Murph's Tricks and Guide to the COV Respec Trial!
By
Alex_,
Posted on: 2005-11-14 07:27 in Player Guides
i stopped reading at "spam healers"
Changed the wording a bit... would still suggest 2 spam healers though. Just makes for and easy fight.
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)
What is a "spam healer" and how do you convince one to heal you? 
Haha just someone with group heal and someone ready to shoot it off the 2nd anyone gets hit.
As far as convincing... well tell them that if they don't you'll stop punching the AV in the neck?
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)
God guide overall. I'm sure more strategies will come along from other teams but this is a great intro to the trial.
@bpphantom
The Defenders of Paragon
KGB Special Section 8
[ QUOTE ]
God guide overall. I'm sure more strategies will come along from other teams but this is a great intro to the trial.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you!
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)
Great guide. I also recommend the Shivan Decimator, I used him, and the AV went down in about 2 minutes.
[ QUOTE ]
Haha just someone with group heal and someone ready to shoot it off the 2nd anyone gets hit.
As far as convincing... well tell them that if they don't you'll stop punching the AV in the neck?
[/ QUOTE ]
Have you ever considered that the "healers" might not need you to be punching the AV in the neck? I mean, my defender solos AVs just fine. It takes a while, but it gets done.
Maybe if you had a Dark Miasma corruptor debuffing the AV you wouldn't need heals at all, what with them preventing 99.5% of the damage from happening in the first place. That same corruptor could then blast away since he/she/it doesn't have to spend so much time healing.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Haha just someone with group heal and someone ready to shoot it off the 2nd anyone gets hit.
As far as convincing... well tell them that if they don't you'll stop punching the AV in the neck?
[/ QUOTE ]
Have you ever considered that the "healers" might not need you to be punching the AV in the neck? I mean, my defender solos AVs just fine. It takes a while, but it gets done.
Maybe if you had a Dark Miasma corruptor debuffing the AV you wouldn't need heals at all, what with them preventing 99.5% of the damage from happening in the first place. That same corruptor could then blast away since he/she/it doesn't have to spend so much time healing.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sure man, with so many powers in the game I'm sure there's more than 1 way to do almost any difficult encounter. However the group I assembled work with great ease. If you find a group that completed this SF easily, why not post it?
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)
Finished that particular respec trial three times so far.
It's not just the AV. Vines still respawn after you've reached the counter, and once you engage the tree it'll spawn CoT in quick waves from different directions.
Having some kind of quick heals is actually a good idea in that encounter.
Agreed, the vines didn't bother us much. The spamming of heals ("I'M GOING HAMI RAID!" (tm - Murf)) protects against the COT just fine... they couldn't do enough damage to drop any of us.
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)
I didn't think kill-X kills counted unless the SF leader was in the zone with you. Is that wrong?
[ QUOTE ]
I didn't think kill-X kills counted unless the SF leader was in the zone with you. Is that wrong?
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm happy to report you are wrong! That's why I put that trick in the Guide 
Good luck!
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)
[ QUOTE ]
I didn't think kill-X kills counted unless the SF leader was in the zone with you. Is that wrong?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes.
SFs, the Kill counter is on everyone, not just the "Mission Holder" in typical missions.
Thanks for eight fun years, Paragon.
This is exactly how my team after 5 attemps to destory the AV beat it. I was working like mad spamming heals and thaws everywhere. Hopefully, the devs will make this trial a bit easier (ie. no more AV 1 shots.)
Ms.Bolt - Level 50 Empathy/Energy
Thermal Bolt - Level 50 Ice/Thermal Corruptor
Member of 200 Bucks/Unspeakable Gathering
Since the AV hits so hard, my team (after many deaths) decided to just send in the pets as we all hide behind a nice big rock. That worked out great!
Nice Guide, thought I would post a link to mine. It is collecting some good information as well.
Another COV Respec Guide BTW ill post a link in my thread back to this one.
[ QUOTE ]
What is a "spam healer" and how do you convince one to heal you?
[/ QUOTE ]
Easy. They heal spam, so convince them that you are spam. Saying "RU h33lz0r??!?" should do it.
This post brought to you by the Thunderfire Campaign to Out-Weird the Internet.
Score so far: Thunderfire-0, Internet-157893678
Tried it last night with:
Ice/Ice Dom (Me)
Energy/Energy Brute
Sonic/Kinetics Corrupter
Claws/Ninjitsu Stalker
The first missions were cake. Speed boost + grant invisibility put us at the AV in 20 minutes.
