Respec Trial

[Q]

So my level 27 Mastermind really needs to do the respec trial - is anyone else interested?

[Creole Ned]

I can help with Greg the Gun (also 27), but would still like to do the trial with the higbies (33).

We might need to convince someone (Postal) to exemp down his highbie to help out.

We can also form a PuG. While not always awful, it wouldn't be my first choice.

[Fitty]

I will go.

[Circuit]

Iguanatron's almost 25, so give me a time and I'll come. Although, I think there's some secret rule that says I can't play CoV with Q.

[Q]

Can people do Friday or Saturday night?

[Q]

I talked to Fitty and Postal, they can do Friday.

[Creole Ned]

Friday is fine for me. We need to work out the levels of everyone so we don't have more than a one level spread (ideally). Right now it looks like:

Slim Tim - 27
Greg the Gun - 27
Foxy Brown - 30
Electric Toaster - 32
Iguanatron - 24

If we aim for 27, then Foxy and Toaster can be exemplared to 27. That leaves Iguanatron who, if he hits 25, would be 2 levels below. That might be workable.

[Q]

And we would have lots of fodder for that damn tree!

[Creole Ned]

We can split into two groups to take out the vines, with an MM and brute in each group. I can freelance for one of the groups. Since Foxy would have the only active heal, we probably want to go all out and not worry about taking damage so much. The SG base also has six of the 50% damage Enrage inspirations. Everyone should grab one before heading into the final mission.

We might also consider getting some Shivans from Bloody Bay, although we should be fine without them.

[Postal]

I can do Friday. I don't mind exemp down as long as I get the respec. :)

[Circuit]

Friday's probably cool for me. What time?

[Q]

How about 8:30 or 9 Eastern?

[Creole Ned]

I'm home by 5 p.m. Pacific, so it should be fine for me.

[Creole Ned]

After some a-levelin', these should be the levels going in:

Slim Tim - 28
Greg the Gun - 28
Iguanatron - 26
Foxy Brown - 30, malefactored to 28
Electric Toaster - 32, malefactored to 28

We will likely be facing 30s and 31s for at least some of the trial.

[Q]

Worst mission design EVAR.

[Circuit]

So yeah. It would've been fun if it were, you know, not so damn unfun.

[Creole Ned]

I agree 100000%!

However, I think the team did a fantastic job, especially fighting 33s and 34s. We were way outgunned but held in there.

I suspect most of us will never try this again until the trial is adjusted. If it's adjusted.

[Creole Ned]

Okay, I slept for a bit but now I'm awake again and wanted to write this down while fresh in my mind. I figure since we got close, this would probably work. It excludes Fitty for this run but I suspect he wouldn't mind at this point.

1. Postal gets Electric Toaster to 33, same level as Carl the Bat.
2. Circuit gets Iguanatron to 28, same level as Slim Tim.
3. All four of us get the Shivans from the Bloody Bay mission.
4. We have the 28s malefactor the 33s and play as a team of four 28s into the final thorn tree room. Once we are in the room and everything has spawned as 30s, we drop the malefactors and lackey instead, so we have a pair of 33s and a pair of 32s. This should put everyone at +2 or +3 to the vines.
5. Before taking on the vines, everyone brings out a Shivan.
6. We split into two groups, keeping our map open so we can see where the other half of the team is. Pop enrages and lucks and start the gardening.
7. Hopefully we get the vines down and move on to the AV. We summon more Shivans and send them in first. If we are not quick enough on the AV, we may get the one or two ambushes. Again, summon Shivans as necessary.
8. Win and celebrate by writing letters to the dev who designed this by calling him a poophead.

