Lord Recluse Strike Force

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Level Range: 45 - 50
Notes: Requires 8 people
Zone: Grandville
Location: Chamber, central tower.
Primary Enemy: Freedom Phalanx
Name: ??
Badge: Servant of Recluse Badge
Description: You have broken Paragon City's 'best.' Let everyone fear you!

Missions

Assault Longbow Base

(5 Bombs to set, Kidnap Technician, Defeat Crimson, Destroy 12 Chasers)

Bombs – Standard bombs that we are familiar with by now in City of Villains. You will not need to worry about scouting out the entire map to find them. The bombs are located in the towers and lab (check your map and you will see an entry for these three locations)
Chasers – These are similar to the Sky Skiffs, you will have to kill X amount. You will probably see a few flying around the platform that you are going to be taking over very shortly. Kidnap Technician – Located in the laboratory, escort him to the computer.
Crimson – Hero/AV class with 4 Longbow Elite Boss Ballista’s to assist him. He is located in the Laboratory.

This mission is not complicated at all when you compare what you have to go up against in this Strikeforce. The map is similar to that of the Longbow base in Nerva. You will zone in on a little Island. You will see a platform due north from the starting point of the mission. Defeat the longbow and turrets in this area incase something terribly goes wrong and you need a place to recover. This will be where you mount your first attack anyway. When you look on your map you will see entry points for two towers and one lab. Take out your chasers first since they only spawn in the “outdoor” sections of the map. Note: - fly powers will be very useful for bringing down the chasers. This mission is not a defeat all; pull, teleport, fly in the sky, or by any other means to get all the chasers. Once all the chasers are done proceed one of the three base entry points on your map. Kill along the way or travel safely to them to save time.

The indoor tower and laboratory maps are not large. Make sure to plant your bombs as you go into the towers and laboratory. There is no particular order on which tower you go in first but Crimson and the Technician are located in the Laboratory. Before attacking Crimson, wait a few minutes to deal with the longbow ambushes. Have the team buff up, stay tight and a simple bum rush will do on defeating him and his guards.

Assault Malta Base

(Steal Orestes Rifle, Defeat Slinger, Steal keycard, Destroy main frame and guards)

Orestes Rifle – Temp power that last 5 hours, you will need to use this on Ms. Liberty. Note: This power only works on Ms. Liberty. Slinger – Hero/AV Class with robots to protect him. Keycard – Obtained from defeating the Kronos Zeus Titan and the surrounding mob. Main frame and guards – destroy and defeat

This mission is a little bit harder than your first. You might be a little familiar with this map; you have zoned into a section of Warburg. As the team advances forward you can see the Kronos in the distance.

Whenever possible always try to snipe out a single target or group of Malta away from the Kronos. This will prevent accidental agro of the Kronos and also make it less difficult to defeat it when the time comes. Work collectively as a team and you can defeat the Kronos with little difficulty and be rewarded with the Master of Olympus Badge and keycard.

The keycard will now let you enter the warehouse where the rest of the mission is. This warehouse is similar to the one used in the Hess Task Force from the City of Heroes platform. You can clear the whole map if you choose or simply take out what you need to along the way to Slinger. You will see a hall with a truck/trailer slightly diagonal; that is the all you go down to reach Slinger. Proceed down that hall and will come to a set of halls that is almost U-shaped. The mainframe was in this hall but the game may make the main frame location random per mission.

There will be door directly in front of you and also around the corners. These doors lead to the room that has the guards and Slinger. Clear out these halls before opening the first door you saw when entering the U-Shaped hall. Snipe out the mobs in front of you if you have not agro’d them when opening the door. Gather your team together once this is done, buff up and bum rush the guards and Slinger. Get ready for a very large pet summon from Slinger. He will summon all bots from the mastermind set and in large numbers. Defeat these entire pet summons and you will complete the mission if you have destroyed the main frame already.

