Kisana

Hey BA

Last i heard my trials made you bang your head on the desk, and if i was on a team or a league then you wouldnt join to help, so forgive me for not inviting you i just assumed you really didnt like how i run things

Im more than happy to put the pettiness behind us and fight to keep this game alive i was unaware you had stopped the sillyness but appreciate that you have and please feel free to shout for invite next time i run anything

Kis

Hey Omega this is how i build the league and run TRHW and i hope it helps you guys

We have run TRHW on Union with 14 people so pls dont be afraid to go with lower numbers than 24

Get as much range damage and debuffers as you can. Its a fight between the leagues Damage output and Tyrants Regen. Get as much Psy and Sonic damage as you can and as much -res as you can.

Kins are crucial imo : get 3 if you can and have them spamming Fulcrum Shift and Speedboost - you want the whole league at MAX Dam and MAX Rch

Ultimate Inspirations are crucial and EVERYONE must have them : i dont call for Ultimates to be used until Tyrant is at 50% health, then i ask everyone to make sure they have one used at all times.

Lore Pets: i call for these once we have taken Tyrant down to 25% (even tho he will regen a little) and i call for them when we are safe : ie just after the lightning has passed.

The Fight: ALL LEAGUE in melee - the SECOND you see the AIR CRACKLES, ALL move away BUT keep up those range attacks. Dont chain attacks - DONT try and get another hit in before you move! You want the lightning to strike at range then you can ALL get back in melee ASAP. If one person doesnt move then the lightning can appear around Tyrant and you are prevented from getting back tight on him. Melee toons save any range attacks/judgements for when they are backed away, so you keep up constant DPS on him.

When you are ALL back in melee - SPAM those Destinies - Fulcrums - sb's - buffs

Keep debuffs on him at all times.

Corruptors Scourge is very useful particularly during the last few % of the fight - so build in as many as you can.

Tyrant will regen - you will hit a couple of walls where you dont seem to be getting his HP down, pop those Ults and keep at it - There have been a couple of runs where we seem to be doing nothing for what seems like an eternity and its easy to think "meh we aint gonna do this" but we stuck at it and broke down the wall.

I hope this helps I know different servers run it differently, but the above works for us on Union

Good Luck

Thanks once again to everyone for last night

We had people on the league who had never done The Magisterium Trial before and for their first run to be a TRHW, just flipping well done you guys!

I said this would be my last TRHW, only because i am seeing the number of players on the server decrease and also the 2 people who i knew didnt have the badge are now the proud owners of it

Thanks to Li for once again being the camp photographer, however, we need to work a little on your "charm" :P yeah i know im one to talk

Ohms: No-one deserves that 8 year Vet badge more than you, but do you have to wear it? :P

Fury : Ive said this before and i will say it again and again without you at my side i am nothing

Biggie : one of these days i WILL make it to a mission or an objective before you cos i truly am sick of watching your @ss disappear :P

Ejek, Este, Psy, Eleasy, Art, Blastor, Skye, Lifey, Ideon, Som3 : Thank you, just thank you all so very much xxx

Kis

So long as my account remains VIP I shall continue to run Incarnate trials.

I have all the badges, and all my toons are full T4 - these runs are for you guys, so please if you wanna do something you have never done or if there is a badge you want, then please let us know.

Last nights TRHW run was run for 2 players who specifically asked for the badge and once again Union stepped up and were awesome.

We still need to do a Keyes Green run for a player and also we've been asked for a Mag Triple Threat, so we still have some work to do

So you are still gonna see me spam the channels for trials despite the Union numbers dwindling, we still have some awesome people hanging on in there and we are trying our best to keep the game alive.

Thanks Union

Kis xxx

Thank You, just thank you ...

I cant bring myself to log my badger in but i know she sits up there in the high 1390's.

She has every badge in game that she can get but never received the last vet badges she bought and paid for

Every badge i got was before the particular requirements for it got nerfed in one way or another, so yeah a lot of monkeys, a lot of frustration and a lot of fun

The badge that will always mean the most to me was by far The Really Hard Way badge, and for that i must thank all the guys on Union.

The worst for me... the other 139? cos those of you who knew my badger, know how much i truly hated playing her

Was always a pleasure Damz, Union is a great server, with an awesome community, and i will miss a hell of a lot of people

Take care and be happy in everything you do, and well, just thank you xxx

Congratulations Defiant was fun joining you guys

Defiant was my first server and i have so many happy memories, and this one just adds to the list

Last night I led a league of 18 doing the Mag trail, aiming for the Ready to Rumble Badge.

