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2 Man Hard Mode Flashpoint Guide


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I am not much of a forum person but quite a few folks have asked me to put together some tips for running hardmode flashpoints with companions so here you go.

 

Running flashpoints with companions can be fun! I do that regularly and its a blast. . Made some vids along the way. You don't need raid gear for it is the best part.

 

Step 1: Gearing up as a fresh 50 with a buddy

-Max out affection for all your companions for extra presence.

-Take the time to do the dailies and grab some daily commendation stuff and daily reward item modifications.

-Get some crafted earpieces, implants, augments etc.

-Pick up some datacrons.

-Grind Kaon Normal Mode

 

Kaon Normal mode is pretty much a loot pinnata for free tionese grade armorings, mods and enhancements.

Grab some 51 mods and enhancements by running Kaon on 'NORMAL MODE' for yourself and your companions.

You can do this even with companion tanks just for fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmf9eXapAv4 (wookie tank!)

 

Group Combinations

Running hard modes with 2 healing companions is the most feasible as you will have 2 cleanses in the group which tends to help. You can also run it with a dps tank and player heals with 2 dps companions as well. I found certain hard modes non-doable with just companion dps due to short enrage fuses on bosses such as Bulwark (D7) and colonel Daksh (MP)

 

Optimum Group Combo:

-Player Tank (interrupt preferred)

-Player DPS (interrupt preferred)

-2 x Healing Companions.

 

Optional group combination:

-Player Healer

-Player DPS / Off Tank

-1 x Companion DPS (Ranged)

-1 x Companion DPS (Melee)

 

Certain combinations you should avoid mostly because you may run into some walls on certain hard modes. Or they may start to become inefficient, time and money wise. Combinations to avoid are (player tank+player healer + dps companions) or (companion tanks+player healer+player dps). Once you are geared enough you may be able to do these other combinations. This guide focuses on running this content without op gear and shows you how you can gear up to full columi from the ground up with a team mate (aka mentor).

 

Gearing up as a Tank:

Focus on absorption and shield rating over endurance and defense. Stack your augments with absorption. Companions are the absolute worst in healing spike damage. While defense is great for complete mitigation, having less absorption is going to make you spike that tends to mess up your companion healing. With a player healing its fine because players can make judgement calls, companions cannot. The less damage you take from incoming attacks the better it is for companions to heal you. The spec I used to tank these hard modes 2 man is as follows:

Tanking Spec Jedi Guardian: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500GMGzudMdfzZcMRZ0M.1

1 pt in defiance helps as there are several knockbacks and stuns in hard modes for tanks.

 

If companions are healing, don't slack on Force Sweeps, Blade Barriers and Riposte. Speccing in Blade Barricade allows you to increase your defenses everytime you hit Riposte. Chain your cooldowns early so you can use them multiple times in the fight.

 

Gearing up your companions:

This could get expensive thanks to the no off-class loot droppings from flash points but running Kaon Norm mode could get you some great free enhancements. Farming corelia commendations also give you access to some great free companion epics and slotted gear. You can always buy some decent blue/prototype/epic or crafted gear for them from the GTN if you are one of those rich fellows.

 

-Stack Power and Alacrity on your heal companions.

Why? Because companions are dumb, they will not stop their casts before moving out of that circle on the floor. Most ground effects tick within 2-3 seconds. The faster they cast, the faster they finish casting, the faster they will respond to your active and passive commands which you will need to do a lot. Power tends to help companions a bit more than their primary stat. This is due to the fact that companions don't have skill trees that scale their primary trait or enhance their critical chances. (atleast not yet, wink wink)

 

Gearing up as a DPS:

You have to bring your A game so be on top of your best rotations and don't tunnel in the process. There are quite a few dps guides out there that will help you in this regard. I do this with a DPS sage who runs 2 diff specs, Balance (13/28) and the other spec is full Telekinetic with imp force armor. When tank is undergeared, 2 extra points in imp force armor does tend to help if you build a habit of bubbling the tank as a dps. Balance 13/28 is a bit more dps if you are falling a bit short on enrages.

 

Gunslingers also tend to bring some impressive dps and some good tricks up their sleeves for reducing damage and a commando trooper's off healing comes in handy as well.

 

Be on top of interrupts, watch your threat and minimize any avoidable damage you take because if companions start healing you, they don't heal the tank.

 

 

How to Control your companions:

Learning how to quickly turn your companion passive and active is critical. Go under preferences and create shortcut keys for these actions on companion bars. My shorcut key to turn my companion passive is

Shift+f

If you have a gaming mouse with several programmable buttons, stick this to one of your mouse button 5 or something. Last thing you want to do is waste time clicking their passive ability manually.

