Cathedral of Pain Trial: Complete Guide for PUG's and semi-PUG's

The Cathedral of Pain trial is a difficult trial that requires a large group of people to work together with a high level of coordination. If done correctly it may seem like it didn’t last long enough or was kind of easy. If not, it will feel like a nightmare and seem like an impossible task.

Suggestions to improve the Strategy Guide:
There’s a fair amount of polish to this guide, but like most things, there is opportunity for improvement. Please speak up if you have ideas to make this guide better. One thing I’m still looking for is a way to know which version of the AV will be spawned, or better yet, a way to manipulate it.

This guide is somewhat of a lengthy read because of the amount of detail in it, so if you are looking for a quick version that covers the basic attack plan, go here.

Update: I'm adding two more sections(replies) to this thread. One section will contain info to help leaders/organizers of the trial. The other section will be used as a notes section for additional things that have been learned (what has worked well and what went wrong) from other CoP Trial attempts. I'll post them now to make sure they are in the first page of the thread and fill in the details later.

Pre-Trial Setup:

You don’t walk into an AV fight with your toggles off, do you? Well, not preparing for this trial is kind of like doing that. It might not always lead to failure, but at the very least it can make things real ugly. So the point is… be prepared for this; it’s a very difficult trial.

The following things are suggested to get or set up before beginning the trial:

1. Buy and craft the Envenomed Dagger temporary power. You can find this at Wentworth’s. If you already have this, make sure it has at least 15-20 uses left. This deals decent damage (especially if you are using a low damage character) and debuffs the regeneration rate by 250% for 10 seconds. [very highly suggested]
2. Get inspirations. Load up your inspiration tray with 7-10 damage and 3-5 defense inspirations (the higher the tier, the better). If you do not have a self rez, it might be a good idea to grab one or two Tier 3 awakens. Some accuracy inspirations would also be helpful in the (highly likely) event that Lanaru the Mad is spawned. [very highly suggested]
3. The Shivan Shard temporary power. Go to BloodyBay (PvP zone) and get them. This can be done in about 10 minutes or less. If you need help to do this, please ask someone to help out. [highly suggested]
4. The HVAS (Vanguard Heavy) temporary power. If you’ve got 250 vanguard merits to spare, please use them to get one. You can purchase these in the Vanguard Base in the Rikti War Zone.
5. Buy and craft the Backup Radio temporary power. You can find this at Wentworth’s.
6. Set up your chat tabs. If directions for the trial will be delivered through a global channel or request, set up a tab so that you can see them. You’ll need to pay close attention to these, so if you don’t know how to set this up, ask someone to help you.
7. Voice Server Communication. If a voice server (Ventrillo or Teamspeak) is being publicly used, please set this up (again… if you need help, ask). Even if you don’t have a microphone it is extremely helpful to hear what is going on. These servers make communication MUCH faster than typing and reading. Plus if you spend less time typing, you’ll have more time available to attack. [recommended]
8. Set a monitor on your Damage Bonus. Monitors on Melee, Ranged, and AoE defense will also help. These will help with knowing when to crack inspirations.
9. Plan out your attack chain for when the shield goes down for the Aspect of Rularuu. High impact attacks are the key to taking Rularuu down and successfully completing the trial. See the “Overall DPS: DPS vs. DPA” section below for a more detailed explanation and examples.

Know Your Enemy:

There are two versions of the Aspect of Rularuu. 1) Ruladak the Strong, aka ‘Big Red’, and 2) Lanaru the Mad, aka “Stormy”. Of the two, Lanaru seems harder because of his hurricane power that significantly drops players ToHit percentage.

Basic stats:
Max HP: 76692.89
Regeneration Rate: 597.58
Fire, Cold, Negative, and Psionic damage resistance: 10%
Smashing, Lethal, Energy, and Toxic damage resistance: 40%
Defense (All): 0%
Shield downtime: 45 seconds (confirmed by several sources)

Playing with the numbers:
These numbers have been adjusted to compare with what is listed for Level 50 damage output. The DPS numbers represent what is needed to take down the Aspect of Rularuu given the length of the attack window. So, in English, that means if all 24 characters in the trial use Energy damage and we don’t debuff his regeneration rate, on average, each character will need to deal 333.38 DPS for the entire 45 seconds.

