Good ideas.
I personally like to head up to the towers in the last mission to clear the 300 up there. With the right team mix, you can down 300 in 5 - 10 minutes. The best thing I've seen for this is 1 or 2 Illusion controllers dropping PA aggroing the entire tower to the middle. PA has no aggro limit, so you can have a massive herd right in the middle just waiting to be downed by a bunch of AoE's.
I really hate the second mission...your technique works. I've also used the kill everything around the crystals and leave them for the very end method. It seems they both take about the same amount of time.
The third mission...I prefer the method that has the entire team on the bridge while the generals are pulled to the bridge. This cuts down on lag, as well as cuts down on any potential aggro from the surrounding groups. Once you've got the number down to 1, it's on to the control and AV's.
P.S. I think there is a video out there showing a team completing it in under a half hour.
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The Shadows VG (Pinnacle) completed this TF in 57 minutes. I am sure others must have completed it in less time. Please post any advice or hints.
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26:29.
Toons in order:
1) Night Widow (Ninja 1)
2) Earth/Sonic Controller (myself, also serves as a make-shift AV Tank)
3) Crab Spider (Sub-Ninja 3)
4) Kinetics/Archery Defender
5) Spines/Dark Scrapper (Ninja 2)
6) BS/Invuln Scrapper
7) Fortunata, I believe
8) Fortunata, also, I believe
One of the biggest helps with this is having multiple independent toons performing tasks. In the screenshot, Celarn and Alpha Widow performed main ninja duties while the bulk of the team hung together (for the most part) and took on the difficult targets (the 3-hall junction on the first mission with 3 17-mob spawns and 3 Sybils in the area putting around 60 total enemies in aggro range). After that, having your support toons highly capable of damage is a tremendous help. While my own toon has laughably low damage, I multiply team damage and could "tank" the AVs (not that it's really necessary with 4 VEATs and /Sonic buffs) through Pooman. Then of course, having an ST damage source like a Broadsword Scrapper is extremely useful.
For the first mission, our ninjas took the side-path Sybils while the main group took care of the direct-path Sybils. After that, we went straight up the hill and as an Earth/Sonic, I just simply stopped the ambushes from doing anything while we waited for Sister Psyche Beta to finish animating. Sonic buffs had to be reapplied mid-battle.
For the second mission, our ninjas dived ahead (after buffing the team, I stayed with Celarn to give him Disruption for his auras of death) and the majority of the main team stayed together, killing nothing but the crystals. No Sonic rebuffs.
On the third, we lucked out and got the General+Monsters spawn on the bridge. After decimating them, we bumrushed the remaining generals, the phalanx, and pulled both AVs down. Sonic buffs had to be reapplied at some point against the Phalanx.
On the final mission, after buffs, we charged straight for Romulus and his size-omgwtfbbqpwnzorgasmoflawsomorization font text, killed him 4 times, then split up to destroy minions/lts (bosses are ignored for the most part to increase speed) in the courtyard, on the towers and wherever. Sonic Buffs had to be reapplied after Romulus but I didn't get to it since everybody took off in seperate directions (stuck with Celarn's aura of death again, of course).
About the Sonic buffs...they're on a 4 minute recycle and unlike most Controllers, I actually make an attempt to maintain them full-time. I don't recall mission times, but I do have a small memory of what the buffing seemed to require.
Anyway...
::
[ QUOTE ]
Transfusion keeps the big baddies from regenerating health for a bit a great debuff.
[/ QUOTE ]
FALSE!
The AVs resist regeneration debuffs by a significant amount, I don't remember Romulus's level during the ITF but in making the probably incorrect assumption that he is level 50, he still has a minimum of 85% resistance to things like regeneration debuffs. That means the -50% Transfusion debuff is only -7.5%. Level 50 AVs have a little less than 28k hp and at their regen modifier, 28,000hp/300s = ~93 hp/s regen. -7.5% regen means you're dealing 7 damage/second. My Controller can do better than that just by spamming Fossilize. Even then, if you were able to completely halt the AV's regen...the Kinetics would be much better off keeping everybody's damage much higher through SpeedBoost/SiphonPower/FulcrumShift (not counting their own possible damage output). Because, in one example, if the entire team averages an output 400 dps (very...very...very low dps if your team is trying for a "speed" run), a single Siphon Power buff is going to affect damage a hell of a lot more than adding on a piddly -7.5% regeneration to the target.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
Eesh, my first, last, and only run of Impy took us two days to do. I want to run one with you folks and see what the short version is like. 
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
Nice guide. The way we do it is pretty similar, except our optimum teams tend to be tanker/brute heavy and kin/rad/dark, and sometimes son. The rest are filled with damage types, AoE preferred. Vengeance is usually a big help. With 2 or 3 tanks/brutes and a kin or two, the non AV stuff is pretty simple. Rads make the AVs melt. Lots of herding fun and lag.
With more tanks and buffers we can split up on the 2nd mish and clear the cysts with ease and pretty much ignore the rest of the mobs and ambushes. If you get the linear map then it's even easier. Liberal use of Fulcrum shift tends to keep the tanks at damage caps to clear the cysts fast. Buffs help to minimize the -rchg effect the cyst mobs throw out.
