The key to this encounter is co-ordination, the bosses are not that tough, but they aren't going to line up in order to be killed like the other encounters, so listen to your group members and be prepared to move as needed.
The encounter is in three phases, first liberate the city, second secure the city, third defeat the king.
The encounter takes place in a copy of mos espa, to enter the encounter first talk to the tusken in the adventure hall in aurilia, run the simple missions he gives until you are told to warn the militia leader, that is the start of the instance. Kav (the militia leader) is based in the university forecourt and talking to him will get access. NB: Everyone in the group must have done the pre-quests, this is not like HK where only one person needs access. Also note if you are late and the group left without you, have the leader invite you from inside the instance and head in. It may be helpful to have a copy of the map below handy during the mission, especially for anyone handling the experts (see below)
In phase 1 you and the team will spawn to the east of the city (top of the map). Tuskens will be roaming around the city at this point, the objective first is simple:
REACH THE CANTINA (A1 on the map)
Do not stop, do not pass go, do not collect £200 (or $200 for our american cousins, or €200 for our friends over the channel, or whatever currency you use!) In other words jump on a speeder and ignore the tuskens between you and the cantina.
Once in the cantina clear it, one boss inside, but he's a push over. A few seconds later Kav will walk in and turn into a boss. Now for the main part of phase 1, the group here splits into two teams.
Team 1 consists of one medic and two others. Their job is simple - keep Kav alive. Waves of one elite and some normal tuskens will arrive in the cantina with the aim of nuking him. Kav isn't a push over tho, against one wave he can even hold his own, he'll get beaten if two waves arrive together or one wave arrives before the first is beaten (he heals great out of combat) but best to just kill the tuskens. Oh, and if you have a toon who hasn't yet reached 90, defending the cantina is great for xp! Often this group will split one toon each door, with the medic moving between, but that's up to you.
Team 2 consists of everyone else. Their job is to go around the 7 buildings listed in the mission journal and clear each of tuskens. There are bosses in each building, so keep the group together and pound on the invaders and you'll soon have liberated the city. My personal order for the buildings is University, Med Centre, Hotel, Cloning Centre, Combat Hall, Watto's, Starport (A2-A8 on the map). Some like the starport first, I prefer it last for two reasons, 1- it has two bosses, so warm the group up on easier buildings first 2- it is closer to the hotel which makes killing the bosses there at the start of phase 2 easier before the first attack.
That's the easy bit over with, the team now need to re-organise and take on new roles for phase 2:
1) Building guards - there are three key buildings,
- the first is the Mansion, to the south of the city (B1),
- second is the lone house (B2),
- third is the slum near Watto's (B3).
Each building needs one guard. They have to remain within 50-100m of the building at all times. Kav will announce when attacks are to happen, a few seconds later "Tusken fleshrippers" spawn and it is the guards job to intercept before they reach the building (they spawn within 20m of the building) and maintain aggro. The reason for this is that as well as the experts who spawn in the building so will a number of "a citizen" mobs. These idiots figure going for a stroll in the middle of a battle must be safe (after all C-3PO and R2-D2 seemed to be able to do it!) and will calmly stroll to the hotel from their building.
If while on their nice little stroll they see a tusken near enough, they figure a quick bout of fisticuffs is in order, unfortunately they never bothered to train novice brawler much less anything else so the average tusken will eat them alive, and a warlord barely has to look and they drop dead from fright!
IF 10 CITIZENS OR EXPERTS DIE YOU LOSE.
2) Expert controller - this person is the only person to talk to "an expert". Experts spawn in the buildings above (note in the slum they are only on the top floor, in the lone house they are on the bottom floor and in the mansion they are on both the top floor AND the roof. The expert controller's job is to guide experts in to the six buildings that need staff. Each building needs three experts before it is fully manned. In order of how beneficial they are to you the buildings are:
- A6 Combat hall - Spawns Elite "militia" mobs who will help defend the city, two of them can cope with a single boss tusken, so this should be the first priority building.
- A3 Medical Centre - spawns elite "Doctor" mobs, assists other defenders and citizens (arguable whether better or not than militia, basically depends which building spawns experts first - mansion or lone house do med centre, slum do combat hall)
- A2 University - Generates tusken bane buff which enhances group effectiveness (50% crit chance + other effects, nice buff)
- A8 Starport - we haven't directly observed this, but have been assured the Y-wing is spawning and attacking tuskens around the city using officer special animations.
