Hamidon Raid
For information on the pre-Issue 9 Hamidon raids, see Old Hamidon Raid.
Overview
Attempts to defeat Hamidon, generally referred to as Hami Raids, occur regularly on most servers. These are loosely-organized events that bring together many, many players, all hoping to acquire a single Hamidon Enhancement or a rare recipe.
With the introduction of Issue 9, Hamidon was revamped and a new strategy needed to be produced to defeat the Hamidon. The new Hamidon was designed to be archetype- and powerset-independant, which means everyone will be able to contribute and there are no specifically desireable builds for a player to have when undergoing an encounter. Additionally, Villains have their own opportunity to defeat Hamidon.
Roles
Raid Leader
Single person who coordinates the raid. This person has the responsibility of organizing the various teams, and coordinating the timing of certain actions within the raid.
Yellow Teams
The Mitochondria Antibodies are susceptible to melee attacks, which means that one or more team of melee-oriented fighters will be needed to deal with them. It is also a good idea to have one member with Group Fly or Group Energy Flight in order to keep all teammates always within melee range of the target.
Blue Teams
The Mitochondria Electrolytes are susceptible to ranged attacks, which means that one or more team of range-oriented fighters will be needed to deal with them.
Green Teams
The Mending Mitochondria need to be held for fear of terrible things, which means that one or more team of hold-oriented fighters will be needed to deal with them in addition to those who will do damage to them.
Buff, Rez and Teleport Teams
A buff team will be needed to provide mez protection, increased damage, etc. to the other teams who will be attacking Hamidon. In addition, it is imperative that one group of people have the ability to teleport everyone who may have fallen to safety, then to resurrect them.
Phases
As of April 4, 2007, this is the current strategy used to defeat Hamidon.
Yellow Phase
What has been shown to be effective is that a single team of melee fighters can rapidly pop in, defeat one or two Mitochondria Andibodies, then pop out before danger sets in. This is made possible in large by the Essence of the Earth inspiration, which negates most of the damage dealt from various parts of Hamidon. While better strategies are certain to exist, this is the one which was first used to take out Hamidon on the Issue 9 closed beta test.
A Buff Team applies various mez protections to a single Yellow Team, then the Yellow Team goes after a target. What has been done on Test is that one person has Group Fly, and another has Team Teleport with enhanced range. This allows the team to use Essence of the Earth, then immediately move in to attack the target. In this way, it has been shown that two Mitochondria Antibodies can be removed in the one-minute window when the EoE is active.
Blue Phase
The Mitochondria Antibodies are the primary damage from the Hamidon, and once they're removed, the rest is relatively painless. Now, a taunter with some healer and buff support can move in and single-handedly draw Hamidon's aggro while Blue Teams take out the Mitochondria Electrolytes. Again, due to damage and status effects, it is advised that the Blue Teams have buff support before engaging the targets. This time, however, the buff team(s) can go in with the damage dealers to help out throughout the duration of the phase.
All Mitochondria Electrolytes can be taken out in a single sweep. When everyone helps with the same target, the mitos can be taken out by running a lap around the nucleous.
Green Phase
The Mending Mitochondria have a powerful force field that resists nearly all damage of any type as well as providing considerable defense. There is also evidence to suggest that they will activate Mitosis when they are being defeated, so Hold powers are necessary to defeat them. When it is held, a Mending Mitochondria's defense and damage resistence buffs drop, meaning that any damage dealer available can help to take it out. This is the easiest phase in the Hamidon raid.
Nucleous Phase
After the mitochondria are removed, only the nucleous remains. While it has some powerful attacks, its aggro can be held by a single taunter, who in turn can be kept alive with healing and mez support, often both held by the same player. At this time, anyone with debuffs and damage will attack the nucleous, slowly dealing damage. The resistences were set up such that a full zone of 50 players is essentially necessary to defeat the nucleous. However, with enough firepower and debuffs, the Hamidon can be defeated.
Blooms
When the Hamidon reaches 75% HP, a full set of mitochondria will spawn. This is known as a "bloom." All yellows, blues and greens will appear just as they did when Hamidon spawned. However, once they are cleared a second time and Hamidon's HP reaches 75%, another bloom will not occur. Instead, a bloom will occur at 50% HP. The final mitochondria bloom will occur at 25% HP. Afterwards, the Hamidon's HP can be drained entirely and he can be defeated.
The Hold Phase of the old Hamidon raid is no longer feasible, as it takes 30 or more players to Hold Hamidon, and even so only for a second or two. Even if Hamidon is held, however, mitochondria will spawn.
When a bloom occurs, the sudden onset of powerful AoE attacks will effectively wipe any player in the cytoplasm. Since it is not possible to evacuate the cell while keeping up sufficient damage-per-second, this wipe is unavoidable. The devs have also indicated that it is unlikely to avoid. Because of this, certain precautions need to be taken to keep everyone in the zone.
A couple players dedicated to teleporting teammates and resurrecting fallen players need to be available for when a bloom takes place. This way, all players can be evacuated from the Hamidon and revived in order to take out the mitochondria once more.
Success
When the Hamidon is defeated, a trial reward dialogue will appear offering a random Hamidon Enhancement, random Rare Recipe, or the standard Single Origin Enhancements.
Failure
Hamidon Raids are no longer in danger of failing, as there cannot be any circumstances where it becomes impossible to defeat Hamidon. The "Yellow Dawn" of the previous Hamidon has been dealt away with, meaning that the situation will never turn hopeless. Since mitochondria spawn invariably at certain levels of HP for Hamidon, the situation is controlled and can never cause the Hamidon to be impossible to defeat.