Guardian Cathedral of Pain Trials

Ok, crunch time...

The Arbitrators' raid is still scheduled as planned.
The Junior League of Sidekicks' has been moved to Saturday @ 11:30am EST and will be held Redside.
Those who have signed up should ensure they have a fresh Shivan Shard, Vanguard HVAS and Bio and Chem nukes if possible.

And Hurricane Earl is scheduled to arrive in my part of Nova Scotia sometime around 9am EST. Which means I may be without electricity for one or both of these raids. I sincerely apologize if I'm unable to make it, but at least I have the game-plan laid out for you all and the team leaders should still be able to run the show in my absence.

Semper Fi and Good Hunting

I regret to announce the Junior League of Sidekicks have cancelled their raid and will no longer be hosting CoP trials. I apologize for the inconvenience to those who have signed up for it. The Arbitrators' raid is still on for tonight and I hope to see you all there.

Semper Fi and Good Hunting

Ok, tonight's attempt went really well. Some initial confusion because another group was running a CoP Trial at exactly the same start-time, but we got the teams filled only a few minutes later than planned. Had a hiccup during the initial obelisk charge, but after pulling back and setting up again, we blew thru them on the first pass. No point in holding at 20-30%, just keep attacking and they'll all go down within 30 seconds of each other, as long as the teams are decently balanced.

Once in the Cathedral things went pretty much as planned. We got Lanaruu instead of Ruladak (had only seen Ruladak so far). We buffed at the entrance, did the 2 pronged attack and cleared the spawns very quickly (note to self: use stop watch to time progress). Once we attacked Rularuu, we hit a brick wall. Despite more nukes than I could count and pets from wall to wall, we still could not kill him before his barrier returned. I used a Power Analyzer Mk III and his regen was still at 200hp/sec despite well over -2000% in regen debuffs. I called it a scrub after the 2nd attempt on Rularuu.

My analysis: there's a hard -regen floor that we hit, so I need to balance the teams more towards damage than debuff. Buffs seemed to be adequate.

Here's the team layouts for this run:

Team 1
Alpha-One (Forcefields MM)
Ullikumis (Stone Tank)
LadyWillow (Empath Defender)
High on Irony (Cold Corruptor)
Arctic Gloom (Cold Defender)
SSenogard Citenik (Kinetics Defender)
Midnite Maiden (Dark Defender)
Armeros (Blaster)

Team 2
Busta Move (Tank)
Princess Starletta (Empath)
Psicana (Rad Controller)
Frara Moonpelt (Rad Controller)
SinnerSaint (Blaster)
Shawkhath Parsaw (Scrapper)
Savannah Nightwolf (Scrapper)
Brakeneck (Scrapper)

Team 3
Shadow Stranger (Tank)
Teagie (Sonic Controller)
Eabha (Thermal Controller)
Stinkerbelle (Rad Defender)
Raydianne (Rad Corruptor)
Weapon Mistress (Scrapper)
Pink Ice Princess (Blaster)
Gameman (Blaster)

So, any thoughts, comments, criticisms on how things went? Feel free to discuss here.

I think we are making good progress and learning each run. I liked having you as the main assist and feel this run was smoother because of it.

I still think Main Assist is a pointless role; call it raid leader and be done with it.



Quite pleased we got into the Cathedral. Shame about Rularuu though. That's some nasty regen ability.


Notes:

Certainly an improvement on the second go at the Obelisks (after you'd told teams to stick tight together although I'm surprised that had to be done).

AoE buffers need to fire those off AFTER the shield buffs not before to get maximum use out of them. (Obelisk section where it's not called; get Team Leader to call them?)

More communication between team leads and raid leader required. At one point you called final assault on the Obelisks and Team 3 had: two off the map (hosped) and two or three dead including the tank. (If the three team leaders and raid leader are on vent that may not apply; but looking at channel traffic, not much was being said by TL's.)

Ensure everyone has just team chat and the channel/request chat prominent for the duration of the raid. I noticed people weren't always moving to the Obelisk when it was called. When you sent Lady W over to help us I am almost certain that I was the only one on the Obelisk. Same as when Rularuu's shield went up, very few moved back to the Cubes.

Team make ups:

Seem pretty balanced but perhaps an extra kin or two (one per team) for some FS awesomeness? That should make everything go a bit quicker.

Team 3 obviously had a bad time of deaths, but it would be interesting to know how the other two fared; how many were lost on the Obelisks/Rularuu.

Also; the -regen figure you quote does that include the darks using Howling Twilight at the start of the attack? That's a lovely debuff on it's own. If it was fired off as a debuff and you factored that in, that's some very scary regen ability. Perhaps someone can compare the numbers to Honoree and Reichsman?

In all a decent attempt and I agree getting that version of Rularuu was a nuisance.

On a personal note I really did not want to be Team Lead on Team 3. I did it simply because no one wanted to drop their toon out of their SG and since I wasn't on my "main" it wasn't a huge deal for me. I'll admit I'm not a quick typer so I'm probably not the best for the role. Capa perhaps you would like to be a Team Lead?

