DN is Down: Thoughts on our First HSTR Victory

Greetings, Legion!

I'd like to congratulate everyone, again, on our first successful HSTR! It was a team effort all around. I'd especially like to thank our Officers, all of whom stepped up to make this victory possible.

As a guild, our track record is now 3 for 3 when it comes to building for Heroic raids from the ground up. We learned a lot from our first successful HAAT, for example, and our first HSTR is no different. Frankly, we made many errors along the way, from leadership to members, so I'd like to share a few general thoughts on how we can learn from these miscues, the majority of which boil down to one word: communication.

If you weren't previously aware, you now know that communication is absolutely crucial when attempting to clear Heroic, especially in the early stages. Our Officers did a fantastic job organizing hits through each phase, at all hours of the day and night. We can make this job easier and clear each phase more productively, however, if we make sure to always check in on the Sith Chat channel before hitting. If you're crunched for time, let an Officer know. They'll work with you.

The most important time for communication is at the end of a given phase. This is because multiple hits at the end of the phase will waste damage. And that is why we schedule "Transition Teams" for each phase. These Transition Teams are:

P1 to P2: JKR
P2 to P3: JKR
P3 to P4: AV Nightsisters

If you ever have a question about when to hit, or with what squad, ask an Officer on the Sith Chat channel. In fact, during each HSTR, it is necessary to at least read through the latest @EHL Member posts, since they will always carry information important for every member about the raid at hand.

In addition to matters of communication, this HSTR should've also been instructive in terms of the squads we run. In short, everybody's HSTR squads can use some work, especially when it comes to P2 (Jedi) and P3 (NS, Chex). Remember that our Sith channel has useful information about developing these squads. And, as always, if you have any questions about squad development, feel free to ask an Officer. If they don't know the answer, they will know how to point you in the right direction.

In the future, I will post on more specific things that we can do as a guild to move forward with the HSTR. For now, focus on comms and squad development. You can rest assured that, from a leadership standpoint, how we run the HSTR will undergo some adjustments to assure smoother sailing. Again, congratulations on our first victory of many to come!

State of the STR Union

Hello, all! Our Raid Boss, NJam, asked me to post an update on our STR progress:

"Members, as you have all noticed, we have started to put a great focus on the STR. The reason for this is we are on the cusp of being able to tackle the Heroic level. We have some shortfalls in P4. However, the other phases look good.  

So, the plan for this week is the following: STR T6 will launch at the start of the week. We will then attempt our first HSTR. When HSTR is launched, we will need all hands on deck, your theory crafting and mods done. The hits have to be organized properly, not just for your own personal goals, but with the greater guild goal in mind. We can focus on individual scores once we get the hang of the raid."

I'd like to take a moment to thank NJam for his efforts with organizing HSTR prep, as well as thank Jupitus for all the excellent NS guidance he has given us. Tremendous.

EHL leadership is in a unique position. Once upon a time, we set out to prep for HAAT and, now that HAAT has been on farm for quite some time, I can confidently say that our guild leaders know what they're doing when it comes to heroic raid prep!

With that said, HSTR is literally the most difficult raid in the game. This first run at HSTR will not only test how deeply we can hit as a guild, but also, and more importantly, it will provide us with first hand knowledge of the heroic tier. Heroic raids are different beasts than lower tiers and, while theory crafting and YouTube vids are informative, nothing tops actual experience.

Good hunting, Legion.

Sith Success: The Ongoing Saga

Hello all, the following is a brief update by our Raid Boss, NJam:

As you have all noticed, we crushed STR T6!  Completion was in under 72hrs. This is officially our new level, unless we are in danger of raid ticket overrun, and I will announce that if it happens.

I am also proud to announce that we have started a small group of members who will work for our common goal of HSTR. These members have volunteered to stop all of their personal farms and only work on HSTR teams to allow us, as a guild, the ability to earn Traya shards.

And, finally, a round of applause to all the members who get their minimum 400 guild required raid tickets! There are still a few members who miss this daily goal. Those who do not hit 400 daily, please get to work! I value all of you as members.

LSTB Overview: Required Characters

Hello there, Legion!

