Zuk Tips: A love letter from someone who actually sucks at PvM.

[Elder Toad]

Hey,

 

I’ve seen some people— @UnrealDream, @Burnwater H2, and im sure others-- talk about wanting to Zuk, but being intimidated by the fight.

 

I feel you.

 

I feel you so hard.

 

I just recently got my first Zuk kill, after a full ass week of trying, and I am no means any good at pvm. Most of my shit is on Revo+ still.

 

Reciept for how much Zuking i have done. I only have 3 igneous stones.

 

As someone who is absolute shite at PvM, and who is new to the fight, I thought I’d offer some tips that helped me and that I figured out along the way, that has made the fight smoother than before. We are just striving for smooth not easy.    

I’m gonna try to keep this to tips that I didn’t really see in videos and guides on the internet. I watched a lot of videos and a lot of them sucked. They weren’t geared towards the nervous boi I was.

 

Toad's Tips:

 

• Don’t let people tell you it’s easy. It’s not easy the first time, but familiarity will come with time and learning mechanics.

 

• The Fight follows the same overall structure as Fight Caves and Fight Kiln, it is NOT a safe death though!
  • This is an endurance test.

 

• Be okay dying.
  • Strive to die later and later in the overall fight. I died at waves 4 and 5 in the beginning, it felt awful and demoralizing, but felt good when I finally could make it to 12 or 13 consistently.

 

• Think about key binds.
  • While by no means required, I’ve deadass seen someone NM zuk on mobile, one or two keybinds can make things smoother.
  • I recommend have a shield swap with resonance and barricade bound.
    • I have my shield swap as down on my scroll wheel and reso/bari as a scroll wheel click or shift-click respectively

 

• Positioning is KEY, especially with the multi-Jad waves.
  • There are a few popular spots, try them out to see which makes the most sense for you.
  • It is easy to get overwhelmed and heal a lot, will be punished for over extending.

 

• Don’t worry about time.
  • There are some waves you can take all the time in the world to reset and re-center yourself. I recommend it.

 

• Devotion (ability) is a god send.
  • Switch your prayer to the style youre being ganked by and hit devo. It will give you some breathing room
  • Additionally, if youre caught in the lava rain during pizza, pray mage and devo will mitigate a lot of the DoT

 

• Count Zuk’s auto attacks.
  • Trust me. Being a fraction a step ahead of what’s going to happen makes the encounter a lot smoother.
  • Here’s how it is in my head
    • 3->Freedom->
    • 3->Surge forward and dive back->
    • 3->Dive->
    • [2->put on shield->1->Reso]->
    • 4->Anticipate

 

• During pizza phase, Dive on the mobs that spawn.
  • I kept fucking up my surges. I’d always surge into the lava rain.
  • Dive on the igneous bois, it will be a lot smoother.

 

• Below are some videos that helped me get a sense for the fight and build my confidence before i tried on my own.
  • AshShley's Guide
    • I Really like AshShley, she speaks in rhymes and has some gnarly innuendos, but her guides are approachable and encourgaing. We're all Baby Legends!
  • Jasper's Guide.
    • Jasper is so friggin dry and sterile, but he gives good tips. Take with a grain of salt, he is an old head who is playing on a young account, so his advice is...okay at best but not budget friendly. 
  • I don't like Init Yeah or Protoxx or any of those creators for how-to stuff. It's all very click baity and can be summarised as "Have BIS endgame shit." Not conducive to learning and feeling like you can be a part of the endgame.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Elder Toad

[Tristan]

As one who died many a times during pizza phase you could swap to mage prayer to buy you some extra time if you are standing in the fire  

 

I agree that it will take a couple of goes to get it unless you are already pretty proficient at pvm in general with abilities but once you get familiar with the mechanics it gets better  

 

Thanks for posting this Toad from your perspective. There are a couple of people around in the clan that may be able to help explain a few things to help as well  

[Hencherr]

it takes some getting used to! Congrats!

Nice breakdown of the fight!

another thing that is great is discord! when someone wants to learn they can share their screen and have someone guide them through the kill!