StU Alert a bit of a random queue nightmare?

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by FreezyPop, Jul 9, 2022.

  1. FreezyPop Well-Known Player

    Trying to take advice folks have given about difficulty levels in events, I’ve been trying to do the StU alert at “event” level, but even at what’s ostensibly the easy mode, Volcano Mining Facility’s final boss fight has been nothing but a series of failed runs for me when I try to random queue it. Part of that is folks not really caring how many times I say “please burn the turrets first,” but even when they’re making an effort, the enviro damage is just brutal except for the one run I was able to invite a really good healer into (after half a dozen wipes and a player drop).

    It seems like the net effect here is going to be that only folks who can put together solid groups will be able to get much of anywhere with the weekly “do 3 alerts” mission. I know I’m running out of random queue faith. But I also know my anecdotal experience isn’t any kind of statistical evidence. Am I alone in the level of dread I’ve built when looking to queue VMF?
    • Like x 4
  2. Boss Dark Side Well-Known Player

    You are not alone. At all.
    • Like x 4
  3. Elijah Seed Well-Known Player

    I ****ing HATE VMF! Which is why I am only bothering with Save The Universe on my main and, so far, on my EU character although I don't think I'm going to bother again on that toon next week.

    I just hope they haven't mucked up Smallville for STU part 2. Smallville was always a fast alert although I haven't seen it in several years.
    • Like x 1
  4. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    You don’t have to burn all the turrets. You have to burn 2 I order to let superman get back up to freeze the window. If everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off than Tia going to take longer. Everyone needs to focus one the same turrets. After the 2 turrets are burned than the additional turrets being destroyed just let’s him move faster. But it’s the first 2 that matters.

    If you don’t destroy the turrets than the windows hazard damage is what kills players. If there’s no healer than you need to block to restor health. Having a shield helps.
    • Like x 3
  5. lllStrichcodelll ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    To add to that: If you keep the ball bombs away from the blue and red wall, they wont get destroyed. If they dont get destroyed, there is no additional environmental damage to heal. :)

    Its always better to prevent a problem than to fix it. :D
  6. Jcal Dedicated Player

    One wall always breaks though, at least it used to. Regardless of the bomb mechanic. Ultimately, it's a health threshold mechanic that occurs towards the end of the fight. That could have changed with STU, though. The bomb mechanic is simply there for the two feats (don't let blue break; don't let red break) and the added danger of explosions in your face, lol.
    • Like x 2
  7. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Don’t the windows always break? I don’t do event so not sure if it can be prevented there but in reg it’d always break.

    I personally control the entire fight, especially when I’m either the tank or the top dps. I lure lex over to 1 window (red) and fight lex there. That way superman follows lex and is always next to the window. I then destroy the 2 turrets closest to me and since superman is next to the window he repairs it faster.

    Now, the reason I always do the red window is because I lure the exo suits to that side which is where you have to transfer them to. After all the phases is done and the suit phase comes up I lure lex over to the opposite side away from all the suits and let the rest of the group do them. (Biggest pain when a bunch of scoreboard chasers que and ignore the suits.
    • Like x 1
  8. FreezyPop Well-Known Player

    I wasn't aware Supes could stop the enviro after only two turrets. And for the tanking tip vis a vis optimal positioning. Thanks for that heads up!

    I think my ongoing concern is that the enviro is so painful so quickly if you miss the mechanics (or just have suboptimal burn on the turrets), that I really didn't experience a difficulty difference between the Omni/Event and "normal." If you miss the mechanic, you die quickly unless you have a boss healer in play in all versions. That feels off to me as a difficulty scale, I guess. It seems like the "this is best for people with a lower CR" instance -- which the devs have also explicitly removed role requirements from if I've read the last update notes correctly -- shouldn't be just as likely to wipe a group of reasonably leveled folks as the "This is for folks at level for current content."

    I'm in a league, and they've been nice enough to help me out on a few runs, but especially since this is a grind-y event and most of them already did that grinding, I was hoping for a way to leverage PUGs a little so I wasn't so dependent on specific folks' schedules to get the extra time grains / rewards from the weekly mission.
  9. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    VMF has been one of my 'never run it' in omni, and really when BOP was current even. Most of the run is fine, but I get frustrated as heck on the 1st 'boss' robots....just stand in the freekn corner and grab your cog man.... no real difficulty as a result of missing one, but sheesh...low lazy are people? Also the Amazo fight (on elite) has a lot of 1 shots that are annoying and sometimes hard to get out of the way of...and if the healer is the one who goes down...not good, especially on the 'green lantern' power phase as he goes bonkers around the room.

    Lex however is the real problem. Much like people don't seem to understand that picking on one 'lord' in TWS means a better chance of success (it's not like they hit softer at 1% vs 100% health.....so why not pick them off 1 at a time vs trying the 'drop all at once' feat that doesn't exist?)...the turret phases generally have everyone working on different turrets. I queued into a 70+ min run last night and asked 'whats the issue'? They responded 'getting burned during the last turret round. I said 'everyone burn the one by the door, then work clockwise' We did....done. Lost 1 guy to the 'intensifying' damage, but we burnt the last turret got the pickup and finished up. The purple damage pool is also a nasty hazard as pickups are almost always fails, meaning you end up with 3 to finish it, but yeah...if you burn the turrets fast, not too bad....but people seem to need to be told that EVERY time....and then listen. It gets old.
    • Like x 1
  10. Cyclonic Dedicated Player

    You must be getting some awful pugs if you're struggling with the event version. Even on elite... the only painful thing is the sheer chaos at amazo. The worst is when he does the lasso... into the freeze... and then fires the beam directly at the tank before he can breakout and move/block. That alone could wipe any group with some bad luck on the pick up. As far as I can tell... there's no way out of that one. The green lantern thing is annoying too at times.

