Myreyliib
12-09-2010, 08:16 PM
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/62ec437e-eb6d-43e0-9971-34d2f12aecbd/Sector%2042%20Overview.png
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
What is required to access sector 42?
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290352.gif Decrypted Kyr'Ozch Data Core (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=260424) - better known as The APF Key
To get this item you will need one Kyr'Ozch Data Core from each of the APF Sectors (13,28 and 35)
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290342.gifCore from sector 35 (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=258292)
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290343.gifCore from sector 28 (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=258295)
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290344.gifCore from sector 13 (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=258296)
When you have all 3 Kyr'Ozch Cores you can trade them with the Unicorn Access Supervisor outside Sector 42 gates.
He will give you the Decrypted Kyr'Ozch Data Core.
http://static.ao-universe.com/website/images/guides/unicorn_access_supervisor.jpg
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Vocabulary
s42 - Apf Sector 42
s13 - Apf Sector 13
s28 - Apf Sector 28
s35 - Apf Sector 35
Apf - Alien PlayField
RL - Raid Leader
RI - Raid Interface
AC - Artillery Commander (main boss(es))
Mid - Middle area of s42
West/W - path and target area for taken by one RI
North/N - path and target area for taken by one RI
East/E - path and target area for taken by one RI
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
The sector is an uninstanced playfield in the Outzones. Due to the manpower required most raids are coordinated well in advance and timeslots are sorted between the various “movers”.
Usually S42 is run in three separate RaidInterfaces due to the need to split up the raiders to achieve three geographically seperated objectives (killing towers at W,N and E).
Each RI has its own RL, tank, callers, etc.
Repops in s42 are fairly quick, so raid forces have to be able to slay aliens fairly efficient and keep advancing deeper into the zone, otherwise they will eventually be overwhelmed by the repops.
Due to the speed of repops and the quantity and difficulty of the mobs, soloing back to a raid force is unrealistic and not advisable. In case of an RI wiping, before the access nano runs out, it can reenter and attempt to fight its way back to its objective.
The raid can be broken down in to 10 steps
1) Sorting RI/teams prior to entering
2) Entering and last minute stuff
3) Moving towards Mid
4) RI separate towards separate objectives at Mid
5) Each RI moves down its path towards tower/boss area (including fence area)
6) Prekilling of towers
7) Synchronized killing of towers and killing of first boss at W,N and E
8) Lootsorting and prekilling of newly spawned towers
9) Synchronized killing of towers and killing of primary boss at W, N, and E
10) Lootsorting and zone exit
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 1 - Gathering
Since s42 is a timed raid (the sector is “nuked from space” 1½h after the raid is started), it is important to have RIs sorted before entering. Each RI must have at least 1 enforcer (DB nanos preferably), 2 docs minimum, 1 crat, some reflects (soldier/engineer) and AoE snares (fixer/trader?/nt?) will prove helpful.
Tank and healers will be using a lot of nano, so will benefit from –%nanocost and nano regain buffs. If those are not available, fellow raiders must be ready to nanostim primarily the tank.
Two callers pr. RI are the norm since some mobs (Drone Harvesters) will cocoon players. Callers may want to disable various visual effects to better spot critical targets (Cocoons, Vectors).
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 2 - Entering S42
Only start talking to the Unicorn NPC, when the command is given, due to the timed nature of the access nano (in case of an early wipe, it is only possible to reenter if this nano has not expired). Continue talking to the Unicorn NPC after you’ve have given him the s42 key (due to an exploit preventing mechanic it is unfortunately possible to be locked out without getting the access nano). The access nano requires 40 NCU.
Upon entering RIs will verify that everybody made it inside and adjust if that is not the case. Final buff up and procs are usually done here, while the overall RL starts the mission by talking to the omni NPC (Fabio) inside. Caller macro should be repeated/reposted during phase.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 3 - Moving towards Mid
When moving towards Mid all three RI will move north along the canyon. In this phase killing will be fast, so the main risk may be lagging ahead or stepping on a mine and moving painfully slow compared to everybody else steaming ahead.
