Wulfman

Not at all...just a word of encouragement that it can be done, and temps aren't necessary even though a lot of folks on other servers who have posted fast completion times have been unable to pull it off at all without them.

And yes, it can certainly be done faster, even without temps. We had a little bit of a delay on the obelisks, so we're looking to shave as much as 5 minutes off of that time on our next run.

Unfortunately, our guild has its villains on the Pinnacle server, so we simply don't have the toons on the server to do so. I know there has been interest expressed previously in a redside raid on Guardian, and perhaps even an attempt or two. But nothing successful to my knowledge.

There is a possibility that Going Rogue will potentially take some of our heroes down a darker path. If that happens, and I think we have enough to run an efficient redside raid, then our guild will be glad to do so--potentially even back-to-back with blueside on Wednesday nights. But for now, it's going to have to be someone else who takes the lead. Incidentally, the strat that we use for the public raids on the Pinnacle server (raids in 40 min or so from entry to exit) is posted on those forums, so anyone who wants to use it, feel free.

Glad to have you run with us, Muon. Allow me to address your comments and/or questions in order.

Yes, you ended up on the "catch-all" team so you'd have buffs going in and a tp/rezzer, if needed. Normally if you arrive a little earlier, we'll get you on a team that is led by the person you would target through.

For this strat, any tanker will work as long as it has two things: taunt and at least mag 10 KB protection. That may mean IOs and/or Acrobatics for some primary powersets, but nothing that's not fairly easy to attain.

Taunt ideally should have at least one level 50 range IO in it. This allows you to stay as far as possible from the mito you're taunting, preventing the splash damage from hitting the scrapper team when they come through, lessening the amount of blue mito aggro you get, and making it easier for the empaths to move around without having to enter the cyto.

Self heals are always helpful, but will sometimes be ineffective. This is because there is a -heal debuff that you can get on you--specifically when taunting Hami. This shouldn't be an issue taunting the yellow mitos, however. Also, that -heal debuff does not affect powers that increase your total HP, such as Dull Pain, so those powers are very nice to have. In addition, any powers that provide +regen are of significant help, since you will occasionally get green mito shots that carry a -regen debuff.

As for mez protection, your normal amount likely won't be enough if you start getting hit by blue mitos, as many powersets don't have fear protection at all. For this reason, the aggro team always has empaths on it to stack Clear Minds on you. So, again, any of the standard tanker mez protection powers will do.

Your Shield Tanker would, indeed, be a viable toon for the aggro team. You would want Active Defense and True Grit specifically, since one provides your mez protection and the other gives both +HP and +resistance to toxic damage (which is the only kind of typed damage in Hami at this point). If you're looking to build it specifically for using at Hami, get as much +HP in True Grit as you can.

As for other ATs and powersets that are uesful, you noted the main ones. Scrappers and blasters, as you mentioned, provide the raw melee and ranged damge that are needed to take down the yellow and blue mitos, respectively.

As for support toons, emps and rads will always be the most highly desireable, due to the nature and power of their buffs and debuffs. After those two, it is a bit of a dropoff to the next tier. Darks and Sonics and FFs are okay, since they each have an AoE toggle that provides some team mez protection, in addition to single target buffs or debuffs that can likewise be useful. And no one should ever complain about having a kin on the team. Most of the rest of them, specifically including stormers, traps, and trick arrows, don't really contribute except with their other powerset (whether holds or ranged damage).

I hope that helps. If you have any specific questions, feel free to drop me a PM.

If I remember correctly, one of the devs (think it was Posi) said in a Q & A that the Hamidon was hibernating or dormant or some such for now. Sounds like it might be a possibility down the road, but not for launch.

Saturdays are going to be kind of hit and miss for me over the next month or so, as I'll be traveling quite a bit for work. However, getting you the macros I use is no problem. Anyone in particular I should contact?

A couple of things:

First, our guild has its villains on the Pinnacle server, and we lead redside public raids over there. When Going Rogue hits, this may change, but nothing has been decided on that score as of yet.

Second, the exploration badge is under the water in the center of the crater where Hami spawns in the Abyss whether you spawn and defeat Hami or not, so there's nothing to prevent you from getting it even if you can't raid.

Last, there have been a number of folks who have expressed an interest in a redside Hami raid on these forums previously, but I believe they ran into a lack of interest/numbers. You may want to look at some of the older threads on the subject and get in touch with those folks to see if you can coordinate something with them.

If you decide to try to organize one, the villain strategy our guild uses to run public raids on the Pinnacle server is listed on those forums in a thread called "The Twilight Avengers Villaind Hamidon Raid Strategy", and is a modification of the blueside one we use on Guardian. If you have questions about it, feel free to give me a yell.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the heads up. Has anyone run an LGTF or a Hami raid to confirm that it's now working properly?

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this is the case. Of course, if it is, then I would prefer that he say that rather than posting a message that seems to suggest it will happening so quickly.

Honestly, I think the problem may be the difference between being "fixed" from a dev's point of view and a player's point of view. To the dev, it's "fixed" when the errant code is identified and corrected, regardless of when the actual patch will go through and the players will be able to experience it properly on the live server. To the player, it's "fixed" when it works the way it's supposed to on the live server (since that's what the players are paying for), especially when there were supposedly no changes made to the Hamidon or the mitos in i17.

Thanks.