A few other things:

- make sure everyone is set to the default difficulty (Villainous). There is debate over whether this makes any difference or not, but it couldn't hurt. I was set to Vicious (3rd difficulty) which usually means you face +1 and +2, but I think the trial automatically goes off the highest level of the team.
- load up on enrages (the red damage inspirations). If you have any characters that have the 2nd or 3rd tier ones, put them in base storage. If you create a new character, they will get a top tier damage inspiration in the tutorial. Save it and put it in storage.
- carry one or two awakens. If one person goes down while fighting the vines, it can probably still be done if they can revive in the thorn room. If they have to cover the 1+ mile back from the hospitasl, probably not. Alternately, if you have the revive temp power, don't use it before the thorn room if you do get accidentally whacked (due to its long recharge).
- waypoint the teammate you are linked to so you can always see their position. This will help when people are lackeyed, since the thorn tree room is big enough to lose the link.
- also load up on lucks. Without much in the way of healing, we are probably better off getting Shivans to take the hits or avoiding them entirely. A basic luck (purple shield inspiration) boosts your defense by 25%. A few of them stacked will greatly reduce the chance of the AV hitting you at all.
- if you get hit by the tree, immediately pop a respite or two and get out of line of sight. Can't emphasize this enough. Especially for the squishier characters, you need to pop respites to survive the DoT and the smaller follow-up attacks that will finish you off. Stay out of sight until *fully* healed.

We would also want to have a specific plan for the vines near the tree. I'd suggest we split into two groups, clear all the vines that aren't near and then meet up as one big group to take the last batch closest to the tree. Q could send in one or two of his first tier henchmen specifically as bait to draw the tree's fire, while having the others attack vines. We could also park one or more Shivans in front of the tree.

I still think this mission sucks, but we came so close to clearing the vines I'm convinced we can do it.

And the only reason I suggest dropping Fitty is simply to have an even number on the team for mal/lackey purposes. I would run the trial again if Fitty wanted the respec.

The last thing I'd add is that we'd have to follow this plan probably pretty close to perfectly to insure it works. If the vines start to repopulate, we'd probably be better off resetting the mission than trying to bring down the patchwork clumps as they came back.

Anyway, I know there won't be much desire to give this another go, but I really don't want this stupid trial to beat me, especially when we got down to 1 vine *twice*.

[Tai]

I was going to ask how it went, but I see the answer above. *comfort*

[Postal]

I'm 1 bar short of 33 - the debt I got last night. It should be easy for me to make 33.

[Fitty]

I really never want to run it again so please do not feel bad about dropping me.

[Creole Ned]

One minor alteration to my proposal for another go:

Slim Tim is now 29, Iguanatron is 28, so I'd go with these two being 29 for the trial. As long as we keep a three level spread between these characters and Carl the Bat and Electric Toaster, we're fine with the malefactoring.

[Creole Ned]

Iguanatron is now 29. Hooray for robo-lizards!

[Circuit]

That's what lots of people say, but they don't really mean it. :(

[Creole Ned]

Well, that pesky levelling can change things. Iguanatron is now 31 and Slim "I dead now" Tim is 30, making it unnecessary for Electric "Postal who?" Toaster to get to 33, as the whole malefactor thing will no longer work.

Since we're steaming along, I suggest if we want to run the trial again that we do it when we all hit 33, which is the level cap for the first trial (24-33). I'm still confident that if we are the same level and go in with four that we will beat the stupid thing.

On the other hand, a dev strongly hinted that one of the veteran rewards in Issue 8 will be a free respec. No word on how much time would be needed to get it, but we figured that if it's a 3, 6 or 9 month reward, Q would probably qualify for it. Issue 8 is looking to be an Octoberish or thereabouts release.

[Q]

It might take us until October to kill those damn vines!

[Creole Ned]

Slim Tim is now 33. I wouldn't mind taking a shot at the trial again. We will need to find a kindly level 33 player to join us. If Q and Circuit want to give the trial another go, I will post on the Pinnacle forum looking for a hand once we have a date in mind.

Otherwise, carry on.

[Circuit]

Sounds good to me.

[Creole Ned]

Since Q is now pulling a Postal, maybe we can try running the trial with a PuG sometime. I'll poke around the Pinnacle forum and maybe see if anyone is planning on running it soon.

[Tai]

Villains only I take it?

[Creole Ned]

Yes, villains-only in this case.

As said before, I am just stubborn about completing it because we came so close twice before. The hero respec is a much better trial, in my opinion and is one I'd do just for the fun of it (and have, to help others get their respecs).

[Creole Ned]

By coinkidink, last night I had Lime Interloper on to check out his new junk and almost immediately got invited to the Skyraider respec trial. I roped Circuit into helping and our eight man team (3 scrappers, 3 defenders, controller, tanker) breezed through the trial in less than 90 minutes.

Night and day, as they say.