Exercitus

Happy Birthday, Stone!

Wow, been a while since I've updated this thread.

The MoApex went wonderfully. We got the Master badge easily.

The MoTM wasn't as successful. We got Army of Neu and Kitty's Got Claws, but that was it.

Last week, I was so tired from my new work hours that I wasn't around for BttB. Sorry about that.

This week'll be a retry at MoLRSF.

Last week was a complete success, although not in the way that I imagined. I thought we'd start out by hunting down the Giant Monsters that we missed the first time around several months ago, but they were nowhere to be found, probably due to the Nemesis invasions despawning them. On top of that, since said Nemesis invasions had just started earlier that day, most people were running those.

Things turned around once somebody suggested that we try for MoKAAAAAAAAAAAAHN again. (The first try several months ago was a complete failure, we couldn't even complete the TF.) We managed to get a team of seven together, and wound up getting the Master badge!

Not quite the success I hoped for tonight...

Our first run ran into one major problem. Had a few people unfamiliar with the trial who talked to Desdemona (and hence started the clock) before I could give instructions. I had always thought that the league leader was the only one that could speak to Dez, and a few people told me that they shouldn't have been able to. Anyway, I got pretty peeved at that point. Sorry if I went a bit overboard, its just that really threw me off my game. We managed to recoup fairly well. We succeeded at the trial (which is not an easy task in and of itself), but didn't get many badges. Everyone got Daylight Saver, and one person managed to get Dreamwalker.

Since the first run didn't go so well (at least in the beginning), we then ran a second run. This was way better. Still didn't get all the badges, but we did get both Daylight Saver and Lost Connection to Server.

Next week... I really don't want to run MoUG, even though its the only iTrial we haven't tried a Master run of. If people really want me to run it, I might consider it at some point in the near future, but not next week. Instead, I want to do something I've been considering for a while: "Oops, We Missed That Badge" Week! There have been quite a few badges that we've tried to get at Badge to the Bone and failed at, such as GMs we missed during the Giant-Monster-a-Thon. I think we'll go back and revisit some of those, at least the ones that can be done quickly. (As in, none of the Master badges are on the table.)

Last night's MoBAF runs were flawless. Seriously, I could not have asked for a better league.

Next week, I'm thinking MoMoM. I haven't seen anybody running this trial lately, so I figured this is one that people could use. Granted, this one's kind of tough to get the Master badge on, so here's what I think we'll do: At least one full run to get A Perfect Storm, Daylight Saver, and Lost Connection to Server, then if people want to stick around, we can just farm the first part a few times to make progress towards Dreamwalker/Dreamkiller.

My internet connection has finally been behaving itself, so we managed to get that MoLambda done tonight. Had a great league for each of the three runs (Antacid, Lambda Looter, and Well-Stocked). If anybody didn't get Master, they'll get it soon enough; Synchronized is commonly gotten during a normal Lambda run without even trying.

I think next week we'll go for MoBAF. This is another one that I've not seen advertised in the global channels for a long while, so I figure a lot of people could use it. While it is possible to get all the badges in one run, I'm thinking of spreading it over 2-3 runs. I remember things going horribly wrong way more often than not when trying to get them all at once.

Heya folks! I apologize for not being around last night to organize BttB. Over the last few days, my internet connection has been going out for hours at a time in the afternoon/evenings. I'd still like to do the MoLambda at some point this week, but with no way of knowing if my connection is going to start behaving itself, I have no idea when that might be possible.

Last night's BttB was MoTPN. Had several problems with this one. First, we didn't get many people; I imagine a lot of people were running either WWD7 or the WST. Second, I admit I have no experience leading TPN, let alone MoTPN. Huge thanks must go out to Professor Richter, who does have a lot of experience leading TPN, for getting us organized and on-track. (Seriously, this would have been a complete mess without him.) We didn't get all the badges, and nobody on the league mentioned getting Master, but we did get several of the badges.

I don't think I've got a theme or anything for April's BttBs. I know I want to do MoLambda next week, since a few people have mentioned lately that they'd like to run one. After that, not sure. As always, I'm open to badging suggestions.

Last week was MoKeyes, and it was a partial success. At first, it didn't look like we were going to get enough people to start, but once people did start showing up, the trial filled up fast. The first run, we managed to get Anti-Anti-Matter and Bunker Buster. Since we didn't get Avoids the Green Stuff or Loves a Challenge, several of us tried a second run for them, but weren't successful. At least one person managed to get the Master badge, though.