Defeat Future Freedom Phalanx

This will be your first real big challenge in the Strikeforce. You will be transported into the future going through the teleporter. Keep in mind that you will “phase shift” from the future and present time; this will make you intangible at random for a given amount of time. When you zone in you will see the city of Atlas Park in ruins and the atlas globe cut in half. In this mission you will have to defeat Numina, Sister Psychie, Back Alley Brawler and Manticore; located roughly around city hall. Move the team to the top of the globe, this is a very tactical advantage for you since only 3 out of the 4 can get to the top of the globe. If you have a villain on your team with – fly powers it will make it all the more easier; but not required. You will need a team member that is able to draw agro, survive, and jump/fly to the top part of the globe. All heroes are going to follow but Manticore because he does not have any travel powers that can get him to the top of the globe. The chart below shows the defeat sequence and their build structure.

Defeat 1

Defeat 2/3
Defeat 3/2
Defeat 4

Numina

Sister Psychie
Back Alley Brawler
Manticore

Key Sets:

Mind Control, Psychic Blast, Healing, Flight, Stealth

Key Sets:

Mind Control, Energy Blast, Psychic Blast, Force Field, Flight

Key Sets: 

Energy Melee, Super Strength, Invulnerability, Leadership, Leaping

Key Sets: 

Archery, Stealth, Leadership

Power List:

Levitate, Dominate, Total Domination, Telekinetic Blast, Will Domination, Psionic Tornado, Psychic Wail, Heal Other, Resurrect Ally, Fortitude, Adreline Boost

Power List:

Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate, Mass Hypnosis, Psychic Shockwave, Force Bolt, Power Blast, Energy Torrent, Power Burst, Explosive Blast, Personal Force Field

Power List:

Back Alley Power Punch, Jab, Hand Clap, Hurl, Bone Smasher, Total Focus, Dull Pain, Unyielding, Assault, Unstoppable

Power List:

Fistful of Arrows, Blazing Arrow, Explosive Arrow, Stunning Shot, Rain of Arrows, Entangling Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Arrow, Acid Arrow, Emp Arrow, Teleport Arrow

Res:

Pisonic, Negative Energy, Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuffs

Res:

Psionic, Negative Energy, Energy, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuff

Res:

Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuffs, Smashing Damage, Lethal Damage

Res:

Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuff

Place your team back towards the head of the Atlas Globe statue, hopefully this will being Numina next to the team (once the puller joins with you) and also have Sister Psychic just outside the ledge of the globe. This is when you would want to use those -fly powers on Sister Psyche and drop her bback down to the ground. You may need to adjust your position on the globe to make sure as Sister Psyche is flying up that you can get her back down to the ground. Doing this will by you a few seconds to finish off Numina. By this time Back Alley Brawler has made his way up to the top of the globe. If you can continue to keep Sister Psyche down from –fly power continue to work on Back Alley Brawler. If you can’t keep Sister Psyche away from you defeat her next. Her psychic powers and holds are harder to deal with than Back Alley Brawlers power sets.

Once you have defeat all three of these heroes you can proceed to defeating Manticore. Gather your team together, buff up and bum rush Manticore.

Assault Vindicators Base

(Steal access code, find base key, defeat Ms. Liberty)

Steal access code – defeat Malaise, Mynx, Valykrie, Luminary, and Swan. Find base key – Defeat the longbows that are housed deeper inside the complex Defeat Ms. Liberty – make sure to use the Orestes Rifle to suppress her powers if you still have it available.

This map is not complicated but the mission is the hardest yet. Don’t be discouraged if you die a lot eventually you can get this done. Note: A level 47 caps their debt at 77K! This mission was all done by bum rushing the mob.

Your team will come to a room that will hold Malaise, Swan, Luminary, Mynx, and Valkyrie. The chart below shows the defeat sequence and their build structure. If you were able to go to Bloody Bay and get your Shivans, now is the time to put them out so they can follow you into battle and mitigate a little bit of damage and team deaths. Liberty is not in this room, she is located deeper inside the complex.

The most important things to remember is Malaise first, Mynx forth, and Valkyrie last. Mynx and Valkyrie are a more difficult to defeat when you compare them to the other heroes due to Mynx’s elude and Valkryie resurrecting herself. There is no need to waste the time and inspirations on them until Malaise, Sawn, and Luminary are defeated. Maliase will summon all of his phantom pets; this is what will make your first hurdle difficult. No matter how hard it may seem, everyone should focus on him. Use as many inspirations, duffs, and demonic accolade that you can carry because you are going to need the defense and resistance to aid anyone that can heal (via AOE, personal or self) by outpacing their damage output.

