This was made as a semi-rant. If you like playing Papa Saw Hard or would like to play Papa Saw Hard, please read. It's okay if you don't know the basics because they were never explained to you. It's not okay to ignore everything your crew leader says. There's a method to the madness.
zOMG -> Papa Saw Hard
CL Cap: 5.0
Size of Crew: Six. It's possible to beat it with any size crew. It's easiest and fastest with six. And the larger your party, the bigger your loot reward.
Duration: Each round takes an average of ten minutes. Expect delays between rounds. Plan for extra time between fights for people with lag to load in and out, for people to run to the null, for searching for new crew replacements and for people going AFK for random reasons.
Rewards: Expect about 5 - 6k per round. Expect about 40 orbs per round (about 20 orbs from drops and about 16-14 orbs as reward for defeating Papa). Expect an average of one random ring drop per round. And expect other random loot. [Note: This is in a crew with rr4 Coyote Spirit and rr4 Divinity.]
Each zOMG battle requires very little strategy. Each boss fight requires the same strategy, with small tweaks.
What to Expect
You enter an old saw mill and disturb the inhabitants. Saws will attack in waves. After a few waves, Mama saw will appear. (Two Mama saws appear for larger crews.) One more wave of saws appear after Mama. Then Papa appears. Defeat Papa to get credit for the quest and defeat any saw stragglers.
The Very Basics (Papa Saw):
- Listen to your crew leader. (Hopefully you've got a smart one.)
Enter the cabin after the crew leader chooses the setting.
DO NOT START THE FIGHT UNTIL THE WHOLE CREW IS IN THE CABIN AND SAYS THEY'RE READY.
- Impossible to delay the fight? Never. If you don't walk into the center of the cabin, the saws won't appear. You can stand there as long as you'd like, but they'll never appear. As soon as you cross the threshold, the saws appear.
Use this time to wait for all six people to load into the cabin.
Use buffs.
Ask if people are ready. When they are, run into the middle and start the fight.
Stay together in one group. The upper left corner is a popular choice. (In a group, you get healed by diagnose. If you leave the group, you won't get healed by diagnose.)
The saws will attack in waves.
As soon as a wave is over, sit to regain stamina/HP.
If you must leave the computer for any reason, do not leave your avatar sitting down. You take more damage when sitting down. It's harder for your crew to keep you alive and healed.
- For or five saws will appear one at a time to tease you before the actual wave appears. They will not attack you.
You can kill them if you'd like. BUT be sure that you sit long enough to get enough stamina to last you through the next wave.
Kill Papa and any left over saws. Congrats, you've beaten it.
NO ONE SHOULD EVER DIE DURING PAPA SAW HARD.
Do you think that Papa Saw Hard is hard? If you think a certain boss battle is always hard, then you're probably the reason why it's hard. That, or you have bad luck and always crew up with people who attack blindly with no regard to stamina or their own health.
If it's hard, you're doing something wrong.
Your Role
In Papa Saw, you must be a jack of all trades. It's extremely easy though. You have three jobs:
- Attack
- Your job is to attack the saws each round. You want to do this as fast as possible. Once they're gone, they can't attack you and your crew. The longer you take to defeat them, the more health they chip away.
When an enemy is defeated, your the people in your crew get a chance at loot and gold drops. That's why you're playing PS, right?
Good rings: Lots of rings are good. You're usually attacking a big group of saws. You want at least one attack that hits more than one enemy at once. Fire rain and dervish are good. Hornet's next is okay. Hornet might make the enemy run away when used at higher rage ranks. You don't want this. This makes your crew have to run in different directions to kill the saws. If you play your cards right, you should not need to made the enemies run in fear. You have plenty of time to rest between waves.
Bad Rings: Do not use taunt or heavy water balloon. These rings gather hate. The enemies attack you instead of your friends. In a room full of saws, this is a very bad idea. It's near instant death. Just don't do it.
Heal
- You know exactly what it's like to have the boss focus on you. The monsters eat at your health as fast or faster than your health ring can recharge. It's scary. ... And it's life saving when someone else throws a heal your way while you're waiting for your ring to recharge. Well, remember that feeling.
For the most part, people should be attacked pretty equally. Sometimes someone gathers a large amount of hate and their health will drop fast. Heal them. Simple. If you were the one dying, you know you'd want someone to heal you.