A really good stoner is good to have in case the worst happens and you mostly wipe, as they can pretty much solo the mish or keep going while the rest of the team comes back from the hospital. Awakens can be pretty sketchy since everyone is moving so quickly that there are plenty of mobs and ambushes that will give you a love tap as soon as you pop that insp, so your best bet is not to die and use the other inspirations before that to keep you going.
The third mish we work backwards by taking out the computer first. Someone goes up and pulls both AVs down at the same time and gets Rommie close while Requiem tends to stay ranged. Darks and storms do well here with the nice acc debuffs. The goal is to destroy the computer while hitting Rommie and sometimes Requiem with splash damage (AoE/DoT). If the team doesn't look very confident we won't risk a team wipe by getting the AVs during the compfest, and pull them down afterwards.
After that we like to rush to the closest general or the EB general mob, depending on if the the big EB mob is too far for a quick kill (we note where the EB mob is when you first enter the mish and head to the computer). Someone pulls the closest generals to the EB mob while the rest of the team takes down the EBs. Aggro caps help here to separate the Generals to jog out to the team. Note that this work particularly well with the General surrounded by the crowd of surgeons, since they aggro the least, if at all when you are aggro capped. If you must defeat the General within range of his many surgeons you're going to have to take care of the surgeons first, whether by mez or defeat or forcing separation. Note that the EBs with the General Mob is the only one that you must defeat totally, the other mobs you can defeat the General only and move on.
If there any generals left to defeat after that we just rush them and cherry pick them. Usually we are within 20 traitors left so we just knock off a few minions and we're out. The biggest thing that seems to lag out the game is when someone uses their nova with knockback. Since it seems unavoidable we just live with it and try not to shy away from powers that will cause lag.
The last mish we work backwards again. Team 1 of at least 5, including a tank or brute will assemble on the roof of Rommie's house. From there we aggro Rommie and he will jump up onto the corner of the house. At that point it's good to immobilize him. It is also good to aggro one of the nictus AVs to ensure that the Nicti will be within line of sight to Rommie for his rez trick. The roof serves to protect squishies from most of the Nictus aggro/damage. When Rommie gets defeated, all the squishies move to the opposite corner of the roof. The peak of the roof is enough to prevent the stun from hitting you, as it blocks the line of sight (as long as Rommie is on the opposite corner).
The rooftop also forces the ambushes to work their way well across the top of the map and jump down during the AV encounter, which bottlenecks and slows them down. Note that this tends to be on the opposite corner of the roof from Rommie so squishies hiding out should be cautious of Traitor bosses coming down and pretty much one shotting them. Good use of repel/ice slick/tornado/spectral terror or force bolt will keep them occupied enough for the team to finish the AVs. Also to note is that Rommie is vulnerable to knockdown/knockback (and holds) when he rezzes, so turning off/avoid use of knockback powers like hurricane or force bubble, repulsion field etc. so that will keep him on the rooftop until he has time to activate his -kb (anti-mez) power (pushing him off the rooftop is counterproductive).
After Rommie is down we herd up the courtyard for more traitors and then work the rooftops.
Team 2, if it exists, consists of a tough tank, a kin and a storm or some decently equipped AoE machine. Their purpose is to herd and defeat as much as they can so the traitor count goes down faster while the first team is getting the AVs.
Doing it this way means that everyone needs to know what their roles are beforehand and when to break off without needing a lot of guidance from team leads, but we've done the ITF in 25-26 minutes without the need for shivans or nukes. Common times are 28-33 minutes but most are under 40 minutes. SK/LKs do show up but they know that they tend to be veng bait if they're not fast at disengaging when it's time to move. The biggest AT with a disadvantage tends to be MMs for this since the setup takes long (relatively) and the mob skipping isn't conducive to the pets' survival.
Apologies for the long reply. Once I started I kept finding things I felt were important to note. 
OMG Mad
Welcome to the forums!
Prov
The "Holy MMO Trinity"-ness of your post really makes me want to scream. I'll refrain. I think it's a knee-jerk reaction.
The fastest run I know of is 28 minutes. But I think some have run it down to the 23, 24, and 26 range.
Suggestions:
One or Two /Traps combined with a good taunting brute or tank can really burn thru the content. They drop huge packs of mobs in very short order. It's the equivalent of a nuke every 30 seconds. Much like an 8 man GM spec empath team, nukes every 30 seconds or faster. This is what I've been running the last few weeks, It's why I mention it.
I know you're mostly wanting to ignore the mobs, but bring a pair of trappers (with support) and you can kill them as fast as you can ignore them. Obviously, Sonics, FFs, Veats, are good additions for any team. A pair of GM spec empaths are great too. I really can't even begin to imagine all the combinations.
A pair of Team Teleport Veteran powers, can save a ton of time.
On mission three, do it backwards.
On mission four, clear the door, then:
a) Jump to Rom then clear the towers. (down the center, don't walk either path)
b) Clear the Towers, then jump to rom.
