If I may, Crim, add one more piece of advice:
Before you set up the healing umbrella and start the raid, please request that everyone reboot CoH in safe mode. With the graphical upgrades in issue 6, Hami Raids can and most likely will be even laggier than before. Safe mode helps reduce the lag somewhat while maintaining playability for those attacking or holding.
Current Badge Hunter: Plot Device (Rad/Thermal/Dark) - 1,268 Xbox Live: Friggin Taser
King of Electricity, Lead Inmate running the Carl and Sons asylum, the "Man" behind the Establishment, Given Honor in Hat Form By Paragon City (Favorite Forum Poster 2006!), Master of Ceremonies of the Fair Use Law podcast
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.
With the new graphics engine of CoV and I6 Coh - Do you have any tips for graphics settings to reduce the lag during the Hami raid? Does switching to a lower res, turning off player effects, shadows, etc. help? I've only participated in one raid and my machine appeared to freeze right after my tank moved in on the attack phase. I had read somewhere to keep clicking the attack powers since often the client will appear frozen but the attacks will still fire, so I did. I would be interested in any tips or tricks on the game settings to maximize the Hami hammering experience.
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
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.
Another thing that helps is for everyone participating in the raid to have a costume without a cape or an aura. Even with player details turned down the game will still try to render them if you are close to another player.
For the couple raids I've participated in, I've got my 4th slot for my raid costume, basic outfit without the extra bells and whistles.
Don't forget also that when you play the game it must send you data detailing the sounds going on at the time of the event. Every AoE Heal has a sound effect being loaded into the game and from what I've noticed turning off All sound effects helps reduce lag by about 50%. Ussually its the only thing I need/want to turn off since it provides such a great lag decrease.
Pinnacle Heroes: Ilconke lvl 50 En/En Blast, Pane lvl 50 Inv/SS Tank, Kimil'Lee Draco lvl 50 Ill/Kin Troller, Blackest Blackness lvl 38 DA/DM Tank, il lvl 35 PB
Pinnacle Villains: X lvl 50 Claw/Nin Stalker, Knumbskull lvl 42 Elec/Elec Brute, Metal Master lvl 35 Bot/Bub MM, X'ile lvl 32 Mind/Psi Dom
There's another minor functionality, BTW, though it's not frequently exercised. Controllers with low damage (many of them), marginal healing (most of them, hopefully), no pets (Mind and oddball builds), and buff powers *especially* mez protection (electrolytes make some blasters' lives hell) and rezzes (people do die periodically) do exist.
They can typically survive without a hitch through the mito phase of a raid away from the umbrella, and may be more useful at a distance, where they can spot fallen pettrollers, newcomers, electrolyte zaps, monster training greif, and so on.
Of course, again, this should only be done if the regen scrapper is fine and your area healing is weak, or if the umbrella team is doing fine healing, and your single-target healing (everybody except emp) is weak. ... or if both the regen scrapper and the umbrella team are doing fine.
When I was doing raids regularly, that was the role I played, anyhow, with my Mind/Emp (our scrappers and assault teams rarely had problems outside of the isolated fumble or stupidity).
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
May I propose a change to the conventional thinking on Raids?
I understand the need for 1 Bubble so its easier to follow ppl without having "follow" on, but I suggest that all Bubblers have dispersion bubble up and they all use auto-follow to stay with the 1 bubbler lead. This way all the bubbles will be in one place and there wont be confusion on who to follow.
The reason is as follows: Bubbles stack. and that defense is AoE. I have heard the arguement that Hami dmg is untyped and therefore indefensible, but Positron's explanation of defense indicates that the AoE portion should be kicking in - REGARDLESS OF TYPE. It is AoE all.
I know for a fact that I personally have had PFF up and when Hami started hitting the group and it protected me. Everyone around me went down.
At the very least, it is worth a test.
205723: A Different DESTINY
When Soldiers of Arachnos got their names added to the Destiny List, Longbow managed to get a copy of the list and began rounding villains up. But one name on the list shocked them...
I was never crystal clear on the reason for no-bubbles-in-the-jello, but I thought it was because they draw aggro away from whomever is drawing Hamidon himself's blasts, which I've always presumed (since I doubt it was never tried before) can kill heavily bubbled groups.
