Took awhile before I finally desided to post this in the guides section, so here it goes. Please place a link for it in the Hamidon Raid section in the Guide to Guides thread, thanks!
Hey all, these are some Hami Raid notes based on my observations on our server, Triumph. Since GR has allowed for hero ATs into the Abyss and vice-versa for villains into the Hive, I would now be using the same method in the Abyss as we do in the Hive (ie use taunting tanks rather than an MM pet stream to hold Hami's aggro in the Abyss, having Empathy Defenders for buffs, etc).
I've tried to set this up so that the format could be somewhat similar to the old pre I9 Hami Raids. Back then, we had the specialized teams of the Hami Taunt team and PA drop team. After that was set up, all people wanted to know was, "Ok, who do we follow? Who do we attack through?", which then required little thinking once you were told who the main targetter was. Basically, the only question you needed to ask when you entered the Hive was "Who's the Targetter?" and then you were on your way. So for the currect version of Hami post I9, I've tried to determine what the specialized teams are and how to set them up so that anyone else in the Hive who is not on one of the specialized teams just needs to know, "Who am I targetting through?"
This guide also tries to maximize the chances of Incarnate Shard drops that were introduced in I19 (see Notes and Goodies section, below).
I also hope this info will be helpful for anyone interested in learning how to lead a Hami Raid for the first time.
For complete info on the I9 Hami Raid, please refer to the Hami Raid primer guides in the CoH Guides section or Paragon Wiki.
There are 3 parts to this guide:
I. Rough Overview
II. The setup
III. Notes & Goodies
I. Rough Overview
1. Hami Raid is run as a simultaneous 4-pronged attack
a. Attack/aggro hami
b. Attack/aggro yellow mitos (for distraction)
c. Attack & destroy a designated yellow mito (then move onto the next when destroyed)
d. Attack & destroy a designated green mito (then move onto the next when destroyed)
2. Only 2 special teams would need to be set up: Hami taunt team & Yellow Mito distration team.
3. 2 designated targetters need to be assigned: Yellow Mito targetter & Green Mito targetter.
4. As long as the Hami Taunt team, Yellow Mito distraction team, & targetters do exactly what they need to do, only 2 instructions need to be given to the remainder of raid the participants: All meleers (scraps/tanks/brutes/stalkers) follow and attack through the Yellow Mito targetter. Everyone else follow and attack through the Green Mito targetter.
5. Order of execution for each attack wave:
a. Buff up
b. deploy Bionuke (if available)
c. send in Hami taunter
d. send in Yellow Mito distractors
e. send in meleers to attack 1st targetted yellow mito
f. send in rest of raiders to attack 1st targetted green mito
6. The Blue Mitos are ignored until the end of the wave and are easily destroyed after the green and yellow mitos are down
II. The Setup
a. Hami Taunt team:
- Comprised of 2-3 Buffer/TPer/Rezzers & 2-3 taunting tanks
- Initial tank gets buffed up, pops EoE, taunts Hami until dies, 2nd Hami taunter pops an EoE and comes in to take over, dead tank is TPed, rezzed, buffed, & takes over Hami taunting when 2nd Hami taunter dies, repeat process
b. Yellow mito aggro/attack team (distractors)
- Comprised of 5 brutes/tanks (preferably with taunt) & the yellow mito targetter
- Job for each member is to primarily draw aggro from their assigned mito & keep their mito blasts off of the rest of the raiders who are trying to take down the targetted yellow & green mitos
- Secondary job is to do damage to their assigned yellow mito to force some healing onto their target and away from the main targets of the Melee attack team & main mass.
- Main issue for this team is keeping track of who is assigned to which mito. When someone on this team mistakenly targets the wrong mito and leaves their assigned yellow mito unattended, this can usually result in a raid wipe since there would be a source of uncontrolled aggro in the Goo.
- Each member needs to pop an EoE before entering the Goo
c. Yellow mito targetter
- Preferable AT: scrapper/brute
- Responsible for finding each yellow mito and guiding meleers to attack it
- To ensure coordination for the Yellow Mito aggro team, this person will be on their team and will also be responsible for assigning the 5 brutes/tanks to their yellow mitos and verify their targets before entering the goo. The Yellow mito targetter will assign themselves to the 6th available Yellow Mito to lead the meleers to it.