As some of you may know, Jupitus has been working on TBs with General Grogan. (GG for short, of course.) Jupe recently put together an overview of all the characters required for LSTBs in each phase. What's important is that these characters help boost our star count, sometimes significantly so. The higher our star count, the more Event Tokens we earn. That means more tokens for Hoda, Wampa, and high end gear. Here's the overview Jupe put together...

LS BATTLES: CHARACTERS NEEDED

LSTB Specific Characters

-Hoth Rebel Soldier. 3 Missions at 5*
-Hoth Rebel Scout. 2 Missions at 6*
-Captain Han Solo (CHS). 2 Missions at 5* / 1 Mission at 7*
-CLS. 1 Mission
-ROLO. 1 Mission at 5* / 1 Mission at 7*

General Characters

-RHan
-Princess Leia
-R2D2
-OBK
-STHan
-Biggs
-Ackbar

LS BATTLES: TEAMS NEEDED

Rebels at 6*
Phoenix at 6*
Rogue One at 3*

(Note: Rogue One is the trickiest. The first battle is 3* required, but the second is 7* required in P6. This is a huge investment for a team that isn't used that much.)

Now, I am well aware that the following team setups are not optimal, but I tried to make sure that there is enough for all 4 Combat Missions each phase, which translates into more stars:

P1 (2*)
-Generic (Jedi/Res)
-Generic (Can get you max dmg or ROLO, CLS, HRScout, HRSoldier, CHS)
-Phoenix

P2 (3*)
-Rebels (Phoenix)
-Generic (CLS, ROLO, HRSoldier, HRScout, CHS)
-Rogue One
-Generic (Jedi/Res)

P3 (4*)
-Rebels (CLS, HRScout, ROLO + 2 General Characters)
-Generic (Phoenix)
-Generic (Jedi/Res)
-Light Side (CHS, HRSoldier + 3 General Characters)

P4 (5*)
-Rebels (HRSoldier + 4 General Characters)
-Generic (Jedi/Res)
-Light Side (ROLO, CHS + 3 General Characters)
-Generic (Phoenix)

P5 (6*)
-Rebels (HRSoldier, ROLO, RHan, CHS, R2D2)
-Light Side (CLS + 4 General Characters)
-Generic (Jedi/Res)
-Phoenix

Here is breakdown of unavailable Combat Missions due to the lack of properly leveled characters for the entire guild:

HRScout. 19 Missions. Point loss of 195k to 1.1m in P3 / 1.4m to 7.5m in P5.

HRSoldier. 17 Missions. Point loss of 260k to 1.4m in P3 / 988k to 5m in P4.

ROLO. 11 Missions. Point loss of 840k to 4.6m in P4.
(Note: 11 Players do not have her at the req level)

CHS. 72 Missions. Point loss of 2.3m to 13.4m in P3 / 2.7m to 15.2m in P4.
(Note: 36 Players do not have him at the req level)

This guy can give us a massive boost, probably 2-4 stars. Unfortunately, he requires Cantina Energy, which most people use for either JTR prep, or JKR prep. Crouching Rancor says it will take 42 days to get him without any refreshes. We need 3.5m for 1* in P3 and 5.2m for 1* in P4. So, if everyone got him, finishing the first wave would almost be enough for a single star.

Sith Math Part 2: STR T6

Howdy, Legion. As I'm sure all of you are aware, the plan we put into place to gear up for the STR has worked out quite well, due in no small part to your fantastic efforts. My original post that called for a focus on the STR was, believe it or not, just a little over a month ago on Sept 7. After solving T4 in short order, the dev changes to the STR Health Pools finally arrived and, with them, we also solved T5 in a snap.

The next part of our STR plan is to solve T6. And, as some of you are aware, according to our timetable we'll begin in early November. I suggested this timetable for several reasons, but, in the main, I wanted to achieve two things:

1) Give everyone a window of opportunity to make sure key STR characters were at least 6*

2) Give those players who just landed a new, shiny JTR some time to gear, mod, and zeta their squad effectively, as well as to learn the strat(s) for P1.

In a nutshell, we're right on target. So far, so very good.

