5 Easy Steps to Defeating the Psionic Clock King


Airman_America

 

Posted

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re on a team that is doing a series of AV missions, & the team leader asks “Does anyone have anymore AV’s”.

You respond “I have “Find the source of the psychic energy” mission”.

Someone shouts out “That’s the clock king, that’s the reason I’ve been working off debt all week”.

Next thing you hear “Look at the time, gotta go” “Need to call it a night” “My wife just got home, bye all” “My supergroup is calling, cya” & you find yourself alone.

Why is this the case you might ask, simple the King’s Alpha Strike is a wicked PBAoE Psionic attack that does more damage than most AT’s Health bar, it can even one-shot some tanks.

Before you say “Oh God no, I’m going to be stuck with this mission forever!”



Never fear, here are 5 easy steps to defeating the Psionic Clockwork King.



Step one: Lower your mission difficulty.

Now some of these steps should be obvious, this is one of them. The Psionic Clock King is rough even on heroic, there’s no sense in making your task any harder for yourself, and you can always turn the difficulty back up when the mission is done.



Step two: Stock the team with the right AT’s for the job.

There are certain AT’s with a high degree of defense against or resistance to psychic damage.

(e.g. Stone Armor Tank with Mineral Armor, Dark Armor Scrapper with Obsidian Shield, Dark Miasma Defender with Shadow Fall).
BTW, Shadow Fall provides resistance to psychic damage for the entire team.


There are also certain AT’s that can be very useful in other ways.

Any controller with pets can use them to absorb the alpha strike, thus sparing the team from the blow.
An Illusion controller with Phantom Army would be ideal since that pet cannot be killed.

Debuffers like Rad or Dark Defenders can reduce the amount of damage he’s putting out.

An Empathy Defender with Fortitude can buff the team against psychic attacks, but can’t buff themselves.
Empaths remember to stay away from the King & that Alpha Strike.



Step three: Time to breakout the temp powers you’ve been hoarding.

You know those temp powers you’ve been saving for a rainy day.
** News Alert - Paragon City Weather Bureau forecasts torrential downpour coming. **

All kidding aside temp powers such as the Wedding Band given out by Stephanie Peebles after her last mission can pull your fat out of the fire. Now is the time to use them.



Step four: Don’t forget to use Inspirations!

According to Statesman, the new Damage Resistance Inspiration works against all forms of damage.
I would recommend chugging a couple of them along with a couple of defense inspirations before & during the fight.

Again this one should be obvious, but there are heroes out there who try to go through fights without ever using any inspirations at all, insights, rages, lucks, respites etc…
Don’t Worry, use them; more will drop as you fight. If worse comes to worse, you can always buy the small size before your missions & replace them with the larger varieties as they drop.




Step five: When all else fails, set the mission for one.

This means the team travels to the door/ portal where the mission is located, the entire team disbands. The mission holder resets the mission for one (he/she clicks on another mission setting it, then clicks back on the mission “Find the source of the psychic energy”, that will set it for one person).

The mission holder then enters the mission alone & after he/she is inside then they will send invites to the rest of the team.
(e.g. to invite your former teammate Captain Death, type /invite Captain Death, repeat this process till the entire team is inside).

Once you’re all inside don’t forget to return the star to your former team leader, simple courtesy, remember we are all heroes after all.




Here is a recap of all the steps.

Step one: Lower your mission difficulty.
Step two: Stock the team with the right AT’s for the job.
Step three: Time to breakout the temp powers you’ve been hoarding.
Step four: Don’t forget to use Inspirations!
Step five: When all else fails, set the mission for one.



As another incentive, remember you need to clear this mission out for Tina Macintyre in order to pick up some of the missions you will need for the Portal Jockey Accolade (Hydra mission for Multidimensional badge & the last mission in the Praetorian War storyarc gives you two AV’s (Neuron & Anti-Matterleader) that you will need for the badge). Those are missions also given by Tina.
Otherwise you will need to depend on the generosity of someone else broadcasting that they have these missions & are looking for people to join their team.

Lastly, remember some of the steps in this guide can be applied to other AV’s or towards other difficult missions that you have.

Good Luck & send my regards to the King.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Has this ever happened to you?

You’re on a team that is doing a series of AV missions, & the team leader asks “Does anyone have anymore AV’s”.

You respond “I have “Find the source of the psychic energy” mission”.

Someone shouts out “That’s the clock king, that’s the reason I’ve been working off debt all week”.

