Problem with Serpent's Ire meta events and branded area of Vabbi.

[Amasage.6905]

So... after several tries at meta that is required to end funeral set i noticed that not many people wants to do this. Or maybe i'm just that unlucky? Or maybe it's stupid game design with lightning striking you every few second and annoying you to no end... Well Anet knows how to encourage people to explore... But seriously this thing need to stop or i don't know... GIVE MASTERY GRANTING IMMUNITY TO BRANDED STORM?!

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"Amasage.6905" said:

> So... after several tries at meta that is required to end funeral set i noticed that not many people wants to do this. Or maybe i'm just that unlucky? Or maybe it's stupid game design with lightning striking you every few second and annoying you to no end... Well Anet knows how to encourage people to explore... But seriously this thing need to stop or i don't know... GIVE MASTERY GRANTING IMMUNITY TO BRANDED STORM?!

 

Significant events provide djinni shields preventing them. Standing under cover prevents them. So, while I agree that it is a pain in the neck, and I'm *really* not looking forward to more brandstorm badness as we continue through the living story, they have already done a significant amount to help.

 

Oh, and in case you didn't know, the skimmer also makes you immune to the effects, so you can ride around all you want without being at risk until you dismount.

 

As to the meta, I'd suggest hitting up the TTS calendar, and joining them on one of their runs. They do good at this stuff, and it should help you complete the collection. :)

[Ayrilana.1396]

Some don’t do it because the rewards are terrible compared to other metas.

 

Some don’t do it because it requires players to put in some effort and use CC skills which is asking for too much.

[Blocki.4931]

You don't get hit by the storm during the actual event.

 

Killing the zealots, maybe. But it shouldnt be enough to kill you even while fighting them

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"SlippyCheeze.5483" said:

> > @"Amasage.6905" said:

> > So... after several tries at meta that is required to end funeral set i noticed that not many people wants to do this. Or maybe i'm just that unlucky? Or maybe it's stupid game design with lightning striking you every few second and annoying you to no end... Well Anet knows how to encourage people to explore... But seriously this thing need to stop or i don't know... GIVE MASTERY GRANTING IMMUNITY TO BRANDED STORM?!

>

> Significant events provide djinni shields preventing them. Standing under cover prevents them. So, while I agree that it is a pain in the neck, and I'm *really* not looking forward to more brandstorm badness as we continue through the living story, they have already done a significant amount to help.

>

> Oh, and in case you didn't know, the skimmer also makes you immune to the effects, so you can ride around all you want without being at risk until you dismount.

>

> As to the meta, I'd suggest hitting up the TTS calendar, and joining them on one of their runs. They do good at this stuff, and it should help you complete the collection. :)

 

The djinn shields can end up getting culled so that can get a bit tricky to notice.

 

Also such a mastery would only affect part of the first phase and only for people who don't have enough damage(or mess up their rotation ...) to kill the vets quickly.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I've been hosting serpent's Ire myself an hour before server reset every weekday... roughly. If health and schedule permits I do it. For reference, that is about an hour after this post is made. The hardest part of the event is getting everybody to bring good builds and follow directions. If that happens, then the event can be done.

 

First, a short primer: The event is divided into 3 segments

 

**Part 1**

Spread out along the ire and kill elites/vets. This will cause 5 Champion Forgotten Zealots to gradually spawn randomly throughout the map. They all have bounty powers, and they tend to spawn near a Djinn. You can't see them, until somebody attacks one. This will cause their event marker to appear for the entire map. So, if you see one, sound out then whack it. This part is pretty easy.

 

**Part 2**

All 5 zealots will spawn along the edge of the Ruined Mirror of Lyssa on the northern side of the Ire. They will be invulnerable, and they will start channeling an attack that wipes the entire area. They will also each give each other a standing buff that reduces all damage by 33%. In order to deal any damage, you need to break their bar. Then, the zealots will be vulnerable for 6-7 seconds, in which you can reliably damage them. Then they will get a break bar again, and you have to repeat the process.

 

*Because the entire second part of the event is a CC race and a DPS race, you need to bring as much CC as you can. Like, every utility should be CC.

