Guide to the Virtue Saturday Night Masters STF

Virtue’s Saturday Night Masters of Statesman Task Force Run:

First down to business and giving credit where credit is due. Blazing Tiger, in her infinite wisdom, decided to run a weekly Masters run in which all of Virtue is invited. These events have become a weekly tradition among a large group of us– and we always have a load of fun doing these runs. I look forward to being on the boat every week (this doesn’t speak much to my social life, but c’est la vie )

As it stands, we do not discriminate among the ATs or the types of powers. We take everyone we can take. Blasters and Scrappers have their role on the teams as much as Defenders and Controllers and Tanks.

You do not have to be a Stone tanker to be main tank on the Masters run. We have strategies and techniques to overcome the weak spots of any team. My most favorite run recently was on my Dark Tanker with a Dark Healer and FF bubbler as our defenders. My Dark tank held against a red towered Recluse with the Dark defender healing. The challenge sometimes, for me, is as much fun as getting the Masters badge. (While we didn’t get the badge this run, we only had 5 deaths– and that was mostly just bad luck.)

The only thing we ask of everyone that attends is that they can devote the time to run the Masters and finish it, even if there is a death already on the team. Running the task force completely teaches new things to other people in attendance– and sometimes, some of the people do not have the regular badges already. Needless to mention, also the chance at good recipes/SHOs (and after I13, merits.)

Another thing we ask is that you cooperate with your team leader. There are a few people that regularly run teams for our run, they are, in no particular order: Blazing Tiger, Destinee Fable, Teikiatsu, Sphere, and myself: Mr. True Shot. There sometimes are others that also help out, and remember, we have many alts– it may be best to identify and /playernote our globals.

Each of us has a different flavor of leading and running our particular runs. I’ll illustrate my runs as an example, however, we have all honed our skills by fighting alongside each other. Our techniques are very similar or just a different version of another technique.

Again, we ask your cooperation when running these Task Forces. Things can get out of control with many people joining the event and things can get confusing.

During the runs themselves, it is in the utmost importance to pay attention and follow the leader’s instructions. We really try hard to earn everyone the badges in the best way we can, we just ask for cooperation and for everyone to have fun. When the leader gets ignored, it usually follows quickly that the Masters run is lost. Our goal is to have fun and try for the badge....so just stick in there with us.

If you think you have a better strategy for a future run, please do mention it on the boards under the weekly Masters post– we often hash out new techniques through the week in these posts.

Our teams have a very good success rate: either we get the Masters or get very close every run we do. It’s rare to see more than 5 deaths on a team– even teams that aren’t “optimal.”

One note: We try to bring everyone we can on the Masters run, however, due to how many people show up– and what kind of support we have, we may not be able to bring everyone. We try our best to bring everyone. We’ve even had times where four people are left over and we recruited people from VU2008 to make a full team. Hang in there, if you don’t make it for that week, try again next week !

Ok, now the general introduction is done, down to outlining the steps:



Gathering on the Boat:

The weekly run begins at 8pm Eastern-- we begin gathering at 7:45pm Eastern and start at 8pm EST. However, recently the Hami raids have overlapped our start time a bit, so we’ve been waiting until they let out. Which buys an extra 15 or 20 minutes of time if you are running late to the event.

To divvy up the ATs and see who we have, we have designated areas for the ATs to stand to make choosing teams easier.


Blasters and Scrappers


Blasters and Scrappers stand by the Longbow agent you click on to enter the helicopter for the last mission. We consider Blasters and Scrappers equivalent for the runs: pure damage. If there is a mass of Blasters and Scrappers standing by the Longbow officer, feel free to log on your defender, controller, or tank.


Defenders and Controllers


Defenders and Controllers stand on the other side of the boat from the Blasters and Scrappers. Near the doors and tower of the boat. (No real marker to describe the area. Bah.) Defenders and controllers are considered the support and are given equal value just like the blasters and scrappers above. Usually we lack support the most. If you want to be sure to get on a run, the support classes are the ones to bring.


Tankers


Tanks stand by Statesman. Usually we need 3 to 5 tanks a week to be main tank. Meaning there’s mostly 3 to 5 teams that run each week, depending on how many people show up. We can also put some tanks on a team and they do not have to be the main tank. We’ve recently had some discussion about the tanks and have come up with certain things that help every tank on the runs. I’ll mention this later.

After the ATs are split up, we put up a scorecard of any number to signify we don’t have a team. The team leaders will see who doesn’t have a team and choose their team from everyone present. We try to divvy up the teams in a way that leaves every group a good shot at the Masters run.

Please do not start your own teams before the leaders are present: however, if you do want to be on a specific team with a certain person, you can ask! We’re flexible. (Since I usually run my

sonic/sonic defender I go where the team needs me– and that’s usually to the team that doesn’t have a stone tank.)

Please understand that coordinating can be confusing and we’re trying our best to split everyone up as best we can.



Before We Start:

I go over simple strategies with my team before the first mission. Notice, this is the part of the guide that is flexible and done slightly differently by every leader– it can even change for me by which alt I play. I will post this guide as the task force unfolds when I play my sonic/sonic defender, the one I use most. I encourage everyone that leads to modify this guide with a post here on what they do differently.

First, I always say: “Safety First.”

Remember, there’s no need to risk death with any heroic acts. You might have to break yourself from certain patterns you are used to doing on normal missions. Especially on the tree board (which will be discussed at length later.)

I appoint myself “squishy leader.” Meaning, I’m a squishy (or easily killable) AT that needs to be protected from melee or other things that can kill me fast. My sonic dispersion bubble is always up (or should be, if it isn’t let me know !!) I tell every squishy class to stay tight on me. I also use a power that very few other sonics seem to like, but I consider a must have. The sonic repulsion field.

This power works by placing a toggle buff on an ally, I usually choose a blaster, and anything that comes into melee range of that person is repelled away from him. By using this power, I effectively create a melee free area under my sonic dispersion bubble that keeps squishy characters safe. At no time should the squishies leave this bubble unless they need to perform duties such as AE healing. Our goal is to protect those that die easily. With sonic shield buffs up (and make sure they are up always, I try to keep them going) and being under the sonic dispersion bubble, we have a high degree of survivability. This is VERY important on the “Security Chief?” board where ambushes can land on the squishies heads’. More on that later.