Outpacing their damage with defense buffs and resistances is the key to fighting all the heroes. Keep in mind the inspirations you need should depend on what your team is made of (leadership skills, +def/+res buffs, -res/-def, temp powers, slows, etc). Finally another thing to consider is their life regeneration. Use all means to lower their regeneration or increasing your damage output.

If all has gone well you should have Valkyrie left. She seemed to be the hardest of all the Vindicators. If any squishes die while defeating this hero, do not wait to be brought back to life (if that is possible in your team makeup). Your Brutes and Stalkers should be able to hold their own for a fair amount of time (with exceptions to a sidekick) on Valkyrie in order for you to make it back. The reason for not waiting is because she has a very fast regeneration rate. If your team is having trouble on Valkyrie, regroup and continue as a team.

Once you have defeat all of the Vindicators, open the door where the heroes were origianally located. Proceed throughout the base defeating Longbow until you have the key to open the final room where Ms. Liberty is located. Once again, pull out any mobs possible in this room before you focus on defeating Ms. Liberty. Buff team up and get ready for the bum rush.

Remember that Orestes Rifle that someone on your team has? Use it on Ms. Liberty to weaken her; then focus on defeating her. She can be difficult but you should be able to defeat her with any team that is semi organized.

Defeat 1

Defeat 2/3
Defeat 3/2
Defeat 4

Malaise

Swan
Luminary
Mynx

Key Sets:

Illusion Control, Kinetics, Dark Blast

Key Sets:

Psychic Blast, Mind Control, Kinetics, Leaping

Key Sets: 

Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Radiation Blast, Flight

Key Sets:

Claws, Super Reflexes, Leaping

Power List:

Spectral Wounds, Blind, Deceive, Flash, Spectral Army, Spectral Terror, Spectral Servant, Transfusion, Siphon Power, Tenebrous Tentacles, Nightfall, Torrent

Power List:

Subdue, Psionic Lange, Psychic Scream, Telekinetic Blast, Will Domination, Scramble Thoughts, Repel, Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Fulcrum Shift, Psychic Shockwave

Power List:

Power Bolt, Power Blast, Energy Torrent, Power Burst, Power Thrust, Energy Punch, Bone Smasher, Whirling Hands, Nova, EMP Pulse, Total Focus

Power List:

Strike, Slash, Spin, Follow up, Focus, Shockwave, Eviscerate, Focused Fighting, Feral Fury, Quickness, Elude

Res:

Energy, Negative Energy, Stun, Hold, Feat, Confuse, Knockback, Debuffs

Res:

Stun, Hold, Feat, Confuse, Knockback, Debuff, Negative Energy, Psionic

Res: 

Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Lethal, Smashing, Debuff, Psionic

Res:

Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuffs

Defeat 5

Defeat 6
 

Valkyrie

Ms. Liberty
 

Key Sets:

Special, Broadsword, Flight

Key Sets: 

Martial Arts, Electric Blast, Invulnerability, Super Jump

Power List:

Exploding Spear, Hack, Slash, Parry, Slice, Flying Swords, Whirling Sword, Disembowel, Head Splitter, Self Resurrect

Power List: 

Thunder Kick, Storm Kick, Cobra Strike, Crane Kick, Crippling Axe Kick, Eagle’s Claw, Lighting Bolt, Thunder Strike

Res:

Lethal, Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuffs

Res:

Smashing, Lethal, Stun, Hold, Fear, Confuse, Knockback, Debuffs

Destroy Statesman and Freedom Phalanx

This is your final mission, if you can beat this you can beat anything really. In this mission an Arachnos Flyer has landed on a corner of the Atlas Park map, present day. The area is surrounded by Longbow with City Hall and the Atlas Glob in the center of you map. Below the globe will be Ms. Liberty defeated, Statesman, Citadel, Manticore, Numina, Sister Psyche, Positron, and Synapse.

The defeat sequence should start with Numina (since she can resurrect teammates).

