Great info...
I can't say I'd ever want to do one of these slogfests though... it sounds TERRIBLY boring. Attacking blobs of nothingness is not nearly as fun as fighting giant robots and fancy schmancy title charaters....
ah well.
[ QUOTE ]
Yes, 7 empaths, 6 flying scrappers (any kind), 1 kinetic, and 5-6 tanks (any kind) are needed as a core group. But everything else needs to be mixes of blasters, controller, defenders, (and scrappers and tankers) of any kind.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not to specifically contradict Sandy but rather to highlight the flexibility of the approach as it exists. Yellow Team 2 was backed up by two Stormies (Nowaki being one of them) and an Emp Controller at the last Raid. More Emps would have worked just fine. As would a Sonic or Kin...
...
...or a guy -anyone- with Stimulant. Or loading up on Break Frees for that matter. The main kicker is that those Scrappers engaging the Yellows need extra Mez (Stun) Protection first and foremost, and then usually some help killing things.
The Assault teams need everyone they can get. There is room for any AT. Even Blasters.
Edit: Also, I've stocked team 2 with non-flying Scrappers for the kill squad. That doesn't seem MUCH of a problem as long as you can assure they leap on a relatively low-hanging Mito first.
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
[ QUOTE ]
Not to specifically contradict Sandy but rather to highlight the flexibility of the approach as it exists.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not a contradiction, just an extension Eis. 
As you say, flexibility from the central idea as exemplified by the standard AT powersets in their basic roles. It's smoothest with the listed powersets, but it's also possible with substitutes. 
-Sandolphan
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
Okay, starting off with team basic dynamics:
*********************************TEAM BUILD:*********************************
5 tankers; Ice/invuln/Stone prefered since they have a + MAX HP BOOST
- Note: Invulns might be the best for this one IF they have unstoppable
Unstoppable besides giving you nearly maxed Toxic resist for 3 minutes
(EoE's only last one minute, and unstoppable doesnt give a - accuracy
or a minus for recharge that granite does, it also comes with a nice
+recovery to boot, which helps cause something in the goo gives -
recovery). The average lifespan I've noticed with tankers who pop EoE's
is approximately 2 minutes tops. The EoE's do a wonderfuljob of keeping
you alive, but there is a point that no matter how much Heal and/or regen
you have, that you will simply die from it being debuffed to 0.
Fire Armor does have the awesome Self Heal every 20 seconds... but with
both the debuff from Hamidon and greens, the heals get reduced to 0 very
fast.
Ideally, tankers should have all of the + HP allocades, as well as have
some IO sets that give inherent + regen, + recovery, and + Max HP. It
doesnt add up to a huge difference, but can be the difference between death
and living for another 5 seconds, and that matters alot in the long run.
2 Empaths: Well yeah, empaths for the initial double Regeneration and Recovery
Auras which really help while they're active. Plus with two Empaths,
They can cast Adrenaline boost on eachother to speed up rezzes if needed
or can use them on the tankers for another 30 or so seconds of life.
The empaths also should talk with eachother and take turns rezzing, so
that a double rezz doesnt happen. Ideally the Empaths should also have
recall friend, so they can teleport the bodies themselves and rezz em.
Recommended that both have teleport, or atleast one HAS to have it.
1 Kinetic: This person's job is to speedboost + increase density on the tankers.
It's semi-common place for the mitos to group up on one tanker, and mezz
em through his protection. Plus the Kinetic tosses a speedboost on the
empaths to help recharge their buffs and rezz. Prefered to have teleport
if only one empath has teleport.
That concludes the basic team setup, and has room for variation as long as you
cover the basics elements of the group.
**********************************STRATEGY******** **************************
Firstly, make sure you have level 50 tankers who are fine with dying time and
time again.... cause it's going to happen!
Firstly, figure out who will have taunt priority... yes every tanker MUST have
taunt, or a damn well slotted provoke. Take your 5 tankers, and assign them
a taunting order. This basically means that Tanker A taunts until he dies or is
teleported out, Tanker B taunts until he dies or is teleported out, etc, etc, etc.
Now as they die it is the job of the empaths to teleport and rezz them, so they
can go back into the fray, and taunt some more! Something NEW that we have figured
out to improve the tanker no die rate, is to teleport them out when near death.
