Basically what the topic title says. Could use some insight into completing the hard mode version of this encounter when interrupts are lacking.

 

LR-5 Sentinel's Incinerate will provide one stack of the DoT on anyone standing within a 5-10m range of the target if it's not interrupted within about .5-.7 seconds (it's a 2 second channel which provides a stack of the DoT every 1/3 of the cast). A single stack can bring a tank down about 10k health and if this occurs during the last 10% phase (where each lightning area attack is at it's largest and most powerful the moment it touches down), that's a wipe.

 

Sure enough, this is where our group (with only the tank and one dps sniper available for interrupts) would always fall. I can easily see this done with a marauder or other classes with solid interrupts that can be done on the go, but I'm not sure how certain group compositions will get past this.

 

Completely missing the interrupt should never happen, of course, but even being a half-second late (with consideration to the fact that interrupts are close range and we need to keep moving him around the room) is enough to make the last 10% nigh impossible. Worse yet, if the entire room is filled with lightning fields and the group needs to move in a rather tight formation, one .5 second slip and the group is killed.

 

For those who have beaten it today on Hard, any insight and advice would be greatly appreciated. The closest we came was 2% where, again, the Droid used incinerate while we were moving to avoid a lightning field and our interrupt came after the first stack of the DoT. It's good to know that we can consistently get him to 10% before it becomes partially a matter of luck...but we could be missing something obvious.

 

Thanks in advance.

Lowest we got was 10% with three classes with interrupt. Only the healer wasn't interrupting. We based the interrupts on a priority order, incinerate first then the electric death zones. Our issue was 'remembering' to move out of this... Ofc we didn't and kept wiping. trying to kite made interrupting tough.

We took it down on HM today with this composition:

Tank: Shadow

Healer: Commando

DPS: Gunslinger (me) & Sentinel

 

As you said, interrupting Incinerate immediately is the key to surviving. The DoT is purgeable so since Incinerate is an AoE cone attack forwards, only the tank should be able to get hit if you miss the first tick and the healer can then purge it.

 

For the interrupts you want someone with ranged interrupt since you'll often need to interrupt while on the move from lightning fields or fire from the grates. The person in charge of interrupting should stay on target the whole fight, let the other dps and tank take care of the adds (or just the other dps if he can handle it, the adds are normal mobs so lots of CC attacks like mortar Strike works just fine).

 

There is a quite long time period between the casts of Incinerate so e.g. a 12sec CD on an interrupt is enough provided you don't mess up and interrupt any of his other skills instead. The end of the fight is quite intense, just make sure you stay on one edge of the room where there is solid floor and try to position the droid so noone stands in lightning.

 

It sure is nice to have a bit of challenge again, even Nightmare modes and 16 man ops had started to become routine

Usually you'd want the tank to interrupt the most important skill, in this case Incinerate. As you can get it with a 12s interrupt cd you should be able to predict when it starts casting.

 

After that you can beat him with only one other interrupt but two is better for the Plasma Arcs. Also, interrupting Plasma Arc ( not 100% sure on the name anymore but it was something like that ) takes priority over killing the adds as a dps,

 

It's a tight boss for groups with columi gear only ( which I assume is the intented target group of the HM version of the instance ).

 

Also, when choosing between lightning dmg and fire dmg, go over the fire, it hits lower and at longer intervals than the lightning fields.

 

Edit : Our group compostion was :

 

Tank : Juggernaut

Healer : Sorcerer

DPS : Assassin/Marauder

 

Final Edit :

 

I'm not sure about this but our tank reported that the boss stacks plasma arcs when he casts them, once he succesfully casted two in a row or within a certain time he hits the tank hard while he doesn't hit hard if he only casts one.

Again, not sure on that but it's a possibility.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Panzerfire

Usually you'd want the tank to interrupt the most important skill, in this case Incinerate. As you can get it with a 12s interrupt cd you should be able to predict when it starts casting.

 

After that you can beat him with only one other interrupt but two is better for the Plasma Arcs. Also, interrupting Plasma Arc ( not 100% sure on the name anymore but it was something like that ) takes priority over killing the adds as a dps,

 

 

It's all about having enough interrupts on HM. If you can lock him out on those casts then it isn't too bad.

 

You could, though, argue that any boss that need in a 4 player group to be locked down by interrupts is poorly designed. But, hey, that is Bioware for you, design a boss that can't be killed by some group compositions of 1 healer, 2 dps, and 1 tank.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Ewgal

These posts have all been very helpful. Judging from the responses, it does seem like it was simply a lack of precision on our part. Heh, now I feel doubly bad about losing to him at 2%.