When we encounter an AV, keep your powers focused on the AV to kill him as quickly as possible. Squishies remain back with me out of melee range. We use our range to our advantage for squishies– staying back from the enemy insures the squishies don’t get beaten down fast. Again, if anything is on you, make sure you hug the designated person with the repulsion field to bounce that mob off you.

It’s also VERY STRONGLY ADVISED that you carry Break Frees and Greens with you on the run. I can’t tell you how many times we used to lose runs to someone getting stun/held outside of the healers reach and we watch as the person is whittled down to death. Carry the Break Frees and replenish them if you need to. 2 or 3 per mission is good. Also, be ready as soon as you start losing energy to hit some greens. Consider the healer there as a safety net– but hit greens to insure you survive. Greens first, questions later!

It is not a bad idea, either, to carry a few purple defenses for when things might somehow focus their fire on you and you want to insure you don’t die. Never hurts. Accidentally hit the wrong key and things fire on you? Uh oh ! Hit some greens and then pop 4 defenses to be safe.

Now onto the board breakdowns:




First Mission: Take Out the Cables

Our mission objective is to destroy all the cables on the map to prevent Recluse from completing his plan. Anyone that has done this mission before and has invisibility (or a stealth and IO stealth that equals invisibility) can go below and safely take out cables below. If you haven’t done this before stay with the team above.

We do not have to engage any enemies while taking out the cables, so avoid the mobs. We first kill the cables by the boat– then we hop up the wall and go right. We destroy the cables on the right, making sure we get the cables out a bit on the water on a small barge. Then we back track and head left.

There are cables on the ramp leading downward to the below area. Leave these cables up as we destroy them last.

Before engaging the cables on the left we must deal with the group of enemies around them. We kill most of these enemies, but it is IMPORTANT to leave ONE alive. With my sonic defender I will cage a white minion enemy and we will obliterate everything else. I will maintain the sonic cage (makes the mob intangible) and we do not kill that mob.

We will destroy the rest of the cables on the left and head back to the ramp. The minion will forget us. We do this in order to prevent a large ambush later.

Once all the above cables are destroyed, we meet at the top of the ramp. If no one is killing cables below, we all go below in a group and safely take out groups of enemies and destroy the cables below. We kill the cables until TWO cables are left and then we all return to the top of the ramp.

At this point, we will rebuff sonic shields and any other buffs we have. The two cable we left at the top of the ramp will now be destroyed which triggers an ambush and spawns the AV (Arbiter Sands) in front of the parked Arachnos Flier.

First, I will deal with the ambush. It is that single minion we left alive. If we had killed that minion, we would get a full ambush– and if we kill her at any point, we will get a full group ambush while we kill Arbiter Sands. Do not kill it. I will re-sonic cage her.

After I sonic cage the white minion again, the tank goes in and gets aggro on Arbiter Sands. Allow him 3 to 5 seconds to get aggro before heading in. Squishies remain with me under my bubble. Focus your fire on Arbiter Sands.

Once the Arbiter Sands falls, a new ambush will spawn– however, the mission will be complete. Just exit as soon as the mission completes.



Mission 2: Stuck in the Future

Once exiting mission 1, we will need to go to Peregine Island, Portal Corps for our next mission. I will spawn an Ouroboros portal for everyone to take to Peregine Island. Be VERY careful if there is a Rikti Raid ongoing. Those ships like to blast you near Portal Corps. I almost died once on my sonic when flying low to the ground to Portal Corps. >.<

Once we enter the portal, we are inside Dr. Aeon’s lab. Remain near the area you enter and do not go ahead. We will have someone with Invisibility and Teleport Friend to safely pull everyone up to the first AV.

There are two cutscreens that are activated as people head above. It is customary to allow the new people to see the cutscreens if they haven’t already. Ask if anyone that isn’t in the mission wants to see the cutscreens. If it’s ok to proceed, head to Magus Mu’Drakken and teleport us up to a safe spot.

Before I go on, I should mention: Aeon traps us in the future, and our only way back is to beat up his four AV buddies for parts of the code to get back to our time. We will be heading directly to each AV and beating them up. As with the rest of the missions it is important here NOT to use any form of pets. When we head from one AV to the next, the pets can drag other enemies on us. If you use a pet, be sure to spawn them for the AV and kill them after the AV fight is over.

Magus Mu’Drakken is located next to the first Pillbox.

Again, focus your fire on Mu’Drakken and squishies stay inside the bubble with my sonic defender and the person with the repulsion field. Allow the tank 3 to 5 seconds to gain aggro before engaging.

After Mu’Drakken, we move on to Agent Korol. She’s a big nasty spider with an AE Psi damage. As I recommend with ALL AVs if you are squishy stay back from the battle. It should be no problem if you are standing next to my Sonic defender. But the AE psi blast she uses can leave a squishy very weak and one hit away from a fail. Remember, Sonic shields don’t have any form of protection from Psi damage, but they provide Toxic resists. FFs provide Psi protection, but no protection from Toxic. So sonic shields will do nothing for her Psi AE damage (or Psi in general.) If your tank is weak to Psi, do bring oranges (or purples.) (I recommend all tanks carry oranges or purples for resist/defense anyway. More on that later.

Once Agent Korol is dead, we move on to Shadow Spider. She is a former Knives of Artemis– which, yes, means she uses caltrops. I should mention here, as before every AV encounter, we refresh all buffs (including sonics) before we engage. The tank goes in, allow 3 to 5 seconds for him to pick up aggro, and then the squishies all form on my sonic defender and go to town on Shadow Spider.

Once Shadow Spider is dead, we move on to Veridian. If you don’t know where he stands, wait for a Teleport to the group. I’ve seen countless numbers of people land on Veridian’s head and die in the early days. Just make sure you get a port there if you don’t know where he stands.

Same AV encounter as above. Focus fire. Stay under the bubbles near the sonic defender and repulsion field person.

Once Veridian dies, I will spawn an Ouroboros portal. Everyone takes it and heads back to the boat on Independence Port. There will be one designated person to finish the mission. It will be someone sturdy of course. All they need to do is head for the exit, once you are close to the exit, the mission ends. All will get the experience and influence even if not in the mission.

Replenish all inspirations especially if you used Break Frees or Greens.



