Do something about the warmaster, Please Read

Warmaster use to be fun, even though he had and still has that annoying buck where when he hands he sometimes teleports to weird spots and angles.
It was fun to take him down and didn't feel like a waste, even though, for me at least, the rewards for beating him were almost always garbage.

Now though with the health buff making him next to impossible to take down, along with the rewards still being crap.. There's next to zero point in doing WM. It's not fun and it's not rewarding.

Minors are still okay to do as they were always function, even if the rewards, again, suck most of the time.

They haven't fixed the bug dealing with him warping around and they haven't bothered to make him more beatable. They also haven't made him worth peoples time with the rewards.
There's no point in doing him. Just view the WM as an example of bad design and lazy management.


To be honest the best thing to do would be to have an extra entrance for an "expert" version of him which is the one that's currently in the game, that you can only go in if you are in a "raid" (that party function will need to be introduced). Have that version remain hard and have better rewards, like a guaranteed epic or two.
Then for the other four usual entrances, nerf the hell out of him so he's no tougher than the other major arkfall bosses and remove the timer.

Also make all DLC part of the F2P package, because no only is the WM useless to do, for more than half the population, the rewards are a waste of time too.
You'll most likely make more sales in boosts and storage increases than you will selling minor DLC for $10 a piece.

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Originally Posted by Belle Starr

PLEASE BRING BACK THE OLD BEATABLE WAR MASTER! :(

I confess it, it's a selfish request when there are problems like lag and disconnect and whatever that affect a lot more players, but War Master was my favorite event in the Defiance Game, and I was a self described WM groupie, playing in his ark break every time I could, and we beat him at least once for every five times played! I usually ranked in the top five if we lost, and usually in the top 10 if we took him down, which made me happier because we took him down. It encouraged teamwork, and discussion as to the best tactics to take him down (not the lockbreaker versus lockkeeper hate speech, but honest debate about whether the arm or the back was the best target), and sometimes witty banter while we waited for enough people to fill the room to beat him (I'm talking about the game limit of 25, not the glitch that let 40 in and would cause me to disconnect) :)

I played it twice yesterday, once with eight people, the other with sixteen, and I ranked #1 in each (which is a sign of trouble right there, as I'm not a great player, although I am a team player - LOL!), and I was miserable! We didn't even break the armor on the WM's back let alone get even remotely close to killing it! In both cases, locks were broken before the "new" lock timer went off, and there was no time to share WM experience with new players, who I would later be picking up off the floor a lot. Every weapon under the sun was being used, and some just waited in corners doing nothing! WM now is just a place to get stuff, and not to do teamwork and win! :(

Gosh, I miss War Master! I don't want a nerf, I want a challenge and a way to have fun, like it used to be! Please fix him back the way he was - playable and beatable! :cool:

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I'm one of the lower EGO people who likes to fight WM. I have to say, after watching videos from this one person on YouTube and reading/asking advice for just about anything on the game... I think the main reason why I haven't been in an event with WM where we've defeated him is because people start breaking the locks as soon as they enter the chamber. I can't remember what the timer is set to, but it sucks when I'm trying to rush into chat before WM wakes up to tell my online clanmates that I'm in the WM chamber and to teleport to me, or to group with me... because there's usually only 15 people in the chamber from the 30 I've seen before entering.

The reason why I say this is the main reason is because the last few times I've fought WM with a decent team, we get so close that we have a fighting chance to defeat him that maybe, just maybe if we had a few more people we would defeat him.

I still have some fun with WM and most of the time, I've seen vets all-cap-typing to aim for WM's back. Yesterday, someone was calling down the arkfall and telling people in the chat he would only do it if enough people came. S/He told everyone to aim for the back. I think I even saw them mentioning to bring their best automatic with either radiation or fire weapons, but that could have been someone else informing as well. However, that was the first time I've seen someone mention weapons in the chat for anything WM related, it's always been "aim for the back" and nothing else.

I like going into the WM event even if I'm low EGO because I actually have some fun. It's practice for me because that dude moves around a lot and I get some target practice. To me, his arms are so much easier to hit because I can run beside him at a good distance. But when the rest of the team is going for his back, it's pointless for me to be the only one shooting at his arms.

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Originally Posted by dxiapetus

To me, his arms are so much easier to hit because I can run beside him at a good distance. But when the rest of the team is going for his back, it's pointless for me to be the only one shooting at his arms.