So we did the first 3 stages pretty quick with no problems, and then came Tyrant :

Team 1 took out the 6 Lights straight on entry and then all on Tyrant ... Simple

Tyrant went down before the second set of lights could spawn... Great

Nice run one would think only:

Tyrant didnt reappear at 10% health for us to complete the trial
No-one in the league had a EXIT button to leave the trial
No-one in the league got a reward table
No-one in the league got the Ready to Rumble badge
Everyone however got one Astral and The Hard Way badge

So while we had nothing better to do except wait out the timer cos we were stuck in there we petitioned, a GM appeared and escalated to a more senior person.

The reply via email was that they are sorry that 18 people didnt get a reward table for completing a trial, but there was nothing they could do...

So did we kill him too quick? Is there a bug?

Up to 24 people completing a trial for NO REWARD table isnt good and needs investigating

This post is in an attempt to clear the air, and explain how I view TRHW badge, I appreciate that there will always be people who disagree and read far more into things than is ever intended and unfortunately there is nothing I can do about that

This is one badge that requires a league not only to commit time, but also to commit either well earned Astrals, or Inf in order to give the whole league the best possible chance.

In addition, the nature of the badge "at the minute" requires certain imo "must not leave home without" powersets. I'm sure this will change as more and more people get used to the mechanics of the trial, and the badge will become far easier to obtain.

On my runs, not everyone has been able to play the toon or the badger they want, and NO-ONE more than me feels regret at asking someone to alt, but when someone does alt for the benefit of the league I make a promise to get them the badge on the next run when they are around.

When I build a league for TRHW I understand that not everyone is gonna be happy, or even get a place and for that I apologise, but I REALLY dont wanna be asking people to spend Astrals/Inf on a run "that I dont think" has either the damage or the debuffs to pull it off.

Potentially 10 Failed TRHW attempts can cost each player close to if not more than 100 Astrals and between 500M and 1bill inf (based on 5 Ultimates per run) and the cost of the Super insps. So yeah EVERY run I attempt goes in as a SERIOUS attempt, cos thats a MASSIVE commitment from every member of the league

On wednesday no-one was running TRHW on Union, and so I asked friends who I knew wouldn't mind spending Astrals (thinking they were gonna be wasted on a fail) to help me out to see how close we could get on a 12 man league EXPERIMENT. I could only get 11 people so I advertised the last spot and filled with the first tell. Yes, the league wasn't full cos 24 is max, but I didnt want to run at max, after all this was an experiment Two more friends who join my trials most nights logged on mid trial so I invited them. I was not "excluding" anyone, this was no different than a SG running a LRSF, or a bunch of mates running a LGTF We completed twice and so now we know its possible on a small league.

I have run 4 successful THRW trials now and on EVERY run I have advertised spaces, so there is a chance for EVERYONE to join, yes it may not be on the toon you want to bring, but I've explained my reasoning and will build your favoured toon into another run.

I understand not everyone likes the way I run trials or agrees with my opinions, and that's ok you don't have to join the trials, or agree with me

There isn't just me leading TRHW runs on Union and as I said many times I respect any leader of trials, cos I know how frustrating they can be to keep everyone together and focussed.

So please guys, lets work to make every run a successful one!

Gratz to new people who have now got the badge on different servers

Massive gratz again to the guys on Union, however 11% OMG guys, couldn't one of you got another shot in!

I've posted some of my thoughts and tips on the "Really Hard Way - Strategy Tips" thread, there is no right or wrong way as servers are doing it slightly differently, but hopefully together we can get more people this badge

These are some of my thoughts and tips for obtaining TRHW badge. They come from experience in leading 2 successful RHW runs on Union and the criteria I used for putting together the leagues.

1. +3 Level shifted only : Pref with Destiny and Lore slotted not just unlocked!

2. At least 5 Ultimate Inspirations (2 Astrals from ouro) the level shift is crucial)

3. Furious Rage Inspirations (ouro 1 Astral) and Large Green insps

4. As much Debuffs as you can get (-regen, -res, -hp)

5. As much ST Damage as you can get

6. Kinetic Buffs (constant Dam cap from FS, constant SB, -regen heals)

7. Dark Buffs (-regen heal, massive -regen rez, -res tarpatch, Mass rez)

8. Plan B and Plan C : As a contingency plan in case I didnt see us getting THW badge I had 3 people ready on my go to take out only 3 Lights 4 times to get us the HW badge. I also had 6 people prepped to take out all 6 wells should neither RHW or HW be an option. FAILING the trial was NOT an option, need to keep your league motivated, and getting some reward for completing. So Leader needs to be aware of time and dps and make the calls.

