What we do is more... modular. You always help the person on your left. When helping, you shoot the bottom arrow. When shooting your own set of arrows, you shoot the top arrow.

Why not pair off and always shoot the same arrow (top, or bottom)? Less switching, less confusion.

This method makes all four positions function identically, and if one of your raiders is replaced for some reason, anyone who knows this method can jump right in regardless of which position they're filling. One last note: There's a strategy on the internet that has helpers shooting to the right. This is an inferior method. When you help the left hand guy, you can then watch the runner as he approaches your position and be 100% prepared. You'll never be surprised by him showing up.

I don't see why you'd be off your platform and unprepared when the runner calls out… If everyone starts on their platforms, and leaves only to punch the psion, then gets back on, you're not going to be surprised.

Remember… you can shoot another person's arrows without being on your own platform. In this way right has the advantage. You don't have to get back on your platform right away after killing your psion.

If you're looking right and one runner is faster than the other, he might surprise you. If you're looking left, you'll know he's on his way. Edge case, I admit.

Counterpoint -- the other night we did it with the shooters "helping left" instead of helping on the right (which was my first time doing it that way). I actually had more difficulty helping the person on the left in time - probably precisely because one of the runners was faster than the other. By the time I shot my arrows and went to punch my Psion and head back to my platform, there were a few times that I was surprised to hear that the runner was already approaching the platform to my left and I was a little late to place the assisting bullets on the appropriate arrow over there.

What we do is more... modular. You always help the person on your left. When helping, you shoot the bottom arrow. When shooting your own set of arrows, you shoot the top arrow.

Why not pair off and always shoot the same arrow (top, or bottom)? Less switching, less confusion.

This method makes all four positions function identically, and if one of your raiders is replaced for some reason, anyone who knows this method can jump right in regardless of which position they're filling. One last note: There's a strategy on the internet that has helpers shooting to the right. This is an inferior method. When you help the left hand guy, you can then watch the runner as he approaches your position and be 100% prepared. You'll never be surprised by him showing up.

I don't see why you'd be off your platform and unprepared when the runner calls out… If everyone starts on their platforms, and leaves only to punch the psion, then gets back on, you're not going to be surprised.

Remember… you can shoot another person's arrows without being on your own platform. In this way right has the advantage. You don't have to get back on your platform right away after killing your psion.

If you're looking right and one runner is faster than the other, he might surprise you. If you're looking left, you'll know he's on his way. Edge case, I admit.

We only had the runners calling out top/middle/bottom. And my only responsibility was to shoot an arrow and clear adds. I mean, also the councilor, but I just did that everytime a runner passed by my spot, which was fine because I had nothing better to do until the other runner came by.

That only works if your runners have easily recognizable voices

Actually they could have identical voices and you'd be fine. Every gate has a symbol above it, so the callout is "Cup, middle row" or "Axes, top row" etc.. And everyone knows where to shoot.

I routinely punched my psion the shot my arrow from the ground before jumping back on my platform. Timing there never seemed to be an issue. That said, I love that a 2nd clever working strategy was thought up! :)

You can apparently shoot someone else's arrows without being on your platform. Being on the platform activates only the corresponding arrows; only that person has to be on while shooting.

So just punch your psion, chill, shoot the arrows to your right, then take your time getting back on your platform.

Little fact I found, there are shields over the arrows and getting on the platform drops them :)

I thought it just "activated" them at first but nope!

What we do is more... modular. You always help the person on your left. When helping, you shoot the bottom arrow. When shooting your own set of arrows, you shoot the top arrow.

Why not pair off and always shoot the same arrow (top, or bottom)? Less switching, less confusion.

This method makes all four positions function identically, and if one of your raiders is replaced for some reason, anyone who knows this method can jump right in regardless of which position they're filling. One last note: There's a strategy on the internet that has helpers shooting to the right. This is an inferior method. When you help the left hand guy, you can then watch the runner as he approaches your position and be 100% prepared. You'll never be surprised by him showing up.

I don't see why you'd be off your platform and unprepared when the runner calls out… If everyone starts on their platforms, and leaves only to punch the psion, then gets back on, you're not going to be surprised.

