Good notes. It has been reported that the vines can be moved via TP Foe, not sure if this has changed, but others are reporting that they have used this tactic.
The second respec contact erroneously asks you to come back at 30 if you contact her at any level below that, but if you go back at 30 she tells you to come back at 30. Its a bug. The second respec is the same levels as the CoH one, 34-40.
"Me, I assume 99% of the world's population are full-blown *******. Humanity seldomly lets me down."--Eisregen
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I have heard conflicting views on the vines. People on the forums have claimed to have moved them, but my teammates have said they couldn't. It's a moot point anyway, because you have to move relatively fast with the vines.
As for the second respec, I can't confirm anything on that right now. So close...
This may not be correct, but I seem to recall three ambushes--one at 75%, one at 50% and one at 25%. Perhaps your last two ambushes got caught up together?
Quite possible, the last one seemed really big. However, I don't really have any way to check. If someone does know for sure, I don't mind giving you credit.
Note on the vines - the number you have to kill seems to be (1.5 * team size) * (team size). All values rounded up before, so a team of five needs to kill 40 (5 * 1.5 = 8 rounded up, * 5 = 40), a team of four 24, a team of six 45 and a team of eight 96 (8 * 1.5 * 8 = 12 * 8 = 96).
This only counts online players - if everyone but the brutes switches to an alt, but stays in contact via global chat, then the brutes can go to town on what presumably would be 6 vines if you have two brutes, and then everyone else can switch back once the vines are cleared.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Psychoti
"....so I headbutted the blind chick."
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[ cruise / casual-tempest.net / transference.org / xenogamous.com / wytedragon.net / quantam sufficit ]
Hey Blast,
Thanks for the walk-thru! I'm getting ready for my first attempt (?) errrr I mean success so this was very helpful.
Thanks!
A couple things to make the trial easier:
(a) Everyone in the group needs to be 28-30, or lackeyable into that range. I can't stress this point enough.
(b) The trial is easier with less than 8 people. 5-6 seems like an optimum number.
(c) The leaders difficulty must be set to the minimum
(d) Everyone needs several revives and a bunch of break-frees. If you can break out of the tree's DoT of death, you can almost always survive it.
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Masterminds are an excellent AT for this trial, but they really need their final pet. I wouldn't bother taking a mastermind who wasn't at least 28. They add a lot of survivability when fighting the tree (as mentioned above), and they probably have the highest sustained DPS (not being endurance limited.)
The vines are usually level 29, the tree level 30. I think a full 8 man group bumps those levels up by one. Anyone less than level 27/28 is going to have a significant penalty both in damage and accuracy.
You have at least 5 minutes to clear the vines; and each person only needs to kill 10 of them. (slightly more with an 8 man team). That averages out to 30 seconds per vine per person. Any class, not facing the level based penalties, can handle that. Easily handle that.
[ QUOTE ]
Blasts Note: Try and stay at 1 +/- your own level when recruiting or the spawns may be too high for people at the low end.
[/ QUOTE ]
The number of vines and the level of vines and tree are a fixed number determined by the size of the group and the difficulty of the mission. It is not dependent on the level of the group (or group leader). Don't treat the trial as a 24-30 trial; its a 28-30 trial.
Going in with a lower level team will be one of the worst game experiences ever, notable only for the progress made toward your debt badges. Go in with the appropriate level team and it is a relatively straightforward and interesting encounter.
I've done the respec several times.
1) TP Foe does work.
This ideally needs to be done stealthed / hidden (or the TP Foer targeting off of the stalker).
What you do is take the vines that are in sight of the AV and group them in chunks of 5 out of sight. We had 24 vines and had about 3 groups of 5 ish. You are not KILLING them, you are getting them ready for future killing.
This ideally should be done as the rest of the team hunts the CoT to minimize time. Still, doing this will take longer than it takes to kill CoT.
Than, when they are all out of sight of the AV, start killing. Another benifit of having them in chunks is your team's AOEs can be used. Use the brutes/stalkers more on the single vines above the AV and the MM and corruptors on the lower ones.
2) Ambushes
The 3rd ambush I believe only happens if you didn't clear out the CoT in the room. What happens it they rush during your attacking of the AV.
Additionally, I've seen both 1 and 2 ambushes. I believe there was only 1 ambush during my last time...but that was because we just ignored them and killed the AV very fast (joy of having two brutes and melee MM pets).
3) Vine Calculation
There are some ways to keep the count to the minmum of 24 - not necessary ususally, but if it really is giving you trouble, read the boards to see (or send me a message).
I ran it with a team of 24-26s, and the vines were 27-28. No problems there. As far as I know, this acts like any TF and spawns 1/2+ highest member. That is why I said stay within 1/2+ When recruiting. Then, the lowbies will be able to at least try to help, even though you can't do a whole lot against 4+s even if you're fully slotted with SOs.