Time vs. Resistance (assuming we don’t debuff the regen rate)
Time Aspect is vulnerable_____DPS needed (10% res)________DPS needed (40% res)
45 seconds___________________222.25 DPS/character _________333.38 DPS/character
40 seconds___________________242.81 DPS/character _________364.22 DPS/character
35 seconds___________________269.26 DPS/character _________403.89 DPS/character
30 seconds___________________304.52 DPS/character _________456.78 DPS/character

It’s not likely that once the Aspect of Rularuu’s shields are down that everyone will immediately shift their focus to him, but everyone should have him in their sights and be attacking within no more than 5 seconds (a well coordinated group should only take about a second for this to happen). So, we’ll underestimate this and use a 5 second buffer when making calculations to look at how his regeneration rate impacts the DPS needed.

Regeneration Rate vs. Resistance (assuming we don’t debuff the regen rate)
Time Aspect is vulnerable______DPS needed (10% res)_______DPS needed (40% res)
597.58 HP/second______________242.81 DPS/character_________364.22 DPS/character
500.00 HP/second______________233.39 DPS/character_________350.09 DPS/character
400.00 HP/second______________223.74 DPS/character_________335.61 DPS/character
300.00 HP/second______________214.08 DPS/character_________321.13 DPS/character
200.00 HP/second______________204.43 DPS/character_________306.64 DPS/character
100.00 HP/second______________194.77 DPS/character_________292.16 DPS/character
0.00 HP/second________________185.12 DPS/character_________277.68 DPS/character

These numbers can be further lowered with any resistance debuffs. As a Level 54 archvillain he’ll be 87% resistant to those and they will end up being a rather minor debuff, but every little bit helps.

Overall DPS: DPS vs. DPA

When fighting the Aspect of Rularuu you need to make sure you are bringing your ‘A’ game to the table. Common thought here would be to “Use your highest DPS attacks”, but that isn’t technically what we’re trying to accomplish. What we want is for your character to maximize his or her DPS and that isn’t accomplished by looking strictly at the DPS of your attacks. To do that you need to look at the intensity of the attack, or how much damage you can do in what amount of time.

DPS = Damage per second = (Total Damage / (Cast time + Recharge time) )
DPA = Damage per activation/cast time = (Total Damage / (Cast time)

Side note: I realize that damage over time slightly changes these numbers, but for simplicity’s sake I’m ignoring this in these calculations. As long as the damage over time isn’t cut off by the shield being restored, he’d be hit with it anyway.

I’ll use two examples to illustrate the difference between this concept; a Fire/Energy Blaster and a Claws Scrapper. The get numbers, we’ll assume each power is slotted with three Level 50 Damage IO’s and three Level 50 Recharge IO’s to maximize both damage and recharge. No other bonuses or buffs will be factored into these examples. When figuring this out for your characters you’ll want to take a look at your own numbers (using your actual enhancements, buffs, and set bonuses). If you have enhancement that have a chance for extra damage don’t forget to buffer that in.

Fire/Energy Blaster:

Powerset: Fire Blast
Power__________Damage_____Cast Time_____Recharge______DPS_____DPA
Flares...................125.8.............1.00..................1.10.................59.9.........125.8
Fire Blast..............184.3.............1.67..................2.01.................50.1.........110.4
Fire Ball................156.9.............1.00..................8.04.................17.4.........156.9
Rain of Fire........... 252.4.............2.03................30.10................. 7.9.........124.3
Fire Breath............218.6.............2.67..................8.04.................20.4..........81.9
Aim..................buffs 62.5%........1.17.....................-.....................n/a............n/a
Blaze....................376.1.............1.00.................5.02.................62.5.........376.1
Blazing Bolt...........433.4............4.67................. 6.03.................40.5..........92.8
Inferno...................940.1............3.00...............180.80..................5.1.........313.4

Powerset: Energy Manipulation
Power__________Damage_____Cast Time_____Recharge______DPS_____DPA
Power Thrust.........88.6.............1.00.................3.01..................22.1.........88.6
Energy Punch......217.0.............0.83.................5.02..................37.1.......261.4
Build Up..........buffs 100%.........1.17....................-......................n/a...........n/a
Bone Smasher.....287.8.............1.50.................7.03..................33.7.......191.9
Conserve Power......-....................-......................-......................n/a...........n/a
Stun.....................27.7..............1.80...............10.00...................2.3.........15.4
Power Boost...........-....................-......................-......................n/a...........n/a
BoostRange...........-....................-......................-.......................n/a...........n/a
Total Focus.........394.1.............3.30................10.00.................29.6.......119.4

For the blaster, the five powers with the highest DPA are: Blaze (376.1), Inferno (313.4), Energy Punch (261.4), Bone Smasher (191.9), and Fire Ball (156.9). Energy Punch and Bone Smasher fall into the 40% resistance bucket and will comparatively do two-thirds the damage that the rest of these attacks do so we need to adjust them accordingly: Energy Punch (174.3), Bone Smasher (127.9). They still fall in the top five, but now Fire Ball is a more impactful attack than Bone Smasher.

