CrimsonShadow

For those of you actually interested in the original testing results prior to the current method I list, here is a copy of the original post since I can no longer find the first thread.

My testing consisted of gauging the aggro range of each of the heroes, as well as seeing if any heroes came together. I would pull one hero at a time, and move to the right side of the T intersection from the entrance to the map in the Vindicator (4th) mission. This was beyond their aggro range, but within my targeting range, so after a while they would turn back and reset. I would then proceed to pull another hero using the same method.

I found it was possible to pull Swan alone, however Mynx would sometimes come with her. Mynx has an extended aggro range, allowing her to follow the puller farther than the other heroes. Because of this and the fact that she was linked to Swan, and Swan had a shorter aggro range, we had to pull Swan beyond her normal aggro range. I found Malaise had the shortest aggro range, and would barely move past the ramp on the other side from the door to the Vindicator room. He pulled by himself in every test I tried. Last were Luminary and Valkyrie, no matter which one I pulled, the other one came with her.

After the stalker left, I proceeded to use the same method to test for links between the heroes on the last mission as well as their aggro ranges. Any time we would pull Synapse or Numina, the other would come. Synapse having a super speed ability much like Mynx with her quickness, would usually come with any hero pulled.

Citadel and Sister Psyche would pull together, no matter which one I actually pulled. Citadel has a very slow fly so when the rest of the heroes came with him, he was usually the last to return. A very interesting thing happened when I pulled Sister Psyche though, usually 3-4 heroes would not move from their original positions.

Manticore and Positron seemed to be linked. I say seemed to be linked since it was difficult to confirm. When I attempted to pull Manticore, Positron would usually be one of the first heroes aggroed to me. When I pulled Positron, he seemed to come alone, with the occasional appearance of Synapse, but I was able to pull him to the north end of the map and Synapse started to lose interest. Manticore is one of the slowest moving of the heroes and did not seem to go much further than city hall. However pulling Manticore is rather futile, since he will stealth and you will lose target on him halfway on the aggro range. In other words midway going past city hall, you lose target on him.

Back Alley Brawler would only occasionally use his ranged attack, but most of the time if I pulled him, the first attack would be from another hero. He doesn’t seem to travel very far, and doesn’t maintain much interest if you go behind city hall.

Statesman is definitely not the one you want to pull. In all tests on pulling Statesman, I was attacked by almost all of the heroes almost immediately, and with Statesman doing almost 2060 points of damage to me; it simply did not seem effective at all to pull him.

One thing that I must mention is that with my Fire/Dark Armor brute I have Soul Transfer on him. This let me test a bit on resistances of the heroes as well as watch the buff cycles. I would do a Kamikaze run, and try to center myself in the middle of the heroes to hit as many as possible.

Citadel, Positron, Manticore and Synapse rather consistently took 20.01 points of damage from Soul Transfer. Numina consistently took 16.01 points of damage consistently. Back Alley Brawler took 16.56 points of damage without Fortitude, and 15.05 points with it. Sister Psyche took 8 points of damage with her force field up, and 16.01 with it down. Statesman was sometimes completely resistant to the effects of soul transfer, but I was able to hit him for 15.41 points of damage a few times. Once Numina recovered she was able to hit each of the heroes with Clear Mind consecutively one after another.

Numina only cast fortitude and Adrenaline Boost on Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche, and Manticore. There is a short lapse of time whereas one of the three will not be buffed. Sister Psyche seems to keep force fields up on all the heroes. I did not notice a point where she let the force fields go down. Manticore seems to maintain Assault and Maneuvers, however I did not notice the accuracy circles for Tactics on the rest of the heroes. I did notice a large purple shield defense buff and the yellow circle accuracy buffs on just him.

Hopefully this information will help anyone that wishes to attempt the Lord Recluse Strike Force with minimal to no use of Shivans, Nukes or Vengeance. Keep in mind that this testing was done with the original level 54 Heroes. This pull method has continued to work through I8 at least for Numina, but with the reductions I have not found many teams that want to try pulling when they can just use the shivans, nukes and stacked vengeance. While it is true that sub optimal teams and teams like all dominator or all mastermind teams can beat it with Shivans, Nukes and Vengeance, I would still like to see teams beating it with little to no use of the above mentioned methods. Good luck to all that try to complete this and want to try without the use of PvP temp powers.

Congrats to Max Debt on reaching 50 taking down Ms. Liberty on the Recluse Strike Force.

For information on how this strategy works you can check my original method in the link in my previous post. I also provided a lot of the information on the behaviour of the heroes. This pull method had a fairly high chance of failure. As for all of them coming after the first pull went bad, they do not break up once aggroed. They may take a few seconds to join up with the rest, but usually there is about a 3-5 second delay before they come.

Also be sure to check how you are breaking the line of sight. No hero should have a direct line of sight to any player after the teleport. Also the team should be careful not to jump to attack the hero, but instead try to get them to move closer to the ground.

For an alternate pull strategy, that has been a lot easier to repeat, but due to several factors is still not 100% you can check out my guide posted in my sig.

A few more I haven't really seen mentioned

IBTD- I beat the deletion. Stated when a hot topic most likely to incite a flame war or that just goes against forum rules such as calling out devs or players.

Flame war- A thread that devolves into players mostly arguing through their posts.

Threadjack- when a forum thread is brought off topic into sometimes a completely unrelated subject.

LK- the villain version of a sidekick, a higher level player pairs up with a lower level player so that the lower player fights as if they are one level lower than the higher player

EX/MF Exemplar/Malefactor- When a higher level player pairs with a lower level player so that the higher player can fight at the lower level.

Ghost- sending a stealthed player through the mission to only go for the objectives to complete the mission quickly.

Dumpster diving- a term going back to the old days without aggro caps and gathering almost complete maps into a dumpster, usually on the Boomtown map. Today it mostly refers to dropping a full aggro cap mob into a dumpster.

BF- Break free, an inspiration that releases a character from status effects such as sleeps, holds, and immobilizes.

Shivs- refers to the Summon Shivan temp power earned from Bloody bay.

RSF- Recluse Strike force, the last and most difficult Strike force for villains.

I actually had posted this method in detail a while ago. I had done a lot of testing to determine the pull behaviour and possible strategies and posted my results in this thread.

RSF Analyzed and Completed

This method worked pretty well but there was a fairly high chance of the Numina/Synapse pull going badly. Later I stumbled upon a strategy that has had a much better chance of successful pulls, although the door bug does tend to reduce those chances. I have posted that guide in my sig. Most of my testing was done with Mu Lightning on my Dark Armor Brute, but I really got to see how well it worked when a player with snipe was able to effectively repeat that pull method.

On most runs the puller was able to get 3 or 4 heroes pulled successfully in two or three pulls. The Numina pull seems to be the most consistent, while the others do not seem to go as well if a team member is hit with the door bug or anyone goes in between the mob of doom and the hero platform.

I have not used the method you described since I discovered my new method, and the reason is that it has proven more consistent and a lot easier to set up than the previous method I used. My new method it a lot easier for teams to repeat since it is not so precise in the positioning. Also something to note, you do not need to have a brute on the team in order to succeed. Members of my SG have done the strike force with me as the only brute, or without a single brute in the group in a team with corrupters, masterminds, and occasionally a stalker.

Congrats to Bioly on Mistress of Diamonds. Dinged 50 on Ms. Liberty of the Recluse Strike Force.

