So you feel like some Sushi... Fighting Lusca
By
Blueeyed,
Posted on: 2006-01-01 10:18 in Player Guides
Just as some general Giant Monster notes : never sidekick up Blasters, Tankers, and Scrappers. They will keep doing the same amount of damage, and will be hit harder, making it more difficult for support classes to keep them alive. The same goes for buff/debuff focused Defenders and Controllers. Only heal-focused players should be made as high-level as possible - this will make their heals provide a larger portion of the scrapper/tanker/blasters health bar. If possible, exemplar down a tanker to as close to 32 as possible without going under, and sidekick healers to the highest level character around.
Lusca is fairly respondant to slows - Snow Storm, Shiver, and Siphon Speed can provide a very good cushion to an attacking team. All the times I've killed her cleanly, it's been when our team had a decent slow power.
Also of note, Lusca's tentacle smashs count as cone attacks, so it's generally a good idea to not have all your melee people line up on one side of them.
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3. The Devilfish badge. Doesn't (as I recall) count toward any accolades, but it's a [i[badge, and we all like badges, right? (Ooh, shiny.)
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Devilfish doesn't count for any accolades, and you may want to fix that UBB code.
gah, yeah, didn't notice that... and too late to edit now :P
Didn't recall them being cone attacks - then again, everyone's usually in a mob around a tentacle. 
Yes, they are massive cone attacks. The trick to keeping the squishies alive is for whoever has the aggro of that tentacle to jostle around a bit so that when the tentacle attacks him, the cone faces away from the squishies. This is standard Tank procedures, really, goes great with AV's too.
Arc ID#1160 : "In the Shadow of Statesman" -Finished
Part Two--Under Construction
Lately, it seems, more people have gotten interested in Lusca again. It may be the influx of SWG folks, combined with interest in COV and, of course, the holidays - but Lusca's back to actually having people fight her again.
Problem is, I'm seeing people fight her with no plan of attack - therefore racking up a lot of debt. Lusca should be (reasonably) easy XP. So, in the interest of helping out - a quick guide to the Family Size Sushi in Independance Port.
What is Lusca?
Lusca is a giant octopus that spawns in Independance Port. It's a giant monster (technically, nine, I suppose.) You can't miss it. It most often seems to spawn across the south edge of the zone, by the Brickstown entrance and west. Go see Vidiotmaps.com's Independance Port map for spawn points.
Lusca's a somewhat unique giant monster. It's one of the few that anyone participating gets a badge for. (By participating, either do damage or be on a team that does.) It's not the team that does the MOST damage, just a participating team.
She's also unique in that, as mentioned above, she's more like nine seperate monsters (eight tentacles and the head.)
Being a giant monster, being "higher level" doesn't help you. Conversely, being "too low" doesn't make you useless. The damage will scale - and she will damage you.
Why would I want to attack it?
Well, a few reasons.
1. Novelty. Hey, it's a giant monster. Why not?
2. XP. Each tentacle gives XP, as does the head. Usually a fairly decent chunk of change too. And
3. The Devilfish badge. Doesn't (as I recall) count toward any accolades, but it's a [i[badge,[/i] and we all like badges, right? (Ooh, shiny.)
Wow, she's big. How many people do we need?
A single team of 8 - if it's a decent team - can do this carefully. Typically, though, I see at least 1 1/2 to 2 full teams. If nothing else, it makes the tentacles go down faster, gives you more people to debuff/buff/do some damage mitigation. It's a party. Bring wasabi.
The Octopus Strikes!
Each tentacle packs a pretty good wallop. On top of that, Lusca's head has an ink attack which does some damage over time and has a -fly component to it. And yes, like other ranged attacks, the ink will follow you on shore, in the air - if it werent' so annoying, it'd be funny. There's not much you can do about the ink. The tentacles, however, can be beaten with a little forethought.
Your plan of attack
Lusca looks daunting when you first see her. A wall of tentacles around a giant head. If you have Flight - or swim carefully around - you'll notice something. There's usually one tentacle sitting somewhere all by its lonesome, away from the others.
Guess what. This is where you begin.
If you do what I've seen too many teams do lately - charge headlong into the wall of tentacles - you will die. Fast. If you hit the lone tentacle - it'll whap you, sure. But it'll be the only one. And it's much easier to counter the damage from one tentacle than all of them.
When one tentacle is defeated, Lusca will sink. Get out of the water, or away from where that was. She will resurface, but normally not in the same spot. Often she'll show up on the other side of a dock, or 100 yards or so away. She has, however, shown up in the same spot, or very close, with players within her "group" of tentacles. This leads to debt. So get out of the water for a moment.
This will also let you search for the next "lone" tentacle when she does surface. Rinse, repeat.
When she's down to four tentacles, I personally haven't seen them spread out. They've normally been in a row. Just work at one end and make your way down the line. Remember, you want as few tentacles able to attack you as possible.
Eventually - you're down to just the head. Go ahead, rush it. I've brawled it with my blasters and defenders just for the heck of it. Other than its ink, it really can't attack, and the ink doesn't come all that fast.
After that - congrats! It's down, and now all you have to do is endure sushi and calamari jokes for the next minute or so from the others who were there.
Is any AT "better" at this than the others?
Nope. You want, after all, better than a full team, so you're going to have a mix of ATs. Damage, aggro management, damage management, buffs, debuffs, and holds are all greatly appreciated. I've never seen a specific "mix" do better than any other.
Now go forth and kill Lusca. And remember, Khelds are squids, Lusca's an octopus.