Shardtober 2020: Up To Your Eyeballs In Eyeballs

[wittylibrarian]

This is for those who seek to play every level and every map of the game. This is for those who seek the badges, seek the challenges of playing... THE SHARD TASK FORCES.

 

Dr. Quaterfield Task Force (levels 40-44) Firebase Zulu (FBZ) zone

Sara Moore Task Force (40-50) Cascade Archipelago (Cascades) zone

Justin Augustine Task Force (44-50) The Chantry

Faathim the Kind Task Force (44-50) The Chantry (inside Faathim's sphere) finishing in the Storm Palace

 

Every October when City of Heroes added the Shadow Shard realms to the Hero side of the game, there have been teams that organized to run four of the more difficult task forces the game devs saw fit to add to the MMO. Some of this had to do with the fact that the TFs were in zones that were floating space islands not easily reached back in the days of olde. Some of this had to do with team requirements for full lineups of eight, and above levels 40 (for Q and Moore) and 44 (for Augustine and Faathim). A lot of it had to do with three of the TFs - Dr. Quaterfield, Sara Moore, and Faathim the Kind were time-consuming runs that would take hours - in Dr. Q's case, DAYS - to complete.

 

Thankfully, many recent changes to the game helped to speed up the Task Force experience. Ouroborous portals working as shortcuts from the Shard realms back to City Zones for much of Q and Moore, for example. Even better were the P2W vendors that sold powers needed to hurry up the travel - TEAM TELEPORT - from zone to zone that had been the bane of Dr. Q's 26 (!) mission run.

 

The GMs for Homecoming have been gracious enough to set up four weeks within October to make these TFs part of the Double-Merit Weekly TF experience, in the order meant to play. That means:

Dr. Q is the week of Monday October 5 through Sunday October 11

Sara Moore is Monday October 12 through Sunday October 18

Justin Augustine is Monday October 19 through Sunday October 25

Faathim the Kind is Monday October 26 through Sunday November 1 (okay so it's a day over)

 

Information on each TF is linked above.

 

Hints for running each TF:

1) Spend the money for TEAM TELEPORT (TT) at the P2W vendor: Under Prestige Powers > Travel. It will cost you 10 million inf but if everyone on team has it, it will speed up the Dr. Q task force from 8 hours to 2 hours.

2) Spend the money for ASSEMBLE THE TEAM (ATT) which goes for 1 million. It will help gather players from across the large zones, and in any maps that can be stealthed to the final room(s).

3) You can spend for MISSION TELEPORT (MT) because it recharges a bit faster than TT and can help stragglers catch up.

4) If you do not own a Flight power already, use the P2W vendor to purchase a Jetpack (under Temp Powers > Travel). Speed and Superjump do not help much in the Shard realms.

5) Plan ahead for some form of team balance. The mobs you will face - Rularuu, Nemesis, Crey, Circle of Thorns - are going to be plentiful and swarming and will require a mix of good damage, good tanking, good holds, and good buffs/debuffs.

 

Benefits to running these TFs include:

1) TF Badges and Exploration badges (if you want to spend time in-zone between TFs) to complete your set.

2) If you are 50 and unlocked your Incarnates (Alpha), you can get a steady amount of Shard and Thread drops during your fights.

3) If you are under 50, if you slot for 2XP from the P2W vendor, you can level up real quick.

4) Double Merits during the WST weeks.

5) The satisfaction of completing Dr. Q before lunchtime for once.

 

If you have any questions, look for me in-game, I'll be hiding in Pocket D behind the dancers.

 

GOOD LUCK, HEROES!

[Spaghetti Betty]

Looking forward to this!

[Lunchmoney]

Would love to join in. 

Not likely though ☹️

[Ironblade]

On 10/1/2020 at 8:16 PM, wittylibrarian said:

2) If you are 50 and unlocked your Incarnates (Alpha), you can get a steady amount of Shard and Thread drops during your fights.

and a Notice of the Well while it's the weekly.

[wittylibrarian]

On 10/5/2020 at 1:29 PM, Ironblade said:

and a Notice of the Well while it's the weekly.

Oh well that goes without saying! 🙂