Visual Guide: Behavioral Adjustment Facility Trial

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Behavioral Adjustment Facility (click to enlarge)

Overview

This guide is intended to help players learn everything they'll need to know to complete the Behavioral Adjustment Facility Trial.










Minimum players needed: 12
Maximum players allowed: 24

Incarnate XP type: Psychic Incarnate Experience

Obtainable Badges: Behavior Adjuster, Not On My Watch, Alarm Raiser, Gotta Keep 'Em Separated, Strong & Pretty, Master of the B.A.F.

Phase I: Take Control of the B.A.F.

• Objective: Defeat 40 WarWorks (untimed)
  
• Merit Rewards: none
  

Defeating 40 WarWorks will complete the first phase of the trial. During this stage the league leader should call out the plan of attack for Nightstar/Siege and which strategy will be used for the escape. If the escape strategy being used requires teams to be placed in specific areas on the map (eg. "Team 2, north chokepoint. Teams 1 & 3, south chokepoint."), those assignments should also be called out during the first phase.

• Special Note: Sometimes the league leader will lose the league star when the trial is loading. If this happens, give the star back to the original leader as soon as possible. This can be very confusing if team assignments are called out and then the team numbers are switched because leadership has been switched mid-trial.

Phase II: Suppression

• Objective: Defeat Nightstar (15 minutes)
  
• Merit Rewards: 1 Astral Merit (from phase completion)
  

Nightstar

Guard Tower & Control

Nightstar spawns on the eastern side of the facility. Most times someone will pull Nightstar to the tennis courts (usually the west end of the courts because Siege is very slow) or the wall just north of them. It works best to have one person pull (and maybe have someone nearby if the puller needs healing) so the pull goes faster and the AV doesn't keep stopping to switch targets. The rest of the league should wait to attack (and back up a bit) until Nightstar is position. In addition to fighting Nightstar for this phase, the Guard Towers are activated and will fire at you if you are within line of sight and in range. The tennis courts and the wall north of them will provide cover/put you out of range from the Guard Towers. Victoria Mk VI's are sent to help Nightstar as well.

If your league is trying for the Gotta Keep 'Em Separated badge, everyone should head to the spawn point to fight Nightstar there since you'll need to keep her close to the original spawn point for the final phase of the trial.

A Guard Tower can be disabled by clicking the glowing control at the base of the tower. There is a badge/Astral Merit for completing the trial without disabling any of the towers, so unless your league leader calls for the towers to be disabled, it is best to not do so. Usually the only time you'll see the towers need to be disabled is during a master's run and even then it isn't absolutely necessary if fighting in covered areas.

The fight with Nightstar is not a difficult one. The biggest concern here is her ability to sequester. The first time you get hit by this power, you will see a red warning with your name (eg. "First Warning, <player name>") and will have a single warning ring appear around your character. If you are hit with this a second time before the first warning has worn off, you'll see another warning message and will now have two warning rings around your character. When you get a second warning, you should back away from the other members in your league until both warnings have worn off. If you receive a third warning, you and every character standing inside your warning rings (it does not matter if they have a warning or not) will be sequestered (held). If you maintain aggro, it is possible to be sequestered multiple times in a row.

Sequestering Process

Being sequestered is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are tanking and being sequestered in a spot where no other league-mates are getting sequestered along with you, you are protecting the rest of the league from getting warnings and they can focus on killing the AV. It only becomes a bad thing when you are getting lots of players sequestered and making them sitting ducks.

That said, if you see your character inside the rings of a character that has two warnings... move out. Don't assume that they will move away in time. Sometimes they can get caught in mid-animation and will get sequestered. Be responsible for your own character not getting caught in someone else's sequester.

If there are multiple people on the league capable of handling the aggro from the AV, it works well to go fight the reinforcements after a second warning and let them take their turn getting warnings.

Once Nightstar is defeated the Guard Towers are disabled and the league should head to their places and prepare for the escape phase.

Phase III: Escape!

