Stronghold at granmaster

giubba
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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 25, 2019 19:16:24 GMT Terminator Force, smilesja, and 3 more like this

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Post by giubba on Feb 25, 2019 19:16:24 GMT

Just tried to do my first stronghold (heart of rage) at grand master difficulty with Correctamundo.

Heart of Rage

Pros:

-the trash encounter before the actual boss were hard and absolutely needed coordination from the group to be completed

-the loot (even if i read of this nerf of drops rate) was pretty good 1 master work and around 20ish epic level items

Cons:

-All in all the run would have lasted way too long, if you hit the item level suggested for that level of difficulty the run time should be on par with a "normal" run at hard of lower difficulty

-The boss was bad no point twisting around this. The monitor in this incarnation had a stupidly high level of HP,a series of homing attacks that hits like trucks and most annoyingly it kept spawning the aoe attack with a really short delay from one swarm of meteors to the other breaking the flow of combat.

-when facing group of monster the stunlock can became quite annoying.

I will try the other 2 stronghold but i'm not impressed with this one.

Scar temple

-gave me the impression of being the middle ground between the heart of rage and the scorpid mine, the thrash encounters are tougher than the mine but not quite at the "eye twitch" level of the heart of rage.

-The boss is way harder than the scorpid queen

-Loot is on par with the heart of rage for what i saw

Scorpid mine

-The easiest and fastest of the 3 as was reported

-No major change since the normal version but still had to pay attention in the first 2 phases because being surrounded by the scars is quite easy and they maw on you in no time

-Here the crux i think that being the easiest of the 3 the loot is slightly worse than the other 2, found 2 or 3 common and uncommon.

Last Edit: Feb 27, 2019 19:45:36 GMT by giubba

Doc N2 Posts: 117 Likes: 145 Doc inherit 10970 0 Feb 17, 2019 22:47:13 GMT 145 Doc 117 N2 Feb 17, 2019 20:17:32 GMT February 2019 doc	Stronghold at granmaster Feb 25, 2019 19:19:55 GMT via mobile 09_Trooper and Cyan_Griffonclaw like this Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Doc on Feb 25, 2019 19:19:55 GMT Just run tyrant mine. It's the shortest and the boss has fewer wonky 1hKO attacks than the others.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 25, 2019 19:34:17 GMT

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Post by giubba on Feb 25, 2019 19:34:17 GMT

i will try it both the mine and the temple and honestly i haven't this holy fire that push me to start farming like there is no tomorrow at 2 weeks from the release.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 25, 2019 20:39:59 GMT saandrig likes this

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Post by 09_Trooper on Feb 25, 2019 20:39:59 GMT

Like Doc said Tyrant Mine is probably the easiest. Just don't over think the attack, shoot then advance and fallback when necessary. Just don't fallback to far to fast or the tether system will put you in front of something to make you dead.

Just happened to me on Heart of Rage (GM2). A ranger, storm (me) and 2 tanks. The ranger and I were behind the rock outcrop on the left and the tanks kept charging the 2 towers once they got behind the towers the tether system dragged the ranger and I up to them resulting in a revive circle that never ended well. 4 respawns later and Alt-F4. There needs to be an easier way to end a mission.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 25, 2019 22:02:52 GMT Terminator Force and saandrig like this

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Post by xrayspex73 on Feb 25, 2019 22:02:52 GMT

Heart of rage is the worst of the strongholds imo. It takes far too long for the rewards that are given. You could probably fit 2-4 runs on Tyrant Mines in the same time.

Heart of Rage tends to bug out as well quite often (Fog walls that won't come down, Boss not appearing, etc).

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 8:15:40 GMT Terminator Force and giubba like this

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Post by correctamundo on Feb 26, 2019 8:15:40 GMT

Yeah, even if I have the right gear score I just don't have the right gear yet. My ult hardly singed The monitor. That said we almost had him. Sooooo near. But alas, no cigar. :lol:

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 8:45:19 GMT via Tapatalk correctamundo likes this

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Post by giubba on Feb 26, 2019 8:45:19 GMT

Dat hurt 😑

evilfluffmonster N2 Posts: 148 Likes: 306 evilfluffmonster inherit Male 3880 0 Jun 22, 2021 7:46:46 GMT 306 evilfluffmonster 148 N2 Feb 25, 2017 11:42:09 GMT February 2017 evilfluffmonster	Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 8:57:10 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by evilfluffmonster on Feb 26, 2019 8:57:10 GMT Thanks for the heads up, ive a long way to go before I even think about GM difficulty..

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 9:43:04 GMT via mobile Terminator Force and Kelwing like this

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Post by saandrig on Feb 26, 2019 9:43:04 GMT

Feb 26, 2019 8:57:10 GMT evilfluffmonster said:

Thanks for the heads up, ive a long way to go before I even think about GM difficulty..

340+ rating is a good starting point for even solo runs in GM1 Freeplay.