Killed all the CoT, killed all the vines and hit up the tree. Hit domination but couldn't tell if my slows or holds were doing jack squat. Corrupter debuffed and kept the stalker/brute healed but the tree still did too much damage. Ended up one-shotting the stalker and instead of going after the brute he went for the corrupter. We had no damage dealing at that point (just the brute and myself). Got him down to 60% when the CoT rush happened and the vines respawned.
Seems like you really need a meatshield, firepower and debuffs. Kill him in 30 seconds or you're toast.
We found that there are three ambushes - one at 75%, 50%, and 25% health.
So when the ambush happens, you can run off and deal with it, then start in again on the tree (who will probably be at full health again by then, but you'll have gotten the ambush out of the way).
Hmmm, our Respec Trial didn't go so well.
1x lvl 27 Brute
1x Lvl 27 Bots Mastermind with Shivan summon
1x Lvl 26 Mercs Mastermind with Shivan summon
2x Lvl 26 Dominator
We finished the first missionn easily. The second one was impossible. There was a boss and an Elite boss, Boss, several Lieutenants, and some minion Wyven group right at the entrance, and they were taking us out as soon as we zoned. We had to use stealth and TP friends into a corner as soon as they zoned to try and avoid debt. Must have gone through 2 or 3 team whipes before everyone got inside and we got set up.
Then we buffed everyone, and summoned the Shivans. The dominators used thier holds and powers, the masterminds concentrated fires, while traps a dn triage beacon were doing their thing, while brute was trying to get the elite boss. The Shivans were just running arround smashing random enemies.
Then came the shower of arrows. Wasted both Masterminds, and by extension, all their pets, and hurt the Dominators badly. The other went down shortly after, with the AV not even at half life yet. Only a couple minions and liutenents were dead.
We tried twice with the same result. I go the Punch Drunk badge, and we all quit. So is the second mission supposed to be that difficult?
[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm, our Respec Trial didn't go so well.
1x lvl 27 Brute
1x Lvl 27 Bots Mastermind with Shivan summon
1x Lvl 26 Mercs Mastermind with Shivan summon
2x Lvl 26 Dominator
We finished the first missionn easily. The second one was impossible. There was a boss and an Elite boss, Boss, several Lieutenants, and some minion Wyven group right at the entrance, and they were taking us out as soon as we zoned. We had to use stealth and TP friends into a corner as soon as they zoned to try and avoid debt. Must have gone through 2 or 3 team whipes before everyone got inside and we got set up.
Then we buffed everyone, and summoned the Shivans. The dominators used thier holds and powers, the masterminds concentrated fires, while traps a dn triage beacon were doing their thing, while brute was trying to get the elite boss. The Shivans were just running arround smashing random enemies.
Then came the shower of arrows. Wasted both Masterminds, and by extension, all their pets, and hurt the Dominators badly. The other went down shortly after, with the AV not even at half life yet. Only a couple minions and liutenents were dead.
We tried twice with the same result. I go the Punch Drunk badge, and we all quit. So is the second mission supposed to be that difficult?
[/ QUOTE ]
Nasty stuff there. When we went in the mission we didn't aggro them. We were able to get out of the sub and to the opposite side fine. As for your difficulty... well you really need at least one person with a decent AoE heal for this trail.
We had
27 Stone/FA Brute who level to 28 on this part
28 Rad/Thermal Corrupter
27 claws stalker
28 necro/traps MM
27 grav/nrg dom <--- me
We had no problems on this mission other then one spot where we got 2 groups at once and half of us died.
The tree on the other hand was a bit nastier. We died to a CoT wave the first time when the tree was at around 60%. The vines respawned... The second time we died around 25% or so to a CoT wave and vines... The third time or maybe fourth the vines didn't respawn... around the front area... and there was no CoT wave and we won... (we had our MM in the far back this time since she had recall friend and was going to have her run away when we started to wipe and TP us to the entrance so we could attack tree when its hp was still low. This was unnecessary since we won that time, but it did save the healer some time and effort.)
Also I followed the advice and stood off to the side of the tree... which meant i didn't get hit by all the cone AoE and AoE holds/imbolize which save the healer alot of effort...
It bugs me that the trial to fix a flawed character is so hard. I mean you're already at a disadvantage by having a problem with your character, does the trial have to be so brutal?
It always got me in CoH when I'd hear stories about how someone couldn't get on a respec team 'cause they were gimpped or not the right AT or whatever. I too thought that was the point: go in less than the best, come out better than before ...
Murph's Tricks and Guide to the COV Respec Trial!
TEAM MAKEUP
<ul type="square">[*]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.[/list]
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.
<ul type="square">[*]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)[/list]
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!!
Good luck!
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)