54x8 Solo ITF no temps/insps, alpha only

Unclemarty · February 21, 2022

Over the past few months I've had the goal of completing solo 4x8 ITF with no deaths, no temps, no insps, and no incarnates.

I didn't entirely get to this goal, but I've gotten close with a recent 4x8 with no temps, no insps, alpha only, and 2 deaths.

There have been numerous successful and impressive solo runs 4x8 Master of ITF, no deaths/temps/insps, but I'm not sure if there has been any success with doing it without incarnates (thus not level shifted).

I'd like to present my run and hopefully spark a discussion of how this goal could be achieved.

Full disclosure, this run was completed on the Brainstorm test server.

Proof

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The Build - Ice/Time/Soul

Alpha - Cardiac Core

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Attack Strategy

The ST rotation is Freeze Ray -> Ice Bolt - Bitter Ice Blast -> Ice Bolt while weaving Aim, Chronos, and Hasten in there whenever they were up. For large groups of enemies I would lead with a volley of Blizzard -> Ice Storm - Frost Breath (cone).

The Approach

Out of all the ATs, I chose a hover blaster for this goal for a few reasons.

Blasters have high ST dps, enough to chew through AV regeneration.
Range lets us stay away from most of the defense debuffs (except white novas).
Nictus auto hit power in part 4 is a pain for melee. At range I can stay away from it.
The AV's tend to run everywhere without a strong taunt or immobilize, making it difficult for melee characters without these to attack.

Why Ice/Time/Soul?

Freeze Ray and Bitter Ice Blast are both extremely high DPA powers in the ST rotation. I considered fire blast because Blaze also has notably high DPA but I wanted to stay 100% at range and not have to move close to the mobs for the T9 nuke. I also considered Beam Rifle for its -regen but ultimately rejected it because AVs heavily resist -regen, especially at +4, and ice has better ST DPA as a baseline compared to Beam.
For the secondary, I chose time because of the +recharge effects helps bring Blizzard back online sooner. It also has an absorb shield which helps mitigate chip damage.
I chose Soul mastery because most of the incoming damage in the ITF is lethal or negative. It is critical to have high enough negative resistance to survive Requiem's Gloom attack. On early (failed) tries of this I found that with low negative resistance, Gloom's would 1 shot me from full health.

Revisions

I died twice fighting the Romulus Phalanx in part 3 because they seem to have an attack that's flagged as AOE that didn't check against my ranged defense. I'm not entirely sure why or how that was going on but I took this part much more cautiously (pulling 1 or 2 robots at a time) for my final run.

If I were to do this again, I would start with the Ice/Arrow/Soul build below and pack a little more AOE defense. Arrow as a secondary lets me use Oil slick as well, which would help improve AoE damage for clearing large groups.

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I am not a regular forum user so apologies if there are any formatting errors. I would appreciate any build critique as well

Anyway! Just wanted to share this with you all and ask, do you think its possible to solo 4x8 ITF with no deaths, no temps, no insps, and no incarnates?

Bill Z Bubba · February 21, 2022

Very nice.

Troo · February 21, 2022

Congrats @Unclemarty

DarknessEternal · February 21, 2022

Huzzah!

Pyriold · March 23, 2022

I am not trying to perform at your levels, but i think you should indeed try /TA as secondary. I think it's the best ranged blaster secondary. It has great self buffs and can slow and -recharge very well, you feel like a little controller. And the oil slick is a great AE for longer fights.

Another idea would be /energy, just for boost range and boost power. You can Blizzard stuff from really far away and at the same time, mobs get slowed a lot more than usual... you see where this is going? Safety from (extreme) range. Might give that a try.

Doomguide2005 · March 23, 2022

On 3/23/2022 at 3:40 PM, Pyriold said:

Another idea would be /energy, just for boost range and boost power. You can Blizzard stuff from really far away and at the same time, mobs get slowed a lot more than usual... you see where this is going? Safety from (extreme) range. Might give that a try.

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From what I've read/seen and experienced on teams the major issue with going with something like /Energy for using extreme range as defense is the second mission. The cramped twisty caves make using that extra range difficult at best. Outdoor maps (or portions thereof) yes, twisty caves with neg energy and hovering defdebuffs using foes not so much. In general the 2nd mission is problematic for most non-melee types.

Cyber Bishop · April 5, 2022

On 3/23/2022 at 6:49 PM, Doomguide2005 said:

From what I've read/seen and experienced on teams the major issue with going with something like /Energy for using extreme range as defense is the second mission. The cramped twisty caves make using that extra range difficult at best. Outdoor maps (or portions thereof) yes, twisty caves with neg energy and hovering defdebuffs using foes not so much. In general the 2nd mission is problematic for most non-melee types.

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Yeah the second mission is a pain for we hover blasters. I stealth and try and snipe each crystal to about 10% then move to the next one once I get them all down I rush through and finish them one by one.

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54x8 Solo ITF no temps/insps, alpha only

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