 

Keep your companion in your sight at all times. If a threatening ground effect goes under them, use your shortcut key toggle to turn them passive then back to active. Maintain some distance from your companion so when turned passive he walks enough distance to get out of the ground effect.

 

--Republic POV---

Step 2: Your First 2 Man Hard Modes!

 

Kaon Under Siege: (Difficulty Easy)

Start with Kaon Under Siege due to generous enrage timers and easier boss mechanics. The trash however may present some challenges initially. You mainly wanna watch out for the Mercenaries and screamers on trash. CC them if you can or kill them asap. On Bosses, the Rakghoul boss can be done 2 ways. You can kite him around from barrel to barrel and kill him or keep him tanked near turrets for added dps if you are a bit short on dps. Once behemoth is out of the way, the final boss is fairly straightforward. Kill the 2 adds, kill the plaguebeares, kill boss. If you have multi-target dps abilities such as aoe procs and such you can keep up some damage on lt lk'graath while killing adds down.

 

2 Man Turret Encounter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxnGSQZb3SE

This encounter is fairly simple if tank gets on the turret and uses the "Mini Map" to point the turret in direction of adds instead of waiting for visual. You can spray the turret in the direction of the reds right when they spawn. Make sure to grab the elites as they spawn as well.

 

2 Man Rakghoul Behemoth Encounter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdb8xyWAS-I

The mechanics of this fight are a bit of nuisance over hardness. Maintain your distance from him but not too much otherwise he jumps on you. Same goes for companions as well. Keep them away from you but not too far from the boss.

 

2 Man Lt. Lk'graagth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkZX4LIYu_s

This fight is less of a pain with companions cleansing bleeds off of you. Once adds spawn, aoe them along with the boss so some damage stays on the boss throughout the encounter.

 

Taral V: (Difficulty Semi-Medium)

3 bosses in there have some semi-decent gear, I recommend not skipping PD-44 as he is simpler than it may seem at first and gives you some great practice.

 

2 man PD-44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjs3MNP08ME

Practice getting your companions in and out of his ground circles, this is good practice for a more chaotic fight later such as Esseles and Directive 7. With proper interrupts this fight turns into a training fight for almost any hard mode in swtor.

 

2 man Gen Eidgar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeZ8xgUeP_s

Key to maximize dps and beating enrage is for the tank to tank most of the drones while dps stays on boss. This can be done with medium dps and a medium gear tank as well. Watch the video for some on the spot tips. Keep your companions out of line of sight of turrets and droids.

 

Once you have grinded the above a few times and gotten a little more gear you can step into the next tiers which are as follows

 

Medium Difficulty Hard Modes

-Battle of Ilum (Columi Offhand)

-False Emperor (Columi Chest, tionese grade main hand)

 

Hard Difficulty Hard Modes:

-Esseles (this is a bit hard for only a bracer piece)

-Maelstrom Prison (columi boots)

 

Very Hard Difficulty Hard Modes:

-Directive 7 (columi legs)

 

Step 3: Run some medium difficulty hms

 

Battle of Ilum: (Difficulty Medium)

2 Man Krel-Thak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eadTJtZ5xN8

 

This is a tricky encounter but similar to Taral V gen Eidgar. Key is to interrupt his defense screen to maximize dps and get rid of adds fast. Killing adds quickly is one things companion AOE cannot do. A player dps aoe comes in real handy. Even if you are a healing, you will need to be ready to AOE at a moments notice.

Once you get past Krel-Thak, the final boss doesnt present much of a challenge

 

2 man Darth Serevin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IzNIzumMIo

In this encounter, interrupts are critical. Priority of interrupts is Force Explosion > Dark Blast. If you can interrupt both, well and good.

 

False Emperor:[(Difficulty Medium)

 

2 man Jindo Krey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSQldCDAWos

Getting past Jindo may present some challenge at first but don't give up. Co-ordinate with your buddy for clicking turrets if you get grappled. We did a messy one at first but now we can cruise past him like he is nothing.

 

2 man HK-47

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tl9e2pV8xM

HK-47 drops your Tionese mainhand. This fight really is easier than it may seem at first. Tank him faced away so your group doesnt get sprayed. Drop the missile circles away from your companions so they dont take splash damage. You will need to deal considerable damage to beat his enrage. He also has a 5% enrage. If you hit the enrage, that doesn't mean the fight is lost. Tank with a couple of columi pieces can live through his enrage for an additional 10-15 seconds but anything past that probably not.