The raid will encounter the first Heavy Alien Patrollers (pats). These mobs have a large HP bar and repops faster than any of the other mobs, so pats are debuffed (this is where the crat comes in (Malaise)) and pulled along.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/19c4af7d-9d69-41f3-af52-e3df9928d92a/2011-10-03_2138.png
Pats will travel a long way when they repop, so rule of thumb is not to kill those gather while moving towards Mid, before closing in on the fences. One tactic to distinguish between "early" pats from the move towards Mid and "late" pats from after Mid is damaging "early" pats and leaving the other alone.
Which RI that gets the pats from the push towards Mid fall under Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and is up to each RI to handle.
As the canyon begins to widen near Mid, the raid will encounter the first Drone Harvester (large variant of the two-legged aliens).
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/205b180b-ec79-4880-b321-782df1a2416f/2011-10-03_2145.png
These will rush to a player and sacrifice itself in order to cocoon that player. With the tank out in front, it’s is one of the prime targets and this cocoon (followed closely by all other cocoons) are priority kills.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/c6843367-74bf-4409-8579-cacaf2e6d6c5/2011-10-03_2147.png
Around here calling starts to differ with the callers preferences. In larger raids it is possible to kill the Drone Harvesters before anyone is cocooned (always good), but smaller raids may not have a sufficient damage to kill Harvesters before they cocoon a target, leading to a “wasted alpha” as the partially killed mob will sacrifice itself as it intended to and coon the player, no matter how damaged it was. Some callers therefore hold back on calling Harvesters and either call a low hp alien while waiting for the inevitable cocoon to call or flat out don’t call anything before the cocoon.
Callers should look out for tell tale sign of impeding cocooning such as when a Drone Harvester in front of a players. It will take a moment before the cocoon appears, but knowing where a cocoon will appear will cut down on reponse time.
If a player is cocooned in the midst of a horse of aliens it can be difficult to target it. One technique is the caller targetting him or herself, running on top on the cocoon and alt tabbing to it.
If a player doesn’t have any other “assignments” they can help the callers by looting the dead cocoons, so the callers can spot and call new ones as they appear. This also minimizes the risk of the RI moving on, unaware that some raiders are still cocooned.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 4 - Mid, time to part ways
At Mid there are A LOT of aliens, so be careful not to lag ahead and aggro all of them.
The West RI will follow the western canyon wall right away, while East RI and North RI will move along the eastern canyon wall until East RI reaches its path.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/88243d4d-dff9-4a9f-b4e1-ed0f4e89d74d/2011-10-03_2140.png West separating from North and East
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/b08fd6be-b2c4-4777-8f54-ad2f5e5e143a/2011-10-03_2142.png North and East separating
During this phase it is imperative that all raiders pay attention to where the rest of the RI is heading. The number of aliens and the presence of multiple RIs make this non-trivial for inexperienced raiders. A glance at the playfield/minimap now and again will confirm that a raider is moving with the right RI.
If a raider, unfamiliar with the zone, realize he/she is moving with the “wrong” RI, keep moving with that RI. Drop your current RI and go “lft” and hope that RL can be reached in the coordinating raidchannel to pick you up. Moving alone will most likely just get you killed faster and risks training other RIs.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 5 - Carving a path
East path does not have any cocooning mobs, but have a fair number of Vectors [Picture of Alien Vector], these keep spawning additional adds, Alien Larvaes, until killed, so are critical targets.
North faces Harvesters, but no Vectors.
West are blessed with both Harvesters and Vectors.
When nearing the tower/boss area, RIs will come to a fence like the one in s13. Beyond this lies a mine field (snares) and another fence. Lagging into the first fence is the cause of many unneeded casualties. If you are experiencing lag, different safety measures include switching to Walk mode, advancing in a zig/zag pattern (short runs from wall to wall) or even backing towards the fence.
If possible (depending on “closeness” of repops) RIs may pull aliens to their side of the fence before moving the entire raid force over. Especially pet professions (fence will kill pets, so they have to be warped over) and multilogged raiders will appreciate passing the first fence without having to fight off cocoons/vectors.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/1fa4c715-a13b-40d9-bb3e-23de12427018/2011-10-03_2150.png
To pass through the fences safely, raiders must each activate/use the Biological Transceiver. This gives the fence protection buff (10 ncu required) which lasts 10 min, usually adequate time for passing between the two fences.
