Union Cathedral of Pain recon run 1

The attendees with an unworried Aspect in the background.

We didn't get him, but we got a lot of information.

Nice try, folks.

Was about to post my shot of this! We did well on the first stage, we just need to rebalance teams and focus more on debuffs etc on the second stage. Still was good fun and we'll be giving it another go very soon!

I can see me! Was a learning experience thats for sure, though we'll defo be more prepared next time.

Do think the sheer amount of regen suprised everybody.

I first of all, want to thank everyone that helped organise, attended, worked towards buffs and patiently took part in Union's and I believe EU side's first attempt at the Cathedral of Pain Trial.

We did have a few shortcomings, that I will take responsibility for.

Initially there were doubts we would fill the teams, so we asked about and got people together. Things started to take shape during the week, where we assigned people to teams and started sorting out who was turning up. At the same time, several additional conversations and discussions of the trial were taking place which I understand enticed further attendees.

Now thats not a bad thing, as it shows that Union, is truly alive, kicking and coming out fighting.

But it has caused disappointment for some, that sadly couldn't fit into the trials 24 player requirements.

I would ask for some patience and understanding, I fully intend to not only get this trial nailed, but nailed and runnable so that everyone of the players that I have fought side by side with and against, for these last few years, can get the badge and rewards that come from completing the trial.

For those that joined me in the shard, you have my admiration for your tenacity and patience in dealing with my rather long briefing and the swift completion for Phase 1; as well as further respect for sticking it out until the end.

For those in the channel, waiting for news and wishing they were fighting with us, you have my understanding at your frustration of the limited places, and my solemn word that this will happen again and you will get your chance to fight.

I sincerly had fun and it was a pleasure to see everyone turn out in force for this, we have truly shown tonight that Union is indeed healthy and that has to always be a success in my opinion.

Lastly, before I post my screenshot of the last 5 minutes getting together for a screeny, I would also like to know if the facilities in the SG base were adequite, and if there were any other adjusments that could be suggested, to please let me know.

I'll as always, be on patrol whenever I can, details are already being put together for another run and I am cataloging my recieved emails to make good on my word.

As always Union, you have my respect.

Tsumiju Zero ~ The Nightmare of Dra'Gon.

And after the timer ran out....

Some feedback for you Tsumiju....

The base was fine...in through the portal follow corridor right..hang a left to the raid tp...no problems.

Mind you, had plenty of practice learning the route!

Next time I'll have shivan and heavy out ready before his shield drops..then dump the nuke on his bonce.

We were a bit lag locked when he became open the first time which meant the nukes got spread out.

Apart from that, I thought we handled part one incredibly well for newbies...might have lulled in to a false sense of security


Looking forward to next attempt

Is it the same as the old one back in the day? Not that I can remember much from then lol.

I still remember a EU test server run about 3 years ago. Utter chaos, managed it tho. Should really pay attention to when these tests are running :P

This isn't the same CoP as years ago.

It is officially 'NOT easy'.

Regarding the run last night, some feedback:

Long lasting -Regen is looking essential. Warburg nukes don't provide any -regen, and Envenomed Daggers don't have enough duration. So Dark Miasma and Radiation Emission look to be non-optional, sadly.

After the first couple of rounds in the inner Cathedral, I think people were getting a little tired and concentration was drifting a little.

I'd be tempted to try a blitz strategy at least once - ie the first time the shield goes down, EVERYONE unloads their chemical burns on the Aspect, just to see how far you can get him down in one burst.

The guides and plan all fitted to the axiom "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy".

The spawns from the Cubes were not necessarily managed perfectly, but they were at least managed. Good for a first try, IMO.

Regarding the trial itself, I've never been a fan of content so difficult it requires a specific teamcomposition to manage it, I think it's not playing to the strengths of the game, which is the sheer diversity. However, this is the current pinnacle of difficulty in the game, so we'll have to wait and see if there are any adjustments, or whether there's some secret strategy that we're not aware of yet (I doubt it though).

Oh, and god alone knows how many times I planted. Searching the chatlog for last night implies about 13 times

I have been pondering our predicament last night regarding the final AV and the encouter as a whole.

I think given that this was the first EU attempt, we did really well. The cubes / pillars were looking quite complicated in concept and actually turned out quite well to manage.

Note for team leaders: You can control the regen of your tower by defeating the defending natterlings quickly or slowly depending on how much pillar hp you want to restore to sync with other teams.

As for the AV, we were operating on the idea that the nukes would debuff the AV for the duration of the shields being down, and that the debuff would sustain until the second wave.

