A Knight's Guide to Breaking the Siege

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

V. Iconic Bosses: General
The format of Gotham Under Siege is similar to the Wastelands in that you get 15 missions that amount to a 5 day rotation (3 a day). Instead of 3 duo bosses, you get an open world solo boss though. We've been conditioned by the classic game, Lightning Strikes & Home Turf into thinking that iconics in the open world are for alert & raid groups, but the ones in this DLC are scaled to be tough solo battles. Their health & damage are scaled up so that you can't button mash your way through, but with patience and quick thinking, all are realistically soloable at CR100. Some general tips:

A. Spread Your Heals
No matter what your role or power is, Home Turf gave us many tools that can provide heals. Make sure you space them out so that your first item is cooled down or almost cooled down by the end of your rotation. Turf mods have a long cool down while a soda is relatively fast. Almost every power has some kind of SC heal, some of which can give you a second wind. These bosses will be part of our daily lives for some time and you now have armories, so imprint one with a SC heal if you don't already have. Your sidekick can heal you up to 3x with a generous percentage based heal (as long as she doesn't get KO'd). Sidekick II (no monthly boost) works just fine.

B. Shielding
A shield is the same as a heal. Think of it as healing the amount of damage coming in for a short period of time, so throw these into rotation with your other heals. A health buff in the case of Fire and Rage is also in the same boat.

C. Trust Your Weapon
Tough enemies in this game are often resistant to a lot of stuns and effects. You're going to do the most damage on these bosses with counters. It's best if you mostly stick to taps and look for the counter. Hold back on your finishers because you might get countered in return. Don't use your finishers unless the enemy is juggled or on the ground. Get in the rhythm of tapping twice (the 3rd strike is vulnerable to block) and thinking fast on the 3rd move (it could be a BB, block or lunge).

D. Power Assist
The powers in your loadout should be used more so to buff yourself than to damage the enemy. These should be heals, shields or time-based stat boosts.

E. KISS
Keep it simple, stupid! Keep your moves small and controlled basically. These bosses break out quickly and often. You won't get a long combo off on them. If you attempt one, you'll end up trading blows with them and you'll eventually lose. It's a habit to do this if you're celestial, rage or light. It's also a new habit for everyone because of WM. For these boss fights, it's best if you have at least one short WM combo, preferably a 2-step. While the bonus isn't as good, it's better than a standard combo and you can switch to defend much faster. Get used to striking a couple of times and blocking. Only throw a long combo if you just won a counter and the boss is on the ground. Refrain from using celestial, rage and hard light combos as you’ll end up trading blows most of the time.

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

VI. Iconic Bosses (Hero)
Heroes have the advantage with these iconic bosses because none of the 4 they face has a one-shotter. Just take your time and concentrate on the counters. There's nothing special about any of these bosses. They are just epic marathon fights.

A. Catwoman
Catwoman has the same attacks as the Gotham University version, but her damage is exponentially increased. Her martial arts and whip combos are vulnerable to block, so cover up when you see these starting up. She uses these very often. There's nothing special about this fight. It's just a long game of combat mechanics.

B. Cheetah
Cheetah pretty much uses the same attacks as other instances. The damage/health buff to this T6 version goes far beyond the T5 duo. For practice, you should walk into the Tunnel of Lust on the hero side by yourself. Pay close attention to her block because it looks too similar to her normal crouching stance.

C. Killer Croc
Killer Croc follows the same pattern as the T5 anomaly boss, so unfortunately, you can't practice this one with your own toon. You'll have to study the patterns with Huntress. He uses martial arts, so look for those combos winding up to time your blocks. If he lunges, he'll tend to throw 2-4 jabs without a finisher. Then he'll follow with a full combo that's vulnerable to block. If he does his "breath weapon," take the hit and lunge. If you try to block it, you'll get knocked down. Croc is big and scary, but that makes his moves easy to see and counter. If you fight him at the spawn point at the entrance of the subway tunnel, do beware of the gas tank nearby. If he picks it up and hits you with it, it can be a one-shotter for non-tanks!