Congrats to Bimbot 7000 on 50 on the Malta mission of the RSF

To be honest, I have not paid much attention to where the heroes are facing. The Numina pull using this method has gone off perfectly every time for me. I notice that Manticore pivots around his mark and Citadel occasionally turns toward city hall and back, but I don't really notice the direction they're facing when I pull. With my pull they are either facing forward, or facing backward, but they are not facing in my direction.

Also some believe that when Numina buffs the others (Fortitude and Adrenaline boost on Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche and Manticore), she aggroes them as well. I haven't found this to be true. I have watched her buff the others, and then come for me without aggroing anyone else.

I realized some things that I need to point out in this pull method. When pulling from the podium, with the attack cued out of range, the puller must be careful not to step too far past the podium, or they risk sight aggro of the other heroes.

There is also a high risk of the second pull going wrong if any member of the team, even stealthed, moves too close in front of the hero platform. I have only seen this twice where the second pull did not go as well since a player jumped across the stairs directly in front of the hero platform. Not sure if this is the exact reason that the pull does not go well, but this is why I reccommend that only the teleporter move to the opposite side for the second pull, taking a bit of a longer route (around the outside stairs) in order to avoid sight aggro. Even though they may not attack it is possible that they may do a half charge and return, and all become aggroed when the pull is attempted. So again, only the teleporter moves to the staging areas, and teleports each member of the team to the locations.

Also I am curious about how people are doing using grant invisibility on their puller if they don't have a player with stealth in their powerset or pool power. I'm not completely certain, but it is possible that grant invisibility may completely suppress when an attack is made. I have tried this pull with my stealth off, and have not been able to successfully single or dual pull. So if grant invisibility supresses completely, then it may just be as bad as not having stealth at all.

I have been using this method on my past few Recluse Strike Forces, and am pleased with the results. The Numina pull has brought only Numina every time that I have done it. The Sister Psyche pull has brought Citadel with her on most occasions except last night which brought Manticore instead. On my past two runs, I have been able to successfully bring it down to only four heroes left, even with a non-standard team, which was not able to complete it due to some of the players just being too tired to continue.

The team I was with last night was a team that was set up and very used to rush tactics, with 5 corrupters, 1 mastermind, 1 stone brute, and an additional brute (me). I was able to use my pull strategy on the last mission to successfully pull 4 heroes in 3 pulls, Numina (1st pull), Sister Psyche and Manticore (2nd pull) and Back Alley Brawler (3rd pull). Citadel, Positron, and Synapse are too far in for this method, but it may be possible to snipe them. As I said before in the majority of the pulls Citadel came with Sister Psyche.

Also a nice thing that I found with this method, that I experienced with the previous method was that repeating a pull, would not add on heroes to the pull. For example, on the old method if Numina and Synapse were pulled, but not defeated, the next pull could possibly bring Positron, and sometimes Citadel. With the less than optimal team, on the first single pull of Numina, she defeated the team. Pulling her again brought only her.

The comment that really struck me came from the stone brute on the rush team of last night. He said something along the lines of, "that was finally fun." Since this Strike force has been such a problem to so many, that it is not enjoyable, that was one of the best things I could hear.

As frustrating as trying to get through this Task force is, it was good to have teammates willing to put up with my extensive testing. Previous pull attempts were effective but setting up the pull perfectly was rather difficult and there were too many factors that caused many pulls to fail and made the previous method more a matter of luck than a guaranteed pull.

In the beginning we could not get past the fourth mission with the teams we put together. After I spent several hours testing the pull behaviour of the heroes in that mission, I was able to develop a pull strategy. While not being 100% effective, it has allowed several teams to be able to get past that mission.

The last mission caused a lot of aggravation because the pulls would not always go as well as expected, and the team had to reset way more times than they should. The pull method that I was using was lining up the stealthed puller behind the Atlas Statue's rear foot, while carefully lining up Numina in relation to Back Alley Brawler to reduce the line of sight of the other heroes. I also used the front foot to single pull Manticore and Back Alley Brawler. It worked several times, but there was always a chance of aggroing all the heroes, requiring a reset for most teams.

After another failed pull using the old method, a lot of the team was ready to give up on pulling and just give in to the fact that you needed the "right" team in order to complete this Strike Force. I am not one so willing to give up, and stumbled on a pull tactic that was so simple I couldn't believe it. I tested it from both sides, and was able to pull with complete accuracy. The Numina pull always brought only Numina, the Sister Psyche pull brought Sister Psyche, and Citadel, and the Manticore pull brought him, Sister Psyche, Citadel and Back Alley Brawler.

When I put this in effect during the next Recluse Strike force I was on, the Numina pull went exactly the same, and switching to the other side, the Sister Psyche pull went the same. On the Manticore pull, which should have brought Manticore and Back Alley Brawler. I did not set up my attack to be cued out of range of the target and fired it off immediately and since it was too close brought the rest of the heroes. But when it's down to five heroes a good team can work around it. This is the reason I included the alternate method.

While I can not be sure that this new method would be 100% effective, it does even the odds and is a lot easier to replicate than my previous method. I am hoping that I will see more and more claiming success on this Strike force. Also if you find any new information that can bring the odds up, feel free to post your results.

The Lord Recluse Strike force is probably one of the most interesting and frustrating events in City of Villains. Just about any team can get to the 4th mission, but it can become very challenging from that point. Working together well most teams can get to the last mission and that is where most teams spend all their time trying for perfect pulls or wishing they had the “right” team (3 or more corrupters, preferably /rad, /kin, /thermal and /dark, along with /poison and /dark Masterminds, and 1 or 2 brutes, one being a /stone). Those without the “right” team, find themselves constantly resetting to get a perfect pull.

I have done a lot of testing to try and determine a solid pulling strategy by gauging the aggro range of the heroes, who they are linked to, and what powers they tend to use. I tried to determine a pull set up that would most likely get a safe pull. This is more important in the last mission, than in the third or fourth mission. I also used my soul transfer ability on my Dark Armor brute, to measure resistances of the heroes in the last mission. This was basically to determine which of the heroes would be more of a threat, and which ones would be taken down easier. I will briefly go over the first few missions, and I will focus most of this guide on the fourth and fifth mission since they are the two missions that can break most teams.

In preparation for the Lord Recluse it is good to try to get Warburg Nukes and Shivans. While not completely necessary, if things do get out of hand they can help to control the odds against the team. The team should have at least one buffing character, such as a Thermal or Kinetic and one debuffer such as a /rad, /poison, or /dark. They should also have a brute that is good at handling aggro (AoE attacks, taunt, and AoE aura help a lot). You need to have at least one member of the team with a stealth ability and a ranged attack. There should be one or two members with recall friend. The team should also try to have two or more characters with Vengeance. The more vengeance is up the better chance the team will have.

The first mission is to Attack the Longbow base. The mission door is a sub entrance to the NW of the Grandville map. This is a fairly easy mission although the hostage doesn’t always follow the way you need him to. The mission door is a sub entrance to the NW of the Grandville map. The Objectives are take down longbow chasers (10-15), Set bombs (5 bombs), Lead technician to computer, and take down Crimson. The map has 4 indoor locations, including Radar Tower 1 and 2, a jail, and the Laboratory where Crimson is located.

