How We Took Down Mechanon

tigerofcachtice

Hi guys,

The Mechanon event is do-able. We successfully completed it right after it went Live (before another patch), and I started this thread. This is to share the info, as there's a limited time frame we can do this event. The technique was thanks to the Rampagers channel.

The biggest challenge: Mechanon's giant spiders upgrade the 6 Mega Destroyers into Liberated Mega Destroyers which will mega destroy everything. They appear when the 1st Mega-D goes out.

The solution: we did 3 things. We spread teams out at the Champions HQ entrance, the north side, the south side. We spread the damage out, not focusing on just 1 Mega-D, but wearing them all down as evenly as possible before 1 falls, thus triggering the giant spiders. We had the top damage dealers, the top scorers, on watch for giant spiders, killing them with AoE fast.

There are only 3 or 4 of these upgrading giant spiders on each side. Take them out, then fight the Mega-Ds as per usual. Please note the spiders do respawn. Then we fought Mechanon last, but I don't think we need to leave him for last. When fighting Mechanon, please do not use Plasma Beams, as the stacking of effects including the fast-stacking Plasma Shears causes a bug that makes him resist damage.

The key is to take out those giant spiders on each side IMMEDIATELY when they appear.

(It IS possible to take down all the Mega-Ds before the giant spiders could upgrade them, but IMHO it's too risky).

This is based on current understanding, sharing this ASAP to help everyone. Good hunting, everyone!

---

UPDATE - An important note on Plasma Beam on Mechanon in particular. This is based on what we think is going on. Many of us who use Plasma Beam on Mega-Ds already noticed a bug with the Plasma Shear effect stacks.

Normally, Plasma Shear increases damage to every Plasma Beam hit, BUT when those stacks reach around 700, something weird happens...it starts giving them damage resistance to everything (thus it affects all players). AFAIK it's to do with how the original engine never planned for stacks of anything to reach that high, so it's a bug.

Now, with Mechanon, the Plasma Shears seem to stack with his stacks of...Mechanon stack stuff. Instead of around 700 stacks of Plasma Shear to trigger the bug, it seems to take only 200 stacks.

So be forewarned! There was confusion about this. Plasma Beam does NOT heal Mechanon, but it DOES trigger this bug that affects all damage, and with his own self-regen Mechanon can become effectively invincible.

FURTHER UPDATE - It turns out, with the number of people applying attacks even OUTSIDE Vehicles, it's not just Plasma Beam, it's everything...bleeding damage, other stuff, etc. Mechanon has so many Hit Points that he doesn't die before accumulating a game-breaking number of stacks of effects.

So on Mechanon, please be advised: avoid using Plasma Beam or causing other effects. If such effects do get applied, try to let them expire. Due to a bug, it decreases damage, instead of increasing.

morigosa

Where do these spiders spawn, exactly? At Mechanon? Or do they drop in at the same places the destroids initially spawn? Or somewhere else?

baelogventure

On the north and south side, there's ramps that connect the street to the Champions HQ, the spiders spawn at the bottom of those ramps.

For the Entrance side, I do not know.

tigerofcachtice

morigosa wrote: »

Where do these spiders spawn, exactly? At Mechanon? Or do they drop in at the same places the destroids initially spawn? Or somewhere else?

@baelogventure is right. I made a mistaken post, here, take a look at this screenshot for an idea, this is South Side:



Gravity Pulse HAS been activated, teaming up with Abigail Shade here, she's using the Purple Haze. So imagine the Spiders are a little further out from the centre than they are here...they've already been pulled in quite a bit. Notice the position on the ramp.

I also noticed it's 3 on the North Side and South Side, but 4 on the Champions HQ Entrance Side. The Mega-D heading towards the Entrance are much more likely to become Liberated, keep an eye out there especially.

kemmicals

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

solardynamo

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

kemmicals

The method has been proven and now the whining can stop. I honestly like how this bit of the event requires a bit of planning and timing on the player's part. You'll still probably have to respawn a bit, but it's an overall good challenge.

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

zedbrightlander1

Shared this with -

http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=289521

All I can say is no 40th level hero has been leveled down to 1, this year, due to this event. At least I have not hear of any.

chalupaoffury

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

kemmicals

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

p0temk1n

Good to hear there's something that requires a little more thought than the usual tank n' spank. I can't wait to give this a shot.

kenpojujitsu3

My favorite part of the event so far is getting random tells from nuts telling me vehicles don't work in the event.

baelogventure

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

sterga

Wow, damn. When the community rips at each other like this, it's what drives everyone else away. I think I'll pass on logging in tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow everyone has regained their senses.

dmanson6809

kemmicals wrote: »

The method has been proven and now the whining can stop. I honestly like how this bit of the event requires a bit of planning and timing on the player's part. You'll still probably have to respawn a bit, but it's an overall good challenge.

