THE MASTERS OF BAF, PART 3: MISCELLANEOUS ODDS & ENDS

[BlackSpectre]

THE MASTERS OF BAF, PART 3: MISCELANEOUS ODDS & ENDS 

 

 

Welcome to Part 3 of "The Masters of BAF." In this guide, you will find a mish-mosh of useful and trivial information in no particular order. Many of the subjects below stem from questions players have asked me. Others are just things I felt were unusual or interesting. Still others are useful additions and worth noting. I don't really expect to add much more to this BAF guide, but if I do happen to run across something interesting in the future, I'll add it here. Lastly, if you haven't read Part 1 of "The Masters of BAF", you can find it here.   

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

1.  WHERE DO PRISONERS GO?

2.  ONE MORE BAF BADGE! 

3.  OPEN VS LOCKED LEAGUES

4.  A LITTLE MORE STRATEGY – HUNTERS AS A SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE

5.  LORE PET CHOICES FOR BAF

6.  AV FIGHTS ARE TIMED

7.  HOW TO UNLOCK YOUR INCARNATE SLOTS QUICKLY

8.  HOW MANY BAFS WILL IT TAKE TO GET ALL MY INCARNATES?  

9.   WHEN YOU CAN'T EXIT THE BAF...

10. PARAGONWIKI'S "VISUAL GUIDE: BEHAVIORAL ADJUSTMENT FACILITY TRIAL" PAGE 

11. CONVERT ASTRAL MERITS INTO EMPYREAN MERITS 

12. CONVERT ASTRAL OR EMPYREAN MERITS INTO REWARD MERITS [DISABLED ON HOMECOMING IN ISSUE 27 PAGE 4]

 

 

WHERE DO PRISONERS GO?

 

 

 

Prisoners have 3 escape points. One is the door used to enter the BAF (on the west side near where players zone in), another is in Siege's hanger, and the 3^rd is a hole in the ground on the far east side, behind and between those 2 buildings. You can only see the hole during the prisoner escape phase. At any other time during the BAF trial, it looks like a plain patch of grass without any way to escape the BAF… exactly what those sneaky, tunneling prisoners want you to think! 

 

 

The light-blue prisoner escape path in the map of the BAF (above)  leads them between the 2 western-most buildings on the south side, and it is sneaky! It's a great idea to post a player there to make sure no prisoner escapes between the buildings.   

 

 

 

ONE MORE BAF BADGE! 

 

For you BAF badge completists, there is one more BAF badge. It's called the "Mercy Missionary Badge" and unlike the other BAF badges, it's an exploration badge. The badge marker is located directly in front of Siege's hanger inside the Behavioral Adjustment Facility. However, during a BAF trial, you won't find it there.

 

To get the Mercy Missionary badge, you'll need to travel to Imperial City in Praetoria. Go to Pocket D, and then go to the north-east corner of Studio 55. Behind a ramp is a restroom area (-221.5 0.6 -1232.5). To the left is an interdimensional portal on the wall. Use it.

 

You'll find yourself in the alternate universe's Pocket D. Basically do a U turn, click on the elevators and head outside. Then move north until you get to the Behavioral Adjustment Facility at the top of the map. Click on any of the doors on the outside wall. Oddly, they're not locked. The guards will not attack you unless you attack them, so feel free to wander around. The badge's coordinates are:  (-582, 0, -3763).

 

Exit the BAF the same way you got in.

 

 

OPEN VS LOCKED LEAGUES

 

Running a BAF as an Open League rewards players with 1 extra Astral Merit and a temporary auto-power that gives a +7.5% buff to healing, recharge , and damage for everyone in the league. The auto-power is called The Warmth of Prometheus, and you can see it in your buff bar on the Status window through the duration of the BAF.  One quirk about Open leagues is they have a tendency to randomly rearrange teams and leaders after zoning into the event, with players who load into the instance faster moving up in team lists . 

 

Locking the BAF league, on the other hand, confers no reward.  In addition, it will scramble the entire league, pass the leadership of the league to someone else, and disconnect or mapserve multiple players. This is because BAF is a little bugged. In other trials, locking the league can have the benefit of preventing teams and leaders from shifting around in the league after zoning into the event, but that's not the case with BAF!  

 

My advice is... never lock the BAF league, unless you are running with less than a full league of 24 characters. In that case, locking the league is the better trade off because BAF suffers from another bug... not locking a smaller league can make players wait indefinitely for the BAF to be queued up. Players have reported waiting over 90 minutes for the prompt with the green button to appear. Running with a full league of 24 prevents this bug from activating, and the BAF will be queued up almost instantly. So the best case scenario is to run BAF as an open, full league.