*The only class that shouldn't do this is a chronobuffer, who's job is to give alacrity and quickness to the entire team.

 

There are two strategies, and both have varying levels of success. The first strategy is simple: spread out evenly among each of the 5 zealots, and have each time individually kill them. This strategy is simple, but it is easy to get wrong. The entire zerg needs to cooperate, and a lot of players simply will not, so you'll get a lopsided spread and everything fails.

 

The second strategy is the hybrid zerg strat. This strategy has 5 good CC classes spread out at each zealot. Then, one big zerg full of all the useless classes and builds. The 5 good CC classes will stun their zealot, allowing the feeble zerg to do damage to theirs. This will allow the zerg to kill the zealots one at a time, and each zealot death will make the event easier for everyone else. While this strategy is less fool-prone, it also requires a lot more people, since the big zerg just sort of scales up the one zealot they are fighting.

 

This is the only part that everybody fails on. Though sometimes people fail at part 3, it is rare. After successfully completing part 2, be sure to switch your build and gear back to one not wholly dedicated to CC.

 

**Part 3**

Two legendary mobs will spawn. Ysshi and Pekt Rag Grag. Pekt Rag is the hydra. Since Ysshi will revive Pekt Rag if it dies, it is best to simply ignore the hydra. If you have really formal group organized to do the event, one of the CC teams can be dedicated to distracting the hydra, since otherwise Pekt Rag will spam endless attacks on the group at large.

 

Ysshi is... a bit convoluted. But, thankfully, large numbers allow us to ignore most of his mechanics. There's only two in particular that you need to pay attention to. First, he has a shield that alternates between only allowing in melee attacks, and only allowing in ranged attacks. Keep in mind that this shield has a strict definition, so something like ground based AoEs will never be allowed in, ever. You'll need both a ranged weapon and a melee weapon to fight him. Second, at 25% health Ysshi will go invulnerable and start spawning sparks at the southern end of the square. If these sparks reach Ysshi, he will get buffed, so the entire squad needs to head south to kill the sparks. He'll spam this invulnerable attack frequently, and this will eat up most of the time of Part 3.

 

After Ysshi dies, kill Pekt Rag, and you're done.

 

 

**Important notes**

This is not a "play how I want" event. CC is poorly balanced across classes, so you'll specifically need classes that have good CC in order to do the event, and they'll have to be in power builds.

 

Personally I think this event should be nerfed. Fact is, commanding a map of random players is like herding cats. There's a reason why EVOS takes over an hour to set up Triple Trouble, and essentially only allows their own guild to do it. The shields that each zealot buffs out should be reduced from a 33% damage reduction to a 20% damage reduction. That would make the event a whole lot more fair, especially to condi builds that are otherwise useless.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Out of curiosity, I decided to do some math to see how well each class could use Hard CC, with a few notable mentions of immobilize, taunt, slow, and fear. I included those conditions because they are rare enough to not be permanent with a diverse group, and also strong enough to bear mentioning. The CCPS was obtained by diving the break bar damage of each skill by its recharge, assuming that the relevant skills have their maximum cooldowns reduced by traits (except for spike trap on rangers).

 

So far, here are the current rankings:

 

#1: Daredevil: 169.8 CCPS

Choking Gas: 100 +

Tripwire: 15 +

Basilisk Venom: 18.75 +

Interrupting Daggers: 18.75 +

Palm Strike: 12.5

Sleight of hand: 4.8

 

Thief stands on top. Hands down. In hard CC alone it is worth multiples of other classes. It also happens to inflict cripple and weakness passively. This class can output an immense amount of CC just by camping shortbow and spamming Choking Gas, and also by using their utility skills to fill in the blank spaces between spamming choking gas. It can be even higher with stolen skills.

 

#2: Berserker: 112 CCPS

Bulls Charge: 12.5

Kick: 18.8

Wild Blow: 16.6

Headbutt: 15

Backbreaker: 8

Staggering Blow: 8.3

Pommel Bash: 8.3

Tremor: 12

Earthshaker/Skull Crack: 12.5

 

Note: The burst skill is under the assumption that at least one bar of adrenaline will be filled within 8 seconds, which is the most efficient usage of the burst skills. Otherwise, the warrior is an obvious pick. Aside from its hard CC, it also inflicts cripple and weakness.