Next thing you hear “Look at the time, gotta go” “Need to call it a night” “My wife just got home, bye all” “My supergroup is calling, cya” & you find yourself alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hee hee! My scrapper had that Clock king mish for weeks before I could find a team who would help. (Hmm, chicken little heroes?). We had a illusion controler whose PA did a nice job on holding the aggro (kinda like a hami raid).

It took a while but we got the job done.

Thanks Hero for the tips!


 

Posted

The Dark Defender pet also does an excellent job of taking the alpha strike from the Psy Clockwork King in addition to Shadow Fall giving team resistance to Psy damage.

Here is the attack sequence I've used in the past:

1) Cast pet next to the AV to take the Alpha.
2) Hang Darkest Night debuff on the AV.
3) Tell team to attack.
4) Lay down Tar-Patch.
5) Cycle Fearsome Stare, Pet' Gaze, Twilight Grasp and blasts while the team beats down the AV.

Ivoux - Lvl 45 on Virtue


 

Posted

TigerBaby defeated the PsiCK in short order and with little difficulty with the backup of two emp defenders, one rad and one dark, both around lvl 30. The rad was sk'd to level and the dark hovering well out of aggro to assist the rad. Not a team assembled according to any geat plan, but just who happened to be on from our SG at the time; a bat-poop crazy approach that just happened to work like all-git-out. Maybe we just got lucky?


TigerBaby: 50 MA/regen Scrapper, Pinnacle
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1500+ hours and still going!
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~IN YOUR TANK!~

 

Posted

Don't forget your friendly neighborhood Earth Controller.

Yes, that's right.

Animate Stone: "mumble mumble... IS IMMUNE TO PSIONIC DAMAGE... mumble..."

And, Rocky just got KB resistance in ish 5 I think, so he's gonna sit there and take
it.


 

Posted

or bring a regen scrapper to solo it....
...
...
...
...
...
From I2...


Proud member of the Cole-a-lition.
Fighting to make every reality, a better reality.

 

Posted

After getting the tar beat out of me (D3) and my scrapper sidekick, I complained on our coalition chat. Imagine my surprise when several memeber (all 1/2 to 3/4 my level) insisted on being invited to the team to whomp on the AV who hit their leader even though they were so much lower than the mish called for and I could only sk one of them. :-)

It was truly something to see fluffy and me throwing out holds, Tar Patch, and every trick in my back while the low level heroes kept darting in for a strike then dashing back out for healing an buffs. I swear, we took him down in record time but it looked like he was being attacked by nats for a while. Yeah Academy of Champions!


***
Lumin (D4,50), Caelestes Lux (PB,50), Corpus Operandi (MM,50)

 

Posted

All you need to defeat pretty much any AV is 1 Tank (a scrapper will work but he needs a taunt, and he needs to be able to hold aggro on the mobs around the AV if there are any), 1 Healer, however many damage dealers you want, and about 4 Lucks. The Tank/Scrapper eats the Lucks, runs in and taunts the AV and any mobs around him and absorbs the alpha (which will not hit him), calls in the rest of the team when he's sure he has aggro under control, then everyone proceeds to pound away until the AV is dead, making sure the Healer stays out of range of the AV's AoEs.

The best way to do this is to make sure all of your damage dealers are blasters. That way, they can all stay out of the AV's AoE range and blast away, and the only person losing HP would be the Tank/Scrapper if the fight lasts longer than a minute. This will make the Healer's job a lot easier.

I've used this strategy twice on the Psi Clock King, three times on Anti-Matter, once on Bile, once on Neuron, and once on Adamaster.

Granted, the lucks aren't absolutely necessary for a Tank against all of these AVs since not all of their alphas will hurt a Tank that much. However, against someone like the Psi Clock King whose alpha can one-shot even a Tank, it works marvelously.


 

Posted

Minerals give defense to Psi which is handy for fighting all the little clocks leading up to the king but I would hate to rely on it providing enough defense to stop an AV from hitting with a tank-killing alpha. I doubt it provides that much defense.

The only tanks that I've seen survive the alpha are those that use a Dull Pain-like power (increase total hit points) and then someone heals them as soon as they get smacked with the alpha.

Damage debuffing before the alpha may make the attack survivable for the tank but I doubt the debuffer would survive (of course Dark would also be debuffing accuracy, so that might work). I'd get a DP'd tank to take the alpha then start debuffing the damage so all the other attacks are less. If you take to long to kill the King but his damage is down to 25% (kin at work) then his alpha recharging may not be the deal breaker it normally is.

A pet stalking horse is probably the safest and easiest route; let Jack or Imps eat it for the team (or Stoney who'll eat it and want more as pointed out above). Just don't have anyone too close by when they get zapped.

