Hi all

I'm posting this thread hoping I'll get some pointers on how to deal with Captain Grimyk (2nd boss) and his ads, more precise - how to avoid them swarming the healer. I had no trouble with holding ads agro on either of my 3 tanks before 2.5 (or maybe 2.4), so I don't know if the FP was altered or my skills took a downward turn (both would not be very surprising).

Now, I am aware how agro works in SWTOR (healers generate 0.5xagro and should really only get agro from unattacked mobs, taunts give you a certain percentage agro increase compared to previous highest agro). Previously, when fighting this boss, my aoe abilities did the trick and I could hold ads agro without trouble. But nowadays, not so much. As soon as they appear, they go straight for the healer, then I fire off 1 or 2 aoe attacks on them, then do the mass taunt and proceed to attack them (switching targets in the meantime). This should take care of them, but, more often than not, after 6s of taunt debuff, they proceed attacking the healer (which usually starts running, and then we get into a vicious circle of him running from the ads, me running after them and trying to get them back on me). This continues until dps kill the boss.

I am sure I could be doing something different, but I have no idea what to do. I have tried switching guard to healer (which I hate having to do) and making everyone stack on boss, which sometimes helps, sometimes it doesn't. This is why I'm asking for your help and advice on dealing with this boss. I realize that almost everyone outgears this FP and the problem I'm having is not such a big deal, but it frustrates me to the point of dreading whenever I have to enter this FP as a tank.

Thank you all for reading this and sorry for the large amount of text.

Is that the Wookie-boss?

If so, there are two ways:

1) DPS and Healer stands on top of the shuttle so the adds can't reach them. Kill boss, then kill adds.

2) Tell the DPS to not AOE boss / adds. Make sure that you have an AOE ability ready for when the adds spawn (smash / crushing blow). If the DPS don't AOE, that should be enough to keep aggro. When the boss dies, explosion will kill the adds.

Yep, it's the wookie

My problem is not dps stealing agro (they usually know that they need to focus the boss), it's the healer. Standing on top of the shuttle is a viable solution, but I'd rather not have to resort to it, since I didn't have the problem until recently. It's like they changed the ads' agro behavior in the meantime.

Appreciate the answer, though. Could it be that I'm the only one having this much trouble on this boss? I'm most certainly not God's gift to tanking, but I never had this much trouble holding agro on the ads in any FPs/Ops I have tanked so far.

Tell the one who is attacked by the adds to bring them in the flamethrower of the wookie, it will burn them down. Maybe he'll have to move some steps right or left to get flames on the uggnauts but as soon as they are burning they die fast, especially if the dps help a bit. I think they get more damage if they are burning, because bombing them without the flamethrower is really ineffective and takes a lot more time.

As a tank you can try to get aggro on them just as you described, but their behaviour is indeed strange. Sometimes i get them easily on me with only wither for example, some times not and then taunt doesn't really help either. But even if you have aggro of them, use the flamethrower to kill them because that will help the healer too, as he has not to heal against the additional damage of mutiple addgroups and will generate less threat on the next wave of uggnauts.

Another important thing, bring all adds to the boss when he explodes, it will kill them too and you don't have to kill them afterwards, because these little beast are really tough without flames on them.

If the healer knows what to do he will come to you and places the adds in the fireflames himself. Adds should melt away quite fast.

Problem is that you cant hold aggro on the adds. Once they aggroed someone you can only force them for 6 seconds during taunt period.

If by any chance the healer is standing on top of the plane/whatever it is than dont forget to kite the boss to that location. You really want to have the adds in the flames or in the instakill from unstable fuel.

You can kite the boss to the plane by LOS'ing behind it.

Thanks a lot for the replies, guys

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed something strange about them, and will definitely apply the solutions suggested.

All the best

Indeed, the bosses flamethrower is the key to this fight, it does little damage to players but nearly insta-gibs the uggnauts which have 90k+ hp.

Either everyone(2dps and heals) stay close together at 90 deg to the tank, and as tank just manoeuvre the flame around by moving in front of the group to fry the little buggers, then move back to the 90 deg, rinse and repeat, or the tank stays steady at one spot and whoever has aggro lures them into the right spot.

But, as you said, more often than not, the heals/dps will round around like headless chickens and it all falls apart then.

Im pretty sure the the aggro table on the uggnaughts is by design to add a bit thought into the fight, otherwise if it were normal mob behavior it would be just too simple.

i think that if you are with Soundrel (operative?) healer and they do keep hots on all four players, this is very easy to aggro you on adds.

I don't want to quote numbers out of the blue but lets say that on average scoundrel's 2 stacks of slow release medpack tick for 2k. That's 8k every 3 seconds. so 4k threat on each add every three seconds. just from hots. If he does focus heal you he can also do every 3 seconds 2 heal combo between 7-10k (and that's been very cautious). so that's another 4-5k threat per mob every three seconds. Considering his hots last 18 seconds (if memory serves me right) he has 6 seconds (or less of refreshing hots) then 12 seconds of spamming tank heal combo + Kolto Pack which is also crazy potent heal (and will add loads of threat).

So if you have scoundrel/operative healer just ask him to keep hots on you ONLY and then heal others if necessary as no one else should be getting damage but you.

I know from our ops, that when pulling boss/trash if our scoundrel healer will pre hot all 8 players, threat she generates is crazy ...

Is that the Wookie-boss?

 

If so, there are two ways:

 

1) DPS and Healer stands on top of the shuttle so the adds can't reach them. Kill boss, then kill adds.

 

2) Tell the DPS to not AOE boss / adds. Make sure that you have an AOE ability ready for when the adds spawn (smash / crushing blow). If the DPS don't AOE, that should be enough to keep aggro. When the boss dies, explosion will kill the adds.

Step 1 is THE EASIEST way to take him down. ur ranged dps dont take any damage at all.

No, do not stand on the taxi! This is just a cheesy tactic to exploit the mechanics and good players do not need to use it.

If you AoE the adds as soon as they spawn, they will stay on you; since you are in HM you can also use an AoE taunt if necessary. If you have trouble to AoE in time, stop attacking a few seconds before they arrive so that you are not on a global cooldown and can smash immediately. It is not the tanks job to deal damage; it is perfectly fine to stand before the boss doing nothing (except refreshing shield CDs) and waiting for adds to spawn.

No, do not stand on the taxi! This is just a cheesy tactic to exploit the mechanics and good players do not need to use it.

If you AoE the adds as soon as they spawn, they will stay on you; since you are in HM you can also use an AoE taunt if necessary. If you have trouble to AoE in time, stop attacking a few seconds before they arrive so that you are not on a global cooldown and can smash immediately. It is not the tanks job to deal damage; it is perfectly fine to stand before the boss doing nothing (except refreshing shield CDs) and waiting for adds to spawn.

Thankfully my guild is full of geared people with geared alts (72s+). If you pug for the weekly, you risk having novice / undergeared players. If you continually wipe on the guy, I'd suggest taking the "Jump on ship" method. Then again, if you can't take down the wookie, you probably won't last long against the shackle-king"