Raid Lair Encounter #2 Strategy *SPOILERS* (Destiny)

by Blackt1g3r , Login is from an untrusted domain in MN, Thursday, December 14, 2017, 10:01 (2479 days ago)

How the encounter seems to work:

• Picking up the first Vex Cranium begins the encounter.
  
• Quantum Mines spawn in at a regular cadence in clockwise order from wherever they first spawn
  
• Quantum Mines have a random set of elements needed to destroy them (possibly a limit for the total number of each element?)
  
• There are three elemental sections with an Altar of three flames in a triangular shape in each section.
  
• Depositing a Vex Cranium in one of the Altars will charge that cranium with the element represented in that section.
  
• Each Altar flame can only charge a single cranium.
  
• Vex Craniums take a little while to charge (10 seconds?)
  
• Picking up a charged Vex Cranium allows you to shoot a beam of elemental energy to destroy a mine.
  
• A single Vex Cranium can be used to kill at most 2 mines if no energy is wasted, typically you can only kill one mine.
  
• Charging a Vex Cranium causes a Minotaur to appear in that section.
  
• There are at most 6 Vex Craniums available at any given time.
  
• Craniums can be used to kill adds pretty quickly because they do quite a bit of damage.

We tried a few different strategies. At first, we brought two Vex Craniums to each Altar, but the random nature of the mine elements means you could get three of a single element at which point you'd end up wiping because you won't have enough charged Vex Craniums to prevent a wipe. Next, we tried splitting the team into two roles - runners who are responsible for acquiring and charging the Vex Craniums, and defenders whose job was to call out the next set of Mines and keep the Altars clear of adds. We found that it took us too long to deal with the mines and over time we weren't quite able to keep up as new mines spawned.

What finally worked for us was this:

• At the start, we positioned everyone to grab one of the Craniums (tracking the locations of the second craniums which appear after the first ones are picked up).
  
• We placed the first three Vex Craniums at each Altar so we had one of each element charging.
  
• We called the first set of three elements and the second set of three craniums were then delivered based on that set. (So if the first set is 2x void and 1x solar, then two Craniums would be placed in the void Altars to make 3 charging void Craniums.)
  
• We continued to call who was grabbing a Cranium and where it would be taken as new mines appeared.

When we did it correctly, we generally destroyed all three mines well in advance of the next set appearing which gave us time to keep the adds clear. Rather than using dedicated roles we just focused on good communication to decide where the Craniums needed to go and who was taking them. Keeping one Cranium baking at each Altar helped us ensure we could get an early lead on the mines.

What worked for other teams? Did we miss any observations in this encounter?