Nictus Essence in ITF how do you defeat them?
By
Cinkidd,
Posted on: 2009-10-18 21:21 in Player Questions
When Rom dies, he uses the essence to Rez himself (if he has Line of Sight of one). When he does this, the Essence dies. Simply kill Rom multiple times until they are all gone.
-or- overpower them with a great team of players.
I have been on several TFs and seen this done in 2 ways. The main way is someone on your team will taunt the essence that heals Romi and the other party members will defeat Romi until he has con rezed enough times to consume all the nictus.
The other is to just bum rush him but that's very risky and requires an amazing team with buffs, heals and damage.
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Originally Posted by Cinkidd
title says it all and and all help welcome.
Rich |
I'm assuming you're talking about the three with Rom in that last mission. There are a couple ways to take them out.
First, you can ignore them, focus on Rom, and when he dies he will rez by "absorbing" one of the essences. So you can defeat him 4x and never have to hit the essence one time. (note that when you defeat Rom and he rezzes, you'll be stunned if you're in line of sight).
Second, you can ignore Rom and get a max range, and have everyone attack one of the essences. Don't use AoEs for this or you'll mess it up and have to run off and wait for them to reset. You can take out the essences one at a time in this fashion, then do Rom at the end with no essences to contend with.
Third, you can, with the right team, hold Rom in a FF bubble and have everyone focus on attacking one essence at a time, and take them out, then deal with Rom.
Edit: Forgot the other method. If you gather on the roof behind Rom and pull him up there, if you do it right, the essences will be stuck under the overhangs of the roof and can't get up there to be a trouble to you.
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As far as tactics go, there is actually a very simple 3rd option:|
Originally Posted by Dreaming_Shadow
I have been on several TFs and seen this done in 2 ways. The main way is someone on your team will taunt the essence that heals Romi and the other party members will defeat Romi until he has con rezed enough times to consume all the nictus.
The other is to just bum rush him but that's very risky and requires an amazing team with buffs, heals and damage. |
As soon as the cutscene ends (and i mean IMMEDIATELY ( Once the "real" Rom spawns after the cutscene, you're too late) ), somebody/anybody runs up to Rom's platform. This will cause Rom and the Essence to Spawn with focus on you, and lose their link together and you can safely pull Rom by himself to the other end of the platform. The Nictus wont follow, and you can even try to taunt them and they wont leave that area. Just make sure you keep a LoS on the Nictus so he can use them to rez.
one thing about the healer - it uses an AoE form of Twilight grasp, so the more in melee range of the healer the more it heals.
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If you do that, you're still stuck with having to defeat the Essence because they will most likely not be in Line of Sight of Rom when he dies.
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Originally Posted by DarkEther
Edit: Forgot the other method. If you gather on the roof behind Rom and pull him up there, if you do it right, the essences will be stuck under the overhangs of the roof and can't get up there to be a trouble to you.
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The range of the heal is much much more than melee.
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Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
one thing about the healer - it uses an AoE form of Twilight grasp, so the more in melee range of the healer the more it heals.
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We, after nearly screaming at them, got our blasters to get sufficient distance so the NE couldn't heal off them. They pummeled away at the the nictus as we melee guys stood or hovered around. If a blaster took a step forward, and they did sometimes, the nictus would heal some.
Takes about five minutes to do it.
Also, I might be wrong, but I think there might be only one NE that can heal Rom. Once it was gone, Rom was easy to kill, relatively. But he rezzed and we killed him again really fast that time.
And it was done.
We did fret about tactics for about 40 all total.
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Correct.
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Originally Posted by Postagulous
Also, I might be wrong, but I think there might be only one NE that can heal Rom.
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I've failed an ITF for this reason before- had a high-melee team that a couple people bailed on... and we ended up with unrezzed Romulus and one Nictus that heals off melee'ers. And we couldn't beat the heal rate.
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That's exaggerating, sorry. Buffs are great, debuffs too, but 99% of the over 100 ITFs I've been on bum rushed him, and that's with a pretty standard mixed bag of players.
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Originally Posted by Dreaming_Shadow
The other is to just bum rush him but that's very risky and requires an amazing team with buffs, heals and damage.
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"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
I don't recall ever being on a team that couldn't just kill romi 4x where he stands ignoring the nictus. I've been on teams that did it differently, but I can speak from lots of experience that it wasn't needed.
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Usually the only times in recent memory that my team has not been able to out-DPS the healing Nictus is when a Plant Control character used carrion creepers...
Generally speaking; most targetable summoned pets do not provide sufficient DPS to overcome the additional healing they provide Rommy when the healer is still up. (also doesn't help that non MMs can't focus the pet's damage on Rommy; so they're uselessly hitting the various Nictus spawns)
Not sure if MM pets fall under this category. Haven't teamed with one on an ITF run in a long time.
