The biggest tip is that EVERYONE needs to learn the fight mechanics of all bosses. Everyone is responsible for their own survivability. Learn what will one-shot you and proactively communicate about how to avoid that. If you don’t have a mic, you better at least be listening.
Adds
A Tank should be continuously pulling adds to him and the boss. There’s little you can do to the boss.
Priority
Healing Drones
Astral Adds (Roc, Guardian, Lion)
Astral Roc (Magic Add)
Astral Guardian (Magic Add)
Tech Adds (Wing Armor, Security Sentry, etc)
Meta Adds (Sunstone Sentry, etc)
Transporting
There are three add spawners in the room, one near each Avatar. Killing the adds will cause them to drop a pod. When you pick up that pod, it will put an arrow over your head for where to take it. Transport three pods to the same spawner and it may be destroyed. If you destroy all three spawners, healing drones will come out to heal the boss. The popular strategy is to destroy two spawners and wait to destroy the last spawner until after killing the last Avatar. To help coordinate only taking down two spawners, name one that you will not destroy, e.g. the one by Avatar of Magic. This helps avoid losing track and accidentally destroying the third one too early. Once two spawners are down, there will only be one add at a time. The fight gets a lot easier at this point. When healing drones come out, focus on knockbacks, stuns, and AOE damage.
Avatar of Meta
Try to have everyone near Avatar of Meta at the beginning of each fight. Because of the big tentacle, you want to control where he is on the map at all times. Don’t let him choose his positioning. Unlike the FOS 2 version, you may fly during this fight. A tank can turn him around. This is not advisable because his normal attacks are weak and people should be managing their own positioning. Also, the tentacle spawns behind him so you want that to be towards the outside of the ring.
Super Attacks
Purple Ball Attack – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. The boss strike both whips at the ground, PAUSE, stike his whips again and then point one hand at the group. He will fire one or two slow moving large purple balls. When they detonate, they do a devastating amount of damage with a medium area of effect radius. If you see it coming, feel free to simply move out of the way. If you don’t see it, block through it. Everyone should call this out as soon as you know it is happening.
Lightning Feet – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. The boss will strike one whip, then the other, then put both whips into the ground. He generate some yellow/orange lightning at his feet. You will then see yellow/orange lightning at your feet. Usually each person will get their own personal lightning at their feet. Casting a power will attract it to you. It does not hurt you immediately. Stay calm, call out “Move your feet,” and move away. Be careful to avoid moving into someone else’s lightning. Rolling works but but jumping away seems to be easier and safer.
Super Tentacle – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. The boss strike one whip, then the other, then put both whips into the ground. This looks similar to the motion before Lightning Feet but there is no lightning at the boss’ feet. The boss usually does this after one round of Purple Ball and Lightning Feet. This will stay up for a long duration. It will one-shot anyone near it. When this comes out, everyone should stop what they are doing and move to an area FAR away from it, e.g. near the Magic Avatar. If you sit tight for 30 seconds or so, the Meta Avatar should walk away from the Super Tentacle and come near the group (most likely following the Tank). Now when the avatar pulls you, you will not be near the tentacle. If you are pulled, hold block and wait to be hit, then escape. Also, if someone dies near the Super Tentacle, they are done. Don’t pick them up or you will be done too. If you are down to the last avatar, you will need to kite him more than once because there will be more than one cycle of this attack while he is out. This means don’t kite him to the middle of the room because it is hard to kite him out of the middle.
The Pull – There is no discernable motion leading up to this attack that I have observed. He will just create a laser line from his hand to a player and yank them right to him. They may even slide a little beyond him. He will do this to two players each time. When he does this, simply get away. If you moved the boss away from the Super Tentacle, this is not a threatening attack. It actually is the reason to kite the boss away from the Super Tentacle. If you didn’t move the boss, tell your healer you’ve been pulled and BLOCK. Wait for the tentacle to hit you for about 90% of your health. Use a soda to regain your health as you run away.
Avatar of Tech
Block when he first comes out. Spread out a little bit. Try to form a bit of a circle around him. He is the easiest to survive.
Super Attacks
Red Arrow – You will see a red arrow over your head like in the Sub raid. Hold block and take the hit. You might have time to roll once to get away from others before blocking. Move away if you see someone near you with it.
Bunker Buster – You will see a purple swirl at your feet followed up with a big orange circle on the floor. He will put out two of these. Do not block this attack. Call out “Move your feet,” and get out of the area. The two areas are fairly spread apart so there is little risk of getting out of one and into the other. However, the attack is full of little explosions that continue on for about 30 seconds. That area is dangerous the entire time. Be careful to avoid returning to this area while it is still burning. If someone dies in one of these areas, wait until the fire subsides before trying to pick them up.