D. Mr. Freeze
You can only practice Mr. Freeze's pattern efficiently if you have a villain since the leveling quest is for that faction only. There's the Arkham walkin, but probably not worth battling the mobs just to get to him! Maybe if you're lucky enough to do Arkham with a group and the other 3 allow you to solo Freeze. Freeze is just a rifle fighter with a freeze attack. If you're good at The Hunt (Little Vinny, Santo and some adds), you should have no problem with this boss fight. He's highly vulnerable to block, to the point where I actually think he's broken. Besides the rifle mechanics, he has some other move with little or no animation where you can counter him. When in doubt, just block and you'll get a counter by mistake.

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

VII. Iconic Bosses (Villain)
For the most part, the villain dailies are located in strategically easier zones, but they draw the short end of the stick here with the bosses. Donna Troy is significantly harder than any other boss on either side.

A. Batwoman
Batwoman fights with martial arts and has gadget-based special attacks that stun. So look for the typical MA combos and always be ready to breakout. Like Nightwing, the only viable version of Batwoman to practice on is the T4 Arkham solo. While she has a higher chance of showing up than many of the others, you still have to work the 5 dailies to get the chance.

B. Donna Troy
Donna is the toughest boss on either side and the only one I've ever lost to. To get a little bit of practice, walk into the Tunnel of Lust on the villain side to face Donna Troy by yourself. The key to this fight is to watch for her bracer deflection. It's typically a one-shot kill and the damage is so high that you won't get the visual warning of your screen edge turning red. It will go from clear to knockout. Play the counter mechanics game with her, but be careful not to fall into the usual rhythm. When you see her block, DO NOT BB! Use the time to heal or switch gadgets/weapons. In addition to the Tunnel of Lust iteration, the T6 Donna also has a high DoT damage lasso attack. It you get hit by the deflection and need to buy time to recover, use the environment to your advantage. The corners allow you to stall for a bit and let your powers/consumables cool down as she does not move quickly. Try not to use WM on Donna. Her deflection is based on damage you output, so if a WM move gets reflected on you, it can be a one-shot.

C. Nightwing
This is just an extended fight with previous iterations of Nightwing. He fights with dual wield and was upgraded with a more distracting sound effect! Villain Amazons will help you throughout the fight, so the focus won't always be on you. Unfortunately, there isn't a good practice case. The highest tier Nightwing solo would be the T4 Arkham solo, but it takes 5 missions to unlock that and you still only face him randomly after that!

D. Wonder Girl
To get practice against Wonder Girl, you should do the Ruined Cathedral walkin without a partner. There's a chance to face her as the first boss. The T6 version is a slightly weaker version of Donna Troy. She will also have the one-shot bracer deflect (not seen in the T5 version). Wonder Girl fights with a custom version of brawling that can throw off your rhythm. She has an additional uppercut after the haymaker, so be careful not to release your block too soon. As with Donna, avoid WM moves to increase your chances of surviving a deflected attack.

Note: The T3 CC Bounty versions of Donna & Nightwing are not a good practice for the T6 versions. The T3s have a wider array of attacks and are actually harder with regards to mechanics (though not damage).

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

Reserved - Supply Lines?

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

Reserved - Port of Paradise?

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

[reserved]

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

I think this is complete for now, at least from a daily/solo perspective. Since Gotham Under Siege occurs on the outside like the Turf and Wastelands dailies, I'm extending my mentoring services to T6. If you have trouble with a mission or boss and would like me to demo these tactics, just let me know and I'll set it up.

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

VIII. Patrol Catastrophe Solo
Amazon Fury II released a daily solo with a unique format resembling a classic leveling mission as it's broken up into open world content mixed with instances. The enemies have scaled up to level 115, but this is very doable at the qualifying CR 106 if you apply non-combat strategies of this guide along with counter mechanics. The quest gets picked up from a piece of paper lying around the Gotham Under Siege camp. You enter an instance at the Gotham Freight Yards. After that, there’s a short open world collection task. It finally concludes with a bottle mission boss fight.

