17.8 Dustbrigade Encounter

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Hyde
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17.8 Dustbrigade Encounter

Post by Hyde »

I just thought I'd share some notes on the new Aune encounter from 17.8 while they are fresh in my head. This is not a complete guide, you can find more information on the AO forums, and some bits may be wrong. This is just a braindump to get you started.

First off this playfield is easier than the other Dustbrigade dungeon if you know how to build your team.

IDEAL TEAM

* Soldier with full reflects (by that I mean AMS V, energy and cold damage reflect bracer, Ofab back, etc). You want the Soldier to have 55% or higher reflect -without- AMS and over 100% reflect with AMS and a Keeper in team.

* Crat. Stuns stuns stuns along with init debuffs that will land on the boss. As far as I can tell Doc UBT won't land on the boss. Doc procs will, but those aren't completely reliable. Crat will also be used to mezz the adds (more on that later) and re-mezz them as needed.

* Healer. Yes ... I'm saying you DON'T need a Doctor. Doctor is preferred, but in a pinch a good Agent or Advy can do. I p0xed more than once as the only "healer" in my team except for a Keeper and had time to make it back to the instance to find the Soldier and team at -full- health. However it was Anisher and, well, he's one of the best around. I would only recommend NOT using a Doc if you're desparate and DO have a Keeper (not just for heal aura but for reflects).

Doc note: You're going to be debuffed by -2.1K nano init. Get all the +nano init buff gear you can get. I was able to keep 940 init during the debuff and it IS enough to keep people alive even if you can't remove the debuff for awhile.

* Keeper ... running reflect aura. This person will be running around knocking down the debuff towers.

You can STOP there. I ran at least 8 successful instances tonight with just the above. However the following would fill out the dream team:

* Engineer ... backup reflect aura, pets for damage (put the Engineer on the debuff towers), and possibly most importantly they can warp dead team mates back ... and that's another reason to put them on towers instead of the boss ... so that they can warp people back. If you can't get a Keeper but want to try a 4-person team I'd make Eng the 4th.

* Almost any other prof to fill in the last slot will work. Agent, Advy, Enfo for backup tanking (Enfo CAN tank the instance, but it is a lot more work and you WILL need a Doc + backup healer, sorry Mud), MP for heals + debuffs, NT if you don't have a crat to mezz, Fixer is probably near the bottom of this list but HoTs will keep a Soldier alive a long time. See Mud? I put my Fixer at the bottom of the list.


MECHANICS

Aune will throw 2 major debuffs at you. Read more about these on the main AO forums. However the main things are:

* Blue - full reflect and warps

* Red - ranged attacks heal Aune

The only way to remove these is to kill the tower that pops up along the outer edge.

I'm missing alot about the debuffs here I think.

* Aune will cast a -2.1K init and evade debuffs (most people will go to negative evades ... if you do expect EVERY hit to be a crit). I'm not sure if this happens when Red tower is up, or just often seems that way. It also triggers an occasional 50 second DoT that will hit you for 700-1100 depending on your Energy reflect. You will NOT get the DoT if you don't have the Red debuff on.

TIP: The init debuff affects your nano init so much that you can usually see the DoT executing. Jump. It will cancel the DoT nano before it hits you.

The init debuff (I forget the name at the moment, Machine something) can only be removed by dieing, waiting 30 minutes, (edit) killing the red tower, or spotting the Notum cloud that appears for around 10-20 seconds. Problem is it will appear all around the field, and you have to get to it. It is NOT a 1-use item, all team members CAN use it if they make it there on time (some people think 1 person is all it will work for and try to make the team save it for the Doc or Tank).

Aune will also do the fun Seismic Activity stun / debuff that will for a short time drop inits another 1.5K. Yep, that's right, -3.6K inits during that time if you have the red debuff.


STRATEGY

* Bring free movement stims for the stuns. Even if you're NOT the healer, bring them in case the healer forgets.

* Mezz and snare the adds at the ENTRANCE. That means pull them there. This will keep them from respawning on you 1/2 way through the encounter and keep them out of aggro range. I think the crat had to go remezz, but with a long snare it won't matter unless you have someone die and need to re-enter.

* Keep at least 1 person running around the outside to kill the debuff towers when they pop. This person will occasionally get warped into the center fight, they need to go back out to towers ASAP. They may not be adding to the damage on the boss, but they need to be in place when the towers come up. I believe there are 6 towers total. They pop in a fairly predictable order / location based on Aune's shouts.

Someone please document the order/locations/shouts ... as a Doc I was never on tower duty.

* Soldier goes in first and builds aggro on Aune. Others follow quickly (sort of) after.

* Doc should focus on rebuffing temp HP and HoTs when Soldier has AMS up. While in AMS the Soldier should take zero damage. Save your AoEs and other heal perks for when you're stunned (no, they won't work when stunned, but can be handy to pop immediately after) and then in -3.6K inits for a few seconds.

* STAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CATWALKS WHEN MOVING ... don't walk around the edge. The game will see you lag off the edge too often and you DIE (90-130K nuke, depending on reflects). Stop at corners for a second to help prevent this. If you have problems knowing how far to jump, rotate your camera above your head.

NOTE: As of 17.8's release the game has severe sync issues, so sometimes even if you don't MOVE the game will think you fell off the catwalk and you DIE. Some people do better in WALK mode (but need to switch to run to jump across the catwalks). Some do worse in walk mode. You'll have to play with it to see. Hopefully they fix this very soon.

* Save in Hope or in Inferno Garden. After a night of it I think Hope is the better choice. If you save in Inferno, exit to Sorrow, run past Petrified Hecklers, and jump to RK. Then fly straight East. From Hope just fly East. Seems to be the same amount of time, but in Hope you don't need to mess with rings/boots.


...

Like I said, not a complete guide. Feel free to add more specifics on the debuffs, towers, etc here.

...

LOOT

(% chances based only on my experience ... sorry, not going to look up the exact names here)

* Infused bracer - 100% chance of 1 dropping

* Notum Infusers (need 10 to fully upgrade the bracer, need 1 each for the Vision unit and Ancient Defender) - 100% chance of 2 dropping

YEP ... that means you will see approximately 5 times the number of bracers drop that are needed, since only 2 infusers drop per bracer.

* Black upgrade for Biodome armor (chest and I THINK helmet, but maybe it is pants instead of helmet) ... 100% chance of 1. Seems to be about a 20% chance of 2.

* White upgrade for Biodome armor (all other spots) ... 100% chance of 4 dropping, seems around a 33% chance of 5.

* Notum Solar Infuser (for upgrading Engineer pistol) ... 100% chance of 1

* new Engineer pistol ... 100% chance of 1

* Enhanced Dustbrigade boots / sleeve / pants / notum gloves / chemist gloves ... 100% chance of 1 of those dropping, seemed like an even chance. This is great for people needing sleeves/pants who don't want to farm them in the old instance where they were more rare. I didn't see the chests dropping.
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Hyde
Hyde!
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:26 am

Post by Hyde »

minor update: the init debuff is removed when the red tower is killed
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