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Tanking Kaon, Need Help...


avinknight

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I havent played TOR in a week because I rage quit after a run through Kaon.

 

 

My history:

I'm a long time wow raid tank. Stopped playing after all those years just after cata. Rolled my powertech for tanking in tor.

 

 

My experience:

Me and my guild group (we are all newish 50's, geared in all 50 lvl gear) decided to do Kaon because none of us had completed it. It started off fine until we got to the first real rakghoul infested areas. At this point, and for the rest of the run, I had a very difficult time. Here were some of my reasons:

1) Every pull I would be chain knocked down and sent flying. Mobs would be all over my DPS and healer and I could never really get them all back after that. Seemed like every time I would be close I would get knocked down or stunned and loose em again. This was probably the most frustrating thing about the run. Very un fun.

2) My healer (BH) would constantly get mobs on him. Guard didnt help much as I seemed to get knocked away from him all the time.

3) Mobs were all over the place, between me and my guildies getting knocked to all ends of the room, I could never get them all close enough to use my aoe taunt or aoe dmg in order to re-gain aggro.

4) Basically, I felt like I was never really on-top of threat, taunts always on cooldown, and could never really catch up.

 

 

My question:

Is this typical of TOR flashpoints/ops? Should I learn to deal with it or is Kaon really poorly made content? Honestly, either answer scares me a little. If I need to deal with it and its pretty par for the course, then I am probably done with tanking in TOR (no thanks). If this instance is just really poorly designed then that scares me because it's their newest content and are they moving in this direction or was this just soooooooo poorly tested that they never realized how frustrating it is?

 

Anyway, I'm worried about tanking in TOR. Any thoughts or advise would be helpful.

 

Thanks Peeps!

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My question:

Is this typical of TOR flashpoints/ops? Should I learn to deal with it or is Kaon really poorly made content? Honestly, either answer scares me a little. If I need to deal with it and its pretty par for the course, then I am probably done with tanking in TOR (no thanks). If this instance is just really poorly designed then that scares me because it's their newest content and are they moving in this direction or was this just soooooooo poorly tested that they never realized how frustrating it is?

 

As a tank, I actually find kaon quite fun, and once you understand how you need to handle the encounters I think its one of the quicker HMs.

 

Its certainly not 'poorly made content' just because it doesn't let you tank it the way you want to tank it. You can't just run in and tank everything, no, because the screamers throw you around, the mercenaries perma-stun you, the bloateds explode all over the place and the others (who's name I forget) seem to randomly switch aggro all over the place. It certainly makes for more interesting pulls, and forces you to mark up targets for cc before fights and know what to dps down first.

 

If it helps, yes this one is a bit different from the other FPs, it's pretty painful on your groups first run through if you don't know what to expect in advance, but once you know whats coming its fine (with a few more challenging parts).

 

I would never suggest that tricky = poorly designed though

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My question:

Is this typical of TOR flashpoints/ops? Should I learn to deal with it or is Kaon really poorly made content? Honestly, either answer scares me a little. If I need to deal with it and its pretty par for the course, then I am probably done with tanking in TOR (no thanks). If this instance is just really poorly designed then that scares me because it's their newest content and are they moving in this direction or was this just soooooooo poorly tested that they never realized how frustrating it is?

 

No, it isn't typical. And, no, Kaon isn't poorly made content. It does have more annoying mobs than other content, but that's part of the fun.

 

Mostly, this isn't WoW, where you faceroll/AoE everything. This game is a bit more like EQ/CoH. A bit of crowd control is handy and the tank's job is to hold aggro on the important things, while the DPS eliminates other things in the right order. So there's a learning curve, figuring out the little tricks for each one. For tanking, you've got to learn when to best use your cooldowns and so on.

 

Now, as to Kaon itself, for those Raks...the whole thing is sort of a Left for Dead (believe that's the right zombie game, if not, DOA or something) tribute and the mobs do things similar to that game.

 

 

1. The mercenary ones have a nasty channeled Constrict ability that holds people. It needs to get interrupted. Also, a good choice to CC and kill last. And if not CC'd, you want to kill them first.

 

2. Screamers are the ones that knockback. Annoying, put your back to wall and deal with it.

 

3. Hunters don't keep aggro, so they'll be the ones on your healer all the time. Taunt when you can, but he'll just have to heal himself, as a hunter isn't as big of a priority as some of the others.

 

4. Bloated ones, think their name has bloat in it, the fat ones, in any case, turn green and explode when they get to low health. That will do a lot of damage and knock people back. You want to kill them away from people if possible, and if not, well, move when they turn green.

