Hello all! Another raid idea from me. This raid will be called Combined Forces, and with the multiverse being the way it is, 'big bad' villains will team up and even combine to become even more powerful foes. This raid will be of extreme difficulty (ie. harder than elite) and so any feats will be 0 point feats, and rewards will include companion pets and exclusive base items. Boss fights will follow in the posts below.
The raid starts with the group between dimensions, featuring familiar elements from past DCUO instances, including Atlantis, Apokolips, Gotham Wastelands, Nexus of Reality, and more. You will also encounter many familiar NPCs from these areas. Eventually you hit a futuristic city (similar to Kandor) where the first boss fight will take place on top of a skyscraper. First boss: Brainiac and Doomsday (they will soon combine to become Cerebral Doom) Notes: 1. Both bosses will have familiar mechanics to start off with, nothing too complicated in the first phase. Just block Brainiac's skulls as his spikes do large damage, and bait and run out of the way of Doomsday's charges. 2. As you are on the top of a skyscraper, you can fall off to your death and be out of the fight, so just be mindful of this. Once both bosses are at 75% health, there will be a short cutscene where their energy will combine to become Cerebral Doom. The fight from here becomes very complex and difficult, requiring particular timing, positioning, damage and heals. CD health will be full after this cutscene. CD Notes: 1. CD may cast a damage stack arrow on one player, so players will need to group with that player. Bare in mind that this will leave an AOE on the ground a few seconds after the attack has happened, so if the damage hasn't been stacked it will make reviving difficult for the KO'd player. The AOE will do damage over time and make the player more susceptible to knockbacks from the boss. 2. All players will get a red circle, so they must spread out before they take damage. Overlapping damage will likely do large damage or be a KO. 3. During the second half of the fight, there will be a delay mechanic. If players deal with the two notes above, the reaction will be delayed by five seconds. If you are stacking damage, stay in that formation for 5 seconds longer. First phase: Cerebral Doom will do a large AOE in a straight line (L-R) around the middle of the room. Shortly after a blaze of red/blue energy appears, anyone inside it will take large damage over time and have defence debuffed. This energy will split into columns, some will move towards one side, and some towards the far side of the room. Players should position accordingly and move behind a column of energy. CD will then do a large knock back on a particular part of the room, players should walk closer to this so they don't get knocked off the platform to their death/s. This may happen several times consecutively later in the fight. Second phase: CD will do a Roar of the Nexus skull. This attack will reduce all players to 1 health. A soder is recommended here, but this is a heal check. Around 6 seconds later, CB will do another skull doing large raidwide damage. Third phase: Adds phase. The boss won't be vulnerable to damage during this phase. The boss will summon Source Construct Doomsday NPCs from the edges of the room. If you stand too close to them they will interrupt you and knock you back, so position accordingly as this is a damage check. You need to stop these adds from reaching the boss in the middle. If too many reach the boss then CD will wipe the group. All adds must be KO'd in a specific time frame, so all DPS should prioritise the nearer add. Don't DPS different adds with ST damage as you will fail the damage check. If all adds have been KO'd then CD will do a raidwide large damage attack - that shouldn't wipe the group given sufficient heals and shielding. Fourth phase: The boss will hard stun all group members, and you will need to spam your square button before the boss does a big skull attack. Bare in mind you will really need to press the button hard to prevent a fail, any group member fails this and it is likely this will wipe the group. At around 25% health, CD will summon a larger version of himself, which will loom over the platform. This will do large knockbacks so the group will need to position to safe zones accordingly. Also the boss will create a barrier of blue energy around the map that will close in at this stage, making this a steep damage check as well as making positioning challenging with knockback mechanics present. Furthermore, the second phase is likely to repeat again, except with a penalty. If players use a soder to restore their health, the effect will be reversed. This will in all likelihood KO the player as they will only have 1 health. There will also be orbs around the room, with a few safe zones. Players should pre-position close enough to the middle to sustain any knockbacks, while not moving too close to the orbs. These orbs will explode after a time without much warning, so players should plan their positioning ahead of time. This will continue until the boss fight is over.
