Dust Brigade 3 - The Facility Guide

[Firebat]

I've been doing DB3 quite a lot lately and decided that since anyone who can do the instance is making a killing, anyone else who knows how is probably not too keen to write a guide seeing as the price of loot would drop. That said, i'm entirely willing to write one for the entire instance, but i have no idea as to formatting or anything in regards to submitting it to AO-universe, can anyone walk me through it?

[Snakebite]

Simplest way would be to take loads of pics and just write what you do and post it, someone here could edit it into a suitable format.

[Silvana]

Like Snake said, we will do the formatting if you'd prefer. We have set ways to do it and they are pretty simple to go by, but we have no problem doing it if you've taken the time to put a guide together for us

Once you have it together you can email it to me and we'll get it up. silvana@ao-universe.com

And thank you!

[Firebat]

alright then, the guide is largely written but screenshots are proving difficult, since I need to get not only a team that can get to the upper floors first but one patient enough to let me take screenshots. as soon as i have them i'll start posting.

[Snakebite]

Aaah, DB3 must be gauntlet? Yes, would be nice to see a guide for that (I started one, its not going well) lol.

[Firebat]

actually db3 is right next to the other instances, Gauntlet is Gauntlet. If there isn't a guide for that i'd be happy to write one, would be simple enough, although i think this demonstrates how obscure the instance is.

[Firebat]

The Guide is 100% complete, minus hyperlinks for the items. Emailing the .docx file to Silvana and posting the text of the file here.


Dust Brigade: The Facility
A Guide by Firebat (RK1)


Introduction

At the time this guide is being written, The Facility (AKA DB3) is quite possibly the most difficult instance in the game, and for very good reason. It was made in response to veteran players complaining that the rest of the game held no challenge or was easily exploited. Funcom certainly didn’t let down with the release of The Facility, as after the initial release the pioneering teams took approximately 5 hours to figure it out, but were only able to pass the second floor using an exploit. This was fixed and the instance became nearly undoable by most for a very long time, making the price of loot spike to over 400-700m per piece. Now, however, there is a guide!

Layout

The instance is divided into six floors, the first, third and fifth being very similar, but dropping no loot. The second, fourth and sixth floors, however, are where the money is, but also the challenge of the instance. Going into this instance you must expect a few wipes if more than one or two of your team is not experienced, and even then most experienced teams do not make it to the top floor, or even past the second floor, without a death or two. That said, here is what I would consider the optimum team layout:

Doctor (Improved Complete Healing helps greatly)
Soldier (As a tank)
Bureaucrat (most or all red tapes/malaise/AoE root/Shackles of Obedience required)
Shade (may need to tank)
Fixer (with top snares)
Misc/damage (preferrably melee or pet class or a backup doctor/backup tank)
An enforcer tank works, but there are some nasty surprises for melee classes. A melee profession is 100% required for the final floor, and pets just don’t cut it, for reasons that will be explained.
Also, players cannot change floors while the team is in combat, so if a player dies there is no getting back until victory is achieved or defeat is suffered.

Floors 1, 3 and 5
The first boss (UBTable) is a simple add-spawning boss, that spawns four types of adds: Technicians (nukers), Superior Commandos (healers), Operators (low HP high damage), and Engineers (debuffers). Engineers and Operators are calmable, so despite engineers being debuffers you will want to save them for last. The spawns are related to the boss’ HP, so when adds spawn the team needs to immediately stop all damage on the boss or else you risk a double-spawn, which can be lethal If more than 2 technicians are spawned (or more than one if your healer isn’t on top of things). Using an assist macro is highly recommended, if not required to kill mobs in the optimum order, that order being: Superior Commando, Technician, Operator, Engineer. If you do not have a bureaucrat, I advise you move engineers to the front of that list, but if you do not have a bureaucrat you don’t stand much of a chance anyways on later floors. Don’t worry about doing damage to the boss, just keep killing adds until the boss eventually dies. If you wipe, the instance will probably be safe and adds won’t spawn again until you get his health back down to where it was.
Repeat for floors 3 and 5 but remember that there are pre-spawned adds before each boss, so zone up as a team.

