Call Me Awesome

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After the Raid Leader decides Hami is solidly held, the call will be made for debuffs on Hami (Rad Infection, Enervating Field, Lingering Radiation, Tar Patch and similar) and the damage from the holds (holders, never stop spamming your holds until Hami dies!) will take him down.

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I've never participated in a Hami raid, but want to. This is the only part that seems a little off to me, so I want to be sure I understand what you're saying. Unless I misinterpretted, all damage will be done via the holds? I did read in an older guide that there is a damage phase (after the hold phase)when blasters do the majority of the damage. Is there a reason this isn't preferred anymore?

This is a very thorough walkthrough, and I can tell you know what your talking about. I just want to be absolutely clear on the process before I participate.

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Nope, no damage phase needed, and indeed it's dangerous to have one. On Guardian last Wednesday's raid we had 70+ people in the hold team, lag was attrocious and it took almost 20 minutes to kill Hami. Saturday we attempted to limit the hold team to only controllers and rads (for the AM), we had probably around 35 holders and Hami was held and dead in 10 minutes. There was little lag so everything went MUCH faster; after debuffs were called for Hami was dead in less than 5 minutes.

There are two problems with a damage phase, first more people in the goo = more lag which makes things take much longer and more importantly, the worse the lag gets the more chance of people disconnecting... if the holders end up getting DC'd by the lag then the hold mag on Hami drops and Hami can break free and spawn his "Yellow Dawn" leading to death for everyone in the crater, a failed raid and closing off any chance of a new raid until a server reset clears the 100+ mitos.

So, if you're not a controller or a rad then just get your hit and chill out on the rock, it won't be long before you get your HO. 30 holders and 10+ AM's are PLENTY to get the job done, and it goes much faster without all the lag. Our experience on Guardian shows this off, Wednesday raid had 70+ in the hold team and MASSIVE lag and the hold phase took 20-30 minutes. Additionally we constantly had people getting DC'd due to lag. Saturday we limited it to controllers and rads, we had maybe 30 in the hold team and the hold phase took less than 10 minutes from start to finish.

Nope, no type of defense applies, nor does any stealth power, Hami & the Mitos see thru Invisible at a considerable range. Phase Shift DOES protect you however, but since the nerf to the duration it's of limited use. On that score, I assume that Hibernate from Ice Armor would likewise protect you for the 30 seconds of it's duration.

Hami himself is Auto Hit with his attacks; I'm not sure about the Mitos but I've never known them to miss. Just for giggles I tried eating 8 lucks and taunting a blue mito, in 10-15 some odd attacks it never missed. Also, orange insperations have absolutely ZERO effect on the incoming damage.

So the bottom line for Hami is to forget you have any defenses, since effectively you don't Your defense is healing back the damage before it kills you.

Yeah, that's strange, I've never seen that problem on Guardian, and I've never heard of it anywhere else.

Guardian's the only server I've got Hami-level toons so far, but none of the three of my 50's have seen this before.

Interesting, the last couple raids I've gotten a 51 or better SO drop from each bud I did 51% of the damage to. It IS random as to what origin the SO may be though.

About the blank map, I don't know what's happening with you, but the Hive most deffinately does NOT black out for me, it behaves just like any other hazard zone, it's black where you've never been but it's revealed anywhere you've been to on that character. Maping the place works just fine. Like any map, if you go in with a different character who's never been there then sure, it's black. Any character who's been there before has the map revealed.

Yep, that's gone into in some detail in my Main Taunt Tank guide; this was intended as a more basic beginner's guide. When I'm taunting that's usually my job, provided Hami doesn't vanish on me.

Hamidon Raid, or, just what the heck is all this stuff that's going on?

Everyone's always confused about what's happening at their first Hami Raid, so I put together this little guide to try to explain just what's happening, and why everyone's doing whatever their doing. Basically what people are doing is trying to defeat the most powerful entity in the game; the reward for this is a Hamidon Origin (HO) enhancement that will act as two SO enhancements in a single slot (or as 3 SO's for some types of HO)

Here’s the Hami-O enhancements and what they do, unfortunately you take potluck as to which enhancement you receive:

Ribosome Exposure – Damage Resistance and Endurance Reduction
Golgi Exposure - Heal and Endurance Reduction
Cytoskeleton Exposure – ToHit Buff, Defense Buff and Endurance Reduction
Membrane Exposure – ToHit Buff, Defense Buff and Increase Attack Rate
Nucleolus Exposure – Damage and Accuracy
Centriole Exposure – Damage and Range
Peroxisome Exposure - Damage and Mez Duration (Holds, Immobilize, Disorient, etc)
Endoplasm Exposure – Accuracy and Mez Duration (Holds, Immobilize, Disorient, etc)
Enzyme Exposure – ToHit Debuff, Defense Debuff and Endurance Reduction
Microfilament Exposure - Travel Speed and Endurance Reduction
Lysosome Exposure - ToHit Debuff, Defense Debuffs and Accuracy

If you don’t get a HO you can use then you can trade it to someone for one you can use. There’s an informal value ranking to the various HO’s with Ribos, Golgis, Cytos, Nucleous & Membranes being more valuable and Microfilament & Lysos being least valuable.

BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT HAMIDON:

Hamidon (Hami) is a large purple ovoid floating in the center of a mass of "goo" (usually referred to as jello). He is surrounded by 33 smaller spheres called Mitochondria (Mitos) which come in 3 types. Mitos are all AV class enemies, Hamidon himself is a unique class, a Hamidon class entity.

Mitochondria Antibodies (or Yellow Mitos) - there are 17 of these, they have a single target blast doing UNTYPED damage so no defense or resistance powers in the game will help. Every 4-5 seconds they will fire off their attack doing around 750 points of damage to a level 50 hero with an additional DOT of about 4 ticks of 50 damage.
Mitochondria Electrolytes (or Blue Mitos) - there are 8 of these, they have a stun/hold attack that also fires every 4-5 seconds, fortunately it does no damage and any mez shields work fine against them.
Mending Mitochondria (or Green Mitos) - there are 8 of these, they have no attacks, they simply heal damaged Mitos and Hami himself.

Hamidon himself attacks with an AOE attack every 4 seconds that does 935 points of damage to a lvl 50 character. It's UNTYPED damage, so defense or resistance DO NOT APPLY, the only defense possible is healing the damage before it kills you. This AOE has a very large radius, roughly the same as the radius of a blaster nuke or a defender’s RA.

ARRIVING IN THE HIVE:

It’s confusing the first time you arrive in the Hive at the Rock (a flat rock just south of Hamidon where everyone gathers prior to begining the raid). The Hive itself is a dangerous place entered from the far side of Eden filled with level 48-50 Giant Monster class Devouring Earth, and swarms hang around high in the sky. You must have attained level 45 to enter the zone. To get to the Rock once you enter the Hive head northwest from the entrance, the Rock is at the Southern edge of the crater in the middle of the zone where Hamidon is. The Monster Devouring Earth that abound in the Hive have some nasty attacks so avoid them on your way. Also be careful not to fly too close to the Swarms as they have a -fly and -TP on their attack unlike the normal DE Swarms outside the Hive. This effect will last for FIVE minutes, so don’t aggro them! Use caution when you head to the Rock, or have a teammate TP you. If you don’t have any teammate there already call in broadcast and someone will probably be able to help.

As a kind of guidepost, Hamidon is in the exact center of a huge crater in the exact center of the Hive; the Rock is due south of that point at the edge of the crater.

A FEW GROUND RULES FOR THE RAID:

1. The REQUEST channel is reserved for the Raid Leader, Drop team Leader, Main Assist and Main Taunt Tank, do not chat in this channel please. BROADCAST and LOCAL are the channels used by all other raiders.
2. Listen to what the Raid leaders tell you to do
3. If you’re not the Main Taunt Tank NEVER taunt Hamidon, and NEVER run your taunt aura while in the goo.
4. Be courteous in what you say and do; don’t be disruptive. Everyone’s here to have fun and get their shiny new Hami-O enhancement.
5. If you’re confused about what to do, ask any of the experienced raiders, they’ll be glad to help you out. Most servers have a first time raider channel, I recommend joining it and asking any questions there.
6. Above all, enjoy yourself. The raids are a chance to socialize with your friends as much as a chance to get that new HO.

Depending on your server, there may be some differences in the strategy, this is what happens on Guardian:

INITIAL RAID SETUP:

The Drop Team will form up at the start, this team consists of up to 8 (or more) Illusion controllers who will fly directly over Hami (at a considerable altitude to avoid aggro) and drop Phantom Army on Hami's... well, he doesn't have a head, but you get the idea. Usually one of the Ill ‘trollers has group fly to get them all airborne (important info about group fly, the person with group fly will fly FASTER than everyone else so the rest can fall out of fly. The GF person should FOLLOW someone else who can lead the way so everyone flys at the same speed) Lately the Drop Team will dive down to drop the PA in a “triangle” pattern, with two sets on either side of the Mito clearing team and one set on the other side of Hami to get maximum mito aggro.

While the Drop Team is forming, the Mito clearing teams are also forming. Specific team composition is unimportant, but the GROUP of Mito teams need the following: At least one toon with force field dispersion bubble OR sonic dispersion bubble to protect from mez, (you may remember the description of the Blue Mitos having a Stun/Hold attack, this protects the Mito team from that) a number of toons with an aoe heal (vital, this is the only defense from Hami & the yellow mitos) who will set their heal on autofire. Everyone should either fly, or join a team with group fly. Some servers also use teams with Inertial Reduction to jump up to engage the Mitos. One person will be the designated "Main Assist", or MA, and everyone in the mito group will add them to their SERVER friend list, target them and follow. A good option is to create a macro to target the MA, it would look like this: /macro MA “target_name joe blow” assuming that Joe Blow was the Main Assist for the raid. In all likelyhood this is the team that you will be joining as a new raider, just follow the MA and do what the MA says.

