KeyboardNinja Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Our raid group is currently having issues downing Warlord Kephess on story mode. We're mostly Rakata (rest Columi) and 1-2 shotted everything else in EC. The problem comes in the very final phase of the fight, *after* Kephess gets his "Gift of the Masters" buff and starts steaming and glowing purple. Basically, we're seeing the following sequence in our combat logs: No Escape (immobilizes target)Melee Attack (main and off-hand kinetic damage) The first ability does about 1.5k damage, most of which is mitigated by armor. However, the second ability does 7.7k kinetic damage with each hit. So, roughly 15.5k damage overall. That's a pretty serious whack. In and of itself, this wouldn't be too much of an issue except for the fact that this attack appears to ignore mitigation. Nothing is being absorbed, deflected, avoided, etc, even on the tanks. In fact, given that both hits are putting up exactly the same damage, it looks like no rolling is happening of any sort. It's just a 15.5k hit every single time. This has been exceedingly annoying. I can see three possible interpretations of this. One, it's a bug and Melee Attack shouldn't be ignoring mitigation. Two, this is a healer check (similar to "RNG death" in hard and nightmare Soa) and we just need to stay topped off. Three, this is a soft enrage mechanic, where you are guaranteed to lose more and more of your party if the fight drags out for too long. None of the walkthroughs mention this issue, though all of the videos show it in action. Given the way that most guilds seem to be downing Kephess, I'm tempted to say that the third interpretation is the correct one. Any hints? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobisconfused Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 We had issues with this at first, then we came up with a decent tactic that seems to work for us. After he lays down his large purple AOE, he will start with the jumping to people in the raid. We used two tanks and as soon as he jumped, the other tank would immediately taunt him back. This helped keep DPS alive to burn him down and it made it more predictable on who to heal. You can check out our guide on him Warlord Kephess Guide and watch our video here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezion Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 (edited) As the poster above said, 2 tanks make things a bit easier. What he does after the large purple AOE is: - Knocks the tank back - Casts breath of the masters on the tank. This puts a debuff on the tank which makes them drop the small purple circles. - Changes target after the cast, probably to the second on threat So have your second tank taunt right after the cast he does (i think it's his only cast) and random DPS wont get 1-shot. In most videos i've seen he will do this 4-6 times. You should be able to have a cooldown for most tank switches if needed. Whoever gets the debuff from breath of the masters should drop the aoes away from the raid. The two tank method means that kephess will be stationary for most of the phase, giving higher DPS and less chance of people running out of range etc. Once the AOEs are dropped, the tank should run back and be ready to taunt. It can be done with one tank but most of the videos i've seen with one tank are chaotic at best, this way is easier on the DPS/Healers. Edited April 17, 2012 by Ezion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyboardNinja Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 We had issues with this at first, then we came up with a decent tactic that seems to work for us. After he lays down his large purple AOE, he will start with the jumping to people in the raid. We used two tanks and as soon as he jumped, the other tank would immediately taunt him back. This helped keep DPS alive to burn him down and it made it more predictable on who to heal. I think the taunting tactic is a good one. The bummer is that the attacks are ignoring mitigation, so the tank and off-tank are getting STOMPED during this phase. The advantage is predictable healing, which is definitely worthwhile. Additionally, if you have a sage/sorc, you can play cute games with Rescue/Extricate, pulling right after the snare to get the tank out of melee range. BTW, your guide uses the "stand far away and take the hit" approach to the pulse droids. We've discovered that the damage done by their rail shot is actually proportional to distance (the same as the damage from Vokk's saber through in Esseles HM). So, if everyone stands within the droid's hitbox, the damage is almost nil. You just have to make sure everyone closes to within range before the droid fires its first rail shot (you have about 5 seconds). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobisconfused Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I think the taunting tactic is a good one. The bummer is that the attacks are ignoring mitigation, so the tank and off-tank are getting STOMPED during this phase. The advantage is predictable healing, which is definitely worthwhile. Additionally, if you have a sage/sorc, you can play cute games with Rescue/Extricate, pulling right after the snare to get the tank out of melee range. BTW, your guide uses the "stand far away and take the hit" approach to the pulse droids. We've discovered that the damage done by their rail shot is actually proportional to distance (the same as the damage from Vokk's saber through in Esseles HM). So, if everyone stands within the droid's hitbox, the damage is almost nil. You just have to make sure everyone closes to within range before the droid fires its first rail shot (you have about 5 seconds). That would make that phase go by even quicker, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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