Mission 3: The Thorn Tree

The Thorn Tree is the first “test” of a group. The actual tree part is deadly for squishies (and even scrappers) and being in the wrong spot at the wrong time can cause a one-shot death (it’s technically NOT a one-shot, but it comes fast, so I call it that.)

When we enter the mission, make sure you wait for my sonic defender to buff everyone. We will head to a doorway and we need to enter it. The door might be “hot” (or surrounded by CoT) on the outside– so wait for the all clear to head in. Sometimes we may need to kill the CoT surrounding the door so we can all safely enter.

Once inside the door DO NOT go ahead. If you do not have invisibility AND teleport friend there is no benefit in moving past the front of the door. We’ve had people in the past run down to the “tree area” because “they can.” This only puts the Masters at risk for no reason.

If someone on the team has Teleport friend and invisibility, they should be the one to run down the mission and enter the tree room. However, there are dangers along the way.

First off: there are tight tunnels with sudden turns. These sudden turns have groups of CoT crowded around a red crystal. There’s no camera angle that will help you see this in advance until you are almost on top of the crystals– and of course the crystals will knock you out of invisibility leaving you surrounded by a large group of CoT. If you die to it, we lose the Masters run.

Also, even if you pass the red crystals (if any spawn, they sometimes don’t) you still have to get past the NPC villain team. The NPC villains are orange bosses that do have +perception and will see you if you enter the last portal (the second portal.) Be very careful.

This is why I carry 4 purples around as a squishy. To be extra safe use 4 purples or use Eye of Magus (it’s not considered a temporary power so you can use it) to pass by the NPC villains on the steps as easily as you can. I teleport through them with my blaster.

Once you pass this group, then you are golden. Once you get into the tree room with the vines, head to the ditch to left and begin to Teleport the team down to you.

If your team does not have an invisibility/teleport-friend person, you will all go down together in a group. Taking out the mobs as you go.

Once in the tree room, it is imperative that you are very careful. The tree room is a large circular room with the tree in the middle of it.

The tree can see people in the south half of the room. From the 3 o’clock position to the 9 o’clock position on the south part of the map. The tree will hold you as it damages you with an initial burst of damage and a big dot. You will need to pop a break free and then heals VERY fast to avoid death to the tree. This is why we do not put squishies, at any time, in front of the tree.

However, first thing’s first. We need to clear the Circle of Thorn from around the tree. Squishies (and even scrappers) can stay back towards the wall (wall hugging) or on me as my sonic defender. We wipe out the groups of CoT as we advance around. The terrain for this part of the map nicely covers up the tree so it can’t see us. There is little danger here, but still, be careful. If you go too far into the vines it can see you.

I will warn everyone about the dangers of the tree (trust me, I have a BIG mouth) and I’ll let everyone know when we are out of danger, and again when the tree can see us.

As we advance around the tree clearing the CoT, at 3 o’clock it gets deadly for squishies and scrappers to be seen by the tree. (Special note here: Scrappers I’ve seen more scrappers die to the tree than any other AT. Scrappers are used to generally thinking they cannot die to the tree so they weren’t careful. You can die VERY fast to the tree. It is toxic damage. Please stay behind with the squishies in the ditch by the wall. Only the tank should go out and pull mobs back to the group.)

Remember, this is the part where most Masters fail by getting a death. Stay back near the wall, in the ditch. If you fly, fly low. We’re using the rocks as cover from the eye. If you see the eye, it can see you and kill you.

Only the tank will go out and pull mobs back to us at the wall while we hide behind the rocks.

Once the area in front of the tree is cleared, we move along the wall. Careful, because there is a hallway of mobs we skipped when we were Teleported down to the tree. We can take those out if we aggro them.

Once all the CoT are dead, we move to 10 o’clock on the map while still hugging the wall getting there. Just above the part where the tree can see us. We buff up here and divvy up the team.

The tanks and scrappers that have high toxic resists will go south (counterclockwise on the map) and kill the vines as fast as possible. The squishies (and scrappers with low toxic resists) will go around clockwise from the 9 o’clock/10 o’clock line all the way around to the 3 o’clock line.

NEVER pass me up at the 3 o’clock position (or the person designated to warn the squishies of where they are on the map.) Always stay fairly tight on me. I’ll warn when we’re close to the 3 o’clock line. At this point, do not pass my position up. You can snipe the trees or send in pets on vines past the line we don’t cross, but do not cross it yourself or you can easily die. (You can place a waypoint marker on the 3 o'clock line to ensure you don't cross it on accident.)

Sometimes when we are low on damage for the south vines I have to go in and help with killing the vines. DO NOT FOLLOW ME. My sonic defender has high resists to toxic and I’m using inspirations.

Once all the 88 vines are dead, do NOT move if you are squishy. Scrappers can also hide behind a rock to be safe if you were in the south area. Allow the tank to grab aggro on the tree. He cannot grab the aggro until all the vines are down– but once the vines fall, he can then taunt the tree.

Once the tank has solid aggro on the tree, he will tell us to move in and help take down the tree. Don’t move in before he tells you– we have had people die on the tree at this point. They think the vines are down and it’s ok to run and kill the tree– but the tank has yet to get aggro and they get one shot.

Wait for the tanker to say all is ok.

At this point, we’re golden again. Take out the tree. Once the wall falls do not click on the glowie. USUALLY the tank will grab the glowie and get the temporary power.

On mission complete, exit.

Mission 4: The Security Chief?


Our objective on this mission is to find a key to enter a building and stop Dr. Aeon. However, the key holder is a “Security Chief?” Unfortunately, there are many decoy “Security Chiefs?”

How these encounters work is that you must kill the “Security Chief” and then if you get a yellow map marker on your map, you have gotten the key. However, each time a “Security Chief” is killed, they spawn 2 separate ambushes. Make sure you are prepared for them.

We begin by buffing at the submarine. We move to the wall where the first “Security Chief?” is located. The tank will go in first and taunt the group of mobs with the “Security Chief?” in it. We generally do not clear groups without the Chiefs in them unless we are doing it for safety reasons.

The strategy goes like this: The tank grabs aggro on the group. However, our objective is to kill the group and NOT the “Security Chief?” first. The “Security Chief?” will spawn the first ambush when he hits 25% health. For this reason, I use my Sonic Cages (which makes the “Security Chief?” intangible) while we kill the rest of the group. Usually the Chief drops out of the sonic cage just as we kill the rest of his group.