Only difficulty I have with being a TL is consistency. As it happened my insomnia had kicked in so I was awake and alert. That isn't always the case. Sometimes I'll be dead at the keyboard four hours earlier.

OK our next attempt will be Friday September 17th @ 9:00pm EST start time (forum up @ 8:30pm). Next weekend both myself and Vixen are unavailable so we could not fit one in.

After some discussion with Stargazer regarding -regen and debuff mechanics I've slightly revised team layouts to bring more damage to the fore. Those who are interested please sign up in this thread or e-mail or msg me in-game @Alpha-One.

Note: One member of each team should be a Controller or Dominator with AoE -fly Immob.

Team 1

1) Main Tank (Stone or WP Tank or Brute)
--- Ullikummis (Stone Tank)
2) Tank Assist (Pain, Thermal or Empathy Corruptor or Defender)
--- VixenHealer (Empathy Defender)
3) Debuffer (Rad, Cold, Dark, TA Corruptor, Defender or MM)
--- Cold Poison (Cold/Rad Controller)
4) Buffer (Cold, Forcefield, Thermal, Sonic, Kinetic Corruptor, Defender or MM)
--- Alpha-One (Mercs/FF MM) Raid Leader
5) Buffer (Cold, Forcefield, Thermal, Sonic, Kinetic Corruptor, Defender or MM)
--- High on Irony (Fire/Cold Corr)
6) Damage (Melee)
--- Savannah Nightwolf (Scrapper)
7) Damage (Melee)
---
8) Damage (Ranged)
--- Armeros (Blaster)


Team 2

1) Team Tank (Tank or Brute)
---
2) Debuffer (Rad, Cold, Dark, TA Corruptor, Defender or MM)
---
3) Buffer (Cold, Forcefield, Thermal, Sonic, Kinetic Corruptor, Defender or MM)
---
4) Buffer (Cold, Forcefield, Thermal, Sonic, Kinetic Corruptor, Defender or MM)
---
5) Damage (Melee)
---
6) Damage (Melee)
---
7) Damage (Ranged)
--- Gamesman (Blaster)
8) Damage (Ranged)
--- Pink Ice Princess (Blaster)


Team 3

1) Team Tank (Tank or Brute)
--- Shadow Ravenwolf (Fire Tank)
2) Debuffer (Rad, Cold, Dark, TA Corruptor, Defender or MM)
--- Stinkerbelle (Rad/Rad Def) Team 3 Lead
3) Buffer (Cold, Forcefield, Thermal, Sonic, Kinetic Corruptor, Defender or MM)
---
4) Buffer (Cold, Forcefield, Thermal, Sonic, Kinetic Corruptor, Defender or MM)
---
5) Damage (Melee)
---
6) Damage (Melee)
---
7) Damage (Ranged)
---
8) Damage (Ranged)
---


See you all soon!

My wife and I will both there with our blasters. (Gamesman and Pink Ice Princess)

I'll be there as well. If you need a TL I'll bring StinkerBelle (rad/rad fender) if you have another TL by then i can bring Nitro Girl (fire/rad troller) or anything else you might need that I have.

Hmm it seems the problem is dealing damage - with a certain level of -regen you floor, and you are planning on bringing +dam. You seem to have omitted -resistance. Things like Sonic buff( +res for team and -res toggle on tank) and sonic blast (all -res attacks) could help improve that dps problem. Cold, dark and rad also have -res powers so maybe this is not anything helpful.

Please add Ullikummis (stone tank) to this endevour!

I should be able to make it on Savannah Nightwolf, MA/Regen Scrapper.

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Cold Poison- cold/rad troller

Not sure about my schedule friday, but if I can make it I'll bring Shadow.

Shadow Ravenwolf - Fire/Ice/Pyre Tanker

Ok Alpha,

You can decide which you want me to bring, as always I can do a late switch on Raid night...

Kin, Dark, Rad, Bubbles, Emp (my main that I will eventually want the badge for), Sonic (she is level 47 and I will get her to 50 by than).

Vix

Count me in for Friday night, even if I have to drug the wife (or bribe her).

I am fully stocked with Warburg weapons, Shivans and a Vanguard HVAS.

Might I make a suggestion. On a unsuccesful run I was on this weekend, our team had a dark x 3 defender and Tar Patch was very effective in keeping the baddies in check at the cubes while the tank was holding down the aggro.

Now, I know dark x 3 defenders are hard to come by, but if we could somehow get 3, it would definitely help keeping the Rularuu in one place (albeit for a little while). I have a dark x 3, but I am trying to get the badge for my badge toon. Once we get the badge, I will be happy to bring my dark x3 for any and all future runs.

Well, just a thought. Can't wait to hit it on Friday night.

Couldn't earth or ice controllers accomplish the same thing with their slows?

You are correct, Mental.

Personally, I like the -resistance that Tar Patch brings as well as with the dark defender's Howling Twilight to rez multiple characters at one time as an added bonus.

Keeping the Rularuu from moving around and concentrating them in one area in my humble opinion, makes defeating them much quicker and easier, so whether it is a dark/ice/earth controller/defender, if one is assigned to each cube, it may help.

Any CoP attempt planned for this Saturday (18th)?