Trapdoor is getting harder.
My electric/ice tanker had no troubles with Trapdoor. No pulling. Just knocked him into the lava and kept him there.
My WS was stunned and defeated, but rezzed and prevailed in short order. Knocked him into the lava also.
Trying it now with my Widow. So far... he's killed her FOUR TIMES. She's not yet got his health down to half. Had him in the lava once, but he kept running away and eventually got out.
Edit: Okay, finally defeated him. Had to kill 45 clones and load up on reds to do it. No lava - he wouldn't stay in it anyway.
Anybody else done it tonight?
My electric/ice tanker had no troubles with Trapdoor. No pulling. Just knocked him into the lava and kept him there.
My WS was stunned and defeated, but rezzed and prevailed in short order. Knocked him into the lava also. Trying it now with my Widow. So far... he's killed her THREE TIMES. She's not yet got his health down to half. Had him in the lava once, but he kept running away and eventually got out. Edit: she's killed 12 clones so far. Anybody else done it tonight? |
I will do this on my Widow tonight and let you know what happens.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
Nope. You're assuming. And you really should stop.
The path TO him is lined with Council (some of whom have stuns/mezzes) and Arachnos. He could well have burned some insps on the way in he would otherwise have needed. |
The fight could have taken long enough that the essences died. (Which, aside from doing damage, could have been taking some of the aggro.)
The hold, you assume he has, could have missed. The toggle that dropped could have been Acrobatics. He could - with the chance to hit that every *minion* has - have been hit through a full set of purples. |
If skipping Dwarf is not doing something wrong than neither would be an SR skipping Practiced Brawler or an Ice Tank skipping Wet Ice. If those fall outside of your definition of doing something wrong then we should just stop discussing this altogether.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
You know what. This is crap. I'm not going to be bullied like this.
If you want REAL answers to what you could do different then YOU TELL ME what you did at first instead of expecting me to guess. But yea, I'll repeat. Based ONLY on the information you provide HERE. Trapdoor was nearly dead (Stygian Return doesn't do much damage). Twisted Toon's toggles dropped. Twisted Toon's character was killed. You died because you got mezzed in a fight where you only needed to hit him ONE MORE TIME. You did something wrong. With no more information I can assuredly say you could have hit Dwarf. If you didn't TAKE Dwarf then that's something you did wrong. Your AT gets a power to deal with mezzes. If you don't take it then you should expect to have problems with mezzes. With more information I could be more specific, but you'd apparently rather play guessing games than actually say what inspirs you brought, what your build is, or what your strategy was. |
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/HellkatPredator/2012%20Livestreams/ChompAeon.gif)
If you need more, exit the mission and go get more. Is that really so hard?
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Let's see. Choice is:
"One or two more hits and he's down" or
"Exit the mission, let him regen while I get more breakfrees."
You have no room to talk about doing things wrong at this point.
If skipping Dwarf is not doing something wrong than neither would be an SR skipping Practiced Brawler or an Ice Tank skipping Wet Ice. If those fall outside of your definition of doing something wrong then we should just stop discussing this altogether. |
A kheldian is not a tank.
Making assumptions - or more appropriately in your case, decrees about how one "should" be built because of the other is foolish. Or are you going to start declaring that Blasters should take Tough and Weave because it helps some tanks? Perhaps my Earth/FF is built "wrong" because I didn't take Teleport, which helps many Stone tanks? By the way - many Warshades I've seen tend to think of the mez protection of dwarf as secondary to getting another Mire.
But yes, you should stop discussing this, I think.
Dear Francises,
Relax.
EDIT:
Just in case anyone mistakes that as trying to rudely take a jab at them... that is not how I meant it.
Just attempting to interject a bit of humor in here as well as an obviously needed step back and casual approach to this entire topic.
That back and forth between some posters seems a bit ridiculous.
People focus on tiny little bits and twist things around and run off on tangents (on both/all sides) until you're no longer discussing anything relevant to the original disagreement.,.. you're just attempting to smear the other in order to discredit them... and there's plenty of ammunition on all sides to pick up and use against the other, so that is no great feat.
