Volt: A Practical Guide To Events

[Neuhnee]

As written by an Explorer.

 

I typically solo, I main a Loki, I smell the roses, I look out the windows. But when there's a community event, I pull on my Boots of Swiftness and get down to business. Here are a few tips I've picked up driving the buss for a few events.

 

Built for Speed:

 

Having a Volt, and having Speed equipped is not all it takes, you'll have to optimize your build to really capitalize on Speeds benefits. This means sacrificing things like offensive powers and even a bit of survivability. Combining Energy Siphon Continuity Constitution Pulse Helmet and Streamline can grant your Speed ability a *negative* cost (can be prevented by lag), or your ES will regenerate more than the cost of Speed before Speed expires, allowing for %100 up time of Speed. I *highly* recommend a high ranked Redirection to protect you from stray hits, and combining Marathon and Quick Rest in order to maintain a constant sprint speed. It is my personal experience that Rush + Speed is just too fast, and I spend more time bumping into walls than closing ground on my objective, and that Flow is unessecary, since you'll just be spamming one ability with a negative cost.

 

Choose your Team:

 

Unfortunately, some players actually get D.I.M.S. from the visual effect of Speed, so try not to spring it on people unannounced.

 

Ideally, you'll be playing with friends and can build a team based on the situation and Frame abilities. Ember is one of my favorite speed run companions as her 4 travels with her. Other great Speed runners include Frames that have auto targeting abilities such as Nova's Null Star and Vauban's...well, everything.

 

If you are a soloist, like myself, you can usually get a team together pretty quickly in the Recruiting channel if you are hosting. Be sure to make it clear that you'll be hosting *speed* runs, and whether or not you intend to host *multiple* runs. This will save you time replacing team members who drop out after a single run, and avoid the mutual displeasure of mixing Speed Runners and Explorers.

 

If you do resort to PUGing be considerate. Remember, Speed *literally* makes some people sick. Ask if anyone minds your spamming Speed, and let people know that they can stay in the group after mission completion if they *do* want to continue speed running with you. In this way Explorers will naturally weed themselves out and you can end up with a full boat of speed runners within a few runs.

 

Choose your Mission:

 

In farming situations such as Arid Fear where vital event components were granted as mission rewards, Speed can be a great asset as long as the mission type is one that can benefit from such. Speed will be nearly useless in Extermination and Defense missions. On Raid, Spy, Capture, or Sabotage missions, however, it can increase your yield exponentially.

 

Remember Your Role:

 

You are the buss driver. It is not your job to kill things. If there is killing, hacking, capturing, or destroying to be done, let the other members of your party take care of it. Your job is to maintain Speed, and to that end if there is any break in the running, while your mates are killing, hacking, ect, use this time to look about for a few energy spheres, or to simply stand in the corner and let ES tick away. Unless there is more than one ES in your party you should avoid using your other powers at all cost, don't let the buss run out of gas.

 

Not many people thought to use Volt in Sling Stone because Volt's electrical based abilities are notoriously less effective against anything other than Corpus. I found, however, that using my Volt I could buss in three players and Frames that specialized in Defense or anti-Grineer...ism? (Frost, Vauban, Nova, Banshee) And get them out after the defense was done, resulting in missions that only took about 3min. It was understood among all of us that my Volt would be pretty much useless during the actual defense portion of the mission, and I spent that time collecting energy spheres for our trip out.

 

Keep you Friends Close:

 

If your continuity build is less than perfect or if you're suffering from lag which can interfere with the energy regen, elevators, consoles to be hacked, and reactors to be destroyed can offer a few precious seconds to recoup some energy. If members of your party haven't been left behind and still need that speed boost. If your group *has* become spread out due to knockdown, missed elevators, or simply not being a strong speed runner, use these instances to maintain Speed and give the stragglers a chance to catch up. Remember, just because you can't move forward doesn't mean no one can, and they'll catch up and be able to help you open that door much faster with Speed than without.

 

In Arid Fear's Corpus Void segment, it was often beneficial to split up and track down the Scouts individually. If you're not all together, you have to assume that *someone* in your party can probably benefit from Speed and should keep it up whether you're on an elevator or not.

 

But Don't Suffer a Troll:

 

A single party member not on board with the plan can double (or more) the time a mission takes. This doesn't only apply to stragglers, someone running ahead of the pack can tie up elevators, cause slow opening/closing Corpus doors to close in the face of the rest of the group, and free hostages they can't keep alive alone. We don't have a kick function yet, but you can record the names of the non-trolls, disband your party, and then invite them to a new group, sans Troll.

 

Eyes on the Prize:

 

If you have a Nova, Saryn, Ember, or someone who's just really good at killing things at speed, you may be tempted to stop and pick up those mods and spheres. Remember, you're not here to farm, you're here to finish the mission as quickly as possible. If you can swerve a bit and snatch something on the way by all means do so, but don't stop, and certainly don't go back.

 

Keep it in Perspective:

 

Understand and remember the actual goals of the event. In Sling Stone, the only way to beat the Fomorian Ship's regen was to deal more damage in less time. In Arid Fear the the goal was to get as many Corpus Void Keys into as many hands as possible. I used my Volt to host speed farming parties of the event alerts granting key components.

 

It's a Buyer's Market:

 

If you've ever spent more than a minute in the Recruiting channel, you've seen players begging for a free trip to the Void, offering their Volt's Speed in exchange. If you've ever spent more than ten minutes in Recruiting, you've noticed that those players don't get picked up. That's because Volt has one of the lowest Platinum costs, his components drop from one the the easiest bosses to beat, and the mods needed for a good Speed build are pretty common. In short, you can safely assume that everybody has a Volt and that if they wanted to go fast, they'd just use they're own.

 

Suit up, invest an hour farming whatever item is need for the current event, then advertise that you have said item and are hosting speed parties for the actual event...event. You'll be beating players off with a Bo.

 

Share the Wealth:

 

Lastly, remember that the way events are designed, we sink or swim as a whole. It's not all about making sure you get all your points, it's about working together to overcome an obstacle. Whenever I got about twenty Corpus Void Keys (or Corrupters for Sling Stone) from helping people farm the components I'd go to Recruiting and look specifically for players who had fewer than the required amount of points to get the event rewards.

 

Many of these players have jobs, wives, kids, and toilets, and can't just veg out in front of their computers for a whole Saturday just because there's an event on. These people are so grateful that their friendly neighborhood Volt came along and helped them crossed to finish line that they usually offer up any keys of their own they've got to keep the group going, I've had to turn down a dozen Guild invites, and I get thank you PMs and unsolicited Void invites fairly regularly. In short, help out the community, and you'll never have to worry about getting enough points for yourself. And you'll probably make a few friends along the way.

 

Good Hunting Tenno