Need Hlep with new mission options

A few months back I attempted a test to see how much an impact that the boss changes that made bosses drop pool c and pool d recipes would impact a players potential wealth when leveling up. Back then it was pretty much only going to be one boss on the map and it was always at the end if you were solo. The results were kind of poor. Now I want to do the same test again but with the newer options that make your character equivalent to more teammates.

What I am asking help on is what are the most optimal settings for getting the max number of bosses to spawn solo but allowing me to have a very quick kill speed on finishing the missions without having other stuff to spawn. What I plan on doing is various missions in flashback to grind merits and pool c/d recipes via boss kills. Potential toons I will be doing this on will be stalker/doms/brutes because they either handle bosses the best or they kill faster or survive better. Essentially its farming but with a different focus. This will also be below 47, now if above 47 I would want the best settings for more bosses and critters. Reason I asked this because know on a team set for 6 there usually arent any bosses so there has to be a good setting for bosses.

Redside:

Snake Temple at 45+.

Then somewhere between lvl 20 and 40 there's some mission filled with only freakshow tanks. I love that mission, but I don't remember who gives it or the level.

While you can tweak the difficulty settings, there are a few all-boss missions in content, though they are extraordinarily rare.

When set for six you need one additional real player on the map to spawn bosses. Setting it for seven or eight should do it though.

You would probably also want to go -1 level if you want quick fights more than XP.

Oh. <smacks head>

A team of TWO normally can have bosses. The 'boss setting' only affects "bosses when solo". A soloer with a virtual team of 6 set to no bosses will never see a boss. A team with the leader set for 6 and a second actual teammate will override the 'no boss' setting since it only applies when solo. Spawn sizes will not change but bosses can now show up because the leader is no longer solo.

See how simple it all is?

There are several different things that affect whether or not you get bosses.

In general, you get a single boss per randomly generated spawn in an instanced mission if your team has 7 chars, and two bosses if your team has 8 chars. The difficulty settings can be used to make this happen while solo, by setting your "equivalent to X characters" to 7 or 8, and setting "allow bosses when solo" to yes. Unfortunately doing this will give you a lot of minions and Lts that can cause problems or take time.

The team size is also used to generate spawns when you move through zones. Min and maxes are applied depending on the zone you are in, and that's the basis for the difference between old style City, Hazard, and Trial zones. I think City zones will only spawn to a max of 6 or so, Hazard zones spawn with a min of 5 and max of 6, and Trial zones spawn with a min of 7. So you can always run to a trial zone and hunt the bosses there. But again the random spawns will have lots of Minions and Lts.

Missions can have hand-placed mobs. The most common example is a boss at the end of the mission. But there are plenty of missions that include extra bosses with dialogue or clues. There's a mission from Ashley McKnight that has lots of boss spawns even when solo. It's the one where you have to collect 4 amulets from Mages, but there are lots of Succubi as well. There's the Bzzzzt mission blueside with loads of Psychic Clockwork bosses on patrol. Find one of these and you'll have lots of bosses with little overhead.

Zones can also have hand placed spawns, and that's VERY common these days. Some spawns are balanced, but some are not. I fondly recall leveling up 20-30 in Terra Volta with some other squids by blasting spawns composed entirely of Sky Raider Captains. I believe there are also large spawns of Sky Raider bosses there as well, Officers and Sky Skiffs. Those seem like a great target, as long as you can survive and keep them from running away. Crey's Folly has lots of dual-boss spawns. I've seen Outcast bosses in Steel Canyon, solo or maybe with a single minion for backup.

Factions can have special rules as to how spawns appear. Some Rikti spawns include all Monkeys or Drones instead of a random mix of minions. I forget which, but there was a faction that never included bosses in a team size of 7. Some factions can have a random spawn with no bosses even with 8 chars. I don't know of any that include bosses in random spawns inside missions when on a small team, but there may be some.

Things may work differently in the MA, not that it helps for Pool C/D drops. I once put together a custom group containing one each Lost minion, Lt, and boss. When solo but spawned for 2 with bosses disabled, I got 3 different spawns. I got 4 Minions and 1 Lt, 1 Minion and 2 Lts, or 1 Minion and 1 Boss downgraded to a Lt. Do something like this and cherry-pick the boss spawns. But again, this is in the MA, so no Pool C/D. Then again, check out Dev Choice arcs and see what sort of bosses they include.

Since it seems like you prefer redside given your choice of ATs, might I recommend hunting Toxic Tarantulas in Grandville? They usually spawn solo or Duo as you run around the Web. Exemp down to say level 44 using a Flashback and that's the level you should get when they spawn. Once you do it for a while, you'll learn all of their spawn points, and you can just repeat a standard pattern.