 

 

A LITTLE MORE STRATEGY – HUNTERS AS A SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE

 

In Part 1 of The Masters of BAF I explained that a team needs hunters during the prisoner phase. Let me go into a little more detail. Since the choke-point strategy relies on overlapping AOEs to really excel, any player with good AOEs or who has Lore pets with good AOEs needs to stay together in a close-knit group as much as possible. The players without Lore pets or good AOEs are tasked to support and bolster the blockade by helping to stop prisoners and to chase down and defeat any prisoners that get through the choke-point. This describes the general situation teams face during the Prisoner phase.

 

The second line of defense strategy relies on 2-3 players with high damage, single target attacks to bookend the southern choke-point. At least one player is placed on each side of the blockade (west and east), in order to intercept any prisoners that break through. This will form a second line of defense. Some players have described these positions in sports terms such as "goalies", "fullbacks", or "catchers"; or in military terms such as "interceptors" or even "snipers." I typically refer to them as the "hunters," but if I had to choose a different word it would probably be "interceptors" it is their job to intercept any prisoners before they get to the exits.  

 

On the South team, the best location for hunters is where they have a clear view of the space between buildings. Every once in a while, a prisoner is knocked back into that between space, gets up, and runs home behind the buildings where no one can see. Also, one of the paths the prisoners take to escape is through the space between the 2 western-most buildings. It's important for a hunter to be able to see when this happens because, frankly, no one else can.      

 

There are about three times as many prisoners travelling west on the South path, which means it's probably a good idea to have more hunters on the west side of the blockade if possible. On the east side, one hunter should be sufficient. 

 

The North path is much easier to defend, so players tasked specifically as interceptors are not really necessary. At most, place one hunter on each side of the North team if you feel the need. Otherwise, everyone on the North team needs to be willing to hunt down any prisoners that break through the blockade.  

 

This bookend or second line of defense tactic can significantly increase a team's ability to prevent all prisoners from escaping. It's even more important when a team has few Lore pets or players with AOEs. However, it's not absolutely necessary. If all a team does is stay together in a close-knit group, their probability of success is very high. Although forming a second line of defense is an excellent idea, and can make defending the blockade much easier and less risky, it is more of a hassle. The leader must assign players to those positions before the BAF starts, and then make sure the players are bookending the south team and standing in the right places. All this takes time, and it's one more thing to deal with during that brief 60 seconds before the prisoners are released. If you find this to be too much of a hassle, feel free to keep this strategy in your bag of tricks until you find the need to use it. 

 

 

 

 

 

LORE PET CHOICES FOR BAF

 

Lore pets are the key to the success of any BAF, so choosing the right Lore pet is very important… especially if you intend to farm BAFs. When I bring a new level 50 character into a BAF, the first incarnate power I craft and slot is Lore so that I can be more useful to the league as I earn the rest of my incarnate powers. You'll want to choose a "Core" pet (on the left side of the incarnate crafting tree) in order have 2 damage dealers, rather than one damage dealer and one support pet. The best pets for BAF are the ones that have Targeted AOEs and many ranged attacks. There are 8 pets that have targeted AOEs, and 4 stand out above the crowd:

 

1. Storm Elementals (2 AOEs and 4 ranged attacks) 
2. Longbow (2 AOEs and 4 ranged attacks)
3. Banished Pantheon (2 AOEs and 2 ranged attacks)  
4. Nemesis (2 AOEs and 2 ranged attacks)

 

Storm Elementals are my favorite pets for BAF trials. They don't take up a lot of space, they have many ranged attacks that have quick recharge times, and they don't do any knockback. Longbow have just as many attacks, including a single target heavy hitter that does a ton of damage. Banished Pantheon is the go-to pet for farmers, and it performs very well in BAF too.  According to Nemesis' stats, 3 out of their 4 ranged attacks do knockback. However, their knockback is surprisingly ineffective against the prisoners in the BAF, therefore they earn a spot in the top 4 best Lore pets for BAF.     

 

Runners Up:  Carnival pets (1 AOE and 4 ranged attacks) and Demon pets (1 AOE and 3 ranged attacks). They  have fewer AOEs, and their performance is adequate. Good pets, and if they match your character's theme, absolutely use them.

 

There are 2 other pets that have targeted AOEs that I would recommend you avoid for BAF: Vanguard and Polar Lights. These are great pets, but because their attacks do a lot of knockback, they're not the best suited for BAF. Knockback can throw a prisoner in the escape phase between buildings, after which the prisoner gets up and runs home behind the buildings where no one can see. This accounts for those perplexing times when everyone in the league exclaims, "How did one escape? No one got past our team!" Having said this, if the only Lore pet you have is one that does knockback or only has melee attacks, use them. Some pets are better than none.

