Soul Storm

Union Underground Trial Strategy Walkthrough
In the trial you have to lead Desdemona through the Underground Tunnels and find out the Praetorian Vanessa DeVore’s secret that will shake the foundation of Praetoria itself.

This is a guide written to expand upon both the official walkthrough and Voodoo Girl’s guide and add some of my own touches too.

Below is a map of the trial.



As with most of the trials there are 3 main stages to the trial itself and I’ll attempt to give you a basic strategy to complete the trial successfully. Please bear in mind I will describe when and how to get the badges, but this guide will not specifically walk through how you can get the ‘Master Of’ badge.

NOTE: The most useful Incarnate ability to have and use on this trial is the Clarion Destiny shield. This will protect you against the hold and terrorize attacks of the different War Walkers. I would be hesitant to start the trial without making sure that there are enough people (roughly 3 or 4 people with Clarion) on your league with the Clarion Destiny Shield to overlap the confuse protection.

• Break Free (Mag 5) will give you 30 seconds of protection
• Emerge (Mag 15) will give you 60 seconds of protection
• Escape (Mag 20) will give you 90 seconds of protection

Personnel Needed: 12-24 characters at level 50

It's a good idea to sort out 2 things before you enter the trial;

• First you should establish a Main Tank that will be taunting the War Walkers and Avatar in the trial. This Main tank will be supported by a single designated healer throughout (preferably a support character with targeted heals).
• It's also a good idea to pick out a couple of blasters and melee damage characters in your league and assign them as "Regenerative Lichen Duty". These characters will ignore the Lichen-Infested War Walker and concentrate on taking out the Regenerating Lichen columns near the War Walker. Do this early to speed things up later on.

Stage 1 – Desdemona’s Ritual and Extinction War Walker

Enemies: Imperial Defense Force

Rewards: 3 x Astral Merit for Extinction War Walker

Tips: Whoever enters the trial first will be given ‘custody’ of Desdemona, and that will last the duration of the trial, unless she loses you (like any other escort npc) so have this in mind as you enter the trial. The person that is given custody of her will have a floating symbol of Desdemona above them, so you don’t lose them. Either a Tank (to take damage for her) or a MM (keep your pets around her at all times) or a healer (heal the damage she takes) would be good choices for her escort. Obviously other people on the trial can help out, but this is a good foundation to consider.

For the first part of the trial, at least until the Self-Repairing War Walker, you will stand more chance of completing the trial if everyone on your league moves and acts as a single body to clear the mobs.

• When you first arrive you’ll have to clear out all the mobs in the area and then protect Desdemona while she performs a Ritual. During these Rituals she will not move or defend herself so you’ll have to do it for her. There will be 4 separate IDF assaults in 2 different locations. The game will give you plenty of time to defeat each wave.
  
• Next you’ll need to lead Desdemona through the different subways and tunnels. When you hit a tunnel with a big right-hand curve, stick to the right hand side to protect Desdemona - sticking to the right will minimise the mobs you encounter as they tend to spawn on the left hand side.
  
• Now you’ll have to clear 60 IDF before you get to the Extinction War Walker. It's a good idea to stop your team and explain to them the dangers of War Walker's attacks and to instruct everyone that only the Main Tank you decided earlier should be taunting. It's not important at this stage but it's good to get the league into the habit of listening and coordinating together early on. At this point you’ll need to defeat the Extinction War Walker. By this point in the trial should have had little to no damage to Desdemona.
  
• Note: All of the War Walkers can Hold, Terrorize or Damage (DoT) you by marking anyone within a 30-foot sphere with a targeting reticule. Anyone within 10-feet will be hit by 1 of 3 attacks:

• Crowd Dispersal – When hit, you are Terrorized for 10 seconds.
• Arrest Mode - When hit, you are Held for 10 seconds.
• Lethal Force – When hit, you suffer high damage over time. This DoT deals 30% of your maximum HP each tick. Heal yourself quickly.
• Tip: Instruct your league to watch if they are 'Targeted' by the War Walker. When targeted a player should run away from the rest of the league so that the War Walkers attacks don't affect anyone else on league. A good tactic here is to make your main tank be the only taunter and have them be positioned away from the rest of the league. This should make sure that only the tank is targeted by the War Walkers.
• After this War Walker it is a good idea to save all of your Lore Pets, Alignment Powers and Accolade powers until you face the Lichen Infested War Walker. This will help to take the target down easier.

