BAF Incarnate Trial with MO Badges

Okay, still the new shiney, but actually almost as easy as Apex to get the MO, if you know what to do and get on with it.

First, the map:

BAF incarnate trial map

Make sure to remember the key marked places. Alright, you'll work out the hospital anyway when you come out of it, but the tennis courts and the spawn points are important to know.

The Trial takes 12-24 players in a league. Until you've unlocked Destiny slots for the big ol' buffs, its safest to go for the maximum, especially given the escapee phase.

Try to balance out 3 teams, with each having some control, some AoE damage, and some single-target damage. Its best if there are 2 people who can taunt in at least 2 of the teams so that they can each save the other from being Sequestered, but if not, you can still do it.

Warn people to wait for everyone to zone before touching the first door. The first person through the door triggers the cut-scene, and I find that people zoning seem a little more prone to crashing if they zone into the middle of the cutscene than if zoning in before it starts. Hopefully this issue will be fixed soon, but for now, another few seconds of patience is never a bad thing.

Phase 1: Kill Mobs
You enter the map via a small door that puts you at the Starting Point (also the Hospital Exit point) marked on the map. There are Warworks mobs to kill. Its a straight forward bit of slaughter, but it doesn't take long to be moved into phase 2. Try to move toward Nightstar's spawn point and the Reinforcement spawn point, as those will be your areas for the next phase.



Okay, time for the next map illustration:



This map shows the spawn points for both AVs, and for the Reinforcements that are spawned on a timer throughout the fight. When one AV spawns, in Phase 2 and Phase 4 you ignore the other AV spawn point and focus on putting your teams on the other two orange circles I added.

Phase 2: Nightstar Spawns
A big message flashing on screen tells you when Nightstar comes out to play. 2 teams should move to take Nightstar out while a third, a team with lots of AoE and Control should move straight to the Reinforcement Spawn Point and kill all reinforcements there, long before they reach Nightstar.

Now you don't actually need to kill all the reinforcements in the single-AV fights to get the "Strong and Pretty" badge, but having a team getting those reinforcements gives 'practice', and helps you to balance out the AoE damage that is going to be needed there for the final fight where time will be tight and you only get one shot. I recommend covering the reinforcement spawns for every AV fight. I give the Seige team this first turn on the reinforcement spawns for fairest sharing of IXP.

There is a badge is for not moving any AV away from their spawn point, so all through, kill the AVs where they spawn, no pulling across the map.

Moving between the two barracks buildings to fight Nightstar may limit the ability of several turrets to target the team members here, but there is always one with a direcly LOS (Line of Sight) at the top-end of the barracks buildings. At least there seem to be less turrets in range around Nightstar than around Siege...

Phase 3: Escapee Phase
Once Nightstar is defeated, you have just a few moments to get into your next positions and the mindwashed prisoners are released. The Minions can be held, slept, immobilised, and very easily killed so are not your main worry. The Commandos are effectively immune to all mez effects, including, well, everything except damage. You must focus on killing the Commandos. The Controllers can lockdown the minions, and AoE damage will kill them fast, so its the commandos that are important.

This Macro adds a button to your tray that selects just the nearest commando.

Code:

/macro Com target_custom_next alive Commando

Every damage-dealing toon in the League should have this, or the bind.

Code:

/bind o target_custom_next alive Commando

The Commandos will not stop running, so you only have a short time to kill them before they are either out of range of where you are supposed to be guarding, or even are off to the exit. For the MO, one of the badges is for none of the mindwashed to escape.

Luckily, all six escape routes run past just 2 easy to locate choke-points.



The coloured lines show the various escape routes used, and the two red circles show where the teams need to be. Twice as many escape routes (thus twice as many escapees) run through the south circle as the north one, so put 2 teams on the south of the center of the tennis court, and one on the north side, and you have everything covered.

The Controllers can lockdown the minions passing through those chokepoints, and AoE damage will wreak slaughter, but the commandos will often get through, so the single-target damage dealers must focus non-stop on killing the commandos and letting NOTHING get away from the choke points alive.