Out of both my MMs, neither was even 26. I still hold to my theory that they are helpful, in part because of the extra targets pets provide.
As with the difficulty, I was under the impression it worked off of the highest level, not difficulty setting. However, I did notice that it was sporadic on previous attempts. Maybe I missed something.
Thanks for the info on TP: I'd gladly edit it in if the time had not expired. Since when has there been an edit limitation?
I just want to say that this is not supposed to be the be-all-end-all respec guide. Just something to help with a particularly difficult trial. I'd reccomend you look at some other guides for cross referencing and such. Always get a second opinion.
I've run it twice myself, and had several ppl in my SG run it as well. In every case, the levels of the final mobs in the AV mission were +2 of the highest person in the group. Mission difficulty has nothing to do with this, or any other, Strike Force-type missions.
I've found optimal group size is 6. More than that and you start getting a lot of bosses in the spawns, especially in the final AV room, that really slows things down.
Best tactic I've seen yet is to have 3 lower level ppl, of whatever range, that are +/- 1 lvl of each other (say 24-26) and then 3 others that are 30+ (the higher the better). The lower levels malefactor down the highers, the Tree spawns as +2 to the highest person in the group (in the 24-26 example, the tree would be 28). Then, after you enter the mission, kill the malefactoring and the 30+s lackey up the lowbies. Then you have 6 ppl that are 30+ fighting a 28 AV...it dies quickly. I've heard of a group killing the tree so fast in this manner that the ambush didn't have time to spawn! I do realize that everyone will be autoexempted down to 30, but they only lose their powers, not their enhancement slots, so having 3 40s is better than 3 31s ).
Nice post!
we tried this just an hour ago. we entered the final mission with a 27, two 28s, and two 31's. the 31's were Malf'd down to the 28's. the enemies were lvl 32 and 33. this tactic of malf'ing down and getting to the tree, then un-malf'ing DOES NOT WORK. obviously the game goes off of something else, but it definitely did NOT give us +2's to 28's.
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Im confused...
I got this info on Repec from a GM
""
If you would like to respec your character you will need to complete a Task Force.
The required levels for each Task Force is as follows:
Steel Canyon - Positron: 10
Skyway City - Synapse: 15
Independence Port - Sister Psyche: 20
Talos Island - Citadel: 25
Striga Isle - Ernesto Hess: 25
Striga Isle - Moonfire: 25
Brickstown - Manticore: 30
Founders Falls - Numina: 35
Please note the level of the enemies which spawn in each Task Force is a set level. Also, you may be a part of a Task Force that has a mission assigned to a Hazard or Trial Zone that you are not high enough level to enter. Support will not be able to advance the mission or move you into the zone in these instances. Here are the RECOMMENDED levels you should be in order to do Task Force missions:
Steel Canyon - Positron: 15
Skyway City - Synapse: 20
Independence Port - Sister Psyche: 25
Talos Island - Citadel: 30
Striga Isle - Ernesto Hess: 30
Striga Isle - Moonfire: 30
Brickstown - Manticore: 35
Founders Falls - Numina: 40
"'
From this, it would appear that respec is available at level 10-15
Does this sound right to anyone?
All those you have listed are Task Forces. They give a badge, take awhile to go through, but more or less are just missions strung together in some kind of story. They do not give you a "reward" like a Trial does (special enhancements or respec)
None of them are Respec trials.
"If you would like to respec your character you will need to complete a Task Force." Is correct basically.
But none of which is listed is for any of the Respec trials. And the ones listed are only Task Forces for the Hero side.
Hero levels for respec missions : 24-33, 34-43, 44+
The villain levels will be the same once I7 goes Live.
I've already forgotten about most of you
Nice guide overall, I'd like to make mention that the missions can be stealthed by any type of villain who has the concealment pool invisibility and recall friend.
And the trick for the vines works if you have someone to stealth the mission because everyone can log out and then wait for the one person to stealth to the end and then log back in, which then sets the vine counter as low as it can go for the end room.
Has anyone done the 1st respec since I7 went live? I've heard people say that the respec is like the hero one and if everyone is 24/25 or 26/27 or whatever, that it won't be too hard. As long as there is no more than 1 difference in level. Then I've also heard that it's hard coded like the regular TF/SF and all the enemies are 30ish no matter what. Has anyone done this in the last couple weeks that can say which it is?
One of my toons is hitting 24 very soon and just wondering if I should get respec out of the way or wait it out for 30.
Well I'll answer my own question, since I've done it 3 times now. It's just like hero respec, best to keep the team within 1 level of each other and the enemies spawn appropriately.
