There must be some trick my SF group was missing. This is how the final phase has gone:
To start, seven characters, 72 vines two levels above the highest level character (That's a hair over 10 vines per character to clear) -
Clear CoT, then start on vines. Get half of them cleared before the first set start respawning. Spend the next three hours still trying to clear vines, with half of the group having given up already. At 2am, log out in frustration, AV still having never been touched.
I read you're supposed to move behind the AV and teleport stray vines to stop them from spawning. Haven't done it myself though, aiming for next weekend.
I pulled this from another thread regarding the respec. Alot of good information I missed.
Heres a link to the Original thread, followed by the pertinent content:
Friggin_Taser's Guide to the Respec
Kill the Cot around the tree first. It just makes it easier. Then just keep killing vines. Kill them and move. Keep moving. You should have enough time to kill all the vines if you don't delay anything.
It's not that hard a trial. I've been in respec teams where the last mission took less time than the kill Cot mission at the beginning. Try smaller teams if you are having problems with the amount of vines. Less team members = less vines. A team of four, with a corruptor, dominator, and two brutes can handle the spirit tree.
What follows is my Beta CoT Respec Trial Guide:
The Level 25-30 Respec Trial
Contact is Sparcetriel in Nerva Archipelago
/loc is -1257.3 11.0 6410.6
Mission #1 Defeat 25 Circle of Thorns
Sparcetriel: I will tell you of a place where the Circle of Thorns routes their mystic powers to create great and fell effects. Through brute force and evil will, you can steal this power from them, and use to re-forge yourself. But before I tell you where to find this place, you must show me you have the might to succeed. Defeat 25 members of the Circle of Thorns, and return to me when you are done.
I care not where you defeat them, so long as it is done. Return when the task is complete.
Mission #2 Defeat Hero attack leaders - Nerva Archipelago
Sparcetriel: The place I am sending you is called the Tree of Thorns. A demonic tree, the Circle uses it's barbs and nettles to create their thorn blades and spirit thorns. But you are not the only ones who know this. Even now, a great host of the good and the just prepare to attack the Thorn Tree themselves. Before I send you to the tree, you must attack them to prevent interference.
Three forces now meet to plan their attack: Longbow brings their powerful heroes, the Legacy Chain brings their mystic acumen, and the Wyvern their detailed knowledge of battle. You must defeat Longbow's Ballista hero, the Legacy Chain's arcane specialst, and Wyvern's tactitian. Arachnos have provided an undersea vessel to take you to the base where they lair. Once the forces of good have been overthrown, return.
Mission #3 Take the Nexus of Thorns - Nerva Archipelago
Sparcetriel: The Thorn tree is a living nexus of mystical power beneath Thorn Island in the Nerva Archipelago. Once a bastion of the ancient Mu, the Circle now draw it's energies for their own mystic experimentations. The energies devoured by the tree are encysted within the heartwood in a thing called the Nexus of Thorns. To take this power as your own, you must weaken the three, then broach it's defenses. It will not be easy. So prepare yourselves, and tell me when you are ready to make your assault.
To reach the Nexus of Thorns, you must first weaken the tree itself. Once you are in it's chamber, destroy all the vines, but work in haste for they will re-grow.
Next, you must break through the outer layer of the tree, both to reach the Nexus of Thorns and to open the flow of energy.
Then take the Nexus and it's power will allow you to remake yourself.
You may only benefit from this 3 times. Once from me, and later from... Others. Though if you wish to shepard fellow villains through, I will still provide information.
The respec contact is Arbiter Lupin who can be found at /loc 2977 18 7020 in Nerva Archipelago.
Choosing character respecification as a prize will net you the Thorn Robber accolade badge.
Souveneir Clue:
The Nexus of Thorns
The demon Sparcetriel was willing to share it's secret knowledge as part of it's revenge against the Circle of Thorns. The first thing it wanted to do was prove your ability by defeating members of the Circle. You handled this, and returned to the fiend.
Next, you had to stop the united forces of Longbow, Wyvern, and the Legacy Chain from interrupting your attack with a strike of their own. You defeated the operation's leaders, clearing the way for yourself.
The number of vines per villian increases by team size. On a team of 8, we had to clear 96 vines. On a team of 5, we only needed to clear 40 vines. Also, my team noticed that not all vines respawn. On our five man team, only 31 vines out of 40 respawned, despite a lengthy wait, (team wipe. We made the mistake of getting spread out and not clearing out all the CoT first.) Just make sure that you kill them quickly.