When emerging from the second fence, regular adds are killed, while Pats are killed while to moving towards the “safe spot” in that particular area. The safe spot is where there is minimal risk of aggroing the Pats patrolling the canyon wall and not making the Tower spawn adds, which happen when raiders get near it.[Picture of AoRK map of with safespot for W, N and E. Note that deault AoRK spot may be off sometimes]
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Step 6 - Preparing the battlefield
Due to the potential tower adds melee raiders will kill the remaining Pats, while ranged raiders and pets will open up on the Tower.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/9f0b15e8-528e-4f90-a13e-23b82393da3a/2011-10-03_2158.png
Keep damaging until there is around three blobs left (note number of blobs are dependent on screen resolution). RL will call for fire hold. Being the only one attacking with the rest of the RI screaming at you is rather embarrassing, so best to stop attacking if you have to ninja-afk for bio or whatever.
Use the pause to rebuff if needed.
Prekilling is done in order to ensure timed/synchronized tower kills between West, North and East.
The synchronized killing on the first Tower is technically not necessary, but it serves as essential practice for the second kill.
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Step 7 - S13/28/35 Generals pays a visit
When West, North and East are all prekilled the kill command will be issued in the coordinating raidchannel (usually repeated in RI chat). Pet users should pull their pets, before the tower is completely dead. It is important to have as small an aggro profile as possible, so retreat a little from the tower and ball up on the tank.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/1b95eeee-8b48-4edb-8139-c5777ced12d2/2011-10-03_2205.png North Boss
Upon tower kill the first boss will spawn. East gets the two s35 bosses, North the s13 boss (with multiple adds, no harvesters, but plenty of vectors). West gets a beefed up s28 boss. The Proto-Embalmer at West not only cocoons a lot, but also spawns “fake” cocoons, that looks like regular cocoons, but have twice the hp. [Picture of Alien Cocoon next to "fake" Alien Cocoon, both with hp bar]
When killed they release an Alien Recruit add. [Picture of Alien Recruit]
West also enjoy Reaper adds, large red coloured versions of the twolegged “frog” aliens.[Picture of Alien Reaper]
The disparity between the West and North/East is due the earlier versions of s42, where the main boss only spawned at West.
At some point during the boss fight a Signal Hacker will appear and attempt to respawn the Tower. It is important not to aggro the Signal Hacker before a second tower is spawned (hence the recalling of pets earlier and the balling up on tank). [Picture of Signal Hacker]
If the Signal Hacker is aggroed it can either be killed, which will spawn a new Signal Hacker or lured away and calmed/hatelist wiped, which will make it start popping a new Tower when the calm wears off. Killing is the faster of the two.
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Step 8 - Intermezzo
The loot from these first bosses are the same as the one from their s13/28/35 counterparts, except for the apf nano parts, helmet and apf key parts. Loot is sorted according to whatever is decided (Tnet uses bot auctions, while TRB coop currently flatraffles).
The second tower is prekilled similar to the first.
If the timing is off a new Signal Hacker will appear instead of the AC and pop a new tower. While this in itself is not a major issue each delay brings the hard deadline, when the zone is nuked closer.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 9 - Finale
The main boss, Artillery Commander (AC) will enter the area from the canyon the RI arrived from earlier. It can take anything from 5 seconds to 2 minutes before the AC appears.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/cac97f80-f582-48b2-9cf6-8ef46eb0f212/2011-10-03_2221.png
Raiders spread out with the tank on point to start tanking right away. During the fight the AC will spawn Seekers (similar to the nukeballs from the LE boss)[Picture of Alien Seeker]. Seekers will spawn in waves, with an increasing number in each wave. Seekers will chase raiders and uses a hefty AoE nuke (hence the need to spread out). Snaring Seekers will make kiting/killing them somewhat easier. The tank will also be kiting the AC around to stay out of this nuke. The general consensus is that these spawns are triggered by damage, so stop all DD on the AC while fighting each wave or a Pats add.
Since roots breaks on attack, assisting during this phase will lead to more alpha kills and fewer unsnared Seekers endagering the RI.
Each Seeker wave spawns in a straight line (if multiple waves pops simultaniously, the lines will intersect on the AC), so if raiders reposition themselves ortagonal on this line, they can better overview all the Seekers and somewhat easier spot which are active (unsnared) and thereby gain a slight edge on avoiding them.