Once a tanker hits red with an Essence of Earth still active on his buff bar, it
is the job of the teleporting Empaths / Kinetics, to teleport him to safety and
try to keep em alive. If the tanker doesnt have an active Essence of Earth in
his buff bar, once he hits yellow the teleport should be had.
Once you have your taunt order decided, it's then time to explain the usage of
Essence of Earth. Now, when all five of the tankers initially enter the goo,
they will ALL need to use ONE Essence of Earth to deal with the inital aggro
from the insertion, but afterwards, the usage of Essence of Earths will drop
dramatically. From here on in, once the first Essence of Earth expires, only
the active person taunting Hamidon will need to use an Essence of Earth. I
say this because, at this point a minute has passed, and the Scrapper teams
should have the Yellow MItos being delt with, and the assault team will have
engaged one, perhaps two green mitos and that means alot less stuff for the
tankers to worry about. Now as Tanker A holds aggro, it is up to him to
determine if he will live long enough after his first Essence of Earth expires
if he will use another one. Regardless of choice, he will die or be teleported out
, and it is then the job for tanker B, to judge the timing properly, fire his
second Essence of Earth, and beging taunting. During the entire time tanker A is
taunting, the rest of the tankers should be doing as little as possible to
draw attention to themselves. Yes this means standing around in the goo,
not attacking, not taunting, just being bleh. This idea of doing nothing is so
that you can get as little aggro / debuffs on you as possible so that you will
live longer. That rule applies to all tankers who are not taunting, meaning that
even when tanker D is taunting, the rest are doing nothing. Now if you're an
active tanker who can pay real good attention and are around 4th or 5th on the
taunting list... you COULD, and I MEAN COULD (if you talk with the leaders
and explain what you're about to do) attack a yellow mito with one of the
scrapper teams to help a bit if you dont wanna stand around doing nothing.
This can result in you drawing yellow aggro as well as other colours on
yourself, which might cause you a pre-mature death and could cause a bit
of disturbance in the taunt cycle
Now, that your team understands the taunt cycle, generally you all should
get one chance at taunting Hamidon, then all the green and yellow and
most of the blue mitos should be dead. At this point you no longer even
use Essence of Earths, and just continue the taunt chain. The reason for
this is, that you only have X amount of Essence of Earth, and with NOTHING
else but Hamidon hitting you, the two Empaths with a Kinetic, can keep
rezzing people at a rate that equals Hamidon's kill rate! This is a big
help to saving your Essence of Earth's, as well is establishing a known
taunt cycle. A new addition we found out recently is that it is possible
to keep one tanker alive for several minutes at a time when all the mitos
are dead. Once all the mitos die, you continue the taunt cycle as normal
without using Essence of Earths... BUT, you also call out to the raid and
have a few Empaths cast Adrenalin Boost on the Tanker who is taunting.
Hamidon's - regen isnt as bad as once believed, and with 2 adrenaline boosts
on the tanker, he can out regen the damage for quite some time. This
greatly reduces tanker death, increases moral, and makes for happy times.
From here on in, the taunt cycle is set, the essence of earth usage
is minimized, and now you just have one thing left, to help kill Hamidon!
From here on in, when you're NOT taunting Hamidon, the Mitos are dead,
and the assault team is beating on Hamidon directly, you CAN engage in
melee combat under the following conditions to help Weaken Hamidon:
1) You turn off any/all taunt auras
2) DONT use your uber tier 9 (or anything with a BI of 6+) attacks
3) DONT use Taunt!
By not doing your powerful attacks, not taunting, and no taunt aura,
you're contributing damage to Hamidon, with a much lowered risk of
pulling aggro. I say this because not everyone has their taunt 6
slotted for duration and recharge.
4) You're not the designated taunter (but the designated taunter can
use ranged attacks)
Curtosey of your short and angry Canadian,
Cannukk
Can I ask why the tanks all go in at once rather than loitering outside the goo until it's their turn to taunt? And why 5+? Thanks!
<-- chick, not dude
@perfectkismet | Arc ID: 191776 When Worlds Collide
47 50s: 6Bl . 3Br . 7Con . 3 Corr . 4Def . 1Dom . 2HET . 1MM . 1PB . 6Sc . 2St . 8Ta . 4VET
They have to rotate aggro or they'll die almost immediately - one tank can not take his aggro alone, and empaths can't follow the tanks in and buff them, either.
