Underground Incarnate Trial

publicly i still say it was you guys...however i did do one this past week...it was successful.

Heya Kragothe.

The wife & I still haven't done the new Trial. How does its intensity rank compared to the BAF & LAM? I believe I read that it gave addtional Astral/Emperial Merits, so I've assumed it's, ahem, hectic.

Omega did a Mastery run (2 actually for Mastery) on the 17th. We would have done it in one but we werent seeing the Seed drops to time taking down the Avatar and Seed at the same time for that badge. Two runs totaling 3 hours, but couldve been done in two if some of us (like me) werent n00bs to the UG Trial.

I had completely forgotten about this thread! I meant it as thread to discuss the UG trial, but I think I will take it in a different direction. I was reading a little bit about the UG trial just now and I could not find anyone indicating they had a very high number of runs and a high success rate on UGs they lead. Up until the last couple of weeks I did. I am not sure what has changed but my league's success rate has been flipped from rarely failing to rarely succeeding.

We need to change that, and in order to do so let's expand our knowledge of the trial. I am not going to do a silly step by step walk through thing, there are enough of those. This is going to be learning about what and why UGs fail and how to prevent it. In this I will enclose certain word(s) within brackets [ ] just copy (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v) them into your chat window for more details.

Certain sections will start with !BEGIN TESTING INFO! these sections are things I am not 100% certain on and you should NOT use in league until they are confirmed. Better safe than sorry. I am putting the information on here so that people are more aware of it and can help me figure it out. I do not play melee classes on the UG 99% of the time, so I have less experience with some of the closer ranged stuff. !END TESTING INFO! signifies the end of the testing information. I will probably add more of these later.

2 HUGE points I want to make about leagues in general.
1 - If you have questions speak up, ask your questions! If anyone faults you for speaking up they need to be removed from the league. If it is the league leader, don't join them ever again. There is nothing worse than someone not knowing what to do and not letting anyone know at all.
2 - Read what strategy is being stated. On that same subject during a difficult part of any trial do not clutter the chat channel with useless chatter. If you are on my leagues I use request to make it easier to differentiate from league chat. It is extremely frustrating to have 20 people on the league do exactly what they should while 4 are preventing the clearly stated strategy from working.
These two things make me want to give up on leading leagues.

"A true hero has the strength to stand against evil
without wavering where all others despair,
even if it means standing alone." - Kragothe Valour

Stock up on Medium, Large, and Super Break frees (Emerge, Escape, and Liberate) before and during the trial.
Trial starts kill stuff, blah blah, Kill a number of IDF to unlock the door to the

1st WarWalker AV.
*1) This AV is 54(+1) therefore he is level 55! Fighting an AV 4 levels above me is pretty tough, fighting an AV 5 levels above me is pretty useless. This is why I require +1 or higher only on my UGs, certain exceptions are made based on the AT and powersets.

*2) The WW AVs randomly acquire targets within a 30' radius around them. [Targeting Reticule] can target up to 16 people in the league, that's 2 out of 3 teams on the league. It has a range of 120 ft, meaning if you get far enough away you will not get hit at all. Targeted flashes in red in the middle of your screen and appears in the top right corner, under your buffs list.
A barely visible yellow targeting reticule appears briefly under your feet as well.

*3) The 3 AoEs you will get targeted with are:
[Arrest Mode] Hold
[Crowd Dispersal] Fear
[Lethal Force Authorized] Massive Damage, Lethal Force can easily kill 2/3rds of the league.
Very, very important to get away from the league immediately when targeted!

*4) Targeting and the 3 AoEs all require an AoE accuracy check.
!BEGIN TESTING INFO!
I am going to try having the members of the league that are NOT targeted use Barrier when "Targets Acquired" appears on the screen. This does not mean we should be lazy about retreating when targeted, still run immediately when you are targeted. The goal of that is to have the AoE effect miss if someone does not get away fast enough.
The 2nd thing I want to try is having everyone hit Rebirth as soon as "Lethal Force Authorized" appears on the screen. The goal on that is to have heals hitting and regen capped in case someone does not get away fast enough. Lethal Force is survivable if you hit greens fast enough.
!END TESTING INFO!