When you enter the mission, the team should work on taking out the Longbow Chasers. One of the stealthed members of the team should work on the bombs in the Radar Towers while the team takes out the chasers. The bomb in the lab should not be set until Crimson is taken down. The hostage will be in Radar tower 1 or 2, and sometimes the Lab. His objective is in the lab so if he is in a radar tower the team must fight their way to the lab. He has multiple ambushes with a Ballista Elite boss in at least one ambush, so the team should stay together when a member kidnaps the hostage.

Once in the lab, the team should clear all mobs being careful not to aggro Crimson, whom is in the top left portion of the room. Once the mobs are cleared, the team should all attack Crimson who is surrounded by four Ballista Elite Bosses. Once Crimson and the four Ballistas are defeated, the last bomb can be clicked and the mission will complete. Clicking the bomb before defeating Crimson and his four Ballistae will usually bring an ambush.

The second mission is to assault the Malta base to get the Orestes Rifle. The mission door is the plane located in the northern part of the Grandville map. The Objectives are to get the key to the Malta base, Destroy the mainframe, get the Orestes Rifle and Defeat Slinger. In order to get the key you must defeat a Kronos Titan and the mob around him. Once that is done you can enter the base. It is fairly straightforward as you go through the base. The team should decide who needs to get the Rifle, since they will be using it in the fourth mission. After watching the cinema with The Slinger, only click the front warehouse door and not the second one behind it. The reason for this is going through the front you can accidentally aggro The Slinger before the team is ready and once aggroed he sends a constant ambush of robots. Instead fight around to the side and open the side warehouse door and pull the mobs around The Slinger before entering the room. If the Slinger is aggroed, a member of the team should call it out, so the team can switch focus to the AV and the mob around him. The decided member should grab the Orestes Rifle which is in a blinky on the back wall of the room. Once the Slinger and his mob are defeated and the Orestes Rifle has been take, the mission should complete.

The third mission, Defeat the Future Freedom Phalanx, is probably one of the fastest missions in the whole strike force even though it is four Heroes. The mission door is the Destiny portal in the Grandville main hall. In this mission you fight Numina, Sister Psyche, Back Alley Brawler and Manticore. This map takes place in a destroyed Atlas park Map and is one mission that you can use the terrain to your advantage. Have the whole team other than the stealthed puller, stage themselves on the destroyed half globe by Agony Hall.

The first target is Numina, since she can heal and rez the other heroes. The puller should have their teleport prompt on and alert the member with recall friend when they are about to pull. This way as soon as they pull they can click the accept prompt and return to the half globe. This pull will sometimes bring Numina alone, but can bring Sister Psyche and Back Alley Brawler. Manticore is not able to get on top of the globe. If you have a second brute on the team, they should try to maintain aggro on Back Alley Brawler while the team takes out Numina and Sister Psyche. Once all three are taken down, the team can drop to the rubble underneath the globe. Have the puller bring Manticore to the rubble where the team will take him down. The closer the team is to Agony Hall, the more likely they are to be randomly phased and not able to attack. The mission completes when all longbow on the front porch location where the Freedom Phalanx were are taken down.

The fourth mission is where things can become difficult, since there are now five level 52 heroes in one room to take down. The mission door is in Nerva Archipelago, usually on a rooftop NE of Crimson Cove. Each hero has their own advantage so it is important to know who you are fighting.

Swan is a Kinetic/Psionic, she uses transfusion, siphon power and siphon speed while attacking. Mynx can hit fairly hard with her claws attack and is able to move around the map very quickly. Malaise is a Spectral Illusion controller summons Spectral Decoys and Phantasms, as well is able to confuse the team. Luminary is an Energy/Energy Blaster and is the least of a threat. Valkyrie is probably one of the most dangerous as a Broadsword/Regen Scrapper that will rez and hit Moment of Glory once defeated. Ms. Liberty which is the last hero in this mission is alone, but can be a bit of a challenge when she hits unstoppable.

The first part of the mission is in a T intersection and should be cleared up until the double doors on the West side of the map. This is the location where the five heroes are. The team, except for the puller should wait in the circle room that is on the east side of the floor. If there is a Thermal in the team, they should try to be around the middle straight from the mission entrance to heal the puller if needed. If there is a second brute, or a brute that is not the puller, they should standby in the yellow tube on the west side to pull aggro off the puller if needed. The puller should be fully buffed by the team and have speed boost if there is a kinetic in the team.

The stealthed puller should carefully open the doors to the hero room and quickly move back to the ramp across from the room. They then target Swan as the first target, and carefully move into the maximum range they can hit with their ranged attack. As soon as they fire they should run toward the yellow tube. Swans aggro does not extend past the tube so they may have to attack again, or have the brute taunt, but should be careful if Mynx is aggroed since she is able to get to the hallway straight from the mission entrance. Once the hero is pulled into the hallway directly from the mission entrance, the team should begin their attack. If Mynx does come with Swan, if there is a second brute they should tank Mynx away from the team, if not, then the main brute should use their taunt aura, taunt, or AoE attacks to maintain the aggro of both heroes.

The extended aggro range of the hallway should give the team enough time to be able to take out the first hero, since the others, except Mynx, may take longer to get to that point. If Swan is pulled alone, the next target should be Malaise, since his confuse can reduce the teams ability to damage the hero fast enough. After Malaise, Mynx should be taken down if she is still alive, if not, Luminary should be the next target. If Luminary and Valkyrie are the last left in the room, the team should be able to charge them, take out Luminary, then focus on Valkyrie. Valkyrie can be one of the toughest, but by herself the team should be able to take her out the first time. Once she dies, she will rez and after a few seconds she will hit Moment of Glory, making her difficult to hit. If there is a Thermal or Ice Corrupter on the team, the thermal should hit heat exhaustion, or the Ice should use Benumb as soon as she rezzes and before she hits MoG.

After Valkyrie is defeated, Ms. Liberty will be on the next floor behind a locked door. The key is in a room that is off to the side and since the room has a full mob inside it is usually better to fight your way to the blinkie. Once the computer is clicked, the team will be ambushed by a mob with a Ballista Elite Boss. After they are taken down the team can now enter the room with Ms. Liberty. Whoever has the Orestes Rifle from the second mission should shoot Ms. Liberty with it after she is aggroed and each time it is recharged. Once she is defeated the mission will complete.

The last mission, is located at the plane in the north of the Grandville map. This is unfortunately where most teams are broken. In this mission you face eight level 54 heroes, that are not only +4 to the level cap, but are buffed by members of that team. They are often difficult to separate, some of them even linked so they only pull together, and once they are all aggroed, you can no longer separate and may have to reset the mission by each member of the team logging out and then logging back in once the last person has logged out. This is where most of my testing has been done, since a lot of the pulls seem to be just lucky, since most of the time, an imperfect pull will result in them all being aggroed, so I have tried to find exactly what the ideal pull method would be.

The team should hopefully have prepared themselves with the Shivans and the Warburg nukes for this mission. Also each member should try to have their inspiration trays completely filled with purple inspirations and possibly a few oranges. Like the last mission, it is important to know the adversaries as well as their behaviour.

