I've been running the Belsavis Daily Heroic with a group in order to help them get geared-up. I haven't been able to get into HM FP yet - mostly because I want to run them with guildies ... who aren't geared-up yet.

So, the Belsavis H4 "The Stasis Generator" is a fun run. Nice practice for dealing with stunning and mob-healers. The Champ's are pretty easy ... up until "Stands Tall".

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but all the guides go about saying "Oh, you can solo this quest ..." which I routinely do on my Shadow Tank. However, for our purposes of working together, I'd really like to take this guy down.

If we can defeat this mob, I feel we stand a good chance of completing Taral V HM. Right now, we can't DPS the big droid (forget his name).

Our group consists of Shadow Tank (me), Sage-healer, and two Sentinels. Builds aside, does anyone have any advice on defeating "Stands Tall"?

We get him about 3/4 down, and then the healer runs out of force. We interrupt his Heat Ray and Project Storm because they do a LOT of damage. In order to be sure to get those attacks, we don't interrupt the others. There are problems with "Line of Sight" because of bugs with the grate, so I tank on one side while the Sentinels attack his back. The Sage has to come in close to keep "LoS".

Now, I'm holding the agro fine. I'm the only one taking damage - but I'm taking a LOT of damage. I have 35% mitigation (Shadow Tank) with 25% Defense, 22.5% Shield and 67% Absorption. Normally, I can tank bosses just fine - but this guy is nuts.

What am I missing?

What about the other members of your party, specifically the sents?

I'm a sent myself, and I don't know much about the other classes, so I'm not going to pretend I do.

But the issue seems to be that the deeps just aren't deeping enough, especially if your healer is running out of Force. Do they have a good rotation? Sents are also heavily gear dependent; if they don't have great gear that's going to affect their dps.

And, as sents, they should be able to help you all out with an ability called Inspiration. It gives everyone in the party a 15% increase to damage and healing. That will not only help you and the deeps do more damage, but will help your healer keep you alive as well.

Are they popping that? More importantly; are they popping that at the same time? Because if they are they SHOULDN'T be. Inspiration doesn't stack. One of them should pop it, and after it goes away the OTHER one should pop it.

And from there they should trade off popping one of their other buffs. Valorous Call instantly generates 30 centering, so they can quickly pop another of their abilities.

What I'm saying is this.

Sent 1 and Sent 2: Build centering to 30

Sent 1: Pop Inspiration.

Sent 2: Pop Inspiration after Sent 1's buff goes away

Sent 1 and Sent 2: Pop Valorous Call

Sent 1: Pop another buff; this depends on the sent's tree.

Sent 2: Pop another buff after Sent 1's buff goes away

Your shield percent also seems a bit on the low side. While you do have a lot of absorb, having less absorb, more shielding would make make your incoming damage smoother, which tends to make healing easier.

Also, you are using your force shroud equivalent power? The one that makes you immune to force and tech for 3-5s?

Your stats are kind of awful... What kind of gear do you have? Are you actually using tank mods?

Also, take a read through this is might help you as a shadow tank.

Actually, it seems you're wickedly stacking absorption, which isn't awful, but your other stats are suffering and I'm assuming you're not keeping Kinetic Ward up if you're listing your shield chance as only 22%

What enhancements are you using? You should be using the Shield/Absorption ones from Ilum and NOT the god-awful accuracy/absorption ones, which where your shield chance is at it seems you're using those.

There are three attacks you must interrupt: Full Auto, Heat Beam (something like that) and Project Storm. There's one more channeled ability which should never be an issue, it doesn't do much damage. You have to work out who interrupts which.

And that's about it. If a level 50 Sage cannot keep up his rotation until this guy's dead, well, he's doing something very wrong. Can't be more specific than that as I'm no Sage but they should be able to heal through him without much problems.

Your Sage should really never be running out of mana assuming they are getting off their free Noble Sacrifice after every Healing Trance.

This.

Your healer is either hybrid damage specced, strangely specced some other way, or doesn't know how to use their powers to best effect.

There are plenty of Sage healing guides dotted around which should be of help.

Not sure about the rest of the team.

This.

 

Your healer is either hybrid damage specced, strangely specced some other way, or doesn't know how to use their powers to best effect.

 

There are plenty of Sage healing guides dotted around which should be of help.

 

Not sure about the rest of the team.

I think it's the combination of the tank and healing needing to learn a bit more. Everyone can always help themselves by reading up on their class a bit!

Interrupt his attacks. I cannot stress this enough. His Project Storm is immensely powerful.

Point this out as well, Project Storm is prio one. Interrupt that and its a breeze.

My friends and I are having issues with Stands Tall as well.

Currently, we have one Sage (31pt-Seer), a Sentinel, a Guardian, and me (I'm also a Seer, 27-0-14).

So I can do some damage as well as heal...which is how the battle starts off.