Tonight was MoDD, and it was a complete success! Every single badge in one run!

Next week will be MoTPN!

Since Issue 22 was released on Tuesday, it didn't look like we had enough interest for MoKeyes that day. We'll try to do it this coming Tuesday instead.

I've also updated the schedule for the rest of March.

Last week, we continued on with the arena badges. We managed to finish up the fill-in-the-blank-weight badges, and get everybody the Arena Survivalist badge. We then tried to go for Grand Lanista, only to realize after quite a few gladiator matches that they had to be rated for them to count towards the badge.

That leads us to last night's events. Or rather, last night's non-event. Again, we tried to go for Grand Lanista, but try as I might, no matter how I tried or how much I poured over Paragon Wiki, I did not seem to be able to set up a rated gladiator match. Well, I might have figured it out after 45 minutes, but I was so tired and so aggravated at that point that I couldn't think straight any more, so we wound up not getting any arena badges. Warden might have led a few people to Warburg afterwards to go for another PvP badge, but if so, it was after I logged off, so I don't know how that went.

So I'm done with arena badges. We've been going after them for a month now, and I'm sick to death of dealing with that Battle Terminal interface. Maybe, at some point way down the line, we'll try again for Tournament Victor, Pentad Victor, and Grand Lanista, but not now.

March is going to be another Master month, kicking off with the requested MoKeyes next week. I really doubt we're gonna try to get all the badges in just one run; in my experience that rarely ends well. If anyone has any Master badges (TF, SF, or Trial) that they still need, let me know and I'll add them to March's schedule. If I don't get any suggestions by next week, I'll just fill March with Master runs that we didn't get to in January.

Last week's event went way smoother than the week before. Wound up getting a lot of arena badges (including the Cage Fighter badge, which I'm glad people pointed out to me, as I didn't even know it existed), but still didn't finish all of them. We'll try to finish them up tonight, as there aren't too many left. Grand Lanista might be a pain to go for; and we still didn't get enough people last week for the Pentad Victor, so this is one I'm still hoping for.

So I just finished up both the blueside and redside version, and read through this thread, and I'm kind of surprised that no-one has mentioned what a non-event Penny Yin and Vanessa DeVore meeting face-to-face was. At the very least, I was expecting some kind of "wink wink, nudge nudge" for those of us who've been paying attention, but... nothing. It's got me wondering exactly what the situation is with those two.

*Walks into the room*

*Sees Layla covered in birthday cake giggling madly on the floor*

*Facepalms*

*Walks out of room*

(Happy Birthday, Layla!)

So this week's activities didn't start out all that well. Since several of us needed the Tournament Victor badge and we had 8 people, we started with a Swiss Draw tournament. Unfortunately, two things were wrong with that:

A) Due to my near-total unfamiliarity with PvP, I thought that setting the tournament to 10 kills was reasonable. *Insert uncomfortable laughter slowly trailing off here* Yeah, most of us were just standing around for almost an hour-and-a-half.

B) Swiss Draw tournaments are completely broken. There is no rhyme or reason as to whether the winner or loser of a given round progresses to the next round.

Once that first, very long, very broken tournament was finished, we tried a few more (much quicker) Swiss Draw tourneys, even trying a few tricks that were supposed to make it work correctly. Nada. Several of us filed petitions at this point, including me. And you know that if I'm filing a petition, I am mightily ticked off.

After that, I think we managed to turn the evening around a bit. We did a few Team Duels, and I think a Battle Royale, and just barely started the fill-in-the-blank-weight badges. In short, we each got a few badges, but not anywhere near as many as I'd hoped.

Now that we've lived and learned from that experience, the plan is to try to pick up the rest of the arena badges next week. Or at least, as many as we can get given the Swiss Draw problem. The biggie is the Pentad Victor badge, which would require 10 folks to show up, so I'm gonna try to encourage a bigger turnout.

Tonight's MoLGTF was also a complete success!

The MoITF last night was a complete success!

So Reichsy had his revenge on us this week. We lost Master fairly early on when some Column goons got in a lucky shot on one of our team. In the final mission, we just could not bring Reichsy down due to the Unstoppable thing he does at about 25%, so we didn't even finish the Task Force.

