The Separatist's Stronghold Bugged?

[Monave]

"The Separatist's Stronghold

 

Use data spike to corrupt data on separatist's com console."

 

 

I was playing a new trooper and was having no problems until I hit a snag on this mission.

 

I have leveled 4 other classes so far and have never had a problem with a class mission or any normal mission solo.

 

However, trying to finish this mission I have died over 10 times which is more than all of my other toons combined!

 

The silver star Imperial mobs in the room you enter into for the storyline are extremely tough and the first I was able to kill after about 3 attempts by killing the regular scrub mobs first.

 

The silver mob that stands by the ramp to the small back room was tougher and I could not kill him in about 10 attempts. First, one of his scrub mobs respawns after a few minutes to make matters worse but I could not kill him before the scrub respawned either. To top it off, this mob fully heals itself when you get it down to 20-30%. After witnessing this the second time I just decided that either something is horribly bugged in the mission or it's the worst designed class mission in the game.

 

From what I observed, it seemed like I was hit with a major armor and DPS debuff as I was getting burned down fast and barely doing any damage. The regular scrub mobs in the instance were not going down as fast as other same level scrubs.

 

As I stated I have leveled 4 other classes (JK, Smug, BH, and IA) and have had absolutely no problems like this.

 

I know this is a very low level issue but STOPS you from playing any further and makes a class with the lamest storyline (so far) even worse.

[MCAwesomeFace]

I remember that part too and how it was hard as hell. I just went out and got up another level and it was cake.

[trooperrob]

Use mortar volley then its cake but you dont get mortar volley until level 10. Made the quest much much easier.

[Monave]

Oh man so it's not bugged?

 

I really don't like the class much when compared to BH because the storyline so far has been so lame and the fact that I love Mako as a companion makes Trooper even less attractive.

 

I don't feel like leveling JUST to be able to clear solo content especially for a storyline that has been lack luster.

 

Maybe I'll go back to Trooper when I get my friends to help but if not I'll just go back to the other classes.

 

I wanted to give the storyline and class a shot but have been pretty disappointed to this point.

 

Anyways, thanks for giving me the scoop on this so I don't hold my breath for a "fix" that isn't coming.

 

 

P.S. I wonder why they made the class quest for this class ridiculously difficult...

Edited January 25, 2012 by Monave

[eGraced]

I just completed this quest today. I was level 9, so no Mortar Volley. The guys in the room do hit hard and have more health than anyone else in the Compound, but it was by no means undoable. I didn't die. I came close once, but never had to use a pot.

 

This is not an L2P response at all; just wondering what I may have done differently.

Edited January 25, 2012 by eGraced

[va_wanderer]

Not bugged. In fact, it's actually a "Have you learned" situation regarding using hard cover.

 

Those Imp officers use an ability similar to Full Auto, which if you're in the open will chew you a new set of holes. The key here is to NOT try to slug it out. Hit them, get out of line of sight while the officer is blazing away so you don't end up suffering and his barrage will just be chewing up wall plating.

 

Then pop back out and snap off some shots, repeating the duck-and-cover as needed. Use your instants/Hammer Shot, don't get locked into standing still with Full Auto. If your initial grenades and such don't drop his friends, they should close quickly to get shots at you,then just clean them out with a Pulse Cannon shot.

 

The whole Sep Stronghold is full of places you should be learning about using hard cover as needed, especially with the assault-cannon Seps you run into all over the place, which are a lot more painful when you just trade shots with them.

 

Do the Imps right, and you can actually win at 8th level without too much trouble- and it gets easier at 9th or even 10th. Learn the tactic, and you can use it to deal with elites and worse later on, especially once you get Neural Prod and can taunt properly.

[KaliMagdalene]

Not bugged. In fact, it's actually a "Have you learned" situation regarding using hard cover.

 

Those Imp officers use an ability similar to Full Auto, which if you're in the open will chew you a new set of holes. The key here is to NOT try to slug it out. Hit them, get out of line of sight while the officer is blazing away so you don't end up suffering and his barrage will just be chewing up wall plating.

 

I actually tried using hard cover to deal with the incoming fire, and the officers ran around it. It didn't seem to do much good.

 

Anyway, the mobs are a bit overpowered.