• Objective: Prevent 20 Mindwashed Prisoners from escaping (5 minutes)
  
• Merit Rewards: 2 Astral Merits (from phase completion, qualifying for Not On My Watch badge)
  

Leaders should quickly scan to make sure all assignments are being covered for this phase. A poorly covered escape can lead to a quickly failed trial.

There are two types of prisoners escaping here... Commando's (lieutenants) and Fighter's (minions). Neither will deal damage to you, but they can confuse players. The Fighter's can be held/immobilized/etc. The Commando's have very high mez protection and are not worth trying to mez. The prisoners do not start running toward the escape points until the timer hits 5:00.

Control powers (holds/immobs/sleeps/slows/etc) are helpful on the fighters. Location based AoE's, Judgement, and Lore pets are also very helpful to use for this phase. Lore pets should be summoned right before the timer gets down to 5:00 and set to aggressive mode. Summoning them any earlier than that is just wasted Lore time.

The map at the top of the page shows the escape routes used by the prisoners.

Chokepoints Strategy

This strategy seems to have become the more prominent one used for the escape. The leader assigns teams to one of two chokepoints (hopefully ahead of time). Players should huddle tightly together around these chokepoints. The purpose of that is two-fold. One, it improves the groups spike damage and two, if it is hard for you to move through your own crowd, it's hard for the escapees too.

Occasionally some players will be using "shutdown" characters and are more effective by being placed at on one of the doors. "Shutdown" characters should only cover a door if the leader has told them to do so. These characters NEED to have constant protection from confuse, should be able to stop or nearly stop any prisoner from getting by them and are usually highly shifted, potent damage dealers with Lore pets. (eg. A Spines/Electric Armor scrapper that is +3 and has Clarion can be an effective "shutdown" character.)

Force Bubble Tactics on South Chokepoint (green line shows the boundary of the Force Bubble)

North Chokepoint:
The optimal spot for the north chokepoint is on the north path near the eastern tennis court. This chokepoint will catch 1/3 of the escaping prisoners (2 doors worth) so roughly 1/3 of the league should be placed here.

South Chokepoint:
The optimal spot for the south chokepoint is on the southern path near the western tennis court. This chokepoint will catch 2/3 of the escaping prisoners (4 doors worth) so roughly 2/3 of the league should be placed here. It helps having the majority of the control characters assigned to the south chokepoint to lock down the minions. If there are any characers on the league with Force Bubble, a well positioned Force Bubble will trap the minion escapees in between the bubble and the walls of the middle building on the south path. The westbound escapees get diverted and trapped by the doors of the middle building and the eastbound escapees get trapped between the bubble and the west wall of the middle building.

League leaders have a lot of things that can be taken into consideration when deciding which teams should cover with path (experience, power sets, level shifts, Judgement/Lore) but as long as the average strength per player is about equal for both chokepoints, it should be fine. When in doubt, make south the stronger side. Also, don't be afraid to pull someone from another team to help with on side or the other.

Doors Strategy

With this strategy the leauge is divided up into 6 groups, one group for each door. There is 1 north door, 2 east doors, and 3 south doors. On a 3 team league, usually one team covers the north door and the west door on south, another team covers the middle and east doors on south, and the other team covers the two eastern doors. The door assignments should be relatively balanced strength-wise.

The strategy here is simple: Kill what comes out of your door. If anything gets by you, chase it and kill it, then quickly get back to your door.

Phase IV: Siege

Siege

• Objective: Defeat Siege (15 minutes)
  
• Merit Rewards: 1 Astral Merit (from phase completion)
  

Siege spawns on the western side of the facility and the Guard Towers are reactivated. This phase is very similar to Phase II, you'll pull the AV and wait to attack until Siege is in position (near where Nightstar was defeated). Siege can also sequester, so be careful if you start receiving warnings.

If your league is trying for the Gotta Keep 'Em Separated badge, everyone should head to the spawn point to fight Siege there since you'll need to keep him close to the original spawn point for the final phase of the trial.

