Hero Arc, Protean

I have just been playing the new Heroside arcs..very cool stuff. But I was wondering how everyone else went against Protean.
I was running it with a spines elec scrapper at +2 diff, so a +2 elite boss.
I went in to smack him about..saw him hit his EA toggles (very cool, about time we got stuff other than silly invul's) and then he hit his drain... At first, I wasnt worried. I am used to being an elec, sitting in a mob of 20 dying carnies, with 3 dark ring miss's debuffs on me, running X toggles, and my end wont move an inch.
Not so fighting Mr Pro here. BAM, 95% end, gone. Instantly. Say wtf pls? 70% recovery defbuff res, 60% end drain res......and he does that? Are we being serious? I can imagine say a wp running in and getting hit..and detoggled instantly. Of course, once I realised he would do that, I just kited the sneaky thing, but still.

Anyone fought him as an av?
Anyone elese has end vanish against him?
Is it a realistic value for his drain?? Especially vs an elec.

If you notice, you get a giant warning from the game when he does his end drain. Protean's end drain attack is quite a bit more dangerous then normal, and heals him for a substantial amount. You can't and shouldn't soak that attack; you should get the heck out of Dodge. I had to abuse an elevator to solo him as a Sheld/War Mace tanker.

He is one mean, nasty hard to beat bastage. Haven't been able to solo him yet with any of my toons. I will keep trying though.

You might notice that the entire Story Arc is fairly non-run-of-the-mill incorporating many fancy tricks to force you to think outisde the realm of normal City of Whatever gameplay. This attacks is another one of those elements that attempts to punch you out of your established comfort zone, which is why, I imagine, they warned you to gtfo right before it happens.

So yes, generally you should be resisting the thing. Let's just say Protean cheats and you're gonna have to be physically proactive this time, rather than just statistically.

*edit* me and my step father managed to take down the EB version of him at +3 our level. Ninja Blade/Regen Stalker (me) and a Dual Pistol/Kin (him). He seemed fairly easy after Siphon Speed, Power, and Chemical Rounds mixed with my super crazy spikes damage. Naturally I tanked him with Divine Avalanche, as Placating would have likely resulted in a face planty death of my step father.

So far I've found him to be a real bear to take down with any sort of melee character, that attack (even with the warning) is nasty. I also resorted to the elevator abuse once myself.

OTOH, so far I have found that a hovering blaster or corruptor makes him into a little girly man.

I solo'd him on my Empathy Defender, and he was in a room full of +1's, so he was a red EB. Also, OP, pay attention to the two giant signs you get (one in chat window, one ginormous red splash on your screen) that say that "Protean is Powering Up His Endurance Whatsit." When you see that, get away.

Honestly, I don't know how any of you actually had time to read the message that came up. I had read a previous thread about this arc before I attempted it, so I knew that warning was going to be coming, and it flashed SO quickly, I couldn't read it on the screen before it was gone. And the coloring of the warning was so bad in my chat box (and I haven't recolored anything) that I couldn't even read it at all there. I loved the arc, I'm not complaining about it other than I don't see the purpose or point in warning us about a particular power, or anything really, if you don't give us enough time to actually read the warning and react to it. I only survived because I had read the thread prior to doing the mission, and it didn't even know what was said in the warning, just reported that you should regroup when something flashes on the screen, lol.

Friend of mine and I ran it on our Khelds, and I tackled him before that on my elec/elec. He was ... well, rather easy.

Range will do that.

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I honestly don't understand why people say that he's difficult on melee toons, my Ins/SS Tank and Dark/Dark Brute both took him down pretty easily (yeah, they needed insps, especially after the drain, but he only got one shot with his drain, maybe two, before I crushed him).

It's not a hard fight if you have mez protection and wait for your opening.

He hit me with the special attack ONCE. After that I just kept hitting him with very short animation attacks until I got the warning. Move back, the attack goes off, move in and unload with the big attacks while it's recharging.
Rinse and repeat.

From the animations, I think he has Energy Melee, which is loaded with stuns.

On my Dark Defender, I was able to get out of the way, but not Fluffy, which enabled him to heal up.

So, I was about to try overwhelming force (Shivan, HVAS, Longbow robot) when I decided, to give kiting a try.

So, laid down the Tar Patch and did run and shoot. Not only stayed out of the Drain power, but all the melee attacks which could stun. Tar Patch and Howling Twilight slowed him down so that I could run or TP away. Then, when he'd go a few minutes without hitting me, he would run away, which allowed me to snipe at will.

And it worked.

Solo'd him as an EB with my DB/WP scrapper. Yeah, that trick of his suuuuucks to get hit with when you're not expecting it. Almost had me a couple times until I started pulling my attacks. With Dual Blades you're used to having your next attack in the chain lined up before you finish animating the current one.

Bad idea with Protean. You're locked in animation when that warning comes off, and then you're screwed. So I started throttling back the Nuclear Powered Blender, so I had time to scramble away.

Made it a real fun fight. I hope future endboss fights are like this, where it's not just You and Your Stats vs. a big bag of HP. Makes me look forward to GR.

Stomped him flat on a db/da scrap and a dm/sr brute. Worst trouble I had was being locked in animations when he started his stunt and not getting away fast enough. On my mastermind, he didn't even try his stunt, not sure why. Went down like a chump there too.

I agree with dog..the message was very fast and hard to see in a burning room..at least for me. I didnt get what it said till the second time.
And whats with telling me to pay attention to the signs? I saw them. I figured they were for his drain. Not that it NEEDS a sign. When I get slapped for 95% end on an elec, I can just make the connection that he cheats and I need to dance around him.
And yes..the arc was full on non standard stuff, and I liked that. I am also used to special opponents doing weird things. Still doesnt explain why his drain is just crazy. And doesnt it heal him for some huge amount, ever as an eb?
Also..just like to mention. I asked a friend about the arc on redside. He did it on a brute, stayed in melee the entire time, and said he barely noticed the drain doing anything tio his end, he just moved away to stop the healing

I still find it rather amusing that "the big bad" of this arc shares a name with a generic Hydra Lt.

I ran up against him with a two man team. We had a SS/Inv tank and an Kin/Psi defender.

We had him down about 75% and were managing to dodge his drain attack but we got careless and he tagged the tank. We had to pull back to the elevators for a few moments but when we came back the Kin's Endurance debuffs started landing and he went down pretty quickly after that.

I think I've seen others suggest that ranged is the way to go with him. Someone to sap his Endurance is a definate plus. I found him a solid fight. Tough but not impossible (Unlike Mynx who seems to shred me everytime <sigh>)

I was able to solo him on villainside with a DB/WP brute. As long as I kept out of his drain, I could keep at him until he dropped.

Lessee...first time I came up against him as a Praetorian-turned-Hero Dom Grav/Kinetic Blaster (I think). Couldn't hold him (I hate it when that happens), but I slowed him down and kept him outta reach while I blasted him silly.

Second time as a villain Dom Mental/Mental (or whatever it's called) and I kept failing. That drain was killer; I saw and read the warnings in time (I can speed-read, thanks to all those fan-subs), but half the time I just couldn't get far enough away in time (those Dom power activations are kinda slow), so those elevators got a lot of love . Saw a vid of a Def defeating him on YouTube and decided to try hovering to keep him from touching me directly. It was a long fight, and I had to keep moving in the clone lab, but I eventually got him.

I think the key thing (for most, maybe not brutes/tanks/etc.) is not to let him touch you. Booger doesn't go down without a serious throw-down.