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Just Soloed White Rhino

archaerestarchaerest Posts: 13 Arc User
edited October 2013 in Champions Online Discussion
This isn't about gloating. This is simply about expressing my happiness that I actually accomplished something. I just finished the Rhinoplasty mission, including soloing Chimera and White Rhino. I wasn't able to do it at lv. 35, but I tried again at lv. 38 and beat it, with just basic drop equips (no legion, mercenary, etc). White Rhino was actually a heck of a lot easier than the Powered Armor + Brickbuster combos, that seemed to be hitting for 2k dps even through my shield. I died once on Rhinoplasty, I died countless times on the Powered Armors. Build is a pet build with AoRP, ego placate, and illumination. Shielded through most of White Rhino while my pets took care of him :P.
Post edited by archaerest on

Comments

  • kenpojujitsu3kenpojujitsu3 Posts: 1,320 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Well done. :smile:
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  • decorumfriendsdecorumfriends Posts: 2,802 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Way to go! These boards can always use more postings when people are feeling like this about the game:

    the-dance-of-joy-o.gif

    :smile:
    'Dec out

    QDSxNpT.png
  • biffsmackwellbiffsmackwell Posts: 4,739 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    archaerest wrote: »
    Build is a pet build with AoRP, ego placate, and illumination. Shielded through most of White Rhino while my pets took care of him :P.

    Does that really count as soloing, then? ;)

    One time my entire team for GRAB the Money and Run quit on me, and I decided to try to do it anyway. Beating that was so much fun.
    biffsig.jpg
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Posts: 3,781 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    archaerest wrote: »
    This isn't about gloating. This is simply about expressing my happiness that I actually accomplished something. I just finished the Rhinoplasty mission, including soloing Chimera and White Rhino. I wasn't able to do it at lv. 35, but I tried again at lv. 38 and beat it, with just basic drop equips (no legion, mercenary, etc). White Rhino was actually a heck of a lot easier than the Powered Armor + Brickbuster combos, that seemed to be hitting for 2k dps even through my shield. I died once on Rhinoplasty, I died countless times on the Powered Armors. Build is a pet build with AoRP, ego placate, and illumination. Shielded through most of White Rhino while my pets took care of him :P.

    Cheers!

    As others have said, we need more posts with people happy about the game.
  • biffsmackwellbiffsmackwell Posts: 4,739 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    what kinda build were you using, biff? I find invuln works well for that as it's great for when theres a lot of mobs. Kinetic manipulation also could help since the enemies there have a lot of ranged physical attacks.

    I had Minigun, Two Gun Mojo (this was before it got mega buffed), Bionic Shielding, and I think Regen for my passive (I normally use Quarry but I wouldn't have been able to survive with that).

    I was constantly running away from everyone while shooting them with Two Gun Mojo, try to gather them up in one of the hallways and then switch to minigun. Also used potions to help keep me alive. It was really close a lot of the times, so when I pulled through, it felt just awesome.

    I know there's lots of people who could do the same, but I think it's worth noting that I don't make power builds. Just a super-soldier concept type of thing.
    biffsig.jpg
  • theravenforcetheravenforce Posts: 7,065 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    archaerest wrote: »
    This isn't about gloating. This is simply about expressing my happiness that I actually accomplished something. I just finished the Rhinoplasty mission, including soloing Chimera and White Rhino. I wasn't able to do it at lv. 35, but I tried again at lv. 38 and beat it, with just basic drop equips (no legion, mercenary, etc). White Rhino was actually a heck of a lot easier than the Powered Armor + Brickbuster combos, that seemed to be hitting for 2k dps even through my shield. I died once on Rhinoplasty, I died countless times on the Powered Armors. Build is a pet build with AoRP, ego placate, and illumination. Shielded through most of White Rhino while my pets took care of him :P.

    Well done!!

    I found it was always nice to accomplish something like this when I first went through the game or when I am trying an experimental build!
  • forrksakesexcoforrksakesexco Posts: 435 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Yeah gratz to U!
    I remember the first time I managed to do something I thought was next to impossible, why not brag a lil?
    Snakebitewildlife wherever you are just shut up ok!
    _____________
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    The one who can't shut up formerly known as 4rksakes
    About the @handle - it's a long story.
    Profound quote.. "I'm not a complete idiot - several parts are missing."
  • towershield#4714 towershield Posts: 1,208 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I'll never forget my first (and only) solo run of Rhinoplasty. Used an Electricity + Gadgeteering build. Took forever, but when it was over and I saw my first piece of purple gear I was ecstatic. Then the server took a dump and everything got rolled back a couple of hours.

