Ukaserex

I was looking to use some IDF in a mission and didn't see them as an option. I also checked to see if it was unlockable via tickets, but didn't see them specifically listed.

Anyone know if they are available?

A few questions:

Is there a demand for TPN trials on Liberty(for badges)?

Would liberty prefer I keep doing MoUGT runs, or forgo the bomb badge efforts? Or, split the difference? Mo run on Sundays when folks might have more time?

What y'all think?

1. Did the league get the 60 thread bonus?: Yes
2. Did the bomb badge effort succeed? We didn't try it.
3. Was the Avatar beaten while the seedling was spawned?: Yes
4. What AT role were you playing ?: ill/rad controller
5. What reward did you get? Rare
6. About how long did the trial last and how often did you go afk for more than a minute or two? The trial lasted about 50 minutes, no afk.

It wasn't nearly as nice as your leads, but I did somehow manage to find all the pylons. You have the server trained well.

I'll be trying to get a few MoM trials going in the early evening times - when there are no other server events going on, such as Cinder Frost's trial times on Wednesday's.

I'm thinking about a concrete time of Mondays and Thursdays 6pm Central Time in RWZ.

But, I will use no macro's - they'd be useful, but there's a staging area where the league will have a chance to stock up on inspirations and hash over what's to come. For the most part, if you plan on attending and want to be super helpful:

1. If you have surplus salvage, or it makes little difference what you're choosing for your destiny power, please try the right side of the barrier tree, with the built in rez. Honestly, at tier 4, if a few of these are staggered when spammed, it makes things so much easier than using them as a rez. (but only if you already have your clarion for ugt)
2. If you're prone to making second builds, consider rotp as a possible choice. There are simply a lot of defeats, as the pink patch can sneak up on you when it gets bigger. The less you lay on the ground useless, the likelier we are to advance to the next round.
3. Honestly, this is not the trial to earn iXP. It IS a fun trial, a few badges that are not overly difficult to get, but it is a very challenging trial unless the whole league is balanced with control, aggro management, buff/debuffs, and damage. And it helps if everyone knows what to expect, and thus, what to do.

Preparation is part of the key to success. Familiarity with the trial will also help.




In a lot of ways, the first part is the hardest.
Beat down an AV. When the AV hits 50%, he disappears, leaving you with three nightmares. Some nightmares are harder than others! Beat the nightmares, AV comes back, beat him down, go on to the next phase.

If you get defeated, you have to use your wakies. If too many people use the desdemona rez, the time allotted shrinks. Bear in mind that if too many people lie dead on the ground, that doesn't help anything either!

Be prepared for some frustration - it is challenging.

Phase 2 is very simple, provided that storm voids can be pulled or taunted towards the av (or vice versa) Because of aggro management being critical, I'm not exactly sure how the play of MMs will be effective in this phase. Perhaps some of you who play MMs can chime in with your opinions. An MM without pets is just ...an M, right? Doesn't seem the same to me. For now, the only strategy I'm familiar with is pulling the storm voids to the av, via taunt. I've not yet determined if using a ranged attack to pull would be as effective, if at all.

Although an emp is best suited for phase 3 with protecting Aurora Borealis, that doesn't mean it's mandatory to have one.

The room is like two instances of the same room in the same place.
In one instance is an AV, in the other, is Aurora Borealis. To get to Aurora, you have to simply stand next to a portal in the room that has the AV. You may "phase" in and out of that room. If you find yourself being assigned to help Aurora, and after helping for a moment see the rest of the league battling an AV, simply look for a portal to "rephase" into the other instance.

If you're on the team that has to clobber the av, watch for some debuffs. One you need to be alone, the other you need to be with the league to dissipate its effects. The names of these will make it pretty clear what to do.

I've been on teams that had an emp for aurora, but the emp died, but it didn't matter because the others had clobbered the av to death before Aurora got clobbered to death.


