Plane of War - CoTF Zone Guide
The Plane of War is a zone that was originally supposed to be released during the Planes of Power expansion pack but it wasn't finished in time for release. Years later the zone was finally finished and released to the public during the Call of the Forsaken expansion pack. This zone has a lot of unique loot in it, such as Circle of Life, Power, Mana and the Soul of the Grandmaster shield aug as well as Stone of Judgment, the first +dodge aug since LDoN! There's a bunch more items but these are some good examples of what you can find here.
When you first enter Plane of War you will only have access to the northern most portion of the zone; the Field of Blood - this location is also shown in my screen shot above. There are a few different named enemies that you will find in this field, such as Diaku Redeemer, Gurrak Tyrant, Sheartooth Captain but none of them drop any sort of loot except a Zekarian Diamond which is used in the Field of Strife flagging quest. All of the nameds that drop actual loot are in the two Castles, the Mines of Narikor or the Field of Strife.
Throughout this zone you'll notice that the enemies use an extremely annoying buff called Quick Defense. This makes them almost entirely resistant to all forms of melee and spell damage (only a 10 - 20% chance your spells actually hit them). In addition to this, you'll notice that the enemies here have extremely weird agro. No matter how much agro you build, it seems like you always lose it so easily. These both are just "features" of Plane of War that you'll have to deal with while you're here.
It's up to you whether or not you want to stop DPS while the enemy has Quick Defense active or just DPS through it and hope you get enough spells/strikes to hit to kill it. The last thing your tanks should keep an eye out for is that players receive all the hate that their pets generate - some nameds even go out of their way to summon/kill pet owners just for using their pet.
In order to gain access to The Field of Strife you will first need to speak with Etsinthinikonarifet who is standing on the bridge that connects the two fields. Say tithe to him to begin the flagging quest for the southern portion of this zone. For more information on the Plane of War Fields of Strife & Mines of Narikor flag quest follow the link provided to that guide.
Click the map to enlarge it.
The Field of Strife is packed to the rim with enemies and most of them roam around unpredictably making it tricky to get through the field unharmed. If you're good at Frogger, it should be a piece of cake though. There's only one type of enemy that sees invis in this field, it's the Ogres. The best camp in the entire area is at the bottom right, down at the boars. It's the blue circles on my map above.
Boars are the best camp primarily because they don't have the annoying Quick Defense ability that all the other enemies do in the zone. They also have a great ability which makes them lock agro on the first target that attacks them for 15 - 20 seconds. So as long as you pull with your tank (or have the tank pull) they're a piece of cake!
Worgs in the west also don't use the Quick Defense ability - but they have super spotty agro which makes them rather annoying, especially if your group is poorly geared. Now, as for the named enemies... The only named that spawns in the entire field is The Judicator. This NPC spawns after you defeat a certain amount of enemies in the Field of Strife. You may notice, every so often you get an emote while hunting here...
You hear flapping wings in the distance (still awhile to go)
The sound of wings grows louder (he will usually spawn in 10 - 15 kills after seeing this)
When it's finally time for the Judicator to spawn, he'll spawn immediately on the death of an enemy. Right where their corpse is. The best item this named drops is Stone of Judgment. It's a Type 3 aug which increases your chance to Dodge by 10% - it's just insanely good. The last time an aug like this was added into the game was during LDoN so chances are this one is going to be good for many years to come.
The Judicator: Darksoul Staff, Sash of the Mender, Stone of Judgment, The Warlord's Blessing
The Judicator abilities:
Side Swipe - Knock back directional AE.
Weakened Defenses - No chance to block, dodge or parry attacks.
The other item that you will want to take interest in from The Judicator is The Warlord's Blessing. This item grants you access to Castle Rulnavis and Castle Tamriel which have more named enemies in each of them. Each time you enter a new castle, The Warlord's Blessing is consumed - so you will need to defeat The Judicator twice per character for two Warlord's Blessings.
Aside from Castle Rulnavis and Castle Tamriel, there is also the Mines of Narikor which you have access to already and the Grandmaster's tower at the most southern end of the zone. In order to gain access to the Grandmaster's tower you will need to complete all of the quests in the zone. Currently, I do not have a guide for that but I do have guides for each Castle and how to defeat the named enemies within them.
Additional Information
- In order to enter the Field of Strife and Castle Rulnavis/Tamrel you will need to complete the Plane of War flagging quest.
- After completing the Partisan and Mercenary quests in the zone you will gain access to The Grandmaster's tower at the southern most portion of the zone. This named drops a shield aug with a Lifetap proc!
- You can "cheat" with getting the Lifetap proc aug, all you need to do is complete the zone's Hunter achievement and you'll be able to select the shield aug as a reward. Of course, this means you'll need at least some people to flag themselves for The Grandmaster and defeat him - but you can fill up an entire raid and get them Hunter achievements just for the aug so long as you have 1 group to defeat The Grandmaster!
Plane of War Allakhazam Zone Information
Plane of War EQResource Zone Information