Either way, I'd really like to see it tested for myself.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
GUIDE TO TESTING CONFUSION ON HAMIDON
Confusions (illusion/deceive, mind/confuse, mind/mass confusion, ice/arctic air) are controls that, much like holds, completely prevent a villain from attacking heroes (in PvE).
The possibility exists that Hamidon can be confused, rather than held, during a raid. By itself, this possibility is not too important.
However:
<ul type="square">[*]The great majority of summoned/spawned MObs in the game are *automatically* confused if the MOb that spawned them is confused![*]The the rare summoners whose summonees are NOT confused CANNOT be prevented from spawning by HOLDING them. (Hammi doesn't appear to fall into this category, because he can be held to prevent him from spawning.)[/list]
There is the possibility that if Hamidon is confused when he takes enough damage to do the second spawn, that ALL THE MITOS would be AUTOMATICALLY CONFUSED, and kill each-other and him!
POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS
For the sake of a practical test, any of the following are a possibile alternative outcomes to the ideal situation (where confused mitos rapidly kill off Hamidon and each other, foreshortening the final phase and earning everyone an HO).
<ul type="square">[*]Hammi will not spawn at all if confused (finish raid as per normal)[*]Hammi will not spawn if confused, without other villains nearby to "aggro" him. (Have someone ready to TP foe a swarm or train a monster in)[*]Hammi spawns but mitos are not confused (everyone dies!)[*]Hammi taking heavy damage from confused mobs will prevent many or all of the HOs from going to heroes (big disappointment!)[/list]
Also, note, when the confused summoner dies, the summon-ees will no longer be confused, and there probably will be some angry orphan mitochondria left after Hami goes down, which may mean a trip to the hospital or a pitched battle to survive and get the buds.
HOW THE RAID GOES:
A Hammi-Confusion raid would go mainly according to the usual routine, except for the following:
<ul type="square">[*]The "Hold" Phase should be performed only by illusion and Mind controllers using Deceive, Confuse, and Mass Confusion. This means Illusion controllers are even more vital-- they must make sure to descend from pet-dropping position IMMEDIATELY when the raid leader calls for Hold Phase. [*]The relative rarity of confusions also makes it more important to recruit mind and illusion controllers HEAVILY beforehand, and make sure they have Confuse/Deceive slotted out.[*]The raid leader should designate a bug-teleporter (somebody with fly and TP foe) and a monster-trainer (a tank), who will respond respectively, to him spamming "BUGHUNT!" and "GREIF ME!" or some similar commands, IF it happens that Hamidon is clearly at the spawn point, but not spawning.[*]Everyone except Mind and Illusion controllers and speed-boosting defenders should start prepping to fight remaining Mitochondria AS SOON as mitos appear to be confused, and to run in to finish Hami off ONLY if all he kills all the Mitos. Probably if there are more than a few remaining mitos, there will be a Hive-wipe following Hammi's defeat (particularly considering the lag), but it doesn't hurt to try.[*]Only the Raid Leader should ever specify whether a raid will be attempted with confusions, and if not so-specified NEVER (waste time trying to) use confusions on Hamidon during a raid![/list]
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
If you managed to pull this off, the Mitos die when Hami dies.
[ QUOTE ]
May I propose a change to the conventional thinking on Raids?
I understand the need for 1 Bubble so its easier to follow ppl without having "follow" on, but I suggest that all Bubblers have dispersion bubble up and they all use auto-follow to stay with the 1 bubbler lead. This way all the bubbles will be in one place and there wont be confusion on who to follow.
The reason is as follows: Bubbles stack. and that defense is AoE. I have heard the arguement that Hami dmg is untyped and therefore indefensible, but Positron's explanation of defense indicates that the AoE portion should be kicking in - REGARDLESS OF TYPE. It is AoE all.
I know for a fact that I personally have had PFF up and when Hami started hitting the group and it protected me. Everyone around me went down.
At the very least, it is worth a test.
[/ QUOTE ]
The easiest way is to send in an SR scrapper beefed up on either purple inspirations or by bubblers.
[ QUOTE ]
May I propose a change to the conventional thinking on Raids?
I understand the need for 1 Bubble so its easier to follow ppl without having "follow" on, but I suggest that all Bubblers have dispersion bubble up and they all use auto-follow to stay with the 1 bubbler lead. This way all the bubbles will be in one place and there wont be confusion on who to follow.