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On an All Rad team we ran, two of the players were Plant, and we occasionally dropped Creepers just to make things a bit more interesting. All it did was slow our kill speed down somewhat. It was amusing.
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Originally Posted by The Grim Heaper
Usually the only times in recent memory that my team has not been able to out-DPS the healing Nictus is when a Plant Control character used carrion creepers...
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"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
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Correct. One NE heals, one spawns normal Nictus (like from a cyst), and one spams a PBAoE autohit damage power.
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Originally Posted by Postagulous
I might be wrong, but I think there might be only one NE that can heal Rom.
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This has happened to me a few times - Rom dies and there are no Nicti in range to rez and we have to kill them...this is by far the hardest way to complete this TF, but it can be done. They have a ton of HP and seem harder to kill than Rom himself...the best way to kill them is separate the healer, kill the other two and then deal with the healer. This might take a few minutes but if you keep most of your team out of its range you can overcome the healing.
Many teams i've run ITF's with will try to pull the healing Nictus to one side while keeping line of sight if we have two aggro magnets on the team to separate Rommy from the healing Nictus. More common is to buff up, rush Rommy and pound him into the pavement, run for cover when he drops and then repeat until he stays down.
One thing to keep in mind is that you get normal AV rewards each time you defeat Romulus, and no reward at all when you defeat a Nictus Essence except for having one less to annoy you.
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In the past where my team made the mistake of defeating Rommie out of sight of the Nictus, we used to just stand at range and shoot the Healing Nictus. I distinctly recall that it didn't seem to have AV-level regen or possibly any regen (ie its concept relied on its mass self heals) because we were making decent headway on it with just a few ranged people (yay for Nemesis Staff and Black Wand!). Frankly, I figured given enough time, one person could have plinked it to death.
However, recently I tried to attack it solo while the rest of the team argued with each other and the regen was noticibly faster. I couldn't overcome it anymore, so I guess its original regen rate was a bug.
Anyway, one of the players sent in a petition and a GM came to kill the Healing Nictus while we were working on the kill quota.
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
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That is such an awesome tactic!|
Originally Posted by Master-Blade
As far as tactics go, there is actually a very simple 3rd option:
As soon as the cutscene ends (and i mean IMMEDIATELY ( Once the "real" Rom spawns after the cutscene, you're too late) ), somebody/anybody runs up to Rom's platform. This will cause Rom and the Essence to Spawn with focus on you, and lose their link together and you can safely pull Rom by himself to the other end of the platform. The Nictus wont follow, and you can even try to taunt them and they wont leave that area. Just make sure you keep a LoS on the Nictus so he can use them to rez. |
Stormy
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I've been on several ITFs too. Probably at least 50, since I used to do one a day for about a month, and have done plenty before and since. I've never once failed it, but came close with a boring team that wanted to separate Rommy and his pets. They spent like 25 minutes trying to very carefully and very strategically position him and the fluffies away from eachother with very little success, while Rom is pounding on everyone.|
Originally Posted by Dreaming_Shadow
I have been on several TFs and seen this done in 2 ways. The main way is someone on your team will taunt the essence that heals Romi and the other party members will defeat Romi until he has con rezed enough times to consume all the nictus.
The other is to just bum rush him but that's very risky and requires an amazing team with buffs, heals and damage. |
Every other time we've just rushed it and seen nothing but success. And plenty of those were set to Invincible. Even on the +4 ITF I did before they removed the option, we completed it without trying to separate them.
Having done so many, I can't imagine the sort of team makeup it would require to be literally incapable of tackling Rommy. It may be that I'm used to building a support-heavy team where at least half the group is made up of Corruptors and VEATs, but I've never once suffered one of the "failed ITF attempts" that I keep hearing people talk about. Even on super-high difficulties. One of my friends has tried a dozen times and never succeeded, and I just can't fathom why, unless she forms a team with 1/8 being a support character or something.
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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I've done the ITF perhaps 20-30 times total on various characters, including six failed runs. All of the failed runs were teams that either couldn't survive against Romulus and the Nictus long enough to damage him or just couldn't beat the healing Nictus's heals. Your mileage may vary.|
Originally Posted by Shred_Monkey
I don't recall ever being on a team that couldn't just kill romi 4x where he stands ignoring the nictus. I've been on teams that did it differently, but I can speak from lots of experience that it wasn't needed.
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Also, I've never seen a team successfully split the Nictus from Romulus or vice versa. Aside from using the roof overhand, how is this even possible?
