Playing by Iron Man rules. Do I live or die?

[biostem]

On 8/5/2024 at 5:51 AM, AyamSirias said:

What do you all think?

Here's the thing - if "rezzing due to leveling-up" is permitted, then why not awakens?  Why not by means of the medi-port system?  Frankly, even feeding them intel as a corpse is violating the spirit of an "Iron Man" challenge...

[Owl Girl]

You don't have to bail, anybody can be a corpse if they try hard enough!

[Doomguide2005]

I see it as the perfect opportunity to get to 50 and put an asterisk next to your name in the record books if you do so without another ... defeat.

 

I mean you were only mostly dead.

Edited August 15 by Doomguide2005

[Without_Pause]

Some people just want to play Tin Foil Man I guess. 😆

[Luminara]

Schrödinger it.  Move it to character slot 5000 and leave it there forever, unobserved, trapped in a perpetual state of being both dead and alive.

[kito]

The iron man rules I always went with was if you had to hit the hopital button you died. But if you Rez or an Allie rezes you then you where just knocked out or hurt but they got medical attention to you in time. 

 

 

 

If it did die I often just rename the toon to a Gohar zombie or Paragon protector if I liked the power set and want to play them again but there now dead, and I don't use them for rp and such 

Edited August 15 by kito

[Snarky]

13 hours ago, Owl Girl said:

g_d Knows i love to handle a corpse tho 😃

[TheMoneyMaker]

9 hours ago, Owl Girl said:

You don't have to bail, anybody can be a corpse if they try hard enough!

I'm still trying.  Guess I didn't try hard enough.

[Waljoricar]

I actually lost a character I was playing on Iron Man rules last night. I was just about to post my own topic, but will try here first,

 

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with ambushes? I only solo content when running Iron Man rules and ambushes just seem more and more frequent post Level 20.

 

Playing as a Level 23 DB/DA Stalker (slotted to the eyeballs with L26 SOS), running the "Defeat Hector" (Warriors) mission in Talos Island. The mission, like most content so far, is a cake walk as a Stalker. Until the final ambush at an end.

 

I'm beset upon by 5 (possibly more) yellow Luitenants (I levelled in the mission previous mission) and a few minions. Almost ten enemies. They can see through my Hide no matter where I run. I eat my purples and that let's me take out a few but, after a five minute chase up and down the map, they splatter me.

 

I can't think of any reasonable way a solo Stalker could have survived that and I'd really appreciate some tips!

Edited August 17 by Waljoricar

[biostem]

4 minutes ago, Waljoricar said:

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with ambushes?

You could create a keybind that makes it very quick and easy to scarf down respites or lucks, or otherwise just stick to a very sturdy AT...

[Waljoricar]

3 minutes ago, biostem said:

You could create a keybind that makes it very quick and easy to scarf down respites or lucks, or otherwise just stick to a very sturdy AT...

 

Thanks for the tip! Thing is, it didn't really feel like I was too slow munching Inspirations - just that I didn't have enough!

 

I tend to switch up my AT each time I roll a new character on permadeath rules, but I particularly love Stalkers and was sad to see this one fall against what seemed like totally impossible odds. I think most ATs would struggle to survive an ambush like that, outside of Tankers/Brutes.

 

Has anyone else had this trouble or found a way to overcome it?

[Owl Girl]

if i were doing iron man, i would try to research my missions to predict ambushes and justify it in character if necessary by saying the character puts in a lot of time planning and considering all angles of a particular excursion because they only have one life to live. then when the ambush shows up, eat those purples and run for the exit if possible or if not just really focus on target priorities to ensure that the most dangerous enemies are removed first.

 

or just avoid ambush missions entirely =P

[Without_Pause]

9 hours ago, Waljoricar said:

 

Thanks for the tip! Thing is, it didn't really feel like I was too slow munching Inspirations - just that I didn't have enough!

Have some in your email.

 

Outside of ambushes, some map layouts just aren't kind. 

[tidge]

Does Placate help with ambushes?

[Snarky]

32 minutes ago, tidge said:

Does Placate help with ambushes?

All soft mezzes help.  But hard mezses are better.  And high dps is even better yet.  Iron man fights are just like normal fights.  Except you CANNOT lose.  Placate is a decent power.  But, you have to KNOW who it will work on, who it will not, how it works, the exact effect it will have.  Since you are asking I would say NO do not depend on placate in an Iron man run.  Not until you know it better.

 

I have only used the Stalker version if placate.  And then only to immediately stab for more dps.  So i am unfamiliar with the subtleties of placate.  

Edited August 18 by Snarky

[Waljoricar]

4 hours ago, tidge said:

Does Placate help with ambushes?

This is a good question. Since an ambush group will always know where you are on the map regardless of whether or not Hide is activated, i wonder if Placate would remove that "omniscience" or if they would just immediately resume the pursuit after the 10 second Placate period. The former outcome would be a bit of a game changer. For me, at least.

Edited August 18 by Waljoricar

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Waljoricar said:

This is a good question. Since an ambush group will always know where you are on the map regardless of whether or not Hide is activated, i wonder if Placate would temporartily remove that "omniscience" or if they would just immediately resume the pursuit after the 10 second Placate period. The former outcome would be a bit of a game changer. For me, at least.