I'm thinking our problem is that we're not able to interrupt his Project Storm fast enough. He seems to still be able to get off a few ticks, which does enough damage to focus both healers on our tank. Even if we interrupt it once or twice, he seems to cast if before our interrupts are ready again (the primary healer isn't interrupting though, she's focused on healing). And if the tank starts taking too much damage and I have to focus heal as well...well, I'm just not that good at interrupting unless I'm on target and can see the channel bar over its health meter.

I realize there's a lot of L2P issues in there...plus, we only have one real DPS.

My question is if there is some other tactic we are missing? Should the tank try running out of the AoE, or should I "Rescue" him? Are we just screwed with only true DPS?

I would also say our gear is just average. Our tank has the armor mods from the daily vendor, everything else is purples from the dailies. None of us have Rakata implants/earpieces from the daily vendors. But our assumption is that those things really shouldn't be needed...or are they?

Everyone here is saying to just interrupt Project Storm. And while this may sound dumb of me, maybe you could give me some advice on how we could best handle interrupting? I'm assuming the tank can't be the only one interrupting it, right? Do you all assign a rotation to interrupt it and just heal through the other specials?

While I would argue that your 27/0/14 spec is probably sub optimal for basically everything, I'm sure you've heard it all a thousand times before, so I'll spare you.

In terms of interrupts, a couple of tips to help make your life easier.

First: Keybind it to something easy to reach with no modify key. I have my Jolt (sorcerer here) bound to C so that I can easy hit it with my left index finger when I need to, but so that it's out of the way of my more common DPS bindings.

Secondly: if your healer is having trouble keeping the tank up and needs additional heals, consider placing the tank as your focus target. This way you can heal the tank (by using your focus target modifier) without de-targeting the boss.

Chances are you're gonna want to practice both focus-target healing and your new keybinding before you attempt the boss again.

Make sure you're blowing your cool-downs and relics at the appropriate times etc. You might want to consider using some stims. Even the cheap ones available from the stims vendors provide a significant increase to your willpower.

Hopefully that all helps. Good luck!

To be fair, Stands Tall is harder than all but a few HM flashpoint bosses, so don't get too discouraged. He can be 3-manned, 2-manned if the two players are both geared and good.

The Stands Tall fight is 100% about interrupts.

If you have three interrupts, the strategy I suggest would be this. Assign one player to lock him out of Heat Beam. This is the only skill they pay attention to and interrupt. Assign one player to lock him out of Project Storm. This is the only skill they pay attention to and interrupt. If either of the first two players misses an interrupt, or uses it on the wrong skill, the third player catches the missed skill. If you're interrupting properly, the tank shouldn't take more than 1-2 ticks from each heat beam/project storm cast.

The Project Storm interrupter should also interrupt Disturbance when Stands Tall is above 50%, as he will not start using Project Storm until he drops below 50% health. Disturbance actually hits fairly hard, and he spams five or so casts in a row.

Currently, we have one Sage (31pt-Seer), a Sentinel, a Guardian, and me (I'm also a Seer, 27-0-14).

 

Everyone here is saying to just interrupt Project Storm. And while this may sound dumb of me, maybe you could give me some advice on how we could best handle interrupting? I'm assuming the tank can't be the only one interrupting it, right? Do you all assign a rotation to interrupt it and just heal through the other specials?

Jedi Knights get an 8 second interrupt in Force Kick, and if your Sentinel is Watchman specced, his Kick gets reduced to 6s and gets Force Leap as a melee range interrupt as well. I haven't done this fight, so I don't know how fast the boss is spamming his abilities, but your two Knights should probably be fine without any other help.

If Project Storm is the main problem and sometimes interrupt is on cooldown, assign a rotation - Guardian gets first interrupt on that skill, Sentinel gets second, etc. You can interrupt other abilities when you're dpsing (which you probably should be doing most of the time).

I will mention that I do really poorly at interrupt rotations as a Sentinel in some fights, since whenever I get knocked back I'll leap in and confuse myself (at the least) since I probably broke the cast on some ability or other. Also, my interrupt will be off cooldown much faster than some other classes, and my automatic reaction will just be to use it again the next time something comes around that needs to be interrupted. I don't have this problem on classes with slower interrupts and more static resource pools. Probably at least partly L2P issue on my part, but keep it in mind and be flexible. If you can, might be easier to just assign one of the Knights to Project Storm. If it gets interrupted immediately - great, interrupt was off cooldown and not an issue. If it casts for a tiny bit, the non-assigned person interrupts.

edit: basically I echo'd thatmaskedman. I support that plan.

While I would argue that your 27/0/14 spec is probably sub optimal for basically everything, I'm sure you've heard it all a thousand times before, so I'll spare you.

I love the spec...but I would really like to know your thoughts because I haven't really been told otherwise. I was a traditional healer (31-7-3), but I never used Salvation, so I decide to get more DPS...which I've found helpful in solo PvE. But if the build is really that bad, I would definitely welcome suggestions (keeping in mind a build that is primarily for PvE/HM/Ops)...thanks!

