On top of that, the tank decided not to guard me but one of the DPS.

When I tank, I guard, who most likely pull aggro from me. Usually highest dd. Not heal. If healer pull aggro, then I guard healer, but usually its dd. In my experience, when I enter to master fp with 248 geared inflitration shadow and 230 geraed healer get Guard, it more likely go bad than fp, where tank guard me or other high dd.

On top of that, the tank decided not to guard me but one of the DPS.

 

When I tank, I guard, who most likely pull aggro from me. Usually highest dd. Not heal. If healer pull aggro, then I guard healer, but usually its dd. In my experience, when I enter to master fp with 248 geared inflitration shadow and 230 geraed healer get Guard, it more likely go bad than fp, where tank guard me or other high dd.

I totally agree with that for most fights, but I was saying it just for the first boss fight of Blood Hunt because usually if the adds aren't taken out quickly by the DPS, the healer gets shot to shreds by the adds on that fight. And I did state that after I saw how these guys played, I had nothing to worry about because those DPS were on top of the adds as soon as they spawned and took them out quickly.

I usually play Master FPs on Imp side Harbinger since the queue there is faster. A while back, I queued as a Guardian tank and after a while, queue popped. Had the unfortunate fate of getting Blood Hunt. I thought about dropping the group but decided to give it a try. We had a Sage DPS, Mando Healer and I forgot the other DPS.

Before taking on the 1st boss, we had a quick rundown on tactics. Sage would focus on boss, the other guy on the adds. Hit enrage at roughly 20% and wiped. For the next try, Sage and the other DPS switched tactics. I also told the group that I could try skank tanking if we still cant beat Enrage.

We hit enrage around 10% but I quickly thought about kiting the boss while keeping threat on him via taunt. I tried to get much distance as possible since he may as well one-shot me when I'm close. Around 5% HP the boss got me, the other DPS shortly after. The boss turned towards the Sage, but he popped a barrier and killed the boss.

Next fight, the Mando couple: everything was going well until the part where they both shoot and stab you at the same time. I died and we wiped. Sage suggested that he will tank Valk. We went in again and finally beat them.

Last boss, my ping started acting up. I had lag spikes throughout the fight which quickly made me barbeque around 50%. Only Sage and Mando were standing. They surprisingly brought the boss down to around 15% when they could not go anymore. In the second try, all went well till I got a lag spike around 30%. Everyone except the Sage went down and the Sage surprisingly singlehandedly beat the boss.

I've heard that Sorcs/Sages had been nerfed to the ground but this guy played his class like a pro, even carried the group. Now that's something you don't see everyday.

Whoever you are, Sage with Dread Master Headgear and Tier IV Flair, you surely have impressed a mediocre tank.

Shout out to a guy who tanked DF in a random group I got from the Group Finder today. I was really worried at first, he came in as a "tank" wearing DPS gear, charged forward without regard to anyone or anything at the beginning...when the other tank got flattened by Nefla, I could feel a headache coming on...but it turned out that despite the immediately dubious look of his gear choices, our crazy tank was also a crazy good tank, and as he steamrolled his way through the Fortress without stopping to wait (no, actually, he did stop to state "Gotta go fast" in the Ops chat and do a Ready Check, once, right before Corruptor Zero, since half the team was still looting Grob'thok), and we steamrolled right behind him.

 

Now, maybe DF has just been really nerfed (I don't think I've run it since 4.0, to be honest), but my memories are all of that Operation being a real bear, and I'm still kind of in awe of this guy.

Actually tank wearing dps mods and enhancements is the only way to go. Defensive mods are utter garbage in this game. I get worried even more when I see a tank in Def mods.... much rather have a tank that can chip in with dps then sitting around hitting like a wet noodle. What you probably witnessed was him having a shield off hand equipped to help trigger shield chance and he used his DCDs properly, that all is that is needed in any SM or FP's to tank efficiently. Unless your absolutely new to tanking, I wouldn't recommend tanks mods since the dps hit is pretty significant, more raid dps is actually what contributes to smoother runs (and know mechanics, of course). (hard mode is different, tank enhancements are more desired, but even then running DPS mods with high endurance is still better then defense mods)

Met a nice team in Korriban Incursion today - level 18 dps guardian, level 50 dps vanguard, level 38 tank guardian (and me on my max level sentinel).

