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-Raid Costume: NO aura's, NO cape, and as little detail as posible. We will check everyone and if you aren't wearing an auraless/capeless costume we will ask you to go to icon and change it. If you don't have enough money, one of us will be able to provide you with enough to change it.
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Removing Capes and Auras actually costs zero influence. So everyone should be able to afford that. 
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-Raid Costume: NO aura's, NO cape, and as little detail as posible. We will check everyone and if you aren't wearing an auraless/capeless costume we will ask you to go to icon and change it. If you don't have enough money, one of us will be able to provide you with enough to change it.
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Removing Capes and Auras actually costs zero influence. So everyone should be able to afford that.
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Well, you of all people would know that.
If any one needs some influence ask me.. ive got 15 million just waiting to be used
What about tanks and scrappers with epic holds? Will they be asked to contribute during the holding phase?
Defiant 50�s: Generalissimo, Righteous Bob, Splortch, Brutus Cayuga
Union 50's: Chimera Obscura, Diet Anthracite, Grim Proctologist, Puny Little Minion, Raging Bitumen
In Soviet Russia, mission farm you!
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What about tanks and scrappers with epic holds? Will they be asked to contribute during the holding phase?
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1. We're trying to keep as few people in the bubble as possible, to try and reduce lag. Part of the reason we're failing is because we are getting lag spikes and hamidon is breaking free during them.
2. Tanks have Punchvoke/Gauntlet. If too many of them are doing too much damage, hami aggro will be taunted on the hold group. This is bad.
Tankers and scrappers will get a Hami-O as long as they get their hit on hamidon during the brawl phase.
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What about tanks and scrappers with epic holds? Will they be asked to contribute during the holding phase?
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1. We're trying to keep as few people in the bubble as possible, to try and reduce lag. Part of the reason we're failing is because we are getting lag spikes and hamidon is breaking free during them.
2. Tanks have Punchvoke/Gauntlet. If too many of them are doing too much damage, hami aggro will be taunted on the hold group. This is bad.
Tankers and scrappers will get a Hami-O as long as they get their hit on hamidon during the brawl phase.
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Oh, I'm not worried about the tanks and scrappers not getting a HO - I don't think Defiant has ever suffered from Union's early problems of people not getting HO's. What I'm worried about is the raid failing due to lack of holding ability. I'm on a better machine than I used to be so I can't comment on there having been bad lag at the last few raids - I'm sure there was (I do recall that in the post mortem following a recent raid (the most recent one?) it turned out that the raid leaders had decided to not wait for one more use of Vanguards because people were suffering from lag). I just think that epic holding tanks and scrappers should be asked to be on standby to aid in the holding stage if required. Btw, you can disregard guantlet as a concern for tankers helping - one of the US servers ran a test recently where they had 20 tanks all out attacking Hami and they couldn't draw Hami's aggro away from the one tank actively taunting Hami. If the gauntlet of 20 tanks throwing in constant attacks isn't an issue then I'm pretty sure a hold every 10 seconds from a smaller number of tanks won't be an issue either. It'd be a shame to not include a contingency plan for using the scrappers and tanks if we find ourselves short on holding ability
Defiant 50�s: Generalissimo, Righteous Bob, Splortch, Brutus Cayuga
Union 50's: Chimera Obscura, Diet Anthracite, Grim Proctologist, Puny Little Minion, Raging Bitumen
In Soviet Russia, mission farm you!
Its lag that is killing the servers, we need to reduce lag as much as posible. And believe me holding hamidon is that hard. What is hard is redusing the lag enough to be able to hold and kill hamidon. This is made as being the best attempt we can think off. Besides if its a problem we will call in more holders.
50s
controllers: Ill rad , grav rad, fire kin, ice kin
blaster: ice em
scrapper: spines sr
It seems like Im gonna be tanking. I have my taunt 6 slotted (3 recharge - 3 Taunts). Im fairly sure I can keep the aggro even if tanks are using holds.
I have about a million times longer to get some nice taunting on Hami before anyone will start to gauntlet.
The real problem is actually the recharge of your hold. With 6-10 AM's and some SB's on the side, you are gonna spam your hold pretty freaquently.
I on the other hand will have 2-3 emps for recharge. I cant "perma" my taunt (ready to fire, as soon as the animation finishes).
