Murph's Tricks and Guide to the COV Respec Trial!
By
Alex_,
Posted on: 2005-11-14 07:27 in Player Guides
I just did the respec earlier today.
L34 En/? Stalker, who got auto-exemped down to 30.
L27 Necro/Dark MM, SK'd to 29.
L29 Dark/Dark Cor
L24 Rob/Poison MM, SK'd to 28. (Me)
We had four deaths the entire TF. Twice from the Corrupter, who admitted she was doing stupid things (one wasn't her fault, as there was an elite boss on the other side of the door the Stalker opened, and she got caught) in the Elite Boss mission. Once from me, when a pull for Howling Twilight didn't go very well. Once from the Stalker, who got a little too close to the Tree before we were ready.
The respec was, generally, easy. We cleared out the CoT, then worked our way around, attacking the vines. Robots are great for this, since they can attack vines closer to the Tree than the rest of the team could.
We gathered and buffed up for the AV. I sent my robots on ahead, then the /Darks laid down their debuffs, as did I (-Res, -Acc, and -speed debuffs. No idea if they worked or even hit). After the initial aggro, which killed all three of my minion bots, the ONLY trouble we had was from the CoT ambush. I was the only one to go into orange, at least before the Tree died. I moved closer to the Corruptor, and that solved that. My resummoned minions didn't even take damage before the Tree went down. I'm not sure the Necro lost any pets at all.
Of course, once the AV went down and the AoE debuffs vanished, the Corruptor and I died in about 15 seconds. The Stalker and Necro exited before they were overrun.
So, yes, healing was somewhat useful. I would've been fine with just a couple respites. Good debuffing, though, make healing essentially moot. As always.
[ QUOTE ]
I just did the respec earlier today.
L34 En/? Stalker, who got auto-exemped down to 30.
L27 Necro/Dark MM, SK'd to 29.
L29 Dark/Dark Cor
L24 Rob/Poison MM, SK'd to 28. (Me)
[/ QUOTE ]
I think the key here is that you guys were at the respec's high end, rather than working at level 24. More powers, more slots, and possibly lower level mobs (are they capped like the Sky Raiders are in the CoH respec?)
I tried this the other night with a 24-25 team and we were slaughtered. I'd love to know the success rate on this thing.
Little trick i found to make those pesky vines seem much less pesky. All you need are one or two villians with tp foe (i know you exist, ive fought you in bb). While the main group is killing cot in the vine room, have the 2 tpers tp all the vines into one spot (depending on group/spawn size, could take a while). Then attack the vines en masse, quickly killed.
Our team 5 man team tried for hours, and couldnt kill the vines.
With only 2 players left, we rounded up the remaining 21 vines, (40 initial spawn, lending credence to the fact that they dont respawn to full), and killed them. Of course 2 people killing the AV is impossible, but was worth the shot.
Another important thing to note is, once youve cleared out the vines once, the AV stays attackable. When the vines regen, simply tp them out of the way and stay focused on the AV. Most of you may know this, but its posted for those that dont.
bump
A few thoughts:
1. The mish is bugged atm. Several of the last few times I've done it only the first person to zone into the final mission had a vine counter. If this person dies and/or re-enters the mission he/she will no longer have the vine counter either. If this should happen, just keep killing vines and check the AV periodically.
2. The AV has a limited field of vision. You can stand right behind the wall behind it and be completely safe. We've found that when fighting the AV you can set up a pretty nice camp just to the right and behind him (if facing it). This is a good spot to retreat to in order to deal with the three ambushes that are spawned. You can fight him on that side and be only a few steps from safety.
3. You can skip a lot of content to speed things up with stealth and tp friend. For the kill CoT head to Cap. For the 1st mission fight the EB in the entry room, have your stealther head to next boss and tp party, and do the same for the final EB. For the final mission your stealther can tp you to just outside the final room.
4. If you are having difficulties with the first door mission really rethink things. You are likely to have a LOT of trouble on the final mission.
Very Nice Guide,
Where is the contact to get the Respec?