When melee raiders are up close with the AC they can keep cycling targets. When a Seeker is tabbed, break of the attack and retreat to a less unsafe distance. Only engage Seekers that they can comfortable finish off with their alpha (as in: not lengthy chainperks).
During the AC fight, stay clear of the canyon walls and the Pats patrolling there. If a raider aggros a Pat, pull it to the tank and have the RI switch all DD onto the adds before returning to the AC.
Some tanks have experimented with tanking the AC and a Pat. Advantages to this approach is that at least one Pat is always under the control of the tank and no time is wasted on killing it or it's repops. Results have varied and the success of this tactic may depend on the make up of the raidforce, both profession and number wise. It may be prudent to check if the tank can comfortably tank a pat, before leaving the start area (Step 2).
The AC also has the ability to call in artillery support. Artillery is a 500k nuke that is triggered by a three step laddering proc (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=260306 http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=260306), which has a 20% chance on each hit with a 1 min cooldown. In plain language: get hit by the proc three times within 2 min and the target is dead, most often the tank. There is a rumor going that using Free Movement stims will cancel the proc. However that is only a myth.
The main defence is init debuffs (both crat and doc) as this obviously reduces the number of hits the AC lands each minute, and minimizes the risk of ladderring the proc.
Presently there is no known direct counter, except having a secondary tank pull agg for the duration of the proc or kiting. Due to the overall rareness of the proc nuke (thanks to extensive init debuffing), this is not standart procedure.
A fast kill will however minimize the amount of tries the AC will have to get "3 in a row".
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 10 - Aftermath
When the AC and possible adds are all killed, loot from the AC can be sorted.
Nodrops: ACDC (Kyr’Ozch Invasion Plans), 2 x Alpha box (apf nano), 2 x Beta box (apf nano), Unlearning device (single IPR)
Yesdrop: 4 misc lead bots (all ql240+)
There is no regular exit, so have a meeper in each team, use beacon/DB codes or death taxi.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/62ec437e-eb6d-43e0-9971-34d2f12aecbd/Sector%2042%20Overview.png
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
What is required to access sector 42?
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290352.gif Decrypted Kyr'Ozch Data Core (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=260424) - better known as The APF Key
To get this item you will need one Kyr'Ozch Data Core from each of the APF Sectors (13,28 and 35)
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290342.gifCore from sector 35 (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=258292)
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290343.gifCore from sector 28 (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=258295)
http://icon.static.xyphos.com/18040600-290344.gifCore from sector 13 (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=258296)
When you have all 3 Kyr'Ozch Cores you can trade them with the Unicorn Access Supervisor outside Sector 42 gates.
He will give you the Decrypted Kyr'Ozch Data Core.
http://static.ao-universe.com/website/images/guides/unicorn_access_supervisor.jpg
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Vocabulary
s42 - Apf Sector 42
s13 - Apf Sector 13
s28 - Apf Sector 28
s35 - Apf Sector 35
Apf - Alien PlayField
RL - Raid Leader
RI - Raid Interface
AC - Artillery Commander (main boss(es))
Mid - Middle area of s42
West/W - path and target area for taken by one RI
North/N - path and target area for taken by one RI
East/E - path and target area for taken by one RI
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
The sector is an uninstanced playfield in the Outzones. Due to the manpower required most raids are coordinated well in advance and timeslots are sorted between the various “movers”.
Usually S42 is run in three separate RaidInterfaces due to the need to split up the raiders to achieve three geographically seperated objectives (killing towers at W,N and E).
Each RI has its own RL, tank, callers, etc.
Repops in s42 are fairly quick, so raid forces have to be able to slay aliens fairly efficient and keep advancing deeper into the zone, otherwise they will eventually be overwhelmed by the repops.
Due to the speed of repops and the quantity and difficulty of the mobs, soloing back to a raid force is unrealistic and not advisable. In case of an RI wiping, before the access nano runs out, it can reenter and attempt to fight its way back to its objective.