The in-game description says that the Damage Resistance inspirations don't protect from Psi, so I wouldn't rely on those.


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Posted

First off I want to say that this is a great guide and all the information in it is helpfull.

Secondly,
[ QUOTE ]
All you need to defeat pretty much any AV is 1 Tank (a scrapper will work but he needs a taunt, and he needs to be able to hold aggro on the mobs around the AV if there are any), 1 Healer, however many damage dealers you want, and about 4 Lucks

[/ QUOTE ]

He's right as well.

I recently defeated this AV, without knowing what mission it was or what we were up against. Team of 4 comprising myself(blaster), a sidekicked up fire tank, emp/rad defender sk'd to a fire blaster who was lower than myslef, and I was the mission holder. Tank popped lucks, ran in took alpha and Empath healed him up while I used Thunderous Blast to nuke the minions out of existance. Tank taunted and held him at bay untill we could whittle him down. Finished him off with another Thunderous Blast !!!


Centinull

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Damage debuffing before the alpha may make the attack survivable for the tank but I doubt the debuffer would survive (of course Dark would also be debuffing accuracy, so that might work). I'd get a DP'd tank to take the alpha then start debuffing the damage so all the other attacks are less. If you take to long to kill the King but his damage is down to 25% (kin at work) then his alpha recharging may not be the deal breaker it normally is.

[/ QUOTE ]

Umm... I'm used to leading in on this little fellow. Rad/Elec defender. Starting with Radiation infection from the trench slightly south of psycho Clockwork King, following with Enervating field and since I'm out of sight, his alpha will be fully debuffed. When RI starts whirling the team can charge, since I have aggro anyhow.

After that it's usually up to team composition for general tactics, but he's not the big deal he's made out to be. Just because someone who haven't felt anything hurt the last 20 levels due to maxed defenses think he hits hard doesn't necessarily make the Psychic Clockwork King tough.

Good guide with great advice all in all. If you have the opportunity, go at him with an all-defender team. It's plenty fun.


 

Posted

Dark Defenders eat the Psychic Clockwork King for breakfast as long as they are close in level to the mission level. I'm not saying we can solo him, because of course no defender could ever solo an AV. Not ever under any circumstances could a defender solo an AV. But, we do very well indeed against him as does any team we're with.


 

Posted

Another good tactic is to use range.

His kill-nuke is PBAoE. So you can do the following:

1: make sure your debuffer is protected against mezzing, as his ranged shots will mez

2: debuff from maximum range, probably starting with a -Slow debuff. That would be LR or Tar Pit.

3: put down the damage debuff (DN or EF). With that debuff up, a Dull Pain tanker should be able to handle the nuke. After the nuke, the King doesn't do that much damage. Send in the tanker and have him Taunt and charge before the King can kill the debuffer at range.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Hee hee! My scrapper had that Clock king mish for weeks before I could find a team who would help.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which is funny, because I've done it twice now as an Emp def in the last month or so.

The first time I didn't know what I was getting myself into, didn't even know what the mission was until we attacked the King. (That's what I get for SK'ing up on a pickup team.) I never died, but boy did I work my butt off keeping everyone alive.

The second time, I knew what I was getting into, was playing with a team I knew well, and I think I died 2-3 times.

What was that about how Emps and alpha strikes don't mix? Yeah. It's true.

(Not to mention getting picked off in the air when I thought I was way out of range.)


 

Posted

Actually, Minerals works very well in Psi based AV's. My lvl 50 stone tank only comes out when people are having trouble with babbage/CK/MM. I just helped a full team last night take out MM and they were getting royally worked until my tank showed up. Once I was there, I was really just a taunt bot to keep aggro off others and they mowed through the crowd. MM took out about half the team when we got to her, but I was able to keep aggro long enough for everyone to get rezzed and come back for the beatdown.

Now, I have been taken down by CK before, but when he does 2 Psi screams back-to-back in 1 sec at 2500 damage a piece, pretty much anyone is gonna take it. Everyone gets lucky I guess...


 

Posted

A great guide, however i have another strategy:

All you need is a /Rad controller (Ill/Rad preferably, or you can use a defender, but an ill/rad controller is preferred because of the pets), and a couple damage dealers. Next, fill ur insp slots with half lucks (the bigger the better) and the other half greens (again, the bigger the better), or you [u]can[u] get rid of a couple greens or lucks to fit in some blues, but when i did these i had no need to. [u]MAKE SURE THE RADIATION TOON HAS LINGERING RADIATION AND SOME YELLOWS[u]!!!!!!! Especially after the major hp regen-boost for AVs after I7, lingering radiation is absolutely necessary if you want it to be a quick and clean fight, due to the regen debuff (which does a great job cutting down the regen) and the recharge debuff (to keep Alpha Strike from activating again). Now you're ready to fight.