9. Committed League : you are asking 24 to potentially spend upwards of 10 Astrals or a considerable amount of inf, and several players thinking "meh I dont need to the others will carry me through" will impact the attempt.

10. FULL instructions and the 3 plans in place BEFORE you start the run. If at this point you have people not listening or saying "are we starting yet", or asking "what about lore pets" when you have clearly just said what your plan is regarding lore pets, then I'd kick rather than have the other 23 people waste Astrals/inf/time cos one person is not paying attention or is too impatient to not understand how crucial the instructions are Harsh? you're darn right!

11. My strategy was this: ALL in melee : CRACKLE WARNING - MOVE : RANGE ATTACKS till clear : ALL back in melee

I asked the league NOT to queue attacks, I asked the league to move AS SOON as the Red warning appeared and not to think "I have time for another attack cos I'm Uber" THAT one attack means the lightning strikes in melee of Tyrant. MOVE as soon as you see the warning and the lightning strikes away from him, leaving the FULL league able to get in Melee ASAP.

12. Lore pets/Hybrid/Interface/Destiny : I wasn't obsessed by any of these in particular, a nice mix was enough again looking for -res : - regen and -hp, and +rch +dam +regen, yes certain choices are better than others, but more important to me was a league that listened to and followed instructions.

13. Lore pets : I make the call for them when I see the "brick wall" where our DPS is getting Tyrant no lower, this has been both times around the 24-30 mark, so thats when we have been summoning the pets. Our Fights with Tyrant have been quite fast, took us 6.5 minutes the first time, so for us using lore pets at the beginning of the fight with him, then waiting for them to recharge for the final push was no use. The longer people have to focus the less focussed they become imo.

14. Guards and Other Damage: ALL being in melee as much as possible helps: Mass heals and Destiny buffs should keep you safe enough. A player missing out on 23 destiny buffs, or not in the spam heal radius for the 30 or so seconds inbetween each Crackle is gonna have problems.


Constant DPS is key, Dead players don't do damage : This will become easier when more people are able to dodge the lightning and so less deaths occur.

Fortunately this is a short, frustrating but fun trial so yeah it could be worse!

MASSIVE Gratz to MP and the guys over on Victory!

On Thursday/Friday I cant remember which cos it was very late and I had ran several Magesterium Trials both nights, I joined a Hybrid farm. The leader didnt ask for any shifts or powersets, we just needed 12 to start.

A call went out on various channels and 12 people joined one of which was dual boxing, so we had 11 players.

After the 250 mobs one person dropped, the rest of us decided to carry on to see how far we could get.

The 3 AV's were slow going, and we visited the hospital a couple a few times, Black swan caused no problems, and so we decided to carry on.

6 Players on lights immediately when they spawned, then rejoining the melee fight with the other 4 players, backing away when we say the Air Crackles warning then straight back in melee when it had gone, Lore pets out when we hit the mid 20% mark, job done

There may be some "mechanism" not working in this trial, as I said before I'm not a number cruncher so I have no idea, but any league with EVERYONE in it focussing on the task and getting the timings right should be able to complete it.

Im more than happy to join in Hybrid farms, I'm undecided if its right or wrong, but one way to stop the farming in any trial would be to award the total IXP gained only upon completion of the trial.

This would be very unpopular, but and I dont want to use the word force here so ill opt for encourage people to want to succeed.

I play on several servers and each server does things very differently which is a good thing

Lets take the Lambda which is a relatively easy trial in comparison to Magesterium and one thats probably run the most after BAF

Ive seen this trial fail so many times on one particular server because they run it as a Slam, only the leaders just invite anyone who shouts for invite and doesn't care less about powersets or level shifts, most of the leaders are straight 50 and are only interested in IXP and not bothered if trial completes.

If you get people who are AFK for the final fight and have pacification grenades, mobs start to build up very quickly cos none of the portals have been closed.

Straight 50's looking for IXP dont have judgement nukes for the mobs
Several of the league position themselves in the Cutscene area, strike a pose and have a bind ready to spam so people notice them, while the others stand together ready to spam buffs in preparation for the Alpha
The mobs build up more and players that normally stand and take the damage from Marauders Fist instead of moving away at the warning now have mob aggro on them as well and die.
DPS drops from dead players getting back from hospital, cos most healing toons are PvP built and dont have a rez : Mobs build up cos again no portals have been closed
The player that got two pacification grenades drop is still AFK, but its ok he only wants IXP
Pretty soon you are over run and there is no way back

A slam can save probably 5 minutes, but it loses you Astrals, and gives you less chance of the completion reward that people who dont need IXP joined the trial for in the first place.

