Looking for some Guidance in Croatoa Mission

[Sakai]

I love Croatoa...always have.   Little pumpkin fellows running hither and you doing the bidding of their master, creepy gnomes in stylish red hats, big shaggy dogs, a perpetually annoyed giant named Jack (I imagine he annoyed because he is in chains), perpetually twilight and and a mystical feel to the entire zone. 

 

Mainly though it is the epic 4 part storyline culminating in the Katie taskforce. 

 

There is that one mission in Skipper LeGrange's arc that vexes me....Stop the Ritual.  This is the mission where you need to prevent 30 Fir Bolg from escaping through the henge. In my many years of playing this game I have completed it exactly once on a team and  from the comments I recall it was purely by accident.  

 

Unfortunately you can not get the arc completion without succeeding this mission it seems and I kind of want that. 

 

I asked in game for help and it was suggested that it kind of amounted to a defeat all as the mobs just periodically come.  Is this the case?  If so should I be running out and thinning the herds  between incoming waves?  Or is there something else going on that I need to be aware of?

 

Have no desire to lower the amount of players I represent as I enjoy feeling all uber and taking on numerous foes  regardless if I am level 50 or level 7.  I do run this, repeatedly 😐 lol, as a flashback and solo for the most part. 

 

Any and all suggestions are welcome. 

 

(Yes I do agree that the Protect the Henge mission that finishes the zone stories is kind of tedious but I'm used to it and have made my peace with it.)

Edited January 14, 2022 by Sakai

[KaizenSoze]

7 minutes ago, Sakai said:

There is that one mission in Skipper LeGrange's arc that vexes me....Stop the Ritual.  This is the mission where you need to prevent 30 Fir Bolg from escaping through the henge. In my many years of playing this game I have completed it exactly once on a team and  from the comments I recall it was purely by accident.  

 

Unfortunately you can not get the arc completion without succeeding this mission it seems and I kind of want that. 

 

I asked in game for help and it was suggested that it kind of amounted to a defeat all as the mobs just periodically come.  Is this the case?  If so should I be running out and thinning the herds  between incoming waves?  Or is there something else going on that I need to be aware of?

I have completed this many times solo and team. It's an annoying mission.

 

Depends on your build. I think all you need to do is get one hit to draw aggro to yourself.

 

Damage or debuff patches should get their attention. Trying to hit them all with AOEs and single target doesn't work well, because they are usually strung out.

 

Solo, I turn down the mobs numbers and clear between waves. This involves a lot of running back and forth.

 

On teams 1-3 players, with AOE attacks or debuffs, guard the henge while the rest of the team wipes out are the stationary mobs

[Six-Six]

I remember playing happy camper doesn't work so well. You can time their waves and thin out the mobs in between.

[Ironblade]

20 minutes ago, Sakai said:

I asked in game for help and it was suggested that it kind of amounted to a defeat all as the mobs just periodically come.  Is this the case?  If so should I be running out and thinning the herds  between incoming waves?

Yes.  I've done this many times.

I wait by the stones and take out the first group.  Then I run and kill a random group.  Then run back to the stones and wait for the next group.

Repeat as nauseam.

[Doomguide2005]

     If you want to slaughter this mission roll or use an Earth/Storm.  Between Hurricane and Earth's (as well as Storm's) patches ... you can stand in the portal and squash them as they come (you can get overwhelmed but ... ).  With pretty much everything else the hit and retreat, rinse and repeat described earlier in the thread works well though highly single target melee will be more problematic than a ranged AoE dps monster especially as your team size grows larger. 

[SuperPlyx]

So I am pretty sure this is the mission I think it is. And if so the mission has a timer on it. Now unless it has been changed one way to do this used to be to just hold one guy.

How it works is, the next ambush is not spawned till the current ambush is defeated. So do not defeat them all,  hold one guy , do not kill him and just let the clock run.

Now when I say hold, I mean just stop him form entering portal. If I remember right last time I did it was on a tank, I just kept him there with taunt.

[The_Warpact]

We typically leave a person at the gate, and the rest start killing stuff out on the farm.

We focus on anything that starts moving, and then back to the pumpkin carving. 

 

Never had any issues, usually the person at the gate has a hold or something to engage baddies if we miss a mob, then we all rush in for pumpkin pie.

[Greycat]

6 hours ago, SuperPlyx said:

So I am pretty sure this is the mission I think it is. And if so the mission has a timer on it.

 

Nope. Also they ignore taunt. You might be thinking of the final arc where you keep red caps  from destroying the portal. That one's insanely easy to cheese. :) I've killed two of the initial Red Cap mob and just hurricaned the third into a corner and gone to have lunch.

 

For the OP:

1. Solo or duo it at most. Primarily to keep the groups small. And don't run it at +whatever. Yes, more XP, but you're nowhere near max power, and it slows down killing.

