Appropriate tactics can be utilized once players understand what the raid enemies can do. **Ultimately, the key to Heroic Rancor is Turn Meter removal and high damage.**
Each time the Captain in Phase 1, or the Rancor in Phases 2-4, takes a turn, the countdown towards Enrage decreases. At Enrage, survivability is typically impossible, so it’s important that the captain/rancor does not take a turn. Characters that can remove turn meter are imperative as well as those that can apply specific Debuffs.
Tenacity Down and Speed Down are the main Debuffs needed in all Phases. Without Tenacity Down, it becomes extremely difficult for different characters to reduce Turn Meter on any of the enemies and without Speed Down, enemies will still move too quickly for Turn Meter reduction to have the optimal effect. Other Debuffs such as Defense Down, Ability Block (in Phase 1), and Buff Immunity (in Phase 1) can also be extremely useful.
As with all aspects of this game, mods are the most important component to soloing the raid. Potency, Speed, and Critical Damage are the key stats to be increased with mods. All characters should also be at a minimum of Gear 10 and have all abilities set at Omega level for best success.
Phase 1:
- Depending on the Speed of your characters, the Brute may taunt before any of your characters get a chance to take a turn. In some cases both the Brute and the Guard will be taunting.
- If both Brute and Guard are taunting, Dispel the Guard (on the left) first to remove both taunt and his Retribution.
- If there is only one dispeller on team, save the Dispel attack for the Guard. The Brute will taunt for two turns, but the Guard taunts with Retribution which can cause a lot of damage to the team.
- Either wait out the Guard/Brute taunts or Dispel them
- Once the guards are no longer taunting, focus all attention on the Captain
- Use high damage dealer units and characters with turn meter removal on the Captain as much as possible to prevent him from healing or reviving the guards or from taking enough turns to reach Enraged
- Pay little attention to the guards unless they are taunting.
- If they begin to taunt again, Dispel their taunts as quickly as possible to return to the Captain.
- Apply Ability Block or Buff Immunity to the side guards to prevent their taunts as much as possible
- Reminder: The only damage that matters is the damage that gets applied to the Captain.
As you can see, even at near the very end of Phase 1, the Captain remains at 13 moves until Enraged and the other cooldowns have remained the same because he’s only taken a single turn at the very start of the raid. Every character on the team continues to do massive damage while constantly removing turn meter from the Captain on each of their turns. This will continue throughout the remaining phases of the raid.
Phases 2-3:
- Topple the door as soon as the Phase begins and use all the highest damage attacks while the door is down
- Utilize attacks that will apply Speed Down and Tenacity Down as soon as the door is lifted
- Once Speed Down and Tenacity Down are applied, continue using attacks that include turn meter removal
- It is extremely important that the Rancor does not take more than a single turn or two.
- Multiple turns can result in stunned characters or a decrease in Devour’s cooldown.
- Save AoE attacks for when the door can be hit as well
- When approaching the last 2-3% of the phase, try to save all attacks that apply Speed Down and Tenacity Down for quick use in the first few turns of the next phase
Phase 4:
- Reminder: There is no Door Control Panel or Devour ability, but the Rancor is much faster and hits much harder
- Apply Speed Down and Tenacity Down as soon as the Phase begins
- Utilize as many high-damage attacks as possible along with turn meter removal attacks
- The main goal is survivability in Phase 4 and ensuring that the Rancor does not take a single turn
Note:
The full raid will be exactly 10,304,366 points. Ideally, a solo will end with 100% of the points completed with a single team and without losing any characters in the process.
As with all parts of the game, the Heroic Pit Raid is heavily RNG-dependent. There will be times when, regardless of potency, characters simply can’t remove turn meter across multiple turns. Sometimes, the Rancor will end up taking a turn or two.
It’s wiser to run a full team of five characters that can help keep the captain/rancor from taking a turn in case several characters receive a Dodge or the turn meter removal is resisted. Even if the captain/rancor manages to take a turn, the raid can still be soloed as long as the captain/rancor doesn’t take more than 2-3 turns during each phase.
Now, let’s look at the best characters to use in the raid and why they work best.