Hammer Station

[Petrus]

Level: Lower-level Republic/Empire Flashpoint (16-19)
Location: Republic Fleet/Empire Fleet
Encounters:
DN-314 Tunneler
Vorgan the Volcano
Battlelord Kreshan

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Crew Skill Shortcuts:

1. Around ½ way to the first boss on the left was a small room with a Large Drilling Machine (it is inactive). Having scavaging lv80 lets you active the machine which in turn drills a opening in the wall. It provides a shortcut to the first boss, you come into the boss chamber upon a ledge and drop down behind some crates.

2. Near the drill, someone with the Bioanalysis skill can use a node (looks like a set of green tanks) to get the detoxin filters, which is a re-usable item. The detoxin filters can be used on yourself as well as selected party members. Doing so gives you a three minute buff (I forget the name) that let you walk through the gas in a nearby alcove unharmed. The buff can be re-applied if it gets low. Inside the alcove are a few packs of trash mobs. I'm not sure about Archaeology nodes, but at the end of the room was a chest chest that contained a protoype-level piece of loot.

3. After the second boss there is a hallway with ledges to the left and right, and several mobs down the middle. To the left, in a little alcove, is a terminal that can be sliced. Doing so starts an elevator that lets the group bypass about 10 pulls.

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Bosses:

DN-314 Tunneler:
The DN-314 Tunneler is the first boss in the Hammer Station Flashpoint. The fight is mostly a tank and spank, however small adds (Demolition Bots) will appear throughout the fight, and will travel to a predetermined location before exploding. The boss will also attack someone with a Mining Beam from time to time, and this attack should be interrupted as quickly as possible.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1rbJYhEgt0

Tips/Tricks:
If you're healing and you have the laser attack on you, but it's not getting interrupted, you should be able to LOS the laser by running behind the tank, and after a second or two the laser will switch onto the tank.

The adds that spawn in this fight can be dodged, with all DPS focusing on the boss. The issue with this method is that if too many bots are up, it can cause ranged players and healers to spend most of their time dodging the adds. If your group has enough DPS/melee to just burn the boss that is probably the quickest method, but if you're made up of a lot of ranged players, or your healer is struggling to keep people up, burning the adds is probably the safest bet.

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Vorgan the Volcano:
Vorgan the Volcano is the second boss encounter in Hammer station, and he is assisted by two additional elites - "Sawbones" and "Torch". During the course of the fight, Vorgan will Guard either Sawbones or Torch, reducing the damage they take by 50%. Sawbones will cast a single target heal, repeatably, and can be interrupted. Torch is stationary, but will grapple players to him and use an aoe fire ability.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW11VddSYQw

Tips/Tricks:
The easiest way to do this fight is to have the tank pick up aggro on Torch and Vorgan. DPS should focus down whichever add is not guarded, and should switch whenever a new one becomes guarded. Keeping interrupts on Sawbones will speed the fight up a bit. Torch will grapple players from time to time, and unleash a fairly powerful aoe, so it's best to keep everyone a good distance away from him.

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Battlelord Kreshan
Battlelord Kreshan is the third and final boss in Hammer station. He has a conal AoE knockback, he summons adds, and he throws grenades on the ground that you must move out of.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvpfD7N5ldA

Tips/Tricks:
He's got 3 major mechanics: A conal blaster spray channel. This is interrupt able, hits for boatloads of damage, and is always preceded by a melee-range knockback. The knockback can knock you off the edge and out of the instance, so watch out. The cone attack has a long range, but is always cast directly at the tank.

A snipe-type attack. He'll lay a number of small green circles on the group at random locations and intervals. After a couple seconds, these circles will turn red, and about a second later anyone still standing in them will be hit with a snipe for a solid amount of damage. Fairly easy to simple move out of.

He will also cast the ability "Call Reinforcements" regularly. This will spawn two standard adds who will jetpack in to one of 4 locations around the rim of the area. These, like most adds, will beeline for the healer, but don't possess any really nasty abilities (they are just annoying and dangerous in numbers). They can be easily killed simply by knocking them off the edge with abilities like Overload . Either hit them right when they land, or drag them over to the edge and knock them off after they spawn. As the fight goes on, this will start summoning two pairs adds instead of one.

Tanking the boss against the wall is a viable strategy to avoid the knockback, however there are a few things that players need to be aware of. When the Battlelord does is main blaster spray attack the tank will have to run through the boss to avoid it. Melee and tanks should also be aware of the grenades he puts on the ground, as they can be hard to see stacked against the wall. With heads up players, this is probably the easiest method to do this boss.

[Kaedis]

Don't really have a format for tips/tricks, it seems, but the last boss in here is rather annoying. He's got 3 major mechanics:

A conal blaster spray channel. This is interruptable, hits for boatloads of damage, and is always preceded by a melee-range knockback. The knockback can knock you off the edge and out of the instance, so watch out. The cone attack has a long range, but is always cast directly at the tank.