Stage 2 – Crystal Chamber Trap, Self-Repairing War Walker, Lichen Infested War Walker

Enemies: Devouring Earth, Imperial Defense Force

Rewards: 2 x Astral Merit per War Walker.

Tip: Use the Clarion shield or make sure you carry break free’s for the War Walker fights, as the Hold and Terrorize attacks can and will wipe entire teams.

• Next you will be faced with a lot of tunnels you’ll need to clear through. You’ll start to see some glowing pillars as you clear. Start collecting the Glowing Lichen to use on the Self Repairing War Walker when you face him later.
  
• Now is the Crystal Chamber Trap. There will be 4 regenerating crystals that have locked in Desdemona. While she is trapped she can’t be healed and her pets have been killed. While the trap is active, every 3 seconds everyone in the league (and Desdemona) will lose 1% of maximum health. Keep your Tanks near the crystals and try to keep any Devouring Earth away from the crystals because they will regenerate instantly if there are any near them. Once she is freed her health will be fully restored.
  
• After the trap you will need to navigate through the tunnels (you’ll know if you’re going the right way because the walls will continually get more and more covered in goo.) As you go, you’ll need to clear away 60 Devouring Earth. It is very important you take the time to collect the Glowing Lichen at this stage in the trial. Everyone should take the time to put their Glowing Lichen power’s into an easily accessible tray ready for the fight. It's a good strategy to stop your entire league in these tunnels and talk them through how you will fight the upcoming War Walkers from beginning to end. This way everyone will know how to fight properly and your chances of success improve.
  
• You’ll come to an elevator and then you’ll see the Self-Repairing War Walker. His regeneration is off the charts, so use the Glowing Lichen you collected on it – this will disable his regeneration temporarily, allowing you to defeat him.
  
• A good strategy to use at this point is to use your main tank and a support character (decided before the trial began) and only send them into the room. The tank can choose to pull the Self-Repairing War Walker to a corner if it helps your league but it's not too important at this point. When the Lichen Infested War Walker spawns, the whole league should stop attacking and wait for the lead tank to pull the War Walker to a corner. When using the Glowing Lichen power it's a good idea to remind the league to keep trying to use the power and ignore the 'Invalid Target' message that sometimes appears. Then the War Walker should go down quickly.
  
• The Lichen Infested War Walker, will appear next. You will notice there are Regenerative Lichens in the area. The Lichen Infested War Walker has a different spawn point to the Self-Repairing War Walker and will regenerate health in these areas so it’s important for the main tank to pull the War Walker away from the Regenerative Lichens into a corner of the room. The league should only engage the War Walker when the tank has done this.
  
• Any stronger damage dealing toons can disable the Regenerative Lichens and ranged toons can find a balance between firing on the War Walker and the Regenerative Lichens. It will help to assign 3 or 4 specific people on your league to take down the Regenerative Lichens before the fight. The Devouring Earth will be respawning throughout this fight (Bosses and Elite Bosses) but you should ignore these and focus your fire on the War Walker throughout.
  
• After this War Walker it is a good idea to save all of your Lore Pets, Alignment Powers and Accolade powers until you face the Avatar of Hamidon. This will help to take the target down easier.
  
• Badge note: If you manage to defeat both of these War Walkers within 8 minutes of starting the fight you will get the Regenerate This badge. A single enemy can be left alive in the chamber just before you face the War Walkers to give your league time to prepare.

Stage Three – Bombs and Avatar of Hamidon

Enemies: Devouring Earth, Imperial Defense Force, IDF Explosive Devices

Rewards: 2 x Empyrean Merit (first completion that day) 1 x Empyrean Merit (thereafter)

1 x Astral merit if you destroy all IDF Explosive Devices before they explode

• You’ll encounter an area of tunnels where there are a number of IDF Explosive Devices, or bombs. These bombs count down from 10 and then there’s a pbaoe explosion. They also have a range of 150ft. If you stay close to Desdemonda at this point she will protect everyone around her (within a 30-foot radius) from the blast. If you don’t stay close to her and can’t defeat the bomb before the timer runs out, back away otherwise you will die. It can help to gather your league up and explain to them about the bombs and even lead them through the tunnels making sure that everyone is grouped up and working at the same pace.
  