Blaze should be used whenever available based on this analysis. Inferno is misleading. While it has a very high DPA, the recovery crash will take you out of the battle for some time or will force you to spend time cracking endurance inspirations. You need to be attacking as much as possible, so this power is a no go. While technically Energy Punch and Bone Smasher are top attacks, I’d avoid them here. As a blaster, I’d prefer to stay out of melee range if possible. If fighting Lanaru the Mad, these attacks will also force you into the hurricane, debuffing your ToHit bonus significantly and increasing the chance that you will have wasted time from missing with your attacks.

When multiple attacks are available for use, my preference would be prioritize them like this, always using the one closest to the top of the list:

1. Blaze (376.1)
2. Fire Ball (156.9)
3. Flares (125.8)
4. Rain of Fire (124.3, was surprised by this one myself, but the math is correct)
5. Fire Blast (110.4)

1. Focus (162.7)
2. Shockwave (143.9)
3. Slash (136.0)
4. Follow Up (132.0)
5. Strike (126.5)

Q: These don’t do damage, so how can you tell if they are breaking even with the required DPS?
A: Multiply the targeted DPS for your damage type (185.12 for fire damage) by the casting time for the buff (1.17 sec). In this case, that’s 216.6 points of damage that you need to make up over the duration of the buff (10 sec), so you’ll need an increase of 21.66 DPS for 10 seconds. If the buff increases more than just your damage output, the lower the break even point will be.

Organizing/Recruiting for the Trial:

I’m not an advocate of the min/max team setup, but I’m not going sit here and tell you that 24 empaths will be a good team setup for this trial either. Who knows though, maybe it could work.

A lot of early trials failed because everyone brought their badge hunter and it didn’t allow for a good balance of attacking and buffs/debuffs to pass the trial. Every character has something they contribute to a group running this trial. If you aren’t on a monster character, you can make up for it with using the temporary powers listed earlier and by using inspirations.

It is important to make sure the teams are balanced so they clear mobs roughly at the same pace. The timing becomes much harder if you have to dial back with some teams.

Of the 24 slots, we’ve been successful with group that somewhat resembles the combination shown below. I’m not 100% convinced we need 3 tanks though, since we should be buffed enough to survive the quick blitz of the cubes inside the cathedral and the Aspect of Rularuu for about 90 seconds. However, we’ll stick with the 3 tank approach until a different idea has been proven to be more effective. The roles listed for this roster can be flexible.

When selecting what characters to bring to this, you should keep in mind what damage type your character does. Characters who do smashing, lethal, energy, or toxic damage are only 2/3rds as effective as those who do fire, cold, negative, or psionic damage. This isn’t to say that everyone needs to be a fire/cold/negative/psionic damage dealer to have a chance to beat the trial, but more to say that those characters will be more efficient in defeating the Aspect of Rularuu.

Team Woe:
Tanker
Buffer
Debuffer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer

Team Despair:
Tanker
Buffer
Debuffer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer

Team Gloom:
Tanker
Buffer
Debuffer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer
Damage Dealer

The Trial: Destroy the Obelisks

Once the teams have been formed, head into the base of the supergroup that is hosting the trial and find their raid teleporter. A member of the host supergroup will start the mission. A 60 minute timer will appear in your navigation window. Click on the raid teleporter to enter the mission.

Once inside the mission, head to your team’s assigned obelisk (the trial leader(s) will assign this). Find a location near the cube (out of aggro range) and group up with your team. Start applying buffs now. Team leaders will let the trial leader know when all members are there; buffed and ready to attack the mob surrounding the cube.

Communication by voice server is extremely helpful for this next part.

Once all the teams are buffed and ready to attack the trial leader will give the order to attack. Team leaders will simultaneously send in their teams to attack the mob. Once your team clears the mob and disables the barrier of the Psionic Resonator assigned to your team, let the trial leader know that your barrier is down (eg. “Gloom – Barrier Down”) and start attacking the resonator. Once you’ve gotten that down to 20%, your team leader will call for you to hold off on attacking the resonator. Keep clearing the natterlings around the resonator. If all three teams get their resonators down to 20%, the trial leader will instruct the team leaders to call off the hold order. Finish off your team’s resonator and hopefully your team and the other two teams will have destroyed the resonators within 35 seconds of each other.

