A lot of people just did their generic setup that was working for them in normal and were lucky their (just click the buttons fastest, etc) strats worked a time or two and now are running into issues. The way we do it (SSSS) and others are doing it (NSSN) are not luck. If you execute them properly the only issue you ever have to worry about is the 4th wheel needing only 1 spin to complete...which you can just see before ever starting it, and is simple to fix with an exit area and zone reset. It's not luck, it works. Every time, every week since we first read about SSSS. Whether or not it's intended for a "bug" to need to solve South first on the 2nd and 3rd wheels to avoid issues, I don't know. Either way it's ridiculously simple to execute. The only thing I can say for sure is a bug on the encounter is the 4th wheel needing only 1 turn to solve. Easily avoided.

Week after week...it ain't luck. You're doing something wrong.

Appreciate that. I may be sarcastic, but it's not without cause. Every Tuesday front page fills up with 3 main topics. Pylons, loot not dropping on HM/NM, and Soa. If threads get read, the only one anyone should really have any issues with is Soa...and even some of the complaints on him are stuff you can avoid/deal with if you're prepared.

There are quite a few boss fights where entrench is helpful. Not so much in ops, but off the top of my head you can get a benefit out of it on pylons (not like you really need it but hey, you can use it), BH duo, and droid in KP to avoid knockback. Plenty of normal enemies in pve where it works just fine and helps out.

Disappointed Fuman, only 1 other thread it looks like. Should have taken the over for the "why we no get rakata on hm/nm???" threads though.

Most of the threads all probably say the same thing about "no rakata on hm/nm now???" and half the responses are the obvious "Are you using Masterloot"? I guess not having it in the title makes people skip over them.

The big post a couple above covered things pretty well, wanted to add a few thoughts. We've only experienced the missing platforms about 3 times total in all the 8(?) weeks of raiding we've done. If it is linked to wiping during either transition phase, that would make sense since we don't really ever wipe during that anymore. Balls going invisible happens when you kite them too far. They aren't going to disappear on HM/NM like they do on Normal for you. Balls still coming after you during transition between phase 2 and 3 isn't new. With the Giant Red Letters letting everyone know who balls are targeting now, it's trivial to have targets jump down away from rest of the raid and eat their balls as normal. Haven't really had pylons missing hitting him if he's ACTUALLY in position in phase 3. Considering it is a little tricky for tanks to learn how to adjust their camera to find the pylons in the first place, I'm not convinced it's quite as buggy as some make it out to be, although there does seem to be some syncing issues occasionally. Aggro in phase 3. Admittedly, this seems different now, but what I've seen is that if you attack him right when he spawns in phase 3 while invulnerable still (think Snipers putting up Shatter Shot to have the debuff last through the first vulnerable period) you can screw up the aggro. Seemed to be the major reason for that problem occurring. Getting tossed right after lightning balls sucks, especially without timers, but if you've done the fight enough, you kind of get a feel for when he's going to whirlwind again and you'd be silly to bust a lightning ball too close to that timer. Have healers look to immediately top off people eating lightning balls or even throw a hot on right after the explode to at least try to counteract any possible air damage. If you're dying to someone being in the air when the transition goes, your dps was stupid to push him over at that point. Also have had sorcs use their friendly pull to save people getting dropped out of the air in this situation before. There are a lot of little possible bugs in this fight, but many of it can be dealt with /avoided. It feels a lot more stable on HM versus NM just because of the damage some classes will take from a lightning ball that gets an extra shock off along with an explosion. As a Sniper I haven't really dealt with that issue, but I've seen sorcs with 17k+ health and a bubble get "one shot" by their lightning ball that they run into to soak.

He's always done the strange cleave in the past. Always seems to happen when someone gets him to moonwalk/spin at a really bad time right before he swipes. Best bet with the knockback is to just play it safe if he turns towards you. Have noticed different range on how far it knocks you back for a couple of weeks even since they reduced it. Safer you play it, more likely you are to not have any issues from it.

Free For All works perfectly fine as well. Yes...one point is that it needs to get fixed, the other point is that it's been a pretty well known fact that Masterlooter has been causing people issues for weeks now. If it wasn't for new posts about this and pylons every week, this board would be dead.

I can only confirm Free For All has had 0 loot issues since day 1 for us. Given that everyone who's been posting about this for week seems to be using Masterloot and not reading these forums at all until they come here to complain about it, I'd say it's likely you shouldn't use Masterloot.

Just makes it obvious no one actually reads this forum, they just come to complain.

Amazing.

On these boards...you really do have to ask.

You guys shot the little locks on the door I assume right?

I'm guessing you were using Masterloot?

Wipe to cannons? Killed them? Reset the zone...etc?

I seriously want to know what some people do in their raids.

One shot like every other time the past 6 or 7 weeks. It must be luck.

I will merely point out that if you're getting whirl winded during a transition, that is entirely your dps' fault for being idiots.

It's so much fun to have people making the same mistakes that others posted about for the last couple weeks. Free For all for the win.

Check the boards more. Masterloot has been giving people issues for awhile. Free For All never fails.

It's this kind of information that confuses people. I'm betting if you checked south finished first on the 2nd and 3rd wheel. Of course, this is all assuming you were doing Hard or Nightmare mode.

Yeah...or people can read the 50 threads that have been made about this for the last 4-5 weeks and read what they can do to complete it. No one is saying is doesn't need to get fixed, they're just pointing out that if you follow simple steps, you don't have to deal with any issues. Week after week, it ain't luck.

No, it only bugs if you let it. Would love to see a video of your attempts, or even be in your vent for when you do it. It ain't just me using supposed "voodoo" charms and having it work every week. People posting they did it SSSS or NSSN and it didn't work tells nothing about the basics of how they're executing the encounter. Other guilds on our own server we've talked to have had zero issues adjusting how they do it. Send me a PM if you want to discuss in detail exactly how your executing the fight.

The fight is buggy, but if you execute the workarounds properly, it doesn't bug. The wheel not turning when you click the console on the last wheel has been discussed endlessly as well. It happens when the 4th wheel only requires 1 spin. What you have is a lot of people who are still fundamentally not doing the fight like it should be done trying NSSN or SSSS and still hitting an enrage timer and claiming it doesn't work. Most of us posting that NSSN or SSSS works for us every week didn't think we had to point out the basics of splitting the raid up, using the optimal amount of turns, and using more than one person clicking on each side for HM/NM because of the debuff. Also remember that having South finish first for whatever wheel doesn't mean if South needs 3 turns and North requires 3 turns for that wheel that you should do all of South's 3 turns before doing any for North. All you would have to do in that case is hold off on the 3rd North spin to make sure South completes it's 3rd first. I don't think we've seen more than 1 Acklay doing SSSS in like 5 weeks.