[va_wanderer]

The trick is not sitting there the whole time.

 

When a mob loses LOS, it'll pause, then attempt to close with you to re-establish LOS by logical methods. This means if you hide during a barrage, pop back out, shoot a bit, duck back in as needed- you can generally take the regular fire fine - and he won't get close enough to duke it out. Stay in cover too long, and they will get all the way in- at which point you're going to need to slug it out for the rest of the fight. Worst case, you can cut down the weaker pair first, then run away out of the officer's area, duck back in, finish the big guy. In addition, the "railing" as you come into the room with the computer will serve as cover- you can get aggro, drop behind it, and then just keep jumping above the railing to shoot and fall back down.

 

Pre-10th, it IS a tougher fight, but if you can do it, you'll have learned something for later.

[KaliMagdalene]

No, it didn't work. I moved behind cover and moved back out and they were already closing in. There's something wrong with the mobs in this mission.

 

I wasn't sitting behind it the whole time, because that would prevent me from shooting at them.

Edited February 12, 2012 by KaliMagdalene

[va_wanderer]

No, it didn't work. I moved behind cover and moved back out and they were already closing in. There's something wrong with the mobs in this mission.

 

I wasn't sitting behind it the whole time, because that would prevent me from shooting at them.

 

The officers are strong, it's true.

 

You can beat them at 8th, though. I did, no special gear, zero medpacs and I am NOT what you call uber by any means. They will close after only a brief amount of time with you out of LOS- but you shouldn't be behind cover any longer than what it takes to be out of the way of the officer's Unload- where he does a "full auto" barrage with his guns, a 3-second burst. (You can literally count "1...2...3" as the barrage comes in)

 

That's when you need to get to cover. If you want to soften things up, Sticky grenade one of the officer's escorts, pop off an explosive round on the other to flop him, and expect the Officer to Unload ASAP as you do. Go to cover. The explosions will keep the two weaker mobs occupied with knockdowns and the AOE will wound the officer. Pop back out, drop another explosive round if you need on a weak to KO it- you can even quick-tab between the two weaks if they're both up to 1-2 them faster than you can fire Ex. Round at one. Then it should be a relatively fresh you and that officer. If he gets too close, back off to another corner to duck around, and just keep picking at him, take advantage of any burn effect from Plasma Cell you can for a High Impact Bolt, whatever. You are engaging in a "fighting withdrawal". If you need to, back it up all the way to the green line for the mission and leave the area, reload, take another pass just starting with the officer alone.

 

They're not easy. But every Trooper gets through them, and there's a lot of us around these days! You can too.

[KaliMagdalene]

They're not easy. But every Trooper gets through them, and there's a lot of us around these days! You can too.

 

Yeah, sure. I'll wait until Bioware fixes it.

 

What you describe isn't what happened. I'd break LOS for a moment and they'd run right up to me. I didn't loiter, I just moved aside long enough to stop the autofire. A combination of stronger mobs than any other class has to face at the same level and not getting the first companion until after doing the mission chain in question has put me off the class. While I don't think you're lying I have a very hard time believing you got through that bit without any medpacks at level 8.

 

I mean, I find it very difficult to visualize how you'd do that without dying repeatedly. The area doesn't even have enough cover to use the way you describe with every fight, and what cover is present is not conveniently located.

Edited February 12, 2012 by KaliMagdalene

[danielweberdlc]

I did this today and there were a few lvl 10 strongs that were -much- tougher than I expected. I ran into one of them on the path up to the base, and the 3 in our mission. In the rest of the base there are a ton of lvl 9 strongs, who I managed easily, losing 1/3 of my health tops.

 

Those 4 strongs, though, were significantly tougher. I found I could take one down by myself and have a sliver of life left, but if they had a couple of standards with them, I'd die every time.

 

I only managed to get through it by dying, and taking the standard mobs with me, then coming back and killing the strong.

 

I was level 8, dinged 9 in the base.

[wargonglok]

Oh man so it's not bugged?

 

I really don't like the class much when compared to BH because the storyline so far has been so lame and the fact that I love Mako as a companion makes Trooper even less attractive.

 

I don't feel like leveling JUST to be able to clear solo content especially for a storyline that has been lack luster.

 

...