Sheesh, hehe... cut it out.
I only ever replied in here to 1) hoping to make someone feel better about the change by discussing and sharing my view of it and why I think it is okay (or possibly to learn something that made me change my tune) and 2) to get some advice.
Both options, clearly, were wasted efforts based on over optimism.
Still...
I thought Wavicle nearly had it right at first...
However, it is not a matter of pulling making it too easy (which has been a main focus of much back and forth), but that pulling into another room just created a hole in Trapdoor's defenses that was not intended/desired.
That, however, does not explain it well enough...
First off, Memphis... As far as I understand, we (and yes, I say we because maneuvering and pulling and ranged blasting is a large part of my gaming) are not losing our ability to maneuver and use that aspect of our powers.
We're not losing that.
They changed it so that he won't be led too far astray and so that his unique power does not get lost due to that simple tactic.
Trapdoor's power is unique.
It is not a stationary effect nor is it a power that is derived from the room he is within. It comes from himself.
Think of it this way...
We cannot pull a /regen scrapper away from his Fast Healing nor Reconstruction nor Dull Pain.
We cannot pull an enemy away from their Temporary Invulnerability or Stamina or any such thing.
However, with this unique power, we can destroy physical manifestations that are a part of his power.
It is somewhat like being able to target a specific target on an enemy. Imagine if you could attack a giant scorpion's stinger in order to disable it so that it could not attack you with it.
It is much like taking out shield generators, however, Trapdoor's clone manifestations are not supposed to be stationary objects that only exist in one location.
It's like punching King Hippo in the belly so that his trunks drop and then you can unload on his chin while he picks them up.
And, again... we do not lose the ability to fight from ranged, to maneuver and to use our powers as we normally can.
He's just not going to be as much of a twit as he was... and his power will not be based on the location.
Clunky fix? Without playing it in it changed state, I can't say for certain.
Something that leads to a slippery slope of not being able to pull anything, not being to hold or drain or blah blah blah... that seems like an utter fallacy to me.
Trapdoor's power is unique and they felt it was not being represented properly the way things were. We really haven't lost any options. They just reinforced what they wanted Trapdoor to be able to do.
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
I spent a bit of time on Test today with some older copied 50s that hadn't run Ramiel's arc and went a few rounds with Trapdoor. I can't discern any difference between his past incarnation (pun not intended) and this one in terms of difficulty.
Some tips:
Killing his bifurcations as they spawn should be your first priority. If you fail to do so you make the fight much harder than it needs to be. He seems to spawn one at the battle's start and one every 30 seconds thereafter. They're minion class so they shouldn't pose too much of a problem. Tracking them down can be, though. You'll want to retain your mobility throughout the fight.
If you have a damage buff like Build Up, don't waste it on his bifurcations unless you can one-shot them and get back to Trappy before it wears off.
Inspirations are your friends. Purples and reds specifically. Don't grab just one or the other.
If all else fails, swallow your pride and ask a friend to help. Hell, ask a stranger. You'd be surprised how many helpful people there are out there. Not every build will be able to solo him, it's just part of the design of the game. Having another person on hand means one person can kill the bifurcations and one person can stay on Trapdoor.
UPDATE: So I found a way to make the encounter even more challenging: play it on an SO only toon I have mere minutes of familiarity with. During the closed beta testing of Dual Pistols, characters created with that set were bumped to 50 and given the cash to buy SOs. It turns out I had a DP/Mental Blaster sitting at 50, so I decided to send him against Trapdoor. However, I had to set some parameters. Already I was going in handicapped, with little knowledge of the powersets I was using (I haven't yet played either set to 50) and only basic enhancements, but Mental has a -regen debuff in Drain Psyche which would have given me a pretty substantial advantage, so I decided that I would not use it during the fight.