While the Drop and Mito teams are forming the Taunt team will also be assembled. This team will have one tank with a well-slotted Taunt and a HP boosting power such as Dull Pain, at least 3 Empaths to heal the tank, one Kinetic to keep the team speed boosted and heal the tank with Transfusion, one Force Field or Sonic Dispersion bubble to protect from Mez and one Grav or Ice controller to provide a pet for the tank to target thru if Hami vanishes. For more information about this specific team, refer to my guide on Hamidon Raids - A Main Taunt Tank's guide.

Once the teams are formed up then we start the Raid which is divided into two different Phases, the Mito Phase and the Hold Phase.

MITO PHASE:
Once all teams are ready and the Drop team has started dropping PA on Hami the Mito team will go in and begin clearing Mitos, starting with those in the Southern area of the goo. The MA selects which Mito the Mito group will attack and guides the group thru the process. Everyone in the Mito group will attack the MA's target with ONLY SINGLE TARGET ATTACKS. AOE & CONE attacks will draw more aggro on the group and should not be used. Anyone with a single target HOLD should use it, if the Mito isn’t held when it dies it can “Split” or summon a new, healthy Mito in it’s place. Make sure you cycle thru your attack chain so we can kill the Mitos as fast as possible.

During the mito clearing phase, please turn OFF all defensive toggles, except for mez shields, these have no effect and just add lag. Tanks especially MUST turn off any taunt/damage auras! These include Invinceability, Mud Potts, Blazing Aura, Chilling Embrace & Icicles.

After a “wedge” is cut in the Mitos the Taunt team will move in and get Hami’s aggro. Beware of getting too close to the Main Taunt tank, he’s getting hit by a 935 HP AOE attack every 4 seconds.

After all Mitos are gone everyone except for the Taunt team will exit the crater and regroup at the "Rock"; the main meeting point in the Hive. At this time everyone who isn’t a member of the Hold team will get ONE hit on Hami to secure a HO. Check your combat log to make sure you get a SUCCESSFUL hit, you must do at least 0.1 HP of damage to Hami. After you get a hit on Hami PLEASE leave the crater and return to the Rock. If we have too many people in the crater during the Hold Phase then LAG can become a huge problem, potentially causing people to disconnect or mapserver and the raid to fail.

HOLD PHASE:
Next the "Hold" team, composed of all characters with a HOLD power or Rad characters with Accelerate Metabolisim sets up on the opposite side of Hami from the tank and proceeds to spam holds on him (Please, only use holds, no immobilize, no slow, no debuffs). I STRONGLY recommend putting your single target HOLD on autofire. At the same time Rad defenders & controllers will cluster in the center of the hold team (preferably hovering over them for maximum coverage) and spam AM. All members of the hold team need to be tight together for maximum benefit from the AM, typically we get 12+ AM's on each person. Kinetics also spam speed boost on the controllers in the hold team. Gravity & Ice controllers as well as Dark defenders should summon their pets, ONLY Singularities, Jack Frost and Dark Servants should be summoned. Other pets don’t contribute to holding and just add to the LAG.

Please, when you join the Hold team, DO NOT use Healing Aura, RA’s, Storm powers or any Kinetic powers except speed boost. Heals are no longer needed and these powers add massively to the LAG. The only powers that should be used are HOLDS and AM. A HOLD power is any power that will take a HOLD duration enhancement. Telekinesis as a toggle hold is one of the very few exceptions to this. DO NOT cast any debuffs on Hami until the Raid Leader asks for them.

Everyone in the Hold Team should target thru a Singularity or Jack Frost pet since lag will frequently cause Hami to disappear. Once Hami is solidly held, which will be after about 5 minutes of seeing HOLD animations at the base of Hami (Hold animations would include the Earth HOLD Fossilize or Ice HOLD Block of Ice, these are the easiest to see), the Raid Leader will call for debuffs to be applied to Hami. DO NOT EVER STOP SPAMMING HOLDS ON HAMI! Hami tends to vanish when lots of people are around him, so to maintain target on him ALWAYS target thru jack frost or singularity pet (never dark servant, they're time limited and expire requiring you to locate another pet to target thru).

Here’s a helpful macro that everyone in the hold team should create:
/macro sing “target_name singularity$$target_name jack frost”
This will automatically target the nearest Singularity or Jack Frost pet, MAKE SURE you’re targeted thru one of these pets.

