Which strikes are more cheesy?

ugrakarma.9416

Im completing achievments left behind, and i did dive not into Strike areas yet;

• anyone can tell me a list in order of dificult?
• how is the environment for pugs?

but just to clarify im not a "new player', im just lazy/burned out to do hardcore content, sometimes i run T3 fractals and i find it ok difficult. in the past i did even an "migraine" achievment.
sry if i seem too lazy person, im just a older guy with no much "energy" left.

Infusion.7149

Easy three

• Shiverpeak Pass (Icebrood Construct) -- DPS golem
• Fraenir with firebrand per party to aegis becomes more or less trivial , you can jump the wave attack
• Voice and Claw with double firebrand and possibly druid if one is condi quickness --- people used to farm it

Ones that you don't want to PUG often

• Boneskinner unless you have 3-4 healers (double healbrand+heal scourge/druid) and decent DPS - not a required weekly chest strike so you get terrible results when it's not the daily
• Whisper of Jormag - your success goes up exponentially if you run a scourge with transfusion and use wurm on last 25% in hitbox , druid is also a good choice. Whenever I tag for this I put "stack on green, spread on red, don't chain people or stand in hitbox" in squad message so people don't have excuses.
• Cold War when it's frigid footfalls (10% health per tick armor ignoring) week - play a slightly ranged comp with condi scourges + power tempests , condi RR renegade , druid, condi StM chrono unless you want to run more than 3 healers or run DPS scrappers . DPS requirement is low but it's long, the reward is based on cleaved mobs in first half so condi scourge , power holo (swap to scrapper at boss), and DPS tempests are good due to cleave.
• Cold War when it's Icy Echoes - play typical PUG meta comp with 2 healbrands (obviously alac+druid would help) but have people spread out around boss fight to avoid tick damage (per 2s) from people attacking near one another.
• Forging Steel - it's very long, if you want to do it run superspeed holo to superspeed the tank

Ashantara.8731

@Infusion.7149 said:
Easy three

• Shiverpeak Pass (Icebrood Construct) -- DPS golem
• Fraenir with firebrand per party to aegis becomes more or less trivial , you can jump the wave attack
• Voice and Claw with double firebrand and possibly druid if one is condi quickness --- people used to farm it

Ones that you don't want to PUG often

• Boneskinner unless you have 3-4 healers (double healbrand+heal scourge/druid) and decent DPS - not a required weekly chest strike so you get terrible results when it's not the daily
• Whisper of Jormag - your success goes up exponentially if you run a scourge with transfusion and use wurm on last 25% in hitbox , druid is also a good choice. Whenever I tag for this I put "stack on green, spread on red, don't chain people or stand in hitbox" in squad message so people don't have excuses.
• Cold War when it's frigid footfalls (10% health per tick armor ignoring) week - play a slightly ranged comp with condi scourges + power tempests , condi RR renegade , druid, condi StM chrono unless you want to run more than 3 healers or run DPS scrappers . DPS requirement is low but it's long, the reward is based on cleaved mobs in first half so condi scourge , power holo (swap to scrapper at boss), and DPS tempests are good due to cleave.
• Forging Steel - it's very long, if you want to do it run superspeed holo to superspeed the tank

I'm sorry, but I have to correct you/add a few things:

• Boneskinner: You don't need 3-4 healers. You need high DPS, 1 HFB or 1 Ventari Rev for reflection domes, a Druid, and 1 Scourge for F4 ports, and most importantly people who know how and when to dodge and how to CC fast with the Special Action key. The boss can be killed in 1-2 minutes that way and becomes easy to farm. (In a high DPS scenario, it's tolerable if some players are downed during the fight as long as they don't die and are immediately brought back on their feet.)
• Fraenir: Not only can you jump the wave but you can also avoid the heavy damage during the elemental's second phase by people not stacking/overlapping the orange circles (when you have a well trained HFB who uses their F3 dome, or a Rev's projectile reflection dome, and Aegis during that phase, you can stack of course). Stability also helps (the same goes for Shiverpeaks Pass and even is a must-have at the Kodan).
• Cold War: Again, high DPS is key for success (the more enemies you defeat, the more chests will spawn at the end - the highest I've seen so far were 9). You don't need more than 2 healers (preferably 1 HFB and 1 Druid, of course the non-HFB group needs 1 QFB as usual). You also have to look out for the final boss' retaliation - don't stack up too closely or your healers won't be able to save you.
• In general, besides Quickness for each group you also need Alacrity and a Banner Slave.

The order of difficulty is:

1. Shiverpeaks Pass
2. Fraenir
3. Forging Steel
4. Kodan brothers
5. Cold War
6. Whisper of Jormag
7. Boneskinner (actually, as mentioned before, this one is very simple if people have proper reflexes and everybody does their job right; Whisper of Jormag involves a lot more mechanics and movement)

You can PUG them all if you find a group that is asking for KP (including Boneskinner Vials, which are referred to as "Bone KP"). Most of those groups are extremely good. Not sure if that's what the "lazy" OP is looking for, though , but it makes things fast and stressfree.

Infusion.7149

I've been doing Boneskinner since it launched (including when the damage was bugged) and success rate with just druid heals for one sub is abysmal in every group I've been in. Likewise while I've been able to solo heal my subgroup as firebrand I haven't been able to trust people off LFG as healbrand. People usually end up dying to tick damage. If you're using transfusion on a scourge then by definition it is not full DPS. If you have pulls you don't need dome.