So I got to Trapdoor, popped four small purples and proceeded to attack him. My method was this: use whatever Dual Pistols attacks that weren't recharging. As I expected, he immediately bifurcated. I did a quick scan, found his bifurcation and killed it. Trapdoor followed me so I didn't waste precious seconds tracking him down again. With the small purples I was softcapped, so I could focus on pouring on the damage. I got him to about 50% before he popped his next bifurcation. I'll admit, I got lucky and he spawned right on top of me. I killed it and went back to Trapdoor. At this point my purples had faded so I popped Build Up and hoped I could get him down to 25% before he killed me. Fortunately I did, right as he popped his third bifurcation.
So yeah, armed with little more than my past experience with Trapdoor, without IO sets, without much knowledge of the character I was playing, with DRAIN PSYCHE TIED BEHIND MY BACK, with just four small purples, I beat Trapdoor.
@Demobot
Also on Steam
Take your own advice. Just because you haven't seen what's happened with other players doesn't mean it didn't happen, such as being able to beat the mission with ease. That's the biggest problem with the arguments against this particular task; those who had trouble with it refuse to believe others have not. You are among them.
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I'm sure it happens. I'm equally sure that Trappy kept one-shotting my Defender every time he got close enough; and really, now that I think back he did the same thing to my Claws Stalker, the one toon I have who I really thought would cakewalk through that mission. Didn't turn out like that.
I therefore give a dismissive wave to these claims that everyone in the entire game, on any AT, can snooze through an encounter with Trapdoor. Maybe you can, I don't watch you play so I don't know. The amount of requests I see for help with Trappy on my server's global channels leads me to believe otherwise.
No. YOU are MAKING UP the slippery slope.
The devs, through their actions, have indicated that they believe pulling him away from his clones makes the fight too easy. There is NOTHING else they have indicated they feel that way about. (EDIT: My bad, there is one precedent. Recluse in the STF had almost the exact same change made.) Quit putting words in people's mouths. |
I point you to the upping of difficulty of getting Shivans, to limit their use by solo players. [And this worked, because I never bother going to get Shivans nowadays, due to increased speed of respawn times on firebase turrets].
I point you to the several places that Warburg nukes have been disallowed, the Cathedral of Pain springs to mind as well as.... gosh, didn't they *just* make it to where nukes could not be used in Apex and Tin Mage? Perhaps I am remembering that wrong.... but yes, nukes have been disallowed in several instances.
Y'might want to rethink this stance of yours.
YOU and others in this thread who share your opinion are insisting that Trapdoor must be treated Just like all other bosses in the game. The devs, through their design and subsequent actions, have shown that they see this as a different kind of encounter. Stop whining and eat some damn inspirations already. |
If only inspirations stopped things like the Curse of Weakness and Trappy's 100% chance-to-hit [? sure seems like 100% chance] Ubermelee one-shot-wonder! Unfortunately TRAPPY CAN INDEED HIT THROUGH A *TRAYFUL* OF PURPLES. My Defender can testify to the veracity of this statement.
To Wavicle and Memphis_Bill:
I'm grinning at you guys. Regardless of what either of you think, know or believe the change is in place at the judgement of the devs. THAT'S case closed. It's done. This thread is effectively moot, as the change has been made and the likelihood of it being reversed is very slim. Can I get a modlock here? ![]() |
Might want to keep that inconvenient little factoid in mind.
Trapdoor is still a Wimp. I dropped in less than a minute on my DS/Thermal. I buffed them, debuffed him, and told them to attack; while stood back and healed them.
@Blood Beret(2)Twitter
I am a bad speeler, use poorer grammar, and am a frequent typoist.
MA ArcID: 1197
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill
I point you to the upping of difficulty of getting Shivans, to limit their use by solo players. [And this worked, because I never bother going to get Shivans nowadays, due to increased speed of respawn times on firebase turrets.
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Since I13, it's become progressively easier to get Shivans, and I don't mean because the zone is usually deserted (though that too). I mean because almost all my characters all get +DR and +HP on top of whatever they already had thanks to the PvP zone rules. Now in I19 they basically all get three more powers than they did before at those levels because of inherent Fitness.