 

Appreciate the help, all. We'll give it another try later tonight.

Group Composition

 

Tank: Vanguard

DPS: Commando & Sage

Healer: Sage

 

As the tank, it was only me doing the interrupts, they were easy to predict after a couple runs, they always come after the Cannon thing, well sometimes, Cannon then Arc, then Incinerate.

 

We had the commando dps the adds, whilst the sage stayed dps'ing the boss.

 

First set of run throughs we failed on dps as we had the Sage dps interupting aswell, got to like 8% thats when we decided to just have the tank interupting, and that worked best. 8sec cd, but easily doable with 12 sec.

Did the boss today on my mercenary but I had to respecc to healer. I don't heal at all in raids but I had enough rakata/columi gear in my bank to switch. We had three interrupts on the boss. We basically kited him around the room anti clockwise direction and moving whenever he dropped a lightning aoe.

 

At the moment not every group composition can take this boss so that will need to be changed. Bioware could make a reusable item with a cooldown that interrupts the boss (similar to the knockback grenades from Malgus on false emperor and usable only on that boss).

 

As for the difficulty I actually had a lot of fun healing an encounter which I don't usually do as in my raiding group I just dps. I enjoyed the challenge as the boss required more than just tank and spank.

Edited April 13, 2012 by TestoQuintas

Just to add an update, we returned to it with a different composition and found it almost too easy. With two marauders, there was never any remote danger of the cast going off and he was downed in short order.

 

As a way to make the fight seem less hectic, our tank offered an excellent strategy. Likening the lightning fields to the Oil Slicks from Karagga, the entire group would move as one, tight unit from beginning of the fight to the end, led by the tank. This way, even though the lightning field would target a player randomly, we could control where it landed. This made navigating the area while consistently dpsing and interrupting him a breeze.

 

This still works with stationary ranged dps and sorc healers, as there were more than enough periods where we could sit between lightning field cast. It only ever became hectic at 10%, but by then even instant cast abilities were enough to quickly down him.

 

Thanks again for all the input and discussion.

We did it with two interrupts.

 

Assassin Tank

Assassin mDPS

Inquisitor Heals

Mercenary rDPS

 

I (tank) interrupted every incinerate, and the Assassin DPS interrupted every other Plasma Arc basically. The Merc focused on DPS'ing adds, Assassin DPS stayed on boss with me.

 

I never saw the mDPS take damage from incinerate, even if he got 1 tick off, so long as they were behind the boss.

 

The goal was this: Me and the mDPS stayed on the central square as much as possible. We only had to deviate from this a couple of times when Plasma Arc's landed on the mDPS (it never landed one me as a tank).

 

We had the two ranged try to stay stacked, and run around the outside of the room in a clockwise pattern when Plasma Arcs dropped on them.

Edited April 13, 2012 by StealthStalker

Hey guys! Thanks for providing info on this boss.

 

We cant seem to beat him. Whenever he would get low, fire would come out of ALL of the grates, leaving us with no room to maneuver him around. Is this normal or a bug? I watched a video and there seemed to be lots of safe places throughout the ENTIRE fight. whereas with us, at around the 10% mark, we'd have no place to go without eating electricity or fire.

 

Group comp was Jugg Tank constantly interrupting incinerate, Sorc and sniper DPS taking turns on interrupting Plasma Arc, and an Operative healer.

 

We had no melee DPS in our comp (he cast the static bubble on the tank a buncha times tho) and more than enough interrupts to deal with the boss' skills. It's just at the end when he blows up the entire floor that we wipe. Any suggestions or tips would be most appreciated!

My guildies and I were eventually able to beat him this morning. Our group was sorcerer and mercenary dps, sorcerer heals, and juggernaut tank. You can't miss a single interrupt. We had the tank keep the boss in the middle while all the ranged tried to stick together and run around the outside edges to avoid the lava and lightning zones. As healer, I just tried to keep throwing down purple circles for the ranged while I healed the tank. It was messy, but we got it done.

 

Our tank recorded the fight if you wanna see:

 

I'm not sure how to beat him.

 

My group: 1 shadow tank, 1 scoundrel melee dps, 1 commando ranged dps, 1 sage healer all in full columni gear.

 

Tank and I (scoundrel) were constantly interrupting the plasma arcs and we STILL got the lightning bubbles all over the place. The lightning bubbles are killing us.

