Has anyone done any homework on what is needed to kill Romulus or the ITF bosses in general solo ?

[plainguy]

Just wondering if anyone has done any homework on what is needed to solo ITF AV bosses. 

 

I know several have mentioned envenom daggers.. 

 

Maybe which Incarnates would be best.  From what I hear Degenerative is the way to go due to the fact that it can take a chunk of hit points off the boss. 

[Olly]

Soloing the ITF on normal difficulty isn't too hard. +4/x8 is where it can get beastly. Either way, some hints:

• In general: buy P2W buffs and pets. envenomed daggers are a must-have unless you feel like super-hard mode. The power analyzer is also nice to monitor the AV's regen and make sure it stays floored.
• Make use of SG resistance buffs for the appropriate damage types. 
• Make sure your positional or type-based defense is above 45%
•  If you're ranged or using hover, Rommy and Requiem tend to randomly run away. So bring and spam an immob power to avoid chasing them all over the map, while they happily regen their health. 
• Incarnates, depending on your preferences: Assault for dmg or Melee for resistances, Barrier or Ageless, and Degen or Diamagnetic depending on your build. I tend to go Longbow and Cryonic no matter what AT I'm using.
• Learning to pull 1 AV at a time is helpful
• You are more likely to survive if you know how to "bug out" Rommy and the nictus on the last mission. Your goal is to prevent the nictus from locking on to Rommy, so that they don't follow him around. To do that, you need to go to the edge of the cutscene without triggering it. Once triggered, you need to get to Rommy's spot before he does. Get there, wait a beat or two, grab Rommy aggro, and hope the nictus dont follow. 

Somewhere in my old posts there's an essay on soloing STF, which also has hints that can be generalised for any solo TF attempts.

 

Good luck!

 

[plainguy]

23 hours ago, Olly said:

Soloing the ITF on normal difficulty isn't too hard. +4/x8 is where it can get beastly. Either way, some hints:

• In general: buy P2W buffs and pets. envenomed daggers are a must-have unless you feel like super-hard mode. The power analyzer is also nice to monitor the AV's regen and make sure it stays floored.
• Make use of SG resistance buffs for the appropriate damage types. 
• Make sure your positional or type-based defense is above 45%
•  If you're ranged or using hover, Rommy and Requiem tend to randomly run away. So bring and spam an immob power to avoid chasing them all over the map, while they happily regen their health. 
• Incarnates, depending on your preferences: Assault for dmg or Melee for resistances, Barrier or Ageless, and Degen or Diamagnetic depending on your build. I tend to go Longbow and Cryonic no matter what AT I'm using.
• Learning to pull 1 AV at a time is helpful
• You are more likely to survive if you know how to "bug out" Rommy and the nictus on the last mission. Your goal is to prevent the nictus from locking on to Rommy, so that they don't follow him around. To do that, you need to go to the edge of the cutscene without triggering it. Once triggered, you need to get to Rommy's spot before he does. Get there, wait a beat or two, grab Rommy aggro, and hope the nictus dont follow. 

Somewhere in my old posts there's an essay on soloing STF, which also has hints that can be generalised for any solo TF attempts.

 

Good luck!

 

This is big

 

You are more likely to survive if you know how to "bug out" Rommy and the nictus on the last mission. Your goal is to prevent the nictus from locking on to Rommy, so that they don't follow him around. To do that, you need to go to the edge of the cutscene without triggering it. Once triggered, you need to get to Rommy's spot before he does. Get there, wait a beat or two, grab Rommy aggro, and hope the nictus dont follow. 

Didn't know about that

[nihilii]

Without glitches/tricks, I find 300+ DPS as a flier is enough for the final fight on +4/x8, and 400-600 DPS in melee (the lower your defense the more DPS needed, due to Nictus and Romulus heals).

 

Flying is the most accessible option, because you can also easily add ranged Lore pets to your DPS here. Provided you attack frequently enough aggro doesn't peel off you!

 

On +0, you can probably slash these numbers by a third if not more.

Edited July 27, 2021 by nihilii

[SuperPlyx]

I did a solo ITF with normal difficulty with my Bots/Time MM and Rommy went absolutely batshit. He run all over the map, mostly climbing the cliffs behind the building he spawns at.

I was able to hold him a few times spamming my holds but he did a lot of running around. And this made getting the bots into place a serious pain which really added to how long it took me to finish.

So you may need at least a temp flight power.

[Doomguide2005]

            I M M O B I L I Z E

 

     AVs in general and Rommy specifically have no special protection vs Immobilize.  Purple Patch (and the usual AV resistances) is all you have to deal with when you're using Immobilize.  No PToD.  I believe it was @Lineawho estimated their DPS was roughly cut in half by AVs running and Rommy is among the worst offenders though I suspect the fact it's a large outdoor map has a lot to do with how annoying it is.  Take an Immobilize, love an Immobilize if you plan on running ITFs solo (or even if teaming if you do it frequently).