Floor 2

Now the fun begins. This floor is laced with instant-death traps, a fast-hitting, high-damage boss and loads of environmental hazards. The layout of the room (see above) is a 3x3 grid with the boss in the middle tile. In the corners are four shapes, each giving whoever clicks on them a positive buff (listed below)
Square: +250 damage
Triangle: +15% Nano damage and healing efficiency
Torus: +15% critical hit rate
Cylinder: +500 initiatives

These are awesome buffs and it’s to your benefit to keep them running for more reasons than their effects help you deal damage. Keeping a buff running is required throughout the fight. Not having a buff in your NCU possibly means receiving an extremely high damage over time program that will eat at you until you die.
Furthermore, the boss will occasionally yell out prases like “Torus of Aim, Give me your precision!” when he does this, the shape named is “Cursed” and if you have that buff running it will turn hostile if you do not get rid of it fast enough, turning it’s bonuses negative and giving you a damage over time that you cannot get rid of before the timer runs out.
But keeping an uncursed buff running isn’t as easy as it sounds, since the main cause of death on this floor is the environmental hazard: pillars of fire. In straight lines passing through the boss’ square, fires will start throughout the fight in no particular order. Looking at the grid, they always stretch from one end of the room to the other, always passing through the boss’ square. Typically 1-2 rows will be lit up, leaving only 1/3 of the squares habitable most of the time. This can get in the way if he curses an object’s buff that you have running but you become trapped between two fields of fire. While small they will do around 2000 damage each time you hit one (and hitting more than one can be extremely damaging), but you can jump over them. The big fires, which cannot be jumped over, will instantly kill you. This chain of fires will be continuing throughout the fight with no end, so attention to this is crucial.

Now how about the boss himself, Specialist Rafael Dietmart? Throughout the fight he will be shouting one of five phrases, four regarding the shapes but also “Cowards! You are next!”. When he shouts this, melee professions need to get away from him VERY quickly, as he is about to do a short-ranged 9000+ damage AoE nuke. Furthermore, when he possesses an object, he receives a buff similar to what it gives to the players, but there isn’t much that can be done about this. The boss’ damage itself is roughly 3000-5000 per hit, and he hits considerably quickly, but he is UBTable even though his nano resist is quite high.
As for where the boss stands, it is unpredictable whether standing near him will kill you, melee professions are advised to stand within one of the outer squares and hit him at a distance, as this will protect you from the fires constantly going through the center as well as give you less distance to run from his AoE.
That sums up floor 2, and should you be able to succeed then the worst of this instance is behind you. Floor 4 has it’s challenges but nothing of the same caliber as floor 2. Floor 3 is the same as floor 1, and at this point would be considered a break, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Floor 4
After floor 2 the rest of the instance might seem easy. Heck, after the entire instance the rest of the game will probably seem easy. That said, however, floor 4 still has quite some nasty tricks up it’s sleeves, meaning – you guessed it – more instant deathtraps.

The Boss, Colonel Christie Wamala, spawns in the center of the room near a pile of crates. On the opposite side of the room is a wall where adds spawn. Starting with the boss herself, she doesn’t hit too hard, less and more slowly than the floor 2 boss. Tanking her is easy; making her move where you want to is not. Throughout the fight she will yell out one of four phrases triggering firstly adds to spawn, secondly an AoE fear effect and two other effects that could be lethal: a Nanobot Virus and she sets someone up the bomb, giving them no chance to survive unless they make their time.
The Nanobot Virus instantly kills anyone who does not right-click the pile of boxes at the narrow end of the room. If you make it inside of the box beforehand, you can cancel it as soon as she casts the virus (large green ring effect), or just wait for the timer.
The Bomb effect turns one player into a timebomb, giving them a bomb icon in their NCU window. The player with the bomb will detonate, damaging the team for an amount of damage scaling by how many people they were near – if the entire team gets hit, it can do around 90% of each player’s health. But if the bomb player runs from the team they will take little to no damage, so watching your NCU constantly is essential.

The Boxes become a bit of a thorn in the Colonel’s side, however, and throughout the fight she will spawn 3 adds on the opposite side of the room. If any of these enemies (Hand of the Colonel), or the colonel herself, reach the boxes they will be destroyed and the team will wipe on the next Virus attack. The adds, however, can be rooted and snared (but not calmed). It is recommended that the bureaucrat or fixer cast an AoE root/snare on the middle enemy before the team kills them from right to left. The boss, however, will cast a nano on the adds one at a time that removes all roots and snares from them and at the same giving them 3 seconds of immunity. Rooters must watch their target NCU windows to make sure this nano isn’t running or the add will make it much further before a root can be landed.
Expect a wipe or two if too much of your team is inexperienced, and get ready for one more repetition of floor 1 on floor 5.

Floor 6

If you’ve made it this far and have the team composition recommended, then congratulations on your victory. Floor 6 is not much more than a straight damage race. The boss, Technological Officer Darwelsi, runs around the room rigging the facility to self-destruct. To stall you while he does this, he spawns a very powerful Slayerdroid that does a high-damage AoE with a short range, spams heals on Darwelsi and deals some nasty damage normally. This is why a melee profession is required, since the droid’s healing nano will absolutely destroy your chances of victory – unless you can interrupt it. A melee profession must be on the droid constantly to interrupt the healing nano, while the rest of the team focuses their damage on the boss. Snares and Roots work on him, but he will cast a remover nano and give himself immunity. It is still worth spamming roots and snares on him as this can buy you valuable seconds.
Upon killing Darwelsi you will be rewarded with the Dust Brigade Bracer - First Edition, as well as one or two other items from him. The Slayerdroid, once in a while, will also drop a random item.

