Advanced Difficulty: Saga of Lanaru (Faathim the Kind TF)

[Cyclone Jack]

Now, its quite possible that I may be the only one that would like to see this, but I would absolutely 😍 love 😍 to see the Saga of Lanaru get the Advanced Mode treatment.  I'm sure there are a number of other TFs on the list already for the Advanced Mode treatment, but please don't skip over this one.  This was easily my favorite TF in the game back in the day, and it was a good, fun challenging TF on its own merits; and it may very well still be my favorite TF.  I remember that you'd almost always lose 1-2 players in the 1st 3 missions, because Soldiers of Rularuu can be quite nasty, and it was easy to double pull, or even triple pull, in those tunnel intersections.

 

The TF has a number of AVs to fight, and you're tackling a number of high level factions (Soldiers of Rularuu, Malta Operatives, Nemesis, Circle of Thorns, Knives of Artemis, Rikti), often facing off multiple combinations at the same time.  And, of course, it culminates in a fight against Lanaru the Mad; an AV so notorious that Cathedral of Pain Trials would be abandoned if he was the AV at the end. 😂

 

My fondest memory of the TF was when I was *finally* able to get a full 8-man Unstoppable to go through the entire TF and face off against a +4 Lanaru the Mad.  It was easily the most fun and challenging TF I had run prior to Incarnate Trials, and seeing this get the Advanced Difficulty treatment would be such a treat.  Running up against a +5 Lanaru with double health, higher resistances, and possibly even additional powers (add some Storm Blast to him and/or his Storm Elementals) would be absolutely amazing, not to mention what all can be done to the rest of the TF as a whole.

 

And if there are players who have not yet ran the Saga of Lanaru TF, you owe it to yourself to do it; and if you think your team is up for the challenge, then x8/+4 it.  It *IS* in  the Shadow Shard, so make sure you pick up your free Jet Pack in Fire Base Zulu if you aren't completely and absolutely aware of how to traverse the Shard and know all of the nuances to the geysers.

Edited February 10 by Cyclone Jack

[arcane]

Not a no vote, just an observation. A 4* shadow shard TF would be a complete nightmare.

 

1) No TT, MT, ATT, etc.

2) Shadow Shard TF’s have kill alls. 
 

Sounds rough but sure.

[Cyclone Jack]

Well, the 1st 3 missions can definitely weed out those who are not up to the task, since they are placed randomly throughout The Chantry and, like you said, they are Defeat Alls vs Soldiers of Rularuu.  And no argument from me, getting around The Chantry (and the Shadow Shard in general) can be a PITA w/o Flight or TP, especially if you aren't used to it.  The Storm Palace isn't nearly as bad, but it still has its little nuances.  But, if you have 1 person with Teleport Target you're fine.

 

Though, I'm not sure why Kill Alls are a bad thing, especially in a 4* challenge.  That's part of what makes it challenging. 😉 I mean, what's the point of doing a challenge if you turn around and stealth half the missions?  But hey, one of the missions is stealthable. 😜

 

And yes, it would definitely earn it's Invincible/Relentless challenge rating.

 

Though the biggest challenge on the dev side of things would be to insert exclusive challenges and mechanics not found in the default difficulty, as well as adding Elite Bosses to the mix since some of the factions in the TF do not have any Elite Bosses as of yet, though they could sprinkle in a handful of additional AVs here and there.  I'm going to have to run this again this week to refresh my memory and see if I can come up with some fun ideas. 😄

[Cyclone Jack]

A quick first pass on the missions and enemies:

 

2.1 - Rularuu Caves.  Honestly, I'm not sure what I'd do here.  Rularuu are already pretty solid as-is, but I've not ran against them on a team full of maxed out Incarnates.  Perhaps all it would take would be to add some EBs for Brutes, Sentries, and Wisps to level the playing field.

2.2 - Malaise and Mother Mayhem.  I would change the enemies on these two missions to IDF (I think this should be done in general, as it never made much sense for Nemesis to be in these missions), then add Olympian Guard EBs to the Advanced Difficulties (War Walkers might be too big for the Tunnels, but if not then Goliath War Walkers could be added to the mix as well).

2.3 - Nemesis.  Upgrading the Fake Nemesis to Nemesis? EBs would be obvious.  Perhaps add a battle at the end of one of the missions where you fight Automatons of yourselves, similar to the Simulacrums at the end of Posi 1.  I could also see adding a Mastermind-like Boss/EB that buffs Jaegers and Warhulks.

2.4 - Rikti.  I would make sure that Rikti Priests and Riki Magus EBs are added to the spawn list.  Maybe even add Dra'Gon and/or Hro'Dtohz to the end of one of the missions (the more AVs the merrier, right?).  You could argue that the Heavy Assault Suits could work here as well, but I'm not sure how those would work in the Tunnel maps (those things are pretty big if I recall).

2.5 - Malta.  Add Zeus Titan EBs to the spawn list (Wouldn't those be Rhea Titans?  Hercules -> Zeus -> Rhea -> Kronos).  Add Slinger AV to one of the missions.

2.5 - Circle of Thorns.  Make sure the new Page 7 enemies are added to the spawn list.  Add Blade Prince EBs to the missions.

2.6 - Lanaru.  Add some of the new Storm Blast powers to the Lanaru enemies:  Squall (Gust, Jet Stream), Tempest (Chain Lightning, Direct Strike), Cyclone (Hailstones, Cloudburst), Lanaru the Mad ( Storm Cell, Cloudburst, Category Five).

 

Using the Keys on the Monuments could also spawn in groups of enemies, but I don't think that would really slow players down too much.

 

As for new mechanics within the missions themselves...  I'll need to run it a few times, as well as run a few 4* TFs for comparison, and then gather my thoughts on what could be done.