Tempest Teacup

Excellent. I'll try and be in for this one. :-)

Thanks for running, Infernal. It was very, very useful even if we didn't win this time. :-)

Yay! Someone else organized one!

I'll be coming, Infernal. And I should be bringing a few friends.

Wow. That's... a lot of dudes.

Yesterday I led all four heroside Master TFs, and completed all of them successfully except for Dr. Kahn. There were at least two people who were utterly dumbfounded by completing Master of Statesman.

It was a good day. I can't thank the various awesome players who made it possible enough. :-)

All right. I'll give a shot to running one of these suckers. Won't be the first weekend after release, but likely the second (the 28th and 29th). Almost certainly on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon (I'm CST in Illinois, for those players far afield).

I'll get a firm time on the table in a few days. Anyone with preferences out there give a shout, I'll factor it into the final decision.

Well, Calla, looks like you've got plenty of available help. When do you want to try it? :-)

I would love to bring my blaster to this as well, time permitting.

Looks like I'm not available until Saturday, sadly, but then I've got basically all weekend.

Since the new Issue should be dropping Real Soon Now (trademark withheld due to pending litigation), I was wondering: has anyone given any thought to organizing a few CoP runs?

I strongly suspect it's going to take a) more people than most sgs can usually field and b) at least a few attempts to figure it out-- both of which call for some advance planning.

Is anyone already doing this? I'll try to put it together myself if I have to, but I've never run anything of this scale and I like being lazy when I can. :-)

Intro:
So, after four years or so of playing City of Heroes, I had yet to be on a successful Master run of any TF and I decided the best way to make it happen was to do it myself. Since I couldn’t find any good guides on how to do a Dr. Kahn on the boards, I decided to fix that myself too. This guide is the result of my experiments. It’s my first one, but hopefully not the last.


What’s a Master of Dr. Kahn?
It means running the Dr. Kahn Task Force (aka the Reichsman Task Force heroside) with the limits No Temporary Powers and Zero Defeats Allowed. In exchange for your trouble, you get an additional badge at the end of the Task Force if you succeed. It’s pretty hard, but this guide is designed to help you accomplish this difficult goal.


Team Configuration:
First and foremost, take a full team. You can do it with fewer, but each team member missing extends the final fight a little further-- and it’s already unreasonably long to start with. Second, it is highly recommended that everyone on the team be a 50. The margin for error on a Master attempt is tiny, and even a single level down can make a real difference between surviving and dying. Third, you probably want the people on the Master attempt to have run Dr. Kahn before. It’s not required, but having everyone know the lay of the land is extremely helpful.

Here’s some roles you’ll probably want to fill for a Master of Dr. Kahn:

• Main Tank: The person who stands in front of Reichsman at the end and takes a beating, and who takes the alphas from the consistently enormous spawns throughout the TF. This person needs to be able to take truly formidable punishment and control Reichsman’s aggro. Generally this is accomplished by having a Tanker with Taunt, but it could at least theoretically be done by, say, a Dwarf-form Kheldian or a really tough Scrapper with Confront.
• Off Tank: The person who goes and corrals the AVs at the end, and who backs up the Main Tank in managing aggro in the aforementioned enormous spawns. This person needs to be able to stand up against standard AVs (one of whom does psychic damage) and keep their attention. It’s usually either a Scrapper, a second Tanker, or a Dwarf-form Kheldian, but other ATs could again do the job in theory.
• Support x2: The people who make sure nobody dies via buffing, debuffing, and healing, generally Controllers or Defenders. You’ll want two to give you a sufficient margin throughout the TF, but especially when you’re fighting Reichsman and even the toughest characters will occasionally need help.
• Damage x3: Anyone who can really bring the pain, generally Blasters, Scrappers, and Kheldians. Other roles can double up to function in this category depending on their builds (everyone should be doing damage, after all). You’ll want at least three heavy hitters because you’ll want to kill Reichsman in a reasonable amount of time-- less than three makes a long slog significantly more likely.

