Virtue Villain-side Hamidon raiding strat

[Sandolphan]

We have been experimenting with a modified version of the Hero-side Hami-strat for villains. In the interest of sharing what we've found about completing a villain-side Hamidon raid on Virtue, here is an overview of the strategy we're employing:


Hamidon Raid Strategy: Villain-side Adaptations

Teams and Team Instructions

Mastermind Pet Stream
6 Masterminds and 2 Kinetics (no EOE's required)
<ul type="square">The team should set up behind a rock pillar near the north outcrop area, and as close to Hamidon as possible. Nobody on the team should be exposed to direct line of sight to Hamidon or the mitos, as they will have agro transferred to them and be within range of the Hami/mito blasts, drawing them to the team (also don't recall any pets back to the rock for the same reason).

When the signal is given for the pet stream to start, Masterminds will summon their pets, starting with minions, and send them in to attack Hamidon. They should try to keep up a constant stream of pets heading into the goo. To do this, they should alternate and stagger their summons among them, taking turns but keeping the stream constant. After a minute or so, the stream should be spread enough that there are always pets heading into the goo. With the help of the kinetics Speed Boosting, minions should recharge in roughly 20 secs, lieutenants in 40 secs, and bosses in 60 secs. No upgrade buffs need be applied; the purpose is to distract Hami and whatever else they can before they die.[/list]
Brute Agro Squad
2 teams of: 3-5 brutes and 3 support heal/rez/buffers (brutes will need EOE's: 2+ each x 4 blooms, 48 minimum raid total)
<ul type="square">Each team will be in charge of controlling the agro from 3 yellow mitos. The teams should set up on opposite sides of Hamidon (the east main staging area, and opposite on the west side of hami). Communication between the brute team leaders, and among their own brutes, is essential! Each brute must know precisely which mito they are responsible for. Recommend that the team leaders decide which 2 mitos are their 'center' ones, and assign brutes to center, right and left from that. If setting up at the east and west rock outcroppings it is quite easy to locate these two 'center' mitos, as they are the ones directly in front of the area. Each mito should also assigned a buffer to look after the health and status resist buffs of the brutes attacking it. Extra brutes should be assigned around to the mitos to help kill them. Two brutes on a yellow should have no problem SMASHing it down. Note: Brutes with any form of flight are highly preferred.

On their start signal, the brutes will eat an EOE and rush to their assigned yellow mitos and engage them. The supporters will follow the brutes at a distance, keeping them healed and spammed with stacked mez resist. The support AT's need to remain outside of the aoe splash effect of the mito attack, but within range of their powers. Brutes can assist with this by keeping to the outside edge of the goo and remaining as stationary as possible while attacking. When a yellow mito is killed, move to the next nearest one and help to kill it as well.[/list]
Assault Teams
Everyone else at the raid in balanced teams of damage and support (no EOE's required)
<ul type="square">Special attention should be given to having enough Dominators, as the first targets are the green mitos which must be held to kill (mag 100!). Flight and Group Flight for the teams is a bonus. Dark Miasma AT's are also desired for Fear resists. Stalkers should avoid trying to AS and use their biggest normal attacks with crits instead. Masterminds in the assault teams should refrain from summoning pets at this time, as they can interfere with the pet streams trying to hold Hami agro.

The assault teams all follow a single raid targeter, who will engage the green mitos first. Green mitos have a force field which must first be dropped by applying holds to it. Dominators should use Domination as soon as it's available! Everyone else with a hold should be using it. Once held and the green's field is dropped, damage will quickly kill it, and the targeter will move on to the next green. When all greens are down, clear the blues. Spam healing aoe's, and keep any aoe buffs on (Shadow Fall, bubbles, etc).[/list]

Strategy

It is highly recommended that the raid leader conduct the raid from a 'spotter' location above Hamidon. Looking down like this on the action really helps to get an idea how the raid is progressing and when to issue instructions.