 

#3: Soul Beast: 109 CCPS

Hilt Bash: 7.5

Point Blank Shot: 12.5

Storm Spirit: 15

Spike Trap: 5.2

Wing Buffet: 9.3

Wing Buffet (SB):: 9.3

Charge: 13.3

Charge (SB): 13.3

Lightning Assault: 7.7

Head Toss: 11.6

Entangle: 4.2

 

This one actually surprised me. Originally I had thought that rangers were terrible. It turns out, only their weapons and utilities are terrible. The Soul Beast's ability to double up on pet skills adds a lot of additional CCPS, and the addition of the Rock Gazelle really adds to the hard CC it can output. After reading this, it makes me wonder why all the Soulbeasts I see were bad at doing CC. Maybe they just didn't realize that they should spam the merge to double up on CC skills.

 

#4: Renegade: 104.2 CCPS

Darkrazor's Daring: 50

Surge of the Mists: 37.5

Debilitating Slam: 16.7

 

Yes, just 3 skills. That's it. The last of the excellent good CC builds, and this one is low maintenance as can be. All you need to do is camp staff, and use Darkrazor's Daring whenever it is off cooldown. Non-Renegade builds can spam Energy Explusion instead, but they won't have the energy for debilitating slam, so they'll cap out at 87.5 CCPS. Surge of the Mists can be a bit tricky, and it can either be higher or lower than the number I listed.

 

#5: Holosmith: 93.3 CCPS

Net Turret: 6.7

Battering Ram 18.6

Big Ole Bomb: 13.3

Launch Battering Ram: 8.3

Net Attack: 4.3

Magnetic Inversion: 6

Throw Shield: 6.7

Prime Light Beam: 3.9

Holographic Shockwave: 15.5

Static Shock: 10

 

This one was to be expected. Though I honestly expected it to be higher, but sitting at 80 seems reasonable. The hardest part about this rotation is managing photon forge, which can lock players out of skills. Either way, the holosmith remains a good option, both because it has good CC and also because it can unload a lot of damage. Though in theory it can be higher by picking Tools over Firearms, the increase isn't that much.

 

#6: Dragonhunter: 81.6 CCPS

Banish: 12.9

Blinding Blade: 7.5

Bane Signet: 12.5

Hammer of Wisdom: 16

Hunter's Verdict: 3.75

Dragon's Maw: 2.5

Sanctuary: 12

Zealot's Embrace: 6.7

9.25 seconds of slow every 60 seconds,: 7.7

 

This is about where I expected it to be. Higher than expected, but otherwise incredibly low. I keep forgetting about the ammo mechanic, which really boosts up Hammer of Wisdom.

 

#7: Weaver: 65 CCPS

Magnetic Shield (150 + 200) x 2 / 60 = 11.7

Frost Bow: 10

LIghtning Hammer: 7.7

Tornado: 7.7

Polaric Leap: 6.7

Gale Strike: 6.25

Earthquake: 6.7

Updraft: 8.3

 

I was a bit surprised at how low this one is. The rotation gets really complicated, too. In order to pull off these mediocre numbers, you'd have to sequentially pick up and drop all three conjures both times, following through with alternating both sword skills in earth and air, finishing with Magnetic Shield which can be camped for an additional CC. Though Tornado does a lot of CC, it only does this once for the entire fight. Overall, I'm going to re-classify this one as a low CC class. Not only is it half of the excellent classes, but it is also cheesegrater on forehead levels of difficult.

 

#8: Chronomancer: 54.3 CCPS

For continuum split, I just threw together all relevant skills and treated it as if it were a single skill:

Continuum Split: Tides of Time (200) + Gravity Well (550) + Diversion (100) + Signet of Domination (300) + Mantra of Distraction (100) = 1250/105 = 11.9

Tides of Time: 5

Counter Blade: 8.3

Power Lock: 4.2

Signet of Domination: 8.3

Diversion: 10.5

Gravity Well: 6.1

 

This one utterly defied conventional wisdom. Originally, Chronomancers were excellent at CC, but with the change of phantasms, they no longer maintain permanent slow on all enemies around them. Without that 50 CCPS from perma-slow, what the chronomancer is left with remains a paltry shell of what they were previously capable of. Though the Chrono has a lot of high CC skills, these also have an immense cooldown attached to each of them. So something as massive as Gravity Well and Signet of Inspiration only come out to being around 6.1 and 6.6 CCPS respectively.