I know I’m harping on targeting thru a pet, but at some point during the hold phase Hami will probably vanish on you, that’s why you must target your holds thru a pet. If Hami breaks free of the holds after we have his health below 50% he will “pop” and summon a yellow mito next to each person and pet in the crater and the raid will fail. Please don’t let this happen and always target Hami thru a pet.

After the Raid Leader decides Hami is solidly held, the call will be made for debuffs on Hami (Rad Infection, Enervating Field, Lingering Radiation, Tar Patch and similar) and the damage from the holds (holders, never stop spamming your holds until Hami dies!) will take him down. Please DO NOT put any debuffs on Hami until the Raid Leader calls for them or we’ll have to start over. If we get debuffs on Hami before he’s held the hold damage could take his health to the critical point and he would pop and spawn dozens of new yellow mitos on top of everyone in the crater. Once Hami dies, you get the HO (make sure you have a slot in your tray for it!) and Hami buds spawn, one for every person & pet in the crater. They drop level 51+ SO's when killed, and they're not terribly dangerous. Kill them for the SO's.

A QUICK DEFFINITION OF A HOLD:

Any character with a hold can help hold Hami subject to the Raid Leader’s decision. Generally a HOLD is defined as any power that will accept a HOLD duration enhancement. In addition to the obvious hold powers of controllers there’s many un-obvious holds with other AT’s. All AT’s have an option for a hold power in their EPP, and many have a hold as a secondary effect in their primary/secondary. For example, Tankers have a high-MAG hold in Super Strength - Knock out Blow and Stone Melee - Seismic Smash; Peacebringers have a hold in Incandescent Strike, Warshades in Gravity Well; Electric Blasters have holds in some of their primary attacks and so forth. Any power that Stuns, Immobilizes, Sleeps, Confuses, Disorients or Fears is NOT a HOLD and should not be used. There’s been some discussion about it being dangerous for a Tanker to use his hold in the Hold team but there is no danger of a tanker in the hold team stealing aggro from the Main Taunt Tank by spamming his hold attack, the only way that could happen is by deliberately taunting Hami or running a taunt aura. On Guardian we’ve been using Tankers in the Hold team since the start if Issue 6 and we’ve NEVER had them steal aggro from the Main Taunt without them DELIBERATELY taunting Hami.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT:

The biggest problem at most raids is LAG, to minimize it you'll want to reduce your graphics settings to a minimum level, turn off all effects and eye candy, and also turn off "display hero name". This should get you the best performance possible, but still expect massive lag at times. If that’s still not good enough consider reducing your screen resolution. Also, everyone should use a costume WITHOUT a cape or aura to further reduce lag. Turn off all defensive shields while in the mito & hold teams, they have no affect at all on Hamidon or Mito damage. The sole exception to this is any status protection shields, these ONLY should be run.

Hamidon Raids - a Main Taunt Tank guide.

FIRST, A LITTLE BACKGROUND:

Hami fires an AOE attack every 4 seconds that does 935 HP damage to a level 50, and because it’s UNTYPED damage and AUTOHIT (at least I’ve never known it to miss in dozens of raids) no defense or resistance applies. Orange Insperations, temp powers such as the Wedding Band, NOTHING will protect from it. OK, since defense is impossible we have to rely on healing to survive. A typical Heal Other from a level 50 Empath is around 500hp, and it recycles in around 2-3 seconds, therefore the tanker requires at least 3 Empaths on the heal team to safely keep up with this damage.

Additionally you also have the Mitos to worry about, the yellows fire a single target attack dealing around 750 HP with an additional DOT for several ticks of around 50 HP. The blue mitos have a Hold attack that your heal team will need to be protected from by either a Dispersion Bubble/ Sonic Dispersion Bubble or keeping everyone covered with Clear Mind. The green mitos have no attacks and may be ignored by the Taunt team.

TAUNT TEAM COMPOSITION:
Ideally a taunt team will consist of the following; one main taunt tank with a well-slotted taunt and a HP boosting power (Dull Pain, Hoarfrost or Earth’s Embrace), at least 3 Empaths to provide Heal Other to the tank and heal aura to each other at need, one bubbler to provide the dispersion bubble, one kinetic to speed boost the team and provide transfusion to the taunt tank and a Gravity or Ice controller to provide a pet to target thru in the Hold Phase. Storm defenders/controllers can also fill some of the healing required with O2 Boost. Depending on the controller’s secondary you may get two jobs with one toon. A secondary tank can be useful keeping some mito aggro away from the healers if you need to enter the goo early.

BEFORE YOU ENTER THE GOO:
As the Taunt tank you should make the following 4 macros...
1. I’m your Main Taunt Tank tonight, please stay away from me while I’m taunting as I’m getting hit by a 935 HP AOE attack every 4 seconds!
2. Taunt Tank is moving left, beware of Hami aggro!
3. Taunt Tank is moving right, beware of Hami aggro!
4. Taunt Tank is moving back, watch out behind for Hami aggro!