The raid can be broken down in to 10 steps
1) Sorting RI/teams prior to entering
2) Entering and last minute stuff
3) Moving towards Mid
4) RI separate towards separate objectives at Mid
5) Each RI moves down its path towards tower/boss area (including fence area)
6) Prekilling of towers
7) Synchronized killing of towers and killing of first boss at W,N and E
8) Lootsorting and prekilling of newly spawned towers
9) Synchronized killing of towers and killing of primary boss at W, N, and E
10) Lootsorting and zone exit
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 1 - Gathering
Since s42 is a timed raid (the sector is “nuked from space” 1½h after the raid is started), it is important to have RIs sorted before entering. Each RI must have at least 1 enforcer (DB nanos preferably), 2 docs minimum, 1 crat, some reflects (soldier/engineer) and AoE snares (fixer/trader?/nt?) will prove helpful.
Tank and healers will be using a lot of nano, so will benefit from –%nanocost and nano regain buffs. If those are not available, fellow raiders must be ready to nanostim primarily the tank.
Two callers pr. RI are the norm since some mobs (Drone Harvesters) will cocoon players. Callers may want to disable various visual effects to better spot critical targets (Cocoons, Vectors).
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 2 - Entering S42
Only start talking to the Unicorn NPC, when the command is given, due to the timed nature of the access nano (in case of an early wipe, it is only possible to reenter if this nano has not expired). Continue talking to the Unicorn NPC after you’ve have given him the s42 key (due to an exploit preventing mechanic it is unfortunately possible to be locked out without getting the access nano). The access nano requires 40 NCU.
Upon entering RIs will verify that everybody made it inside and adjust if that is not the case. Final buff up and procs are usually done here, while the overall RL starts the mission by talking to the omni NPC (Fabio) inside. Caller macro should be repeated/reposted during phase.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 3 - Moving towards Mid
When moving towards Mid all three RI will move north along the canyon. In this phase killing will be fast, so the main risk may be lagging ahead or stepping on a mine and moving painfully slow compared to everybody else steaming ahead.
The raid will encounter the first Heavy Alien Patrollers (pats). These mobs have a large HP bar and repops faster than any of the other mobs, so pats are debuffed (this is where the crat comes in (Malaise)) and pulled along.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/19c4af7d-9d69-41f3-af52-e3df9928d92a/2011-10-03_2138.png
Pats will travel a long way when they repop, so rule of thumb is not to kill those gather while moving towards Mid, before closing in on the fences. One tactic to distinguish between "early" pats from the move towards Mid and "late" pats from after Mid is damaging "early" pats and leaving the other alone.
Which RI that gets the pats from the push towards Mid fall under Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and is up to each RI to handle.
As the canyon begins to widen near Mid, the raid will encounter the first Drone Harvester (large variant of the two-legged aliens).
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/205b180b-ec79-4880-b321-782df1a2416f/2011-10-03_2145.png
These will rush to a player and sacrifice itself in order to cocoon that player. With the tank out in front, it’s is one of the prime targets and this cocoon (followed closely by all other cocoons) are priority kills.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/c6843367-74bf-4409-8579-cacaf2e6d6c5/2011-10-03_2147.png
Around here calling starts to differ with the callers preferences. In larger raids it is possible to kill the Drone Harvesters before anyone is cocooned (always good), but smaller raids may not have a sufficient damage to kill Harvesters before they cocoon a target, leading to a “wasted alpha” as the partially killed mob will sacrifice itself as it intended to and coon the player, no matter how damaged it was. Some callers therefore hold back on calling Harvesters and either call a low hp alien while waiting for the inevitable cocoon to call or flat out don’t call anything before the cocoon.
Callers should look out for tell tale sign of impeding cocooning such as when a Drone Harvester in front of a players. It will take a moment before the cocoon appears, but knowing where a cocoon will appear will cut down on reponse time.
If a player is cocooned in the midst of a horse of aliens it can be difficult to target it. One technique is the caller targetting him or herself, running on top on the cocoon and alt tabbing to it.
If a player doesn’t have any other “assignments” they can help the callers by looting the dead cocoons, so the callers can spot and call new ones as they appear. This also minimizes the risk of the RI moving on, unaware that some raiders are still cocooned.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 4 - Mid, time to part ways
At Mid there are A LOT of aliens, so be careful not to lag ahead and aggro all of them.