There seems to be a natural tendancy for players to feel they need to spread out to cover more area. In truth though, I find the teams that stay more tightly bunched, with just a couple of 'chasers' following up and returning again do best. This is partly due to more of the team benefitting from buffs like Assault when closely bunched, and thus considerably boosting damage. Definitely, spreading too far lowers the chances of success. The entire point of those choke-points is that every mob comes to you, right through your kill-zone. Just make sure none leave it.

Watch out for that orange escape route just to the bottom left of the lower choke point, between 2 of those hangers. Its worth having an extra couple of damage-dishers aware of that and killing fast any commandos or mobs that slip past, because the exit is close, and so you won't have much time to shoot the running lieutenants there before they are out. Quick death to anything heading that way. Quick death to anything making it away from a choke-point.

The two choke-points do work, as long as everyone is vigilant for the Commandos, and makes sure none escape. No escapers gives you the badge for the MO. But as long as no more than 20 get out, you still win the phase, get merits, and go to phase 4.

Phase 4: Siege spawns
Once the escapees are all done, Siege comes out at his marked spawn-point. The tactic is about the same as for Nightstar, with one team killing all reinforcements at the Reinforcement spawn point, while the others rip Siege apart where he spawns. Again, remember the badge for killing the AVs where they spawn.

The reinforcement spawns are still not essential at this point, but its the last practice before killing them fast and right becomes essential to the entire league's success of failure in the MO badge. I usually give the Nightstar team a turn on the reinforcement spawns for this first takedown of Seige to help share the XP.

It is worth noting that Siege seems to be supported by more turrets in range than Nightstar is, and so the Seige fight will generally be the harder of the two AVs. Moving inside the warehouse/hanger thing to fight seige out of LOS of the turrets may help, but sometimes that confinement is even more deadly to the squishies.

The fight is much much easier when none of the reinforcements get to arrive and gank the party.

Here's that map again:




Phase 5: Nightstar and Siege together
The final phase of the BAF, and while tough, its not that bad as long as all of the reinforcement spawns are slaughtered at their spawn point. Of course, you do still have to take down both AVs within ten seconds of each other, or the fallen one gets up again with full HP. Steady and careful is the key.

You need all three teams working together, but on different jobs to get this done smoothly and get the MO badges.
You must lockdown and destroy the reinforcement spawns at their spawn-point for the badge, and to make things much much easier for the teams fighting the AVs.

This time, controlling the Reinforcement spawn point is vital to the badges. Hopefully you had your teams on the point earlier for some practice, and to help the AV team leaders know who is their best AoE-person to send now.

The AV fighting teams should each send a high-AoE toon to the Reinforcement spawn team to help with the lockdown and killing of the reinforcement spawns. Heavy AoE damage is best here. If necessary, swap any additional single-target oriented characters from the Reinforce team for more AoE from an AV team.

Each AV team sending that one AoE effective member of their team to the reinforcement team means their team will get some of that juicy incarnate XP for all the slaughter there. Remember that League put teams together, but that XP is still divided by teams, not across the entire league. At least, that's what I've been told, and I haven't wanted to skip all incarnate XP to test it out.

The on-screen popup window in this final phase is something everyone should pay attention to. It shows the health of both AVs, and it also shows the time until the next reinforcement spawn. The final badge for the MO is for dropping the AVs at a moment when there are no reinforcement mobs anywhere on the map.

The easiest current tactics for this still require some focus on timing, and just a teensy bit of luck in regard to AV health regeneration. The AV teams should both be aware before the fight begins, and reminded at stages during the takedowns to pause damaging the AVs when they are down to 2% health. Then let the Reinforcement team leader make the final call for when to finish them off. The reinforcement team leader needs to time it so that the AVs are dropped right after one spawn is finished, and before the next lot of reinforcements spawn.

A really good tip added in the posts below suggest instructing the AV teams to dismiss the pets at about 5% health to better control the damage, and thus drop, of the AV. Certainly, when holding the AVs at 2% health any MM pets should be on passive (not bodyguard) and any controllers or dominators fighting the AVs should dismiss all pets.

