Trickster Chronicles: To GOC or Not to GOC?

I'm always one for pushing the limits to see what's possible and at what stage in the game certain things can be achieved.  Going forward with the Trickster class has given me ample opportunity to test those boundaries.  I didn't think to take footage of fights with King Marlone, Zombie King, or Giant Goblin King, but started sort of a trend with some footage on a fight with Torturer King.  That trend continues on with the Giant Orc Captain, the boss of the 6x Dungeon:  Land of Trials.



Giant Orc Captain (GOC for short), is a great boss to farm since many of his drops are highly sought after.  He is capable of dropping both level 55 and 75 blue set armors, GOC Weapons, and GOC rings.  The rings, if well statted, can bring quite a small fortune since these are typically the last set of rings most players use until they replace them 30 levels later with Paradise Rings at level 95.  So to say that he is a lucrative boss is definitely an understatement.


For this particular boss, I decided to test him out at level 61.  I was really tempted to go at 60, the earliest I could possibly go because of entrance requirements, but decided to hold off.  I got a Claw Swipe upgrade as well as a Claw Mastery upgrade once I hit 61.  Aside from a new weapon with significantly more damage, I'm basically tackling GOC with the same set up I used to farm TK.  +9 45 Assur Armor, +0 55 Compelling Pants, +0 Compelling Boots, +0 Level 46 Hat.  Jewelry remained unchanged.

I asked a few of my friends and fellow Tricksters if they had tried farming GOC or even attempting GOC once they hit 60, nobody I spoke to was successful at it.  I'm not at all saying they couldn't do it, but maybe they just aren't willing to burn a bunch of pots, scrolls, and possibly lose some EXP testing their limits.  Me, I don't mind so much.  So with my meager stats and stories of Tricksters getting "crushed" by GOC at 63, 65, and higher, I wasn't too hopeful.  I remember farming GOC on my Fighter, but that was ages ago, during the 89 cap and I had full +9 gear at that time including Sword and Shield.  So how would I fare?  Read on.

Over the course of an hour, I killed a total of three GOCs.  I spent some time waiting on respawns and clearing out mobs on the way also.  So I did get my licks in, but I also did die on two occassions.  Once the GOC's Nox minions are out of the way, the fight isn't all that difficult as long as you stay alert.  So after an hour, DaydreamBeliever - 3, GiantOrcCaptains - 2.  Sadly, no drops at all from any of the three kills despite have Warrant active.

GOC, like TK before him, is a chain stunner.  He'll continue to pour on the stuns blow after blow forcing you to sit there, taking impact damage from him while also weathering the DOT damage from his poison and the bleed that the Nox most invariably have also afflicted you with.  So if the Nox aren't taken out early, you're in for a rough, and expensive, fight.

With dungeon bosses, it's always best to take out the minions before actually fighting the boss.  In the case of some minions, like GGK's Imps, they have status effects that they can hit you with, in their case, stuns.  Noxes, as mentioned before, have a bleed DOT along with pretty decent damage, so the faster you can get rid of them, the better off you'll be.

As with all dungeon mobs, even the minions are a somewhat tough battle by themselves.  They don't hit as hard as the boss of course, but they do have a lot of HP which draws the fight out longer.  And since GOC is also standing there pummelling you, you'll definitely get stunned and take hits from all the mobs at once.  So as a Trickster, run your combos as you normally do on any high HP mob and take the Noxes out fast.  Once they're down work on GOC.

The GOC fight, once the Noxes are dead, is pretty straightforward, just working your combos, building up souls while trying to keep your DOTs always running.  GOC seems to have a higher resistance to poisons than TK did, but you can land them.

Farming GOC at this stage in a Trickster's life is probably not advisable.  However, if you had a full assortment of godly +9 armors and a better weapon than I do, you could probably enjoy moderate success.  With the fight shown in the video, I went through 26 HP stones, 8 SP stones, 9 T4 HP potions, and 6 T3 HP potions.  Huh, not as bad as I thought, but still, that's a really expensive fight considering the cost of potions.

So while it is possible to go out there and take down GOC early on, I wouldn't consider him "farmable" at this point.  So will I farm him?  I'm not really sure.  I did buy, but didn't activate, the 7-day Hunter's Warrants that were on BOGO this week.  I'm really anxious to hit 70 though so I can farm the King Kong Phino Kingdom Quest... I guess we'll see.