The West RI will follow the western canyon wall right away, while East RI and North RI will move along the eastern canyon wall until East RI reaches its path.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/88243d4d-dff9-4a9f-b4e1-ed0f4e89d74d/2011-10-03_2140.png West separating from North and East
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/b08fd6be-b2c4-4777-8f54-ad2f5e5e143a/2011-10-03_2142.png North and East separating
During this phase it is imperative that all raiders pay attention to where the rest of the RI is heading. The number of aliens and the presence of multiple RIs make this non-trivial for inexperienced raiders. A glance at the playfield/minimap now and again will confirm that a raider is moving with the right RI.
If a raider, unfamiliar with the zone, realize he/she is moving with the “wrong” RI, keep moving with that RI. Drop your current RI and go “lft” and hope that RL can be reached in the coordinating raidchannel to pick you up. Moving alone will most likely just get you killed faster and risks training other RIs.
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 5 - Carving a path
East path does not have any cocooning mobs, but have a fair number of Vectors [Picture of Alien Vector], these keep spawning additional adds, Alien Larvaes, until killed, so are critical targets.
North faces Harvesters, but no Vectors.
West are blessed with both Harvesters and Vectors.
When nearing the tower/boss area, RIs will come to a fence like the one in s13. Beyond this lies a mine field (snares) and another fence. Lagging into the first fence is the cause of many unneeded casualties. If you are experiencing lag, different safety measures include switching to Walk mode, advancing in a zig/zag pattern (short runs from wall to wall) or even backing towards the fence.
If possible (depending on “closeness” of repops) RIs may pull aliens to their side of the fence before moving the entire raid force over. Especially pet professions (fence will kill pets, so they have to be warped over) and multilogged raiders will appreciate passing the first fence without having to fight off cocoons/vectors.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/1fa4c715-a13b-40d9-bb3e-23de12427018/2011-10-03_2150.png
To pass through the fences safely, raiders must each activate/use the Biological Transceiver. This gives the fence protection buff (10 ncu required) which lasts 10 min, usually adequate time for passing between the two fences.
When emerging from the second fence, regular adds are killed, while Pats are killed while to moving towards the “safe spot” in that particular area. The safe spot is where there is minimal risk of aggroing the Pats patrolling the canyon wall and not making the Tower spawn adds, which happen when raiders get near it.[Picture of AoRK map of with safespot for W, N and E. Note that deault AoRK spot may be off sometimes]
http://www.polbear.no/red/trbbar.jpg
Step 6 - Preparing the battlefield
Due to the potential tower adds melee raiders will kill the remaining Pats, while ranged raiders and pets will open up on the Tower.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/9f0b15e8-528e-4f90-a13e-23b82393da3a/2011-10-03_2158.png
Keep damaging until there is around three blobs left (note number of blobs are dependent on screen resolution). RL will call for fire hold. Being the only one attacking with the rest of the RI screaming at you is rather embarrassing, so best to stop attacking if you have to ninja-afk for bio or whatever.
Use the pause to rebuff if needed.
Prekilling is done in order to ensure timed/synchronized tower kills between West, North and East.
The synchronized killing on the first Tower is technically not necessary, but it serves as essential practice for the second kill.
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Step 7 - S13/28/35 Generals pays a visit
When West, North and East are all prekilled the kill command will be issued in the coordinating raidchannel (usually repeated in RI chat). Pet users should pull their pets, before the tower is completely dead. It is important to have as small an aggro profile as possible, so retreat a little from the tower and ball up on the tank.
http://content.screencast.com/users/Ole_Christiansen/folders/Jing/media/1b95eeee-8b48-4edb-8139-c5777ced12d2/2011-10-03_2205.png North Boss
Upon tower kill the first boss will spawn. East gets the two s35 bosses, North the s13 boss (with multiple adds, no harvesters, but plenty of vectors). West gets a beefed up s28 boss. The Proto-Embalmer at West not only cocoons a lot, but also spawns “fake” cocoons, that looks like regular cocoons, but have twice the hp. [Picture of Alien Cocoon next to "fake" Alien Cocoon, both with hp bar]
When killed they release an Alien Recruit add. [Picture of Alien Recruit]
West also enjoy Reaper adds, large red coloured versions of the twolegged “frog” aliens.[Picture of Alien Reaper]
The disparity between the West and North/East is due the earlier versions of s42, where the main boss only spawned at West.
