Hey guys,

 

Yesterday I went to Hutt Hospitality Nightmare mode to kill Rancor. It was my first raid experience in SWTOR and Im sad to say that it was the WORST raid experience i've had in my 7 years of MMO gaming.

 

I play Jedi Knight Sentinel Watchman, so melee class (again disadvantaged, like on most fights in this game).

 

I really cant believe they would design boss in this way, when they know there are key features missing to actually coordinate this fight in anything but messy way:

 

- Aggro indicators

- TARGET OF TARGET - omg I just dont get how they can make such a boss without this feature.

 

This fight is just so CHAOTIC without these two features. In addition sometimes you are miles away from boss and get swipe dmg, sometimes you are right at the boss and you dont get swipe dmg, which doesnt help either.

 

I dont mind playin game without any mods and addons or so. But I DO mind killing boss with key mechanics requiring features that are missing from the game.

 

Does anyone ave ANY tips for this fight as melee dps? Cause I spend like half of my time running around thinking "Mmmm is he following me or the guy next to me??"

 

Cheers.

And you thought it would be a good idea to start with Nightmare mode?

 

And you seem to have completly missed the mechanic of this fight.

And you thought it would be a good idea to start with Nightmare mode?

 

And you seem to have completly missed the mechanic of this fight.

 

Im well geared for Nightmare mode. So is rest of my group. Dno if stats will tell you anything but 16k hp, 1300 STR, 30% crit, 80% crit multiplier, 98% accuracy. Thats all unbuffed.

 

As for the second part of Your message...enlighten me then whats the mechanic of this fight I completly missed? Kiting boss away from others when hes following You so he doesnt swipe You or anybody else. Is there more into it?

Edited January 9, 2012 by Riddickcz

I play a Sentinel as well and unless something changes from HM to Nightmare, I simply just run through him and go behind him (or just keep running away from him if I don't think I'll have enough time to run through him) if he's on me and getting ready to cleave/swipe. I don't think I've ever gotten hit by that mechanic. You just need to make sure you're at max melee range when you're standing behind him.

 

It's so obvious when he's getting ready to swipe even with the lack of ToT since he pauses for 3+ seconds.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Exertim

Nightmare is a little different because you need a bigger health pool for this strat but here you go.

 

 

Nightmare is a little different because you need a bigger health pool for this strat but here you go.

 

 

How much HP do You have for this tactics?

Is this Your guild?

I have 22k health but i'm an exception. For hardmode you need 15.5k minimum for this encounter for clothies. This will allow you to survive swipes without a bubble just fine. For nightmare we believe one needs to have a party of 17.5k+ health people or do it by kiting. Kiting is tough but doable. Would never suggest that as the intended purpose due to the knockbacks and large drop in dps but our other group cleared by kiting. Yes i am a member of this guild.

Im well geared for Nightmare mode. So is rest of my group. Dno if stats will tell you anything but 16k hp, 1300 STR, 30% crit, 80% crit multiplier, 98% accuracy. Thats all unbuffed.

 

As for the second part of Your message...enlighten me then whats the mechanic of this fight I completly missed? Kiting boss away from others when hes following You so he doesnt swipe You or anybody else. Is there more into it?

 

That is not well geared for Nightmare mode. Either trolling or crazy to start your first raid experience on Nightmare.

That is not well geared for Nightmare mode. Either trolling or crazy to start your first raid experience on Nightmare.

 

Yeah... he also has a point, I'm a tank and have over 100 more str than you unbuffed.

That is not well geared for Nightmare mode. Either trolling or crazy to start your first raid experience on Nightmare.

 

Rest of the group is way better geared then me. I was just the only dps online when thier main Sentinel couldnt get on, so they took me instead.

Either way, look at it this way. EV is the first raid and karraga is the second raid. If raid gear from raid 1 is required to do raid 2 I would say you would need at least 9/13ths rakata gear before entering Nightmare bonethrasher. As this was your first raid... those numbers are impossible. If you were the only dps on, i would also assume your guild didn't have this kind of gear. Just try hard mode first... it is significantly easier.

We ran it with me solo healing as Operative, 6 dps and a Jugg tank for the adds on hardmode simply because the enrage is a pain.

 

On Nightmare, you shouldn't worry about the swipes, worry about making the enrage timer.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Michieltjuh

You're supposed to really do normal or hard core first to get to know the fight. I agree it's kinda chaotic, but if you had done it before on an easier mode, you would know the fight better and be less frustrated when you did it on nightmare.

 

The fight is pretty simple once you break it down. It's basically just a dps race, with a few mechanics to deal with.

Thanks for all Your replies guys.

 

Turns out I mixed up a little difficulties in this game thinking that "Nightmare mode" is SWTOR name for hard mode. Sorry for the confusion.

 

So the difficulty I was describing was indeed "Hard Mode" and so the video link provided was exactly what I needed. We took some aspects from what You used for the fight and came up with something ours and got the boss to 3% last night when boss enraged and unluckily JUST stomped killing us all.

 

Well he goes down tonight

All this being said, any fight that involves forcing your main tank (IE me in my case) to either respec, or be sat, is a poorly designed fight.

Also, im fairly sure every player that plays this game agree's with the OP that Target of Target HAS to be in the game.

Alot of things that i'm sure will be implemented / fixed soon.

 

Just a clarification. The Rancor WAS tankable in beta, not only would the fight be more enjoyable, it would be less RANDOM, and it wouldn't involve sitting half of your main raiders.

