DCUO: Is Something Burning?

Episode 36 Metal II
Raid: Into the Dark Multiverse

Description
During the Into the Dark Multiverse (Event, Normal, or Elite) Raid, defeat Forgemaster Hawkman witout destroying any of the Forge Embers.

This is one of the feats that I think should not have been made available while the episode was in event mode because there's a significant difficulty difference. So I purposely wanted to run it in Normal mode. Here's what we ened up doing...

Party
The team makeup is about suriviving more so than dealing damage quickly. So we ended up with tank, 2 healers, 2 controllers & 3 DPS. Basically you're looking to survive the Forgemaster's skull attack without using the boulders for cover as they will all be gone pretty early while the team is avoiding the embers. So with 2 healers & 2 controllers, there's enough restoration and shielding to back each other up and survive for as long as needed. Debuffs are also important because every hit needs to count.

Respec
A bit of prep work with loadouts & armories is needed before queueing in. Everyone needs to be setup for single target and weapon damage because the embers have low health. Too many AoEs can take them out. Pets can also take them out, so those need to be removed as well. To be totally safe, support roles should move their extra skill points into precision as well. The tank will use mostly non-damaging proximity aggro, but safe to 360 pull every once in a while when the embers are spreading out.

Head Start
The embers won't come out right at the start of the fight, so this is the one window to unload all burst attacks. To maximize damage, everyone activates buffs and dumps orbital & supercharge attacks. Eye of Gemini & Dead King's Scepter (level 80+ for either) are recommended.

Tanking
An important note is that physical pulls DO NOT work here, so the normal setup for similar feats in the past using 2 tanks won't help. What the tank has to do in this case is take proximity aggro from everything and drag all NPCs along a circular path. The movement speed differences, as well as lunges between the boss & embers will be what separates them.

That's the basic setup with this party. Since it's heavy on support roles, there's little chance of dying like this. It's just about taking your time and being careful to only hit the boss and pull back when any ember gets close.