Our team of five (L25-27, 2 stalkers, 2 corruptors, and a mastermind), could not finish the respec trial because we couldn't kill the L29 AV, which is essentially a giant plant/thorns dominator. The AV was able to consistently two-shot my L26 corruptor in about 1-2 seconds from full health. It has a pretty nasty cone attack (fling thorns?) that hits for about 200 upfront damage with several additional 20 damage ticks of DoT damage, most or all of it toxic. It also uses an AoE immobilize, (root?).
Anyone have any tips on taking out the AV after taking out the vines?
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The contact to start is located (?? a little help, toward SE corner).
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It's the #1 starburst symbol on the map.
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The number of vines per villian increases by team size. On a team of 8, we had to clear 96 vines. On a team of 5, we only needed to clear 40 vines. Also, my team noticed that not all vines respawn. On our five man team, only 31 vines out of 40 respawned, despite a lengthy wait, (team wipe. We made the mistake of getting spread out and not clearing out all the CoT first.) Just make sure that you kill them quickly.
Our team of five (L25-27, 2 stalkers, 2 corruptors, and a mastermind), could not finish the respec trial because we couldn't kill the L29 AV, which is essentially a giant plant/thorns dominator. The AV was able to consistently two-shot my L26 corruptor in about 1-2 seconds from full health. It has a pretty nasty cone attack (fling thorns?) that hits for about 200 upfront damage with several additional 20 damage ticks of DoT damage, most or all of it toxic. It also uses an AoE immobilize, (root?).
Anyone have any tips on taking out the AV after taking out the vines?
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I have successfully compleated the respec trial 4 times now, this is how we did it each time. I play a AR/Traps corruptor.
1. 2 MM 2 Cor 1 Stalker, We took a position behind some rocks out of LOS of AV, other Corruptor was /Kin he kept everyone speedboosted, MM kept summoning pets and sent them after AV no upgrading just sent them as fast as they could, Stalker would SS in AS and SS out, I kept laying traps and took care of ambushes.
2. 2 Brutes 1 MM 1 Cor MM did same as 1st time, both brutes took AV head on, I rushed in at 50% health spamming ignite and flamethrower we killed him before the ambushes could make it to us, he lasted maybe 2 min.
3. 1MM 1Brute 1 Dom 2 Cor Dom was able to keep AV dominated so we all rushed in and took him out like before he lasted maybe 2 min.
4. 2 MM 1Brute 2 Cor Again we had a /Kin cor, he stayed with the MM out of LOS of AV kept them speedboosted, MM wave attacked AV, brute went strait in, I rushed in at about 75% health this time and spammed ignite and flamethrower, again AV lasted maybe 2 min.
In all of these runs we sufferd 4-8 deaths for the total team, on one of the runs we had a team wipe from the Wyvern elite boss in the second mish because of Rain of Arrows, most deaths were from people getting to close to the AV while we were clearing vines.
Babaganoosh Nice post, great strats. Nice to see I wasnt the only one seeing lots of deaths. So apparently bring rez, awaken etc. Cause the run to the last mission takes along time, and vines grow back fast.
Found another guide, posting the guide and link to the thread. One good suggestion out of the below thread, get your Shivan summons from the BB meteor crater mission. Send it in on the AV.
Murph's Tricks and Guide to the COV Respec!
TEAM MAKEUP
* 1 or 2 brutes
* 2 dedicated healers (Thermal Radiation, Radiation Emission) not someone with a emanator (Traps, Plant control, and Dark Miasma will not heal successfully. Preferably ones that can just spam group heals would be the best.
* 2 people that can pass status protection, 1 with a fast recharge (Thaw from Thermal Radiation). You can also do it with one person with quick status protection, he just needs 10+ Breakfrees by the time you fight the AV.
* Other people that can act as a unit to fend off baddies while the rest of the group is killing the AV. We did it with 1 Ice Control Dominator and one Super Reflexes Stalker.
Ideally, you would also have 1 or 2 that can debuff the AV, as he hurts and hurts BAD! Dark Miasma's Darkest Night, Radiation Emissions many toggle debuffs, and so on.
CHEAT! If you have someone with recall friend, you can teleport or invisible thru the first map and really speed the first mission along!
The mobs spawn +1 and +2 higher than the highest person on the team. This mission is for anyone who is 24-30, auto exemplar is 30.
Lets start this!
The demon who starts this mission is Sparcetriel, located on a dock far southeast of Nerva. Only your leader has to go to him, everyone else stay at the ferry. Once everyone's in zone click Sparcetriel and get started!