You should also discuss with your team just what you’re going to do, and stress that they stay close together to cover each other with healing aura and a bit away from you. Make sure that they know that you don’t need RA and that the range of RA is almost the same as the range of Hami’s AOE, but that you do appreciate AB and Speed Boost so that your taunt cycles quickly and Dull Pain is perma (3,200 HP is a good cushion against Hami). I recommend that your heal team places the Kinetics on follow so that they stay together for coverage with buffs & the heal aura if they get mito aggro. They should defiantly use the RA’s on each other though, and if you don’t have a bubbler they’ll NEED to keep Clear Mind on each other.

Discuss with the Raid Leader just when you are supposed to enter the goo and start taunt, also coordinate with the Drop Team Leader and the Main Assist.

Just before you enter the goo make your Main Taunt announcement (macro #1 above) in REQUEST, and repeat it in LOCAL during the raid as needed when people get close to you.

ENTERING THE GOO:
When you are ready to enter the goo first get your team together and make sure that they’re ready to start. DO NOT UNDER ANY SITUATION START TO TAUNT UNTIL THE HEALS START TO LAND!!!!! Many times the “ready” you got from your team was that they were ready to move, not that they were actually ready to start healing.

The initial entry into the goo is your most dangerous time, the south or south west area is usually the safest entry area. Have your heal team position themselves in the clearest area while you go right on top of Hami. This accomplishes two things, first it brings your taunt aura (Invincibility, Chilling Embrace or Mud Pots) into play and second it puts you in range for Transfusion from the kinetic; this is the biggest heal in the game so use it. Reassure your Kinetic that you DO have Hami’s aggro and he won’t steal aggro from you with Transfusion.

As you start to set up and taunt have the Drop Team put a PA close to your healers, this will help divert any mito aggro away from the heal team. Also maintain coordination with the MA during the mito clearing, you will need to move from side to side of Hami to get the splash well away from the Mito team. This is what you made the moving macros (binds 2 & 3 above) for, announce the move twice in LOCAL before you move, and be aware of anybody on the ground close to you. Whenever anyone gets close hit your macro #1 (main taunt tank, watch out for AOE) in LOCAL. DO NOT move into someone if you can avoid it.

For some reason you’ll find that some people seem to have a death wish and will want to come close to you in spite of you telling about the AOE. Don’t move intentionally into them, but if they insist on coming right up to you even after you make the announcement about the AOE then there’s nothing you can really do. I do try to move a bit to clear the splash from them so they can rez if possible.

As the Mito team clears around you stay on the opposite side of Hami from them announcing each move in advance; your heal team should be able to remain in one place and still reach you with the heals, the range of Heal Other is 83' and so long as your heal team remains within that range you're golden. You may want to have your heal team waypoint you so they know the range to you at all times (Thanks to Kestrinia for that suggestion). If you do see a mito going for your healers feel free to toss a taunt at it; if your heal team is healthy and on the ball you can handle one yellow attacking in addition to Hami, two if you’ve got a really good team. MAKE SURE YOU PUT YOUR TAUNT ON AUTO, and make sure you’re targeted on Hami. This last seems like a no-brainer, but it’s really easy to send a tell to the raid leader or MA and not realize you’ve targeted on them instead of Hami. This is the Voice of Experience here unfortunately. Keep up the movement binds in LOCAL as you have to move from side to side of Hami as the Mito team continues to clear.

HOLD PHASE:
Once the Mitos are clear you need to move back away from Hami in order to clear the area for the Hold team to set up. Announce you’re moving back away from Hami (dang, another bind ) and back up about 20-30' making sure you’re still in range for Taunt. Oh, before you fall back be sure to get your hit in on Hami.

At this time have the controller on your team toss a Singularity or Jack Frost out on your side of Hami (far enough away from you to be out of the AOE) so that you will have a pet to target thru. I recommend making the following macro to target a pet - /macro sing “target_name singularity$$target_name jack frost” This will automatically target a pet for you to taunt thru.

Here’s the real reason for having that pet on your side of Hami - we all know that Hami frequently vanishes in the hold phase, but lately when he vanishes ALL of the holders vanish with him and you’re looking at an empty crater; all you can see are your teammates and their pets. This is why it’s VITAL to have a pet on your side of Hami to target thru. If you loose aggro on Hami he will wipe out the hold team; if this happens below 50% HP the raid will fail in a Yellow Dawn of a Mito spawn.

If you can see Hami then you’ll want to watch for the Block of Ice or Fossilize animation under him which will indicate that he’s held. Remember that the Stone Cages, Ring of Fire or other IMMOBILIZE animations DO NOT MEAN HE’S HELD. If you see a constant HOLD animation then inform the raid leader of this; then most leaders will start a stopwatch and after a certain time of constant hold animation they’ll call for the debuffs. Remember that Hami will continue to fire his AOE until he dies, so you cannot allow yourself to loose his aggro or he’ll wipe out the Hold team. Just keep taunting away until you hear that Hami-O drop into your tray!

