I always forget to come back here and fix one thing - namely the bit about the vault door.
You'll get three spawns from it, solo. While initially it didn't seem like waiting made a difference, but vault door health did, the three spawns (solo) come at regular intervals - a minute apart, roughly. So, yeah, they can spawn while the hero comes after you.
I'm guessing the vault door triggers the typical 75%, 50%, and 25% hp spawns that so many other multi-spawn critters do.
Also, there are two other bank spawn points: 1. Right in front of the entrance to the bank; and, 2. Opening the bank front door. So, if you rush to the bank door and immediately open it, congratulations, you just triggered a double spawn right then and there.
Also note that if you really, really, really want to rush to the bank door, but want to reduce ambush spawns, there are three tricks:
- Fly up to the zone ceiling then travel horizontally. There doesn't seem to be positional ambush triggers up there.
- Run along the outer boundary of the map. Doesn't seem to be positional spawn triggers there.
- Teleport to the bank door. Either you wind up at certain spaces where there are no positional triggers, or, you hit very few of them.
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I'm guessing the vault door triggers the typical 75%, 50%, and 25% hp spawns that so many other multi-spawn critters do.
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Initially, I thought it was somthing similar - but it isn't.
Three spawns (from memory) are triggered as soon as you come within range of the vault door (watch your Global, there'll be NPC chatter saying "We've got a situation!")
You can, at this point, go to the front door, stand and wait for the ambushes. All three will come through, even with the vault door at full health.
There are decent guides already in place on how to deal with Mayhem missions, those nuggets of villainy goodness we get after several newspaper missions.
One thing that's barely touched on, though, is dealing with the inevitable aggro - "Longbow death squads," giant ambushes and the like. That's the aspect I'm touching on here. Hopefully it'll make an alrady fun mission even more of a blast.
The mobs that stand around on the street are like ordinary mobs. They have an aggro range, and will attack if they see you (or are attacked.) These, we're not worried about. Go forth, defeat them, get time (and keys for side missions from the special mobs.)
Longbow Ambushes
Every once in a while, though, just like in the "real" Paragon, you'll find yourself going to a new area of the map - Hyde Park, for instance. The first time you cross each "boundary," you will trigger a Longbow ambush. You can tell by the NPC chat that they've spawned as they tell you to give up.
What do you do?
Do just what they say. "Freeze, Villain!" Not because you've had a change of heart, but because you *want* them to catch you - preferrably away from other NPCs. Solo, they're a weak spawn and can be taken out quickly and easily.
Do NOT just keep running to the bank. You'll cross more boundaries and get more Longbow ambushes to appear. This can be most unhealthy when they follow you into the bank.
Deal with the ambushes one at a time as they appear.
The Eagle Death Squad.
This gets mixed reports. Some never say they see them, others exit the bank and get nailed by eight or more Longbow Eagles.
My lowbies never see them. My high levels do - unless they never jump or fly. It *seems* the key to this is not to use a "vertical travel power" - Superjump or Fly, though even later Combat Jumping can get you high enough.
If they do spawn (they don't, in my experience, have NPC chat - at least that I ever hear,) get ready for a fight. They are a pain. Or just sprint everywhere. More time to blow stuff up that way.
The bank vault.
The NPC guards are cake, of course, but there are four (that I've tested and seem to be able to repeat regularly) points that ambushes spawn:
- When you first stand in front of the vault door. This, on solo/villainous (first time through to get the reward) gets a simple two minion spawn, before you ever touch the door. They take their time to get to you, but they will get there.
- Between 1/3 and 1/4 "Health" on the vault door. This on the same settings seems to spawn a single Lt pretty consistently. Just wait and take him down.
- When the vault door is defeated. Another two-minion spawn. Take them out before...
- Grabbing the glowie. This spawns the Hero and longbow.
Rushing through these *will* cause the spawns to pile up. While my Brutes don't typically mind, some of the less hardy classes would much rather deal with these two at a time than a pile of six or so.
I wrote this after seeing another complaint about "massive ambushes" at low settings. These tactics have been repeatable for me, and kept the mayhems very manageable. Team size and setting will, of course, affect the spawns you get, but the points when they spawn will remain the same.