Lord Recluse's Five Patrons

So yesterday I led a Statesman Task Force for the first time. I've been on plenty of STFs before and one time I helped a STF-newbie throw a team together because he needed the component and gave advice throughout, so you could sy I led one by proxy, but this being the first time I properly led one, I was actually kinda nervous. After all, this is one of those TFs that have a reasonable chance of being failed.

So anyway, I tend to take a "take what I can get" approach when recruiting for teams, even TF teams. That one time I had a Kahn TF team consisting of a Fire/Storm Corr, an Ill/Rad 'troller and the rest was Scrappers and Blasters. It certainly made for a pretty intense Reichsman fight, but we finished the TF after only about ninety minutes and 38 deaths! But I digress. I mostly stuck to my "take what I can get" approach, but this time I took special care of filling two spots with a Tank and a debuffer, for those tricky fights at the end. Eventually I got an Invuln Tanker, a Rad/Rad Defender, an Emp Defender, a Plants/Emp 'troller, a Blaster, two Scrappers and lastly a Peacebringer. A pretty nice and even mix of ATs and powers, I thought.

I got pretty scared when half the team spent the fight against Sands face-down on the floor. I feared I made some grave mistakes at the team composition, that we'll hit a brickwall at the Patrons. My mood lifted again when we pretty much steam-rolled the AVs in the second and fourth missions. Doctor Aeon was similarly tricky like Sands, but I didn't feel as bad about that because, from what I hear, he's one of the biggest reasons Master runs fail.

So, the STF mostly went smoothly and we finally got to the final mission. Clearing out the passage into Grandville was pretty uneventful. There were some hiccups when pulling the Patrons, but we got Mako alone on the second try and eventually managed to isolate Black Scorpion on the Longbow ship after a time-wipe or two. Ghost Widow decided to join the fray just as Blacky fell, and eventually we managed to overcome her regen and heals. With that healing monster out of the way, I had no doubts about our victory anymore and beating Scirocco was just a formality now.

So after we dealt with the Patrons, as with most STFs, we went for the Flier next. That's when I realised something was missing. Waaaaiiiit a minute, there was no cutscene with Recluse and his towers! It turns out we missed Lord Recluse's most nefarious lieutenant, the dreadful and menacing White Dwarf! He was standing on the same platform as the giant statue, looking over the plaza the other four Patrons were gathered. After an arduous battle that lasted almost a century we bested this all-powerful foe and completed the STF uneventfully, after two hours and fourty-something minutes and 67 deaths.

TL;DR Kheldians make the best things happen.

Wait what? White Dwarf AV or am I missing a joke here?

A White Dwarf spawned due to the Kheld on the team. The rest of the paragraph broke my sarcasm meter.

This happened to a team I was on once, and it took us a while to realize the dwarf was part of the patron spawn, as he was actually quite far away from them.

A similar thing happened to me on a LRSF run I did a week ago. We pulled all of the Phalanx and defeated them all, but the TF didn't end. We went back to the platform and found a lone Longbow Flamethrower. I jumped to him and knocked him out with an Energy transfer and the TF ended. We all joked about how he was the toughest AV we ever fought. xD

Anyways, congratz on the victory. These high end TF's are just brutal sometimes. Like that absolutely miserable 3-hour Barracuda Strike Force I ran the other day. Guess which SF I'm never running again?

Same thing happened to me just today, I usually run to Recluse and sneak up in his cutscene after the patrons die, but after the team killed the last patron I was confused as to why the cutscene hadn't started...

Stupid Kheldians and their penchant for spawning Cysts!

Wait, was I ON that TF? Because that happened to me too.

Well, with Khelds able to go redside and become Nictus, the Devs wanted to finally give them some epic powers and their very own patron.
That was Grumpy the Dwarf Patron. Clearly it's a leak from issue 20 and should be ignored.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

I always find it funny when a cyst spawns in the second ITF mission, in a spawn with one of the scripted cysts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

That happened to one of my group's STFs once as well. The frustrating thing was that the squid (in our case) was far enough away that we thought it was something someone pulled by accident and lured away to the place it was waiting.

This just happened on an STF I did a few days ago. I wonder if this is new behavior, I've done plenty of STFs with Khelds before and never had a Kheld that needed defeating before the cutscene started.