Kabal: Kaching or Karchng?

Kabal:
One of the four members of the Cloaked Ascendancy, the warrior of the group. Went missing around a century ago (i.e. 1385 DR) due to the Spellplague. Or sixty years ago due to the Spellplague if Braga and Lukan can be trusted.

Kaching:
Also known as the bling, USD, SGD, or whatever D. Arguably a word made famous by Shane O'Mac.

Karchng:
In Singlish/Hokkien, it refers to that other prominent part of the female anatomy apart from the boobs. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it merely means you're acting dumb because of that pretty girl in your workplace.

Fighting Kabal: Either kaching or karchng

Earlier tonight, I've finally started my first Kabal fight (i.e. the intro fight). A lot has been said about how absurdly hard this guy can get, then there are a few who actually said fighting Kabal can be very easy if we're talking abt a solo mano-a-mano. So which side is telling the truth? Is it really possible for the outcome to be a kaching? (read: victory) Or is it true that chances are that any solo fight will end up to be a karchng? (read: defeat)

Note: My intro fight against Kabal went worse than expected. Nevertheless, this is a fight which Deadpool can easily win for a very good reason.

Déjà vu, anyone?

If fighting Nostura requires a Daytona victory, then fighting Kabal is bound to give you a sense of déjà vu in ways more than one. Firstly, we get to "see" the devs once again. Last time round, they got stuck in the middle of the Sea of Moving Ice. No matter how hard you tried, they just couldn't be bailed out. This time round, they survived the Sea of Moving Ice, only to find themselves in Kabal's backyard for reasons unknown.

Apart from "seeing" the devs doing a Kenny McCormick, another sense of déjà vu lies in doing a Super Mario. You have to jump from platform to platform, the only problem lies in the various flamethrowers deployed at the left-hand side. You're promptly reminded of that crazy Stagtona race to Nostura's fortress where that damn animal is always moving slower than your 70 yr old ah-kong (or ah-ma for that matter). Not only that, the flamethrowers reminded you of Lukan's flamethrower in the Illusionist's Gambit (basically the best skirmish so far in the game, even more so than Prophecy of Madness and Throne of the Dwarven Gods).

Thankfully, running and jumping around the stage like Super Mario and his BFF Yoshi isn't that scary. In fact, you shouldn't have a problem with it if you're actually good enough to do a Stagtona. Let me be frank here. My first try ended up in a fatality, but that's partially (or totally depending on how you perceive the situation) due me messing around. I wasn't serious in trying to survive the first try since it's just a game, not a real-life Game of Thrones where you either die or win the Khaleesi's favor.

After dying once, the game was very clear to me. Either you dodge or dash. If you're an oathbound paladin or guardian fighter, don't bother pressing shift. Just walk through the gauntlet like a boss, but please analyze the pattern of the flamethrowers so that you can time your walk properly (read: knowing when to press forward without pausing). It's far easier than the Stagtona. That bloody animal took me 3-4 tries at least to get through, so doing the platform jump wasn't much of a big deal after the first respawn.

In the first stage, there are several switches placed in between the platforms. Once you switch them off, the flamethrowers will be deactivated. Not all of them, though. If you're running this on solo, then it's not important since you'll end up reaching the next respawn point before reaching the switches. If you're running this as a group, however, it's very important for the first person to switch off the flamethrowers. This is to ensure no accidents will happen in the process. Once the fire gets you, you'll be shoved off the platform like how Ashara Dayne threw herself off the cliff last time round. It may sound funny, but I'm sure there are those who got it from Kabal in the process of platform jumping. Just don't ask me whether there's a female human devoted cleric toon named Ashara Dayne.

Take note that the final lap of flamethrowers does NOT have any switch. In other words, you'll have to time your walk like a boss. Any attempt to dodge will most likely end up in failure since I'm sure the fire will just ignore the dodge invincibility. At the same time, the angle is quite weird. Very weird tbh. Not the normal horizontal direction, but rather diagonally towards you. On this front, you have three cannons in a row. Once you get past the first cannon, do NOT stop. Just keep going unless your toon is a female human devoted cleric named Ashara Dayne.