    I've not been back since.
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  • wimpazoidwimpazoid Posts: 456 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I remember farming for days with the Master AT in white rhino's room for my storm rider.
  • battybattybatsbattybattybats Posts: 777 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I'm reminded of the time running the Warlord alert and we had no healer and 3 of the team were new to the lockout mechanic and had no res prepared.

    So very very quickly it was just Dr Cerebellum on DPS and a cool Mecha Teddy whose name alas i cannot recall.

    And WOW could that Teddy fight!

    I hung in as best i could, Dr Cerebellum does great damage but is very fragile so every so often an attack would get through and so I went through several store bought resurrections through the fight. I spent more time waiting through res cooldowns than doing damage once we got through his first third of health.

    That Mecha Teddy did most of the work while i was waiting for each chance to blast some more. A magnificent battle i was privileged to be a witness to and participant in.

    If i hadn't been there i do believe that Mecha Teddy hero could have soloed Warlord.

    Mecha Teddy, your name may have been forgotten in the mists of battle but your heroism and skill shall never be! I Salute you!
    ___________________________________
    While she has been rescued
    what diabolical mastermind
    was behind the devious brain-napping of
    the Volterrific Dr Cerebellum?
  • mithrosnomoremithrosnomore Posts: 521 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    reminds me of the first time I actually found Qwyjibo in the open world. server went down right as my team was about to finish him. needless to say, I was pissed, as the cosmics are nearly never there.

    I remember finding Qwijybo out in the wild and all but soloing him using pretty much nothing but block, regen, two-gun mojo, and a little lead tempest if any other hostiles showed up.

    I didn't feel happy about it, though. I was wondering who thought that that sort of thing should have been possible.

    A second player showed up late to the fight, so I didn't officially solo him, but I had him down to maybe 25% of his HP before 'help' arrived, and have no doubt that I could have finished the rest of it.

    I didn't set out to solo him; I sent out the word in zone, but no one showed up. I just started fighting him thinking that someone else would show up, but then I began to realize that I didn't need anyone else to show up.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    I think soloing cosmics should be possible. I disagree with the "you shouldn't be able to make very strong characters" crowd immensely.

    Sometimes I think there are a lot of people here who would be happy if they saw this in some upcoming patch notes
    In the upcoming patch we are making the following change:

    -Players now receive 100% immunity to NPC damage

    Be honest, some of you got really happy and excited looking at that and imagining it was real.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    actually that would be overkill. you should never be COMPLETELY unkillable.

    But if you can solo a cosmic, then how can you be killable to non-cosmic npcs?
  • towershield#4714 towershield Posts: 1,208 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    But if you can solo a cosmic, then how can you be killable to non-cosmic npcs?

    Regen's meager dmg resistance leaves it particularly vulnerable to alpha strikes and large spike damage in general. A build could excel in single target combat but have problems handling large groups. Your build could have Aura of Arcane Clarity... There's plenty of ways to rationalize these sorts of things.
    ___________________________________________________________________________________________
  • kaiserin#0958 kaiserin Posts: 3,089 Cryptic Developer
    edited October 2013
    Congratulations to you!


    Dug this out of my screenies:
    wr2.jpg

    I believe that was shortly after launch. That UI.
  • biffsmackwellbiffsmackwell Posts: 4,739 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    So many upgrades!
    biffsig.jpg
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    gravitar is a non cosmic NPC. Vikorin is a non cosmic NPC. characters who solo cosmics are still often killed by these awful baddies.

    if you want to make cosmics stronger, go right ahead. they are supposed to be COSMIC.

    but making the heroes weaker? kinda dumb. I can understand balance changes to powers on their own, but that should be done BEFORE deciding, Oh, lets nerf everything at once.

    Are our characters Legendarys or Cosmics?

    Also I did not realize that Legendary was higher than Cosmic in the food chain... interesting, cause I personally would have swapped those two, but hey I'm not Cryptic.

    Well, I guess its okay if there are at least 2 npcs that can kill players, since both those NPCs are involved in a lot of the games content.


    PS - they're not nerfing all players' survivability. They're only nerfing the survivability of players who choose to use dodge gear, so no worries :)
  • mithrosnomoremithrosnomore Posts: 521 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    I think soloing cosmics should be possible. I disagree with the "you shouldn't be able to make very strong characters" crowd immensely.

    Who said anything about not being able to make "very strong" characters?

    But this enters into "Where is the challenge?" territory.

    In the powerhouse I set the challenge on hard and 5 man and then earlier today went in, aggroed all three groups of mobs, and took out every foe without being KOed once.

    All 20 or 30 villains, all at the same time, and in the end the only thing standing was my hero.

    How strong is "very strong"?
    Should I be able to make a character that can not be defeated?