 

Generally, you can move to where the mobs are, but there is one room where you'll want to pull a group or two out. Something like 4 groups of mobs in that room and, with the knockbacks, it can lead to too much aggro. Pull the groups into the hallway and you avoid that.

Edited by Battilea
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Before each group, mark the mobs for CC. Set a kill order. We usually focus down Mercs first since they have a nasty stun.

 

To me this is one of the more straightforward FPs and I consider it easy.

 

However a while back, I did this late at nite with a PUG, and we just got repeatedly smoked. Wiped several times til 2 of the people ragequit. Its all in the planning.

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Did HM this morning, Shadow tank. Lots of force running and pull the hunters off the healer, but not bad. Died a couple times to bad pulls on my part, and the adds from the bonus boss(boss was dead already, though lol).

 

CCing the Hunters/Mercs/Screamers is a must, that way you can clear the trash, then kill each individually. :D

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im a jugger tank and i have to say that Kaon is the best flashpoint of them all its fun and have some really nice incounters, yes your healer, DPS and you as Tank need to be on the ball at all times if you want to make it really easy but i for one hope they make more flashpoints like this one and a operation.

 

Kaon showed me that they can if they really work at it make Swtor a really awesome Endgame raiding mmorpg.

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I'd also say Kaon is a great starter heroic if the trash is handled right. Aside from the bonus boss, none of the other bosses are terribly difficult.

 

When I run kaon I usually cc in order of: screamers > hunters > mercs > other stuff. I generally tell the group to stun and kill any mercs that aren't cc'ed first and then aoe all the random stuff. Of course, run away from bloating stuff and interrupt mercs asap if they don't die fast enough.

 

TLDR: use cc, stun mercs

 

Edit: pull with mortar volley (Death from Above?) every time you can get away with it

Edited by Dulwaithe
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what I find odd is that your a wow raid tank? really? this is the most wow instance i've ever faced.

 

in most of the instances, the trash are boring and dps can kill whoeever the hell they want with no CC and would be fine.

 

this is the first instance i've seen that requires the use of CC. in WoW almost every raid trash required players to CC almost everything and kill each mob 1 by 1.

 

but heres the break down, each mob has their abilities and needs to be dealt with. heres what each of the special mobs are and their mechanics

 

Infected Mercenary - these guys must be CCed to make things much easier. they grapple a random player and stun and damage that player. you can break the stun with your cooldown but the damage will continue until hes interrupted or stunned or killed.

 

Infected hunters - these guys like to jump around and drop their agro, they need to be taunted back every time so either CC them until they can be dealt with, or kill them soon.

 

Bloated plaugebringers - these guys will glow green and then blow up doing massive damage to anyone near them. they will be stunned and start glowing green around 10% and then blow up, when you see this happening, get the hell away from them, your given enough time to run away. healers should not be anywhere near them since they are melee fighters, same with any ranged dps

 

infected screamer - these will scream in your face and knock you back. the damage they do isnt all that big of a concern but either focus fire them down or cc them when your near another group to avoid pulling extras.

 

and thats about all there is to it. its a fairly simple instance for a wow player since you should be used to CCing almost every minion. also know who can CC and in what situation they can CC. for this case, if you have assassins or opertives, have them use their sap before the pull, while sorcerer or mercenaries can CC once the pull start.

 

and for the love of god dont ever use aoe unless you pull the rest of the group away from the CCed targets.

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Basically what everyone else said.

 

All of the mobs can be cc'd and stunned. Remember the stuns, they help quite a bit on the hunter's and mercs.

 

Killing order is usually Mercs, Hunters, Screamers, Bloaters. If mercs are cc'd, kill hunter. Once out of cc area, AOE taunt and flame sleep are your friend for the smaller adds while your dps kill the hunters or screamers or mercs. Always pull the bloats away from the party.

 

I did this last night with a pug and the only person that died constantly in my group was a dps BH Merc. Only because he did not listen to kill order or running away from bloats.

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Adding to the noise here, but CROWD CONTROL.

 

Too many tanks in this game expect to run in, lolAoe and move on to the next pack. The instance isn't hard; CC the screamers or chain stun + burn them.

 

Make sure the Mercs are interrupted. etc.

 

When killing the abominations make sure there's a kill order and move when they prepare to explode.

 

Kaon is the first time i've been genuinely impressed with FPs in TOR... simply because it's the first instance that required a little thought.

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