I prefer to land on the square, clear it, and fight rom there with immobilize. Others prefer the tower pull. I've really never liked the tower pull.
Walking any path to rom, is a time sink.
I've had others say, that jumping down the center spawns the entire map and slows the mission down. I've not seen this effect myself, but it could be I have more cpu/gpu horsepower and don't notice it.
Comments:
Of the half dozen teams I've been on that cracked the 1 hour mark, only one had a brute or tank.
I've seen the ITF done many different ways, there isn't one solution. Yet, no matter what team I form, or what team I join, even if half the people on the team have never done the TF before at all, there are at least 8 opinions of the "One and Only Way" to do it.
There are many solutions, and many ways, and many team combinations. There are even many team combinations that do not include a brute/tank to make a sub-1 hour run.
It's also not uncommon to run in the 60-70 minute range. If you can organize a 70 minute run in 15 minutes, that IMO beats a 60 minute run that takes an hour or two to organize. Of course, I'm happy with my even more random runs for fun and leveling, that average closer to 2 hours. Much less stress, and no need to constantly needle to get the "perfect team". I'll take what I've got and do the best we can, and be happy.
I agree that, in general, this is the way to do a speed ITF. However, there are a few things I think could be improved slightly. Detailed below:
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Team Mix
Team mix is crucial. If you do not have the appropriate team, dont start until you do. My choice for a Speed ITF team looks something like this:
Lead Brute or Tank (Must be able to hold large mobs unassisted)
Backup Brute or Tank (To keep team alive and finish off mobs)
A Kinetic anything (Defender, Troller, Corrupter)
3-4 Squishy Control Toons (Corrupters, Trollers, Defenders, Dominators)
1-2 Damage Dealers
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First a word of general advice. The cimerorans do a lot of def debuffing, but not much int he way of dam. resist. debuffing. As a result, defense based sets tend to be slightly weaker then damage resistance based sets. If, for example, you have a choice between a force field controller or a sonic controller, tgenerally the sonic would be the way to go.
If you have a lead brute, keep in mind that most brutes can't hold large mobs unassisted. Generally a tank is better for the lead.
Also, when it comes to squishies past the kinetic, I strongly favor debuffers, and preferably one person who can shield/bubble the team.
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Not to be critical of others, but I am amazed to see long time players who do not recognize the potential of their toons. A great team is one to where every player is maximizing the effectiveness of their unique abilities. That being said, a few words to the kinetic: Your primary function is to Speed Boost the team, and spam Transfusion on the AVs and EBs. Transfusion keeps the big baddies from regenerating health for a bit a great debuff. Please know your value to the team kins, as I hate to beg for SB. Also, know that I wouldnt consider attempting a Speed ITF without a kin. So to that degree, the kin gets the MVP award for this TF.
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I have had very fast ITFs with no kins at alll (no stone brutes or tanks either). Rads make the key opponents go down really fast, and if you have enough AoE damage then you can still do the tf very fast. It won't feel as zippy, but when you look at the timer it ends up the same. That being said, generally at least one good kin IS incredibly useful for speed runs. The advice about kins needing to keep everyone SBed is very well put. In general, I have seen too many kins feel they are ok if they just keep the stoner SBed, or maybe SB the others when they ask for it. You can do that, but you are losing a lot of the kins utility. SB doesn't just improve movement rate, it also vastly increases recharge and (if slotted correctly) end recovery rate. I almost never see bubblers/shielders decide to only bubble one or two characters, but it would be just as wasteful of resources. That being said, the team often spreads out and it can be very difficult to keep everyone SBed (or bubbled). If you don't like spending most of your time on that task alone, you picked the wrong character to play on an ITF team.
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Mission 1: Save the Girls, Release the Hostage (10-12 Minutes)
Lead Brute/Tank is off solo looking for the girls. Backup and Team will quickly clear the first couple of mobs to the main corridor, then assist the lead as needed. Again, we are not clearing every mob and we are not pulling. We are releasing each of the 10 Hostages The second they stand, move on! Lead will communicate with Backup and Team constantly to let everyone know whats happening. Come to me when you can is a phrase you will hear often. Backup Brute/Tank must use their own judgment regarding when they can safely leave a mob or not. After all 10 Girls are up, run to the exit bypass any mobs in the way. Just run through them or jump over them. They are not important, and will not follow you outside.
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The girls are in the following locations: 3 in the room to the south of the first T (go there first), 3 in the corridor at the intersection of the second T (the one you get to by going north at the first T), and 4 in the room to the right of the second T, and straight past the four way intersection after the second T. They are ALWAYS in these numbers in these locations. Not hard to find. Don't bother having the lead look for them, have the tanks/brutes try to aggro folks on the way there to let the squishies run past and then have the brutes/tanks run past too, trailing the mobs. Have the squishies kill any mobs the brutes/tanks aggroed when they get to their destination near one of the girls and then have the brutes/tanks herd the mobs near the other girls. In each otf the three areas it shoudl only take one good herd on the part of both brutes/tanks to pull everyone guarding the girls there.
