This is a followup post for my feedback on VM in regards to the recent changes. If you're able to fix that bombs disappear after being detonated during Stalker Protocol I'd say this fight is in a very good state. It rewards playing it cleanly very well with increasing the dmg on the boss via the debuff while making it ever so slightly harder if you're not able to do that. The only small thing I'd still criticize is that the first Stalker Protocal happens rather quickly after Degauss, so if the Boss is not moved rapidly after Degauss he will start the cast on top if the tanks dropped bomb. If it happens to be the opposite colour -> raid wide detonation. Not a big issue, but sometimes it feels to be a bit too close to comfort.

This is a followup post for my feedback on VM in regards to the recent changes. I consider 2T 2H 4DD as standard composition and like to play that wherever possible. We have killed the boss with 330 gear and that composition before. Tho with the last changes I'm getting mixed signals, on one hand you upped the dmg on enforcers/their debuffs which I'd take as you want there to be tanks, but on the other hand increased the dps check so much that this is plainly not possible anymore. From my calculations the current dps check in phase 5/6 is around 140k. With 4DDs doing ~25k each (keep in mind this is with carrying grenades out) it is simply not doable. So with that in mind we did switch to 5DDs and were able to kill it again. I'd say it is balanced well around that specific composition. I still enjoy the fight very much and I'm looking forward to do it on live servers. A additional note on the mastery achievement for not getting any stacks of escalating exposure. Is this achievement supposed to be individual or group wide? I checked the combat logs and I did not get a single stack and did not receive the achievment. Which leaves me to believe it is either bugged or all 8 players need to do it simultaneously. If that is the case, why?

Can confirm patch is up for web launcher

We are using the web launcher.

I think atm only steam players got the pts patch, when will the patch be pushed to the vanilla client?

Hello there, Since the update 7.0.2 I have seen multiple occasions where operation boss fight mechanics that are based on a players position are not working as intended. Below I compiled a list of everything that I've seen/heard of so far. I added some videos/images that show the bug in action. (Links are taken from community discords, thx go to the uploaders) - EC Stormcaller Double Destruction targets players not between Stormcaller and Tank. https://imgur.com/a/FlRRfJz - TfB Kephess Orbs go on other players. - TfB Operator IX Deletion protocol on seemingly random players. (Still does the animation). https://clips.twitch.tv/ScaryTriumphantStapleJonCarnage-dbPlYy1pla1Q5_S4 - SnV Styrak Lighting Manifestations not attacking players in their proximity. - KP Karagga Unstable Energy pulls in seemingly random players. (See other forum post) https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=1005675 Since there seems to be something fundamentally wrong here, I excpet there to be way more instances where this bug occours. I also see this as a gamebreaking bug where some operations are not playable at this point in time. So I hope for a quick fix.

We did some HM progression on this boss in the last week and I want to place some observations here (No kill). Me personally was playing as a tank and we had a standard group composition of 2T 4D 2H. - As the post above mentioned: the bombs on the ground not disappearing is extremely frustrating to make any progress. - Having 2 Tanks and 2 melee DD leaves no room to move. With the size of the bombs this either means you have to take the dmg from missiles or you move completely out and suffer a dps loss. - Degauss is a 1s cast. We found that during degauss you can already stack up without exploding eachother, but 1s is too short for any reaction and moving on top of each other. So grouping up the bombs is quite hard. - With that we had the bombs spread to some degree (We split the room in two halves where there was only one color per side). Even with trying our best, Stalker Protocol was too quickly over and we were rarely able to pick up all the bombs. That left us with some bombs in the middle of the room that hindered us in the further phases. - As a tank I was moving Watchdog during Stalker Protocol, with the amount of movement we did during degauss, it felt as if the bombs locations on the ground were desynced. I noticed that the animation of them exploding and the stacks on the boss increased when my he walked over the bombs registered on server side, while for me the bombs were at different locations. This was quite frustrating as I sometimes picked up the wrong color by accident. - With Degauss and Stalker protocol happening almost instantly after each other, we had the bomb of the tank below Watchdog. While casting Stalker protocol, the boss is rooted. So we ended up picking up that bomb below him immediately, with a 50% chance of it being the wrong color. We couldn't think of any way on how to avoid that. - With how moving intensive the boss is, "Pounce of Pursuit" is quite annoying. I may not have learned yet how to play around it, but since I expect it to be more of a soft punishment, I wish the range where it triggers is a bit further away. We ended up stuck somewhere during the first polarized beam. With the bombs not disappearing, there was too much chaos on the field and mistakes kept accumulating. Imo making the bombs just a little bit smaller would solve some of our issues without having a huge impact on the boss design.

- How often do you participate in Operations and on what difficulty? Weekly, mostly HM and started some NiM. - What role did you play on PTS? Tank - What difficulty did you test on PTS? HM Feedback: - What are your overall impressions of IP-CPT? I really like the fight, it is something new and the current state is quite enjoyable to me. - How did the difficulty feel relative to other bosses on this difficulty Comparing it to live servers atm it feels similiar to other fights. Pretty well balanced but with a harsh dps check. - Were you and your team able to defeat the boss on Story or Veteran difficulty? HM - 3 times so far in different weeks/builds - If you were unable to defeat the boss, what gave your team the most trouble? (dps requirement on the boss) - Did the length of the fight feel appropriate? yes Damage and Health - Were there any enemies or abilities that seemed to deal far too much damage? no - Were there any abilities that seemed too trivial or ignorable? no - Were adds consistently surviving into the hazards phase throughout the fight or only towards the end? We have one Enforcer life into P5 (About 30% HP left) and we left turrets allive in P5/6 in favor of dps uptime on the boss. Tanks taunted them from time to time. - Did the health of the adds during the bomb phases seem appropriate? yes Mechanics Our composition: Tanks: 2 Sin, Heals: Oper/Merc, DPS: PT, Sniper, Jugg, Assassin - Did you feel the need to spread out for Positional Adjustment Grenades to avoid raid damage? We let the major big greandes being carried out to the edge, while the rest were stacked up under the boss. We more or less ignored the minor grenades dmg in favor of having more dps uptime. - Were you able to avoid most of the floor and wall beam hazards after some practice? As a sin tank with the +15% movements speed and force speed I was able to dodge nearly everything. Other members were able to do it good enough to not die. - Did your team tank the Enforcers separately or stack them? In Phase 2 we stacked them up. In Phase 4 seperate until the puzzle was finished then stacked up aswell. (1T each) - Did you feel the need to tank swap the Enforcers on Veteran? Maybe not a "need", but we did a swap for the last Enforcer that was alive in P5 to make it easier for the healers. - Was your team able to disarm the bombs in time? Did you feel the need to? Yes, we have 1 person calling the colours/shapes and without mistakes we clear the bombs in P4 with ~3s to spare. It is punishing to miss a bomb, mainly that the stacks refresh if you already had some. (I like the current state) Roles - If you played as a tank, did managing the Enforcers require the use of defensive cooldowns? In P4 I had a Enforcer backpacked while pressing a console. With some selfcleanses, Overcharged Saber and some minimal heals I was able to tank him until the puzzle was finished. Damage output seems good for me. Overall I think the current state of this boss is really good. It comes with a high dps check on the boss itself. Adds and puzzles are tough but fun.