So I'm signed up for tonight's PS4 challenge mode event, but I just wanted to let everyone know up front that I won't be able to go super late tonight (last night's 4am marathon may or may not have something to do with it). So I'm still good to go for tonight, but if there is anyone else who can dedicate more time and would like to take my place, I'd happily step aside. I'd hate to cut things off for everyone just as we're getting into a groove tonight.

I can't go terribly late myself.

I can't go terribly late myself.

I can go at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half... just can't pull another crazy late night.

It looks like half the group running tonight are from last night's group, so that should help. Hopefully it will run a bit more smoothly.

The biggest difficulty we had last night was the encounter doing strange things. Ogres would teleport just before (or sometimes just after) death, making them a bit of a nightmare to manage at times. We had many wipes because of weirdness like that.

The other thing we ran into fairly often is staggering Oryx. Everyone really needs to be 100% on the ball when it comes to hitting him as he opens his chest. I was running Hung Jury/Eirene RR4/Sleeper Simulant for the fight. I used my Eirene (super high impact 318 sniper) on his chest for the first hour or so, but after constant wipes I switched to my 318 Simulant, and that worked way better. We would often stagger him before I even had time to fire a second shot. So I would strongly recommend running with the Sleeper if you can. It's fantastic for bringing down Ogres and the Shades as well.

I am also willing to step aside as needed, I know Vortech wanted to get in and didn't make a sign-up this week. I'd prefer someone's main gets this rather than me getting it again with my alt-y titan.

I'm not sure I did my sore throat any favors by staying up so late last night. But I don't regret it. :D

Once we had 2 people switch to using touch of malice (and probably cruel using sleeper) we seemed to have much less trouble keeping oryx's chest open. My sleeper is ~290, so I may stick with my 318 quillim's terminus. Because light. I'll probably switch it up and use touch of malice myself, but otherwise stick with my 1000 yard stare as secondary.

Coordination is king and we all need to be on the ball. Being 2 seconds behind can cause a wipe. I saved a clip of my "get-the-job-done" performance last night when we did it, I'll see about posting that later today.

Also, I kind of wish I had done it on normal first then done hard mode to get it all down. If someone can come up with a checkpoint it might be good to get a good groove going in normal, get everyone in a good solid role, then jump in on hard mode. But we may not have time either.

Lastly, I'll try to be on a bit earlier, if everyone can make it 30 minutes sooner that might give us more wiggle room. No pressure if not though.

Coordination is king and we all need to be on the ball. Being 2 seconds behind can cause a wipe.

The thing is though, I think while it's tight you can have a little wiggle room. I'm sorry for the intensity of the resulting discussion, but I think that one particular wipe could have been salvaged had I been the one to call 1 up rather than the runner. I think it's worth sharing since it caused us a bit of grief (probably due to it being so late and long):

Ottermack was the runner and I was on the first platform. Because the timing is so tight, Ottermack would simply call "1up" when he was on the platform, expecting me to be right behind him. This particular time, I bounced off the lip of the platform and had to jump again. So I was not on the platform when he said 1-up. So SpeedRacer heard 1-up, and leapt on to two exactly as he should have. However because Ottermack had started climbing the platforms, and thus left the circle, I stepped on it right as it deactivated, causing the platforms to fade since Speedracer's were up and now they were out of sequence.

Now, it was totally my fault, but all I was trying to say was that when you say your platform is up, that means it's safe for the next person. It was not safe in that case. Again, it was my fault, and Ottermack can't see me. However, if I would have called 1-up the second I got on the platform, even if it was slightly late, they wouldn't have gone out of sequence and it might have been okay. I just didn't think the relic runner is in a position to determine whether it's safe to step on the platform, because they have their own worries.

Another piece of advice is if your platform is third. It can be tricky to get your knight before Oryx / the ads start shooting you.

1. Use Sleeper Simulant. It one shots the knights!
2. If you can't drop down and stay alive. A tether on the far side can help immensely get the knight that you missed. I also really liked Munky's positioning on the daughter's platforms, as it seemed like he was always able to kill errant knights.

As for Ogres, it seems killing them quickly really helps to avoid them teleporting. You can almost tell when they are going to, as they start to behave erratically.

Good luck tonight, and I'm sure it will be way faster and easier.

Slycrel told me about the strategy used last night.

Would anyone be against using the person manning the 4th platform as a 2nd floater for more ogre dmg? Or is it better for the 4th platform player to stay near their assigned platform?

Once we had 2 people switch to using touch of malice (and probably cruel using sleeper) we seemed to have much less trouble keeping oryx's chest open. My sleeper is ~290, so I may stick with my 318 quillim's terminus. Because light. I'll probably switch it up and use touch of malice myself, but otherwise stick with my 1000 yard stare as secondary.