Statesman has by far the highest resistance, and with Unstoppable running, he can regen almost to full health if the team cannot damage him fast enough. His attacks can be extremely devastating, doing 1000 to 3000 points of damage. Trying to pull him, usually results in the entire Freedom Phalanx coming. Numina is an Empathy/Psionic defender. She can rez the heroes, as well as buff them. She only casts fortitude and Adrenaline Boost on Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche, and Manticore. There is a short lapse of time whereas one of the three will not be buffed. Sister Psyche is a Force Field/Psionic Defender. She will buff all the heroes with the force field, and occasionally use a personal force field on herself. Positron is a Radiation Defender and will debuff the team with Lingering Radiation, Enervating Field, and other radiation debuffs. He does have an overload ability, that raises his defenses allowing him to be able to regenerate some health. Manticore is a Trick Arrow/Archery Defender, and has leadership buffs such as assault, as well as Focused Accuracy. His teleport arrow can do a considerable amount of damage. Synapse is an Electric Blaster with a low attention span. He has a Super Speed ability, and an electric Tornado as he jets around going from team member to team member. Citadel is an Energy Blaster, and has an Overload ability that raises his defenses for a short time. Back Alley Brawler is a Super Strength/invulnerability tanker and will rarely use his ranged attack of Hurl Boulder. He also has the shortest aggro range of the 8.

Numina can be pulled solo, or with Synapse. Sister Psyche almost always pulls with Citadel. Manticore can be pulled solo, or with Back Alley Brawler. Using the method that I will soon be explaining, when pulling Manticore, Back Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche and Citadel came together. Positron can be pulled by himself, but it can sometimes be difficult. Statesman usually brings the entire Freedom Phalanx.

I’ve found a fairly effective pull point that has seemed to work with great accuracy for pulling the Freedom Phalanx. The team should stage themselves straight to the East of the Hero Platform by the wall next to the stairs. The team member with teleport should be the only one to go to this point and teleport all members to this location. Note: Masterminds SHOULD NOT summon their pets until they are at the staging area.

Side Staging Area

Everyone on the team should be buffed by the corrupters. The team may want to avoid speed boosting the stealthed puller to avoid accidental aggro. Once everyone on the team is buffed, the puller will move into position on the furthest side of the podium and select their target. They should be just out of their maximum range for their attack.

Side Podium Pull Point

The first target will be Numina. In just about every test using this method she was able to be single pulled. The puller should cue up their attack, as long as they are not in range, the attack should not activate. They should carefully move just into range and as soon as their attack launches move straight backward. DO NOT jump, or fly, or leave the ground, this will cause the rest to be aggroed. Once they are down the stairs, they should weave around to the staging area where the team will launch their attack. NO ONE should go above the wall, and should not try to attack until Numina is on the ground, or at the bottom of the stairs. One of the team members should hit her with a ranged attack or taunt and break line of sight on the ground to try to pull her down, DO NOT run up to try to grab her attention.

Once Numina is defeated, pets should be dismissed and the teleporter should go to the exact opposite side (west) of the hero platform on the Manticore side. After everyone is set up and buffed, the stealthed puller, should go to the back of the podium on that side (west) and target Sister Psyche as the next pull. Again it is important that the attack is cued outside the attack range. Using the same method of carefully approaching the heroes until the attack cues then running straight back as soon as it activates, should bring Sister Psyche and Citadel only. Pull her to the ground at the staging area, and attack her. If there is a second brute, they should be holding aggro on Citadel away from the team, while Sister Psyche is being taken out.

The next pull will be Manticore and Back Alley Brawler from the same side using the same method. This should only bring the two of them, but if the rest are aggroed by any chance, all is not lost (using the alternate attack method*). Again, if there is another brute they should be tanking Back Alley Brawler, away from the team, while Manticore is taken out.

Considering the Manticore and Back Alley Brawler pull go successfully, the last three targets should be Positron, Synapse and Statesman. It is possible to pull Positron by himself with a snipe from on top of Atlas City hall, or by jumping back or being teleported (tp prompt on) after the attack launches from between the hero platform and city hall to an alternate pull point.

City Hall Pull Point

If you do not manage to single pull Positron, you can use the alternate attack method*, but instead the targets would be Positron, Synapse and then finally Statesman. Keep in mind that even when down to Statesman, this Strike Force can still be difficult.

*Alternate Attack Method with last five remaining

If they do not pull successfully, the team should immediately scatter and then regroup at the city hall front door. Masterminds should summon their pets and everyone should be buffed. If a player other than the major buffers or the Masterminds has died, DO NOT immediately rez them. If no player is dead after scattering, have one of the players that is not a major buffer or mastermind die in a longbow mob. The teleporter should port them to the middle of the team so that the player or players with vengeance can cast it on the team. After everyone is buffed, have the team summon all their Shivans. Once the Shivans are out, the buffers should try to buff them up as well and then have vengeance cast. Each member on the team should pop 3-4 purples and 1 orange before charging in. Have the team target Positron and everyone attack him except for one brute. The Brute’s job will be to tank the rest of the group away from Positron. After Positron, the team should try to take out Manticore. After that, you can go after just about any target except for Statesman. Citadel and Synapse have the same resistances, so it may be better to take one of them out before Back Alley Brawler.

Statesman is one of the tougher heroes in this mission. His attacks are devastating and his resistance is higher than any other member of the Freedom Phalanx. Also his defense and resistance when using unstoppable can make it hard to defeat him. This is where having Shivans and the Warburg nukes, especially the Chemical Burn (debuff) and Biological (buff) nukes can come in handy. The team should be fully buffed, with Shivans out, and any debuffs should be dropped on Statesman. After defeating him, with the rest of the Freedom Phalanx defeated, the Strike force will be completed.

I hope this helps to make things easier for teams that are not the “right” team. Run well, this strike force can be finished in about two to three hours. I hope that with using this pull method more and more teams will be able to succeed with less than optimal teams. Good luck to all that attempt this monster of a strike force.

Congrats Luna, lvl 50 on a successful Recluse SF, so close to Dinging on Statesman, but close enough.

Cade Nox hit 50 last night after a Vindicators Mission followed by an accidental Mayhem mission. Thanks 13th. Baptism by Fire (Mars.Volta), Cellardweller , and Radiant Burn (Soul Strike). Oh and Broken Saint (Angelous) came with his waterspout to make a rather interesting mayhem mission and for the mob kills afterwards. Also Thanks to Doomsdayve and Fire Shock for bringing me within a bub and a 1/2 of 50 from just hitting 49 that morning. So now I did achieve my goal of hitting 50 twice in one weekend, thanks to all that got me there. Now let me at Statesman and crew, they must be destroyed (Lvl 50 Fire/DA Brute lft for Recluse SF).

Yeah Arkhan's been two years in the making. He was created on or around May 20th 2004, so yeah it's been a while, making him my third character created, and my third 50. My second character created was Shatter Freak, but his job right now is to be my first character to unlock Katie Hannon.

Well hopefully I'll have another 50 this weekend. Cade Nox is almost 48, and if I work at it he should be hitting 50 real soon.

Addendum for Jell-O First Timers:

Hamidon is a Giant Monster located in the 45+ zone known as the Hive off of Eden, a hazard zone connected to Founder's Falls. He is a single celled organism consisting of a nucleus and 33-34 Mitochondria all encompassed in a gelatinous body. His origin is mentioned in The Terra Conspiracy arc given by Ginger Yates to 35-40 heroes.

There are 3 types of Mitochondria in the Hamidon. Mending mitochondria are green and heal the other mitochondria. Mitochondria Electrolytes are blue and have stuns. Mitochondria Antibodies are yellow and are the mitos that attack.