Fire Attack – The boss will swipe fire across a range of people. It is not too devastating and you may be able to ignore it.
Little Ball Barrage – Little purple balls fly from his body like fireworks. It is not too devastating and you may be able to ignore it.
Avatar of Magic (Lion Head)
He typically alternates his attacks between the Fireball and the Lunge so you can pre-emptively anticipatye what he’s about to do. Pre-plan which healer will user their supercharge if astral adds come out.
Super Attacks
Purple Fireball – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. He will shoot a fireball ay you that sets you on fire over time. It is easy enough to just roll away from it before it hits you. This should not be a big concern.
Lunge – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. The boss will squat down and motion like he is roaring. He will look at the player he is about to lunge, then lunge. He will knock that player and any nearby players off their feet and ground pound them. You cannot roll away. It will still hit you from a range. Simply block and wait to be healed. Feel free to use a soda if you’re not being healed. Your healers should be spamming to save you. A Sorcery healer can help greatly by moving a CoP to the victim. If you’re a tank, you can get in the way of his lunge, turning it into a little hop that stays on you but is not advisable. It makes it harder for the target to know they are the target.
Astral Adds – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. You will also see a big purple wave come up at his feet. If they come out, they are your main focus. A healer must use a supercharge as soon as they come up. Kill them fast. Use focus fire on a single target. I try to heal that player but usually you can assume him dead and just plan on picking him up.
Avatar of Magic (Wings)
Just try to be spread out.
Super Attacks
Flying Spin – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. The boss will jump in the air and do a twirl. He will then fly in a wide circle on the floor. He will then look at the area he is about to fly over to, fly there, and do another spin. The attack itself is like a wide radius Wing Armor attack. If you are in the middle of his spin you will not be hit at all. Don’t plan on that happening often and don’t try to make that happen. If you are caught in his radius, block and roll out of it. Healers should always be avoiding being anywhere near this boss so you can save anyone caught in his spin. He can kill people that are even blocking so try not to stay in it. You should always be able to see his second spin coming early enough to get away. I like to have everyone start running away as the first spin finishes. Feel free to use a soda while taking damage from this.
Pancakes – You will see the SKULL ON RED V super attack indicator. The boss will punch the ground. A purple swirl will appear at your feet followed by an orange circle. This slows down your movement so rolling is the preferred escape. This attack will one-shot anyone that does not evade.
Braniac
Pre-Fight
After killing an Avatar, there will be a different type of pod to run in. After killing the last Avatar, running the pod in will start the Braniac fight. Feel free to hold off on running that last one in for a few seconds. Take a breath. Take any appropriate measures to prepare yourself. Talk things out, replenish sodas, etc.
General
He will basically switch forms and take on traits of each of the previous Avatars. He switches forms everytime the healing drones come out. Sometimes he might switch forms, do a couple attacks and switch again in a short amount of time. Call out what form he is in when you see a switch. You need to be spread out with nobody directly in front of him. The tank should keep him away from the center and consider continuously kiting him back and forth near the outside of the ring. You should plan on communicating every time you see his super attack inficator. Blocking is a safe option until you see what the attack turns out to be. Have your healers and controllers pre-plan their healing supercharges. For example healer A does healing drones 1 & 2, while healer B does healing drones 3 and Astral Adds. Controllers should try to hold at least one or two speed drains for after the healers have exhausted their supercharges.
Healing Adds – They come out as Braniac switches forms. If they come out, they are your main focus. Feel free to use a super charge (speed drain, transcendance, regeneration, air strike) to support the group at this time. If a orange line is connected between them and Braniac, they are healing him. Don’t stay on the same healing drone. Once you interrupt one, look for another that is still healing and focus on that. Everyone should have at least one ability that can interrupt. If you are being targetted by them, block. You’ll know by rapid health loss. Watch for this.
Meta Form
In Meta Form, Braniac has purple/white crystals coming off parts of his body, most notably his forearms and back. This is a fairly survivable form. He reuses the same physical tell before doing a super attack. He will put both arms out to his sides and rise up and then jut his head forward as if he was roaring.
Lightning Blast – He will shoot a cone blast of lightning. It is not as bad as Fire Sweep from a damage perspective. Block through it if you’re in its effect radius.
Big Purple Ball – He’ll shoot a large purple ball that will do massive damage and have a high splash damage radius. It is slow moving and ideally you should roll away from it. If you have to, block it.