MISSION 1! Kill random COT
Leave your leader at Sparcetriel, everyone else to go Cap Au Diable, run to the left up the hill, kill COT till the counter reaches zero.
MISSION 2! Kill 3 Elite Bosses!
This can be tough as the Elite Bosses have Alpha Strikes that can one shot your squishier characters. We did this with a teleporter, and a stalker (to help guide the teleporter around blind teleport jumps). We teleported around the map to the Elite Bosses killing only what we had to and did this mission fairly quickly, but it was tough! You do NOT have to clear this map, as soon as the 3 elite bosses are dead you can exit the mission!
MISSION 3! OMGBBQ It's the Thorn Tree!
First part of this is your standard COT Mission. You'll eventually make it to a room with a ton of vines in it... here's how this room works.
* If you can see the AV, it's likely he can shoot you.
* COT line the perimeter of this room
* Vines don't give XP
* Vines don't give inspirations
* As you kill vines, they begin to regenerate (but usually the number doesn't reach the original number)
First kill all the COT along the walls of this mission.
Second begin killing the vines by staying together and mowing thru them. While you're doing this, make sure your brute is the closest player to the AV as he's the one you want getting shot by the AV. Also, the AV's strongest ability is 90% Lethal, so if you have a shield that can resist that cast it on everyone. Be ready to give status effect resists to the squishies as needed. It is VERY IMPORTANT that for the first run you stay together. You'll need everyone's help. When you realize that you are having trouble keeping up with the vine's regenerating, leave the middle of the room and retreat. Let the Vines regenerate as much as they will (this is when my group did a drink/bio break). Usually the number will not go quite as high.
You'll notice that the AV is next to a huge mass of vines that he cannot shoot thru. Split your team up by putting all the healers and brutes on the side facing the AV, and the Masterminds and Stalkers on the side where they CANNOT be hit. Dominators can be on either team. Now you should be able to easily destroy enough vines to kill the AV.
Than gather where the Stalkers and Masterminds originally were. Stay right up against that mass of roots, now very few if any vines should be able to hit you, and you'll be ready to buff and get ready for the AV battle. Whoever has Thaw, or the quick recharging status protection cast it on EVERYONE and than go to the AV. Debuff the AV. Whoever has that status protection, between heals cast your protection on then next guy.. for example, I had thaw and warmth.
Thaw Player 1, Warmth, Thaw Player 2, Warmth, Thaw Player 3... you get the idea...
If the person spamming status protection gets held, he need to pop a breakfree or your 2nd person with status protection has to free him!
Soon you'll get ambushed by COTs. Brutes stay on the AV, healers keep spam healing and status protecting. Leave your toggle debuffs on the AV, everyone else kill COT (Dominators and Stalkers are best for this).
Rinse and repeat and that AV should be dead!! Make sure you click CHARACTER RESPECIFICATION as your reward!!
The trick we used was to TP Foe. We TP foe'ed the vines into 3 groups, once there were enough total (we had to kill 56) in the bunchs each group killed t heir bunch, and now onto the AV.
For the AV we all hung inside our one MM's Bubbles while the 3 MM's pets went to town on the AV.
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Anyone have any tips on taking out the AV after taking out the vines?
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For the vines, it just takes a team stacked with damage. If you're having trouble, just tell everyone who isn't a brute, corruptor or mastermind to log and wait for the signal to come back in. When any player on the team logs, the respawn rate for the vines goes down to adjust (might take a little bit to notice). More or less, you can't carry any dead weight for the vines
For the AV, it's simple. By the time you're done with all the vines, you'll probably be almost out or out of inspirations. What you do now is meet your friend at the nearest insp vendor and get at least six rages, three defenses, and some heals / blues. Have everyone on the team pop their rages and defs at the start of the battle and then focus solely on the tree. The only person who should not be focusing on the tree is the Dominator, and that is only to turn around and AOE Hold / Confuse the CoT's attacking. However, the dom should still be assiting with the tree.
When your corruptors and brutes are doing +150% base damage, belive me, the thing is cake.
Are there any pictures of the Vine Room?
Found this in another forum, thought it was appropriate to the Respec conversation.
I completed the lvl 24 respec, is there a higher lvl respec SF for CoV yet? If so who and where. I assume like CoH you can't just do the lvl 24 one over to get another respec.
Thanks
Green
if you 34, or 44 yes you can do the 24 respc again to get another, but you have to be inthe 3 ranges cause you only get 1 respec per 24-33, 34-43, 44-50
so ya a lvl 24 cant get 3 from the raider TF, but a lvl 50 who never did respect coud get 3 for the raider TF atleast in CoH
Is this information Correct? I did the respec mission @ level 33 so Can I (now that im a lvl 35) do the mission again and get another respec?
