Android Problems

In case you were wondering, like me, why an unhealthy number of our members have been on hiatus since the 3.0 update, you can read about all the issues that Android users have complained about lately on the forums. I really do hope that Kabam fixes excessive load times and game crashes sooner rather than later.

5M-Sec Droid & Disruption Grenade

Even more frustrating and time consuming than the PPK Boss on the final Light Side Force Mission is this guy, who shows up just before the final Lightsaber Mission:

This boss needs to get fired.

The 5M-Sec Boss is a real jerk. And a deadly one at that. More to the point, this boss is shielded, which requires the use of the Disruption Grenade ability, available only in Holo crates. There are two issues I'd like to address. First the DG, & then I'd like to offer a few tips on fighting 5M-Sec.

Like all other abilities, DG comes in three ranks. I found DG Rank 1 well before I knew what to do with it, other than use it on Bespin guards, that is. Since DG drops randomly from the 30, 100, and 300 Holo crates, it can sometimes prove elusive, as this forum thread flatly demonstrates. In fact, if you dig into the forums, you'll find many other threads about DG drops or, rather, the lack thereof.

My suggestion is to weigh in. Let Kabam know in the forums that you're spending TONS of Holos on crates to find this random item. I don't even need DG & I'm furious about this.

Imo, the easiest solution is for Kabam to simply get rid of the shield on the 5M-Sec Boss, since this droid is extremely difficult to beat, even without a shield, & especially without the ability for players to revive using chromium. Leave your Ion Wave ability at home, too, since that doesn't work against 5M-Sec at all.

That said, how does one beat this Boss?

I tried a number of different tactics. When I first encountered 5M-Sec, I asked Global Chat for advice. The reply was "Run around a lot." So much for that. This big guy murdered me right out of the gate on the first go &, since the map where you face the droid is arena-style, you can't kite. So what's a poor Zoj to do?

The first thing I noticed about 5M-Sec was that it was huge. I also realized right away that, importantly, Ion Wave didn't work. What's more, I noticed that there was only one Bacta station available to me. Possibly the most important observation I made during my first encounter was that I could hide underneath the droid & that, moreover, if 5M-Sec was far enough away, its 360 degree spinning laser didn't hit me.

In the end, I beat this boss using a variation on the kiting technique. The abilities I used were exactly the same as those for the PPK LS Boss. Yes, I regularly snared this big guy in its tracks. And if you use Snare Trap 3, you'll do damage, too.

Of course, I'm sure other ability sets will work. My tactic for this mission was to control the narrative, which is as much to say that the more control you have over your enemy, the easier it is to survive and, ultimately, to win. Snare Trap & Intimidate worked well for me in this way. In fact, they work well together in an arena setting generally.

So, here's a list of tips for beating this monster:

• Kite 5M-Sec by constantly moving around the edges of the arena.
• Stay as far away as you can. Use Snare Trap & run if 5M-Sec gets too close.
• Timing the use of DG & HoB is key. 
• The Intimidate ability works well. You can do a lot of damage with HoB.
• Patience. It takes a long time to shoot down this Boss.
• In a pinch, you can hide underneath 5M-Sec. I don't recommend doing so often.
• Use the Bacta station when you've reached 1/2 health for a needed bump. 

Not only is 5M-Sec shielded, but it is also impervious to Ion Wave, as I mention above. On the plus side, this Boss is big, clumsy, and slow moving. Use its weaknesses to your advantage. And, I can't stress this enough, stay as far away as possible at all times. HoB has great range. Use it.

If you have any other tips, tricks, or advice about beating this Boss, drop me a line. Good hunting!

Anoat & Mataou

Congratulations on reclaiming Major Influence on Anoat this past Imp SB! You killed it, Knights.

And it looks like we'll now have the opportunity to get after it on Mataou. A full Sector Battle just turned imminent.

What Are Your 3.0 Issues?

The title of this post is taken, verbatim, from a string in the forums started by Kabam. While sifting through the good, the bad, and the proverbially ugly, I found a gem. I post a screen shot of it here -- written by a player named Derren -- because, let's face it, funny is funny because it gets at the truth: 

Ah, thank you, thanks very much, Derren. 9 gold stars for you! 

Crane Update

When the latest 3.0 crane update went live, the crane regularly dropped 6-7* gear, crew, and weapons. Whether this was intentional on the part of Kabam or not, it was way too good to last for long. 

I can confirm that, as of 11:45 pm EST, the crane now drops between 4-7* gear, with the likelihood at the more common end of the spectrum. 

In other words, the 7* party at the crane is over. Please take note, folks. If you do pull, you still have the chance to receive 6-7* gear, but that chance is now normalized. 