Edited July 30, 2021 by Doomguide2005
Clarity

[Linea]

125dps +0 with a taunt/immobilize

250dps +0 without taunt/immobilize

250dps +4 with a tuant/immobilize

325dps +4 without taunt/immobilize *IF* you're flying/sniping and stay out of heal range.  Mileage may vary significantly with this tactic.  (I've used this method only once in recent memory, but used it more 10 years ago)

500dps +4 without taunt/immobilize  (Edit: 500 is *my* benchmark.  But, I'll probably agree With Nihilli here, and say 400 might squeak by)

 

I have several 250dps borderline builds ... and usually end up saying screw-it and eating reds rather than suffer through an hour long fight.

Breaking Rom as mentioned above can help survivability significantly by avoiding the auto-hit.

By the same token, there are times and builds where it's better to just let Rommy run, and take out the Nicti first, then you only have to suffer through the Track Star Antics once.

I ALWAYS forget just how annoying the Track Star Antics are for some builds, then I get to the end of mission 3 and want to bang my head into the wall.

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Linea

[Snarky]

do damage

[Doomguide2005]

5 hours ago, Snarky said:

do damage

Yeah pretty sure nobodies Immobilize even proc'd to hell and back is doing enough damage.  More damage is good.

 

*insert video of @Veracor's Mastermind taking out pylon in about 9 seconds*

 

Moar damage is always good.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Doomguide2005

[plainguy]

On 7/27/2021 at 10:04 AM, nihilii said:

Without glitches/tricks, I find 300+ DPS as a flier is enough for the final fight on +4/x8, and 400-600 DPS in melee (the lower your defense the more DPS needed, due to Nictus and Romulus heals).

 

Flying is the most accessible option, because you can also easily add ranged Lore pets to your DPS here. Provided you attack frequently enough aggro doesn't peel off you!

 

On +0, you can probably slash these numbers by a third if not more.

how do you determine your DPS ?

[nihilii]

Pylon DPS. With the caveat that I tend to favor characters where DPS is nonsituational (i.e. not from pets, static patches/debuffs, ideal buff conditions). The more situational your DPS is, the more extra DPS you'll want.

[Sovera]

It's not complicated. Blasters have done it at +4x8, Defenders have done it, Scrappers have done it. Not being complicated doesn't mean it's easy either though.

 

A character that survives defense debuffing is good, something that can self heal or regenerate, something with good resistances. Most of the time this means an optimized build and several hundred millions spent in IOs.

[plainguy]

On 8/7/2021 at 4:32 AM, Sovera said:

It's not complicated. Blasters have done it at +4x8, Defenders have done it, Scrappers have done it. Not being complicated doesn't mean it's easy either though.

 

A character that survives defense debuffing is good, something that can self heal or regenerate, something with good resistances. Most of the time this means an optimized build and several hundred millions spent in IOs.

I couldn't take down the bosses after the super computer. It pretty much was a stalemate..  
After 30 minutes I gave up.. 

[Sovera]

2 hours ago, plainguy said:

I couldn't take down the bosses after the super computer. It pretty much was a stalemate..  
After 30 minutes I gave up.. 

 

 

Needs more damage then (I mean, I'm being obvious here). Perhaps you could post your build to see if improvements could be made? The easiest non build tinkering way to make it happen is carrying stacks of Envenomed Daggers.

 

Personally on a Fire Tank I didn't find that encounter difficult, just slow. But Romulus at the very end was a bad case of whittling down with the healing Nictus undoing my work every few seconds. It took well over half an hour to kill him (mental note: next time kill healing nictus first).

[Tsuko]

About Romulus Nictus, the main issue is his heal, on top of the Nictus.

A hard solution to counter his Dark regeneration, is to have 45/50 dark defence or 45/50 aoe defence.

 

And remember that Romulus tohit will raise over the roof if he is surounded by his minions.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Tsuko

[hejtmane]

I soloed the entire ITF with a Katana/Rad scrapper with only my alpha slot and it was at first level agility boost. Now my IO build at the time would be around a billion he was level 50.

 

My global recharge from IO without hasten was roughly 73-75%  (I don't use hasten in this build). Rad also has -regen in it's heal Radiation Therapy. I run the achilies proc in Gambler's cut and in beta decay and  no they don't stack just better odds of having -res. Now if I was fully optimized when I ran the itf I should have ran a purple set in Golden Dragon fly and put the Gladiator -res proc in that set.

 

I tweaked the build a couple times since then for the better but I cruised through that ITF and right through Romulus just make sure not to forget your breakfrees for when he rezes. I did that the first time I killed him and I was at full health dumb me was my only death the entire TF.

 

I want to add before Incarnates on live Iggy of the scrapper forum soloed an itf with katana/wp so scrappers have been doing this for a long time we called it stupid scrapper tricks.

