Soloing some GMs...

So after a bad night of sleeping and being extremely bored I decided to go solo some GMs on my Illu/Cold. I was extremely tired so I only realized at the end of my spree that I should be taking screenshots so you'll only see me finish off Lusca and his last four (I think) tentacles. I hope that's enough to convince everyone I actually did this Only used insps against Lusca.

So GMs in order:

Sally. Well, I wanted to start it easy

Jack in Irons. Nothing special, I don't think he ever even attacked me. Phantasm died a few times and Tarantula maybe once.

Eochai. He almost got me... I wandered too close and his PBAoE hold hit just as PA dropped. He got me to red HP by the time I got to summon a new set of phantoms.

Adamastor. He got a few pet kills with Foot Stomp but other than that he was really easy.

Jurassik. He also got pet kills with Foot Stomp, but was a bit sturdier than Adamastor.

Kraken. Probably the easiest GM after Sally, Kraken actually got scared and tried to escape! He didn't even score kills with Foot Stomp.

And then Lusca. He was a different kettle of fish () and I actually had to use inspirations until I got my tactics working, and he killed me twice before I got the first tentacle down due to bad tactics. In the end the fight was quite simple but took ages. I used maybe 8 insps to heal or boost defense during the first two tentacles due to not having a self heal and having only ~20% Ranged Def. During one PA I could regenerate a bit over half my health, and Lusca's ink blast took just under a half of it away so I had to either prevent it from hitting me more than once or heal back if I that happened. Didn't have to use those during the last six tentacles because I changed my tactics a bit so that I wouldn't have to touch insps.

So, my tactics then. I hovered as far as possible from a tentacle so that PA's "leash" would only allow them to attack the one tentacle I wanted to focus on. Usually I summoned PA between the tentacle and Lusca's head just to avoid getting hit with the whiplash attack. It was also because I wasn't entirely sure whether Lusca's aggro was based on proximity or if it was just attacking the largest concentration of enemies because its only attack is an AoE. The rest was just like a normal fight, throw debuffs and attacks at it until it dies Lusca's head was a whole lot easier because I could actually use Tarantula and Phantasm with no fear of them dying. Lusca's head is so wide - unlike the tentacles - that you can summon PA on one side of it and the rest of the pets on the other side so that PA drains all the attacks.

Here are the pics I remembered to take >_>
Here's where I remember I should be taking screenshots
I flew here every time I took a tentacle down to break aggro
Last two tentacles down.


Sushi, anyone?

Grats on Lusca! I'm honestly impressed you were able to drop ole Fishguts with only 195% (from what i can see on the screenshot) recharge! Very impressive to drop Lusca without Perma PA. You said you had the tarantula as well. How does that work for you? I run an Ill/Rad with 218.8% recharge and can fit in the tarantula but am still on the fence on whether or not it's worth losing my single target attack chain for another pet. Do you find it worth it? Cant wait to see if you are gonna post more screenies of other GMs. Paladin and Babbage should be easy drops.

I actually do have about 210% "global" recharge when the uncommon Alpha is accounted for, 11% from the part that skips ED and about 4% from the rest. The build is planned with the very rare Alpha in mind so that I don't have to adjust it again when we get that (I'm hoping next issue) and the ~1 second gap between PA doesn't really bother me. Once I get some more purples and the Glad Armor unique (and respec) I'll have very slightly better global rech but will also be soft capped to S/L/Ranged.

I find the Tarantula very nice against stuff that doesn't drop it instantly because it provides an immob (yay for containment) and does almost exclusively toxic damage. I'll have a pet unique in the build when I respec so it should be a bit sturdier after that, but I'm not expecting a miracle. I picked Mace mastery over Ice because of two things, Poisonous Ray does -30% Resistance and because Scorpion Shield is better and prettier than Frozen Armor. I'd prefer Ice Blast for a smoother attack chain but I don't really have a preference on Ice Storm / Tarantula. If I could often set up AoE containment or even containment against AVs I'd probably pick Ice for Ice Storm.

As for GM soloing, I went to Kings to look for a Paladin. I found three on a pile and pulled one, it went down very fast so I decided to solo two Paladins at once. It wasn't really any more difficult. I'll post pics soon.

I thought it was a bit selfish too, but then again assembling a team would have defeated the intent of soloing at least one of them

I noticed your concern about the attack chain with Poisonous Ray and it is much more valid for a Rad. I run an attack chain of Blind > SpecW > Ray > SpecW > gap. The gap isn't that bad for me because I rely on clickies a lot (PA, Sleet, Benumb, Tarantula, etc.) so very often I have something to fill the gap with. With Rad it might be a bit worse.

Yeah, I'm certainly busy when going full tilt boogie on my Ill/rad so the gap might be easy filled with something. My normal chain after pets and toggles is blind, wounds, fireblast, wounds, fireblast, wounds etc etc etc. spiced up by lingering rad when its up and resummoning PA every minute. My big concern is whether or not the tarantula is a worthwhile pet. Is it worth having it compared to losing the seamless no gap attack chain? In your opinion of course. I've not been able to talk to any Illusion players on virtue or on the forums who have actually taken the patron pet and so I have nothing to go on. Didnt wanna burn a respec if it wasnt worth it in the end.

I have no idea, to be honest. I have never even tried anything other than Mace mastery on my Illu/Cold On paper the extra 30% Res Debuff, toxic damage, additional pet and a better (and prettier!) shield just seemed better than Ice mastery. I could be wrong.

I was going over the numbers (seems thats all end game content is for me anymore is number crunching) and I think that not only would it work, but I'd be able to get even more recharge than my 218% in there since scorpion shield can be used as Lotg mule. Right now Im using fire APP which lets me put in positrons blast into my fireball for a decent recharge boost. But swapping fireball out for a one slotted scorp shield with a LoTg in there and replacing my rise of the phoenix with 4 slotted expedient reinforcment would likely get me to about 220+% recharge globally. Probly worth the lost of attack chain, and with that much recharge Ill likely be able to get poisonous ray into my chain faster. I dunno. lol thats the problem with the end game builds alway second guessing the next possible upgrade.

GJ on those, esp Lusca. I never tried soloing Lusca before, mostly because it would just be too long of a process.

I'd respecced out of my AV/GM solo builds for my various controllers, but I happened to wander into Ghost of Scrapyard yesterday on my Fire/Rad. And I mean wander into, as in I had no idea he was there til he stomped me, dead. So I got po'ed and went after him again, and found that I just didn't have the ST DPS (Char... Char...) to do anything to him, not even enough to take aggro away from my imps. He couldn't kill me either, so we were in a stalemate for around 5min before he wandered near a ferry and got fried. Still, nice to know that my teaming/AoE-oriented build can still stand toe-to-toe w/a GM indefinitely, even if I couldn't damage him enough to kill him (tempted to pick up my ST immob again, though...).

Heh, thats classic. I've had several times where I wasnt out hunting for GMs and was just heading towards a mish or a badge where I'd be flying along spacing out and suddenly faceplant from a GM hit. Just like you I'd go hosp it. Head right back over there, get my PA out and proceed to dish out white hot payback. Like when I was doing my exploration badges in croatoa, just wanted the badge man, but noooooo, Jack had to take a swing at me. One dead GM later I got my badge anyway.