Thread: Ways to mess up Igash Challenge . . . ?

Ok this is a question I have about Grand Stairs Instance in the Mines of Moria, a 56 level instance with big rewards if done right.

Twice now we've "Killed" the Devoted during the challenge mode of fighting Igash. One time, a hunter was just killing him, we told her to stop, then he died anyways (I don't think people finished him off, but I might be wrong). Funny thing, it said "The Devoted was killed by [my character's name]". I thought it was that I had the Guardian trait for giving a % of damage back when attacked. I removed it from my trait set.

More recently it happened again, though I'm for certain that everyone had not targeted the devoted with any skills. it said "The Devoted was slain by [insert players' name]". It so happened that each member of the fellowship saw this message directed at themselves, saying that they had killed the Devoted.

A number of possibilities arise, I wonder which ones:

1. We did a fellowship maneuver, we were all targeted on Igash, it was one of the red ones with the Ents. I don't think it's an aoe, and the Devoted died almost a minute after it, so I don't think it was it.

2. We were doing a "full" and killed Nardur within 10 minutes, setting off challenge mode. We killed all the other bosses actually (not the Devoted who's really not a boss). I wonder if maybe, since we were not doing the "Daily" challenge, and had killed other bosses, we could not get the reward from the challenge mode on Igash, and since we couldn't get the reward the game killed the Devoted just to keep things straight? If so, it's a funny bug.

Any advice would be great. Of course I want to get the most medallions for my time, and also to know the instance well to help others and not waste time. I think also that since Moria is not the highest level content, it's not that completely populated so a lot of people are kind of noobish while others are extremely experienced and don't even waste time talking about it. So I'm asking for anyone who knows better than me.

Thanks for reading!

If you perform a full clear you cannot also receive the daily challenge to kill Igash unless you disband and reform. Just the same as if you do the Daily Challenge you cannot therefore do a full clear. Not sure if this helps. Granted I have not done this instance in quite some time and there is always a possibility Turbine made some changes.

First, was anyone using ANY AoE abilities? Since the Devoted moves from target to target at random it's likely he blundered through enough AoE attack to eventually kill himself if they're used.

Second, were any LM pets or captain heralds out? Sometimes people forget to put those on passive/ dismiss/ whatever and no one notices them following the Devoted around ripping him apart.

Third, and one you partially hit on, did you use an FM with 4 or more Red in it? Some of those are AOE and if you nail them at the wrong time (or worse end up getting one on the Devoted and don't see the change in target) he can get squished.

Now if you really want to mess up Igash'es challenge... well a good swift kick with a spiked steel-toed boots between the legs tends to do the trick. He isn't very challenging when he's crying about his family jewels being crushed.

Some thoughts:

1) It doesn't matter who killed the "Devoted". The game will send a customized message to every member that the Devoted has been slain by that member. The goblin comes out and removes the chest.

2) You kill other bosses. You reduce the loot you get from Igash. You reduce the difficulty of the Igash fight. Each boss you kill takes away one of Igash's special attacks.

You do a full clear including killing the Devoted. The Igash fight is very easy and low reward.

Grand Stairs is an interesting instance. You can decide I want the maximum loot for minimum time. Take the timed challenge. Not kill the Devoted. Not bother with the other bosses. Or you can work on the Grand Stairs deeds by doing a partial or full clear.

It is totally up to you.

The Devoted is fast and crazy. The Devoted is rather squishy. It is not hard to kill him when you are doing the Challenge if you are not very careful.

1. Ents Rage is direct damage, wound +AoE. Also, many skills have a small AoE component. So if people are careless, he might have been damaged by the FSM enough to be killed just by the next small AoE skill. It can also happen totally inadvertedly. A Champion in tanking stance for example reflects a small amount of damage if traited; something like this might have killed the Devoted as well.

2. You cannot do the GS challenge when you kill any other boss in GS. The real bosses, not the minibosses Izkal and Nardur of course.

3. Whenever you kill any boss or the devoted, it will show "XXX was slain by <eachplayer>" You will have to look at the log to see who actually defeated the enemy.

Since he likes to randomly run around and hit people, having gear that reflects damage or skills that reflect damage can contribute to killing him.

One time on my minstrel I had the stance on myself that gives the +parry and reflect damage thing. One of the dps had taken the devoted down pretty far before we got him to stop, then later on the Devoted comes over to wail on me for a bit, and boom, I killed him with the damage reflection.

Yes the GS is an awesome instance, all the Moria 6 mans are pretty epic. I really wish they could duplicate the quality of these instances again (Rift too). Good luck and and enjoy your stay in Moria, for what its worth it is the best zone in the game!