A Very Late (unfortunately) Discovery

[RikOz]

I finally got around to doing the New Praetorians arc in Brickstown again. I ran it the first time a few years ago, on my "main" (Flaminatrix, fire/fire/flame blaster), right after she got Marchand as a contact, so around level 35. Holy crap, that was a freakin' challenge at that level, as a solo blaster, but I got through it. But I'd been nervous about trying it again, until yesterday, when I ran it again on my level 50, fully T4 incarnate, fully-IO'd dual blades/SR scrapper. It was much easier this time, even running it at +3 :D

 

The reason I bring this up is that I made a mind-blowing discovery. The first time I did the arc, on my fire blaster, I was continually frustrated by my New Praetorians NPC allies constantly going down very early in the missions, leaving me to solo everything else.

 

This time, after Pendragon went down for the first time, my other allies and I kept fighting, and once all of the enemies were down I had to tend to something out-of-game for a couple minutes. I got back to the game just in time to see Pendragon walking over and saying, "I still have some fight left in me." He was fully healed up.

 

OMG.

 

When those guys are defeated, they use Rest! If they go down I just have to wait a couple minutes and they're back up!

 

My god, I unnecessarily soloed all that crap on my blaster the first time because I had no idea. The NPCs would go down and I'd leave them behind. Because I had no idea. I mean, I'm kinda proud of doing it solo and overcoming the challenge (I mean the only thing that saved me on the fight against the two giant robots was the fact that I'd chosen Bonfire for my first Epic Pool power--it kept those robots away from me so I could blast them at range), but it still would have been seriously less frustrating if I had only known. Nothing told me the NPC allies could do that.

 

And now I wonder if this is true of some of the other helper NPCs that show up in missions. I mean, I've seen that Overdrive just despawns when she's defeated. But what about Grym, in that Hellions mission in the second part of the Shining Stars arc? Every time I've done that mission he's gotten defeated in the first fight, because he insists on standing in the fire. But if I waited around, would he have Rested and healed up?

 

Anyway, my mind is blown.

 

 

[Xalon]

I know for sure that when you have an NPC teammate that can heal, they will resurrect your other teammates when they go down. And I hope that they all use rest when no healer is around and they still come back. 

 

If you are in the mission and lose someone and they aren't coming back, you can leave mission, change to another mission and then select the original mission again and start with fresh team, though the mission will reset. But if it happens early on, it's a big help. 

 

I'm gonna try out some things and verify what you are saying but I believe you are correct. Veterans can jump in and say if they know for sure.

[Ukase]

Provost Marchand's first mission has the best allies in this game - by far. I always jack up the difficulty to +4/8. Now - the xp in there...I think it's nerfed to a degree based on how much damage you do. But I can't prove it right now. It's just a hunch. Or it could be that it used to give more xp, and it's been adjusted because a rascal like me will use that mission to get that last bar or so to reach the next level. 


In the 2nd mission, you can utilize Pendragon to help you with the Devouring Earth - or just let him do it. 

The third mission is where Aurora Pena, Grant Creston and Pendragon are always dying. And they talk a lot, too. Nerves, I guess. 
These allies, I've seen them in the "rest" position. I usually leave them behind. Sometimes, if I'm on a fragile character, I'll use team inspirations to help them get through the fight. They are unbelievably fragile. 

Now, if only Positron, Back Alley Brawler, Citadel, Synapse, Manticore, Numina and Yin could rest in the Heldenjaeger SSA and get back to the fight. Out of all of them, Yin seems the toughest. Positron will be a bit of an aggro magnet, but stops fighting after a spell. 

[Skyhawke]

10 hours ago, Ukase said:

Now, if only Positron, Back Alley Brawler, Citadel, Synapse, Manticore, Numina and Yin could rest in the Heldenjaeger SSA and get back to the fight. Out of all of them, Yin seems the toughest. Positron will be a bit of an aggro magnet, but stops fighting after a spell. 

 

Right? The Phalanx folds like a house of cards and limps off to the hospital while the New Praetorians just keep on going. Praetoria may have been a mess, but it raised some tough as nails heroes!

[Pazahar]

Speaking of Marchand's arc. I don't know anyone else has experienced this. The last time I ran the arc. I was on Part 3: The Last Recruits.  

You follow the trail of the Arachnos soldiers into this small part of Brickstown.

• Save Alec Parson
  • 3 officers to rescue
  • Get into the sewers
  • Find Alec Parson
  • Defeat Silver Mantis

Now when it comes time to defeat Mantis she is discussing things with Riptide where he eventually says Riptide: Oh, I'm just here to stall you, Silver Mantis. Character and the others should be here at any moment! Now when I get to the ledge where they both are, there were 2 Silver Mantis' (Mantises? Mantti?) 2 Alec Prarson's, and Riptide was attacking us, where I always recalled he helped you with fighting Silver Mantis. So I had to fight 2 AV's and Riptide to free Parson's and his twin brother.

 

So anyone else experience this? (I should have taken a screen shot)

[Ukase]

Not me. Sounds interesting! 

[Uun]

18 hours ago, RikOz said:

When those guys are defeated, they use Rest! If they go down I just have to wait a couple minutes and they're back up!

I don't recall when this was changed, but I don't think they rezzed when Marchand's arc was originally added.

 

1 hour ago, Pazahar said:

Now when I get to the ledge where they both are, there were 2 Silver Mantis' (Mantises? Mantti?) 2 Alec Prarson's, and Riptide was attacking us, where I always recalled he helped you with fighting Silver Mantis. So I had to fight 2 AV's and Riptide to free Parson's and his twin brother.

It's a bug that happens occasionally. I've seen it once or twice.