After Numina the sequence is up for debate. Some teams (particularly those with buffed shivans) immediately close in on the hero who took the most damage during the assault on Numina, based on the idea that that hero will drop most quickly. Other teams consider Sister Psyche as the mandatory next target because her psi damage is not resisted well by many defensive sets, including /stone for brutes.

Most teams finish with Statesman, because he has the highest resistance and base HP, and therefore takes the longest to kill; however, this author has heard that if there is some other hero alive when Statesman goes down, Statesman will not activate Unstoppable. So there is an argument for leaving someone else alive (often Manticore or Synapse, since their stealth and speed respectively makes them difficult to target early) while taking States down. Regardless, Statesman does not seem to have the highest threat level since his damage is almost all smashing, which most brute sets should be able to handle with a reasonable amount of healing/buffing support.

Whatever defeat order you use, the team should designate one person to call targets and focus fire. The rest of the team (save only the taunt brute, if applicable, and his/her healer/buffer) should attack only that target. Doing otherwise spreads damage unnecessarily and prevents the team from penetrating the huge regeneration the Phalanx has.

The full roster of the Freedom Phalanx, listed in a common defeat order, is:

• Numina
• Sister Psyche
• Citadel
• Positron
• Synapse
• Manticore
• Statesman

Consulting their individual profiles to gain an understanding of their damage types, travel powers, and resistances will give you an edge in this battle.

Strategies

Strategies for the Freedom Phalanx

Rush: Many teams start the last battle with the following sequence: teammate suicide, buff, summon pets, summon shivans, vengeance everything, resurrect teammate, and rush. If you do this, make sure to have the teammate suicide against a side spawn, not the heroes - once aggroed, Numina will buff her teammates, and you don't want that stacked against you from the start.

If you plan to rush, you should also rush the Vindicators in the 4th mission - and if you have any hope of succeeding in the end, you should do the 4th mission without shivans and without nukes. Yes, the last mission is just that much harder. If you need shivans against the Vindicators, the Freedom Phalanx will most likely prove impossible.

Pull: Other teams use a pull strategy, but this author has never seen it work. Apparently there were some changes to the stances of the heroes after issue 7 was released, which made pulling harder. Still, forum users claim to be able to pull the group into 4 and 4, which is certainly an improvement. Hopefully someone who has this strategy mastered can edit this post to provide tips.

Time Saving Tips

Soft Loading: Why make it difficult? Soft load every mission; the less mobs in whatever part of the map you can soft load is always going to help speed up the time in completing this Strikeforce.

Underleveling: As an alternative to the soft loading strategy above (which I assume means logging everyone out but one and running the map to spawn everything - which is time consuming), you can simply have your lowest level teammate be Recluse' contact. Then the enemies will spawn at that teammates' level - with the exception of the heroes, who always spawn at defined levels.

Zone time: Another time saving tip is to have the teammate with the fastest zone time be Recluse' contact, so that (s)he can reach Recluse and grab the next mission as quickly as possible. The rest of the team can meet directly at the launch point for the mission without having to head into Grandville's center.

Critical Powers

There are certain powers that many teams won't consider starting the strike force without. Again their necessity is a subject of much debate on the forums. It is quite possible to finish the mission without any given powerset in this list, but this author has never done it without the majority.

Stone brutes: They have the highest resistance of any brute defensive set, and have the highest survivability against heroes.

Kinetics corruptors: Stone brutes move incredibly slowly, and they in particular need kinetics to help them out. In addition, kinetics heals have a -regen component and speed boost is widely regarded as one of the best buffs in the game.

Radiation corruptors: The debuffs in this set are amazingly strong, and given the huge regen and resistance base that the Freedom Phalanx starts with, they are in high demand. Many teams won't consider running the RSF without at least two of these (though I've done it with none). The debuffs in this set can be partly made up for by chemical nukes from Warburg (see above).

Thermal corruptors: The buffs and heals in this set are nice, and particularly if you have a non-stone brute for holding aggro on the last map, you may need them for sheer survivability.

Dark corruptors or masterminds: Tar patch is a great AoE resistance debuff, and resistance debuffs seem to be a critical component for succeeding against the ridiculously high hit point and regen base of the Freedom Phalanx.

