Practice mode for Neamhain and Balor?

ablackwoman

I usually practice raid bosses solo before doing them in party, especially coming back recently and seeing all of the new bosses. I have never done Neamhain before and Balor is completely new to me. The only issue I've noticed with these bosses is that they don't have a practice mode.

Is there any reason why? I would like to be able to practice them without dragging down a party or fear of not being able to perform well due to unfamiliarity. I've looked at videos of these bosses to get a general idea, but that's vastly different from playing it in person.

Yagamin

Even if there was a practice mode, good luck getting to the later phases to practice those. That's the important part.

So you'll still need a party, can't solo.

BOK_CHOI

I've only just recently started doing Neam, and I've participated in 7 runs so far (6 cleared, 1 fail).
I've had the exact same fear as you and have watched a ton of video tutorials and done several practice runs on my own before joining my first ever party run (obviously for the practice runs I've only ever got to do the first phase crab part).

Despite all that I still die what I feel like is a ridiculous amount of times, but to my relief, I'm not the only one who's been like that. So far, each of the runs I've participated in consisted of 2~4 really skilled people carrying the rest of us who's lying dead for a good chunk of the duration. I've even had friendly chatter with some party members (while all lying dead together, lol) who told me that I'm doing just fine and they themselves have run it 20~30+ times and still spend a good chunk of each raid hugging the floor; I'd been feeling awful about my performance prior to this point, but there's really no need for such.

From what I have experienced so far, the majority of the players will be very forgiving and understanding to those who lack the experience, and you're not alone with such lack of experience. And you will notice improvements with each run you participate in.

I just wanna say, don't let the fear of uselessness keep you from joining these boats. After all, everyone has to start somewhere and they've all been in our shoes at one point, even those hardcore carries.

Hope to come across you in these boats in the near future!

Nokaubure

You can just join balor alone with no armor and keep reseting when you die. You only get to try the first phase that way, but atleast it gives you a solid start, since he also has another phase where he uses the same moveset as the start. However for neam you can't do much since the crab will prevent you to fight neam at all, however you get a beginner buff that revives you 3 times and lasts the first 5 raids.

Furiel

Nokaubure wrote: »

You can just join balor alone with no armor and keep reseting when you die. You only get to try the first phase that way, but atleast it gives you a solid start, since he also has another phase where he uses the same moveset as the start. However for neam you can't do much since the crab will prevent you to fight neam at all, however you get a beginner buff that revives you 3 times and lasts the first 5 raids.

It doesn't last 5 wins anymore, I think it's only 3 (maybe only 2) now.

noctred

You can depart solo if you want practice... but, like another poster mentioned, these are long multi-phase fights so chances are you won't be able to see the later phases anyways. A solo friendly practice mode with severely nerfed health is something I could see them adding but not something I'd personally want to see in the game as it would diminish the impact of the content for players who are going into it for the first time.

Don't overthink it, just join raids, die, and do your best to apply whatever knowledge you've gained from videos and previous runs. Yeah it's unforgiving but also more satisfying when you feel yourself getting better with every run. We've all been there - there's no shame in it.

ikevi

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noctred wrote: »

Don't overthink it, just join raids, die, and do your best to apply whatever knowledge you've gained from videos and previous runs. Yeah it's unforgiving but also more satisfying when you feel yourself getting better with every run. We've all been there - there's no shame in it.

Couldn't agree more. We all have lived through the pain. Your carries might give some friendly grief but they know what type of run they could be getting into when they join a neam. (And honestly the folks that run neam regularly know how the run is going to be before it even launches.)

I ended up starting to actually learn Neam ~1-2 months after content was released and felt like I was doing crud for a long long time. Honestly it wasn't till I did it for ~50 times (and started doing it on a different class, my fifi) till I could dodge > 50% of the time that stupid 5 hit neit/neam combo move. (And for learning neam you would just want some way to spam her gate move + the combo move + the ground ring stamina steal/spin move.) But as folks said solo you don't even manage to see them unless you already can solo it.

Also just know that it is really good to see how other folks dodge each of those moves. I try my best to teach gate to new folks that are struggling in the runs, but the others ones take a lot more practice. So when dead follow someone else. (The "best" person isn't always the best to watch to figure out how they are dodging...)

FYI for me gate was the only move I ended up watching a vid over and over again till I saw what I could use as a queue for me to move. All the others just took time and effort. (And it does help to turtle as fifi so you can at least get an idea of the timing on the 5 hit combo.)

Balor is another can of worms. -> Figure out distance you need to be to prevent certain moves. (IE staying close to him help a lot.) Figure out fire wall. Then the rest will come in time. But he is actually much more forgiving to learn than neam is.

JamesGross

They should scale the raid boss's stats in Practice Mode, so you can actually finish and know what to expect when in party.

There's too many cancers running raids and are quick to run their mouths because other people are still new to the raid and not know what to do yet. Especially when it is new release.

AngelYukki

Best way I learned was watching **** ton of solo videos and taking notes on their movesets so that might help idk

Jinyie

Agreed, videos and just participating in runs is the most useful practice you'll get. Don't hesitate to let the party know you're inexperienced since you will very rarely be kicked. I'm assuming you're a Vella based on your profile pic? If you're twin swords just know that there are several attacks that Neam herself does which you can't cross (not including her red attacks you can't cross those either). You'll get it down eventually so keep at it.