Talk:Duncan the Black/Archive 1

The picture is a litte hard to make out. Is it showing the monks as being completely out of range of the boss, with only the casters in range? Bcstingg 16:21, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Heh...even though it's extremely hard to kill this guy without mesmer, it's still extremely hard to find a group as a mesmer. Lightblade 04:21, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm Surprised no ones pointed out that its extremely SIMPLE to kill this boss. All you need is 2 necros (One SS one SV) 2 healers of choice and 4 other people to help those Ns and Mos get to duncan. The Necros sit in the safe from spirits corner doing their hex damage while the monks keep them alive. The other party members can /sit it will take a while but duncan will die. If you want to speed it up your eles can target the recuperation spirits to the left of duncan from the floor. Chukie1188 talk 14:31, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Strategies for beating Duncan the Black

File:Howtobeat duncan the black.jpg

Position when fighting Duncan

Discuss.

Using the strategy stated above and the placements in the pic, it is quite possible to hench Duncan. One necro with SV, Life Siphon and Signet of Sorrow should be in the corner with a target lock on Duncan (Signet of Lost Souls helps too once he's below 50%). One monk with PS and some healing is sufficient to cover the necro. One other should die nearby Duncan when he's at such low life SV no longer triggers, allowing the necro to spam Sig of Sorrow. Flag everyone else to take out the spirits by the edge (if you kept your distance, the other group of spirits will not have spawned until someone runs up to Duncan). This is a minimalist setup, and of course you can add more damage-dealers to speed up the process, but it worked for me. --Thervold 18:11, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Great Dwarf Weapon for physical damage dealers is also nice, noh? --86.90.168.85 15:25, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Might seem a waste of an elite but I imagine Consume Soul would work rather well against the Spirits, even if it 0 Spawning Power -82.2.61.111 17:39, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

The problem with Consume Soul is that, as soon as you kill the spirits, they will respawn again. One way to deal with them is through Swap - just have someone in your party with it, switching places with all the spirits until they're all out of range from Duncan. New spirits won't respaw since you haven't killed the old ones, at the same time you may just ignore the spirits if you place them far away from your party. This takes some time, but it makes killing Duncan a matter of time only. Erasculio 02:50, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I recommend Pain Inverter in 2 or 3 ppl of the party. This skill should put in the ele, necr or monk bar. With a tank, a bonder monk and a balanced party is so easy, only take care about the N-touchers before fighting with Duncan. GL to all --212.166.209.1 11:02, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

The pic is out of date. There is now 4 group of spirits total, one located at the bottom of the stairs. Swap is strongly advised for this group.

Hex last half duration

I found hexes last half duration on him. Time for Wastrel's Worry Lightblade 17:11, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

I think all the Life Steal also goes through Duncan's Defense, like Grenth's Balance and Angorodon's Gaze. I'll test this as soon as I get a group that trust me enough to let me to do this :-/ Lightblade 06:39, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

What makes it better is that GB and Demonic Flesh are core skills. Lightblade 06:42, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Nope...Duncan hits too hard and too fast for GB. And his health is too high. Lightblade 22:17, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Farmable?

After you defeat Duncan and your back to storyteller, BUT don't accept quest reward, can you now repeat Duncan endlessly, so that you don't have to kill other bosses again to get to him? - Hell Nirvana 09:35, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

No they fixed that a long time ago. Now you have to kill all the previous bosses before you can kill Duncan again. Did i mention 3 monks, 4 Ursan Blessing with maximum rank in Norn Title and 1 SV/SoS Necro does the job of the complete Slavers' Exile in Hardmode under 1h30m? Ursan is a bit lame, I can't argue with that. But we all want Onyx don't we? We all want Pyroclastic right? We all want to have cool stuff...

I guess when you put it this way, doing it the Ursan way, It is farmable...Since on hardmode you get double the chest reward. So you have a small chance to get 4 Onyx gemstones at once and 2 Deldrimor Armor Remnants. That's a lot of money in 90 minutes. Not to mention the rare skins and greens dropping from the chest.

Additional Spirit spawns

It appears an additional group of spirits has been added to Duncan's entourage, right at the base of the stairs. This rather eliminates the 'safe' zone for casters to hit him from in the corner. -- Wynthyst 03:22, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Aye. As it says above by anon, Swap makes this fight much, much easier.

lolz, remember to sign Ryu...--Ryudo 03:26, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Change Drops

They should make it so that in hard mode the drops are 1 armor remnant, 1 onyx, 1 GREEN item of his, 1 random. I got a diamond and another onyx that is pretty lame for the 3+ hours you put into all the areas.Shinjinbukai 07:36, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

If you were guaranteed a green drop they'd be worth less, so it's a trade off. I mean, Kerrsh's staff the quest reward is a great staff, same stats as Exuro's Will...and it doesn't go for beans. -Ruse 17:03, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I like the pink shield. Don't change the shield :) Pakuna 21:33, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Gaze of Fury