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Yeah, I never got the back thing, you can hit the right arm pretty much all of the time without having to reposition much yet the back is rather difficult and gets all the low EGO guys nuked from the WM's rocket barrage. But the real issue is the weapons people use. BMGs, infectors, crimefighters and volge battle rifles are not going to get him killed, yet I see nearly everybody use those.

I'm one of the members of Cronus who has been killing the Warmaster every night this last week. I'll have to admit, I had not seen the thing die in so long I had started to believe it couldn't be done, but Cronus proved me wrong. We aren't the only Clan to do so either. I've seen at least one other Clan who was inspired by our example and did it too.

I remember the days when five players who knew what they were doing could pretty much carry everyone else, and the Warmaster died almost every fight. Given how little reward you get for killing him, I kind of think they should fix it so he works that way now. I'd be happier if they improved the rewards to be commensurate with the difficulty, but that's somewhat selfish.

I can tell you the secrets to killing him. If I had a nickel for every time I have tried to tell people, or watched other people try and explain it, I'd need a tax shelter.

Shoot him in the back. Why do you shoot his back? Couple of reasons. First of all, the Warmaster has five armor plates. Two on each arm, one on his back. It is much easier to get everyone shooting at the same plate if you shoot him in the back. Going for the arm means splitting the damage between two plates. Yes, he can be killed by groups that shoot at his arm, but that is doing things the hard way. The other reason is a perk called "Sucker Punch" that gives a 15% bonus to damage when you shoot things from behind.

Use spikes. Use lots of spikes. Especially Damage Spikes. They are cheap. They drop like rain from enemies. They make a much bigger difference than you might think. Cronus gathers at his back before the locks release, and a couple seconds before the cage goes down we drop spikes. We blast the heck out of the Warmaster's back while he's standing there, and there have been times when we have gotten the armor off him before the first time he jumped up to the ceiling. Drop spikes any time the Warmaster is going to stand still, like when he is bombing the room, not just when he jumps up to the ceiling.

Use Full Auto bullet weapons. The best guns to use for breaking Warmaster armor are submachineguns. Full auto assault rifles are a distant second, and light machineguns are a very poor third. Do Soleptor contracts and buy a Votan Pulser from the vendor. The Vot Pulser, Vot Tachmag Pulser, Vot Needler, Castithan Springer, and Hog Leg are all great weapons for breaking Warmaster armor.

Don't use anything that isn't a full auto bullet weapon. Seriously. Just don't. Get a SMG and use it.
(Note: The Defiant Few Bloodhound really isn't a SMG, and should never be used on the Warmaster.)

Once the armor breaks, you have some options. The best weapons for this part are weapons with a really high crit damage and moderate fire rate. The Wolfhound Pistol and the Wildcat Pistol, with some crit rolls, Assassin synergy, and good mods are the ideal weapons for this. If you don't happen to have one, look for high crit damage semi-auto sniper rifles. The Ranger is probably the best of those. If you don't have anything else, just keep using that Submachinegun. They still do better damage than most other things you could bring.

Keep using spikes! Don't cheap out on the spikes once the armor is broken. The Warmaster has a metric ton of hit points.

During the fight, the Warmaster throws crystal bombs at people. Those are explosive, so if he hits someone right near you, you get nailed too. Don't stand close to other people, and try not to stand still at all. Keep moving. Submachineguns can be fired with great accuracy while moving. If you see a crystal headed for you, try and roll out of the way. With practice you can make it through an entire Warmaster fight without being downed. If you do get downed, and it happens to the best of us, Extract and run back.

This is important. The Warmaster is a race. To kill him you have to do as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time you can. Waiting for someone to rez you means you are doing no damage, and if someone rezzes you, -they- are also doing no damage. That's a really bad idea Outsider. The points you lose for Extracting will be made back up pretty quick when you go back to doing damage. You will lose more points total by lying on the floor waiting.

Healing is really a waste of time during the Warmaster fight. Having someone running around with a BMG healing people means that you have someone doing no damage, and that might be ok except that when the Warmaster nails someone with a crystal bomb, they either go down, or they will be fine with no help.

I recommend the Perks Blast Shield, Gunslinger, and Sucker Punch. Most people agree that Overcharge is the best Ego power to use, and perks that improve that are good. If you have a nano effect gun, consider using the perks that improve your nano effects. If you are getting downed too much, load up on the defensive perks. If your perks keep you in the fight, that's the biggest damage boost you are going to get from perks.