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Is this information Correct? I did the respec mission @ level 33 so Can I (now that im a lvl 35) do the mission again and get another respec?
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I wouldnt bet my life on it, but wouldnt have posted it here if I felt it was wrong. Worst case scenario is you get to post your SF results here and improve the guide 
FYI, rumor has it there is a bug with the latest patch. As of 11/18 the respec mission "will" not allow teams to kill the last vine. It boots the entire team. Repeated attempts to reach and eliminate the last vine required in the third mission result in repeated team boots. I have provided a link to the thread in question.
11/18 COV respec bugged
I'm glad your giving attention to my thread, they really need to fix it asap.
Rumor has it the bug has been fixed. The thread I link to in a previous post in this thread cofirms this, and suggests another possible bug:
Yes, the TF is now fixed. I did it again yesterday and I was able to finish. Although we did encounter a bug with the vines counter, it was not displaying the correct number of vines left to kill, but it didn't matter, when they were all killed we were able to get the AV.
New update, a few new strategies Ive seen discussed but never tried.
Recall foe the vines into clumps makes for easy disposal. Especially if you recall foe all of em before starting to eliminate.
DEBUFFS DEBUFFS DEBUFFS FOR THE AV, duh im such a moron for never thinkin of it before. I assume Corrupters have some debuffs like Dark Defenders and Rad Defenders do..... Make sure you have these on your team, as Ive always had the most trouble on the AV.
Also bring alot of awakens (hope I didnt mention this above), youll likely need em and wont have time to run back and forth from hospital.
Another CoV Respec Trial guide I found in my searches
BlastBlazes Guide to Respec
This is my first guide, so Im sure itll be lacking some info. Please clue me in, and I will edit to keep it updated.
Sparcetriel (First Respec Trial)
Location: Nerva Archipelago
Level Range: 24-30
Auto-RSK Level: 30
Villain Groups: CoT, Wyven, Legacy Chain, and Longbow
AVs: Thorn Tree
Things to Know before you start
<ul type="square"> [*]My run took roughly 2 hours. However invisible, and recall friend combinations can ramp this up substantially.[*]Expect some deaths, even a good team will run into trouble over two hours.[*]You will have roughly 8 vines per team member. Conventional wizdom recommends 4-5 max.[*]Keep your team within a level of eachother (lackeys and malefactors count fine here). Ie 24-25, or 25-26. My team was 27-28, and we faced 29s and 30s.[*]Everone on team should set the mission difficulty to the lowest setting, villainous. [/list]
Start it UP!!!!!!
<ul type="square">[*]The contact to start is located (?? a little help, toward SE corner).[*]The first mission is a street hunt, kill Circle of Thorns.
**This can be in any Zone. I suggest Cap Au Diable. Head to the Rogue Island Ferry, and head north when in Cap. The nearbye hills sport a plethora of COT. I suggest the team leader wait at the contact to speed up the SF.[*]The Second Mission.
** Carefull on the way into this one, it is often situated in the middle of many Longbow, and turrets.
**Wveryn, Longbow, and Legacy.
**This is a door mission, requiring the extermination of 3 elite bosses. Be carefull of the wveryn elite boss. He has caused team whipes via Rain of Arrows on 2 of my 3 attempts.[*]The Third Mission
**Often in the NE corner of the map. Meaning long runs if you die in the final map.
**Pretty straight forward fighting if you have made it this far. COT the whole time.
**Initial hallway ends, head to the left. You will fight through to a portal. Other side of portal you have choices heading downward. Doesnt matter which as far as i can tell. Just head down 2x. Then you drop over the side of a cliff. Fight your way into the temple, and through to the vine room.[/list] THE VINE ROOM!!!!!!!!!!
<ul type="square"> [*]The vine room is the hardest part of the SF, DO NOT GET OVER CONFIDENT. It is part of the third mission btw.[*]The room is circular, with COT on the outside, and Vines/COT/ and eventually an AV (dead center).[*]Clear the COT on the outside. [*]Then clear the vines from behind the AV. When you have cleared all the vines outta line of sight of the AV, move to the front ones. [*]Move quickly at this stage, THE AV HITS REAL HARD (in some cases one hit). However you cannot damage the AV till you have taken out the required number of vines. When the vines are done move onto the AV. Focus on it till you take it down. When the AV is roughly half way dead, you will be ambushed. Rumor has it if you didnt clear the outside of COT, they will rush you when you fight the AV.[/list]