R-4 Hard Mode
Lady Dominique
This page is a work in progress
Recommened Group Composition:
2 Tanks (Shadow and Vangard Helpful)
1 Guardian w/Cut to Pieces Tactical
4 DPS (At least 1 other DwT Helpful)
1 Healer
Debuffs/Attacks
Disquiet - Debuff applied to a player targeted by the orange circle that need to be taken to the lower platforms, "zap puddles". The size of the circle increases in hard mode and is about 1.5 times the size of the circle that is visually on your character.
Disturbance - (Internal Force Damage) - Damage applied to players that stand in the "zap fields".
Concussive Blast - (Kinetic/Force) - Debuff on the player targeted by and hit with concussive blast (yellow circle).
In Hard Mode this attack knocks all players in the AoE of the player with this debuff. It must be taken out of the group.
Shadow Resonance - Debuff applied by Lady Dominique's attacks forcing a tank swap. The higher the stacks, the less healing is received. (Probably more damage taken). Lady Dominique appears to do Energized Shot in phase 1, then switches to shadow slash in phase 2. They both seem to do the same thing and are Energy/Melee damage types. Shadow Mass may be from getting damaged from the purple circle, it is an internal/force attack.
In phase 1, tanks should swap after the 7th stack has gone out and the stacking debuff turns back into a normal debuff with the emergence of the purple circle.
In phase 2, taunt at first on 4 stacks, then continue to swap as the tanks debuffs fade off.
Channeled Attacks
Incite - Channeled after a successful/unsuccessful aria droid hack thing phase.
Insulate - Channeled after Incite, at the end of this Dominique knocks the entire group toward the entrance of the area.
Devastation - Channel that needs to be broken via damage, comes after insulate. If not broken, it is a raid wipe. Must be in melee range to attack, or your attacks are reflected.
Impending Devastation - Internal/Force damage - Ticks while the Devastation cast is channeling.
Room Nomenclature
The Lady Dominique encounter has a number of different mechanics that need to be taken to different areas of the battlefield. I find it helpful to get everyone on the same page with the verbiage as the fight it learned.
Far Side Attractor
Far Knock Zone
Far side stack area
Pull side stack area
Pull Knock Zone
Pull Side Attractor
Handling "Disquiet" - The orange "zappy circles"
First Circle Placement.
The first mechanic Lady Dom will throw at the team is "Disquiet". This is an orange circle, that when it grows to reach its circumference, will drop on the ground and serve as an area denial mechanic. Our team always begins on the "PULL" side of the ramp and drops our first orange circle right under the far side catwalk, or about where the two lower catwalks intersect. In Hard Mode, the orange blast that goes on the ground, "The Zappy", is larger than the circle that appears on the player. Extra caution should be taken when placing these. Stay to one side of the catwalk, do not place in the middle. This will help with stacking subsequent orange circles. As soon as the circle clears off of you, wait another second. Moving before Lady Dom has hit the player will cause the circle to move out of the intended drop zone and can lead to unnecessary area denial.
The next player down will drop their circle, standing on the opposite side of the catwalk as the first player's circle.
2nd circle drop, note the player stacks it so that spacing is as tight as possible.
Figure 2, is an example of a bad circle drop. More of the lower catwalk has been area denied to future players needing to drop their orange circles.
The figure 3 depicts a full sequence of drops.
Handling the Knock Backs
Orange Zap circle first, next will be the Yellow Knock back circle. Outlined in the map with nomenclature above are 2 ">" symbols at the end of each of the pull side and far side catwalks. When you get the Yellow, take that circle to that position. Note that the pull side area is right on the ramp and can be directed into the generator "C", whereas the far side knock zone is a couple grid squares forward of that side's ramp. Anytime you get the yellow, go there. If you have a movement resist, like hold the line, use it. In Hard mode, the Knock backs will affect everyone caught in the circle. The player running back up from dropping their orange circle will often have to wait for the knock back player to get booped, then can proceed safely.
Also note that when the yellow circle drops, the boss (like with the orange circles) has to hit you with the attack before all is safe to come back. Do not attempt to come back in before the attack fires from the boss, or you will BOOP the entire team. It is possible to time a force leap to ignore the knock and safely jump in, but the timing is extremely tight.
Phase 1
Phase 1 begins with pull and ends when Lady Dom channels "Separate" and becomes Mobile. During phase 1 we are repeating several operations as Aria Slices into Generators A and B. Aria can start with either A or B first. If Aria starts on A, the team needs to flex over to "Far side" and drop all mechanics in the Far side Locations. Lady Dom must be faced away from Aria during times when she is actively slicing one of the Generators. Lady Dom targets and faces the player when she fires off the orange or yellow circles. The tanks lose control of their ability to face her away when she does this, as such the DPS and Healer must run their orange and yellow circles in a way that Lady Dom continues to face away from Aria.
This phase is fairly straight forward and an exact replica of Story Mode as far as "flow" to the fight goes. Do not purposely fail an Aria Phase (often the SM strat).
Phase 2
Exactly like story mode, we are on the move now. We go for Generator C first. Orange circles continue to go out, but the yellow stops. (no more knocks). With the orange circles being larger, they can no longer safely be placed by the generator. They need taken down the catwalk as in phase 1, or placed at the lower generator A or B. I recommend the first person with the orange circle (comes out immediately after Lady Dom begins to move) goes as far toward generator A as possible (or down the catwalk in the drop zone if there is room) to give room for other players to drop their later. It is easy here to lose track of orange and drop it in the group. If that happens, it is a wipe. Everyone must help with this, and call-outs as to who has it are a BIG help. Phase 2 ends with both generators C and D destroyed by the "Grey Swarm Detonators".