The group will transition into a red dimension, where they will encounter HIVE and Atlantean adds. They will then encounter both HIVE Master and Corum Rath. Their energies will be combined by the source, creating Rath Master. Second boss: Rath Master. A lot of positioning and heal checks here. Despite this probably the easier boss fight of this raid. Notes: 1. Rath Master will periodically summon an untargetable robot serpent that will look over the platform. This serpent will have similar mechanics to Sea Beast from The Throne first boss, including the slam. There will be barriers that can block this attack (line of sight) as it will do high damage or possibly one-shot (and knock back). As the fight continues more robot serpents will spawn around the map. The robot serpent will also do large AOE attacks through the middle of the room, with 2 limited safe zones on the edges of the platform where players can stand to avoid this. This attack will one-shot any players that get caught and players may need to position or pre-position fast as the time to get to the safe zone is limited. 2. It is possible to fall off the edge of the platform, so bare this in mind with the serpent knock back mechanic. Also at certain points in the fight the platform will become smaller so position carefully. The knock back will ignore line of sight mechanics so stand behind the right barriers to block the knock back from a specific serpent if there is more than one. Phase 1: Rath Master will absorb the power of the Teen Titans collectively. - He will do a few skull attacks, including throwing red orbs around at players. These should be avoided or they will explode into a bigger red ball, draw nearby players in and do large damage over time. If more than one player gets caught in the same red ball it will get bigger still, making safe zones limited. They will disappear after a time. - Rath Master may also summon adds to accompany him - however these should be ignored as Rath Master will prepare a one-shot skull with a timer of how quickly to meet the damage check. Once that attack has happened the adds will disappear, they are there purely for distraction. Best to use target lock and ST damage the boss. - Rath Master may summon tornadoes that will move towards the edges of the platform, before staying there for a time. They will do damage over time and draw nearby players in. If they get stuck in the tornadoes (hard stunned) they will do raidwide damage to the group, so be careful not to have too many players caught in tornadoes at once or it may cause a wipe. - Rath Master will cast a bomb skull. Midway through the cast three random players will get a blue orb under their feet. Players should keep moving as this may KO nearby players once the skull goes off. - Rath Master will summon fireballs around the map, before moving to the north of the map. These will explode after a time, with the only safe zone being where the boss is - he will kick a fireball away towards the middle. Players should pre-position accordingly - any players that get hit by a fireball when it goes off will take large damage and be more vulnerable to other attacks. Transition phase: - Rath Master will create 3 illusions of himself, before doing a 360 attack anti-clockwise. Players should move accordingly as if they are hit they will be KO'd, all while minding other mechanics. - After this the platform will become smaller and all players will take large damage, before being propelled onto another platform above. Second phase: 50% health onwards - Very similar to first phase but with one notable difference - a red orb will spawn on one side of the map and blow players back through the platform. This will make certain might abilities difficult to perform as this will happen frequently. Players may need to adjust their load outs where appropriate. - During the fireball phase, players should pre-position according to the location of the red ball (which should be south of the platform). As such players should stand in the middle or south to be blown into the safe spot (where the boss is) when the fireballs go off. - Players will also need to pre-position AOE attacks by the robot serpents all while not falling off the platform to their deaths. This will be tricky especially with overlapping mechanics. - Robot serpents may tether one player with 8 tethers. All players should grab a tether and spread out across the map (while watching out for other mechanics) to split the damage from the tether. If 4 or less players do this this will likely KO the affected players, so the group will need to do this and act fast while minding overlapping mechanics. The TT phases should repeat until the boss is dead.