Loot
Loot drops on floors 2, 4 and 6 only. Floors 2 and 4 will drop 1-2 items, usually a Dust Brigade Module or an Infuser for the bracer that drops on floor 6. Floor 6 has a higher droprate on the Helmet, a 100% droprate on the Bracer, and will also drop a ql300 health and nano stim or health and nano recharger, each requiring roughly 2200 treatment/first aid.
Full Listing of Loot:

Dust Brigade Assistance Module
Dust Brigade Barrier Module
Dust Brigade Assault Module
Dust Brigade Protector Module
Dust Brigade Escape Module
Dust Brigade Creator Module
Dust Brigade Grunt Module
Advanced Dust Brigade Notum Infuser
Dust Brigade Bracer - First Edition
Dust Brigade Special Ops Helmet
Enhanced Safeguarded NCU Memory Unit (also drops in DB1, The Digsite)

Congratulations on completing DB3, The Facility!

[Silvana]

Got it, thank you!

If anyone else wants to see the file let me know and I'll forward it.

[Byste]

I have a few corrections/suggestions for this guide.

First of all, the team composition is too stringent... you can be more flexible. An evade tank suits this instance well, so a soldier is not required for tanking (although the reflects and damage buffs are a good combo). Having two doctors also suits this instance very well because 3 technicians will overwhelm 1 doctor which can easily happen now and then if the team doesn't stop dd on the 1/3/5 boss fast enough. It is also very handy for the 2nd floor, as two doctors can overcome the DoTs much easier, which are just as likely to cause teammates to wipe as the fire in my experience. Being dotted is simply unavoidable sometimes and you should always be conscientious of your buff running.

Floors 1/3/5 kill order I think is wrong. Should be Commandos -> Operators -> Technicians -> Engineers at the very end.

Floors 3 and 5 are NOT the same as floor 1. There are pre-spawned mobs on these floors. When zoning from 2 or 4 to 3 or 5, make sure you go up as a team, and for floor 5 you MUST be conscientious about line of sight and immediately hide in one of the corners to avoid getting swarmed by the adds (read: technicians). LMN is your friend, but only for 45 seconds...

Floor 2 I would also like to add that latency is a strong concern as you can experience desyncs, and though they might be brief, it's enough to make you instagib on fiery death without ever even seeing the fire, especially if you live in Asia/Australia. Consider yourself warned.

Final correction - on Floor 2, you will not be dotted until you die from not having a buff in the corners. Death is quite likely since the damage is very strong, but you CAN survive it and it doesn't last forever. This is also where 2 doctors is very handy, or if you have heals yourself (MP/fixer/MA/advy).

[Firebat]

Byste:

thanks for the corrections, I'll do my best to integrate them into the guide. Writing a comprehensive guide for an instance where so much attention to detail is required proved challenging and I'm sure you understand how some of these details might have been overlooked even in the 15+ runs it took to gather screenshots and write the guide.
However:
Having a Bureaucrat as my main profession I try to avoid using Last Minute Negociations unless absolutely necessary, being possibly the most buggy nano in the game. that said, I have to defend my kill order as the calmable mobs do come last on the list, allowing them both to be hit with a quick Disrupted Psyche (AOE calm) so you don't have to target them specifically. You probably won't die for deviating from my kill order, it's just what I recommend.

I cannot find where i said the DoT would kill you, merely that you would have to deal with it until the timer ran out.

As for the other suggestions/corrections i've integrated them into the guide.

Thanks for your contribution!

[Malaxia]

Hello!

I am taking a lot of screenshots from this place using my CoT (and invulnerability), I can take with a clean HUD. Let me know if you need something specific

[Windguaerd]

Was this guide finished?

[Silvana]

Almost.

It was one that was being worked on right before the holidays and a few people are still trickling back from that. There also seem to be some "tactics" in the grey area and leaning a bit more on the side of exploiting. So that definitely has to get checked.

[tyrence]

IMO just add it as is and then make changes as necessary. Lots of people will use it and I'm sure you will get a lot more feedback that way.

[Firebat]

Exploiting? I had to leave those parts out (and there are a LOT of them) anyways! if there is anything in this guide that seems like exploiting then sorry, that's just how the instance has to be done. If you want me to reorganize the guide into a "hard facts" section and a "recommended strategy" section, just let me know and I can do that.