Difference between revisions of "Aksis Challenge Mode"

Revision as of 23:15, 8 November 2016

See also: Wrath of the Machine

Brief Explanation

As you all know, Aksis teleports three times in every phase. An Empowered guardian has to dunk his back to stun him so your team can continue to DPS him. You also know there are three squares in the engagement, the squares that the Servitors try to sacrifice to. Well, every time Aksis teleports, one of those three squares opens up. Before the Empowered player who is closest to Aksis slams him, one of the other two Empowered players can discharge their Empowerment into the open square. This gives every fire team member their full super. Aksis must be dunked AND there must be a supercharge after EVERY teleport for challenge mode to be completed. Only one guardian can supercharge, not both remaining players.

The Strategy

Location, Location, Location!

For every teleport, you will have one Empowered player on the left, on the right, and in the middle. Even if Aksis is already on a certain side, you still position someone on that side because they have to cover the Supercharge square when he moves. I’ve set my team up in a way that covers every teleport and Supercharge combination, which we’ll talk about right now. The left Empowered player will stand on the yellow square in front of the left pillar. The right player will stand on the yellow square in front of the right pillar. The middle player will stand halfway up the right side’s stairs. The following section discusses how each Empowered player will react to the different teleports.

Managing The Different Positions

The video is much clearer in this section, as there are visuals where everyone goes. The following is the general procedure my team follows. This chart might simplify things for you.

Right Teleport

When Aksis teleports right, the right Empowered guardian will slam Aksis. The middle player will discharge Empowerment on the middle square if open. The left player will discharge left if the square is open.

Inside Teleport

When Aksis teleports inside, the right Empowered guardian still slams Aksis. The middle player will discharge right if the square is open. The left player discharges left if the square is open.

Outside Teleport

When Aksis teleports outside, the middle Empowered player will slam Aksis. The right player will discharge into the right square if it’s available. The left player will discharge the left square if it’s available.

Left Teleport

When Aksis teleports left, the left Empowered player will slam Aksis. The middle player will discharge middle if possible. The right player will discharge right if possible.

Suggestions

It's been pointed out that the middle player could just stand in between front and back and cover everything middle related. We personally found the middle player has difficulty covering the front and back teleports. They have to turn 180 degrees to know where to go. If you have good communication, would work. If you're going to do this, stand closer to the back-mid location, but facing front. This way, you're closer for the Supercharge, which has to happen first. If Aksis is front, you can make it there in time still. Personally, I like covering right and center when I'm mid, because I can see for myself where Aksis goes, so I can make the independent decision to go where I need to go. It comes down to preference I think. Either way will work, and thank you to those who commented their ideas!

Other Important Information

Never A Double Down

If you noticed, there’s a pattern in the scenarios I covered. I never have a guardian covering a discharge square in the same area that Aksis teleports to. That’s because the square that opens up for discharge is never on the same side that Aksis teleports to. Further, even if Aksis goes inside, that still counts as middle, so the outside square won’t be available. That’s why the middle Empowered player covers the right square when Aksis goes inside. The outside square won’t open up. I know I threw a lot of scenarios at you and it’s overwhelming in the beginning, so check out the chart I linked above.

Getting A Jump

To get a bit of a jump on where you need to go, we have someone that isn’t Empowered stand on platform on the middle stairs and watch Aksis. As Aksis prepares to teleport, there are SIVA swirls that stick out of one of his sides. These indicate where he is going. So if the person on the center platform calls out where he’s going, one Empowered player can start making their way to where Aksis will land, and the other Empowered players can think about and react to what square they are supposed to cover. So if a non-Empowered player calls out that Aksis is going right, the right Empowered player can start making his way to the right teleport, while the left player can move to the left square and the middle player can move to the middle square.

