. HOW TO TAKE DOWN GOLESANDT

Long ago - I went on a dragon raid and saw, for the first time ever, noticeable backwards XP on a 50. My poor cleric died so much that day, and we finally gave up after many hours. Since then, I had always wanted to take him down - so with the determination of a few guildies, we set out to learn just how to kill the Albion Dragon. Since then, many of us now having our titles, we have worked to refine the methods we use. This page is up for others wanting to know how to kill Goldie (Golesandt), or those coming along with us for the first time.

Group Makeup - 2 Group Raid
Group 1Group 2
Cleric - 40juvCleric - 40juv
Cleric - 40enhCleric - 40enh
PallyPally
Theurgist - Earth Spec with CTR*
Merc - 50DWMerc - 50DW
**
**
**
Group Makeup - 1 Group Raid
Cleric - 40juv
Cleric - 40enh
Pally
Theurgist - Earth Spec
Merc - 50DW
Merc - 50DW
Merc - 50DW
**Merc - 50DW
%Quick Reference
90%Spread
80%Spread
70%Spread
50%Spread
30%/use2 Ceremonial Bracers
& prepare for stuns
10%Purge & Spread
* - These spots are open to any, suggestions would be more Mercs (4 makes the dragon die nice & fast) Enhance Friar, Infiltrator (with side style "Pincer", lvl 8 CS), Minz with CTR, or any other tank types.
** - One of the Mercs can be traded for another pally to assist in the various chanting or an Enhance friar.

Class "Jobs"

  • Pallys - taunt and twist Endo, Heal and Celerity (except at AoE times, then Elemental Resist and Heat resists)
  • Mercs - use their highest bleed style (Dual Shadows typically)
  • Other tanks - DeTaunt and Slam
  • Shield tanks x-guard each other. Prot your clerics - and when intercept is up, place it on a cleric.
  • Enhance Friars - Keep elemental group buffs up (redoing them after group mates have been rez'd) and use healing styles.
  • Infiltrators - you are the ONLY one allowed "out of the clump", as you will be using your side style abs debuff.
  • Clerics - remind (nicely) your protectors when your intercept goes down, keep them healed/rez'd/buffed and make sure to keep group buffs up (redoing after rez's).
  • Theurgist - If you have only 1 theurgist they should have CTR (Croc Tear Ring). Their job is to keep all melee types supplied with Damage Add/Haste and run pbt. Setting up target macro's for all melee in 2nd group makes this task easier.

Tips, Tricks and Game Plan
Choose a main cleric (that has FoP), a secondary cleric (with Determination Field is possible), and a main pally.

Have tanks walk near the outer walls, pulling any Giants out to kill prior to going in (Golesandt will call for help a few times throughout encounter - this will reduce the "help" prior to starting).

Go in with Main Pally leading, s/he will pull the dragon 1/2 way between mound and entry while main cleric drops FoP. As FoP is the clump point, only 1 cleric should drop it/keep it active (unless they are unable and ask that another do so for them). Once FoP is down, all (with the exception of an infil doing side debuff) should stand as close together on FoP as possible (ie: CLUMP!) - expect to be quite friendly for the next 20 minutes to 1.5 hours.

On some of the 9's (89 79, etc), Golesandt will take an intake of breathe and AoE - to combat this on the 0's (90, 80, etc), the raid leader (or assigned melee class) will call SPREAD - at which time all should AF the dragon and spread out around him separating from others as much as possible, then un-AF. DO NOT stay af'd to the dragon! Clerics will take up 4 corner positions on the dragon so that no 2 clerics in one grp are down at one time.

IF YOU HAVE AGGRO - do not spread - stay at the FoP (or go back to it).

After the dragon AoE's, the raid leader (or assigned melee class) will call to CLUMP (this would be on the 8's, 88, 78, etc), all should go back to the FoP immediately.

Golesandt is known to toss people into the air and away from him. When this happens, strafe upon landing to take less damage then come quickly back to his tail and pause there for 5-10 seconds closely watching /s for a message he is glaring at you. Do not hit him during this time. Clerics/Friars (etc) can heal/buff while at their safety check.

If after 5-10 seconds you have not received a glare message, come back to the clump & resume the fight. If you DO get glared at, move further away from grp down the tail so his glare does not take out those in clump.

If you must move out of melee range to rez someone, also go to the tail for your safety check.

Any Giant BaF should be fought at clump, do not move away to go fight it, bring it to us.

At 29% he will start stunning. This is a good time for /use2 on CB (Ceremonial Bracers) if you have them. If you have purge, save it for the 10% spread (the last AoE).

At 10%, the raid leader (or assigned melee class) will call out the last SPREAD! If you are stun'd, purge and spread (as not all will have purge, it is even more important for those that do to save it for this time) as well as putting up the highest level Divine Intervention (DI) each group has.

Loot Rules if you are on an RDH Dragon Raid:
Stones will be given out evenly until there are less stones than people. The remaining stones will be lotto'd /random 100. If adding the remains to this roll would mean all in the battle group would win again - they will be added - highest roll choosing stone or remains until the remains are taken (leaving all others with an additional stone set).

All remaining loot will be lotto'd separately, high to low, then low to high until gone.
Loot Rules subject to modification per raid, what is stated in the bg will supercede what is stated here.

Other Notes:
Egg of Youth is very handy here, inevitably someone will not see a glare message in time and being able to Egg Up has saved many a raid.

Having an outside Rez Bot, not in BG and outside the lair (we park ours on the south hill, a bit up), also with egg is a handy safety precaution, especially if doing a 1 group raid.

Use non-legendary weapons (no magic proc's).

No one should AF the dragon EXCEPT when spreading (after which AF should be immediately broken). If a glare subject does not die from glare, many times the dragon will chase them dragging any AF'd with him (and leaving those staying at the clump out of melee range) - the person the dragon chases needs to IMMEDIATELY come back to the clump unless s/he see's that they are about to be glared at again.

There has been a bug in the past when the dragon dies on the mound (or too close to it) the loot falls into the mound unable to be retrieved - as I'm not willing to loose the loot, I have not tested to see if this is still a bug, or if autoloot picks it up.

Clumping is done to ensure all are in melee range as well as to prevent the dragon from warping as aggro changes (another reason those doing their safety check should not melee!).

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Special mention must be made to this wonderful forum thread here: Dragon Tactics - the info within this forum thread helped us find our own methods (and reminded us when the AoE's were going to hit!

Last Updated: July 3, 2006 by Serenitee - Alb Iseult

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