Step 1) If you have a controller, send in the pets (PA first for Ill controllers)
2) Have everyone pop off 5 or so lucks.
3) Have the Rad toon use some yellows (not all of them, in case the battle lasts for a while) use lingering rad, then the rest of the debuffs.
4) Keep attacking the AV , popping of more lucks when the first run out, and using yellows with lingering rad when it wears off.

I have managed to kill off at least 3 AVs with my Ill/Rad Controller using this strategy, with less than three people for each. Me, a blaster and a scrapper managed to kill off the clockwork king in less than 1 minute (possibly even 30 seconds). This is a very great strategy if you can acually manage to find a Radiation toon (TwinBlades is mine on Pinnacle server, i would be happy to help most of the time, although i may require a SK like i did on the Clockwork King because my toon is only 33), but Steel's strategy works extremely well (ive tried it with my 43 blaster) if you cannot manage to find a Rad toon.


 

Posted

Wow, a one-year necro post. =^_^=

Okay, since things have changed a bit in the past year, I'll add a few other things a player can do against the Psychic Clockwork King:

1. Set to Heroic, and if your team isnt' too large, you'll have an Elite Boss instead of Archvillain.

2. Dispursion Field from Force Fields now gives defense against Psi. Just hang around under the bubble and hope for the best! If the bubbler is protecting meleers, best to chomp some defense/resist insps themselves.

3. Opt to just drop the mission entirely! <_<

4. Once I8 is out, set your mission to "collaborate", and team with others who also have this mission. That way, you do it once, and everybody's PCK is done.


Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
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Posted

Ok, here is my strategy.

Step 1: get a kinetic who knows how to debuff.
Step 2: have the kin pop 8 sturdies, 1 breakfree, and 4 lucks
Step 3: kin goes in, spamming fulcrum and siphon power
Step 4: team waits until second siphon power, and then moves in
Step 5: kill all the normal clocks while the kin keeps the clock king debuffed
Step 6: kill the clock king at your leisure, as long as the kin doesn't get mezzed and can keep debuffing and spamming transfusion for the -regen (and the heal is nice too)

Kinetics can duo the clock king with any other AT. Trivially. Rad is great at debuffing spawns...but kinetics owns them at single target debuffing.

As long as you have enough sturdies and lucks to take the alpha (which should be about 50% debuffed before you take it anyway), you are good to go (as long as you don't get mezzed).


Heroes on Infinity, Virtue, Freedom and Pinnacle.
Villains on Virtue.

Over 5000 hours of playtime
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Posted

OOO!!! i know what you need to defeat clockwork king!!!

take one part heroic mish set for one

add one part shivan

add another part BS/regen scrapper

let bake for about 3 minutes, and viola!

serves about 22k experience!


~the poster formally known as GI_Shmo~

Champion- Always BS/WP Scrapper, Difficult Bots/Dark MM
Infin- Peace Pirate PB

 

Posted

While we're updating....

I did this a few times with my DM/SR scrapper, normally without a tank. As SR doesn't care the kind of damage, only if it is melee, ranged, area, etc, it provides some good protection. Buff up before you go in, and have someone with Lingering Rad to debuff the AV, add in more damagers and a few holds here and there, and voila!


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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, here is my strategy.

Step 1: get a kinetic who knows how to debuff.
Step 2: have the kin pop 8 sturdies, 1 breakfree, and 4 lucks
Step 3: kin goes in, spamming fulcrum and siphon power
Step 4: team waits until second siphon power, and then moves in
Step 5: kill all the normal clocks while the kin keeps the clock king debuffed
Step 6: kill the clock king at your leisure, as long as the kin doesn't get mezzed and can keep debuffing and spamming transfusion for the -regen (and the heal is nice too)

Kinetics can duo the clock king with any other AT. Trivially. Rad is great at debuffing spawns...but kinetics owns them at single target debuffing.

As long as you have enough sturdies and lucks to take the alpha (which should be about 50% debuffed before you take it anyway), you are good to go (as long as you don't get mezzed).

[/ QUOTE ]

I appreciate the debuffs of both the Rad and Kin sets, but I wouldn't say that a Kin has bigger or better debuffs than a Rad, especially when it comes to -regen

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...=7#Post6667939

Kin debuffs damage potential, endurance, speed and regeneration quite well.