I point you to the several places that Warburg nukes have been disallowed, the Cathedral of Pain springs to mind as well as.... gosh, didn't they *just* make it to where nukes could not be used in Apex and Tin Mage? Perhaps I am remembering that wrong.... but yes, nukes have been disallowed in several instances. |
Trappy's not a special snowflake who needs special privileges. If anything, an EB who deserves special privileges would be Honoree. He's been through enough to earn 'em. Trappy ain't nothin' special, he even has a boring costume. |
If only inspirations stopped things like the Curse of Weakness and Trappy's 100% chance-to-hit [? sure seems like 100% chance] Ubermelee one-shot-wonder! Unfortunately TRAPPY CAN INDEED HIT THROUGH A *TRAYFUL* OF PURPLES. My Defender can testify to the veracity of this statement. |
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I just solod this arc on both my Widow and my Warshade.
The Widow was on +2/x3 and the Warshade was on +1/x2.
The Widow used Oranges and Reds for every fight. The Warshade used Purples and Reds.
In both cases I killed the clones as soon as they spawned and Trapdoor went down fast enough.
Both toons pulled Holtz and defeated him easily enough.
The Widow defeated the Honoree without a problem.
The Warshade was knocked out by the Honoree several times, but did manage to get him down eventually using only Inspirs and Powers. No Shivans, Nukes or other Temps. I never really expected to be able to solo him successfully, so that was good enough for me.
Echo of Minos was incredibly easy with him eventually running from both toons too slowly to escape and was defeated through his Unstoppable or One with the Shield or whatever he has.
My Widow is mostly lvl 30 common IOs with a few specials like Steadfast +Def, Miracle +Rec, and Mind Link frankenslotted with Def/Rech. She has and used Elude.
My Warshade is frankenslotted with yellow and orange IOs with a few partial sets for +HP, +Regen, +Rec, and +Acc and has only a KB Prot as far as Specials go. He has and used Dwarf form.
You're free to build however you like, but the devs aren't going to balance the game for Every possible iteration of a soloists build. They are going to generalize based on what the various powersets have available to them.
Also, you CAN get unlucky with def and acc. That's just the nature of the game.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
This thread, oh wow...
Trappy's not a special snowflake who needs special privileges. If anything, an EB who deserves special privileges would be Honoree. He's been through enough to earn 'em. Trappy ain't nothin' special, he even has a boring costume.
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Why is Trapdoor is not special? Just because you say so?
Trapdoor is:
-a boss encounter,
-an incarnate,
-the person our characters steal incarnate powers from,
-part of the introduction arc to end game content (incarnate system),
-the only boss in said arc that cannot be skipped (via Complete mission),
-and he even has his own little story arc
Seems pretty special to me.
And enemies with boring costumes should be easier to beat? Seriously?
All right, I can agree if we turn this around to "really hard enemies should have interesting/unique appearance". But still, interesting/boring is so highly subjective that making this a hard and fast rule seems unfeasible.
Now, some more general comments, not necessarily related to the quote.
This might be my previous experience with a certain uber-popular fantasy MMO talking, but I really thought it obvious that different boss encounters would have different mechanics. On some pulling (or some other tactic) worked, on others pulling was suicide, and on a few well-coordinated pulling was crucial. And this was a Good Thing, that different bosses needed different tactics and the same tactic did not work on every boss. And developers both designed and changed encounters with certain tactics in mind.
Unique encounter mechanics was not part of this games story arcs (as opposed to TFs) until relatively recently (was Protean the first?), most likely due to resource constraints. But now they are here and I for one like that.
I do not suffer from altitis, I enjoy every character of it.
Why is Trapdoor is not special? Just because you say so?
Trapdoor is: -a boss encounter, -an incarnate, -the person our characters steal incarnate powers from, -part of the introduction arc to end game content (incarnate system), -the only boss in said arc that cannot be skipped (via Complete mission), -and he even has his own little story arc Seems pretty special to me. |
-one of many
-not really
-a plot device
-just like every run-of-the-mill boss
-for whatever reason
-so does Pyriss, so does 2K Kelvin, so does Duke Mordrogar.