That should leave you with at least one slot to fill to suit your fancy. Usually you’ll want more Damage or Support, since you can never truly have enough of either.

In addition, you might consider the following optional role:

• Scout: The person who can navigate maps safely by themselves. Invisibility of one form or another is recommended but not required; sufficiently advanced Scrappers and Tankers can just take the shots from the spawns on the way without falling down. Powers like Personal Force Field and Phase Shift are recommended for squishies to ensure safe passage to and from their destinations, and Recall Friend on a Scout can save the team a significant amount of time.

Finally, a note about Kheldians: the presence of a Kheldian on the team makes it possible for missions to spawn Shadow Cysts. Cysts see through stealth and can utterly screw up Scouts. If you have a Kheldian in your party, either your Scout needs to have something besides stealth to protect them or you need to roll through your missions the slow way.


General tactical notes:
In general, your watchword should be “careful.” Remember that a successful Master run means nobody dies; each risk your character takes endangers the badge for everyone, so try to minimize the risks. Stay together, proceed slowly, clear the surrounding area before you get into a tough fight, and let the Main Tank lead into every spawn. Exit missions as soon as the button becomes available instead of staying to mop up. Play smart and take your time.

If you’re leading the team, don’t be afraid to give instructions. Mini-briefings before missions are always a good idea to make sure everyone’s on the same page. During missions, tell anyone you see doing something unnecessarily dangerous to stop. Clear communication is key to making a Master attempt work, so make sure that everyone knows exactly what they should and shouldn’t do.


Mission 1: Stop the Break In at City Hall
Goal: Proceed through many, many spawns killing everything you find until you reach and destroy the Troop Portal at the end of the mission.

Points of consideration:

• The most common way to blow a Master attempt on the first mission is simply aggroing too many spawns at a time. Large spawns of Arachnos are no joke, and there are 4 EBs and an AV in the mix as well. Work your way slowly to the front door instead of jumping right to it; there are several spawns near the door that should be cleared so that they don’t join the fight with Bad Penny. When you’re in the first downstairs hallway inside City Hall, pay careful attention to the side rooms; there are a couple of spawns waiting in the wings that can be easily activated by bad positioning. Try to separate the hallway spawns and deal with them individually. When you teleport into the cave portion of the map, don’t charge around the corner blindly; it’s a variation of the ambush room and you’ll be facing several spawns in close proximity to each other, including the AV. Pull the spawns around the corner one at a time into the room where you arrived, and you should be able to deal with them in relative safety.
• The mission is essentially a sequence of doors (and teleporters), and several of the doors feature a big spawn on the other side that is dangerously close to aggroing onto you as soon as you step through. Always send the Main Tank through doors first; if they happen to eat an alpha strike, they’ll at least be able to live through it long enough for everyone else to get there.

Mission 2: Defeat the 5th Column Invasion
Goal: Destroy the Troop Portals throughout the map, and survive Invincible Reichsman’s rampage afterwards.

Points of consideration:

• The portals can for the most part be safely sniped to death without setting off their spawns. This is absolutely not necessary and will only save your team a few minutes over just moving overland and killing everything in the way, but it is debatably safer.
• However, one of the portals is usually buried in a tunnel on the map. The whole tunnel is crawling with nazis, and the odds of a successful guerrilla hit on that portal are a little too low for a Master attempt. A Scout can certainly do it, but the attempt will sometimes result in that person’s death. It’s safer to take the whole team in and clear the tunnel instead.
• Invincible Reichsman really is invincible-- don’t fight him. Don’t engage him even a little bit, just run away from him. Before you destroy the last portal, evacuate all but one of your team from the mission via the mission exit or an Ouroboros portal. The one person who remains should be able to take out the last portal safely on their own. Once they do so, they should leave ASAP-- dropping an O-portal next to the portal spawn before you destroy it is an excellent method. Once the last troop portal is destroyed, the mission is on a timer; all you have to do is wait in safety outside for a minute or two and it will complete on its own.
• Reichsman spawns near the mission exit. Don’t be near there when the last troop portal goes down if you have any way to avoid it.

