Trapdoor is getting harder.

I was going to search for another thread to talk about this a bit, but here goes...

I've only soloed this mission twice so far.

On my E3 Blaster and on my Mind/Psi Dom (note: both have hover).

Both times, the lava ended up being my friend.


The first time:
E3 Blaster

I have three holds, full range and melee attacks, plus endurance sapping (and witty quips).

All of my holds stacked on him along with any endurance sapping were as beneficial as my quips...

So, okay... damage him!

Alright... He could out-damage me and his clones were really spawning a lot, quickly.
Easy to take out, but Trap Door would heal up quickly and each time I'd two shot his clones, it was like starting all over again...

So... the problem became...
My 4 luck inspirations would wear out before I could knock him out!

(Since I went through all of this, sort of piecing it together as I went, I'd really like to try this solo again [now having an idea of what I am in for]... is this available through flashback?)

Eventually, my Havoc Punch sent him into the lava and I was able to take him out (we went to a Mexican Place on 4th st... You don't want to know the real reason for his moniker).


On my Mind/Psi Dom...

I was really surprised that I could not lock him down with Domination up!
I spent my initial assault trying to stack holds on him... and got beaten.

So, I used four lucks and wasn't able to take him down quickly enough before he took me out again.

I eventually got him into the lava... and he actually beat me again (Can't remember what went wrong... I think I was out of Insps and didn't go to the hospital... I was being bullheaded).

I returned to find him ready to talk instead of fight (I killed him anyway... my Mind/Psi Dom is like that).


So, for the record, I am honestly, generally, a pretty good gamer.
I will sometimes limit myself due to RP conceptual reasons, but they rarely interfere with being capable enough.

My powers are slotted well. Not with IO Sets, but level 50 Standard IOs.
(Just for the record, I'm not lacking in damage enhancements on my damaging attacks... as my not being able to take him out quicker than the Lucks wear out might make some question)

I checked on the forums, and it seemed to me that I was following the suggested tactics for squishies fighting Trapdoor. So, I have been rather puzzled as to why I wasn't entirely successful (although, I was successful in the end, anyway).

I'm eager to get my brutes and.or scrappers to level 50 just so I can do this arc now, hehe.



(As to the Holtz/Honoree mission... I have zero problem with taking out the rikti from afar and/or pulling the EBs individually... that's pretty easy for me... However, while I was able to solo Holtz [with much difficulty] I have not been able to solo Honoree with either characters. No holds, no nothing has worked for me... only bringing 8 lucks and staggering two uses of four at once to put him down worked [however, both times, I called in for back up from friends])

Just curious if there's anything obvious that I am missing or if there is any helpful advice!

So i just defeated trap door after the patch, lured him into the lava, and killed off his clones.

I can't beat Trapdoor now (at -1!) and they're making it *harder*? Inspirations helped a lot: they allowed me to remove 1/8 of his HP between chasing down his far too frequent and apparently unending "bifurcations" before the inspirations ran out and I died. I'd like to bifurcate the Midas-eared person who designed that encounter and then the bastitch who decided it couldn't be auto-completed - I have a sharp axe and a dull sword available for the task and right now the latter sounds altogether most suitable.

I'm assuming -regen is a handy tool since he doesn't necessarily "heal" About to do this mission with my Cold/Ice Defender.

Reading the argument from earlier today...I think a few people really need to chill out and stop blowing things out of proportion.

-recharge is a good thing too :3 he didn't bifibrucate after his initial one.

I've have no idea why people are having such a hard time killing Trapdoor. When I do the arc I'm usually solo'ing it so I can just blow through -1/1 and get my badge. My usual strategy is to rush down to him, pop a bunch of purple and reds, and kill his ***. When he splits I quickly dispatch the clone and finish the job. I've done this on multiple ATs, most without a single IO, and it's worked every time.

The Minotaur at the end is harder, IMO.

I don't think the Trapdoor mission is easy. I think it's appropriately challenging. It adds a trick that you need to get past (the bifurcations). There are notable tactics to use that aren't difficult to figure out.

Trapdoor can be knocked down. You can use -regen to counter his bifurcations. You can use -recharge to slow down his bifurcations. You can lure him into the lava, or knock him in. Etc. I think there are enough useful tactics for just about any soloing character.

The mission is part of an arc that's meant to get people ready for Incarnate stuff, so it should be a bit trickier than normal. I'd prefer that we have the option to auto-complete it, but since I can auto-complete the other two EB fights, I'm satisfied.

I think that the mission needs to be looked at again and the regen buff needs to somehow be made map-wide. Or perhaps a mega-huge PBAoE that goes through walls and stuff.

I don't think this tactic has been removed because it's cheating, exploitation, or the devs disagreeing with how people are completing it, but more because they've got the regen buff wrong the first time around. I don't particularly think removing the ability to pull him is the right way to go about it at this point, but I can see where the design decision is coming from. Ideally the regen LoS issue should be fixed, but if it were that easy I think the patch notes would say something else.

I think if they just wanted to make everyone play their way, they would have removed the tactic of knocking him into the lava while they were at it. But they haven't. Presumably because that method makes sense concerning his powers.

So far he's not been too hard for me ... my few low damage toons I've done it with had help to take him down. My Elec/Elec Scrapper was having the most trouble with him until I decided to just ignore his clones and work on outdamaging the Regen ... which is something that Scrapper was able to do. (Chasing his dupes didn't work because he was regenning too much by the time I found it and killed it.)

Just to add a note here for a sec, Masterminds seem to be able to break the max of 17 targets agro limit, due to the fact that each pet can also have an agro cap of 17. So, with 6 pets, and a mastermind you can actually actively have an agro cap of 119 mobs. Now, good luck keeping yourself and your pets alive with 119 mobs beating on you (and your pets) but it is possible. If your a /traps, you can even extend that number further, by acid mortar, seeker drones, and your FFG all pulling agro (granted, its not much agro, but face pulling is still viable, and the FFG can still face pull things)

The 17 cap is for a single entity, but masterminds have so many different entities that if you can control the agro, you can out tank the best tank in the world, by sheer value of available agro magnets.

if they didn't fix Poison Trap...I would have broke my computer because of the three damage procs >.>