Wow, a few months ago I swear I made this same exact post. I know how you feel, cause we died on that boss for oh, I dunno, felt like a month.
Here's how we do it:
We have two kiters. You didn't say how many you have kiting zombies, some people use 1, we get better results with 2. They stand across the room from each other and when the wave spawns they swap positions, running a big half-circle past the entrance door. I am sure you have seen this in videos, cause that's where we got it from. The Kabal video shows kiting the best iirc.
Ok, now the tricksy part.
Don't assign random people to do meat wine and candle. Assign two people to do meat, one on each side of the room. Have every other person stand either on top of the tables or behind them or behind a pillar. No one goes out on the carpet except the meat people and the kiters.
So who does candle and wine? The two kiters do it. They need to be in voice chat. As they are running to the other side of the room they see which they have available on a table and they call it out so the other one gets the opposite. If one has only wine, the other guy gets candle, etc. Wine person says "wine out" as soon as it finishes casting, and that's when the other kiter casts the candle. He calls it too, just so we all know we're good.
So, let's say I am kiting. I don't need to be any special class combo, I just need Escape Artist and Unbridled on. I stand on the edge of the carpet a few feet down from the boss, and as soon as the wave spawns, I start running toward the door, past the door, and back up the other side of the room. When I run past the tables I have already seen what wine or candles I have, and I call out to the other kiter what I have, quickly. Let's say I have 2 candles. I holler "candle!" as soon as I see one. The other kiter will then look for wine. If he sees one he'll holler "wine!" If he only has candles he'll say so, and then I will look for wine, and we'll tell each other what we have. The better you get at this, the less often you will die. So, as soon as we are clear on what we're going to grab, wine person wines (meat is already down at this point) and says "wine out" and then I cast my candle.
Then the zombies die and we get into position for the next wave. Ideally, you want someone on each side of the room using soup on them too, if they have it, because it slows them down, and that helps, especially on the last wave. They don't need to get too far out on the carpet to cast it either, and as soon as it's done they go right back to on top of the table or behind one.
The meat people also need to be in vent, and we call out ahead of the wave spawning which one of us has meat for that wave. That way only one person puts down 1 meat. So, I usually do meat, and Yuki does it on the other side- he tells me as soon as he gets back from putting a meat down if he has one for the next wave. If he doesn't, I get ready, I find my meat, but I don't pick it up til the wave spawns and has run past me. That's because when the combat status changes (ie when you drop in or out of combat) items you have clicked on despawn. We had issues with disappearing meats before we discovered this.
We drop our meat ideally right where the two people cross each other's paths in the middle of the carpet by the door. If you lag or are late, drop it as close to the middle as possible.
That's the strat we use, and lemme highlight the important bits.
1) the people doing the strat need to be in voicechat. We have people who listen but can't talk, and they make macros, so one kiter has a macro for "GOT WINE" and "GOT CANDLE" and "GOT BOTH" and "GOT NOTHING" and "WINE OUT" and "CANDLE OUT". One meat person has macros that say "GOT MEAT" and "NO MEAT" etc. One of the two MUST be able to talk and respond quickly to the one using the macros tho. We have done this successfully with one person using macros and the other talking, and also with both people talking. We've never done it successfully with two people using macros. It's too slow.
2) everyone else needs to STFU. Only people doing the strat talk at all, and one person calling out waves. We have a non-strat person count waves, and they call each wave number as soon as they spawn, with a special "LAST WAVE BUFF NOW!" on the last wave, and that is all they say. Soup people do soup silently.
3) your kiters are partners, and they have to cooperate and call out their candle or wine quickly. Your meat people are partners, and they need to be on that meat fast, and they must communicate, because having no meat or two meats down means a wipe. Soup people are independent, and they just do their thing as they see an opportunity. Everyone else, even the wave caller, just chills out and stays the hell behind the tables and off the damned carpet. No one makes a peep except the two kiters, the meat people and the wave caller.
Ok, if you do all of those things, you will not have stragglers at all. Stragglers are caused by extra people on the carpet or too close to the carpet. Zombies don't have battle aggro, they only have proximity aggro. So, as soon as they spawn, they should get solid aggro on the kiters, cause the kiters are the ONLY PEOPLE STANDING ON THE CARPET. They start running, and then the meat person can safely deliver his meat. He can run right through the mobs, because the kiters have aggro.
As soon as the zombies transfer aggro to the meat, the kiter can pick up their items and safely cast them. Then they get back into position.
You have to do all this quickly though, because the kiter that casts the candle will have aggro as soon as they eat all the meat, and they'll start running to him as they die. This is why soup is nice- if they get souped they will be slowed, and less "oopsie"s happen, where the mob of zombies catches up to the kiter and ganks him. Usually you can kite em up the side of the room, but sometimes you get too far up and get ganked by the next wave spawning on top of you. Just reset if that happens.
There are some issues you will run into no matter how perfectly you do this:
1) Getting item-screwed. Sometimes there is no candle. Or wine. There is almost always enough meat unless your meat people frack up and put two down. When that happens, swap gear and reset.
2) Kiter gets ganked. This happens too, if they don't get souped and they get unlucky or lag. Swap and reset. Don't try to have a backup kiter, it is too hard.
3) Meat person get ganked. Usually, the kiters will have solid aggro and the meat people can walk right through a zombie and have no problems. Sometimes they get whacked for no apparent reason. Just swap and reset.
You need zero healers for the zombie banquet. You will need all of them for Herl as soon as he spawns though. Herl is a whole 'nother ball game. You will ideally have a druid cleansing off the poison debuff that he does when he calls someone's name.
Ok, this post is epically long already, but lemme splain the last wave and Herl fight quickly, cause you will need it soon.
As soon as the eighth wave spawns, the wave caller says "LAST WAVE BUFF NOW" and people do the following: they call their pets, they get their food and hero pots on (no point wasting them if you have to reset), they get their normal self-buffs on. They should already all have priest and party buffs on from the beginning.
As soon as meat is down they come out from behind the tables and line up; we use a vertical line going up and down the room on the right side, with the tank in front closest to the boss. Others use a line across the room. Someone grabs a soup we save just for the last wave and soups the mobs as soon as they get the last wine and candle so no one gets ganked.
If anyone in your party has the quest "Startlight" there will be some npc chatter, and the boss fight gets delayed. People play music, and as soon as the boss hits the tank they pop their short term buffs and burn. If someone has the quest, you get a bit more time in burn before he casts "Throw Poison." As soon as he finishes casting that, the whole party runs to the left side and lines up again. This takes practice, and chances are good you will wipe the first few times. People can use serenstrum to survive the poison the first wave.
After you master all that the boss is easy, tank and spank and run like hell
Look, if you actually make it to the end of this monster post, I thank you lol. I know exactly what you're going through, and you have my sympathies. As you practice, you can have everyone do it in their swap gear, so no one gets dura loss. Eventually you will get so good at it that you'll wonder why it was so hard.
Good luck, *hugs* and many thanks to Kabal, to Pazuzzu in Core and to all the others who helped us get through the Zombie Banquet when we were chain wiping
And please feel free to PM here if you have questions, or whisper me on Fandreith if you're on Palenque.
Or... Paz could say all that in three paragraphs before I got done typing my book up. Sonofa... anyway, I hope it helps lol.
(I hear 6 is just a burn) Quoted from "WhootyHoo;524825"
For the record we dont even do it that way no more -.^ she hasnt been around much....
