Guild Wars 2

looking for specific tactical advice on this miniboss. At sub-10/15 fotm levels it seemed any random PUG could keyboard smash its way through this guy, but lately (upper teens) it’s caused a couple problems. Ive tried watching a few youtube vids on it, including http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zje6b2jJYA (where the fans dont even work evidently), but none of them actually explain anything, and/or for lower level fotms where little group coordination is required.

Please correct me where I’m wrong as this is my limited understanding on Old Tom:
1) as of Nov 17/18, you can power up the fan on the first try without using the crystals
2) subsequent fan use depends on using a ’poisoned ’crystal in each of the two other power stations
3) Crystals are limited (only 6 to 8?) such that you need to be strategic on using them and not just jam them in constantly
4) Major DPS is key, since once the crystals run out you will be subjected to poison and need to kill the boss before he gets you

So my question to you is, if you found yourself in the role of having to take lead on Tom in a PUG where others aren’t exactly sure what to do, how would you (politely) give direction?

ie is there a scenario where all melee sit on Old Tom and get the heal benefit from a guardian, where 1-2 ranged run the crystals and fan? Does a guardian’s wall of reflection protect against the poison bullets and if so, should he place the wall between Tom and the poison panel. What does the group do if there isn’t a guardian?

Should only 1-2 people be doing the fans/crystals while the other 3-4 focus solely on dps? Should the group gather crystals to the power stations before getting aggro from old tom and then have a) one ranged char in charge of both crystal stations and b) another ranged in charge of fan, while the other 3 just concentrate on DPS?

Thanks! And sorry for the wall of text

Run crystals before you start the event and have 3 people stay near one each of the stations using ranged attacks.

It’s not one of the harder bosses, but if you have an uncoordinated pug I can see how it would go to hell :P

The reason people dont talk much or upload videos of old tom is because he is easy. well at least if everyone know what their doing.

Most people dont use the tactic shown in the youtube video you have linked.
People walk in and jump onto the walls without going close to old tom. that way you can use the walls to place crystals near the sides. then you start the fight and have 1 person on each location ( 1 left side, 1 right side and 1 at the fan ). the other 2 can place themselves where they want. be sure to start the fight before starting the fan or you will have to deal with the poison til you can start the fan again.

mesmers and guardians can block the ranged attack on the ground easily. which makes it easy for all to melee old tom. most people use a combination of range and melee on him. by the time you have used up your 8 crystals you should have killed on tom. a good team with decent dps can do it faster.

Yeah, Slacker’s right. Run the crystals before aggroing the boss (no poison cloud until he aggroes), and position one ranged DPSer at each corner to activate their portion as soon as they can. The other two players usually try to punch Tom in the face and generally do as much DPS as possible. There are 8 crystals in the room per reset, 4 for each side, which results in 4 chances. You should be able to, with a decent (not even good) group, kill him on the 3rd fan activation with 1 crystal left per side.

Wall of reflection doesnt work though, at least I didn’t saw yet that one of our guardians used it there (while using it at harps before) but the bubble works to absorb. Same for Mesmer probably. A Thief can use smoke screen to give another 7s protection (the trait with smoke screen on death is awesom here, nr 4 at crit strikes).

No idea if any other class got sth similar, but guess not. projectile reflect does not seem to work, couldn’t reflect them with dagger storm (well would be to easy if it would work.. 8s reflect of all his attacks would be an insane dps in that turn around phase).

This method does not use the initial ‘stealth’ crystal placement or standing on places to avoid projectiles.

Assign roles
- 1 fan, 1 left panel, 1 right panel, the others dps

- Place 4 crystals each side
—- those in charge of the side panels to pickup and insert one crystal into the panel as quickly as possible. Afterwards, gather the other 3 crystals for each side and place near the panel then to help dps boss
—- check now and then (you can see each other’s bar meters across the room) and insert crystal when meter bar has depleted

Fan guy has it easy – just need to be next to panel, range dps and check meter bars now and then

Ranging is easier to avoid projectiles and strafe left and right to try and dodge them. Unless the boss is not using projectiles or melee can shield from the boss’s projectiles (thief, mesmer curtain i think (not feedback bubble – doesnt work)

Those dpsing try and be close to the ones near the panels and fan to help ressing

Need good dps since you got limited crystals. A mesmer Time Warp helps (Huge pink bubble) quickens all skills to those in it.

Black Wolf.7348:

Most people dont use the tactic shown in the youtube video you have linked.

Good, because that seemed p cheesy if it was “the trick” to do Tom at higher fotm levels.

