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Post by Balshor on Feb 17, 2005 19:29:46 GMT -5
As before, this thread will break the current raid plan into a series of posts. The general strategy will be the one used in the recent successful public raids, and while details will be posted below, it may help to review the raid plan from the 2/5 raid.
The goal of this raid is to have a good time taking down Hamidon. We will also be trying out the global chat system and how best to employ it during a Hamidon raid.
These plans are subject to change -- in particular, I'm still waiting on confirmations for a few of the coordinator positions. Any significant changes will be noted in this initial post.
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Post by Balshor on Feb 17, 2005 19:30:36 GMT -5
I. Before the raid: Everything that happens before entering the Hive.
All heroes will meet in Eden immediately outside the Hive at 6:30 pm EST on Saturday, Feb 19, 2005. If you do not have a team (or only have a small team), come a bit early to put one together.
Create and wear a costume that has no aura and no cape.
Turn down all graphics settings except character detail and gamma. Set gamma to whatever you find best, set character detail to maximum.
Find or build a team. If you want to join a team at the raid, arrive a little early in Eden. Feel free to post in this forum to organize any such efforts. Teams should follow the basic guidelines in section II.
Add the appropriate heroes to your friends list for easy targetting.
Make a nice big window with the request channel and the appropriate global chat channels displayed. The coordinators will be using these channels to communicate important information to the raid, so you want to be able to keep an eye on it.
Read the entire raid plan ahead of time, and post any questions or suggestions you may have about it below. The time to do so is now, not during the raid. The raid leader (Balshor) will give a brief review of our mito clearing strategy before we enter the Hive, but the plan here is far more complete than the overview.
Throughout the raid, stay off of the request channel. This channel will be used for the coordinators to communicate with the raid as a whole, and it is important to keep it clear of other chatter. Use the broadcast channel if you want to say something.
In these plans, I am more interested in the powers a hero has than the actual archetype. Thus, you should understand "defenders" to mean "defenders, plus controllers with the appropriate secondary" and "controllers" as "anybody with a hold power".
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Post by Balshor on Feb 17, 2005 19:31:07 GMT -5
II. A Brief Overview: Organization and Strategy
Teams are organized according to task, not archetype. Aside from a few teams whose duties require certain powers, feel free to form a team comprised of whatever mix of heroes you would like. Players are encouraged to both team with friends and to meet new people. The two specialized team types for mito clearing will be healing teams and distraction teams. See the later sections for details on their specific tasks and composition.
For the mito clearing, the raid will be divided into two assault groups and one or more distraction teams. Distraction teams are tasked with taking as much firepower as possible (especially from Hamidon himself) to allieviate pressure on the healing umbrellas. The assault group (named East Group and West Group after their initial staging points) will start on opposite sides of Hamidon. They will move in under a healing umbrella and proceed clockwise around Hamidon, clearing mitos. At no time will a member of an assault group attack Hamidon.
Once all the mitos are cleared, all heroes (both assault and distraction) will withdraw to the east staging point. We will use a few heroes to tank Hamidon (either regen scrappers or tanks with healing backup) while the controllers move in to hold Hami. EMP teams will time their big holds so as to maintain as high of a mag on Hamidon as possible. At this point, nobody should be attacking Hamidon except with holds. Once the raid leadership is satisfied that the hold can be maintained, a general attack will be sounded.
After Hamidon is (hopefully) defeated, heroes will spread out as much as possible. We will clear out the Hami buds, using single-target attacks only in order to attempt as even of a distribution as possible. There will only be enough drops for one enhancement per hero, so if you get extras, you should pass them to a raid coordinator for redistribution.
The following are important people to remember -- you should add them to your friends list so you can easily target them by selecting them there: (I'm still confirming the names for several of these positions; I'll fill them in as I get responses back.) Global chat handles are listen in parentheses when they are different from the associated hero's name.
Raid Leader: Balshor
Distraction Coordinator: CheechN
East Group (EG) Coordinator: Fire Curtain (Big Mike)
EG Positioner:
EG Main Assist: Maverick X
EG Secondary Assist: Staggerlee
EG Healing Coordinator: Ms. Bikle
EG Debuffing Coordinator: Radition
West Group (WG) Coordinator: Alloric
WG Positioner: Spark-1 (Dorkus)
WG Main Assist: Alloric
WG Secondary Assist: Soul Strike
WG Healing Coordinator: Mystiqual Heart
WG Debuffing Coordinator: Nuke.
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Post by Balshor on Feb 17, 2005 19:33:38 GMT -5
III. The Details: Clearing the Mitos.
The distraction team(s) will move in first to grab as much agro as possible. These are the only heroes who should be attacking Hamidon throughout this phase. Their responsibility is first to divert enough of the incoming fire to establish the healing umbrellas and then to keep as much of Hamidon's AoE fire off of the assault groups as possible. The distraction coordinator is in charge or organizing these efforts. This team will operate independently of the two assault groups and will continue their efforts until all mitos have been cleared. At the end of Phase One, they should pull back to the staging area for Phase Two.
Each assault group will have a main assist, one or more secondary assists, a healing coordinator, a positioner, and an overall coordinator (who can also serve as an assist if necessary). The group consists of a single healing team and several attack teams. The two assault groups will be tentatively named the East Group (EG) and the West Group (WG) (named after their initial positions). Each has their own global channel (HamiEG and HamiWG), and all members of that group should be members of that channel. If we do not have enough players present to fill up both groups, we will merge them into a single one.