We should expect, however, a much tougher go of it in T6. While I'll be discussing Health Pool and Damage Percentages in this post, remember that the Sith keep hitting harder as the tiers progress. What's more, enemy defense tends to rise considerably. Comparatively speaking, when you make the jump from AAT to HAAT, the damage numbers that players post get cut down drastically. If I recall correctly, HAAT damage percentages amount to 1/3 of those posted in non-Heroic.

All this is a gentle reminder that T6 and, ultimately, HSTR will prove a considerable challenge. As a general rule, HSTR requires all our squads at G12. We can safely proceed with the assumption that, for T6, the minimum gear req is G11. While there are some exceptions, such as the specific gear reqs for NS in P3, the goal is to have all squads at G11 minimum for T6. This is basically to ensure survivability.

Now for some Sith math.

As you recall, the HP for each tier dropped significantly only recently. T4 dropped by 75% and T5 dropped by 65%. As an example, the 105m HP of T5 P1 was slashed to 37m or so, which made it much easier to achieve a 2% hit at 735k. T6 also received a HP reduction, but only by 50%. Interestingly, a 2% hit in T6 requires approximately double the damage of T5. Here's the breakdown:

T5 HP                                     T6 HP

P1 37m / 2% = 735k               P1 76m / 2% = 1.5m
P2 45m / 2% = 903k               P2 79m / 2% = 1.6m
P3 39m / 2% = 791k               P3 76m / 2% = 1.5m
P4 36m / 2% = 720k               P4 No Data

My guesstimate for P4 is that it's roughly double for T6, in line with the other tiers. That said, we're looking at 72m or so total. Here's the breakdown per Boss:

T5                                          T6

DN 14m / 2% = 280k            DN 28m / 2% = 560k
DS 13m / 2% = 260k             DS 26m / 2% = 520k
DT 9m / 2% = 180k              DT 18m / 2% = 360k 

Now, remember, the 2% rule is designed to show how much damage 50 players need to post per hit, per phase, to clear the raid. For the STR, P4 is tricky, since the logic of the 2% rule dictates that the phase will last 3 days! For each player -- this is 50/50 now -- the goal for P4 is to post at least 2% of the total HP for the Phase, which amounts to a grand total of 1.4m. That's a tall order.

In short, I hope these numbers are fairly sobering. We've managed to solve T5 with ease. Let's meet T6 with the same determination, Legion. Remember the cardinal rule: Gear, Gear, Gear. Gear all day. And then more Gear. With a triple shot of Gear. Then 31 Flavors of Gear. Then some Gear icing on the Gear cake. Then we follow the Yellow Brick Gear Road to HSTR. 

Theory Crafting: STR Nightsisters in P3 and P4

Theory Crafting: STR Nightsisters in P3 and P4
by Jupitus, EHL Officer


Are you also far from having she who shall not be mentioned? (Ahem, JTR) Tired of hitting like a wet noodle in the STR? Well, CRY NO MORE. Invite the Nightsisters to join you and rain down punishment of Biblical proportions on Traya and Nihilus. These F2P girls can do more damage than she who shall not be mentioned.

Which is as much to say, NS can more than rival JTR damage in the STR. Yet not all of us have JTR within reach. Although JTR is a gear check for the HSTR, we won't be able to do the entire raid with only her squad. That's where NS steps in. They can do silly damage in P3 and P4. On top of that, they are brilliant in TWs and TBs. As we saw in our last TW, in fact, facing a wall of NS is about as much fun as counting road signs on the highway.

Depending on what you want to use your NS for, you have to farm, mod, and gear them differently. So, take into account which phase you usually get to play in the STR. For me, it makes no sense to make a P2 squad, since P2 is always cleared while I'm sleeping.

STR P3: Deathstorm

Squad: MT (L), AV, Daka, Zombie, Initiate

Zetas: MT (Great Mother), AV (Rampage), Daka (Serve Again, optional)

Gear: Zombie G10 minimum. AV and Daka as high as possible. Initiate and MT can benefit from being geared lower.