A snipe-type attack. He'll lay a number of small green circles on the group at random locations and intervals. After a couple seconds, these circles will turn red, and about a second later anyone still standing in them will be hit with a snipe for a solid amount of damage. Fairly easy to simple move out of.

He will also cast the ability "Call Reinforcements" regularly. This will spawn two standard adds who will jetpack in to one of 4 locations around the rim of the area. These, like most adds, will beeline for the healer, but don't possess any really nasty abilities (they are just annoying and dangerous in numbers). They can be easily killed simply by knocking them off the edge with abilities like Overload

Overload
Sith Inquisitor

Force: -20
Range: 8m
Activation time: Instant
Cooldown: 20 secs
Damage Type: Energy
Mirror: Force Wave

Deals [?] energy damage and knocks back all enemies within 8 meters. Standard and weak enemies are additionally knocked down for 3 seconds.

. Either hit them right when they land, or drag them over to the edge and knock them off after they spawn. As the fight goes on, this will start summoning two pairs adds instead of one.

[Piree]

Last boss knocked me off, had time to revive and run back all the way.

So watchout for his knockback, don't get near the edge

[Darklighter]

Two things:

On the first boss (spider-like droid) you do not have to dps the demo-bots. They travel along a fixed path until they reach a destination (randomly determined) then they will 'pulse' a few times then explode. Much easier to avoid them entirely and focus on the boss 100%. Only downside is cover based dps classes might suffer due to leaving cover to avoid the bots.
We found it easier because with this setup the fight becomes shorter and places less stress on the healer (they won't have many abilities for healing at this point).

On the last boss: We found it best to just have the tank back against a wall and then when the boss does his knockback/cone AoE the tank doesnt get knocked back and can simply 'step through' the boss to avoid the damage easily. The boss becomes immobile during the casting of his cone AoE.

Not saying your way is wrong or anything, just 2 more strategies for it.

[Petrus]

Thanks Darklighter, incorporated what you said. Always had burned down those adds so didn't know they had set paths.

Also added a "Crew skill shortcuts" section, although I don't really know much about those for any of the flashpoints, that's something I"ll have to add at release.

[Darklighter]

(12-07-2011 11:56 PM)Petrus Wrote:  Also added a "Crew skill shortcuts" section, although I don't really know much about those for any of the flashpoints, that's something I"ll have to add at release.

I know the ones in Hammer Station required lv80 gathering skills. Out of our 4man group we only had the required ability to use one. Around ½ way to the first boss on the left was a small room with a Large Drilling Machine (it is inactive). Having scavaging lv80 lets you active the machine which in turn drills a opening in the wall. It provides a shortcut to the first boss, you come into the boss chamber upon a ledge and drop down behind some crates.

[Takira]

Near the place with the drilling machine there is another opportunity to use crew skills - bioanalysis. You can get detoxin filters which probably allows you to walk through the green-colored gas that is near these filters. I don't know whats in there as the only time I visited the instance noone had bioanalysis.

Data files also indicate the presence of an archeology node that increases health regeneration and decreases damage taken.

[Wyuli]

(12-08-2011 06:33 PM)Takira Wrote:  Near the place with the drilling machine there is another opportunity to use crew skills - bioanalysis. You can get detoxin filters which probably allows you to walk through the green-colored gas that is near these filters. I don't know whats in there as the only time I visited the instance noone had bioanalysis.

I can confirm this. Someone with the Bioanalysis skill can use a node (looks like a set of green tanks) to get the detoxin filters, which is a re-usable item. The detoxin filters can be used on yourself as well as selected party members. Doing so gives you a three minute buff (I forget the name) that let you walk through the gas in a nearby alcove unharmed. The buff can be re-applied if it gets low. Inside the alcove are a few packs of trash mobs. I'm not sure about Archaeology nodes, but at the end of the room was a chest chest that contained a protoype-level piece of loot. Well worth the detour at that level.

This is all as of the November 27 weekend beta.

[Pheelon]

There also is a Slicong Node(80) next to a deactived Elevator (activating it) shortly after the 2nd(?) Boss that allows you to avoid some trash packs on the stairs.

edit: allready in there oops

[Necris]

The first boss is about surviving the pulse beam that he does and to not get hit by the adds since when they stop they'll blow up which will most likely kill that person

2nd boss is pretty easy, all you have to do is make sure you take out the adds first then the boss, didn't have any issues with him. Mostly tank and spank


Something to keep in mind for the last boss is that his knockback can knock you off the edge and you'll die so make sure to position yourself well. Never tank him towards the back and always keep an eye out for the adds. What I normally did was wait till they were all close enough and overloaded them to get aggro then when they came towards me I'd discharge which will make it easy for dps to pick them off or yourself to take them out