I hate KotET chapter 9 with all my heart and soul, and we all know why

[DonJuanTriunfant]

VAYLIN'S SPIRIT. In about 20 years of videogaming never had I met a more infuriating boss, I swear to god there has to be a person within Bioware whose singular job is figuring out how to make her kill us all more efficiently, and if you didn't suffer to her god bless you but I still hate you.

I'm a level 80 LS Watchman Sentinel, my gear evens out to about 285-ish.

I released Dramath 'cause I'm nice like that, so now I'm all alone against this monster.

I get inside the purple circle, my entire health pool vanishes in seconds. I swear it's like she takes a step back so she's like 3.02m when I start attacking and now I'm the one getting killed.

And before anyone even mentions it, yes, I do interrupt her attacks when I can and run away from Force Overload, only for her to teleport to me and kill me.

I try to kite her to the healing memories, she stays on my butt whittling away my health, I move anything beyond two steps a second and she does the teleport jump that stuns me for two seconds and gives her more free damage.

I never know if and when those green circles reappear, I don't know if there's a strict pattern or it's random, so I panic, run too fast, get killed.

Being a pure DPS player I have no other heals and have to resort to medpacks; unfortunately, it is 10 years since the game released and still you can only use ONE MEDPACK PER COMBAT SESSION. Oh, and twice I was killed before the medpack cooldown even ended.

The entrance glitch has been fixed, so that cheat is out of the question.

I'm terrified of asking for help from another player out of fear of being utterly useless and dragging someone else into my problem.

I have resorted to googling this boss with at least 4 variations of the word "cheat" because I just want to get out of there and move on with the story.

I'm playing STORY difficulty. This is not a Story boss, this it at least a difficult Veteran boss with a Story sticker slapped on her.

I'm a filthy casual and proud of it. I know NOTHING of CDCs, Heroic moments, gear optimization, ability rotation, etc. I just want to play, have fun, enjoy a cool story.

I don't mind gimmicky fights, I think they're actually kinda fun. But this fight requires some kind of deep understanding of the meta that I don't have the time to learn.

I can feel my soul draining out of my body just thinking about logging in, because it means I'm gonna see that mission objective. In about 48 hours I must have died 10-15 times.

Bioware staff, I know you never read these posts, otherwise the changelogs would be so much larger, but on the off-chance someone ever reads this: this boss sucks, Chapter 9 and KotET both suck just for having her, whoever programmed her code I personally hate you.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

 

[blktiger]

I don't exactly recall the fight but I do know that before I moved over to Star Forge I beat her on all 8 of my chars on Satele Shan server. If you aren't using Heroic Moment on every boss you're making it harder than it needs to be. Gear optimization: You need to be at 110% accuracy, after that its basically preference.

Don't stand in the fire. . . .

Edit: If you are on Satele Shan I could log onto that server and help you out.

Edited December 6, 2022 by blktiger
offer of help

[JediQuaker]

If I recall, one of the main things is to position Valyin so that she gets hit by the green circles. But that could be a different fight. 🤔

[FlameYOL]

49 minutes ago, JediQuaker said:

If I recall, one of the main things is to position Valyin so that she gets hit by the green circles. But that could be a different fight. 🤔

Its the same fight, and yeah green circles will damage Vaylin a lot if they hit her. Will also heal you if they hit you instead, so its a good way to stock up on heals if you don't have Dramath with you.

[Eru_Mewtwo_CZECH]

10 hours ago, DonJuanTriunfant said:

I'm a level 80 LS Watchman Sentinel, my gear evens out to about 285-ish.

285 is quite low for level 80 character. You should have at least 320. There is cheap vendor on the fleet.

[DWho]

It's a general problem with several KotFE and KotET chapters. Several are overtuned for the current strength of characters so you now must be over-levelled and over-geared for the content. When they reduced character health and damage in 7.0 they never re-balanced the content that was designed for the more powerful characters from previous expansions. The boss fights always pushed the limits of what characters could do at the time, now with weaker characters they are much more challenging.

[Achnaattwo]

I did this fight once, never again.  I know more now, and wiser then when I did it, But I play this game to relax, and to have fun, not get frustrated. I don't doubt now I could go do it again, and just once .  possibly.  I don't think it matters now which class I'm playing the story is the same no matter , So the one time was enough for me.  If I am doing agent story, I will go to chapter 14 of KotFE, Other then that, I find something to level up to 70 , And just skip KotFE/KotET.

