Zoes Guide to Rikti Ship Raids

Zoe’s Guide to Rikti Ship Raids


1: Basic info
Ship Raids are entirely contained to one zone, the Rikti War Zone (RWZ) which was once known as the Rikti Crash Site (RCS). RWZ is a hazard zone with a minimum level of 35.

You can get into the RWZ through these zones:
Heroes:
Atlas Park
Founder Falls
Peregrine Island

Villains:
Cap au Diable
St. Martial
Grandville

Both factions can also reach the zone though their (or their coalition) Base Teleports, if they have one built.

All players new to the zone should run the RWZ Into mission, given by Levantera. (It’s easy, mostly talking to other NPCS, with one small rikti hunt) Running this mission will allow you to get merits at a far greater speed than you would without doing it.

Ship Raids cannot be solo’d. Generally, we recommend having 4-6 teams. (and the occasional team 7)

The major draw to a Ship Raid appears to be Merits, and then of course you also have those who are going for the badges. Normal raids are generally focusing on merits, and badge credit is just a (welcome) side effect, however Shift style Raids are set up for badgers. We’ve done our best to optimize credit for both the Master at Arms and Demolitionist badges.

2: Ship Raid Tactics (With Shift Tactics)
I will discuss a few tactics that are normally seen in a raid. YMMV, as there are many different approaches, and it’s very much at the whim of the leader(s). Shift tactics were developed by my SG/VG on Victory (Night Shift and Shifted Night, respectively) and that is where the name comes from. I only set these tactics apart because I have never seen another group run a raid quite the way we do, so I wanted to give a bit of extra explanation to them.

So basically there are a few rounds to a Ship Raid:

Forming teams
Taking the Pylons
Bomb Wave 1
GM
Rikti killfest
Bomb Wave 2


Forming Teams: This is pretty straight forward. You’ll want at least 3 teams, but again, we generally recommend 4-6 for an optimal raid. Merits are based on how many enemies you hit, so if you’re looking to pad your count, make sure you get a few people with AoEs.

NOTE: Just because the zone is 35+ does NOT mean a team of 35s can do this. Rikti on the ship will spawn at level 54. Make sure anyone under 45 has a mentor/boss, preferably, you will want everyone on your team as close to 50 as possible, so SK/LK them high.

My recommendations vary for this, as there are so many ways to build a team when it can consist of both factions. Generally, I’ll want at least one person with a taunt (usually a Tank or Brute), some sturdy DPS (Scrapper, Brute), At least 2 troller/defender/corruptor/mm with a clear ability to look out for each other and anyone without a good mez protection (and generally, I prefer one of them to have recall in case anyone needs to hit hosp), Then fill whatever is left with AoEs, Blasters, controllers, dominators, Crabs, etc. I usually try to have one blaster on team, and their job isn’t really to kill things, it’s to continuously change targets and shoot at anything they can reach.

Don’t take this as a “MUST” do. No AT is unwelcome on a raid team, everyone has a use.

Also to note, while teams are forming, it should be made clear what channel directions are being called in. Some simply do it in /b and some prefer to do it in /request. /b has the benefit of knowing most of the group at large can see it, however there is a lot of /b chatter during a raid, so instructions can be lost. /request can help filter out the chatter, but there seem to be a lot of people who do not have request in a tab, and therefore cannot see directions at all. Some people will repeat directions in both channels, and some will have team leaders repeat directions to their team.

Shift Tactic: Give all teams a number, 1-6 (or 7 if need be) Each number corresponds to a grate on the ship, as seen on this diagram This will be important later.

Each team should designate a bomb planter, and then one another as a backup. The Planter should be the only one on the team to touch a bomb, as it will help avoid some timer issues on the second bomb wave. Alternatively, if a planter is not named, whoever on the team that plants the first wave bomb should also be the one to plant the second wave bomb.

We recommend using request for instructions, while also having team leaders repeating them if possible. Also, we prefer to have all team leaders come onto our vent server with us, so it’s easier to make corrections and run the raid smoothly.


Taking the Pylons: Once teams are (mostly) formed, you want to take out the Pylons. Pylons hit pretty hard, so if you don’t have good defense or resistance, you might not want to be the first one there. It is a good idea to have one or two tanks (or Brutes) standing back and doing nothing but taunting. Make sure they stand away from the group, as the pylon attacks are TAoEs.

There are 18 pylons scattered along the mid to northern end of the zone, and each one is numbered on the map. Different raid leaders have different patterns in which to take the pylons, and will generally have someone calling out which number should be hit next.

Some Raid leaders like to make this step a little faster by splitting the group in two, and sending half in one direction, half in the other and meeting at pylon 1. Though I have heard the occasional ‘dual pylon’ raid meets at pylon 4 or 5, I believe pylon 1 is the most common. (It certainly is on Victory )

Once ALL the pylons are down, this brings down the shield around the ship, and leaves the group free to board. The shield will stay down for 30 minutes from the last pylon being defeated. You can, however, pad that time a bit with planting bombs and taking out the GM.