A couple PUGs ago we had a guy who would just leeroy straight into the room before anyone had the chance to run the crystals. Another time a guy insisted we didnt need to run the crystals first because the boss was easy, etc. A lot can go wrong in PUGs xD. definitely makes sense to run them first so the ranged can concentrate on DPSing rather than running crystals during the fight

ok good to know about 3 dedicated ranged dps’ers at the stations, and that there are precisely 8 crystals

A thief with traited Deceptions can more or less keep the smoke screen up 100% of the time that matters too. If you got two thieves there’s no excuse to block all projectiles.

Still, that attack isn’t the most dangerous. You can mostly just hide behind a “tank” and deal with it fully.

When the fractal difficulty goes up, the poison in the room does a LOT more damage and it’s harder to keep the fan running. This should be the priority. Then DPS and then if you can, put smoke screens or other tactics to mitigate the green bolts.

Moriganis.9271:

Stay range and strafe left and right to try and dodge them unless the boss’s is not using projectiles or melee can shield from the boss’s projectiles (thief, ]b]mesmer curtain (not feedback bubble – doesnt work[/b])

A mesmer Time Warp helps (Huge pink bubble) quickens all skills to those in it.

which ‘curtain’ skill are you referring to? (I play as a mesmer usually). Good to know feedback doesn’t work, though for some reason i thought it did on at least some of his attacks..

Time warp for sure, though even with a huge radius it prob wont include the 3 corner stationed dps’ers, but only the 2 melee guys near tom. I guess i could type “time warp inc, get in radius pls” so everyone can burst in for a bit after one of the fans are run

Mesmer traited in toughness I think to include temporal curtain to reflect projectiles also I think the focus phantom can block the projectiles.

The Time Warp usually just place to the side that has most players that can move into it

Moriganis.9271:

Mesmer traited in toughness I think to include temporal curtain to reflect projectiles also I think the focus phantom can block the projectiles.

The Time Warp usually just place to the side that has most players that can move into it

temporal curtain (focus 4) is just a speed boost (and cripples enemies and or can pull certain enemies into it), shouldnt affect attacks. Don’t see anything related to troughness trait that shields group. iWarden is focus 5 and a nice skill but also specifically works against projectiles, so in theory should have the same effect as feedback which is specific to projectiles as well

Sorry it’s traited in inspiration (vitality line) – Warden’s Feedback http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Warden%27s_Feedback

Moriganis.9271:

Sorry it’s traited in inspiration (vitality line) – Warden’s Feedback http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Warden%27s_Feedback

gotcha. In theory that would work similar to feedback bubble (specific to projectiles) and the iwarden itself. So perhaps either they all work against some of Tom’s ranged attacks (he has a lightning thingy and the green poison bullets, not sure what else?) or they all work against none of them xD.

Hey I’m the mesmer who recorded the video.
We had to burst through the poison instead of using the regular strategy because it was bugged and bringing the crystals to the console wouldn’t work.

The usual strategy is to assign 2 people to the console and one to the fan, their job is to keep things running at all time.
The console guys have to pick up the Tears and bring them to the console while the fan dude have to press the fan button once the two side consoles are ON.

Notable skills for this boss from what I know:
Mesmer iWarden (Focus phantasm), he absorbs ALL the poison bolts for as long as he’s doing his animation
Guardian blue bubble thingy, absorbs all the bolts too, stay near him while it’s up

The mesmer’s Feedback bubble doesn’t work.

I run with 3 wars and 2 guards. All we have done from 10 to 35 is just run in and dps him. Guards hit a full heal when needed but when u stack only 1 person takes poison so depending on who it hits sometimes we don’t even need the full heal.

Krag.6210:

Notable skills for this boss from what I know:
Mesmer iWarden (Focus phantasm), he absorbs ALL the poison bolts for as long as he’s doing his animation
Guardian blue bubble thingy, absorbs all the bolts too, stay near him while it’s up

The mesmer’s Feedback bubble doesn’t work.

Awesome, that’s great to know. I wonder why iWarden works but feedback bubble doesn’t.. per the descrips on both they both operate against “projectiles”

Also, kudos on the ingenuity to power through tom even with the constant poison xD

LemurTron.9261:

Black Wolf.7348:

Most people dont use the tactic shown in the youtube video you have linked.

Good, because that seemed p cheesy if it was “the trick” to do Tom at higher fotm levels.

A couple PUGs ago we had a guy who would just leeroy straight into the room before anyone had the chance to run the crystals. Another time a guy insisted we didnt need to run the crystals first because the boss was easy, etc. A lot can go wrong in PUGs xD. definitely makes sense to run them first so the ranged can concentrate on DPSing rather than running crystals during the fight

ok good to know about 3 dedicated ranged dps’ers at the stations, and that there are precisely 8 crystals

Your PUG was right. You can and should do that.

