Surviving Being Targeted by AV War Walkers (Underground Trial)

I'm hoping someone can enlighten me on this. I've played the Underground trial 3 times and have not figured this mechanic out.

On my most recent run of the Underground, it was explained to me if that if I get "Targetted" by a giant War Walker (identified by the word "Targetted" under my health bar) that I should back away from the rest of the team.

Well, I did that. The problem is, on the Blaster I was playing on the most recent instance, no matter where I stood in the room--close, far, behind a pillar, anywhere--this power killed me in one shot.

Is it possible to survive? Are the instructions just wrong? In 3 runs of this trial I have racked up an impressive (read: ridiculous) number of deaths due to these kind of mechanics and am unsure what to do about it.

I'm not sure if there is anythign to do about it.

Moving away from the rest of the league is for their benefit - if you get away from them only you will suffer. If you stand around you can possibly wipe the whole league.

It would be great if the big blue smurf in Ouroboros could tell us helpful things about the special attacks that these monsters have, if we go talk to him. The big flashy messages that pop up on the screen aren't very informative. I'm being targeted? I expect my enemies to always be targeting me, how is this different? Etc.

I think I found a somewhat effective method...but that's if you want to be jumping in and out of combat...you'll at least dodge the fear and hold.

I would like to believe that evading the hold is the key to not being omgpwned by the Lethal Force power.

I've been targetted many times, i just jump back away from the war walker.
I've not gotten hit or anything only time i've died on those is when others who got targetted didn't move away.
Wait until it fades, then jump back in.

The power that is killing you is called Lethal Force Authorized. It does 8 ticks of 30% unresistable autohit damage each, guaranteeing death if you do not heal.

You can try to heal through it. The instant you see "Lethal Force Authorized" on your screen, stop attacking. Once the damage ticks start, eat greens and pop your heals (You -are- carrying 1 row of large greens... right?) You need to pace yourself so that you do not run out of heals before the ticks end. Note that most aura heals do not help you survive, since they have high animation times (in the range of 2s) and do not heal enough; you want things like Dull Pain for this.

I've heard people claim that the attack is a cone, and that you can avoid it by moving to the side or back of the war walker. Every time I have done so, I have not been hit by it (but it's also possible that it's just due to me standing apart from other players, since the attack only hits people within 10ft of Targetted allies). I have no idea whether it really is a cone or what the range or arc is since it's hidden behind pseudopets like most unresistables.

Lethal force authorized rolls for hitchance in the combat window, implying it isn't autohit (but the pseudopet could be, I have no way of knowing). The real numbers for it read 2x accuracy, for a staggeringly high 123% defense to softcap vs it. That might explain why support-heavy leagues rarely seem to get hit by it, in my experience, but for what it's worth I've never survived one only by eating super purples.

Judging by this little bit from the I21 info page:

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

being targeted just allows you to be hit with 1 of 3 various powers

lethal force as mentioned which does extremely high DoT to you and anyone around you, this one is the real killer

the other 2 i cant recall the names atm, but i know one is a fear and one is a hold which are used more frequently than lethal force

as mentioned the best way to usually protect the team from these is to move away from them while your targeted

In my experience, Lethal Force ticks slowly enough that it's reasonably easy to heal from...unless you're being hit by ticks from a nearby ally, too, in which case, g'night.

This question makes me really sad that the CoHTitan version of RedTomax's site is offline.

My understanding is that as long as you are behind the War Walker you should be fine.

That is if the tanker has been taunting the AV and everyone is behind it, it only will affect the tanker.

I know that's what I try and do; although I didn't do a great job of positioning the AV last time I did the UG....it was facing everyone (it was in the corner facing outwards towards the tracks) and because of that the AV held/feared and killed the league more than I wanted

There should be a healing bubble happening during that fight.

If I am "TARGETED" I run away from everyone else to keep my woes from impacting them. If I am not targeted, I stay behind the WW.

I'm not sure it makes sense that it really affects everything in a sphere around it, because I am pretty sure my melee characters would have been TARGETED a lot more. It seems more likely that it is targeting people either in a cone in front of it or in a sphere centered on whoever has its aggro.

It's possible I have just had enough +defense that it always missed, and my position had nothing to do with it. That seems pretty unlikely given the moderate levels of defense possessed by the melee characters I've taken on UGTs (a Regen Scrapper and a FA Brute) and the (lack of) buffs from some of the leagues I've been on when I run UGTs.

I don't really trust "official guides" wording. Their translation of game mechanics into plain English often leaves a lot to be desired.

As said, it's not being Targeted that's KOing you, it's that you're not vulnerable to [Lethal Force Authorized], an AoE centered on targets who have the [Targeted] status effect. Contrary to what's listed here, [Lethal Force Authorized] IS resistible and CAN miss, so if you have [Barrier] or [Moment of Glory], you should be watching for the big red letters announcing [Lethal Force Authorized] is coming.

You should also try to be aware of other people who may be targeted. There's not a good way to tell if someone else is targeted, but the effects are cumulative and stack, so if you have 2 people who are targeted standing near one another you'll get a double dose of the insanity that is the War Walkers' attacks.

To increase your chances of avoiding being targeted in the first place, fight behind the Walker while a few competent tanks keep the critter's attention. The actual targeting is a cone in front of the walker.

Ah, it's Lethal Force itself that can miss. Anyone know if TARGETED can miss? (It seems unlikely.) If it can't, I'm even less confident that TARGETED is actually applied in a sphere around the WW.

I don't believe you can dodge the Targeted status. In all the times I've run it I get hit by it, no matter how many Amazing Lucks I've popped during a fight. Could just be terrible RNG luck though!

Going out of sight when you're targetted seems you won't get hit with the lethal force autohored part.

Thanks guys.

Next question: when you are on a team as a Blaster and getting Targetted every 30 seconds or so and running a death train to the hospital, are you just on a badly strategized league? Looking at the situation I don't know what else I could have done. If I remember right we never even got the boss below 90% HP. Previous teams I was on had fewer problems, but I've never really understood what was going on in this (or any) of these fights.

I have to admit after this experience I am very close to giving up on Incarnate content completely and going premium. That's frustration talking, but man is dying over and over and over because you didn't follow the script infuriating.