To sum it up, I need to hit taunt more than you can hit holds. Fighting against 20 or 1 tank is the same. Any of those 20 tanks will have to gain more aggro than me. Its hard, but I think it can get close with the buffing you will have. Remember I have 2 AB's only.
A Paragon Defender
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Btw, you can disregard guantlet as a concern for tankers helping - one of the US servers ran a test recently where they had 20 tanks all out attacking Hami and they couldn't draw Hami's aggro away from the one tank actively taunting Hami.
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I read that the hami-tank was a real tanker though? We have been using regen scrappers.. Dunno why its needed though..I think two empaths could keep a normal tank alive in there. And it might be safer having a real tank doing taunting for precisely this reason.
EDIT: what exactly is 'revised' in this plan? Looks pretty 'same old' to me..
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I think two empaths could keep a normal tank alive in there. And it might be safer having a real tank doing taunting for precisely this reason.
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Pre-mito clearing phase is impossible to keep the Hami-Tank alive with 2 empaths only after ED for 2 reasons
1)The healing blanket that the 2 empaths create to keep themselves alive is not sufficient
2)The healing spam they provide to the hami-tank considering the heal cycle of 1/1 (1heal other,1 heal aura spam which is necessary at initial hami aggro effort) is simply not fast enough and high enough to ensure survivability.The safe number for empaths during that phase starts from 3 (really experienced empaths regarding hami aggro procedure and tanking) or 4-5 if we are talking about a fast hami tank team setup.
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I think two empaths could keep a normal tank alive in there. And it might be safer having a real tank doing taunting for precisely this reason.
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Pre-mito clearing phase is impossible to keep the Hami-Tank alive with 2 empaths only after ED for 2 reasons
1)The healing blanket that the 2 empaths create to keep themselves alive is not sufficient
2)The healing spam they provide to the hami-tank considering the heal cycle of 1/1 (1heal other,1 heal aura spam which is necessary at initial hami aggro effort) is simply not fast enough and high enough to ensure survivability.The safe number for empaths during that phase starts from 3 (really experienced empaths regarding hami aggro procedure and tanking) or 4-5 if we are talking about a fast hami tank team setup.
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Well last time we tried having novocaine as tanker, he got in the goo without dying and tanked without problems until our PA team [censored] up(I was on that team and made the silly judgement of pulling 2 PA droppers to a GM that was aggroed leaving them too short in numbers). 2 emps are enough with a decent PA team. But these werent just any empaths, it was elerith and empath, prolly the two best empaths on defiant. The setup was the fastest I have ever seen. Believe me this raid will have no problems setting up the tank and keeping him alive. The only things Im worried off is not crashing the server and holding hamidon. The rest we have covered.
50s
controllers: Ill rad , grav rad, fire kin, ice kin
blaster: ice em
scrapper: spines sr
Thats why i said 3 empaths provided they are experienced regarding the entry points and how to move around the aggro and in regard to the PA droppers. The 3rd empath ensures a safety margin of error for any situation. I have tanked hami with only 2 empaths me and SL without a single death from anyone but then again like i said it needs the experience regarding the PA team and the distances from the mitos and your surroundings as well knowing when to use what as an empath. The tanker skill is less of a concern during this situation since he stands there simply taunting and moving around according to needs. We have done a raid with the hami tank having lunch while he was taunting (pre ED though)
I dunno about Elerith but Empath still holds the fastest death record in a raid,the Kamikazee diver award as well as some weird story about removing some knickers from Aerie i think during a raid (which btw are still being looked for :P)
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I read that the hami-tank was a real tanker though? We have been using regen scrappers.. Dunno why its needed though..I think two empaths could keep a normal tank alive in there. And it might be safer having a real tank doing taunting for precisely this reason.
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Nightbringer will be using his Invul/EM tank Novocaine and not his MA/Regen scrap
SingStar:
"Extremists LOVE to fish to get us annoyed so we break the forum rules."
CRACK68:
"The origin of life wasn't planned either, should all life be declared a bug and wiped out?"
Lionsbane:
"You know me.Ever the realist"
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I read that the hami-tank was a real tanker though? We have been using regen scrappers.. Dunno why its needed though..I think two empaths could keep a normal tank alive in there. And it might be safer having a real tank doing taunting for precisely this reason.
