BABA BASHES FOR BOTS

New looks, Links Engergized and Solar Guard, click for better view.

Babaengy and Babaemphee dinged level 75 in the Biomare sewers while working in Tri-Plumbo’s area.  This section has the bloaters placed with much greater distance between them than in the sewer sections where it is common to get swarmed by 6 or more at a time.  There are six bloaters in this section that make a nice loop where the mobs respawn fairly quickly so there is no waiting.  They gave Tri-Plumbo a go and got sent back to reclaim rather quickly.  At this point they decided that it was time to go run team missions in order to roll some much needed new non-shop buyable nanos.

The went back to sitting around a mission terminal rolling missions while keeping an eyeball on Clicksaver.  At level 75 they were pulling missions at around 82-83 level.  They must have seen at least 5 go by with Beacon Warp.  They took one of those, but since Babaengy already has one equipped, it was just as an investment.  The most badly needed nano is the next best healing pet Calling of Restite.  Sanoo can not out heal the damage dealt by level 80+ mobs at this point.  A better mezz pet would help, and a better bot heal could make the difference in Boss fights.  Solar Guard would help immensely with Babaemphee’s survivability since it adds +100 to all defense.

They took break from RK2 and were doing some necro post reading in AOFROOBS in the professions sections.  One post in particular “Easy Froob MP formula” from Llie pointed out that the measure of a pet profession was the best pet they could command and stay out of OE self buffed, meaning the best pet that even with a outside buff to cast, that they could continue to keep under control with self buffs.  Pets operate under the same Over Equipped rules as many other AO items.  As long as the pet caster maintains their required skill at 80% or more of the requirement, they will remain in control. This meant that Tireen could help them  with wrangles to each cast a higher pet, with the limit being what they could keep out of OE.

Creation: Solar Guard gives 169 to ACs and +100 Add All Def

After some calculations it was clear that with a +40 wrangle from Tireen, Babaengy could cast a level 113 bot and Babaemphee could cast a level 111 attack pet and keep them out of OE with Babaemphee’s masteries.  This required a bit of log-in juggling at first.  With Babaemphee first buffing up herself and Babaengy.  She then logged off, and Tireen logged in to put a wrangle on Babaengy.  With this wrangle running he was able to cast his better bot.  With the shell in his inventory, he logged out, so Babaemphee could log in and get her wrangle from Tireen.  This done, Tireen logged off after giving Babaemphee her wrangle and seeing her cast her better pet.  (They later found that triple logging would make this much more convenient.)

With both higher pets cast, team pets then headed out to their missions.  These two new attack pets went through the level 82 mobs like a hot knife through butter.  Even the mission bosses were done away with quickly.  Too quickly, in fact as in one mission, Babaemphee’s pet finished killing the mission target before Babaengy could take the elevator into the Boss Room to ID the target, so they forfeited that mission.  Even thought they did not get the wanted nano, they did nab a few nice pieces of Miy’s and Nova Dillon armor.

As part of their break from Biomare to mission for much needed nanos, Babaengy and Babaemphee invited Tireen to tag along for several team missions.  Tireen is level 75 so she would get experience and she would always be there to help them cast the highest attack pets.  It put a bit of a load on the computer, but it was manageable.  If dual boxing two toons was a juggling challenge, triple logging is even more so.   The three missions they pulled went very well as Tireen’s massive shotgun crits helped put the mobs away that much faster.

The only problem was that Tireen is by far the most squishy of the three, and the team had to be careful to manage aggro by letting the attack bot build up aggro before the rest of the team launched into any particular mob.  There were two fatalities, both caused by the same issue.  Babaengy was running a new hostile AOE nano, and several times it attracted a number opf unwanted adds.  The first casualty was Tireen, and the second time it happened it was Babaemphee.  After that, Babaengy canceled that nano, and will not be running any hostile AOE nanos.  Probably the only time they might be used would be in PVP, which they do not plan to take part in for some time, if ever.

Full set of Links Energized armor (in social tab), click to view larger version.

