Proteus : Raid Guide

Author: Taalia (Rosmerta, clan Forever)

** Overview **

Proteus is an Arcane Sanctum boss. He is a sort of giant robot / sentinel.

He's a strange fish; a bit like a raid boss (Mord, Necro, Gele) in that he takes a full team to kill and drops gear items, but also a bit like a quest boss (DL, EDL) because he spawns on a regular schedule with a narrow window and drops the parts needed for Doch Gul armour.

Proteus spawns every 20 hours with a 20 minute window around that time. That is, the window opens 19 h 50 mins after his death and closes at 20 h 10.

This tight and predictable spawn time means he can be farmed regularly. Like a daily bounty, Doch armour gearing needs him down every day. The spawn rotates throughout the day, 4 hours earlier each day, so strength in one timezone can't dominate.

Because of the narrow window it is easy to compete for Prot; raids can be scheduled and he has therefore become the site of some of the fiercest lock battles.

Proteus Base needs about 12. But can be done with less. Proteus Prime about 20 but again possible with less.

** The enemy **

-- The boss

Proteus comes in two flavours; Base and Prime. Both are full on six star lvl 220 bosses. Like the ring bosses, base is silver and prime is gold. They have the same skills, attacks and behaviour. They are tackled in the same way - this guide is for both. Prime is just harder. A lot harder.

Proteus is largely a melee fighter. He attacks with brutally strong slashing auto attacks. This is supplemented by

-- kinetic swing: a huge sweeping blow style area skill attack which hits everything in front of him.

-- optic ray: a ranged attack on whoever has aggro, so even a bolased or rooted Proteus will take out high end rangers.

-- rotor blades. Area of effect which damages and reduces attack speed.

-- power surge . Freezes all dps in an area behind him.

-- chaos storm.

-- screens. He puts up 3 sceens, heat, frost, shock that do fire, ice, magic damage respectively to each character that hits him with an auto.

-- repairs. At 1/3 health starts regular repair cycles which heal him.

Repairs, kinetic swing and rotor blades are announced in orange and can be interrupted.

He rages in 15 minutes.

He is more vulnerable to elemental damage, especially magic, than physical. As a chaos creature he is especially vulnerable to divine damage.

His movement evades are off the scale.

The raid is largely determined by the heroes' ability to suppress screens and repairs.

-- The adds.

Prot is surrounded by little 4 and 5 star robots. These do both heal and freezing shocks. Do not kill them. These need to be gathered up and held in place away from the battle by an add tank.

** The heroes! **

-- Tank team

1 main tank. A strong tank is definitely helpful at prot - weaker tanks can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of incoming damage, no matter how many or how good the Druids.

But even the strongest tank will often have to kite, so being confident at kiting, which doesn't require high stats or rare gear, is often more important. A temporarily dead main tank isn't the end of the world as long as the kite can continue.

1 add tank. The add tank doesn't need to be as strong as the main, but mustn't die under any circumstances. Top end tanks can do adds without ever needing a heal. But if you can snatch an occasional heal, most lvl 215 tanks can do prot adds.

2 Druids. Unless you have a true high master Druid, prot needs at least 2 druids if the tank wants to hold.

If you have 3 or more Druids you should put some druids into dps groups to help out; as proteus raids can be hard on the dps teams.

-- Lure mages

You must have fire, ice magic lures at skill level 50. Anything less is useless; 49 doesn't work. If your team has enough mages this can be done organically in the team, but we usually bring a dedicated lure mage.

-- Lock team

If proteus is contested you need a lock team. The lock team should consist entirely of rangers with at most one rogue (with EDL and Doch ideally). Divine damage rangers lock most bosses, and that's definitely the case at Proteus. Priority should be EDL quivers then DL quivers.

-- Rangers : whether in lock or not bolas is critical at Proteus. Entangle is helpful.

-- Rogues : at least one support rogue. Given Proteus's high evades and defence, expose and smoke are mandatory.

-- Warriors: if you're not tank, still bring a shield for bashing.

** The raid **

--Starting the raid.

First the add tank gathers all the adds they can and stands at the top of the steps in the doorway. She will need to warcry and cycle between each add casting taunt. She will need help to collect the adds. While you can hold them all in the doorway you can't go all the way to one side to collect an add without letting go of adds that have their start point on the other side.