 

There is a great difficulty in this one. In theory, a lone chronomancer is the second worst CCPS out of any class. However, there's an asterisk. If you have a chronobuffer that is capable of giving their teammates permanent alacrity, this will increase all cooldown dependent CC by 20%. So, for example, the warrior changes from 112 to about 162, or a 50 CCPS increase. If you have a chronomancer buffing 4 warriors, that is the equivalent of doing 200 additional CCPS.

 

This makes the Chronomancer one of the lowest, and yet also the highest CCPS in the game. But, only if you can pulse out a lot of alacrity. Needless to say, the mirage is utterly terrible at CC.

 

#9: Reaper: 44.1 CCPS

Wail of Doom: 12.5

Grasping Darkness: 7.5

Executioners Scyth: 5

Terrify: 4

Spectral Grasp: 4.3

Summon Flesh Golem: 10.8

 

This one is no surprise. Necromancers just don't do a lot of control effects. The best thing that the reaper can do is maintain chill, and while this is does do 33 CCPS, they are far from the only class that inflicts chill. The scourge is far worse than the reaper, which makes me mad that there's always 5 to 10 scourges every time I host this event.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

I'm going to have to re-prioritize my recruitment. Currently, the standings are as follows:

 

(1) 70/100% boon duration Chronomancer

(2) Daredevil

(3) Berserker

(4) Renegade

(5) Soul Beast

(6) Holosmith

 

With everything else falling squarely into the "zerg" category.

 

EDIT: Missed a few skills on Soul Beast. They were better than expected.

[Khisanth.2948]

Grasping Darkness would probably just fall off the cliff ...

 

Reaper's Onslaught makes Terrify and Executioner's Scythe's cooldown a bit trickier

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I'm sure there are a variety of small changes and adjustments that can be made. These numbers were acquired with what can be done on an otherwise full DPS build with minimal changes. As it happens, a lot of the DPS traitlines also have traits that reduce the cooldown on certain weapon skills and utilities. But, there are some minor tweaks.

 

The overall point to all this is this: CCPS isn't balanced across the classes. When we're talking about DPS, all of the classes are in relative close tot each other. In spite of how much PUG raiders will whine, the difference between a pure DPS Spellbreaker and the Power Daredevil is only a 23% increase in DPS. It's really not much at all. But, the difference between a Daredevil and a Reaper in CCPS is 375%. That is, every thief is worth 3.75 Reapers.

 

Worst part is, this is all that assuming the _best_ CC loadouts for each class. I shudder to think what the Mirage, Scourge, Firebrand, and non-cooperative tempests are pulling. For luls, I once calculated how much CC I have on my scourge's DPS build, and it came out to something like 22.5 CCPS. I regularly run this in Thief, which means I'm as good as 7.3 Scourges...

[CptAurellian.9537]

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> Some don’t do it because the rewards are terrible compared to other metas.

>

> Some don’t do it because it requires players to put in some effort and use CC skills which is asking for too much.

Which creates kind of a vicious circle. With less people doing it, the chance of failure goes up, which again reduces the number of players.

 

@"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" : At least for DH, you forgot two things on your GS/hammer setup, namely Ring of Warding and the immobilise from Zealot's Embrace. That's another 10.4 CCPS.

[Khisanth.2948]

Meh just bring some spikey fruits and you have around 100

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

> @"CptAurellian.9537" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > Some don’t do it because the rewards are terrible compared to other metas.

> >

> > Some don’t do it because it requires players to put in some effort and use CC skills which is asking for too much.

> Which creates kind of a vicious circle. With less people doing it, the chance of failure goes up, which again reduces the number of players.

>

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" : At least for DH, you forgot two things on your GS/hammer setup, namely Ring of Warding and the immobilise from Zealot's Embrace. That's another 13.75 CCPS.