- A5 Cloning Centre - grants a buff which activates effect on incap (gives heal and defensive boost).
- A7 Watto's - Spawns non-elite droids around the city (low priority as they can't help much but they try)
Experts will spawn in each of the three properties when Kav says the building is under attack. The expert controller has to talk to the experts out of combat, so either needs to be a profession capable of reliably exiting combat or just be careful not to get tangled up with the fight which will be happening outside the building.
NB: Experts will only converse when you use the radial menu, clicking on them will try to shoot them (even tho the converse icon is displayed). This unfortunately is a side effect of allowing other npc's to attack the experts and so there is no known cure for this.
NB: It is possible to change an experts target building on route, but they will normally walk back 10-20m before heading to the new target. Changing building can be a way to "pause" the experts if a warlord is ahead and there isn't help from the floating team nearby.
NB: The buffs appear to be short term, it will refresh as long as you are in the instance.
3) Floating team - this leaves 4 team members, their job is to be Muhammed Ali around the battlefield, floating around like butterflies between the buildings and around the citizens, but stinging like the proverbial bee when tuskens threaten any citizens. This team has the hardest job, they need to listen out for if any team member is in trouble and needs support, and especially if any citizen or expert is under attack. While Teamspeak/Vent will help groupchat does the job fine as long as people listen and respond.
NB: Warlords will spawn during this time (gold boss mob). If possible ignore them, they take a long time to take down and if they aren't threatening a citizen or team member best to let them walk around, once militia are available you can try to pull warlords into groups of two militia then leave, the militia can take the warlord down together.
NB: Fleshrippers will spawn at the building Kav announces after a few seconds, if possible a floating team member should join the building defender to ensure all fleshrippers are taken down quickly and citizens protected.
Tip: Two key areas early on are in front of the hotel and in front of the combat hall, the teams I have been part of normally try to clear the hotel and combat hall area if possible before the roving team starts floating around.
Once all buildings are activated the quest journal will bug, the final building will show 2/3 and not update on the journal - this is a display bug only and the quest has updated, so watch the comm messages and groupchat. When Kav says the tuskens are reorganising for a final push he means it!
Now, the final battle, phase 3.
This all takes place in the open space to the east of the cantina in front of the starport, however it is a comparatively easy part. You will have support of some doctors, militia and Kav, although be wary if any tuskens are near before the warlords agro the help will run off, if there is time help them so they come back to help with the big fight.
First a wave of 5 Tusken warlords, then 4 Honour guard together with the King will spawn.
NB: The King and his honour guard are on a timer after the warlords spawn, they won't hang around for you to kill the warlords, so make sure you work quickly or you could have 10 bosses all at once. This is where having the help (Kav and his goons) with you comes in handy for extra dps, so try to keep them on station and not running off.
(Ugly isn't he)
Defeat them all and revel in the victory while the Tuskens appoint a new king and regroup for the next days invasion!
NB: The Tusken King may become "invincible" at 4 health. It is possible, although sufficient testing has not been completed (seems some folk wanted it live before it was fully tested) that this is because another tusken is alive somewhere in the instance and so they have to be killed before the king can die. As tuskens can get bugged and stuck in walls the only way to kill some of them will be by damaging the king who is (we think) passing his damage to other tuskens around espa. Keep battering him for 10-15min and eventually they'll die, or have a squad search the city (check the key buildings above in case they got trapped inside).
Shadowbrak tip: To receive the token you have to be in the instance, however to receive the collection update and stat boost you have to be a valid combatant with the King. RD Interpretation: Keep bashing the king unless you've already got the 10 collection ticks, if you have then you can scout around for any tuskens still around to help the king to die quicker.
Known drops so far are either a backpack, rifle or stick schem along with some new rings (potentially part of the aurilian sets, to be confirmed), there have been enough threads on those. Many thanks to the many skilled players who have been testing this with me on TCP.
Edit: Added tip on the honour guard and king.
Edit2: added detail on new changes on final patch before live, note these are not fully tested and so may be inaccurate, if anyone observes something different please post below.
Edit3: added shadowbrak tip and my interpretation of it on the final battle and rewards.