But yeah, I feel ya, Been there,  I think  it was  a frustrating 4 days, maybe longer , Happened  6 years ago, and  only on one account (not this one) . 7.0 level sync didn't help, not if you solo.

Just avoid , well try to avoid not to be over level of the content you're doing, it's so much easier

from what I remember, 🪁kiting was the only way

[GoalieStyles]

I've been away from SWTOR for a few years and came back a few months ago. I've managed to make it to KotET chapter 2 on Master Mode with my 331 gear Guardian (I'm trying to complete the achievements), but I haven't been able to beat the GenoHaradan bosses at the end no matter what I've tried. Does anyone have any suggestions, or will I have to be satisfied with beating it on veteran and never getting it on MM?

[JediQuaker]

16 hours ago, GoalieStyles said:

I've been away from SWTOR for a few years and came back a few months ago. I've managed to make it to KotET chapter 2 on Master Mode with my 331 gear Guardian (I'm trying to complete the achievements), but I haven't been able to beat the GenoHaradan bosses at the end no matter what I've tried. Does anyone have any suggestions, or will I have to be satisfied with beating it on veteran and never getting it on MM?

You didn't give much info to go on. Is your armor augmented (at least 276)? 

Is the companion at least level 10?

Are your stats 'normal' - 110% Accuracy, etc.? 

Are you using your Heroic Moment and defensives skills at the proper time?

[DonJuanTriunfant]

YES! FINALLY! I CHEESED HER! AAAAAHHAHAHAHAA! SCREW YOU BIOWARE! MY SUFFERING HAS ENDED!

Oh my god I can feel my neck and shoulders becoming looser by the second. But she is dead(er), and I am not.

I'm not going to reveal how I cheesed her, only that it wasn't the old bridge trick (it got patched some months ago I believe). Let Bioware figure it out on their own.

If you still have problems with Vaylin's spirit, just know that the dragon bleeds, and if it bleeds it can be killed.

If you have no problems with her and beat her easily, I still hate you but good for you.

And if you dare come to me and tell me I "did it wrong", "cheated", "did not respect the spirit of the game", guess what: I did it, I did all those things, and you can't do a single thing about it. This is not a fun boss, this is not an entertaining battle, it is a god d@mn nightmare. Like I said, I am a filthy casual. I play Skyrim with console commands. I play Lego games with walkthroughs. When I game, I want to turn off my brain and enjoy the space monks with the laser swords, not calculate whether my gear is optimized to my class and build, or fret about activating my Heroic at the exact second because my third defensive skill will deactivate and the cooldown for the interrupt is still resetting. I don't mind a bit of strategy like dealing with Scorpio's duplicates, using the shield in Arcann's duel, the team battle against Revan, Malak's healing mechanic from KotOR 1. But I can only take so much. I am a filthy casual, and proud of it.

May the Force be with you all.

[JediQuaker]

Yes, but see how much more excited you are to have beaten the enemy by your own determination to succeed? It is nice to just run around mindlessly blasting things with your Blaster or slicing things with your Lightsaber, but isn't it good to occasionally do a bit more and succeed?

Gratz. 🧀 👍

[GoalieStyles]

On 12/7/2022 at 8:22 AM, JediQuaker said:

You didn't give much info to go on. Is your armor augmented (at least 276)? 

Is the companion at least level 10?

Are your stats 'normal' - 110% Accuracy, etc.? 

Are you using your Heroic Moment and defensives skills at the proper time?

Yeah, everything is augmented (I think they are 280s - L75 purple). Acina is level 46, and all my stats are set to optimal for a guardian according a to a couple of different guides. This is the first boss encounter I've had trouble with through KotFE and KotET so far.

I think I'm using all my DCDs and Heroic moment at the right time. They have AoEs that seem to drop Acina pretty quick, and once she's no longer healing I don't last long. And the three enemies tend to move around so it's a challenge to keep hitting them as a melee.

I've also tried it as a fully augmented (276 - L73 Blue) TK Sage (my second combat style on that char). I lift one of them but because the armor and defense is so much lower on the Sage and they hit so hard, I don't last long with that either.