Trapdoor has no reason to be in this arc other than because they needed a character there and they picked one out of a raffle. He isn't and shouldn't be such a centrepiece of the story. They could have picked someone far more interesting, like Max Action, Withershins, Wolfgang Ubelmann or, hell, 2K Kelvin. At least those guys are remarkable. Oh, hell, how about the Sea Witch? She's unusually strong at the time she shows up.
The only reason the reflection of the Minotaur gets a free pass is because it's the reflection of an enemy you're not likely to meet while solo, which gives it some degree of novelty, but I could still have seen it be the reflection of something more unique, like a Noble Brute or an Overseer.
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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*ahem*
I doubt any devs will even read this thread. In fact, in light of the holidays, I'd be surprised if there's even many in the office this week, or last week for that matter. I'm even willing to bet they've been largely coasting since getting back from Thanksgiving.
That being said, I have to laugh at all of this.
I laugh at the designers who got all butthurt that people used long existing tools and techniques to trivialize an encounter in a one-time arc that is...well trivial.
I laugh at anyone who complains about this change, but defended how the devs crap all over melee ATs in the Apex finale and the new Winter Event.
I laugh at the munchkins telling everyone else to L2P. They might not get the joke now, but when they're buying server transfers in a couple months they may.
I also laugh at the devs as a group, because I've seen what comes from using munchkins as the balance point and catering to their whims.
Lastly, there's Positron. After seeing what his idea of "epic" endgame and giving 'moar power' to players involves: Triple digit faceplants, legions of purple mooks, more demonic spiders and old NPCs elevated up even further above player characters.
Indeed, that is the greatest joke here of all. Too bad I'm not laughing at it.
.
Lastly, there's Positron. After seeing what his idea of "epic" endgame and giving 'moar power' to players involves: Triple digit faceplants, legions of purple mooks, more demonic spiders and old NPCs elevated up even further above player characters.
Indeed, that is the greatest joke here of all. Too bad I'm not laughing at it. |
Yes, I'm being sarcastic, in case you didn't pick up on it.
Don't worry, it shouldn't be too long before some intrepid players figure out how to game this content and trivialize it just like everything else that's been released in the last few years.
Remember how hard the ITF was when it was first released? All those teams that failed it because Nictus Romulus was deemed "too hard to beat" by a lot of people? I do, and look at it now, people are running a TF that used to take 2-4 hours with only about a 50/50 chance of success in 20 minutes.
I wasn't around when the Eden trial was released, but I've heard it used to take forever to get through it. People learned how to game it, and now it's 15 minutes tops.
The re-introduced CoP trial? That was hard at first, now it's 20 minutes.
Kahn started as a difficult TF, now it gets blasted through in a half hour.
Successful Master runs of the STF and LRSF are almost common now, and they take maybe an hour to do normally. Those were both insanely hard when they were first released.
If the devs DON'T make something insanely hard, the players will trivialize it just like they've done with everything else that was supposed to be challenging. Just speaking for myself, I'm happy the devs are stepping up what they are throwing at us. It would get boring really quick if we got all this new power and the content was the same old "gather a team with lots of debuffs and AoEs and blast through it in 30 minutes" that the previous "challenging" content has become.
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
*ahem*
I doubt any devs will even read this thread. In fact, in light of the holidays, I'd be surprised if there's even many in the office this week, or last week for that matter. I'm even willing to bet they've been largely coasting since getting back from Thanksgiving. That being said, I have to laugh at all of this. I laugh at the designers who got all butthurt that people used long existing tools and techniques to trivialize an encounter in a one-time arc that is...well trivial. I laugh at anyone who complains about this change, but defended how the devs crap all over melee ATs in the Apex finale and the new Winter Event. I laugh at the munchkins telling everyone else to L2P. They might not get the joke now, but when they're buying server transfers in a couple months they may. I also laugh at the devs as a group, because I've seen what comes from using munchkins as the balance point and catering to their whims. Lastly, there's Positron. After seeing what his idea of "epic" endgame and giving 'moar power' to players involves: Triple digit faceplants, legions of purple mooks, more demonic spiders and old NPCs elevated up even further above player characters. Indeed, that is the greatest joke here of all. Too bad I'm not laughing at it. |
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/HellkatPredator/2012%20Livestreams/ChompAeon.gif)
I've done Trapdoor with my Warshade (piece of cake), my Mastermind (piece of cake), my energy/energy stalker (worst time ever) and my claws/regen stalker (second worst time ever).