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Nightbringer will be using his Invul/EM tank Novocaine and not his MA/Regen scrap
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Yes of cause. We cant have scraps doing the tanking. They cant take the beating. Said in another way. They dont have 3000+ hp when entering the goo.
Edit: With my 2 powerboosted regen Aura's, I will even have more regen than any regen scrapper.
A Paragon Defender
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If at some point hamidon comes under 50% of health and breaks free we loose. You'll know we've lost because you'll be dead, and there'll be an angry looking Yellow Mitochondrion where you were standing. There are different Mito spawn points but the general rule is that if he isn't held and is under 50% HP the raid fails. For this reason we will call for all the heroes that takes part in the holding phase to use vanguard at 55% indicated by Xanthus over request.
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You can actually use the vanguard right away at the start of holding phase. With all those AMs it will be ready again before Hami hits 50% health. And yes that is a fact since we have done that few times in last raids. It will help with the holding.
Fighting l33t since 1974
Don't "lol"! Laugh!
Sanity Inc
@8Qbit
I was thinking about it, but its better to make sure we can hold him and keep him held. Before we start using vanguard.
This raid is about 1 thing, being as efficent as posible while causing as little lag as posible. Alot of the solutions were put in to reduce lag even if its not optimal. We were talking alot about it and we were kinda sure that we should skip the attack fase and just let the controllers damage from holds slowly grind hamidon down. It takes longer but gives a lot less lag. and thus we just might have a chance without crashing the servers.
50s
controllers: Ill rad , grav rad, fire kin, ice kin
blaster: ice em
scrapper: spines sr
I will probably be a tad late for the raid 'cos of RL. Send your PA dropping tells to Imaginary since he will take over the job as leader of the Illusion team(s)
(will probably be 30 mins late or around that 
)
SingStar:
"Extremists LOVE to fish to get us annoyed so we break the forum rules."
CRACK68:
"The origin of life wasn't planned either, should all life be declared a bug and wiped out?"
Lionsbane:
"You know me.Ever the realist"
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NO KINETICS POWERS except speed boost. While I know that it is tempting to slap a fulcrum shift down for the extra damge on everyone, Kinetics is by far the laggiest powerset in the game (to the point where it might even cause people to crash).
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quick query regarding this... Obviously I realise that the kinetics powers cause lag problems so I wouldnt want to use them all but what about:
Increase Density to free someone from a hold/stun
and
inertial reduction for any kinetics players that don't have any other travel power?
Just thought I would double check....
ID and IR are ok tbh although ID is not really necessary since a small stun for a few secs under the heal blanket wont make any difference.IR simply is necessary for those non flyers. The major issue power is Fulcrum that has "transfer to all around" animation that cause havc lag
I assumed as much, but hey figured that since the description says no kinetic powers it would be worth clarifying...
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We all form up in a tight group at the opposite side of Hamidon from the tank team and start using our holds. If you power takes Hold Durations enhancements, its a hold. If it doesn't, it's not and shouldn't be used during this phase unless otherwise instructed.
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I have Telekinesis as part of my Epic on my Kin defender, as well as dominate, TK doesn't take Hold Durations, but IS a hold, does this mean that we are not using TK 
Looking forward to this being the first raid that I'll have been on that succeeded!!
_________________
You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one. �Henry D. Thoreau
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I have Telekinesis as part of my Epic on my Kin defender, as well as dominate, TK doesn't take Hold Durations, but IS a hold, does this mean that we are not using TK
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TK is an autohit toggle hold therefore it doesnt take hold duration. Normally it should be used within the hive but i think G-Zeus should post here to clear that up.
I dont think we know if it works. TK + 1 hold will hold any boss, meaning there is some stacking effect. I think it will effectively add another hold, but Im not sure.
I say go ahead, use your TK.
Worst case it doesnt work and nothing lost.
Best case; its a permanant stacked hold which is more than any other power can deliever.
A Paragon Defender
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what exactly is 'revised' in this plan? Looks pretty 'same old' to me..
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I don't recall the everyone run in and brawl part - actually the holding group shouldn't need to - as long as there holds do damage.
That and we have used dark servants before but not in this
Mind of Gaia lvl 50 Defiant's first Mind/Storm 'troller.
Deadly Doc 50 Dark/Dark Corr
and lots more on Pinnacle,Union and Defiant
Just a little revision of the normal guide so that people new to the raid can get to grips with what we're going to do. There are also a few changes to the old guide so please read it even if you've been to every single Hamidon raid we've ever had.