Mods:
1. AV (Speed is king. Use a CD set + CD triangle)
2. Zombie and Daka (HP and Speed, unless you are at G12. Gear 12 Zombie can do damage)

YouTubers like Skelturix, Bulldog, and Metaverse have all their NS geared to G12. DO NOT COPY THAT. Those guys are running HSTR, which means that the Sith hit a lot harder. Because we are at T5, soon to be T6, you won't be able to kill MT and Initiate fast enough if they are well geared. Since you need MT and Initiate to die as quickly as possible, it's a good idea to have them undergeared, in other words. I do it by removing mods from my MT, and I use either a G1 Initiate, or Spirit.

Strategy:

Get MT and Initiate to die as quickly as possible. On a good run, I can get them to die by round 11-12. Because of MT's zeta, every time you do a basic attack with Daka, Zombie, or AV, MT or Initiate resurrects. They subsequently assist in the attack, then instantly die again. This stack 15% Offense, 15% CD, and 5% HP to AV for each attack. It comes down to me doing 250k each basic attack by around round 2-3.

How To:

At the start of the run, Daka, Zombie, and AV only attack Traya until MT and Initiate die. Every time MT or Initiate has a turn, they attack Traya, unless there is a saber with the Retribution Buff. If there is, then attack that saber in order to kill MT and Initiate faster. As soon as they are dead, use AV's Endless Wrath to clear all the sabers and topple Traya. Now you rain down punishment on Traya. Every basic attack will res and kill MT or Initiate, and you will see your damage from AV grow for each hit.

Be careful with clearing sabers when using a basic attack. If you do that, then MT or Initiate will res and your dps will slow down. I usually restart the run when this happens, often from the Daka double hit. Every now and then you will have to use AV's Strike Fear to heal Zombie. Keep her standing. If she gets the double speed debuff, it will cost you on dps. If that happens with 2 rounds left, it's oki, but not when it's round 7.

Phase 3 is a race against the clock. We can't prevent or even delay Enrage, so what we try is to do massive damage before time runs out.

STR P4: DN TM TRAIN

In Phase 4, we attempt to delay the Enrage by getting a Turnmeter Train going. Skelturix has made an excellent video on how this setup works, but here is a short recap.

Squad: AV (L), MT, Talia, Daka, Zombie

Zetas: AV (NS Swiftness, Rampage). Rampage is not essential, but it grants a huge damage boost.

Gear: Zombie (G10 minimum). All other NS gear as high as possible. My MT is only G9, 6* at the moment and my weakest toon.

Mods: NO SPEED NEEDED. YEHAA!

1. AV (CD set, CD triangle, Offense arrow and cross)
2. Talia (3x CC set. CD triangle, Offense arrow and cross)
3. MT (CD/CC sets) This chick hits like a truck!
4. Daka: (3x Health set, Health cross, triangle, and arrow)
5. Zombie: (Same as Daka, until you reach G12, then you can mod for damage)

How To:

Once your protection is gone, this setup starts to shine. Every time you attack DN, your team takes a little damage. Since you have 5 Healers on your squad, however, you won't die just yet. Due to AV's leader zeta, every time you heal up to 100% your toons receive TM. Talia is the star on your team, since her basic attack heals them all. The rest heal on timed abilities, so the trick is to juggle these so you can keep on attacking DN, keep healing up, and keep receiving TM so DN never gets a turn.

The one rule is that, if Talia has full TM, then you don't heal with any of the other NS. Every time DN does take a turn, hit Sion a few times so he doesn't fall too far behind, but also because DN's speed increases stack each time he's attacked, so he will reach a speed of 900 quite fast. He won't take a turn, though, as long as one of your toons has full TM.

Here comes the geek trick: In order to keep track of which NS has heal up, I go super low tech. This only works when I have the time to do it. I place 4 dice in front of my iPad, one for each toon. Every time the toon takes a turn, I adjust the die. This way, I can see if 2 toons have heal up, and I can therefore skip it on one of them.

Now it is up to you guys if you want to invest in these lovely ladies of the night. It is well worth it, and I haven't even focused on Arena, where they can beat many teams.

Sith Math: The New STR Changes

Hello, Legion. As you know, the devs have recently made changes to the STR. With those changes, which you can read about on the forums, we should make some changes of our own. First and foremost, we've moved up to Tier 5 comfortably. Now that we're on T5, however, a few things have to happen. I'll cover them in this post.

