Skirmishes: All except Trouble in Tuckborough and Storm on Methedras
Group Settings: All
Today we will look at the most gregarious of lieutenants: the Blood Rook. The more friends a Blood Rook has nearby, the more powerful it is. By this, I mean its outgoing damage is increased and its incoming damage is reduced. With enough friends (such as in a solo Thangúlhad run) a Blood Rook can rip you to shreds while taking virtually no damage. You can tell that there are friends nearby when you see a red cloud below the Blood Rook (see the screen shot above).
How much is that buff? Alas, I have seen no official numbers. Some sources say it is 25% per ally but I have never been able to demonstrate this conclusively. If that number is right, then a Blood Rook with four nearby friends is doing double damage and taking no damage in return (barring other effects).
There are two ways to deal with this lieutenant: separate it from its friends or kill everyone nearby first. Crowd Control skills thus come in quite handy (to either make separation easier or else to keep the rook from doing too much damage while you take care of his friends).
As you can see in the screen shot above, NPCs aren’t very bright in this matter. My archer is ignoring two uruks right in front of her and is firing at the Blood Rook instead. Sigh.
Note that while the Blood Rook does not appear in Storm in Methedras, Budant (one of the encounter mobs at the first control point) has a Pack Mentality buff that acts in the exact same way as the Blood Rook’s buff.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that a lone Blood Rook is much easier to handle than one with a number of friends. Make it lonely.
May your shield protect you and your spear never break,
Pineleaf Needles
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Pineleaf – you are THE reason to visit any site for which you happen to be writing. I’m sure others work hard as well, but I’m not interested in almost any of it. I can’t wait for the next one…and I hardly EVER run skirmishes!
I’ve never really had a problem with them, but — I rarely do group skirmishes so in solo I don’t think it has the chance to get as big a buff.
From a hunter’s point of view, I always felt that the Blood Rook has a high evade rating. Is that a known fact or simply an implication of its reduced incoming damage?
As far as I can tell, a Blood Rook’s defenses are quite average as long as it has no friends in the area. I suspect that apparent high evade is a manifestation of the reduced incoming damage.
I am not a fan of the Blood Rook but Cry of the Predator is very useful on these!
Those birds are scary in a flock! Thanks, Miss Pineleaf!