TsumijuZero

@Thyristor: Your character is more than welcome in my SG, bridging characters don't have to be team leaders of course so I hope that you'll give me a shout ingame and I'll invite accordingly!

@Lady Arete: Having discussed tactics with @Alpha-One over on the US servers, he noted that there seems to be a cap on -Regen effects. I'd be keen to get that data confirmed, as we might be chucking in too much -Regen and not enough damage. We'll just have to try it and see!

Given delays this week, I would prefer a full week's preperation for the raid, therefore I propose that the 25th September, be our next attempt.

Zero Strykers

Territory / Server: EU / Union Server

Original Founder: Tsumiju Zero

Established: April 2008

Colours: Black and Red, although SG colors are not required by members.

Current Level 50s:

• Tsumiju Zero
• Tsumiju Absolute-Zero
• Full Armor Zero

About Us:
The Zero Strykers are a Supergroup Operating on the Union Server. Primarily the personal Supergroup of Tsumiju and his counterparts from other Timespaces, the time has come for others to join this group for the purpose of maintaining the dimensional balance.

Supergroup Notes:
Applications should be on a personal basis, whilst there is no requirement to use the Supergroup Colors or play all the time in SG mode, I would ask that any and all interested in joining, be able to conduct themselves in the proper expected manner.

Supergroup Base:
Zero Strykers Temporal Vault: 12x16 plot baes, designed exclusively for the purpose of giving Union a streamlined base for attempting the Cathedral of Pain trial. My hope is that by adding more members, that this trial can be conducted more regularly without the need for particular community members to always be online.

Facilities:
The Temporal Vault contains:

• Full Cathedral of Pain setup, with custom briefing area for raiders.
• Simple Medical Facilities.
• 2 story workshop and storage area.
• 8x Teleporters with access to various zones.
• Temporal Observer system with Ouroboros Crystal.

Any and all applicants should contact @TsumijuZero for more information.

I do want to get one rolling this week of course, I am going to be sorting out (or trying to) additional people to bridge the teams into the trial via the SG base I've setup.

As the AV is our biggest challenge, damage output and -regen capability have to be our priorities at this time. We have shown consistency dealing with the Pillars, so I'm confident that if we can get the strategy and mix right for the AV, the pillars we can overcome by tactics.

Definately join a few channels and make yourself known, and if you spot me online do drop me a tell and I'll be happy to team with you!

@Tsumijuzero

As for the question raised about the shield, its a 45 second attack window. Also we seem to be forgetting that MO runs mean no temporary powers, so all Warbug Nuke strategies are out if they ever did create a MOCoP badge.

Given that (I was going to put trial, but we all mean AV) is freakishly hard and that the devs have taken to turning up the regen, AND adding a timer rather than creating an interesting encounter, I think the trial itself still needs some work to make it a little less of a win/fail based on luck and temporary powers.

Thats ok, will gladly get you into future raids! I'll definately get more rolling, I'm more confident than ever that we'll nail it!

Quite right, I think anyone with -regen capabilities should hit him with those as soon as his shields go down, and again 35 seconds later. We need the teams massacring those spawns as fast as possible though to get the most benefit!

Ok today had a few teething issues, the people bridging that I'd hoped to see tonight wern't on, so we winged it via the New Heroes Union that happily lent us their facilities.

Stage 1 is looking easy now, using the data I gathered from testing and the attempt last week, we can nail that section within about 3 passes of the shields.

Now the data I wanted this time is specific timing data for the shields surrounding the AV, which I can now confirm.

• Each Willforge can call re-inforcements from other Willforges across the room.
• When the last defending Rularuu of each Willforge is defeated a 45 second timer begins. If there are still Willforges being defended at the end of this time, the Willforge will glow and additional Rularuu will spawn there. If all 3 Willforges have their defending Rularuu defeated within the 45 seconds, thats the condition that breaks the shield.
• If the raid leader co-ordinates -regen buffs to be applied 35 seconds after the shield is shattered, these buffs can last until the next the the shield is shattered, so long as all 3 teams immediately break off their attack from the AV when the shield is restored, and clear these mobs.
• During additional passes of the shields raising and lowering, it would be possible to use successive attack windows to lower the AV's HP, however every single person would have to focus on the spawns, debuffing and know from which position to attack the AV and Willforges.