We kill the “Security Chief” who spawns the ambush at 25% health. It is important that all squishies are hugging tight together under the sonic dispersion bubble and near the designated Repulsion Field person. As we move on, these ambushes will drop right on the squishies heads’ and things do Assassin Strike. I’ve seen people die fast to ambushes that drop on their heads.

The first ambush will come in and the squishies will be safe under the bubble. Move up with me as I advance up. Stay tight on me at all times.

Once the first ambush dies, the second will spawn soon after. Take out this ambush and then you are free to move.

Most likely, the first “Security Chief” didn’t give you the key– so you need to kill more of them. Head up the ramp (carefully as there’s a group on the ramp.) The group on the ramp does not have a “Security Chief” on it, so we will skip this group. Head to the top of the ramp. If you need a port up, let us know. Don’t risk running up, safety first. Also, make sure pets are dead on this board, they'll run right through enemies and pull them onto us.

We meet at the top of the ramp. Again, the same strategy. Tank gains the aggro on the “Security Chief?” group, I cage the “Security Chief?” to prevent him from summoning the next ambush until we’re ready. We kill all the mobs around the Chief, and then kill the Chief. Squishies remain tight as the ambushes can come from different directions. Kill the first ambush. Kill the second ambush. Move on to the next “Security Chief?” group if you didn’t get the key. There’s a pattern I take and will have to show you in person. It can’t be explained here.

Do make sure to stay for both ambushes, and stay in tight so ambushes don’t drop on your head. Sometimes the ambushes do spawn right on the squishy group, but sonic repulsion repels them all away from us. I <3 Sonic Repulsion. Also note: going AFK on this board is not advisable without warning your group. An ambush might spawn on you while your AFK.

Once you get the key, make sure the ambushes are dead and then you can safely head for the waypoint (doorway.)

Once inside the doorway, do NOT wander ahead. Wait inside the door– there are AVs hidden behind walls inside this building. Allow the tank to go first, and make sure you are all buffed before engaging the AV lackeys. Again, focus fire on them. The AVs are random, but are one of four each time: Wretch, Barracuda, Ice Minstral, or Silver Mantis.

As usual, tank goes in first. Focus fire.

Each floor (after the elevators) has a hidden AV. Let the tank lead first. Most have a nasty Psi AE damage, so squishies stand back. Tanks without Psi protection be VERY careful on Barracuda. Pop some oranges.

Once all 4 AVs are dead, we are ready to engage Dr. Aeon. This is another dangerous point for teams. If a Masters will fail it seems to be on Dr. Aeon (I’m not sure why, my teams never have much problem here at all, but it is one of those danger points it seems.)

First you will clear the floor before him and head down the left part. Do NOT get near the ramps or the back of the room as Dr. Aeon has a HUGE aggro range.

When you go up the ramp, hug the left side of the ramp and then hug the left wall. We will buff here and go over strategy.

Dr. Aeon is a purple AV. He will spawn a ton of clones of himself with different powers. All the clones will be Red Elite Bosses. The Elite Bosses have a lot of trouble with Caltrops/Ice Slicks/Earth Quakes/Quicksand or the like. Or the FF repulsion bubble. However you decide to handle it, make sure you can keep the Elite Bosses busy with a power while you focus ALL fire on the Dr. Aeon.

To hurt Dr. Aeon you must use the temporary power you gained from the Thorn Tree. The tank will use this on Dr. Aeon. Wait for the animation to complete (where Dr. Aeon uses his shield power) before you use the temporary power on him. If used too early it will not effect him (even though his bubble is up and it looks like you should use it.) And the power takes awhile to recharge. Once he does the Arm in the air (I think it’s the MoG animation) he is ready to be hit with the temporary power.

BEFORE the tank does this however, it is VERY advisable to max out your Energy Resistance. My Dark tank found this out the hard way >.< He hits like a freight train. Pop some oranges and max those Energy and Smashing/Lethal resists (most likely if your Energy Resists are high your S/L will be also though.)

Notice, that isn’t a suggestion. Do that. Or he can smack you down fast if your energy resists are low.

As soon as the tank has aggro and the Elite Bosses are spawned, throw down your caltrops/quicksand/ice slick/etc.

Focus fire on the purple AV Dr. Aeon. Exit as soon as you win.



Final Mission: Recluse, Towers, GW....oh my....


You’re on the final mission, if you got this far without dying, congrats !! Now comes the rough part. You get to see if you really have what it takes to make it. Your team should already be solid, as we made sure you had a fighting chance. It’s now all dependent on how well the players perform their roles. (Or, semetimes, it just comes down to the many glitches that are in the TF. Pray you don't get one.)

Be patient with one another. Remember, there’s NO reason to rush now, you are almost there!!

First, as SOON as you enter the mission, make a note of the time. Set a timer or write down the time in 20 minute intervals and pay attention to the time. This will matter later for the Arachnos Flier after you kill the 4 AVs.

Second, we will clear the board of enemies all the way up the ramps and before the 4 AVs of Recluse. Clearing these mobs will make sure no one runs into anything if you need to retreat.

Once the board is cleared of the enemies, make SURE you know where to run to if run is called. And it often is.

You MUST head to the boat and run inside the hospital and wait there for the AV to be sure to be gone. Let the tank peak his head out first before declaring it safe to leave the hospital. Be careful though, sometimes the AVs are stuck on geometry, or in the case of GW and Scirocco, they fly !! (If you need to, you can always exit the board by talking to the Longbow Helicopter guy. But that’s not necessary.)

The boat is straight south from the “camp” area we set up for killing the AVs.

Everyone will set up behind the indent in the wall and wait for the pulling of the AVs. Buff up first, of course, and then you will need to decide who will pull, who will spot, and have the tank ready to pick up the incoming AV before it gets to the puller. (Sometimes, the tank just pulls the AVs.)

When I’m running the AV pulls, I say if there’s more than one AV, we run. Don’t be a hero here. I’ve seen it happen many times. If the pull goes bad and we get too many AVs, don’t hesitate to run when run is called– even the tank. Don’t stick around and tank, if run is called,

run for the hospital. If you see another AV running for us while we are killing another one and run hasn’t been called, call it!!