3.0 Changes Update

A little slow on the draw, I thought to post this update on 3.0 changes by Kabam as soon as I found it.

Three things are worth immediately noting.

First, the Premium Supplies Crane was definitely upgraded. A few folks pulled on the Crane of Disappointment and were pleasantly stoked with the outcomes for a change. From our cartel alone, I've heard reports of heart-fluttering drops: T1 7* Rifle, T2 7* Bounty Hunter Gloves, T2 6* Crew, T2 7* Blade, and T2 7* Saboteur Gloves. While I'm unsure how long the crane will consistently drop 7* gear, I suggest checking it out -- if you have the chromium handy. 270 per pull isn't at all terrible.

What is terrible, however: Kabam still hasn't nerfed the triple-boss-of-doom on Kouhun Training missions. Frankly, I wouldn't run one of those missions until they announce, in no uncertain terms, that the change has been made.

Finally, while Kabam makes it clear that the Raid PR values were lowered, they make absolutely no mention about the difficulty level of the missions. Be forewarned. I'm fairly certain the missions are just as difficult, so, if you can now run deeper into any of the Raid maps, prepare yourself for a real fight.

Auto Fill & You

So, as you're aware, Kabam rolled out 3.0 with a number of improvements, including the new Auto Fill feature for crew runs. While I'm certainly impressed with this new feature, I'm also a bit wary, especially since I've caught Auto Fill compiling nonsensical crews for missions. Let me explain.

So far as I've been able to tell, the new Auto Fill feature does not take into account any special characteristics or abilities for individual crew members. If one of your crew has a Leadership ability, for example, Auto Fill doesn't seem to notice.

To demonstrate my point, I've taken a few screen shots. For this Ivax Syndicate mission, Auto Fill did a commendable job filling out the crew, as seen in the top pic. The Success Chance reads 82%. That struck me as odd, so I dug through my crew manually.

One of these crew members doesn't belong.

As I suspected, I did have a crew member who would prove more useful than Blue Ghost, the 5th Crew Member in the row. Enter The Red Brine, or as I like to call him, fake Admiral Ackbar.

Hello, fake Admiral Ackbar.

You see, The Red Brine -- now in the 5th crew member position in pic number 2 -- is an Enforcer, meaning that he is strong on runs for the Ivax Syndicate. The gold sash in the top right hand corner of his portrait shimmered to tell me as much. Auto Fill, however, neglected to account for this fact. As you can also see, once I swapped Blue Ghost out for the Red Brine, the mission Success Chance jumped to 100%. Ahem.

The moral of this story? Well, Auto Fill is great. But. Give your crew a look before sending them out. You may be able to make a simple change that significantly bolsters your Success Chance. And we all want that, don't we?

Hoth SB

Well, a valiant effort on our collective part this past SB was only enough to earn a Top 150 spot and, subsequently, Minor Influence on Hoth. Which is saying a lot, since we were short a number of Captains. And, we still have influence on all five planets. So, excellent job trying to pick up the slack, everyone! Let's look ahead to the next Imp SB and try to retake Major Influence.

That said, I would like to express a degree of disappointment with Kabam. They announced that there would be two major changes to SBs. Namely, they were supposed to rethink SB Bosses and, more importantly, the rewards structure. They did neither. The global efforts of even the top 50 cartels weren't enough to secure a victory, which is disconcerting to say the least. Kabam needs to make SBs relevant once again to the majority of the player base, not merely to our cartel.

A Few Thoughts on the Upcoming SB

With a new Sector Battle nearly imminent, I thought to share a few thoughts.

First, our cartel will miss a handful of members this SB. Jit is on vacation, Julius is experiencing technical difficulties -- as well as, ostensibly, a few others, including Grin and Ven -- while Sever has also taken a holiday. Down four Captains, I still believe that we can competitively rank. The previous SB had a fairly low global participation turnout, which is great for us, just as long as we show up to play hard.

The lower SB participation rates on a global scale also have consequences for each of us individually. Kabam has promised to restructure the awards, so every rank should look forward to receiving more for their efforts. To that end, if there was ever a time that you wanted to gun for a higher tier rank, the time is now. The lower the global participation rate of SBs, the lower the VP (Victory Point) threshold for each rank.

I suspect -- and this is only a suspicion -- but I suspect that Commander, for instance, should command roughly 4mm VPs, down from 5.5-6mm. That's significant. And a boon for regular Captains who want to put in the extra effort to rank Commander without spending a ton of chromium to do so.

Good hunting, everyone!

Victory on Hoth

Congratulations, everyone! Major Influence on Hoth is ours. And, we secured overall victory, too, so the Freedom Point rating on Hoth is still 10/20.