The group will then walk into a green dimension, where they will encounter Paradox afflicted Soldiers. They will then encounter a sub boss called Ultimate Tyrant. Sub-boss: Ultimate Tyrant (this is not a main boss, this is a boss similar in nature to Bizarro/Supergirl/Powergirl in FOS2) Ultimate Tyrant will have combined mechanics of Paradox Wave bosses and Ultimate Soldier. He will be accompanied by adds. Notes: 1. The boss will shield, before orbs spawn. Throw an orb at the boss to lower the shield. 2. The boss will skull, before doing 2 arc lightning attacks (heal as necessary), then doing a 270 degree cone of electric projectiles, which all players should avoid or it will KO. 3. The boss may charge players, doing large damage, knockback and stun for a time. 4. The boss may summon green healing fields, which may heal him and nearby adds. The tank should pull him away from these where appropriate. if players stand in the fields they will take damage over time. 5. The boss may use his flamethrower. Do not get hit by this as it will KO but leave fire over you for a time, making it difficult for anyone to pick you up. 6. The boss may encase the furthest player in a ball. Another player will need to break the affected player out.
Players will then progress into a dark, alien dimension. They will encounter Mordru, combined with the essence of the Anti-Monitor. Third boss: Anti-Mordru A lot of damage checks and positioning checks here. This is not a carry boss fight. Any player doing less than necessary may risk a group wipe. Notes: 1. This fight contains a Madness Meter /100 - similar to SGe. Players should keep this lower, however the means to do so will become harder as the boss fight continues. You will need to fulfil certain objectives while dealing with other mechanics in order to keep the madness lower. This may vary from having 2-4 players all activate a cog at the same time, to having certain players or certain roles stand in a circle for a period of time. This will be indicated by a purple circle with a number of dots (indicating the amount of players needed to stand inside) or dots of a certain colour (if the circle contains both a yellow and green dot, then a heal and tank will need to be included in this circle). Furthermore the meter will increase more drastically later in the fight, making room for error with damage checks and mechanics smaller. 2. It is possible to fall off the platform to your death. Be aware of this and any knockbacks the boss may do. 3. The boss may summon Shadowdemons that will walk towards him. Always keep them away as they will buff his damage and increase the rate at which the madness meter rises. 4. The boss may at times give two players a damage stack marker. The group should split in two and stack the damage from the two respective affected players. At the same time there will be large AOEs that will spawn, which should be avoided as they will do damage over time. 5. Midway through the fight, the boss will do an unavoidable large damage attack to the group, which healers need to be ready for. Shortly after, the group will be split up and sent to two separate rooms. Here there will be two crystals respectively, and both sides will need to stop Shadowdemons from reaching the crystal. Even if one makes it in either group they will wipe the entire group, so it is imperative that they get stunned and defeated as soon as possible - they don't have a lot of health - but the rate in which they spawn and where will increase for a time. 6. If players pass the previous note, they will then be sent to oblivion, where they will be destroyed. You will be hard stunned and need to spam square button in order to break free. You will really need to press the button hard as any player who fails this will wipe the entire group. If all players succeed you will then return to the main boss fight. Second phase: Similar to before except with a few notable differences: 1. 4 purple AOES will spawn. These will do damage over time and slow the player. HOWEVER, the boss' knockback will do much more now (especially in front of him) and in all probability will throw players off the platform to their death. In order to evade this, players should recognise when Mordru is about to do a knock back and in which direction, and stand in the AOE behind him, on the edge of the AOE closer to the middle so not too close to the edge of the platform. 2. A purple Shadow Demon will spawn. This will travel towards the boss, but it will not buff any mechanics. If you KO it however, it will cut all DPS damage by half for a time. Occasionally more will spawn thereafter. 3. Tethers will spawn from time to time, courtesy of dark spirits. Players will need to position so that the tethers don't affect Mordru, or they will speed up the rate of the madness meter going up further. This will continue until the boss is down. This may not be too difficult provided everyone in the group is doing all mechanics perfectly. Madness meter damage over time will put pressure on heals so this fight will probably be quite challenging to heal.
