Shard TF's

Hello Players!,

In the years that I've played this game; I've never ran the Shard TF's. I've always wanted too, but I couldn't commit to the time to do it. And I feel like I'm really missing out on some of the high end content of the game.

I have some friends who play currently. And we would like to run one of these and see how it goes. Being that I can play with the friends, we can pretty much agree to play at a certain time, so I'm not too concerned with trying to speed through it.

Now something that I am concerned about is having enough people to run it. Currently, it's just me, and 2 friends. We can probably find some fillers. But the likelihood of killing an AV at the end might be really difficult.

Out of these 4 TF's, which one do you recommend?

Faathim the Kind TF 73 merits
Justin Augustine TF 42 merits
Dr Quarterfield TF 122 merits
Sara Moore TF 64 merits

Also, if you were going to run this, can you recommend the 3 archetypes that you would bring to complete this and why? This will help us out emmensely.

Well first off I'll say that honestly, you aren't missing much, none of the shard TFs are particuarly great (Faathim the Kind isn't to bad except for the lack of a phone and the fact that it's about 3 or 4 missions to long).

Justin Agustine and Dr. Q lack an AV at the end so I'd recommend starting with those for a 3 man team.

Both are pretty horrible TFs though. Justin's consists primarily of "Kill 50 Ralaruu at location X" hunt missions. Dr. Q just consists of base after base full of Crey that you have to kill (and a few other enemies from time to time).

Regarding ATs that's harder to say. I'd lean towards a tough-high damage character (a Brute, Scrapper or Mastermind) backed up by a pair of support characters (Controllers or Masterminds would be best, Defenders or Corruptors otherwise).

Well the Justin TF doesn't have any AVs that I recall and has a mix of Ruluu and CoT. Pretty much stays in the Shard so it's 15 missions are not bad.

If you want to take on an AV then Sara Moore TF has Rulak the Strong a super sized brute with lots of KB. 14 missions so not too long mostly in the Shard.

Dr Q doesn't have any AVs at the end, but the last few missions require a simultaneous 4-clicks. So you will need at least one extra person that you can call on to rejoin you guys after about 3 hours into it.

Edit:
Now that I think about it, 3 hours may be optimistic for a group of 3. It's do-able with a full team with lots of high damage AOEs to get to this point at 3 hours. As I recall, the last time I did Dr Q that started out full, but steadily lost team mates as time went on, we struggled through it with 4 and finished it after 8 hours. Thus it will depend on how you and your friends can handle full sized spawns, most of whom can cast a hold.

If you've never done these before, and if you don't have an anchor toon just sitting at your contact, Doc q can take anywhere from 5 - 8 hours to complete. Every time I've been on one (with very competent players) it has taken 7 - 7.5 hours to finish. I've never been on one with an anchor toon at the contact, which I know helps tremendously. Your biggest issue with the shard TF's is travel time. So it helps to have very experienced players that know where to go almost by heart.

All Shard TFs require 8 to start them, so yes you will need at least some fillers to get going.

Also a big downer will be the fact that since 8 is the default number, missions will spawn for 8 even when you only have 3 playing.

At least 2 of them have mission(s) with 4 person simultaneous click computers, so if you are serious about doing it with 3, avoid those. (Doc Q and I forget the other one).

It can be done, it will just be an exercise in tedium to try and power through with only 3/8 playing.

As for time estimates, I'd say some of the ones I've seen in this thread are long for an average team. Powers like Assemble the team and Mission teleporter can really cut down on time, not to mention O-portal for those hauls back to Paragon for a couple missions.

At least 2 of the Shard TFs fall within the normal parameters for TFs, in that they take 2-3 hours with a competent team. The other 2 are longer.

It is really too bad. The Shard is an awesome-looking zone and the TFs there should be epic. Instead, they are mostly tedious. There are some impressive looking settings -- great for screen shots. Try to get someone on the team who knows the TFs well. It is also a good idea to have easy access to the summaries of the TFs on the Titan Network so that you can know what to expect.

Many of our newer forms of transportation have really helped with these TFs -- O-portal, Teleport to mission, Assemble the Team, Pocket-D and Base Portals, and even the temps from Day Jobs to the markets. Also, it is good to know that if you fall off an edge and let yourself drop, you go to the front of the zone.

Last time I did a Dr. Q, we got it done in about 5.5 hours, but just about all of us were on voice-chat so coordination was easier. Dr. Quarterfield is frustrating because there are so many runs back and forth between the Shard and other zones. A Kinetics who speed boosts the team will definitely help.

It would be soooo nice to have these TFs cleaned up with all the thinks that the Devs have learned. Dr. Q could be broken up into three other TFs. The Shard really has the opportunity to be an amazing zone. It could be a Co-op zone with TFs from different points-of-view.

The average time for completion on the Shard TFs have decreased significantly from the very early days with the availability multiple methods of travel. Especially for those missions back to Paragon City.

