Captain Mako

Sunday set a new record for us at 1 hour and 35 minutes for the STF. Forgot to grab a screenshot, so I don't remember everyone who was on it. You know who you are though: GREAT WORK!

I was chatting with someone yesterday in the Steel Canyon University and realized something that I found a bit surprising. For many teams running the STF, Ghost Widow is not the problem, Captain Mako is. While we’ve found him difficult, I don’t think he’s ever stopped us. Today, I am going to talk about how to take down Mako.

The reason Mako is a pain is because when he hits 25% health, he does a “Dreadful Wail” (sonic blast nuke) followed by "Elude" which doesn’t seem to ever drop. For those who don’t know, Elude is the Tier 9 Super Reflexes power. Fully slotted, it will cap your defense so that you take almost no damage because nothing hits you. It makes it seem that his regeneration rate goes into overdrive, but in actuality, it’s just regular AV regeneration that is coupled with not taking damage. If you can maintain DPS, it’s not impossible.

So, how do you keep hitting something that has a capped defense? (not resist like we are used to, but defense).

Here are the things you can use to get rid of that last 25% (you don’t need all of them, but you certainly need a few of them).

• Accuracy Inspirations – when you go through this TF, save them. When Mako pops Elude, burn them.
• Tactics – the second tier Leadership power. The fastest I’ve ever seen Mako go down was on a team where 6 sets of Tactics were running. Remember, powers STACK by different casters. EVERY Archetype in City of Heroes can use this.
• Geas of the Kind Ones – this is the badge you get from getting all of the Croatoa related badges. It’s easy to get and when you use it, it provides an excellent To-Hit Buff coupled with a recharge reduction.
• Fortitude – Not just a defense buff, but a to-hit buff in this power as well. Slot it for recharge and accuracy first if you consistently have problems with Mako. Throw it on your high damage team members.
• Radiation Infection – Yes, the Radiation Emission powerset isn’t just good for reducing AV regeneration. This power does a defense debuff. The Radiation blasts are also nice for a debuff, but you have to hit for them to work. This is a toggle with a zero percent miss chance.
• Rage – That Superstrength tank holding that aggro may not realize that HUGE To-Hit buff this power provides. This brings up one side point: If you are running the Statesman Task Force and you are just standing there, you are not helping. You need to be attacking.
• Focused Accuracy – Both Scrappers and Tankers have access to this Accuracy Buff. It has a HUGE base and so even without slotting for accuracy, it’s useful.
• Build-up – Your Blasters and Scrappers had better know about this. The almost all have it.
• Peacebringers – SLOT YOUR POWERS FOR DEFENSE DEBUFF – it’s worth it!

I’ll let South talk about how to handle –Regen at another time :)