The reason is as follows: Bubbles stack. and that defense is AoE. I have heard the arguement that Hami dmg is untyped and therefore indefensible, but Positron's explanation of defense indicates that the AoE portion should be kicking in - REGARDLESS OF TYPE. It is AoE all.
I know for a fact that I personally have had PFF up and when Hami started hitting the group and it protected me. Everyone around me went down.
At the very least, it is worth a test.
[/ QUOTE ]
The reason why multiple bubbles weren't used for a long time was less about redundancy, but for two other issues:
1) It was hard to make out who the bubbler that was supposed to anchor the blanket was, and people got confused and spread out.
2) Lag, plain and simple. Disp Bubbles stack, and buff everyone in the area, which is one that has people moving in and out of it constantly. One bubble isn't too bad, but 3+ used to get very ugly, which is why when it became clear that they weren't helping anyway, they were requested to be turned off. The new safe mode feature might make it more feasible, especially since bubbles should protect now, but I'm unsure that safe mode would help with the server lag caused by keeping track of that many buffs on that many people constantly. Might want to try getting a team of 8 bubblers together and sending them into the Hive and see if there's a noticeable difference in how often they get shot by anything in there. That would give a good sample by itself, since that many bubblers could protect a whole raid as well as they could protect just their team.
-M
Marut, 50 FF/Rad/Power Defender - Champion
Leader of The Earthguard
Leader of The Galactic Empire
[ QUOTE ]
If you managed to pull this off, the Mitos die when Hami dies.
[/ QUOTE ]
Did a red name say so? Did somebody actually manage a raid like this and I missed it? Or are you speculating based on some other Mob's behavior?
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
If you kill Hamidon without killing the mitos first, the mitos die with him. This has been confirmed by two successful raids on Champion pre-I6, and several others on other servers. I think TA still raids him daily like this, with their specially built raid toons.
-M
Marut, 50 FF/Rad/Power Defender - Champion
Leader of The Earthguard
Leader of The Galactic Empire
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you managed to pull this off, the Mitos die when Hami dies.
[/ QUOTE ]
Did a red name say so? Did somebody actually manage a raid like this and I missed it? Or are you speculating based on some other Mob's behavior?
[/ QUOTE ]
We have done several raids on Pin where we didn't kill all the mitos, mainly just to speed things up. (I don't think we have since ED, but I don't know of any Hami changes).
At one point we did a "speed raid" with a pickup group, I know they have been done faster by organized SGs - but this was an open group. We killed only the Green Mitos and enough for a Wedge to work from, the whole raid took about 30 minutes. 
[ QUOTE ]
Hammi taking heavy damage from confused mobs will prevent many or all of the HOs from going to heroes (big disappointment!)
[/ QUOTE ]
The reward system for Hamidon is that anyone who either hit Hamidon once or is teamed with someone who hit Hamidon once gets a drop. The proportion of damage done is not relevant. It does not seem likely that the XP division for confused mobs would change that.
[ QUOTE ]
Also, note, when the confused summoner dies, the summon-ees will no longer be confused, and there probably will be some angry orphan mitochondria left after Hami goes down, which may mean a trip to the hospital or a pitched battle to survive and get the buds.
[/ QUOTE ]
As others have said, it has been established through experience that all mitos (original or spawned) die when the nucleus dies.
[ QUOTE ]
Everyone except Mind and Illusion controllers and speed-boosting defenders should start prepping to fight remaining Mitochondria AS SOON as mitos appear to be confused, and to run in to finish Hami off ONLY if all he kills all the Mitos. Probably if there are more than a few remaining mitos, there will be a Hive-wipe following Hammi's defeat (particularly considering the lag), but it doesn't hurt to try.
[/ QUOTE ]
Some simple math here is in order. Hamidon has an AoE attack for 935 untyped damage that he fires every 3-4 seconds. Mitos have something like 23k HP. Hamidon would require well over one minute to wipe out the mitos by himself.
It is more complicated to analyze what happens when 50 mitos and Hamidon all start shooting at random targets. Disregarding the second spawn, I think the statistically expected outcome is for Hamidon to survive for more than a minute but die before wiping out the mitos.