If you use Gaze of Fury on the spirits, will they still respawn or are they permanently destroyed? I notice they seem to have been permanently destroyed in other areas of Slavers -- I can't remember a respawn, but maybe we moved on too quickly for it to matter. -Ruse 17:03, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Gaze of Fury has the potential to agro extra groups. When Gaze of Fury is used the spirits will respawn. It is best to use Swap to move the Disenchantment away from the person that is killing Duncan the Black. If Swap is used the spirits will not respawn in the original location. Archangel Avoca 20:16, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Attributes

Are we sure he has 16 in Channeling? I think he has more since he can instantly kill a caster with 1 Spirit Rift --MageMontu 07:59, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Don't forget, if he's a boss he also does double damage GhostBear 15:10, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

And the Lightning damage gets boosted for the level difference before it's doubled. - HeWhoIsPale 15:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Erm, Duncan is not a boss but a Boss-Like Foe

Life Total?

Having a Necro constantly spamming Signet of Sorrow on Duncan takes around 12 minutes to kill him. The Recuperation Spirits at the bottom of the stairs were moved away onto the platform so they couldn't disenchant the Necro. It should be noted that the Recouperation Spirits were still in range of Duncan and provided hp regen (I believe it's either +3 or +4 pips). The estimated damage done over that time is around 54000 (720secs*75SoSdmg). Anyone know how much total hp he has? Tablett 04:20, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

I'll spitball 52560 HP if he had 4 regrn... Cuz he gained 2 HP a second for 720 sec. 54000-(720x2) = 52560. --67.86.84.167 03:59, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

+4 pip hp ist 8hp/sec so its 720 x 8 = 5760 54000-5760= 48240. But doenst he have a natural regerneation? --Kerigolas 15:07, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

He does have natural regen, probably a firm boss regen, if I had to guess. Twam Valandil 94.209.65.245 12:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Grenth's Balance

Anyone tried it ? since he has so much HP isnt this THE BEST choice ?--The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:85.168.232.38 (talk).

Haven't tried, but i would guess if you tried while being, let's say, at 50%, it would insta-kill you, since you would receive the damage back thanks to Duncan's Defense.--Fighterdoken 00:23, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Grenth's balance is life stealing, no? So its not technically damage.--Ryudo 21:42, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

People misunderstand how GB works - the amount of damage you do to them is capped at the maximum amount you can steal (ie your max health minus your current health). So if you got your max health up to 800 with demonic flesh then sacced down to 300 you'd do 500 damage max with GB, if you had 800/800 though you would do 0. 88.212.144.188 06:40, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Grenths balance also doesnt "inflict" damage, so Duncans Defense wouldn't work, GB-you gain HP=to the difference between you and target, that foe loses an equal ammount Asvern 02:48, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Life Stealing isn't damage so it will not trigger Duncans Defence is what your trying to say. Flaming Hot Chilli 07:18, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

use [these] to have higher hp then grenth him to death -Talamare- feedback 19:19, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Get to 8k hp and then infuse a couple of times to get to 1k/8k. THEN GB. Paddymew 19:45, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Additional skills?

While browsing through the skills in-game with Cheat Engine I found two skills that look like they could be related to this charming fellow. Could someone give their thoughts on these, if Duncan can summon spirits in one second and takes half damage from attacks? Even if they aren't skills on him they look like they could be related to him/the area. | Sounds Risky | 01:38, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Accourding to the monster skills page [1]those two skills do not exsist, did you make them up? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.234.38.234 (talk • contribs) at 23:17, 14 July 2008 (UTC).

First, sign. Second, note that Risky used Cheat Engine, finding these skills in the gw.dat file. Since he hasn't made any pages for those two skills, of course they're not going to be in the list. Besides, there are plenty of monster skills in there that aren't in the game, like Unlock Cell. Follow the wikipedia link next time. --Chaiyo Kaldor talk contribs 17:24, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Reference?

While reading Dragons of Dwarven Depths, I came to notice to a Dwarf hige-king named Duncan. Could be named after him? 89.138.178.218 07:38, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Next, we find out that two of the Ancient dragons are named Paladine and Takhisis. I think that Duncan sounds like a semi-generic dwarf name, but nicely spotted. Though I don't think that ANet would name a xenophobic dwarf who locks himself up in a mountain after... Oh wait, never mind, Duncan the Black is evil and the one in Dragonlance isn't. Since, unless I'm mistaken, no high-kings of Thoradin were Daegar or Theiwar. Paddymew 21:01, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Yay! Dragonlance FTW! :D Nay the One and Only 18:25, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

degeneration an answer by chance?

Since the great destroyer does not heal even tho its being degened be a simple monk, why not use health degeneration skills on him, he has not source of healing, damage done by degeneration is not considered damage, so it cannot be sent back, someone tell me if this might work, i also have never done this, tryin to get a group started, I JUST NEED STUPID DELDRIMOR REMNANT!!! --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:David117 (talk).

It may work with enough degen. I have been unable to fully test it, but i would say that, with two sets of spirits on, he has somewhere around +10/15 pips of health regen.