Why heal people? You waste less stamina. If that person dies, they'll have to be defibbed. While they're down, you'll be a man short. You might even become the next target. And, it sucks to have to waste stamina on rebuffing the guy. And yes, your crewmate must be rebuffed or else it's not their fault if they die again quickly. They'd be missing a lot of defense.
The Rings:
- Diagnose. This ring is good for group settings like this. If you stay in one group, one click of diagnose will heal everyone.
Bandage: This ring heals more HP and uses less stamina than bandage. It only heals one person at a time. Don't be stingy if you have bandage. Heal your crewmates when they need it. Bandage is good for sniping those pesky crewmates who keep running away from the group.
Wish: This ring allows you to heal crewmates. It has a long range and fast recharge. You'd probably be better off bringing another buff. Bring something like ghost so your crewmates don't get attacked in the first place. It doesn't hurt to bring it if you have room.
Healing Halo: This is NOT a healing ring. It is a buff. This ring should be used at the beginning of the battle and again when it wears off. It will not save you if you're about to die. This buff is useful and saves you from wasting too much stamina on diagnose.
Meat: This is NOT a healing ring. It is a buff. This ring is a godsend. It nearly doubles your HP. You should use this at the beginning of the battle. It provides a nice buffer. (The Sweetheart ring also adds to your total HP. It doesn't add as much HP as meat, but it can be used on other people. It's good for crews that don't carry meat.)
Defibrilate: This ring is NOT needed. This ring is used to raise dazed people. No one in your crew should daze. This fight is easy. If people daze, you're doing something wrong. Yes, there are flukes and accidents. Daze sometimes happens. If you have room in your setup for defib, bring it. If your crew does not need it, replase defib with another buff.
Buff
- This part is easy. Bring at least one buff ring with you. Use it at the beginning of the fight. Use it again whenever it disappears.
Buffs are stronger at higher rage ranks. Since they last for a long time, you might as well use a raged buff. You'll gather more rage again in no time. Use buffs at rr4. If you don't understand what that means, I'll explain it later.
A crew with lots of rr4 buffs barely has to heal. This means that you waste less stamina on healing and can concentrate on attacking.
All buffs are good. Some are more pertinent than others. You will not survive without Divinity. Make sure someone has it before you start the fight.
Extra Comments:
- Papa Saw is survivable at cl 4.5. Make sure your crew has buffs. And be sure to use the orbs you get from each round to raise your CL up to 5.0. It should only take you four or five rounds to go from CL 4.5 to CL 5.0.
If you're too low of a CL, do yourself and your crew a favor and don't join. No matter how well you fight, your low stats are a weak link. You die faster. You can't kill things as fast as a CL five. Just you being there kills you and your crew. Play through other quests for orbs until you're CL 4.5. Then play Papa Saw.
You can play PS as many times as you want. You can play PS before you obtain the quest. You can also play PS after you turn in the quest. You obtain the quest from Gustav. The quest itself is not repeatable, but you can continue to play PS as many times as you'd like.
Papa Saw is lag city. If your computer can't handle the lag, restart it. If it's still not able to handle the lag, don't play Papa Saw on Hard. You kill yourself and your fellow crew members by being inactive and sluggish.
If you lag, click on the menu in the bottom right corner. Click on Options. Change the settings to "view my ring animation only." Your computer will thank you for not having to run other people's fire rain animations.
It's easiest with a crew of six. You also get bigger rewards with a bigger crew. It's still possible to win the fight with smaller crews.
Do what your leader tells you to do. These instructions are usually:
- Everyone enter the cabin and go to the top left corner. DON'T walk into the middle. Everyone buff up. Is everyone ready? ..Let's begin. Stay in a group! Woohoo. Good job everyone!
When you enter the cabin move to the upper left corner. If you can't move without starting the saws, THEN DON'T MOVE. The instance does not activate until someone moves into the center of the cabin. The point is to not start it until everyone has loaded in and is buffed up. If no one moves out past that invisible line into the center of the cabin, the fight will never start.
Yes, buffs are needed. Use buffs at rr4. (full rage)
Use buffs only after ALL of your crew members are inside the cabin. If a crew member was not in the cabin to receive the buff, use it again.
Do not start the instance (move into the middle of the cabin) until all buffs have been used and everyone is ready.
