Terahertz

Statesman

Here is my two cents. Your basic answer is correct, the tank has to be able to jump in and grab aggro long enough for others to act without fear of instant death (what happens if most other ATs start a fight). From what I have seen most tanks (granite excepted) can only do this succesfully on a team that has at least one defender or controller who can somehow buff, heal or take aggro away from the Tanker. Now MOST big teams have a person to fit this bill. However, it is possible to end up on a team (particularly a midsized one 4-5ish) with an excess of blasters and scrappers, and no one who can help with the alpha strike problem. This happens more than occasionally, since these are two of the more popular ATs. The upshot is things are not horribly broken, but you can run into intractable situations. One possible solution is to add some combination of +def, DR or healing to a tank for each team member over 3.

THz

This is a great guide, but the black text is almost unreadable (I had to select the entire post to read it...) Please change this, and I will give you the stars you deserve

THz

On live (ie I4) try to get tough by your late 20s, and weave by 28 or 30.

However, I5 is on test, and tough/weave take A LOT more end to run, and give you less protection. The other toggles give enen less defense. I am not certain, but I will probably 4 slot tough (3 DR and 1 end reducer) and skip weave entirely (assuming things go live as they are now).

THz

not much you can do at low levels except grind it out. Getting in a small team will help (avoid big teams as your defense stinks).

THz

Well I will say that post I4 lots of mobs have serious Knock Back. I was 25 when I4 hit, and had planned on Acrobatics at 26 (after tough and stamina). If I were to do it again, I would pick up Acrobatics at 22 and stamina at 20. If you go the consume route, pick up acrobatics at 20! There is nothing worse than being Knocked out of your burn patch and having the villians follow you. I have not had much trouble with the burn change. Mobs occasionally leave the patch and come right back. I run BA with no taunt, and occasionally use my taunt power.

THz

Man what a bummer. That is one of the nastiest most fun AV fights with that alter spitting out demons left and right. My only recomendation when doing it is get a mid-sized team. 2-3 is usually too small, and 7-8 will get you way to many bosses summoned from the portal.

THz

Statesman

I am really enjoying issue 3 myself. The content looks gerat, and I am having as much fun today as my first day in game.

THz

Amazing work; Thanks!



THz

I was onl last night and I walked a group throug this via chat, so this is not first hand. They had 5 controllers! From what I gathered, they went in and held the Hydra from the get-go using invisibility and the FF never came up! We were using PA to grab aggro and they would invarably wake him up and he woudl bubble, but I guess you can just keep him held, and it does not come up. I didn't ask them if they could prevent the psi-lance attack or not. Anyway, we did it again later last night. This is a great TF, I cannot encourage people enough to do this.

Cheers

THz

I did mess up saying you don't have to kill AVs, I ment the Kraken, whihc are monsters. However, I did get 130 kxp for the Kraken, and not the Hydra. I think you could powerlevel very effectively just jumping down and killing the hydra with a small team and doing nothing else.

Last night we did the mission a fourth time. This time it was just the two of us (Level 40 and then 41 illus/emp controller and a level 39 DM/regen scrapper). We figured to try duo'ing it to avoid the pick up partner mess. It turned out to be our best run yet, in part because we knew what we were doing, and in part because there were no pick-up yahoos. My buddy died twice, and I died not at all. One of his deaths was to the Ritki gaurdians and the other to the psionic attack while clearing tents. It took us about 45 minutes to kill one kraken and the hydra, then we cleaned up the last threee krakens for xp. The entire hour and change netted my 4.5 bubbles of XP! This is farm or xp than I could get anywhere else. If we had a tanker, who knew the drill, there would probably be no deaths at all.

I noticed a few things last night. You definately do not have to kill any Krakens to complete the mission. I think you only have to kill the original tentacles and not the babies they spawn (90% sure on this). Also, the first time we succeeded in the mission I got my dual SO when I exited, and last night I got it when the last tentacle died. I think the person who gets the kill on the last tent (or hydra) to complete the mission gets the dual SO right away and his teammates upon exiting.

I highly recomend this trial as fun challenge, that is the fastest way to level from 36 (SK'd) to 41 or so.

THz

Well I finally got to give this a go last weekend. Friday I was home with a sick kid during the day, and my buddy and I wanted to try this, but there were no people on at all, so we went in with 2 mostly to scout it out. To recap, I was a level 38 DM/Regen and he is a level 40 Illus/Emp controller with port friend and GI. First off with only port and GI, it is tricky getting the cannons. My buddy died a handful of times over our three runs when either GI dropped, or a drone spootted him. With SS/Stealth and IH, I could wander with impunity and shrug off any pot shots, but I couldn't port people to me. I ended up clearing his body a few times so he could rez. Anyway, we got our cannons and hopped down. To make a long story short, we could barely take down the Ritki gaurds. At 38, you are at about 1/3 of your normal damage vs 42s. I could survive and eventually kill stuff, but it was SLOW. The second thing I learned is it is tough to take out the Ritki, but not the generators using pets (you have to carefully pull and lay pets towards the edge). So we cleared the geneators, and managed to drop the FF using only Flash, so a single controller is enough. We took out one AV, but it was slow. We died one to many times and we declard it a success End of try one.