At some point during the boss fight a Signal Hacker will appear and attempt to respawn the Tower. It is important not to aggro the Signal Hacker before a second tower is spawned (hence the recalling of pets earlier and the balling up on tank). [Picture of Signal Hacker]
If the Signal Hacker is aggroed it can either be killed, which will spawn a new Signal Hacker or lured away and calmed/hatelist wiped, which will make it start popping a new Tower when the calm wears off. Killing is the faster of the two.
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Step 8 - Intermezzo
The loot from these first bosses are the same as the one from their s13/28/35 counterparts, except for the apf nano parts, helmet and apf key parts. Loot is sorted according to whatever is decided (Tnet uses bot auctions, while TRB coop currently flatraffles).
The second tower is prekilled similar to the first.
If the timing is off a new Signal Hacker will appear instead of the AC and pop a new tower. While this in itself is not a major issue each delay brings the hard deadline, when the zone is nuked closer.
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Step 9 - Finale
The main boss, Artillery Commander (AC) will enter the area from the canyon the RI arrived from earlier. It can take anything from 5 seconds to 2 minutes before the AC appears.
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Raiders spread out with the tank on point to start tanking right away. During the fight the AC will spawn Seekers (similar to the nukeballs from the LE boss)[Picture of Alien Seeker]. Seekers will spawn in waves, with an increasing number in each wave. Seekers will chase raiders and uses a hefty AoE nuke (hence the need to spread out). Snaring Seekers will make kiting/killing them somewhat easier. The tank will also be kiting the AC around to stay out of this nuke. The general consensus is that these spawns are triggered by damage, so stop all DD on the AC while fighting each wave or a Pats add.
Since roots breaks on attack, assisting during this phase will lead to more alpha kills and fewer unsnared Seekers endagering the RI.
Each Seeker wave spawns in a straight line (if multiple waves pops simultaniously, the lines will intersect on the AC), so if raiders reposition themselves ortagonal on this line, they can better overview all the Seekers and somewhat easier spot which are active (unsnared) and thereby gain a slight edge on avoiding them.
When melee raiders are up close with the AC they can keep cycling targets. When a Seeker is tabbed, break of the attack and retreat to a less unsafe distance. Only engage Seekers that they can comfortable finish off with their alpha (as in: not lengthy chainperks).
During the AC fight, stay clear of the canyon walls and the Pats patrolling there. If a raider aggros a Pat, pull it to the tank and have the RI switch all DD onto the adds before returning to the AC.
Some tanks have experimented with tanking the AC and a Pat. Advantages to this approach is that at least one Pat is always under the control of the tank and no time is wasted on killing it or it's repops. Results have varied and the success of this tactic may depend on the make up of the raidforce, both profession and number wise. It may be prudent to check if the tank can comfortably tank a pat, before leaving the start area (Step 2).
The AC also has the ability to call in artillery support. Artillery is a 500k nuke that is triggered by a three step laddering proc (http://www.xyphos.com/ao/aodb.php?id=260306 http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=260306), which has a 20% chance on each hit with a 1 min cooldown. In plain language: get hit by the proc three times within 2 min and the target is dead, most often the tank. There is a rumor going that using Free Movement stims will cancel the proc. However that is only a myth.
The main defence is init debuffs (both crat and doc) as this obviously reduces the number of hits the AC lands each minute, and minimizes the risk of ladderring the proc.
Presently there is no known direct counter, except having a secondary tank pull agg for the duration of the proc or kiting. Due to the overall rareness of the proc nuke (thanks to extensive init debuffing), this is not standart procedure.
A fast kill will however minimize the amount of tries the AC will have to get "3 in a row".
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Step 10 - Aftermath
When the AC and possible adds are all killed, loot from the AC can be sorted.
Nodrops: ACDC (Kyr’Ozch Invasion Plans), 2 x Alpha box (apf nano), 2 x Beta box (apf nano), Unlearning device (single IPR)
Yesdrop: 4 misc lead bots (all ql240+)
There is no regular exit, so have a meeper in each team, use beacon/DB codes or death taxi.
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