How to limit your deaths on the Patchwork bounties

I'm writing this because so much of the defeats I see are to the same two or three things (mainly Kalibak's AE and failing to recognize one of the Hydra mechanics).

1. Murk
--- A. Get behind pets and tanks when he does his charge. Pets and tanks (all other players, actually) can block or deflect his charge.

2. Ares/Hera
--- A. Both of these are pretty straight-forward. Watch for the big red letters on your screen to alert you of their impending AE and then block or break your animation then block until it passes. Ares's AE does little-if-any damage if you are blocking while Hera's is significantly lowered (but you still take damage).

3. Kalibak/Steppenwolf/Orion
--- A. Kalibak's AE is a $&@#(. It seems to be a medium AE around and above him with a longer cone effect in front of him. The best thing to do is get as far away from him as possible the moment you get the spam about his special attack coming.
------- 1. While it's amusing to see a good 10+ players suddenly drop like rocks (and it lets me know when it's safe to go back in for more pew-pew-pew), it makes the fight take far longer than it would if people just heeded the big red-letter spam, the yellow environment spam in the chat window or his skull attack warning along with the animation of his reaching to the sky.

---B. Steppenwold and Orion are pretty simple. Their specials are small-area AEs. Just move back a little and you're fine.

4. Hydra
--- A. The fight is primarily tank-n-spank but it does have some important things to watch for:

1. Orbitals spawn the teeth that become skeletons. This has been confirmed via player testing. Save your orbitals until the end (when its health is somewhere around the "r" in "Hydra"). There also appears to be a decent chance that the teeth will spawn in an area that is about to turn red (see next point).

2. If the area you're standing in turns red, MOVE! The red area on the floor indicates where the Hydra is about to unleash some potent damage. If you're stuck in animation at least try to move as far away from the Hydra as possible so other players have a better chance of reviving you.

3. The green goop that appears on the floor will damage you. Don't stand in it nor walk through it (if possible).

4. Don't stand in front of the Hydra, if he turns towards you then move. Most of his non-special damage is forward-focused. I've found the best place to stand is on the side, a little back from his mid-point. If you're Ranged, the small circular AE is often just big enough for you to take a step back, wait for the AE (his rearing up then stamping his feet down animation).

5. If you're a tank who is not running around picking up the adds, make sure you are standing next to any other tanks. Why? Because it's best to keep him facing in a single direction so that healers only really have to worry about you instead of a Hydra that's tossing out damage in every direction because he's constantly spinning to face off against a different tank. If you find you are taking too much damage, turtle up for a few seconds so other tanks grab aggro off of you and the healers can heal you.

ADDENDUM: Make sure you have at least your /shout and environment chats in the same window and that it's active so you can keep up with strategies others may be trying. Remember, this is a team effort and in order to be an effective part of it you need to be able to at least receive communications (re: a thread from a few weeks back with the player complaining about being kicked from the group because they never keep their chat active and thus didn't know the group had been trying over and over to communicate with them).

ADDENDUM 2: If you are group leader either check LFG between fights to keep your group full or pass the leadership off to someone who will. People are constantly dropping from the bounty fights (raids with their leagues, real life, deciding to do solos, etc). The quickest way for a phase to go from one that burns all bounties to one that doesn't is for group leaders to not fill their vacancies the moment they come open. LFG almost always has people looking to get into a burn phase so take advantage of that.

Happy hunting!

Pretty good guide here for any new players. I will say even with blocking and following these steps i still will get random one-shot but a lot better than others i see who don't even block

Orbitals do not cause hydra to spit his teeth out. Damage does. So it's going to happen regardless. If everyone spreads them out, that's fine or if people get teeth, then also no biggie. Even better, interact with one of the wonder women and they'll trap a mouth shut for less teeth.

Most groups can burn through a boss in about 20-30secs. It says in big writing across the screen “BLOCK” if you can’t see this - You’re not looking out for it! (this is also how dumbed down the game has become! visible prompts on what to do)

Best way to stay alive?! Do what most do; Get in your orbital - then go stand in the back, whist the players actually doing their jobs and roles properly do the work. Seems to be the general idea anyway. Stay safe! Block and hold. (How you give thumbs up emoji?)

Yeah, was going to say this. I don't think orbitals and teeth are directly related, although there is an indirect relation because if 3 or 4 people hit him with orbitals at once, he will likely spit some teeth out...but the same could be said with 3 or 4 powerful supercharges or a larger group burning him faster.

The thing I hate about the teeth is the fact that 7 times out of 10 I'll be at 90% done with working the cog when he will spit a fireball and kill me...so A) the tooth sinks and becomes a skeleton and B) I get to die trying to follow mechanics vs just Pew-Pew-Pewing. Bonus annoyance for those 1 or 2 teeth that will appear directly under the Hydra where you have almost 0 chance of getting to them.