The main tank then starts at the wall opposite the door, moves forward, gets aggro and pulls prot back away from the doorway. Ideally not all the way back to the wall, but so the tank is at the top of the steps.

Alternatively (arawn style) the main tank pulls prot away to the wall then stands between prot and the adds, so druids can also heal the add tank. We find this unnecessary and risky as our add tanks typically don't need heals.

Everyone attacks. The raid is then dominated by screens and repairs until rage.

-- Contested Prot Lock Battle

If the opposition are there, understand that the lock battle is determined by the EDL rangers.

Adds should be gathered ahead of spawn (and if our rivals get adds first, make sure our add tank is also getting aggro).

Lock team should space out so they won't all be caught if prot is pulled onto them. I like to sit my best rangers on top of the opponent's so if ours are bashed, theirs are too.

Druids at a contested prot should each pick a ranger and keep her alive. Talk and coordinate! Dead rangers mean lost locks. Let the tank die if need be.

Tanks - watch for the "Spiro Technique" a questionable manoeuvre, whereby the tank drags Prot onto the other side's top rangers. Keep aggro on and pull him away onto their dps.

Once lock is won the battle progresses as normal:

Dps should stay to the sides of Proteus to avoid rotors and kinetic swing as much as possible.

Be ready with idols and ideally druids to support the dps. Don't be afraid to step away to shake off curse.

The battle is then determined by handling screens and repairs:

-- Screens.

Each screen can be suppressed by the corresponding lure, if it's level 50. Please note that while the lure overwhelms the screen, the screen also overwhelms an already existing lure. If you put up a lure before he casts the screen, the screen will knock out the lure.

This means you should watch for screens and instantly cast the moment they appear but not before !

-- Repairs

Repair should be interrupted with bash or freeze. Proteus has off the scale evades, so interrupting him is hard. Tests on other servers published on the forums show a top warrior with full melee combat gear still only lands one in five bashes. I am lucky to get one in seven or eight to land. So the numbers of warriors bashing is critical if you want to interrupt. Even if you're not a tank - come and help bash.

-- Rage

A prot whose repair isn't totally overwhelmed will rage. Be ready to kite.

If you don't have enough tank or druid strength to hold him still at the start , you can kite from the outset.

This means keeping him under constant bolas. His evades make this hard. But every ranger should be trying to bolas - don't rely on others. Cycle them.

One trick we've learnt is for boxers to park both rangers and druids, using druids until rage, then logging out and switching to spare rangers. Another trick is to leave support rangers not attacking (at least once you have lock and it's raging!) so prot leaves them alone - their bolas are not interrupted by Proteus killing them.

The tank needs to stay out of Proteus's reach. Not too far. But far enough. Nip in and out to bash or land a few taunts. Use the circular shape of the room to lead him on a goose chase. If you're dashing back and forth, use shield wall at the point you're within reach, when you turn. I can survive only one hit from raged Proteus. Two unshielded hits will kill any tank. That shield wall is critical.

As with many raids you need to be flexible and many a Prot has been downed with no tanks or no Druids when the team has had to adapt.

While a messy Proteus can be a bit painful, a professionally executed Proteus is a thing of joy.

Good luck in arcane.

Rosmerta Forever!

#taaliastips

Addendum to Proteus Raid notes.

-- Positioning --

Coloured spots reflect heroes of different classes using the ch colour code. Purple is rogues. Black are the enemy.

* The main tank stands at the top of the steps, not against the back wall. When you set up you stand at the back wall so as not to get premature aggro. But when you fight you need to step forward. If you're against the wall druids get caught in area of effect attacks.

* Druids stand to the side. They should be safe there, and also able to heal dps.

* Dps (rogues, rangers, mages) should be arranged to the sides.

* Add tank also stands at the top of the steps. Not on them. At the top. Any closer in and she risks catching proteus in the warcry.

--Lures--

I mentioned this in the main guide, but I want to emphasise it, as I see it still being done the wrong way. If you are the main lure, responsible for suppressing the screens, you cast lure *after* the screen has been cast by Proteus. If you cast before, the screen will knock out the lure.

#taaliastips

Alternate Proteus Guide - Click Here!