The BAF as I have come to understand it.

So, for the first time this morning, I led a BAF trial.

I was not trying for a Master run. Rather, I just wanted to succeed and not look like a clueless newb on my first time as head honcho-star.

Thanks to Burning Sol, Cimmeria and Y2KING for my training as a leader. Those 3 are the shizzy fo sho, and I would not have the first clue on how to lead a BAF were it not for their excellent leadership skills.

I should mention that Strong & Pretty and Not On My Watch drop this way anyway, but I make no attempt for the other 2 badges.

Part 1) Warworks- Go. Hunt. Kill Wrks.

Part 2) Nightstar- Pull her and her Vickie harem NOT to the tennis courts, but to the building where all the adds come from. There is only one tower that can shoot the helipad/courtyard/tarmac, and it is essentially 20 yards away. One person can keep the towers controls in the corner of their eye and run and click it everytime there is a glowie. As for how to pull Nightstar (and Siege for that matter) shooting and running like hell or shooting and then hiding behind a building seems to get them to chase you faster. Though, admittedly, Siege is a bigger and slower 'bot, but both should come to the same area eventually. Also, since the adds spawn to where you are pulling, more judgement and standard AoEs may be brought to bear and used for more people to get more experience.

Part 3) Prisoner Escape- 3-4 camp each of the doors, with hopefully one controller or dominator per door area. Scrappers and Brutes patrol the walkways and focus on LTs. Blasters and Corruptors flit about and shoot anything that moves. However:
* Try not to use Barrier during this phase. If you get confused you "cast" it on the prisoners and that is a bad thing...
* Be prepared for pets to become confused.
* I found that you can target LTs before they have even exited the door, and by targeting for my pet too (my sweet, sweet darling Vickie), they can and will hit them before they even enter the compound.
Each of the 4 times I ran it this morning, we got the badge. However, that was really due to the great team more than anything else.

Part 4) Siege- Same as Nightstar, with the understanding that homey is about 10 times heavier than "her" and will take a bit more time to pull to the tarmac in front of the add building. Once again, have a designated tower toggler.

Part 5) Both AVs together PLUS Adds- Well, EVERYONE is assembled, and in some cases the AVs are both within AoE distance of one another. By doing this, one Ion or Pyro judgment can hit everybody at once. This helps each team get the maximum amount of exp. Plus, you can really get a feel for how each AV deals with sequestration, and plan accordingly.
And-
* Once again, have a designated Tower control panel person.
* Siege is tougher. "He" will drop more slowly, but don't stop entirely, or you will not get him going again in the 10 seconds it takes to drop him after Nightstar is down.
BUT-
** If you have everyone there, all 24 can now turn their attention to the remaining AV.

Regarding sequestration. As tankers, we have a brilliant way to prevent that from EVER happening. It is called "Taunt." The minute you see anyone get a second warning, taunt them off the unfortunate recipient and take up the banner. There should be enough tanks/brutes or other folks with Taunt/Provoke to keep sharing the love.

I was fortunate that I had some damn fine folks leading the charge for their respective teams. I usually had team one (my team) on Siege, team two on Nightstar, and team three on adds. I also was the designated tower toggler. I don't think we ever lost anyone to that tower on any of the runs. And, there are some really great taunters out there.

I realize that this is not a Master Run. I call it the "too lazy to do a Master Run" run, but we had maybe 3-5 deaths the entire set of 4 runs, and every AT was extremely useful. I tried to have one Kheld and one SoA in each team as well, and the cosmic balance/purple fluffy/quintuple leadership/massive EAT mojo was apparent.

Speaking of purple fluffies, that is another cool thing about having everything by the add area. Nightstar's "corpse" is a non-fading body that is essentially a Dark Extraction piggy-bank. Great for prisoners, adds, and Siege before the final battle.

Well, I would not have had the success were it not for the great people who took charge on their respective teams and did their assignments with brutal efficiency. NO ONE was sponging and ALL were essential.

I cannot wait to try my hand at leading a Lambda now!