 

2 man Darth Malgus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-L822yys0

Most of this long-a** fight is smooth cruising, the tricky part comes in during his last 15% when you have to re-position him running with your companions. Run straight down the center to position Darth Malgus. Keep your companions with you or he will charge the companion then charge back to knock you off the platform.

Once positioned, wait for his force lightening cast then use a nade to stop his cast then use a knockback ability to knock him off the ledge.

 

Step 4: Run some harder ones

 

Hard Mode Esseles (Difficulty Hard)

Believe it or not, this is a hard instance to do with companions even in good gear. Your first challenge will be massive group healing and dps needed on Ironfist. Once you overcome that, Lord Vokk is no walk in the park either. Keep your nerves as calm as possible, while damage may be considerable, the companions will be able to keep you up provided you interrupt Ironfist;s headshots. Keep your companions spread apart to maximize cross healing. You may need consumables to break his enrage timer. If you have Biochem , you can use re-usable bop adrenals (why Bioware why!!). If he enrages, get on those interrupts and kill him before he goes into another missile salvo. Chances are that your companions may not be able to heal you through that.

 

2 man IronFist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzfwUhDlZ0Q

 

2 man Lord Vokk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAElfQ1K4O0

Your PD-44 practice now comes in real handy. In this fight you will need to move your companions A LOT while tyring to burn him down. Save your oh-**** buttons for his enrage if any. You will be missing health throughout this fight but dont panic. Burn your heroic moment about half way into the fight and it will last through till the end and it will heal you through the saber throws.

Use your break free ability to get out of stuns.

 

 

Hard Mode Maelstrom Prison (Difficulty Hard)

Colonel Daksh may present a significant challenge due to the mix of mechanics and enrage. Avoid his grapple as much as you can. Stay near a crate to los his grapple. If you do get grappled, interrupt the carbonize.

Watch the video for more tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_Eb8K55FA

 

2 man Grand Moff Kilran

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uszg0MUwPBU

This is a relatively easier encounter once you get past Daksh.

 

 

Hard Mode Directive 7 (Difficulty Very Hard)

We waited for our 4 peices to do this. Its on farm now but our first few attempts were brutal. By this time you should have enough tionese stuff to gear not only you but your companions with some tionese pieces as well.

Bulwark is an all out burn fight, a true test of tanking and dps abilities

 

2 Man Bulwark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-B2v-7v3L0

 

Once you pass Bulwark, Mentor doesnt get any easier but on the brighter side, we didnt see any enrage on mentor. however the longer he is up the damage may get out of hand.

 

2 Man Mentor Hard Mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cEMtqPiuGI

 

The fight is exactly as chaotic as it looks with companions in the mix but doable. Dont worry if you have troubles with Mentor, you may have enough columi at this time to get your final piece. Save your Columi badges for your legs imo. I still recommend doing Directive 7 , 2 man. If you are looking for a challenge in swtor. This is where its at. Its a blast.

 

Using a Companion to Tank a hard mode

If you are really up for it and neither party member likes to tank. You can use a companion tank. I advise on running Kaon on normal mode to gear up your companion with some pieces first. Stack absorption on your companion to avoid spikes as companion armor just plain sucks! You can use a player healer with a heal companion to run hard modes with companions. This can be quite challenging but fun.

 

Companion Tanks Kaon & T5 Hard Mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ1YPN3QHt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONocdQYlrqc

 

***************************************

Community Contributions:

***************************************

Submitted by PorsaLindahl

Rakata geared Powertech and Tionese geared Marauder with Tionese geared Mako and Quinn.

 

Black Talon:

"The trick with Yadira is to taunt her to the center of the circle on the floor in front of where she spawns, but keep your companions on the outside the circle to avoid her smash.** Comps won't be pulled into her gravity well type ability so you don't have to worry about trying to run them out of the damage radius when she does her smash. Just taunt her back to the center of the circle after each smash, rinse and repeat until she dies. She actually enraged on us with 2% HP, but it was too little, too late.

 

** Powertech can use explosive dart to start combat with her - this will make her attack, but Mako will remain out of combat until the dart explodes or you do direct damage to her. Back up a couple of steps. Once Yadira's in the center of the circle, leap to her. Mako will stay where she was when you leaped in and be safe from her smash ability."

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

With that said, have some more fun with companions!

 

Cheers!

-Cytherion & My'a

50 - Jedi Guardian, 50 -Jedi Sage

Server: Kaas City

Edited by Cytherion
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Hello there,

 

Great job on putting this together, it must have taken quite a bit of time! We love seeing positive contributions to the community. We are adding this as a sticky thread so that more players will be able to find it more easily. Thank you for your efforts!