A note on tanker empaths. They NEED to have TP friend. Since they don't enter the goo. When they see that their lead tank is in the yellow and has no EOE popped they need to recall them. At this time they give the evac command "Teleporting tank one .. tank two now has argo." When the tank gets to them he will already be in the red and still taking damage ... both empath need to spam heals just to keep him up. (Note if they have an EOE poped and hit orange best to start TPing them if you wait till red they die.) Once the yellows are down. One empath (one is always out to TP the dead) can go into the goo and AB/Fort and CM the lead tank. (Its also nice if at this point and empaths in the goo give buffs to the lead tank.)
Some things that make it go smother for the tank team. Have all the tanks together. With Empaths and Kin on the bottom. Then the taunt order is 1-5. Starting at 1 each time. (5 tanks in case of a DC or cascading deaths. Empaths can only rez 2 at a time then have to wait for rez to charge.)
1. Tank
2. Tank
3. Tank
4. Tank
5. Tank
6. Empath
7. Empath
8. Kin
At the 40 sec count. Tank Empaths/Kins give SB, Regeneration and Recovery Auras as well as AB to the lead tank. (The kin need to SB the empath so they can heal and rez faster. ) At the 20 sec count all tanks hit an EOE and enter the goo. The lead tank tanks taunt. Note: for the 2nd and 3rd blooms we have staggered tanks 3 and 4 but it really didnt make a difference other then saving EOEs. Sometimes a tank will die on the way in so best to just have them all in
rather then risk a cascading death cycle.
As for TPing it doesnt always go well. If you wait to long the tank dies and TP is canceled. Tanks need to turn the prompt off and trust the empath if they want to min death. Just the time it takes to click accept can mean your dead. Like i said before once they hit yellow they need the evac ... due to the animation time ect. Once evac is called the next tank hits an EOE and takes taunt. The first empath is incharge if evacing the lead tank. The second empath and kin are in charge of evacing the other tanks.
Extra EOEs can be left with the tank empaths and kin. After each bloom and EOE count is taken and more are given if needed. It takes about 3 per tank per bloom.
Also at last bloom the Empaths and kins need to get in and hit hami or no HO.
Also a note: All Empaths and Kins were trollers .. not that they need to be ... just that someone mentioned there was no room for them in the raid 
Yeah, but every other guide I've read - and (by and large failed) test I'd been to on Test, Guardian and Triumph - had 2 or 3. I was wondering if there was something specific that had brought you to 5+ as the key number ^_^ Thanks.
<-- chick, not dude
@perfectkismet | Arc ID: 191776 When Worlds Collide
47 50s: 6Bl . 3Br . 7Con . 3 Corr . 4Def . 1Dom . 2HET . 1MM . 1PB . 6Sc . 2St . 8Ta . 4VET
More then one time we have lost 3 tanks on entry ... if you just have 3 then your gona have a cascading wave of death when the scrapper and assault teams enter. I find its best to go from experience. Also if you have 3 Veteran tanks and 2 new tanks you get to teach new people how to tank hami. Teaching is always good IMO.
[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, but every other guide I've read - and (by and large failed) test I'd been to on Test, Guardian and Triumph
[/ QUOTE ]
Most of those guides were written based upon the test server trials and the 100% resistance EOE's used to give. EOE's only offer capped resistance now (ie at the resistance caps by AT type). Hence the modified tank tactics needed to compensate for the lowered resistance.
-Sandolphan
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
So did the Villain Raid ever end successfully? I had to bail when it got too late for me.
Paragonian Knights
Justice Company
Nope. Had lots of false starts and bails, which meant we were running out of EoEs.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
Until the players can get the hang of the new hamidon, we might need to farm DE giant monsters to build up a stock pile of EoE inspirations.
Perhaps we should schedule a pre-raid EoE farming phase, say the day before, for half an hour or so.
So are you going to finish him tonight? I mean, if he's half dead already...
Gratz to all attending the Hero-side Hami tonight!
It was our smoothest and quickest one yet. All of the mito phases went like clockwork. The one I timed (which seemed typical) was a 4 minute reset from previous mito bloom, 3 minute mito phase, 3 minute hami attack. Yellows were down in 90 seconds, greens soon after and blues followed.
