Guide to the Imperious Strike/Task Force
By
Alexandria2000,
Posted on: 2008-05-15 24:15 in Player Guides
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Now, some may think the best, first target would be the left Nictus. In this case no it wouldnt/ The Nictus doesnt heal other Nicti, they only rely on their regen rate for healing.
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46 pages of discussion in the open beta forum disagree with what I've bolded above.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
And every observation I have done and tactic speaks otherwise, otherwise the nictus would heal itself.
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And every observation I have done and tactic speaks otherwise, otherwise the nictus would heal itself.
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Here's a video of the Nictus healing itself: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9334&hl=en.
I've also seen runs where the Nictus stops healing after 1-2 heals. The data seems inconsistent. I'm not sure it's possible to write a definitive guide to the last encounter yet.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
I did the ISF the other day, the healing nictus wasn't healing itself at all, or any of the other Nicti. Considering we saw spams of over 1000 points healed per heal cycle on it, that would of easily meant any damage we did would of been nullified.
However I did notice that while the healing nictus was up, the other Nicti seemed to have an increased regen. I was too busy spamming debuffs with my Spider or else I would of actually opened up my combat window to look at this.
We need someone with Surveillance to check this out.
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OK, I did another run, and I'm convinced that what happened on previous runs was that we didn't clear the two side spawns of legionarii to Romulus' left and right. Those spawns typically have Imperial Surgeons, and their heals seem to scale to AV hit points. This makes them incredibly dangerous to leave alive.
I think the guide should emphasize that the team make extra, extra sure there are no Surgeons around the AV when you start the fight. (I made a macro for "targetcustomnext surgeon".) In addition, if during the fight you find you can't damage the chosen target, back up and scope the terrain again. I'm betting you'll find a Surgeon you hadn't noticed before.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
Taunt does work on the nictus but once they get out of a certain range from romulus they will go back to him. trick is to find the range.
Also I did this battle for an exceedingly long period of time, the healing nictus would heal the nictus' and Romulus if close enough to everyone. It was easier just to kill Romulus the 4 times and have a tank on the nictus keeping them far enough away not to be able to help Romulus. Each time he resses he takes a nictus with him. Seems to be the first one is the spawning nictus, then the AoE nictus, and last the healing nictus.
Done this TF four times now all completed. For Romy I taunted the Nictus Essences away as best i could (they always stay within a certain range of Romulus, go over it and they head back). The rest of the team wailed on Romulas. When he died and a Nictus Essence sacraficed itself and he rezed, I kept taunting the heal Nictus Essence (and the other if I could) while the team took Romulas out again. Repeat until only Romulas remained and then he was not really a problem. On two runs a Nictus Essence was killed instead of Romulas in the order and it still worked fine.
Did run last night. Read the guide and it worked great. But I believe instead of the damage dealer first, we hit the healer first just based on where it was located, then the spawner and damage dealer last. Only the first Nictus we defeated stunned us. The others just blew up. Also once we started pounding on Romulus the traitors didn't come until he was defeated and the mission was over lol. We just finished them off for fun. 4 Brutes( 3 WP and 1 ELA) 1 thermal corr 1 kin corr and 1 MM. All in all, this TF is great! 
Is there something stopping a team from locking the nictus down with immobilize and just dragging Rom off somewhere to murder? Last I heard PTOD doesn't prevent immob or sleep - do these have some sort of special protection?
one thing to remember about the healing nictus. it gets aoe power from all nearby units including your team. the closer more people are to it, the more heals will go off. this makes having everyone pull out their pets tough if the healing nictus isnt taken down first.
We didn't have any problems with the nictus. Actually since they didn't really move much, everyone targeted the nictus we were attacking through the main brute. They didn't really run or anything like that and really Rom didn't do much to us either. He just stood there or at least thats what I saw.
Ran this TF several times now on Test and Live, definitely fun.
As to the whole Nictus thing, the healer does use Twilight Grasp to siphon energy into itself to heal itself and any other nearby Nictus or Romulus.
All range attack characters need to get out of the Nictus' range and attack it from long range. Masterminds should lock pets into the heal Nictus and open fire with the pets told to remain stationary to avoid getting into its range.
With Multiple Taunters on team you can and should pull Romulus and the healing Nictus apart and hold them that way while you pound the Healing Nictus. No more then three melee toons should melee the Heal Nictus while all range attack toons sit back and blast from afar.
Shivans and Warburg Nukes = semi useful at best, nice to have, not quintessential.