 

I really hope future content looks different to this, or the other 40% of guilds that are melee heavy will never kill this boss.

All this being said, any fight that involves forcing your main tank (IE me in my case) to either respec, or be sat, is a poorly designed fight.

Also, im fairly sure every player that plays this game agree's with the OP that Target of Target HAS to be in the game.

Alot of things that i'm sure will be implemented / fixed soon.

 

Just a clarification. The Rancor WAS tankable in beta, not only would the fight be more enjoyable, it would be less RANDOM, and it wouldn't involve sitting half of your main raiders.

 

I really hope future content looks different to this, or the other 40% of guilds that are melee heavy will never kill this boss.

 

We are actually killing this boss in combo 6 dps (2 ranged, 4 melee) and 2 healers. With proper tactic to get the fight at least a little under control it doesnt require melee to run much and gives i would say like 90% dps time on boss. Its still 10% less than ranged have but yea..its doable.

 

EDIT: However I do agree that on 90% of fights in this game melee dps are in multiple ways handicapped. But on the other hand Its been this way in every single MMO that went out. Thats just the way it is..you are melee u need to run from cleaves, thunder claps etc. I aint sayin its good its just how its always been.

 

Anyway Threat indicator and Target of Target and combat log is a MUST for MMO game of this scale. Its just sad it takes ages to implement core features that are actually required for boss fights not to be messy, when boss mechanics are build around these features.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Riddickcz

Completed nightmare the other day,

Did it with a Jedi knight guardian tank and 2 healers.

 

Tactic: dont kite unless you really have to, that means you have to have atleast 16k+ health and get an absorb shield from a Sage to survive the swipe, you can survive it as the swipe damage seems to be from 16k to 17.k.

 

Still, the fight is somewhat broken without a target of target

 

I wouldnt suggest getting a tank tho, as you can just go with another DPSer instead.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Ginzuu

Completed nightmare the other day,

Did it with a Jedi knight guardian tank and 2 healers.

 

Tactic: dont kite unless you really have to, that means you have to have atleast 16k+ health and get an absorb shield from a Sage to survive the swipe, you can survive it as the swipe damage seems to be from 16k to 17.k.

 

Still, the fight is somewhat broken without a target of target

 

I wouldnt suggest getting a tank tho, as you can just go with another DPSer instead.

 

Congrats on the kill.

 

Can I ask why did You choose to use Jedi Knight Guardian tank? to tank the ads?

Nah, the Guardian is a part of our core team and we raided EV nm before that so we figured we'll just try it out with him there.

 

It's also nice to have him enter first and take the initial swipe, I know you can do it with a Sentinel using CD's aswell but yeah, found "some" use for him

Edited January 10, 2012 by Ginzuu

Nightmare is a little different because you need a bigger health pool for this strat but here you go.

 

 

Ok we killed this boss saturday I believe after 4 tries on hard mode where I (Mercenary DPS) tanked the boss for 75 % of the fight untill I died at 75% (Yes I actually had aggro 75% of the fight).

 

I however got knocked down twice where I got gripped back up the first time.

 

I see the spot of where your ranged ar standing, just in front of a pillar. If u get knock back here will you fall back onto the platform or what is the reasoning behind this positioning?

my guild got 2 problems with that boss. after 1st wipe, 1 of our group, always the same person, etering alrdy dead without recieving dmg. always the same. we tried to ask him to enter 5,10,15 seconds after all with our without shield.. always dead. that's the 1st problem. the 2nd is that Bonethrasher sometimes hits with 43k dmg. so any ideas how to solve it? Mode is hard. all of us got 16,5k+ hp

Nah, the Guardian is a part of our core team and we raided EV nm before that so we figured we'll just try it out with him there.

You guys are saying "kite" and "don't kite" like it's an option. We've yet to beat this guy on NORMAL mode, and we're loaded with EV gear, with sages having 16k hp. He runs all over the place, and my taunt is greyed out. We dps like mad but because we're all running around our dps is reduced and we get him to 25% or so before he enrages.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Our raid makeup (all friends, so this is who we have):

Guardian

Shadow (dps)

3 Sentinels

2 Sages (1 heal, 1 dps)

Commando (healing)

For example, this movie (

), they're all standing behind the rancor and he's being tanked like a normal tank and spank. I'm missing something if this is possible. Help?

You guys are saying "kite" and "don't kite" like it's an option. We've yet to beat this guy on NORMAL mode, and we're loaded with EV gear, with sages having 16k hp. He runs all over the place, and my taunt is greyed out. We dps like mad but because we're all running around our dps is reduced and we get him to 25% or so before he enrages.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Our raid makeup (all friends, so this is who we have):

Guardian

Shadow (dps)

3 Sentinels

2 Sages (1 heal, 1 dps)

Commando (healing)

 

Tell your DPS to DPS harder. There's not much to really be said. Your makeup is fine for normal mode Rancor. In fact, we did a run with friends in our last normal mode Rancor and had a really unorthodox raid comp: x3 tanks (Guardian, Shadow, Vanguard), 2 healers, and 3 DPS (myself on Sentinel, Sage, and a Scoundrel) and still downed him before his enrage.

 

As far as I know, he was changed and is currently untankable in your typical "tank and spank" scenario.

 

Make sure your Sentinels have 100% DPS uptime on Rancor. There's really no reason not to outside of swapping to food adds or the 50% adds. I was able to stay on him forever even when he was after me. Just have your melee run through him and continue DPSing at max melee range behind him when he pauses to swipe.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Exertim