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Preparation
-Raid Costume: NO aura's, NO cape, and as little detail as posible. We will check everyone and if you aren't wearing an auraless/capeless costume we will ask you to go to icon and change it. If you don't have enough money, one of us will be able to provide you with enough to change it.
-Holds. We arent asking you to loose your lvl 53 SOs or anything but please try to get 3 hold durations in all your holds. It just makes holding the big guy WAY easier. If you're that worried about losing your SOs, you can easily get 10 L51+ SOs by running the first mission of the Croatoa TF with the AV in it. My SG quite often does this, and if you can't find enough people to do it with you send me a tell and I'll let you know when we run it next so you can come along.
-Bring awakens, just in case. Its a rare hamidon raid where people dont die. Honestly, if we get through a hamidon raid with no deaths at all I'll be extremely suprised.
Ok, we're all set to go! Now make your way to the Hive door in Eden at the time stated in the organization thread and follow the steps outlined below!
-If you are an illusion controller please send a tell to Arch Nemesis who is in charge of the Phantom Army dropping team. He will explain how this works when the PA dropping team has enough members. If the team is full, we'll try and organize another one as you can never have enough PA. Arch Nemesis will let you know who to go to if his team is full on the night.
-Teaming is up to you guys, but if your on a team with no players who have taken part in a hamidon raid before, send a tell to Xanthus and we will get an experienced player on your team.
-The only toggles you get to run in the hive are mez (status) protection and travelpowers. Hamidon does UNTYPED damage, which will hit straight through your shields no matter what AT and powersets you are. Not running your toggles will also reduce lag and ensure a smoother raid for everyone.
-If you have a slow computer we highly suggest you run in safe mode during the raid. You enter safe mode by quitting CoH and restarting the game. At the updater window you click Next -> then you get the screen where you agree to the EULA. Next to the I Agree button there is a small square and if you click that square the game will run in safe mode. Safe Mode forces CoH to run on the lowest settings possible, which should lessen lag for everybody.
-If you're still having lag problems, enter the options emnu and select "General". Scroll down until you find the "Display Player Names" option and switch it away from "Show Always". This is, unfortunately, the best you can do to reduce lag without buying a whole new computer.
- Make sure you can read the request channel. This is where you will receive your "orders" and hear explanations of the next phase. Only Xanthus is alowed to use this channel for the raid. If possible, move it to another tab so that you don't get caught up in the broadcast spam that is usually present at a hamidon raid. I may also create a global channel, details of which I'll go over on the night.
-The final step is to add Honsou to your friends list (/friend Honsou), who will be our targether for the raid.
Ok, we're all set in teams! Wait for the order from Xanthus over request and then enter the hive!
Mito Clearing Phase
There is a small hill close to Hamidon nicknamed Cowards Hill or The Staging Platform. Make your way here to meet up with everyone else and prepare to start the raid. If you don't know where Cowards Hill is, chances are someone in your team does as they will have attended a hamidon raid before (assuming you followed the instructions earlier and got an experienced player on your team).
First the PA drop team will fly above Hamidon and begin dropping Phantom Army down into the jelly to grab the Mito aggro. If you are NOT in the PA drop team (and you'll know if you aren't), do not follow them up as you'll only get yourself killed and slow the raid down. Once the PA have the mito aggro, the Hamidon tank (Novocaine) will move into the jelly and get the aggro from Hamidon. Once we have everything under control, the next phase will begin.
This is where the targetter (Honsou) comes in. We need to clear the Mitos surrounding Hamidon as quickly as possible, as they have a tendency to split into two if we do not do it fast enough. Your job is to attack his target and only his target. To do this, simply ensure that you have him targetted throughout the Mito clearing phase. Whenever you hit your attacks, they'll automatically hit the Mitochondrion he has targetted. We'll move around the blob taking down Mitos one by one, first killing the yellow mitos as these do damage and therefore are the most dangerous. Once this is done, we'll begin clearing the Blue and Green mitos. Those with a healing aura will try to keep a healing spam up so that death is minimal. All radation controllers and defenders should keep Enervating Field on the mito we are attacking as this will allow us to kill them faster and should speed this stage up with alot.