Because of the nature of phase 4, we're going to need some holds - doesn't matter to me where they come from - but the equivalent of two controllers should do it. Gravs! This is a place to shine, 'cause your pet singularity also holds.

In phase 4, there an AV again, and we have to beat him down to 50%, then he'll fade away and Shalice Tillman will spawn as an AV that is trying to "drink" from the well. We stop this by pulling bosses to her, killing the bosses near her, which make her susceptible to holds, slows, immobs. She can be damaged enroute, but I don't think any team has been able to beat her outright before she got to the well - I know of no other strategy than using holds, slows or immobs.

Lore pets, strategically are reserved for the last minute and 30 seconds before the last fight - a single 3 minute round. Damage dealt to the av is pitifully low until the morale progress bar builds up - what causes it to do this remains unknown to me, but it does seem to grow over time. Suffice it to say, every bit helps. Lore pets, judgements, clarions, barriers, debuffs, fulcrum shifts, Accelerate metabolism, plus a range of other buffs/debuffs too numerous to mention.

Hope to see you on Mondays and Thursdays at 6pm Central (7pm Eastern, 4pm pacific)

I don't watch tv. I watch netflix, though.

Frankly, I've never heard of this show your speaking of.


The reason a show will stop being aired is typically because of inadequate profits. The sponsors either feel they are not getting enough revenue to justify the expense, or the actors are asking more than they were getting at the beginning of the show.

Or some combination thereof.

For those that want a fuller understanding of what is killing you, damaging you, etc. during the UGT, I think it would be worthwhile to take a peek here:

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/g...ound_guide.php

Conceptually, the idea of rewarding people for doing what they want to do seems ....silly.

I think the real question the OP has is, how can I get to level 50 so easily?

Many of those who respond do so with many level 50s to their credit. They may have forgotten the days when things did not come second nature. Many of us pretty much know the steps to take to get to 50 (without Power-Leveling) by heart. It's just something we do without thinking about it - and DFB makes it even easier, faster. (not terribly different from the sewer runs of old, but AVs give more xp)

Task Forces, particularly the weeklies, give excellent xp, and story arcs have a great xp bonus as well. Perhaps the OP isn't connected to a large SG with leaders who know the game well. Or perhaps the ISP is one of those that prohibits large teams. <shrug>

I think a suitable reward for reaching level 50 would be a gift of prestige for the supergroup that toon belongs to, if any. If not, a one time bonus to the next supergroup that signs him up.

Well, with an 18 man pug, no less - but with most of the usual crowd, we ran the ugt with those not on the bomb team just a couple minutes behind us, and it worked just like a charm.

I even went so far as to stealth past the mobs in that large room and start to snipe at the cluster of bombs. Sadly, I was remiss in telling the rest of the bomb team to stay in that room. Some mobs were attacking them, and a foot stomp or something knocked me in range and the bomb went boom.

Even so, our total time from start to finish was about an hour and 15 minutes.
We did have a smaller league, so the spawns were smaller, which may have had something to do with the shorter time, but I think we'll go with that from now on.

People that are inattentive are human - when they mess up something like that - they generally only do that once because they feel horrible about it - likely worse than anyone else. (at least after we've all had a 5-10 minute cool down, lol)
The mischevious ones, well, I think many of them are misunderstood AND they misunderstand the others as well. With a diverse crowd, some are likely to take issue with this or that. Sometimes personality gets in the way. So far, we've had some annoying things happen, but I think the league is either good enough to get it done, or it's not - barring deliberate sabotage or plain inattention - to things like the timers and when they start

For example, this evening, Moroso (@Cinder Frost) had went to tank the avatar by himself - and the timer did not start until des entered the room.

