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Hammer Station Hard Mode Tactics.


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Hello everyone, today on my 55 Op healer I queued up for Hammer Station HM and was put into a group with a sin tank (36k HP) sin dps (27k HP) and a PT dps (24k HP). We blaze through the first part of the FP, until the bonus boss. I have healed the bonus boss other times without wiping, but today, we got utterly wrecked. It may be a gear issue (I'm in mostly 66s) but everyone seemed to take a TON of damage, way more than I remember. Tank started a bit early, before I could HoT everyone up, but every rampage, he and the dps would just get smashed. I would try to heal the dps up, but when I stopped healing the tank for just a little time to focus the dps, he would lose a ton of health. I would then have to work my tail off trying to keep everyone at a good HP margin before the next rampage, while keeping the tank up, which was a challenge, due to his rapidly diminishing HP. This became very taxing on my energy, and at about 35ish percent the tank gets destroyed and we wipe. Our positioning may not have been great, tank tanked with back to console, sin dps stood behind the boss, and the PT stood about 10m to the left of the boss(from the tank's perspective), causing my nanotech to only hit one person at a time. I tried to stay at 30m and run out during the rampage, but still got the stun :(. Am I missing something tactics wise as to why we wiped? or is it a gear/composition issue? I have done it plenty of times but this time it was bizarre how hard it was :( After that try, the Dps did not want to try again, so we moved on and crushed the rest of the FP. Its just a bit distressing for me to fail at healing that fight.
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I can't remember I ever used any energy on the aoe heal when I played on my operative at this boss...

I've played with both melee and ranged damage dealers as teammates, the way I did it was to stand at 25m at least from the boss, not the tank, whenever I felt it was close to a rampage. When the boss starts to activate his rampage I ran out of the range and waited.

Of course some times I was caught in the stun and other times I ran into the stun on purpose because I thought the tank and/or dps needed my heals more than anything. This has almost always worked for me.

 

I've played with some of my friends healing me when I tanked this boss as well, most of the times we just wiped on it, and I don't think they're bad healers but I do remember that they weren't avoiding the rampage so much.

And this is one of the mechanics in the fight after all, if I were to really give my take on how to beat this boss then it would be to avoid the rampage, just forget about the aoe heal when you have an operative and 2 melee damage dealers in the group.

 

- Gear is always a consideration, it makes the fight easier when you're well-geared and makes it harder when you're ill-equipped, perhaps that goes without saying but, if it's needed then this is how you make it easier or harder.

Personally, I don't think there is a "middle ground" in regards to gear, but if there was a middle ground then it would be more or less "middle" the more or less you change your gear from the level in Black Hole to Hazmat, because these are the highest tier of gear for lvl 50s and for doing the previous flashpoints and operations for the 47-54 bracket(I believe you can do Directive 7 on story mode at lvl 47 and earn your black hole gear then).

 

Perhaps I am off piss-poor help to you but, it's what I can give.

Edited by cirruz
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Both of the assassins should have been using force shroud on the rampage when it was up, that would reduce the damage they take (the tank can force shroud every other one). Other than that, it would certainly be easier if everyone had better gear, 30k+ hp makes it easy, but it is certainly doable without.
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Thanks for the replies. I'll try to stand away from boss not tank next time, guess my timing was a bit off. Didn't notice if any of the sins put shroud up....they took quite a hit from the rampage.
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Might be a bug/exploit which I shouldn't be posting here but on my most recent PUG run the tank and healer (both from same guild) insisted that we all stack on the tank by the console. Apparently (and this seemed to be proven by the situation) the boss damage (AOE - Rampage) in that situation gets shared amongst the group - not individually applied to each group member. I will certainly be trying this tactic again on my next run
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I might give that tactic a shot next time. I was just so shocked how much damage everyone took, I can usually eat the rampages and be perfectly fine healing. I hope I get HS in the next queue so I can test out these new tactics and see how they work.
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The only mechanic on that fight is the stun. The safest thing for the healer is to avoid it.