Shift Tactic: We do this generally the same. We do not split, as we feel our raids confuse people enough as it is We always call the pylons in the same order: 10, 18, 9, 2, 3, 8, 4, 7, 5, 6, 16, 17, 15, 13, 14, 11, 12, 1.


Bomb Wave 1: Once you are on the ship, there are Rikti everywhere. IIRC, all the Rikti on the ship are lvl 54, from minions to EBs, and one GM. Aside from the Rikti, there are also targetable Grates. These grates cover the point in which to plant the bombs. Each team can plant 1 bomb, then they will have a 30 minute timer (unseen) and until that timer runs out, that team cannot plant again.

NOTE: Grates are destroyable objects. Behind each grate is a blinky of a bomb. Click on it like any other blinky, and you have like 5-8 seconds (I can't recall exactly at the moment) in which if you get inturrupted, you will have to click it again. Once it says "BOMB PLANTED!" you have about 10 seconds to get away (and warn others to get away) before it goes off.

Rest assured that bomb plants are team credit toward the badge. You will need 25 bomb plants to receive the Demolitionist badge. You can get a max of 2 bombs per raid.
There are a few ways to do this. The group at large will either all move together down one side and plant as they open up the grates, or they can split the group in half and move up both sides at once.

Some leaders will attempt to give a planting order to the teams, and some will just let them blitz the blinky and see who gets it.

Shift tactic: This is where our raids differ from others. It also is where it becomes important that the team leaders know which grate their team is assigned to. (Remember the diagram?) As soon as the shield goes down, all teams head directly to their grate and plant as fast as they can.

When the first bomb plant is called out, someone should be ready and hit a stopwatch (that is generally my job) When it gets to 30 minutes, we know teams can begin replanting.
An explanation of the diagram: We always go onto the ship at pylon 1. Each team goes to their red grate, and plants. Once the GM is down, we go into the bowl. From there, we go out into the Northeast corridor on the disk, and get ready for bomb wave 2 (grates marked in blue) Odd grates are always on the left, evens are always on the right, from the direction of the group at large. Teams 1 and 2 are always on the outer rim, 3 and 4 in the center, and 5 and 6 the inner rim.


GM U'kon Gr'ai: After 3-4 teams have planted (I’m not sure if it’s on the third plant, or the fourth) the GM, U’Kon Gr’ai will spawn. Killing U’Kon is also good toward a badge, but your team MUST do at least 10% of the damage to receive a kill credit. Defeating him 10 times will award the Master at Arms badge.

Again, there are a few ways to approach this. Teams can simply spill into the bowl of the ship and rush the GM (as well as 10-15 or so EBs) or, as seems more popular, have someone snipe the GM and bring him up onto the disk where everyone is.
Either way, a call should be made in /b or /request (whichever is being used) for everyone to hit the GM.

Shift Tactic: We designate one person with a snipe as the GM puller, and have them pull the GM after ALL teams have gotten their first bomb. They will bring the GM toward us, and we will dogpile it between the red grates 5 and 6. We do not let him stop on the rim if it can be avoided, because usually people trying to hit him slip down into the bowl and agro the EBs, and sometimes teams are so busy trying to fend them off that they don’t do enough damage to get credit for the GM. We always call out in Request, Broadcast and to the team leaders on Vent, so they can relay the message to any teammates who aren’t paying attention.


Rikti Killfest: Once the GM goes down, there’s really not much to do but kill Rikti and pad your merit count. You only need to damage a Rikti once (at least damage it for 1 HP). When someone kills that Rikti you hit for damage, you will get a merit. Merits on the ship appear to be team credit, so melee characters focusing on killing things, can get their merits padded up by ranged characters hitting AoEs of anything within their range.

Generally, you’ll want Tanks, Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers to focus on keeping the Magus busy so they’re not mezzing the entire field. Blasters should change targets often, rather than focus on one target. With my blasters, I tend to follow a regimen of “blast, tab, blast, tab, blast, tab” tab of course being a target change. I also recommend hitting the AoEs as often as they come up. Merits are generally the main reason why people come to raids, so padding them up is never a bad idea.
But all of this aside, the idea is just to KILL RIKTI. Don’t worry about running out, more will teleport in. If they aren’t doing so fast enough, get out of the bowl and onto the disk. If you go up onto the disk in a different direction from where you came from, you will notice more grates. Yes. More bombs!

NOTE: There is an Exploration badge in the center of the bowl.

Shift Tactic: Fight in the bowl until we have about 10-15 minutes left on the bomb timer, then we move up to the northeast corridor. Generally, we will just continue fighting rikti until there is about 5-10 minutes left on the timer, then we will tell teams to go secure and defend their blue grates.

That brings us to…


Bomb Wave 2: So 30 minutes after your team plants a bomb, they will be able to plant a second. Planting before the timer is up will bring up a message that says you have to wait. On a normal raid, usually only the team that planted first on Bomb Wave 1 will be able to plant on Wave 2, however sometimes the second team will be able to.