Do not start the instance while someone is sitting down.
Stand together in the upper left corner. This way, diagnose can heal everyone. Yes, sometimes your character runs out into the middle while you're attacking. If it does, go back to the corner.
The saws come in waves. Rest (sit) between waves to regain stamina and HP.
Watch the crew pane. Yes, your crew pane should be open. If you maximize your zOMG screen, the crew pane should fit nicely outside the action. Heal and buff your fellow crew members.
If someone does daze and is defibbed, buff them up again. It's not their fault if they daze again quickly. They have less armor and locked rings.
AOE attacks are your friends in this battle. Use fire rain, dervish, hot foot, slash and hornet's next.
Heal. Watch your crew member's health. You know how it feels to watch your health drain as you're waiting for your health ring to recharge. Throw your crewmate a heal. It relieves so much pressure. Have Diagnose? Spam it every so often to keep the people beside you healed. Have Bandage? Don't be selfish. Heal a fellow crew member who's being attacked. They heal you with Diagnose, you should heal them in return.
Buff. Yes, buff. If you think buffs aren't necessary, then you must have not played in a crew that's fully buffed. Fighting becomes a cake walk compared to doing the same fight without buffs. Buffs stay up for a while, so use them at rr4. This means that you hold down the button and use a full rage bar behind your buff. Buffs at rr4 are stronger and gain extra effects. The beauty of a crew is that each person can bring 1 - 4 buffs and still have good ring sets. Four buffs times six people is 24 buff rings. If you plan things out before going into battle, your crew could have a ton of buffs.
So, all you have to do is attack. Heal yourself and help heal someone who has the brunt of the main attack. Keep your buffs up at rr4. And be sure to rest and regain stamina. You're useless without it.
Why play Papa Saw on hard?
If you want to earn gold by playing zOMG, it's one of the better ways. It's totally one of the best ways to earn orbs. You get lots of ring drops.
The Aquaducts is the next land. The Aquaducts is a very tough place. It's best to stop and gain a few ticks of CL before heading into the Aquaducts so that you might be able to live through the mobbing.
The longer explanations:
Charge Level (C.L / CL / cl)
- If you want to math out your charge level, here it is:
OCL: [ ( 8*R1 ) + ( 7*R2 ) + ( 6*R3 ) + ( 5*R4 ) + ( 4*R5 ) + ( 3*R6 ) + ( 2*R7 ) + ( 1*R8 ) ] / 36
Your highest ring is R1 and is multiplied by 8. Your weakest ring is R8 and is multiplied by 1.
You don't have to do the math. Just know that you can't enter the cabin if your overall CL is above 5.0.
If your CL is above 5.0, you must suppress it to enter. Click "menu" in the bottom right corner. Click "change level." Slide the bar to your desired level. You may lower your cl from anywhere. To raise your CL again, you must enter a Null Crystal and slide it back up. (Or you can log out and back into zOMG. You'd most likely end up on a layer with different people though. That could be good or bad.)
From experience, Papa Saw is not survivable at cl 4.0 if your crew members are cl 5.0. You're too weak. No matter how well you play, you're just not strong enough to help, it strains the other players and you all die.
I know that cl 4.5 is very survivable. (And in 3 or 4 rounds of PS Hard, you can be cl 5.0.)
Being cl 10.0 does not make you god. Anyone can play PS horribly, kill their crews over and over and still obtain orbs. It'd take longer, but anyone can gather enough orbs to be CL 10.0 and not understand how to play the game. Your CL means s**t. Your actions speak louder than your CL. If you know your stuff, good. If you don't, well, it's possible that a cl 4.5 person knows how to play zOMG better than you.
- In other words, don't brag about your cl if you can't back it up. This game takes very little strategy. And one person can send a crew down burning in flames. And it's usually because that person doesn't listen to instructions. Are you a cl 10.0 that can listen to and follow instructions? Good. Are you a cl 10.0 who does whatever you want whenever you want? Bad. You're the reason why your crews fail.
Healing (Stand together please! Stay in a group! Stand in the upper left corner! )
- The Strategy
- It's a very simple concept. If you stay in a group, diagnose can heal everyone. In crews with no dedicated healer (and in crews with dedicated healers), this is a must.
Do not go to the monsters. The monsters come to you. .... But they don't! They always are down at the bottom of the screen and I always have to run to them!
