---Kahlan's guide to Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force---
>> Intro
MLRSF is probably the hardest badge in the game to obtain (from a strategy standpoint, not tedium). The badge is for doing an LRSF with no temporary powers and no deaths. You set these options when you begin the SF. There are several different strategies, 2 of which I use. If you feel like trying another strategy, go for it! I'll only be talking about these two though.
>> Why should I listen to you?
I've run 25 succesful MLRSFs out of 29 attempts. I've also run at least 1 MLRSF to the exclusion of each AT. But mostly I'm just trying to be helpful. If you don't like my advice, don't take it. That's all it is, advice.
>> Team Makeup
The first strategy I'll talk about involves having a very good mind dominator. They must have permadom (or enough kins on your team to give them permadom), mass hypnosis, and mesmerize. Any secondary is fine. The rest of the team can be anything, so long as they are capable of taking down Statesman (so at least one debuffer is a good idea). I tend to look for thermal corruptors, cold corruptors, fortunatas, and a brute. But anything is fine as long as you can take down Statesman.
The second strategy involves having exceedingly good buffs. You will want as many thermal corruptors, cold corruptors, sonic corruptors, veats, etc. as you can get. A brute is also a very good idea. This strategy assumes you have no access to a good mind dominator. It is quite a bit more risky than the first strategy and requires good communication and planning.
Good Therms and Colds really make this badge a lot easier, so I highly recommend getting some if you can.
>> Ventrilo/Teamspeak
The single most important thing to do for getting this badge (aside from possibly having a superb mind dominator), is to get everyone on Ventrilo/Teamspeak. It makes a huge difference. I never run one without it.
>> General notes for all missions
Whenever I say stealth+tp, this person needs to be extremely careful of spines wardens. The quills toggle can break your stealth and cause you to die quickly. Either avoid them, phase shift past them, or pop purple inspirations to get past them.
Any player who does not need to be close to an AV should be as far at range as they can be. Many of the AOEs these AVs have can destroy even some brutes without good support.
>> Mission 1
Designate one person to check where the technician is. No one should enter the mission until the technician is found. If he is not in the lab, I recommend restarting until he is in the lab. He tends to be buggy in towers 1 and 2.
Once you have the technician in the lab, designate one person to get the bombs. This should be either a dom with some sort of sleep/confuse or someone with high defence (veats for instance), or just someone who has a good understanding of how to get glowies without enemies noticing. I use my mind dom for this purpose and just mass hypnosis any nearby enemies. Everyone else should be killing chasers. You want to pull them far away from enemies so there is no danger of anyone dying.
Once the bombs and chasers are done, have someone with stealth+tp get everyone into the bottom level of the lab (the technician is in the top level). Buff up, then kill the longbow until you reach crimson. He's surrounded by several Longbow Ballista. Your goal is to kill the Ballista and Crimson. Careful, as the Ballista likes to cage the brute(s), which can lead to him aggroing on less sturdy people. Once they are down, proceed to the top floor of the lab and free the technician. Then have everyone turn off any stealth powers, and lead him to the computer in the bottom floor of the lab. Note that there are sometimes ambushes at this point, so be ready.
>> Mission 2
Have everyone buff up at the northmost point (there's a little bridge there). Attack Kronos while being careful of aggro from the group to your right. Also be wary of sappers (I generally confuse them on my mind dom before we go in). Once he is down, get the key to the door by killing malta. It is generally in one of the first two groups. Have someone stealth+tp everyone inside the building to just before the large door. The mainframe will either be inside the room, or just outside it to the left or right. Kill the malta outside the room if you need to (I usually ignore them for the most part). Have everyone pop a few purple/orange inspirations if your team is lacking buffs, then everyone enters the room and attacks the AV. One person should be designated to get the glowie while this happens - ideally someone who has high defense and knows how to use it. Kill the AV, the malta around him, the mainframe, and you're done. The robot masterminds that ambush you do not need to be killed, nor are they a big threat. The malta are the danger.
>> Mission 3
Meet at the top of the globe. Have everyone buff up, and designate a puller (fortunatas are ideal). If you have a tper you can do the tp pull trick. The puller should pull numina up to the top of the globe. If extra AVs come and you have a mind dominator, they should sleep the extras. Careful that no one wakes the extras. Focus on Numina until she dies, then pull/kill the rest in any order. You will have to go below the globe for Manticore since he can't fly. There is always a single longbow that has to be killed for the mission to complete as well. The position of this longbow varies between 3 spots though so just kill longbow around where the AVs were until it finishes. Everyone except the SF leader can take ouroboros to Nerva.
>> Mission 4
Have someone with stealth+tp get everyone to just before the door where the AVs are behind.