Later that night I recruited the perfect team: the two of us plus and invuln tanker, plus a level 41 Rad-Rad defender who could SK me. Let me tell you fighting at level 40 was just great, I was much more damage and the Ritki and AVs went down much easier. In this run, our problems were all minor, but they added up. First out tank ran into the mission and then went AFK forever. This costs us 10 minutes while we waited for him. Then I got disconnected from the map server. I ran back quicly, but I didn't notice my cannon was gone. We had a little trouble again getting the cannons, but nothing big. We dropped down and cleared out the Ritki with 4 or 5 deaths between the two squishy characters. The rad defender did not have EMP, which was too bad. We then took down one AV with little problem. I was not fighting at 40, and EF makes a big difference. We cleared the tentacles, though we had a couple deaths here from the big psi attack from the Hydra. So it took us another death to figure out the proper attack cycle: Drop PA on hydra and take exactly 2 shots then run back behind the rocks (repeat). About this time, I noticed my missing cannon. So I spent much too much time locating the ramp back up to the Ritki (I was tired by this time). So time is ticking, and we only have 12 minutes remaining when the big guy goes down. We then start to clear the Kraken, and we get to the last one with 4 minutes to go, and our defenders dies accidently, AND we had no more awakens so time runs out and we failed.

The third try was last night. I got a Fire/FF controller (level 41) and I dinged 39 on the previous run killing the Krakens, but we couldn't find a tank or scrapper which we knew would make it very easy. So after spamming for a while we went in as a trio. It took a while to convince our friend to leave the imps behind and skip the upper Ritki We had only one death gathering cannons due to lag. Imps are a little tricky as they tended to want to womp on the generators, but we cleared stuff OK. Also fighting at level 39 is OK, but not nearly as good as 40. Both squishy types died twice I think. We took out one Kraken ane the tentacles, with a couple deaths from the psi attack when the PA dropped. The big guy went down fast enough and this time we cleared the tentacles first. Well it turns out you DON"T hav to kill the AVs! So had we just cleared the tents first on try two we would have been fine. Worse still once the mission is over the tmer stops and you can kill the Kraken at your liesure. So I got my Dual SO, but it was not too usefull (damage-hold, which I gave to my controller buddy). The xp was still awesome. The time we duo'd the Kraken it was 130 kxp to me The last trip through was worth more than two bubbles to each of us despite 4 or so deaths for the squish ATs. Being level 39 and dying less I got a bit more. We are hoping for another run or two before we outlevel this stuff. Anyone on Triumph late at night shoudl give me a tell.

This was a great guide; thanks so much. This TF is awesome. Limited time is good for me as I don't often have 4 hrs, there was plenty of challenge and death, but the reward xp-wise and dual SO wise is well worth it.

THz

Well I have had tough 6 slotted and resil 1 slotted for quite some time, and I also have perma-DP, so I should be in pretty good shape, assuming I can find someone to SK me up a bit (still only 38). I can generally tank 3 soldiers up to +2 or so, but +4 would be pushing it. I was figuring we needed either a controller or rad defender for EMP. Will just flash bring down the FF? My buddy has had PA slotted purly for recharge ever since we took on the Envoy of Shadows. I just love having those guys tank for us. So one more controller/defender and one more scrappers sounds perfect. Things may be delayed by family oblgations though and last night we did the CWK with your junior Alts.

Cheers

THz

Great post! I was inspired and my buddy and I started it last night. We did the first part, but it got late, so we will not attempt the beast til Thursday I think. Luckily he is an illus controller with prot friend He does not have levitate (only teleport) will he have much trouble getting the crates? Also what would be the optimal teamates for us. I am DM/Regen and he is Illus/Empathy.

THz

Boomtown is a great spot now for AoE hunting. My friend's blaster and my controller loved it til we out grew it. The problem with Faultline is SS is horrid there, and even teleport a PITA.

THz

It looks very cool. I cannot wait to see the entire list of subfields and general descriptions. So can we expect this tech for update 4?

THz

Great post! Thanks.

I just got teleport last week, and using the bind, it rocks. One other great use for teleport is for Stone or Invuln Tankers. You can teleport while using your Root/US ability. Since these make you basically invulnaerable to knockback, sleep etc. this is a great combination. It can be a pain teleporting around in a big group, but in small groups or solo it rocks.

THz