The villain respec is rather hard, and as such, I thought I would post a quick run-through of it. I know there have been others similar to what I am about to do, but everyone always ends up belittling Corruptors into h3410rz, and we all know how much their opinions matter.
Contact: Sparcetriel
Level Range: 24-30 (unconfirmed, seems to be a problem with how the levels are arranged)
Location: Dock on the FAR eastern end of Nerva
/Loc: -1260, 11, 6405
Mission # 1: Take out 25 Circle of Thorns
Pretty straightforward, I have gone to Cap Au Diable to do this. However, I guess you could do it pretty much anywhere with CoT.
Mission # 2: Defeat Hero Attack Leaders
Here is where things get fun. What you have is a mission packed with Longbow, Wyvern, and Legacy Chain. The idea is to defeat the three attack leaders: Elliot, Chelman, and DeVries.
Blasts Note: A Stalker with TP Friend will make this much easier.
If you have a Stalker with Recall, all he/she has to do is find the leaders and bring the team to that point. If not, youll have to fight your way.
Blasts Note: Chelman, the Wyvern leader, and DeVries, the Longbow leader, are both elite bosses.
This is pretty straightforward, also. No real curveballs. Just be careful with aggro, and scan groups before engaging, as they tend to be packed with bosses.
Mission # 3: Killing the Darn Thorn Tree or May it Rest in Pieces
This mission, if done wrong, will give you nightmares for years to come. If youre the leader, act like it. Lead your team. If you arent, listen to your leader. If hes a brainless figurehead, take charge. Your team (and probably the inadequate leader) will thank you for it.
This mission isnt really anything you havent seen before, save for the final room, unless you were PLd.
Blasts Note: The first of the mission is mostly fluff, and that Recalling Stalker can once again just take you to the final room.
If you have to run the mission like a sucker, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
1. Past the room with the pools, there will be a fork. Go left, unless you just want to fight your way to a dead end.
2. After you go down, for lack of a better title, the hallramps, dont go in the portal, but instead drop down the hole into the pool. The portal is a trap.
Once you reach the room with the Thorn Tree, you will have to do things in a specific order.
First, explain to your team exactly (or at least close to) what I am about to explain to you. Make sure to emphasize the parts such as Stay away from and Dont. By emphasize, I mean shove it down their throats until they can think of nothing but your instructions and how best to follow them.
The first task is to clear the room of the Circle of Thorns. To do this, go in a circle around the room. Stay away from (did you get that?) the center, or you risk angering the tree, and that is the last thing youll ever live to regret.
Once the room is clear, you move onto the second stage: the vines.
These vines, however, are not the pretty strands of Ivy that makes you say Pretty! like an eight-year-old schoolgirl. No, these vines will make you suffer, and require you to pay thousands in therapy fees.
The vines themselves do not hit terribly hard, but the tree does, and it doesnt appreciate you taking out its symbiotic friends.
Blasts Note: Someone(s) should have a vine counter. Find out who that is, and ask them to tell you when it reaches zero. Also, tell them not to zone, because, as of 1/2/06, zoning makes the counter disappear, which will make this harder, but not impossible. If this happens, have someone periodically try attacking the tree, to see if it is vulnerable yet.
Now, what you have to do here is run around the tree, taking out vines, until the counter is at zero. Easy right?
Wrong!
See, they grow back, which makes the counter go back up. And at some points, they will come back so fast that you actually will have more to take out 5 minutes after the last time you asked How many? Add to that the constant attacks and holds of the trees, and you have one major annoyance.
Blasts Note: Masterminds come in handy here, because the pets provide more targets for the tree, saving the lives of the players.
There is a way to counter this. Run around the tree, weakening, but not killing, the vines. This way, once they are all weakened, you can circle the tree, gathering, quickly, the kills you need. If at first this doesnt work, try again. Sometimes, you just miss some, and it only takes one.
After taking out the vines, go after the tree itself. This is a pretty normal AV battle. You attack it, it attacks you, and you all laugh about it years later. Or, if, like me, this tree causes you irrevocable pain, youll chop it into pieces, and sell it as a dining room suite.
Err, sorry. The only really interesting thing here is/are the ambush (es). One at what seemed like 60 percent health, and another a bit lower (second confirmed by me, denied by others). The second ambush was far larger than the first (by like what seemed a factor of 3).
Blasts Note: People have said there is only one ambush, but I was ambushed twice in my last attempt.
Once you finish the second ambush, the trees health will be back up there. But worry not, respec-dreamers, the ambushes are done. All that remains is to make the tree suffer like it made you suffer. Take it down, select respec as your reward, and exit the mission.
Congratulations. You are the proud owner of the first villain respec.
Go to Arbiter Lupin near the trainer in the zone to use it, and enjoy.
Blasts Notes: A Bunch of Them
Blasts Note: Try and stay at 1 +/- your own level when recruiting or the spawns may be too high for people at the low end.
Blasts Note: Brutes can really go to town in the vines section, because the name of the game there is Nonstop Attacking.
Blasts Note: Vines dont give XP, for those of you thinking about farming (you know who you are).
Blasts Note: Vines are immobile, and cannot be moved by any means.
I have heard conflicting views on the vines. People on the forums have claimed to have moved them via TP Foe, but my teammates have said they couldn't. It's a moot point anyway, because you have to move relatively fast with the vines.
Blasts Note: There is a second respec trial, which is, supposedly, levels 31-40. However, as of 1/2/06, as far as I know, there is a bug with the second respec that will not allow it to actually award respecs to people from 31-34.
Any comments would be appreciated, and enjoy.