 

Sage healer dispells the incinerate right away-that's not a problem.

 

The lightning is killing us. Everything we've read says that the plasma arcs makes those bubbles but we interrupt each one and we still get the bubbles all over the place.

 

Help?

We bashed our head into the guy all night last night to no avail. 2% was our best try but we weren't able to replicate it.

 

Setup was

Scoundrel: DPS

Vanguard: Tank

Guardian: DPS

Sage: Healer

 

 

The Guardian was assigned to Incinerate and didn't miss a single cast in the ~20 tries we threw at him.

 

The Vanguard and Scoundrel shared interrupting the Plasma Arc.

 

Honestly though, we didn't notice a huge difference between interrupting and ignoring the Plasma Arc. I'm still not quite sure about what the abilities does.

 

Still, even with everything interrupted there was an INSANE amount of group damage going around for no apparent reason. The Guardian especially was always loosing health, despite not having any debuffs, not pulling aggro, not standing in statics fields or fire or anything really. His HP just kept dropping for not apparent reason and so did the HP of many other group members.

 

Either there's some sort of bug or there's some hidden mechanic to the boss that accounts for all that group damage. Afaik it's basically:

 

-Kite around the room avoiding static fields

-Interrupt Incinerate without fail.

-Interrupt Plasma Arc as much as possible

-Kill adds when convenient

-Avoid fire as much as possible

 

Despite following all those rules, the group damage was ridiculous.

Hey guys! Thanks for providing info on this boss.

 

We cant seem to beat him. Whenever he would get low, fire would come out of ALL of the grates, leaving us with no room to maneuver him around. Is this normal or a bug? I watched a video and there seemed to be lots of safe places throughout the ENTIRE fight. whereas with us, at around the 10% mark, we'd have no place to go without eating electricity or fire.

 

Group comp was Jugg Tank constantly interrupting incinerate, Sorc and sniper DPS taking turns on interrupting Plasma Arc, and an Operative healer.

 

We had no melee DPS in our comp (he cast the static bubble on the tank a buncha times tho) and more than enough interrupts to deal with the boss' skills. It's just at the end when he blows up the entire floor that we wipe. Any suggestions or tips would be most appreciated!

 

You hit enrage timer, thats why. Happened to me to the other day too, when he had some low geared DPS. That damn robot got a tight enrage timer, you need good DPS to beat it.

I'm not sure how to beat him.

 

My group: 1 shadow tank, 1 scoundrel melee dps, 1 commando ranged dps, 1 sage healer all in full columni gear.

 

Tank and I (scoundrel) were constantly interrupting the plasma arcs and we STILL got the lightning bubbles all over the place. The lightning bubbles are killing us.

 

Sage healer dispells the incinerate right away-that's not a problem.

 

The lightning is killing us. Everything we've read says that the plasma arcs makes those bubbles but we interrupt each one and we still get the bubbles all over the place.

 

Help?

 

I think you are confusing his two abilities that are quite similar. That damn robot got two abilities plasma arcs, and energy coil. The plasma arcs are from the boss and can or should be disrupted. What is wiping your group are the energy coils which seem to be environmental, they cannot be interrupted, like the lava on the ground. You need to maneuver around them.

me as a sent, our tank was a shadow and we had a pair of troopers, one heals and one dps. the tnak and I kept the interrupt pressure on pretty much the whole fight. just going back and forth, she'd get one then i'd get the next and so on.

 

she had to move em quick, and i had to threat dump alot to keep the bubbles from popping on us but it's not too bad.

 

I'd suggest taking 4 troopers, i hear he's a faceroll thatway

Edited September 11, 2012 by DarthFamine
moar

you don't need 'good dps' , you need dps who doesnt screw around... belive it or not, there are people in rakata who think pressing '1 and 2' will give them awesome dps.

 

this boss is doable with 3 man (did it on my operative healer, mara dps (he was tanking) and merc dps), so if you are failing it on 4 man with good equip, your dps are doing it wrong.

Edited September 11, 2012 by Atramar

We're have a hard time with it as well. Our group:

 

Tank : Vanguard

DPS : Gunslinger, Shadow

Healer : Sage (Me)

 

We're all columi, augmented, with the usual rakata ears, implants. (and belt, bracers for me, thanx synthweaving)

 

We start in the middle, Tank gets first Incinerate, 'Slinger takes over from there (longer range). It feels like we'redealing with those balls every 7-10 seconds and by the time we move away farenough, we're on themove again. I think we might have better luck with shadow interrupt and let slinger handle the adds(thoughts?)