The Tanker in the Hold Team thing...
One thing you’ll hear is that “we can’t use tanks in the hold phase because of punchvoke/gauntlet.” This is not true, no amount of punchvoke will steal aggro from a constantly taunting tank with a decently slotted taunt. Also remember that Knock out Blow from the /super strength secondary is a MAG-3 (4?) Hold as is Seismic Smash from Stone Melee. The only danger of tanks is if either they have their taunt aura on or they deliberately taunt Hami. With 15 AM’s on them they can, unfortunately, steal aggro from you. On Guardian we’ve been using tanker holds since issue 6 and have NEVER had a tanker steal aggro without taunting.

A word on slotting taunt:
I highly recommend you have a decently slotted taunt before you attempt to take on the taunt role, I personally have taunt slotted 2 recharge/2 taunt duration. I’m not convinced that range is needed in taunt for this job since you’ll never be very far from Hami. With the slotting I have, and a speed boost, Taunt cycles in around 3 seconds so I can build and maintain a nice stacked taunt. A tanker with only the base slot in taunt will have problems keeping aggro, particularly if you loose sight of Hami or loose target on him somehow (usually by sending a tell or taunting a mito off of your heal team). I know that while I’m taunting I’ve got Hami’s attention for at least 20-30 seconds even if I loose target.

Anyone want to bet on Hami's shooting while held being a bug that they just don't feel like hunting down and fixing?

Other than telling when Hami's held this is a fairly minor issue; if the taunt tank has a decently slotted taunt then it should be really hard for griefers to steal aggro. We had a SG try to grief our raid on Guardian a while back by starting taunt first, then dragging the aggro into the hold group, and while the griefing tank had Hami aggro we were unable to get it away from him.

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Update: I understand that Combat Jump acts as a minor anti-immobilization as well.

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It is more than minor- CJ is a very good immobilization protection, and can keep you moving as long as there aren't too many immobs stacked. I don't know what the specific immob protection magnitude is, but from experience I know it is very hard to immob my toons with CJ running.

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Not sure about the immob mag of CJ myself, but my 50 BS/Regen has NEVER been immobilized with CJ and Integration up; a few times an immob has stuck with just Integration; activating CJ always keeps me moving. CJ is just an awesome anti-immobilize power as well as nice battlefield mobility.

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Please consider changing taunt enhancements so that they will boost accuracy and duration in PvP. I can't stand the thought of slotting a power for PvP use what will provide ZERO benifit in the PvP game.

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Agree here. Would prefer that PvE builds are as viable for PvP as much as possible. Plus, it will confuse the casual gamer who thinks that Taunt in PvE is autohit but still accepts accuracy enh. Taunt enh that increase acc and dur in PvP should avoid that. Ppl also have a way to reduce Taunt duration in PvP (running away/breaking LOS).

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QFT is the new 'me too'

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Yes, this is a great solution; having a power accept enhancements that will do NOTHING in PVE, which, btw, is where the vast majority will play leads to very poor slotting choices. Joe Average Player rolling his tanker will see that taunt takes ACC and assume it requires a to-hit roll, thus wasting slots. Slotting is confusing enough without deliberately allowing slotting of completely useless enhancements.

Remember when Wet Ice got it's def gutted but would still take def enhancements? The Dev's realized that mistake and changed it so people wouldn't waste slots enhancing 20% of a 0.5% buff.

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I just noticed that TF commander, doesn't seem to work in conjunction with Dull Pain. I just got on test, and got booted right away, so I didn't get the chance to see if it actually boosted my HP without Dull Pain, but *with* Dull Pain, I noticed no changes.

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My understanding is that there's a cap to the HP buffs you can get, without any accolades dull pain slotted 3 heal will put you at or near that cap; if you have portal jockey & freedom phalanx reserve accolades then you're over the cap with dull pain active, so an additional 5% HP accolade won't affect the DP value, but it will affect your base (non-DP) hit points.

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Oh, one more thing. "The Six Million Dollar Man"

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Old stone face and his attempts to act! Yep, I'm an old cuss alright

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Everyone [on the Mito team] must either fly, or join a team with group fly.

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Not true, Liberty does just fine with Inertial Reduction. PA team is a different story, of course.

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Hadn't thought of that, good point. Guardian's never used that method, so I didn't think of it. Come to think of it, back in i4 Guardian used to have 2 Mito groups, one with fliers and one ground team for the low hanging Mitos.

