Since I tend to be on at odd hours (often with Phinigel up and few people around), and a number of people in my guild still need Phinigel drops for their epic, I've been toying around with the idea of soloing Phinigel. I know mages can, necromancers can, and I'm pretty sure a few other classes have as well. I wanted to see if I could do it.

So I went to Kedge today, found Phinigel not up, and decided to practice pulling the swirlspine seahorses that would normally surround Phinigel. I found I had little trouble soloing the swirlspines, but it took too long...by the time I was fighting the fourth swirlspine seahorse, the first one had respawned. Maybe KEI would help, but I'd still be cutting it close. To make matters worse, I found out that killing the swirlspine seahorses made Swirlspine Guardians spawn.

Now with a necromancer's ability to feign, I can see possibly feign splitting Phinigel, but a mage doesn't have that ability...so it must be possible to get Phinigel alone without that ability. Any ideas? Using a dire charmed pet to kill the swirlspines quickly, then abandoning the pet and pulling Phinigel (since I assume Phinigel would quickly dispel dire charm)? Snaring Phinigel so that he won't reset to spawn point for 14 minutes, pulling him to the ledge, and using exodus?

Have any druids been able to solo Phinigel successfully?

You try charming anything to aid in the fight? I never have tried this and that is only a suggestion. Let us know if it works.

You can pull Phini solo by level aggro. Just float down on top of him until he sees you and then swim right back up to very top and then to ledge. May take some practice but it can be done.

Isn't Kedge an indoor zone? So no snare...?

Snare can be used indoors...

Brain - not - working

/smack heads against desk

Boy if I was a moderator and I said something like that on my own class board I think I would have locked and moved the thread somewhere!

Thats probably considered over moderating though! :p

/hides

Chenier!!!

/gasp

BTW, let us know how Phinny goes. I'd like to try that myself someday.

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<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Boy if I was a moderator and I said something like that on my own class board I think I would have locked and moved the thread somewhere!

Thats probably considered over moderating though! :p

/hides[/quote]
I'm comfortable with my own stupidity, thankyouverymuch.

/grumbles something about punk halflings =)


Fair warning: Spankings may be imminent!

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Fair warning: Spankings may be imminent![/quote]
Well if we must, I might as well go first. No sense in letting Ligge have all the fun ;)

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Reposted from a post I made to my guild's forum, since I'm too lazy to retype it. :P

Well, two major hurdles have been overcome. I have figured out how to single pull Phinigel, thanks to Ligge:

Must be 60+ or so for this to work, I think. First find out if any swirlspines see invis (most won't), and single pull these. This is done by edging just close enough for them to aggro, waiting for them to get in melee range, then running for the ledge and killing them there. Swirlspine Guardians may spawn as a result. Wait for these to despawn (20 minutes or so), or possibly kill them--not sure about this. Supposedly they aren't very magic resistant, unlike the normal swirlspines.

Now, there should be four swirlspines that don't see invis, and no guardians. Go invis and swim to the very top of the room. Drift straight down into the hole, until Phinigel (who sees invis) aggros. Phinigel should start casting a spell at that point. Immediately swim upwards to the top of the room, as the spell will break invis. Invis again (not sure if necessary). Ensure that no mobs have joined, then swim to the ledge.

I _think_ this works because mobs don't take any time to swim up or down on the Z axis...they're just assumed to be wherever they need to be vertically. So Phinigel swims out to the middle of the room below the swirlspines, directly below you, then pops up to the top of the room without ever getting close enough to the swirlspines for them to assist.

The second major hurdle: Phinigel's dispel is either single target or has an extremely small AE range. I found that out when I joined 4 other people to kill Phinigel after my initial failed attempt. I remained very close to the main tank, immediately behind the mob, and didn't lose a single buff. Watching the battle spam, I never saw more than one dispel message at once.

The downside is that Phinigel dispels fast and often. Instaclickies aren't going to keep up. However, since the dispels only affect whoever Phinigel is attacking, and mobs will never attack pets when a player is in melee range, I should be able to use a dire charmed dual wielding seahorse to do all the damage.

All I have to do is take the rather weak beating that Phinigel gives, and be able to channel my 2k heals with 3.75 sec cast times...and I've already found one particular corner to wedge myself into that lets me channel through almost anything.

Oh, and Phinigel is fairly resistant to magic, but not as much so as the swirlspines (I think). Phinigel resisted 5 snares in a row on my first pull, but was snareable during the group attempt after a shaman debuffed him.

Whew, what an intense fight...

I ended up using a different strategy. Rather than pulling Phinigel past the swirlspines, I just charged his spawn point...it turns out there are convenient corners for me to wedge myself into there too. Yes, this meant no pet. Basically I used mana free dots (epic and skyshrine bracer), healed myself with Tunare's Renewal as needed, and otherwise just chain nuked with Summer's Flame. Without the ability to leave a damage shield up for very long, the battle had to be kept short, so that I wasted as little mana as possible healing.

Details, for anyone that cares...

Unbuffed stats: 2529 hp, 890ish AC, 129 vs magic, 118 vs fire, 106 vs cold. Roughly 3700 mana. No relevant focus items. In the future I'll get a mage summoned earring, bracer and ring beforehand. :) Either that or I'll finally get an affliction efficiency IV item, and maybe try to dot Phinigel to death...

Initial buffs: wrath of the wild 1, spirit of eagle, shield of the eight, resist poison, resist disease, nature's might, mask of the stalker, resist magic, protection of seasons, replenishment, brackencoat, shield of bracken, nature's recovery, innate camo.

I charged directly into Phinigel's cubby, using spirit of the wood so that I could take advantage of its healing before Phinigel could dispel all the buffs in the way. I think it lasted almost the full duration. I immediately wedged myself into the back corner on the right, which is (barely) in melee range, and reused wrath of the wild. I then clicked my epic and bracer, and cast Hand of Ro and Ro's Illumination. After that I used Summer's Flame every time I could, refreshed my 8th coldain ring between spells (half a minute into the fight I was completely debuffed, but an 8 point damage shield is better than nothing), refreshed drones from my bracer a couple times, and started casting Tunare's Renewal as soon as I dropped below about 1000 hp. Channeling spells was not an issue most of the time. I finished the fight with 2% mana and about 900 hp.

Damage output (fight duration of 2:56)...
Phinigel: melee 6266 (35.6 dps), spells 2797 (1920 from lures).
Me: summer's flame 14000 (9 casts, 1 crit), 1028 damage shield (700 from 2x wrath of the wild), remainder from dots.
Used Tunare's Renewal 3 times for 1644, 2078, and 2082.

With focus items or a larger mana pool, this should be a pretty easy fight. A fungi tunic might help too.

Cool! What'd he drop? =)

Wizard epic thingy...blue crystal staff, I think?
Some wizard in my guild will be happy, once the other bottlenecks are over with, at least. :)