Vengeance: This is a critical component of rush strategies that require huge initial buffs (see above). This is the one power this author has never done the RSF without.

Stealth or Grant Invis + TP: There are several opportunities to stealth and TP through parts of the first four missions - particularly the middle of the second and fourth missions. Using a stealth + teleport strategy can help keep the team moving quickly and the faster you reach the last mission, the fresher and more alert you will be.

Temp Powers

Shivans: These are very useful and everyone should have a set of these before the Strikeforce gets started. If no one has them, spend about 10 minutes in Bloody Bay doing the meteor extraction to get them. You have 5 charges for an elite boss Shivan pet with about 30K hit points. They not only help mitigate some of the hits and team deaths, they dish a large amount of damage while debuffing at the same time, and can be buffed/healed.

Warburg Nukes: Very useful, but extremely tedious to gather. It's easiest to use teams of three, where you grab three technicians at once and trade them off to whoever is getting the nuke at the time. Gathering these in advance is highly recommended, since large teams getting techs all at once just get in each others' way, and overall, more time is wasted before the strike force proper can start.

Here are the possible nukes and there capabilities, listed in order of desirability:

• Chemical Burn - Ranged AoE Foe -Res(All), -DEF: These are critical for lowering the Freedom Phalanx resistances so that your damage output exceeds their regeneration.

• Biological Mutagens - PBAoE, Ally +Regeneration, +Dam. These can help buff the damage from shivans as well as teammates. This author does not know what the shivan damage buff cap actually is, but it's huge.

• Nuclear Blast - Ranged AoE, Extreme DoT(Energy), EMP, Foe -End, -Recovery. Combined with Bio and Chem, these can dish out a huge amount of damage all at once. This author, however, has never had a team with the patience to gather eight of them on top of the 16 others the team will have accumulated.

The nukes really shine when they are stacked, and the bio nuke shines when it buffs the shivans. Chemical nukes are such a huge debuff stacked that they can cut the time to defeat an individual hero down into half or less of the length of time a set of inspirations lasts - meaning you can max your defenses with inspirations and get a good part of the way through the Freedom Phalanx before they wear off. For teams with no other concentration of resistance debuffs, I believe chem nukes are critical. (What this says about the strike force's balance is an issue of heavy debate on the forums.)

Essence of Serafina: A team buff that the leader of the Strikeforce gets from Ice Mistral. If you are planning on doing the Recluse Strikeforce in the future and can buy the time for a few hours one day; do the Ice Mistral Strikeforce. This buff has 10 charges and grants +psychic resistance and also adds psychic damage to all attack powers.

Accolades

Demonic is very commonly used by aggro brutes to increase survivability.

High Pain Threshold and Born in Battle are desired for any character to help survive the high burst damage from the Freedom Phalanx.

Inspirations

You will definitely need these throughout the whole Strikeforce. You can get them from the Arena in St. Martial or from base storage. Most useful are going to be defense, resistance, and life inspirations.

With the issue 7 changes, characters with no other defensive powers will max their damage mitigation from purple inspirations on the 4th small luck. After that characters should start using orange inspirations. Brutes and stalkers may have additional defense that makes the 4th or even 3rd luck wasted. Both purple and orange inspirations are recommended for the final encounter because it is so brutal.

Rewards

Because of the high number of hero opponents, running this strike force is a great way to earn the Hero Slayer Badge, which is a prerequisite for the Force of Nature Accolade.

Completing the third mission awards the Annihilator Badge.

Completing the Strike Force from Lord Recluse awards the Servant of Recluse Badge.

Servant of Recluse You have broken Paragon City's 'best.' Let everyone fear you!

In addition, each member of the team will receive a Synthetic Hamidon Origin Enhancement when the last member of the Freedom Phalanx is defeated. Currently the team should make sure to keep several slots open to receive this drop at the end of the battle, as random SO drops by the FP heroes may fill the enhancement slots. An update is planned to change the drop to a selection table, which will allow the team to clear slots before accepting the drop, but until then it is recommended to keep at least three and possibly four slots open before fighting the last FP hero.