Did the league get the 60 thread bonus? Yes
2. Did the bomb badge effort succeed?
3. Was the avatar beaten while the seedling was spawned? No, we missed that by about 2 seconds.
4. What at role were you playing ? Melee, ranged, support, debuff.
I was on a fire blaster
5. What reward did you get? Very Rare
6. About how long did the trial last and how often did you go afk for more than a minute or two? Never went afk and the trial lasted an hour and 15minutes, approximately.

Trust me, I've wondered the same thing.

We had at one time, tried to involve the whole league in this - but some players either simply did not understand or just couldn't remain in pace with the others and it was epic fail.

Sometimes, I think some of the players deliberately mess it up so we can zip through it.

And there are tactics for having the whole league involved for the first phase - --- IF the entire league can agree to not pass a designated point man and keep pace with that same point man. (or point man slow down)

Desdemona protects players within 30 feet of her from the blast. And if there are no mobs present to distract them, the pets will take the bombs down very quickly. But the AI that controls Des and her pets doesn't prioritize targets. And other league members have pets as well, fire imps, when tactics are on are the first that pop in my head.

Some days, I really could care less about the bomb badge, but other days, I want to get it for the others on the league that lack it.

In some ways, the extra uncommon drop is compensation enough for getting a rare instead of a very rare. Especially when it comes with a badge that a lot of the more prodigious badgers lack. Not quite as bothersome as avoids the green stuff, but pretty close.

Now that I think about it, there really is no reason that the rest of the league can't follow very closely behind the bomb team, or even participate with them, except for pets.

Last night, Des and her pets ran into the avatar room, cutscene started and she was just about dead when it ended -and was dead by the time we got to her. That's how spastic she and her pets are. The Des "handler" could always lay back a bit, and we may try that on a future run, just to see how it plays out.

Although it is true that we aren't concerned with Exalted, every bit of data helps - provided it comes from a reliable source.

I don't think Matt has a reason to lie about it.

I feel like the folks that are watching this thread ought to at least know some prelimary findings.
Statistics can be used in a lot of different ways. The more data I have, the more reliable the information is. Until the devs reveal the actual formula, any of my findings are going to be speculation, admittedly.

But, I think (and feel) that if I can detect a pattern - by using AT as an independant variable, or if by using personal defeats, or a range of them, or any number of the questions that may be pertinent, I might be able to sort of tailor the trial strategy to higher rewards.

From what my stats training in college taught me, there must be a sample of at least 30 to be statistically significant.

The reason behind this effort may seem pointless - we either get the rare or very rare -- as told to us by the patch notes dated Nov 10, 2011
http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/p..._2011_live.php

But, some have commented that they have not gotten a rare or very rare on occasion. Outside of Liberty, there have been some that have only gotten 10 threads. (multiple d/c's, afk)

Several weeks ago, I got a common. There were a host of people on the trial that had never been on it, and had many questions that deserved answers. So, since it's hard to type and fight, my reward table suffered - thus the numerous macros I use now. (and since then, nothing but rares and very rares)
In my numerous, heated debates with support, I surmise that there are multiple participation metrics. I was told that I met the participation criteria, but not enough for the rare/very rare reward table. While this was at direct odds with what Baryonyx stated,

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=258774

I have to assume that there are things they're just not at liberty to share with the playerbase.

And this is the reason I'm collecting the data.

Arcanaville has posted on this topic in this thread:
http://64.25.35.208/showthread.php?t=258774&page=3

And, not just on that page. See, the bomb badge, when successful, only provides a random uncommon drop. That's 60 threads to craft - so given the extra time it takes to do the bomb badge - is it really worth the trouble? That answer will undoubtedly vary for each player -depending on where their toon in question is in their respective incarnate path.

But - what if succeeding in that bomb badge effort raises your odds of getting the very rare? From what Arcana has quoted from some source -presumably Baryonyx or Positron, that answer is yes.

Obviously, every trial run is a group effort. The leader will often choose the way they want things done and bark out orders (or requests, because they appear in the request channel,lol).