Once Siege is defeated, both Nightstar and Siege will be resurrected and the final phase will begin. The Guard Towers remain activated.

Phase V: Siege & Nightstar

• Objective: Defeat Siege & Nightstar within 10 seconds of each other (20 minutes)
  
• Merit Rewards: 1 Empyrean Merit (from first completion in a 20 hour timeframe, an Astral Merit is awarded for additional completions within the 20 hours), 4 Astral Merits (open league, qualifying for Alarm Raiser, Gotta Keep 'Em Separated, and/or Strong & Pretty)
  

With double the AV's, reinforcements, and warning rings this phase is a bit harder, but still very doable. Some leagues will assign a group to Siege, another to Nightstar, and another group to the reinforcement. Some just focus on Siege and Nightstar and ignore the reinforcements without making any assignments. Either way will work just fine as long as the battle is managed and the reinforcements aren't able to grow large enough to overwhelm the league.

Sequesters work the same way for this phase as they did in earlier phases, but since both Siege and Nightstar can sequester, it is possible to pick up 2 warnings very quickly (one from each AV). If you are aggroing both AV's and have a warning, you should be in a position that doesn't put the rest of the league at risk if both of there were to quickly sequester you. If you are only getting the attention of one of the AV's, back away after the second warning the same as you would do for the previous phases.

Both of the AV's need to be defeated within 10 seconds of each other so players need to pay attention to their health bars. The easiest way is to watch the Event Window. You can click the health bar for either of the AV's in the Event Window to target them. Stronger leagues can maintain a larger gap between the AV's than weaker leagues. Generally by the time they are both down to around 20% health you want them within 5% health of each other. Keep in mind that they do heal 5% every once in a while.

It works best if you keep Siege and Nightstar near each other so both are getting hit by AoE's. The league leader should be the one making adjustment calls for which AV to target and whether or not the reinforcements should get more attention. Unless it's a make or break situation, it works better to direct the league to even out or balance the health bars of the AV's. Too often when the leader directs the league to focus on one AV, the entire league attacks that one and the initial problem is just flipped to the other AV.

After the first AV goes down, you'll see a message saying that the AV will be resurrected in 10 seconds. Work quickly to finish off the other AV. With 5 seconds left, if it appears that you are not going to make it in time, everyone should stop attacking the second AV.

If you did not finish off the second AV in time, you'll need to try again. Hopefully the league stopped in time on the second AV if it was called off, otherwise if you've dropped that one too, you'll need to work both of them down from 100% again. Usually in these cases, there is plenty of time to recover, but you will probably want to trim down the number of reinforcements at this time. Too many reinforcements for the league to handle is the most common reason this trial gets failed.

If you finish off both AV's within 10 seconds, the trial will be over and you'll receive your reward window.

Master of the B.A.F.

The Master of the B.A.F. badge can be earned in one attempt of the trial, but usually leagues will choose to focus on getting Gotta Keep 'Em Separated and not worrying about Strong & Pretty on the same run. The four badges needed to earn Master of the B.A.F. are:

Alarm Raiser

Whether by chutzpah or ignorance, you managed to assault the Behavioral Adjustment Facility without ever disabling a single one of their guard towers.

Not On My Watch

Not a single Mindwashed Resistance member was allowed to escape the Behavioral Adjustment Facility on your watch.

Strong & Pretty

Siege and Nightstar are the real threat at the Behavioral Adjustment Facility, but you added insult to injury by depriving them of all their War Works allies prior to administering the final simultaneous blow.

Gotta Keep 'Em Separated

Siege and Nightstar usually fight as a duo, but you decided to divide and conquer, defeating them in the Behavioral Adjustment Facility where they stood.

The most effective way to get the master's badge is to assemble a group of powerful characters to run the trial with the intent of getting the master's badge. Alarm Raiser and Not On My Watch should be easy to earn with a league attempting the master's run. You maybe be able to swing all of the badges on the first attempt if you try for Gotta Keep 'Em Separated first.