 

Put focus target on boss. Heal at 29.x meters from tank. When you see on boss the cast "rampage" move away immediately, as in cancel anything you are doing (just prior to that rampage cast, boss will stop moving entirely for a couple of seconds, that's your cue to prepare yourself ) .

Once the stun starts get back at healing range asap. If you don't get caught at the very start of the stun thing, you don't get caught at all. That way, you avoid damage on you, and more importantly, you can heal the tank while is getting hammered. After the stun finishes, check your distance.

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Are you sure tank was really a tank? Usually, giant damage on tank is indicator that the person is either in dps spec or in dps gear.

 

As for general tactics, you always stay together with the tank. Ranged dds can stay out of harm's way and need zero healing unless tank loses agro (healers, unfortunately, cannot, if you can reach the tank, you will get the stun), melee dds must stick as close to you as possible. Even PTs. They have some 10meter attacks, but ask them to stay right on top of the tank.

 

Rampage is a channel, so enable target of the target (if you have not done it already) and keep an eye out for this channel. You will have tank in your target all the time anyways, since between rampages only tanks takes damage, and tank will be on boss, you'll see the cast. If damagers take too much damage and you have to heal them individually, use focus target to watch the boss.

 

As soon as you see the cast, pop your aoe. This way you all will be healed through the stun and will lose less health, so second aoe should take care of any remaining damage.

Edited by PaniMauser
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Lets be honest, that fight is not easy to heal if it lasts very long. You mentioned you had a 24k PT in your group and an assassin damage dealer. Already you are in for a treat because of lack of damage from the Powertech and the assassin won't do 3k to balance out the 1k damage the powertech will do. . When I healed that with my sage and scoundrel the first time we wiped 5 times to realize we were borderline on the enrage timer. This was a few days after the 2.0 patch came out.

 

 

With a better group you will have no issues healing it as the damage output will be better. The fight shorter and the overall damage received from the boss less. When I tank that boss even in BIS 72 underworld, I use resilience on every second bashing. The boss has a shorter time between abilities than my resilience. So 1st resilience, second battle readiness, third resilience, nothing, 4h resilience, 5th battle readiness, etc.

 

 

 

There is a position behind the boss as you tank him with your back agains the wall where he spawns where as a healer you will not take any damage so less heals on yo more on the raid. Sadly, the boss has a stupid mechanic where he knocks the tank in the wall or left/right, even thru resilience. You need to get closer and when you see the smash cast, hot the tank quit and yourself, if in range of the ability.

 

 

Sorry about the lack of clarity, slept 4 hours and had no coffee today :(

Edited by Leafy_Bug
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I'll recommend everyone group near the console and dps. The healer uses aoe heal when needed, people use their cc-break when stunned to gain some dps, the powertech should even has the empire equivalenet of hold the line to avoid being stunned half of the time. According the stats you said, I guess you'll have not enough DPS gears to beat the enrage timer, a bit more than one minute. Use a clock or cast any dummy 1 minute long CD at the start and when it's about the time full heal the tank. The tank has to ensure his defensive cooldowns are ready for whenever the boss turns red; that'll save a dozen of second or more.

 

That can only work if the DPS are dpsing properly and the tank is geared/specced as a tank. It may also need a few tries to success.

Edited by Nkya
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I don't understand why you guys keep suggesting stuff so the healer DO get stunned (so unable to heal) and DO take damage. It's easy to avoid the stun so it's easy avoid taking damage. And what is really great about it is that you can heal those who need it, mainly the tank.

 

Sure, it's even easier to just sit there somewhere and not be arsed about the fight mechanics, but that's not always possible.

 

I do that with my sorcerer with 69+ gear. I just stay still clicking stuff with my mouse while I drink tea and eat some delicious cookies.

 

But on early acces for example, with my campaing geared commando, healing a campaing/dread guard guardian, lol... my green goo stuff wasn't enough to get us through like that.

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Thanks for the replies. I'll try to stand away from boss not tank next time, guess my timing was a bit off. Didn't notice if any of the sins put shroud up....they took quite a hit from the rampage.