Also, for anyone doing controllable single target damage (as opposed to uncontrollable, in the form of non-MM pets, and AoE damage) generally, throughout the TF, target the surgeons first. They are way to good at preventing damage not to make the best targets. In this particular mission leave the bosses alone when trying to free the girls, because the girls are only ever guarded by minions and lieutenants. There may be bosses nearby, but they won't be guarding the girls.
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Mission 2: Bust the Crystals (12-17 Minutes)
Depending on the map spawn, it is possible to ditch all the ambushes. Basically the mission looks like this: Lead will just focus on busting crystals while the team handles the surrounding aggro. If we can ditch the ambushes, we will. If not, the backup and team will take care of them while the lead keeps looking for more crystals to bust. Usually I can hit unstop and bust the last 2-3 very quickly solo, and then out we go. This mission has the propensity to go bad quickly, so lead and backup must communicate effectively throughout this mission. Even if we have to kill all the ambushes but the last 2-3, we can still complete this one in about 17 minutes. My advice would be to stay tight, and let the ambushes find you if you have to kill them all.
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There is a faster way of doing this mission, but the team definitely needs to know you will be doing this strategy beforehand. If two people can either each solo the cysts entirely, or can work as a team toegther and kill the cysts quickly and stay alive by themselves when handling the cysts (they also need to be able to safely run past all the mobs between the cysts), then the remaining 6 characters can just hang back near the entrance and "catch" all the aggro from ambushes while the other two work on killing the cysts. On example might be a tough kin and a stone tank or brute, or a tank/brute and a really good ill/rad, or two very tough brutes who dish out a lot of single target damage (the goa is just to kill the cysts for these peopel and move on). I have soloed the cysts on my fortunata, with way beyond capped defense and high damage output. Regardless, one person who can solo the cysts isn't going to make this a faster strategy, but two people who can solo the cysts well or work well as a team to kill the cysts does make this faster.
If the team does split up the ambushes almost always go after the larger grouping, regardless of which group killed the cyst.
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Mission 3: Lag Mountain (12-15 Minutes)
The most dreaded of all the missions. This mission used to really tie up a lot of time before we started using the Lead and Backup Strategy. Constant spawns and the Lag would bog us down midway up the map. No Fun. On this one, I usually keep the entire team together. Lead may jump to the next General once one is down, but then the entire team quickly joins. If the current mob is not down, let them pull. The game puts limits on how many baddies will follow any given player. I have heard that this was to stop tanks from pulling massive herds. So lets use this to our advantage. Abandon a mob, and youll be surprised how many dont follow.
Once in the mission, buffs all around then straight to the bridge. Focus only on the General and his posse. Watch the Navigation Bar. When the General Count drops to 4, time to move on. 2nd General is just above the bridge. Entire team to him and watching the Nav Bar again. 3rd and 4th Generals are past the aqueduct looking bridge. When #4 is eating dirt, entire team moves to last area, which is directly in between the giant robots. You can have someone ghost and tp if you like. I prefer to be the last one out, and then well mop up any mobs that follow before attacking the console.
End is simple. All on console, with squishies dealing death from 500 feet or so to avoid the 3 defense stages. When console is down, brief regroup, more buffs, then lead pulls Rom or Req. Sometimes well pull em both. We have 2 very competent Brutes/Tanks on the team, so one can distract the other while we drop them individually. Exit on Complete.
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This one I tend to do very differently, and having done it the above suggested way many times I find that the way I am used to doing it has been a lot faster. You start by having everyone go to the hill above the bridge and buff there. Then take the guys on the bridge as a group. When those are almost down one of the tanks/brutes (or someone fairly tough) runs to the next general and pulls them to the bridge. At the bridge there is very little lag, but past the bridge lag is horrible. Everyone else stays on the bridge while the puller keeps going out and pulls back (one at a time) the remaining three generals between the bridge and the end point.
Some of the guys on the general will follow, and possibly an ambush will follow, but you might not get all the guys around the general. This is a good thing as you only need to kill the generals here, except for the general surrounded entirely by elite bosses. You have to kill all the elite bosses with him, so those need to be pulled as well. That part is tricky and may take two trips. Either way, because of the lag avoided, pulling each of the generals is actually faster then having the team jump to them.
Once you kill the last general (or maybe a little before, not counting Requiem because he is past the path), if you have someone with recall or team tp have them get to the ledge above the AVs. TP everyone there, and pull the avs (one at a time or both at once if you have a really good team). Pulling these guys is a bit tricky as they will tend to jump up to where they can shoot the puller, shoot the puller, and then slide back down again. You have to have everyone stand back and out of line of sight of the cliff edge if possible. Once the AV is fully up on the ledge everyone jumps in, but not before. The reason for the ledge is that aside from those two AVs, nothing can get up there, so there will be no adds to deal with.
Once the AVs are killed everyone jumps to the control console and kills it. There are two reasons to do it afterward. First, you want the whole team for both the control console and the AVs, and you are more likely to have people die at the control console then at the AVs, given there will be no adds from the AVs, so no time spent ressing and recovering IF you do the AVs first. Second, people have a deplorable tendency to try to pull the AVs once they are done with the control console by pulling them down to where the team is, rather then having the team go up to the ledge. This does lead to many additional mobs and takes more time.
