Guide to the Imperious Strike/Task Force
By
Alexandria2000,
Posted on: 2008-05-15 24:15 in Player Guides
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Naturally, I got some of my SG buddies and we had roughly the same team. Half lowbies half 50s, 1 tank, 1 scrapper, kin and rad, lots, blasters. We did it on Relentless/Invincible in an hour and a half 
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I really need to round up my SG mates one weekend and run it on Relentless/Invinicble sometime. I've done it so many times on Heroic/Villainous that I'm hungry for a challenge. Probably will need to stock up on +ToHit/-Def stacking though to speed through it faster.
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Unbelievable. I joined a PuG with my 47 FIre/Rad cor and actually failed. The level of stupidity was astounding.
Our /Kin troller never SB'd anyone. I never asked for it. On the last mission he SBd Imperious and no one else. I asked him. He said "Imperious asked for it and no one else did." Well then... "may I have speed boost all the time please."
We had two blasters who could not focus fire on romulus.
The concept of "Shoot Romulus" Escaped the team.
The concept of "If you are a squishy don't stand in the AoE Nictus damage" escaped the team.
The concept of "Pull" escaped the team.
A 41 Dominator insisted we had to kill the Nictus first.
It was terrible. I stand by my claim that any competent team can accomplish this.
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aye u truly had a bad team on that one.
I've been on three failing TFs, one on test, where the final mission was failed not because the players were inadequately skilled, but because they simply didn't have the capacity to kill Romulus or any Nictus. They weren't bad builds either.
Stalker
Brute
Blaster
Blaster
SoA Widow
Took out Romulus and the TF in 2:15 Faith in PuGs semi-restored.
All my TFs, including the many ITFs I've done have always been PuGs! Very few fail, and when they do, it's because of players giving up and dropping before the end.
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Stalker
Brute
Blaster
Blaster
SoA Widow
Took out Romulus and the TF in 2:15 Faith in PuGs semi-restored.
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Yay! I was one of those Blasters. Although I've had easier runs, I would have to rank this high in the 'fun factor' simply because we pulled off the final encounter/TF with it set for 8 and I wasn't sure we'd make it.
Still kicking myself for not having a vertical travel power for that last encounter...hehe.
If 5 can pull it off, I see no reason an 8 man team should ever fail.
I like the kill Romie 4 times way the best. It's simpler for PUGs to understand and trying to figure out which nictus is which is a pain if you lose track.
Just remember to break LOS after each kill or you'll get stunned.
As a follow up from my last failure....
Did it this time on a level 50 team set to heroic.
1 50 Thugs/Dark MM (heavily lagged)
1 50 Bots/traps MM (me) heavily IOed out for +def, damage procs and recharge (see sig for build)
1 widow (sk)
1 50 scrapper (done the ITF before)
1 SK scrapper
1 50 fire/kin (has done the ITF before, and looked to be a very very good player)
All the missions ... cake. I took the alpha in most cases, when I didnt it usually meant death for whoever did. Only a few deaths. Kill speed was good, the /kin was probably the biggest help in that regard. 3 proc slotted poison trap FTW... nuff said there.
The final battle. Both me and the /kin agreed full on assault on rommy. 2 team wipes, third times the charm. He went down and rezzed by killing the AOE damage nictus. Thank god. Somehow rommy was off to one side after the rez out of LOS from the other 2 nictus and he got killed. We had to pop the other 2 nictus by hand.
Killing the healing nictus is VERY VERY slow. I see now that the worst tactic is to focus on this one to kill. If you can seperate it... yeah thats good, if not ignore it.
2:30 not fast but i think the last AV battle was 30 min of the time. Stupefy knockdown proc, deleted it. I really did this for the costume, but would it kill em to give me a good pool c drop more than once? I think everybody on the team got a crappy pool C (slow proc, stun proc, fear).
I need to do this with my 50 warshade! That should be lots o fun!
Bots/Traps Guide for I19.5
RO Network
Something else I've noted of late about Mission 3
The First, Second, Fourth and Fifth (Requeim) Generals can be killed while leaving their guards alive and they usually count towards the mission objective being met.
The Third General, the one with all the Minotaur and Cyclops around him however always seems to be one where both he and his entourage must fall for the kill to count. Also killing all the Cyclops and Minotaur spawns an ambush.
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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
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All in all a good read a few comments on the 4th mission though. You forgot the mention the ambush midfight with Rom the first time around. Some tend to forget this and end up team wiping. Also it IS possible to taunt the nictus, in fact when I run the ITF with my wife we do it all the time.