    Because without a challenge people get bored. Bored people don't play the game. People that do not play do not generate money for Cryptic. Not even indirectly.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Regen's meager dmg resistance leaves it particularly vulnerable to alpha strikes and large spike damage in general. A build could excel in single target combat but have problems handling large groups. Your build could have Aura of Arcane Clarity... There's plenty of ways to rationalize these sorts of things.

    If you can dodge a wrench then you can dodge a ball.
  • pwcross2pwcross2 Posts: 35 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    gravitar is a non cosmic NPC. Vikorin is a non cosmic NPC. characters who solo cosmics are still often killed by these awful baddies.

    if you want to make cosmics stronger, go right ahead. they are supposed to be COSMIC.

    but making the heroes weaker? kinda dumb. I can understand balance changes to powers on their own, but that should be done BEFORE deciding, Oh, lets nerf everything at once.

    WARNING: Wall of Text to follow.

    I actually came across this thread while searching for some info on Vikorin. A friend and I were rolling through the Monster Island missions and got to the Andrithal cavern, where we came across this big baddie. We had been playing on Elite in order to create some difficulty and were just discussing how we seemed to be just swathing a path through nearly everything encountered.

    Mind you, these characters are not Uber built or using exceptional gear etc. They are also not specced for each other or anything like that. His uses Invuln passive and uses some martial arts and munitions attacks in hybrid role. Mine uses support role with lightning attacks, bubbles and some healing.

    Anyway, to cut to the chase... We hadn't had a real challenge in a while. Breezed through most of the 5 man challenges Monster Island had to offer, then we get to this Andrithal cave. It was better, much better. Provided a good challenge all the way through to the last room... where we got slaughtered. Spent a good 1-2 hours dying and going back in to fight him, but couldn't chip off more than 1/3 of his health bar... eventually my friend had to leave so we decided to quit and revisit it the following day thinking there was some trick or mechanic we were missing.

    Just for an idea of how nasty it was, my characters shields are about 10.5k with full stacks of compassion but they'd get dropped in a matter of seconds... I wasn't even able to recast them due to being flopped back and forth like a fish out of water by the boss. We'd both be dead within about 10-15 seconds after entering the room, practically every time.

    Well, I wasn't personally ready to give up after my compatriot left... Vikorin uses extremely excessive knock-back and knock-to powers in a small room full of lava, At 2/3 health the first (outer) section of floor crumbles away, there is a moderate ambush, and 4 large fireball throwing statues appear. At 1/3 health the remainder of the surrounding floor crumbles away, leaving a small pyramid in the center of the room with Vikorin atop it, there is another ambush, and Vikorins knock powers become even more excessive (didn't think this was possible, but it is!) When Vikorin knocks you, he disables your travel power(s) leaving you to basically walk through the lava to get back on the tiny pyramid. At 0 health, there are no more ambushes and the giant fireball throwing statues vanish, Vikorin dies and a little portal appears near the door in the room to take you back to Monster Island.

    After my associate left, I decided to get my main, Mystra Cross, and make another go of it. I came out of it scathed, but not broken... and feeling very satisfied with myself and my accomplishment. I had no idea who this Vikorin guy was.. but It was a good fight. I took a victory pic:

    th_screenshot_2013-10-08-17-12-02.jpg
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Posts: 3,781 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Who said anything about not being able to make "very strong" characters?

    But this enters into "Where is the challenge?" territory.

    In the powerhouse I set the challenge on hard and 5 man and then earlier today went in, aggroed all three groups of mobs, and took out every foe without being KOed once.

    All 20 or 30 villains, all at the same time, and in the end the only thing standing was my hero.

    How strong is "very strong"?
    Should I be able to make a character that can not be defeated?

    Because without a challenge people get bored. Bored people don't play the game. People that do not play do not generate money for Cryptic. Not even indirectly.

    Not everyone can make builds like that. Even people with builds like that don't always have the player driving them to be able to duplicate the feat.

    I, for example, have a build that has been used to solo vikorin. But with me driving I cannot even get past the first spawn in Andrithal alone.

    Should the game be based around the majority of people or the outliers if it cannot be balanced for both at once? And in terms of difficulty, it really can't.

    It's cool to have some challenges that only the outliers can handle. But not cool to make them mandatory (STO did this with the end of the Romulan story arc, I haven't seen it in CO yet) or the new shiny draw that everyone will want to play but cannot succeed at (I feel forum malvanum and until sky command both fell into this trap).

    I do see what you're saying about challenge, but raising the speed limit on freeways because a bunch of Nascar drivers move into your state is not necessarily a smart move. Even if they move out because they feel 55mph is too limiting and boring.

    What every MMO I've played has failed to do a good job at, is make the different difficulty levels of content clear, and properly gate it.