It is easier when the Reinforcement team are reliably killing the spawns in under 15 seconds. Under 10 is better still. The reinforcement spawn leader should call for extra damage if he needs it. However, there's still a tiny element of luck involved, (as in bad luck can get you), because one AV may suddenly have a regenerative spurt, or knockback suddenly splits the last mob, or several people miss at once... It may still take more than one shot to get this last badge. However, luck aside, the tactics and strategies given do make it fairly controllable.


This post, like this strategy, has been made possible by a great deal of other players, not only those who provided and published the original maps I have marked up, and the macro used above, but also the scores of players on the Union server who've been willing to test and try tactics. Any usefulnes to this guide depends on all of those people as much as to I who merely added words and formatting. Thanks

Perfect guide.. now lets do it! Too bad I am not online before next sunday

We have this down to an art now, with the only slightly questionable badge really being the Not On My Watch badge for not letting a single Mindwashed Escape, and that works every time too if you can just get the teams into the right places.

5 Runs today, 4 of them successful "Master Of" runs with all of the badges.

The other (the failed MO) was really close, but had 2 escapees due to one of the south chokepoint teams failing to setup in the right place, and thinking they needed to spread out. Then not moving into position once prompted, presumably due to scrapperlock on a team basis.

I think the BAF is now my favourite piece of short event content in the game, as once you have the strategy down, its a real blast, with MOs for all first-timers.

It's all in the briefing.

Got Mo badge with that tactic - and were in at least 2 more successful runs on Union.
First to say THANK YOU, and then to add just one small thing:
Always tell to people in team NOT TO CLICK GLOWIE.
If someone clicks glowie you will miss Alarm Raiser badge.

Thanks CatAstrophe. I did notice you on those runs today, and you were superb in tracking and killing even the most slippery of Commandos.

That's a good point you make, and indeed, I ended the day with 4 successes of 6 (where I was leading) on those 'Master Of B.A.F' runs. Both failures were down to plain simple human error where one or more players ignored commands (once where to be, and once not to touch something).

I take that as a positive proof of the strategy though, because using this guide, only blatant human error can seemingly result in a failure, and even those are only failed on one of the badges, and usually by the narrowest of margins.

The best run of the day for me was the last one. We had several players who'd not done the BAF Trial at all before, one of whom hadn't yet done any of the trials or found out how to use the league window, etc. And those players walked away from their first ever attempt with a clear success and a load of badges. I like that.

I've added just a few refinements to this Strategy that in testing have worked well and improved things.

Firstly I give a huge step by step briefing via copy and paste from a text file I made up. It makes a big difference. The briefing lets everyone know all the jobs, not just blindly follow their leader, and helps a lot with all the swapping of support this Trial can use.

Secondly, I now alternate the Reinforcement Spawn team for all three AV fights. This gives the most fair and even spread of the IXP and rewards throughout the trial.

Now the Seige team cover the helipad area to kill reinforcement spawns during the first Nightstar fight, with a support AoE type from each other team.

The Nightstar team cover the reinforcement spawns at the helipad during the first battle with Siege, and hold there until relieved by the Reinforcement team at the finale.

The Reinforcement team cover the reinforcement spawn point for the final showdown with both AVs together. They have to make sure they have enough AoE damage to kill the reinforcement spawns quickly (15 seconds or better) reliably, and thus give the very best chance of having no spawns on the map when the AVs drop.


I'll update the OP with this tactic when I have the time later (am still changing my briefing text files right now).

The following is a wall of text, I know, but it is the copy paste text I use for a full briefing. It may seem way too much, and perhaps over time it will get more concise, especially as more people have more experience and better incarnate powers, but for now this really does help enough to be worthwhile.

Like i told you ingame, your a proper master of these trials

Question, in detail, how do you get the strong in pretty badge.. been trying for it this weekend to no avail. DO you kill them during there first spwans w/o reinforcements or just the dual rez w/o adds or both... we were not sure which it was...

Strong and Pretty is for killing all the reinforcement spawns. Its that final tricky bit in the wal of text instructions.

You have to time killing the dual AVs for a moment when there are also no living reinforcement spawns.