Very polite, patient, and a joy to smite with. I think the level 18 was new to the flashpoint, though we got a little confused on that so the guardian and I were trying to explain things.

Even when we wiped against Renning there were no recriminations, just advice. Destroyed him on the second attempt. Tore through the droid boss without any deaths (which is rare in my experience - someone nearly always karks it in that fight). Made it to Soverous without any issues and smote him first time

So, yeah, very nice group. Not the smoothest run ever, but still good fun

My first ever Hard Mode Blood Hunt today, on Commando Healer.

The others were Juggernaut tank, Gunslinger, and DPS Commando.

I had to turn my graphics even lower than I thought to counter the ridiculous lag, but the team were patient with me

They were nice guys. No recriminations even though we wiped a few times against the wampa. Then the Gunslinger switched to their Sentinel, I found my sweet spot and we did a lot better.

We beat Jos & Valk on the first attempt, which astonished me. Guess that lends weight to the "I'm usually ok as long as I can see what I'm doing" theory, but like I said. They were a good team.

We wiped a couple of times against Torch before the Gunslinger/Sentinel player was called away. The Juggernaut then called up a friend (Scoundrel healer) to replace him. Two more goes against Torch and then we won.

So, yeah. Not exactly a textbook run by any means, but a nice patient team and an eventual victory

Not many great and awesome people in groupfinder lately then?

Queued for HFPs with a guildmate tonight (me on my Commando healer, her on her dps Guardian. We got Kaon. We were terrified, and to make matters scarier, the other two (a dps Shadow and a tank Guardian who were in another guild) had never done any HFPs before.

They were nice guys, and seemed to really know their classes. Kept leaving me behind, but never so far behind that they got killed before I could catch up and heal

One particularly unlucky wipe in the room of death though - they got tossed into a second group and we got swamped... but that's Kaon for you

Killed the bonus boss on the 3rd attempt (though it was hard going). Final boss was pretty easy even if I had forgotten the waves of adds in Hard Mode

Not a textbook run by any means, but a good group, communicated well, worked out where we were lacking against the bonus boss and managed to fix it. So, yeah, I'm counting it

To revive this thread I'll tell about the DF I did last night.

Basically it took a while to find a group (weird since this was prime time on harby, is not doing ops an imp thing?). I was on my operative healer, and finally when someone else started looking for a group in fleet chat I asked if he wanted to look together and we grouped up. Found everything but tanks (of course, when I want to heal we get a healer, when I want to tank we get a tank). Eventually our PT says he has tank gear and can swap for the last boss and we get an actual tank so we pull in a 5th dps and go.

After Nefra 2 people dc. Keep in mind it took us longer to form this group than kill Nefra lol. I'm like great, this isn't happening. But the 6 of us left were patient and when they didn't return in 5 minutes or so we requeued and got replacements. Finished the op with no problems, PT fake tank didn't even have to swap to tank. So shout out to imp side harby for being patient last night! And to whoever the PT dps was, you were quite an adaptable team player.

GF, DoM (Depths of Manaan) Master Mode:

248 Assassin Tank ( knew her sh.. and I'll use the gender of the toon)

248 Sor Cor (me )

230-ish maybe DPS

.... and same (maybe Merc)

FIrst Boss took FOREVER!!!!!! But doable. Cleared the rest of the trash w/ minor issue. Stealthed the terminals.... blah blah.

PUDDLES:

1st attempt: Explained fight, and jumped in. So far so good. Adds, stun, kill, FLOW... run... DPS got stuck.... dead /CR/ group wipe.....

2nd attempt: Attack Puddles and group wipe....