Sometimes, using this strategy, if the team was very efficient at pulling and killing the generals, you won't have killed all 100 Cimerorans after the control console is down. In that case just grab the last few Cimerorans on the path, possibly having the tank pull them off the path to avoid lag. You only need minions now. If people died fighting the control console it isn't as big a deal either (as opposed to if you still had to fight the AVs)
[ QUOTE ]
Mission 4: Kill 300 Romans, then the Big Guy Four Times (12-15 Minutes)
This mission can flat suck away the time if you are not careful. Here is my preferred method for completion: Team enters and immediately buffs. Well meet the ambush in the middle of the first mobs on the stairs. Demonic Aura again, or a few purps. Squishies hang back and deal death from a distance the entire time from here on out. Take the left path. It just seems shorter to me. The second a mob is 80% down, move to the next area and let them pull. If we miss a few Romans, no biggie. Continue on left path to the end area. Be sure to have your F7 and F10 buttons ready for the cinematic trailer.
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As someone else suggested, the tower rooftops are a great, FAST, way to get those needed 300. From the entrance, there are two tower rooftops, one forward to the right, the other forward to the left. My suggestion is to not bother with ANY mobs on the ground, not even the initial ambush, and have everyone immediately head for the tower rooftops. Once on an unoccupied corner (left rear for the tower on the right and right rear for the tower on the left, as seen from the entrance), have the tanks/brutes herd as many mobs as they safely can into other mobs as safety allows, then do FSes over the batch while AoE specialists are nearby, and then nuke them or blow them up with other AoEs. The reason to do the rooftops is that you have a nice concentrated group of mobs that has absolutely no elite bosses. On the path, you have tons of elite bosses, and I think a slightly higher proportion of boss mobs as well. The roof to the right (from the entrance) also won't have any ambushes, whereas along the path there will be tons of ambushes from behind the team, often leaving the squishies dead or dying as the tanks move forward first.
Note that the left tower will cause 2-3 ambushes, all coming from the left rear corner (as seen from the entrance). Have the tanks/brutes be prepared to catch their aggro.
If you do these towers right you should be able to clear out a little over 200 mobs in about 5 minutes.
[ QUOTE ]
Rather than clearing the entire last area sans Rommy, I prefer to kill only the few mobs leading to the far back left corner. This will be the kill zone. Pull the Cyclops or Cow on Roms left side, then team buffs all around. A few more purps, then lead pulls Rom to the waiting team. The disadvantage to this is that when he goes down, people will scramble to get out of LOS to avoid the stuns. We do not want someone to aggro the platform mobs, so know where you are running before the big guy drops. Or, bring a giant Break Free and dont run. If youre lucky enough to have a bubbler, you can stay under the big bubble and avoid the stuns also. Once he drops four times, you will need to defeat about 40 Romans to complete. There is at least that many on the platform.
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In all fairness I cannot comment on this part of the poster's strategy. I have never done it that way. I do know that if you kill everything on the towers including the ambushes on the left tower and you clear the platform and you kil the ambushes that appear while fighting romulus then you will have the 300 every time, I don't usually clear the 5th column surrounding the dais, but I do usually clear the dais of Cimerorans before starting on Romy and his Nictii. People can usually find spots to run out of LOS of Romy this way, and it avoids potential adds outside of the ambushes. Note that the exact time the stun occurs is when a Nictus dies, which occurs when Romy rezzes, NOT when Romy dies, which is how you have a few moments to run out of line of sight when it happens. Also note this means if someone kills a Nictus AV there is no time to run away to avoid the stun.
If the team has a LOT of debuffing (should have at least two good debuffers) you can just take Rom and not worry about the effect of the healing nictus. If the team has no debuffers then this is slower (not impossible, just much slower) then if you have one of the tanks/brutes pull the healing nictus (which is the one to the left of Romy) away from him just a bit so Romy doesn't keep getting healed massively. The size of the heal is based on the number of people standing nearby, so if you have a lot of pets or an ambush shows up, it can substantially slow down the rate at which you are killing Romy if you don't pull the healing nictus a ways away. Also keep in mind that the Nictuses use a weird tether code that means they will always go back to Romy if they are pulled far enough away from him, so just get the healer far enough that Romy doesn't get healed, and don't try to pull it much farther. If you have one good debuffer, which is faster depends on the amount of damage the team can dish out.
Note that some of the nictus things auto-hit in their big AoE attacks. I have had close to 150 defense while trying to avoid these blasts, and they still hit for high damage. Be outside the area of effect or have good healing going off frequently.
The fastest I have done this TF was in 44 minutes (on heroic) my second and third fastest times were at 50 minutes on invincible. I have done this fairly routinely between 51 minutes and an hour on heroic.
I hope my additions helped. The advice of the original poster will lead to a very fast ITF, but (except for the last part of the last mission, which I have never done the way the original poster suggests) my experience has shown that the suggestions I have made might make it a bit faster. I have occasionally run this with a kin (def) and a rad (controller), but usually I have done this with my fortunata, Giant Finale, all on Freedom.
