Major_T

Happy Birthday!

I don't like posting in the middle of stories because it breaks up the flow for those that are following along... but seeing as how time is short I'll do it anyway.

Thank you, jwbullfrong (and all of the other fiction writers) for sharing your tales of the strange, the fantastic, and the heroic.

I appreciate it.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

I'd like to publicly thank Sooner, Riverdancer, StormVyxen, Demon_Shell, and a lot of other players (who did not post in this thread) who came out to help even though they already have the badges.

Without the continued support of previous badge earners, it would not be possible to get the badges for other players.

We ran three Magisterium trials.

The first two were in an effort to get Ready to Rumble. We missed the badge on the first attempt by about 30 seconds. On the second attempt, we were successful and had nearly 60 seconds to spare.

The final trial for the night was for Triple Threat. We were able to acquire that badge very smoothly. All three AVs were brought down to the milestone HP levels at nearly a perfectly even pace. And the badge was successfully acquired.

Additionally, Shadow Master and the Hard Way were also acquired.

Congratulations to all of the players and heroes/villains that were able to acquire the Master badge tonight!

This is happening later today!

The intention here is to have two successful badge runs. One for Ready to Rumble, and one for Triple Threat. At the minimum, there will be two runs, one for each.

If there is a specific badge that you need, please come early to secure your spot. We'll begin the trials as soon as I believe we have the league composition to have a successful attempt.

On Sunday, August 5th, 2012 starting around 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific), I intend on leading yet another series of Magisterium incarnate trials in the Bulwark neighborhood of Dark Astoria.

The intention will be the acquisition of the badges required to get the Master of Magisterium badge: Ready to Rumble, Triple Threat, Shadow Master, and The Hard Way. As of the writing of this post, I am not going to lead any trials in an attempt to get The Really Hard Way... yet.

League composition

If you want to attend this event with a specific character, please come early and secure your spot. As the league fills up I will have to be particular about additional invites so that the league composition fits my ideal vision.

As the league is limited in size to 24 people, we are going to work with 3 teams of 8 (obviously) 50+3 heroes/villains. Each team will be composed of 1 lead Tank, 2-4 ranged/melee damage dealers, and 3-5 buffer/debuffers.

For the ranged/melee damage dealers, I am looking primarily for Blasters, Scrappers, Stalkers, and some Dominators and Brutes. For buffer/debuffers, I am looking primarily for Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, and Masterminds (in particular Kinetics, Dark Maisma, and to a lesser extent Radiation).

Ready to Rumble

The Ready to Rumble badge is acquired by defeating Black Swan sooner than 8 minutes after entering the Magisterium (talking to the Dream Doctor). This requires that the first 3 phases are completed in rapid fashion, especially the first (defeat 250 IDF).

To do this, each team will split up in different directions to cover as much ground as possible. Team one will go left (west), Team 2 will go straight (north), and Team 3 will go right (east), following their lead tanks. The objective is to wipe out the Lieutenants and Minions as quickly as possible and move on to the next spawn. The ranged types (blasters, defenders, controllers, corruptors, dominators) are to use Lore pets during this phase. The lead tanks role is to taunt the bosses into the next group.

The next phase is simpler: Teams 1 and 2 will attempt to defeat both Shadowhunter and Nega-Pendragon (focusing on Shadowhunter first), while the third team attacks Chimera. The objective is to defeat all three of them as quickly as possible. All remaining Lore Pets are to be used here.

The third phase is also simple: Everyone attacks Black Swan. When the portals/rifts open, everyone except the Tankers are to switch targets and destroy the portals/rifts before returning to attack Black Swan.

If all goes according to plan, Black Swan should be defeated inside of 8 minutes.

Triple Threat

The Triple Threat badge is acquired by defeating Nega-Pendragon, Shadowhunter, and Chimera all within 5 seconds of each other. To do this, each team will attack a different AV. Team 1 on Nega-Pendragon, team 2 on Shadowhunter, and team 3 on Chimera. The objective will be to weaken the AVs to approximately 20% health, then 10%, and then 5%, and then defeat them. Use of Lore pets will be on an as needed basis: if a particular AV is taking longer to defeat, some Lore pets for the team taking on that AV will be used.

Chimera will mark and teleport various members and of the league and himself around the map. It is imperative that you find your way to your AV as quickly as possible so that you are in position to defeat the AV when the call is made to take them down.

Happy Birthday!

Lets see...

I see that Hyperstrike, Stalemate, Kult, and Mage Black posted that they are interested in getting Triple Threat and Ready to Rumble. I know of at least two more people who have privately voiced interest as well.