A. Warehouse
1. Layout - The map of this place is a combination of the leveling Mannheim/Intergang mission and the T1 Huntress solo (on villain side). Checkpoints of the warehouse are typically guarded by 2-3 venom soldiers or dogs. You can reasonably take them out at CR 106, mixing juggles & counters. Littered throughout the place are sleeping soldiers & dogs. If you step near them, some will randomly wake up… this means extra high health adds to burn down. If they mix in with the ones that are already standing around, this place becomes very difficult at CR 106! This is where you need to be mindful of your surroundings. It’s consistently possible to get past the entire warehouse without waking a single one. I'm actually surprised there's no feat for doing this. [Demonstrated in the video below]

2. Field Report - This report is the reason why you’re here. The location is randomized, but it's clearly marked by a green mist. In all of my playthroughs, it's been in the room before the last, the hall just before that OR the room where you fight the last 2 thugs.

3. Final Room Setup - At the start, you will see a large yellow robot straight ahead. A Brainiac worker will be to the left, a Jumper to the right and a drone flying around. First, take out the worker without aggoing the boss. You can actually ignore the jumper for efficiency's sake. You do want to kite the drone back to the entrance and destroy it there because you'll have to interact with it at the end and it's safer at the entrance. With the drone taken down, you can optionally grab the health barrel to the far left and drop that at the entrance just in case (truthfully you won't need it with this method).

4. Boss Fight - Now do a ranged combo while standing close to the entrance. The boss won't counter this... it's a free hit. Hold block and wait for him to come to you. He will lunge about 75% of the time. Now walk around him and start comboing him towards to gate. This way, the 3 adds (and the jumper to the right) don't get into the mix at all. The boss fights with one-handed & rifle. he favors one-handed and is highly counterable with blocks. No joke... you can win this fight just blocking! So after he goes down, interact with the drone. Then makea b-line for the exit, running past the 3 adds that teleported in during the battle.


B. Drones
On Gotham, you need to take out 4 drones. They don't attack themselves, but when you start on one of them, 3 Brainiac workers will appear and start scanning an Amazon soldier. There's a feat for saving the soldier, so if you're going for the feat or you’re a hero, you should concentrate on the Brainiac workers when they appear. When one of them starts scanning the Amazon, immediately turn your attention to that one (or two) and interrupt. This part of the mission is pretty straightforward. There's no danger in taking on 3 workers at once when you’re CR 106. It probably gets messy if you get 2 of these nodes mixed in, but they are pretty spaced out.


C. Gotham Hospital (Bottle)
It's back to the bottles! This is the same map as the Gotham Hospital T2 duo.

1. Consoles - You have to interact with 3 consoles at the 3-way intersection to disable the teleporter. The motions begin once you enter the instance and the Brainiac workers will start to carry encased Amazons to the portal. There's a feat for not letting them transport any and it's actually easier than not going for it. So what you’ll do is approach at the center of the intersection and go down one street at a time. Let the worker walk close enough to the center so that you don’t aggro any additional adds. Take it out, then sneak in carefully to interact with the console. Don't worry the workers are slow, so you have time to get down all 3 streets as long as you don't aggro other adds. Depending on the random positioning of adds, it's possible to do this instance with just fighting the 3 workers + boss.

2. Brainiac Harpy - Once you hit all 3 consoles, the boss will appear in the middle… same place as the T2 duo boss. She’s a large harpy that fights with one-handed attacks, so adjust yourself to counter those moves. There are no additional adds, so she's much easier than the warehouse boss. When you burn her down to certain amounts, she will put a shield up and then shoot a beam down one of the streets. You'll want to get down that same street and interact with a console there. That will temporarily stun the harpy. Do that 3 times and you should have a new 96-98 weapon & 98 gear piece!