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Hello there,

 

Great job on putting this together, it must have taken quite a bit of time! We love seeing positive contributions to the community. We are adding this as a sticky thread so that more players will be able to find it more easily. Thank you for your efforts!

 

5 credits says the Devs take a look at these videos and use them to "re-adjust" players classes or just increase HM FP damage across the board. Thanks OP for giving them reason for more nerfs.

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5 credits says the Devs take a look at these videos and use them to "re-adjust" players classes or just increase HM FP damage across the board. Thanks OP for giving them reason for more nerfs.

I personally don't think the devs will change this so its no longer possible. We did not use any exploits. On the contrary I think they might build up on this. It took several weeks for us to get to this point and it is so much fun that it doesn't get old.

 

This is a new kind of experience that I have never had before in any other game. This is a strength and not a weakness of the game. It will not be a wise move on their part to take this away from folks.

 

Lets face it we have all done 5 mans, we have all done raids till we got sick of em. Not saying to get rid of all that but giving some attention to the "mentor" program could actually inject the game with a new kind of energy.

 

Maybe introduction of some hard mode "Mentor" flashpoints that you can run with a mentor and get some benefits along the way like the legacy system, would make the entire game be played all over again.

 

Star wars story line stresses on the power of 2.

Edited by Cytherion
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Hello there,

 

Great job on putting this together, it must have taken quite a bit of time! We love seeing positive contributions to the community. We are adding this as a sticky thread so that more players will be able to find it more easily. Thank you for your efforts!

Thanks Trineda, it did take a long time and quite a bit hard work from both myself and my Jedi sage winggirl who had the patience to sit through this.

Best part is that this doesnt get old. We plan on doing it all over again as a new combo - Vanguard, Gunslinger

Edited by Cytherion
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Nice guide.

 

I've done a lot of HM FP duo runs with a tank + healer w/dps comps. After seeing your guide, we decided to duo Black Talon HM, for the weekly HM's mission, using a mostly Rakata geared Powertech and Tionese geared Marauder with Tionese geared Mako and Quinn. Took about a half hour, and we did it smoother than using the tank + healer combo with dps comps.

 

The trick with Yadira is to taunt her to the center of the circle on the floor in front of where she spawns, but keep your companions on the outside the circle to avoid her smash.** Comps won't be pulled into her gravity well type ability so you don't have to worry about trying to run them out of the damage radius when she does her smash. Just taunt her back to the center of the circle after each smash, rinse and repeat until she dies. She actually enraged on us with 2% HP, but it was too little, too late.

 

** Powertech can use explosive dart to start combat with her - this will make her attack, but Mako will remain out of combat until the dart explodes or you do direct damage to her. Back up a couple of steps. Once Yadira's in the center of the circle, leap to her. Mako will stay where she was when you leaped in and be safe from her smash ability.

Edited by PorsaLindahl
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Nice guide.

 

I've done a lot of HM FP duo runs with a tank + healer w/dps comps. After seeing your guide, we decided to duo Black Talon HM, for the weekly HM's mission, using a mostly Rakata geared Powertech and Tionese geared Marauder with Tionese geared Mako and Quinn. Took about a half hour, and we did it smoother than using the tank + healer combo with dps comps.

Nice! Wish I could do BT on republic side. Added your tip to the guide:)

Edited by Cytherion
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Just did a Kaon run Imperial side. Don't know if we just had bad luck, but only 1 purple item dropped for us, and it came from the final boss loot chest. There were a ton of greens and blues, though.

if its on normal mode, the bonus droid boss drops 51 grade boots and final boss drops 51grade legs. If the item itself is not an upgrade, you can always take the mods and enhancements out of it and give to companions

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I had some folks ask me if a 2 man hard mode is still possible if neither party can tank. For the healer - dps combo, the solution can be to use a Companion Tank.

 

It was hard but over all it wasn't too bad. Bottom line is.. that its doable folks ! That too without full Rakata or Campaign gear. Its quite a bit of multi-tasking but if youre up for the challenge it can be fun.

Our companion tank was geared in a couple of Tionese grade pieces and I was healing on my combat medic alt in regular daily commendation gear (Explains the gimp healing) and exotech gear from Kaon nm. But with my Elara Dorne out and Sage DPS, we managed to complete both instances.

 

 

1 x Companion Tank (geared in atleast a few 51 grade pieces)

1 x Player Healer

1 x Companion Healer or DPS

1 x Player DPS

 

Companion Tanks Hard Mode Kaon Under siege

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ1YPN3QHt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNiGELLbxPk

 

Taral V

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONocdQYlrqc

 

Long live swtor companions! rawr!