Each mitochondria and Hamidon (Nucleus) have AV level Hitpoints, Hamidon (Nucleus) being at 47K. Therefore fighting Hamidon is like fighting 35 AVs in one area, therefore requires several heroes to take them down. Mitos can split, cloning themselves and adding another target. A Mito Spawn is when Hamidon is unheld at 50% and 25% he will spawn a mitochondria antibody for everyone currently in the hive in a very close proximity to the nucleus. Occasionally it does spawn some mitos where a hero may have been located including in the air. This can appear to look sort of like caviar. In this picture, the big purple oval is the Hamidon Nucleus, and the yellow bubbles around him and all over are the Mitochondria Antibodies of a Mito Spawn.

MITO SPAWN DOOM!!!

Hamidon Origins or Hami Os or HOs are the drops for every team with a member in the Hive, that did damage to the Hamidon Nucleus when he is destroyed. They work as SOs for 2-3 attributes of a power.

The HOs are:
Nucleolus Exposure - Damage and Accuracy

Centriole Exposure - Damage and Range

Ribosome Exposure - Damage Resistance and Endurance Reduction

Microfilament Exposure – Travel Speed Increase (Run, Fly, and Jump) plus Endurance Reduction

Golgi Exposure - Heal and Endurance Reduction

Peroxisome Exposure - Damage and Mez (ie: Hold, sleep, stun, etc .. but NOT knockback)

Endoplasm Exposure - Accuracy and Mez

Lysosome Exposure - ToHit and Defense Debuffs, and Accuracy

Enzyme Exposure - ToHit and Defense Debuffs, and Endurance Reduction


Membrane Exposure - ToHit and Defense Buffs, and Attack Rate

Cytoskeleton Exposure - ToHit and Defense Buffs, and Endurance Reduction

On the HOs that boost 3 attributes, while it's nice for a power to be able to use all three aspects, they do not have to if they get the benefit of at least 2 of the powers then they can be worth slotting.

Hope this clarifies any confusion of what Hamidon is if you have never seen him before.

I can offer you my experience and possibly some help in a few of the roles of raiding. I have been the targeter and the aggro team lead and have also coordinated the PA team on pinnacle while being in one of the other roles on Pinnacle.

Targeters, Follow and lead need to be clearly stated at the beginning of the raid. A Team of Illusion Controllers AKA the PA team should be set up before attempting to approach Hamidon.

Due to the graphical updates of Issue 6 and Issue 7 graphics lag and client side lag may be more of a problem for most players. There are certain procedures that you can do to reduce the lag on your side.

Targeter: Add to your friends list, target him and if you are melee get used to using /assist to see their target. If you are not attacking their target, you are wrong.

Follow: This is the hero that leads the movement of the healing umbrella, stick close to them as they will move under the current target and you will be in your best and safest range to attack.

Lead: This is the one that has to coordinate everything, they will provide instructions before the raid and during each and every phase. They will let you know when to attack, when to hold, when the aggro team is set up, and when the best time to take your snack or drink break is. The leaders will talk in request. No one else should talk in that channel. If you have pertinent information to the current state of the raid it is reccomended that you send a tell to someone in the raid leader team. Keep in mind the leader and targeter will be extremely busy and you do not want to have them flooded with tells.

There are two other teams that are more behind the scenes in their roles but are very necessary. These are the aggro and PA teams.

Aggro Team: Pinnacle usually uses a Tanker with 2-3 healers locked on and only healing that tanker for locking down aggro during the raid phase. The aggro team is moved in after enough targets have been elminated to form a wedge. Keep in mind that the aggro team may be moved in earlier if hami blasts stray to the umbrella during the attack phase.

PA team: A team of Illusion controllers that drop their Phantom Army to draw Hamidon's aggro. Flyers are needed for this team since they drop from a position overhead Hamidon. If the illusion controller cannot fly, a group flyer is usually added to the team to get them up there. It also helps to have a kinetic and/or Radiation controller/defender to boost recharge to keep PAs dropping without much space without PAs.

Debuffs: In the hold phase it is important to refrain from using –regen debuffs to avoid extra damage to Hamidon before a concrete hold is established. These debuffs are Lingering radiation, EM Pulse, EMP Arrow Transfusion, and Twilight Grasp

Due to the graphical updates of Issue 6 and Issue 7 graphics lag and client side lag may be more of a problem for most players. There are certain procedures that you can do to reduce the lag on your side. Along the same lines it is recommended that if you have a costume without a cape or an aura, to please use that one. You may also want to reduce the in game sounds as they can also add to lag.

Set World Detail to the lowest setting
Set Character Detail to 100% or 200%
Suppress Extra Player FX Enabled
World Texture Quality Low
Character Texture Quality Low
Max Particle Count < 3000
Vertical Sync Disabled
FSAA Off
Shadows Disabled
Use Geometry buffers Disabled
Anistropic Filtering Off
Shader Quality Low
Water Effects Disabled
Depth of Field Effects Disabled
Bloom Effects None

So if the above paragraph doesn’t sound like fun, just go in safe mode.


Pinnacle maintains a set starting point of the south rock. The reason for this is that we can gather the most in one spot visibly, tighten up our healing umbrella as well as time heals. During this time we coordinate through request and our Hamidon raiding channel what types of controllers and defenders we have currently in the hive to determine if we have enough for the PA team and healing umbrella. Some leaders will treat each raid as if it is someone's first raid and explain the roles they should play while on the south rock. This is not to be insulting but to get new raiders up to the speed of the more experienced raiders. Once we have established that we have the necessary numbers and groupings, We will send in the PA team to begin dropping Phantom Armies to absorb Hamidon aggro. If the raid group plans to go in a counter-clockwise pattern, it works best for us to have the PAs dropped on the west side, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 the distance from the Nucleus to the outer edge of the jello. Once the PAs are set up and seem to be grabbing Hami's aggro the targeter will head in to pre target the first target. If there are any monsters on the path toward the first target, the targetter will call target on all monsters until the path is cleared then re target the first Mito.

Since I have targeted many times I can offer this advice. I myself use overhead targeting. This is best done at about half the height in the jello, and centered as much as possible between the Mitos. I also use a camera distance of 250 (/camdist 250) so I can see a good amount of Mitos. I've tried the facing away from Hamidon targeting and sometimes due to lag, Mitos can derender and targets can be missed. With overhead targeting one can determine easily the Mitos on top of Hami and plan out the next mito that is not too far away from the current target. This also helps in determining when a proper wedge is cut for the aggro team to move in. I usually move in a pattern that goes in and out from the Nucleus to keep the targets close and minimize drastic movement to the next target which sometimes results in several dead heroes.

As a note the targeter should have set up 2-3 binds. The first one is to note that we are approaching a new target. The current Follow will follow this with a similar bind to reinforce that the umbrella is moving. One should also set up a bind to state that we are attacking said target to reinforce which target everyone must be attacking through. One bind that not all targeters have but can help is one to notify splits in the mitos and to state that they need to be held. Mitos split less when there are more holds on them and when they are damaged quickly. I have gone 10 targets without a split with holds enforced on at least one raid. Another bind that some targeters use is one to hold fire while they select the next target. To call out the targets, one can use the bind- /bind <key> “request Attacking $target.”
The $target variable will be automatically replaced by the target’s name.