All four mito phases went this well, making a 40-minute Hami raid doable! The only thing pushing us higher on the time was forming up teams as people slowly arrived in the Hive. That, and the unpredictability of how long it takes to spawn Hami.
Great job again all who attended!
*Note: I placed a post in the suggestion forum about changing the goo-effect from superjump to hover, since we have many people commenting on the near necessity of flight to perform their jobs in an enjoyable way...the last thing we want is any kind of exclusion to affect whether people feel they can contribute.
-Sandolphan
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
Hover would be good, but may not be possible. Adding a +jump buff is fairly easy and the mechanics support multiple stacking jump powers, but flight is a power that cuts off other flight powers. If it overrode flight and even run and jump (the way that group fly does) that wouldn't be good. Imagine people trying to "run faster" at hover speeds.
The raid went very smoothly. Right now, we're dependent upon two teams of 5 scrappers, which must either be five flyers, or two flyers, one group flyer, and two carried along with group fly.
I think we could make do with one group of five and one group of three...the group three holds aggro, the group of five clear their mitos and cycles around. It will take longer, meaning that the set of three will probably need EoEs at the end, but it will make do.
Also, it's possible that for holding aggro, we can make do with jumpers. Flight is better, and anyone looking forward to raiding regularly would do well to respec into flight. But if we're short on scrappers, it's worth a try. I think the tough part for jumpers will be the trouble with the buffers.
Seeing how a good raid runs with people who know what they're doing, I think a reset is faster than trying to recover in place like Septa suggested. And unfortunately I don't think that strategy would work with people who don't know what they're doing.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
Screw respeccing into Flight.
Hover.
3 Micros.
Go.
Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
Why would 3 micros be any better than 3 flight IOs? Hover doesn't use any endurance...
[ QUOTE ]
Why would 3 micros be any better than 3 flight IOs? Hover doesn't use any endurance...
[/ QUOTE ]
Hover does use endurance when you're a bloody Spine/Invuln that's challenge for endurance enough as it is. >.>
Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
After tallying up the times from the last raid, I realized something interesting:
[u]phase........last....best[u]
mito.........4min...3min
hami75.....1min...2min
reset........7min...4min
mito.........5min...3min
hami50.....12min..2min
reset........7min...4min
mito.........4min...3min
hami25......3min...2min
reset........4min...4min
mito.........3min...3min
hami0.......2min...2min
Totals....52mins...30mins
The raid took 52 minutes. That's about 10 minutes longer than we've been averaging, obviously because of the error on the first Hami nucleus attack (too many were gunshy about the bloom, but was subsequently corrected). Overall, there were no wipes, and resets went extremely smoothly.
We're not that far off our best times currently. Importantly, if we implemented each phase flawlessly, we'd have a thirty minute Hami raid on our hands!
-Sandolphan
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
What about initial setup time? Seems even though it is said to start at 8pm the group does not start clearing monsters until 8:30 and then attack Hami at 9pm.
Paragonian Knights
Justice Company
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What about initial setup time? Seems even though it is said to start at 8pm the group does not start clearing monsters until 8:30 and then attack Hami at 9pm.
[/ QUOTE ]
True. Pre-raid EOE farming (if any), arrival in the Hive, formation of groups, and monster clearing/Hami spawning are all separate activites from the actual conduct of the assault on Hami. They are dependent more on random factors and player participation, rather than task performance and efficient execution of the raid strategy (which is really all I was really interested in).
It's true that the greater bulk of the time actually committed to the event is taken up by waiting for people to arrive so that groups can be formed, and the random element of how long it takes to spawn Hami. All of this (except maybe Hami spawning) could be improved on as well, but a lot of that is the social cost of raiding. 
-Sandolphan
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
Last night raid went rather smoothly, despite the efforts of an inept griefer.
We only had 4 controllers, but the blasters used thier holds to great effect on the greens.
Hami seemed to be sandbagging on the mito blooms at times, but we prevailed.
nope still useful on the assault force of the raid. Another reason why i like this raid, even if you don't know what's going on... all you have to do is set the targetter to follow and let them worry about what is next. Also things that where frowned upon in the past our needed... like shadow fall to help combat the fears that the blues give.
There, if we can hit that bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate! -Zapp Branigan