What is the Arachnos Flier?
The Arachnos Flier is a heavy combat/transport helicopter used primarily for troop deployment. Arachnos Fliers are seen commonly throughout the Rouge isles, having become Arachnos's primary method of transporting troops. Arachnos fliers are also quite capable in combat scenarios, posessing a heavy quad-barrel plasmatic channelgun turret, as well as a swarm missile projector and drone bay.
Of particular interest is the squadron of four Fliers that patrols the area of Grandville known as "The Gutter". Due to the large scale Arachnoid infestation, Arachnos has seen fit to periodically send one of three fliers into the gutter to eliminate Arachnoids
en masse .
Okay, thats nice but what is it?
Sorry, got caught up in backstory there. Anyways, the Arachnos Flier is the Grandville zone event. Every 2-12 hours (real time) and at dusk (in game time), the Arachnos Flier spawns and begins a patrol of the gutters. Note that one whole day/night cycle takes half an hour (20 minutes of day, ten minutes of night), so if you really want to catch the flyer just wait for dusk and show at half hour intervals from then on. Killing the Arachnos Flier awards the much coveted heat seeker badge, as well as a sizable amount of experience and infamy. Of particular note, the Arachnos Flier was bugged for a very long time, causing it to spawn only once per server cycle, or sometimes not at all. In addition, the Arachnos Flier is the only giant monster in the game capable of running away and despawning. Thus, the Arachnos Flier has garnered an almost mythic reputation for being notoriously difficult to kill. However, I hope to dispell those myths.
Cool, so where do I find it?
Locating the Arachnos flier is half the challenge, for while it always spawns in the same place (that big red window in the grandville watchtower), it will move to one of three locations first based on its name. After all, there are actually four fliers (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta) and each one has a completely different flight path. It is currently unknown whether they all go to the below locations but in a different order, or if they all go to completely different locations. (Although I suspect the first possibility to be the true one. Known locations are:
<ul type="square">[*]South Ward: 237 yards southwest of the Spider City dot.[*]East Ward: 434 yards due northeast of the Spider City dot.[*]North ward: 650 yards northeast of the Spider City dot. (confirmation needed)[/list]
While it is moving from location to location it will activate a power shield which renders it invulnerable to all attacks. When it arrives at a location it will stay there for approximately 3-5 minutes before moving to the next one (confirmation needed). After it goes to all three of the above locations, it will move to its final stop, which is:
<ul type="square">[*]Beach: 700 yards directly east of the Spider City dot.[/list]
Note that when it leaves this location it will NOT activate its power shield, meaning it is possible (but not likely) to get in a few shots and kill it while it is flying away. Eventually it will fly past the zone wall and despawn.
So how do I kill it?
Ah, now we come to the heart of the matter. You see, because it works differently then other giant monsters, the traditional perceptions about fighting monsters do not apply. In short, you must realize two things:
THE KEY TO DEFEATING THE ARACHNOS FLIER IS SPEED.
You cannot approach the Arachnos flier with the same sort of trepidation that accompanies most other Giant Monster fights. You simply dont have the time to form a well balanced team, buff up, upgrade pets and all that. You have to form a team QUICKLY. Find your server's badge hunting channels and as soon as the zone event message for the flier appears, immediatley start sending out broadcasts. Hopefully you should be able to assemble a team very quickly. Also turn to your supergroup, coalition, and broadcast channels. Dont worry about getting together a large well balanced team. As long as you have some aggro management, you could take down the flier with six people or even less.
When the flier moves from location to location one member of the team should activate fly and set it on follow (a jetpack will work fine also). Ideally the entire team does this, but if not the team member (or members) who are following should teleport the rest of the team to its new location (be it recall friend or the assemble the team veteran reward). If nobody has teleport, then the follower should just call out the location of the fliers next stop. If you can manage to get these steps down, you should have one half of the equation down, the other being realizing that:
THE ARACHNOS FLIER IS NOT A VERY TOUGH MONSTER.
Technically speaking, its not even a monster at all. Its classification in the target window says "transport". Whereas other giant monsters have very high regeneration rates, the regeneration rate of the Arachnos Flier is comparatively low. You dont need tons and tons of debuffs to kill this thing. All you really need is some aggro management, be it from a brute, MM pets, Arachnos Widow (who I hear make pretty good tanks), or hell, anyone who has lots of purples. Lets take a look at what this thing can actually do.
<ul type="square">[*]Energy blast: A quick single target pulse from the channelgun turret. Does moderate energy damage. This is honestly pretty wimpy as far as monster attacks go. A brute with enough toggles on should be able to shrug it off no sweat.[*]Energy Saturation: A cone spray of energy pulses from the channelgun turret. Does heavy energy damage. This one on the other hand, HURTS. However, its on a fairly long recharge timer so you should be able to heal before getting nailed with it again.[*]Swarm Missiles. A barrage of, well, missiles. I have honestly only seen the Flier use this attack once. Generally when engaged at close range it will just alternate between energy blast and energy saturation. The only time I ever saw it use this was when I was running away. I cant tell you much about it, but I can tell you that it hurt. Still, as long as you dont go running away, you shouldnt have to worry about this one.[*]Summon Bane Spiders. Generally the Arachnos flier will use this the first time it is aggroed on a drop point. It summons 7-12 level 50 Bane Spider Commandoes (via a very cool animation) who will then begin to attack anybody attacking the Flier. In all honesty, Bane Spider Commandoes are pretty wimpy. They only have two weak melee attacks and a weak ranged attack. However, they do also have web grenade, which can create problems. Because web grenade has a fly component, it can prevent you from following the Arachnos flier when it moves from site to site. Therefore, one member of the team should focus on taking out the Bane Spiders as quickly as possible before they web up the entire team (preferably one with heavy AOE capabilities.) Two more things about this attack. One, it will only use it once per drop site. Two, the bane spiders are level 50. So while any level villain can attack the flier and contribute equally, anyone under 45ish is going to get massacred by the bane spiders.[*]Summon Drones. The only time I have ever seen the Flier use this attack is when it is leaving its final drop point on the beach and flying off into the wild blue (er
red) yonder. All it does it summon a chain of floating mines that will follow the flyer (they resemble the crab spider attack Omega Maneuver). Get close to them and they explode, doing LOTS of damage. All you have to do in other words, is steer clear.[/list]
So as you can see, the Arachnos flier only really has two attacks that it commonly uses, Energy blast and Energy Saturation. One of those is a single target and one is a cone. So in other words, the Arachnos Flier cannot directly attack every member of the team at once. All you have to do to avoid the cone attack in other words, is not to stand by the person who it is currently aggroed onto. One more thing about the flier. Because it is a FLIER, it will never completely touch down to earth during its patrols. Therefore, anyone who relies heavily on melee attacks is either going to have to hover near the flier (via fly, hover or a flight temporary power) or jump to hit it.
END
Feel free to leave any comments or criticism on the guide. If I have anything wrong, feel free to point it out so it may be corrected.
Psy Shockwave for blasters!?!??! OH MY GOD I AM SO MAKING A /PSY BLASTER.
