The Masters of BAF, Part 2: A Badge Guide

[BlackSpectre]

The Masters of BAF, Part 2: A Badge Guide

 

 

Badges awarded from participating in the Behavioral Adjustment Facility incarnate trial are fairly straightforward to achieve. There are 6 badges in all, including the elusive “Master of the B.A.F.” badge which is awarded upon securing all of the other badges. The following is a strategy guide for obtaining all of these badges, including useful information, advice and tips. Most of what you need to know to run a BAF has already been covered in the previous guide, “The Masters of BAF: A Guide for Leaders and Players,” so this guide will focus on information specific to earning each badge.

 

The 6 badges that may be earned by participating in a BAF are:

 

 

 

Behavior Adjuster	Not On My Watch	Alarm Raiser
Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated	Strong & Pretty	Master of the B.A.F.

 

 

The first 3 badges are the easiest to acquire. So easy in fact that you hardly have to do anything  other than participate. The “Behavior Adjuster” is earned simply by completing a BAF. “Not On My Watch” is earned by preventing every prisoner from escaping, and the “Alarm Raiser” badge is achieved by never disabling a guard tower. "Master of the B.A.F" is achieved merely by acquiring the other 5 badges. Stopping every prisoner from escaping is a goal pursued by almost every BAF, and it occurs often enough that you don’t have to worry. Most leagues tend not disable any guard tower. It’s just too much hassle!  This means there are only 2 badges we need to discuss… “Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated” and ”Strong & Pretty.”

 

 

GOTTA KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED

 

“Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated” is the easiest of the last two badges to achieve. It is also the only BAF badge that can not be acquired randomly. All the league has to do is defeat each archvillain where they spawn. If either AV moves too far from their spawn point at any time during the trial, the league will not be awarded the badge. Other than that, everything else in the trial is exactly the same as a normal BAF run. Defeating the archvillains does change the flow of the BAF a little, so let’s start there.

 

Phase 1 – Defeat 40 robots

This is exactly the same as running a normal BAF.

Phase 2 – Defeat Nightstar

Instead of heading to the tennis courts, the league needs to quickly go to where Nightstar has spawned on the east side of the map and defeat her there. The biggest problem when doing this is the guard towers. Their energy beams do a ton of damage and they will attack the league at that location. To help prevent this, you’ll want to move between the two buildings behind where she spawns, and move against one side or the other to avoid the energy beams. Don't pull Nightstar any farther than just inside the front of the two buildings. This doesn’t stop all beams from hitting players, but it does significantly reduce the number of times that they do. Another thing you might want to do is to ask 1-2 players to disable one or both of the guard towers on either side of you. Clicking on a control console located at the base of the guard towers will disable a tower for 30 seconds, after which it resumes attacking unless it is disabled again. Personally, I only disable the guard towers if many players start to die because by doing so you prevent the league from getting the “Alarm Raiser” badge too. Most of the time, healing buffs and tanks taking the brunt of the attacking guard towers is the only thing that’s necessary. 

 

Phase 3 – Stop Prisoners from escaping

This is exactly the same as running a normal BAF. Team 1 North, teams 2 & 3 South.

 

Phase 4 – Defeat Siege

Move the team to where Siege spawns on the west side of the map. Bring the league into the open hanger and fight him there. This will protect the league from guard towers. You will need a tank with taunt to prevent Siege from moving out onto the lawn where the guard towers can attack the league ('cuz, you know he’ll try to do that. He’s just that evil). Try not to pull Siege too far from his spawn point. Just inside the front of the hanger is a safe bet.

 

Phase 5 - Defeat both Siege and Nightstar simultaneously

Ask team 1 to quickly go attack Nightstar and ask teams 2 & 3 to defeat Siege. Team 1 will break off from the league and travel as quickly as possible to Nightstar. All league members need to watch the AVs’ health bars and keep them even. The AVs still need to be defeated at the same time (within 10 seconds of each other). When they are both defeated, the trial ends and every player on the league will be awarded the “Keep ‘Em Separated” badge. 

