Very much more difficult than usual Manticore.
By
Absolut_,
Posted on: 2009-07-24 08:46 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
An hour and a half on one mission? I don't think I've ever been on a TF team that would've lasted through that.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
(QR)
That's a bug, btw. The PPEs. You could barely harm them because they were at least +5 to you.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
We did one yesterday that spawned the occasional L40 PP (the TF maxes out at 35). Those were a drag to take down, especially since we did it with 6 people (we padded in order to start).
It was ... weird, especially since the AV in the final mission was a freakin' piece of cake compared to the PPs.
Lasted better than the Manti I was a part of. Was only 4 of us (3 padders yay!) and there was no way to take down those PPE's that were conning +5 and +6 to us. After 75mins on the second mission we decided to call it quits and wait till the bug is fixed to run it again.
@Absolut. and @Absolut-
Liberty Server's own Liquor Store Owner.
Way to many 50's to list here...and adding....
<QR>
While this isn't a TF thing, I recall a few weeks back I was running a 35-36 NRG/Ice balster. I got into a group that eventually became my Character and a couple more low 30 somethings (one being a tank). Ran one of my Crey Door missions (36, I believe, on heroic) and was running into EPPs as well. Now that I think about it, The lowbies were on Challenge 4 as well...
Maybe it has something to do with the spawning rules and the like...
Thank you for the time...
@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test) 
I ran Manticore last night with no problem?
50s: Silent Spy - MA/Regen Scrapper | Tinkerhell - SS/Inv Brute | Extrasensory - Psi/Men Blaster | Ana Cruz - DP/PD Corruptor | Sara Thunderbird - Elec/Elec Scrapper | Pinstrike - Spines/SR Scrapper | Cold Feet - Cold/Cold Blaster
@Silent Spy, Champion Server
I ran a Manti a week or two ago, and we left the first mission and reset the TF. We had a lot of high-conning mobs and it was VERY difficult, and the leader said those shouldn't have been spawning. So we disbanded and restarted again. Didn't change difficulty settings or anything, just abandoned it and started over, and it appeared to be of normal difficulty. The leader said that it was a bug that surfaces now and then and seemed to be happy with the 2nd iteration. We then breezed through it with no real problems.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
[ QUOTE ]
I ran a Manti a week or two ago, and we left the first mission and reset the TF. We had a lot of high-conning mobs and it was VERY difficult, and the leader said those shouldn't have been spawning. So we disbanded and restarted again. Didn't change difficulty settings or anything, just abandoned it and started over, and it appeared to be of normal difficulty. The leader said that it was a bug that surfaces now and then and seemed to be happy with the 2nd iteration. We then breezed through it with no real problems.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sounds familiar...
This was similar to the Citadel bug where level 36 warwolves would pop out a few times each mission. Personally, I enjoyed the extra challenge on Citadel, and now Manti. It's not an insurmountable obstacle, but it is difficult.
The end-of-TF AV is such a pushover, coupled with the sweeping aside of every other mob that most teams do, shows just how lacking the actual challenge in this game is. There is some content that is a bit harder (STF or LRSF for example), but for the most part the game merely satisifies mindless button-mashing. Fighting something that's bumping into the purple patch for a change presents a nice challenge the team has to focus on overcoming to progress through to success.
I know most players of this game simply want to crunch whites and yellows ad nauseum, and I'm not advocating taking away anyone's fun (once in a while I even find it amusing for a bit); but it's my own biggest complaint that this game lacks anything approaching real, long-term challenge.
Purple-patch mobs probably aren't the solution to real challenge, but it's a welcome surprise to me.
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
[ QUOTE ]
Paragon Protector ELITEs. These are very tough hombres, they have a nuke which can take out the team
[/ QUOTE ]Only the ones with Fire Blast have a nuke
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
[ QUOTE ]
It seems no one has mentioned it yet, but this is fixed on Test.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well until the patch goes live, players will still have to deal with the lvl 40 elite PPs through the entire TF.
On a good team, it's not a big deal. In fact, the last time I did this TF, the group consisted of a tank, scrapper, 2 blasters and a sonic defender. We had no healing (other than inspirations) and managed to take out the elite PPs with minimal casualties. I'm not saying it was easy, but it just goes to show what you can do with good teamwork. 
Thanks for posting the Patch Notes which mention the PPE's spawning in Manticore.
It was a horribly difficult TF.
Ex
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Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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Last night I led my team on a Manticore... I petitioned for a GM to get rid of the 40 PPs for us. First time they arrived quickly and killed them, the second time they took forever so we decided to take them down ourselves. They were about as tough as AVs, but we won. Later missions we could avoid them. By the time the GM arrived, we were fighting Hopkins...
Only the first two missions of Manti are kill-alls. The entire rest of the TF can be stealthed, likely in the time it takes to do the first two missions.
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
[ QUOTE ]
and finally defeat Hopkins ("The Hopkins-class AV").
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The what now?
It's the AV at the end of that TF. Hopkins, he's a dude that looks like a Secret Service agent on both STEROIDS and Ahnold's fitness plan.
Ironically, the level 40 PPs took longer to take down each than he did.
[ QUOTE ]
It's the AV at the end of that TF. Hopkins, he's a dude that looks like a Secret Service agent on both STEROIDS and Ahnold's fitness plan.
[/ QUOTE ]
I know who he is, I was just wondering what "Hopkins-class AV" meant 
"Hopkins Class AV" means "an AV that is so weak, you can take him down by collectively sneezing in his general direction".
