Hi, my guild and I seem to have issues beating this boss on hm within the enrage timer. I honestly can't tell you if the stun droids are messing with us, but I don't think they are. He usually enrages around 20% on us. Last attempt we've been doing is leaving 3 people up top for the controls and we can fly through that. I'm kinda wondering if having that extra person up top is messing with us. Our general group make up is

shadow tank

vanguard tank

2 sage heals

commando

gunslinger

then our last two spots kinda bounce around from

vangaurd dps, sage dps and then commandos.

A good half of us are augmented. And have at least a couple black hole pieces. Weapon wise however we are equivalent to colmni, bm or wh. ANyway any tips would be nice on how to pick up our dps a bit on this fight so old.

3 people up is the 'correct' way to do it (its doable without, but best is with 3). How do you do the puzzle? Do you go fire the middle one both on the way over and on the way back from/to the first area?

If the boss starts at fire 1, middle is fire 2 and left is fire 3, we usually just go:

1 > 2 > 3 > 1 > 2 > 3

This removes the mines just as they spawn (sometimes we have to live with them for a few seconds, but not so much that it becomes a problem).

Do you have ranged dps standing up there? Are they doing some dps after you fire each thingie? This could pick up a lot of slack. Is everyone popping adrenals/relics?

I'll see if I can update this post a bit more when I get home from work :>

Our strats a little different.we only use the starting fire point.

1 tank on the boss 1 on the consoles.using charge the tanks swap when the debuff gets high.

1 healer and 1 dps on consoles.

rest of raid downstairs doing the downstairs thing.

With 3 people on consoles you can very quickly chain the dumping mechanism meaning that each person downstairs is worth 2 people, yes tank damage does get abit rough but with swapping it makes life easier.

As to the puzzle thats the hardest part of the fight.

Go through some dummy runs swapping back and forth till you can get it done quickly and cleanly. Don;t be afraid to communicate

Ie 3 to mid, take it, 3 mid taking it. etc etc, practise the communication part.

Most important thing I've found on this fight is simple.Personal dps doesn't count for squat. Focus on dumping the fire on him everyy time quickly and your dps contribution will massively outweigh the peoples downstairs.Yes its boring doing the puzzle but hey dead bosses are more fun then repair bills and running back.

I recommend 2 people on puzzle: healer (or healing class) and someone else. You do not have to blow droids - just push/throw them away from buttons.

1 healer down. Tanks switch on 6-7 stacks if healer can not outheal 10 stacks on the tank without switching.

Move droid from left to right and back skipping middle (it just removes droids). Kill stun-droids ASAP. Healer should stay near the wall, so only one droid to kill to "free" him. Remember to run away from group if you are marked.

My guild does only the right burner, with 2 puzzle solvers up top. As for tanks, we don't really wait for 5+ stacks to swap. The tanks swap when their stacks are gone ( usually about 4 stacks), it's feels more automatic and easier.

If the boss enrages at 20%, it probably means your puzzle solving is too slow. By only using the right burner, the boss has max debuff uptime. The puzzle solvers dps untill the debuff is gone. The only stun droid annoying us is nuked when it spawns. The mines on the consoles are knocked out of range or suicided by a healer. Or have the healer do the left and center console, let a ranged dps sit ON top of the right console and ignore the mine, since he can dps the boss from there.

As said before, you can practice the puzzle before firing it. Give it a few practice runs. This boss = the puzzle. Your tanks and melee dps should also be aware of missle marker.

Yes, only use position 1. Three people on consoles, ideally at least 1 can off heal - send to far console. Healer on near console, weakest dps at mid console. Tanks swap every time the debuff expires. Typically won't stack past 3 in this case, keeping damage low and healing easy.

The most important thing is for people with the yellow mark to get away quick. This is almost always the cause of wipes when I'm in there.

The best an easiest way to do this fight is to keep the boss is the same place he starts the whole time. Put a healer up on the middle control(so he can heal the other 2 ppl up there doing the puzzle with him). Have a DPS on the side controls i.e. 1 left and 1 right. Keep both tanks on the ground switching focus at 5 stacks of the debuff to start then taunting him back when the stacks drop off(should never get higher than 4-5 on either tank makes it very easy on the healer as well). Now for the puzzle it self all 3 pieces have to be moved out of the far right side to reset it(starting side).