• Badge note: If you manage to defeat all bombs before they explode, you get a badge called Preservation Specialist. There are two 'phases' to the Bombs. There are a number of bombs along the corridor and in side rooms (see map), and as long as your league is attentive and follows the leader closely you should be fine. But in the second 'phase' there are 5/6 bombs very close in proximity to each other along the corridor just before the Avatar of Hamidon. One of the bombs is even hidden around a corner. It's advisable that you clear the bombs close together with ranged characters with a snipe of over 150ft. This will take time but you are more likely to get the bade this way. If someone wanders off or ahead it will almost certainly mean you fail this badge.
  

• An alternative method of doing this is to have any snipers on league with range of 160ft or more snipe each bomb individually from their maximum range. This takes a lot of time and will leave 90% of your league doing nothing. It all depends how badly you want this badge.
  
• The corridors will, surprise surprise, be covered in Devouring Earth for you to hit. . Further on down these corridors you’ll enter an area where you start to take some minor tick-damage which is Toxic and Negative energy damage. In this area your healing will be half as effective and you’ll be debuffed randomly by 20% every 12 seconds. Now you’re in the ‘Toxic Corridor’ or Spore Infestation Area (see map). In this phase of the trial you’ll have to defeat around 60 Devouring Earth and about 20 IDF Guards.
  
• Eventually you’ll enter the final room with a cut-scene. Now you have to defeat the Avatar of Hamidon. After you've cleared the final room of bombs and mobs stop your league and brief them on your strategy for taking the Avatar down. Again, making sure that everyone knows what they're doing in the next fight is invaluable here as the Avatar is much more likely to be successfully defeated.
  
• The Avatar’s attacks: He uses smashing and toxic damage and will attack people at random. He will summon vines (aoe attack) that will attack people in the air or on the ground. He has a pbaoe debuff that will stack and even apply a DoT effect as well as a pbaoe Confuse as well as a debuff that cripples your Recharge and Recovery and will drain all your Endurance. Not to mention the way he will corrupt Desdemona to fight against you.
  
  
• IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are confused DO NOT use the Rebirth's or heals or buffs etc otherwise you will buff the Avatar. Be careful not to use nukes or judgements etc while confused too otherwise you will harm your league. A few runs have been made nigh impossible because some members of the league were buffing and healing the Avatar.

1. Before entering the final chamber and even before triggering the cutscene, arrange your league so that one of the teams has only people with Clarion shields on it. Instruct the first 2 to fire off their Clarions immediately after the cut scene, and then when you instruct the next Clarion throughout the boss fight, they can fire off their clarions down the team list. As leader then you will need to pay extra attention to when the first clarions are losing effectiveness and say "Clarion" in league chat to trigger the next person down the list to use their Clarion shield to keep everyone protected.
   
2. During this final fight I would recommend that your main tank and his support enters the room first and taunts the Avatar so its back is facing the entrance of the trial. I recommend only 1 tank do this as it is going to be hard to get multiple tanks taunting in the same direction.
   
3. The Confuse power that the Avatar has is Mag 20 so at this stage it’s worth making sure you have all of your confuse resistant pbaoe's, Leadership toggles, Clarion shields and Break Free insp's ready to fire off because the Avatar of Hamidon likes its Confuses (and this confuse has a very long range too! You’ll need to pay extra attention to make sure you’re not hitting the players around you or worse, healing the Avatar.
   
4. The Avatar of Hamidon can Hold, Terrorize or Heavily debuff your Endurance and Recovery. If you are debuffed make your way around to the REAR of the Avatar and keep hitting him.
   
5. If you can make sure you have enough Clarions to overlap, then you should take him down quickly. You’ll need to gather around Desdemona when the Detonating Seedlings start to explode as her Ember Shroud will protect you from their blast (the explosion will cover the entire chamber).

• When you defeat the Avatar of Hamidon you’ll be awarded the Underground Seeker badge and your Empyrean Merits (2 on the first completion of the day, 1 the rest of the time)
  
• Badge notes: You can wait to strike the final blow to the Avatar and defeat both a seedling and the Avatar at the same time to get the Avatar Assassin badge. If at the end of the trial you don’t let Desdemona’s health go below 50%), you will get the Tour Guide badge.