I will not be angry if you save the team, trust me!

Ghost Widow is the most deadly add you can get. Any time that she is incoming, you run. We NEED to be prepared for her pull– if we are not, she can kill the tank with her hold. If we are not prepared for Ghost Widow and she comes in, just run.

Ok, on to the pulling technique. First we have someone with a sniper power usually pull Mako first (btw: the order here is different between each of the leaders, remember this is only my technique, listen to your leader for the order. )

The sniper will set up his “Teleport Friend Prompt” if it is not set already. The sniper will tell the person Teleporting them that they are ready. The person with Teleport friend will teleport the blaster. As soon as the Teleport prompt comes up, the sniper snipes Mako. As soon as the snipe lands, click ‘ok’ to be Tped back to group. The teleporter should teleport the sniper behind the wall so that the AV cannot blast the puller while it is running to the group. The puller stays behind the wall and the tank is ahead of the group, ready to intercept the AV to before he gets to the puller.

Sometimes this takes a few times. Also, when you pull Mako, make SURE the Flier is around the back area of the Bronze statue of Lord Recluse. We have a theory, worked out by Teikiatsu and Ellis, that the flier may be responsible for AV adds. So far, it seems to be the case. So, just wait for the flier to clear out before sniping Mako.

There will be a spotter (already in place) on one of the towers overlooking the AVs, it is usually me. Perception or yellows are good here as it allows you to see the AVs better. The spotter will stand on the tower for at least 30 seconds after one of the AVs is pulled. The tank (or anyone for that matter) should let you know if they got Mako. If they did, keep an eye on GW, Scirocco, and Black Scorpion. If ANY of them move, tell the team to run. (I usually type: “RHUN” in my excitement, for the record, it does mean to run! )

Run to the boat if there’s an add (everyone) and go to the hospital.

If there is no add, the spotter remains on the tower at least 30 seconds after Mako has hit the group. GW waits sometimes to run in and attack. If she doesn’t in 30 seconds, you are a lot safer, but keep an eye open as it can still happen.

Keep an eye on the distance even after the 30 second mark. Make sure the AVs aren’t adding– I do this by targeting my enemy button away from the current AV we are fighting. If you don’t get the Arachnos Flier on your targeting and get another AV, call run.

Sometimes, it can be hard to separate the AVs, but at no time should anyone try to blast an AV to separate them. Many of the Masters run have failed (before I started lecturing on this phenomenon) to someone taunting or blasting an AV that was running back to it’s spawn point– they were trying to separate the pulls on their own to make it faster, and instead die and lose the whole point of the task force. Do NOT assist in separation, sometimes it takes awhile.

(There are also times that the AVs will NOT separate for some God unknown reason. If you find that 3 AVs are consistently adding over and over, it is possible to have everyone log out at the same time to reset the final mission. You will have to re-clear the board, but sometimes that’s actually faster than continually pulling 3 AVs over and over. This is up to you if pulling just isn’t working.)

Once Mako is dead. We pull Black Scorpion. Same rules apply as before on adds.

Next we kill Scirocco, and then lastly Ghost Widow.

The strategy for each AV varies, most are easy. GW is a pain, but here they are:


Mako:


Squishies, don’t get close. He has an AE that can hurt. He will Elude when his energy is low. Pop “Gaes of the Kind Ones” for added accuracy or yellows. This will help take him out.


Black Scorpion:


He has no real strategy. Kill him.


Scirocco:


I’ve found an interesting tidbit once I ran my sonic defender. His mega hold can be neutered with a bit of strategy. His AE hold has a LONG LONG range. Further than most blasters can blast from. So range isn’t the best strategy on him.

Make sure the squishies converge under a sonic (or FF) bubble, and then use Clarity/CM on everyone. The application of Clarity/CM not only will prevent the hold of the large AE hold, it will also prevent the damage portion of that hold !! For some reason, the sonic dispersion bubble will not stop the damage (it will prevent the hold) but Clarity and CM have some component in them that prevents the large damage as well. I typically Clarity down the list and make sure everyone has at least 3 clarity/CM against Scirocco while we fight.

Remember: The person who can cast Clarity/CM cannot cast it on themselves. If you do have CM/Clarity, hit the other CM/Clarity person with 3 of them and then go down the list over and over using Clarity/CM to stack up at least 2 (2 helps, but 3 is the magic number usually) on everyone. It is so important that is often all I do on Scirocco’s battle. Just consistently clarity down the list. This encounter becomes simple with this technique.


Ghost Widow:


Ok, this is the one that requires coordination. I move the camp area up to the left side of the ramps. Everyone hides behind the first wall there except me and the tank.

The goal here is to get the Tank’s hold protection over 100. I can typically get them around 300 easily on my own. I put clarity on auto for the tank and maintain him in my targeting window. If I need to do anything to GW, I will end up assisting the tank.

Once the tank has the maximum amount of Clarity on him that I can give (and his shields are up, I don’t worry about the others as they aren’t suppose to be getting hit) then I let the tank go down and taunt GW up on the platform, past the rest of the team hiding behind the wall.

We position GW on an area past where the group is hiding behind the wall. Once the tank has solid aggro on GW, everyone else will attack GW from BEHIND her.

Attacking from behind, she will not heal off you. The tank will taunt GW from maximum taunt range. That is his only goal is to hold her attention. If she breaks off attention to anyone else: there’s a chance she can hold and kill someone instantly.

(Recently, on my Dark Tank, i've been using his -to hit debuffs to my advantage. With a Dark Defender or Storm defender, you can maximize -to hit for GW and floor her accuracy. We did this just last night and i've NEVER seen GW go down faster. She healed off me twice, but even still-- she died way faster than normal.)