Babaengy used these occasions to demonstrate the worth of the Beacon Warp nano, by bringing the team mates back from reclaim much faster than them having to revive and then make their way by grid, whompa and flying.  Out of six or so missions they netted for Babaemphee the following nanos, Creation Solar Guard, and Creation Summon Absum.  For Babaengy they netted Rebuild Casing, while Tireen bought him an Overdrive Combat Array from a store.  At the end of the missions, Tireen had dinged 76, and Babaengy had dinged 77 to catch up with Babaemphee who had just hit 77 before Babaengy’s trip to reclaim.

They estimated that it would be 3-4 more levels before they can equip higher attack pets, and there was not much else they needed that they could roll so they were about to head back to Biomare, when Babaoroody showed up and offered to pull a few missions for their level 123 combat pets.  123 is at the lower range of what Baba can pull, and should be pretty easy, however he asked Babaemphee to come along to provide healing support.  Baba knows all too well that having to self heal after every fight with health kits is very tiresome.  They were a little concerned that Babaemphee would be too squishy around 120+ mobs.

Baba was successful in pulling missions for the desired items, however, Babaemphee was too low to team with him according to the team mission machine, so Baba had to pull regular solo missions.  He did duplicate the keys and gave the copies to Babaemphee so she could accompany him in the missions.  This went way much better than any one of them had thought.  Any time a mob even looked sideways at Babaemphee, Baba would mongo and keep Babaemphee safe.

While Babaemphee’s current heal pet may still be somewhat weak against 120+ mob damage, it did very well.  While several times it had a hard time keeping up with the healing, Baba’s health never dropped below 60% in each fight, and was usually back at 100% by the time the next mob was faced.  Babaoroody the Enforcer is fun when he does not have to worry about self healing.  It gives him the freedom to use things like rage and mongos more freely.  He can see that it may be worthwhile to start putting IP into Nano Init so he can cast his Rage and Mongos faster.

Baba Loves His Black Clan Tank Armor, (even if it is just social and Veil of the Revoked does the work)

It was also great to have the extra damage from Babaemphee’s attack pet, especially in those unavoidable times when two or mobs are found close together in a mission and have to be fought at the same time.  It might be different in a team mission, however Babaemphee does so little damage comparatively, that there is little trouble keeping the aggro on Babaoroody.    Baba still has the daily mission kill x smugglers in Smuggler’s Den running and he is seriously thinking of bringing Babaemphee with him.  Tireen would be useful, however she is on the same account as Baba, so they will never share a team.  Babaente might be useful if her calms and/or roots will land on the 120ish Mantis crowds that have to be waded through to get to the heart of the dungeon.

In addition to acquiring an Inferior Frenzy Embodiment level 123 for Babaemphee and a Semi Sentient Guardbot level 123 for Babaengy, the was an added bonus of finding a Creation Living Shield of Evernan in one mobs loot.  The shield provides around 140 ACs, some parry skill and 342 health.  It is odd that even though it is a higher quality level than the Solar Guard, it provides less protection and cannot compare to the +100 add all def provided by the Solar Guard, so we suspect Babaemphee will be using the Solar Guard for some time.  There also turned up a few pieces of Miy’s and Rhinoman armor, which Baba let Babaemphee loot as they were too low to do him any good.

Tireen is going to be busy shop fooding most of loot Team Pets and Baba netted recently.  Babaengy and Babaemphee are now planning on heading back to Biomare for some more levels.  They make take a shot as Tri-Plumbo after they level enough (80ish) to equip their QL123 pets, and may even ask Tireen to help out.  They are also starting to think about when they should make a run to Steps of Madness for Neleb’s robes and later COH for even better robes, and to Beacon Warp Baba in so he can farm some phats.  Baba smiled as he watched Team Pets discuss these things with enthusiasm.  He envied them. For FROOBS, level 70-100 is a very good time to be on Ruby-Ka, with several dungeons open at that level offering serious buffing items both for use and selling for profit.