Rad debuffs accuracy, resistance, regeneration, damage potential, endurance and speed very nicely.

On a really good team you should have one of each


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HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

 

Posted

Just wanted to add this strategy. Mind Controllers (the most gimped AT in the game) can mez him with Confuse. Confuse is non-agro and if you miss he doesn't agro. It takes usually two applications. He drops his alpha on his minions and then you move in for the clean up and take 0 damage.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
or bring a regen scrapper to solo it....
...
...
...
...
...
From I2...

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you nutz or listening to rumor?

Even in I2 the Alpha Strike from the King faceplanted my Regen as did many AVs.

I am sick and tired of stories (and they were just that... boasts) of Regens in God Mode.

Let me dispspel some myths from the beginning to the end of real Regens (I5).

Boast: Regens Tanked the Hami.
Fact: All Mitos had to be down. The Regen had to be all or nearly all Hami Health Enhanced. The shots from the Hami were so slow that you could take a blast and regen just in time to take another. Also, why use a Regen to tank the Hami? Well the damage is UNTYPED, meaning that nobody can withstand the damage. That meant that you must heal.

Boast: I can solo a Giant Monster.
Fact: You could not kill the GM. You needed to run full time Dull Pain. This was more of an excerise in just standing there, hitting heals and eating green mints.

Boast: I was the team tank.
Fact: You did not hold aggro like a tank. The odds were you were not getting as many hits as a real tank. If you were, and it was a full 8 man team... you were a faceplant.

Boast: I could solo AVs.
Fact: You were on Heroic at best. AVs like Dreck would faceplant you whilst your Invul and SR brothers fought on. In fact, many AVs would faceplant a Regen, the PBAoEs were simply too powerful and we had no armor.

I can go on and on. I recall getting a 3 shot faceplant from a Malta Gunfighter at level 49 in I2. 3 Shots despite Full Time Dull Pain, Accolades, IH, Tough, Weave, and the Fitness Group. I was running over 2+ k in Hit Points.

I recall dropping from one shots from guys like Dreck, despite 2+k in hit points and everything going like above.

I remember perma MoG and still having Malta Robots smacking me like a red haired step child.

It is time to drop the myth of God Mode Regens and realize that was their armor - the ability to heal - and that made and makes people jealous. That jealousy is ill informed, misplaced, and totally ignorant.


I am Airman America... Super Hero... and I approve this message!

 

Posted

I didn't read the whole thread, but my reaction to the original post is:

huh? I never considered the CW King to be a hard AV, nor have I ran into many teams that do. Diabolique is much more of a pain.

That being said, the main problem with King is his wicked alpha. If anything on your team can take the alpha unscathed, you should be good to go.

You mentionned a few power sets that have general pis resitance, I would add Singularity: it has very high psi resitance, so summon it right in front of the King.
Phantom Army has "infinite" resitance to everything but time
Anyone with a phase power can take the alpha, that include both Kheldian ATs, etc...

Lots and lots of ways of getting there. "Read, Set, Chaaaaarge" being one of the ways that doesn't work.


 

Posted

The amusing thing about the CWK is that the first time I faced him I hadn't heard about his reputation for tank-slaying.

My stone tanker had the mission, but didn't realize it had an AV. I waltzed in solo on Invincible wearing Granite alternating with Psi armor, and cleared out the Psi clocks bit by bit. No real danger, slow and steady as always. Then I see the massive form of the King in the distance.

"Hmmm...", I said to myself. "I wonder what he does? I'm sure I can't take him down (can't damage enough), but I should be able to hold him off for a bit. Let's see how tough he is."

I'd tanked the Envoy, Nightstar and other AVs with no problems. I hadn't died once in about 10 levels. I had TP for the rapid approach. I ate a few purples, cranked up the Psi and Rock armor and attacked.

I didn't even see what hit me.

By the time I rematerialized fully from the TP, I was face down in the rubble. I read the damage readings from the Combat log. My wife, playing at the computer next to me, heard my gasp of awe.

"What happened?" she said.

"Something new. Something different," I replied. "For the first time in his life, Painlord knows fear!"

Adjusting to this new reality was a bit of a shock. The next time I faced him I brought a large team. I did die once, but he went down after all.

Since then I've solo'd him twice as an EB using my Fire/Kin/Fire. Negate his alpha and he's mostly a big softie.

But you never forget your first King.


68 Level 50s, all made the old-fashioned way.
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