PumBumbler

Just a FYI about H1N1 outbreak coming from PAX

linky

I try and deal with RMTers away from where my friends can see. Like in one of the back alleyways in KR or sometimes in Boomtown at night. Never been burned before but I always pack a couple of imps, just in case.

Since the first post was getting a bit long, I decided to put the specifics of mo STF into a separate post. Note that this isn't a definitive way to do mo STF, but just the way we do it. Easily done in less than 1 hour.

1. Double buff before entering mission.

2. Mission 1. Defeat some helpless cables and an AV. Standard fare, ambush spawns after cutscene. There should be no aggro from other mobs or that aggro can easily be handled/avoided. Ouros from the mission straight away into PI (except the leader who has to detour through IP for next mission).

3. Have the fastest member enter the mission to trigger the cutscene(s). In the meantime, have your buffers standing by the entrance to mission 2 and buff the others as they enter the mission (sequentially). The cutscene pauses the action so their buffs will be retained as soon as they enter the mission.

4. Mission 2. Beat up some wanna be AVs and return home. The only real worry is Regent Korol who is has psi attacks. Smart players can lure Viridian and Shadow Spider to Regent Korol if they feel like taking on 2 or 3 AVs at once. Otherwise in sequence is fine. After 4th AV is down all but one can ouros out back to IP. The remaining team member triggers two locations before the mission is considered complete (door down from RV and exit door), then ouros back to IP as well.

5. During ouros exits buffers double and triple stack buffs as each team member goes from mish exit to ouros back to IP. Restock insps in ouros as necessary.

6. Thorn tree power. Kill some vines and then the tree to get temp power. This is a villain respec. Having a runner who can get down to the vine room and tp everyone shortcuts a lot of running around. Remember a mo run precludes the use of vet tp, so whoever will tp needs to have it from the pool power. Having one person tp also bypasses a chance that the villain NPC EBs on their 'respec' will get an unlucky hit in. If the team is fast enough to the vines they might still retaina double buff to destroy the vines. Have the tank go in first in front of the tree to see if the tree concentrates on the non squishies. Note that the tree is unaffected by powers so taunt will not hold its attention. The team needs to move fast in front of the tree and early while retaining bonus buffs from outside the mission. Moving together also lowers the chance that a teammate will get in trouble from the CoT roaming around the out perimeter. The team needs to defeat the full complement of vines before each bundle (mob) of vines redeploys. Once all the vines are down the Tree can be taken down. Grab temp power and exit.

7. Double buff at sub while getting next mission.

8. Cherry pick the Security Chiefs until you find the one with the key. Your extra buffs should hold out enough for everyone to get into the building safely after getting the key. Knowing the Security Chief locations and the order in which everyone is going to attack them is 'key' to getting the key. Otherwise you will get bogged down quickly and the risk of being defeated grows the longer you take. Each Security Chief mob engaged will summon an ambush (x2 in sequence), so you have to keep moving in order to find the key quickly. Break frees may be needed to keep from getting immobilized by web grenades. Defeat 4 AVs in sequence. A fast team can keep ahead of the Security Chief ambushes that were summoned. Controllers also tend to work well by dropping slow fields or immobs, or bonfire to keep the ambush from reaching the team while they drop the AVs. Use temp power on Aeon after he goes unaffected and drop him. Buffers should try and get one last refresh of buffs on their team before Aeon is defeated, but should leave ASAP due to some very angry mobs that are chasing the team.

9. Double buff at the helicopter then enter the mission.

10. While under double and triple buffs, have the tank herd the 4 signature AVs into a corner and defeat them. While under the def cap, it is unlikely that any team member will be hit, but splash damage can easily drop a squishy. The only way to ensure that the team survives is to take down the AVs quickly and especially the ones that are AoE and more than S/L. This means that Ghost Widow gets dropped first, followed by Scirrocco, then Mako and Black Scorpion. After the signature AVs are done, the mobs surrounding the giant LR statue need to be defeated and the Arachnos Flier as well. Note that the flier is on a 20 minute respawn timer. Normally a fast team doesn't have to worry about it, but slower teams may get a respawn at the worst time. Note that the timer starts on mish entry and not when you defeat the flier.

11. After the flier is defeated all you have to worry about is Lord Recluse and his towers. You can exit the mission as a team and triple buff (before exit, in IP, and then in mission again). This will ensure your tank is at the def cap, if not close to the def cap. While the tank is keeping Recluse busy, the rest of the team defeats the red tower, the yellow and the green tower. Make sure that the repairmen are always dropped before moving to the next tower. The blue tower is optional. Have the tank keep Recluse close to a corner so the banes he summons are bunched up. Using hurricane or Force bubble to keep them away from the rest of the team works as well. Defeat Lord Recluse and then you are done.

At risk of being pedantic, I will go into the sekrits of doing a MoSTF.

General Concepts

1. Most of the team should be familiar with each other. There is nothing more frustrating than watching someone do something that puts them at risk of dying in one of the missions just because you went right and they went left. If they are loose cannons, then perhaps a friendly nudge about 'being too risky during a mo run' won't be the right way to go about things. Does your kinetic not like speed boosting their teammates? Bring some blue insps if you know they aren't very handy with the SB.

2. Buffers are great. Especially +def buffers. However each buffer steals a little away from debuffing and damage team space, so balance is the key.