 

 

LEAGUE COMPOSITION

 

A little more preparation is necessary before you attempt this badge run. You’ll want to distribute the +3 players evenly among the teams, as usual, but if you have more than nine +3 players (3 for each team), put all the extra +3's on Team 1. make sure that Teams 2 & 3 have at least one tank with taunt to prevent Siege from moving too far from his spawn point. Team 1 will have to defeat an AV all by themselves, so you’ll want to load-up Team 1 with high damage dealing, heavy hitters, and one healer.  If you have an extra tank you can place him on Team 1 so he can take Nightstar’s aggro, as well as the aggro from the guard towers. The healer will heal anyone hit by the guard towers and AV.

 

 

LEAGUE DIRECTIONS, MACROS, and POPMENUS

 

I recommend you make macros or popmenus to communicate instructions to the team. You can use some of the macros you’ve already created for normal BAF runs. Since badge runs like this are uncommon, you need to front-load the league with information about the differences for the run. Below is what I consider the minimum information and directions that need to be given to the league:

 

 

/macro "KES1" league THIS IS A BADGE RUN FOR "GOTTA KEEP ‘EM SEPARATED." THE BAF WILL PROCEED NORMALLY EXCEPT FOR ONE THING, WE NEED TO DEFEAT THE AVS WHERE THEY SPAWN.

 

/macro "KES2" league IN THE LAST BATTLE AGAINST SIEGE, TEAM 1 WILL BREAK OFF FROM THE GROUP AND GO KILL NIGHTSTAR, WHILE TEAMS 2 & 3 TAKE CARE OF SIEGE. WATCH THEIR HEALTH BARS AND TRY TO KEEP THEM EVEN. WE WILL NEED TO DEFEAT THE AVs AT THE SAME TIME

 

/macro "KES3" league FIGHT NIGHTSTAR JUST BETWEEN THE FRONT OF THE TWO BUILDINGS WHERE IT IS SAFER (BUT NOT COMPLETELY SAFE). FIGHT SIEGE JUST INSIDE HIS HANGER WHERE IT IS SAFE. DON'T MOVE EITHER AV TOO FAR FROM THEIR SPAWN POINTS

 

/macro "Bots" league KILL 40 BOTS THEN KILL NIGHTSTAR

 

/macro "Nightstar" league GO KILL NIGHTSTAR

 

/macro "Choke-points" league TEAM 1 TO THE NORTH PATH, TEAMS 2 & 3 TO THE SOUTH PATH. FORM A TIGHT GROUP TO LEVERAGE AOES. SUMMON LORE PETS AT 5:05 AND SET THEM TO AGGRESSIVE. STOP ALL PRISONERS FROM ESCAPING.

 

/macro "Siege" league GO KILL SIEGE

 

/macro "Team1" team TEAM 1, GO KILL NIGHTSTAR!$$league TEAM 1, GO KILL NIGHTSTAR!

 

/macro "Even" league KEEP THE AVs' HEALTH EVEN$$league KEEP THE AVs' HEALTH EVEN

 

/macro "Slower" league SLOW DOWN ON $TARGET.

 

Personally, I've graduated up from macros to popmenus. Macros take up way too many power slots in the power trays and it can get messy and inconvenient, especially if you often switch characters. I now create popmenus for communicating these directions to the league. They hold many more commands/macros than the power trays, and you can better organize them with comments and dividers. I also got tired of loading these macros on every character, so I created a custom window. You can put all of your macros and popmenus in a custom window, and best off all it automatically shows up on every character.  I've attached a copy of my popmenu for Gotta Keep 'em Separated to this post if you're interested in looking it over. To use it, copy the popmenu file to the <COH Install Directory>\data\texts\English\menus\  folder (make the folders if they don't exist), and then create the following macro:

 /macro "BAF: GKES" "popmenu baf_gkes"

 

baf_gkes.mnu

 

 

Team 1 has a very important role in this badge run, so spend a little extra time with them to make sure they understand what to do.

 

And that’s it. There’s not much to it. After the BAF is completed, ask the league if they received the badge to confirm.

