Starting again

[notorious98]

The original SM EC was harder than Nightmare Mode EV/ KP in Rakata gear only.

Harder? Yes. Much harder? No. It was slight and only because the mechanics were fresh. If you took a fresh group of 50s, in full Rakata, into NM KP (without having been in SM or HM), I'm willing to bet they'd spend more than 2 nights wiping just on Fabricator whereas SM EC was cleared, pretty easily, by my group in the first 2 nights of seeing it.

[Psychlon]

That doesn't make much sense since they would need to achieve Rakata gear first by doing at least SM/ KP hardmode. Kephess alone is on a whole different level than anything in EV/ KP, no disrespect.

[notorious98]

That doesn't make much sense since they would need to achieve Rakata gear first by doing at least SM/ KP hardmode. Kephess alone is on a whole different level than anything in EV/ KP, no disrespect.

When BW refers to Soa as being the most ambitious thing they've tried and aren't sure they're willing to try it again, I'd have to disagree with you. Soa's mechanics were much more unforgiving than Kephess'. The only part that I considered tough in the Kephess fight was dpsing the bombardier down fast enough. Other than that, the mechanics were pretty simple. In Soa, the lightning balls, especially when there were 3, were brutal. Then, the need to tank swap should the tank be put into the chamber. Then, placing Soa underneath the pillar without a shadow on the ground and a limited area to pan out your camera. This doesn't include the floor drop and the need to be quick in order to get your heals in before finishing the last couple drops.

And the point has nothing to do with how you get the Rakata gear. But, how about this instead? Just change "Rakata" to "Columi". Since SM EC was designed with people wearing Columi gear in mind (which is why it drops Rakata). But, in reality, the point was to put both Ops on an even playing field. Having seen the mechanics for NM KP/EV in SM automatically puts NM at a disadvantage when it comes to perception.

[Psychlon]

Soa's first phase is facerolling. Second phase requires people to read the big red message written on the screen/ listening to the person which is saying who has to get their lightning ball and healer to bubble these guys. Third phase is a pure tank related phase where you don't have to do anything else than watching where the pillar is, rotate your camera to top view and position yourself that you won't be hit by the pillar + telling your dps to switch to the boss. If you lack the dps, you can beat SOA while he is enraged. Jumping down the levels and placing heal circles shouldn't be any effort to any healer, this only gets tricky if you don't have one sorc .

Kephess first phase is facerolling on storymode, however you meet your first dps check (the bomber), now you meet your second dps check (the walker). These two you have 2-3 times, for a total of 4-6 dps checks for a single fight. Tanks have to keep aggro for the groups and healers have to make sure that the whole group is up at 100% due to the ae bombardment which requires the whole group to move (in case you don't use the "blind spot"). After you killed the walker and have Kephess down to 50% your tanks need to make several swaps while one always has to watch where he is placing the violet dmg fields and the other has to check that he's not getting kicked out of the healer range. In case Kephess goes enrage, it's over.

Damage wise, EC story wasn't "much" harder, script wise it required more from each player.

[notorious98]

Soa's first phase is facerolling. Second phase requires people to read the big red message written on the screen/ listening to the person which is saying who has to get their lightning ball and healer to bubble these guys. Third phase is a pure tank related phase where you don't have to do anything else than watching where the pillar is, rotate your camera to top view and position yourself that you won't be hit by the pillar + telling your dps to switch to the boss. If you lack the dps, you can beat SOA while he is enraged. Jumping down the levels and placing heal circles shouldn't be any effort to any healer, this only gets tricky if you don't have one sorc .

Kephess first phase is facerolling on storymode, however you meet your first dps check (the bomber), now you meet your second dps check (the walker). These two you have 2-3 times, for a total of 4-6 dps checks for a single fight. Tanks have to keep aggro for the groups and healers have to make sure that the whole group is up at 100% due to the ae bombardment which requires the whole group to move (in case you don't use the "blind spot"). After you killed the walker and have Kephess down to 50% your tanks need to make several swaps while one always has to watch where he is placing the violet dmg fields and the other has to check that he's not getting kicked out of the healer range. In case Kephess goes enrage, it's over.

Damage wise, EC story wasn't "much" harder, script wise it required more from each player.

Ask people who did NM EV when there were still 3 balls, you could call out where to go, but it didn't always work out that people went there. Especially when melee can easily get turned around while dpsing the mind trap down. Or them running to the "south" or wherever could drag the orb right through the group and the tank. 3rd phase had everything that 2nd phase had except now the tank had to position Soa correctly, which wasn't entirely easy. Also, transition phase assumes that everybody is moving at the same speed while dpsing, or that they were able to get back around when the floor first drops. That's not just on the healers, it's on everybody.

3rd phase Kephess, nobody had to do anything special, it was completely on the tanks to position the boss correctly. Pre-50% life, Kephess was a joke. Post-50% life, he was tougher, but the circles were easy to drop and the swapping tank should have himself positioned with his back to a wall somewhere away from the other tank, but without allowing Kephess to cleave anybody. The walker wasn't much of a dps check. It was possible to take it down with 4 bombardiers, if necessary. That's not much of a DPS check. The bombardiers, sure, that's a DPS check. And if you can't take the Walker down by the 4th bombardier, you probably haven't killed the 1st bombardier. Also, avoiding the cone fire of the walker is simple. All the adds spawn so that you should never, ever get hit by the Walker's fire. Notice how the Pulsar droids drop and the Walker just fires to its extreme right or left? Just like the Walker starts shooting at the extreme left when the adds with the shield come out of the right. That mechanic shouldn't even be much of a thought in your mind. As for the groups, the tanks don't have to really keep aggro for shit. They just need to make sure the shield guy gets blown up first. After that, anybody can handle tanking the rest of the adds. The Pulsar droids have no aggro table and the first droids only really require a simple taunt. If a tank has aggro issues on Kephess, that person should rethink tanking. Also, just because something has more mechanics doesn't mean that it's tougher.

[Psychlon]

The problems people had with the lightning balls was bug related (they would sometimes one-shot people with full health), aside of that, there is no reason to drag a ball through the middle/ your group and to whoever that happened didn't pay attention. People trapped/ thrown around would be placed in the inner ring + taking damage in the process which meant that a ball there caused at least one dead. Also this could be avoided by not letting the ball get to the middle. The positioning of the pillar required attention and your camera zoom maxed out to actually see the pillar from the top.