 

TIP: If your attacks do a lot of knockback (e.g., energy blaster, peacebringer, etc.), ask to be placed on the North team where there is no possibility of throwing prisoners between buildings.

 

 

 

AV FIGHTS ARE TIMED

 

 

 

I didn't mention another way that the league could potentially fail… every AV fight is timed, and if the league doesn't defeat the archvillain in time, the mission will fail.  It's hardly a consideration, though. The amount of time given is far more than is necessary. Something like 15 minutes for each battle, and most AV battles are finished within 3-5 min. So file this little bit of information under "interesting but trivial." 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO UNLOCK YOUR INCARNATE SLOTS QUICKLY

 

By far, the fastest way I've found to unlock the incarnate slots on a character is farming, specifically AE fire farming at +4, x8 difficulty settings. It will take you only 45-60 minutes to unlock all of your incarnate slots. If you can find a fire farmer to help you out, or build your own fire farmer using a second account, you'll be styling in no time! Incidentally, this is also the fastest way I've found to earn incarnate threads (used to buy incarnate salvage which in turn is used to craft incarnate powers) and Empyrean Merits. Basically, for each veteran level that you gain, you get awarded either 120 Incarnate Threads or 20 Empyrean Merits. It takes 5,608,000 XP to achieve each veteran level.

 

 

HOW MANY BAFS WILL IT TAKE TO GET ALL MY INCARNATES?  

 

On average, about 40-45 BAFs to get all your Incarnate powers to tier 4. That's about 13-15 hours of gaming. This is definitely an estimate. There are so many variables, including luck, that the numbers can vary widely. This estimate also assumes you are using your Empyrean Merits and Incarnate Threads efficiently to craft needed Incarnate salvage. It also assumes you have gained 4 Veteran levels from doing other content, such as power leveling yourself for a hour.

 

 

 

WHEN YOU CAN'T EXIT THE BAF...

 

There's a bug that occurs every now and then where the Exit button does not appear on the Nav window after the BAF has been completed. If this ever happens, just type

/requestexitmission 1 

into the chat box and press Enter/Return. It will exit you right out and return you to Ouroborus! Alternately, you could teleport to a SG base, Long Range Teleport to a different zone (not Ouroborus), or use the Ouroborus portal. 

 

 

 

PARAGONWIKI'S "VISUAL GUIDE: BEHAVIORAL ADJUSTMENT FACILITY TRIAL" PAGE 

 

ParagonWiki has great information about the BAF. One page that I only recently discovered is an uncredited player guide that ParagonWiki has archived. It's amazing. In fact, if I had known about this page, I might not have written a guide on BAFs. It has very detailed information and even diagrams and pictures. 

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Visual_Guide:_Behavioral_Adjustment_Facility_Trial

 

If you're interested in other Incarnate trial guides, try this link:  

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Visual_Guides

 

 

 

CONVERT ASTRAL MERITS INTO EMPYREAN MERITS  

 

Completing a BAF will usually award 4-7 Astral merits. The best thing to do with these is convert them into Empyrean merits which you can use to buy incarnate salvage. Luna, the juggling mistress, is the NPC you want to visit to convert these. She is the only Incarnate merit vendor and is located at the north-east side of the pond in Ouroborus (515.9 672.0 -866.4). 5 Astral merits = 1 Empyrean merit. 

 

Luna also sells supped-up inspirations for incarnate threads. Other than buying incarnate salvage, this is the only way you can spend incarnate threads. 1 super insp = 10 threads. 1 super team insp = 30 threads. 

 

 

 

CONVERT ASTRAL OR EMPYREAN MERITS INTO REWARD MERITS [DISABLED ON HOMECOMING IN ISSUE 27 PAGE 4]

 

Astral or Empyrean Merits can be converted into Reward Merits at any Reward Merit vendor. 1 Astral merit = 2 Reward merits. 1 Empyrean merit = 10 Reward Merits. 

 

I can't tell you how long it took me to realize this, suddenly there was another reason to do incarnate trials! BAF doesn't award Reward merits, but it does give you Astral merits. Once converted, each BAF will usually give you 10 Reward merits. It typically takes 15-20 minutes to complete a BAF. That's about 30 Reward merits per hour, which seems like the average going rate for earning Reward merits in the game. Not amazing, but not bad either!

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by BlackSpectre