Other Hopkins Class AV's are Arakhn (Moonfire AV), and some of the Strike Force AV's over on Villains.
A word about 'stealthable' missions -- it's a huge difference between a mission where you can stealth to a particular area and TP the team and fight WITH LEVEL 40 PARAGON PROTECTOR ELITES in the map, and doing a 'normal' Manticore, where moving through the map -doesn't' get you pinged by the very high bosses.
As I said, my best time for Manticore is 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I think we could shave 10 or so minutes off that time with some care and forethought.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
TF Best Average Worst
Positron 2:01 2:30 8+ over two days (2004)
Synapse 2:10 2:30 6+ 2008
Sister Psyche 1:30 2:00 5+ (2005 or so)
Citadel 1:08 1:30 4+
Manticore 1:15 1:30 4+
Numina 1:03 1:15 3+
Katie Hannon :27 :30 4+ (original release, on invincible!)
Lady Grey TF :50 1:15 3
ITF :25 1:00 5+
Faathim 2:30 5:00 10+ over 2 days
STF 1:45 2:00 4+ (and a few Did Not Finish)
Rieschman :30 1:00 2 (only done this three times)
</pre><hr />
EX
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Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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I'd probably rather call them 'Frostfire-class', given that everyone's first punching bag is basically the Wispy Woods of CoH.
Lasat night my common 'partner in crime-stopping', asked me to join his Manticore TF. I mentioned, quite loudly, that it was BUGGED, and he said 'so?'
We got a team together. Other people mentioned, very pointedly, that it was a bugged TF, but nothing stopped us starting it.
We start. First group in mission has a L40 Paragon Protector Elite. one guy faceplants to it.
Next group has another L40 PPE, we have it down to 5% health, it takes out the entire team.
Scratch one Manticore TF attempt.
We went and did Katie Hannon TF instead, which was much more fun. (For very tiny values of 'fun').
Ex
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Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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Funny... my team ripped the 40 PPs to shreds, after one team wipe, we learned what we needed to do. Then again, my teams never fail. 
[ QUOTE ]
Funny... my team ripped the 40 PPs to shreds, after one team wipe, we learned what we needed to do. Then again, my teams never fail.
[/ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of the time the Citadel TF was bugged with lvl 35-36 Warwolves.
Every team I formed for it managed to beat the TF. Just takes some thought on the team.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
Did a Manticore TF on Freedom tonight, and man, was it HARD.
Now before you all rag on me for being a TF n00b or something, I have -TWELVE- hero characters on Justice who all have the Task Force Commander badge, and one character on Freedom who has it. I've run hundreds upon hundreds of task forces over the years.
Our fastest time for Manticore is in the order of 75 minutes (1:15), with an 'average' time of 1 hour 30 minutes.
This time though, we were on Freedom instead of Justice. I made triple sure that I was on Heroic difficulty, and we set off at about 8:30local (maint - 2.5 hours) on our trek.
The first mission was a bit tedious. We only had six players, we had a seventh join us just to start it. Turned out we had -three- empathy characters, two of them defenders and my Grav/Empathy controller, plus a scrapper and two blasters. One of the blasters and my controller were 'in level range', the rest of them were all exemplared down.
The second mission was hard. It was incredibly hard. It was so hard it was UNBELIEVABLE. Normally you get Paragon Protectors, since you're fighting Crey in Lab maps, but we were getting Paragon Protector ELITEs. These are very tough hombres, they have a nuke which can take out the team, and there were -two- PPElites in some groups.
With no tank, our scrapper was over-worked trying to keep the PPE entranced. My grav holds were doing nothing to him, he would fly away at supersonic speeds, then come back and nuke the squishies or send them flying.
This second mission went on and on and on AND ON. It was HUGE. We played just that -one- mission for 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was an incredible event. I knew I was still on heroic, it just made no sense.
After the Mission From Hell we were able to breeze through the various 'find clicky' and 'defeat boss' missions, but our time was rapidly running out. At the 2 hour mark we had 30 minutes to play before maintenance, with still a 'defeat bad guy' mission, the fedex to Ms Liberty, the release Birch simple mission, slay 40 Crey in Crey's Folly and finally defeat Hopkins ("The Hopkins-class AV").
We rushed through, instead of only 2 minutes on the free Birch mission, the guy took 8 precious minutes to find him (he hadn't done it before) whilst we were waiting to attack Crey. Birch was freed with 2 minutes left before maintenance. Grr.
Agreed to come back after maintenance (1 hour later).
Came back, Dark scrapper and Grav controller -- we plodded through the defeat 38 more Crey, and were joined by the Empathy/Rad defender.
Hopkins mission turned out to be in Dark Astoria. But we couldn't enter the mission. Clickin on the door would just give you a permanent loading screen. Client would hang. Restart client, logon, and be outside the mission again, click door and hang.
Lather, rinse, repeat. For all three of us.
Grr.
We petitioned it, and a GM came along in a fairly quick time, and then spent 15+ minutes 'doing something' but was unable to categorically solve our problem. Eventually I tried to go into the mission again and this time is was successful! The other two came in, and lo, everything was L36/37 -- the Defender was on challenge level 4. Grr. And there were more Paragon Protector Elites. It was VERY tough with three people trying to get the PPE's down.
But we soldiered on, eventually got to Hopkins who was only L36, and showed him a good time, TF complete and we got our badges, SO's and merits.
But man, it was the LONGEST Manticore I've ever done. As if we had somehow triggered a 'Master of Manticore Task Force, packed with Paragon Protector Elites, in a huge Defeat All map ...
Ex
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Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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