If anyone has any other suggestions please speak up, I don't pretend to know everything about raiding . I wrote this because there's always new people raiding and it's a confusing process if you don't know what's going on; and so much of it is just a case of "everyone already knows" that we tend to forget about the new raiders. I'm sure different servers have somewhat different approaches; we could probably all benefit by pooling our thoughts.

Hamidon Raid, or, just what the heck is all this stuff that's going on?

Everyone's always confused about what's happening at their first Hami Raid, so I put together this little guide to try to explain just what's happening, and why everyone's doing whatever their doing. Basically what people are doing is trying to defeat the most powerful entity in the game; the reward for this is a Hamidon Origin (HO) enhancement that will act as two SO enhancements in a single slot (or as 3 SO's for some types of HO) I'm not going to go into detail on the various types of HO's, and you take potluck as to which one you get at the conclusion of the raid.

Hamidon (Hami) is a large purple ovoid floating in the center of a mass of "goo" (usually referred to as jelly). He is surrounded by 36? smaller spheres called Mitochondria (Mitos).

Here's the gist of what happens at a Hami Raid, it's confusing the first time you arrive in the Hive at the Rock (a flat rock just south of Hamidon where everyone gathers prior to begining the raid). The Hive itself is a dangerous place filled with level 48-50 monster class Devouring Earth, and swarms hang around high in the sky.

Depending on your server, there may be some differences in the strategy, this is what happens on Guardian:

First, the Aggro team is formed, this consists of up to 8 Illusion controllers who will fly directly over Hami (at a considerable altitude to avoid aggro) and drop Phantom Army on Hami's... well, he doesn't have a head, but you get the idea. Usually one of the Ill trollers has group fly to get them all airborne (important info about group fly, the person with group fly will fly FASTER than everyone else so the rest can fall out of fly. The GF person should FOLLOW someone else who can lead the way so everyone flys at the same speed)

While the Aggro team is forming, the Mito teams are also forming. Specific team composition is unimportant, but the GROUP of Mito teams need the following: At least one toon with force field dispersion bubble to protect from mez, a number of toons with an aoe heal (vital, this is the only defense from Hami & the yellow mitos) who will set their heal on autofire. Everyone must either fly, or join a team with group fly. One person will be the designated "Main Assist", or MA, and everyone in the mito group will add them to their friend list, target them and follow. The MA selects which Mito the group will attack and guides the group thru the process. Everyone in the Mito group will attack the MA's target with ONLY SINGLE TARGET ATTACKS. AOE attacks will draw more aggro on the group, and tends to cause the Mito to "split", or summon a new mito as it dies. Holds are welcome in the mito team to prevent this from happening.

During the mito clearing phase, please turn OFF all defensive toggles, except for mez shields, these have no affect and just add lag. Tanks especially MUST turn off any taunt/damage auras! These include Invinceability, Mud Potts, Blazing Aura, Chilling Embrace & Icicles.

Once all Mitos are gone everyone will exit the crater and regroup at the "Rock"; the main meeting point in the Hive. At this time the Taunt team is assembled, consisting of one tank and 2-4 emp defenders. The tank will set up on the opposite side of Hami from the Rock at near maximum taunt range and continually taunt Hami while the emp's keep him alive from out of the AOE range.

Once the Taunt team has aggro the "Hold" team sets up on the opposite side of Hami from the tank and proceeds to spam holds on him (only holds, no immobilize, no slow, no debuff YET). At the same time Rad defenders & controllers will cluster in the center of the hold team (preferably hovering over them for maximum coverage) and spam AM. All members of the hold team need to be tight together for maximum benefit from the AM. Typically we get 8-12 AM's on each person. Kinetics also spam speed boost on the controllers in the hold team. Once Hami is solidly held, which will be after 5 minutes of not shooting at the Taunt tank, the call will be made for everyone NOT in the hold team to get one hit on Hami. This is vital, you MUST do at least 0.1 points of damage to Hami to get a HO enhancer when he dies. The ONLY pets that may be used during the hold phase are jack frost, singularity & dark servant. Hami tends to vanish when lots of people are around him, so to maintain target on him ALWAYS target thru jack frost or singularity pet (never dark servant, they're time limited and expire requiring you to locate another pet to target thru).

After everyone gets their hit, the call will be made for toggle debuffs on Hami (Rad Infection and similar) and the damage from the holds (holders, never stop spamming your holds until Hami dies!) will take him down. Once Hami dies, you get the HO (make sure you have a slot in your tray for it!) and Hami buds spawn, one for every person & pet in the crater. These are boss-level enemies, they drop SO's when killed, and they're not terribly dangerous. Kill them for the SO's.

The reason for all of this:
Hamidon attacks with an AOE attack every 4 seconds that does around 950 points of damage to a lvl 50 character. It's UNTYPED damage, so defense or resistance DO NOT APPLY, the only defense possible is healing the damage before it kills you, this is the reason for the AOE heals in the mito teams and for the Phantom Army drops, to control his aggro and heal any that gets loose.

