Ninja/Trick Arrow Solo MoITF +2/+8 (attempt)

[Dr Causality]

Finished but with one death in the final AV fight.    

 

+2/+8 Restrictions were:

• No temp powers

• No deaths

• Nothing from email or from outside missions, except for starting with a single tray of small insp

 

Probably will try again but it's slow going....    And I don't think it can be done with those restrictions at +4 (especially now that MM melee pet controls Goto no longer makes pets stay...)

 

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I finally finished grinding out the t4's needed and tackled a solo ITF that I'd tested doing on Beta server.   

 

[**Edit**   Doh! I just had a friend explain to me that the new 'Stay' now works in Defensive Bodyguard mode, so you can still get behavior that let's you position even melee pets while in BG mode.  That should be a massive change for the big fights.   May have to try this again...with some more elaborate pets commands.]

 

The challenge got significantly more difficult since I'd tested on Beta server.    The new MM pet control change where melee pets will now run to attack from the Goto position you send them to stand at,  is a nightmare in the final AV fight that ruined my previous strategy.    Ninja's T1's having no resistance and TA having no resistance, defense or heals to support them with means the PBAOE's from the Nictus can practically one shot the T1 pets.     So on my test runs a few months ago I found that if I left the Ninja's in Defensive mode but made them 'Goto' and stay just outside the PBAOE range then I could keep them alive, by Taunting the attacks away from them.     (Sure being mostly melee that means they don't do nearly as much DPS from range, but even using just their limited ranged attacks they do far more DPS then when dead.  And being alive in BodyGuard mode they are able to help my MM tank the AV's. )  

 

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As promised from the post link below I rolled what was voted on as being the worst (most underperforming) MM combo Ninja/TA to see what could be done with it.  

 

 

Turns out it's still possible.   But now that's it's nearly impossible to keep Ninjas out of PBAOE range of Nictus it requires some luck, which I didn't have.   I finished with one death in that final fight.    First off I got unlucky because Romi spawned at +3, and from my trial run it seemed like I barely had the DPS and survival needed for +2.  I reset the mish a total of three times he spawned at +3 every time...     So I gave up tried him at +3.     Next it seems to be a bit of a coin toss as to whether Romi just runs away instead of fighting. No amount of Provoke Taunts to seems help or time to stack Immoblizes once he decides to run.  MM's don't chase well I died trying to stop Romi from running and pulling Imperious into a big spawn.    (I probably need to clear the entire map to be safer, but I was too tired do more than clear all around the AV....)

 

Off to the hospital, then reset again since I knew that at +3 I wouldn't have the DPS to kill him without Imperious' help.   Romi spawned at +3 again.  Heh.   But this time I was able to kill one of the Nictus.   (You basically have to focus whatever Imperious decided to fixate on....)     Then at 50% health Romi took off running pulling Imperious into a big spawn.  I tried but couldn't save Imperious, but at least didn't die myself this time.   (Trick Arrow having no buffs makes it tough to save NPC...).     But with the Nictus that does the big pet killing PBAOE dead, I decided to try to finish without Imperious.    It made the fight go incredibly long, but I finally got him.    I only had enough DPS to out do the healing Nictus when the Lore pets were up, and even then it took a about 4 Lore cycles.     Made the entire thing taking an eye bleeding 4+ hours.        

 

So +2/+8 MoITF on Ninja/Ta is doable even after the recent MM control changes, but it will require some luck:   Romi doesn't run, causing Imperious to get killed and even better if Romi spawns at +2....      I may try it again, but not this weekend....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Dr Causality

[Dr Causality]

In case someone is curious about builds.   Ninja/TA for soloing TF's is one of the most difficult aggravating builds I've worked on.   Not only do you get no Res,  Def or Heals from TA and TA also doesn't have any powers that are good for building up +Rech needed to get your Oil Slick up often, or take advantage of Acid Arrow's proc damage.   

 

You have to make huge sacrifices to either your Res/Def or Rech.    The best for doing normal +8 content or team play definitely seems to be Fire Mastery for Bonfire.     The extra KD mitigation and Dmg from Bonfire, and the +Rech you can get from a FF proc out shine the extra sturdiness from a Patron shield.