- Not necessarily. If everyone were in a small group, the monsters would be attacking that group. Since you're in the bottom, there are monsters at the bottom attacking you. If you were with the group, those monsters would not be down there.
WTF? Who cares? I want to stand in the far right corner. Pssh.
- Ohhhh there's good reason for standing together. Diagnose is an awesome ring. With one click, everyone around the healer will gain health points. ...Anyone not standing by that "healer" will not gain health. Everyone who stands in the corner together gets healed. This means that people have to waste less stamina on healing. It also keeps everyone's health high.
So what? They can stand in their corner. I want to stand in the middle.
- You're making it harder on others by standing in the middle. For one, your health drops faster because you're not being constantly healed by diagnose. And, if someone else wants to heal you with diagnose, they have to run out from the corner and over to you. It wastes time, makes someone else have to leave the group and puts their health in danger.
It's good for your crew to have people stand in the corner and spam diagnose. It's also good if at least one or two people have Wish or Bandage. People will always run out of the group. This way, those people can be healed without the healers having to leave the group.
In fact, diagnose is only good for situations where your crew is huddled together in one spot. Otherwise, it costs too much stamina, takes too long to recast and doesn't give much health. Bandage uses less stamina and heals twice the amount of health.
Tips for Bandage: Click the spacebar to target yourself, then use Bandage. Click ~ or Q to target the nearest enemy. Is a crew member standing too far away from the group to be healed by Diagnose? Target them by clicking their their name on the crew page and heal them. Same thing goes for Wish. You just can't heal yourself.
Crews
- The point of a crew is to work together. The point of a crew is not to invite random people and then have everyone do separate tasks.
Spamming random invites is rather rude. Use Shout to ask if any people would like to join in a crew to accomplish a specific task. In this case, as leader, you'd say something like, "Anyone want to play Papa Saw Hard? Four spots open!" Wait for responses. If you'd like to join a crew, state it but do not whine or beg.
If you do send a random invite and the person accepts it, tell them what you want to do. Say, "we're doing papa saw hard" or "we're doing She Wolf Normal" or "we're going to fight flying gift boxes." Whatever you do, say something. Do not remain silent.
The instances are set for the size of the crew. The Papa Saw instance will have less saws to fight for a two person crew and more saws to fight for a six person crew. There must be equal participation. It's no fair if you're in a crew of six, but do nothing. You make five people struggle to do the work meant for six people.
If you're going to fight a boss fight like Papa Saw, make sure everyone is ready before you activate the saws. If people are still waiting for their screens to load, they get attacked while they can't even do anything. And never start anything if one of your crew members is sitting down.
Going AFK
- Life happens. It's okay to leave the computer.
Tell your crew members that you're going away from your computer. "AFK" (Away From Keyboard" and "brb" (Be Right Back) are good things to say quickly. Let your crew members know so that they don't stand around in confusion, yell at you for not responding and then kick you from the crew.
If you can, try to wait until after a fight is over before you go AFK. If you must go AFK during a fight, say so. This way your crew members know you can't heal yourself.
Always leave your character standing. Do not sit while AFK. You take more damage while sitting than while standing. It's harder for your crew members to keep you alive if you get attacked.
If you know you're going AFK for 20 mins or more, tell your crew. Don't make them stand there for 20 minutes wondering where you went. Twenty minutes is a long time to leave people wondering why you aren't back yet. It's also a long time to be left with dead weight. And have the decency to leave the crew. Maybe they'll invite you back when you return. Maybe they won't. You can always find another crew.
Rage and rr4
Rings
- Basically, you want your ring set to be well balanced when you play Papa Saw.
Long range rings are necessary to attack the far away saws and make sure they come to you. Short range are good too.
Rings that attack more than one monster at a time (AOE rings) are extremely useful since there are tons of saws on screen.
Buffs are necessary. If each person carries one or two different buffs, you've got it made.
You must have a healing ring.
Rings applied to Papa Saw
- Short range single target attack rings are always good to have. Since your crew should be fighting together in a small space, you don't want rings with a knock-back effect. You want to keep the saws close and coming to you.
Hack = Good
Mantis = Good
Bump = Bad because of knockback
AOE rings are rings that attack more than one enemy at a time. Each saw wave usually brings more saws than you have people. The more saws attacked at once, the faster they die.