 

I have a feeling it would the former, but it could provide the breathing room/opportunity for a Stalker's extra damage to make a difference. Even prior to the Homecoming changes to Threat, I would often rely on Placate when fighting the "hero" EBs/AVs in redside missions. None of those have the "omniscience", but getting the breathing room was important.

 

For missions where spawns "hunt down" the player, my strategy is pretty much to only be in one fight at a time. This means not starting something else, and finishing one ambush before the next one spawns.

[Waljoricar]

21 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

I have a feeling it would the former, but it could provide the breathing room/opportunity for a Stalker's extra damage to make a difference. Even prior to the Homecoming changes to Threat, I would often rely on Placate when fighting the "hero" EBs/AVs in redside missions. None of those have the "omniscience", but getting the breathing room was important.

 

For missions where spawns "hunt down" the player, my strategy is pretty much to only be in one fight at a time. This means not starting something else, and finishing one ambush before the next one spawns.

 

I just tried testing it in Beta and my results were, frustratingly, inconclusive.

 

It seemed that, for the most part, using Placate on an ambush mob only offered a temporary reprieve; after the ten seconds, they just started to hunt me down again.

 

I tested this several times and there were instances where they ambush mob seemed to lose interest in me completely. However, if I approached them, even when Hide was activated, they would see me instantly and the chase begin anew.

[lemming]

OT, but since I'm currently doing the Praetoria arcs with a stalker, ambushes are common.

 

Couple different versions of ambushes there

1) Ambush runs up to your hidden stalker and just stands there and you can walk away.

2) Ambush runs up to hidden stalker and follows you around.

3) Ambush starts attacking as soon as they can with stealth not doing much.

 

Placate just stops them attacking for a little bit and best used to get that extra DPS in.

[Living Brain 3000]

To me dead is dead you probably should have exited the mission then deleted the toon to stop the exp gain. Ironman rules dictate that a death is a death is a death no matter what or how it happens to that toon

[ThatGuyCDude]

With regards to the original post:

If Awakens are allowed as part of the challenge, waiting for a level to rez would keep the character alive (since the rez is identical to a large Awaken inspiration).  I'd say if the agreed rule is 'no hospital', the character would still count as alive.  That would allow for team and self rezes, though, so it's soft on the Iron Man premise.
If you wouldn't have counted an awaken or a self-rez power as survival, then leveling to rez doesn't count either.
I think that 'no debt' is an excellent metric for the live-die question of an Iron Man, since it's something that can be readily checked in badge progress.  ...That may also suggest that you could still attempt a wakie/rez without going to the hospital if you've got day job progress as a Mortician.


With regards to the necro post (@Waljoricar):

Ambushes are extremely dangerous, but even more so for Stalkers.  The suggestion Owl Girl pitched--to research and avoid missions that have ambushes--is sound advice.  If that feels like cheating or an interruption of natural play, you could stick to random missions (Scanner/Paper missions).
The Concealment power pool has an intangibility power [Phase Shift] that makes you invulnerable while it's toggled on.  It'll cost you two extra powers to take, but it's a nice panic button that lets you take a minute and pop some inspirations (Note, it will NOT remove DoTs you're currently suffering, so you still have to think fast or it won't save you).  It could keep you alive in an ambush situation while your enemies use up their stronger cooldown attacks... might be worth a try.

[Wavicle]

On 8/15/2024 at 5:29 AM, kito said:

The iron man rules I always went with was if you had to hit the hopital button you died. But if you Rez or an Allie rezes you then you where just knocked out or hurt but they got medical attention to you in time. 

 

I like this version because it retains the value of ally Rez powers.

[kito]

On 8/17/2024 at 2:18 AM, Waljoricar said:

I actually lost a character I was playing on Iron Man rules last night. I was just about to post my own topic, but will try here first,

 

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with ambushes? I only solo content when running Iron Man rules and ambushes just seem more and more frequent post Level 20.

 

Playing as a Level 23 DB/DA Stalker (slotted to the eyeballs with L26 SOS), running the "Defeat Hector" (Warriors) mission in Talos Island. The mission, like most content so far, is a cake walk as a Stalker. Until the final ambush at an end.

 

I'm beset upon by 5 (possibly more) yellow Luitenants (I levelled in the mission previous mission) and a few minions. Almost ten enemies. They can see through my Hide no matter where I run. I eat my purples and that let's me take out a few but, after a five minute chase up and down the map, they splatter me.

 

I can't think of any reasonable way a solo Stalker could have survived that and I'd really appreciate some tips!

My rule of thumb is never mission alone, stuck to street crimes. If you get a tip mish try and get someone to help you with it. Treat it like you hero is aware they could die and act like it. Some tips I have had to delate with the logic of they did not trust the source or where sure it was a trap. 

 

If you have to go alone, be sure to go in prepaid, fully stock up on inspirations upgrade your build and slots maybe get a LVL first 

(like they trained up for a big boss)  

 

But also depends on the "age/experience" of your toon and if it's for rp or challenge 

[Icono04]

@AyamSirias, what did you end up doing with the character? Whatever you decided to do is cool - it is your own char and all the Iron Man/hardcore/permadeath rules are completely voluntary anway. My CDO just demands that a thread like this gets proper closure with a conclusion to the OP 🙂