Trapdoor

OK, I haven't had time to play since I19 came out until just the other day, real life can really screw up gaming time. Anyway, I was working on the Mender Ramiel's arc with my SS/DA Brute and got the Trapdoor mission. I went and tried it the first time and failed miserably. So I read a few posts about taking out the clones and going after him while they were down. Well I've done this a few times but still can't seem to get him down bellow anything more then 75% before he starts getting the upper hand. He'll pop a clone, typically on the other side of the room and I have to go run off and kill it. By the time I get back to Trapdoor, he's healed or close to it.
So then I tried pulling him down the hallway, well that didn't do anything. Seems sometimes I can't even dent him. What the hell am I doing wrong? This is getting very frustrating, especially after I read how easy some other people have it with Trapdoor. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are still a few tricks you can try. Some of my lower-damage alts (including my Traps/AR Defender) have pulled Trapdoor into the lava and kept him there; the continual DoT and what debuffs I've been able throw seem to overcome his regen.

I tried really hard to solo it on my stone brute but ended up having to ask a kin to help me.

What it comes down to is that if you don't have Regen/RES debuffs, massive damage output, MM pets, holds/stuns or long range damage you can't take him down.

If you can't down him before he spawns a 2nd clone then you have to start going after the clones or his regen is too high. By the time you've dealt with the clones, he's back to full health and you're back to square one. FYI he can spawn up to 26 clones

So far I've managed to solo him on my Ice/Fire tank, Warshade, Fire/Rad controller, Mind/Psi Dom and Merc/Dark MM - everything else has failed. It doesn't help that he cheats and his clone power doesn't need any Endurance to activate, so my Elec/Kin Defender's usual trick of keeping everything nearby at 0 End was worthless.

What I did with my Elec/Stone tank was grab three summon temp powers:
1. Clockwork Connection (ran the Penelope Yin arc via Ourobouros)
2. Warwolf Whistle (ran the Tobias Hansen arc via Ourobours)
3. Backup Radio (I had this already)

Once Trapdoor summoned his first clone, I summoned these and got the clones, then back to him. Every time he cloned, I bashed the clone, leaving the others to bash Trapdoor. By the end, only the PPD and I were standing. I really don't know whether the Clockwork helped, but I was still successful.

On the toons ive solo'd him on, i used everything i had at once, reds, buildup and tried to over come it. Several toons i asked for help ahead of time. First time I ran it on my ma/sr, i didn't even know what the deal was just killed him, then wondered why in the hell everyone else needed help, until i ran it on my defender. I'd wait for good timing when rage is doubled, pop a tray full of reds, and hope for the best if your die hard on doing it solo, otherwise ask for a hand or two.

The Envenomed Dagger, often available dirt cheap on the market, carries a -regen debuff, and can be quite helpful against Trapdoor, especially if his regen is only a tiny amount above your damage.

The other piece of advice is to lure him into the lava (using the -range in taunt and simply brekaing LoS). I did that on my Inv/Axe Tanker and it worked like a charm. The lava killed him while I killed the clones.

Trapdoor is quite a bit harder for a melee character than a ranged character but he is doable. As others have mentioned, getting some temp power (either the dagger or pets) is a good way to do it if yuo're having a hard time.

personally, i did the arc up to that point on normal settings, then just dropped to -1x0, ran straight to him, smacked him upside the head, and gladly finished up! ive tried 3 different Brutes so far, SS/SR, ELE/Dark, and Dark/Fire, and none could overcome him without dropping settings, other than the SS/SR after popping everything.

I've never had trouble soloing him, except one time when I forgot that I was on +4x8. I just changed my difficulty to 0x1 and smashed his face. Most of the time he's dead before he can even spawn any clones, but I guess I like high dmg characters.

Reds insp are your friend. If the fight is taking long enough that you need -regen or shivans and stuff, I'd say look at your diff cause something is wrong.

Yeah simple solution. I had my difficulty turned way up for grinding purposes. I turned it down to normal and beat him down in under a minute. I was really beginning to wonder why I was sucking so bad. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Eh, Trapdoor as a +0 EB just require a bit of strategy on some characters is all. I've soloed him on 20 level 50s of every villain side AT/power combo and more often than not he was a pushover. However on certain DPS challenged characters, you just have to make use of the lava to slow down his regen while you take care of the clone. Of course you could always pull him onto one of the catwalks to start the fight (easier to do this with ranged ATs obviously) and sometimes, his clone will pop up next to you.

My SS/Invul Brute had trouble the first time (was stoopid...went in light on Insps). Second time I kept munching Reds, saved KO Blow for the clones (1-shotted them as was mentioned before) and took advantage of stacked Rage. My Brute isn't maxed out on IOs or anything so if I can do it anyone should be able to.

Ive done him solo on my DM/SR and WM/WP Brutes and my SD/Axe Tank.
My current tactic is to hit FRENZY (Villain alignment power) while I run in (by the time I get to him to 5 second (?) activation time is done) and also hit Build Up and SMACK THE CRAP out of him.
For the Tank it was 2x sml red INSP and then BU.
If I need to go kill his clones I usually use my hardest hitting powers on them as well to kill them ASAP (and KB them into the lava with my Axe [Tank]).

As others have suggested if needed throw Enven Daggers when you see the bifubricate(?) message before you go clone-killing to reduce his Regen-spike.

A peculiarity I've run into is that sometimes a character who was utterly beaten by him will crush him when I try again. Sometimes I think that just having several status effects land in a row (like keeping him knocked on his butt a lot) seems to make the difference. So I advise taking a couple of tries at him, bringing all your burst damage, before worrying too much about it.

I really don't understand all the difficulty people are having with this guy. I've fought him several times so far and haven't been defeated once. This was on multiple ATs, not all of which are are considered super powerful.

My strategy has always been to take 3 purples and 17 red. Set the diff to -1x1 and run past everything till you get to trapdoor. Eat all your skittles and jump in with your strongest attacks. When he splits, tab target the clone, kill it with like 2 hits, then run back to trapdoor and finish him off.

Easy Peasy!

I was able to solo him on my Invul/EM Tank. What I did was worked on getting him into the lava. Once there I stacked stuns on him and when he was stuned I ran around killing his clones and coming back to stun as needed. I will say that it helps to stand toe to toe with him in the lava to get him to stay.

TL: DR

I just don't understand why and how people have difficulty with him. I also don't know why people need to invent elaborate strategies to defeat him. Never had a problem. The harder mission is with The Honoree and the Vanguard EB. Vanguard has some really nasty debuffs, and the honoree does Total Focus on yah.

It confuses me that someone, especially on a BRUTE of all things, would have any difficulty at all with Trapdoor, but different people are at different levels of skill both in game strategy/performance and builds.

Though to be fair, for 50 levels the game teaches you that there's no real need for movement, then this late-game stuff comes along with Trapdoor and blue patches and all the sudden you realize the game has been lying to you for 50 levels. This is probably what causes most people problems, until they realize what's happening.

WARNING: I bold names.