Now I would hope that given these conditions, on the next successive attack that we have 3 full teams, fully prepared and ready to fight solid for the hour as we had a few drop-offs towards the end. But even with that, we proved tonight that the timing data is accurate and that the -regen plan will work given the right intensity.

I agree that there must be a way to complete the trial without the nukes, however there are two factors which singly make this trial harder and each compounds the other.

Ridiculious regeneration; which to counter without severe buffs would require large amounts of particular AT's, which I don't believe is a very community orientated solution.

A short window of exposure in which to attack the final target, this means we have less time to deal with the regeneration and do significant damage.

I also concur about rationing out the various attacks, whereas we went very high impact on the first attempt, we were seemingly capped on a lot of base statistics so we can afford to draw out our temporary power usage.

I would be keen to know what kind of figures a Nuclear blast does against the AV, given that the encounter is time based, it might be that this temporary power is used as the damage is higher for the animation time than two comparible regular attacks, hence firing them en mass to inflict higher amounts of damage in a shorter time window.

The intention behind the ordering of the nuclear attacks is twofold between cast time and effectiveness. Part of the theoretical strategy is to use biological mutagens prior to even breaking the shields, this should allow the Chemical missilies to be fired as soon as possible after the shield breaking, which en mass should bring down the resistance and defence of the target, increasing the likelyhood of follow up attacks.

Thus when the Nuclear blasts are fired, the damage and likelihood of the successive damage over time and -recovery buffs making a successful impact are increased.

When I have the additional data I need I hope to have a more conclusive timing strategy.

The idea of the nukes, as I now understand the first hand data I have of the AV, is that the nukes are intended to be fired in order.

Biological, to enhance the oncoming nukestorm, then chemical and finally nuclear attacks. The first nuke buffs the raid group and the other nukes, then these secondary attacks debuff the AV so that he can be taken down within such a short window.

sorry I missed you ingame chap, I'll hope to start sorting out teams tomorrow, save for a few team leader spots and the people I've already mentioned there should be VERY limited slots left, so we'll be picking based on what we need for each team accordingly!

First off can I direct you to...

ThisThread.
And this one...

Regarding the Europe United initiative.
Additionally, SG's on Union don't tend to apply for stickies etc, but there are a pile of active SG's availiable.

Shout out in Union Chat and I have no doubt you'll get some offers. I can of course offer you a place in my small SG the Zero Strykers, either permanantly if you wish, or even on a temporary basis so you can use the teleporters and worktables.

Just had a spark of inspiration!

I really think we should get a trial going this weekend as I need to mine some data from the trial's second stage which might give us a HUGE advantage if my forecast is correct!

Now, I have collated the list of globals that emailed and contacted me saturday night, which I will put here now. For those on this list, I would ask that you select a character now and make sure they are HERO or Vigilante Alignment and that the character you select has abilities that will aid in the trial's progression. Additionally get all the Nukes and Shivans you can ASAP.

• @Nikita
• @Mexie
• @Fireblazer
• @Gin Zen
• @Brimstone Girl
• @Tancred
• @Neutronic Girl
• @Lifeline
• @Li Sensei
• @Kenpachi 33

Which means that additional team selection is going to be VERY tight to organise, so I apologise now to anyone that can't get into round 2 because of this. I fully intend to hold to my word to make sure the people that missed out and contacted me, do get a fair crack at this. I also need to take certain SG bridging characters with me on this trial, so slots are limited.

I intend to get an attempt going again Saturday 28/08/10, with everyone getting together in Pocket D as close to 18:30 as possible with a kickoff time as soon as we can.

I specificially need the three teams, with the assistance of a few Supergroup Bridging characters and regular players that assisted me in the first trial, to complete the first part of the trial, much in the same way as last week.