 

The zealots don't move, so the ring of warding does nothing. Zealot's Embrace adds another 6.7 though.

[CptAurellian.9537]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> > @"CptAurellian.9537" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > Some don’t do it because the rewards are terrible compared to other metas.

> > >

> > > Some don’t do it because it requires players to put in some effort and use CC skills which is asking for too much.

> > Which creates kind of a vicious circle. With less people doing it, the chance of failure goes up, which again reduces the number of players.

> >

> > @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" : At least for DH, you forgot two things on your GS/hammer setup, namely Ring of Warding and the immobilise from Zealot's Embrace. That's another 13.75 CCPS.

>

> The zealots don't move, so the ring of warding does nothing. Zealot's Embrace adds another 6.7 though.

 

Could have sworn that the ring once affected immobile targets if you placed it right in their hitbox, but the golem tells me otherwise. You're right, then.

[Pifil.5193]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> Worst part is, this is all that assuming the _best_ CC loadouts for each class. I shudder to think what the Mirage, Scourge, Firebrand, and non-cooperative tempests are pulling. For luls, I once calculated how much CC I have on my scourge's DPS build, and it came out to something like 22.5 CCPS. I regularly run this in Thief, which means I'm as good as 7.3 Scourges...

 

That's pretty damning for this kind of event, really, I not surprised that people are frustrated with it (it really doesn't help they don't show breakbar damage on the tool tips).

 

I've done it two or three times now but only when I had to for achievements (I'd never choose to do it for fun because it's not fun for me). When I did it I was on classes with the "best" breakbar skills for the classes, from what you've shown those were ineffective choices of class but I didn't realise just how ineffective until now.

 

If I ever have to do it again (and I hope they don't tie any more content to it) you can be sure I'll be running Daredevil.

 

[Zaklex.6308]

Supposedly this is the same event that drops a super, ultra rare mini(or minis), but no one wants to confirm that...I think that would up it's desirability some, but maybe not.

[Dante.1763]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> Supposedly this is the same event that drops a super, ultra rare mini(or minis), but no one wants to confirm that...I think that would up it's desirability some, but maybe not.

 

Thats the first time i heard about that o-o

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> > Worst part is, this is all that assuming the _best_ CC loadouts for each class. I shudder to think what the Mirage, Scourge, Firebrand, and non-cooperative tempests are pulling. For luls, I once calculated how much CC I have on my scourge's DPS build, and it came out to something like 22.5 CCPS. I regularly run this in Thief, which means I'm as good as 7.3 Scourges...

>

> That's pretty damning for this kind of event, really, I not surprised that people are frustrated with it (it really doesn't help they don't show breakbar damage on the tool tips).

>

> I've done it two or three times now but only when I had to for achievements (I'd never choose to do it for fun because it's not fun for me). When I did it I was on classes with the "best" breakbar skills for the classes, from what you've shown those were ineffective choices of class but I didn't realise just how ineffective until now.

>

> If I ever have to do it again (and I hope they don't tie any more content to it) you can be sure I'll be running Daredevil.

>

 

There is a bit of nuance to that ... you should try to avoid having more than 1 or at most 2 thieves in the same subgroup or you will have to coordinate your Basilisk Venom use. You also want someone around helping keep up the poison stacks to proc Choking Gas. Actual spamming of Choking Gas(instead of once every 3s) would burn through your initiative. As it is you use 4 initiative every 3s while regenerating 3 in that time period so you'll want something to gain additional initiative to sustain that 100 CCDPS.

 

[Downfall.4613]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> Supposedly this is the same event that drops a super, ultra rare mini(or minis), but no one wants to confirm that...I think that would up it's desirability some, but maybe not.

 

Problem with that is that anet keeps flooding us with all those minis. Hell I think PoF added over 30 minis and every lw episode is adding a bunch more. Who cares about minis at this point?

[Khisanth.2948]

The most expensive minis is the mini junundu. That meta doesn't seem especially popular either despite that.

