Pyres:
Use bludge on Pyres. Swordies use Slash. Day spawn is Skeletons and Minions. Skeletons cast magic, so it behooves you to kill them first. And occasionally, either by glitch or by design, their ring spells do double damage. Night adds Champions to the Pyre spawn. Champions carry shields. Nonmages should bait the shields (Tusker Bait or Slash Bait - can't remember the name offhand). Then attack them from the front.
Don't tattercoat the shields. Use a Crushing Blow weapon if you have access to one. Soulbound is also effective.
Wights:
Use fire on Wights. These only spawn at night. Sorcerers are the big casters here, so I take them out first. Then Captains. Again, a Crushing Blow weapon is good on these guys. If in doubt, use your Soulbound. If you don't have one...I'm going to beat you. I've led the quest enough...
Rats:
Rats are daylight spawn only (with the exception of the Blood rats that spawn with Deathtail). Use bludgeon or lightning on them. An Imperil and a rend drops them fast for nonmages.
Wisps:
Night spawn. And these just plain suck. Loot sucks, they have MEGA health points, and they are like the Elemental Essences. Just avoid them if you can. If you can't, check your Death Item pack and prepare to recover.
Corrupted Dreads/Maidens
Mages:
This isn't Dark Isle. It's not mage-friendly, but it CAN be done. Either hunt from a bunker or the fringes. If you don't have Melee Defense, I recommend getting it. If you can't or don't want to, you're fairly limited to perching. HIGH AL armor. The highest you can get. And you're still going to die. These boys hit HARD.
Dispells are pointless unless you're prepping for a boss. If it casts out here, it chain casts.
Nonmages - Learn to set your own kills or kiss up to your favorite mage. These drop a lot faster (and you therefore live a bit longer) if they are imped/vulned. Shields REALLY need to be baited.
Tips:
Set ONE mob with your imperil/goss/futile, whatever. Cast once - then hold. All nearby spawn will come at you. Even if you're resisted. Let them run back. Then recast. Once you begin your attack in earnest, you'll generally only have the one to handle. WHEN THEY DIE, they all come in again. Wait it out.
All bets are off when there are other people out there. The odd aggro out here changes all the rules. Well, actually, it eats the rulebook and spits it out.
Plan the deaths - theirs and yours. Don't let your mob run back to its spawnspot to die or you're going to have one blazes of a time looting it. Try to kill it at you or near you. Easiest way to loot if it's not at your feet is to target it, then hit your R key for "Use." You'll waddle up to it, but generally be "invisible" to most nearby spawn.
Loot with a WAND up - you can recall if things go south.
Keep your recall handy. If you get in trouble, try to recall out to die. Or run. Just don't die IN the spawn spots.
Carry a LOT of death items. If you die at night, wait til day to recover if you have to.
RECOVER YOUR CORPSES - even if you only drop pyreal. Corpses cause lag and we have enough of that.
Turn off auto-loot. No one wants to stop, bend over, and DIE for a piece of ivory. If you're that desperate, seek professional help.
Turn off auto-heal (all plugins that use an auto-heal function are ignorant of the fact that you may NOT be standing in an optimal place for healling. You'll stop running and start healing - and get stuck in a cycle that ends in death. Trust me.
Aggro:
These mobs have a relatively unique aggro tactic. They do not shake free of you then just go back to their spawn spots, ignoring people en route. They will re-aggro on nearby people. Try to be considerate. Don't drop your mobs on someone else as you run screaming past.
Manners:
Don't EVER EVER EVER
EVER attack inside a building, bunker, or doorway. Ever. If you have to ask why, ask someone other than me. Because I will thwap you for not knowing.
Don't drop your spawn on others.
Try to be aware of people doing the quests out there. The OLD quests. Amelia, Tairla, Mhoire, Armory. Amelia and Tairla being the most dangerous, especially with the newbs out there now. Lend a hand if you can, heal if you can, but at the VERY least, try to stay out of the way.
Realize that most of the people in Graveyard won't read this. Heck, I'm impressed that YOU are reading it. There are some good people in GY who are willing to help, but most of those who just started hunting there this patch are clueless. If you have a short temper, hunt elsewhere. GY isn't worth the fight.
Remember that people probably can't see you under an orange blob of mobs on their radar. Most won't mean to drop them on you. The rest don't care if they do. Either way, suck it up.
This place is decent xp, but designed mainly for people who don't need XP. It's challenging, it can be fun, it can be frustrating. It's my favorite place to solo hunt ingame, bar none. I die out there. At LEAST once per buff cycle and I like to think that I know what I'm doing and that I'm well geared.
You're going to die out here. If death pisses you off, you might want to hunt elsewhere. If you don't mind dying, realize that GY is unique. Your thinking should be, too.
- (6 a.m. sunrise) Dawnsong -- Start of "Day" for GY purposes
- (7:30 a.m.) Dawnsong-and-Half
- (9 a.m.) Morntide
- (10:30 a.m.) Morntide-and-Half
- (12 noon) Midsong
- (1:30 p.m.) Midsong-and-Half
- (3 p.m.) Warmtide
- (4:30 p.m.) Warmtide-and-Half
- (6 p.m.) Evensong -- Start of "Night" for GY Purposes
- (7:30 p.m.) Evensong-and-Half
- (9 p.m. sunset) Gloaming
- (10:30 p.m.) Gloaming-and-Half
- (12 midnight) Darktide
- (1:30 a.m.) Darktide-and-Half
- (3 a.m.) Foredawn
- (4:30 a.m.) Foredawn-and-Half -- Last cycle of Night
Each "half" is roughly 8 minutes long and there are 8 half-cycles for day and 8 half cycles for night. So day = ~64 minutes and night = ~64 minutes.
Good luck!
