No Escaping!

Hey all, im just curious on what AT/Powerset would be the best for doing BAFs? I wanna level two chars to 50+3, one for BAFs, another for LAMs. So what would be awesome for BAF, and what be good for LAM?

I kinda have a idea of anything with Holds, Imm, Sleep, Slow are the best for BAF so the escapees dont go for?

For LAM all i can think about for it be some kinda of straight up debuffer for Mara, Weapon Caches and Containments.

Any help on this would be awesome.

- Which AT/Powersets for LAM would be the best helper?
- Which AT/Powersets for BAF would be the best helper?

Only two things which im trying to say here

It's kind of funny to make two characters with a specific trial in mind for each when you could probably just make one character who is quite good at both, but then again what is the point of CoH if not to produce alts?

On lambda I find that two tactics are effective: either go for all out survivability so you can run roughshod through the joint's corridors blowing up the objectives by yourself only to triumphantly kick the main doors down, pick them up, and slam them across Marauder's lumpy face like a turgid pillar of heroic... sorry, where was I? You can either do that, or you can go for more of a aoe/ranged damage approach. That way you smash the spawns outside and during the collection phase you can use stealth to shoot the glowies from a distance. The spawns surrounding them will ignore you except for the special sybils, who you will need to teach a lesson to periodically. Both fine choices.

For BAF I almost always feel more useful if I have strong aoes. Anyone can pound on AVs, which is what most of the trial is about, but the prisoner phase goes off without a hitch if just a couple people are capable of totally locking down a set of doors by themselves. My DP blaster and fire armor scrapper really shine here - most of the time the minions don't even spawn properly before they're dead, and the lieuts don't get far.

So, that said, it seems to me that the answer to the trials, much like the answer to everything else, is "blasters or scrappers."

I find that I like what my Traps/DP defender brings to the table for these trials.

For the BAF:
On the Escapee phase, caltrops, poison gas trap (slotted with hold proc), acid mortar (with hold and extra resistance debuff), and the arachnos spider pet (I went with mace mastery) are the big players for clogging up the escapees. Then, I unload my aoes on them. The Lts. can be tougher, but acid mortar/trip mine softens them up nicely for either me, or whoever is downstream from me to finish off.

On the AV fighting phase: poison gas trap and acid mortar help to soften up the big baddies. Triage beacon does 260% regen in the area (and I can usually have a couple out), while force field generator adds defense and decent status effect protection to everyone. I also scatter caltrops to keep the melee adds at bay if they're causing problems for the squishies.

If things get tough and people are dying a lot, I send in some seeker drones and switch to toxic ammo to try to debuff the incoming damage.

For the Lambda:
The collection phase can be crazy, but I can either pew-pew the crates directly from stealth (boring and rarely do it), or send in seeker drones/poison gas trap/acid mortar too. Force field generator helps with the stuns etc and lets people rez using an awaken.

The traps set also helps out quite a bit on the master of Lambda runs.

I think that your answer depends on what you want to do in the runs. I think that overall my traps/dp defender brings a lot to the table for these. But, I've also enjoyed running the trials with my ss/elec brute.

Keep in mind that for the BAF, the minions that can be controlled die fairly quickly anyway. Plus, since you're dealing with bosses and higher for most of the raid, the magnitude on most control powers in and of itself is going to be meaningless. What you want for a BAF is copious amounts of damage. Put down those escaping Commandos quick as you can, and let splash damage handle the other prisoners. Mow down those 9CUs and Vickies before they become a significant threat.

If you can go Permadom, then a Fire/Fire/Fire Dominator seems like it'd be an excellent choice. You can slow down the escaping minions considerably with Hot Feet alone, you crank out damage like a damage crank, and you're even able to stop the ambushes cold with a couple different powers. Not having Permadom will be more limiting, though, so if you can't pull that off, I think the next best bet would be a Mastermind (especially once the i20.5 changes come down), since you have versatility of abilities and getting to be in more than one place at a time is quite handy for the escape phase.

For Lambda, the two keys are going to be survivability for the collections, and a non-standard damage type for Marauder. Scrappers and Brutes can both be "tough enough", as can some of the support classes. If you go for melee, it also helps to not have your survivability based significantly on an aura that's going to bring a lot of aggro. The next thing to consider is your type of damage that Marauder doesn't resist through the roof. Of course, the best there is Psionic, but there isn't any Psionic melee, so beyond that, stray away from the sets that are entirely Smashing or Lethal damage.