The leader should assign about half of the league to focus on Siege and about another half to focus on Nightstar. Some leagues use a small group to tackle the reinforcements ("add's") at their spawn point near the helipad. The teams assigned to Siege and Nightstar should have roughly the same amount of firepower/debuff to make it easier to take them down at the same time.

Before the final stage begins, the Nightstar team (and "add's" team if used) should head to their spots when Siege is down to 20% health. If Siege starts following one of the players that leaves at that time, quickly pull him back to his spot. If the "add's" team needs to shut off the Guard Towers to help keep the other teams clean, that leader should decide that ahead of time.

There are spots that Siege and Nightstar can be pulled to that will still count as them being in their original spawn point. The pictures below show a rough estimate of where you can keep the AV's during the final fight. Siege/Nightstar can leave that area without immediately failing Gotta Keep 'Em Separated, but they need to be back within the area when they are defeated. Once Siege and/or Nightstar start getting down to 10% health left the two teams should watch the Event Window to keep them as even as possible. If possible, watch the timer for when the reinforcements arrive, give the "add's" team a few seconds to clean up the reinforcements (if possible, the "add's" team should save judgement so when the time comes to spike the mob, they have it available.), and then finish off the AV's. Be careful of that 5% heal that both of them can do, as it can mess this up badly if the AV's aren't close health-wise.

Siege Fight Spot for Gotta Keep 'Em Separated

Reinforcement Spawn Point

Nightstar Fight Spot for Gotta Keep 'Em Separated

The more powerful your league is, the more slack room you will have with keeping the Siege and Nightstar's health bars even.

If the timing works well, you will get all four badges in one attempt. If you missed out on one, you can focus on that badge in a subsequent attempt.

Master of the B.A.F.

You have mastered the Incarnate Trial: Behavioral Adjustment Facility.

Notes, Tips, & Strategy

• Tips for Leaders
  • Communicate clearly how you wish the trial to be run. Call out assignments ahead of time. Remind them again right before the moment arrives.
  • Take time to assess the capabilities of your league. If the group has a lot of inexperienced players or players new to the trial, you'll probably want to spend a little time catching them up so they are not lost and that they understand the basics of how sequestration works. If you are busy (understandably) with trying to recruit, lead, or communicate your plan of attack, ask an experienced player if they can mentor a player new to the trial. The more knowledgeable players are about the trial, the better it will go.
  • Be flexible with how you call teams for the escape if you need to be. Some leagues of 24 players have done the escape by having 20 go to the south chokepoint and the other 4 shut down the 2 doors that feed the north chokepoint. It all depends upon the abilities of those in your league and how much you can trust them to get the job done.
  • If you are leading a group that is light on the level shifts, you should take that into account when determining what your plan of attack will be. Lightly shifted groups will take longer to defeat Siege/Nightstar, so if the reinforcments ("adds") are not dealt with, they may grow too large for the league to handle in addition to the AV's.
  • Don't panic if you need to redo one or both of the AV's on the final stage. Just communicate a regrouping plan and more importantly, make sure that the group attacks as a whole if there is a large scale regrouping.

• Sequestration Warnings & Pulling Techniques
  • This is mostly for the final phase of the trial, when the league is fighting both Siege and Nightstar simultaneously. Too many times the AV's are separated because a tank/etc has gotten a second warning and is backing away from the league while one of the AV's starts following them. Technically, this is what most of us have been conditioned to do, but with this situation there is a better way to handle it. Instead of simply backing away, try to position yourself so that if the AV does follow you, the other AV is in their path so that you are pulling across them. The thing to be careful with here is that when you are moving your character to line this up, you need to take a path that is clear from other players. If that's the case, just move around the outside of the league then line it up so the other AV is directly between you and the AV chasing you. If you want to top it off, try taunting both AV's. You're probably going to be sequestered anyway, may as well save someone else from a warning.