The best way to do is Send 1 up, middle takes 1, send 2 up, far left takes 2, middle sends 1 up, far left takes 1, right sends 3 up, mid takes 3, mid sends 3 up, right takes 3, left sends 1 up, mid takes 1, left sends 2 up, right takes 2, mid sends 1 up, right side takes 1, FIRE. ( remember you cant put a higher number on top of a lower number)

If u do it this way you can pretty much have the dmg debuff on the boss the entire time. My guild has done this fight in under 2 mins before. you should also never have to move except if someone gets the bomb on them.

Place your tanks in front of the droid towards one side on the yellow(maybe green idk im colorblind) line the boxes in the area where the fire come down. Have your dps(if melee) stand right on top of that line(as long as they dont step over the line they are fine wonnt get burnt to a crisp) have the healer stand back behind the droid.

The only stun droid you should really have to worry about is the one that spawn directly on top of where you are tanking him. If u have a ranged dps you can place him directly on top of where the middle stun droid spawn and by doing this(for what ever reason) the droid doesnt attack/stun. Good luck hope this makes your life easier

I recommend 2 people on puzzle: healer (or healing class) and someone else. You do not have to blow droids - just push/throw them away from buttons.

 

1 healer down. Tanks switch on 6-7 stacks if healer can not outheal 10 stacks on the tank without switching.

 

Move droid from left to right and back skipping middle (it just removes droids). Kill stun-droids ASAP. Healer should stay near the wall, so only one droid to kill to "free" him. Remember to run away from group if you are marked.

i do not recommend this^ too much down time

On SM, we just leave Fabs on the fire (right) side and keep a healer and a dps up top. The healer operates the left 2 switches--we prefer a sorc so he can bubble himself and also Overload to push the droids away. The dps operates the right switch/fire mechanism--and we prefer a sniper so he can also push droids out of the way, and dps the boss when not doing switches.

Down below we have 2 tanks that taunt back and forth depending on stacks. Being dps melee-heavy can be problematic with satchel charges, but our guild seems to do a good job of moving away from the group when they get one so they don't blow everyone up. Those charges, IMO, are the single biggest reason why this fight fails for some--it just starts a chain reaction of damage and puts undue stress on healers.

* The only stun droids you need to worry about with this strat are the far right and middle ones -- ignore the far left.

* Save Bloodthirst for right after a firing, for max dps.

On HM, the strat is a bit different. We walk Fabs from right (fire) to left (cold), and repeat. (Is there even a middle firing area? If so, we don't use it.) As a result, the ranged dps we have up top moves to the middle platform so he can dps when Fabs is on either side. He will either operate 2 switches, or the healer up there with him will do switches 1 and 3.

Obviously with this method, you have to kill all 3 stun droids when they pop up, but they're hardly a challenge. The only issue is with people blowing up others with charges while they sprint back to the boss (have seen marauders get blown up mid-air while force jumping to the boss -- very funny).

I will say this: the Fabs fight, and by extension the whole of KP, is soooo much easier with 16 instead of 8, even on HM. You can keep 3 people up top, or even 4 if you want a backup in case of an untimely death, and it's still a cakewalk down below.

The reason we blow the middle one, is to get rid of the stun droids. I've had several wipes on NiM because the healer that's down by the conveyor belt gets chainstunned by 3-4 stun droids, or one of the tanks is stunned inside a fire.

I will say tho, Im usually doing this on NiM, and the way we're doing it now is by far the easiest way we've done it.

But that may just be my opinion :>

The reason we blow the middle one, is to get rid of the stun droids. I've had several wipes on NiM because the healer that's down by the conveyor belt gets chainstunned by 3-4 stun droids, or one of the tanks is stunned inside a fire.

I will say tho, Im usually doing this on NiM, and the way we're doing it now is by far the easiest way we've done it.

But that may just be my opinion :>

I do this on NiM mode aswell.. Why is your tank in the fire area never has to be nor does anyone else... there is only 2 stund droids that can possibly hit you if u keep him to the right

I skipped others replies so maybe I'm just iterating, either way this is how my guild runs fabricator on both SM and HM, and we one shot him with ease every time.

Both tanks stand with their backs to the right wall so they can't get knocked back and move the boss. If you have a melee DPS on boss then he can stand off to the side or with the tanks, and be in range for full DPS and not worry about getting hit by the laser.

We have 3 other DPS on the puzzle just solving rapidly and doing nothing but spamming the laser. We keep the boss in place, and you have no need to move him since moving the bottom 3 piece to another spot then back to the right allows you to refire the laser once it's restacked. The goal for the people up top is constant barrage of the laser. If you manage to keep the armor debuff up on the boss then no droids will spawn and the fight is super easy from there. So long as your DPS isn't god awful, and I mean really god awful, if they have a half decent spec and know what a rotation is that's enough DPR to beat the boss.