Given the small window of opportunity, perhaps the nukes should be used for another purpose i.e

• We clear the spawns from each cube down to one enemy target remaining, we then gather and immediately fire Biological nukes at ourselves.
• We defeat the remaining enemy to shatter the shield and then hit Rularuu with all our Nuclear payloads, followed by the Chemical payloads.
• Everyone goes bonkers with things like Call to Justice and red inspirations to outdamage his regen.
• Blasters will need to fire nukes close in, the move back to avoid the -tohit of rularuu's hurricane.
• Controllers / Rads and the like try to get in as much -Regen and debuffs and possible to assist.

One thing as an Idea I would like to try is having more Darkies.. (I do remember they have -regen debuff in their Howling Twilight) and any other with -regen debuffs.. cast their debuff.. JUST before that Shield comes back up and the enemy spawns.
That should prevent him from regenerating fully while we take out them Cube minions before we have a go at him ... again.

Also.. to counter that nasty Hurricane that reduces ToHit... Leadership pool.

Thus I think I envision it like this:
1. Defeat Cube spawns- Rularuu shield is down.
2. If we stand near center, quickly a few of us uses the Bio nuke, while others launch the nuclear and chemical and shivans.. Rads do their thing, so do sonic.. All pound him hard.
3. Seconds pass and soon the shield is up and the cube spawns will spawn again. Just before they do the ones with -Regen debuffs throws them on him (not everyone since we might need a few for the next round)..
4. shields are back up, we pound them Cube spawns asap.
5. Shields are down and hopefully Rularuu is not at full health. Launch the nukes and keep pounding him as we did in 2.

Sadly I didn't remember to take a screenshot of my power analysis of the AV, but he was hitting almost 500hp/sec while his shields were up, which brings onto the other point you've mad, and that is the cube spawns in the last room need to go down at pretty much the same time, as although they spawn when the shields come up, they also respawn after being defeated and unless all teams stay to their cubes and kill the mobs quickly (and tankers etc stay nearby to catch the respawn) the AV will simply regenerate fully in taking twice as long (or longer) to get the shields back down.

I noticed after the first attempt that people became far too spread out when the shields came back, so we were getting caught out in places and lost a few of our numbers.

My screenshots are here http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p...ci/CathOfPain/

Nice attempt guys, just next time all I ask is that if you set a date for when you are going to arrange something, dont arrange it before that date so everyone has a fair chance of joining the trial.

Had people telling me on how hard it is, and I can safely say that I hope they don't alter this one, as its good for a challenge!

Don't forget that for -regen Poison trap on traps defender or corruptor (since they can now become heroes) is great. That is a power with one of the best - regen in game.
Unfortunately my high level traper is on Defiant, so can't help with her (one on Union is level 5).

My Demons/Dark MM is on her way Heroside, and from what LadyA told me, can hopefully be helpful with throwing some -regen out there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

Poison masterminds turning heroes could possibly be thrown in the "yay, -regen" pile~

T'was good fun, even though we failed spectacularly 'cause of the regen. :P Really had a good chunk of the playerbase in there, good attitudes all around from what I noticed. Will definitely be up for other gos at it.

I got around 50MB worth of quick screenshots, gonna edit them a bit and link to 'em once ImageShack stops having a heart attack over the massive file upload.

Have been enjoying the screenshots and looking forward to more of them!

With regards for future attempts, I'm thinking we either try to slow his regen each time the shield goes down so that he fails to regain as much HP each time, however that will turn into a battle of attrition between his BASE regen and what -regen we can apply each time.

If thats the case its going to be a precarious balance between damage, survivability and debuffs when selecting teams.

Outdamaging in one shield cycle has risks in that with the use of Nukes and buffs, its a one shot deal, if we miss, we get stuck with an AV with mad regeneration.

I briefly talked a few bits over last night of PM (alas wasn't able to hang around last night) regarding a future raid, there are a lot of requests for just getting 3 teams together again asap and having another crack, but I don't want to go back on my word regarding taking along people that missed out.

I'm hoping to spend all of wednesday getting buffs, researching and preparing for this further.

TZ

I'll help you on weds to plan and get buffs. Also, I just remembered I have a poison/thugs mm that does a LOT of damage and a LOT of debuffing (even -regen) so I may have to show him the blueside to help out in the next run.

At the moment I think we need to time the shields (and see what affects their duration) and then we can get those with -regen powers like Howling Twilight to spam them just before the shield comes up. That will keep the health at a much more reasonable level while we kill the spawns and wait for the barrier to come down again. Then everyone can use their temps etc and kill him.

Curse you, ImageShack! Nearly foiled my plans… But! Photobucket came to my aid. Or rather I ran crying to it for upload-mez protection…

So, time to make post of Doom! (And yeah, my screen is small and cluttered, soz.)



Cutscene, woo!

Great screenies zoph Like our little "for union!" multi death at the end

It's definitely not the first attempt on EU servers btw. Seen at least a couple on defiant prior to that.

As far as regen debuffs go, how about

Cold Domination Benumb -300% 30s
Kinetics Transfusion -50% 20s
Traps Poison Trap -1000% 30s