Giant Monster Hunting: Merits and Good Stewardship

[tidge]

Not all characters can solo the zone-spawned Giant Monsters, but there are a few of us who will take characters that can for a stroll through certain zones to collect a relatively easy 6 merits (10 for the first daily defeat of Adamastor)... either as catharsis or simply "just because". I want to remind us all that there are zone conditions that will prevent certain GMs from respawning, so if you are the sort of player who finds hunting GMs to be rewarding, please do your part to "reset the event" such that the GM(s) will respawn (for yourself, for others).

 

Generally: The main thing that will prevent a GM from respawning is if it spawned with, or as part of a self-cast, an enemy mob(ile). Some GM events "self clean up" (e.g. Ghost of Scrapyard) but many do not. Some GMs spawn along with (or summon) mobs that are always close, so I won't fault anyone for not noticing they do this... but those mobs also need to be cleaned up (Babbage in Boomtown, Caleb, Deathsurge) if for some reason AoE's haven't clear out the spawns.

 

The main zones that are problematic are listed below:

 

Kings Row (Paladin)

 

There are three different Paladin events, located at

 [-1614.5 24.1 1760.0]
 [535.7 131.1 2757.1]
 [-2812.9 139.7 -457.1]

 

If ANY of the "even level" clockworks from a single spawn point remain on the map, a Paladin event will not respawn at that point. These guys are tricky, as they will move to follow their Paladin (as long as he is on the map) and also follow players that draw their aggro. Practically, this means that they can most likely be found between their spawn point and the "resting place" of Paladin... but also could have moved towards hospital (having chase a defeated player) or towards a door (that was a mission for a player).

 

The easiest way to identify these clocks is to show the villain name, and see the mobs that "even con"

 

/optionset showvillainname 1

 

Note that "even con" mobs always give XP/Inf and drops, so it isn't as if there is zero reward for cleaning them up.

 

Jurassik (Crey's Folly)

 

This one is a little peculiar, but I have verified (through play) that if a player leaves the Rubble (from the Jurassik Rubble... i.e. the "grand-rubbles") that Jurassik will NOT respawn in Crey's Folly. It takes little effort to make sure these are destroyed before running away from the zone. Unfortunately these con at level 40, and not even con... but they all are summoned  when the predecessor is defeated, so it doesn't take calculus to find them after a Jurassik defeat.

 

Croatoa (Croatoa War)

 

This is IMO the most annoying of the "timed" respawns, because when the GMs appear to fight one another they appear with large spawns of mobs, and will also respawn. These mobs are also NOT even con, and are at a high enough level that they may not be trivially wiped out while fighting the GMs. Luckily, there is a zone message Monster activity in Croatoa has returned to normal levels that will let you know if you have got them all. If you don't see this zone message after defeating the GMs, you didn't get all the spawns and the event will not reset.

 

The mobs you have to defeat will be the ones that spawned as part of the event, and not just the usual spawns that appear in the Grim Vale. Note that they are likely to follow someone who just defeated a GM, so they can be drawn away from the Grim Vale by a sloppy GM hunter who heads to the base portal or monorail or wherever. Here is my list of "most likely" ways to find them:

1. Look for single mobs "by themselves", especially if they are on the "wrong side" of the Grim Vale for their type. That is: Red Caps near Witch's side, Pumpkins near Red Caps, etc. Note that there are "normal" spawns that do this, but some experience will teach you which are normal and which are leftorvers.
2. Look for single mobs hiding in the treetops on the Witch's side.
3. Look for single mobs on the Lake side of the grim vale (I've watched mobs follow a GM hunter "over the hill" and stop there outside of the vale)

 

These spawns are not "even con" so they are easy for a level 50 to miss.

 

I haven't had the patience to determine if the mobs that spawn with Jack in Irons or Eochai outside of the Croatoa War event need to be defeated or if they will eventually de-rez after the GM is defeated. I will note that the Red Caps that spawn with Jack are exceptionally prone to running all over creation, but waiting less than a minute after Jack is defeated is enough to get them to come back to be finished off. Because of the areas where Jack will spawn, those Red Caps can end up hiding out of sight.

 

Hallowe'en Events: AFAIK, the Unseelie Court spawn needs to be defeated to get another zone spawn of a GM.

 

As I wrote above, some GMs summon creatures. Babbage spawns "even con", but not many and they are usually defeated by any AoE attack.

 

In my experience Caleb's ghostie pals will always find their way back to him (to be defeated), but because of their nature (flying, ethereal) I wouldn't take the chance of them de-rezzing.