Tip: we push Lady Dom's enrage timer as far as we can safely do so. This often means pushing one of the Grey Swarm Detonators off the ledge to delay the Generator destruction and phase push. This can happen naturally as well, so be careful. One detonator can push another off the ledge, leading to a wipe. Be aware of your detonator placement, we like to place their backs toward the generator to prevent accidents. DwT's here with pulls (VG/PTs) or a taunt from a DPS can help the tanks position them.
Phase 3 - Watch Dog
Newly added phase for Hard Mode, Watch Dog Returns with 10% (5,406,497) HP. Watch Dog will go through a series of phases similar to that of its boss encounter.
The first 2 attacks will be missiles. The first missiles happen right as watchdog enters the fight, with the second soon after.
After 2 missile attacks, polarity bombs will be applied to the raid. These work just like the Watch Dog encounter. Crossing over someone else's circle will blow you up.
Missiles again, then polarity beam will begin soon after. Same as before, an oppositely charged player (the tank) will need to step in (matches the color of the arrow beaming from Watch Dog) between the tank and watchdog. The DPS or healer doing this should use their best defensive ability, as it deals an extreme amount of damage.
Below is a depiction of how to stack up for Watch Dog (orange marker).
A ranged player must stay near where Lady Dom starts the encounter. When the WD phase ends, Lady Dom will wipe the group if a player is not beside of her.
The tank on Lady Dom should kite her and avoid damage by LOSing her up and down catwalks.
The other player not depicted here is typically a ranged in our group that stays back and behind the tank (in case we need them for polarity). If your group is running with 4 melee, more room can be made between the healer and DPS.
When missiles come out, everyone should back away from the boss. The healer and DPS on the Generator D side, should move off toward that generator. The tank and DPS on the Generator C side, should move that direction.
I recommend saving Adrenals for this phase of the fight to push WD as fast as possible. 5.4 million HP should be able to be dealt with in 35-40 seconds.
Phase 4 - Recursive Blast and Attractors
Without a moment's delay, Lady Dom will reset up to her starting position. If a player is not beside her, she will wipe the raid. We keep our ranged player where the boss returns to to prevent this raid wipe.
Next she will channel recursive blast. The raid team at large will be on the lower levels of the arena and should remain there to deal with the coming add phase. I recommend coordinating with your team ahead of time where these knock backs will be taken. I.E. we put knock back 1 on the ramp below the boss.
Head to the far side attractor first and destroy the adds that spawn. If a grey detonator was left over from the previous phase, you can kill it here to deal damage to the adds. Hop over and destroy the pull side attractor next. If you are on a class with a gap close, you can step back slightly and jump up to the boss saving you travel time.
Phase 4 last until the boss hits 24%. The main two dangers here are recursive blast and Reapers that spawn. The raid should stack up on Lady Dom as much as possible and only run out if they get recursive. Using Knock backs to quickly dispatch the little spawns is helpful, as is the Vanguard & Power Tech's AoE stun. Reapers need to be engaged by ranged players as soon as they are within range. Stun them and burn them down quickly.
Here is an example of where we take out recursive blast. It's important to "count" off your numbers. It is easier to know if you are a 2, if you hear someone else in the raid say 1 and so on.
The concept here is that odd numbered players will always be pushed back toward the ledge and even numbered players will always be knocked back in toward the boss. Remember that once the monsters spawn, stay away from the outer ledge to prevent them from jumping up to you.
Recursive blast last until the boss is defeated. Getting the positioning of this right is critical to clearing the fight.
Knock bast immunities can be used here, but you will still need to go to your spot as the pulse will reflect from you to the next player and knock them in the direction/angle you were in reference to them.
The larger challenge here is successfully taking the Tank's purple circle out and not killing players running back (or more apt, players running back not getting killed by the tank's purple circle.) All mechanics need your focus in this phase.
Phase 5 - Survival
This phase is largely just burning the boss down before your team is overwhelmed by adds.
Monsters will spawn below. One tank will need to head down to the lower levels and pick them up. Red Blast circles will be appearing. The tank can take the monsters into these blast circles to kill them.
We recommend using a vanguard tank for the aggro generation from its two harpoon shots, as well as hold the line and its AoE stuns for the adds. The tank must be quick to grab aggro and run them into the circles of death. A second wave will appear, the tank on the lower platform will need to gain threat on these and keep them from jumping into the group.
Likewise the team should avoid standing too close to the upper ledge in an attempt to cut off line of sight from the add spawns below, preventing them from jumping right into the group.
Recursive will continue and is a top priority. Reapers in the group will stun players and make doing recursive impossible. Reapers must be prioritized, or baited out of the group.
The Tank left on the boss will be soloing her 7 stack purple circle mechanics. Shadows running two cloaks (with resilience) is king here. They will be able to mitigate nearly every single one and will have good cool downs to use as well.
Many times the group will wipe to just a few thousand HP left. Good timing of raid buffs, add management, outstanding DPS and following recursive blast mechanics is required. Seeing the boss low and having the team just try to push to the end and ignore everything has wiped more groups than I can count, but its also gotten many a clears too, its a sticky point and a call that needs to be refined after you see that last 2% a few times.
GOOD LUCK and congrats on the clear!