Screw attendance, let’s get down to business.  70% of students attempting this HM flashpoint will fail.  I’m here to weed that 70% from the LFG tool.  Ask yourself this.  Are you Zergadin enough to complete the hardest 4 man Flash Point in SWTOR?  If you’re not, GTFO of my lecture.  Better yet, GTF off my space station.

Today’s lecture will go over the first Boss of the FP.  Class, Say hello to the LR-5 Sentinel Droid.

/whiteboard

The Orange area represents the grates that lava will erupt from throuhout the encounter.  You can, and will, have to run through the fire.  An experienced player can tell where the fire will erupt and will not erupt, it doesn’t cover the entire grating system.

You’ll notice four darkened pillars around the room. These are Line of Sight points that can completely block the healer from seeing his target. Team awareness is priority when the group is moving around these pillars.

There are Kolto tanks that represent where the droid will release adds. This trash has low HP, but it’s there to create a diversion and cause mistakes. One DPS member should be assigned to take them out. Preferably a ranged member.  Side Note: The entire FP is Ranged Friendly. Melee players have their work cut out for them on every encounter.

Let’s look at the Opening sequence of events and positioning.

Players walk into the room and are face-to-face with the deactivated boss. It’s deactivated for a reason, so you can walk around the room going over your plan of attack. Use this time to settle on a kiting stratagy. When ready, hit the activation panel. There is almost a 10 second lag as the droid powers up. All members should get into position before the droid is live and the tank aggros.

As you begin the encounter each member has 3 things to prioritize.
Tank:

1. Interrupt the Incinerate ability.  It is a channeled ability that can stack three times.  More than one stack can quickly cause a wipe.
2. Proper kiting and boss positioning.  You must have excellent party awareness and realize when the team needs room to work.
3. Keep yourself alive.  Don’t stand in the fire or electric arcs, and roll your cool-downs constantly.  You’re responsible for mitigating as much damage as possible.

Healer:

1. Cleanse the Incinerate DoT the tank pick up.  It’s difficult to see, but you must learn to recognize it.  VoIP communications will help coordinate a call out.
2. The boss has an attack the focuses a party member, suck it up and heal through it.  If kiting, Keep up with the tank.  A LoS issue can happen quickly.
3. Keep yourself alive.  Don’t stand in the fire or electric arcs, and roll your cool-downs constantly.  Do not stand in front of the boss.  Incinerate has a frontal cone spread.

DPS:

1. Melee DPS should maximize boss damage uptime, and dump aggro constantly.
2. Range DPS should Prioritize Adds first, then DPS the Boss.  If you are carrying two of the same class, assign one to adds and the other should stay on the boss.
3. Keep yourself alive.  Don’t stand in the fire or electric arcs, and roll your cool-downs constantly.  Do not stand in front of the boss.  Incinerate has a frontal cone spread.

Things each member SHOULD NOT DO.

Tanks:

• Do not worry about adds.

Healers:

• Do not worry about adds.

DPS:

• DO NOT FAIL

It’s time to start moving around the board.  Let’s dance.

The boss will drop ‘Arcs.’  Basicly they are Electric Spires that create a bubble of damage that grows and grows until de-spawning.  The Arc will drop on a Melee or Ranged Member.  It won’t drop on who has aggro.

If it drops on Melee first, the Tank and Melee move and begin turning the boss and start the kite.  If it drops on range, they can move to a safe area, letting the Tank and Melee concentrate on maximizing DPS up-time.  Note:  When the boss is channeling an ability, IT WILL NOT MOVE.  The tank should only move the boss right after an incinerate.  If you try to kite, and are not close enough to interrupt the Incinerate, you are going to cause the Healer to lose 5 years off their life span.

Just when things start heating up, the boss will spawn adds.  At this point if any team member complains, direct them to Vaiken Space dock general chat.  You don’t have time for crying.

The crazier thing get, the more focus needed on your assignments.  The Member assigned to the adds will observe the melee variety traveling to the Player who aggros them.  It could be a healer or the tank.  The adds will  not kill a player instantly, you have time.  Let the melee settle on a target.  While they travel, destroy the stationary ranged trash.  Move to the melee adds next, once they homed in on their target.   If you have an efficient AoE ability now is the time to use it.  Note: you may have to travel across the board to take them out.  Move with a purpose, constatnnly aware of the enviroment that will kill you.  The adds will Spawn from one side at a time.  It may or may not be the side you are currently on.

Rinse, Repeat, Loot.

The boss will be kited in front of the team.  The DPS and Healer will trail the boss having the Arcs drop on them and catching up with the boss.  Above is a possible kite path for the boss.

Let’s go over an alternate strategy for all an all ranged group.

This strategy depends heavily on group composition.  Something you’re not going to have control of if pugging using the LFG tool.  If  you are blessed with an all ranged group, things just got a whole lot easier.  In this senerio the Healer and Ranged DPS drop the arcs and move across the board as the current area fill with electricity.  When the team needs to return to the original side, the arcs should have despawned.  Everything else about the encounter remains the same.

If your team isn’t a seasoned group of Handsome Zergadin Commandos, copy and paste this lesson’s address into party chat.  While the uneducated get educated, go make yourself a scotch.  When you get back, tell them to explain their assignments to you.  If they fail have them retake the lesson while you post on the Official Zergadin Forums.

Thanks for using this site for your SWTOR learning needs.

/Salute

Saybur, The First Line of Defense

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