The raid leader will announce the start of the mito phase by telling the MM Pet team to begin sending their pets at Hamidon (staggered as described above). The raid leader will watch as this takes shape, and once stable (ie there is a constant presence of pets inside the goo) will announce the start of the buffing cycle and attack phases in Request channel:

[ QUOTE ]

MASTERMIND PETS ARE STABLE!
MITO ATTACK BEGINNING IN 1 MINUTE…BEGIN BUFFING YOUR TEAMS (STACK MEZ RESISTS, ETC)!
.
30 SECONDS...BRUTE SQUADS GET READY!
.
20 SECONDS...BRUTE SQUADS ENGAGE YELLOW MITOS NOW!!!
.
10 SECONDS...ASSAULT TEAMS READY!
.
0...ASSAULT TEAMS FOLLOW THE TARGET IN...GO!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

It is very important to make sure at each phase that the proper dynamic is working. MM pet stream must be stable before sending in brutes. Brutes must be stable and holding the yellow mitos' attention while remaining alive before sending in the assault teams. If the pets are all dead, or if the brutes have lost a single yellow mito agro, don't proceed with the next phase. Abort and reset...it'll save you time in the long run.

With the MM pets keeping Hamidon agro and loose mitos on them, brutes keeping the attention of the yellow mitos and SMASHing them down, and the assault teams killing off the healing greens, the mitos should be overwhelmed in just a few minutes. Once the mitos are all down, everyone will turn their attention to Hamidon.

At this point, the raiders should move to Hami to kill it. Keep to the opposite side of the group of MM pets to avoid splash damage. A taunt squad of brutes can also move to the side to help draw off Hami blasts away from the rest of the attackers.

When Hami nears the mito bloom percentages (75%, 50%, 25% once each), a recaller from each team (preferably with rez) should return to the east staging area and be ready to pull their team out to rez and regroup. Get everyone back up and into position for the next mito run.


Issues Remaining

The key to successfully pulling this off is a well-run set of Brute teams. They must know their jobs, and their support must keep them going, to allow the rest of the raid to succeed. Brutes are taking the brunt of the assault, and the success of the raid is anchored on them. Unlike the hero-side though, there are not two types of teams that need strict coordination (tankers and scrappers). The Mastermind pet stream is relatively cheap and easy to maintain compared to the tank team. But lack of empathy buffs available on villains means brutes are in a more tenuous position. Better and faster recovery between blooms is another area that needs attention. Even hero-side, regrouping and recovery is a big time-sink to the raid.

-Sandolphan

[Flea_Mark_Evil]

I would say this- for the spike teams, if they are particularly stalker heavy I'd say go for Cold as one of the support as a definate. Stalkers are squishy. Really, damn squishy and the +HP buff that /Cold corruptors give brings stalkers to at least blaster levels meaning they don't drop in numbers to a large AoE.

Also, as +Regen seems to be a big anchor blueside perhaps a special mention should go to /TA masterminds, who through placing Oil Slicks can create a sort of (damnit, forgot the terminology...wait) beachhead for the Assault Teams, considering Oil Slick is targetable and both Cold and Thermal's odd +recovery, +regen buffs (might be thermal only actually) is AoE and requires a target to use.

And truth be told? You'll probably want Brutes over Stalkers for just about all of the teams any day of the week. Sadly the endgame for CoV is very much a matter of DPS over spike damage and stalkers seriously lack the DPS, even if they're Claws. Ah well, here's to one of the dying breeds of ATs.

[Angry_Angel]

[ QUOTE ]
And truth be told? You'll probably want Brutes over Stalkers for just about all of the teams any day of the week.

[/ QUOTE ]

We're actually really excited about running a mixed group where every AT can contribute especially considering we can find far more stalkers than brutes running around ...and they got the shaft on LSRF.

Granted this is core group only. Anything above and beyond that is just gravy. As for TA MM's, our fingers have exhausted on searching.

The interesting thing is our initial agro tests were just limited to brutes, mm's, corr support and we had a spare stalker = Jaded Angel who had picked up some strays (stalkers). We ran them in on an assault team ( this was Friday - not last night .. had to go back to basics last night.. long story) and they did really well. =P

Edit: Silverspar is reading this wondering why I have edited six times. I had gone without sleep for 24 hours, slept six and find my brain on ramble. Having seen the mess I posted, I went back and deleted it all. Just hand me a drink. &lt;wink&gt;

[Louneigru]

Actually Flea, stalkers on an assault team with controlled crits will take out mitos faster than 8 brutes pounding at a yellow, I know we tested this during the test server villain hami raid.