 

I'm watching tank to clense but shadowalways seems to get caught by expanding ball which forces me to split healing. I'm trying to drop a campfire on each move to maximize group healing. invariably we get caught in a field of balls or I need to divert healing to the shadow who gets caught in stuff. Should tank taunt adds. or just let dose clean them up?

 

Ideas?

this occurs during the last 10% phase (where each lightning area attack is at it's largest and most powerful the moment it touches down)

This phase is time, not health, based. Tell your DPS to up their game.

 

When I'm healing in a group with two Commandos, I'll do interrupts myself. Focus Target makes it pretty easy.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Aurojiin

you don't need 'good dps' , you need dps who doesnt screw around... belive it or not, there are people in rakata who think pressing '1 and 2' will give them awesome dps.

 

this boss is doable with 3 man (did it on my operative healer, mara dps (he was tanking) and merc dps), so if you are failing it on 4 man with good equip, your dps are doing it wrong.

 

Agreed! Generally you just need a good group that does properly understand the game mechanics. The other night, I was in a LI hm party as DPS (normally im tank) and our tank did a good job kiting that robot, but somehow failed to disrupt incinerate quite often, so I simply did the disruption for him. Now imagine some DPS no matter what fancy gear that doesnt have that situational awareness, the party would wipe in 30secs.

With RDPS it is an easy fight, tanks stands in the center interrupt incernates..

 

With MDPS it is another game, usually what we do is to go one position, when the light bulb comes down let the healer to call when to leave and go to next position....

 

And then rotate the room clock wise only problem, during all the movement if the tank is not using strafing (if he just turn away and walk ) he can't interrupt the incernate but actually that is no problem also because is purgeable (call the healer), it is a debuff the next attack from the boss is actually causing the damage....

you don't need 'good dps' , you need dps who doesnt screw around... belive it or not, there are people in rakata who think pressing '1 and 2' will give them awesome dps.

 

...

This is so true.

 

I saw a dps in mostly black hole gear fail their Infernal Council member in HM EV. When timer reset, his juggernaut was only at 41% health.

I've found that this is doable quite easily even with a tank with no attention to detail that fails to interrupt incinerate, as a healer that cleanses the debuff from the tank after the boss has finished his channel. Interrupts are very helpful of course but it's not a crisis if a tank misses an incinerate, provided that no one else is in the droid's frontal cone area.

 

In general, for tanks, I suggest adjusting the UI so that your target's cast bar is large and in the center of the screen so you can't miss it. This helped me ALOT when I was learning to tank this bloody thing.

I've done this as tank, healer, mdps and rdps and I think there are 2 ways to do it depending on the group composition. First is with 2 ranged dps which is the easiest way and the strategy was stated above - tank stays in mid and stops incinerate and others stack together and circle the room avoiding the aoe.

 

With 1 or 2 melee is different but not hard at all with the strategy i'm used to. Before the fight the group stacks behind the close right generator (next to the console which activates the boss). The tank then uses a 30m pull (Force Pull, Saber Throw etc.) and quickly hides so that the boss loses LoS and is forced to move all the way to the group. At that point the tank rotates the boss away from the rest (90% of the time the boss will do Incinerate at this point). Then remain in this position until the first blue aoe spawns on top of the other 3 players. Then the tank moves the boss near the other corner of the room in clockwise fashion (avoiding the fire is a bonus) and the other 3 follow and remain stacked behind the boss (no matter what kind of dps you have). Since the tank almost never gets aoe on them and since the other 3 people will be stacked together, the blue circles will always spawn behind the boss and when the tanks sees it he just moves the boss. In my experience as a tank i found it quite easy to kite him while i just move backwards and so that I'm always facing him and am ready to interrupt Incinerate. The trickiest part of this strategy is when the boss pop an aoe and then starts his cannon channel and he doesnt move. At this point the dps and healer quickly move around to the side of the boss away from the aoe and the tanks immediately taunts when the channel is over and moves him ahead. The other 3 people NEVER go ahead of the tank, always behind the droid and in the above case - could be sideways of it just for the channel phase. With slighly above average DPS the boss should die before a full circle of the room is made. Since the adds spawn on every minute-ish they could be AOE taunted (45s cd) and aoe'd near the boss so that no dps is wasted.

 

I found this strategy quite good and I have one-shot this boss even with some undergeared pugs. Good luck.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Sockii