 

I wanted to give the storyline and class a shot but have been pretty disappointed to this point.

 

 

 

P.S. I wonder why they made the class quest for this class ridiculously difficult...

 

first of all, the storyline is great, your just on the starter planet, no real story yet

if you like mass effects "suicide mission" you will like trooper, you do a suicide mission with all your comps. out it is awesome

 

o and my bro did this mission at level 8 by himself without wiping once

[Riulassher]

I have made 4 troopers so far. Never died or ran into issues in this dungeon. I seriously cannot imagine what is the problem with Imperial Officers. Even during the first time, when I was clueless about tactics and rotations, I made it through.

 

I never tried to go there at level 8, that would be just silly. Level 9 was the last one and it was as easy as my noobie level 10 in open beta.

 

Grab a commendation armor, the orange rifle and some decent gear and you can simply dps them down in a straightforward match. The only somewhat challenging fight is the last group, but Pulse Cannon and Sticky Grenade will kill the weak mobs in few seconds and leave the strong mob half dead.

 

There are far more difficult enemies than these officers.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Riulassher

[Belnick]

it is not bugged

 

1. run up to the computer and die

2, when you respawn there click the computer and you have done it, die again and next respawn back away

 

did it at level 8 the last time around

[dtim]

The Imperial Officers need to be retuned (they have twice as many hp as the "strong" npcs outside the instance) or they need to path so they can be killed separate from the other mobs.

[va_wanderer]

The Imperial Officers need to be retuned (they have twice as many hp as the "strong" npcs outside the instance) or they need to path so they can be killed separate from the other mobs.

 

Translation: If there's even anything remotely hard, nerf it.

 

There's a small mountain of troopers that get past this one without trouble. Seriously. If you can't handle it, hit level 10, gear up a bit and Volley your way through without a hitch. I'm smelling either undergeared or just plain trying to brute-force your way through this one.

 

It IS the toughest part of the initial Trooper missions. It is nowhere near impossible, merely tough (though some of the elite stuff outside the Stronghold is challenging) and I've actually done it twice at this point. Wasn't any tougher the second time.

Edited April 4, 2012 by va_wanderer

[ZirusZero]

Simple really. First, die from the mob. Then heal up for about 4/8 seconds with recharge and reload, then click on the console. Before you know it, mission complete.

[ounkeo]

I just ran it a second time a few days ago on my second trooper. i didn't particularly find it hard. Come to think of it , I think I found it easier my secodn time around.

 

I was 50% into level 8 when I went in and dinged level 9 inside abotu 1/2 way through. You have your aoe sticky bomb, cone AE and full auto, which should pretty much instagib everything in there outside of the strongs. On the strongs, if you methodically cycle through those 3 abilities, you can pretty much just stand there and tank their damage and they should rightfully drop before you do. I used like 1 or 2 medpack the whole run.

 

I will usually run right up to a pack of mobs and ion cannon them to quickly kill the trash mobs so that I start the fight with strongs with full HP. At this level, standard mobs die to 1 ion cannon blast.

 

Get mobs into my cone radius, blast away then pop a sticky on the strong and full auto. Throw in a couple normal attacks to help ammo regen and repeat.

 

If you aren't clearing those normal trash mobs quickly enough within the first few seconds of engagement, then yeah, I think you'll run into problems.

 

vs 2 strongs, run up to them so they are in kill zone of ion cannon and start the fight with a sticky on the mob, cone ae them, full auto. Repeat. Yes, it'll hurt tanking them both but 1 medpack should survive them as long as you have managed to keep them within AOE range, the secodn mob will die very shortly afterwards. Usually he's on 20% hp left when the first one dies.

 

At this level, I rarely open at range if there is a strong in the pack of mobs. It gives them too much time to wear me down getting into ion range. It's counter-intuitive but running up to them and blasting away actually reduces your damage in the initial encounter and you clear all the trash out.

 

Edit: ion cannon = pulse cannon. Sorry, I just like the term "ion cannon" a lot better.

Edited April 4, 2012 by ounkeo

[Belnick]

this mission was pathetic when you did it as a smuggler, level 8 and a companion to help lol

 

very easy compared to trooper level 8 or 9

and who goes back to base to and then back again for 1 new skill, that takes forever, better to die, respawn do it, die and done