    The first and third bosses are easy on any difficulty though. I ha e yet to wipe on either of them in elite pugs.
  11. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong alert but isn’t smallville like the absolute longest alert ever? Go thru town protecting turrets, mini boss fights, carrying tubes then another mini boss fight then doomsday disguise followed by another boss fight then doomsday in the barn with a bunch of invulnerable phases? In elite, that’s probably 30mins with a clean run right? With a good group anyway. I’m glad I finished my elite counters anyway. Finishing the raid ones now since ktce is 13mins give or take.
    • Like x 2
  12. TheLorax 15000 Post Club

    It is the longest alert.
    • Like x 3
  13. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    That’s what I thought. Got confused when I saw that post, thought maybe I was thinking of a different alert. I haven’t been on test in a bit so can’t remember the last time I ran it. That’s gonna be a longgggg elite. Agree with whoever said Amazo is the only crazy part of vmfe. Was easy enough but that guy goes nuts and it’s just a wild time in there. Last fight didn’t seem like anything “extra”.
  14. Proxystar #Perception

    Pretty much this.

    It's an easy alert if people follow mechanics, but given they're hard coded mechanics that wipe the group if not followed it frequently results in failure, because no matter how much help we post on here PUGs are gonna PuG and what Mr. And Mrs. PuG do best is not follow mechanics.

    There's a reason this alert is on many peoples ombibus #$%& list. That is why it baffles me that it was chosen for StU

    Theres a part of me that thinks "cool perhaps the forced exposure will make some people learn" and I think that's true of some, but I think it's misplaced optimism, because as you can see on the forums, when people are presented with at least no other content they're just disengaging and not even bothering.

    It's not like omnibus where a person can just keep fishing what they want at least, it's just the one instance and when it's an instance like this one being force fed down the players throats, I don't think it's helpful, it's just resulting in further game negativity and players logging off

    Im not sure the next iteration of StU content they've chosen is going to change matters either, the content they've chosen might be fine for the enthusiasts among us, but the content they've chosen is also by far some of the worst for the more casual players especially those that PuG and that's what you're seeing behind a lot of this recent feedback you're seeing here on the forums :)
    • Like x 1
  15. Elijah Seed Well-Known Player

    The last time I remember running Smallville it had been nerfed and shortened - the turrets and tubes had been removed entirely. Maybe that was for a special event? You now zone in at the tents then go to the barn and then run around while defeating Doomsy. It's been years since I last saw that instance as I mentioned. Smallville has NEVER popped whenever I bother with the weekly Omnibus.

    I'm done with STU though except that free Grain each day if I can remember to grab it. No more of the broken and badly designed VMF for me. Which will let me spend more time playing [REDACTED]. 220+ hours in the past two weeks according to Steam. :p

    (I'm insane! o_O )
  16. TheLorax 15000 Post Club

    No it's still the same.
  17. spikeat Well-Known Player

    VMF is one of my favorite alerts. I remember it was really buggy at release, especially at Amazo. It was a huge healer check at the last boss for the first few weeks of release but that got nerf.

    I ran VMFE a few days ago on my main with a pug group and we got through it in about 15 min with no wipes. It was a little shaky since I haven't ran it in years and was recalling the mechanics as we fought. But I've been running the regular VMF on a lot of my alts to pool up enough marks to buy the weekly Ally Favors when it switches to Smallville. Smallville is not an alert I see myself running due to the length and the first part is annoying.

    My alts are 350-360 and they haven't had any issues with randomly queing. Even the ones where I join in the middle of instance, I can identify what the group is doing wrong and we just correct it.
    • Like x 1
  18. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    I landed in there last week in Omni....was with a person who wanted to do it, so we did. IT was the same as ever.

    Personally I only feel this is a long alert if you are a with a group that does the carries before Lady doombringer poorly. The opening turret/shield things can be sped up by branching out to get the doomed civilians vs waiting for them to slooooowly march towards you and a group who handles the barn and following force fields properly can speed that up.

    Granted in a pug group, it will be bad, but I'd guess you could do it in 15 if done right and we've seen alerts that are a LOT longer than that.
  19. FlawlessTime Dedicated Player




    I love vmf I didn't in the beginning but honestly it's one of my favorite alerts if people follow mechanics it's easy and I love healing it at led all those healing beautiful criticals popping off like pop corn lol. I can see it being a nightmare if folks don't know what to do and when I pug I get good groups most times.
  20. Swamarian Committed Player

    I've done it 3 times so far, and the only real issue's* been the final turret phase. If we can coordinate that, we're good. If not, we're toast. (My main's a healer, and I find it really taxing.)
    * We did have an invulnerable Amazo we had to wipe on. The second time he went down just fine.