Infinity:
Ellen, 50 MA/Inv Scr
February Night, 14 Ice/Ice Blstr
Guardian:
SilverSwordmaid, 29 Kat/Rgn Scr
Vicious Killer, 33 Emp/Enrgy Def
Electromagness, 40 Rad/Rad Def
Sense of Humor, 50 Fire/En Tank
Virtue:
Kickfest, 50 MA/SR Scr
Freedom:
Glorious Ending, 29 EM/DA Bru
We did an "all" squishy ITF last night and it was done around 38 minutes. No scrappers tanks or brutes, one widow but level 38 sk'd. My ice/storm 'tanked' it with a sonic buffer.
[ QUOTE ]
Mission 3: Lag Mountain (12-15 Minutes)
The most dreaded of all the missions. This mission used to really tie up a lot of time before we started using the Lead and Backup Strategy. Constant spawns and the Lag would bog us down midway up the map. No Fun. On this one, I usually keep the entire team together. Lead may jump to the next General once one is down, but then the entire team quickly joins. If the current mob is not down, let them pull. The game puts limits on how many baddies will follow any given player. I have heard that this was to stop tanks from pulling massive herds. So lets use this to our advantage. Abandon a mob, and youll be surprised how many dont follow.
Once in the mission, buffs all around then straight to the bridge. Focus only on the General and his posse.
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Ok some notes about the 3rd mission aka Lag Mountain.
The First 4 Generals are:
1. The Surgeon General: this is what I call the General that is surrounded by Surgeons
2. The Praetorian General: this is the one that is surrounded by Praetorian Warriors that basically at Lt. versions of the General
3. The other General: this one has a more standard compliment of guards, mostly minions usually one surgeon but sometimes 2, and a Cyclops and a Minotaur
4. The Beastmaster General: this is the General that has nothing but Minotaur and Cyclops for Guards.
5. General #5 is of course Requiem of the 5th Column.
Generals 1 thru 4 spawn randomly as far was where they are positioned, but always: one general at the bridge, another just past the bridge and 2 inside Lag Valley.
important to know: the ONLY GENERAL that needs his guards killed along with the General himself for the kill to count is the BEASTMASTER GENERAL. You must slay all the monsters and the General. All other Generals (including Requiem) are just kill the General only, so they can be sniped-pulled from their guards and taken out.
Another important thing to know: The HILLTOPS are your new best friends for this mission. Why? Simple. Romans can't climb the hills, and you can use them to bypass ambushes and the LAG. Once the first two Generals are downed, I send my stoner to the hills, circle around and note where the other 2 Generals are at. I then quite literally drop-teleport myself down onto the first of the two Generals and proceed to pummel him into the dirt, then return to the hills and repeat the process for the 4th General, afterwhich I teleport down to where the Phalanx are at, assemble the team, and then deal with any Roman ambushes that might have followed us, and then proceed to wreck the Phalanx controls before taking down Requiem and Romulus.
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Once the first two Generals are downed, I send my stoner to the hills, circle around and note where the other 2 Generals are at. I then quite literally drop-teleport myself down onto the first of the two Generals and proceed to pummel him into the dirt, then return to the hills and repeat the process for the 4th General
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Running around the hills and Teleporting is for the chump Stone Armor toons. 
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
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Once the first two Generals are downed, I send my stoner to the hills, circle around and note where the other 2 Generals are at. I then quite literally drop-teleport myself down onto the first of the two Generals and proceed to pummel him into the dirt, then return to the hills and repeat the process for the 4th General
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Running around the hills and Teleporting is for the chump Stone Armor toons.
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Nothing wrong at all with teleporting to the hilltops on my stoner and using the hilltops to bypass the lag-ambushes and pouncing down on the Generals. Tends to speed things up quite a bit.
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Nothing wrong at all with teleporting to the hilltops on my stoner and using the hilltops to bypass the lag-ambushes and pouncing down on the Generals. Tends to speed things up quite a bit.
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I was making reference to having an enslaved Kinetics and abusing IR.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
22:55
Fort, Crab, Night Widow, SS/Fire Brute, Dark/Kin corr, Elec/Fire Brute, Fire/Psi Dom, Kin Def
We typically do the ITF in ~28 min when acting like sane people.
If it hasn't been mentioned, I have had some sucess fighting Romulus first, then wiping out the rooftops. Their are just a lot more mobs in a tighter area on the roofs, so it is easier to kill them quickly.
TW/Elec Optimization
Thanks for all the great advice. Loads of information here - I am consistently humbled by the knowledge many of you long-time players possess.
To me, as long as there are different personalities, there will be different prefered toons of which could be argued to be the 'Best' team to accomplish this TF.
Please continue to post advice. Thanks again,
MadMarv
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To me, as long as there are different personalities, there will be different prefered toons of which could be argued to be the 'Best' team to accomplish this TF
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As long as players play under the misconception that any " specific" archetype is required to complete anything in pve the vets in the game have a long way to go in educating the masses.