3. While there is no hard and fast team makeup for a mo run, a standard deployment has a tank. Who has taunt. A good kin and a good rad also make things go a lot smoother. A good taunting tank and some decent buffage can pretty much take away most uncertainty in mo runs. If you deviate from the standard template, make sure everyone has a good understanding of how the alternative works, eg. snipe aggro or perma PA on Lord Recluse.

4. Single target takedown teams can work quite fast. This may not hold true for other TFs, but STF/RSF tend to be most dangerous on the last mission, where AV class NPCs need to be defeated fast to minimize the chance that they get a really good hit in. Speed is vital in the critical encounters.

5. Practice the TF often. That whole thing about going right and left usually happen because someone on the team doesn't have any clue about where to go. Also specific quirks about each mission or TF reveal themselves the more you go through it. Me typing out a guide is only going to get you so far.

6. Communication is key. TS/Vent and chat are all there to make your mo run that much safer. Use it. Sometimes yelling at someone is a good way to break scrapper lock.

7. Know what each mish is going to bring, and what you are going to be doing. Use #6 to find out if you don't know what the strategy is going to be. If you do #5 often enough, then you likely don't even need alot of #6.

8. Don't go slow just because it is a mo run. If you understand what everyone needs to do and everyone does it well, there is no need to drive like your 90-year-old granny. In fact, a fast mo run is likely to be successful because everyone knows their roles so well. It also relates to #9. Going fast also means that your practice runs are fast as well, which means people are more inclined to participate and enjoy themselves rather than viewing the mo practices as a chore. It also means a single mo run won't take up everyone's entire evening, practice or live. It also gives you the opportunity to be creative in your approach, since not all teams are created the same, so sometimes you have to modify your approach to best suit a mo run.

9. Cheat when you can. Mo runs means no temp and no deaths, but everything in between is fair game. Base powers are not temps. Use them if you have to. Tier 3 insps take the same amount of space as a Tier 1, but give a bigger bang for the buck. Have buffer friends who are not part of your TF buff you if you need to before you enter the last mission. Fast teams/Fast runs can capitalize on this by being able to enter the mish while uber/double/triple buffed and completing the objectives before the buffs wear off.*

10. Know your TFs. Use paragonwiki or use the forums here to know what each mission brings. Nothing makes your teammates feel more uncertain about you when you don't know where the mission entrances are going to be, especially on a TF where one defeat is the end of your badge opportunity. This also implies that you know the enemy mob types and their potential effects on you and your teammates.

*What is this little star for? At the risk of being exploitive, there is a specific cheat that works extremely well for mo runs and every other fast TF you can run. Whenever a character zones from between missions, their external buffs are carried over but the server loses track of who gave them that specific buff. This means powers such as Ice shield and Deflection shield can stack from the same caster, when the rules normally prevent such stacking. With longer lasting buffs you can therefore stack +def powers easily.

It can easily turn a single defensive buffer into an equivalent of 2 or 3 buffers for a short time. Therefore a fast team can remain under a double or triple buff from the same caster and complete their goals before dropping to a non defense-capped buff level. Of course, if you have more than one defensive buffer you can easily keep a high level of defense going for the entire TF, hard capping during the mission entries for a short time.

Note that this also works for speed boost, but the buff doesn't last very long so stacking SBs doesn't do very much overall.

PS. Don't make your double buffer the leader or you'll just slow yourselves down while they run about and the rest of the team waits for them to double buff. Make a damage dealer the star and have the buffers stand by the entrance and buff before entering.

I blame Cho.

I can't really say much about the other servers since I don't have as much experience on them as I do with Justice, but Justicites as a whole tend to be an organized bunch.

This was evident early on by the original Hami Raids and how well puggy and spur of the moment raids were done. Whilst I think that Quatermain had a lot of credit here, the early inception involved a lot of people noodling over how to raid Hami effectively while still being inclusive to the rest of the community.

I think this attitude has trickled down such that many TFs and raids are considered to be a lot more casual than other servers. Sometimes a little too casual, given the blase attitude towards ship raids, end game TFs etc.

While Justice isn't the most popular server, it does seem to have a high concentration of deep knowledge, which usually means you'll get a lot of good feedback and some great teammates if you decide to play on this server.

The only problem with Justice is that it can be a bit of a bedroom community. Not a lot of drama, everyone does their biz quietly and you have to scratch the surface to find out where the action is.

The key to getting the Mo Badges is understanding your teammates and the roles that they play within the team.

Secondary to that is the team build and the specific nuances of the Task Force itself.

Well played roles is kind of like driving in heavy traffic. If you're paying attention you can compensate when someone else makes a mistake. If you're not on the ball a crash can happen.

It tends to work better when you have teammates who you regularly team with and also do the intended TFs in a non-mo manner just to make sure you're all familiar with the things that can go wrong in the TF. Getting practice runs in establishes a rhythm for the team that really helps in anticipating what your teammates are going to do, and perhaps help them avoid defeats in a live situation.

As an example, the 2nd mission of the Imperious TF has the cysts that blow up annoying in your face and can stun you. Squishies that get too close or don't understand how quickly a cyst can be dropped might fail a mo TF quite easily.

Glad to hear that this game has improved your life.

Nice to hear good stories about how people meet in video games and connect, as opposed to the general media spin of how bad video games are for people, and zomg plzthnkoftehchildren!