First, I'd like to give you an overview of the most prominent change to the STR. Namely, Raid Boss Health Pools, which have received a drastic overhaul in terms of reduction. You can see this clearly in the chart that the devs provided.

This means that a given squad's damage output no longer corresponds to the old percentages we have posted on the STR channel. You'll note that Raid Bosses have had their HP reduced by 65% in T5, our current tier. Before the changes, T4 P1 had a 59m HP, which jumped to 103m in T5. After the changes, T5 now has a 36m HP -- even less than T4 before the changes -- which is minus 65% of 103m, or roughly 67m.

So what does all this mean for us, exactly? Well, in P1 a 2% hit is now approximately 735k. That means a 4% hit is now approximately 1.5m. Not a bad change at all!

We would do well to remember, however, that a drop in Raid Boss HP does not change the increase in difficulty we'll face with each tier. In other words, Darth Nihilus will put up a more challenging fight in T5 than in T4, even if he has less health.

Here are the hit percentages per phase for Tier 5:

P1 2% = 735k
P2 2% = 903k
P3 2% = 791k
P4 2% = See below

As per usual, these are approximations. But they're close enough. Please also note that P4 is tricky to figure out, since there are three Raid Bosses in that phase, each with their own HP. I have, however, hazarded a bit of deductive reasoning. Let's hope my Sith math skills are up to the task!

The individual HP for each Boss in T5 wasn't generally available, unlike T4. Before the changes, the individual HP for each Boss in T4 looked like this:

DN 21m 40%
DS 19m 36%
DT 12.5m 24%
Total = 52.5m

As I mentioned earlier, the jump from T4 to T5 meant that the HP doubled, roughly speaking. So the total HP for T5 was 103m. If I apply this jump in HP to the individual bosses in T5 P4, while keeping the percentages intact (this is a BIG IF, so the guesstimate is that the devs kept the percentages as a constant), then this is what I come up with:

DN 41m 40%
DS 37m 36%
DT 25m 24%
Total = 103m

65% of 103m is 67m. Thus, after the recent HP reduction our new total is 36m HP for T5 P4. For each Raid Boss, that translates into:

DN 14m 40%
DS 13m 36%
DT 9m 24%
Total = 36m

As for the new P4 hit percentages per Raid Boss, here they are:

DN 2% = 280k
DS 2% = 260k
DT 2% = 180k

The disclaimer here is that I've guesstimated quite a bit, especially when it comes to the constant percentage per Raid Boss. Even if this assumption is off, at least we have a decent place to start. Which leads me to the changes we should make:

1) Phase Specific Squad Hits

The STR generally begins at 12pm EDT. From now on, you should hit each phase ONLY with squads you have designated for that phase. Which means, no kitchen sink hits until either myself, or an Officer has announced on the STR channel that it's clear for everyone to do so. Again, ONLY hit with your Phase Specific squads at first.

I realize everyone wants to hit hard and hit often to secure their own spot at the top of the leaderboard, but to hold on throwing everything you've got at P1 immediately -- for example -- will help leadership determine how well we can handle our current tier as a group. Don't worry, you'll get to use your 5 squad limit per day, just not all at once. The guiding virtue here is patience.

2) Posting Hits

While I mentioned this in my previous blog post, it's worth mentioning again. Please post screenshots of your Phase Specific hits on the STR channel. This gives everyone in the guild an opportunity to see what comps you use and how much damage they do. It also gives us an opportunity to discuss comps and strats. Communication will make us stronger.

3) Posting Phase Specific Squad Comps on Discord

I will be creating a new STR channel for us to list our Phase Specific squads. Akin to the TW Data Room, this new channel will give everyone an overview of squad comps for the entire guild. We'll be able to see, for instance, just how many JTR squads we have for P1, how many Chex Mix squads we have for P3, how many NS squads we have for P4, etc. If we want to know where we're going, in other words, it's a good idea to take stock of where we are currently.

So there you have it. The next step in STR prep. If you have any questions, comments, etc., find me on Discord! And good hunting, Legion.

P.S.

I'm much better with words than with numbers, so please feel free to check the approximations I call math!