[ReKabNad]

On 12/7/2022 at 2:11 PM, DonJuanTriunfant said:

YES! FINALLY! I CHEESED HER! AAAAAHHAHAHAHAA! SCREW YOU BIOWARE! MY SUFFERING HAS ENDED!

Oh my god I can feel my neck and shoulders becoming looser by the second. But she is dead(er), and I am not.

I'm not going to reveal how I cheesed her, only that it wasn't the old bridge trick (it got patched some months ago I believe). Let Bioware figure it out on their own.

Speaking only for myself, and I am unanimous in this... I learned about 2 different "bridge tricks" when researching how to beat her.  1 was to lure her out onto the bridge and then do what bosses usually do to me, namely knock her off the bridge into the bottomless pit so she falls to her death.  That's the one that has apparently been patched, as it was unintended.

BUT the other one, which some will call a "cheat" or an "exploit", is neither to me, it's simply using the fight's intended mechanics against her, and fighting her from the position that is most optimal from a tactical point of view.

Basically, when you first enter the arena from the bridge, there are 2 candles/torches marking the entrance to the arena.  Right there, in the entryway between the 2 flames is apparently 1 of the Spawn Points for the Green Healing Circles that heal you and damage her!  Again, this is a built-in, intended mechanic of the arena where the fight takes place.  Remember that point.

So the tactic you use after the fight begins is to walk backwards out onto the (now invisible) bridge with her following you, only as far as it takes to get her to stop right between the 2 flames, and then fight her with her standing there.  As the Green Healing Circles spawn, they'll instantly make her regret the choices she's made in her life, and you'll drop her like a bad habit! 😈

When necessary, you can momentarily leave your position on the bridge to go grab a Green Healing Circle to heal yourself, but then you want to return to the bridge ASAP, as it really is the optimal tactical position from which to layeth the smacketh down upon that witch! 😈

I have spoken. 

[denavin]

On 12/5/2022 at 7:04 PM, DonJuanTriunfant said:

VAYLIN'S SPIRIT. In about 20 years of videogaming never had I met a more infuriating boss, I swear to god there has to be a person within Bioware whose singular job is figuring out how to make her kill us all more efficiently, and if you didn't suffer to her god bless you but I still hate you.

 

 

You can thank all the whinny people that complained that the game was too easy. She was never that hard before. So now unless you have Maxed out Gear, ie Raid Gear, then she will kick your butt quickly no matter what you do.

 

FYI: Being DEAD all the time is NOT FUN!

Edited February 16, 2023 by denavin

[Lord_Thorne]

2 hours ago, denavin said:

FYI: Being DEAD all the time is NOT FUN!

+1 
"Story mode" is for those of us who just want to see the STORY. STORY MODE. SSSTTTOOORRRYYY!!! 
Not 'challenge' or 'lethal' or 'overtuned' or 'raid gear' - STORY! 
People who want challenge (including me, sometimes, certainly) have their options. 

[MortenJessen]

So why do you play SWTOR? YouTube --> way. There you see the story, without having to pay for it. And you can see all the available options/endings, and you dont even have to put in an effort while you watch, except drinking your preferred beverage. 

I dont understand the present generation of gamers. The slightest challenge were they can not just sit back in the chair and drink cola, but have to actually engage the keyboard and mouse, and they scream like children who did not get 2 lbs of candy for Friday cartoon evening in the television.

The effort is part of the fun, and quite frankly, not much save some select few nightmare and mastermode content can be classified as difficult in this game. All boss fights in solo and on storymode  just require you to stand in stupid, not use heal, take the cleave head on, and to go get more coffee while your companion does the hard work. So this one time BW introduces the playerbase to a fight you actually have to do your self and follow mechanisms, God have mercy on BW, because your Jesus bot or op companion is not soloing the content for you. 

I just dont get it, especially because this fight is really straight forward, easy to predict, have easy and forgiving mechanisms, that even lights up in storymode so you get a warning to avoid stupid. It takes some 6-7 minutes depending on your class, with ranged classes having a somewhat easier time. Just go kill her.

As an aside... she can easily be soloed by a level 72 in old 230 + some green and blue higher level (cant remember what it is called between 70 and 79) loot gear on story mode, so no need for BiS raidgear.

