Lady Grey task force

All my MoLG runs are done the same way:
* kill pylons and rikti (don't drag them into hami)
* mitos
* hami

Everytime I've been on a team that drags rikti into goo, someone seems to die. So I won't do it. YMMV. The above works for me so I do it that way. *shrug*

It appears that there is something to the idea that the pylons being up keeps Hamidon under better control. Based on this thread, I decided to do a little digging. Here's what I found as a result of that digging.

DevouringEarth.Weakened_Hamidon_Powers.Drain

If I am interpreting this power correctly, it is a power that Weakened Hamidon applies to itself, and which applies a mag 50 taunt to itself (Target = "Caster") for every Friend in range if the Friend is a "Rikti TF Pylon". The radius of the power is 300 feet.

Why would this help? Well, Take a look at Weakened Hamidon's only attack power, Electrolytic Blast. Notice the target line... "Foe". If Pylons are counted as allies (and the "Drain" power can only target "Friends") then Weakened Hamidon has no attacks which it can fire at them.

So the implication is that as long as a Pylon is active, Hamidon is taunted on it but has no attacks it can use on it.

(Another possible reading of the power is that Hamidon is actually being taunted onto itself, but cannot target itself with any powers. I'm not entirely sure how to interpret the effects of a taunt on an NPC when the target is the caster but it involves a second party - the pylon in this case.)

The problem with this interpretation is that a 10.25s mag 50 taunt that refreshes ever 2 seconds is pretty extreme. The Weakened Hamidon will attack those who wander very close, and it will especially attack those who attack it first, even if Pylons are active. Possibly there is something special about being taunted on allies (or ones self) that allows it to easily override the taunt if a foe is nearby. That is theorizing beyond my knowledge of taunt mechanics.

I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this, so it may be just a freak anecdote, but....

The one time we left the pylons up and started attacking the hamidon, the attacks were ineffective. It just couldn't be damaged until we took down the pylons.

Also, I'm going to have to agree with the "Pylons keep a taunt on the hami so that he ignores you while attacking his mitos" theory. It does seem like we draw his aggro a lot sooner if we take down the pylons before taking down the mitos.

Again, this is all anecdotal experience.

Hami has attacked my Stalker that was dragging Rikti into the goo, and he was not even getting that close to Hami. I have no idea why he was aggroed on him at all, but he kept doing it in the whole LGTF run I was on recently with him. He aggroed on him more than he ever has for my Tank that was actually doing a lot more to get his attention.

Pylons and when they are defeated make no difference. Desmodos or someone else on my server wanted to test it once, and it made no change at all to how the encounter went. The tests were made specifically to try out theories tossed about like these in this thread, and they were all shot down.

My first encounter in with this myth came from my LGTF from HELL run (a +4 PUG run) when several of my team members insisted that we keep up exactly 4 pylons. I had no idea why, but I just rolled with it anyway.

Next LGTF I had, several of my team members asked me about the myth, and no one knew what was going on. Only that they saw someone get kicked from the team for it. Third run, wasn't even mentioned by my team members, and we just killed the pylons. I never noticed any difference.


This reminds me a bit of where a lot of superstitions come from, particularly regarding medicine. Since cause and effect have a close temporal relationship to each other, we assume that events that occur closely chronologically have a relationship. This is a flaw in reasoning known as the ad hoc ergo propter hoc, roughly translates to "before the fact, therefore causes the fact". Back when we were exploring the universe by licking toads and placing magnets on our bodies, we would associate two unrelated things together because they happened closely in time. One fine example is that, to cure a cough, you should place a beetle on the sick person's neck.

We in modern day... are not beyond this problem. I caught one of my coworkers reading a book detailing crystal therapy: a guide to healing oneself with diamonds and other assorted gems. Worst part was I think he may have believed some of it at the time. I remember telling him about the above, and gave the counter-example of how it is I cured the last flu I got: by doing precisely squat. No meds, no change in diet, nothing.


However I digress. There is nothing that is incomprehensible, out of our control, or preventing us from objectively testing the myth. Therefore, this issue is scientific, and wanton speculation shouldn't suffice. Here are a few criteria that someone should test to bust this myth:

*Power Analyzer / Bane Spider Surveillance on Nuclues, Antibody, Mender, and Electrolyte with and without pylons. Check for any differences.
Nucleus and antibody damage with and without pylons.
Nucleus range with and without the pylons.

That should cover most things that would need to be checked. It is doubtful I will be able to pull this off myself, since now I only play at night and can rarely ever find a team, let alone anyone willing to let me power analyze then record all the stats of Hamidon.

Just to add my anecdotal evidence, I did an LGTF yesterday where we killed the pylons first and then moved on to the Mitos. Hami himself remained fairly docile and didn't aggro on us while we were dealing with his Mitos, so I'm not sure how true it is that the Pylons reduce his aggro range.

Now as far as I'm concerned, the Pylons do nothing and just exist as a plot justification for why a team of eight can take down a creature that normally takes 50 supers. However, if there's someone who believes that the Pylons somehow help, I have no problem just leaving them up. After all, nobody actually believes the Pylons make Hami stronger, right?

In the end, I'm just not really interested whether the rumor's true or not. If a player's more comfortable with the pylons up we just deal with them last, and if everybody thinks they don't do anything we kill them together with the Rikti. This is hardly an issue that deserves a rigid stance as far as I'm concerned.