Mitos come in 3 varieties, Yellow, Green & Blue.
Yellow Mitos attack with an AOE attack just like Hamidon's doing around 750 points of damage to a level 50.
Green Mitos heal other Mitos near them; they have no attacks.
Blue Mitos have an AOE STUN attack; this attack does no damage (this is the reason for the force field dispersion bubble)

Hamidon himself is a Hamidon-class enemy (the only one in the game) and he has 90% resist to ALL damage and roughly 47,000 hit points. He also has MAG 100 resistance to all status effects, thus the extreme amount of holding power required. If Hami breaks free of holds once he's below 50% hit points, he will instantly spawn a yellow mito for every character and pet in the crater, leading to near-instant death for everyone and a failed raid.

Miscellaneous stuff:
The biggest problem at most raids is LAG, to minimize it you'll want to reduce your graphics settings to a minimum level, turn off all effects and eye candy, and also turn off "display hero name". This should get you the best performance possible, but still expect massive lag at times. Also, everyone should use a costume WITHOUT a cape or aura to further reduce lag. Turn off all defensive shields while in the mito & hold teams, they have no affect at all on Hamidon's damage. The sole exception to this is any status protection shields, these ONLY should be run.

Questions or comments? Did I goof somewhere?

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In the same vein... when you team with somene named John Smith and they don't get the lines" He's on the Jazz" or "I love it when a plan comes together..."

Also you know youre an old gamer when you can remember when Battletech was an RPG, NOT a click GAME....

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Heck, MECHWARRIOR was the RPG, Battletech is a board game; and Battletech came first...

My friends & I spent hours playing Battletech, had the miniatures and the geo-hex 3D maps, hours more designing mechs... Discussing the benefits of a large laser vs 5 medium lasers... And that you could design a 25 ton Mech that could hunt down & kill 75 ton heavies (speed and cover man, the SR of the battletech set)

I'm almost ashamed to admit we did this when we were in our late 20's too...

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As a controller, I would hope you know the difference between Hold/Immobilize/Sleep. Other AT’s I have noticed seem to be having difficulty distinguishing the difference so here is a list of all the non-controller holds available to players:
Ice Blast/Bitter Freeze Ray
Ice Blast/Freeze Ray
Electricity Manipulation/Shocking Grasp
Ice Manipulation/Freezing Touch
Electric Blast/Tesla Cage
Dark Miasma/Petrifying Gaze
Trick Arrow/Ice Arrow
Luminous Blast/Incandescent Strike
Stone Melee/Seismic Smash
Flame Mastery/Char
Munitions Mastery/Cryo Freeze Ray
Electric Mastery/Shocking Bolt
Psychic Mastery/Dominate
Dark Mastery/Petrifying Gaze
Pyre Mastery/Char
Arctic Mastery/Block of Ice
Earth Mastery/Fossilize


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Also add to this list Super Strength/Knock out Blow and probably a few more I'm not thinking of right now

Good basic information here that should be known to everyone at a raid, kudos for putting this together! If a power says "foe hold" in the description, it's a hold. Immobilizes & sleeps are worse than useless, they just add lag.

A few things you may want to add to your guide...

On the Mitos... they will tend to "split" when defeated, holds are welcome to prevent this. AOE attacks seem to increase the likelyhood of a mito splitting ("Split" - A defeated mito spawns a new one in it's place as it dies, so you have to kill it all over again)

Mitos come in 3 types:
Yellow Mitos - these are attack types, and attack with an UNTYPED damage AOE attack that does 700ish points of damage to a lvl 50 toon. Because damage is untyped, defense & resistance do not apply. These attacks seem to be either auto-hit or such high accuracy that they may as well be.

Blue Mitos - these have a stun attack that does no damage, but will stun you if you have no mez protection. To combat this, the mito attack teams have a Force field defender/controller with dispersion bubble.

Green Mitos - these heal the other mitos around themselves, they have no attacks.

Hamidon himself:
Hamidon has an AOE attack similar to the yellow mitos that does around 950 damage to a level 50 character, and he will fire this attack every 4 seconds. Once again, this attack is either auto-hit or so high accuracy that it may as well be, and defense & resistance do not apply. This is the reason for the illusion controllers dropping phantom army, to keep Hami shooting at the PA instead of the mito clearing teams. DO NOT shoot Hamidon during the Mito clearing phase.

During the mito clearing phase, please turn OFF all defensive toggles, except for mez shields, these have no affect and just add lag. Tanks especially MUST turn off any taunt/damage auras! These include Invinceability, Mud Potts, Blazing Aura, Chilling Embrace & Icicles.

In addition to turning down the graphics settings to minimize lag, you probably want to also turn "show character names" to off, this makes about a 15 fps difference on my system.

Again, this is a great resource for beginning Hami raiders.