If we don't acquire the badges for those who expressed interested in the next advertized session, I will organize another sometime after Double XP weekend.

Although Hyperstrike has removed his posts, I will look into organizing the subsequent attempts on a weekday. My previous posted requirements for the lead Tank role still apply.

There hasn't been any activity in this thread for a few days. I know of a handful of people who are still missing Ready to Rumble and Triple Threat.

My intention is to schedule another attempt for the first weekend in August, either on the 4th or the 5th. A week before Captain Mako week/Double XP weekend.

My final choice of which day (Saturday or Sunday) will be determined early next week, and it can be influenced by feedback posted here.

Typically, the Magisterium trial is run most week nights at least twice out of DA. It is often the last trial run in the progression of trials with typical recruiting for a that trial will often occur between 9 to 9:30pm Eastern (6 to 6:30 Pacific).

Most leagues start off with Lambda, BAF, Keyes, and TPN, before finishing the evening/night with one or two Magisterium trials. The trials are most often led by either Talbien or Huron, and occasionally I have lead them as well. On occasion (to shake up the monotony) an Underground, Mom, or DD will be run instead.

If no one else requires Ready to Rumble and Triple Threat, I'm giving thought to moving on to attempting the Really Hard Way.

To this point, I have organized badge attempts on a Saturday evening/night and another on a Sunday evening/night.

Before I schedule a third, I want to get feedback from those who may not have had an opportunity to acquire the Triple Threat and Ready to Rumble badges from the previous two attempts.

What days/times are good for you?

Badge Run Recap...

Run 1 (Ready To Rumble): Successful badge acquisition
Run 2 (Triple Threat): Unsuccessful badge acquisition
Run 3 (Ready To Rumble): Successful badge acquisition
Run 4 (Triple Threat): Unsuccessful badge acquisition
Run 5 (Triple Threat): Successful badge acquisition

On all of the runs, Shadow Master was earned.
On many of the runs, The Hard Way was earned.

Equal parts congratulations and thanks to everyone who came out to make these attempts successful.

I will organize another evening of MoMagi runs in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

This is today.

The intention is to start in about six hours.

Yes.

Additionally, to those that have already acquired the badges in the previous attempts:

Please show up if you can. There are 23 league positions (plus one for myself) available and I'm reasonably sure that we'll need the assistance of those who already have the experience of getting the badge to assist in getting it for other players.

Two pieces of information:

1. It is still possible to get the Hard Way badge with a strong league... by accident.

2. On Sunday, we will be attempting to get each badge in separate attempts (1 attempt for Ready to Rumble, and 1 for Triple Threat), and we will be attempting to get each badge at least twice. That means we will run at least 4 Magisterium trials, if not more.

The patch was brought to my attention yesterday.

I suppose we won't be defeating Tyrant in 5 seconds anymore.

I expect anyone who wants to be one of the lead tanks to be thoroughly familiar with my expectations of a lead tank and thoroughly understand the mechanics of the trial.

The player must also have:

a. completed the Magisterium trail before on that tank and participated in one of my badge runs before on a non-tank.
or
b. participated in one of my non-badge runs on that tank.

The reasons are simple.

These badges are rewards for efficiency, and I seek to recruit efficient leagues (see the first post). As we have a situation where there will be three teams, we need a minimum of three tanks, one for each team (per the plan in the first post). Redundancy in the tanker role is inefficient* unless the tanks are very well coordinated, and I can only think of a handful of duos that did that well. Therefore, there will be only and exactly one tank per team. No more, no less.

A lead tank having a mental lapse (even for a moment) in these badge attempts can be the difference between getting the badges, and not getting the badges. Therefore, the tanker in question must be thoroughly familiar with the behavior of the IDF during the first phase, the damage output and peculiarities of the AVs in the second stage, and the oddities that exists in the third phase against Black Swan. Any mental lapses or misunderstandings by the lead tank could be disastrous.

I do not like failure, and I'm sure no one who participates will enjoy failure either. So to put the league in the best position to succeed, I will call upon the skills of tanks that I am familiar with that are knowledgeable and capable of fulfilling the role that I have designated for them. If any tank players want to participate on my badge trials and there is any doubt that I may not have absolute trust in your ability to be a lead tank on my badge trials, you now know what you have to do to qualify.



*The role of a tank is to manage aggro and keep the mobs grouped around him/her to maximize the effect of AoEs. If the aggro is spread out between two tanks, the effect is reduced. Additionally, the extra tank is taking up space on a team that could be better filled by another primary damage dealer or force multiplier. Thus the presence of the second tank is reducing the effectiveness of the team.

Happy Birthday!