Also, to clarify the ambush part of this guide, I have yet to see any ambushes during the AV fight. Not sure if it's been removed at some point, or if it is just because we usually clear all the way down to the AV room instead of using recall friend.
Had a fun experience last week, where we started the final mission with a team of 6, but 2 of our players (husband and wife) lost conn right as we started to clear CoT. So 4 of us managed to clear enough vines for 6 people, although it took a good 30 minutes. Everyone but me (DM/Elec Brute) died a few times but I kept plugging away, keeping the vine count between 5-25 while they ran back to the mission. At one point we got to 1 vine but then 7 more sprouted! But we made it. The Av wasn't too much trouble after that, with a few inspirations.
The villain respec might be a little harder than the hero one, but I find it's much quicker. Have finished anwhere from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours. Great not to have to travel so much and wheras the waves in the hero reactor always take 30 min the villain side is as fast as you can clear.
The ironic thing is, people who really need a respec often times not very optimized toons, and many times the team formed (especially a PUG) are not within the +/- 1 level.
I think the villain respec is much harder than the hero respec, albeit faster *if* you have the right team and skills. In general, I'd prefer Sky Raiders, Freakshow, and Rikti in exchange for CoT at the same levels.
I mean, a Madness Mage or a Sky Skiff / Jump Bot? C'mon, that's a no-brainer on who is easier.
It would have been great for the devs to have a REVERSE hero respec trial - I.E. villains are trying to destroy the reactor and must face waves of 1st) Longbow, 2nd) Wyvern, 3rd) Legacy Chain. Or whatever.
As it is now, I feel REALLY bad for the occasional gamer who screwed up their build and needs it fixed.
-FyreBlast
"Look how many pages of crap are in this thread already!" -r0y to all threads on these forums.
No kidding, I have tried to run the respec trial 7 times already, and because of the PUG's I get usually the team leader is a 25 that is set for maximum difficulty and refuses to be lackeyed because he 'wants more exp'
[ QUOTE ]
we tried this just an hour ago. we entered the final mission with a 27, two 28s, and two 31's. the 31's were Malf'd down to the 28's. the enemies were lvl 32 and 33. this tactic of malf'ing down and getting to the tree, then un-malf'ing DOES NOT WORK. obviously the game goes off of something else, but it definitely did NOT give us +2's to 28's.
[/ QUOTE ]
I disagree. I recently did a respec, last Sunday. I was lvl 32 and there were two others my lvl along with 4 players 25-27. The lower lvls maled down us higher guys BEFORE we selected the TF. The key is to mal BEFORE accepting any missions. You must stay as a mal the entire time until the last mish.
We then soft-loaded the mishto decrease the mob size and had the lowest lvl run the map to spawn all baddies and AV. Once we entered we then un maled and LKed the lower lvls. The highest baddies were 29s and the AV was 28.
It was a cake walk. However, the mish with the longbow was not easy at all since we were maled down and we did not have teleport.
In conclusion, if you mal BEFORE selecting the TF it will work as long as you stay maled the entire TF until the last mish.
Where is the contact to claim your respec at? /respec doesnt seem to be working for my two vet rewards. I need the villian side contact.
'Understanding that you still have a lot to learn is key to the path to wisdom' - (Some guy somewhere, or maybe I just made it up, I don't know.)
I believe the villain respec guy is in nerva, there are 2 arbitors right near each other (check the map) one of them is the guy that grants your respecs.
Quick question about the villain respec trial. I know the vines respawn (boy do I from a failed attempt last night!)
But do they respawn even after you've killed all of them and started in on the AV in the middle? Or do they stop respawning once you've gotten them all dead and once?
And just to see if I should really bother, do you think a lvl 32 bots/dark mastermind and a lvl 31 bots/ff mastermind have a chance of duoing the AV?
The villain respec is rather hard, and as such, I thought I would post a quick run-through of it. I know there have been others similar to what I am about to do, but everyone always ends up belittling Corruptors into h3410rz, and we all know how much their opinions matter.
Contact: Sparcetriel
Level Range: 24-30 (unconfirmed, seems to be a problem with how the levels are arranged)
Location: Dock on the FAR eastern end of Nerva
/Loc: -1260, 11, 6405
Mission # 1: Take out 25 Circle of Thorns
Pretty straightforward, I have gone to Cap Au Diable to do this. However, I guess you could do it pretty much anywhere with CoT.
Mission # 2: Defeat Hero Attack Leaders
Here is where things get fun. What you have is a mission packed with Longbow, Wyvern, and Legacy Chain. The idea is to defeat the three attack leaders: Elliot, Chelman, and DeVries.
Blasts Note: A Stalker with TP Friend will make this much easier.
