Second Crash Damage fight...

[Ouroboros]

Does anyone have any advice about this fight? Considering the fact that the tutorial forces Weathervane to wander off into the cluster of mooks instead of actually supporting the rest of the party, and the fact that Crash Damage deals enough damage to take down Prism in 5 hits with his armor up, /and/ the fact that there are like 30 mooks, /and/ you're protecting someone, /and/ the optional objectives are kinda absurd...

[Cheeseness]

If it's helpful to know, the Weathervane tutorial isn't present when replaying the mission in the simulator, which can give you some more flexibility with chasing the optional objectives.

There are a bunch of viable strategies on this one. Personally, I tend to avoid using crystalise on Facet, and use Taunt and Growth to kite him around the level while the other heroes mop up the thugs.
There's another thread over here with some good tips if you haven't seen it!

[letir]

This fight is a good lesson that you should weane yourself off from facetanking, spend points properly and control action economy in the fight.

Prism have shield for ally, Rebound can evade attack. You should use these abilities to stall Crashdamage, so other characters can actufally fight. As long as you applying 3 disarms per turn (look at abilities and upgrades) and present very clear target, he will be very predictable.

Weatherwane mostly capable to hold left flank, but you need to help him with Prism and intercept left flank with rest of your heroes, while keeping Crashdamage in check.

[Baphled]

I kept having trouble with this mission trying to get all the optional objectives on the first go playing on hardcore. Eventually I just gave up and focused on beating it. Will probably have to come back later when the characters have a better chances.

If you're just looking to complete the level, you can cheese it relatively easily.

Crashdamage won't move while he's holding the boulder. So on the first turn, taunt him with Facet (maybe put a shield on Mindfire), then have have Facet move four squares down. This will put you two squares outside of the enemies attack range. If you're just one square away, he can still hit you.

He'll stand there like an idiot. Then just move two squares up, taunt, then two squares down. Don't put his crystals up, or he won't have enough movement each turn. This effectively takes him out of the fight and lets everyone else focus up on the goon squad.

Sadly his push and growth can be very helpful if you're looking to get the chain lightning optional objective. The goons never quite seem like they want to line up just right.

[Ouroboros]

Alright, so like... I guess I ignore the objectives, and come back later on, preferably with a team that doesn't include Facet since apparently his entire tanking mechanic doesn't... work? Like, am I missing something? Does he get a self-heal later on and/or a healer he can team up with?

[SKoyote]

Originally posted by Ouroboros:

Alright, so like... I guess I ignore the objectives, and come back later on, preferably with a team that doesn't include Facet since apparently his entire tanking mechanic doesn't... work? Like, am I missing something? Does he get a self-heal later on and/or a healer he can team up with?

Technically, all missions can be completed on their first attempt as you progress through the game, with all Optional Objectives complete.

On the Hard missions, I'd say that completing the Optional Objectives on the first attempt is nice to get, but not expected. Just completing the mission and opening up new missions can be the best strategy.

Coming back with a few key upgrades, abilities and/or new heroes can totally change the dynamic of a mission.

[Baphled]

Originally posted by Ouroboros:

Alright, so like... I guess I ignore the objectives, and come back later on, preferably with a team that doesn't include Facet since apparently his entire tanking mechanic doesn't... work? Like, am I missing something? Does he get a self-heal later on and/or a healer he can team up with?

That would be best option. It also makes it so you don't have to do Weathervane's tutorial. Although this does technically change up the fight a little bit, since he'll no longer be able to pull off his ultimate on the first round.

You could keep trying. It is possible, and certain skills definitely help.

I would recommend doing a modified version of what I posted previously.

Round 1:
Facet is still important. Have him taunt Crashdamage, shield on Mindfire, then run all the way to the right. Have Mindfire stand still and nuke the goon with the gun (He needs the focus skill). He'll get attacked by the lead pipe guy, but that's why he has a shield.

Use Weathervane as per the first part of the tutorial. I wouldn't pull the guy unless you're actually in the tutorial. Have him end at or near where the tutorial wanted him to end his turn.

Rebound can get a hit on Crashdamage, but you can generally ignore him and use this turn to get her closer to the action.


Round 2:
At this point, the goons should mostly be lined up, and now Facet is in a good spot. Facet moves two up, taunts Crashdamage, then two over. Drop a growth so the chain lightning can reach the goon closest to Facet. Facet will probably take a lead pipe to the face, but he'll get over it.

Mindfire should nuke the guy in his face.

Weathervae will move up and push the goon into line. He can now chain lightning and hit all six. If this isn't the tutorial, he should have his ultimate now as well and can use it to mop up most of the goons.

Rebound should go and deal with the guy getting near the downed super.

Probably a good point to save if everything went to plan.

Round 3+:


Now it's just a matter of mopping up the remaining goons, then going to deal with Crashdamage. Goon mop up should take care of most of your ultimates, except Facet.

When it's just Crashdamage left, you have a couple of options. You can keep moving in and using one action to taunt, then move away so Crashdamage just keeps standing there. This will slowly build up Facet's ultimate without taking damage. You can also have Facet taunt, and use your allies as human shields after disarming Crashdamage.

Once he's taunted, he'll avoid attacking your other characters. And because he's a big boy, he'll have a hard time navigating around them. Start piling on damage, but hold off on killing him until Facet uses his ult and you've disarmed him at least three times.

[x_equals_speed]

I got all of the objectives here on the tutorial level. My general strategy was to open by having Facet put his armour up and taunt, then move to the top side. The reason for this was that I found it easy for his future turns to be taunt and place a crystal, to enable weathervane to chain enough enemies to activate his ult frequently. The mooks tend to ignore crystals so you can funnel them through narrower routes which makes them all stay within zapping range of each other - the biggest problem I had was that the others could kill CrashDamage too quickly and so I couldn't get the disarm objective without having them do very little on some turns. It's also worth looking out for his rush ability, he can't move diagionally with that so you need to position everyone off his path. Finally, for me Facet could tank him for long enough to win, but wouldn't activate his ultimate (because enough hits to activate it would kill him, even with the shield up), so I had to save one mook to activate Facet for me at the end.

[x_equals_speed]

(normal difficulty, I'm sure you'd have to have a better plan on hard)