Special Tanker Note:


Holding aggro on all the AVs is of utmost importance. (Tanks, here I recommend a slotted up taunt with taunt enhancers. I’ve seen a lot of tanks go at the AVs and there’s some that cannot maintain aggro on the AVs. If you cannot maintain aggro on the AV, especially GW, it is advised you slot up the taunt with taunt IOs to maintain aggro. As the AV gets higher, and I believe these AVs are 54, the taunt effect is less effective. It is imperative that you hold the attention of all the AVs, especially GW and Lord Recluse. This is one important part a tank has to pay attention to. If you are capable of holding level 54 AVs without taunt or it being slotted up, it’s cool. Just please make sure you can hold that attention, it’s important! )

In the case of any AV breaking off from the tank and attacking a squishy. INSTANTLY stop blasting or doing damage to the AV. Hit greens as fast as you can– if you have purples or oranges, pop them (in between heals) to make sure you live. If you can outrun an AV while popping greens and staying alive, do it while the tank tries to regain aggro. Your goal is to stay alive long enough for the tank to regain aggro. Do not further make the AV mad by doing damage to them. Click greens, run like a little scared girl...whatever it takes!


Ending the Special Tanker Note and Back to GW:


At this point, GW will be taunted from range. If her attention is focused on the tank from a distance, she cannot use her big heal. Everyone will be attacking her from behind. I hover over the tank and use my Clarity (that is auto on the tank) while I use my sonic siphon (and I have the -RES AE on an ally in melee range behind GW.)

I also use my medicine heals on the tank when I can....but a ranged healer should be ready to throw a heal in case. Medicine heals aren’t so great.

Once in awhile, GW can make the tank intangible. Recently I’ve started making the team STOP attacking when the tank says he’s intangible. He can’t keep taunting her while intangible, and the teams damage is adding up– it’s a potential case where the others can pull aggro off the tank while he can’t do anything. So stop attacking when the tank is phased. If GW turns around to the team that is suppose to be behind her, run over the divider and hide behind a wall.

If GW moves ahead to try and melee the tanker, the tanker must back up to max taunt range. Sometimes she keeps doing this. Just keep backing up, and if you have to go over the other side of the divider and taunt her all the way back down again. Keep her at max taunt range or she will heal off you– her heals can outpace our damage.

Once GW is dead (my favorite part! ) we will get a cutscreen. Recluse blathers on about something or other. Then our next goal is the Arachnos Flier.

Remember that 20 minute timer I told you to keep earlier? This is where it comes in handy. The flier will spawn/re-spawn every 20 minutes, no matter if it is alive or dead.

If you kill GW and the next thing to do is kill the flier– if it’s at 18 minutes on the timer and you kill it at 19 minutes and 59 seconds on it’s timer, it WILL respawn at 20 minutes. If you get to the flier and there’s 10 minutes left, you might as well have everyone take a pee break. Wait for the Flier to respawn and take it out. You will have 20 minutes (from the time the flier first respawned, not when it dies) until the next flier.

You will need to kill the mobs around the Bronze Recluse statue as well. I usually have the tank go in and pull the mobs away from the Flier (so it doesn’t aggro) and pull it back to the ramp where the AVs were. Out of the range of the flier. If you are waiting for the Flier to respawn, clear these mobs. You need to anyway.

Once you cleared the mobs and are ready for the respawned flier, let the tank gain aggro first. The Flier CAN and HAS killed squishies in one shot, ruining the Masters run.

Tank gains aggro and then everyone kills the flier. The flier will spawn a mass of yellow banes, you will most likely kill these banes (but sometimes they are useful for invuln tanks and dark tanks to get defense off of or heal, but that’s a more advanced technique we’ll go over on the mission if we need to.)

Once the flier is dead, you have 20 minutes to take the towers down and kill Recluse. If you must, of course, you can break off from the towers and Recluse– re-kill the flier, and then continue with Recluse and the towers. It is often how it’s done.

Do NOT continue to fight the Towers and Recluse while the flier is ready to respawn. It can (and has) killed squishies in one shot and ruined Masters run (yes, I like to drive points home, sue me! )

If you are working on the towers, make sure you have someone watching the flier clock. At three minutes you REALLY wanna back out of there carefully and take out the flier again. Be SURE to drop Recluse aggro and that there isn’t any “repairmen” left behind, they CAN raise towers that were destroyed.


Towers and Recluse. The final strategy.


The pattern to killing the Tower Colors (which give different buffs) is ALWAYS RED first. That is a given. RED buffs Recluse’s damage to crazy amounts– all tanks fear these moments before the RED tower is down. After the red tower is down, the damage is much more manageable for the tank. Get red down fast !!! (If you need to, pop a ton of red inspirations to help bring it down, the faster the better.)

Remember, after so long, the tower will spawn level 40 repairmen that will heal the tower back up fast. Your first priority is to get those repairmen down FAST. Do NOT use the big FF bubble to repulse the repairmen: the reason is, it pushes them so far away that no one can kill them (or even see them sometimes) and we’ve had the red tower rebuilt while we were killing another tower. Make sure you kill the repairmen. A small knockback or knockdown works, stun, whatever, but make sure you kill them !!!

After the red tower is down, usually the blue tower is next. It adds a massive +TO HIT buff to recluse and does other nasties (I’ve heard it speeds his recharge and causes him to spawn more banes too.) Blue is USUALLY next after the red. On my runs, it isn’t though.

My sonic defender uses sonic cages on the blue tower to cut off his big +TO HIT buff, making Ice Tankers much more survivable against Recluse. On my teams, we kill the red tower first, then we kill the orange tower.

At this point, we then kill the blue tower, then green.

Careful again to watch the timer for the Flier !!!

Special note: Not only can the towers be sonic caged, but also the flier can as well. This tidbit can come in handy!

Once all towers are down, you are ready for Recluse. He should be back against the war wall in a corner. (In the back corners, the Flier will not see or attack you-- so at this point, there's no need to watch the flier timer.) The tank will face Recluse away from the team so no cones spray on his teammates. This means the tank’s back is to the war wall and he’s facing Recluse, and Recluse is in front of him.

Kill Recluse. Simple, huh ?

At about 1/4th his health, Recluse spawns a BUNCH of purple Bane bosses (they take 2 holds to be held)– this is where the FF repulsion bubble comes into play. Or my Repulsion field. Quicksand, Earthquake, Ice Slick, you name it.

Focus your damage on Recluse and keep the Banes busy. Once he’s dead, you all win!


Not a Stone Tank and Wanna Survive Against a Red Tower Powered Recluse, Read Here !!


Lets face it, Stone tanks are the kings of survival in Granite form. Recluse has a few varieties of damage. Smashing/Lethal, Energy, and some Toxic.