[kusanagi]

I'm game to try and help. I've got an L50 brute, plus a L44 thugs/dark MM that I can finally allow to level again now that I've got the two RP-critical missions I wanted from the 40-44 range.

[Solos]

There are no grantable regen buffs in CoV. The only ones i can think of are Spirit Tree and Triage beacon which are rather useless. Also i'm sure i've seen a TA mastermind at Fight Night before.

[Louneigru]

I don't recall ever seing a single 45+ TA MM in my entire game time to date. *shrugs* there might be one or two out there, but if they are, I sure don't know where.

[Solos]

Wait, isn't Joe's MM Trick Arrow?



Edit:Here's what came up from Virtueverse:

http://virtueverse.com/index.php/End_Shot_Kid
http://virtueverse.com/index.php/Himitsu_no_Kanshu
http://virtueverse.com/index.php/Lu_Lian
http://virtueverse.com/index.php/Ninja_Lawyer
http://virtueverse.com/index.php/Nujiru &lt;--OMG THIS ONE IS 32!

[Angry_Angel]

I have begged and begged and searched.. the highest we found was a 43 MM. That, however, bolsters our decision to go with a simple strat of common types and only be pleased if we find the gravy.

[Solos]

Joe's MM is 50. I just can't remember if he is TA or Poison.

[Angry_Angel]

Do you have his global? I promise not to RP a date. Wait, wait, that's exactly what I intend to do...

&lt;&lt; lies

[Solos]

I do, but i don't give out globals without the person's consent. I'll ask him tonight. Also his sidekick is Dragonberry's /Dark so there's your res team right there.

EDIT: He is definitely /TA.

[Grae Knight]

[ QUOTE ]
Joe's MM is 50. I just can't remember if he is TA or Poison.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup..Thugs/Trick Arrow

[Louneigru]

Woah, they do exist *passes out falling backwards*

[Andra]

I want to thank everyone who came to the testing last night, team leaders and all the volunteers. We had an idea, just needed the support, and we got it.

Our intent was to ensure aggro control of Hami with the MMs and yellow mitos with the brutes for several minutes while we sent in some squishy bait (just teasing, Jaded ) to see what would hit her. In the end, we cleared all 6 yellow mitos.

We still have some issues to work out based on the need for certain ATs, specifically dominators and ice and thermal corruptors. We have not had that many attend the tests, so having more at future ones will definitely give us a better picture of buff usage and green mito attack times. A few more kinetics would be great, too. All ATs will have role in the raid, although we have only focused on a few for the core teams.

If you are interested in helping, please contact Sandolphan, Angry Angel, Jaded Angel, or me with your global and AT. We are off to a great start.

Andra
(Miss Honey Dew when I'm villainous)

[Fixer]

[ QUOTE ]
http://virtueverse.com/index.php/Nujiru &lt;--OMG THIS ONE IS 32!

[/ QUOTE ]

36 now, and climbing, he's in Sungazer's VG.

I'll let him know he has a bright, Hami raiding future ahead

[Grae Knight]

I would encourage those interested to join the Virtue's LRSF channel. There is a MOTD set for a raid on Wednesday night. I just recently joined that channel and it is a great resource for finding high end content villainside (LRSF, PvP, Hami Raids and teams). Not sure who created the channel but it is a big help.

[Static_Dizzle]

I dont have any open global channels.....

Could always quit P. Knights....&lt;_&lt;

JK JK Plz dun keel meh!!!!!

[GenericVillain]

[ QUOTE ]
Also i'm sure i've seen a TA mastermind at Fight Night before.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure that's Term's MM, Kakashi or however you spell that... Nin/TA. I think he's only in his 20s though.

[Grae Knight]

[ QUOTE ]
I dont have any open global channels.....

Could always quit P. Knights....&lt;_&lt;

JK JK Plz dun keel meh!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

It was tough for me but I dropped the Giza Fight Night channel for it.