An Energy or Fire Brute seems like a strong contender, with Electric armor good for defense, since Praetorians love their energy damage. If you're more interested in support, I could see a Sonic/Sonic Defender working pretty well, too. You can be reasonably tough during the collections, and every little bit of Resistance debuff is going to be a boon for helping your team damage the big dog.

High AoE is good for the baf. Fire...kill it with fire.

Lambda, Mar is really quite overrated imo and really anything is useful against him some debuffs of course would help. I think its more important a team is able to do the collect phase and melee really does well there. I also think a lot of perma doms mainly mind do really well duing that phase because they can lock down a mob (mind has sleep for its only good if if team mates know you are using it) Im gonna echo the awsomeness of an elec brute.

Fire/Dark Corrs seem to be excellent on BAFs. Throw down the patch to slow and debuff resistance outside the doors, then pour fire on them as they spawn.

You will have moron and door-sitter/afk teammates who ruin your plan of No Escaping on at least 50% of your BAFs. Sad but true.

My plant/fire/fire dom has lots to do in all phases of the BAF. During the escape phase between roots, carrion creepers and her pet she has a ton of slow/immobs to use on the minions as well as lots of AE to help finish them off (fireball + RoF + fire breath) and then she can hit the LT's with her single target attacks, which are pretty hard hitting.

During the other phases she can help cut down on adds with seeds of confusion + AE damage and still contribute quite a bit to the AV fights. In the lambda she has to cut back a bit on AE damage, as it brings to much aggro her way, but its only a big deal on the temp gather phase and even then, seeds on the groups right around the glowies goes a long way to speeding things up.

Another good choice would be an earth/* dominator - earth's slows and immoblizes are very nice for controlling minions in the escape phase and pretty much any dom secondary is going to give you nice single target damage for takign out the LT's.

Another vote for traps, it has slow/hold fields for the escapee phase, and debuffs for the AV's for the BAF. Seeker drones and poison gas weaken the groups around the objects making them easy to remove in the Lamb. And you can grab a rain power from your primary, which is more slow/damage field.

Fire/Traps corr for both. There is no situation that occurs on either trial that a fire/traps does not have a solution for.

Traps is always good.

If your not interested in Traps try a Ice/Fire/Fire dom. Arctic air will chill and confuse anything. Ice Patch makes everything including bosses flop around while /Fire/Fire does copious amounts of damage.

Ice/Fire/Ice is also good.

Plant or fire/fire/fire perma dom. For baf. My fire^3 dom can easily destroy 90% of what comes out of a door by herself. Imps+lore then I spam fire cages and fireball with rain of fire as it is available.

Key note: whatever you decide on, TAKE TACTICS.

SS/FA brute, slotted as you would for farming with high recharge. Camp a door, spam burn + footstomp and keep Rage up. The escapees die at you feet. "Chokes" are for losers.

BAF - Crab Soldier.
+Dam/+Def/+ToHit team buffs (sometimes even 2 of each)
Venom Grenade (AoE) (-Res)
Supression (AoE) (-Def)
Frag Grenade (AoE) (KB)
Pets
2x AoE Melee attacks (1x Cone, 1x PBAoE)
Solid ranged ST attacks
Wide Area Web Grenade (-50% run speed)
High personal defence


Lambda - Fortunata
+Dam/+Def/+ToHit team buffs (sometimes even 2 of each)
PSI Damage
Mag4 Stun
MindLink
Confuse
Some -Regen powers (-25%)
Possible to get high personal defence

For me, the most efficient and effective AT to run a BAF on is ... a MFing Warshade! (copyright, Dechs Kaison). My Tri-form Warshade spends almost the entire run in Human Form ... but dealing with the Prisoners Phase and the AV (and Adds) Phases, it's all Human.

For the Prisoner Phase, I just dial up Orbiting Death and Inky Aspect and use Eclipse and Human Mire whenever they're recharged. All I have to do is "camp" outside a door, and let Orbiting Death wipe out most of the escapees' HP even before they finish spawning. A tremendous number of them don't even step outside the door before they're dead ... that those that do, usually stagger away drunkenly (Stunned).

I use Gravitic for my Interface Slot, and it does a pretty good job of keeping hostiles inside my Orbiting Death ... which of course tears them apart Wholesale, rather than Retail.

On the AV phases, my powers are best used against the Add Piles that spawn in. Eclipse, Mire, Judgement ... they don't live long ... and with Gravitic as my Interface, they don't get far either, since I camp their spawn point.

Rip, tear, shred, mangle, maim, bend, fold, spindle, mutilate, manicure, doggie balloon, POP!

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I think Redlynne likes her Warshade but Im not sure...?