In the event that global chat is down during the raid, communication that was to be on the HamiEG and HamiWG channels will instead use the request channel. To keep clear which group the coordinators are talking to, commands will be prefaced by "EG", "WG", or "Entire Raid".
The healing team: This team consists of a FF defender and seven AoE healers (empath or rad). The FF defender is the positioner and is in charge of moving the assault group around the battlefield. This defender should have dispersion bubble active, both to protect against the stun on Hami's AoE attack and to mark the area where the rest of the assault group should cluster. The seven AoE healers are in charge of maintaining the healing umbrella. One of these healers, the healing coordinator will determine an order for the healers to fire off their heals. The following bind may be useful:
/bind [key] "tell [name of next hero to heal] Your turn to heal$$powexec_name Healing Aura"
After the heals have been appropriately offset, the empaths can switch to auto-firing their heals and concentrate on positioning and buffing. Note that they may wish to auto-follow the positioner to keep the healing umberlla as compact as possible.
The attack teams: The exact composition of these teams is not terribly important, although it would be optimal if characters with group fly could try to team with as many surface-bound melee heroes as possible. The main assist will choose the target for the assault group and declare on the group's global channel, "new target acquired". The secondary assists will target the same mito and declare on the same channel, "seconday assist on target". In order to easily target the current mito, secondary assists should first target the main assist, then use the /assist command (or an appropriate bind/macro) to switch to the main assist's current target. Other heroes who wish to target directly instead of assisting can similarly target any of the assists and use the same command. The following commands will create a macro or bind for this:
/macro assist "assist"
/bind [key] "assist"
The more firepower we can concentrate on a mito, the faster it will go down and the less likely it is to split. Thus, do your best to attack the main assist's current target.
In addition to the positions listed above, the assault groups will have an overall coordinator (possibly one of the assists) who will be in charge of the assault group as a whole. This hero is also in charge of getting latecomers added to an assault group's global chat channel.
The raid leader is tasked with coordinating the assault groups and distraction teams as well as ensuring that all raid participants remain on task. If you believe that somebody is not doing their job correctly or is trying to grief the raid, please do not confront them directly but rather send a tell to the raid leader. The coordinators will handle the situation.
During this phase, no pets other than the distraction team's Phantom Armies should be used. This is to minimize lag and because pets do not hold a single target well enough to be useful. Players should also refrain from using buffs that rely completely on damage being typed (shadowfall, steamy mist, single-target force fields, most tank armor, etc) as all damage done by Hamidon and the mitos is untyped.
All defenders (whether on the healing team or dispersed among the attack teams) should keep an eye out for fallen heroes. To easily target and ressurect them, first clear your targetting information (push ESC), then hit your rez power twice. This will target the closest fallen hero and activate your rez on him or her.
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Post by Balshor on Feb 17, 2005 19:33:57 GMT -5
IV. Phase Two: Taking out Hamidon.
After all mitos are down, we will proceed to first hold, then take out Hamidon. The distraction team will grab Hami's agro while the controllers and EMP teams start spamming their holds. No hero should be attacking Hami with anything other than a hold at this point. Pets that cast holds (Singularity, Dark Servant, and Jack Frost) are allowed at this point, but all other pets should remain uncast.
EMP teams should time their big holds in a similar fashion to the healing umbrella from the mito stage. The goal here is to maintain as high magnitude of a hold as possible on Hami -- having all the EMP blasts go off simotaneously and then all wear off before they recharge is not very useful. To aid in the timing of these EMP blasts, all radiation heroes should join the channel HamiRads. The debuffing coordinators will organize the timing of the EMP pulses.
When the coordinators are satisfied that Hami is held, the general attack will be sounded. At this point, all heroes should move forward and attack Hami. The remaining pets are allowed at this point. Ranged heroes should attempt to stay as far back as possible while still being able to attack. If Hamidon vanishes from your screen, it is not because he was defeated but rather due to graphics limitations. Find a pet (they never lose target) and assist off of them.
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Post by Balshor on Feb 17, 2005 19:34:18 GMT -5
V. Phase Three: The Buds and Enhancement Redistribution.
In order to try to ensure as equitable of a distribution as possible, no hero should use an AoE attack when clearing the buds. In particular, this means no Nova, Thunderous Blast, Trip Mine, Full Auto, Inferno, or Blizzard should be used. (Truthfully, most of these powers are useless in a Hami raid and shouldn't be used at any point.) Use of these powers is sufficient grounds to be labelled a raid griefer and be disinvited from any of my future raids.
Players should clear Hami buds using their single target attacks until they have received a single enhancement. Extra enhancements should be passed to a raid coordinator. Raid coordinators will funnel the enhancements to the raid leader, who will handle the redistribution effort. If you do not get a drop, find the raid leader on the SW side of the crater, and please be patient as we attempt to divide the extra drops. No raid so far has had sufficient drops for everybody, so I appologize in advance to anybody who does not receive one. All heroes should remember that BY COMING TO THIS RAID, YOU AGREE TO THE GROUND RULES, INCLUDING THAT THIS RAID IS NOT ABOUT THE ENHANCEMENTS.
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