The basic tactic for that specific badge is in three parts:
(a) hold the damage on both AVs at about 2%.
(b) ensure that the reinforcement spawn team are typically killing each spawn in under 15 seconds.
(c) reinforcement team leader gives the shout when to finish off the last 2% on AVs, timing it so that it coincides with the last spawn being dead, and the next spawn being far enough away that you can put down the AVs in that time.

Its great if several of your league have already unlocked and slotted the Judgement incarnate slot at this point, because they can all save those for this last critical moment to help ensure perfect syncronicity.

However, as long as the Reinforcement spawn team are killing the spawns fast enough with plenty of AoE damage, there's a decent chance of getting the badge without timing the AVs specially.

A spawn of reinforcements every 30 seconds, and a team that kills them in 10, means there's no spawn alive for 20 seconds of every 30, and a 2 in 3 raw chance for the badge.

Timing gets that chance much higher, but errors happen, and it may take a couple of tries.

at the moment that the AV runs out of HP, if there are no reinforcements on the map, you get the badge. Using the reinforcement team strategy and the timer, its quite controllable.

Great Guide Ammon. Have all the badges now except the ones where you defeat the AVs at their spawn points.

Please Note: Reinforcements do NOT have to be killed prior to defeating the AV on the single fights with Nightstar and Siege. It is ONLY the final dual-fight where the Reinforcement clearance is needed for Strong and Pretty. The badge text reflects this - "Siege and Nightstar are the real threat at the Behavioral Adjustment Facility, but you added insult to injury by depriving them of all their War Works allies prior to administering the final simultaneous blow."

Makes it an easier fight though, and gives the Reinforcements Team some practice.

Might want to edit the guide to reflect this - at the moment it's saying that reinforcements neeed to be wiped for the single Nightstar and single Siege fights.

Good point, Master Zaprobo, it is only the final putdown where the no living reinforcements matter, although just as you guessed, I like to control the reinforcement spawn point for all of the AV fights for 3 reasons:
1. It makes the instructions a little simpler if we treat that job as a constant.
2. It makes for fairer IXP for all if each team gets a turn at the reinforce spawns.
3. It gives 2 goes of 'practice' so that you can get the damage and kill-time right.


I'll see what I can do to make it clearer in the OP. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Global_DJB At 5% I ask for all pets to be dismissed, they are - at that point - more hassle than they are worth.

Really good point. I think I'll add a mention of that to the Guide. When I'm running these, I tend to be putting the MMs on the reinforce spawn point because the pets make a big difference there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Global_DJB Anyways still a huge increase in success rate (even with folks new to the run) since we shifted to your tactics the other night, so thanks for that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarvelatMee Great Guide Ammon. Have all the badges now except the ones where you defeat the AVs at their spawn points.

Great to hear.


Thanks for all the feedback.

ive had a lot of questions about where is safe to fight Nightstar at the barracks, so I added a map to my guide, which you may or may not want to include in yours if you get the same questions.

Drag him back into the entrance of the building he spawns infront of, the walls protect you from the laser turrets.

Cool thanks

Thanks Tsumiju Zero. Who tested for tht map and when? I know from experience I have been killed in three supposedly hidden positions within that safe area, purely from turret fire, though that was before the last update.

What I haven't tested is whether its that the turrets targeted me before I got into position, and then were able to keep hitting me regardless, or whether Nightstar can act as a 'spotter' for artillery fire to arc high.

well, my scrapper is defence based and I spent most of the test server time working out where I would be able to fight and where I would spend time having an in depth analysis of the B.A.F's attention to gardening and floor maintainance, there does seem to be a very slight delay between the combat log and animation though.

Thanks Tsumiju Zero. If you want to test for all safe-spots again, or get a map of the radius of the turrets, and need team-members, count me in.

I have found that Seige's hanger is safe from turret-fire, and the doorway of the hanger at the reinforcement spawn is also shielded from turret fire. I haven't yet found a really reliable safe-spot at Nightstar's spawn, despite many attempts.

I've played almost exclusively support-toons (squishies) on the Trials so far, so I really do notice getting hit.

I put most of the turret locations on the map at the beginning of the guide I posted, turret radius would be awesome information though, perhaps a "lets leave nightstar and play with the turrets" run is in order!