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+--- Forum: Eternity Vault (/forum-59.html)
+--- Thread: Eternity Vault: SOA (/thread-503.html)
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Saeria - 02-07-2012 12:50 PM
What? Our experience was if you didn't force sprint or speed up you risked taking a third hit. We've killed Soa 16 and we ALWAYS got at least 1 explosion + aura pulse, making it preferable to always sprint/speed up (if possible) to avoid taking 1 explosion + 2 aura pulse.
And unless I am misunderstanding and you're suggesting force speed causes it to bug and cause 2 explosions + 1 pulse I see no reason to NOT force speed (or any other kind of sprint/speed up). Heck, if all you were getting is 2 explosions and 0 pulses I'd say that's preferable than anything else, even if it's slightly more damage than 1 explosion + 1 pulse, it's safer since you don't risk an extra pulse.
For what it's worth, on 16 man we basically came up with the same strategy as Petrus. First person to get called goes forward-and-left, second person runs straight through the boss, third person goes forward-and-right. So assuming balls spawn in say the 9-o'clock to 3-o'clock region of a clock, first name always goes to 9 o'clock, second to 12 o'clock and third to 3 o'clock. This does not mean to pop the first ball you see. But once you're out there wait till your ball comes for you, pop it, and come back in.
As far as hit points go, I disagree with some of the assessment in this thread. There are more ways to get extra hit points, players are just stubborn. First, you can use health/defense stims instead of your main-stat stims. Second, almost all mods give the option between more-stamina and less-stamina. If you're undergeared, go for the more-stamina options. In my opinion you need at least 17.5k to 18k hp to do Nightmare Soa -- and that's assuming you have a Sorc shield/bubble. The damage seems to me around ~8k for an explosion, ~6k for a pulse, but you can easily eat 2 pulses which means you should expect around ~20k damage to be safe.
Also, for the love of god don't use aggro-wipe abilities when you're targetted. That's a train wreck waiting to happen. (Balls change target, but there's no announcement, so yeah).
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Malacoda - 02-07-2012 01:52 PM
(02-07-2012 12:50 PM)Saeria Wrote: And unless I am misunderstanding and you're suggesting force speed causes it to bug and cause 2 explosions + 1 pulse I see no reason to NOT force speed (or any other kind of sprint/speed up).
That was precisely what was happening. Not hitting force speed didn't completely solve the double explosion problem, as there were weird laggy explosions in two different places that both hit, but it most certainly cut them down. I appreciate that particular piece of advice.
Endurance stims were eventually what I wound up doing to get my partially geared sorc over the 18K barrier, but then to be safe I was also hitting Rakata Medpacs before the explosion to get the 15% health boost.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - frmorrison - 02-08-2012 03:36 AM
When I used force speed I got 2 explosions + pulse for around 19k damage on Hard Mode. When I walked into the ball I got only 14k damage (note I only hit 4 balls, maybe double is more common). A Sorc shield is only around 3k absorbed.
Assuming two explosions, you need a Shield + 16.5k health for Hard Mode. Popping a Rakata Medpack at full health before hitting the ball would help but you can't count on having one every time.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Petrus - 02-08-2012 02:22 PM
Anyone else seeing differences in this fight?
Balls seem to be ticking twice now (occasionally), and Soa has 3 times 1 shotted the person picked up. It looks like they grab aggro, he shocks them, and the die.
Also, our tank (rakata geared, never has an issue) keeps randomly losing aggro during the 2nd phase. Sometimes it's to someone kiting a ball, sometimes it's someone picked up, etc.
Between these "mechanics" this fight is MUCH harder, and it's all RNG based.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Darlantan - 02-08-2012 04:22 PM
As the tank in our guild, i can confirm we had the same "random aggro"/aggro reset issue yesterday, though it was more prominent on the final phase. Didn't find any logic as to why it kept switching targets and that's going to be a pain to coordinate the falling pillars with everyone. Especially with mind trap still in play.
Then again there was nothing about this in the patchnotes.. so it theoretically could be just another bug on Soa
//Edit. Mode was 8man HM.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Tactician - 02-08-2012 05:07 PM
16man hard mode today. SOA in phase 3 definitely wandered around like somebody had pulled aggro, we luckily were still able to hit him with all 4 pylons and get him killed but a couple times I was absolutely shocked that his shield got popped. Lots of posts on the swtor.com forums saying the same thing also
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Coriolis - 02-08-2012 10:48 PM
Same aggro issues for us as well. My best guess is that he wipes aggro completely between phases which makes it very easy to loose aggro in P2 if the tank has to run out and blow up a ball. Still you rarely loose aggro often enough for taunt to be on C/D. My bigger problem is in P3 though, not sure how you're supposed to hold him then with his immunity shield. From our attempts it seems like maybe dps on mindtraps gives you aggro on him? Or it could have been just random we certainly didn't have enough attempts on it to be sure.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Rooks - 02-09-2012 12:10 AM
We had it as well on our regular 16 man normal farm run this week, which made positioning him in Phase Three infuriating for our tank. I am hoping this is a bug, and will be addressed. I do not like it as a new mechanic (if it is a threat wipe).
Oddly, this week was our first time one-shotting Soa. The Mind Trap nerf does make the phase two transition much smoother/easier.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Petrus - 02-09-2012 01:07 AM
(02-08-2012 10:48 PM)Coriolis Wrote: Same aggro issues for us as well. My best guess is that he wipes aggro completely between phases which makes it very easy to loose aggro in P2 if the tank has to run out and blow up a ball. Still you rarely loose aggro often enough for taunt to be on C/D. My bigger problem is in P3 though, not sure how you're supposed to hold him then with his immunity shield. From our attempts it seems like maybe dps on mindtraps gives you aggro on him? Or it could have been just random we certainly didn't have enough attempts on it to be sure.
I really don't think there is any rhyme or reason here. People with Guard pulled aggro in both phases. People running to pop balls pull aggro in both phases. People *picked up* pull aggro in phase 2.
Really don't think it has anything to do with actual threat.
RE: Eternity Vault: SOA - Diomed - 02-09-2012 03:06 AM
(02-08-2012 10:48 PM)Coriolis Wrote: Same aggro issues for us as well. My best guess is that he wipes aggro completely between phases which makes it very easy to loose aggro in P2 if the tank has to run out and blow up a ball. Still you rarely loose aggro often enough for taunt to be on C/D. My bigger problem is in P3 though, not sure how you're supposed to hold him then with his immunity shield. From our attempts it seems like maybe dps on mindtraps gives you aggro on him? Or it could have been just random we certainly didn't have enough attempts on it to be sure.
Yay bugs! Tanking him in 16man normal last night I had aggro at the end of phase 1 and then did not have it at the start of phase 2. However, he was tracking me as he was descending to start phase 3 (which completely boggles me as I would expect a possible aggro wipe after he frees people from mind trap).
Phase 3 was a soup sandwich in terms of aggro he especially liked to run off as I positioned him for dreidel drops. I'd be interested to know what class you guys running into this are using to tank him. I'm a guardian and was having off and on issues all night with threat, when it usually isn't an issue. It may be helpful to determine if this bug is hitting Soa's aggro table or something else like Soresu's threat production being borked.