Just my opinion. I probably should have followed the " if you cant say anything nice" rule. I get irritated by poor team mates blaming things on the wrong " team". Bottomline is if you team well and are fortunate enough to play in a group comprised of " good teamers" just about any tf,sf, trial, etc is completed successfully and expediently. AT doesn't really matter.
My friends and I recently broke our own record with a 27-minute run on an ITF. Team makeup was something along the lines of Fire/Fire Tank, Ice/Rad Corruptor, Ice/Kin Corruptor, a Fire and Ice/Cold Corruptor, my 38 Sonic/Sonic Def SKd, then a couple spots for toons I don't recall.
Despite some opinions, I've found that it's the buffs that really do it. Two sets of Cold shields keeps you going and the Sonic keeps you from going down too fast if they do manage to hit you. Of course, we ghost as much as possible (killing only hostage groups, ONLY crystals, ONLY Generals, etc.). I find Thermal and Cold to be far superior for this ITF because we move at a ridiculous pace and can't always stick together for team buffs like Rad, Dark, and Leadership. Another plus to having Cold and Thermal is their (IMO) superior debuffing capabilities (Benumb the healing fluffy and Heat Loss/Sleet them all). Not to mention me stacking -90% resistance on anything I'm shooting at. <.< Another boon is that a couple of us take and slot Vengeance in case someone "accidentally" dies. We didn't even really need heals in that TF because I'd just cage anything that switched from Tank to squishy.
Those of you on Pinnacle can look BSOD/Debt Squad or me up if you want to run with us some time. = D
Just thought I'd repeat that, in my view anyway, the third mission goes quicker if done in reverse - this way you can avoid wasting time killing traitors unnecessarily if you happen to pull traitors whilst pulling AVs.
Oh, and with certain team make-up and dynamics it is possible that the final fight will be quicker if you put one brute on the Nictus that heals and then everyone else draws Rommy just out of range of the heals, but within res range of course. When running this with a stone armor brute, and a /elec and /dark brutes we just stuck the stone on the healer and then slaughtered Romulus - he is nothing without his heals. I presume the fact that we had three brutes/tanks that could hold aggro at least reasonaby well - of course the stone could; was the main reason that this strategy was able to speed us up.
Speed ITF
Goal of this post is to give suggestions on how to complete the ITF in under an hour. Many mobs are bypassed, but this is not to say that one will not gain a load of experience. Most sub 45 toons gain about a level in an hour, even SK/LK up to a 50. Please keep in mind that the goal here is speed. There will be no tanking, pulling mobs, or waiting for ambushes. Admittedly, this is not a method for everyone. However gaining a chance at a rare recipe, about 4 million cash, plus whatever drops youll pick up in under an hour is certainly a great return for the time investment. Additionally, running through this thing in under an hour is just plain fun.
Team Mix
Team mix is crucial. If you do not have the appropriate team, dont start until you do. My choice for a Speed ITF team looks something like this:
Lead Brute or Tank (Must be able to hold large mobs unassisted)
Backup Brute or Tank (To keep team alive and finish off mobs)
A Kinetic anything (Defender, Troller, Corrupter)
3-4 Squishy Control Toons (Corrupters, Trollers, Defenders, Dominators)
1-2 Damage Dealers
I prefer to lead this TF with a brute. My favorite brute is a SS/Invul Great for big mobs, and Foot Stomp with Fulcrum Shift is a great way to drop a lot of baddies fast. Also, Bruting works well with the concept of moving quickly from objective to objective. Speed equals a full Fury bar &#61514;
Not to be critical of others, but I am amazed to see long time players who do not recognize the potential of their toons. A great team is one to where every player is maximizing the effectiveness of their unique abilities. That being said, a few words to the kinetic: Your primary function is to Speed Boost the team, and spam Transfusion on the AVs and EBs. Transfusion keeps the big baddies from regenerating health for a bit a great debuff. Please know your value to the team kins, as I hate to beg for SB. Also, know that I wouldnt consider attempting a Speed ITF without a kin. So to that degree, the kin gets the MVP award for this TF.
During this TF there are a few team rules: Team MUST stay with the backup Brute or Tank. This keeps everyone together, and prevents team wipes and individual deaths. Also, team must be prepared to abandon mobs or skip mobs entirely. When the Backup Brute/Tank moves, the team had better move with him/her or risk a death.
OK, we are ready to begin. Yes, set the timer people work best under a deadline. 4 missions, off we go!
Mission 1: Save the Girls, Release the Hostage (10-12 Minutes)
Lead Brute/Tank is off solo looking for the girls. Backup and Team will quickly clear the first couple of mobs to the main corridor, then assist the lead as needed. Again, we are not clearing every mob and we are not pulling. We are releasing each of the 10 Hostages The second they stand, move on! Lead will communicate with Backup and Team constantly to let everyone know whats happening. Come to me when you can is a phrase you will hear often. Backup Brute/Tank must use their own judgment regarding when they can safely leave a mob or not. After all 10 Girls are up, run to the exit bypass any mobs in the way. Just run through them or jump over them. They are not important, and will not follow you outside.