My point is this, its bad practice and doesnt prepare players for the harder trials - Red warning on screen mean nothing to some players, those players in a Magesterium trial will have a very hard time

A lot of people are asking me if Hybrid being slotted was important:

A full league with Hybrid slotted certainly would help, but I began trying for this badge on Saturday night after we had got the other badges, by then yes a few of us had hybrid unlocked and slotted.

The league I built on Saturday tho, I didnt ask at all about Hybrids, in fact a lot of people were alting off their Hybrid unlocked characters onto characters that had never run the trial to add to our debuffs and damage.

I did ask for everyone to be +3
I asked for people to equip Longbow Wardens if they had them
I asked people to get Ultimate Inspirations (even just one for the final push would help)
I asked people to get Large Red and Green Inspirations

On the failed RHW attempts we managed to get Tyrant down to mid around 40, after it became clear we werent going to get him below that on our own, when we got him into the 30's I gave the call for lore pets, even tho I knew it was too early.

I had a back up team ready to take out 3 wells on my Go, which would give us the chance to get the Hard Way badge instead. On my go the nominated 3 players watched the timer and clicked 3 wells simultaneously and immediately after they had spawned. Im not sure how many wells they took out, but Tyrant went down pretty fast, and must have been less than 12 cos we got the Hard Way badge.

I had a third back up plan in that the whole of team 1 was was prepped to take out all 6 wells simultaneously on my Go, which ensured the league at least finished the trial and got rewards.

I didnt want to continuously fail the trial cos my calls were late, nor did I want to call too early and ruin a chance at one of the badges. Motivation was key, and I wanted as many players to stick around for another go

Just wanna thank everyone on Union for the awesome Magesterium runs, and not just the run that got us the Really Hard Way Badge last night but every run since Thursday

A VERY special thanks to everyone who alted from their Main Badgers to help us, it really was appreciated and you KNOW I wont stop until you all get the badges on the toons you want them on.

Took us a few runs to figure out what exactly was happening and how we could best work together as a league and do the job

I'm not a number cruncher, I have no idea of Tyrants Regen rate or hit points, I dont know or care about statistics for his powers, for me there were only three important elements for this trial when I put the league together on Saturday night for the first Really Hard Way attempts.

I wanted as many -regen powers available as possible
I wanted as much damage and ST damage as possible
I wanted people who could follow instructions and stay at their keyboards for 20 minutes

My advice to anyone trying for this badge would be this:

Run a few Lambdas
Ask Team 1 to head to the Warehouse and Team 2 to the Labs
Ask people to use acids on only 2 doors
Ask people to Back away from Marauder when they see the warning for his Nova Fist

After 2 or 3 runs you should hopefully have 24 people who can follow instructions and stay alive, and who hopefully have enough damage and debuffs to work as a league for the badge.

You can be maxed out on damage and debuffs but if the league doesnt move when they see that warning then whats the point?

The Magesterium trial for me was a fight between Tyrants Regeneration V Our DPS and Debuffs and dead people don't do damage

Kis

Thanks Li for the great Pics from last night!

And thanks to everyone for entering the competition, it was great fun seeing some of the awesome costumes you guys came up with!

It was REALLY hard to pick 3 winners, and as I said last night I wish I could have given you all 1 bill inf for the effort you put into the costumes.

Special thanks to Fury and Li for the extra inf to give out second and third prizes

Hoping to run another in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye on Union channels for more details!

Thanks again - Kis

Nice gratz all

For the second time tonight and 3 times in 2 days the whole league has been thrown from a TPN trial on Union.

Twice as we were TP'd out to fight Maelstrom for the final fight and once when we were TP'd out for the first outside fight against Maelstrom.

Yes i have sent petitions and the reply i got was : "If we are able to reproduce the bug you reported, we will place it on a list of things to be fixed. We will prioritize it based on its impact on the game and players."

it seems to be happening more regularly now:

it happens on max 24 man runs and min 16 man runs
it has always happened just as the teams were being tp'd outside to fight Maelstrom
Threads gained during the trial are lost
Players are unable to log their toons in for up to 20 minutes after the crash
Players when able to log in are finding themselves in random missions belonging to random people

If you experience this bug pls petition if with as much detail as possible to help them find the cause