The question in the original post was "how is the environment for PUGs" and that's the honest answer.

It's important to specify the variant of Cold War as well. The Icy Echoes variant punishes stacking but the Frigid Footfalls variant outright just has 200 radius. If you run melee on Icy Echoes pseudo "instability" with a 2s interval it has much less punishment than on Frigid Footfalls which chills you as well. This means running power StM chrono or condi quickbrand is more viable than with Frigid Footfalls. Cleave is more important than outright max DPS on Cold War, which is why fresh air tempests , holosmith, and scourges with epidemic and/or grasp excel there. You're able to use the special action abilities on the minibosses.

Unless you turn on Powerful Foes on Forging Steel, it isn't hard just long. (20+ min)

ugrakarma.9416

thanks so much for feedback!

im bit surprised with Cold War classified as hard,, i pugged it before very randomly(i barely remember why or how), and seems easier, just dps stack group. so its a good news? if i find Cold War easy basically only left Whisper and Bonneskinner as "be careful" run.

Randulf.7614

@ugrakarma.9416 said:
thanks so much for feedback!

im bit surprised with Cold War classified as hard,, i pugged it before very randomly(i barely remember why or how), and seems easier, just dps stack group. so its a good news? if i find Cold War easy basically only left Whisper and Bonneskinner as "be careful" run.

Cold War is classfied as hard because there is a lot going on and people need to work together. I've done it once and it went perfectly smoothly, but I can see how it could easily not have gone that way. I believe the mechanics can differ on each run which changes the difficulty

Whisper is a fantastic strike because all the mechanics are quite straightforward and easy enough to telegraph, but the building intensity of the mechanics means it only takes a sudden panic and a wipe will happen. Of the ones I've done, I find it to be the best designed

If Forged with Steel is going to be added into this, I'd rank it after SHiverpeak. Forged with Steel is unfailable, but the length can vary. At the moment pugs are getting through it at least as quick as DRM's if not quicker. It is however not difficult (although people still seem unable to do the boss properly). However Forged with Steel doesn't count as a strike for the daily/weekly chest stuff in EoTN.

Shiverpeaks is as easy as an open world boss with no mechanics. The whole group could auto attack and still get gold.

Kodan and Fraenir are about equal, although I find Kodan a tad easier to get gold. Wipes occur if no healer is around, but it's quite rare these days

Boneskinner I've never completed so can't comment. It's the one fight I'd like to do though

Cuks.8241

Cold war I would classify as easy. Ive managed to finish it with 5 or 6 random pugs (rest left at start).
Definitely not on par with Woj or Bone.

maddoctor.2738

@ugrakarma.9416 said:
Im completing achievments left behind, and i did dive not into Strike areas yet;

• anyone can tell me a list in order of dificult?
• how is the environment for pugs?

but just to clarify im not a "new player', im just lazy/burned out to do hardcore content, sometimes i run T3 fractals and i find it ok difficult. in the past i did even an "migraine" achievment.
sry if i seem too lazy person, im just a older guy with no much "energy" left.

Since you are completing achievements, Forging Steel is your best option because it has the largest amount. Also it's in the daily for Champions now meaning it is always fully populated. Yes it takes longer than others, but it's impossible to fail (only takes time), is full of achievements (most of the episode takes place in there) and is very well populated in the public version right now.

NorthernRedStar.3054

All the strikes are easy, unless your squad's got mechanically inadept players who die as soon as their support isn't there to Aegis them on the next telegraphed attack. If you've got a bit more complicated rotation, Boneskinner will take a few runs to get used to, though.

If anything, it comes down to whether the players involved are running the proper builds (dps) and boons (utility) - stability is much appreciated in 3/4ths of the encounters. Reflects are mostly used in Boneskinner and Fraenir (albeit they're useful for Kodan bros as well - not worth an utility slot, though).

When you're new to an encounter, always tell your party so they can instruct you properly. Always ask if something's unclear so no time gets wasted on subsequent tries. Lastly, enjoy and hone your ability as you progress

Firebeard.1746

@ugrakarma.9416 said:
Im completing achievments left behind, and i did dive not into Strike areas yet;

• anyone can tell me a list in order of dificult?

Shiverpeaks, Bears (I think it's called voice and claw), Fraenir, Cold War, Whisper and Boneskinner are kinda tied. both are jukable with 3 healers as the boss HP pools aren't that large, for boneskinner you'd want at least 1 heal scourge. Both have strong mechanics you need to play/dodge. I'd say boneskinner is SLIGHTLY more difficult because you're not given much time at all to react to the AOE pools you have to dodge. WoJ and BS are the ones that will give you real issues, CW can put a lot of stress on your healer, but usually if DPS helps with downs it's fine.

• how is the environment for pugs?

I dunno, I was able to PuG them all just fine when i did. Granted my Juke strats don't get you gold for WoJ and BS. You can get away with 1 healer on the easier 3, just pack with DPS and DPS boon support and you'll do them gold just fine. The biggest issue you might have is finding people to do them with.

but just to clarify im not a "new player', im just lazy/burned out to do hardcore content, sometimes i run T3 fractals and i find it ok difficult. in the past i did even an "migraine" achievment.
sry if i seem too lazy person, im just a older guy with no much "energy" left.

I get it. The DRM CMs have me second-guessing my commitment to this game. And why the heck are they in the Meta Achieve?