Farming Battered Hilt as Ele

[Terminated]

Apparently at least Paladins, DKs and hunters can do it (killing the non-elite skeletons in PoS). Has anybody here done it ? Looks possible with magma, grounding, thunderstorm and windshears but I didn't get a chance to attempt it yet. Anybody did it here and could share a couple of hints to prevent the first 'trial & corpse runs' ?

Thanks

[Elrin]

I'm actually doing it right now.

DK main spec DPS, but my tanking gear (unholy spec) is mostly T9. It's pretty slow going, but fairly easy. Death Strike heals me for way more than they melee for and I can stop or absorb most of their spells.

As Elemental...they're probably gonna be a bit harder. You can stun, slow, do whatever to them but their spells really hurt.

[Aurile]

Easy to do as a ret paladin (repentance the caster and easily dps the skeletons)

The main problem you will have is either shocking or grounding totem the casters SB's whilst you are dps'in the skeletons. Thunderlolz wont be a good idea because you will 9/10 aggro something else. Getting out should be easy, grounding and Gw out.

Good luck anyway

[Terminated]

I'll have to glyph Thunderstorm then, if I don't TS the skeletons and let the magma/nova kill them while I try to control the elite, then the skeletons won't be tagged and I won't be able to loot them.

[Aurile]

Just been reading up and the drop rate has been nerfed to hell. People saying its less than 1%.

"One way to do it as an Elemental Shaman is to lay down a grounding, then when the group gets close enough put a Magma down. Flame Shock a skeleton and Ghost Wolf run to the instance portal. When you near the portal, drop another Grounding and a Magma, Chain Lightning them or whatever as they approach and Fire Nova + Thunderstorm when they reach you. Then kill any stragglers, as long as the Necrolyte is not going to kill you, and zone out. Rinse and repeat.
That method should be able to get all the groups (excluding the 6th group) - Been farming them for many hours of resets."

[f311]

I was actually doing this yesterday, and quite honestly i never found the need to actually run out.

I was quite capable of killing the caster aswell as the skeletons, with grounding and wind shear then id usually take about 2 shadowbolts at a time, but i just timed heals with his attacks so it never really did that much damage, the skeletons where usually dead before they even got near me.

[Esrgoode]

I was actually doing this yesterday, and quite honestly i never found the need to actually run out.

I was quite capable of killing the caster aswell as the skeletons, with grounding and wind shear then id usually take about 2 shadowbolts at a time, but i just timed heals with his attacks so it never really did that much damage, the skeletons where usually dead before they even got near me.

I tried this. If you wind shear he will run to start melee'ing you. The SB's should hit for 9k ish but he has a long cast time, if he starts to melee you, you will eat 20k HP in very short order.

I made the mistake of killing the skele's first, then the elite. I think as is kinda hinted at above.. aim for the elite, let totems and TS take out the skele's.

Going to go back tonight to try.

[ScorchHellfire]

As a warlock I found it easiest to fear the elite and kill the skellies with aoe while using a vw to absorb damage...

Even though the necromancer's are classified as undead, they seem to be classified as humans as far as CC goes... so maybe shamans can hex them?

[ploinks]

Farming these on my 43k hp prot paladin... Instructions..

Faceroll Keyboard... Good Game.

[krstn]

What about Wind shear into Aoe Root + Slow into Hex the caster and burn the skelletos with glyphed Firenova + Magma Totem + probably CL

If Hex works as ScorchHellfire mentioned, this should be pretty awesome!

EDIT: Invalid target

[Nuremphya]

Farming this as enhancement right now.. I just use magma totem + fire nova, then nuke the elite, just rotating grounding totem + wind shear. A few spells get few and i get quite low but its fine otherwise. For ele I would just run in and magma totem + earthbind totem, thunderstorm etc, and then focus on not letting the elite cast.