Update; It is called Outlander gear 😜

Edited February 17, 2023 by MortenJessen
Update

[Advocatis]

Bioware: The players have too many stuns, we need to reduce that mechanic.

Also Bioware: Silver mobs each sequentially stun.  Boss mobs stun stun stun stun stun.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Advocatis

[DarthCasus]

9 hours ago, denavin said:

You can thank all the whinny people that complained that the game was too easy. She was never that hard before. So now unless you have Maxed out Gear, ie Raid Gear, then she will kick your butt quickly no matter what you do.

 

FYI: Being DEAD all the time is NOT FUN!

Even I think this is being disingenuous or an ill attempt at venting valid frustrations at the wrong time. If this were true, there would be many other points in the game where this litmus for balance would line up as well, needing top tier operation gear to burn an enemy in content meant for the minimum effort crowd/story players (hi!). I doubt Bioware would purposefully enact changes that target a specific boss because people were rightfully saying that the game was becoming a snoozefest (I'd even say they could go a long way in improving old content by updating mechanics in big boss fights at the very least) over the course of years. Yes, there are people who would complain that its still too ez even if trash mobs started having operation-level mechanics everywhere, but the 'too easy' complaints were perfectly fine and correct.

Before jumping onto the hate train, I'd appreciate seeing a video of OP trying the fight, and I'd happily get a toon there, same spec, same gear level, and see for myself if I can find the time. 

[MortenJessen]

Most of the problem is identified as laziness. Players dont want to actually use the keyboard when they play "storymode". They bought the version with a BW employee to play for them, but they even forgot to water that one once in a while, so now they have to play them self, and they found out that the "video" in videogame is not just a view mode. They are too focussed on the story (although I actually doubt that too, since many players simply spacebar trough content) to bother paying attention to even the most basic mechanisms, like stupid on floors, cast bars and colour warnings or marks, and expects that the "game" part of it will do itself for them. Kids today, I will never understand them.

Edited February 17, 2023 by MortenJessen

[tritiya]

On 12/7/2022 at 9:11 PM, DonJuanTriunfant said:

YES! FINALLY! I CHEESED HER! AAAAAHHAHAHAHAA! SCREW YOU BIOWARE! MY SUFFERING HAS ENDED!

Oh my god I can feel my neck and shoulders becoming looser by the second. But she is dead(er), and I am not.

I'm not going to reveal how I cheesed her, only that it wasn't the old bridge trick (it got patched some months ago I believe). Let Bioware figure it out on their own.

If you still have problems with Vaylin's spirit, just know that the dragon bleeds, and if it bleeds it can be killed.

If you have no problems with her and beat her easily, I still hate you but good for you.

And if you dare come to me and tell me I "did it wrong", "cheated", "did not respect the spirit of the game", guess what: I did it, I did all those things, and you can't do a single thing about it. This is not a fun boss, this is not an entertaining battle, it is a god d@mn nightmare. Like I said, I am a filthy casual. I play Skyrim with console commands. I play Lego games with walkthroughs. When I game, I want to turn off my brain and enjoy the space monks with the laser swords, not calculate whether my gear is optimized to my class and build, or fret about activating my Heroic at the exact second because my third defensive skill will deactivate and the cooldown for the interrupt is still resetting. I don't mind a bit of strategy like dealing with Scorpio's duplicates, using the shield in Arcann's duel, the team battle against Revan, Malak's healing mechanic from KotOR 1. But I can only take so much. I am a filthy casual, and proud of it.

May the Force be with you all.

Exactly this one. Games are meant to be for fun, not like a second job. Too much math in these games, it's not impossible to figure it out and learn it, it's just not worth it, not fun, no relaxing. Well done you defeated her. Maybe keeping a companion with you and some easy to get 324 gear rating (conquest comendations and some creds on fleet) and and adrenal or stim here and there the fight may be slightly easier. Don't know how people defeat her on higher difficulties (veteran, master).

[tritiya]

4 hours ago, MortenJessen said:

Most of the problem is identified as laziness. Players dont want to actually use the keyboard when they play "storymode". They bought the version with a BW employee to play for them, but they even forgot to water that one once in a while, so now they have to play them self, and they found out that the "video" in videogame is not just a view mode. They are too focussed on the story (although I actually doubt that too, since many players simply spacebar trough content) to bother paying attention to even the most basic mechanisms, like stupid on floors, cast bars and colour warnings or marks, and expects that the "game" part of it will do itself for them. Kids today, I will never understand them.