 

with even one melee I won't bother trying to avoid the Stun with my scoundrel [operative]

if positional requirements make it necessary for one dps to be behind the boss then place yourself in the middle and AOE-HOT yourself that should catch everyone.

if there is no positional requirements every melee simply stacks up by the tank.

(the sin can easily replace the phase-walk for 5% more healing Hammer Station Bonus is one of the very few fights where that works).

the sin tank should only take damage every 2nd phase due to force shroud and can use Overcharge Saber if the group is low & force shroud is on CD. (watch for the blue debuff)

you yourself use your absorb shield when possible

 

I don't understand why you guys keep suggesting stuff so the healer DO get stunned (so unable to heal) and DO take damage. It's easy to avoid the stun so it's easy avoid taking damage. And what is really great about it is that you can heal those who need it, mainly the tank.

 

because the AOE Hot is great, if you need to heal 3ppl anyway you can just as easily heal 4.

&why move if you could stand still just as easily?

you are a sorc with your AOE puddle you can place in the middle of the boss He's an Operative he places himself there so he doesn't need to explain the D-drones one should place itself so the AOE HOT affects Tank and Drones.

Edited by DarthSpekulatius
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I healed this with my Scoundrel healer as his second-ever 55 HM -- Guardian tank, but he was also taking a tonne of damage, and I too could not keep him and everyone else up trying to out-range the AE. In the end, we all stacked up, and I was able to use Kolto Cloud on cooldown and it was easy.

 

The problem might have been the tank. It's always worth checking that they are in the Tank Stance and actually have a shield generator equipped -- my main role is Tanking but I commit those newbie mistakes occasionally even now.

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because the AOE Hot is great, if you need to heal 3ppl anyway you can just as easily heal 4.

&why move if you could stand still just as easily?

you are a sorc with your AOE puddle you can place in the middle of the boss He's an Operative he places himself there so he doesn't need to explain the D-drones one should place itself so the AOE HOT affects Tank and Drones.

 

/shrugg

 

Not taking damage beats taking damage. Being able to heal beats not being able to heal. That's true regardless of class and gear.

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/shrugg

 

Not taking damage beats taking damage. Being able to heal beats not being able to heal. That's true regardless of class and gear.

 

using Backstab & Shiv beats standing at range and seeing the Boss Enrage over&over

when we did our first 55HM (that was Hammer station) we had only 61/63 gear (shadow [sin] tank, Scoundrel [OP] Healer, 2x commando[merc]) i could keep myself up just using the AOE HOT,

we wiped 3 times to the Enrage with our 4 try (this one a Kill) i had the knack out and could use both these abilities almost on CD while keeping myself and the Tank up.

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using Backstab & Shiv beats standing at range and seeing the Boss Enrage over&over

when we did our first 55HM (that was Hammer station) we had only 61/63 gear (shadow [sin] tank, Scoundrel [OP] Healer, 2x commando[merc]) i could keep myself up just using the AOE HOT,

we wiped 3 times to the Enrage with our 4 try (this one a Kill) i had the knack out and could use both these abilities almost on CD while keeping myself and the Tank up.

 

Low dps is the dpser's problem, not the healers's. If healer dpsing is what it takes to make the kill, then sure, do everything possible. But if these 55 hms are easy on some roles, that's the dps. These are a joke for dps, but can be somewhat hard for healers and tanks (depending on their gear ofc)

 

I've seen far,far more wipes and "eerrm.... let's just skip bonus boss" on Hammer Station on account healer not being able keep tank alive because he ignores the boss' mechanic (stun) than because dps is low

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I didn't really check the tank's gear, I just assumed with 36k he had to have tank gear. It did feel like the fight was moving very slow compared to my last runs it seemed like we got many more rampages. Even on trash it took the dps quite a while to kill. When I healed this with 2 marauders they stacked on tank and popped their CDs. I guess it was our positioning that made it a real challenge. Thanks for all the advice, I'll try it all out.
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