Shift Tactic: We try to have everyone defending their blue grates by the timer says 5 minutes to go. This allows us to make sure everyone knows where they should be. Also, there are unfortunately times when people who are not on teams will come in and ‘ninja’ a bomb out from under a team before they can plant. By knowing if this happens a little ahead of time, we can redirect that team to a new grate on the northwest corridor, and divert some help to help them secure and open the new grate.

Usually, by the time all teams have planted a second bomb, we still have 3-5 minutes before the shield goes back up and kicks us off.

NOTE: (This is where it gets complicated, so I’ll say this in a few different ways!)

If a team changes, there can be some issues with the bombs. New additions to the team should NOT attempt to plant the second bomb, unless the team is CERTAIN they have no chance of getting a second. Why? Because the new members to the team weren’t on the team for the first bomb, they do not have the timer. So they can plant at anytime, and get a bomb credit for anyone who had not gotten one already. HOWEVER: if the team has a chance at getting a second, the new additions planting before the team’s timer is up WILL flash the ‘BOMB PLANTED!” but anyone who got the first credit will not get credit for the second, as their timers were not up yet.

For example: Say for instance, you have team 1. Team 1 lost 2 members, either before their first bomb plant, or after. Sometime after the plant, they pick up 2 new teammates. These new teammates were not on a team that planted. (IE: they just got into the zone and decided to join, or whatever)
The group at large makes it to a fresh set of grates. Team 1 has roughly 10 minutes until they can plant. One of the new additions to the team sees an open grate and hits the bomb. “BOMB PLANTED!” flashes across the screens of everyone on the team, however only the new additions actually got credit. The original members of team 1 see it, but no credit. The 10 minutes is up, but they can’t plant again, because their timer was reset when the new addition planted.

NOTE: The bomb timer is pretty solid. If you are on a team that plants, the timer sticks with you even if you switch teams, log out/disconnect and log back in on the same character or change zones (also meaning if there is a second raid going on in another instance of the RWZ, changing over to that raid will not reset your timer). You CANNOT dodge the timer. (I believe if you switch characters the new character will not have the timer, but I cannot confirm this, as I’ve never tried it.)

These timer issues are why we highly suggest designating a bomb planter for each team. If the same person plants both times, they will not be allowed to plant until the timer is up, ensuring everyone on the team gets the second credit. (unless someone on the team came from another team who planted later.. but this is why people who DC should always try to get back onto the same team they were on before.)

A normal ship raid tends to bring in somewhere around 200 merits. On out Shift style raids, we tend to get between 250 and 350, but have also had teams get as much as 500. (though getting that many is rare)

NOTE: This guide is a little out of date, but still functionable. SSK of course means that as long as the leader is 50, everyone else should be fine. No more having to shuffle for mentors! If/when we get another raid together, I may update this guide for current functionality. Cheers! ~@GypsyWitch

Great job love! I hope everyone will find this helpful, for our raids, and for their own, across the server!!

Added Note: Although we almost never specifically recruit one, having a Force Field toon on the raid is a nice addition. The Dispersion Bubble power offers resistance to Holds, Immobilization, and Disorients. If you get one, try and pair it with the main tanking team if you can.

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some Raid leaders like to make this step a little faster by splitting the group in two

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It's nice to be mentioned!
Nice guide overall, The only advice I can think to offer on it has already been hit by Valdy. I might mention loading up on Break Frees in the Vanguard base if you're not a mez-proof fellow, also delaying TPs back to the ship until you can refill your insps.
I always thought the GM spawned after a pre-determined number of Rikti had been killed. I suppose it doesn't really matter, if you have gathered enough people to take out all the pylons in time, you probably will be able to accomplish either task unless you have major organization issues.
Two thumbs up from a retired Raid leader/organizer
Here is the order we use for two pylon killing groups.

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some Raid leaders like to make this step a little faster by splitting the group in two

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It's nice to be mentioned!

[/ QUOTE ]Ha. Well, we might not always get along, but back when you guys were running raids, you had a fairly efficient setup, despite the confusion.

But anytime you get some 50odd players together, confusion is a given.

Thanks for supplying the pattern for the dual pylon teams

These raids are always a party. I need to get on another, if anything to fuel my addiction to Vanguard Heavies.

We tested a theory on this past raid and found that killing more grants you more time on the ship. So we delayed going to the second bomb grates in favor of just killing more rikti as a group. All the teams got 400+ merits and we had nearly 4 minutes on the ship after the second bombs were planted.

So kill more before you split up if you run Shift style!

One minor correction...

Quote:

Running this mission will allow you to get merits at a far greater speed than you would without doing it.

Running that mission will allow you to get Vanguard Merits. If you do not run that mission you will not have the Member of Vanguard badge and will receive no merits.

Otherwise great guide. Added to my faves.