Interesting stance. I guess it could get confused because so many hit Orbitals right at the start of the fight (can't remember a single one without at least 2 or 3 right at the start) and then monkey-see/monkey-do them later in the fight, especially if it's x damage within y timeframe. Multiple Orbitals then would look like they are causing them specifically because they are Orbitals (see: Terra) instead of just damage amount.

With that said, it's probably still the better policy to wait until the end because you can't do an even burn on Orbitals with only a small portion of the players engaging in an organized manner.

You can't block on Kalibak. Just have to clear the area. Which is sometimes impossible (poor tanks/ melee plyrs) due to everyone having 30 pets out. I get locked in constantly with my tank toon. A good healer can heal you thru it tho.

There's got to be an RNG set up with them landing either in front of him or in the area that the next AE attack will be performed because it's far too common for teeth to spawn in an area and then within the next second or two that area goes red.

I messed up on the Kalibak part and I can't edit. I meant to say it seems to be a medium AE circle around and above him and a STRONG cone in in front.

The best option for him is to stop what you're doing the moment you get the screen spam and do your best to put some distance between you (tanks or people meleeing him might have better luck going through and behind him though).

Two words....Quantum Tunnel...hehehe....Is my get out of jail card when I get locked in like that.

I know I was having horrible luck Monday. We ran it five times, and every time when I dropped in, I was KO'ed before I hit the ground, EVERY TIME....he was coming after me like I owed him money. LOL

That fireball attack is so stupid, there’s literally nothing you can do if you’re targeted.

If a player wait for orbitals, it's a chance they can die, spawn, freeze, and not get credit because of disconnect. Hit orbitals at start and if the player die, he won't have to risk a disconnect

You can just roll away from Murk attack. It's pretty easy to see where he's charging at but if you can't see for some reason, just block. Hydra I might be wrong but even when I don't stand on the red indicator I still get hit hard from something. Say Hydra is facing me and he's going to stomp so the red indicator suggest to move out the way well because it's a cone attack for me the best option was to roll forward positioning under it's belly away from the red cone attack but somehow I still got hit. His tail attack is also annoying.

Why is Kalibak warning attack far more of a threat than the rest of the bounties aside from Hydra? Literally the only threats to me is Kalibak warning attack and the Hydra. Murk used to be one but I can just block or roll away.

nice to see - but we'll continue to see deaths - especially if a persons internet connectivity goes - kabloooey - you know what I mean... even when you see the words and know what to do - you still can't get out of the way or block and you die.

right now I'm having difficulty seeing the bubbles in the new 4 man alert - and it just kills me - so I now tend to move a lot and hopefully I don't roll or tumble into a pool. By the time I see the bubble I'm dead - every time - the rendering is too opaque - it's like the racing rings in metro where the rings are so lightly colored I can't easily discern where the racing ring is to go thru it.

so one of the things I do with Kalibak is I'll heal toons thru his attack and with a second good healer this becomes simpler to do.
and yes this can be done with players with high enough defense & health - really helps if the healer has an early burst heal which counters the successive blows from Kalibak it's 3 or 4 - none of them by themselves is enough - but together they do kill quite a few.

I was wondering if those that use guardian angel would chime in and state if it helps or it doesn't.
I suspect those w/enough SP spec their toons w/more health


one other noted thing: where Ares spawns - you can die from the Satyr Lieutenant (the flute playing)- its a true one shot - so those toons that do splash damage and there's a tank that pulls those lieutenants in - this is what kiils you - check your combat tab - the other lieutenants do successive damage - just one isn't enough to kill you but enough of them and you perish.
So I'd suggest with Ares (and other bosses) to have a single target loadout....


and if anyone else notices - if your group is tankless (there is a 60% defense buff) so I really prefer no tanks - until hydra. if you do have a tank and a healer in your group - you still get a 10% defense buff.
(note all DPS group should be getting the 60% +10% (no healer) +10% (no troll) - for a total of 80% defense buff)

Credit is given for just doing damage. The player is more likely to not get credit due to failing the fight because of the bajillion adds than they are for the things you mentioned.

There are also shields, personal dampening fields, sodas, supply drops used for health/damage mitigation (and not damage buff), neo-venom used for the 60% defense buff, all-natural (health) soder buff, compound omega health buff, absorption adapter weapon mod, aggressive protection neck mod, old OP gear with that extra defense and more!

These kinds of things allow me to take the one-shots and still have 10%-20% health left for the half second it takes me to pop a soda. I still block or roll away because I’m literate and a competent player, but as others have said above, lag can be a drag. Better to live through it.

Orbital or no orbitals, the teeth will spawn. Think it's on a timer or something or base on health. Worse part more times then not teeth always spawn where the hydra will blow fire.

That guide is good for new players,

keep it up

Yea so heres the super short version of how to not die during bounties...
1) Do what the screen prompts u to do when it promps you to do it.
2) rinse
3) repeat