Boxing operations

[Riiker]

Haven't seen any discussion on boxing ops. I guess I was looking to the future and was wondering if I was going to have to gear up all my guys individually once I get to the point where I can do operations.

Have any of you done this?

[losschris]

My friend has been boxing 4 dps in the 8 man and having 4 other players do the tanking / healing, and has been sucessful.

[Mercbeast]

Haven't seen any discussion on boxing ops. I guess I was looking to the future and was wondering if I was going to have to gear up all my guys individually once I get to the point where I can do operations.

Have any of you done this?

I know that the falling platforms on eternity vault were a pain in the ass for two characters, I imagine it would be pretty awful for more than that. Mechanics may have changed, but it would be a massive pain in the ass for the ancient pylons as well.

[Mercbeast]

Just thinking about this.

KP should absolutely be doable. Karagga will be the hardest part I think, Bonecrusher might be difficult too.

For EV, I'd guess that the final boss would be almost impossible for 4 boxing. Two boxing is absolutely doable. However let's approach this from the PoV of 2 4 boxer teams.

You are going to want to run your own self sufficient team.

Tank
DPS
DPS
Healer

If we approach it from that angle, everything up to Soa should be doable. For EV, melee DPS will work as well as range DPS IMO. If we look at KP, specifically for Bonecrusher and Karagga, range DPS will almost be a must. Bonecrusher (First boss, might have the name wrong) will be a pain in the ass for boxers due to his mechanic. To be perfectly honest I think I'd prefer a bunch of hybrid spec operatives for that.

So let's theory craft this one.

Bonecrusher. Big Rancor, untauntable, eats spawned minions which will essentially enrage him to one shot you. Has a randomly targeted knock back, a stomp which temp roots someone and an AOE cleave swipe.

Basically you spread out, minimize his aoe swipe. If you get targeted run through him and turn him away from anyone else. If you have defensive plenty of CD's like say a Marauder, blow one to minimize damage.

How could we do this with boxers? Well first, I think it would be fairly easy in a 2x2x2x2 setup. 4x4 would be more difficult, so let's deal with 4x4. In a 4x4 this group should probably be 2 Sorcs for healing, 4 range DPS and two pick'em tanks. Range DPS is optimal for this fight as well as Karagga so let's go with the assumption it is range DPS.

Everyone turns off their follow macro's. Everyone spreads out around the platform. In this case, each player should alternate shielding the currently agro'd player. If Player A has agro with one of his characters, Player B should shield him and then hot/heal him. Keep spread out and DPS away. It is a pure DPS race. When adds come, either CC them, or burn them quick. When minions pop all priority has to be on killing those.

It would be challenging, but I think doable.

For Karagga the other difficult boxing boss on KP, range DPS is going to be ideal again due to the way the follow mechanic fans people out behind your lead character which will result in too much AOE hitting your team. This fight is going to rely on one tank who rotates Karagga around the room clockwise or counter clockwise. Timing his missile barrage so that he never faces Karagga into the group while turning when the barrage can fire. The droids can be quickly mopped up by the non-tanking player. The non-tanking player should also be johnny on the spot with the void style AOE. You need to dispell that immediately or it is going to be a wipe.

Again, I think KP is doable but challenging. 2x2x2x2 arrangement is probably easier, or even 2x2x4.

EV everything should be pretty easy up to Soa. I'm just not sure how easy it will be to avoid the lightning balls and navigate the platform puzzle phase.

Again I would say range DPS is almost mandatory for Soa. Keep a good spread. As soon as players are named, run them forwards into their balls, keep HOT's/Shields ticking on them. Keep DPSing the entire time. This is again probably a moot point in anycase, recovering between phases with all 4 characters, organizing them so you can move them all down together is going to be extremely difficult.

In all honestly. I would not recommend 4boxing, but I have successfully managed 2 Sentinels on KP and EV so I would guess the 2x2x2x2 team could pull it off.

[Riiker]

Wow! I was pretty sure that it would be a no go, but thought I would present the question anyway. I'm looking forward to beating lost island on hard mode as a boxer. Of course before I can do that I have to be able to clear at least one HM flashpoint