3rd attempt: Attack... flow... run... heal.... attack... adds... stun one.... Puddles boss.... FLOW... run.. heals....

4 hours, 18 minutes, and 23 seconds later....

SUCCESS! ! ! ! ! ! We DID IT!

Group was nice and everybody helped. Everybody was cordial. Fun group! No nasties. No put downs. We worked together!

In queue for Vet FP I get a pop on my rating 236 Merc DPS. Another 70 Merc, a lvl 15 Sniper and a lvl 23 Op Heal. Manaan pops and after zoning in the other lvl 70 is gone.

I pull out my rank 23 pet thinking we will never beat Stivastin and we start. What can I say? We one shot everything! Ok, first boss was taking forever, at Ortuno my pet required a revive (poor flood micromanaging) and Stivastin fell with like 9 adds still up (and we wiped), but I would never have thought that possible.

So: Kudos to the lowbies, it was really a nice experience.

Got one.

Brought my super lowbie new sent on the fleet. Got a pop for Taral V. I'm only 15 or so still in my greens/blues from Tython. Zone in, the FP is done cept for the last boss. We down him in one hit, and collect the rewards, and part ways happy.

Best FP run. I'm super low lv, Taral is long as hell. Quick get in and out so I can focus on pvp ranking.

So here I am, doing GF runs for Darth Hexid. First FP - Core Meltdown Tactical. Players - me (248 geared Mara), 70 level jugg (108k hp), Sorc level 24, and a healer level 70.

I teleport inside, and notice healer has bailed. Dont think he even bothered to get inside the instance. So we are 3 now, I am leader. I pull my 42 influence Pierce and decide to give it a try, because why not? I ask if the others know the fight. Jugg admits he hasnt played a long time so he doesn't remember. I notice both he and Sorc are legendary players, that gives me hope they have at least some clue what they are doing. Just in case, I explain each fight before we pull.

The FP goes perfectly, No wipes. no deaths, nothing. The tactics is being followed. (Which is not suprising cause most of the time bosses attack me and I know what to do) Don't know how much of it due to me being well-geared with hign-ranking companion, and how much is to the skill of the team members, but the fact is a fact. All went well.

I want to thank that jugg and sorc for not leaving when that healer did. Good to know there are still people in game who are not afraid of trying even when situation lookes grim.

Czerka Labs MM - started off with Guardian tank, Guardian DPS (geared as tank ) and slinger. First boss did not go so well - enrage at 30%. Tank who was in fact assigned to be the tank, insulted the group and rage quit. I am group leader so I queue for replacement. Shortly thereafter the guardian DPS/tank realized he queued as DPS, and then the slinger left. but right away we got another Guardian tank.

The new tank breaks out a DPS comp and says lets go. Honestly, I'm skeptical and say so, but as a scoundrel I can save repair bills by stealthing out, so we go for it. And we down the droid boss easy. I state that I am flabberghasted and admit when I am wrong (it did not hurt that the companion was not affected by any damage from the droid). We move on and the only glitch is that the comp gets one shot once on the second boss.

Good job to both "tanks". We all knew what we were doing and it was fun to 3man (+comp) a MMFP.

Did Corruptor Zero at the Dread Fortress yesterday with 5 of us (Star Forge) after some people left (pug). Everybody was a champ but we had to call it quits when we couldn't take the next trash mob. Kudos guys if you see this!

- your sorc healer

Yet another one...starting to be a trend

MM Taral V. as the tank and therefore the de facto "leader" I asked the question at the start: Bonus or not? We decided to do the bonus. Everyone in the group was efficient, and knew what they were doing. Not only did we kill the bonus boss but we did ALL bosses. at the first cut scene someone asked to "space bar please" and we all skipped the cutscenes.

basically we were all on the same page and it was a wonderful experience.

Yet another one...starting to be a trend

 

MM Taral V. as the tank and therefore the de facto "leader" I asked the question at the start: Bonus or not? We decided to do the bonus. Everyone in the group was efficient, and knew what they were doing. Not only did we kill the bonus boss but we did ALL bosses. at the first cut scene someone asked to "space bar please" and we all skipped the cutscenes.