My Dark tank is susceptible to his energy blasts. Ouch, they hurt. First time I tanked him, I went down faster than a blaster. I use my Dark tank as an example because it has just the right weakness I want to cover here.

My Dark only has ~30% resistance to Energy Damage. And he has no other form of KB protection other than Acrobatics-- which, for the record, is NOT enough to keep Recluse from knocking you around like a rag doll.

I have to prepare my tank for the encounter. Usually after everything else is taken care of and we're ready for Recluse, I exit the mission and head to my base. I have a LOT of extra Robust (big oranges) and Phenominal Lucks (big purples) stored in my base for such the occassion.

I remove every other inspiration I have from my slots (I keep 4 big greens in case I need to pop one for some reason) but otherwise, I fill up on Oranges (usually oranges, but purples will help as well-- recently I've found they help much more than I expected. I recommend two large purples on Recluse if you can manage as well. If nothing else it stops the bane's from hitting you if he spawns a million of them.)

While i'm in my base, I also use my base emulator. The base emulator has some nifty buffs in it, one is a +10 KB protection. This takes one tech power and IS enough protection from Recluse to stop most KBs. You will still get KBed a tiny bit infrequently, but the magnitude is small and you can almost instantly stand back up.

When i'm ready to engage Recluse, I pop 2 Robusts (large Oranges) and have a dedicated healer (or 2 depending) on me. This is usually enough to survive the Red Towered Recluse-- if it's not for you, pop another orange. I've found that even 2 Phenominal Lucks help alot more than one might expect, EVEN with the blue tower up.

When the large oranges begin to fade, pop another 2. Continue this until that red tower is down. It pretty much gives you the resistances of a Stone Tanker. Also, if you stay in close to Recluse, he will not use his ranged Energy damage and he will continue to melee you with Smashing/Lethal attacks.

This technique alone allows my tanker to survive the Red Towered Recluse. Further strategy would be to pop a heck of a lotta large Purples (I had to do this last night...we had a bugged Recluse and he was slicing me down like nothing.) You can pop 4 large purples (while having your 2 large Oranges up) and you can pretty much withstand Recluse with no problem. Even with the blue tower up and the +to hit going. (A trick I use when my sonic defender is running this is to cage the blue tower. It lowers Recluse's accuracy to a normal amount and allows ice tankers to actually tank Recluse. I would suggest a big purple or 2 for an ice tank and a lot of big oranges for when the red tower is up though.)

The base emulator also has an END drain resistance to it. I've never used it as I'm a Dark tank, but it might be worth it for some tanks that don't have this protection to protect from Recluse's END drain.

If you keep up these inspirations during the Red Tower phase and the tower is taken out, you should be ok for the rest of the battle. You can cut back on inspiration usage to tailor your needs.


Defenders Notes for Recluse and Keeping the Tanks Alive


Different defenders have different tricks to use to help the tanker survive Recluse more effectively. Every tank benefits from these tricks, but non-stone tanks benefit the most of course.

Sonic Defenders and Force Field Defenders (possibly Gravity Controllers as well, I just never tried it.) You remember those intangible powers you always hated? Get them ! They are SO useful on the Masters run. Sonic Cages (and the other intangible powers) can do a lot of things during the run. Reading this whole guide should have given you some ideas already.

The nicest benefit is actually cutting one tower off from Recluse while the team works on the Red Tower. Blue and Red Towers are the most dangerous. While your team works on the Red Tower-- I suggest making the Blue intangible. The blue tower, besides having other attributes, gives Recluse +TO HIT. By making it intangible, it no longer buffs him. You need to re-cast cage on the towers frequently, but make sure you do so after your first one drops-- or it'll be intangible and not get caged again. I also suggest having the tank be near the blue tower where you can fly over him (or be close enough to him to fit him in your bubble) and so that you can reach the blue tower to cage it from your position. Remember, Recluse has cone damage-- so you don't want to be in Recluse's cone, but you do want to be able to have the tanker in your big bubble.

Dark Healers: You cannot heal off of Lord Recluse because he's completely impervious to any attacks They are just deflected. Bummer, huh? Too bad his towers don't have the same protection. Dark Healers can heal off any of the towers. I do the green tower as it's the one no one really cares about til the end. Also, by toggling Darkest Night on Recluse, you can prevent him from summoning Banes.

Recently I've found: Snow Storm, Darkest Night, and RI all interrupt bane summoning (even before the red tower is down, cast it as soon as the tank has Recluse aggro. It helps.) I'm sure i'll find more, I learn something new everytime it seems

So far, that's all the "more advanced" techniques I have for defenders that I remember.

That is the Masters run. I think I got everything, I will add more later if I remember. Good luck out there Heroes !!!




Mr. True Shot: 50 Arrows/Devices Blaster
Wave Interference: 50 Sonic/Sonic Defender
Dark Infusion: 50 Dark/Dark Tanker
Fhyeur: 50 Fire/Fire Scrapper

Still have to clean this up a bit to match my other post in the Virtue forums, but at least it's here


Mr. True Shot.

I originally read it back on the Virtue forums, but this is a terrific guide. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

great write up i do have one request please change red to something less hurtful to eyes
good job overall

Thank you all I guess maybe pink would show up too I'll try that.


Mr. True Shot.

My name is Elegost, and I approved this guide.

couple random bits of input from my side:

[ QUOTE ]

Recently I've found: Snow Storm, Darkest Night, and RI all interrupt bane summoning (even before the red tower is down, cast it as soon as the tank has Recluse aggro. It helps.) I'm sure i'll find more, I learn something new everytime it seems

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true for ALL toggle enemy powers. both rad infections, snow storm, and darkest night. all of them have this effect.

Other notes on LR: for some tanks, flying above him and taunting prevents a very large portion of his damage, as he can only use channelgun (ST), and energy barrage(cone) (it's actually not called energy barrage, I haven't found the name of it yet >.&lt. He won't use spider strike, energy punch, or... his last melee attack, I don't recall the name (it's like arm slash?).