 

2. Kill stuff from the entrance to the portal they're going to. Check back along the trees on the edge toward the farm - they will *occasionally* take a back way, but most come this way. Anything running towards you is trying to escape. *IF YOU EVER SEE ANYTHING MOVING IN THE TREES ON TH EDGE, IT'S TRYING TO ESCAPE. KILL IT!*

 

3. They ignore taunt. They do not ignore damage. Any little bit of damage will have them stop (or turn back) and fight you. Yes, even the origin power you've probably ignored since 15-20.

 

4. Even a "slow" character (say, earth/ff 'troller) can alternate between "kill escaping group" and "kill waiting group." It speeds things up.

 

5. I think in terms of "clear zones."

• Start - whatever you can get from your entrance, along the side of the barn to the portal.
• Everything around the portal next. You *may* be fighting runners by this time.
• The "back wall" - pretty much a right angle to the barn-to-portal path, everything from those trees to the hill.
• Everything else, slowly working back through the farm fields to the barn and house area.

I'll tackle them in that priority. That "back wall" is the other path they'll sometimes run to the portal through... but *only* the ones that spawn and wait there. This also helps because eventually (other than what you haven't killed yet by the barn) the *only* things being targeted if you're tabbing in that area are the escapees, if you're in the large clearing between the trees and hill. (Also the only things moving.)

 

6. If you've done all of Croatoa to this point, you should have some temp powers - specifically the Rune of Warding. Not always accurate, but these are Fae and it *will* do damage to them, if you're otherwise kind of low on the smashy smashy.

 

I don't think I've had an escape since doing this... well... ever.

 

Also I have now subjected you to my mad MS Paint art skills. (or is it supposed to be skillz?) This probably clarifies nothing. :) Probably doesn't match map orientation, but it matches how I "see" it in my head, so...

Edited January 15, 2022 by Greycat

[SuperPlyx]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

Nope. Also they ignore taunt. You might be thinking of the final arc where you keep red caps  from destroying the portal. That one's insanely easy to cheese. 🙂 I've killed two of the initial Red Cap mob and just hurricaned the third into a corner and gone to have lunch.

Your right, my bad. Sorry about that, OP

[Shenanigunner]

Why does that map make me think of Top Secret? 😄

[momentarygrace]

I did this recently, failed the first time, completed it on the retry.

 

Like almost everyone in this thread I thought that if I cleared all the spawned mobs in the zone that would do it. The first time, I tried to kill whatever group was heading for the gate, and then run around and kill as many stationary mobs as I could find and on my way back to the gate to try and catch the next group, I was pretty sure I saw mobs spawning, a short distance (just out of sight around some trees) from the gate.

 

The second time I did the mission, I managed to get a mission complete, fulfilled the mission requirements, but instead of immediately leaving, I was curious. I went running around what I expected to be, at that point, an empty zone.

 

It wasn't.  There were quite a few mobs scattered around the zone.

 

From this I conclude the mobs do spawn and at some point, you've outlasted them.

[Snarky]

So that last  mission has two parts. Free a few people then fend iff incoming mobs for 15 minutes

 

that first group incoming.  Kill everyone.  Except one minion.   The next group does not spawn until all are dead.  You can mezze the little guy. You can ignore him (tanks and brutes) you can    Just do not kill him.   Then wait 15 minutes.  Done

[Without_Pause]

On 1/15/2022 at 1:04 AM, Doomguide2005 said:

     If you want to slaughter this mission roll or use an Earth/Storm.  Between Hurricane and Earth's (as well as Storm's) patches ... you can stand in the portal and squash them as they come (you can get overwhelmed but ... ).  With pretty much everything else the hit and retreat, rinse and repeat described earlier in the thread works well though highly single target melee will be more problematic than a ranged AoE dps monster especially as your team size grows larger. 

+1. First time doing it was on my Kin/elec and failed horribly. Came back looking for revenge with an Earth/storm and I think we might have let out 3.

 

I also knew what mission was going to be talked about based on the title alone.

[Marshal_General]

On 1/15/2022 at 7:21 AM, The_Warpact said:

We typically leave a person at the gate, and the rest start killing stuff out on the farm.

We focus on anything that starts moving, and then back to the pumpkin carving. 

 

Never had any issues, usually the person at the gate has a hold or something to engage baddies if we miss a mob, then we all rush in for pumpkin pie.

This is how we duo'd it the last time I ran it.

[Snarky]

Ooooh that mission.  Whoever designed that needs to have pliers applied to soft tissue

 

I ran this at -1 on my storyline Brute.  I hunted the mobs nearest the enemies exit goal. Then i would race back to see if there were enemies on the move.  I picked off the closest group i could find then raced back.  It was dicey towards the end as I had less than 30% leeway left.  So glad it completed 

 

My Brute had no ranged attacks and was using P2W jet as a travel power.  With a “real” toon this strategy would work far better

Edited January 17, 2022 by Snarky

[Doomguide2005]

1 hour ago, Without_Pause said:

+1. First time doing it was on my Kin/elec and failed horribly. Came back looking for revenge with an Earth/storm and I think we might have let out 3.