If you have a Stalker with Recall, all he/she has to do is find the leaders and bring the team to that point. If not, youll have to fight your way.
Blasts Note: Chelman, the Wyvern leader, and DeVries, the Longbow leader, are both elite bosses.
This is pretty straightforward, also. No real curveballs. Just be careful with aggro, and scan groups before engaging, as they tend to be packed with bosses.
Mission # 3: Killing the Darn Thorn Tree or May it Rest in Pieces
This mission, if done wrong, will give you nightmares for years to come. If youre the leader, act like it. Lead your team. If you arent, listen to your leader. If hes a brainless figurehead, take charge. Your team (and probably the inadequate leader) will thank you for it.
This mission isnt really anything you havent seen before, save for the final room, unless you were PLd.
Blasts Note: The first of the mission is mostly fluff, and that Recalling Stalker can once again just take you to the final room.
If you have to run the mission like a sucker, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
1. Past the room with the pools, there will be a fork. Go left, unless you just want to fight your way to a dead end.
2. After you go down, for lack of a better title, the hallramps, dont go in the portal, but instead drop down the hole into the pool. The portal is a trap.
Once you reach the room with the Thorn Tree, you will have to do things in a specific order.
First, explain to your team exactly (or at least close to) what I am about to explain to you. Make sure to emphasize the parts such as Stay away from and Dont. By emphasize, I mean shove it down their throats until they can think of nothing but your instructions and how best to follow them.
The first task is to clear the room of the Circle of Thorns. To do this, go in a circle around the room. Stay away from (did you get that?) the center, or you risk angering the tree, and that is the last thing youll ever live to regret.
Once the room is clear, you move onto the second stage: the vines.
These vines, however, are not the pretty strands of Ivy that makes you say Pretty! like an eight-year-old schoolgirl. No, these vines will make you suffer, and require you to pay thousands in therapy fees.
The vines themselves do not hit terribly hard, but the tree does, and it doesnt appreciate you taking out its symbiotic friends.
Blasts Note: Someone(s) should have a vine counter. Find out who that is, and ask them to tell you when it reaches zero. Also, tell them not to zone, because, as of 1/2/06, zoning makes the counter disappear, which will make this harder, but not impossible. If this happens, have someone periodically try attacking the tree, to see if it is vulnerable yet.
Now, what you have to do here is run around the tree, taking out vines, until the counter is at zero. Easy right?
Wrong!
See, they grow back, which makes the counter go back up. And at some points, they will come back so fast that you actually will have more to take out 5 minutes after the last time you asked How many? Add to that the constant attacks and holds of the trees, and you have one major annoyance.
Blasts Note: Masterminds come in handy here, because the pets provide more targets for the tree, saving the lives of the players.
There is a way to counter this. Run around the tree, weakening, but not killing, the vines. This way, once they are all weakened, you can circle the tree, gathering, quickly, the kills you need. If at first this doesnt work, try again. Sometimes, you just miss some, and it only takes one.
After taking out the vines, go after the tree itself. This is a pretty normal AV battle. You attack it, it attacks you, and you all laugh about it years later. Or, if, like me, this tree causes you irrevocable pain, youll chop it into pieces, and sell it as a dining room suite.
Err, sorry. The only really interesting thing here is/are the ambush (es). One at what seemed like 60 percent health, and another a bit lower (second confirmed by me, denied by others). The second ambush was far larger than the first (by like what seemed a factor of 3).
Blasts Note: People have said there is only one ambush, but I was ambushed twice in my last attempt.
Once you finish the second ambush, the trees health will be back up there. But worry not, respec-dreamers, the ambushes are done. All that remains is to make the tree suffer like it made you suffer. Take it down, select respec as your reward, and exit the mission.
Congratulations. You are the proud owner of the first villain respec.
Go to Arbiter Lupin near the trainer in the zone to use it, and enjoy.
Blasts Notes: A Bunch of Them
Blasts Note: Try and stay at 1 +/- your own level when recruiting or the spawns may be too high for people at the low end.
Blasts Note: Brutes can really go to town in the vines section, because the name of the game there is Nonstop Attacking.
Blasts Note: Vines dont give XP, for those of you thinking about farming (you know who you are).
Blasts Note: Vines are immobile, and cannot be moved by any means.
I have heard conflicting views on the vines. People on the forums have claimed to have moved them via TP Foe, but my teammates have said they couldn't. It's a moot point anyway, because you have to move relatively fast with the vines.
Blasts Note: There is a second respec trial, which is, supposedly, levels 31-40. However, as of 1/2/06, as far as I know, there is a bug with the second respec that will not allow it to actually award respecs to people from 31-34.
Any comments would be appreciated, and enjoy.