Open Those Little Brown Boxes

Open those little brown boxes, and you just might find this... Instruction Disk for Grid Armor Mk I

Babaengy and Babaemphee (aka Team Pets) have been on a roll and hit the jackpot recently.  It was a QL 60ish team mission where they found a Instruction Disk for Grid Armor I in one of those non-descript small square boxes. AOPriceWatch.com lists the current average asking price to be 15.5 million credits for this item.

This is the third time is similar circumstances, our toons have found a Grid Armor ID.  The small square boxes are sometimes hard to spot, and often are just plain empty.  On the plus side, unlike barrels and chests, they are never locked, so opening them is a simple single click.  When we first started doing missions with Babaoroody, we often skipped those small brown boxes thinking that nothing of worth could be found in them.  We certainly had never read on any forum or web site about valuable loot showing up in those.  After Baba opened the one where he found his first Grid Armor, we require all of our toons to always open small brown boxes.

TEAM PETS, Babaengy and Babaemphee, with matching helmets!

Team Pets (Babaengy and Babaemphee, both level 57), also made significant progress over the past weekend, bringing them to within a couple of more missions to getting their 120 token boards and the juicy 350 health, 300 nano, +3% experience, and +10 defense.  Those mission should also put them at or very near their target level of 59 for optimum Temple of The Three Winds phatz.  The more we play this pair, the more it feels like this could be the combination that goes all the way to 200.

Evolving Boss Room Tactics

Due to the many factors in play, there is no ‘typical Boss room’ encounter.  Bosses can special auras that give them extra strong defenses, ranging from reflects, to strong evades, and just plain loads of health.  There can be one or several minions, additional mobs that will aggro you on sight.  The larger the room, the more flexibility the team has in choosing it’s battles.  In a large enough room, some mobs or the Boss can be avoided by distance while the team takes out another hostile.  Placement of the Boss and the minions in relation to the elevator is crucial.  Rezzing on top of the Boss and it’s minion(s) bring with it several disadvantages beyond just getting instant aggro from all.  The worst disadvantage to these scenarios is that it is very difficult if not impossible to quickly identify each mob and then target them appropriately.

Video Glitch, the joys of dual logging. Requires a hard zone or re-log to fix.

It the room is big enough, one can often run away enough to be able to separate and ID the mobs.  A small room may prevent this and this can lead to a very confusing battle that is likely to end badly.  The MP may not be able to id and target the weakest mob for mezzing.  With Pets on guard mode, their is no telling quickly which pets are fighting which mobs.  The MP also has to quickly size up the situation and decide who to put the heal pet on as soon as possible.

The Baba chart of Boss Room Encounters looks like a reverse geometric grow chart (i.e. it goes down very quickly to a long tail).  The most damage can be potentially done to team members in the first few moments of the encounter.  If targets are not coordinated and attacked in those first few moments, the mobs gain a lead in damage, that it may be impossible to overtake.

We are currently favoring the MP being the lead into the room, mainly because she can enter with the heal pet on her, so that she can afford to take some damage, while the Engy teleports in and takes the few precious moments to target and start attacking.

Once both team members are in the room and engaged, we have also been favoring controlling the MP, due to the fact that she recently acquired her first rally  decent nuke which can really help whittle down the Boss’s health.  It is a nano drain, so we are happy we have been keeping her nano pool maxed.

Aliens City Raid Passed Trekking to Missions

She also recently graduated to a fairly decent mob debuff, so we have added it to her standard operating procedure attack (select team leader, hit assist macro, hit attack button, hit macro for debuff.

For most of the non-Boss room antics, we still drive the Engineer who pulls targets and sets his bot on them.  Once the Bot had had a chance to get a few good blows in, we have the MP start her attack sequence.  If she attacks too soon, she draws aggro and the Engy ends up having to health stim her, or we have to switch the heal pet off the Engy and on to her.  It would be ideal if we had a good multi-boxing macro that would reliably toggle the heal pet between the two of them, but so far, we have not written one that is reliable enough.

Having the MP select herself is foolproof with the %m chat command.  The f2 key to select the team leader does not always work as expected because if the leader was already selected, it toggles to select the MP.  It’s a shame you can give chat commands directed by name, like you can with Pet commands.