 

But Fire Mastery with no Res shield just wasn't sturdy enough for the AV fights.    The only way to do it would be using trays of Inspirations pulled from email.         So I settled on a Soul Mastery build that sacrificed Rech but was able to keep Provoke and get up to:

 

• 75% S/L Res
• 33.4% Negative Res
• 32.7% Ranged Def
• 33% E/N Def

 

My original plan was to use the Bonfire build for mission content, then switch to the Soul Mastery Build for the AV fights.  But powers all going on cooldown when you switch builds dissauaded me  fromt trying that so I went for an all around Soul Mastery build.   In retrospect still might be the best plan, with a  more specialized anti-AV build that can stack some extra -Res.  

 

[StrikerFox]

You're forking amazing! That's one of the last MM combinations I would have chose to conquer an ITF. How often were you resummoning pets? Congratulations on the achievement. 

[Dr Causality]

Just now, StrikerFox said:

You're forking amazing! That's one of the last MM combinations I would have chose to conquer an ITF. How often were you resummoning pets? Congratulations on the achievement. 

 

Agreed I don't recommend it.  MM's are already tough to Solo the ITF with since they don't handle big mobs well.  

 

But to answer the question of how often I resummoned pets, let me just say that I renamed my character to "Ninfinity".          

 

I had to give up and play as though at least the T1 pets are completely expendable.   So my characters backstory is now that he got his name by challenging Paragon PPD to a dual with his Ninjas.   The chief made a public joke about bringing "Ninjas to a gunfight"  but the joke ended up being on PPD, because you can bring Ninja's to a gun fight, if you have infinite replaceable Ninjas.  😋

[TheSpiritFox]

Your girlfriend is a sadistic domme isn't she

[Scarlet Shocker]

I salute your masochism sir! 🙂

[Redlynne]

Taking 4+ hours to solo an ITF may be "viable" in the sense that "it can be done" ... but it certainly isn't OPTIMAL (or even on the same plane of existence as optimal).

[Coyote]

Great job. A far truer test of gamer grit than taking a FOTM and seeing if you can beat a 50 minutes time with it. I didn't think the PBAoE Nictus problem could be solved with Ninjas, and I'm happy to see that inspired play shows I was wrong.

 

Personally, I'm waiting for TA buffs before I start my own "to ninfinity and beyond" masochism 😉

Edited April 12, 2020 by Coyote

[Dr Causality]

9 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Taking 4+ hours to solo an ITF may be "viable" in the sense that "it can be done" ... but it certainly isn't OPTIMAL (or even on the same plane of existence as optimal).

 

For my Beta server runs if you add up the separate missions, then I did it in around 2.5 hours.    I went a lot slower on the Live run because I wanted to avoid a stupid death ruining my Mo run.    Even at that methodical pace I was starting the final mission at 2 hours 14 mins.    The final #%&^$# mission doubled my time.    And the AV fight attempt that finally actually finished Romi was itself over an hour.    I still think an under 3 hours time is possible, but you have to keep Imperious alive....    The other cruel thing is the most difficult fight is the last one, and when it takes so long to get there it's tough to still be playing efficiently at that point.   I suspect you'll say that under 3 hours is still not optimal, but I recall full team ITF attempts back on live taking that long, so it feels okay to me for a solo run on a character that's not optimal for dealing with either large mobs or AV's.  

 

 

9 hours ago, Coyote said:

Great job. A far truer test of gamer grit than taking a FOTM and seeing if you can beat a 50 minutes time with it. I didn't think the PBAoE Nictus problem could be solved with Ninjas, and I'm happy to see that inspired play shows I was wrong.

 

Personally, I'm waiting for TA buffs before I start my own "to ninfinity and beyond" masochism 😉

 

Haha.  Rather than pure gamer grit I think it was more of a sort of gambler's fallacy (or more precisely "chasing losses" to win them back).   Had I known it would take me 4+ hours at the start, I probably wouldn't have started.   But once I was already 2 hours, then 3 hours in,  I kept thinking I thinking "just a little bit more" to finish,  so my "loss" of time up to that point wouldn't be for nothing.  

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Dr Causality

[Hedgefund]

This is far more impressive than yet another FOTM "optimal" exercise.  Well done.