Secondly: if your healer is having trouble keeping the tank up and needs additional heals, consider placing the tank as your focus target. This way you can heal the tank (by using your focus target modifier) without de-targeting the boss.

 

Chances are you're gonna want to practice both focus-target healing and your new keybinding before you attempt the boss again.

I have yet to use Focus Target...I will try this and practice at it.

Make sure you're blowing your cool-downs and relics at the appropriate times etc. You might want to consider using some stims. Even the cheap ones available from the stims vendors provide a significant increase to your willpower.

I use mine, but I'll have to get stims/adrenals/relics for the main healer and make sure they get used appropriately on CD.

Hopefully that all helps. Good luck!

It does...thanks! I look forward to your thoughts on spec builds.

To be fair, Stands Tall is harder than all but a few HM flashpoint bosses, so don't get too discouraged. He can be 3-manned, 2-manned if the two players are both geared and good.

 

The Stands Tall fight is 100% about interrupts.

 

If you have three interrupts, the strategy I suggest would be this. Assign one player to lock him out of Heat Beam. This is the only skill they pay attention to and interrupt. Assign one player to lock him out of Project Storm. This is the only skill they pay attention to and interrupt. If either of the first two players misses an interrupt, or uses it on the wrong skill, the third player catches the missed skill. If you're interrupting properly, the tank shouldn't take more than 1-2 ticks from each heat beam/project storm cast.

 

The Project Storm interrupter should also interrupt Disturbance when Stands Tall is above 50%, as he will not start using Project Storm until he drops below 50% health. Disturbance actually hits fairly hard, and he spams five or so casts in a row.

Thanks...I will also try your method of assigning interrupts...it sounds like a good plan.

I know you mentioned that he can spam Disturbance 5+ times in a row...does he do the same with Project Storm?

It does...thanks! I look forward to your thoughts on spec builds.

I appreciate any input, even if it's in support of another plan (at least I know it's a well-supported plan, right?).

According to the Jedi Knights, Force Kick does not interrupt Project Storm (nor does his Force Push, nor does my Force Stun or Force Wave). According to the Sentinel/Watchman, the Force Leap interrupts the other powers, but we're not sure if interrupts Project Storm (but I'll try to verify next chance).

Stands Tall can be killed.

It will require a dps or tank that will interrupt.

Have the dps interrupt Heat Beam and the Tank do Project Storm.

As a Healer I found Healing through Heat Beam then followed by a Project storm quite difficult.

I know this is completely off topic, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading this thread. I've been so disappointed with the community so far with how stuff like this is handled.

Props to the OP here. You accepted the fact that you were sucking and were open to advice. Often times I read posts and see the OP of the post complain that something is impossible or can't figure out what is wrong, but then totally disregards any advice people give him.

Stands Tall is a great healer check to see if your healer is ready for hard modes.

The last 25% of the fight is extremely hard to heal through in pre-tier gear. You need to save your tanking cooldowns for that. The person interrupting project storm needs to hit it *immediately* because it's a channeled cast that does a lot of damage per tick. Your sage will most likely need to stack heals on you at that point. In other words, the healer should do the bubble, the heal over time, the quick heal, the channeled heal, the healing circle aoe, and noble sacrifice. Even with all the layered heals, it's possible that you will die until both you and the healer get better gear. You can still down the boss, assuming your DPS is quick. They should save their DPS cooldowns for <25% health because that's the time you really need to burn him.

If your healer is running out of Force, it's possible that they specced incorrectly. They should choose the talent that gives 100 extra Force, and they should choose the talent that allows the channeled heal to proc a buff which makes Noble Sacrifice cost no health. If they use the channeled heal followed by Noble Sacrifice every time it's off cooldown, they should never run out of Force.

CalBears - WRT to your question for builds

I would recommend that for PVE/ HMs/ Ops you definitely go 31 pts in seer tree. Salvation - your AOE heal is powerful and helps immensely.

Personally I also spec 7 into the TK tree - mental longevity, Inner strength and TK Defense.

I also give 2 points in balance for Will of the Jedi - leaves me with one free point that I would suggest you put somewhere that best suits your play method.

See http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#600GGbRbdbdGzZf00MZ0M.1

Conveyance is great so I try to keep that buff up at all times. If you use your free noble sac after healing trance you should be able to manage your energy very efficiently.

Secondly: if your healer is having trouble keeping the tank up and needs additional heals, consider placing the tank as your focus target. This way you can heal the tank (by using your focus target modifier) without de-targeting the boss.

Emptus - I have had issues with using the focus target - basically switching to the focus target key doesn't work for me. So I dropped that idea ages ago and just click to select target to heal (with tab bound for selecting the enemy).

How do you use focus target?