I'm one of these players. I use the mouse to activate the skills, can't type without looking at the keyboard and can't rememer where the numbers are exactly when not looking at them and this way may activate 3 instead of 2 for exapmle. And when I'm tired and just loginn ingame to play and relax the last thing I want to do is just keep looking for some special markings or zones, etc. Don't even want to do basic math, just relax. Colour warnings and marks, fast reactions...., thanks, but no! Sometimes I care, sometimes I don't, it's a game, not a job. For the more experienced and devoted players there are veteran and master modes. Hope these will make them looking at colour warnings like crazy if they want to. And I'm not a kid.

[tritiya]

On 2/16/2023 at 4:23 PM, Advocatis said:

Bioware: The players have too many stuns, we need to reduce that mechanic.

Also Bioware: Silver mobs each sequentially stun.  Boss mobs stun stun stun stun stun.

This was because players complained tha game was "too easy". They should have made master mode harder with better rewards for these players, not make it harder (cap on critical and other tertiary stats, more HP on monsters (or less damage for us), etc...).

[__andrea__]

On 12/7/2022 at 12:11 PM, DonJuanTriunfant said:

YES! FINALLY! I CHEESED HER! AAAAAHHAHAHAHAA! SCREW YOU BIOWARE! MY SUFFERING HAS ENDED!

Oh my god I can feel my neck and shoulders becoming looser by the second. But she is dead(er), and I am not.

I'm not going to reveal how I cheesed her, only that it wasn't the old bridge trick (it got patched some months ago I believe). Let Bioware figure it out on their own.

 

So after all that you didn't even tell people how to do it. 🤦‍♀️😡 Well, I played my Level 74 Assassin/Sage with 214 Gear (casual player as well) and no thanks to you I was able to eventually kill Vaylin by staying in between the two torches at the entrance, running away every time she curled up in a ball and staying in the green circles whenever possible. It took a few hours but eventually I did it. This is a ridiculously difficult fight for "Story Mode".  Oh yeah, I also released Dramath because I'm Light Sided and that worked against me too. 

Thank goodness someone else decided to impart the trick of staying in between the flames and going out on the invisible bridge. It helped me stay alive long enough to eventually kill the beotch. 

Edited February 20, 2023 by __andrea__

[__andrea__]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:57 PM, ReKabNad said:

BUT the other one, which some will call a "cheat" or an "exploit", is neither to me, it's simply using the fight's intended mechanics against her, and fighting her from the position that is most optimal from a tactical point of view.

Basically, when you first enter the arena from the bridge, there are 2 candles/torches marking the entrance to the arena.  Right there, in the entryway between the 2 flames is apparently 1 of the Spawn Points for the Green Healing Circles that heal you and damage her!  Again, this is a built-in, intended mechanic of the arena where the fight takes place.  Remember that point.

So the tactic you use after the fight begins is to walk backwards out onto the (now invisible) bridge with her following you, only as far as it takes to get her to stop right between the 2 flames, and then fight her with her standing there.  As the Green Healing Circles spawn, they'll instantly make her regret the choices she's made in her life, and you'll drop her like a bad habit! 😈

When necessary, you can momentarily leave your position on the bridge to go grab a Green Healing Circle to heal yourself, but then you want to return to the bridge ASAP, as it really is the optimal tactical position from which to layeth the smacketh down upon that witch! 😈

 

THANK YOU!  Unlike the OP you actually imparted this amazingly useful information and I was able to defeat Vaylin on a Level 74 Character in 214 armor as a Sage. I really appreciate your help! I'd probably still be trying to fight her now if it wasn't for you.

[__andrea__]

On 2/15/2023 at 10:08 PM, denavin said:

You can thank all the whinny people that complained that the game was too easy. She was never that hard before. So now unless you have Maxed out Gear, ie Raid Gear, then she will kick your butt quickly no matter what you do.

 

FYI: Being DEAD all the time is NOT FUN!

I agree. I play to relax and for the story. I did this fight on 3 prior characters but that was when KOTET first came out and it was challenging but not as difficult as this. It's doible but irritating.