Remember… you can shoot another person's arrows without being on your own platform. In this way right has the advantage. You don't have to get back on your platform right away after killing your psion.

I routinely punched my psion the shot my arrow from the ground before jumping back on my platform. Timing there never seemed to be an issue. That said, I love that a 2nd clever working strategy was thought up! :)

You can apparently shoot someone else's arrows without being on your platform. Being on the platform activates only the corresponding arrows; only that person has to be on while shooting.

So just punch your psion, chill, shoot the arrows to your right, then take your time getting back on your platform.

We only had the runners calling out top/middle/bottom. And my only responsibility was to shoot an arrow and clear adds. I mean, also the councilor, but I just did that everytime a runner passed by my spot, which was fine because I had nothing better to do until the other runner came by.

That only works if your runners have easily recognizable voices (or I guess you are using the screenname display thing). The meleeing the councilor is the entire crux of the encounter - with static platforms, you have to shoot your arrow, jump off the platform, melee the psion, then be back in place to shoot the arrow of the person to your left (which is happening immediately). Some people in our group were having trouble with that sequence. With the rotating method, you just do exactly the same thing 4 times in a row in a circle - if anything, it's more boring!

Okay, I guess the voice thing would be annoying, and we did have two distinguishable voices. I also used their names. But I never had a problem with hitting the scion because I had a full 1/4 runner length (plus the distance the runner is from jumping through when the arrow was shot) to hit the scion and jump back on the platform. This was plenty of time for me. I would be more worried about having to try and hit two arrows in time for the runner.

But all of this to say. Apparently there are different people in the world with different strengths and weaknesses. Maybe that's why there are different strategies? :D

We only had the runners calling out top/middle/bottom. And my only responsibility was to shoot an arrow and clear adds. I mean, also the councilor, but I just did that everytime a runner passed by my spot, which was fine because I had nothing better to do until the other runner came by.

That only works if your runners have easily recognizable voices (or I guess you are using the screenname display thing). The meleeing the councilor is the entire crux of the encounter - with static platforms, you have to shoot your arrow, jump off the platform, melee the psion, then be back in place to shoot the arrow of the person to your left (which is happening immediately). Some people in our group were having trouble with that sequence. With the rotating method, you just do exactly the same thing 4 times in a row in a circle - if anything, it's more boring!

This seems unnecessarily complicated. Why run around when you can just sit in one spot and turn left and then right to shoot the arrows?

I don't know, give it a try - the main difference is that you only have to listen to your runner, and the platform leaders have less responsibility. Like I said, we tried the "normal" method quite a while before switching to rotation, and immediately had a lot more success. I wouldn't mind giving the normal method a go one of these times.

We only had the runners calling out top/middle/bottom. And my only responsibility was to shoot an arrow and clear adds. I mean, also the councilor, but I just did that everytime a runner passed by my spot, which was fine because I had nothing better to do until the other runner came by.

This seems unnecessarily complicated. Why run around when you can just sit in one spot and turn left and then right to shoot the arrows?

I don't know, give it a try - the main difference is that you only have to listen to your runner, and the platform leaders have less responsibility. Like I said, we tried the "normal" method quite a while before switching to rotation, and immediately had a lot more success. I wouldn't mind giving the normal method a go one of these times.

Wait... Do you guys follow the runner around the ring? Or is the runner not doing the callouts? How does that even work?

Two teams of 3, each with a runner/platform/melee. Platform guy gets on the plate, runner makes callout, platform guy shoots top-most arrow, melee guy shoots bottom-most arrow, once the runner goes through, the platform guy gets off and runs to the next platform, the melee guy punches his psion and runs to the next area, usually just in time to get the shot on the arrows. Since you are rotating and always with the same runner so you can totally ignore what is going on with the other team.

This seems unnecessarily complicated. Why run around when you can just sit in one spot and turn left and then right to shoot the arrows?

The only problem we had with sitting one guy on each platform, is that it was harder to clear adds for the two guys that didn't have the runners start on their platform.

Wait... Do you guys follow the runner around the ring? Or is the runner not doing the callouts? How does that even work?