Am I going to be okay with my 320 Black Spindle? I don't have Touch of Malice or Sleeper Simulant (tho I have started each quest).

Here is our victory last night from my perspective.

Don't judge. :)

https://youtu.be/tDS9JMGdYsE

The thing is though, I think while it's tight you can have a little wiggle room. I'm sorry for the intensity of the resulting discussion, but I think that one particular wipe could have been salvaged had I been the one to call 1 up rather than the runner. I think it's worth sharing since it caused us a bit of grief (probably due to it being so late and long):

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, if you don't detonate any corrupted light you don't need a runner, yeah? So couldn't we all just kill ogers & adds together? The purpose of the runner is to get the the relic so you can take the protective orb from that one knight, yeah? We should only need to do the runner once, on the 4th round, when we detonate all 16.

Seriously. We didn't think about that at all.

Seriously. We didn't think about that at all.

Well, hopefully tonight will go even smoother. :)

I couldn't say much last night, but for the record I totally agree with you, Cody. Yes, you should have been right behind Ottermack. But something went wrong and you weren't. If everyone had been waiting for your signal instead of Otter's, Otter and Speedracer could have waited a split second for you to get into position and everything would have been fine.

Is the yellow knight immune until we steal his buff? I can't remember for sure...

Here is our victory last night from my perspective.

Don't judge. :)

https://youtu.be/tDS9JMGdYsE

Thanks for this. You guys make it seem pretty simple, actually. (Your Last Extremity is a BEAST. I need to get one or two primaries up some more light levels.)

I thought this fight would be un-doable without a majority of ToMs - doesn't seem to be the case. Interesting!

(I'm also jealous that I didn't see a single Ogre go rogue - happens to the groups I'm in ALL THE TIME. ;) )

- No text -

Seriously. We didn't think about that at all.

I mean, I could be wrong, but I thought Cody said that on hard mode only the 4 new knights will eat/detonate the corrupted light, and not the yellow Vassal knight. I'm having trouble finding out if this detail is correct or not.

Yeah, I really really like my last extremity. It's got a great roll on it and I've not found a better scout for my high impact needs. =) It's currently at 310, I think at 312-313 it will shine even more.

You're also watching the pinnacle of about 4 hours worth of work on our part. Re-watching that video we had a lot of things go right for us, but mostly it was about everyone being coordinated and in their proper place. I also noticed that I could be using my heavy more often, I almost always saved it for the ogres, but maybe shouldn't have.

Is the yellow knight immune until we steal his buff? I can't remember for sure...

Yes, the question is, do we really have to kill him? I was under the impression he didn't eat the light on hard mode and only the 4 new knights did. If he doesn't eat the light then we COULD leave him roaming around and hide in titan bubbles.

- No text -

So, this is the clip of what I trimmed from our second to last attempt.

https://youtu.be/O5jPBbPF1Ws

In the last 20 seconds or so you can see what happens when the vassal does a beeline to the corrupted light.

You have to kill the vassal, and to do so means you need to get the relic, which means you have to stand on the platforms, which means you have to kill ogres. I don't see any way around it.

I really hate that dropship by the way. Usually it's fine but sometimes it hits me out of nowhere like in this clip.

(I'm also jealous that I didn't see a single Ogre go rogue - happens to the groups I'm in ALL THE TIME. ;) )

Yeah, rogue Ogres (roguers? Rogogers?) caused many problems for us last night. The only thing that really seems to help it killing them as fast as humanly possible. The longer they are out and about, the more likely they are to do crazy things. Having someone hit them with a sniper crit right as they're about to start walking seems to help as well.

well then, I retract my previous comment.

Vessel in this sense is a very uncommon usage, meaning something similar to embodiment. I never liked it. I like Vassal much more!

- No text -

- No text -

- No text -

No the yellow Knight eats the corrupted light. We used this occasionally to have him clean up light in the middle where we could accidentally set it off.

Dregs are Gregs, Vessel is Vassal. It's done.

Titan bubble train on the daughters platforms (to protect from the ogres), leave all the ogres up (with a sliver of health) until we have 12, 3 titans drop bubbles on the platforms as they jump on (to protect from the ogres), grab the relic, steal the brand, kill the vessel and ogres, detonate all 16.

ok, not really. It's fraught with problems. ;-P :)

I think I'll be on and could sub in

As you guys know, I'm not a horrible player but continue to be under geared and under light/leveled. I finally broke the 300 threshold but only barely. Up to 303 I think?
I'm a warm body and could fill a simple role in a pinch.