What Cronus has been doing is gathering everyone at the site before dropping the batteries to summon the Arkfall. We fight our way inside, and then try to get everyone into the same instance. Some people will often get split off from the main group, and we have them leave the map, then send group invites so they can port into the correct instance. We ask people not to shoot the locks once we get down into the Warmaster room so that we can finish getting everyone in. Sometimes people even listen.

It takes some organization to pull it all off, but it should be possible even for a bunch of random folks if everyone is willing to listen and follow directions. Of course, expecting people to listen and follow directions is probably too much to hope for. Even when dealing with just members of the clan, getting this stuff done reminds me of herding cats.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

Shoot him in the back. Why do you shoot his back? Couple of reasons. First of all, the Warmaster has five armor plates. Two on each arm, one on his back. It is much easier to get everyone shooting at the same plate if you shoot him in the back. Going for the arm means splitting the damage between two plates. Yes, he can be killed by groups that shoot at his arm, but that is doing things the hard way. The other reason is a perk called "Sucker Punch" that gives a 15% bonus to damage when you shoot things from behind.

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See, I didn't know about the two plates of armor with the arms. That's probably why they are easier targets.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

Use spikes. Use lots of spikes. Especially Damage Spikes. They are cheap. They drop like rain from enemies. They make a much bigger difference than you might think. Cronus gathers at his back before the locks release, and a couple seconds before the cage goes down we drop spikes. We blast the heck out of the Warmaster's back while he's standing there, and there have been times when we have gotten the armor off him before the first time he jumped up to the ceiling. Drop spikes any time the Warmaster is going to stand still, like when he is bombing the room, not just when he jumps up to the ceiling.

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I have Damage and Ammo Spikes for Warmaster. I normally bring in the Damage Spikes and try to remember to spike one down just before he wakes. My problem is, is that he's kind of hard to see when he's in the crystal hybernation thing, so I can't see where his back is sometimes. Sucks, I know.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

Use Full Auto bullet weapons. The best guns to use for breaking Warmaster armor are submachineguns. Full auto assault rifles are a distant second, and light machineguns are a very poor third. Do Soleptor contracts and buy a Votan Pulser from the vendor. The Vot Pulser, Vot Tachmag Pulser, Vot Needler, Castithan Springer, and Hog Leg are all great weapons for breaking Warmaster armor.

Don't use anything that isn't a full auto bullet weapon. Seriously. Just don't. Get a SMG and use it.
(Note: The Defiant Few Bloodhound really isn't a SMG, and should never be used on the Warmaster.)

Once the armor breaks, you have some options. The best weapons for this part are weapons with a really high crit damage and moderate fire rate. The Wolfhound Pistol and the Wildcat Pistol, with some crit rolls, Assassin synergy, and good mods are the ideal weapons for this. If you don't happen to have one, look for high crit damage semi-auto sniper rifles. The Ranger is probably the best of those. If you don't have anything else, just keep using that Submachinegun. They still do better damage than most other things you could bring.

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I don't have a good Wolfhound and I honestly haven't heard of a Wildcat... is that a DLC weapon? Because if it is then I can't ever use one until I start getting paid more money so that I can buy the DLCs.

So I've been using a FRC Particle with Bio for when I go into a WM even. I know the Particle gun is a waste of space everywhere else, but I've found it very useful when fighting WM. I don't even have to use the aim-button for it, much easier when fighting him. I'm wondering if I get one with radiation it might be better.

I also use a VOT Pulser with Radiation or Fire. It depends on the EGO level of the Pulser that makes my decision. I get blue ones somewhat often.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

During the fight, the Warmaster throws crystal bombs at people. Those are explosive, so if he hits someone right near you, you get nailed too. Don't stand close to other people, and try not to stand still at all. Keep moving. Submachineguns can be fired with great accuracy while moving. If you see a crystal headed for you, try and roll out of the way. With practice you can make it through an entire Warmaster fight without being downed. If you do get downed, and it happens to the best of us, Extract and run back.

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That's another problem of mine. Being able to jump at the right moment when he drops back down from hanging, he usually glitches for me then and I always jump too late.

Thankfully, I move around a lot in the chamber, so I don't get hit too often by the bombs he throws. And if I do, so be it. I have stims I can use; both armor and healing... typically I use the healing one.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

This is important. The Warmaster is a race. To kill him you have to do as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time you can. Waiting for someone to rez you means you are doing no damage, and if someone rezzes you, -they- are also doing no damage. That's a really bad idea Outsider. The points you lose for Extracting will be made back up pretty quick when you go back to doing damage. You will lose more points total by lying on the floor waiting.