When i tried, took me 3 hours with a warrior using poison for degen (r9 longbow with zero archery, obviously) + empathy, so i would say the healing and regen the spirits provide has limits that can be worked with.--Fighterdoken 04:50, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Power Block

Easy to win with a power block mesmer or 2 you completely shut him down except defence skill (added by stamos) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.5.223.153 (talk • contribs) at 10:36, 21 August 2008 (UTC).

Degen works nicely

Doing this in HM with some friends and some heroes, they let me try degen on Duncan. I was running an A/N build with Spoil Victor and Pain Inverter. I threw in Black Spider Strike and Twisting Fangs. These were my only four attack skills, the rest of my bar was shadow walk, dash, swap and blood ritual (which I was using earlier in the level). We swapped key spirits (disenchantment, recuperation, shadowsong) away from the party and then I attacked. Duncan was dead inside three minutes - with more attack skills or if I'd been more ballsy in my attacks it would have been faster. The degen from poison and bleeding sped up the process though. --Nessarose 00:16, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

A PD or PB Mesmer and and a D/P Blind bot should be able to shut him down, he can no longer cast and he can no longer attack through blind, sounds good to anyone else? ~The Uz

would wail of doom work?

ok my idear is that wail of doom u could use to get his attribtes from 16 to 0 makinh him harmless is this the case?

Sure, but it only lasts 4 seconds; unless you had half your party carry it, it would barely make a difference. Also may be a bit difficult to get to him in the first place with half your party using Wail of Doom, which is a rather crap elite.

I'm pretty sure it only lasts 2 seconds on him. Paddymew 21:14, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Protective Spirit rocks this little guy

I came up with a nice strategy to beat this one and it came out to be great on HM! I went with my three friends there - me derv and 3 eles, and we took tripple necro and monk. After 'Swapping' all the ghosts out of range we all formed a small circle and placed all heros out of duncan's range but close enough to heal us. Eles started to spam Pain Inverter one after another and me in league with Olias spammed Protective Spirit on our little group. Duncan went down in... i don't know... 4 minutes? Maybe 4.5 ;) 212.122.218.135 01:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Easily H/H with BHA and swap

I used my R/A with swap and broad head arrow, but because of my inexperience there i gathered 60 dp right before Duncan. I cleared the area and used a powerstone, then used broad head arrow on Duncan as an opening shot. During the fight, i flagged them immediately whenever Duncan got a spirit rift casted. All I used was BHA, and my h/h did the rest in about ten minutes or so. They were Sabway necros (SV instead of SS), Mhenlo, Lina, Talon, and Herta (wish i didnt bring Herta, Duncan moving nearly got me killed due to her aoe spells). Also, considering his large amount of hp, I think if your party did get wiped, regen wouldn't do much for him (25k odd some hp above, dont think even 20 pips of regen would refill him in time)--The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Richtofram (talk).

Yeah, he's as harmless as a lamb once dazed or interrupted. The most annoying part of the dungeon is swapping the spirits and the most difficult probably getting to him.--The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:24.78.51.88 (talk).

I have always wondered what people without "Swap" do here... I used Empathy + degen, but sure took a while for him to drop dead XD.--Fighterdoken 09:02, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

I know first clear I did (without swap) I just brute forced him to death with a friend and 6 heroes lol. Not really that difficult a fight24.7.74.140 06:59, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Toucher

Would a toucher be able to kill Duncan like really fast and easily? I know the damage would be high if the toucher took anyway damage, but... If you had a good monk, with Protective Spirit, you could negate the damage, life steal and get past Duncan's Defense. --Warnlord 01:33, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Well one wouldn't, but if you had many then maybe, but then you've got the prob of killing the npc's just to get to him. Mortsu 10:34, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Disable and recharge?

Would spells like Diversion, Arcane Larceny, Arcane Thievery, and Smooth Criminal be effective on him? Does disabling or increasing recharge even affect him at all?

Distracting Shot works to disable spirit rift, assumable that other skills work too. Twam Valandil 94.209.65.245 12:20, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

What is the disable time? meaning, are disable times on duncan reduced by any %? If several people were to bring say, Smooth Criminal, could near all of his skills be constantly disabled (assuming max asuran rank)? 68.104.204.103 07:01, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Signet of Binding

I wonder what would happen if somebody would use Signet of Binding on the spirits?Because they don't get destroyed.And i wonder if something strange would happen if Duncan killed them. :o Super Range Ranger 20:14, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

ur idea was working right after they changed singet of binding,but they kinda fixed it,now only works again Enemy casted spirits,and not all those Spirits that just spawn at slavers.79.177.130.247 07:27, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Doesn't work against any enemy non-created spirits anymore, such as Spirit of Portals. Paddymew 04:37, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Vampiric Assault?

With 0 Dagger Mastery, wouldn't it be possible to spam Vampiric Assault + Moebius Strike on him for life stealing en masse as soon as he goes to 50% hp? It should minimize the "feedback" damage taken while healing oneself. The low attack damage might also be useful in conjunction with Nightmare Weapon. Paddymew 19:53, 20 October 2009 (UTC)