Wow. Keyes is my kind of trial.

Almost all of you know how this trial runs. It's pretty chaotic. To me, the inherent chaos designed into it is nothing short of glorious. But even that's not enough for me. I love chaos. I live on distilled chaos. To give you an idea, let me explain the rules by which I run my TFs. I simply call them the rules of Dechs Kaison Task Force, or DKTF.

The first rule of DKTF is: You do not talk about DKTF.
The second rule of DKTF is: At all times, you must be having fun.
Third rule: If you think you can handle it, you're free to go for it.
Fourth rule: If you thought you could handle it but couldn't, get back up or hosp out.
Fifth rule: Any build, any budget, no exclusions.
The sixth and final rule of DKTF: If this is your first DKTF, you have to take an alpha strike.

Most of the rules are actually there to protect the team from the leader (me). They make sure I don't become overbearing and micromanage the team. The second rule is a sort of "catch all." Rule four is only there to prevent a scrapperlocker from turning into a leech because he's dead and waiting for someone to come save his hind end. Two of those rules are there for Fight Club references. Rule six is there to instill people with confidence.

You see, it's all about the chaos. This game isn't like the others where you need a tank and a healer and some DPS and a strategy and the right gear et cetera ad infinitum. All you need are a few teammates and the desire to have some fun. I love how this game can be won simply by getting a team of supers together, pouring enough awesome into their keyboards in all directions.

Anway, back to the point of the thread. I logged into my brute and joined my first Keyes last night, and it was one destined for chaos. First, it's a bloody Keyes trial. More than that, the league leader had never run a Keyes before. If anyone on the league had run this trial before, he or she would not speak up. We were going solely by patch notes, in game notifications, and the pure will of awesome. The league had no Empathy, Pain Domination, or even any Thermal Radiation, but I know I saw one person had Core Rebirth. There were no Tanks or Brutes with Taunt. We would be relying on Gauntlet (and damage) to move Anti-Matter around.

I thought we were doomed, but I gave it my all to have a blast anyway.

Holy $deity, there were so many things to attack! I picked a war walker to bring down and a few people showed up to help. The team was going in all directions, tearing robots into cogs. People were wailing "What keeps killing me?" "How do I destroy the terminals?" "What's going on?" I think I could look at the league interface at any point in time and see half the league dead or dying.

I picked up a few of the temporary powers. I got one of the terminals powered up and went back to killing things. Some people were chatting in league now, giving vague instructions. Somehow, we got the reactor under control. Then another. Then the third. I hadn't died once, but that's because Dark Regeneration > all things. I would not have guessed things were going to work out this well.

The fight against Anti-Matter himself went rather smoothly. I mean, we already had him at about 70% health when it started. There was a big green light that killed me when time stopped or something like that, but I got back up, shoved a few claws into Anti-Matter's face and felt better.

This was the most fun I've had in the City since the last LRSF where the plan was "kill one of the AVs. AoE will get the rest." That was last week.

I love this trial. I'm going to be running this a lot. At least until people get it figured out and it all falls into boring order again.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience.

Thanks for reading.

I like this trial too. I have only done it one time because I have given up on chasing incarnate stuff for the most part, but the mission itself was fun.

I've been on a DKTF ITF - Most fun I ever had on one

I like seeing how much I can get done without the help of 23 other people. I can stealth grab as many Batteries as I want (OK, the Goliaths are the exception to this); I can get the spawn guarding a terminal to follow me and fall to the lower level leaving the terminal unguarded; I can put a debuff anchor on Anti-Matter and wait for the Tanker to die and then lead him to the terminals I want to take out; and I have plenty of self-heals and a tray full of greens and Rebirth, so, I laugh at the Pulse.

So, I just need a little help at the end to kill AM.

I've done it twice so far and was surprised by how much I liked it. So much more to do, and to think about, than in the other two, it seems.

I think the one thing I can pinpoint as not liking about it is the red & blue entanglement auras, at the end. They annoyed me because I like to stay in close, in truth, probably closer than I really need to (on my Ice/Dark and Sonic/Pain corruptors), and because they just felt like a bit "much" on top of the disintegration and the timestop trick (Oh...hot tip: the "R" key, Flight, and Timestop: horrifying or hysterical combo. Take your pick). But the annoyance was minor at best, so perhaps "not liking" was too strongly worded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison I love chaos. I live on distilled chaos.

You would perhaps have enjoyed the recent gigglefest my friends and I engaged in - the Mostly Illusion TF. We had 5 Illusion controllers and 1 dom. It was hysterical. Some of us plan to do a Mostly Storm excursion soon (I hope) and then, to go in a completely different direction, the Mostly Stalker outing.

I am intrigued by your DKTF, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Dechs, if you do make the move to Freedom, I have a few alts there, including the DM/DA you've been helping me salvage. I'd join a DKTF in a hot second.

Later on,
Gate

I'd love to try this, but I have now spent probably about 2 hours total waiting for a chance to join a trial. I can't get in to one. Any one. It's pretty frustrating.

Wait, those're your rules? I thought that's how they usually go.

I'm a Unionite and some of my favourite moments in the game have been a team of level 50s wiggling their bum at Requiem and Romulus on the platform in the ITF before running up and pimp slapping them and their army

Yet to try a Keyes, but if it's like that then may have to before it's too late.

Just in the interests of representing dissenting opinion, I did not enjoy the Keyes trial much at all. I found the health mechanic annoying, the chaos exasperating, and the constant stream of people returning from the hospital disappointing.

Honestly happy that most people seem to be really getting in to it though!

My WP tanker, softcapped to all types of damage possible, had an average uptime of less than 45 seconds. I spent far more time buying green insps in the hospital while waiting for the door to unlock and flying back to the fight than actually playing. I was the only tanker willing to taunt Anti-matter to move him around but nobody would heal me so usually I got back to the fight in time to taunt AM, get him to a console, get hit by the pulse (beefed up because a few people and especially a few people's pets just wouldn't leave him alone no matter how often the league yelled at them), get hit by one of his attacks, hit the floor, release to the hospital, and then do it again.

My /fire brute, who has both a heal that recharges in less than 30 seconds and no taunt (thus could stay with the herd at all times) had a much better time.

The premise behind the trial is cool, though, and I don't mind the gimmicks. I find myself in the odd position of liking the trial but not enjoying it.