Mission 3: Find the 5th Column Base
Goal: Kill the mission boss and everyone in his room, then click a random one of several blinkies that appear throughout the map after the boss dies.

Points of consideration:

• Recall Friend is very useful on this map. You only have to fight the boss room and any inconveniently placed spawns around blinkies, and a Scout with Recall allows you to skip the rest.
• If you have a Scout, they can go click the blinkies after the boss room is clear. However, they should only grab blinkies if they are either out of line of sight of the surrounding mobs or out of their aggro radius. If there is any doubt whatsoever that they can grab the blinkie safely, bring the whole team in and clear the room first. If a player other than your Scout has Recall, make sure they have the Scout targeted while they’re solo so they can be pulled out at a moment’s notice.

Mission 4: Get Energy Sources from Axis Earth
Goal: Click 5 blinkies.

Points of consideration:

• As in Mission 3, a Scout can be useful but don’t let them get cocky. If they can’t be absolutely sure of clicking the blinkie safely, bring the whole team to clear the area. And again, if someone besides the Scout has Recall, keep the Scout targeted while they’re working for emergency evacuation.
• Clicking one of the blinkies causes a massive ambush to spawn at the mission entrance. Look for the ambush text after each blinkie, and be sure to deal with the ambush before moving onto the next. This should only happen once-- every blinkie does not spawn an ambush.

Mission 5: Defeat Reichsman
Goal: Surprisingly enough, defeat Reichsman.

Points of consideration:

• It’s a good idea to come into this mission with a full tray of inspirations. A big green at the right moment can save your life, and it doesn’t hurt to keep a few break frees around either.
• Teams featuring a Scout with Recall can skip to the last room. There are no relevant mission goals anywhere else.
• Bring Reichsman down to the bottom of the stairs to keep him separate from the AVs that will eventually be released. Don’t fight him on the platform. If you accidentally immobilize him upstairs, wait for the effect to wear off before you pull him down and start pounding on him.
• After the previous mission, everyone on your team should have a Dimensional Grounding Ray temp power (even though this is a Master run). The very first thing you should do in the fight with Reichsman is fire this at him; it flips him from being unaffected by all attacks to being damage-able. I believe it only needs to be fired once, but shooting him a few more times throughout the fight certainly doesn’t hurt-- and it looks awesome.
• Reichsman is ridiculously tough to kill. He has 10 times the normal amount of hit points for an AV. He has a high natural resistance to all damage types, which is bolstered to practical immunity about half the time by Unstoppable. He’s strongly resistant to debuffs. In short, he’s probably going to take a while to kill. Some teams seem to be able to kill him in ten minutes or less, but others take half an hour or longer. Be sure you’re prepared for an extended fight just in case.
• If the fight goes long, you’re going to need to be extra careful with your endurance economy. Don’t run any unnecessary toggles and moderate your attack chain if you have to. Blue pills will not be enough to get you through this fight if it drags.
• Keep an eye on the damage numbers over his head. If you’re seeing a lot of -1s, he’s in Unstoppable. While he’s Unstoppable you’re not going to do a lot of damage anyway, so slow down your attack chain to get back some endurance. It’s also a good time to run off for a quick Rest or put up buffs if you’re not the Main Tank.
• Reichsman hits very, very hard. His burst damage is enough to knock out Granite tanks if the team isn’t prepared for it. Healing is good to have but will not be enough by itself; he does too much damage to too many team members at once, and sooner or later he’ll kill someone before they can be healed. Some combination of defensive buffs, debuffs, and heals will serve you better-- and since you have at least two Support characters, that shouldn’t be a problem.
• Reichsman has a few vicious short-range moves, but the attack you’re likely to have the most problems with is Corrupted Lightning Bolt. He fires this at unpredictable but rapid intervals throughout the fight, and it summons a 50’+ radius lightning bolt that does tremendous damage and a 15+ magnitude stun. In other words, it’s probably going to hit everyone on your team hard and stun all your squishies at once. He does have an animation that you can spot to tell when he’s going to fire it, but a) it’s hard to see when he’s covered in particle effects from eight people hammering him and b) it’s a short enough window that if you’re not already at the edge of his range, you’re not going to be able to get out of it in time. The fight often lasts too long for you to use defensive inspirations for the whole thing, in which case you’ll have no choice but to rely on your support characters to survive this. +Defense and -ToHit go a long way here; if he doesn’t hit you, you don’t have a problem.
• Squishies want to be as far away as they can while maintaining a continuous attack chain. If you’re at the standard 80’ limit for ranged attacks, you’re out of range of pretty much everything Reichsman can throw. If you can’t support a full attack chain at 80’, come in only as close as you need to and back off while he’s under Unstoppable to minimize risk. Blapping in this fight is a great way to get yourself killed, so don’t do it.
• If you have a power that crashes periodically and leaves you vulnerable, don’t crash in front of Reichsman.
• It is highly recommended that you clear the T-junction that enters into Reichsman’s room. Partially this is to avoid accidentally aggroing them into the fight, and partially it’s so you have a fallback position around a corner if you start taking more damage than you can handle, have to wait out a crash, or need to Rest.
• When Reichsman drops to certain health levels, one of the trapped AVs on the platform will be released. When that happens, the Main Tank should keep Reichsman busy at the bottom of the stairs while everyone else goes up the platform and pounds the AV into jelly. It’s important that the Off Tank responds immediately when an AV gets loose, because you need to keep them away from Reichsman to avoid a complicated double fight. It’s also worth noting that the AVs target the team leader by default when released; if your team leader is a squishy, they need to duck and cover for a few seconds until the Off Tank has the AV’s aggro.
• The Main Tank should never leave Reichsman. Everyone else should leave Reichsman without hesitation if they have a serious dip in health and can’t immediately deal with it. This is a Master attempt; if one shot from Reichsman’s mighty fists could kill you, don’t give him the chance.