I'm by no means perfect, and I know more brains are better than one when trying to solve a problem. The evidence almost dictates that the rewards are earned, in a sense.

The participation metric weighs some unknown set of criteria to determine which reward tables the rng will choose from.

You either did enough to get 10 threads - door sitting, multiple d/c, afk, that kind of thing, or you did more.

Of that doing more - you either did enough to qualify for the rare/very rare table, or you did not. If you did not, then the rng rolls the dice where it randomly gives you one of the 4 choices, common, uncommon, rare, very rare. Obviously, the common would occur more frequently than the rare, thus the label it has.

So, with all those words, in short, what I'm trying to figure out is if going for the Mo, or a specific badge is more worthwhile than just trying to blitz through it.

@karmaa,

I will write it right here so you can get your props in public. When I make the bomb team, I ask one of the leaders and he tells me he won't try for it unless you're leading the team. So when you're not there, yeah, we blame you.

QP gets enough blame, you can share some of it.

While leading another MoUGT tonight on Liberty, after succeeding everywhere except against the avatar, I've got to ask you devs to please disable the cutscenes if des is in a state of aggro.

Prior to entering the final room, I was explaining the perils of the Will of the Earth, when a league member mentions that des is dying - her hp was at about 87.

Then, the cut scene begins.

When the scene ended, it was at 25, and with superspeed, by the time I got to her (I'm just a blaster) all I could do was spam a clarion and the trial failed. We never even got so much as scratch on us.

Apparently, a stray critter - I've no idea where it came from, but des ran into the room after it - by the time anyone even knew it ( good players focusing on what the leader is putting out on the request channel) the cut scene comes on.

Isn't it time to put a stop to these silly cartoons? Can't there be some code written for the cartoon not to play at that stage - but earlier - say after the last bomb is detonated? or when we enter the gate that leads downstairs to the hallway that preceeds the big finale?

This was really unfortunate. People were still off from the holiday, likely the last chance these good people had to run it, and it was ruined because Des is too prone to aggro.

My first failure in about a month, since I started running these - and the bonehead player was Desdemona - I can't even 1 star her.

True, this is likely an anomaly, but an earlier cutscene would prevent it.

Thanks!

Nice sig, by the way!

1. Did the league get the 60 thread bonus? Yes
2. Did the bomb badge effort succeed? I blame the ITF that took too long to finish to join us.
3. Was the Avatar beaten while the seedling was spawned? yes
4. What AT role were you playing ? Melee, ranged, support, debuff.
I was on a fire tank.
5. What reward did you get? Rare
6. About how long did the trial last and how often did you go afk for more than a minute or two? Never went afk and the trial lasted an hour and a half, approximately.

7 4 Defeats. or was it 10? heck, I've no idea, but it happened at the times I expected it to. Each time was due to those miserable stuns or end drain - not cause my tank is squishy.

Thanks!

Finally had enough clarion to feel comfortable holding back on the avatar until the seedling spawned. Got the MoUGT for the whole league in one pass.

Probably couldn't have done it without you guys!

The inf sinks are coming!

Honestly, I don't think the devs have a care in the world about this fictitious economy of ours.

It's been stated that there's too much inf in the game - and as long as people continue to play, it won't change.

One could argue that 10% of the inf held by this alleged 2% disappears every day with market fees. But, because the other 98% of the "me want nao" continue to play, earn inf and buy overpriced stuff instead of using merits and AE to get them, the 2% will never go broke and probably continue to make 1 billion a week without trying very hard.

I made 1.6 bill today myself in one sell.
But, I don't buy things now. Not yet. I'll wait until all of my toons are inf capped - then I might buy some uncommon salvage at ww. Me, I'm hoarding it all, because there's no telling what's gonna happen in the next patch.

I just realized that running a MoM on Saturday would be a futile effort. I hadn't realized it would be New Year's Eve.

Sorry about that folks-- Next Saturday. Give some of you a little more time to get another level shift or two.