In the process of attacking it is usually good for Kinetic defenders to spam Inertial reduction so non flyers can jump to be able to reach the higher targets. Also it is good for radiation controllers to use Accelerate metabolism to keep attack rates up. AoEs and cones are prohibited as they can sometimes aggro other mitos within the range or even worse Hamidon if the target is close. Having the bubbler as a follow makes it easier to see where people are moving to so if one doesn't have the follow targeted they can at least see the bubble.

A proper wedge can be cut in about 6-8 targets. If the last two targets in the group are blue and/or green, you can move the aggro team in at the left side of the wedge (facing Hami) and begin to grab aggro since the blues can't effect you if you have your status protection toggle enabled.

As we approach the west side where the PAs were stationed at the beginning of the raid, the aggro team and the PA team are moved slowly and carefully to avoid moving out of range counterclockwise from Hami (if raid has proceeded counterclockwise) Once the last mito is down I refrain from targeting anything and head back toward south rock, since we have now gone full circle and ended up back in the starting position.

At this point controllers are asked to move in and begin spamming their single target holds. Anyone without a hold that is not on the aggro team should move out of the jello. Healers are not as necessary since Hamidon's aggro should be on the Aggro team tanker or Scrapper. We usually have several kinetic and radiation controller/defenders to speed up the recharge on the holds. In a Pinnacle raid you will usually see someone that in their excitement will count how many AMs they have on them.

I have a bind that I periodically use in request if I am part of the lead team, or in broadcast if I am not, that states that if you can put a hold enhancement in it, it's a hold, and to use it until hamidon dies. We will usually bring in the blasters for additional holds while the melee remain out of the grouping that is trying to hold hami. If your character has hover it is reccomended to fly above hami while you hold him to cut down a bit on the lag.

The strength of the hold is determined by the amount of time since the tanker or scrapper of the aggro team has not been hit. We will usually time this to about 2-3 minutes to be sure that he is held. Once the 2-3 minutes have passed, the leader will sometimes call for the AoE holds to be used to lock in the hold. Holders are reminded to continue to spam holds until Hamidon's health drops to zero. Any drop in holding could result in hamidon breaking free and possibly spawning a mito for every hero currently in his vicinity. It is asked that any –regen debuffs (Lingering radiation, EM Pulse, EMP Arrow Transfusion, and Twilight Grasp) are not used during the initial hold phase due to the fact that with containment damage his health going down too fast before the hold is locked can result in a Mito spawn. Once he has been held for a confirmed 4-5 minutes then the leader will order the final phase. This can be done as an Attack Phase or a Hold and Debuff phase.

Hold and Debuff Phase
Due to graphical updates and the minimal amount of player activity required since only characters with holds are needed this method reduces lag and makes it less likely for players to crash out before the HO drop.

After about 4-5 minutes of the tanker not receiving damage, the leader will then requests that those holding hamidon use all their debuffs including the –regen debuffs (Lingering radiation, EM Pulse, EMP Arrow Transfusion, and Twilight Grasp) that were not used before. Only one member of your team needs to put in an attack for the team to get the drop. Some leaders will simply call a one hit phase, in which each hero in the hive will take their one shot at hamidon and no more. Some leaders will divide up the One-Hit phase by calling heroes of certain origins to put in their one hit. THERE IS NO ATTACK PHASE, SO IF YOU ARE NOT HOLDING HAMIDON OR PUTTING IN YOUR ONE HIT YOU SHOULD NOT BE ATTACKING. When his health reaches 50% (about 26K), we will call the vanguard, an accolade power that increases the duration of the hold, and the Geas of the Kind Ones, an accolade power that increases recharge and accuracy, to make sure he is nicely locked down as we take out the rest of his health. Be sure to ready your toggles during the hold and debuff phase, hamidon buds with no toggles tend to hurt.

Attack Phase
The attack phase was a previously used method, but due to graphical updates and the sheer amount of activity with everyone attacking, it is shown to cause an excessive amount of lag and has been set aside for the most part for a hold and debuff phase.

After about 4-5 minutes of the tanker not receiving damage, the leader will then ready the raiders for the attack phase. DO NOT ATTACK UNTIL THE LEADER SAYS SO This is extremely important since if he is not completely held and hits 50% health he will spawn mitos. Once the attack phase has begun if he does attack the aggro team, attackers must not attack until he is determined to be held again. If he does not attack the aggro team again and his health reaches 50% (about 26K), we will call the vanguard, an accolade power that increases the duration of the hold, and the Geas of the Kind Ones, an accolade power that increases recharge and accuracy, to make sure he is nicely locked down as we take out the rest of his health. Be sure to ready your toggles during the attack phase, hamidon buds with no toggles tend to hurt.

Once we pop the hamidon, do not begin trading, instead everyone needs to attack the Hamidon Buds that spawn shortly thereafter (usually after a nice big lag surge). Killing all bud spawns helps to allow Hamidon to spawn sooner, usually 6-8 hours after defeat. When all buds have been cleared you can begin trading and be sure to thank your raid leaders

Sorry I stated it above, let me break it up to make it easier to read, safe mode still is a bit easier.

World Detail to Lowest setting
Character detail at 100% or 200% (not sure why this works, tried the other way and it was worse for me)
Character effects Disabled
Bloom disabled or set to lowest setting
Antialiasing disabled or set to lowest setting
Anistropic filtering set to lowest level
Objects set to 3000 or lower (not sure on exact name under character detail)

Hopefully that helps out a bit.

I'll agree with you on that Taser it can definately help. If you don't want to go into safe mode for whatever reason you will have to adjust several settings within the graphical options.

Set World detail to the lowest setting, Character detail can be at 100% or 200%, not sure why this works. Turn off bloom effects and character effects or lower bloom effects to the lowest setting. Turn of Antialiasing and Anistropic filtering or reduce them to the lower levels. Reduce objects to about 3000 or so, not sure on exact name believe it's under the Character detail.

So if the above paragraph doesn't sound like fun, just go into safe mode.

I can offer you my experience and possibly some help in a few of the roles of raiding. I have been the targeter and the aggro team lead and have also coordinated the PA team on pinnacle while being in one of the other roles on Pinnacle.

Targeters, Follow and lead need to be clearly stated at the beginning of the raid. Targeter: Add to your friends list, target him and if you are melee get used to using /assist to see their target. If you are not attacking their target, you are wrong. Follow: This is the hero that leads the movement of the healing umbrella, stick close to them as they will move under the current target and you will be in your best and safest range to attack. Lead: This is the one that has to coordinate everything, they will provide instructions before the raid and during each and every phase. They will let you know when to attack, when to hold, when the aggro team is set up, and when the best time to take your snack or drink break is. The leaders will talk in request. No one else should talk in that channel. If you have pertinent information to the current state of the raid it is reccomended that you send a tell to someone in the raid leader team. Keep in mind the leader and targeter will be extremely busy and you do not want to have them flooded with tells.

There are two other teams that are more behind the scenes in their roles but are very necessary. These are the aggro and PA teams. Aggro Team: Pinnacle usually uses a regen scrapper during the mito phase with 2-3 healers, and a tanker for locking down aggro during the hold phase. The aggro team is moved in after enough targets have been elminated to form a wedge. PA team: A team of Illusion controllers that drop their Phantom Army to draw Hamidon's aggro. Flyers are needed for this team since they drop from a position overhead Hamidon. If the illusion controller cannot fly, a group flyer is usually added to the team to get them up there. It also helps to have a kinetic and/or Radiation controller/defender to boost recharge to keep PAs dropping without much space without PAs.