Have a Tank or a Brute, Taunt the healing nictus far away enough so he cannot heal Rom. Then get someone with a ST immb, AoE immbs can mess up the whole thing. Then steamroll Rom, When he dies get outta Line of Sight. That stun is a pain, however when outta sight it won't hit you. Make sure u clear out both sides of the 5th so it gives your team room to drop off the side w/o agging more mobs.
Rom is weak to Fear and Immb, Abuse this as much as possible. Spec Terrors can be kept up so when he dies and rez's, everyone can safely be outta target range. Rom will still get soft held from the Spec Terror. Giving you enough time regroup and continue.
Everyones got their own method, this one works on the teams me and my wife runs. That last map is pretty epic though, thumbs up to the Devs.
Hola
I'm about 40-40 doing the ITF on my villian on Infinity.
just ran it with:
1 stone/stone brute
1 ice/kin corruptor (me)
1 ss/wp brute
1 claws/regen scrapper
1 /sonic corruptor (sry bud forgot your primary)
1 FF/Rad defender
finished it in 1:11 with 0 deaths, we didn't pull the nictus.
the far left nictus is the healing nictus, we all focused on that one first took it out and moved on to the next nictus.
* just a side note, if you go after the nictus first and DONT attack Rom he usually doesn't attack you with anything but his wimpy eye beam attack.
any ways if any of you happen to reside on Infinity and wish to do it just send me a tell @ Freakin Rican if i'm on i'm ALWAYS up for the ITF.
I ran this yesterday and considered many of options listed in the thread.
I was running my Stone/fire tank lvl 50. I had 3 other 50s including a Inv/SS, a Scrapper, a Firekin. I picked up 4 lowbies mostly in the mid 30s 2 scrappers, and 1 fire/rad, I did have a VEAT at 40. It was a strange group but I figured with 2 tanks and high spirits we would be ok. I had completed this TF on my Stoner already, and also a couple times on my firekin.
The first mission we bashed a few mobs then I went Sybil hunting. I think we nailed that mission in 15 minutes or so. Me as a Stoner, and my lowbie SKed Scrapper handled some business.
The second mission I tried the sweep the cave method then go back for the cysts. I think with proper planning this will work very well. We missed about half the ambushes this way. Again no major issues.
The third mission went pretty well no major concerns, knowing where the General locations are helps. There are a few hard spots but overall we did well with smash and go.
The last mission we took the right path, everyone seemed to like it, most said it was better than the left. Again it was smash and go. We had good communication from team mates when ambushes would come from the rear. With 2 tanks, we had both sides covered at all times with no trouble.
At the end battle I cleared the sides and center count, pulled the 2 EBs and then tried something a little different. I went straight for the Healer Nictus on the left, and had the other tank pull from the right taunting the other Nictus and the AV. When I had aggro of the healer I dropped right of the ledge and it followed. So we have the AV still standing in his original position and me just a few feet away but on a lower lvl. After all the other Nictus have been consumed the healer floated up and we killed him 1 more time. Overall the entire battle lasted less than 10 minutes! I know this cause we had a 2 hour timer and only had 10 minutes left!
Again I am really pleased with this team results. Not as fast as I wanted but we did have ton of lowbie deaths. Overall we worked as a team and finished the battle within 2 hours.
Leader of Wing Protectors of the Light, a top 15 SG on Freedom
Visit our website http://wings.elitegamers.us for great builds on Heros and villains. Or for more info on us and how to join!
I'd like some guidance on how ppl are doing this in like 40 mins. Seems to take forever on teams with mobs spawned for 8.
"Sometimes you have to roll the Hard Six." -- Adama
Teabagging Ms. Liberty - http://kk-comics.com/allmmproject/rsf21.jpg
All those baddies worth piles of experience that are fun to fight... yeah we just walked by them.
The Video
A ridiculously stacked team could clear all the maps in probably 50 minutes. A ridiculously stacked team could walk by 9/10 of the enemies/content and complete it in slightly over 25 minutes... as shown in the video.
When you are in the first 2 mish, how do you not aggro all the stuff around the crystal or around the sibils -- I'm assuming you all have stealth of some sort (IO plus SS maybe), but when you engage the crystal, don't all the guards around it (the squids) pound the crap out of you?
