So took a round through most of the hard-modes today, and every single one had some issues.

Black Talon:

Large portions of the flashpoint lacks mob spawns.

2 of the bosses have very strict enrage timers. While this was enojable and challenging, I'm gonna be somewhat elitist and say people will struggle with these timers. We were doing some somewhat unconventional stuff to make it work.

Boarding Party:

Most of the instance was pretty easy, but the last boss has some pretty harsh damage and again a strict enrage timer to the point that you're better off not using a tank. Also the chest on last boss didn't open.

The Foundry:

Again, the same thing almost every flashpoint has of drastically different tuning on bosses. Last boss seems un-killable. We were able to get him down to 25-30% before enrage, but the enrage just comes way too quick. Think it's only about 2 minutes into the fight.

Directive 7:

Got stuck on an enrage timer here too, this time on Bulwark. The group for this instance had lower damage though, so might be possible with better setup. Also the clones in the fight before Bulwark doesn't do anything.

Battle of Ilum:

Gark has a very strict enrage timer, but doable. However his damage output is quite high and also does random kills during stun. Some issues with knockbacks making it very hard to interrupt deadly abilities. Didn't get past him.

While alot of this might seem like we just needed better damage or healing, compared to all the other bosses there's just too big of a gap. The enrage timers are great, but some of them just seems randomly slapped on. We were using stims and adrenals and utilizing "strange" positions to maximize dps and was still not even close on some fights. Our gear is also pretty good compared to the level of content, with several 120+ pieces.

Black Talon was cake. However the final boss of The Boarding Party was rather impossible.

Any ideas how to kill the last boss?

Thank you for posting regarding your experiences. Hopefully it will be useful for tuning the encounters before I reach the point of doing hard modes.

And yes, I'm being sincere.

Black Talon was cake. However the final boss of The Boarding Party was rather impossible.

 

Any ideas how to kill the last boss?

As I said in my post, don't tank. Just zerg them one by one, have a pro healer and don't clump to avoid aoe. The tech guy and boss just hits random targets anyways, and the healer spends a lot of time casting heals.

Did another run at Directive 7 today. Managed to down Bulwark, although that was with healer dpsing for good amounts of the fight and it ended after enrage with one standing.

The next boss is still completely exploitable with LoS on the turrets, although it doesn't really have anything to do with hardmodes I'd like to just mention it.

Last boss seems doable, although LoSing is again a very big part of it. Got to the last phase, but both times we were sorta in shambles as the transition hit so didn't get to test it very well. Still the same issue as in normal mode with the claw sometimes just never giving up on following the healer. Also the fight is just terrible with all melee.

So took a round through most of the hard-modes today, and every single one had some issues.

 

Black Talon:

Large portions of the flashpoint lacks mob spawns.

2 of the bosses have very strict enrage timers. While this was enojable and challenging, I'm gonna be somewhat elitist and say people will struggle with these timers. We were doing some somewhat unconventional stuff to make it work.

 

Boarding Party:

Most of the instance was pretty easy, but the last boss has some pretty harsh damage and again a strict enrage timer to the point that you're better off not using a tank. Also the chest on last boss didn't open.

 

The Foundry:

Again, the same thing almost every flashpoint has of drastically different tuning on bosses. Last boss seems un-killable. We were able to get him down to 25-30% before enrage, but the enrage just comes way too quick. Think it's only about 2 minutes into the fight.

 

Directive 7:

Got stuck on an enrage timer here too, this time on Bulwark. The group for this instance had lower damage though, so might be possible with better setup. Also the clones in the fight before Bulwark doesn't do anything.

 

Battle of Ilum:

Gark has a very strict enrage timer, but doable. However his damage output is quite high and also does random kills during stun. Some issues with knockbacks making it very hard to interrupt deadly abilities. Didn't get past him.

 

While alot of this might seem like we just needed better damage or healing, compared to all the other bosses there's just too big of a gap. The enrage timers are great, but some of them just seems randomly slapped on. We were using stims and adrenals and utilizing "strange" positions to maximize dps and was still not even close on some fights. Our gear is also pretty good compared to the level of content, with several 120+ pieces.

I am sorry but you are way off on Black Talon. I ran it yesterday with FRESH 50ies, we didn't hit enrage timers on ANY of the bosses except for the bonus one, who went down anyway. We had a madness sorc (me), merc healer, sniper dps, jug tank.

The rest sound accurate though. On Battle for Ilum, the middle boss (pirate with adds) is skippable, and the last boss is a fairly tight enrage timer dps check, but doable with fresh 50ies.

The Problem we ran into is basically that without a solid AoE class you're screwed.

We had two single target DDs and it was impossible to kill the adds on many fights fast enough while still killing the boss. Further the AoE Specs don't seem to have any single target downside.

You'll basically want a Sorcerer/Sage DD in any group, because of their AoE capabilities while still providing very good single target damage.

For specific bosses:

1) Gark seemed rather impossible, if you interrupt all Charged Blasts, you won't have enough for the defense stance, which then makes the charged blasts not interruptable.

If you interrupt defense stance, then you can interrupt one charged blast, but he'll use defense stance again within 4 seconds of the interrupt...

2) Darth Malgus, yeah, we didn't 2 knockbacks. Unkillable. Dumb designer who thought that up.