 

 

 

STRONG & PRETTY

 

“Strong & Pretty” is the most difficult BAF badge to achieve. Not because the task is difficult, but because the entire league must be alert, coordinated, and reading text. If they’re not, the badge run will fail. I should mention that you can get the badge randomly just in the course of running BAFs. I'd estimate the probability of the badge being awarded randomly is about 1 in 20 BAFs.

 

Everything in this badge run is the same as a normal BAF except for the last battle against the two AVs. In order to get the badge, the AVs must be simultaneously defeated while none of their minions and reinforcements are alive. This requires prepping the AVs so they may be defeated quickly when the time comes, and it will require split-second timing.

 

 

AFK CHECK

 

Once the league is formed, ask the players to meet you across the pond.  This is an AFK check. There's no sense going through instructions if no one is reading chat. It also helps players shake off the cobwebs and get ready to be at the top of their game. For those players who are discovered to be AFK, you can send them a private tell asking if they are there. You can also let the league know the player is AFK, and that the league will be waiting a short time for the player to return.  How long you wait is up to you, but I would recommend at least one minute. If you decide to start briefing the league while the player is still AFK, send them a tell letting them know they missed the instructions and to ask another player what to do. It's up to you whether or not you want to kick the AFK player from the league. Once you queue up the league to start the BAF, if the AFK player does not click the green button within 60 seconds, the game will boot them from the league anyway. (See the League Directions and Macros section below for an alternate method to do an AFK check.)

 

 

FLOW OF THE BADGE RUN

 

Phase 1 – Defeat 40 robots

This is exactly the same as running a normal BAF.

 

Phase 2 – Defeat Nightstar

This is exactly the same as running a normal BAF.

 

Phase 3 – Stop prisoners from escaping

This is exactly the same as running a normal BAF.

 

Phase 4 – Defeat Siege

This is exactly the same as running a normal BAF.

 

Phase 5 – Defeat both Siege and Nightstar simultaneously while there are no minions alive

*This is where it gets interesting!*

 

 

STRATEGY FOR PHASE 5

 

In order to accomplish this phase, the league must achieve 4 objectives:

• Defeat both archvillains simultaneously 
• Defeat the AVs while no minions are alive
• Defeat the AVs in under 15-20 seconds
• Defeat the minions or reinforcements in under 10 seconds

 

STEP 1: PREPPING THE AVs – REDUCE THIR HEALTH TO 6%

The first step is to prepare the AVs so it's possible to defeat them in under 15-20 seconds. The league must engage the AVs and bring both their health bars down to about 6% health, and then cease the attack. Make sure players know that the AVs can not be damaged further. One of the most common reasons why this badge run fails is because players continue to attack the AVs and defeat one or both of them. Pets often defeat the AVs too, so make sure players know to pull back their pets at this point. Keeping the AVs together is not really optional as it is in a regular BAF run. It's very important to keep the Avs side by side so that the full force of the league's AOEs, debuffs, and buffs may bear down on them. It is also much easier to defeat the AVs simultaneously if they are together.  When it's time to defeat the AVs the league will need every advantage because only 2/3rds of the league will be attacking the AVs.  

 

STEP 2: TEAM 1 - KILL ALL MINIONS AND MOVE TO THEIR SPAWN POINT

Ask Team 1 to clear all of the AV's minions from the battlefield, and then split off from the rest of the league to go to the minion's' spawn point at the North door. They need to defeat every spawn extremely quickly, and they are all bosses. The AVs' minions or reinforcements spawn every 30 seconds, and there is a countdown clock near the bottom of the Behavioral Adjustment Facility window. The window of opportunity to defeat the AVs only appears when all the minions have been defeated. That means the minions need to be defeated in less than 10 seconds in order to give the league enough time to defeat the AVs. Fill up Team 1 with heavy hitting damage dealers and possibly one tank. They need to be your strongest team and be able to dish out insane DPS (damage per second). Blasters, scrappers, masterminds, peacebringers, brutes, etc. are all ideal candidates.   