I suggest when you picked your 3 DPS to do the laser you have them practice the puzzle a number of times until they get it down with ease. If they are really fast they can prevent the droids from spawning, if they mess up too much you'll have droids on top of everything else. But luckily the puzzle solvers in my guild are really fast so we've yet to have any droids spawn in a number of months.

A good half of us are augmented. .

Easy solution, get all DPS Augmented even if it is with blues. I heal this all the time with different groups from a guild alliance. I just fill in when any group is short a healer as my group has moved past this stage. I've seen all the different strategies and different group make ups but since the removed the stacking debuffs, a group that is close to fully augmented is the best strategy for a smooth run.

My vote is to get everyone augmented, it makes a world of difference for healers and tanks too, but at least get the dps augmented

You can do it with only 2 people up, but as your puzzle solving might be too slow, 3 is probably the way to go.

We always used to switch R-->L and skipped the middle one, make sure to knock the proximity mines back. Usually a problem for us was the DPS not focusing on the stun droids fast enough. Those should go down in the blink of an eye, you should stun the stun droids, this prevents them from doing their annoying aoe stun thing on your DPS.

Depending on your tank's gear level and your healers, you can also do it without 2 dedicated tanks. I used to tank it solo (vanguard tank), I simply took nearly the max amount of stacks then a DPS group member (guardian for us) just switched to tank stance, taunted, took 3-4 stacks and I taunted back.

Another important wipe factor for us was people not moving out when they had the yellow exploding marker thing. If they explode on your tank when he's already taking massive damage, that can easily cause a wipe.

We've been very successful with constant burns on the right (starting) pad.

We leave 3 people up top (1 healer w/ knockback and our two weakest dps). We build up the right column, burn. Move all pieces out of the right column (no need to rebuild elsewhere or fire elsewhere). Rebuild right column, burn. It takes 10-20 seconds between burns. Each burn increases damage dealt very significantly.

In effect Fabricator has zero armor and a major debuff through the entire fight. Between the two tanks and two dps on the ground, he goes down well before the enrage timer. Just be sure to have your strongest DPS on the ground and that they know how to maintain constant damage, and you'll be golden.

Our tanks usually swap around 4/5, with one standing to the left of Fabricator and one standing in front. Our healer on the ground finds the 'sweet spot' (avoiding all stun droids). The non-tanking tank and 1 dps are respondible for the one stun droid that spawn in front of fabricator.

This fight was once a monster, but it's absurdly easy with this strategy.

I'm sure I'm not going to add anything that hasn't already been said, but this is what we do for HM:

1. Healer / dps up top. Healer stands on top of console against back wall. dps uses knockback on proximity droids if possible, dodges others, eats a few explosions which are healed through. Dps doesn't fight droids and can focus on solving the puzzle.

2. Second healer in doorway by fabricator.

3. Keep him at position one.

4. Tank swap at 6-8 stacks.

5. 1 dps assigned to kill stun droid next to fabricator, one dps assigned to kill stun droid next to healer.

The only time we wipe these days is if someone has a grenade and doesn't move away from the group, overtaxing the healers.

Our last attempt we ended up pugging a tank and two of our less geared dps and me as a healer were up top. We were going through the puzzle pretty quickly. Only time we slowed down was when i healed or bubbled one of the others. We were keeping the boss under the initial burner. I believe that we were having issues with the explosion thing, but I don't "think" it was a big thing.. We were killing two stun droids the one on the boss and the other by the door. I couldn't tell you how big of an issue the droids were sadly..

I've only cleared KP hm twice and with other guilds once on my healer where we pathed him left and right and on my tank where we just stayed in one spot.

Just wanted to add that I guess our healer below was being a bit overtaxed down below due to the sticky grenade thing. What is the method of making the stun droid by the door not do anything. When I tanked it last on story mode I just taunted the droid on the boss granted the other tanks stacks got a little high, but kept healer and a dps clear.

Also for the dps on the boss which direction do you generally run with the grenade?

You can not keep Fabricator in one spot in Hard Mode and you should move him between fire and ice nozzles. 3 people on top I found unnecessary because you need to click only 14 times and after right nozzle fires you want everyone to damage the boss while he is red. Moving Fabricator takes some time and you have enough time to solve puzzle with only 2 people. Practice helps.