Reddy Kilowatt
Children of Data
2nd SG on Infinity
Earth Tech
Desert Princess
Bloody Decker
(and that is only some of the ones on Infinity)
The contact is next to the other Arbiter in Nerva, Operator. He's not marked because he's only a few feet away. I was confused by that too. 
This was really helpful for the 5-man Respec Team we recently had. We had 2 MMs, 2 Brutes, and a Corrupter. We didn't have a full-time healer like you recommended (couldn't find one), but after dying once or twice against the AV, we emerged victorious.
I think we would've given up if we didn't have the tips from this. Thanks much!
[ QUOTE ]
Little trick i found to make those pesky vines seem much less pesky. All you need are one or two villians with tp foe (i know you exist, ive fought you in bb). While the main group is killing cot in the vine room, have the 2 tpers tp all the vines into one spot (depending on group/spawn size, could take a while). Then attack the vines en masse, quickly killed.
Our team 5 man team tried for hours, and couldnt kill the vines.
With only 2 players left, we rounded up the remaining 21 vines, (40 initial spawn, lending credence to the fact that they dont respawn to full), and killed them. Of course 2 people killing the AV is impossible, but was worth the shot.
Another important thing to note is, once youve cleared out the vines once, the AV stays attackable. When the vines regen, simply tp them out of the way and stay focused on the AV. Most of you may know this, but its posted for those that dont.
[/ QUOTE ]
Old thread, but this is a really awsome idea that needs to be saved for future reference.
Has anyone tried successfully on this lately? I'd love to hear a success story for how you did it. Tonight was our second night in a row for four of us - a SS/Inv brute, stalker, Mind/Psi dominator, and myself - rad/rad corruptor - and then two new members in a thug/FF MM and a plant dom. It went spectacularly well through the killing the Wyvern, Legacy and Longbow hero guys, flew through the map of the CoT, then started smashing through the vines.
Then we had a group-wide mapserver loss at 11 vines or so when we were nearing the core - and when it came back, the number had exploded to 30 some and went up to 52, I think it was and wiped us out. We came back in, but after that point, we couldn't keep up with the respawning. We'd have 14, then it would jump to 30, then 37. We'd get it to 16 and then it would pop to 27, and hop again. The lowest we got it to after that was 11, and finally wiped again & gave up. There was never any gradual respawn, it always exploded by at least 7 or 8 at a time.
I'm hoping since everything was going so clearly fantastic until the server decided to ruin us that we'll get compensated, but there's probably some rule that the GMs can't do anything like that.
There's a difference between making something a challenge or torture. It would still be plenty tough if the vines didn't respawn at all or were at least set to a lower number. I don't understand why they made this such an infuriating pain in the neck. It totally ruins your night when you were doing everything right until the stupid vines went nuts. 
That thug/ff MM sounds like a great guy....
Side note - This was my first go, and subsequent fail, at this trial last night, and to echo Daisy, what a great way to ruin a night of good play.
If you can see the AV, you are already dead. 
The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!
Shivans. really its lame but three or four of them and you laugh your way thru that tree.
1 /rad corr and 1 Elec/Elec Brute on any team with an AV also helps debuffs from /Rad and end drain the AV helps keep the Tree from using higher end costing powers. i use both builds regularly to get respecs for friends and it always works for me very rarely while on relentless difficulty do we get a team wipe.
Talos Maltalomar lvl 50 Rad/Rad Corrupter - Triumph Server
Arack BloodThrall lvl 50 BS/SR Scrapper - Triumph Server
Rose's Kiss Lvl 50 Mind/Nrg/Ice PermaDom - Triumph Server
I'm with a Dom-heavy VG. We just permahold the vines and get it over with.
I have also done this with my Brute at the lead, backing up several Doms. I take the alpha, they hold. Fun fun fun!
[ QUOTE ]
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?
[/ QUOTE ]
Not hard if you have a team that works together well. If you're on triumph and need some help look me up.
@Murphy - 10 Murf Beam/Traps Corruptor on Virtue(4 retired 50s)