 

basically we were all on the same page and it was a wonderful experience.

Gosh I love those runs. I’m always a bit worried when it comes to more tactical FP’s and low level people. Mostly because of a lack of rotations in their part that makes a fight especially challenging.

Got a story to share.

Ran a MM Assault on Tython... just a little bit ago actually. Zoned in on my IO Merc and found that our comp was a PT Tank, Arsenal Merc, IO Merc & Bodyguard Merc. Was thinking we could have a little fun but as they are wont to do in MM AoT, the healer immediately dropped group.

Managed to convince the remaining Merc & PT that we could easily 3man the first boss. Did so (had to waste a B-Rez on Nico though cause I screwed up his positioning but eh, boss died)

We moved on through, got a replacement healer mid second boss, ended up resetting to help the healer get to us (we'd skipped the flesh raider and he'd thought we'd killed it) and killed the second boss as well. Got the bonus boss down and then we hit a brick wall on the final boss.

Sorc healer just couldn't keep up with all the outgoing damage and we ended up all dead after the first shield/debris phase. We regrouped and tried again. Same result.

Having learned the definition of insanity we tried with two heals, myself as dps & the PT still tanking. Same result.

Tried a couple more times before I gave in and offered to heal. The other fellows didn't have field respec though so the final fight with Traless took us 8 minutes with a tank & 3 healers but we finally managed to kick his ***.

Shout out to that PT tank for being a good sport and sticking through the FP though we ended up extending the duration significantly.

(Side Note: Why do heals/tanks drop out of AoT on zone in? its really not that bad. I've run that entire MM FP in 5.0 as a light & medium armor duo)

You're not gonna believe this.

I just had a run of veteran Korriban Incursion where

...people let tank pull

...everyone skipped every mob we wanted to skip without pulling anything extra

...dps followed the kill order and aoed when they were supposed to aoe

...tank held aggro, even on mobs, and gathered enemies for dps aoes

...and, believe or not, people DID NOT RUN TO THE DAMN KOLTO STATION AS SOON AS THEY TOOK DAMAGE. Instead, they let me heal it.

I mean, it's Korriban Incursion. You're gonna take damage there. One dps was bad at avoiding stupid in second boss and constantly dropped to 20% in that phase until I learned to position myself near enough to where I knew he was gonna run. First time he did this, someone pressed the kolto, but each and every time after that, I actually got to heal them!!! I was not forced to play ineffective dps!

I can't believe saying this, but I actually had loads of fun healing this veteran fp. Usually I loathe veteran fps.

You're not gonna believe this.

 

I just had a run of veteran Korriban Incursion where

...people let tank pull

...everyone skipped every mob we wanted to skip without pulling anything extra

...dps followed the kill order and aoed when they were supposed to aoe

...tank held aggro, even on mobs, and gathered enemies for dps aoes

...and, believe or not, people DID NOT RUN TO THE DAMN KOLTO STATION AS SOON AS THEY TOOK DAMAGE. Instead, they let me heal it.

 

I mean, it's Korriban Incursion. You're gonna take damage there. One dps was bad at avoiding stupid in second boss and constantly dropped to 20% in that phase until I learned to position myself near enough to where I knew he was gonna run. First time he did this, someone pressed the kolto, but each and every time after that, I actually got to heal them!!! I was not forced to play ineffective dps!

I can't believe saying this, but I actually had loads of fun healing this veteran fp. Usually I loathe veteran fps.

you're right I don't believe you ... just because it's Black Friday doesn't mean I'm going to buy this tall tale

kudos to the group for being sane

Had a great run on my lvl 15 Mara: we got Rakata and in group were two other lowbies and a 70, all DPS. We really had issues at the final battle, as my char basically lacked all resources required to support the team in combat, but everyone continued until we finally managed to down them by me just running from kolto to kolto waiting for the last possible moment to use it.

Thanks for the great run!