The difference between easy and sucking is whether you can quickly kill his bifurbs. My stalker could not do it very quickly nor could my scrapper as they ran around chasing down and killing his bifurbs while he regened.
In a nutshell it was so mind numbingly boring and annoying I never want to do it again and dread, actually dread, the few others I may choose to unlock the alpha slot for except for my pet summoners and AoE types.
This seems like a bad mission design to have something that you either fly through without a second thought or get done doing and just want to logout and go play something else to "clear the palate" so to speak.
Annoying for some is not meaningful in any way.
total kick to the gut
![Frown](images/smilies/frown.gif)
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
I beat Trapdoor earlier on my Crab, kept my usual settings (+0/x4)
*Yawn* fights getting to him were quite simple and fighting him was cake (I walked up to him, shot him a few times beat him and never fought a clone, as the only one I noticed had spawned out of line of sight from me... or was killed by my pets I don't pay that much attention when fighting on my Crab)
Maybe I'm fighting a different mission than everyone else? That's the only explanation I can think of - on a DP/Mental/Elec blaster (no IOs), I ate about 300% worth of variously sized reds, popped Surge of Power and a couple purples, and started unloading all the damage I could into him. He immediately spawned a bifurcation, I took it out, then started actually damaging him. Got him to 50% before his second bifurcation spawned. Seek and destroy the bifurcation, probably took me about 6-7 seconds - bifurcations take me 2 shots to kill as DP, slow animations, etc., plus the time to actually find the thing behind obstacles.
Tab back to Trapdoor... and he's at full HP already.
Suffice to say: there's only two ways I've beaten this fight on any character I've done it on, regardless of build or inspiration usage, and those ways are 'lava' (which I'm convinced the devs will eventually remove as an option) and 'team'.
So either the encounter is being extremely wonky every time I do it, or I'm a terrible player. Considering I've got every single Master of TF badge in the game except for LGTF on my main (and that one is only because I haven't tried) - yes, this includes Apex and Tin Mage - I'm not convinced that it's the latter...
Edit: Mind you, I don't think it's a bad thing we have new, challenging mechanics. I love both of the new TFs and am eager to see more content in their style. And I wouldn't even say Trapdoor is particularly "hard" in his current incarnation - he's an absolute joke for a team of any size (even a duo), and he's an absolute joke if you dump him in the lava. But I do think that if the mission is intended to be done with a team, the mission text should carry the standard warning from Ramiel that you should bring help like every other mission in the game that is difficult for soloists - like, for instance, the very next mission in his arc. And if it's intended to be soloable, *something* needs to be done to make it less frustrating for people who don't like using what could be considered a borderline exploit to win. Dumping him in the lava doesn't feel heroic or epic. It doesn't make me feel like I've earned anything special.
In short: it's not "hard", I'll concede, but it's not "fun" either. See also: Reichsman.
Don't worry, it shouldn't be too long before some intrepid players figure out how to game this content and trivialize it just like everything else that's been released in the last few years.
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36 minute, no temp powers, no deaths, one-pass Master of The Apex Task Force.
I was on the pass before this, where we had one death about 30 seconds before Battle Maiden went down.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
The path TO him is lined with Council (some of whom have stuns/mezzes) and Arachnos. He could well have burned some insps on the way in he would otherwise have needed.
The fight could have taken long enough that the essences died. (Which, aside from doing damage, could have been taking some of the aggro.)
The hold, you assume he has, could have missed.
The toggle that dropped could have been Acrobatics.
He could - with the chance to hit that every *minion* has - have been hit through a full set of purples.
You assume too much. Including that he did anything "wrong."