I have now seen the walk-ways/chokepoint style of prisoner escape. I was not as impressed. I think if you have some killer DPS you can make it happen, but talk about herding cats! One in particular grabs my attention, because everything was seemingly fine and then 3 prisoners escaped one right after another. Not sure if that was someone was afk or asleep, or if there was a weak point on a team, or if there was a whole squad of unhurt LTs sauntering up to a hole in the ground and one person tasked with taking them all down...

Seeing the pets on the chokepoint style was a sight to behold though. The escapees TRY to run through the path, and they run RIGHT INTO the pets. My dear sweet, sweet Vickie would ::swish swash:: and down goes a LT like sack of hammers...

Not a 100% sure on this, but pretty sure that thiers a bonus 1 Astral Merit for not ever turning any turrets off.

Which is why Im not a fan of that pull spot. yes, everyone shares more in the possible thread drops from the Adds and xp. But at the same time your loseing out on a extra Astral Merit.

I only averge 5 Threads on Baf reguardless of were thier pulled to, doens't seem to make a differnce. So a possiblity of maybe.. maybe a extra Thread. Vs a automatic Astral (which can be turned into 4 threads).

Yeah.. I know were I liked to pull to. Tennis Or just kill them at thier spawn points hehe.

And after all the Bafs I have been through, Im not conviced its "easyer" as everyone keeps saying. Seems more Apples to Oranges then anything else.

Yeah i never take taunt for any of my tankers, cuz tankers tend to aggro enough on their own to begin with

Big hint for tanks and sequestration: When you get the 2 rings, you likely have aggro, if your teammate tanks (brutes) know how to off tank, they'll pick up that aggro quickly enough, but just to make sure, when you jump away, jump towards and over the other AV (so if you've been taunting NS, jump over Siege). Then get out of range of your teammates, but make sure your AV moves (if at all) towards the other AV. This way, they stay together.

I've seen far too many tanks w/the 2nd ring jumping away in the wrong direction separating the 2 AVs after the league has worked hard to get them close together. Keep them together, make sure aggro if off of you, then run off to punch some adds while your rings wear off.

BTW, there's no MoBAF run, just like there are no Mo runs for Lambda, Apex or Tin. They're all cumulative, so when you collect all the badges, say over 10 runs, you get the Mo badge. In fact, it's impossible to get MoLambda in less than 3 runs right now, afaik. Oh, and deaths don't matter either--you can die as many times as you want, just collect all the badges.

Thanks dave_p for the clarification on the "Master of" badge situation. Yeah, especially in the Lambda Trial, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get it in one run.

And, thank you Dechs... I have never, NEVER understood why a tank would not take taunt. Okay, there are inherent aggro powers in being a tank, true. But, you cannot aggro a mob at range as effectively without taunt.

That being said, my main, Beorn, has a taunt level of, I think, 4? Threat level? I am not sure, but as dave_p mentioned above, when I get my second ring and I leap over Nightstar (or Siege) to draw the AVs closer to one another, I still get them trying to come after me. I have been on BAFs where we had both AVs at the tennis court corner closest to Nightstar's spawn point, I had leapt to the diametrically opposite corner of the court, only to have Siege lumber towards me and sequester me 10 seconds after I was out of range, and then be sequestered AGAIN by Nightstar immediately after. How did I keep aggro from THAT distance while they were being attacked by 2 teams of 8? I do not know.

I have actually been sequestered 3 times in a row, in place, without ever having re-engaged the AVs. People said that they saw the words "Beorn has been sequestered" floating over me like DoTs...

Thanks Wendy! I have played some with you as well (a particularly fun ITF with Taxibot Sara2.0 comes to mind) and I think the good players DO listen and DO try to make cohesive attacks and coherent decisions.

I will have to try the pull to the add building corner next time. Thanks for the heads-up!

When I find a tank on my team without Taunt I report them to NCSoft so their account can be immediately suspended.

This is also necessary for Defenders, Controllers and Corruptors that don't have heals.

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