how I solved every problem I was having with it. Sacrificing my own DPS to keep everyone topped off on buffs and heals has resulted in 0 death pug runs so far. Probably just lucky but it has made a huge difference.

I just need to change one of my Zeinesis Wands to Ice and give it some affixing love. Then I am willing to try this. I am a little worried that I will sometimes end up in a 4xTe run though.

My team is new-player friendly and genuinely casual (unlike the so-called "hardcore-casual" team we seem to have plenty of, LUL), so frankly we don't tend to have the best players anyway.

Now that I have thrown my team under the bus, I need to clarify and say that our team actually some very solid players. We are new-player friendly and don't have any real entrance requirements though, so some of our players are naturally going to be weaker. When we manage to have enough players online, 12-man MPAs we form aren't the strongest. But I am fine with this for most content.

[SteveCZ]

I am thinking that I need to avoid B11 pugs. I am worried that B11 has become the "Carry Me" block that it used to be before multi-block matching was implemented. That is, B11 was so crowded with weaker players looking to get carried that there were very few stronger players there to actually perform the carrying. Back then, it seemed like B11 would yield weaker performing MPAs, yielding fewer runs for seasonal EQs for example.

The funny thing is, I might agree that this might be a good idea for you. I never failed the black dragon eq until I got the premium and try B11 after a few months not ever being there cause it's always crowded. But I regretted it after I got 2 failed runs; 1 run 2 people died in total of 3 times, messed along with a Player who doesn't know how to use the blue sword but keep taking it when it spawns (he didn't use it to break the blue seals, and yes this is "expert"), the other run there was a fighter who died 3 times in a row. Of each of that failed run I move to other block and retry it when I met the same person who kept dying from the previous quest, and things are going normally.

So far I get the ranks between 30 - 58, unless I'm late when joining in (or cause people being so reluctant to activate the portal, like me ). I ended up going to the block I used to be as a freemium user. At most I'd go to B12 which is quite nice.

[reaper527]

I just need to change one of my Zeinesis Wands to Ice and give it some affixing love. Then I am willing to try this. I am a little worried that I will sometimes end up in a 4xTe run though.

i wouldn't worry too much about that. i've had 1 run with a te at all in the last week, and almost every run has been 3 heroes if not 4. (granted, i'm a hero too. not shitting on them, just saying there's no diversity right now).

[Zulastar]

i wouldn't worry too much about that. i've had 1 run with a te at all in the last week, and almost every run has been 3 heroes if not 4. (granted, i'm a hero too. not shitting on them, just saying there's no diversity right now).

There's a 2 types of Heroes: 1st is a proper Heroes who maintain combos and maximise their dps as they could. 2nd just hold Rising slash button or just spam their BNS without doing antything else. Their dps really sucks.

And if there's 3 Heroes of 2nd type besides you - you'd better just leave 'cause it will take forever to complete EQ with them and time escalation leads to an increased chance of sudden deaths = EQ's failure.

[TakemiShinnosuke]

I have been trying expert macthing for the black dragon and have been losing for a bit -_-...
today I decided to turn it off and lo and behold
I won
so much for the "EXPERT CLASS"

Well I got my title and SS.. so yeah...

so whats next after this ??