Once outside, wait a few seconds for all to arrive. Buffs all around, then straight up. Straight up means that we do not use the path, but fly or jump straight up from the doorway. I prefer to have the lead go directly to the girl first to grab agro. This is where demonic aura really comes in handy. Makes me bullet proof for a minute, and a minute is all we need here. Entire team to the Girl, and when she stands, the entire team goes to alter. Exit on Complete.
Mission 2: Bust the Crystals (12-17 Minutes)
Depending on the map spawn, it is possible to ditch all the ambushes. Basically the mission looks like this: Lead will just focus on busting crystals while the team handles the surrounding aggro. If we can ditch the ambushes, we will. If not, the backup and team will take care of them while the lead keeps looking for more crystals to bust. Usually I can hit unstop and bust the last 2-3 very quickly solo, and then out we go. This mission has the propensity to go bad quickly, so lead and backup must communicate effectively throughout this mission. Even if we have to kill all the ambushes but the last 2-3, we can still complete this one in about 17 minutes. My advice would be to stay tight, and let the ambushes find you if you have to kill them all.
Mission 3: Lag Mountain (12-15 Minutes)
The most dreaded of all the missions. This mission used to really tie up a lot of time before we started using the Lead and Backup Strategy. Constant spawns and the Lag would bog us down midway up the map. No Fun. On this one, I usually keep the entire team together. Lead may jump to the next General once one is down, but then the entire team quickly joins. If the current mob is not down, let them pull. The game puts limits on how many baddies will follow any given player. I have heard that this was to stop tanks from pulling massive herds. So lets use this to our advantage. Abandon a mob, and youll be surprised how many dont follow.
Once in the mission, buffs all around then straight to the bridge. Focus only on the General and his posse. Watch the Navigation Bar. When the General Count drops to 4, time to move on. 2nd General is just above the bridge. Entire team to him and watching the Nav Bar again. 3rd and 4th Generals are past the aqueduct looking bridge. When #4 is eating dirt, entire team moves to last area, which is directly in between the giant robots. You can have someone ghost and tp if you like. I prefer to be the last one out, and then well mop up any mobs that follow before attacking the console.
End is simple. All on console, with squishies dealing death from 500 feet or so to avoid the 3 defense stages. When console is down, brief regroup, more buffs, then lead pulls Rom or Req. Sometimes well pull em both. We have 2 very competent Brutes/Tanks on the team, so one can distract the other while we drop them individually. Exit on Complete.
Mission 4: Kill 300 Romans, then the Big Guy Four Times (12-15 Minutes)
This mission can flat suck away the time if you are not careful. Here is my preferred method for completion: Team enters and immediately buffs. Well meet the ambush in the middle of the first mobs on the stairs. Demonic Aura again, or a few purps. Squishies hang back and deal death from a distance the entire time from here on out. Take the left path. It just seems shorter to me. The second a mob is 80% down, move to the next area and let them pull. If we miss a few Romans, no biggie. Continue on left path to the end area. Be sure to have your F7 and F10 buttons ready for the cinematic trailer.
Rather than clearing the entire last area sans Rommy, I prefer to kill only the few mobs leading to the far back left corner. This will be the kill zone. Pull the Cyclops or Cow on Roms left side, then team buffs all around. A few more purps, then lead pulls Rom to the waiting team. The disadvantage to this is that when he goes down, people will scramble to get out of LOS to avoid the stuns. We do not want someone to aggro the platform mobs, so know where you are running before the big guy drops. Or, bring a giant Break Free and dont run. If youre lucky enough to have a bubbler, you can stay under the big bubble and avoid the stuns also. Once he drops four times, you will need to defeat about 40 Romans to complete. There is at least that many on the platform.
Final Notes
While running through this TF is not for the faint of heart, it sure is a lot of fun. We try to schedule running it in advance, so that we know the crucial elements (like a good kinetic) will be there. Another plus is that when you get your uber-rare Pacing of the Turtle or the ever coveted Trap of the Hunter at the end, you can feel good about only having invested about an hour of time. We also routinely run this with a few lowbies LK up, and it works fine. Mad Matilda on Pinnacle is my preferred lead brute, or PST to @Mad Jaded if you have any advice or questions.
The Shadows VG (Pinnacle) completed this TF in 57 minutes. I am sure others must have completed it in less time. Please post any advice or hints.
Thanks for reading this!
Mad Marv
Mad Marv 50 Invul/SS Tank
Mad Maelstrom 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Mad Moby 50 Fire/Kin Troller
Great White Rhino 50 Stone/Fire Tank
Mad Marge 41 Empath/Electric Defender
Mad Mel 41 Empath/Dark Defender
Mad Moto 40 BS/Regen Scrapper
Mad Mitch 50 DM/Electric Armor Brute
Mad Matilda 50 SS/Invul Brute
Mad Mindy 50 Mind/Psi Perma Dom
Enea 50 Ice/Kin Corrupter
Mad Marius 46 VEAT Bane
Mad Martha 28 VEAT Tuna