 

STEP 3: MONITOR MINION BATTLE AND GIVE LEAGUE ATTACK SIGNAL

The league leader has a very important job to perform as part of Team 1, and it's not to help his team defeat the minions. Instead, the leader must stay at a distance to determine when all the minions are defeated, while at the same time keeping an eye on the amount of time remaining before the next reinforcements spawn. Often there is so much action in the battle that it can be difficult to see if there are any minions still alive. The tab key is your best friend right now. Use it to target enemies, and continue to press the tab key multiple times until you no longer can target an enemy. When that happens, all the minions area dead. The time for the rest of the league to attack the AVs is when there is still about 20 seconds on the countdown clock before the next reinforcements arrive. That will give teams 2 and 3 enough time to eliminate the AVs. If the minions are all dead, and if there is at least 20 seconds on the countdown clock, give the league the signal to attack the AVs. Ask Team 1 to go attack as well.

 

 

If, by the time the minions are defeated, there is less than 20 seconds on the clock, it's a judgement call on whether or not to give the signal to attack or to wait for the next spawn. If there's less than 10 seconds on the countdown clock, just wait for the next group of minions to arrive and hopefully Team 1 will be able to dispatch them quicker next time. There is no real rush here. The leader needs to wait until the conditions are right to order the attack on the AVs. Just a matter of a few seconds can determine whether a badge run succeeds or fails. Most of the league needs to be ready to attack at a moment's notice.

 

NOTE: An alternate method assigns the responsibility to defeat the minion spawns to another team instead of Team 1. That team's leader would then monitor the minion battle and give the signal to attack, which the league leader would also repeat. This frees up the league leader to monitor the AVs' health and help players cease their attacks. It's a great idea, but hinges on finding a player who is very familiar with the badge run and is someone you can trust. If you use this method, make sure you tell the league in the beginning that the other team will be defeating the minions and their leader will be giving the league the signal to attack.  

 

Step 4: DEFEAT THE AVs

After the leader gives the signal, the league will attack the AVs and attempt to defeat them in under 20 seconds. The league needs to pull out all stops and give the AVs everything they've got! It's very rare for a league to be able to stop attacking if minions arrive before the AVs are dead. It's possible, but in most cases this is the end of the mission. Everything depends on whether or not the league is able to defeat the AVs before the clock runs out and more minions arrive.

 

If the league is successful, ask the league to check their badges to confirm that it was awarded. If the badge was awarded, it's time celebrate!

 

If the league was unsuccessful, the silver lining is that the BAF will still be completed and players will still get their incarnate salvage, astral merits, etc… just not the badge. Many players will be disappointed. Offer words of encouragement and praise. Let them know that their effort was appreciated, and that they'll get the badge next time. Take some time to compliment the league on any part of the BAF in which they excelled (if any) and thank them for participating.            

 

 

LEAGUE COMPOSITION

 

A little more preparation is necessary before you attempt this badge run. Team 1 will be your elite special operations force. You’ll want to distribute the +3 players evenly among the teams, as usual, but if you have more than nine +3 players (3 for each team), put all the extra +3's on Team 1. Because Team 1 will have to defeat groups of bosses in seconds, you’ll want to load-up Team 1 with high damage dealing, heavy hitters. You might include a tank on the team to take the aggro and prevent the reinforcements from attacking teammates. However, Team 1 should have so much offensive force that the reinforcements will normally not have a chance to attack. In most cases, it would be better to have 1 more damage dealer instead of a tank. One of the things I've started to do recently is to move any mastermind onto Team 1. Not only do masterminds generally have high DPS, but by placing them on Team 1, you avoid the whole problem of their pets attacking the AVs when they're not supposed to.  

 

 

LEAGUE DIRECTIONS AND MACROS

 

I highly recommend you make macros to quickly communicate instructions to the team. You can use most of the macros you’ve already created for normal BAF runs, but for Phase 5 you will need to issue commands to the league as quickly as possible. There is no time to type everything out. Below are the macros I use for the Strong & Pretty badge run:

 

/macro "Meet Here" league EVERYONE MEET ME OVER HERE FOR BRIEFING

 

/macro "S&P1" league BADGE RUN: STRONG & PRETTY. EVERYTHING WILL BE THE SAME AS A NORMAL BAF EXCEPT FOR THE FINAL DOUBLE AV BATTLE. OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO DEFEAT BOTH AVs SIMULTANEOUSLY WHILE NO MINIONS ARE ALIVE. KEEP YOUR EYE ON LEAGUE CHAT. 