/cheer

Edited by Cytherion
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Thank you for the great guide. Let this be a place to provide gear progression for 2 man without the need to find larger parties. With the current server population, this might be a perfect solution to many, also for well geared players, this will provide entertainment.
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Thank you for the great guide. Let this be a place to provide gear progression for 2 man without the need to find larger parties. With the current server population, this might be a perfect solution to many, also for well geared players, this will provide entertainment.

 

Absolutely! The idea to start using companions in hard modes occurred to me due to my low population server but then it became a lot of fun and a decent source of gear and crafting mats.( Biometrics and such)

 

I am beginning to think BW designed the flashpoints keeping this mind. Even with group finder on the horizon, I think two man co-op trend will begin to grow.

Would definitely like to see co-ops like these tied into some sort of a Mentor program at some point in time.

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Awesome guide. A friend of mine and I decided to try tackling HMs 2-man recently and it has been a ton of fun. We did HM Kaon blind with only a few wipes. We saw this guide and wanted a challenge, so we tried the only one you don't have a guide for yet: Lost Island. We beat it in Story Mode. We are going to attempt it in Hard Mode soon and put together a guide or some tips if we get down some bosses.
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Awesome guide. A friend of mine and I decided to try tackling HMs 2-man recently and it has been a ton of fun. We did HM Kaon blind with only a few wipes. We saw this guide and wanted a challenge, so we tried the only one you don't have a guide for yet: Lost Island. We beat it in Story Mode. We are going to attempt it in Hard Mode soon and put together a guide or some tips if we get down some bosses.

 

Nice! and good luck with Lost Island. We have been trying it as well, got close on the droid but not enough just yet.

You will also need to respec a few times during lost island for different bosses (a bit inefficient for my taste but anything for fun)

 

The droid boss is possible using a brute force method with 2 x campaign geared dps running with 2 x black hole geared heal companions or equivalent gear . Unlike the usual strategy with players where the dps groups up in one corner and moves from corner to corner, it is better to position your companions in 2 different corners so chances for you to move is 1/3 and you will only need to move 1 companion nevertheless. Pray that the fight is over before heroic moment ends.

 

With unity ,heroic moment and adrenals burning you may get him down after first bubble. The ending isnt going to be pretty but youll get it. Interrupt incinerate asap or fight will be over very fast.

 

The jumping beast is a pain with companions, even if you figure out the positioning for smash, the next challenge is because companions cant click the pillars. So you have to really time the pillars with 2 people. Remember to turn your companions passive when he goes on a pillars or companions will bug out. This fight is possible in theory with an endurance stacked dps and a player healer.

Edited by Cytherion
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Maybe introduction of some hard mode "Mentor" flashpoints that you can run with a mentor and get some benefits along the way like the legacy system, would make the entire game be played all over again. It would be a good idea to give extra Legacy points for running lower level flash points. The social points dont add up enough for the time you spend helping lower level guildies with their flashpoints.
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We have started to do that ourselves with a Sage. Sage Healer + Sentinel DPS, companions DPS. Works wonder but the instances order is definitely not the same, Kaon first boss is a pain for instance and definitely instance can't be tagged as easy, whereas FE HM is way easier.

 

I still think a combination of tank + DPS might be a better one on the long run as the instances where bosses hit very hard will be pretty much out of reach but it's nonetheless very fun and I wouldn't change my partner for anything :). DPS is however quite good and enrage timer not a big deal.

 

Thanks a lot for this guide, looking forward to do more.

Edited by Nolenthar
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I have started progress on these as a Scoundrel Scrapper DPS, with a Jedi Shadow Tank partner. Our first run was Maelstrom Prison, as boots are the only piece of mine that aren't Columi+. It took us 3-4 attempts on the first boss due to me not originally putting out enough damage during the Optics. Once I adjusted my gameplan during those phases, we got him down a little bit into his enrage (good LOS'ing by the tank as well helped greatly). The rest of the bosses were really easy and all 1-shot. Looking forward to trying some more of these!
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  • 7 months later...

Sorry for the digging up this old thread, but I wanted to know some stuff considering I'm planning this with my friend.

 

I noticed that you haven't recommended a player tank+player healer combo - is the reason for this lack of DPS?

 

Also: have you guys tried out any HK-51 droids yet?

 

My buddy and I are planning of running a Sage healer + Shadow tank combo with two HK-51s with a ton of presence, and judging from the obscene amount of damage they can do, we started thinking that the HK droids can really compensate in the damage department when compared to other companions.

 

We just freshly dinged 50, and are considering getting our HKs polished up with the DT12/DT13 gear complimented with augments - though that may be overkill.

Edited by Hartog
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