One thing I do want to say here. Yes, the overall goal of this month's Master runs is to try to get the badges. And I think we've all been doing a great job of not being jerks to others if they happen to be the first to die, since it very well could have been us. However, I've been seeing people beating themselves up way too much over this. It's okay, life goes on if we don't get the badge. The important thing is to have fun.

Anywho, MoITF next week.

Tonight's Master run of the Barracuda Strike Force was successful! Most of our team was the same as Sunday's SFS run, but this time we employed a different strategy during the Reichsy fight that made it a lot easier.

Although we had a really great team overall, I gotta give special thanks to Zal. Honestly, if we hadn't learned from Sunday's attempt, I don't think we would have been successful here. Further, I think it was his idea to damage Reichsy just enough to trigger the ambushes, deal with them seperately, and then beat up Reichsy solo.

Next week, we'll go for MoKAAAAAAAAHN!

Just wanted to say that I had a really great time last night and...

*Glances at team pic*

...am really looking forward... to the Silos... and... Apex...

*Leans in and squints at team pic*

By Nemesis' bronze beard, what is wrong with my armor in that pic? All the Celestial armor pieces are light gray and pink rather than the black and deep purple they're supposed to be! Is this what this costume really looks like to other people?!

*Storms off to perform major acts of villainy at the local tailor shop*

So the MoLRSF last night didn't go so well... We didn't even finish the strike force. Everytime we got close to bringing down our first target in the last mission (Numina), we'd teamwipe and she'd regenerate. In hindsight, we really should have had more buffs/debuffs, but it was taking a while to fill the SF as it was. Regardless, I'd still like to think we had fun.

Next week, we're staying redside with a try at Mo'Cuda. (Yes, I know Zal's also doing one this week for SFS. Didn't know he was wanting to run 'Cuda as a Master run when I set up this month's schedule or I would have spaced the two out more. Oh well, two tries at the badge are better than one, right?)

Last night's marathon of the redside WST (third treespec) went great. We ran it six times total, and had it down to about 12 minutes per run at one point. Thanks to everyone who showed up and made a dent in those pesky WST assist badges!

January is going to be Master Month for Badge to the Bone Tuesdays! Each week we'll be attempting a different "Master of" badge. I'll update my original post with the schedule. You'll notice that MoSTF is not included for three reasons.

A) There's only 5 Tuesdays in January.
B) As far as I know, Impyre still runs regular MoSTF attempts.
C) Given what we know is coming in January as far as "Who Will Die?" is concerned...

Started off blueside, taking down the Recluse's Victory AVs. Black Scorpion and Lord Recluse took their sweet time spawning, though. Had one or two people try to grief us early on, but given how many heroes we had, they left pretty fast.

Didn't have as many redside, but we still had enough to take down the entire Freedom Phalanx.

Also had a lot of people get badges for pillboxes and controlling heavies, which was a bonus.

Thanks to everybody who showed up, but special thanks to Kyo and everybody who was on her teams. They were nice enough to be on the opposing side and flip pillboxes for us to better spawn the AVs and Heroes.

Next week we'll be doing a WST marathon to make some quick progress on the WST badges. Specifically, we'll be doing the redside version (3rd treespec) since its awfully quick.

Lastly, I'm still looking for ideas for badges to go for. I've nearly exhausted the initial suggestions I got. If I don't get many more, I'll set January up as a TF/SF Master month.

Not a complete success tonight, but we managed to do pretty well.

Kraken - Defeated.

Paladin - None were under construction while we were in Kings Row. Lazy Clockwork...

Adamastor - Defeated.

Lusca - Was not around, must've heard we were coming.

Jack in Irons - Defeated.

Eochai - Defeated, but no badge awarded. (Jack and Eochai were fighting each other.)

Sally - Defeated.

Babbage - Defeated.

Jurassik - Defeated.

Winter Lord - Defeated.

Deathsurge - Defeated. (Took forever to spawn.)

Ghost of Scrapyard - Defeated.

Caleb - This was really aggravating. We finally managed to spawn him, and then we couldn't find him anywhere. Finally gave up once the sun rose.

Arachnos Flyer - We planned to do this one, but it spawned while we were looking for Caleb, so we missed it.

Seed of Hamidon - Our grand finale, and I'm proud to say we took him down pretty fast.

Hope everyone had a good time and upped their badge counts a bit. Next week we're going to Recluse's Victory to fight Arch-Villains and Heroes!