- Will need to pop an EoE before entering the Goo
d. Green mito targetter
- Preferable AT: controller
- Responsible for finding each green mito and guiding the main mass (especially ATs w/ holds) to attack it
- Once the force fields of the Green Mitos are brought down, the damage being done by the main mass on it should be enough to shift the healing priority between itself and the targetted Yellow Mito. This will confuse the rest of the Green Mitos as to which mito needs to be healed, and this should help decrease the amount of healing on the targetted Yellow or Green Mito so that it can be overcomed by the damage being done to it
III. Notes & Goodies (most of this info is already common knowledge, but I'm going to include it here anyways)
- Increasing chances for incarnate shard drops:
Other than the Hami Taunt team and Yellow Mito aggro team, there is no need for specific ATs to be teamed together as long as each raid participant follows either of these instructions: If you are a meleer, you are attacking through the yellow mito targetter; If you are any other type of AT, you are attacking through the green mito targetter. This can thus encourage for mixed teams in order to maximize chances for shard drops (the more mitos your team gets credit for damaging, the more chances your team members will have for receiving shard drops). If you are the Raid Leader, you can easily organize the teams yourself by using the League feature that was recently introduced in I20. In order to also maximize chances for shard drops for the Hami Taunt team, one meleer and one controller/blaster/defender following the targetters can also be placed on this team in order to help them get credit for the other green/blue/yellow mitos in the Goo being defeated. Placing one controller/blaster/defender on the Yellow Mito aggro team can also help increase shard drop chances for this team as well by helping them earn credit for the blue/green mitos.
- Blue Mito fear effects:
Using Shadowfall from Dark Defenders helps for fear resists. Having Dispersion/Sonic bubbles and using Break Frees also help to counter or atleast mitigate any other mez effects in the goo. Using any combination of these tools can help the main mass to ignore the Blue Mitos and concentrate on the Green Mitos to take them out. A good rule of thumb would probably be for everyone to bring atleast a half tray full of Break Frees.
- Welcome to Hami Hospital (woot!):
Keep in mind that there are hospitals now in the Abyss and the Hive, so you can quickly rez on your own without leaving the zone and get back into the action quickly. You can also quickly get set up if you're not able to run out of the Goo to avoid the bloom.
- Spawning Hami, pre-raid:
If you are organizing a raid and you know that enough EoE farming has been done beforehand, you can spawn Hami on your own by pulling the GMs into the police drones at the entrance (they used to only be in the Hive, but they have been recently added to the Abyss now, woohoo!). Each droned GM still counts as a defeat, so eventually when you defeat enough of them, Hami will spawn. This way, you can cut down on the wait time for the raid participants when it is time for the event (I learned that trick from the Hami Kill Squad on Triumph server- thanks guys!)
- Bionuke limitation:
By now, mostly everyone knows that bionukes are very useful for the Hami Raids. What some people may not know is that there is supposed to be a limitation of 20 people that a bionuke can effect. The bionuke effects are most important for the meleers, so it is usually good practice to have all meleers only quickly step to an area separated from the main mass after the AoE buffs go off and then apply the bionuke to their area so that all meleers are ensured to have the bionuke applied to them.
- Hami Taunter's OMGWTF! Alpha Strike:
If you're the 1st Hami taunter to enter the goo, you'll probably notice that you get defeated much quicker than the 2nd Hami taunter. But don't be sad that your uber build is actually "meh"- keep in mind that the 1st Hami taunter has to deal w/ super duper alpha aggro blasts coming from Hami and the 6 yellow mitos. By the time the 2nd Hami taunter has to enter the goo, all the mito aggro has been spread out so that you only have to deal w/ Hami blasts. Any Hami taunters that take over after the 1st taunter will survive significantly longer (even the 1st taunter will survive much longer once it's their turn to take over again).
- Yellow Mito aggro team- the Bird's Eye view:
It's easier to organize the assignment of yellow mitos if you have the whole team fly up above Hami so they can visually see the location of their assigned mito. Be prepared to be patient and explain how to create a macro to target the yellow mitos (Mitochondria Antibodies) or how to target through you so that the person can see which mito you are targetting. The more time you take to explain these things and set the assignments up properly in the beginning, the faster it will be to setup and verify yellow mito assignments between each bloom.
- Yellow Mito assignments- be creative:
In one Hami raid in the Abyss, we actually were short 1 brute or tank to assign to the yellow mitos. So instead, we assigned the combination of a Scrap and MM to the remaining yellow mito. It seemed to work out pretty well, I didn't notice any difference during the attack run during this raid in terms of aggro control. Be creative & adaptable!
- Targetting Macros:
The one I use for yellows is /macro YELLOW target_name anti, for greens it's /macro GREEN target_name mend. For the targetter I use /macro TARGETTER target_name "insert toon name here" (without the quotes). That's all I have to say about that.
- Final instructions after specialized teams are setup:
Now, the only set of instructions you have left to tell the rest of the Hami Raiders is who they need to target through (either the yellow mito or green mito targetter, depending on their AT), and inform them of the order of execution for each attack wave so they know what to expect when it's go time.
Hope this helps, GL & HF!