 

Basically there are enough top end scrapper builds that can survive and put out the dps to solo the entire itf without incarnates

Edited September 1, 2021 by hejtmane

[plainguy]

How do you determine Global Recharge ?

[plainguy]

On 8/7/2021 at 4:08 AM, nihilii said:

Pylon DPS. With the caveat that I tend to favor characters where DPS is nonsituational (i.e. not from pets, static patches/debuffs, ideal buff conditions). The more situational your DPS is, the more extra DPS you'll want.

But are you using something like HeroStats ? 
Or just going through the logs and adding up the DPS numbers and recording the start and stop time.. 

[Doomguide2005]

Start and pylon defeated times.  Pylon hit points are static so it's basic math at that point.   At least that's as I recall it.

[Bill Z Bubba]

On 9/4/2021 at 11:19 AM, plainguy said:

How do you determine Global Recharge ?

 

Powers menu, Combat Attributes, Base, about halfway down will show you what you have.

 

Edit: Oh, wow... am I ever late to this thread.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Bill Z Bubba

[plainguy]

2 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Powers menu, Combat Attributes, Base, about halfway down will show you what you have.

 

Edit: Oh, wow... am I ever late to this thread.

Its okay.. still helped me

 

[mcdoogss]

On 8/6/2021 at 4:21 PM, plainguy said:

how do you determine your DPS ?

 

In this game?  Poorly.  Basically whacking a Rikti Pylon and estimating the DPS by how long it takes to break.  It's the best method out there though, despite the myriad ways the results are not representative of real gameplay DPS.

[Doomguide2005]

6 hours ago, mcdoogss said:

 

In this game?  Poorly.  Basically whacking a Rikti Pylon and estimating the DPS by how long it takes to break.  It's the best method out there though, despite the myriad ways the results are not representative of real gameplay DPS.

     Truth, keeping in mind that all tests have their strengths and weaknesses.  Knowing those limitations is important to evaluating the information the test provides.  You can, for example, calculate your attack chain figuring out how long it takes to execute and the base damage it will inflict over that time period.  And that will also give you a value for how much damage you'll do over time while giving me a roaring headache which is why you'll never likely to see me do it, more math than I want to do in a game.   None of which tells you anything about the effect of your foes mitigation (resistance, defense, recharge debuffs on you, etc., etc.) nor does it account for things like Soul Drain or similar when fully saturated or the effects of foes that run away.   But it will probably give you a better idea about your burst damage, for example (which is basically damage over a much shorter time period than a minute).  Most combat encounters, even while solo, don't take minutes unless it's something like a Pylon, AV or GM.   And this is why the Trapdoor test was developed in an attempt to more closely imitate moving through a mission.  And your typical mission more closely resembles a series of tests of your burst damage capabilities than taking on a pylon does.  

[arcane]

On 7/27/2021 at 9:04 AM, nihilii said:

Without glitches/tricks, I find 300+ DPS as a flier is enough for the final fight on +4/x8, and 400-600 DPS in melee (the lower your defense the more DPS needed, due to Nictus and Romulus heals).

 

Flying is the most accessible option, because you can also easily add ranged Lore pets to your DPS here. Provided you attack frequently enough aggro doesn't peel off you!

 

On +0, you can probably slash these numbers by a third if not more.

Is this without temp powers?

 

Don’t consider it a solo job with temp powers so curious about DPS sans daggers/amps/pets/etc.

[Voltak]

On 7/22/2021 at 8:30 PM, Olly said:

Soloing the ITF on normal difficulty isn't too hard. +4/x8 is where it can get beastly. Either way, some hints:

• In general: buy P2W buffs and pets. envenomed daggers are a must-have unless you feel like super-hard mode. The power analyzer is also nice to monitor the AV's regen and make sure it stays floored.
• Make use of SG resistance buffs for the appropriate damage types. 
• Make sure your positional or type-based defense is above 45%
•  If you're ranged or using hover, Rommy and Requiem tend to randomly run away. So bring and spam an immob power to avoid chasing them all over the map, while they happily regen their health. 
• Incarnates, depending on your preferences: Assault for dmg or Melee for resistances, Barrier or Ageless, and Degen or Diamagnetic depending on your build. I tend to go Longbow and Cryonic no matter what AT I'm using.
• Learning to pull 1 AV at a time is helpful
• You are more likely to survive if you know how to "bug out" Rommy and the nictus on the last mission. Your goal is to prevent the nictus from locking on to Rommy, so that they don't follow him around. To do that, you need to go to the edge of the cutscene without triggering it. Once triggered, you need to get to Rommy's spot before he does. Get there, wait a beat or two, grab Rommy aggro, and hope the nictus dont follow. 

Somewhere in my old posts there's an essay on soloing STF, which also has hints that can be generalised for any solo TF attempts.

 

Good luck!

 

In the case of using a Dominator with possess or confuse, when you get to part 4 and face Rommy -
 You possess or confuse Rommy , have him killed the nictus, and he does kill them relatively easy. He hits extremely hard.