Edited March 8, 2023 by tidge
Clarifying: the timed spawn of Adamastor does not require cleanup of its spawns

[AboveTheChemist]

56 minutes ago, tidge said:

Hallowe'en Events: AFAIK, the Unseelie Court spawn needs to be defeated to get another zone spawn of a GM.

 

I can confirm this is 100% true. I did a LOT of Halloween GM testing this past Halloween and saw several spawns get hung up because one or more Unseelie was not defeated. Upon defeating the Unseelie, the GM respawned within minutes.

 

One other tidbit I noticed about the Halloween GM spawns is that once the GM and Unseelie are defeated, the little decorative pumpkins that surround the spawn area remain until the next GM spawns, at which point the pumpkins despawn. So, if you are killing Halloween GMs as they spawn in a zone, you can watch the pumpkins to know when the next GM has spawned.

[MrAxe]

What's a good combo for GM hunting?

[cranebump]

14 minutes ago, MrAxe said:

What's a good combo for GM hunting?

For me, it's a good set of long range binoculars and a snice deck chair (Tequila optional).:-)

 

(actually, I'm interested in the suggestions, as I am certain none of my toons are good [or even mediocre] GM hunters).

[SeraphimKensai]

27 minutes ago, MrAxe said:

What's a good combo for GM hunting?

You'll need something that can either break a GM's resistance or regen enough for your DPS to outpace it's ability to heal. Or keep your damage boosted enough to allow your DPS to outpace their HP. Additionally you'll need to be built well enough that you can survive the counterattack of the GM and any potential adds.

 

It's usually easy enough to build up survivability, but being able to do enough damage or have enough debuffs to allow your damage to work can be taxing.

 

Some people use things like Illusion/Rad or Illusion/Cold Controllers, others have used Bio Armor scrappers and brutes, others like Corruptors that leverage large debuffs or kinetics. These all just some examples.

 

That said not all GM's are built the same, some are significantly more difficult to solo.

[tidge]

1 hour ago, MrAxe said:

What's a good combo for GM hunting?

 

Certain Mastermind combos are more than adequate for taking down "event GMs". Debuff regeneration, pile on attacks and they are pretty much good-to-go. -MaxHP can help. MMs have another inherent advantage to "clean up" duty, in that the henchmen can be set on aggressive and can be directed to work on cleaning up areas. Other ATs have to take a more active role in cleanup. I find I still need to pay attention to not miss critters that have zipped away.

 

If fighting GMs that natively spawn in high-level zones (e.g. Peregrine Island), since those are scaled up inherent to the zone and take longer to wear down (solo), I find it difficult to keep those GMs from running towards other GMs, because I typically skip the immobilizes.

 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

1 hour ago, MrAxe said:

What's a good combo for GM hunting?

I had a toon that was specifically all about TP so I took the Incandescence Destiny power so I could bring the league to me when I spotted a GM during Halloween.  Then me and all my friends just killed them.  Me and friends made a good combo!

[MoonSheep]

great post, a lot of info i wasn’t aware of

 

the remaining enemies may be the reason some of these GM events feel so rare compared to others

[WumpusRat]

The two giant monster hunters I use are my illusion/radiation controller, and my necro/nature mastermind. Both of them are capable of soloing giant monsters with relative ease, though the troller is obviously a lot slower.

[StrikerFox]

StJ/SR Stalker is great vs GMs. The only ones I wasn't able to defeat are Jack-in-Irons and Lusca due to their high smashing resistance. Also the Ghost of Scrapyard because he kept running. I think i could have done it but would have taken hours. Near the end of live, bumped into 3 Paladins having a tea party and took them all down.

 

https://youtu.be/9DOSrOTdwkw

[BazookaTwo]

On 3/8/2023 at 11:10 PM, MrAxe said:

What's a good combo for GM hunting?

Ninjas/Time MM with the patron pool Power Boost (I forget which pool it is) - the first time I solo'd Babbage in Boomtown, I kinda freaked out, cause I haven't done it on any other character. 

[tidge]

I was happy to see this in the Patch Notes (currently Beta testing):

 

Zones

Zone Adjustments
Croatoa:

• Any enemy mobs involved in the Croatoa Vale War event where Eochai and Jack In Irons fight are now set to ignore combat mods, making them level-less and easier to identify which mobs must be defeated to progress or bring the event to its intended conclusion.
• Eochai and Jack In Iron's solo spawn events now have a Zone Event message that will broadcast when they spawn by themselves.

 

I realize that not everyone uses

/optionset showvillainname 1

but this small change will make it easier to reset the zone event. Thanks dev team!