Magic Form
In Magic Form, Braniac has two purple circle patterns around each forearm. From a distance it might look like purple smoke.
Astral Adds – Same as when Avatar of Magic uses them. Don’t panic. Coordinate calmly. Pick up allies and focus fire. Pop a healing supercharge.
Pancakes – Roll out of them. Don’t jump or run because you’re slowed while in them. You can see if they are going to form on you because a circular purple/orange whisp will swirl around your feet for half a second.
Tech Form
In Tech Form, Braniac has black whisps coming from him. This is his most devastating form. You need to be range attacking him because of the Afterburner attack.
Afterburner – This is a very devastating attack. He will go up in the air and his rocket feet will point towards the group and blast out intense damage. The best strategy is to not be there when he does this. Usually this will kill you and you need to be picked up.
Blue Sphere/Honeycomb – He will put out one or more blue spheres around a player. That player and nearby players need to both move away from it. It will detonate and place a large radius honeycomb on the floor that deals massive damage to anyone within the visual effect. It is hard to see the hex grid because it is similar to the existing floor pattern. Call out its location so people can move away from it.
Fire Sweep – He will shoot a blast of fire out in front of him that will do some serious damage. Consider blocking or rolling away.
We would like to say a big THANK YOU to Sore for making this guide. We think this will be extremely helpful for all of the DCUO community members and we hope you will enjoy it.
just asking (everybody say)when u fly when magic com out ,the adds com out .. but i say that not true.they com out regardless ..
Adds come out movement mode or not. Just someone starting a rumor.
The priority of the adds is messed, you should start with Meta and Tech (this works well for me) adds, then destroy their spawner, then only deal with magic adds, astral adds doesnt come out of the spawner, they are spawned by Magic and their priority are higher then spawner adds, with Guardian being the first to target. Also destroy Magic’s (or the last one you chose it to be, this one just works for me) spawner after all avatars are down before putting it’s pod into its base. If this is done, youll only face astral adds and healing drones on Brainiac phase.
What you’re saying and what they’re saying align. Healing drones are always a priority. However, they won’t come out until after the spawners are down so you don’t need to compare them to Tech, Meta or Magic adds. Astrals Adds should be the next priority. Spawner adds are replaced after being killed. Astral Adds are not. Also, Astral Adds hit much harder and stack on top of the spawner adds. You’ll notice there is a glitch in the guide in that the Astral Adds are mentioned redundantly. That basically leaves the same guidance you’re saying. Tech and Meta spawner adds should be killed before Magic spawner adds which the guide indicates through omission, i.e. no magic spawner add is listed in the priority. That is not because it is easier. Ultimately, you ought to leave one spawner up. Which spawner doesn’t matter other than the fact that the wing armor is a bigger threat than the others. Some might argue magic Roamer is a bigger threat than the Meta adds in that it slows you down when you don’t want to be, e.g. Magic Wing Spin, Meta Lightning, etc. Either way, the guidance is phrased as such because its best when the community just agrees on a tactic and doesn’t have to debate it in every instance. Sometimes the community accepted tactic isn’t optimal but people tend to be effective with it nonetheless, e.g. movement mode controversies.
Thanks for the shout out. It’s funny looking back on when I put this together. It was completely self-serving in that the raid was hard to beat. I started the thread as a means to get other people to give ME their tips. I watched videos of leagues like Victorious Secret running successfully, rewinding every 15 seconds to see what exactly happened, as well as logging endless hours in there with my league. In the end it seems I picked up more worth sharing out than I had received in. I’ve noticed my thread makes the battle up to Braniac manageable. It seems only logging flight time makes him approachable, e.g. watching your spacing, picking up others, etc. Keep in mind that having great healers and controllers is no better in this raid than having good controller and healers. However, having great DPS vs. good DPS can be the entire difference whether this is a successful run or a fail raid.
I think the most important thing is that all players should look at their back.
Very important that every player knows what kind of adds r there n when n where to move when attacked.
We doing this raid frequently on every week multiple times n there r no tactic but we all know what kind of bosses we facing n what we doing.
In fact every player faced the Avatars in this game so the attacks r not new except Brainiac i think.
But the guide is rly helpfull to give base.
hey guys great guide,
just wondering what is best for Ice Tanks to pull healer drones down with?
If you’re an Ice Tank you already know the answer to this, Inescapable Storm.
There is a link at the bottom of my guide for tanking tips that Peacemakaz put together. Bitter Winds is a great starter and Inescapable Storm is a good pull for once they start to get up.