Cathedral of pain

Well as we know issue 18 brings the retrn of the CoP. Been waiting for this badge to come back So lets put together plans for one. ANYONE want to take point?

The Transcendent One
Level 50+ PB (Badge Count 1404)

THIS IS NOT MY STRATEGY BUT A COPY AND PASTE FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES.

Possible Strategy
Preparation:
Team Preparation

Prepare your teams ahead of time - you'll need all twenty-four (24) players possible. You will need to have three teams of eight, and it is best to coordinate ahead of time who is leading what team. It is best to assign each team the name of one of the particular obelisks (Gloom, Woe, Despair).

Prior to running the trial, it is helpful/essential to gather shivans & nukes for all team members. The day of, or prior, each team should meet and help each other through Bloody Bay & Warburg to ensure that as many team members as possible have these additional weapons in their arsenal.

It is also suggest to meet in Pocket D and enter the SG base there, due to convenience of the medical rez units and insp vendors in Pocket D.

What (is suggested) You'll Need
A. Go to Bloody Bay, get shivans.

B. Go to Warburg, get one of each rocket (Chemical, Biological, Nuclear).

Part One:

1. Assemble at respective obelisks for team (Woe/Gloom/Despair).

2. Team Leaders only communicate in the Request channel.

3.Teams attack Judgment Cube spawns simultaneously (it is suggested MM's/tanks/brutes head in first to buffer squishies from insta-death). When the cube's spawns are defeated, the Obelisk's shields will go down.[/i]

4. Team Leaders, when your obelisk's shield is down, in the Request channel, shout "Exposed."

5. Teams attack obelisks (it is suggested MM's/tanks/brutes head in first to buffer squishies from insta-death). Bring the Obelisk's health down to 30%. Forcing the Natterlings away from the obelisks reduces its regeneration.

6 Go to step 3 and repeat until all teams's Obelisks are at 30%. When your team's obelisk is down to 30%, do NOT defeat it until the others are all exposed. Beat it down some, but the defense will come back and the Rularuu will respawn. So it's a matter of maintenance and timing.

6A Team leaders try to slow down or speed up attacks to try to match other teams. If it looks like all three groups are at the same pace, you might try to finish the obelisks without holding at 30%. Leave that decision in the hands of the raid leader.

7 Once everyone is ready and all obelisks are exposed to 30%, then attack and defeat. The Obelisks will be restored 30 seconds after being defeated, so it is critical for all three to come down within the 30 second window of the first one coming down.

Part Two:

1. Assemble at the central access point and buff up.

2. Everyone enter the access point, and immediately move to the left of the entrance.

3. At the request of the team leader, launch a few Biological Mutagens. Take out the cube spawns from one side of the map (under one of the cubes is fine).

4. When the Aspect's shield is down, at the request of the team leader, drop a couple of Chemical Burns and Nuclear Blasts and whatever else you've got.

5. Expect the Aspect's shields to go up, and when it does, retreat to the edge of the circle defeating all the cube spawns quickly. Do NOT stay in the center as you will get attack by spawns from all three cubes AND the Aspect (while it has its shields up).

6. When all the cube spawns are defeated (hopefully quickly), toss everything you've got at the Aspect (including more Nuclear Blasts if you have them).

7. Repeat as needed or until time runs out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~

Addendum

Here is a suggested roster to use the forum to announce and coordinate teams:
-----

Team Gloom
Team Leader:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Team Woe
Team Leader:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Team Despair
Team Leader:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.


Addendum#2

Addition: A global channel should be utilized so that all three teams can communicate directly with each others. Teams should not communicate in the Team channel, only team leaders should do so when specific commands need to be giving i.e. Halt, Attack, Retreat, Regroup, etc.

Teams attack Judgment Cube spawns simultaneously (it is suggested MM's/tanks/brutes head in first to buffer squishies from insta-death). When the cube's spawns are defeated, the Obelisk's shields will go down.

4 Team Leaders, when your obelisk's shield is down, in the Request channel, shout "Exposed."

5 Teams attack obelisks (it is suggested MM's/tanks/brutes head in first to buffer squishies from insta-death). Bring the Obelisk's health down to 30%. Forcing the Natterlings away from the obelisks reduces its regeneration.