Some Speculation:
There is a huge variance between reported times in killing Reichsman-- way larger than I can reasonably account for by team configuration. Something is still hinky here. I’m not sure if he has a very specific and powerful vulnerability that hasn’t been consistently identified, if there is a bug in the code for his defenses, or if there’s an inconsistent behavior in his AI. My suspicion is that sometimes he just doesn’t use Unstoppable and is therefore relatively easy to kill, but I’d need to see another few “fast” runs to confirm that.


Conclusion:
And there you have it. Many thanks to the people who suffered for me to gather this information. If you have any suggestions for revising this guide, I’d be happy to take them.

Now go get that badge!

Definitely another for Lousy_Day. Just... wow.

Seriously, thank you. This will make my life much easier.

Hmmm. Let's see.

Arcs that people have already mentioned here or elsewhere:
* PW's Teen Phalanx Forever! (67335) was insanely well-written and I couldn't stop giggling.
* All of Fearghas' stuff, particularly Mind of a Villain (now rehosted at 125605!), is quality. That arc in particular finally solves the "why am I working for someone else" problem for villains, and gives you some great scenery-chewing.
* Ghost Generator, number I forget. Creepy and unique.

Also, I don't think I saw any hits for @Whorfin's Gold on the Red Line. It's low-level, but it's funny and well worth a look.

[ QUOTE ]

Actually, the two free slots that were launched with the Character Slot service / Issue 12 *will* end at some point in the future.

If you have not claimed or assigned those slots to a server, then after the window closes, you won't get those two free slots.

This was noted in the Issue 12 Release Notes.

We have not yet announced when the window for claiming the two free character slots will end, but we will give advance notice prior to ending it.

[/ QUOTE ]

GF, that was really unclear from the patch notes. It sounded like getting them was available for a limited time, not that you'd lose them if you didn't use them.