Hey everyone, this is the 2nd mini-flashpoint guide in the series, this one focusing on hardmode Boarding Party. Like the previous mini-flashpoint guide, this one will focus on the key mechanics relevant for hardmode. If you need a refresher on the full mechanics of the fight on normal mode, check out this link here.
HXI-54 Juggernaut
Same mechanics as in normal mode, he likes to grapple people and flung them from one side of the room to the other. This can be annoying to healers and interrupt their heals but otherwise isn’t too major.
The energy discharge he does hurt on hardmode and you definitely cannot survive more than 2-3 ticks of it unless you are a tank. As a sorc healer, I like to put my shield on all party members to absorb at least some of the damage.
Personally I find a good spot to stand when he is able to do energy discharge is to position yourself by one of the thingies extruding from the ground. The energy discharge seems to come between these thingies and if you stand in front of it you should not get hit by it. Melee just have to watch out so that at least their back is facing one of them.
Of course after he does the energy discharge he likes to throw a circle right under your feet so you just have to be fast and move away from it.
Major Alvena
Like in normal mode, you can CC the droids and I definitely recommend doing so as killing the droids will release adds from the doorway nearby each droid.
CC/stun the droids and kill Major Alvena first. Then kill one droid at a time, finishing off the adds first before moving on to the next droid.
Sokan Do’Nair
You can try to CC the two Jedi healers with him but on hardmode he will break them out of it so it is not useful. The strategy is to just burn kill the Jedi healers with him quickly and then focus on the boss. The Jedi healers do not have a lot of hp so it is a rather quick “burn”.
Chief Engineer Kels
Like in normal mode, you definitely want to kill the two droid adds first. Unlike in normal mode, 3 out of the 4 cores will actually emite radiation so it is very hard to avoid it. Instead of wasting precious enrage timer trying to run around and looking for the core that is not emitting radiation, everyone should just stand there and take it.
The cores do not do a lot of damage and if shielded by a sorc/sage they do almost no damage. The only annoying thing is the pushback they do.
This fight has a tight enrage timer so definitely don’t waste anytime burning down the adds and then maximize your DPS on the boss himself.
Commander Jorland & Friends
This guy is a pain in normal mode and he is even more of a pain in hardmode. Prior to patch 1.1, if you wipe on this encounter even once, the chest bugs out and you cannot get the loot. Thankfully, this issue is being addressed.
Commander Jorland is the guy in the middle, his normal attacks do not do a lot of damage but his grenade launcher will wreck havoc on unprepared groups. To his left is Chieft Massey, he is a melee mob that like to run to random party members and dish out some serious damage if not taunted back. Medic is the guy on the right of Jorland, he mostly cast heals and uses ranged attack.
There are several strategies on how to fight this encounter. Our strategy which has worked well for us is to kill medic first, then Jorland and finally Massey.
Tank should grab Jorland and Massey and run back up the stairs to the room before this one and kite both of them there (don’t lead the two through your party members, try having DPS/healers on one of the stairs and then you kite these two up the other staircase). Healers/DPS should wait until tank is running off with Jorland and Massey and then jump in to kill the medic. The reason why we do this is because the medic is both ranged and can heal so burning him down first makes rest of the fight less of a hassle.
Jorland won’t use his grenade launcher abilities if no one is around him save the tank and Massey will keep following the tank if he doesn’t get a chance to hit the tank. Since Jorland’s normal attacks are rather weak, the tank do not take a lot of damage and does not need heals unless he/she slows down and get wracked by Massey. If the tank somehow lose Massey, run back and taunt him back.
Once the medic is dead, tank kites the two back to the boss room. You will want to kill Jorland first and not Massey because Massey’s shield actually reduces Jorland’s grenade attack abilities. Also, when you hit the enrage timer, Massey can be kited since he is pure melee. Jorland’s grenade launcher will pretty much one shot anyone within 30 meters of him when enraged.
Remember to spread out when fighting Jorland as his grenade attack is actually an AOE that will damage anyone else within 5 meters of the person being attacked. If you have a melee heavy group then you just have to heal through it and hope for the best.
While the DPS/healers are working on Jorland, tank should try to taunt Massey and keep him off the rest of the party members. If you hit enrage while Jorland is still alive, it is pretty much a DPS race to finish off Jorland ASAP (he doesn’t have a lot of health).
Once Jorland is dead, tank can simply kite Massey while the DPS finish him off.
Overall this fight is highly overtuned but it is definitely doable if you kite Jorland & Massey out at first and then finish off Jorland before kiting Massey to his death. Heals are very intensive on this fight and keep squishy DPS up can be quite a feat. Good luck and have fun!
Video: This video demonstrates the strategy we used for this encounter. We were quite undergeared back then but still were able to finish this encounter regardless.
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