 

/macro "S&P2" league BRING BOTH AVs' HEALTH DOWN TO 6% AND CEASE ATTACK. MOVE ALL PETS AWAY FROM AVs. TEAM 1 WILL GO TO THE MINION SPAWN POINT AT THE NORTH DOOR (helipad) AND QUICKLY KILL MINIONS. WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL TO KILL AVs. 

 

/macro "6% Health" league CEASE ATTACK AT 6 PERCENT HEALTH$$league CEASE ATTACK AT 6 PERCENT HEALTH

 

/macro "Even Health" league KEEP THE AVs HEALTH EVEN

 

/macro "Slower" league SLOW DOWN ON $TARGET.

 

/macro "Team1 Kill" team TEAM 1, GO TO MINION SPAWN POINT AT NORTH DOOR AND KILL MINIONS FAST$$league TEAM 1, GO TO MINION SPAWN POINT AT NORTH DOOR AND KILL MINIONS FAST

 

/macro "Standby" league EVERYONE ELSE – STAND BY AND WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL TO ATTACK. KEEP THE AVs TOGETHER. MOVE ALL PETS AWAY FROM AVs

 

/macro "Team1 You Too" team WHEN IT'S TIME, GO ATTACK THE AVs WITH THE REST OF THE LEAGUE

 

/macro "Attack" league KILL THE AVs NOW!

 

/macro "Success" league OUTSTANDING! OPERATION STRONG & PRETTY WAS A DECISIVE SUCCESS. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

 

The more the leader's macros stand out in chat, the better. I recommend you spam important directions 2-3 times in a row. Also, I use caps to make it easier for the league to see them. 

 

Some leaders use the Request channel to communicate with their league. It's a great idea but every member of the league will have to have the Request channel in their main Chat tab, and it's not there by default. You'll need to ask the league to add it. Then you'll want to confirm that they can read the Request channel. 

 

The fastest way to ensure that every member can see your messages in the Request channel is to use the AFK check. Before queuing for the trial, use the Request channel to ask the league to meet you in a supergroup base or Pocket D. Those locations can host both heroes and villains and are relatively easy to get to. Then queue the trial from there. It's important that you ask the league to do something that can only be accomplished by reading the Request channel. Also, moving to a different zone makes it very easy to see who can't read the Request channel and also who is AFK. If they're not in the same zone that you are, their names will be grayed out in the league window. Send those players private tells and ask them to reply to you. If they do, then ask them to scroll back and read the directions on how to add the Request channel. Also ask them to reply to you in the Request channel once they're done. 

 

Here are some macros that can be used to show the league how to add the Request channel and check that players have done that:

 

/macro "Req1 Request Channel" league I WILL BE USING THE REQUEST CHAT CHANNEL TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU DURING THE TRIAL. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE CHANNEL IS IN YOUR MAIN CHAT TAB$$request Testing… if you can see this you're set. 

 

 

/macro "Req2 Instructions" league To add the channel, right-click on the main Chat tab in your chat window and select Edit Tab. Then scroll down the right column until you see Request/Auction. Select that and click the << Add button at the top. Click OK

 

/macro "AFK" request Please meet in the SG base below. We will be starting the BAF from there. To get there, in the chat box type: /enterbasefrompasscode COSMICTRANSPORT-6608  

 

Any SG base will do, the above is just an example. If you're playing on the Excelsior shard of the Homecoming server, this community SG base above will totally work.

 

Lastly, all of these macros are written in my own style. Feel free to re-write these macros to match your own style.

 

 

EPILOGUE

 

Once you have all 6 BAF badges, you will truly be a Master of the B.A.F. I hope this guide will encourage more players to attempt BAF badge runs, as well as lead them.  

 

 

CONTINUE ON TO "THE MASTERS OF BAF, PART 3: MISCELLANEOUS ODDS & ENDS"

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by BlackSpectre