Healing is really a waste of time during the Warmaster fight. Having someone running around with a BMG healing people means that you have someone doing no damage, and that might be ok except that when the Warmaster nails someone with a crystal bomb, they either go down, or they will be fine with no help.

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I completely forgot about this one. A few days ago, I asked on here for advice about WM and if extracting myself was better than having someone heal me... everyone said extract, so that was my intentions. I kid you not, the next day, I went into a WM fight, died and someone healed me faster than my extract button. I was a bit bitter about it too, cause I was low on ammo and could have used the time running back to stock back up. lol.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

I recommend the Perks Blast Shield, Gunslinger, and Sucker Punch. Most people agree that Overcharge is the best Ego power to use, and perks that improve that are good. If you have a nano effect gun, consider using the perks that improve your nano effects. If you are getting downed too much, load up on the defensive perks. If your perks keep you in the fight, that's the biggest damage boost you are going to get from perks.

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Since I'm FTP, I can't get the nano perks... but I do use damage and seep-protection perks in my loadout for him. I finally unlocked Sucker Punch and added it to my WM loadout, lol.

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Originally Posted by Snowclan

What Cronus has been doing is gathering everyone at the site before dropping the batteries to summon the Arkfall. We fight our way inside, and then try to get everyone into the same instance. Some people will often get split off from the main group, and we have them leave the map, then send group invites so they can port into the correct instance. We ask people not to shoot the locks once we get down into the Warmaster room so that we can finish getting everyone in. Sometimes people even listen.

It takes some organization to pull it all off, but it should be possible even for a bunch of random folks if everyone is willing to listen and follow directions. Of course, expecting people to listen and follow directions is probably too much to hope for. Even when dealing with just members of the clan, getting this stuff done reminds me of herding cats.

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You're right about that, some people just don't listen. I feel that since I'm only 1,000ish EGO that no one will take me seriously when I tell them not to break the lock right away (if they haven't started breaking them by the time i jump down). Also, usually I end up at the arkfall a bit late so I can't say anything about the locks without either dying or near dying. Usually arkfalls take a minute for me to load up all the way so all I see are little red arrows when I arrive.

I would love to witness a WM master defeat... well... I think a lot of people would. lol.

I didn't go to a WM event today, because I decided to finish all the side missions in Madera since the lag was really bad. Most of the time, if I go solo the lag isn't that bad. Anyway, are the WM locks auto-broken after the countdown ends for them? Since I didn't go to an event, I didn't get a chance to actually pay attention to that countdown.

Yep, they auto break after the countdown, which is why I never understand why people break them as soon as they get there - patience is a virtue people, even if it is a few minutes! :)

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Originally Posted by Belle Starr

Yep, they auto break after the countdown, which is why I never understand why people break them as soon as they get there - patience is a virtue people, even if it is a few minutes! :)

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Thank you! Now I can tell people they auto-break when I head to the next WM event. mwuahahahahahaah... lol

They are terrible. The locks themselves take nothing but critical damage yet you see people hammering away at them with low crit weapons like Shotguns. They're really skilled at missing stationary targets too. The best is when they run out of ammo on a lock and have to run to the box to get more.

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Originally Posted by dxiapetus

I completely forgot about this one. A few days ago, I asked on here for advice about WM and if extracting myself was better than having someone heal me... everyone said extract, so that was my intentions. I kid you not, the next day, I went into a WM fight, died and someone healed me faster than my extract button. I was a bit bitter about it too, cause I was low on ammo and could have used the time running back to stock back up. lol.

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Extracting only make sense if you actually expect to kill the thing. Since you won't, reviving other players is the best source of score down there. If you don't fire a shot but revive everyone who dies you'll double or triple everyone else's score.

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Originally Posted by dxiapetus

Thank you! Now I can tell people they auto-break when I head to the next WM event. mwuahahahahahaah... lol

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Nobody will listen.

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Originally Posted by SirServed

They are terrible. The locks themselves take nothing but critical damage yet you see people hammering away at them with low crit weapons like Shotguns. They're really skilled at missing stationary targets too. The best is when they run out of ammo on a lock and have to run to the box to get more.

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You also see them drop defensive spikes and run protectors on you during that phase. I'm sure most of the guys just go like "I don't know what's going on here but look at the shiny lights!".

This morning, I thought I was going to see my second WM defeat.

We broke his armor really early and I pulled out my wildcat and started getting some nice crit shots...

...then I lagged out.

I never found out whether he went down or not - sigh...