As to the question of which Nictus should go first: the healer or the summoner....the healer is the biggest pain in the neck to take down so go for it first.
Or there is the alternate strategy of keep Romulus just out of range of the Healing nictus, pound Romulus into the ground then sit back as one of the three Nictus merge with him to revive him. Repeat the Process. Yes you are killing Romulus four times as a result of this, but some team makeups might have an easier time this way vs. dealing with the threee Nictus first and then Romulus.
For the record:
Me and another player are, right at this moment, sitting in range of the Healing Nictus without aggroing anything.
The Healing Nictus is spamming Twilight Grasp and can apparently hit multiple targets that are within its range at the same time. For each target it hits, it gets a full AOE heal.
Nasty.
The good news: it's accuracy seems to be lackluster, and it "rolls" separately to hit each target. So, I'm currently assuming it can be easily debuffed into oblivion and/or would lose a lot of its effectiveness if confronted by hard to hit targets.
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For the record:
Me and another player are, right at this moment, sitting in range of the Healing Nictus without aggroing anything.
The Healing Nictus is spamming Twilight Grasp and can apparently hit multiple targets that are within its range at the same time. For each target it hits, it gets a full AOE heal.
Nasty.
The good news: it's accuracy seems to be lackluster, and it "rolls" separately to hit each target. So, I'm currently assuming it can be easily debuffed into oblivion and/or would lose a lot of its effectiveness if confronted by hard to hit targets.
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Hm, I agree that it is rolling for each hit, yes but its accuracy being lackluster I'm not so sure about as each time I've run it, the thing didn't seem to be missing much. Of course that could have just been bad luck.
As to debuff's, when my bot/poison ran the TF, the team had minimal trouble in the last mission against the healer......though granted I pumped a drugstore worth of toxins into it. When my blaster ran it, the team didn't have much in the way of debuffage on it and while we still won, the healer took a lot longer to go down.
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Hm, I agree that it is rolling for each hit, yes but its accuracy being lackluster I'm not so sure about as each time I've run it, the thing didn't seem to be missing much.
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Well, I'm saying "seems to be lackluster" based on very limited experience with just two targets (who don't have a lot in the way of Defense). It's been missing us a decent amount of the time: appearing to hit only one of us more often than it hits both of us.
That said, the real point is: it does miss... which means it doesn't have some insane level of accuracy... which means we all can debuff the crap outta it. 
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DJ Enigma's Puzzle Factory: Co* Parody Commercials
I tried the whole ranged DPS nonsense. Didn't work. We had two rads working him over too. Didn't work. Just kill Romulus three times. Each death takes a Nictus out.
Virtue: The-Invictus (Blue)
The Emissary of Justice - Level 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
The Emissary of Justice. - Level 50 WP/Fire Tanker
Mesmerius - Level 50 Psi/Mental Blaster
Nucleoa - Level 50 Rad/Son Defender
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I tried the whole ranged DPS nonsense. Didn't work. We had two rads working him over too. Didn't work. Just kill Romulus three times. Each death takes a Nictus out.
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Of all the times I've won this TF, the final fight has gone quicker with the take down Romulus 4 times method vs. kill the nictus first method.
Both methods work of course but I think the 4 Romulus kills might end up being the better method, especially if there is a badge coming for amount of Romulus kills.
Oh, also I ran the villainside arc that gives you a Void hunter rifle as a temp power.... two things to note:
1. The villain in that arc is also named Romulus...hmmm
2. The Void Rifle despite being a quantum energy weapon doesn't seem to help much in this fight. Was worth checking though.
i agree i ran it twice so far, with different AT makeups, and we found it much much easier just pounding on romulus 4 times than attacking the nictus itself.
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i agree i ran it twice so far, with different AT makeups, and we found it much much easier just pounding on romulus 4 times than attacking the nictus itself.
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Just defeated it again, seperated Romulus from the Nictus and pummeled him while a tanker kept the Nictus occupied. Repeat process as needed. No exploding Nictus to stun us, no massively pounding the healing Nictus that heals itself even as we are hammering it.
I just finished playing in the Imperious Task Force, which ended abruptly due to a lack of healing. However, in the grand scheme of things it was fruitful. In the second mission, the one with the Shadow Cyst Crystals, I realized a way to avoid the ambushes and finish the mission in a prompt manner. For those of you who are interested, here it is:
First sweep through the entire map, kill everything BUT the crystals. (The destruction of the crystals causes an ambush by an Elite Boss and company). Once you have cleared the mission, minus the crystals, destroy the two closest crystals together, and then place one person on each crystal. Keep the team updated to the status of the crystals health bar, and once they are all incredibly close to death, have each member destroy their crystal. By doing this in unison, the team avoids the ambushes with the Exit button.
