Cathedral of Pain redside

Venu Sovereignty and Shadow Souls are hosting another CoP trial. This is not for new players, bring only your best, fully IO'd level 50 toons. Full villains and rogues only. Vigilantes can not enter villain bases therefore will not be able to join. We're going to need 3 full teams. That's 24 players. Everyone will need to collect Shivans, full sets of nukes, and HVAS before we go. When, you say? Monday September 6, 2010 at 9 pm est. Enter the base through RWZ to take advantage of the close proximity of the hospital, inspiration collectors and the computer to get more HVAS units. This is not an SF. If someone dc's they won't automatically rejoin the team. If they quit or don't come back after they dc, we need to replace them.

What to expect:

1. Lot's of Rularuu. There is a 60 minute timer to complete the trial. I'm not sure whether it starts when the portal is opened or when the first person enters. If anyone can help with this info, please do.

2. The 3 pillars need to be taken down simultaneously. That means each team will take one pillar. We will take each one down to approximately 20-30% hp. When all 3 pillars are roughly the same damage we will then but not before destroy them. In order to break the shields on each pillar we need to kill the mobs of Rularuu near each one. I will lead the north team with Dark Flea. IceUnshackled will lead the center team. The last team will go south.



3. Enter the portal at the center. North team will go to the left cube, center to the center cube, and south to the right cube. Clear the mobs at each cube to lower the shields on the AV. You will have approximately 1 minute. Debuff the AV!! Drop shivans and HVAS. Attack the AV until his shields go up then run back to your cube. Clear the mobs again.

4. Debuff the AV!! Drop bio nukes on the AV and attack him with everything you've got until his shields go up. Go back to your cubes and clear the mobs again.

5. Repeat step 4 with chemical nukes.

6. Repeat step 4 with nuclear nukes.

Each of the 3 teams will need:

Debuffs and damage!! Debuffs are the key to winning so if we are to be heavy on anything it should be debuffs.

1 or 2 melee

3 or more debuffers (at least 1 cold)

2 or more dominators and controllers

2 damage dealers

Everyone will need Shivans, HVAS, and full sets of nukes!! If you don't have them you won't be able to join. Leadership of any kind will help immensely (Veat or pool). So, try to bring toons with it if you can.

You will have your choice of 2 rewards: either a random 7 day temporary power and 6 merits or 10 merits. You get nothing for failing this trial, not even xp or inf. You will also receive the Pain Killer badge for completing the trial. Rumors have been floating around that there are two badges associated with this trial but I can neither confirm nor disprove this. I'm not sure how to get the second badge if it even exists. According to ParagonWiki, "Each member also gets a huge end of mission bonus to compensate for not gaining any experience, INF, or drops in the mission."

Here is a tentative table of the temporary powers:

From MTS
The Perfect Eye:
+50% Perception
+15% Accuracy

The True Furnace:
+10 Max End
+33% Endurance drain resist

Heart of a Storm Elemental:
+5% HP
+40% Regen

Anger Monument:
+25% Smashing/Lethal Damage
+20% Damage (all other types)

Monument of Iron (BUG: calls itself Crystal of Resilience in the power description):
+1 Mag Stun, Hold, Sleep, Immob protection
+50% Stun, Hold, Immob resist
+75% Sleep resist

We will be using Ventrilo to communicate. I'll give you the information in-game. Please have it whether you have a mic or not so you can at least listen to instructions.

Here's some great guides to help with strategy:

ParagonWiki

VoodooGirl's guide to the Cathedral of Pain - This guide is the most up to date but there's some good information in the others as well.
Magia's guide to the Cathedral of Pain - Some of the information is outdated, i.e. Items of Power, but the strategy is still the same.
Lady Sadako's guide to the Cathedral of Pain - Same as Magia's it's not up to date but the strategy is sound.

Thanks to all of those who put all their hard work into creating these guides.

I will be there. Have nukes, and all Let's make sure those who come can get on vent????

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

I'll be there. Dr. Turgenev, Illusion/Storm Controller. IO'd up, have nukes and Shivans, HVAS, Snowbeast, Rikti Dro- okay, stopping there... and TS2/TS3/Vent/Skype if you guys wanna take it to voice comms for coordination. Contact info is in my sig, or PM me here.

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

Does anyone know what triggers the timer? Is it when the portal is opened or when the first person enters the trial?

Does anyone know what ParagonWiki is alluding to when they say a huge mission bonus? They said your choices for rewards were either a temp power and a small amount of merits (6) or a large amount of merits. I found out later that the "LARGE" amount of merits was only 10.

The "Huge" bonus refers to the Experience and/or Inf you gain upon completion. The reward is substantial due to the fact that none of the enemies you defeat during the trial award anything.

When Prophets of Supremacy did this blueside, I remember that the inf was a few hundred thousand (give or take) as far as Xp...I dont know, most of those in the trial were lvl 50 already. I can confirm, however, that you are awarded Master Thief/Power Liberator if you choose the IoP.

If sign-ups are still on-going, I can bring a buffer (/kin, /sonic, /therm, or /pain) I have a Crab and a Widow as well, but would prefer to play support.

lvl 50 wp/ss tank. have all temp powers i will be there. 9pm est.

I'd love to join you with my tank if you have room . Fully IO'ed 50 w/Darkest Night debuff. Name: Shifter. I have all the requirements (3 nukes, shivans, HVAS, vent) along with a ton of other temps I've been saving up for this (Warwolf wistle, Loa bone, Backup radio, etc...)

I'll be there on my tank with everything except for the Ventrillo (long story), plus I'll have all of the temp powers including Rock.

I've got both, plus a few handful of snowflakes we can toss in his eyes to blind him. If it comes down to it, I can use my holiday cheer combined with my self-destruct to knock him back to the Big Bang!

Oh, I'm going to need an invite to one of those SGs...my tank just turned bad a few minutes ago and is without SG.

Well, we gave it a great attempt but with the big guy shooting at us through his shields, plus the cubes spawning like mad, it was pretty difficult just to bring the shield down.

I'll be around for the next go.

I think the next go will be post-I19, when the AV is twinked down. It was another repeat of last week's run: Zero issues clearing the obelisks (with a mild problem on timing for the first attempt) or the cube spawns, but dropping the AV was near-impossible.

I'd suggest amending raid notes on this to prep for a complete and utter "HIT HIM WITH EVERYTHING" blitz as soon as the shields drop. The drop period is too short, and he heals/attacks when shielded, making your efforts marginal at best.

I KNOW blueside raids go a lot smoother though. It's funny, because there were a lot of hero builds on this raid too (my team had a token corruptor and brute).

Thanks to Ghoul Slayer / the Venu Sovereignty for hosting this attempt, for the SG access and for Ventrilo access!

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

The Bio Nuke temp power from Warburg is an ally buff power.
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Biological_Mutagens

This power is intended to be used on us. I checked over the directions for the event and the only mention of it I saw was it being used as a debuff on the AV.