    Levels doesn't work, and gear doesn't work. Freeform vs AT isn't relevant by itself either. Many people's level 40 ATs are vastly more competent than some of my freeforms. Indeed I have several freeforms with heroic and legion gear and rank 5 mods, that are gimpier than most of the level 30s I team with. I also have a couple that are very solid, and my Unleashed has solo'd some alerts when the teams bail or afk or just die too often.

    A performance gate is really what's needed. But those have never been done well that I am aware of. I've seen a few PvP leaderboard mechanics that come close, but nothing for PvE. Especially trying to account for support (which doesn't mean healing necessarily) or characters that swap between roles. And all the PvP leaderboards I know of get abused by fight rigging to share the rewards for the top place among the best fighters, or by cheaters to get to the best rewards.
  • mithrosnomoremithrosnomore Posts: 521 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Not everyone can make builds like that. Even people with builds like that don't always have the player driving them to be able to duplicate the feat.

    I, for example, have a build that has been used to solo vikorin. But with me driving I cannot even get past the first spawn in Andrithal alone.

    Should the game be based around the majority of people or the outliers if it cannot be balanced for both at once? And in terms of difficulty, it really can't.

    It's cool to have some challenges that only the outliers can handle. But not cool to make them mandatory (STO did this with the end of the Romulan story arc, I haven't seen it in CO yet) or the new shiny draw that everyone will want to play but cannot succeed at (I feel forum malvanum and until sky command both fell into this trap).

    I do see what you're saying about challenge, but raising the speed limit on freeways because a bunch of Nascar drivers move into your state is not necessarily a smart move. Even if they move out because they feel 55mph is too limiting and boring.

    What every MMO I've played has failed to do a good job at, is make the different difficulty levels of content clear, and properly gate it.

    Levels doesn't work, and gear doesn't work. Freeform vs AT isn't relevant by itself either. Many people's level 40 ATs are vastly more competent than some of my freeforms. Indeed I have several freeforms with heroic and legion gear and rank 5 mods, that are gimpier than most of the level 30s I team with. I also have a couple that are very solid, and my Unleashed has solo'd some alerts when the teams bail or afk or just die too often.

    A performance gate is really what's needed. But those have never been done well that I am aware of. I've seen a few PvP leaderboard mechanics that come close, but nothing for PvE. Especially trying to account for support (which doesn't mean healing necessarily) or characters that swap between roles. And all the PvP leaderboards I know of get abused by fight rigging to share the rewards for the top place among the best fighters, or by cheaters to get to the best rewards.

    But to me this is where the challenge level should come into play.

    There are four settings. On the lowest setting the game could be like normal is now, or maybe even a little easier, but the scaling should end up with elite being much more difficult than it is now.

    I am no 'pro'. I don't consider myself to be 'leet' in any way. But I would like to find a challenge when I decide to run some UNITY or my nemesis missions rather than have to seek out a select few enemies in a select few lairs.

    I have four characters, three of whom are actually playable*. They are not all the same. One of them certainly plays weaker than the other two.

    But if I am running regular missions (nemesis, UNITY, etc) all of them can get it done, with only the weakest of those three feeling occasionally pressed.

    Now I could certainly make the other characters weaker, but is that the only option? Is the challenge of trying to make a stronger character balanced by "but doing so makes the rest of the game less fun"?
    Or maybe the better question is, "should it be"?

    I am not saying that people playing a celestial or a fist or whatever AT people think is 'bad' should be a decidedly un-fun experience.

    I am not saying to adjust anything in the open world at all other than making the mega-foes more powerful.

    Just let me have better options to make the game more difficult for me.








    *The fourth character is one that I really want to make work, and was the very first one that I made for this game way back in early start, but I am not completely satisfied with the builds that I have tried in terms of concept and execution.
    He mostly sits in the powerhouse now as a blank slate, where I occasionally try out different powers and then remove them again until the next time that I think of something to look at and try out.
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Posts: 3,781 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    There are four settings. On the lowest setting the game could be like normal is now, or maybe even a little easier, but the scaling should end up with elite being much more difficult than it is now.

    I totally agree that the bottom should be a tick easier and the top should be significantly harder.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    I think it should be possible to make them so. difficult, but possible.

    and still have a variety of ways to make them this powerful.

    How can they make it difficult to build a character a certain way? ...QTEs during power selection? :3


    "Press B!" ...ooops, didn't press it in time, now I can't pick Strafing Run D:
  • deathsentry2012deathsentry2012 Posts: 149 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    how do you get the white rhino mission?
  • zedbrightlander1zedbrightlander1 Posts: 3,797 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Well done. :smile:
    DITTO this. { points up }
    ZedBlock-200.jpg
  • zedbrightlander1zedbrightlander1 Posts: 3,797 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    how do you get the white rhino mission?

    http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/M%27Ling
    M'Ling has it.
    ZedBlock-200.jpg
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