Propogator Core XR-53 Lair Boss on Ilum coming in Update 7.6! UPDATE: Round 2 testing changes posted!

News Date: October 10, 2024 Patch: 7.6 News Source

While we’re still waiting to test it out on the test server, we do know the piece of group content in the game will be the Propogator Core XR-53 Lair Boss on Ilum!

UPDATE: “Hey there, We are preparing for the Story Mode lair boss to be released tomorrow (October 24, on test server)! – Devs”

Here’s what the Developers have teased so far. Testing will come some time in October.

First up in 7.6, we’ll introduce our newest Lair Boss, the propagator core XR-53 which will be launching in story and veteran modes.

For the uninitiated a Lair Boss is the type of boss encounter built for eight players and these are not for the faint of heart, so bring your best geared and most skilled friends because the XR-53 is not gonna go down easy. [It is a single-boss Operation for level 80 subscribed players.]

Players will find the XR-53 on Ilum. Why Ilum? you might ask. Well, it was actually a self replicating droid that was part of the emperor’s fortress that crashed down during the battle of Ham. And let’s just say that its core functions got a little disrupted since the crash, this will play directly into the mechanics of the boss fight itself, but I’ll let you discover that for yourselves.

UPDATE! Very happy to see big changes and looking forward to testing them.

Hey everyone!

Appreciate all the feedback that has been pouring in for the XR-53 (Story Mode). Below is a list of changes and adjustments that players can expect when we release a new build on PTS. These will be added to the OP as well.
We’ve received a ton of feedback, so thank you all for spending some time with this early version of the boss. Here’s a rundown of the major issues we’ve seen and are already addressing:

  • Biggest one first! Several HP values weren’t calibrated correctly for Story Mode. This had a major impact on the fight, making combat unreasonably long and making adds take too long to defeat. In the next iteration, HP for the Propagator Core itself and many of its minions (Imperfect Constructs and Prey Seekers) have been reduced significantly.
  • The Propagator Core remained immobile for much longer than intended, spending too much time casting and making it difficult to reposition it. This made the fight frustrating for melee characters. In this update, it should be easier to move the boss to avoid the floor hazards.
  • The Mistaken Construct enemy was not tuned to serve its intended purposes: 1) as punishment for failing to have a player participate in Prime Directive and 2) as a soft enrage for the encounter after Prime Directive has occurred a set number of times. It will now be more obvious that this enemy is not intended to be killed, and instead signals that there was a failure to execute the mechanics or that the boss should be defeated by this point (lower boss HP should make this possible!).
  • Several visual indicators and effects, such as additional targeting indicators for the Imperfect Constructs and Prey Seeker Droids, have been added or improved to clarify mechanics and give players time to react. This work will continue as we do a pass over each ability’s appearance and visual communication.
  • This hits the highlights, but we’ve made many additional changes, so please read on to get all the details. If you’ve already tested the boss, we hope you’ll give it a try with these changes–nothing is more valuable to us than seeing you fight the boss and reading your feedback. We’ll continue to iterate and expect that things will be much closer to the intended Story Mode experience, but it’s likely we’ll still need to hone in on final balance, so stay tuned!

General

  • Propagator Core XR-53’s health has been reduced to 51M (down from 86M).

Abilities

Digestive Enzyme

  • Adjusted debuff duration to 20s (up from 15s).
  • Digestive Enzyme’s damage type is now Internal.
  • Digestive Enzyme’s per-stack ticking damage increased by 150%.

Acidic Rocketry

  • Cast time reduced to 1s (down from 2s).
  • Rocket travel time increased to 3s (up from 2s).
  • Propagator Core XR-53 will now be immobilized for 1s after completing the Acidic Rocketry Cast (was 2.5s).
  • Acidic Rocketry now only targets the four furthest players from the boss in the group, as opposed to all players.

Prepare for Harvest

  • Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s.
  • Propagator Core XR-53 will now be immobilized for 1.25s after completing the Prepare for Harvest cast (was 2.5s).
  • Prepare for Harvest projectile travel time reduced from 2s to 0.5s.

Extraneous Expulsion

  • Cast time reduced to 2.5s (down from 4s).
  • Fixed an issue where Extraneous Expulsion was dealing damage outside of its warning area.