If all three teams take their barriers barriers down at around the same time and it appears all teams are doing well in damaging the resonators, the trial leader should override the 20% checkpoint and instruct the teams to take it down as soon as possible.

If the barrier is restored before you destroy the resonator, shift your team's focus back to the mob surrounding the cube. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Hopefully this goes well and you are able to move on to the second part of the trial. If not, one of two things probably happened.

Problem 1: The teams are not well balanced.
Solution: Have all three teams break aggro and regroup. Recalibrate when you start attacking with the teams. If one team is slower, have them attack first. The other teams should wait a few seconds and then start attacking.

Problem 2: The teams are balanced, but got out of sync with each other.
Solution: You could just keep attacking, but that might take a while for things to line up properly. Your best bet is to break aggro and regroup.

The Trial: Inside the Cathedral – Buffing Up

If you haven’t done so already, head to the Portal to the Cathedral point on the mission map and click on the crystal to enter. Once inside, stay close to the entrance. We do not want to aggro anything yet.

I’ve made a flash animation that illustrates the attack plan once inside the cathedral (it doesn’t go into as much detail as this guide does though). You can view it using this link (uses Flash).

Now you will start your group buff. If you have AoE buffs that have a long recharge (as in longer than 5 seconds) please save those for later. We want to make the most out of those and casting them now will waste them for the most part. There is one exception to this, Recovery Aura, but only on player should need to use it. Once in formation, this player will cast RA to help out the buffers since they will be using a ton of endurance casting their buffs on three teams.

Formation Assignments: The trial leader will assign teams a cube and place in the “U” formation. Team 1 will get the cube on the left and be the left side of the “U”. Team 2 will get the cube on the right and be the right side of the “U”. Team 3 will get the cube in the middle/back and be the bottom side of the “U”. If one team seems like they are finishing mobs more quickly than the other two, they should be assigned the role of Team 3.

Role Assignments: The trial leader should also use this time to pick someone to be used for vengeance bait, figure out who will be casting vengeance (up to 1 person per team), and find someone to retrieve and revive the vengeance bait. The vengeance bait should not be a buffer, high damager dealer, or be someone that will need to turn on a bunch of toggles after being resurrected. The vengeance bait and the person teleporting/resurrecting the bait should be on the same team. If the vengeance bait has a self-rez, you will only need someone to teleport them back.

Team Leaders: Each of the team leaders will divide their team into 2 groups of 4 players at this time. These will be used if your team finishes clearing the mob around its assigned cube early. One group will head clockwise to help out one team; the other group will head counter-clockwise to help out the other. Once your team knows their assignment, the team leader will let the trial leader know they are ready.

Step 1: The trial leader will call for the teams to line up in a “U” formation with everyone facing inward (see below). This formation should be very tight and every character should be able to see every other character without moving. (Reasoning: This will help the buffers quickly cycle through all 24 members of the trial. I’d recommend setting a key to the ‘Target Next Friend’ command in the options window.)

X...............................X
X...............................X
X...............................X
X ............O................X
X...............................X
X...............................X
X...............................X
X...............................X
...X..X..X..X..X..X..X..X

Step 2: The trial leader will now call for anyone with pets in their primary, secondary, ancillary/epic, and or patron power pools to summon them to the outside of the “U” formation. Be extremely careful not to summon your pets in a location that will draw aggro. Do not summon temporary power pets yet. Note: If applicable, the vengeance bait should not summon any pets at this time. (Reasoning: Keeping them to the outside of the formation does not obstruct the line of sight for our buffers. It will also help us when we huddle for aura buffs. If pets are in the middle, they’ll get in the way and make it harder for us to prepare for the upcoming blitz.)

Step 3: The trial leader instructs the vengeance bait to the go make the sacrifice. Everyone else stays put. Once the vengeance bait has been sacrificed, they will be teleported to the center of the “U” formation, the spot marked with an “O”. DO NOT REVIVE THE VENGEANCE BAIT OR CAST VENGEANCE YET. (Reasoning: The vengeance bait will soon serve as the focal point of the huddle before aura buffs are cast and we don’t want to waste our buffs.)

Step 4: The trial leader will call for single target buffs to be applied. Buffers will keep applying these until we break for the mobs. If you can buff the pets, great, but make sure you focus on the actual players first, since they’ll be more valuable damage-wise. Secondary Mutation and Mystic Fortune should be cast now if they are available.

This is how the buffs should be broken down:

Buffs to cast on all players:

• Cold Domination shields
• Force Field shields
• Sonic Resonance shields
• Speed Boost
• other 4 minute duration single target buffs?