This should take around 30mins - 1 hours, depending on how well coordinated we are, so stay sharp and follow the orders on request to get things done as fast as possible.
Powers no to be used during the Mito clearing phase:
AoE or PBAoE attacks: Using these will pull extra aggro from other mitos onto the clearing group, which will cause many people to die. When they die, they aren't hitting stuff and so this phase will slow RIGHT down.
NO KINETICS POWERS except speed boost. While I know that it is tempting to slap a fulcrum shift down for the extra damge on everyone, Kinetics is by far the laggiest powerset in the game (to the point where it might even cause people to crash).
Any Pets: Pets tend to run off and aggro other Mitos. This is bad.
Taunt: The ONLY person using taunt inside the Hive should be the Hamidon tank. If you drop taunt, chances are you'll hit another two or three mitos as well as Hamidon himself. If you taunt hamidons aggro onto the Clearing group, we'll probably have a raid wipe and have to start from the beggining. Also, people really won't be pleased with you at all.
Hit Hamidon Phase
When all the Mito's are gone and the tank is still taunting away, everybody should run up and brawl Hamidon ONCE. This will make sure we all get a HO, even those not involved in the direct attacking of Hamidon.
Holding Hamidon Phase
For the rest of the raid we will only use Defenders, Blasters and Controllers. The rest of you are in charge of making bad jokes over broadcast to entertain us all while we repeatedly click our holds. Assuming you've brawled hamidon in the previous phase, you will still get a HO so don't worry, you won't be left out.
The name of this game is hold Hamidon or we loose. The indicator that Hamidon is held is if he stops shooting at the tank.
We all form up in a tight group at the opposite side of Hamidon from the tank team and start using our holds. If you power takes Hold Durations enhancements, its a hold. If it doesn't, it's not and shouldn't be used during this phase unless otherwise instructed. Those with Accelerate Metabolism should use it everytime it's recharged. Otherwise, people should be holds and powerboost only.
Powers to be used during this Phase:
Holds(of course)
Accelerate Metabolism, speed boost and adrenalin boost.
Singularity (The gravity pet)
Enervation field, when we call for it and not before.
(NB: We aren't using other pets because they cause far too much lag for extra help that they provide. Dark Servants spamming Twighlight Grasp often cause people to crash and Jack Frost just doesn't use his hold often enough to warrant being used.)
N0THING ELSE, everything else causes lag and slows down our progress or even worse can cause the server to crash.
The holds have enough damage to kill hamidon quite fast, so we won't use anything else.
If this doesn't work, we will call for around 8 scrappers to do the damage. If you're one of the eight, you'll know because I will have sent you a tell. If you aren't, stay on the platform and keep making jokes. Without your jokes, the raid will SURELY fail. If 8 scrappers isn't enough, I'll call for more, again via tells.
If at some point hamidon comes under 50% of health and breaks free we loose. You'll know we've lost because you'll be dead, and there'll be an angry looking Yellow Mitochondrion where you were standing. There are different Mito spawn points but the general rule is that if he isn't held and is under 50% HP the raid fails. For this reason we will call for all the heroes that takes part in the holding phase to use vanguard at 55% indicated by Xanthus over request.
Hamidon has a nasty tendency of becomming invisible due to lag at raids. Don't worry, he hasn't disappeared and can still be attacked. If this happens, find a Singularity to target as they'll never lose target. If you can't find one, add Xanthus to your friends list, target him and type "/assist" into your chat window. Doing this will mean that you switch to his target, which will be his pet throughout the entire raid.
How holding hamidon works: Hamidon has a mag 99 shield, meaning we have to stack alot of holds on him. A typical boss takes two applications of a hold to get him held, Hamidon takes (my guess is 99 holds, but no-one actually knows) to hold. During this phase it is vitally important that you guys to stay sharp and keep an eye on the request channel for the order to drop Vanguard.
After a little while, Hamidon dies. We all get a HO, we go to Atlas and party. The following day, we laugh as Union fails to raid Hamidon where we succeeded.
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Credit goes to Imaginary for actually writing the guide, I just corrected a few spelling mistakes (that I could see, there are probably some still in there) and grammar stuff.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me, ask in a reply to this thread or send me a tell in-game (My global handle, @Xanthus, is most likely work) and I'll do my best to answer it.
Hope to see you next sunday, boys 'n girls!