Map of the Underground

I found this on the Union Server, it's pretty good. So take a look if you want to be more familiar with the trial. Note- it has spoilers if you have not run it yet.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=271705

Nice one MP - btw how did the second run go last night? Success?

You started too late for me

Already Master of and moving on?

I've already forgotten about most of you

i really enjoy the new trial, if i were to grade each trial on how good it was i would say:

underground trial: A+
BAF: C+
lambda: C
keyes: F-


the trial is cool, the badges are reasonable, rewards are good, this will prolly be the only trial i do from now on

MP you have done a excellent job leading them so far

Kind of annoying that the two new trials are so requiring of a Destiny incarnate power, to be honest. Keyes really does need a lot of healing, and the incarnate power is extremely helpful there. The underground is okay until that AV, when Clarion seems to be a necessity, which I think is a big mistake. About the only nice thing about it is that it makes sure no one Destiny power is seen as better than any other.

To put it another way, I could understand this with the next round that's more targeted at incarnates that have the first five Incarnate powers (and let's you work on the ones beyond those), but it is frustrating. I don't think I'd want to run the underground with a lot of people just starting out with their incarnate stuff because of this.

Sorry about that run last night... if I had known Clarion was so needed, I would have tried to make sure more people had it. Still, the Underground Trial was a nice change of pace from the other ones, at least until that last fight. I'm sure I'll be more happy with it if the team is built right.

I hate the badges for Lambda, but I still find that to be the most fun of the trials. BAF is relatively easy and straightforward if everyone does what they have to, so that's nice as well if I'm in the mood for it. I don't think I'm ever going to like the mechanics for Keyes, though.

I should be out of work in a bit, lets do a UGT then for badges kthx <3

How well does that guide's strategy work for taking on the Avatar? I assumed you would want to keep him facing one direction, since he was doing things in an arc or whatever in front of him. What do the tanks need that are going to stand in front of him, though? Recovery AND Mez Protection?

I just want to be sure of things before going on another one of these. It's far too long to get to the end and not do well against the Avatar.

Tried it twice yesterday and couldn't even get past the 1st boss. 1st time most of the team bought it at the same time and Mona died shortly there after. 2nd time we were doing ok and then Mona died again.

How about a basic strategy brake down?

I need to stop running my first attempt at new Trials with MP. She gives me a distorted view of the difficulty. After my first UGT run I thought it was too easy.

The main reason I'm always going to like BAF and Lambda more than Keyes and the Underground are that the former two do not rely so much on "cheating," or design that breaks the normal setup for the game. Yes, the BAF has the uber mez resistance of the runners, but that's not all the runners, and you'll still see that kind of thing from certain important targets. None of that design really asks you to have a specific team requirement, other than someone that can take the heat from AVs. Which again, is not all that uncommon.

The two new ones ask heavily that you have certain powersets or Destiny powers. People complain about how the bomb phase of the Underground requires much of the team to do nothing, but that's just a badge, at least, not the entire Trial.

I don't know that I'm going to feel comfortable tanking for the Underground unless I pick up Clarion on my tanks, and I find that more than a little ridiculous. Clarion is of no use to them in pretty much any other content (I'm hard pressed to think of anything that can be fixed by a break free, and even then could be sat through without too much worry). I'm sure that some part of dev thinking is okay with this, as it requires more trialing on ONE character to get another Destiny power, but I'm not happy about it in the slightest.

Yes, you can try to get teammates with Clarion or other powers, but I saw how much help they were last night when said teammates either do not know what is required of them, or they don't do them. I'm not saying this in a mean way, either, just in a way to show that I do not like how this new trial is set up. I'm sure my Earth/Storm Controller with Clarion will be immensely useful on this trial (which is nice, he didn't seem worth bringing on Keyes), but it's still an iffy design.

I might be more okay with it if the numbers were not so high either (giving an instance where Clarion is needed is kind of nice, after Keyes). Someone last night said that the hold from the walkers was Mag 100? Not sure if that's right, since I didn't have time to look, but Amygdala's Mag 20 confuse number is quite high as well. That is not a common mez that people have protection to, and most powers that do (like Steamy Mist) would require three up to combat it (assuming those numbers stack).

I dunno, it's feeling like things are so out of whack because of the numbers offered by some Incarnate powers. And also design which I as a player can do very little to counteract, or requires strategy that I personally hate in other MMOs.

I forgot the last step..

11. Profit. You get 2 emps and a helluva lotta astrals.

I haven't tried it (I've always brought my rad defender so far who has tier 4 clarion), but based on the numbers on paragonwiki it should just take a couple of tier 2 breakfree's to counter the confuse. So, a simple solution is to pack a stack or two of tier 2 breakfree's. There's only a couple times during the whole trial where there is a chance to get confused. It's just that most players aren't in the habit of carrying breakfrees - especially those with mez protection toggles.