Video Demo w/ Chapters

Click on the links below to skip to a chapter on Youtube:
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - Warehouse
18:25 - Drones
22:37 - Bottle

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

IX. Seeing Shades Again
[reserved]


A. Defend Amazons

B. Shade Essence

C. Faust's Lair

D. Themyscira

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

X. Typhon's Monster Invasion (Hero POV)
This is the typical open world scenario that we're all used to from previous episodes. The only difference is that it's not broken up into separate zones. All quests are jammed into one large area of Gotham Under Siege. This is a tight area comparable to Steelworks from T4, Envy Territory from T5 and Sapphire Area in T6. As usual, you'll want to make smart decisions about which nodes to attack and be wary of the direction you're pushing enemies in.

A. Levia

1. Sleeping Satyr Summoning: From the rally point, you'll pick up a jar of the lure (you only need to do this once). You'll place it in front of closed tents, drawing out 1-2 satyrs. You'll need to defeat 10 total & interact. The conscripts & drudges are the weaker ones. Mercenaries & aggressors are a bit stronger. This is the easiest & shortest of the dailies.

2. Citizen Souffle: You're going to free 6 citizens from cages & defeat 11 cyclops. Each node will have 1 citizen & 2 cyclops. The cyclops are like their previous version and have a tendancy to lunge. Be sure to take advantage of this when setting up a safe space to fight them.

3. Stone Society: This one is probably the longest daily, where you're freeing 11 citizens from being frozen in stone. As you interact with them, you'll fight 2 gorgons. You'll need to defeat 18 for the quest, but will definitely go over that number each time. Gorgons don't lunge at all, so it could take time to lure them to a safe spot and you'll want to use the environment for cover so they're not ranging you constantly.

B. Helene

1. Gateway Closure: Here's one that works out mathematically! You need to destroy 6 portals and take out 18 invaders. There are 3 invaders per portal! The invaders will vary, but it will be 3 of the same species: cockatrice, gorgons, minotaurs, cyclops or satyrs.

2. Grated Gorgons: You're going to torch (interact) 6 grates on the ground and defeat 10 gorgons in the process. After you interact with a grate, you'll want to step back because the fire will damage you. As it's burning, 2 gorgons will spawn. These nodes are typically against walls, so you'll want to face the wall and hit the NPCs towards it, reducing the chances of spilling into another quest node.

3. Fowl Natured: Along the rooftops, you'll destroy (interact) 9 eggs and take out 11 cockatrice. The rooftops are clear from most other quest nodes, but there are some with caged citizens & cyclops, so watch out for those. One of the annoying things about this quest is if you knock a cockatrice off the roof, you have to wait for it to fly back up. So it's best to lure or pull them away from the edge for a faster kill.

C. Aletta
Aletta holds all of the interior quests. These are the walkins that you must enter alone.

1. Here There Be Monsters: This is a portion of the Gotham University Warehouse map that you've seen in the leveling mission, Black Dawn, First Piece, etc. It will be filled with a random monster species: cyclops, gorgons, cockatrice, minotaurs or satyrs, although I did not see a cyclops version on test.

2. Cleaning the Gutters: This map is a portion of the botanical sewers from the Ivy solo and Wayne Manor duo. It will be filled with a random monster species: cyclops, gorgons, cockatrice, minotaurs or satyrs.

3. Dredging the Trenches: This is a portion of the OMAC mission sewer segment and is filled with cyclops on uneven ground.

All versions of these missions are extremely tight spaces and you'll end up taking on multiple mobs if you're not careful. When you're at the lower end of this (CR 166-173), you don't want to take on more than 1 mob (a pack of 3) at a time. Some of the mobs have a fixed marching pattern and you'll want to aggro them when they march away from another mob. Use the corners & pillars for cover as you lure them over.

D. Godly Power
As you can see from the above quest counters that the math usually does not work out. But in Amazon Fury III, the extra kills don't go to waste. There is an overall weekly quest to kill 410 of any monster type for an 8 mark bonus! You can pick this up from the statue of Athena.