[Terminated]

Update after yesterday's attempts

Killing the elite is rather hard, as some mentioned you can't afford it to get in range, you can't let it case neither. Also your kiting is limited by the two mobs near the entrance. BUT the skeletal slaves are ok. You can easily kill 18 (1 group/ramp, right and left ones are easy, middle one you need to be careful not to aggro other mobs) of them for each reset. 24 is possible too but requires an extra step.

Here the safest way I found, it doesn't require a lot of equipment :

1) Drop grounding, wrath, wait a couple of seconds, drop earthbind
2) Pull skeletons with chain lightning, starting with a 'far side' one so you already tag three of them.
3) cast flame shock on another skeleton
4) drop magma, start running towards the entrance follow the edge (gw if instant)
5) when the skeleton are near your magma (use damage numbers as indication if you're not used to sideway running), fire nova them
6) stop, drop grounding, run in and TS them to make sure the last two are tagged.
6) run to the entrance, drop another grounding if up, shock/CL any survivor (usually one of them is lazier and start a few seconds after the other)
7) exit, get back, loot 6 corpses, go for another group.

If you want an extra 6 skeletons you need to kill the middle huge skeleton worker. They have 264k and are easy to frost-shock kite but it takes ages and is boring as hell. You need to run around the two entrance casters (FrS, FlS, Searing+Nova, occasional LvB/TS/LB) for a couple of minutes. I'm sure you can kill it with frost shock alone but it's so boring that you'll try the cast from time to time, and if you are fat-fingered at that time it can get messy (they'll two-shot you, three in PvP gear) because they have some kind of remote stun.

I killed +- 100 skeletal slaves in less than an hour yesterday (+ a couple of big ones), but no drop (more than 10+ greens however, +1po/mob and grey stuff - not that bad)

I'd say it's easier and less cumbersome to kill 18, reset, kill 18, etc... then do something else until the reset timer is back up.

[Ragnadriel]

I'd like to mention that using fire nova tags the mobs, making them lootable, as compared to just letting magma totem kill them.

Farming it on my shaman (on my enhancement spec) for my DK. Can solo the elite without wolves, but it can get messy if he decides to spam casts or crits you in melee (should wear a pvp piece for some resilience perhaps, mmh).

But mostly I prefer waiting 2 minutes for wolves to keep things simple, and browse the net in the meanwhile :P

[Deleted]

Kinda off topic: Are the little Skellys still able to drop the hilt? I read about 'Got tons of Cloth while looking for the hilt' and stuff but they drop nothing for me(EU Speaking).

Any difference or confirmed drop in the last day?

[Terminated]

Don't know yet - if someone gets it today or later this week let us know !

[hayling]

tbh its easiest as rogue. i can even take down 2 sceleton groups at once without taking damage (just need perfect timing, taking 2 shadow bolts = dead). i just created a farm spec for PoS, with decreased cd on vanish,blind etc, its like 6-8min for 5 groups then i simply reset etc.

i have done xxx runs, got 7 epics (fist weapon,dagger,bracer), mass greens, tons of cloth & gold, but yet no hilt. could someone verfiy if it still dropps off sceletons ?

[typhoon1]

I got it yesterday on 14th.
Took me 20 minutes, but i think this was just pure luck

[Baabinator]

tbh its easiest as rogue. i can even take down 2 sceleton groups at once without taking damage (just need perfect timing, taking 2 shadow bolts = dead). i just created a farm spec for PoS, with decreased cd on vanish,blind etc, its like 6-8min for 5 groups then i simply reset etc.

i have done xxx runs, got 7 epics (fist weapon,dagger,bracer), mass greens, tons of cloth & gold, but yet no hilt. could someone verfiy if it still dropps off sceletons ?

Uhm... how do you reset heroics exactly?

Isn't there a lockout?

Or is that only when you defeat a boss?

[Terminated]

Resetting all instances resets the non-boss mobs even in heroic. I wasn't sure neither but I tested it yesterday. Even the entrance event with Sylvanas/Jaina is reset. I don't know if it works if linked to the instance however.

[hayling]

resetting the instances doesnt work for me.

i simply log out (outside of the instance ofc), wait 30 sec, log in et voila - a reset