IF YOU HAVE A MIND DOM: Everyone should back up. The mind dom ensures dom is active and perma. The mind dom turns on whatever stealth they have (super speed included), and opens the doors. They then use mass hypnosis on the AVs. If this misses any of them, they wait for mass hypnosis to recharge and try again. Once it hits all of them, they then continue to use mass hypnosis whenever it is up, using mesmerize to get an AVs that are missed. There is a way to use line of sight so that mesmerize has no chance of them getting a single shot in. You activate mesmerize while jumping to the right or left of the door so that it happens once you are out of line of sight. Once the dom is comfortable and has all the AVs slept, a puller (ideally a brute) should pull the AVs one at a time. If you use a brute, either have them use a ranged attack or a single target melee attack. Do NOT let them use taunt if they have procs in it, and do not let them run up to the AVs with a damage aura active. The ideal situation is to have them taunt (with no procs), then single target ranged attack. This ensures they will have the aggro rather than the mind dom. If you do not use a brute, the mind dom will need to be very careful not to garner aggro. The mind dom should ensure that dom does not drop, hasten is activated whenever it is up, mass hypnosis is used whenever it is up, mesmerize is used on anything mass hypnosis misses. The pull order does not matter except that Valkyrie should be last.
WITH NO MIND DOM: In this situation you can either pull or rush. What I do is have everyone buff up, the brute(s) pop some purples/oranges and go in to take all aggro. Everyone else attacks from range, bringing down the targets one by one. Pulling is probably safer, but it risks drawing aggro from other AVs unexpectedly.
Once Valk dies the first time, have whoever got the bombs in the first mission get the access code. If you have a mind dom it's easy since they can just sleep the enemies surrounding the glowie. Otherwise you might want to send two stealth people - one sturdy person to draw the longbow aggro and one person to click the glowie. Once they have it, tp them back to Valkyrie. An ambush will attack you. Kill the ambush, then kill Valkyrie. Then have someone stealth+tp everyone to the room Miss Liberty is in. The temp power from the previous mission should be used on her, however don't use it until the moment after she is aggrod. It will do nothing if you do it too early. Kill Miss Liberty, then everyone can Ouroboros to Grandville. Also note that Miss Liberty, for whatever reason, loves to aggro on confuse. So do not allow the mind dom (if you have one) or fortunatas to try confuse her until aggro is obtained.
The key to this mission is really sticking together. There is a lot going on, but aside from getting the access code, everyone should always be in the same place. Disorganization is typically what causes deaths in this mission.
>> Mission 5
For both of the following methods, anyone who can stay at range should. Anyone who can't should pop oranges/purples for Positron, Statesman, and possibly others depending on what their build is like and what support is on your team. Statesman can two shot buffed brutes. Demonic Aura also helps a lot.
IF YOU HAVE A MIND DOM: Trip the cutscene, proceed to the stairs before the AVs. Wait two minutes for Statesman's unstoppable to drop. Everyone should wait at the stairs other than the mind dom. The mind dom uses the same method in the previous mission to keep the AVs slept. To use mesmerize without chance of retaliation in this mission, hop from below the platform the AVs are on so that you are below it again by the time the power happens. Note that you need to be quick with mass hypnosis and mesmerize for this one. They are 53 AVs, so the sleeps won't last as long. It is still easily kept perma, but you need to pay attention. Use the same pulling method, again ideally with a brute who has taunt (no procs) and a ranged single target attack. Pull manticore first and numina last. The rest of the order doesn't matter much. Manticore should be first because he is the only one with a power that can hit the mind dom below the platform (his tp arrow). Numina should be last because if you attempt to pull her, occasionally she will turn around and give mez protection to another AV, thus waking them from sleep. I like to do Statesman second to last so that I can have Numina help us out (perma confusing her), but I don't recommend this unless you have done many many MLRSFs and have a lot of recharge on your mind dom (about 200 including hasten).
WITH NO MIND DOM: Trip the cutscene, proceed to the stairs before the AVs. Buff up, and have the brute(s) pop LOTS of oranges/purples. The brutes go in and take all aggro, paying special attention to Statesman and Synapse (they like to wander). Then everyone stays FAR at range and attacks Numina. Popping inspirations is also good for the squishies, but not needed as long as they stay at max range and the brutes are doing their job. Once Numina is down, you can do whatever order you feel is best. Typically I go for Positron or Sister Psyche next due to the crazy debuffs and psi damage. If/when the brutes run out of purples/oranges to pop, have everyone retreat outside the mission (brutes out last). Get more inspirations from Ouroboros, then repeat the process. You can bypass the need for this if you have enough good buffers/debuffers (cold, thermal, sonic, veats, etc). For this method communication is key - knowing when everyone is ready, knowing when the brutes are running out of insps, etc. Ventrilo and teamspeak are extremely useful for that.
>> Questions
I'm happy to answer any questions/comments anyone has.
I actually played yesterday.