Delay Your Slam

In my experience, we’ve always slammed Aksis as fast as possible. When he teleports to the side we’re covering, our heart rate increases. The team is relying on us to slam him and keep things going. It’s all on us at that specific moment, so we frantically slam him immediately to complete our task. With this added mechanic, you can’t slam Aksis until one of your teammates has Supercharged your team. When you slam Aksis, it closes the squares, so the discharge has to go first. My team has a system to make sure we get the Supercharge and the slam. When I’m about 2-3 meters from my square, I say “Supercharge”. The guardian that is supposed to slam Aksis should be ready to slam by the time they hear that callout. By the time one player activates the Supercharge, the other player will be right on top of Aksis and slamming him almost simultaneously. In the video, I basically hover over Aksis until I hear the callout, and then slam.

If you’re in charge of slamming Aksis in any particular position, and you’re worried that it’s already been too long, you’re better off to slam Aksis without getting the green light from your teammate. More often than not, they end up getting the Supercharge at the same time as you slam Aksis. There is also a small window of forgiveness based on one of the clips in the video. Like I said, I felt like I was waiting too long, so I dunked Aksis without hearing the callout to keep things going. However, in the video, you can see my super bar fill after I already slammed Aksis, so there is a grace period.

Staying Coordinated

Prepare To Be Overwhelmed

If you try and put the Supercharge mechanic to work, you’ll find it very stressful in the beginning. I’ll be honest with you guys, I’ve had players drop out because it was too much to deal with. Be prepared to get frustrated and be prepared to fail. There are a lot of things to worry about. You’re trying to get the Weapons of Light buff as much as possible if you have a Defender Titan. You’re also trying to remember how your job changes depending on where Aksis goes. It might seem to make sense when reading about it or listening to me. But like anything, it gets overwhelming in the heat of the moment. The reason I’m bringing this up is, the last thing you want to be spending time on is debating which Empowered players go where, because you already have so much on your plate. My team has developed a way to efficiently determine who goes where.

Alpha Bravo System

I think a lot of teams are already doing something similar to this, but we call this method the Alpha Bravo system. Like most teams, we have two people in each area, one of which is a Cannon user and one of which throws the SIVA bombs at Aksis. We call the SIVA throwers the Alphas and the Cannon users the Bravos. Alphas take priority for Empowerment in their area. If a Bravo player and an Alpha player are both Empowered on the right side, it is the Bravo player’s responsibility to move and cover the open side. This makes sense because the Cannon users move around to shoot their Servitor, so they’re already on the move. Whereas the Alphas are the SIVA throwers, and since they always stay put to throw their bomb, they get priority in their area. As soon as Empowerment is dished out, players call out their status and location. So if you’re a Cannon user on the right, you’d say “Bravo Right” if you’re Empowered. If you don’t hear “Alpha Right”, you will cover the right side. If you do hear “Alpha Right”, that player takes priority and you need to go elsewhere. In that case, if you heard the third player call middle, you know left is open. If they called left, you know middle is open. It sounds like a lot, but if you’re saying your position, that means there are only two other voices, which I personally find is easy to keep tabs on. It is critically important that non-Empowered players stay quiet at this time.

Summary

So, that’s the Supercharge mechanic. Let’s summarize what we talked about today.

• By discharging your Empowerment into an open square before another Empowered player slams Aksis, you can charge your team’s supers.
• I won’t recap all of the teleportation combinations for time’s sake, but remember I linked that chart which is a great summary of what we covered in that section of the write-up.
• Also remember that no matter where Aksis is, you should have one player left, middle, and right.
• The discharge square that opens up is never on the same side that Aksis teleports too.
• You can get the jump on where you should be going if a non-Empowered player calls out where Aksis is heading by looking at where his SIVA particles are pointing just before he teleports.
• If you’re the player who is slamming Aksis, wait on one of your teammates to call out their Supercharge, but not too long that you miss the window to dunk Aksis.
• I highly recommend your team adopts the Alpha Bravo system.

And lastly, remember that this is a very complex mechanic, so don’t expect to nail it first try. But, like anything, if you practice enough, you’ll get the hang of it.