A full SB is coming soon, so make sure to do assaults and earn those BPs (Battle Plans) before the SB becomes imminent. Enjoy the buffs!

Hoth Imperial Sector Battle Today

See this guy? He's laughing at us. On the inside. 

At the time of writing this post, there's an Imperial Sector Battle imminent, as well as a full 24 hour Sector Battle on the horizon. I thought a brief note on these battles was in order, since, interestingly, they're out of order.

Usually, we see an Imp SB trigger just after a full SB on any given planet. Our recent time on BKonn attests to that! Today, however, we've got an Imp SB first, which isn't as crucial when it precedes a full SB. However, many of you have received 4* Event Crystals from the Lando Missions, and this Imp SB offers us the opportunity to rake in a few more.

What's most important is winning the overall battle. Why, you ask? Freedom Rating.

A planet's Freedom Rating is listed on the map, just under the planet name, in green. So, Hoth has a 10/20 Freedom Rating. While I'll post in the future on Freedom Rating and its importance at length, suffice it to say that the higher the rating, the better our rewards. When we lose a SB, the Freedom Rating goes down and, of course, our rewards take a hit.

This is as much to say that, sure, this Imp SB can yield some cool rewards right now, but, if we look at the bigger picture, a dominant win in this Imp SB will bolster the Freedom Rating of Hoth and result in better rewards for everyone down the road.

I'll post again soon on the upcoming full SB.

7* Kouhun Gear Set Offer

Everyone should have received the following in their inbox today:

If you're unaware, Kabam offered random players a 7* set of Sab gear and 20 pieces (if memory serves) of 7* desh for the low, low cost of 1200 chromium.

Of course, many veteran players never received this offer and, O boy, did they cry about it in the forums. Thus, we received the above message. Kabam is apparently doing their best to appease their veteran base, the majority of whom already have 7* gear and didn't actually need this offer.

In any event, this development not only helps the veterans who have been playing from Day 1, but it also helps us.

Many of our members are still grinding for that first piece of 7* gear. Well, I took advantage of this offer, and I know at least one other of our members did, too. Now that you're guaranteed the offer, my advice is to take it! It just so happened that I had a stash of chromium handy.

Now, caveat emptor: The 7* desh that comes with the offer is nowhere near enough to max out all five pieces of Sab gear. What's more, I easily spent 12mm credits maxing out two pieces of 7* gear in roughly sixty seconds. Just because you buy this gear, in other words, doesn't mean you'll instantly jump to 23,000+ PR. You'll have to grind for credits and desh. Suddenly, the Lando Missions are fantastic!

For me, this offer importantly bumped my PR over 18,000, which allowed me to run the final Lightsaber mission. But that's another post for another time.

Final LS Boss

Since the PPK boss for the final Light Side Force mission has proved so problematic, I've decided I should post on this issue. First, you should watch this informative YouTube video, if you haven't already. The player is using the following abilities: Hold Out Blaster (HoB), Snare, Sticky Bomb, and Intimidate. These are necessary:

The technique this player uses is called "kiting" -- like flying a kite, you run ahead of your opponent to make them follow you. Mastering this technique is key, since you'll use it on many missions after this one. That said, the other technique used to great effect is leading an enemy (or enemies) into a "choke point," which usually is a narrow passage that acts like a funnel. For example, in the video the player sets his first snare at a choke point by the stairs, around which PPK cannot move. Thus, PPK runs directly into the snare, unable to evade it. Again, these two techniques are worth mastering, since you'll use them again in the future. And you'll have to become proficient with them to beat PPK, first and foremost.

The video gives us a rough sketch of what to do. Doing it yourself, in real time, is tricky. So, my first piece of advice: Clear the entire map of enemy droids, but DO NOT attack PPK. Once you've cleared the map, you're free to run around and experiment with kiting and timing how you set snares at choke points.

I didn't follow the above video to the letter. After practicing my timing through several runs, including the difficult turn around at the beginning of the map, I decided my own sense of timing worked best by using the following map area as my first choke point:

While I obviously took this screen shot on a different mission, the map is identical. I set my first snare and sticky bomb at the top of the stairs, right where my character is standing. Once set, PPK will run directly into it. I post about the first choke point because it is the most crucial, since the timing of the rest of the mission depends on the first choke point. 

The next step is to position yourself correctly, lying in wait for PPK to set off the snare. The following pics are courtesy of Winter Vos, who had the smarts (unlike me) to take screen shots while practicing his timing:

In the second pic, Winter positions himself to wait for PPK at a distance. This is key: Always keep your distance from PPK. While you yourself can time how long it takes for the snare to spring, I recall firing HoB for 5 seconds exactly where Winter is standing. I then retreated to the next choke point, all the while keeping an eye on the cooldown rate of Snare Trap and Sticky Bomb, which you can clearly see in the top left hand corner of picture 2. Sticky is at 16.1 and Snare at 13.9. This is important because you need to sync cooldown rates with your arrival at choke points. 