Channelgun is the power most tanks should be affraid of. in game, you can do [lord recluse.channelgun] to see it, got some hefty -50 end and -200%recov, which is another reason why dark and stone tanks really shine, they're the only two that have protection from this naturally.
Spider strike is the AoE crazy KB power. basically frenzy for crabs, slightly different.
As far as the towers go, these are the buffs specifically:

Yellow Tower:

+175% defense to all types (capped)
-18.1 hold/stun/immobilize

Red Tower:

+105% resistance to smashing/lethal/energy
+105% damage smashing/lethal/energy

+300% stun
+300% knock(back/up)

(after the red tower dies, it's not as easy to be knocked back. If you notice, a stone tank without rooted WILL get KB'd from his spider strike, after it dies, granite alone will protect him from it)


Green Tower:

+2000% regeneration
+50% Max Health (capped)
~3250 Heal (every five seconds)


Blue Tower:

+400% Recharge (capped)
+200% Run Speed
+30% ToHit
Special



Last random note about LR and the towers: when caging, the "Buff Beam" the tower has connecting to LR will be stopped when the tower is caged. So if you're unsure if the cage is up, check for that color beam. (caging sets are Sonic and FF. Intangible sets are Dark miasma and Grav control, slightly different, to the same effect here, however).
You'll notice, if you do have to run from LR, he can't actually move more than 100 yards from his center position. Which comes to about the front corner of the platform the bronze statue sits on. So, if you run to where the patrons chill at, he will run towards you, but be forcibly TP'd back to his original location, harmless.

Overall, this is a good guide for the style that you all run these. Sub-optimal teams isn't a preference of mine, but it's good to know that someone is caring enough to run them frequently. I like, I support.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze I hate to be the bringer of bad news... but Willpower sucks!!! you're better off rolling a regen

Interesting tidbit we just discovered.

We ran an all Dark powers MoSTF: Dark/Dark tank (me,) 3 Dark/* Scrappers and 4 Dark/* defenders. (We didn't succeed, but it was because our damage was seriously low and we were eating blues like they were going outta style.)

Anyway, on GW, we...obviously....didn't have a CM/Clarity again. So, we floored her To Hit.

Interesting thing happened. She hit me 2 or 3 times with her hold. But each time, I survived without any inspirations popped or anything. She was lucky if she took off a 1/4 of my health....once she took off no health from me even though I was floating...and no one was around to heal me (dark healers.)

Leads me to believe GW's hold/damage has two separate....guess you'd call it hit checks. One: If she holds you. Two: each tick of damage she does (and it must be small) has a to hit check as well.

I say the damage must be small, because sometimes she'd do more damage to me than other times, but the damage she did was variable. Like, at some points, her To Hit was lower than a previous time and she got less ticks of damage in. Sometimes she only got a few ticks and I barely took any damage...as in barely noticable.

This might be an interesting piece of knowledge for everyone. I haven't heard this theory before and it might help in some way against further GW battles.

Our defender got tagged by the Hold as well, and she took no damage too (tho she was in the heal radius and it may have helped her "take no damage." I was taunting from range as GW was getting enough heals off once in a blue moon to counteract our pathetic damage )




Mr. True Shot.

Actually, what your four Dark Defenders did was floor her damage with four Darkest Nights (eight with fluffies) and many, many Twilight Grasps. Like, by 90%. She was only putting out 10% of her normal damage. She was neutered, pretty bad.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Recently I've found: Snow Storm, Darkest Night, and RI all interrupt bane summoning (even before the red tower is down, cast it as soon as the tank has Recluse aggro. It helps.) I'm sure i'll find more, I learn something new everytime it seems

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true for ALL toggle enemy powers. both rad infections, snow storm, and darkest night. all of them have this effect.

[/ QUOTE ]

My understanding is that his summons is interruptible *providing* LR is at full health. So it may be important to use only Taunt (avoid that psi damage proc!) rather then add in Gauntlet to hold his attention.

Does anyone happen to know if non-foe anchored debuffs also interrupt the summons? In particular Hurricane and the sonic ally-targeted -res debuff, whose name I've forgotten? Just looking to get a complete list in case I'm on a team without an enemy anchored debuff.

[ QUOTE ]
Actually, what your four Dark Defenders did was floor her damage with four Darkest Nights (eight with fluffies) and many, many Twilight Grasps. Like, by 90%. She was only putting out 10% of her normal damage. She was neutered, pretty bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo. Don't forget Shadow Fall has NE res as well. A while back I was in an STF with 6 Dark Defenders and 2 Stormies. Ghost Widow's hold did 10 damage per tick - it was hysterical.

Oh, nice Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, she was one screwed over AV that round


Mr. True Shot.

Excellent Guide!

A couple of notes...

Getting the 'Mission Accomplished' in Aeon's future:
1. I've seen it bug if the designatee moves too quickly to the exit. There appears to be a delay (as Aeon 'gets away') before you can trigger the exit, so it's best to head out at a somewhat less urgent pace. This seems to give the mission time to trigger the exit.

2. The designatee left behind should save their O-portal and use it once the exit is up. It's faster to IP, and you don't want to have to run back out to the Viridian fight if you had been the one who used it for the group to exit.

When heading down invisible to the Tree:
1. Any crystal will suppress invisibility, not just red.

2. If you get knocked out of invis by a crystal, get clear of any mobs, block line of sight, and let the suppression end before proceeding (10 secs).

3. At the villain team, they may have a Rain of Fire active while they are attacking the CoT. You may get tagged by it without knowing as you speed through and get invis suppressed. Be aware of this and pause around the corner before heading through the CoT spawns ahead.

In the Tree Room:
1. Open the map (you should always have the map open, at least in here!) and click on the red star objective on the map. This will place a compass marker on your field of view at the Tree. You will then always know where the Tree is and can help avoid any line-of-sight issues.

2. Worth mentioning again...the Tree's agro cannot be controlled until the vines are down. It can and will shoot anyone it sees, whether a tank is active next to it or not.

Aeon's Four AV's:
1. Be careful if you are pre-emptively confusing any mobs in an AV group. Something seems to agro the AV at times that I haven't figured out. I often like to take out the Night Widows (or any other troublesome mob) in any group quickly with confuse, but have had this trigger agro despite being invis, blocked line of sight, and out of AV agro range.

Confusing Dr. Aeon:
1. Some teams like to have Aeon confused prior to the tank rushing in. This has the effect of summoning the clones and they all attack Aeon himself. While the confuse only lasts about 20 secs due to his PTOD's, it does soften the alpha from all the EB's. Check with the tank/team leader if they want to use this option.


Finally...
1. Never ever ever follow Sandy!