 

I also knew what mission was going to be talked about based on the title alone.

Makes me wonder about something like Earth/FF.  Good chunk of what makes Earth/Storm and Hurricane effective is the large area Repel to basically keep them out while you deal with them.

[Greycat]

6 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Makes me wonder about something like Earth/FF.  Good chunk of what makes Earth/Storm and Hurricane effective is the large area Repel to basically keep them out while you deal with them.

 

Earth/FF at that level is going to have (or should...) an AOE immob, AOE hold and AOE slow patch - which since it does a debuff should get their attention. (Trying to recall off the top of my head if it has stalagmites.) It'll get attention but ... as someone who had an earth/ff main... it just kills slow.

 

Don't do something silly like run it solo at x8 on an earth/ff, and you'll often *still* have time to alternate between escaping mob and static mob.

[Sakai]

So I have finally completed this mission. Took 5 more tries, each time lowering my difficulty. 

 

The timer I set claims 20 minutes for the mission for reference sake. 

 

Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions. 

[DoctorDitko]

Grats!

 

[UltraAlt]

On 1/14/2022 at 6:40 PM, Sakai said:

Have no desire to lower the amount of players I represent as I enjoy feeling all uber and taking on numerous foes  regardless if I am level 50 or level 7.  I do run this, repeatedly 😐 lol, as a flashback and solo for the most part. 

 

Any and all suggestions are welcome. 

 

if you are going to run it solo, a stormy is the way to go.

Just guard the portal with hurricane and fight the waves as they come to you.

 

It's football/soccer goal defense mission.

 

If you are on a team, I've seen some teams send out half to fight mobs and the other half stays and defends the portals.

I've seen some teams leave a couple at the portal and send three out each pathway to lure groups back to their side and fight them from along their choice of the two paths to protect.

 

It's really a team mission and not a solo mission.

 

But if they are too much for you and/or you just can't be as Uber as you want to be, sometimes we need to accept our shortcomings.

[SaintD]

Oh I remember this mission. Yeah, it's really easy. All you do is just click on Skippy again, click on the 'Complete this mission' option for s*** missions, and move on.

 

Every single time.

[Greycat]

7 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

It's really a team mission and not a solo mission.

 

No, not even close to correct.  I solo this repeatedly, on every AT, with no escapes the way I described up above. Think the only thing I haven't run it on is a VEAT. The only differences tend to be how fast stuff gets killed - which affects how many static groups you can defeat between runners.  I actually *wouldn't* run this on a team, at least more than a duo. Larger mobs = more chance of some slipping past.

[Glowworm]

Time, in addition to Earth and Storm mentioned above, is really good here. By 30 Time has a couple AoE slows including a persistent placed one and a slow aura. All those debuffs trigger aggro on the runners and stop them from running. A Rad tank, with all the AoE patches and auras is also good on this. Any damage and, I assume, most debuffs stop them from running; the Time patches definitely do.

[Naraka]

This mission is a nice change of pace. Depending on what kind of loadout your teams have will change how you approach the mission.

 

As mapped out above, there are 2 paths the pumpkins run through to get to the escape. To priority is clearing anything so you can push out to the mouths of those 2 paths. You split the team so you get equal coverage on both but if your team is lopsided, you might have to make a more "scout and report" strategy where you're communicating where the runners are instead.

 

A buffer is going to be bouncing around to refresh the team, a controller or debuffer might aim to act as goalies to slow down the seams, a ST focused character might scout and draw in more groups, the tank may focus on purely herding for slaughter and the nukers are just getting rid of everything as quickly as possible.

 

But as described above, top priority is pushing the assault to the mouths of the paths that lead to the henge. There, it's easy to move back and forth between the openings and you have space to lock foes down before they get close to escaping.

[Greycat]

4 hours ago, Naraka said:

 

But as described above, top priority is pushing the assault to the mouths of the paths that lead to the henge. There, it's easy to move back and forth between the openings and you have space to lock foes down before they get close to escaping.

 

There's actually a slightly different priority, at least for my reasoning for clearing it the way I do: *Sightlines.*

 

That first path (Mission entrance to henge?) Yes, you're going that way anyway and want it cleared - but it's also the primary path runners take. You see something there, it's going for the door, you stop it.

 

Second area (the "rear area?") It is a path, but it's also hard to keep an eye on. Clear it, and you don't have to worry about it.

 

Third area you hit is the farmer's field and barn - since partway in this becomes a popular path, and there's less to tab-target on. You see something and it's moving, it's probably running for the henge. Easy intercept.

 

Final area's just cleanup.

 

I generally do it this way just so it's *really* easy to see if I have something I need to catch. The fact I'm also clearing stuff before it can run is pretty muchjust a bonus. 😉