Pinnacle maintains a set starting point of the south rock. The reason for this is that we can gather the most in one spot visibly, tighten up our healing umbrella as well as time heals. During this time we coordinate through request and our Hamidon raiding channel what types of controllers and defenders we have currently in the hive to determine if we have enough for the PA team and healing umbrella. Some leaders will treat each raid as if it is someone's first raid and explain the roles they should play while on the south rock. This is not to be insulting but to get new raiders up to the speed of the more experienced raiders. Once we have established that we have the necessary numbers and groupings, We will send in the PA team to begin dropping Phantom Armies to absorb Hamidon aggro. If the raid group plans to go in a counter-clockwise pattern, it works best for us to have the PAs dropped on the west side, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 the distance from the Nucleus to the outer edge of the jello. Once the PAs are set up and seem to be grabbing Hami's aggro the targeter will head in to pre target the first target.

Since I have targeted many times I can offer this advice. I myself use overhead targeting. This is best done at about half the height in the jello, and centered as much as possible between the Mitos. I also use a camera distance of 250(/camdist 250) so I can see a good amount of Mitos. I've tried the facing away from hamidon targeting and sometimes due to lag, Mitos can derender and targets can be missed. With overhead targeting one can determine easily the Mitos on top of Hami and plan out the next mito that is not too far away from the current target. This also helps in determining when a proper wedge is cut for the aggro team to move in. I usually move in a pattern that goes in and out from the Nucleus to keep the targets close and minimize drastic movement to the next target which sometimes results in several dead heroes.

As a note the targeter should have set up 2-3 binds. The first one is to note that we are approaching a new target. The current Follow will follow this with a similar bind to reinforce that the umbrella is moving. One should also set up a bind to state that we are attacking said target to reinforce which target everyone must be attacking through. One bind that not all targeters have but can help is one to notify splits in the mitos and to state that they need to be held. Mitos split less when there are more holds on them and when they are damaged quickly. I have gone 10 targets without a split with holds enforced on at least one raid. Another bind that some targeters use is one to hold fire while they select the next target.

In the process of attacking it is usually good for Kinetic defenders to spam Inertial reduction so non flyers can jump to be able to reach the higher targets. Also it is good for radiation controllers to use Accelerate metabolism to keep attack rates up. AoEs and cones are prohibited as they can sometimes aggro other mitos within the range or even worse Hamidon if the target is close. Having the bubbler as a follow makes it easier to see where people are moving to so if one doesn't have the follow targeted they can at least see the bubble.

A proper wedge can be cut in about 6-8 targets. If the last two targets in the group are blue and/or green, you can move the aggro team in at the left side of the wedge (facing Hami) and begin to grab aggro since the blues can't effect you if you have your status protection toggle enabled.

As we approach the west side where the PAs were stationed at the beginning of the raid, the aggro team and the PA team are moved slowly and carefully to avoid moving out of range counterclockwise from Hami (if raid has proceeded counterclockwise) Once the last mito is down I refrain from targeting anything and head back toward south rock, since we have now gone full circle and ended up back in the starting position.

At this point controllers are asked to move in and begin spamming their single target holds. Healers are not as necessary since Hamidon's aggro should be on the Aggro team tanker or Scrapper. We usually have several kinetic and radiation controller/defenders to speed up the recharge on the holds. In a Pinnacle raid you will usually see someone that in their excitement will count how many AMs they have on them.

I have a bind that I periodically use in request if I am part of the lead team, or in broadcast if I am not, that states that if you can put a hold enhancement in it, it's a hold, and to use it until hamidon dies. We will usually bring in the blasters for additional holds while the melee remain out of the grouping that is trying to hold hami. If your character has hover it is reccomended to fly above hami while you hold him to cut down a bit on the lag.

The strength of the hold is determined by the amount of time since the tanker or scrapper of the aggro team has not been hit. We will usually time this to about 2-3 minutes to be sure that he is held. Once the 2-3 minutes have passed, the leader will sometimes call for the AoE holds to be used to lock in the hold. Holders are reminded to continue to spam holds until Hamidon's health drops to zero. Any drop in holding could result in hamidon breaking free and possibly spawning a mito for every hero currently in his vicinity. After about a minute more of the tanker not receiving damage, the leader will then ready the raiders for the attack phase. DO NOT ATTACK UNTIL THE LEADER SAYS SO This is extremely important since if he is not completely held and hits 50% health he will spawn mitos. Once the attack phase has begun if he does attack the aggro team, attackers must not attack until he is determined to be held again. If he does not attack the aggro team again and his health reaches 50% (about 26K), we will call the vanguard, an accolade power that increases the duration of the hold, to make sure he is nicely locked down as we take out the rest of his health.

Once we pop the hamidon, do not begin trading, instead everyone needs to attack the Hamidon Buds that spawn shortly thereafter (usually after a nice big lag surge). When all buds have been cleared you can begin trading and be sure to thank your raid leaders.

Is there something so wrong as to wanting to grab one of these civilians and use them as a human shield. Only good for a few hits but would be a nice touch of evil.

I made a fire/DA Brute. He was created to be the nemesis mentioned in the bio of my main character a Katana/Regen Scrapper. Basically the bio stated that the mysterious villain went blow for blow against my scrapper and as CrimsonShadow readied his final strike the villain healed to full and landed a spine shattering punch. The dark armor set fit this well with the dark regeneration power as well as the appearance of it giving the look of a mysterious shadowy character. The fire primary worked for the fact that it had the smashing punch attacks as well as a fire sword that could be comparable to the katana even though it is only in two attacks but part of my attack chain.
His bio was that the darkness within him manifested itself in the form of the shadowy armor and the anger within him manifested in the form of his fiery attacks.

I can offer you my experience and possibly some help in a few of the roles of raiding. I have been the targeter and the aggro team lead and have also coordinated the PA team on pinnacle while being in one of the other roles on Pinnacle.

Targeters, Follow and lead need to be clearly stated at the beginning of the raid. Targeter: Add to your friends list, target him and if you are melee get used to using /assist to see their target. If you are not attacking their target, you are wrong. Follow: This is the hero that leads the movement of the healing umbrella, stick close to them as they will move under the current target and you will be in your best and safest range to attack. Lead: This is the one that has to coordinate everything, they will provide instructions before the raid and during each and every phase. They will let you know when to attack, when to hold, when the aggro team is set up, and when the best time to take your snack or drink break is. The leaders will talk in request. No one else should talk in that channel. If you have pertinent information to the current state of the raid it is reccomended that you send a tell to someone in the raid leader team. Keep in mind the leader and targeter will be extremely busy and you do not want to have them flooded with tells.

There are two other teams that are more behind the scenes in their roles but are very necessary. These are the aggro and PA teams. Aggro Team: Pinnacle usually uses a regen scrapper during the mito phase with 2-3 healers, and a tanker for locking down aggro during the hold phase. The aggro team is moved in after enough targets have been elminated to form a wedge. PA team: A team of Illusion controllers that drop their Phantom Army to draw Hamidon's aggro. Flyers are needed for this team since they drop from a position overhead Hamidon. If the illusion controller cannot fly, a group flyer is usually added to the team to get them up there. It also helps to have a kinetic and/or Radiation controller/defender to boost recharge to keep PAs dropping without much space without PAs.

