Is there anyway to NOT die multiple times in A Gathering Darkness: Unexpected Visitors

itpalg

I have done this thing multiple times over different characters over the years and it always is that mission I say, "Oh great, this mission where it is impossible to live...".

How in the hell are you supposed to survive being surrounded by borg, being hit with multiple flanking shots from all sides?

This mission frustrates the hell out of me and I just think it is stupid. You are locked in an arena with no way out completely surrounded.
Not only the above, but your respawn is camped, so you constantly die. Nice stupid gameplay there Cryptic.

tarran61

What are your settings set at, game play level? Normal, Advanced or Elite?

davefenestrator

I've died on more than one character doing that one at Normal, but my TOS AoY engineer survived this time.

The turrets / mortars / drones help since they draw attacks, and having at least one science and engineering doff also helps. Also for Borg give boffs different beam types and maybe carry a melee weapon yourself. Or the TR-116B since they can't adapt to it.

anodynes

On Normal, the answer is pretty simple, melee weapon of your choice and be aggressive. It probably helps that I use dual Sci BOffs on my away team with Medical Tricorder, Vascular Regenerator and Nanite Health Monitor.

gavinruneblade

first, be sure your boffs all have remodulators, you do not want to be the only source of damage.

second, give tactical boffs lunge. against borg it works better than grenades.

third, the fight area is big, use it. run in circles so your team all get flanking bonuses. Move out of attack range then come back just enough to hit one, etc. borg are slow you are fast, use this.

Next, use your armor effectively. if you have polyweave, the get in their face and punch or hit with a sword. if you have energy dampening stay the heck outta melee.

last, what gear and skills do your boffs have and did you remember to promote them?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

itpalg

This time around it was on advanced my aoy sci officer with full temp ground gear, 1 purple sci off with 3 healing skills/1 tach harmonic, one purple eng boff with shld rech 1/chron mine2/sabotage3/shld gen3, purp tact photon/target opt1/battle strat3/ambush1, purp tact photon/battle strat2/lunge2/smoke gren3.

I have no idea all the past ways I have done it on other characters/levels.

Of course by this time I know about promotions, and remods.

This character also has the use of a lirpa.

Regarding running away: you are STILL getting hit from all sides, even if/when you run away, since they are STILL coming from the way you are running. It wouldn't be so bad if they only came from the front, but they get flanking bonus damage on everyone. Maybe I should just set up in the corner of a wall?

gavinruneblade

don't setup in a corner, but run along the walls. stand still and they will get you. keep moving. The ai has really bad pathing capabilities, make it think about where it wants to go, and get your boffs flanking as often as possible.

also try training your boffs in a specialization. intel, temporal and command all have great ground abilities.

make that sci officer intel and swap two heals for any two of incite chaos, tripwire drone or photonic projection. make one of the tacticals either temporal or command. command will let you replace the officer's self buffs with teamwide buffs. temporal has wicked aoe powers, including a ground gravity well that can really help you get some breathing room.

i find two powers from the specialty works wonders.

itpalg

I will have to save up more ec to buy manuals etc.

I never make much game cash in any game I play, especially those I don't play every single month.

Most of the things I throw on the exchange don't sell, so I wind up throwing to a vendor. I don't have the time or room to keep putting things up (I MUCH prefer EQ/EQ2 selling that stays up for a long time if not forever, and you can EASILY check what other people are selling at and EASILY change it right away, unlike this company's method).

I will wait for the Kobali freebie command boff when this character gets there. Right now 300k is too much for command spec.

gavinruneblade

what is your in game handle?

the auctionhouse does let you immediately pull sales down and relist them, there isn't even a posting fee.

if you need medium amounts of money fast (few million) the best way is selling white dity officers. buy any green quality officer of your faction priced 70k or less, convert to 3 whites and sell those for 35k each.
you can also often find blues for under 150k which you convert to 9 whites and sell. it is annoying and slow but very reliable.

if you prefer grinding then the new romulus patrols give a bunch of vendor trash, it adds up. starbase 24 is pretty easy to solo and gives about 250k in vendor trash per run.

breadandcircuses

itpalg wrote: »

I will have to save up more ec to buy manuals etc.

I never make much game cash in any game I play, especially those I don't play every single month.

Most of the things I throw on the exchange don't sell, so I wind up throwing to a vendor. I don't have the time or room to keep putting things up (I MUCH prefer EQ/EQ2 selling that stays up for a long time if not forever, and you can EASILY check what other people are selling at and EASILY change it right away, unlike this company's method).

If you drag-and-drop items into the Search box, you can check the Exchange for identical items; deleting [Mods] makes for a wider comparison, but if you do be sure to match Rarity using the dropdown on the top left. It's pretty straightforward... then again, I sell a lot of TRIBBLE on the Exchange, so maybe it's just practice.

Otherwise...

• Tac BOffs in general are... okay; they don't have access to the same set of abilities our Captains do, nor do they use them intelligently. Suppressing Fire, Target Optics, and maybe some Grenades are your best bet in Tac BOff abilities, and most Specializations are even better.
• Your Eng BOff shouldn't have Mines unless it also has Site-to-Site Ensnare and/or a melee weapon; even then they aren't very smart about using them, and more often than not the Mines will just end up sitting around and waiting for some Janitorial Drone to step on later. Hrm. Did the Borg assimilate any Roombas?
• Your Eng BOff should have a Mortar; those rain death from above, and can be left outside a room to kill its occupants.
• Your Sci BOff should have the new Cold Fusion Flash; combining Cold damage, a Root, and a Stun chance makes for an effective attack, and the crowd control aspect makes it more likely for the Borg to be where the Mortars (mentioned above) land.
• Specializations can fill weak points in a Profession; this is true of BOffs as well as your Captain. Spread Decay and Chronometric Diffusion can work nicely on an Eng otherwise using Shield Recharge defensively and spamming Mortars about. Take Cover, Return Fire, Hammer and Anvil, and Strategic Analysis all buff your entire team, making for a really handy BOff to have around. And so on. Look about the possibilities and find a combination that suits your own playstyle... there's sure to be one.

itpalg

Geez what a markup...looking at the materials cost to make these spec manuals, it only costs 37k EC and 200 dil + a few minor RD mats.

This does not justify the 7 to 10 times markup IMO. They aren't that hard to make. I just created an intel one on my main eng character (used to be command).

markhawkman

Also, most rank 1 and 2 manuals can be bought from a boff trainer for far less than exchange price.

salazarraze

Ah, another one of these threads.

This mission is very easy, @itpalg. If you want, we could run it together some time. I'll show you the correct tactics and boff powers for curb stomping the borg.

theraven2378

I've found getting them to chase you down a choke point like a door and having the back lines covered with turrets,mortars and medical generators makes things easier.

Boffs armed with pulsewaves of different energy types with remodulators as well, same with your captain