Do your three Legendary contracts on GM1 as soon as you unlock that difficulty. You will get carried anyway and collect at least 1 MW from each. Hell, last night I carried 3 people with sub 340 gear in one of those. My shields even dropped once 😁

At about 400 rating you should be fine to start doing GM1 Tyrant mine.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 21:40:55 GMT Terminator Force likes this

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Post by xrayspex73 on Feb 26, 2019 21:40:55 GMT

So my Storm is 479 gear rating, I did a GM2 Tyrant mine last night and OMG it took almost 3 hours. Each fight took at least 30-40 minutes to complete. We barely scratched them. The recommended gear rating for GM2 is 475. I don't understand why it was SO hard. I have played a few other GM2's and it was not anything like this. I can't believe everyone stuck around and we actually finished it but it was so painful. I double checked the difficulty when it was over and I was indeed set at GM2. Not sure why it was so hard, but I never want to experience that ever again. It felt like GM3+ difficulty and I have to think there was some kind of bug that made it so bad.

I went back and did a GM1 Tyrant mine and felt like a shiny Golden God. We tore through it in around 20 minutes. I don't think the difficulty differences between GM1 and GM2 should be like this.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 21:56:21 GMT correctamundo likes this

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Post by Terminator Force on Feb 26, 2019 21:56:21 GMT

Feb 25, 2019 19:19:55 GMT Doc said:

Just run tyrant mine. It's the shortest and the boss has fewer wonky 1hKO attacks than the others.

The Temple of Scar is missing a very long hack, among other things, so seems faster to me.

More close ranged combat wise as a bonus too. It's certainly my fave so far, but looking forward to an Outlaw Stronghold next so each faction is represented for those faction challenges.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 22:03:15 GMT

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Post by saandrig on Feb 26, 2019 22:03:15 GMT

Feb 26, 2019 21:40:55 GMT xrayspex73 said:

So my Storm is 479 gear rating, I did a GM2 Tyrant mine last night and OMG it took almost 3 hours. Each fight took at least 30-40 minutes to complete. We barely scratched them. The recommended gear rating for GM2 is 475. I don't understand why it was SO hard. I have played a few other GM2's and it was not anything like this. I can't believe everyone stuck around and we actually finished it but it was so painful. I double checked the difficulty when it was over and I was indeed set at GM2. Not sure why it was so hard, but I never want to experience that ever again. It felt like GM3+ difficulty and I have to think there was some kind of bug that made it so bad.

I went back and did a GM1 Tyrant mine and felt like a shiny Golden God. We tore through it in around 20 minutes. I don't think the difficulty differences between GM1 and GM2 should be like this.

For GM2 gear rating doesn't matter as much as what stats you have on that gear. If you go in without 100% Charges on abilities, without at least 150 % damage on weapons and without global stats that give more Shield and Elemental/Physical/Gear damage (think from 125 % to 250 %)...well prepare for pain. So yeah, until you get the right stats on at least half your gear, GM2 will take long.

Last Edit: Feb 26, 2019 22:04:24 GMT by saandrig

acehilator N3 Posts: 484 Likes: 637 acehilator inherit Male 4435 0 Apr 19, 2024 13:59:27 GMT 637 acehilator 484 N3 Mar 13, 2017 14:14:28 GMT March 2017 acehilator	Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 22:38:24 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by acehilator on Feb 26, 2019 22:38:24 GMT I feel like the difficulty progression is all wrong. At 405-410, GM1 is easier than Hard at 385. (general build/loadout being the same) So weird.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 22:48:05 GMT Terminator Force and giubba like this

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Post by saandrig on Feb 26, 2019 22:48:05 GMT

Feb 26, 2019 22:38:24 GMT acehilator said:

I feel like the difficulty progression is all wrong. At 405-410, GM1 is easier than Hard at 385.

(general build/loadout being the same)

So weird.

Easier how? Which activity on Hard and which on GM1? Freeplay is generally easier on GM1 compared to Stronghold on GM1. So a Freeplay GM1 might seem bit easier than Stronghold Hard.

Also it really matters what squad you have. I had Hard runs that sucked really bad because of undergeared and unprepared people that I had to carry on my back. And I had GM1 runs with geared and competent folks and we blasted through like it was Easy.

Also don't forget that gear stats really matter. A difference between 385 with crappy stats and 410 with good stat drops can be up to 250 % more damage, shields, health.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 26, 2019 23:55:37 GMT saandrig likes this

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Post by acehilator on Feb 26, 2019 23:55:37 GMT

Tyrant Mine for both.

But maybe you're right. Super annoying to keep track of your bonuses. Who would have thought that a stats page might have been useful? Obviously not people who spent six years designing a looter shooter *sigh*

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 27, 2019 19:46:44 GMT

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Post by giubba on Feb 27, 2019 19:46:44 GMT

Update the op with more impression on the GM difficulty of the other 2 strongholds.

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Stronghold at granmaster Feb 28, 2019 10:31:30 GMT

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Post by Innocent Bystander on Feb 28, 2019 10:31:30 GMT

Feb 26, 2019 22:38:24 GMT acehilator said:

I feel like the difficulty progression is all wrong. At 405-410, GM1 is easier than Hard at 385.

(general build/loadout being the same)

So weird.

It’s mostly because Masterworks are stupidly strong compared to epics and some (not Colossus ones, those are bad) have interesting and powerful extra abilities. If item level of masterworks reflected their actual power, it would be somewhere around 150 (less for weapons) instead of 45.

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