Badges:

Underground Seekers – Complete The Underground Trial.
Regenerate This – Defeat the Self-Repairing and Lichen Infested War Walkers within 8 minutes of starting the fight.
Tour Guide – Don’t let Desdemona’s health go below 50%.
Preservation Specialist – Don't let any of the IDF bombs detonate.
Avatar Assassin – Defeat the Avatar of Hamidon at the same time as an Seedling.
Master of the Underground Trial – Earn the Regenerate This, Tour Guide, Preservation Specialist and Avatar Assassin badges.

It's got high enough passive defense to soft cap with a single luck, it has high HP and regen and uses the Darkness Mastery strategy detailed above, where you toggle on OP Gloom, go into melee for TC, LS and then out again and everything is stunned. I'd then probably turn off Op Gloom and go from there with other debuffs. With this build I've got Dark Consumption to keep my endurance high and depending how the build plays I currently plan for Cardiac Alpha to keep the high end toggles managable. However a friend has suggested taking Musculature Radial for the extra debuffs?

What do you guys think?

Bearing that in mind, build 1 has increased HP (a bit) and damage while still remaining a good debuffer and is slotted to give a lot of ranged def (38%) because other than going in to melee to fire off a Lightning Storm or Thunder Clap I'll be out at the back debuffing where possible. I've left out the nuke because although it massively debuffs -tohit I found a defender with no end is just useless.

Build 2:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Dark Aier: Level 50 Technology Defender
Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Secondary Power Set: Dark Blast
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: O2 Boost -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(3)
Level 1: Dark Blast -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(3), Cloud-Acc/Rchg(5), Cloud-ToHitDeb(13), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(25), Cloud-%Dam(34)
Level 2: Gloom -- Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Cloud-%Dam(7), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(11), Cloud-Acc/Rchg(17), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 4: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 6: Steamy Mist -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(9), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(11), S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(13), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(21), S'fstPrt-ResKB(21)
Level 8: Freezing Rain -- ShldBrk-%Dam(A), TmpRdns-Acc/Slow(31), TmpRdns-Acc/Dmg/Slow(31), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(31), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 10: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 12: Hurricane -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(17), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(33), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(33)
Level 14: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(15), Zephyr-ResKB(15)
Level 16: Tenebrous Tentacles -- Cloud-Acc/Rchg(A), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(23), Cloud-%Dam(25), Ragnrk-Dmg(36), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 18: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 20: Night Fall -- Cloud-ToHitDeb(A), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(27), Cloud-%Dam(34), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(36), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(48)
Level 22: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(46), HO:Cyto(46)
Level 26: Tornado -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(43), ExStrk-Dam%(43)
Level 28: Thunder Clap -- Amaze-Acc/Rchg(A), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(29), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(36), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(50), Amaze-Stun(50)
Level 30: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Lightning Storm -- KinCrsh-Acc/Dmg/KB(A), KinCrsh-Dmg/KB(37), KinCrsh-Acc/KB(37), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(37), Apoc-Dam%(39)
Level 35: Life Drain -- Nictus-Heal(A), Nictus-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg(39), Nictus-Acc/Heal(40), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(40), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 38: Dark Pit -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(39), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(43), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(48), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(48)
Level 41: Thunder Strike -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(42), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(45)
Level 44: Charged Armor -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam(45), GA-3defTpProc(45)
Level 47: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 49: Power Sink -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(9), RgnTis-Regen+(34)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(7), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(29)



The second build focuses on regeneration not defense and debuffs. The idea here is that debuffing the enemies tohit will stop them hitting you and in the mean time you will regenerate all the damage that hit you. My concern is that -tohit is totalled up the same as defense so that I'll end up with less useful defense than the other build as well as a defender having less HP, there will naturally be less regeneration. It also has a lot of recharge.

As far as alpha slot goes, I was thinking of going for Cardiac Core Paragon to make sure the end use is good and to boost the resistance from Steamy Mist.

I will post the builds up when I get back to my computer and update this OP. In the mean time can anyone give me any advice or a build that far surpasses both of these?