Hungering Bite

  • Cast time reduced to 3s (down from 4s).
  • Fixed an issue where Hungering Bite was dealing damage outside of its warning area.

Lethal Strike

  • Lethal Strike has been rebalanced. It now gives three different debuffs based on the role of the struck target, each called “Softened Up”. DPS and Healers afflicted with this debuff will now have a looping effect to indicate that they are afflicted with it.
  • Tank: Lethal Strike deals 250% increased damage to the affected target. 45 second duration.
  • Healer: All outgoing healing reduced by 75%. 1 minute duration.
  • DPS: All outgoing damage reduced by 75%. 1 minute duration.

Prey Seekers

  • Cast time reduced to 1s (down from 3s).
  • Prey Seeker Droids will now indicate who they are going to jump towards before doing so in order to give players time to react.

Imperfect Fabrication

  • Added a new buff called “Imperfect Fabrication” to the Propagator Core XR-53 with the following description: “The Propagator Core XR-53 is following its programming, but what it creates isn’t perfect…” to indicate that the boss is producing Imperfect Constructs.
  • Imperfect Fabrication will now be inactive during the Prime Directive Phase of the encounter. Imperfect Fabrication will become active again after the Propagator Core XR-53 completes its Recovery Protocol.
  • Decreased the frequency of Imperfect Construct spawns. They now appear once every 15 seconds (down from once every 10 seconds).
  • Imperfect Constructs will now indicate who they are going to jump towards before doing so in order to give players time to react.

Prime Directive

  • Changed the color of the Prime Directive warning from red to orange to indicate caution instead of danger, as players should be aware that one of them needs to stand inside of it to avoid summoning the Mistaken Construct.
  • The Propagator Core XR-53 will now broadcast that it is looking for one final sample when it is casting its Prime Directive ability.

Adds

General

  • All adds will now spawn in the center of the arena, which should ensure that they are more visible to players regardless of their location in the arena.

Prey Seeker Droid

  • HP pool reduced to 155k (down from 310k).
  • A Prey Seeker Droid will now properly increase the Propagator Core XR-53’s Harvested Materials count if its channel is successful.

Powerful Construct

  • Powerful Construct’s Acidic Rocketry should no longer be reflectable.
  • Powerful Construct’s Explosive Finality should no longer be reflectable.

Imperfect Construct

  • HP pool reduced to 155k (down from 543k).
  • Fixed an issue where Imperfect Constructs would find multiple targets and jump to both instead of finding only one.
  • Imperfect Construct’s Imperfect Explosion should no longer be reflectable.

Mistaken Construct

  • HP pool increased to 30m (up from 552k).
  • Volatile Output now properly applies a Digestive Enzyme stack to all players when they are struck by the Ability.
  • Volatile Output now properly hits up to 8 targets instead of only hitting the closest 4.
  • Volatile Output’s base damage has been doubled.
  • Volatile Output should no longer be reflectable.

So now what? Next week, we will be releasing a new build on the PTS that will include all of the changes above. We want to continue to hone Story Mode before polishing Veteran Mode. Players can expect that VM will be released when we do our livestream, which is still targeting mid-November.

I will keep you all updated on when the new build will go out next week! Please continue to keep an eye on this thread for further updates!

Abilities?

While we don’t know how the boss will work until it comes out, here is the datamined abilities of this boss, from Jedipedia.

Ability Cooldown Activation Range Wave Priority Chance
Blast Attack 6s instant 5-30 m 0 1 30%
Ranged Attack 1.5s instant 30 m 0 0 70%
Flurry none instant 4 m 1 0 100%
Acidic Rocketry 20s 2s cast any 1 0 100%
[hungering_bite_immobilize] 22.5s instant any 1 0 100%
Hunting Grounds 30s 8s channel any 1 0 100%
Extraneous Expulsion 25s 4s cast any 1 0 100%
Prepare for Harvest 17.5s 2s cast any 1 0 100%
Hungering Bite 2h 46m 39s 4s cast any 1 0 100%
Prey Seeker 25s 3s cast any 1 0 100%
Lethal Strike 30s 1.5s cast any 1 0 100%
Prime Directive 2h 46m 39s 10s channel any 2 0 100%
Recovery Protocol 2h 46m 39s 30s channel any 2 0 100%