Dervish = Good. Use at higher rage ranks to hit more saws.
Fire Rain = Very good. Use at higher rage ranks to hit more saws.
Slash = Okay. It only hits a short range in front of you. Use at higher rage ranks to widen the swing.
Heavy Water Balloon = Okay. Higher rage ranks increases the area affected. However, higher rage ranks taunt enemies to attack you. Be well prepared to be attacked and lose lots of health.
Hornet's Nest = Ehhh... okay. It's weak. Higher rage ranks increases the area of effect. Higher rage ranks also induce fear. This makes the enemies run from you. You want them to come to you and your crew.
Long Range attacks are good for catching the attention of any saws that are hanging back from the melee. You want the saws to come to you, not run away.
Guns, guns, guns = Good. Long range. And attacks more than one enemy when used with higher rage ranks.
Hot Foot = Okay. It's weak. Higher rage ranks increase the area of effect.
Hunter's Bow = Bad. It has a longest range, but the weakest attack. That much range is not needed here.
Shark Attack = Good.
Shuriken = Good. Higher range ranks increases the AOE.
Solar Rays = Good.
Debuff rings are neither good nor bad. They're not necessary, but they don't hurt either.
Adrenaline, Gumshoe, Knife Sharpen
Crowd Control rings are not necessary for Papa Saw hard with a crew of six.
Duct Tape = Bad. When solo or with less people, this is a useful ring. You stick the saw in one spot. You can run away from it and heal while it's stuck. In a large crew of six, I'm pretty sure duct tape won't work on all of the saws. Even if it did, your crews members would attack and weaken the tape by the time you're done typing out, "Don't attack the duct taped saws!"
Quicksand = Bad. It's not needed. The saws swarm and attack all in one spot anyway.
Scaredy Cat = Okay. Sometimes it works and most of the enemies run off in the corner. This allows your crew to heal while fighting off a smaller mob of the braver saws. Thing is, if your crew is good, you won't need to scare the saws.
Taunt = Bad. Bad idea. You don't want the attention of that many saws. It's best if their attentions are spread evenly among your crew. If one person takes all the hate, they'd have a near instant daze.
Healing Rings
Diagnose = Good. It's costly and doesn't heal much. However, it's useful if all six crew members are standing in one area and get healed all at once.
Bandage = Good. You will have crews where people won't stay in a group. With diagnose, you'd have to walk next to the person to heal them. You must find that person. This task gets harder if that person is running around. It's much more simple with Bandage. Click the user's name on the crew pane to target and heal without having to chase them in circles.
Wish = Good. It's not a bad idea if you have room for it. You want your crew member's alive and this would be the best way to heal them. Remember that Wish can only be used on others so you'd still need Diagnose or Bandage.
Defibrilate = Okay. Believe it or not, this ring is not necessary for Papa Saw Hard. You should not daze. Your crew members should not daze. If your crews daze a lot, you're doing something wrong. Yes, accidents, lag and real life happens. In those cases, it wouldn't hurt to have this ring. Otherwise, you'd be better off swapping this ring for an extra buff.
Buffs. Buffs are useful for regenerating health faster, regenerating stamina, adding armor, increasing accuracy, etc. Different buffs are useful for different situations. Here's how buffs apply to PS Hard. And yes, more than just div and halo are needed.
Divinity = Necessary. You get a small window of opportunity between waves to regain stamina. This helps you regain stamina faster during the fight so that you won't get caught without enough stamina to heal yourself. Higher rage ranks also increase your luck stat. More luck equals more loot (gold, orbs, rings, recipes, recipe items).
Healing Halo = Good. This keeps your health up as those saws eat it away. Higher rage ranks increase your weight and makes it harder to knock you back. Saws don't knock you back, so the extra effect isn't needed.
Coyote Spirit = Good. You don't need the footspeed bonus since you're supposed to be sitting in one group. However, higher rage ranks increase your luck stat. More luck equals more loot.
Fitness = Okay. It raises a lot of stats up a little bit. Thing is, you'd be better off if you brought some other buff for yourself and your crew. If they stay alive, you stay alive.
Fleet Feet = Bad. You don't need the footspeed bonus. You're not running around. Higher rage ranks do increase your willpower. However, it only lasts for 30 seconds. You'd be better off with bringing Iron Will.