[Pifil.5193]

Personally, I don't find minis all that appealing as a reward, especially as they've thrown so many of them at us recently, I do like the Inquest Assault Cube added last patch but, in general, I don't use them.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > > @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> > > Worst part is, this is all that assuming the _best_ CC loadouts for each class. I shudder to think what the Mirage, Scourge, Firebrand, and non-cooperative tempests are pulling. For luls, I once calculated how much CC I have on my scourge's DPS build, and it came out to something like 22.5 CCPS. I regularly run this in Thief, which means I'm as good as 7.3 Scourges...

> >

> > That's pretty damning for this kind of event, really, I not surprised that people are frustrated with it (it really doesn't help they don't show breakbar damage on the tool tips).

> >

> > I've done it two or three times now but only when I had to for achievements (I'd never choose to do it for fun because it's not fun for me). When I did it I was on classes with the "best" breakbar skills for the classes, from what you've shown those were ineffective choices of class but I didn't realise just how ineffective until now.

> >

> > If I ever have to do it again (and I hope they don't tie any more content to it) you can be sure I'll be running Daredevil.

> >

>

> There is a bit of nuance to that ... you should try to avoid having more than 1 or at most 2 thieves in the same subgroup or you will have to coordinate your Basilisk Venom use. You also want someone around helping keep up the poison stacks to proc Choking Gas. Actual spamming of Choking Gas(instead of once every 3s) would burn through your initiative. As it is you use 4 initiative every 3s while regenerating 3 in that time period so you'll want something to gain additional initiative to sustain that 100 CCDPS.

>

 

The thief can get weird at this part. Spamming choking gas is done in order to sustain a high enough poison count in order to proc the gas. How much poison is sustained depends on a lot of things. If players are using projectiles or whirl finishers, then the poison field can generate enough stacks with no problem. Having multiple thieves can more regularly sustain the poison threshold, though only one choking gas can proc every second. For all the reapers on the team, the threshold can be reached almost immediately, thus requiring no spamming setup at all. Also, if the daredevil uses Dagger/X in order to do damage, they can get additional poison procs to carry over to the next break.

 

The weird part is that the thief benefits from other classes using condi builds, which other classes ideally shouldn't be using. So, the thief does the best CC when other people can't or won't cooperate. Because of this, the thief's overall CC can be finicky. In my general experience playing the thief, I have enough poison stacks from spamming choking gas to permanently maintain 5 stacks, no matter where I am. But, I can also easily see other thieves having trouble in varying circumstances.

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Downfall.4613" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > Supposedly this is the same event that drops a super, ultra rare mini(or minis), but no one wants to confirm that...I think that would up it's desirability some, but maybe not.

>

> Problem with that is that anet keeps flooding us with all those minis. Hell I think PoF added over 30 minis and every lw episode is adding a bunch more. Who cares about minis at this point?

 

There are collectors that just have to have every single mini released...so someone must care about them.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

I tried the event for the 1st time this past week. I have all mounts and masteries but I was only able to DPS one of the zealots. The rest died before I could get there, and one I couldn't even figure out how to reach.

 

Worst experience I've had with any meta map to date.

[Donari.5237]

> @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> I tried the event for the 1st time this past week. I have all mounts and masteries but I was only able to DPS one of the zealots. The rest died before I could get there, and one I couldn't even figure out how to reach.

>

> Worst experience I've had with any meta map to date.

 

You don't actually need to dps the zealots personally, they just all have to die quick enough for them to regroup in the final fight area. If you were in a map that was killing them that fast, you were *lucky* -- next step was to go re-kill them in the flat area's perimeter. Again, you needn't personally tag any of them, as long as they go down fast enough (via enough cc hitting each of them that dps has a chance to kill) though it won't be hard to pick one to camp and dps so as to get tag credit, then the final pair of big bosses spawn. Ignore the hydra as it rezzes if killed, focus down the boss except when his sparks spawn at the south end and need to be murdered before they get to him, and you get the final chest once the zerg has killed the boss and then polished off the hydra. Check Blood Red Arachnid's post above for full step by step details.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Donari.5237" said:

> Ignore the hydra as it rezzes if killed, focus down the boss except when his sparks spawn at the south end and need to be murdered before they get to him, and you get the final chest once the zerg has killed the boss and then polished off the hydra.

 

A small group should pull the hydra away from the rest of the group so it shouldn't be completely ignored.