3) 1st Boss in Esseles, no AoE damage, only single target dds. Adds were spawning every 15 seconds for us. As a trooper tank i didn't have enough ammo to spawn my AoE aggro move, and the adds were zerging around.

Additional notes:

Tanking trash is the horror, because they spawned way to much spread out. Picking all mobs up is a rather crap task, especially with the very bad targetting system.

I am sorry but you are way off on Black Talon. I ran it yesterday with FRESH 50ies, we didn't hit enrage timers on ANY of the bosses except for the bonus one, who went down anyway. We had a madness sorc (me), merc healer, sniper dps, jug tank.

Wouldn't say I'm way off when you actually hit enrage on one and was probably close on last boss too. The enrage timers in BT are fine if you play well, but as I was trying to imply, I think they will be a tad too punishing for people who are somewhat new to the game. Compared to certain other enrage timers though, they are pretty softball.

Wouldn't say I'm way off when you actually hit enrage on one and was probably close on last boss too. The enrage timers in BT are fine if you play well, but as I was trying to imply, I think they will be a tad too punishing for people who are somewhat new to the game. Compared to certain other enrage timers though, they are pretty softball.

True. Also the bonus droid is the only one really who wrecks face after enrage. The other 3 bosses, even enraged, are healable, although barely.

well you cant expect to beat it all with fresh off level 50 gear try gear up a bit then try again, do the easier ones first

we're far from fresh off lvl 50 at this point all but one of my pieces are 126+ (which is first tier of epics)

So took a round through most of the hard-modes today, and every single one had some issues.

 

Black Talon:

Large portions of the flashpoint lacks mob spawns.

2 of the bosses have very strict enrage timers. While this was enojable and challenging, I'm gonna be somewhat elitist and say people will struggle with these timers. We were doing some somewhat unconventional stuff to make it work.

 

Boarding Party:

Most of the instance was pretty easy, but the last boss has some pretty harsh damage and again a strict enrage timer to the point that you're better off not using a tank. Also the chest on last boss didn't open.

 

The Foundry:

Again, the same thing almost every flashpoint has of drastically different tuning on bosses. Last boss seems un-killable. We were able to get him down to 25-30% before enrage, but the enrage just comes way too quick. Think it's only about 2 minutes into the fight.

 

Directive 7:

Got stuck on an enrage timer here too, this time on Bulwark. The group for this instance had lower damage though, so might be possible with better setup. Also the clones in the fight before Bulwark doesn't do anything.

 

Battle of Ilum:

Gark has a very strict enrage timer, but doable. However his damage output is quite high and also does random kills during stun. Some issues with knockbacks making it very hard to interrupt deadly abilities. Didn't get past him.

 

While alot of this might seem like we just needed better damage or healing, compared to all the other bosses there's just too big of a gap. The enrage timers are great, but some of them just seems randomly slapped on. We were using stims and adrenals and utilizing "strange" positions to maximize dps and was still not even close on some fights. Our gear is also pretty good compared to the level of content, with several 120+ pieces.

they are labeled as "Hard Modes" for a reason

This is starting to be ridiculous. I don't mind wiping on Hardmodes that are bugged, I don't even mind spending hours dying and trying to squeeze out that extra 50k dmg just to beat the enrage timer, it's fun and it's challenging. However, when we kill bosses and spend hours wiping and then the chest bugs, and all we get from the help support is a "thank you for reporting this issue" that is BS. We want item compensation for this, we spent about 500k credit already each getting False Emperor on farm, and even now HK-47 is so bugged its down to RNG more then anything. If this doesn't get fixed soon we are all contemplating just quitting the game, we came to progress not stand around for months while waiting for you lot to fix a few chests so we can get our loot.

So far the chests that have bugged for us are, second boss in Battle of Illum, Bonus and Final Boss in the Boarding Party.

they are labeled as "Hard Modes" for a reason

I don't mind that it's hard at all. But when something is basically impossible even when you're even/over-geared there's something wrong with the tuning. Not to mention the bugs and exploits. As you can see in my later post, we went back and beat Bulwark, which was damn fun. But I can tell you right now that the vast majority of people in this game would never ever beat that boss unless they were heavily over-gearing it. Yes, I know I'm being super-elitist, but our group even just barely beat him by the tiniest margin.

2nd boss in battle for ilum

absolutely overtuned and all the timers are out of sync.

miss 1 interrupt on a cover and u lose.. unless ur dps and healer are gods.

false emperor,

the bounty hunter boss is bugged to god knows what, half the time it doesnt reset the stacks. then he'll start spammnig grapple.

this is what happens when they fail on a promise of a high level testing server.

If this doesn't get fixed soon we are all contemplating just quitting the game, we came to progress not stand around for months while waiting for you lot to fix a few chests so we can get our loot.

 

So far the chests that have bugged for us are, second boss in Battle of Illum, Bonus and Final Boss in the Boarding Party.

I understand frustration, but I call BS. Gonna quit because of 2 buggy chests? Get real. And I don't know who you think is gonna give a damn about your threat to quit anyway.

The enrage timers are NOT DPS timers themselves. I have noticed, at least in Black Talon, and a couple bosses in Boarding Party, that they are set % enrages. The GXR-7 and Yadira Ban enrage at 25%, Commander Ghulil enrages at 10%. These are effectively cooldown/burn enrages where you pop everything and hopefully kill it before your party dies.

The bosses are tuned fine for DPS, you just essentially have to learn save and use your defensive and offensive cooldowns.