 

[Gobbledygook]

On 3/15/2023 at 12:37 PM, StrikerFox said:

StJ/SR Stalker is great vs GMs. The only ones I wasn't able to defeat are Jack-in-Irons and Lusca due to their high smashing resistance. Also the Ghost of Scrapyard because he kept running. I think i could have done it but would have taken hours. Near the end of live, bumped into 3 Paladins having a tea party and took them all down.

 

https://youtu.be/9DOSrOTdwkw

<.<

>.>

Seriously?

I honestly had no idea a melee toon could solo a GM.

Ok, guess I need to visit the Stalker boards?

I've always wanted to hunt GM's but never liked playing non melee toons.

[tidge]

46 minutes ago, Gobbledygook said:

I honestly had no idea a melee toon could solo a GM.

Ok, guess I need to visit the Stalker boards?

 

A word of advice: AFAIK, the GMs which spawn in a zone (via zone events, not sure about GMs that spawn via a mission arc or something like a Nemesis Invasion) are essentially scaled to the maximum level of that zone (per the levels seen when taking certain forms of transit). So in practice, a Halloween "pumpkin patch" GM that spawns in Atlas Park will have fewer HP than the same Halloween GM that spawns in PI. It was my experience (from years past) that I could tell it was taking  progressively more time to solo defeat the same holiday GMs as I moved from Atlas Park, to Hollows, to Skyway, To Faultline, to Peregrine Island. The Kings Row Paladins are towards the low-end by nature of the zone they spawn in.

 

I'm not sure of a good way to get a feel for this besides the holiday GMs. Maybe the PI mission Adamastor v. the summoned Adamastor?

 

If there is a key to soloing AVs, it basically comes down to do more damage than they heal. Debuffing their Regeneration, applying -MaxHP, and turning up the DPS (-Res helps, but you still have to overcome the healing). You also have to survive their attacks, but a LOT of characters can do that.

[Gobbledygook]

Appreciate the info, thanks

[tidge]

A note of thanks to the team (especially @Cobalt Arachne) for the level-less adjustments to spawns in Croato. Not only is it nice to get reward drops from the flunkies that accompany the Giant Monsters, it makes it MUCH easier to reset the table for the Monsters to respawn.

 

Of course, we still have some VERY sloppy Giant Monster Hunters who can't be bothered to do a minimal amount of cleanup, see this shot from Crey's Folly of Rubble Underlings that some all-powerful monster hunter couldn't be bothered to defeat (target reticle snapshot included from the image):

 

 

 

[tidge]

There is at least one GM-hunting Mastermind I'll never convince to clean up spawns in King's Row (or elsewhere) but for everyone else, here is the advantage of using

 

/optionset showvillainname 1

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by tidge

[tidge]

Revisiting this thread for the benefit of new/returning players. We've had quite a lot of 'sloppy' GM hunting players, in solo and in teams.

 

Repeating:

 

It is nearly unforgivable to leave the Croatoa Grim Vale event not reset, as there is an actual server-wide announcement when it has been reset. Sometimes the level-less mobiles can be tucked away in corners or trees, and often the flying mobiles will chase after folks and can be somewhat far from the spawn site. The Grim Vale has one of the faster cycling timers and offers lots of XP/drop chances, so please don't leave this not reset.

 

Similarly, the (usually) level-less spawns that accompany the Walking Croatoan GMs are not large in number, and will stay by the GM (or return to it if they scatter) so those are easy to clean up. About one-third of the the time those spawns are not level-less, so pay attention.

 

The Kings Row Paladin mobiles are always level-less, so they are easy to spot, provided you actually look for them. If you know where each of the thee event spots are, and you know where you fought Paladin, it does not take long to zip between the two to find the level-less clockwork spawns. AFAIK there is more XP to be had from the full range of level-less spawns than there is from the Giant Monster... there certainly are more reward drop chances for clearing them out.

 

The Boomtown Babbage summons allied mobiles, they are not level-less they will be IIRC 48-50, so characters with high enough levels will have the minions con as grey. be on the lookout. Usually these are few in number (one at-a-time) and stay close to Babbage, but I have stumbled across stray level 48 clocks in Boomtown.

 

The Crey's Folly Jurassik will about one-third of the time, upon defeat make Jurassik Rubble, which upon defeat will make Rubble. These all need to be cleaned up. don't be so quick to zone out as it literally takes less than 30 seconds to clean these up.

 

Kraken, Lusca, War Walker, Adamastor don't have associated spawns that need to be cleaned up. GM hunters/teams can run away right after defeating them.

 

As far as I know, the red-side GMs are all self-cleaning. The ones I am not certain about is Caleb and Deathsurge: they always spawns with mobiles but as a practical matter every time I've defeated those I have had to work through all of the associated minions as well. They aren't level-less.