The new group task added yesterday takes place in a unique version of The Mechamatic Guardian, a zone that I just don’t like. Me and Ninga managed to complete the first portion of the zone with our mercenary (I have a J5 tank, he a J5 healer) and then Xaoz joined us on his shaman and monk for the final fight against the CPU. You basically have to hack into a computer using codes, and then play through a very long final event to defeat the CPU.
Your very first task after zoning in is to defeat Mechano Steam Sentinels, Sentries, and Warders, which are mobs found on the upper floors. Then you’ve got to pour bleach into the oil reserves bay. This bay is straight on the main floor, in a room to the right hand side. The problem is that it’s also covered with see invis oil blobs that you’ve got to defeat. Once that is completed you need to speak with Gearbie, and then defeat the CPU’s creator – Sork Hibbleton. You steal a book of codes from him and are required to enter these codes into the CPU. Only one code is the correct one, for my group (I am unsure if this is random or not) the code was 123456. Not exactly difficult to crack that’s for sure. When you speak the wrong code four adds spawn, so if you can get someone who can feign or at least stand in the hallway across from the CPU that is the best bet.
Finally you’ve got to defeat the CPU itself. This is where we had trouble. See four times during the fight he spawns four adds. We had no crowd control class so what we had to do was be on the watch for adds and then back off and feign (while the shaman used their totem to escape combat) and then monk pull the four adds. Then we would resume our attack on the CPU which would have regenerated to full while we were dealing with the adds. The adds have a small knock back, and the CPU has an AOE slow that’s annoying if you’re a melee. The best bet in an ideal situation if you have no crowd control would be to range fight the CPU from the hallway, and pacify pull the adds each time they spawn, ignoring the CPU at that time.
The fight was difficult with our make up but I loved completing it. The rewards were nice – except for the small fact that they have no augment slots. At least not the 85-89 versions I’m unsure as to whether or not the level 90 version of the zone is different. I wasn’t able to request that one because I wasn’t level 90 at the time. I claimed an item that has enhance minion 8 on it, as opposed to my previous earring with enhance minion 6. Pretty excited, it’s always a good thing to be able to summon stronger pets. There are numerous rewards with a few different clickies, so if you’re looking for a challenge to do with friends, this is a great one.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath!