Avocet organized a Dr. V mish yesterday. At my suggestion (heh), he kept it small — himself (at 20), Velvet, P-Siren, and Boulder Dude’s Zazi. That gave us a blaster, a tank, a defender (bubbler), and a scrapper. That worked out to be a fine combo.
The mission went actually pretty smoothly. We carefully but steadly moved through the sewer complex, pulling individuals as we could and dealing with the consequences when we couldn’t. I was at 19, and most of the Abominations were white or yellow, the foes ranging up to various Eidolons at red. We gave priority to taking down the Eidolons and Mortificators, then polished off the rest.
When we got to the final chamber, we started drawing bad guys into the tunnel leading down to it, then taking them down. Eventually we pulled (with a little bit of “flying aggro pull”) the Reapers and Abominations off to the right. The biggest problem we had was with the Abominations forgetting, half-way there, where they were going or why, and needing a bit of taunting/pulling to keep coming. That cleaning out made the final battle a lot easier.
At length, just the top platform was occupied. P-Siren zapped one of the Reapers, and that was enough to bring the Bad Doctor himself. Zazi had already stealthed in and dealt with the bodies, so the mish was technically over. That meant that, if things got really hairy, we could, as a last resort, mish out (though not get back in if we did). Clever planning by Avocet, that …
So Dr. V, with one Reaper in tow (thank heavens), headed over. I pumped up my Dull Pain, popped a heavy-duty Accuracy (he was “only” 20, but Purple), and Zazi and I met him at the opening to the tunnel, with Avo on high guard and PS up close for mental attacks and keeping up bubbles.
It was a pretty straightforward if lengthy and endurance-tab-popping slog. The pic at top shows Velvet in front, Zazi slicing from the right, P-Siren in the middle with the bubbling and Reaper-punching; Avo was out of reach (and frame), but you can see the icy results of his hold …
A long slog, yes. None of us really got hurt, but Velvet was down to her last breath by the time V dropped. W00T!
The temptation at that point was to rush right in, but that’s what got V in trouble last time. We did it by the numbers, moving around to the back of the platform and taking out the groups there. Then it was time for a group picture or three (see below – L-R Velvet, Zazi, Avocet, P-Siren), and mish out.
Nice XP, as I recall — several hundred for the mish and again for Dr. V. Velvet is now about Level 19.75, about 2-3 hours from levelling based on the rate we were going (which was probably high). We played for about 2+ hours, so it wasn’t a huge time sink, either.
The team worked very well, and was pretty balanced. No healers, but didn’t seem to need that much. And, being only four in size, we didn’t up the mob numbers or levels, which was also a good thing.
- Zazi’s stealth was invaluable for scouting and for clearing the mish at the end. Also a fine scrapper, BD ran her around nicely to take on the guys Velvet wasn’t drawing at any given moment. She had a tendency to run a bit far forward a bit fast, but that’s a scrapper for you (and the stealth — usually — helped avoid succeeding incidents).
- Avo had done his homework and ran the group nicely. His high overwatch blasting was generally positive, though early on we had some of the usual “Hey, I had that group aggroed and you not only scattered them with knockback, but you knocked back the one I had Follow on and ran me out of the remaining pack” incidents. As someone who has a knocking-back blaster himself, I can appreciate the problem from Avo’s end. When he focused on (Dr V melee aside) holding and zapping strays and watching the backfield and our defender, he was at his best.
- Margie was uncertain whether to bring in P-Siren, and I retported that bubbles were always welcome (even if their utility vs Toxic Vomit is limited). She did her usual fine job with the long-range pulls, keeping us bubbled, and generally providing support (“Mortificator! Mortificator!”).
- I was pretty pleased by how Velvet did. She drew aggro nicely, I was able to usually use Taunt to good effect (though I still need work on that), and she never really took much damage. Even against Abominations her Unyielding kept her on her feet. Aside from chronically running low on Endurance (an old lament), she worked well in her job slot. Plus she’s fun to play. Biggest problem I had was making sure my reticle was where I wanted it — too often I targeted some mob yards away to taunt, then didn’t retarget the guys in front of me so that I could hit them.
All in all, a very satisfactory evening, and far superior to my first Dr. V adventure.
Margie coordinated putting three groups together to do it, from three people who had the mission ready to go. It’s evidently pretty popular, since one of the juggling jobs she did was trying to fit in both folks within the specified level (12-15) and folks up higher (some much higher) who wanted to Exemplar down to do it.
W00T! Transcendent badge!
Mmmmm … carpet …
Friday afternoon I did a fair amount of work with Torchielle, getting her up a couple of levels as I worked with a pick-up team. Good fun, particularly once I got her travel power, Super Jump. I like her a lot, and would like to play her more.
Worked out well, even though we were running mostly endless warehouse mishes (to the point of having some idea where the mobs were going to be), be they Council, Hellions, or Lost. On the bright side, the mishes were all at level, meaning we were going up against white-yellow, with occasional orange, or (in one case) yellow-orange with occasional red (mmmmm, spicy Aberrent Rectors).