Also, I've only ever had the "kill the Nictus at range" strategy work once, way back when the ITF went live. I've tried it since, but it hasn't worked. Have their stats been adjusted?
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Teams I've been on that have failed, aside from one team that was just plain incompetent, have had one of two problems. First, some of them have been, as you implied, lacking in support. A team of mostly scrappers and a single blaster or dominator, for instance, might have trouble due to the need to have so many people in range of the healing Nictus. More often, I've had the other problem: straight-up lack of damage. Several teams I've been on have been heavily laden with controllers, with the odd defender (usually empathy) or dominator. A team like that might have trouble with the unique aspects of the Romulus fight, especially beating the healing Nictus's damage. You'd think the controller secondaries would be helpful, and on a competent team, they will be, but not every controller knows how to make effective use of them.
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Originally Posted by Dispari
Having done so many, I can't imagine the sort of team makeup it would require to be literally incapable of tackling Rommy. It may be that I'm used to building a support-heavy team where at least half the group is made up of Corruptors and VEATs, but I've never once suffered one of the "failed ITF attempts" that I keep hearing people talk about. Even on super-high difficulties. One of my friends has tried a dozen times and never succeeded, and I just can't fathom why, unless she forms a team with 1/8 being a support character or something.
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Splitting the Healing Nictus off is easiest with at least one player with Taunt. The few times I had to do it (using my Tank, Brute and Warshade), my method was to be the first to approach. I'd taunt the Healing Nictus while someone/everyone with an Immob power uses it to stop Rommy from following. I'd pull the Healing Nictus down the stairs a bit until its heals aren't affecting Rommy. Hopefully, the meleers and immobers can keep Rommy from moving. |
Originally Posted by Olantern
Also, I've never seen a team successfully split the Nictus from Romulus or vice versa. Aside from using the roof overhand, how is this even possible?
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Note, you need to continue to taunt and attack the Healing Nictus to maintain aggro.
Note, try not to move too far away or it will cause the Healing Nictus to have an uncontrollable urge to get back to Rommy. Once the Healing Nictus is close enough to get hit by AOE splashes, it is very difficult to pull it away. You can try to "reset", but that requires you to shout and yell at everyone to stop attacking and back away--while maintaining the immobs on Rommy, until your taunt has effect again.
Note, you can pull the other Nictuses too if you're lucky so they're not harrassing the rest of the team. However, their attacks will slow your recharge to nothing and you won't be able to hold aggro.
I have been on teams where the Scrapper or Crab Soldier pulled and kept the Healing Nictus for the whole duration. There's the DPS trade off though. Also, I've had times where I was able to momentarily pull the Healing Nictus off a running Rommy with my Blaster, but it was very difficult to maintain its interest. However, the difficulty there could have been due to the constant varying distances with Rommy moving around so much.
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Ah, this is why I've never seen this work, even though I've seen it tried. I've been on plenty of teams with tanks that can taunt the Nictus away (and, often, pull all three of them away), but I don't think I've ever been on a team that has immobilized Romulus at the same time. (In teams that have tried this, there has usually been a second tank trying to taunt Romulus instead, which never works because that taunt hits the Nictus, too.) Like of a lot of things, this seems kind of obvious in retrospect.
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Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
Splitting the Healing Nictus off is easiest with at least one player with Taunt. The few times I had to do it (using my Tank, Brute and Warshade), my method was to be the first to approach. I'd taunt the Healing Nictus while someone/everyone with an Immob power uses it to stop Rommy from following. I'd pull the Healing Nictus down the stairs a bit until its heals aren't affecting Rommy. Hopefully, the meleers and immobers can keep Rommy from moving.
Note, you need to continue to taunt and attack the Healing Nictus to maintain aggro. Note, try not to move too far away or it will cause the Healing Nictus to have an uncontrollable urge to get back to Rommy. Once the Healing Nictus is close enough to get hit by AOE splashes, it is very difficult to pull it away. You can try to "reset", but that requires you to shout and yell at everyone to stop attacking and back away--while maintaining the immobs on Rommy, until your taunt has effect again. Note, you can pull the other Nictuses too if you're lucky so they're not harrassing the rest of the team. However, their attacks will slow your recharge to nothing and you won't be able to hold aggro. I have been on teams where the Scrapper or Crab Soldier pulled and kept the Healing Nictus for the whole duration. There's the DPS trade off though. Also, I've had times where I was able to momentarily pull the Healing Nictus off a running Rommy with my Blaster, but it was very difficult to maintain its interest. However, the difficulty there could have been due to the constant varying distances with Rommy moving around so much. |
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-and 40 others on various servers
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title says it all and and all help welcome. we killed Romi first and he was away form the Nic and he did rez. Now we have to kill the nic.
Rich
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