EDIT: I watched the vid and it looked like you just ran in and took the hits as you killed the crystals -- yet i know on my WP scrapper all that neg energy dmg really pwned me, from the mobs around it. And squishies always die when it explodes. Maybe Elec has better neg energy damage or you were really buffed nicely.
And the ambushes don't follow u past where the crystal was? Didn't know that.
Have to try pulling Rom up on the tower. That is awesome. Neat
EDIT 2: Watched the vid -- you guys move so fast together as a team I get the sense this wasn't primarily a PUG? Most of the groups I've done this with, people don't even know how to stealth past mobs or, in the last mish, do the thing where you all basically went up to the tower. My teams (all pugs) couldn't get up to that tower unless I went up there and used Vet Team TP to bring everyone -- and then someone would not take the TP, or someone would back up and fall off the tower
I have to give kudos to what looks like a team that really knows what it's doing. Even in the third mish, the way you went right to the bridge w/o aggroing -- again nbne of the teams I've been on can do that, someone always aggros or runs off to the side.
"Sometimes you have to roll the Hard Six." -- Adama
Teabagging Ms. Liberty - http://kk-comics.com/allmmproject/rsf21.jpg
I ran it again last night. We had an ambush in the 1st mish of dwarfs and squids at the very end before we got sybil to the altar. Is this part of the new patch or a bug? Ive never seen it before and it was abit of a shocker cause Ive run this alot.
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I ran it again last night. We had an ambush in the 1st mish of dwarfs and squids at the very end before we got sybil to the altar. Is this part of the new patch or a bug? Ive never seen it before and it was abit of a shocker cause Ive run this alot.
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Yes, it's intended.
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I ran it again last night. We had an ambush in the 1st mish of dwarfs and squids at the very end before we got sybil to the altar. Is this part of the new patch or a bug? Ive never seen it before and it was abit of a shocker cause Ive run this alot.
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Yes, it's intended.
[/ QUOTE ]Bout time they put that back in.
The Cheaty-Face run is exactly opposite of a PuG. If you ever wondered how fast the most ridiculously stacked team could do to the Imperious Task Force now you've got a good idea. I think a team could break 25 minutes.
That was 8 players with a LOT of stacked buffs who knew exactly what the objectives were on each mission and only did those objectives. In fact on the first two missions we split into smaller squads of four. Granted, we skipped a lot of content and a lot of fun battles. However the purpose of the run was for a "Race."
Tried to do it the Cheaty-Face way with a PUG and frankly the first 2 mish were unmitigated disasters. No way we could take down the mobs w/o dying and squishies always got pwned by the sploding crystals. I think you need a team that's got the right buffs and knows what they're doing.
That said, we did pull rommy to the tower which is just awesome.
"Sometimes you have to roll the Hard Six." -- Adama
Teabagging Ms. Liberty - http://kk-comics.com/allmmproject/rsf21.jpg
Update - except most people [censored] about going to the tower and trying to pull him rather than killing everything. PUGs are making me angry.
"Sometimes you have to roll the Hard Six." -- Adama
Teabagging Ms. Liberty - http://kk-comics.com/allmmproject/rsf21.jpg
I was on a PUG that tried the tower trick tonight. It didn't go smoothly, it didn't save time, and it forced us to hold back on using certain powers and to fight in relatively tight quarters. We ran the risk of inviting extra spawns into the battle, if it didn't go smoothly.
All in all, it just reduced the amount of fun to be had.
A "blastroller" build explanation: electricity / ice / fire
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Update - except most people [censored] about going to the tower and trying to pull him rather than killing everything. PUGs are making me angry.
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I'd be one of them, and would probably be [censored] about noobs on my global channel. Killing everything > silly wastes of time.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
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Update - except most people [censored] about going to the tower and trying to pull him rather than killing everything. PUGs are making me angry.
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I'd be one of them, and would probably be [censored] about noobs on my global channel. Killing everything > silly wastes of time.
[/ QUOTE ]I am sick of people that tell me to skip tot he end or try to stealth to the end of strike forces. No, big whoop I might get a recipe worth a few mill. You are killing several mill infamy from me in sellable IO recipes and savlage that I can use to craft common IOs that others buy as well as salvage that can be sold. Been running into people that want to do that with every strike force I run lately, and it's been getting bloody annoying.
Naturally, I got some of my SG buddies and we had roughly the same team. Half lowbies half 50s, 1 tank, 1 scrapper, kin and rad, lots, blasters. We did it on Relentless/Invincible in an hour and a half