For the second section I will need to mine some data before we attack the AV, so there WILL be a bit of standing around for 5 minutes. As I mentioned earlier however, the data I intend to gather could seriously effect the strategy for future raids, so I once again ask for your patience and understanding.

I'll support you as always Arete, be good to show that Emperor Cole isn't the only one keeping Hamidon in check

Have been enjoying the screenshots and looking forward to more of them!

With regards for future attempts, I'm thinking we either try to slow his regen each time the shield goes down so that he fails to regain as much HP each time, however that will turn into a battle of attrition between his BASE regen and what -regen we can apply each time.

If thats the case its going to be a precarious balance between damage, survivability and debuffs when selecting teams.

Outdamaging in one shield cycle has risks in that with the use of Nukes and buffs, its a one shot deal, if we miss, we get stuck with an AV with mad regeneration.

I briefly talked a few bits over last night of PM (alas wasn't able to hang around last night) regarding a future raid, there are a lot of requests for just getting 3 teams together again asap and having another crack, but I don't want to go back on my word regarding taking along people that missed out.

I'm hoping to spend all of wednesday getting buffs, researching and preparing for this further.

TZ

I have been pondering our predicament last night regarding the final AV and the encouter as a whole.

I think given that this was the first EU attempt, we did really well. The cubes / pillars were looking quite complicated in concept and actually turned out quite well to manage.

Note for team leaders: You can control the regen of your tower by defeating the defending natterlings quickly or slowly depending on how much pillar hp you want to restore to sync with other teams.

As for the AV, we were operating on the idea that the nukes would debuff the AV for the duration of the shields being down, and that the debuff would sustain until the second wave.

Given the small window of opportunity, perhaps the nukes should be used for another purpose i.e

• We clear the spawns from each cube down to one enemy target remaining, we then gather and immediately fire Biological nukes at ourselves.
• We defeat the remaining enemy to shatter the shield and then hit Rularuu with all our Nuclear payloads, followed by the Chemical payloads.
• Everyone goes bonkers with things like Call to Justice and red inspirations to outdamage his regen.
• Blasters will need to fire nukes close in, the move back to avoid the -tohit of rularuu's hurricane.
• Controllers / Rads and the like try to get in as much -Regen and debuffs and possible to assist.

Any thoughts on that?

I first of all, want to thank everyone that helped organise, attended, worked towards buffs and patiently took part in Union's and I believe EU side's first attempt at the Cathedral of Pain Trial.

We did have a few shortcomings, that I will take responsibility for.

Initially there were doubts we would fill the teams, so we asked about and got people together. Things started to take shape during the week, where we assigned people to teams and started sorting out who was turning up. At the same time, several additional conversations and discussions of the trial were taking place which I understand enticed further attendees.

Now thats not a bad thing, as it shows that Union, is truly alive, kicking and coming out fighting.

But it has caused disappointment for some, that sadly couldn't fit into the trials 24 player requirements.

I would ask for some patience and understanding, I fully intend to not only get this trial nailed, but nailed and runnable so that everyone of the players that I have fought side by side with and against, for these last few years, can get the badge and rewards that come from completing the trial.

For those that joined me in the shard, you have my admiration for your tenacity and patience in dealing with my rather long briefing and the swift completion for Phase 1; as well as further respect for sticking it out until the end.

For those in the channel, waiting for news and wishing they were fighting with us, you have my understanding at your frustration of the limited places, and my solemn word that this will happen again and you will get your chance to fight.

I sincerly had fun and it was a pleasure to see everyone turn out in force for this, we have truly shown tonight that Union is indeed healthy and that has to always be a success in my opinion.

Lastly, before I post my screenshot of the last 5 minutes getting together for a screeny, I would also like to know if the facilities in the SG base were adequite, and if there were any other adjusments that could be suggested, to please let me know.

I'll as always, be on patrol whenever I can, details are already being put together for another run and I am cataloging my recieved emails to make good on my word.

As always Union, you have my respect.

Tsumiju Zero ~ The Nightmare of Dra'Gon.

Welcome back ML!

It has been too long since we fought side by side