Ghost = Good. This ring increases dodge. Higher rage ranks increase the amount of dodge.
Iron Will = Good. This increases your willpower. Higher rage ranks increase the willpower even more and adds a small chance of deflecting attacks. The more willpower you have, the more you can resist status effects. Papa Saw has the ability to make your character sleep. More willpower allows you a better chance of staying awake.
Keen Aye = Good. It increases your accuracy. Higher rage ranks increases your accuracy even more and increases your chance of critical hits.
Meat = Good. This ring increases your max health. It can only be used on yourself. Higher rage ranks increase the amount of health increased. An rr4 Meat nearly doubles your HP. Does your health drop really low a lot? This is a good ring for you. It gives you an extra cushion so you won't die before people can heal you. It's not necessary, but it sure makes life easier.
My Density = Okay. This increases your weight so you don't get knocked back as much. It doesn't hurt, but is not needed. Saws do not knock you back. Higher rage ranks give you armor, so that redeems this ring.
Sweetheart = Good. Sweetheart increases max health and can be used on yourself and others. It doesn't add as much max health as meat. Sweetheart will stack with meat. Someone can gain health from both sweetheart and meat at the same time. Are you in a crew where the people's health drop low a lot? Use this ring to add a small cushion and help keep them alive. This ring was sold in Nicu's Shop for Vday 2k10. It's now only available in the marketplace. It's not available through zOMG.
Improbability Sphere = Good. Adds a small amount of armor and adds a chance to reflect attacks back at the enemy. Higher rage ranks increase the armor and reflection.
Pot Lid = Good. Adds a small amount of armor and deflection. Deflection nullifies attacks. Higher rage ranks increase the armor and the deflection.
Rock Armour = Good. Adds a lot of armor. Higher rage ranks increase the armor.
Teflon Spray = Good. Adds armor. At higher rage ranks, it adds reflection and dodge. Reflection reflects attacks back at the attacker.
Turtle = Okay. This is a panic button that can be hit every 15 minutes. It pretty much nullifies incoming damage for a couple seconds. Higher rage ranks increases the amount of seconds. It can save your life, but, you shouldn't need to use it.
Rings the overall crew must have: fire rain and div
Typical Ring Set
You're a crew of six people, working together. For the most part, you all have the same three jobs. You all are expected to attack, heal and buff. (If you have a healer, they pick up most of the healing and will also have some buffs.)
[attack] , [attack] , [attack] , [heal] , [buff] , [buff] , [random] , [random]
The typical build only needs 2 - 4 attacks. If you have more than four attacks, you have poor strategy. You use too much stamina. You're also going to be a big pain for your crew members when they're constantly having to waste their stamina on you because you can't heal yourself.
You must have at least one healing ring. Heal yourself. Don't rely on others to heal you. But! It's still nice to have help when in trouble, so help heal someone who's health is dropping fast. For papa saw, it doesn't hurt to carry two healing rings. The rings come in handy for different situations. You don't need two, but it doesn't hurt. You're bringing a health ring instead of a buff. The deal is, they buff you, you keep them healed.
See how many buffs are up there? The more buffs you have on, the less stamina you waste on healing. And the less you have to scramble to heal and defib.
It's a good idea to bring an AOE attack. It's up to you as to how many long range, short range and AOEs you have. But at least have one AOE.
Heal: Bring Bandage or Diagnose.
Buffs: One person in your crew must have Div. It's also good to have meat. The luck boost from rr4 coy is noticeable. Iron Will will help you resist Papa saw's sleep effect. And it's good to have at least two of the following: Pot lid, Teflon, Improb Sphere, Rock. Try to work it out so that your members each bring different buffs. Some people have all the rings, and others don't have all the rings yet. Just carry what you can.
crewing
talk in blue
The point of a crew is helping each other.
Speak. Don't just invite someone to a crew and walk away.
A person at cl 4.5 might be able to survive. Let them join your crew. If they don't understand what to do, explain the rules. If they don't follow the rules, kick them from the crew. This goes for anyone who is repeatedly making your crew daze and will not follow your instructions.
If you're not the leader, don't waste your time explaining things to deaf ears. Try to find a different crew.
Dealing with lag
spam heal
Dazing
reuse buffs
raise with rr4