Mind you, in my case this was done out of desperation, but worked magnificently.
(If this tactic has already been stated, my apologies, but I felt it necessary to share)
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I just finished playing in the Imperious Task Force, which ended abruptly due to a lack of healing. However, in the grand scheme of things it was fruitful. In the second mission, the one with the Shadow Cyst Crystals, I realized a way to avoid the ambushes and finish the mission in a prompt manner. For those of you who are interested, here it is:
First sweep through the entire map, kill everything BUT the crystals. (The destruction of the crystals causes an ambush by an Elite Boss and company). Once you have cleared the mission, minus the crystals, destroy the two closest crystals together, and then place one person on each crystal. Keep the team updated to the status of the crystals health bar, and once they are all incredibly close to death, have each member destroy their crystal. By doing this in unison, the team avoids the ambushes with the Exit button.
Mind you, in my case this was done out of desperation, but worked magnificently.
(If this tactic has already been stated, my apologies, but I felt it necessary to share)
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Heard it mentioned by someone on the team last night, but the team opted instead for the more traditional method 
Still this is worth trying next run.
I thought that defeating Romulus would cause one of the nictus to expire to rez him, but on a run I just did, we have Romulus and the pbaoe healing nictus left. We defeated Romulus but the pbaoe healing nictus didn't rez him and die. Am I misunderstanding what happens when you defeat Romulus while there are still a Nicti around?
@belief, @belief v2.0
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I thought that defeating Romulus would cause one of the nictus to expire to rez him, but on a run I just did, we have Romulus and the pbaoe healing nictus left. We defeated Romulus but the pbaoe healing nictus didn't rez him and die. Am I misunderstanding what happens when you defeat Romulus while there are still a Nicti around?
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How far was the Nictus from Rom when Rom went down? Found out last night that by keeping the Nictus around a corner and out of line of sight of Rom that it wouldn't merge with him to rez him.
This guide will contain spoilers. If you want to learn everything for the first time, I suggest you stop here and click the index button at the top of the forum, otherwise you were warned about spoilers
The Imperious Strike/Task Force is the latest addition with the release of Issue 12: Midnight Hour. This Strike/Task Force can be found in the zone of Cimerora. You need a minimum of 6 team members from levels 35 to 50 to be able to start it, and everyone has to be in the same zone. Once your team is assembled you are ready to start.
Mission 1: Consult the Oracle
This one is a pretty straight forward mission, or so it would seem. You head down to the docks and board a boat to go consult the Oracle to ordain your destiny. Once you exit the boat inside the Oracle caverns you will be greeted by one of the Sybil who says her sisters have been captured. She will give you a key to enter into the caverns to rescue them.
Note: Before you can proceed, you must rescue all ten of the Sybil.
This cave is pretty straight forward and it never changed no matter how many times you do the S/TF. It is full of Cimeroran Traitors and almost every group has a Surgeon with them. It should be the goal of one of your DPS members to take out the Surgeon quickly or the fight could end up getting prolonged.
Once you reach the first T section in the cave you will want to go left. At the end you will find a big room with several Cimeroran Traitor groups and three to four of the Sybil being held captive. I do not suggest trying to fight all of the Traitors at once, they do some pretty nasty damage and can take down all but the toughest built characters in short order.
Once youve cleared out that section, head north, and eventually you will come to another T section, and two more Sybil being held captive. Go right, and follow that path going past the cross-road section till you reach another big room. Here another three or four of the Sybil are being held captive. Rescue them, then head back to the cross section and head north. Follow that along till you come to a big room with a door in it and you will find another Sybil in front of the door. If you have rescued her sisters, she will give you a key to open the door and proceed. If you havent, she will tell you to rescue her sisters first.
Once you are outside, proceed up the side of the mountain. You will run into two more groups of Traitors on your way up. At the top you will see several groups and Sister Solaris guarded by a Minotaur. Defeat these groups to rescue Solaris and she will ask you to take her to the altar, after a bit of a conversation. Once you take her to the altar, she will get a divine light, and after a few seconds the mission will complete.