Pinnacle maintains a set starting point of the south rock. The reason for this is that we can gather the most in one spot visibly, tighten up our healing umbrella as well as time heals. During this time we coordinate through request and our Hamidon raiding channel what types of controllers and defenders we have currently in the hive to determine if we have enough for the PA team and healing umbrella. Some leaders will treat each raid as if it is someone's first raid and explain the roles they should play while on the south rock. This is not to be insulting but to get new raiders up to the speed of the more experienced raiders. Once we have established that we have the necessary numbers and groupings, We will send in the PA team to begin dropping Phantom Armies to absorb Hamidon aggro. If the raid group plans to go in a counter-clockwise pattern, it works best for us to have the PAs dropped on the west side, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 the distance from the Nucleus to the outer edge of the jello. Once the PAs are set up and seem to be grabbing Hami's aggro the targeter will head in to pre target the first target.

Since I have targeted many times I can offer this advice. I myself use overhead targeting. This is best done at about half the height in the jello, and centered as much as possible between the Mitos. I also use a camera distance of 250(/camdist 250) so I can see a good amount of Mitos. I've tried the facing away from hamidon targeting and sometimes due to lag, Mitos can derender and targets can be missed. With overhead targeting one can determine easily the Mitos on top of Hami and plan out the next mito that is not too far away from the current target. This also helps in determining when a proper wedge is cut for the aggro team to move in. I usually move in a pattern that goes in and out from the Nucleus to keep the targets close and minimize drastic movement to the next target which sometimes results in several dead heroes.

As a note the targeter should have set up 2-3 binds. The first one is to note that we are approaching a new target. The current Follow will follow this with a similar bind to reinforce that the umbrella is moving. One should also set up a bind to state that we are attacking said target to reinforce which target everyone must be attacking through. One bind that not all targeters have but can help is one to notify splits in the mitos and to state that they need to be held. Mitos split less when there are more holds on them and when they are damaged quickly. I have gone 10 targets without a split with holds enforced on at least one raid. Another bind that some targeters use is one to hold fire while they select the next target.

In the process of attacking it is usually good for Kinetic defenders to spam Inertial reduction so non flyers can jump to be able to reach the higher targets. Also it is good for radiation controllers to use Accelerate metabolism to keep attack rates up. AoEs and cones are prohibited as they can sometimes aggro other mitos within the range or even worse Hamidon if the target is close. Having the bubbler as a follow makes it easier to see where people are moving to so if one doesn't have the follow targeted they can at least see the bubble.

A proper wedge can be cut in about 6-8 targets. If the last two targets in the group are blue and/or green, you can move the aggro team in at the left side of the wedge (facing Hami) and begin to grab aggro since the blues can't effect you if you have your status protection toggle enabled.

As we approach the west side where the PAs were stationed at the beginning of the raid, the aggro team and the PA team are moved slowly and carefully to avoid moving out of range counterclockwise from Hami (if raid has proceeded counterclockwise) Once the last mito is down I refrain from targeting anything and head back toward south rock, since we have now gone full circle and ended up back in the starting position.

At this point controllers are asked to move in and begin spamming their single target holds. Healers are not as necessary since Hamidon's aggro should be on the Aggro team tanker or Scrapper. We usually have several kinetic and radiation controller/defenders to speed up the recharge on the holds. In a Pinnacle raid you will usually see someone that in their excitement will count how many AMs they have on them.

I have a bind that I periodically use in request if I am part of the lead team, or in broadcast if I am not, that states that if you can put a hold enhancement in it, it's a hold, and to use it until hamidon dies. We will usually bring in the blasters for additional holds while the melee remain out of the grouping that is trying to hold hami. If your character has hover it is reccomended to fly above hami while you hold him to cut down a bit on the lag.

The strength of the hold is determined by the amount of time since the tanker or scrapper of the aggro team has not been hit. We will usually time this to about 2-3 minutes to be sure that he is held. Once the 2-3 minutes have passed, the leader will sometimes call for the AoE holds to be used to lock in the hold. Holders are reminded to continue to spam holds until Hamidon's health drops to zero. Any drop in holding could result in hamidon breaking free and possibly spawning a mito for every hero currently in his vicinity. After about a minute more of the tanker not receiving damage, the leader will then ready the raiders for the attack phase. DO NOT ATTACK UNTIL THE LEADER SAYS SO This is extremely important since if he is not completely held and hits 50% health he will spawn mitos. Once the attack phase has begun if he does attack the aggro team, attackers must not attack until he is determined to be held again. If he does not attack the aggro team again and his health reaches 50% (about 26K), we will call the vanguard, an accolade power that increases the duration of the hold, to make sure he is nicely locked down as we take out the rest of his health.

Once we pop the hamidon, do not begin trading, instead everyone needs to attack the Hamidon Buds that spawn shortly thereafter (usually after a nice big lag surge). When all buds have been cleared you can begin trading and be sure to thank your raid leaders.

Pinnacle
CrimsonShadow Lvl 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper-Leader of Shattered Dimension
Arkhan Phaeros lvl 38 Empathy/Dark Blast Defender-Great Minds SG
Shatter Freak lvl 29 Mind Control/Kinetics Controller -Captain of Shattered Dimension
Project CABAL lvl 13 Invulnerability/Energy Tanker
Napalm Trigger lvl 11 Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster
Tyr Radaken lvl 50 Warshade
Arayis Takaren lvl 6 Peacebringer
Fauxtempest lvl 12 Illusion/Storm Controller-Rubicon Breach Regulars

Infinity
Caliga Levis lvl 20 Dark Miasma/Psychic Defender
Solis Centuri lvl 16 Peacebringer
Ferbinator lvl 14 Warshade
Acid Stoner lvl 17 Earth/Rad Controller
Elementalis lvl 33 Ice/Stone Tanker
Javelisk lvl 13 Spines/Super Reflexes Scrapper
Orbisanus lvl 8 Gravity/Sonic Resonance Controller

I would like to offer a possible suggestion for HOs since they are becoming a major concern among possible PvP players. Since HOs and the Trial SOs enhance multiple aspect of a power, perhaps upon entering the arena with these special enhancements a hero should have to choose to substitute an enhancement for one of the abilities. So for a Damage/Accuracy, they would have to choose to use a +3 damage or a +3 accuracy in the slotted power. Upon exiting the arena they would have their slotting returned to the original special SO. This would hopefully even the playing field and help to keep the game from becoming the "you better be part of a nice big SG or have good friends that can get you in on private raids because farming is the only way you can win" Personally I think this may be a better solution to the problem.

Pinnacle
CrimsonShadow Lvl 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper-Leader of Shattered Dimension
Arkhan Phaeros lvl 27 Empathy/Dark Blast Defender-Great Minds SG
Shatter Freak lvl 22 Mind Control/Kinetics Controller -Captain of Shattered Dimension
Project CABAL lvl 11 Invulnerability/Energy Tanker
Napalm Trigger lvl 10 Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster
Tyr Radaken lvl 40 Warshade-Leader of Shattered Dimension

Infinity
Caliga Levis lvl 16 Dark Miasma/Psychic Defender
Solis Centuri lvl 16 Peacebringer