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the PWE Community Rules and Policies -Smackwell

There's challenge and then there's one shot mechanics that you can't avoid. That's not challenging content; that's poor design.

riverocean

dmanson6809 wrote: »

There's challenge and then there's one shot mechanics that you can't avoid. That's not challenging content; that's poor design.

The only times I died to this was when I didn't block. None of my characters are particularly well designed or well geared (I'm lazy).

Blocking prevents being one-shot by the AoE. However, if things get laggy or overly effects laden it' becomes hard to block.

But still blocking works..

tigerofcachtice

Hi guys, a quick update to the original post based on something we've found re: Plasma Beam.

Plasma Beam does NOT directly heal Mechanon. I believe a dev mentioned this earlier in Zone. What Plasma Beam does is it gives targets damage resistance when it gets over a certain number of Plasma Shear stacks. It's due to a known bug.

Previously, with Mega-Ds, we noticed this effect after about 700 Plasma Shear stacks.

Now, with Mechanon specifically, we noticed this effect kicks in as early as 200 Plasma Shear stacks!

I personally recommend not using Plasma Beam against the giant Mechanon, but this isn't scientific, based on what we're noticing and adapting to.

kenpojujitsu3

riverocean wrote: »

The only times I died to this was when I didn't block. None of my characters are particularly well designed or well geared (I'm lazy).

Blocking prevents being one-shot by the AoE. However, if things get laggy or overly effects laden it' becomes hard to block.

But still blocking works..

This isn't true for every build. Several players who I know to be well versed in building and playing were one shotted through blocks. Non-con builds and builds not using defensive passives being the obvious victims but not always.

Then there are the ones without flight that take AOE damage...then fall damage putting them at 1HP...then a trooper bot seals the deal. Not a true one shot but the end effect is the same.

aiqa

About the destroid blast.

The attack does between 21000 and 24000 base damage (with some weird exceptions of well over 100k, I expect those people are using low level characters).

Blocking without purchasing a block power gives 200% block resistance.
Almost all purchased block power get the following resistance to particle damage.
power r1 = 250%
power r2 = 300%
power r3 = 360%
The exception is the arcana block, that starts at 300% for non physical damage.
(btw I hadn't noticed lightning block being generally weaker than other block powers, but it apparently is)

Lets put the health of a player at 5000, that is easily obtainable without any con.

That would mean to survive a 24000 damage hit with the base block, you'd need more than:
24000/((1+RequiredResistance)*(1+200%))=5000
24000/(5000*3)-1=RequiredResistance
RequiredResistance=60%

For r1 block
RequiredResistance=37.14%

For r2 block
RequiredResistance=20%

For r3 block
RequiredResistance=4.35%

60% is a bit high, you can get there with just defense if you have ego or str, and warden/guardian and vindicator specs, but its build dependant.
For r1 block, that is already much more attainable, but my healer build without defense specs or mods gets 24%, so not all builds can get that.
Then r2 or r3 block, which I'd always take when making a squishy build without con, those should all easily survive a blocked hit.

jimhsua

The most common problem with faceplanting I find is when two mega-ds are bunched together, you're watching the one you target, and the other one does the AOE (and gets animation interrupted at the same time). No chance to block there, so most toons that are not highly geared defiance/invuln/LR tanks faceplant. Adding a vector tell image (i.e. gravitar bubble, firewing cone, F&I pillar) will help immensely.

markhawkman

jimhsua wrote: »

The most common problem with faceplanting I find is when two mega-ds are bunched together, you're watching the one you target, and the other one does the AOE (and gets animation interrupted at the same time). No chance to block there, so most toons that are not highly geared defiance/invuln/LR tanks faceplant. Adding a vector tell image (i.e. gravitar bubble, firewing cone, F&I pillar) will help immensely.

Agreed, I had that happen constantly today. One would Boom and I had no way to know at all. And I got one right about the time the spiders spawned and by the time I got back to the fight it was to late to kill them... ;-;

tigerofcachtice

Just a reminder to let people know that it's inadvisable to use Plasma Beam on Mechanon due to a bug involving having too many stacked effects, and Plasma Beam stacks quickly. And while you probably already know this, people that went out on the weekend (i.e. normal, social people) may not, so please remind them before the fight.