Stun-droids can be killed in 2 GCD if all DD focus fire. Droid near doorway should be killed first to free healer. Also it can be stunned to buy some time.

The main damage source to your group is explosive "markers". If you do not run away from group with it on you, it will stress your healer. Where to run? rDD can run inside doorway. mDD can run in the hall and jump on boss after explosion. Rule No1: never stand where you can blow active tank because on 10 stacks it one shot kills him.

You can not keep Fabricator in one spot in Hard Mode and you should move him between fire and ice nozzles.

 

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While moving the Fab between left and right is a valid strategy, you absolutely can do HM keeping him under the fire nozzle. We just did that last night with a handful of new people. They weren't very well geared so the DPS was low and we barely missed the enrage timer.

Had we moved him to the left position we would have hit enrage, as ice doesn't add the damage increase buff.

I ran the puzzle up top and was able to run right along the edge of the platform, so I only had to deal with 3 proximity droids per puzzle fire. The first one I knocked back. The second one I dpsed down and the third one I ate the damage.

You can not keep Fabricator in one spot in Hard Mode and you should move him between fire and ice nozzles. 3 people on top I found unnecessary because you need to click only 14 times and after right nozzle fires you want everyone to damage the boss while he is red. Moving Fabricator takes some time and you have enough time to solve puzzle with only 2 people. Practice helps.

You do not need to move from original position in HM or NiM mode. It's actually easier to pull off in HM.

Yes, only use position 1. Three people on consoles, ideally at least 1 can off heal - send to far console. Healer on near console, weakest dps at mid console. Tanks swap every time the debuff expires. Typically won't stack past 3 in this case, keeping damage low and healing easy.

 

The most important thing is for people with the yellow mark to get away quick. This is almost always the cause of wipes when I'm in there.

Right side rocks as of now.. Very simple fast fight in Sm/hm/NiM

One thing I'm actually curious about, is the 3-person-puzzle solving strat, as I've never done it.

Bear with me here. Can someone confirm this is how it is done:

1. Joe at right panel

2. Sam at middle panel

3. Bill at left panel

4. Joe activates right panel (piece #1 out)

5. Sam activates middle panel (piece #1 down)

6. Joe activates right panel (piece #2 out)

7. Bill activates left panel (piece #2 down)

8. Sam activates middle panel (piece #1 out)

9. Bill activates left panel (piece #1 down)

10. Joe activates right panel (piece #3 up)

11. Sam activates middle panel (piece #3 down)

12. Sam activates middle panel (piece #3 up)

13. Joe activates right panel (piece #3 down)

14. Bill activates left panel (piece #1 up)

15. Sam activates middle panel (piece #1 down)

16. Bill activates left panel (piece #2 up)

17. Joe activates right panel (piece #2 down)

18. Sam activates middle panel (piece #1 up)

19. Joe activates right panel (piece #1 down)

20. Fire

Is there any delay between pressing panels? If not, (since this strat requires no running), it seems like this whole process could be done in about 20 seconds.

Currently we have someone running the puzzle full-time without stopping. I suppose this way, everyone could be dpsing until he gets a couple of stacks of armor, then 3 ranged run up to the puzzle, take 20 seconds to reset it and fire again, then go back to dps.

Before I suggest this to my group, I like a confirmation that this is how it works with the 3-person strat.

There are a ton of viable strategies for this fight.

Personally, I like either 3 up top or the 2 up top only firing the right one. Either way it, optimally should be your lowest output dps character(s) and the lowest output healer.

The trick to using only the right burner is that you do not need to fully move the stack and restack it in a new bin 3-2-1. You only need to place the #3 into a different bin, then you can move them all back. You drop #3 into the middle bin then immediately back up and to the right. That cuts the time in almost half. Not always doing the button pushing, I just found this out recently and it's huge.

If you do the "only right" strategy with 2 people on buttons, you're two button pushers will move together. Starting with it ready to fire on the right, you should have a clicker on the middle and the right. Move the #1 to the middle, put #2 up, then you both run left. Do the switch, so #2 & 1 are on the left, you both run right a bin. Then keep up this general pattern of shifting both button pushers.

If the button pushers have knockbacks, they can easily punt the proxy droids that spawn in front of the buttons out of the way or you can use a shield cooldown to eat it. Typically that will only leave one of the three (at most) that actually need to be killed.

You can have the button pushers DPS during the burn phases, but honestly I think it's just more of a pain b/c you'll typically have to move the boss around a little to get him in range of the guys by the buttons or the button pushers will need to deal with the extra proxy droids on the platforms.