Mission 2: Destroy the Shadow Cysts
This mission sends you to a catacomb, where you go in and have to destroy 10 shadow cysts. Its a pretty straight forward mission, with one catch; There is an ambush after each and every shadow cyst destroyed either led by a Minotaur or a Cyclops. Be careful when destroying the cysts their explosion can do some hefty damage to your team.
The cave itself tends to be in a random layout, so there is no best way to describe how to handle it.
Mission 3: Stop Romulus
This mission will feel like a long, uphill battle. Your objectives here are to defeat 100 Traitors, 5 generals, Romulus, and Romulus Phalanx. The 100 Traitors will be the east part. In fact, it wouldnt be unusual to have all 100 defeated by the time you cross the first bridge. However, there are special events triggered at certain points. Each General defeated spawns an ambush, and several other ambushes are spawned by defeated the group of beasts, as well as the group of surgeons.
Once your group slogs its way through all the fighting, you will reach the valley and the 5th Column Giant Meks. Here you have two options. One; you can hack the turret control computers. You have to hack both of them otherwise if you dont they will still be aggressive to your team. If you hack both computers before proceeding the turrets will turn friendly and start attacking the 5th Column. Two; You can just run in and start killing everything, whichever is your fancy.
Here, in this valley you will find Romulus, Requiem (the 5th general) and the computer control for Romulus Phalanx. The best way to usually tackle this is to destroy the Phalanx control panel first. This sounds pretty straight forward, but it has a ton of health and every 25% of health it loses it awakens the 5th Column Meks surrounding it. These Meks are boss class, so are not push overs, however, if you destroy the control panel, all the Meks will instantly be defeated.
At this point, you can get a puller to go up and pull Requiem and Romulus individually. Depending on how skilled your puller is, you can pull them alone, without their groups of friends. At this point its a pretty straight forward fight, and after their defeat, Requiem will drop a rather interesting clue.
Mission 4: Reclaim Cimerora
This is going to be a tough fight. Your task is to defeat 300 Traitors and Romulus and his guard. As you advance, you will find yourself getting ambushed at key points on your way to Romulus. Be sure to take this slow or your team could end up in over their heads when you are taking on a large group and an ambush spawns. Once you get to the center courtyard, there will be a short cut scene with Romulus talking to a Nictus, who will then force merge itself with Romulus converting Romulus himself into a Nictus.
At this point, carefully pull the Traitors off the center stage, to avoid the risk of aggroing Romulus and his three Nicti drones. Once you have defeated those, have someone with range grab aggro on the two groups on the columns to his left and right and take those groups out. Once those are down, you are ready to face Romulus, but this is not your typical, straight forward AV fight.
Behind Romulus you will notice 3 AV class Nicti. The one on the left is a healing Nictus. The one on the right spawns more, smaller Nicti like a shadow cyst. The middle Nictus does an auto hit AE damage attack out to about 10 feet from its center. When you defeat a Nicti, its death will hit everyone on your team with a magnitude 12 stun. This is basically strong enough to mez everyone, except tanks and possibly crab spiders that have all their armors. Everyone else will have to pre-pop a breakfree inspiration or use their god mode if it gives them increased mez protection.
Now, some may think the best, first target would be the left Nictus. In this case no it wouldnt/ The Nictus doesnt heal other Nicti, they only rely on their regen rate for healing. Your best, first target is actually the center Nictus. This guy can deliver a lot of pain and hurt in a very short time with its auto hit AE attack. It is best to range him and stay out of the AE effect, while a tank or brute tries to keep it taunted. Note: The Nicti are not prone to taunting as well as other enemies, they actually seem to have an AI different from normal critter AI and behave more like seekers and FFGs. So taunting them may not always work.
Once that Nictus is down and all your team are recovered, try to locate the healer then take it down then move onto the one that spawns other Nicti. It should be fairly easy after the damage dealer is down at that point. Trying to take Romulus down before the Nicti are down is not only difficult with the healer Nictus around, but each time you do, one of the Nicti will sacrifice themselves and res Romulus.
Romulus should be all thats left, but be careful going after him. He might not have his Nicti, but he has some painful hits. He can literally one shot a squishy who is not careful. As Romulus health goes down, ambushes of Traitors will start to come out. It will be imperative that someone take out the surgeon quickly, otherwise you could end up watching Romulus health go up fast. Once Romulus is down, clean up any Traitors you need and collect your reward. You will get a choice window and unlock the Roman Costume Sets.
Also be sure to look around for the glowing box. One a new letter is in it. Enjoy