6 Go to step 3 and repeat until all teams's Obelisks are at 30%. When your team's obelisk is down to 30%, do NOT defeat it until the others are all exposed. Beat it down some, but the defense will come back and the Rularuu will respawn. So it's a matter of maintenance and timing.

6.1 Team leaders try to slow down or speed up attacks to try to match other teams. If it looks like all three groups are at the same pace, you might try to finish the obelisks without holding at 30%. Leave that decision in the hands of the raid leader.

7 Once everyone is ready and all obelisks are exposed to 30%, THEN attack and defeat.

My Search Techniques Are Weak But This Is What Came Up With This Morning. :-)

Nice good idea to throw some strategy stuff up. However this is also a reply for badge hunters who will want to be in on it, and the MASTERS run. So we will prolly need to get used to doing it WITHOUT Shivans and nukes.

The Transcendent One
Level 50+ PB (Badge Count 1404)

Since I haven't even visited the Beta server for Going Rogue...I need to ask a question.

How different is this version of the CoP from the one that was instituted way-back-when & then pulled?

Because, that one wasn't so very difficult - I think we did it on the test server with less than 2 teams.

Can't say about the one before but the one on Beta was never defeated as far as I know.

A few have beaten on test with less than max teams. For the most part its the same as before. Hopefully they adjust the rewards before tuesday.

It may have changed but at one point if you aggro'd a mob, that mob would follow you no matter where you went. You would either have to kill or be killed or zone out.

Well with any luck we can put together something over the next week, perhaps this weekend to give it a shot.

The Transcendent One
Level 50+ PB (Badge Count 1404)

I haven't really stayed "in the know" as far as Beta was concerned, so I don't have any idea how this works at all, but I'm always game for anything.. epecially when badges are involved. lol

I'd be up for this in a heartbeat. Finally sounds like some interesting fun.

I just read on the beta server that a group from the Vistory server finished the CoP in 18 minutes... I won't tell you what's on my mind...

More than likely...

I was talking to one of the people that did it on Justice (also in 18 min). They originally tried it without the temp powers (nukes, shiv's, and heavies) but could not over come Aspect's regen, and they had debuffers on the team. They had to go get nukes and shives to complete it.

Anyway I would be interested in running it with you or Turg.

Also the 3 team leaders need to be in the same SG.

Go ahead and give it a shot, guys. The Twilight Avengers on Guardian server knocked it out blueside in 17 minutes without any nukes or other temp powers, so it IS doable. The key, as you mentioned, is proper toons and coordination.

Good luck!

Aight y'all. That sounds like a challenge to me. Freedom can do this faster.

I'll even help.

I've been fortunate enough to be on three successful CoP runs. I'd would suggest a few things about that guide that was posted.

I would definitely use a voice chat program vs broadcasting in request at least for the 3 team leaders. There are a couple of reasons for this, first, the 'health' bars for the three obelisks can have a lot of lag. When it looks like there is 30% health left you may only really have 15% or less. I would suggest that if you are going to use a 2 cycle approach: damage round followed by a kill round, that you stop your teams at 40% rather then 30-20%.

Another reason to use voice chat is that broadcasting "shields down" "shields up" is going to get confusing, where as if you are on skype or vent you can just talk about what stage of the game you are at: "we just started our spawn" "Our shields just went up" "we have 3 targets left before the shield goes down". The team leaders can just set up macros to state "Stop attacking the obelisk" "Slow down killing the mob" "speed up killing the mob" .

As far as timing the obelisks it helps if all three teams start attack at the same times, so we have been gathering at the way point then when all three teams are ready attacking the mobs around the cubes.

Also, this trial seems to have a bug where if someone on the team enters before the team leader, there is a chance that the team will end up on a different instance of the Trial then the other teams. I am not sure why this is but I imagine it has to do with the fact that the team leaders all have to be in the same SG/VG and if someone enters from a different SG/VG it screws up the instance. We have been checking this by broadcasting "woe in" "despair in" "gloom in" and making sure all three teams are on the same map.

Temps are nice, but team control is as important. When you fight the 3 cubes and AV, it is pretty important for people to realize when the AV's shield goes back up and which spawn they are suppose run too. If people just sit at the av hacking at it the mobs around the cubes will start to drift towards the AV and spreading out, which makes quick clearing the cubes a little more difficult.