• Fortitude
• Forge
• Adrenaline Boost
• Clear Mind
• Clarity
• Frostwork
• Increase Density

The Trial: Blitzing & Showdown with the Aspect of Rularuu

Once the huddle is broken, each team will quickly go to their assigned cube (Team 1 – left; Team 2 – right, Team 3 – middle) and clear the mob surrounding it. With the crazy amount of buffs on the three teams at this point, this shouldn’t take very long.

If your team gets done with its mob early, split and help out the other two teams as planned out earlier. The team leader should call this out.

Once all three mobs are cleared, the shield protecting the Aspect of Rularuu will be disarmed. Everyone will need to immediately focus their attention on the aspect and begin attacking. Crack your inspirations now (1 defense, 3+ damage, and if you are fighting Lanaru using one or two accuracy inspirations is a good idea). If you need to move to get within range to attack, it’s smart to use inspirations while on the move.

You should already have monitor set for your damage and defense bonuses; use that to keep an eye on your damage bonus. You want to stay near your damage cap as long as possible, so if you have extra damage inspirations and you aren’t at your cap, use them.

It is easier to defeat the Aspect of Rularu the first time you face him; he’s harder to take down the second time and ever harder than that the third time because you’ll progressively exhaust your buffs, inspirations, and probably pets at this point. If you didn’t succeed taking him down in the first pass, not all is lost. As soon as you see his shield come up immediately head back to your assigned cube and clear the mob. Follow the ‘split’ strategy if needed. Once the shield is down again, immediately shift to the Aspect of Rularu and begin attack. If you did enough damage to him on the first pass and cleared the mobs quickly the second time his health shouldn’t be back to 100%. You may as well use the rest of your damage inspirations to give your group the best chance of success here. If you have not defeated him after two attempts, it is almost certain the trial will be failed.

Tips for Fighting the Aspect of Rularuu:

• The Magic Number, 1080:
  What is 1080? It’s the maximum number of seconds that you have available to attack the Aspect of Rularuu. 1080 = 24 players * 45 seconds. That’s pretty small number considering the task at hand, so you need to make the most you can out of it. Make sure to spend your time wisely. To be successful every character needs to be intensely focused on the task at hand for about 90 seconds to clear the cubes and take down the aspect. See the ‘Overall DPS: DSP vs. DPA’ section to learn how to maximize your impact during the 45 second shield downtime. Find your best suited attacks and use them and the Envenomed Dagger. Don’t waste time with powers that aren’t meaningfully contributing to the battle.
• If your attacks do multiple types of damage, know what type of damage each attack does. It makes a big difference.
• Always be attacking, buffing, or debuffing. Everyone should mostly be attacking. Once you break from the huddle there should be no downtime until you pass the trial or have waved the white flag on it.
• The trial leader (can be designated to anyone really) should call out when the shield goes up and down. Some people can’t actually see the shield and end up attacking him long after he’s invulnerable, wasting precious time.
• Don’t lie on the ground dead (except you, vengeance bait). That’s purely wasted time. Use an awaken. Have someone revive you. Worst case scenario, head to the hospital and get back to the fight ASAP. Check before you head to the hospital though; nothing is worse than waiting to zone when someone had a rez for you.
• Use your inspirations; they help out a TON.
• Use your pets. If you have them, don’t be a punk and save them. Most of them are easily replaceable.

The guide's all in now, looking forward to the comments/suggestions for this.

Looks good, and looks like the plan that allowed us our first win.

I'm @Savannah Nightwolf, VengBait For Hire, and I approve this guide.

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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:

Very good information. Thanks for just a nice, precise, and simple explination of tactics.

Leading the Trial:

info coming soon

Lessons Learned from other CoP Trial Attempts:

info coming soon

I'm not sure if it was verified if Vengeance affects those that aren't on the team of the caster yet or not, but if it doesn't it might be better to just leave the Vengeance bait where they die in some cases. The bait won't get the benefit of any of the buffs and will be rez'ed right before diving in on the cubes. So it might be useful to a team with a rad on it to leave them there for Fall Out. It would require a bit more coordination, perhaps, but would cause Vengeance to be cast closer to diving in on the main baddie as well. That way, if he didn't go down the first go around, you have a little more time under the effects of Vengeance. It's a moot point if he goes down on the first go around but it might give a bit of a safety net for a round two.

lvl 40 elec/elec tank Lektro is his name

Definitely good to know. It really doesn't seem so difficult to set up as long as everyone is paying attention but it is rather hard to get 24 people on the same page. It shouldn't be. If they are there to do it, noob or not, they should be focused on getting it done successfully.