- Ouroborus Portal
- Base Teleport (vet reward & day job)
- Pocket D teleport (booster pack)
- Market Teleport (day job & recipe)
- Mission Teleport (booster pack)
- Assemble the Team (vet reward)
- purchasable Jet Packs

Dr Q can be done at a leisurely pace in 5.5 hours on average (my experience). Very competent teams with high damage AOEs and a Kinetics can cut that down to 3.5 hours. I've heard dedicated speed runners can shave it down to 2 hours, but I've never been on one.

However, if Ray_Ray wants to do Dr Q with a 3 man team, it's going to take some time. As I understand it, the spawn size doesn't scale down anymore. It is fixed for an 8 man team. And even con Rularuu can hose you easily, especially if you don't have mez protection. Ray_Ray's team may need to do a lot of pulling. By the way, Ray_Ray, have you and your friends spent any time doing regular Shard missions? Can you guys handle large Rularuu groups? What are your powersets?

Doc Q can be normally done in 3 and a half hours... You just have to learn to navigate on the Shard. The tips are:

There is a portal hub on FBZ. USE IT.
Falling IS your best friend. Its faster than everything else.
Falling to entrance of zone, zoning ot FBZ, zoning to the right area is easy and fast.
When outside of the FBZ and inside a mission, never hit HOSPITAL. Base will drop you back into action on the missions door.
Mission teleport and Assemble the Team works pretty good. A good Range Recall Friend also is very nice.

Personally, I'd recommend Sara Moore for your first run. It has the widest range (40-50), which may be important in cluding some of the lower level members of the group, and moreover I think it's the most interesting of the four. The final boss and his unique map some people really hate, but I happen to like it. I won't spoil it with too many details - if you want them they're out there on the summary sites.

As mentioned, the Dr. Q TF is probably the worst of the bunch with a lot of repetition, a lot of needless travel, and a somewhat anticlimactic ending. It's easily my least favorite of the four. The Justin Augustine TF probably takes the least time of any of the four, and really feels more like a story arc than a true TF. There's multiple Elite Bosses at the end rather than an AV. Then there's Faathim's TF and for sheer visual spectacle it's a hard one to beat. I don't like it quite as much as Sara Moore, but it's also a lot of fun and a different experience to have.

That's good to know. I'm sure we could easily handle a group of 3-4 once the others quit the TF. Damage probably wouldn't be a problem with Fulcrum Shift on an Elec Armor/Stone Melee tank.

We are on Freedom. Send me a tell @ Mr Gimpy and I'll keep you posted.

As a side note, my friends each have an additional account. so with their 4 accounts, and mine, we would only need to find 3 more.

Hello Players!,

As an update, we decided to start last night on the Dr. Quarterfield TF. We have the 3 of us playing. And my friends had 2 extra accounts, so we only needed 3 more fillers. Which we got.

We all agree that this has been going better than expected.

We ran through 8 missions in 2 hrs so far. But we aren't speeding through. We all have our diff set at -1 / 1 player. And the enemies are still whites and yellows. In the 8 missions, we have obtained about 6-7 bars worth of xp. Not bad really!

Our 3 toons compose of the following:
Tanker - Elec Armor/ Stone Melee
Controller - Plant/ Emp
Corrupter - Fire/ Kin (me)

I'd have to say that the controller has died the most. But it's understandable given the aggro to holding.

I thought it worthy to mention that my Fire/Kin has the medicine line and took the Resuscitate power. This has come in very handy in saving us travel time if the person doesn't have a wakie or extra inspires to spare and would other wise need to go to the hospital.

I believe after we finish this TF, we will do this again with a 4th friend who is leveling up an elec/cold controller.

I'll be interested to know how elec/cold does against Rularru. I'm assuming that this set should do well against them given what i've seen an elec/ controller do so far in the higher levels.

The only one who can save a buffer is another buffer. Are you keeping Increased Density on your Controller friend? I've mentioned before that just about every Rularuu has a hold. Most defeats could be avoided by just being able to run away. Of course, your friend should be reciprocating by keeping Clear Mind on you.

In addition, I believe the Wisps (thin, yellow floating humanoids) are mez resistant. Casting AOE mezzes is like taunting except his hit 16 enemies compared to your Tank friend's Taunt's 5. Your Controller friend may have to experiment with aggro management timing (ie wait until after your Tank friend taunts or does his AOE attack) or pop-up casting (ie casting while simultaneously ducking behind cover to get out of line of sight for the attack response).

Howdy, Ray. I'm a long-time Shadow Shard fan who also plays primarily on Freedom. If you'd like another active player (rather than fillers from your friend's alt account) on some of these Shard runs (like Faathim's, which is also loaded with 4-player simul-click missions), I'd be happy to join you. My main is an Archery/EM blaster who routinely plays tour-guide around the Shard thanks to range-boosted Teleport and Recall Friend; if you'd like something a bit more support-oriented, I could pull out a Sonic/Sonic defender instead.

Shoot me a PM if you guys would be amenable to another teammate tagging along sometime, or a tell in-game to @Doctor Kumquat. If you'd rather go it alone, then best of luck - hopefully the daunting length and monotony of Dr. Q hasn't discouraged you from trying the other shorter/better ones.