Players will then be automatically teleported to an instance called "The Hell to end all Hells". In this realm Gotham Wastelands and Apokolips have been combined into one, and Darkseid and Trigon are fighting each other. You will encounter various Parademons and Demons before getting to the boss fight. Last boss: Tri-seid Easily the most challenging and longest boss fight of the raid, but also the most interesting. A lot of mechanics involved. As with other fights you can fall off the platform to your death and be out for the rest of the fight. First phase: You fight Darkseid and Trigon as separate entities. Avoid fire/eruption AOEs. If you get an arrow indicating Omega Beam is imminent, then keep passing the arrow onto another player. If you get a orange circle then spread out from the rest of the group to avoid overlapping damage. After a minute the Source energy will fuse Trigon and Darkseid into the one true overlord of all Hells - Tri-seid. Second phase: Omega Imp phase Tri-seid is vulnerable during this phase. 8 Omega Imps will spawn on either side of the platform. They will then move/fly to the other side. Players should move away from one imp and then follow another. Do not get hit by them as they will do large damage to you and defence debuff you, as well as knocking you back. The Omega Imps will then mark all players with a red arrow. All players should spread out, before all get hit by a meteor rock and take moderate damage. The rock will stay. These players will then be tethered ready for an Omega Beam by the Imps. Players should stand behind a rock at the right moment as the rock will reflect the omega beam back at the Imp. The rock will explode and do large damage to nearby players if you are stood near It for too long, so be careful and know when to hide and be out of line of sight. After this the second phase will start. Third phase: Envious Goodness phase Tri-seid is invulnerable during this phase. A giant Envy demon version of Granny Goodness will spawn on the north side of the map, looking down on the group. She will knock back nearby players. She will deplete all group members health to 1. Healers be ready to heal the group. She will then deplete all group members power to 1. Controllers be ready to give power to the group. 10 seconds later, she will reduce all group members health AND power to 1. She will then soon after jail the healer/s in the group. The jail doesn't have much health so the remaining players need to destroy the rock as soon as possible. 6 seconds later, she will then do a large raidwide skull attack, doing massive damage. The group, especially the heal/s, will need to be fast and well co-ordinated here, otherwise the group will likely wipe. After this, the phase will end. Fourth phase: Debuff phase Tri-seid is vulnerable during this phase. This phase requires heavy awareness of surroundings, and may take practice to get right as it may seem confusing to start off with. The platform will be split up into red and black. Each will give a debuff to the player. Do not stand on one side for too long as you will take too much damage over time and be KO'd. Rings will summon around the edges of the platform in an order. Players should position so that they stand in line of sight of a more recent ring, until the initial rings have shot a beam, then move accordingly to the next safe zone. Being hit by a ring will do large damage to the player/s. Later, red and black rings will spawn around. These will all fire at the same time, however depending on where you are stood you will need to alternate between red and black on the platform. If you are stood on the black side of the platform, you will want to take damage from a red ring, and if you are stood on the red side of a platform you will want to take damage from a black ring in order to mitigate damage. Either way healers will need to be alert and heal where necessary. If you stand on a red/black platform for too long, or you take black ring damage while stood on the black side of the platform, you will likely be KO'd. As such awareness and positioning will be paramount to the success of your group during this phase. Once Tri-seid is at 50% health the next phase will commence. Fifth phase: Lustful Grail phase Tri-seid is invulnerable during this phase. A giant lust demon version of Grail will spawn on the north side of the map, with her hair flowing in the wind, and she will look over the group. All group members will be given a special potion consumable. She will summon pink meteor AOEs to attack various parts of the platform. Dodge these where appropriate. Safe zones for this will become limited later. Grail will knock back nearby players, before throwing her hammer through the middle of the room. Players should pre-position to either left or right side of the room in order to evade this as this will do large damage to affected players and may come as a surprise on first try. Grail will do a Wink mechanic. All players will gain Attraction and automatically walk 10 steps in front of the direction they are currently facing. Make sure you face