Personally, I think confusing the nucleus is a losing battle. If it has confuse mag equal to its hold mag, then the situation is hopeless. Even if not, spawning massive numbers of confused mitos seems like a strategy with unpredictable outcomes. Confusing mitos to get some untyped damage sounds more interesting, since we know mitos can be easily held by a small number of controllers.
[ QUOTE ]
The reason is as follows: Bubbles stack. and that defense is AoE. I have heard the arguement that Hami dmg is untyped and therefore indefensible, but Positron's explanation of defense indicates that the AoE portion should be kicking in - REGARDLESS OF TYPE. It is AoE all.
I know for a fact that I personally have had PFF up and when Hami started hitting the group and it protected me. Everyone around me went down.
[/ QUOTE ]
It is easy to test so I don't want to discourage anyone from trying it, but testing from a long time ago established that all Hamidon/mito attacks hit 95% of the time regardless of defense and acc debuffs. This includes SR scrappers with entire trays of purples, and stacked bugged smoke grenades.
Unless it has changed since then, evading the attacks through defense is not possible.
[ QUOTE ]
Confusing mitos to get some untyped damage sounds more interesting, since we know mitos can be easily held by a small number of controllers.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm...maybe one or two of them perma confused could seriously help speed the hold/kill phase up.
Ah. Cool. Been on dozens of raids, but for whatever reason, we habitually took out all mitos, including the healers. >.> Maybe players on Freedom are more anal than I thought.
I agree it's unlikely that the confusion XP distrib mechanics would affect the weird HO distribution situation they have set up now, but I thought I'd mention it, since nobody really knows.
And I agree that as a practical matter, this kind of raid would be nearly impossible to get off the ground considering the number of Mind & Ill you'd have to bring.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
Tried that. Problem is that confused mitos don't target the same mito consistently, just like confused mobs tend to whack a target, then run around and hit another one at random. Might have merit if the number of mitos was significantly decreased first, and therefore have only a limited number of targets to attack, but you gotta wonder at that point if it wouldn't just be faster to kill the rest the same way you thinned out the first bunch.
The Confuse idea with regards to Hami spawning pre-confused mitos has been around since I3-I4, and if I remember correctly, one guy from Infinity insisted that he led a raid on Test where it worked, or at least something similar. The main issues with it were that a) no one believed him, I think because he was sort of a troll, and he had no evidence, b) the number of illusion/mind trollers that he claimed to have had on test was not really representative of the numbers generally found on a live server at any given time, somewhere around 40 of just those sets, and c) the idea was met with a lot of resistance because even were it to work, it pushed non-controlling ATs even further into the backseat than many already were. Overall, there didn't seem to be a lot of interest in trying it because it appeared to amount to a novelty.
However, just because it's a novelty doesn't mean it won't work, or that someone can't use it 
-M
Marut, 50 FF/Rad/Power Defender - Champion
Leader of The Earthguard
Leader of The Galactic Empire
Well what I was thinking was to keep just one or two yellow mitos around at the end after clearing the rest and using those to speed up the kill phase. Preferably one each on opposite sides of the nucleus. Use a couple of trollers to perma confuse each and use them to bring down the nucleus' health quicker at the end.
If one has the trollers to hold him, that would probably work well. Bear in mind that the confuse animation is a long one, so whichever controllers are on confuse duty would be unable to assist with holds. Also could be risky since you can't tell a mito to stop firing if you lose holds. Might be six of one, half dozen of the other, though if for some reason one is overburdened with trollers but light on damage, that could be handy.
All this is based on the "standard" raid model. All bets are off if something else is intended
-M
Marut, 50 FF/Rad/Power Defender - Champion
Leader of The Earthguard
Leader of The Galactic Empire
[ QUOTE ]
I agree it's unlikely that the confusion XP distrib mechanics would affect the weird HO distribution situation they have set up now, but I thought I'd mention it, since nobody really knows.
[/ QUOTE ]
Does this mean the mitos would get HOs?
[ QUOTE ]
And I agree that as a practical matter, this kind of raid would be nearly impossible to get off the ground considering the number of Mind & Ill you'd have to bring.
[/ QUOTE ]
Probably could get enough on test if you got people to post it in their Hami Global channels for their servers. I doubt there are enough on a given server that are active, but between all the servers...
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.