Midnight Dodger What Dodges at Midnight

Ran a MoTM earlier today; we didn't use a bubbler but we did use a hell of a lot of nukes. I didn't get a count on what was used, but we had at least 7 people with them and we all had Shivans / other temp power pets.

We did accidentally aggro Director 11 as we ran back to the entrance after clicking the glowies. It still only took 29 seconds after aggro to summon our pets, nuke them and him, and defeat him. One Shivan died... we'll never forget him.

Smooth run; earned all of the Tin Mage badges in about 30 minutes. Great team.

I hate to assume anything.

But I assume a MM's pets can die by the mines, just not the MM.

We have just tried this on Union with a team. We took in several Shivans, HVAS, veteran buff pets etc, they were buffed with the various Warburg Nukes and Director 11 was hit with the debuff / damage nukes.

Despite all of this and flying to avoid the blasts we STILL suffered casualties and missed the badge due to Sapper's, ridiculious knockdown from AoE missiles and what looked like mines without a -tohit check once we had taken mine damage and had to do it the old fashioned way!

I have to ask what the dev's intentions were for this fight, as I think the amount of mines, their damage, the ambushes and the Directors shall we say, elusive strategy doesn't really amount to an enjoyable battle, let alone any understanding of how we were intended to get that badge!

I can see the strategy working, so long as 8/8 players take shivans and Hvas, thats not the issue, my concern however is that these dynamic encounters and a wee bit overzealous in some areas lol

Here is the method I used. thanks to Nitra for the info, the method worked out great.

Midnight Dodger What Dodges at Midnight guide


Enjoy!

I'm late to the party...

Sometimes, mines are placed on rafters. Other times, teammates are unexpectedly grounded. All the while, up there, none are directly contributing to the defeat. For these reasons, I don't recommend continuing the flight-based strategy.

My understanding is that the mine layers do not appear for 30 seconds following the Director's arrival. There is a method which involves the team assembling (without flight needed) near the entrance and taunting the Director into the hands of the team and their pets to defeat him before that time expires. I've seen this fail. A brute had difficulty taunting the AV to the door right away. The next run, we took our team directly to his spawn location and avoided losing those few precious seconds on the clock. This has worked, so far, everytime.

Temporary powers can be both training wheels and a team-building experience. Something to pull the team together (in terms of time spent at MS raids and PvP zones) and to keep them standing long enough to figure out not only the mechanics but also where to make permanent substitutions. RA's, debuffers, vengeance, etc. can take the place of heavies and nukes.

Right now, very few folks I know have all of their characters' incarnate slots unlocked and slotted. It's not as easy to say, "ok, we need this ... you and you switch to this and that." We'll get there. I do enjoy badges but I'd also like to keep motivation to keep trying before we're onto the next batch of content and it's all but forgotten.

I read this thread and recalled the debate with CoP to wonder: in which instance(s) should a nuke or a heavy be acceptable? I'm starting to feel mixed signals. They are not allowed on Master of States, LSRF, Imperious, Lady Gray, Kahn or Barracuda. They are allowed on Master of Tin Mage and Apex. They were initially allowed on Cathedral of Pain. They are no longer allowed on Cathedral of Pain. They are allowed outside of the arena in which they are procured but not needed in those arenas - I've never heard of any MS raid success that hinged on RWZ heavies or PvP match that hinged on shivans and nukes. These temporary powers would be inefficient for everyday use in missions or -now commonplace- taskforces and trials such as Citadel or Hami Raids. Where else is there a practical place to use them at all?

My group has run a number of raids and unique events. From the current Hamidon to Cathedral of Pain, we were usually the first or some of the first to do so on our server both in-house and out. The reason I have no qualms on using temps? Even with our size, it's not always easy getting enough -regular-participants (24 on CoP and 50 each when we did Hami blueside and red) to try something new over and over with less than ideal resources and staggered, varying & tight schedules. We have families and jobs. No one wants to faceplant repeatedly for 2 hours a night every night. Our energy is better spent observing, learning and adapting. I do think it's worth it to keep people optimistic on any given trial or taskforce no matter the size until we 've improved and shed those training wheels - previously farmed EOEs, nukes, heavies, etc. Initially, we were criticized for bothering with Hamidon at all (HOs being availanle in States and LR). Since then, our server can run it as many as five nights a week. Over time, things become common place, more enjoyable or at least less fustrating to a greater number of players. I'm excited to see what the final solution (without temporary powers) is for this badge but until then, I'm plugging away with temporary powers.

Personally, I wish there was a solution so that temporary powers were a welcome training aid but not a despised overkill solution. Something like.. if the net benefit from temporary powers carried caps unique to teams. Eight chemical nukes are overkill. Most teams are using three for Dodger right now. The other night, we just happened to have two rad corruptors and only two chemical nukes. It would have been silly to say, "Oh, we only have two chem nukes. Let's reform when we have a third nuke." We did complete and badge for that team without stopping to gather another nuke or switching characters. What if teams were automatically analyzed behind the scenes and generated a number in the system which would cap the effectiveness of any given temporary power. Say team A had one debuffer and team B had 6 debuffers. Each -could-, if they so wished, still spend the arduous amount of time farming as many nukes as they could carry but Team B's chemical nukes wouldn't even effect the AV or in such a miniscule way as to not warrent farming... whereas Team A's nukes wouldn't completely do the job alone. It would be like ED for temps per team per experience. The sole debuffer couldn't just stand at the door. If he didn't contribute, the team would fail. It would be a shame to fustrate the late hours players and smaller population servers by telling them they absolutely have to wait longer to assemble an ideal team or the reverse - to allow primetime/high population server players to just sail through without motivation to shed the training wheels. If I had a nickle everytime someone said they came to Virtue because we do run raids on a more regular basis - Hami, CoP, MS. I doubt anyone wants to use temp powers over and over and over again but I'd rather not have folks lose motivation out of the gate.

Here's a therory, and its something the badge hunters don't want to hear.

We know this is all part of the "Endgame" Positron has been working on. We been clued in on how far we can enhance the Alpha Slot and the next Incarnate Power is some sort of AoE. What if this badge is only obtainable (without the use of pets/nukes, etc.) once you upgrade your Incarnate powers with the next ability? From a lore perspective, you have to be an Incarnate to deal with the new dangers of this coming storm, which the Praetorians are somehow connected. We are baby godlings now, we don't have all the power that, say, Statesman has.

Now from a simple gameplayer/badger perspective, this is stupid. You put a badge in the game that is only obtainable by using in-game, non-exploit "rule bender" powers (like nukes). Then again, I wouldn't put it past Posi to do something like this.

"Master" indeed...