Taking on the mob

Unlike Nostura who prefers distributing her forces, Kabal enjoys placing all his guards at the gate. If you're to ask me, the only problematic guy is that dreadnought with a flaming head. At the same time, please try to stay around the center of the platform. Some of Kabal's minions will just self-detonate upon being killed, with certain Kabalites (i.e. Kabal's minions) more than capable of blowing up the surrounding area even before they die. What this means is very simple: Stay too near the edge and the explosion will just throw you off the platform.

This is basically the kind of fight where you really have to end it asap. If you can do that to Kabal's flaming dreadnought, it shouldn't be an issue since that damned dullahan would always pull off its Sherman Scorched Special. Just make sure you adopt a hit and run approach unless you're confident enough to survive its 3 hit combo.

Taking on the Kabal

Disclaimer: I got myself killed early in the fight because my reconnaissance tactic during any fight involves messing around without taking the fight seriously. As such, some/most of the things I say below are either speculative or something the devs will try pulling off in the future since they're officially in the business of reviewing the difficulty level ever since mod 7. Either way, I'm sure my analysis should be at least theoretically right on a tactical scale.

That's where most gamers start complaining while their minority counterparts mock their whining. The terrain is that of an arena. Sounds simple enough? There are two ways to court outright fatality. The first is taking to the center stage when Kabal starts filling it with magma. In this instance, stay at the edge. If you're within the detonation knockback zone in case any Kabalite self-detonates, don't face your back towards the center. This will be a tactical fight where most likely 60-70% of the action will take place along the edge. By comparison, fighting Nostura is much more straightforward since you only need to survive her Death Star attack while taking out the blue flames. You may need a few respawns to get things right, but once you get the hang of it, the fight should be relatively easy.

If Kabal moves to the center, don't follow him. Just bait him to the edge where it's pretty much the safe zone. If you're running this fight as a trickster rogue, use ranged at-wills like Cloud of Steel and Disheartening Strike to bait him. If you're a great weapon fighter/guardian fighter, just take him on, taunt him, and pull him back to the edge. If you're a combat HR, just go ranged stance and do the standard ranged baiting. The only problem lies in the scenario where you're an oathbound paladin choosing the Oath of Devotion. That's where your taunting game is deemed nigh non-existent at best, the square root of sod all at worst.

The key aspect of Kabal's fighting style is his super armor. More specifically, I'm referring to the fact that he's quite literally damage proof 90% of the time. Why I say 90% instead of 100% is very simple. Thanks to the members of my guild alliance, I've gleaned a couple of useful info.

1. Detonating Kabal's golems will ensure his super armor temporarily gone. Please note that for this to work, Kabal has to be in the self-detonation AoE. This is basically the tank approach where all you need to do is to take Kabal head-on, super armor or no super armor.

2. If you get caught by one of Kabal's chains, don't stay put. It will pull you towards a fireball facing your sorry karchng. Once the fireball explodes, it's one shot fatality and #respawnlol in every sense of the statement. However, moving towards Kabal in an act of defiance against the law of physics (since the chain will really pull you towards the opposite direction) will reward you with a Kabal tasting his own medicine. Just make sure the fireball gets his karchng instead of yours. Credit goes to Malakut (aka the tankiest control wizard) for this tip.

Note: More oft than not, there will be a higher number of gamers doing lfg requests for Kabal and Gyrion fights. While I've yet to try taking on Gyrion, I find that party raiding Kabal's base can be very easy once the super armor goes down. Unless you're game for a challenge, please look out for such requests in the zone chat.

Vital tip: If possible at all, use a movement food/potion buff unless you can move fast enough to avoid death by a flaming morningstar. Period.

P.S: Originally, I intended this post to be much longer since I do have the tendency to go OCDP mode in everything I do, if not most. However, I need to start disciplining myself for the sake of my future. Last thing I ever want is my super mignonne stickwoman worrying over my wellbeing.