Two teams of 3, each with a runner/platform/melee. Platform guy gets on the plate, runner makes callout, platform guy shoots top-most arrow, melee guy shoots bottom-most arrow, once the runner goes through, the platform guy gets off and runs to the next platform, the melee guy punches his psion and runs to the next area, usually just in time to get the shot on the arrows. Since you are rotating and always with the same runner so you can totally ignore what is going on with the other team.

Why switch whether you shoot top or bottom? I always shoot bottom, whether on my symbol or the one to my right. The person to my right always shoots top, the person to their right shoots bottom, etc. Not a significant difference, but it’s just one less small thing to keep track of.

Simply because once you get used to it you can then be on any pillar and your behavior is identical to what you're used to. It's a really minor tweak though.

What we do is more... modular. You always help the person on your left. When helping, you shoot the bottom arrow. When shooting your own set of arrows, you shoot the top arrow. This method makes all four positions function identically, and if one of your raiders is replaced for some reason, anyone who knows this method can jump right in regardless of which position they're filling.

This is exactly the method I came up with during our "blind" run. However, we tried many times to do it, and never succeeded getting around even once. It seemed to be working okay for me and the guy to my left, but not for the other 2 guys inside, and I had no way of really figuring out whether it was an overall timing mechanics issue, or if it was a - uh - implementation issue.

We ended up switching to Chappy's method, where you split into 2 groups and the inside people lead/tail the same runner around the circle. We quickly had a lot more success with that method - one thing it really does have going for it is that you can focus on one voice for the callouts (in my case, Zero's dulcet tones).

Wait... Do you guys follow the runner around the ring? Or is the runner not doing the callouts? How does that even work?

I don't like this setup. The two runners are most likely to get through and will do so the most quickly. That means they are least likely to need every set of orbs. You've got to have your non-runners alive through at least 3 gates in order to have enough time for the race to finish, so you want to maximize orb availability for the slowbies.

Yeah it's definitely fine for the normal raid because you just need 3 people to make it and giving an orb to your worst runners every time means your making it more likely something can screw up for the good runners. Betting on the good runners for sure making it and that at least one of the other 4 will make it works out well for our group. If prestige requires you to get more people (or everyone) we'll most likely be switching to the slow runners getting them, but for the normal raid it works great.

Your group's worst runners aren't as bad as my group's, it would seem. Week 2 we wiped on the gauntlet three times in a row because one of our three titans died before getting to the second gate and there wasn't enough time for anyone else to even finish the gauntlet, let alone three anyones else. Ensuring they always had orbs available as they ran meant they were likely to live longer and the three successful runner would be able to finish before the 30 second light draining timer expired.

Anyway, because our titans are terrible at jumping (seriously, one of them routinely asks if he can just go to orbit and rejoin us rather than doing a minimal jumping puzzle), we needed a solution that kept them alive long enough for the rest of us to complete the gauntlet before the "someone died" timer expires. And my posted strategy was our solution. Each orb only resets your individual timer to 50 seconds, so if it takes someone 26 seconds to get through each quarter of the gauntlet, they absolutely must get an orb every time or else they're guaranteed to die. And yes, this is ridiculous, I 100% agree. But the people who can make it through a leg in less than 25 seconds can afford to skip an orb and get the next one. The people who can't make it that "quickly" absolutely need to get orbs every time (and have to rely on the faster runners leaving those orbs for them).

I hope that explains why we do what we do and why I advocate for this strategy.

I don't like this setup. The two runners are most likely to get through and will do so the most quickly. That means they are least likely to need every set of orbs. You've got to have your non-runners alive through at least 3 gates in order to have enough time for the race to finish, so you want to maximize orb availability for the slowbies.

Yeah it's definitely fine for the normal raid because you just need 3 people to make it and giving an orb to your worst runners every time means your making it more likely something can screw up for the good runners. Betting on the good runners for sure making it and that at least one of the other 4 will make it works out well for our group. If prestige requires you to get more people (or everyone) we'll most likely be switching to the slow runners getting them, but for the normal raid it works great.

Xenos was more than happy to sacrifice a couple Titans if it meant finishing the race. Those Hunters... I tell you.