towards a safe zone and aren't too close to the edge of the platform. Grail uses an Omega Warped Reality attack. Half of the group will have a marker to the right of the direction they are facing, while the other half of the group will have a marker to the left. Make sure you place that marker on a safe zone and within the platform as 6 seconds later you will be stunned and then teleported to that marker. Grail will then grace you with a blow kiss emote. You should walk towards her and use the consumable provided to you at the start of the phase here, otherwise the wind from the blow kiss will be too strong and you will be blown way off the platform to your death and be out for the remainder of the fight. Do NOT mis-click the consumable as it is one time use. Sixth phase: Omega Imp phase again Tri-seid will be vulnerable during this phase. There will be 16 Omega Imps however, so you will need to move around accordingly and avoid all Omega Imps. You will also need to do the meteor/Omega beam phase twice back to back. Seventh phase: Wrathful Steppenwolf phase Tri-seid will be invulnerable during this phase. A giant wrath demon version of Steppenwolf will spawn on the west side of the platform. The platform will transform into three rings, one outer, one middle and one right in the center near where the shielded Tri-seid is located. Steppenwolf will continually do two attacks: 1. Steppenwolf will do donut AOE attacks affecting one of the three rings at a time. Players should position out of this ring when this happens. If they are hit they will take large damage. 2. Steppenwolf will cast Wrathful Tornado cast attacks on all players. The red orb will only appear behind each player midway through the cast, so it is important that all players move, watch positioning closely and don't stand too close to other players. If any player gets hit by a tornado they will be KO'd. The room for error here is incredibly small so watch your step! 3. Eventually Steppenwolf will summon a hurricane in the middle of the room in the ring of the platform nearer to Tri-seid. One by one, players should walk into this. They will be flung up far into the air, taking damage over time, but will be cured of the tornado curse once they land. Healers be ready to top up health while minding ongoing mechanics. Once all players are cured of the tornado curse, Steppenwolf will do a massive knock back attack. All players should stand in the allocated safe zone as soon as possible, or they will be knocked off the platform. This will also do large raid wide damage so healers be ready. Once this has happened the phase is over. Eighth phase: Debuff phase again Tri-seid will be vulnerable during this phase. Same as before however the group will need to be aware of new types of rings. One type will be a transparent ring that will spawn opposite another red/black ring. This will reflect damage back at the same ring - players inside will take double the damage. Another type will be a lock-on angle left/right ring that will target a ring beam at another player who isn't in line of sight of that particular ring. As such pre-positioning may be required. Ninth phase: Prayer phase This is *if* Tri-seid is still alive by this stage, depending on damage in group. Everyone will be forced to get on their knees (hard stun) and pray for their new master. Do not succumb to this. (This is another spam square mechanic). If all players break out of this then they will be allowed to continue the fight. Tenth phase: Damage check Depending on damage done previously this may be easy or hard. Tri-seid will summon Omega Imps that will be ready to Omega Beam all players and wipe the group. Defeat Tri-seid before the cast goes off. Do not stand in eruption AOEs or especially any smoke AOEs as these will slow your movement and lower your damage significantly. Once this is done you have beaten a mighty boss and the raid is over.
Feats (all 0 point feats due to raid difficulty) No Forces can Stop Me - Complete the Combined Forces raid without allowing any group members to be knocked out Platform Dweller - Complete the Combined Forces raid without allowing any group members to be knocked off the platform in any boss fight in that run School of Hard Knocks: Combined Forces - Complete the Combined Forces raid without any group members using any consumables (except the potion consumable) or using any supercharges Behold my Rath - Defeat Rath Master after KO'ing all adds during each damage check phase Monitored Madness - Defeat Anti-Mordru after allowing the Madness Meter to and stay at 95% or above Mission Imp-possible - Defeat Tri-seid after allowing 8 players to be hit by an Omega Beam from an Omega Imp Ringmaster - Defat Tri-seid without allowing any group members to take damage from any rings, either from a ring sequence, or making sure at all times that players always take damage from a different colour ring to the platform colour that they are standing on Fatal Attraction - Defeat Tri-seid without allowing any group members to take damage from any of Lustful Grail's attacks during her phase