Once I had my timing down, I was ready to catch PPK's attention. Unlike the player in the video, I quickly shot at PPK, then ran to my first choke point. I didn't stick around for anything! Anything other than PPK noticing me, that is.

After this first choke point, I did follow the video, practically to the letter. I would, however, like to discuss the difficult turn around at the beginning of the map. Again, let's thank Winter for emailing me the screenshot:



It's worth noting the cooldown rates. There's a 2 second difference, which is comparable to the cooldown rates I noted above. Again, keep an eye on these.

You'll also note that the snare and sticky bomb are positioned perfectly at the top of the stairs. And that, more to the point, Winter is positioned the exact same distance away from the snare as he was for the first choke point -- you can tell by counting the concrete slabs on the ground. He's 4 slabs away on both. Try to get a feel for this distance, since it's fairly optimal.

Now, for the turn around. Once you've kited PPK back to this point and he's snared, feel free to shoot for at least 5 seconds. Then retreat as you normally would, to the base of the stairs -- this will draw PPK into the staging area. Once he's on the loose and finally running towards you, use Intimidate and fire HoB again. I did this for approximately 3 seconds, then headed for the top of the stairs. I set the Snare and Sticky Bomb combo yet again, without being rushed, then kited PPK to the next choke point.

From this turn around, it's rinse and repeat. Again, timing is EVERYTHING on this mission. And I can't stress enough how practicing on an empty map helps tremendously.

3.0 Issues? Kabam Responds

In case you missed it, Kabam created a post in the forums to address player issues with the new 3.0 update. While I intend to discuss 3.0 in a later post on this blog, here's the latest from Kabam:

If I never see another killer droid boss, it'll be too soon!

Kouhun Training Run Update

As many of you know, Bev Plar now periodically offers a Kouhun "Training Run" for 200 chromium. Unfortunately, this relatively expensive mission has been glitchy since it went live, and a number of Uprising players have experienced problems with it; namely, the mission never appears after purchase. I'm posting about this Kouhun Rumor because a few of our members have had the same tough luck.

I've searched through the forums on several occasions in search of information about this. Today, finally, I found the following:

So, it sounds as though Kabam has finally fixed the problem, which is the good news.

The bad news, as poster Silver Spring points out, is that if you're geared up with a high enough PR to run Best Rewards on this Rumor mission, then you probably already have a 5-7* weapon. If not, though, this might prove a lucrative mission to run.

It's worth keeping in mind that players who have reached 100 lvl will likely receive a Daily Opportunity that drops at least 1 5-7* weapon.

Cartel Championship Cycle 3 Rewards & Cartel Rank

At the end of each month, the top cartels in the game are given awards. We ranked 143 on the global Leaderboard this past cycle, which earned us 5 Guaranteed 5-Star Purge Armor fragments. Which, all things considered, isn't bad. In fact, last cycle was the first time Knights of Bail ranked in the top 150. So, let me take this opportunity to congratulate everyone. Imp armor fragments might not amount to much at the moment, but we've certainly earned the right to take pride in the accomplishment!

That said, take a look at the award tiers for this past cycle:

Note that the top 50 cartels raked in serious rewards. Now, while those top 50 cartels are peopled by mostly veteran players -- Beta Players, I tend to call them, since they generally began playing with Uprising's release -- I think we've got a legitimate chance to crack the top 50. To do so, however, we've got to share that common goal.

Which means, of course, we'll need to earn as much CXP as possible. Many cartels demand that players run all of their daily missions, or else run the risk of getting kicked. I don't personally subscribe to that approach. Real life too often gets in the way.

I do believe, however, that if we pull together as a group, with a common mindset to run as many missions as we can, both for our own benefit and for that of the cartel, we'll continue to rise in the global ranks.

We began this month with a bang, starting off at rank 63. With the release of 3.0, we've slipped to 90. A number of members have experienced technical issues with the update, which comes as no surprise, and in turn our CXP numbers aren't quite as robust as they should be, given the great grinders we've got in our crew. My hope is that we can fight our way through the top 100 ranks for the remainder of this month, which will set us up nicely to give the top 50 a run next month.

Good hunting, everyone!

Introduction

With the recent update to Uprising 3.0, I thought to create a venue for discussions about different aspects of the game, especially for KoB members. In the future, I'll post on topics such as the final LS Boss, the new Raids, Lando Missions, Force Abilities, Lightsaber missions, the recent Sab gear offer, and much more. I hope to take requests for different post topics, too.

For now, though, welcome to the KoB blog.