The poison doesn’t do much damage, so there is no point to bother with fans. The main damage source is the darts that boss is fanning around. They cannot be reflected, but they can be body blocked. Competent guardian can tank the entire fight (~3-4 cycles given group DPS is alright), while rest stand directly behind him and unload DPS.

It is super easy even on 20+ levels.

Trollhammer.7439:

The poison doesn’t do much damage, so there is no point to bother with fans. The main damage source is the darts that boss is fanning around. They cannot be reflected, but they can be body blocked. Competent guardian can tank the entire fight (~3-4 cycles given group DPS is alright), while rest stand directly behind him and unload DPS.

Yeah the darts. A competent guardian uses aegis and/or something else? I don’t have a guardian so don’t know exactly what to encourage on a non-competent guardian xD
I thought those darts were poison darts that only shoot around when the gas is active, hence ‘same thing’

If you have an ele get them to swap to focus and use air 4 to create the projectile nullifying dome.

The CD is fairly long so you can only use it around once ever 2 spins but it’s fairly useful. Plus Ele’s elemental acts as another body to block hits.

Use turrets, pets or other people (best to take turns on this) to body block.

Other than that, the projectiles are kinda easy to avoid when at 900+ range so just ranged dps him.

LemurTron.9261:

Trollhammer.7439:

The poison doesn’t do much damage, so there is no point to bother with fans. The main damage source is the darts that boss is fanning around. They cannot be reflected, but they can be body blocked. Competent guardian can tank the entire fight (~3-4 cycles given group DPS is alright), while rest stand directly behind him and unload DPS.

Yeah the darts. A competent guardian uses aegis and/or something else? I don’t have a guardian so don’t know exactly what to encourage on a non-competent guardian xD
I thought those darts were poison darts that only shoot around when the gas is active, hence ‘same thing’

There is no trick to it. You just stand there and tank it. The guardian doesn’t need anything special, just healing/tank build.

I run AH-based build with Soldier’s runes and 3 shouts for my utility. I use a hammer and a staff for this fight. I can confidently tank it for 3 cycles without any external healing. 4 cycles may get tough. If your group gets to 5 cycle, then you should probably find another group.

Needless to say that it is even easier if your group drops some party heals.

Regarding the poison cloud and the darts: Yes and no. Boss will start spinning when the cloud is up, but turning on the fan doesn’t stop him.

For the ranged chars that use the vent/crystals:
You can hide behind those edges at crystals/vent while still dpsing. This way the green bolts cant hit, only his light and fist attack.
Another thing about time warp:
Time warp CAN be good to have, but also can be a self kill sometimes. Problem of haste is that every skill is double as fast as normal. Means bubbles, that protect you from the bolts are only half the time there they normally should be (e.g. 3.5s smoke screen instead of 7s).
Thats why I personally play my thief without haste in fractals, I sometimes tank a group of 5 or more mobs melee via blackpowder, with haste its to fast gone to do it again.

For Guardian, you can use Shield of the Avenger and Sanctuary. Both of these absorb the bolts and if you managed to get the bubble to overlap Old Tom, most of the bolts can be nullified. I believe Feedback and Wall of Reflection do not work as they reflect projectiles. You need to find skills that absorb them.

The reason to keep the fan going is so that heals are more effective. It’s such a non-issue to keep the fan going if you run the crystals ahead of time and it makes enough of a difference that it’s worth doing, even if you can force your way through without it.

I’m a bit confused. Whenever I’ve done this dungeon (with my guild), I usually just go ranged and stand near the fan. I’ve never interacted with the crystals, and I don’t believe any of my guildmates have. I’ve just interacted with the fan. What exactly do crystals do? I may have just not noticed my guildmates using the crystals.

It’s a new mechanic added in later levels. I think it starts at 10, though it could be a little later.

mosspit.8936:

For Guardian, you can use Shield of the Avenger and Sanctuary. Both of these absorb the bolts and if you managed to get the bubble to overlap Old Tom, most of the bolts can be nullified. I believe Feedback and Wall of Reflection do not work as they reflect projectiles. You need to find skills that absorb them.

nice!

Kirbyprime.2645:

If you have an ele get them to swap to focus and use air 4 to create the projectile nullifying dome.

The CD is fairly long so you can only use it around once ever 2 spins but it’s fairly useful. Plus Ele’s elemental acts as another body to block hits.

also good to know

ill edit the OP tmmrw with the various tips so a future forum/google search might help some people

If you’re an asura, the golems can body-block bolts as well.

My strategy is unorthodox. I usually have an Elementalist with me. She just equips full healing gears, and all of us will just stay underneath the boss and out heal the room damage. I also use mace/focus as a Guardian with Tome of Courage for extra healing back up.

the way I’ve done it is to have everyone be ranged and operate all the fans and such so poison doesn’t affect you and it becomes quite doable at that point.