At the present moment, a lock icon appears by the name of any player who has dealt over 33% damage to an elite NPC that rewards the top 3 damage dealers. This trigger condition is set higher than it needs to be. A more accurate icon would appear once a player has dealt over 25% damage for these targets, since if 3 players have over 25% it's impossible for a 4th to do the same. Only if the overkill damage from the final attack on the NPC counts toward your claiming a prize would it be possible for a lock at 25% damage prove to be in error.

I think the lock icon doesn't represent
how much is the necessary damage should be dealt to ensure reward
but rather
how much damage should be dealt.

Doing the minimal effort just to have the reward and have somebody else do the rest for you doesn't seem right. In some instance when I see another one come in and try to help or maybe just want to have a certain reward, but is having a difficulty doing his/her part; I just go finish off the NPC when a maximum number of attackers have shown up.

well the reward only gets handed out once the NPC ship is disabled. if someone is foolish enough to stop doing damage just because the lock shows up more accurately, then the time will expire and they will get nothing.

Then wouldn't that be more of a reason the player should deal damage that is more than just 26%? If the lock icon appears at 26%, the foolish player would stop attacking thinking that he/she has done what is needed to be done. Another foolish player seeing that even with 3 locked icons appearing in a 3 reward Elite NPC still not dead, would try to attack it only to end up killing it with no reward gained.


Actually, your suggestion would show a more accurate positioning of the lock icon. And if we are to be a bit more accurate. A lock icon would appear around 3% damage dealt in a 3 reward NPC if somebody else already did 95% damage.

The way I have always done it is to 1st look at the damage of the beast. Then fig out how many rewards there are 3, 4 ,12 ect… then look at how many have entered into battle. If there are already 3 on a 3 person target I let them have a go at it and leave it be. If only one has joined I do about 2-3k more dmg than the lock out. That way I secure my reward and at the same time make it easier to kill for the next person to come along. On the larger ones I do about 10-15k total as energy permits and keep attacking the enemy until it is down to about 10k, So that it will not be much of a threat. Furthermore let’s say it is the big station one that has 12 rewards…. I would check out to see how many people are on it say 8 have a lock out of 12 and only about 7k dmg left, then I would dived the 7 k by the remaining spots witch are 4 that makes 1750 so I would do about 2k and to lock up my spot knowing that only 5 k left and 3 others would not be able to pass me, but still allowing the chance that the slots can be filled. If it is my npc that is alerted I check it all the time to see when it is maxed out so I can then finish it off, if it hasn’t been already. And if the timer gets down to 1-2 hr I fish it off just to make sure everyone gets a reward but that’s not normally the case.

The problem with the suggestion is that if the "lock" is set at 25% for a 3 player NPC, then when those three players have all done their 25% damage, you still need a fourth person (who doesn't get a reward) to do a final 25% of the damage in order to kill the NPC. Either that or the three attackers all need to do more damage than the system tells them that they need to do based on their lock status. Since a three player NPC is intended to have three people attack it, it makes perfect sense that each of those three attackers should do 1/3rd (33%) of the damage. Having the lock set at 33% lets each of those three players know that they have actually done their share of the damage and they can stop without having to worry about making someone else do more than their share.

...you do realize that the lock doesn't prevent anyone from continuing to attack the NPC, right? Only their own laziness does. I myself have no problem doing 60% or more all by myself provided I have the energy, ship health, and combat values to do so. After all, it's entirely possible that one or both of the two helping me is on the low end of the level spread for that alert and it might not be reasonable to expect them to dish out a full 33%.

Yes, my suggestion means that there is still 25% enemy health left to go when 3 players have obtained locks, but the pop-up that appears when you put your mouse over the lock doesn't say "this player has done their fair share of damage". It says that they have "done enough to guarantee a reward upon defeat". Mathematically, that occurs at 25%.

Besides, if you notice someone who is stopping at 25% even though it's obvious that they can contribute a full share of 33% easily, perhaps you should take that as a warning sign that they are untrustworthy

I used to try and do that sometimes if it looked like more DOO people on the list. You can go even lower than 25% if you subtract the overkill damage from your own. It doesn't make as much sense with the new legion system though.