*5) Watch out for Desdemona, if all of her pets die and she has a few EBs on her she can die pretty quickly. The quickest way to solve that is target her and taunt while others target her and heal. Heals alone cannot overcome the damage inflicted by enough EBs. Remember you can always target her, or AVs, and such by clicking their HP bar in the objectives window.

Other than the targeted stuff this guy is a daisy.

Kill more stuff

Glowies appear.
* The glowies give temp powers, [Glowing Lichen]s, that are used on the 2nd WW AV to stop it from regenerating all of its HP in a matter of seconds. They have an incredibly short duration (20 seconds I think), so make sure one is always on auto. Two cannot be used at the same time so invalid target will continuously flash over your head, just ignore that. The temp powers cannot be used on the 3rd WW AV at all.

Kill, kill, Trap room
– Des cannot be healed, kill DE in corners THEN crystals, room done.
– Kill some number of DE to unlock the door to the 2nd and 3rd WW AV.

2nd WW AV:
*1) Make sure [Glowing Lichen] temps are in your trays and ready to go.

*2) The league enters the ( shaped hallway at the North-West side. The league should then proceed down the opposite side (the left or east wall) and stay in the corner at the end on the left side. A tank will then pull the WW AV into the empty right corner directly across from the league, where the league is not currently gathered. When the AV is safely in that corner the league will attack. Remember watch for Targeted! While leading this one to the corner is not relevant to this fight, it is critical for the next WW. This puts the league in the corner from the start so Des and those that generally don’t pay attention will already be out of the way.

3rd WW AV:
*3) As soon as that WW is down the league will stay in that corner. This time the tank pulls the WW across the hall then to the empty corner across from the league, as soon as the AV is safely in that corner an all out assault begins. The difference this time is there are boss class Regen Lichens that give the WW tremendous regen. The lichens that must be killed look just like the glowies that gave the temp powers. They must be killed immediately when they spawn. You can always tell when one is affecting him by his HP going up. If you see his HP going up kill the lichen. If he is in the correct corner there are no lichens to deal with. While the Lichens do have a range I am not sure exactly how far and they require LoS. Remember watch for Targeted!

"A true hero has the strength to stand against evil
without wavering where all others despair,
even if it means standing alone." - Kragothe Valour

Tedious stuff that no one cares about…

Bombs:
*1) There are three ways to handle the bombs, two ways that others have listed (YAWN).

*2) The way I prefer is to have one person who knows the location of the bombs, that will be in the way, run ahead of the group detonating all those bombs. This way is quicker and easier, in my opinion. The person with Des should not just run off as fast as they can down the hallway because Dumbdemona likes to get stuck, attack random things, and just be a pain in general. Keeping her Speed Boosted is GREAT for this part. The rest of the league should not skip groups that are in the way as Des will attack anything she encounters.

*3) When you are close enough to activate a bomb “Bomb Triggered” (not sure of exact words) will flash on your screen. A timer will begin counting from 10 down, the numbers rise from the bomb and fade above it. If you are in range of the bomb’s blast “In Range” appears in the top right corner under your buffs.

- Objective to defeat some number of IDF and DE appears.

Avatar
*1) After completing the IDF and DE objective the league will go up some stairs killing one group of DE on the stairs, then at the end of a short hallway is a door (usually I stop the league before the door for instructions). Through the door and down the stairs is the spot the Hosp portal takes you to. Down that hall are three groups of mobs, stop at the 2nd group and have someone pull the 3rd mob to the league to avoid triggering the cutscene too soon.

*2) After the third mob is down one tank, with plenty of confuse protection will pull the Avatar to right in front of the entrance to the hallway. While the tank is doing that the league will move up and get ready to attack. There is a little section of water in the entrance to the hallway, do NOT let the Avatar past the spot, if he gets too far into that hallway the trial just failed. The tanks need to keep the Avatar right by the entrance to that hallway with his back to the hallway. Everyone else stays in the hallway except for certain reasons.

*3) One of the Avatar’s lovely powers is [Discordant Spores], 600 ft PBAOE from the Avatar, does not require line of sight, and Mag 20 confuse that hits every 20 seconds and lasts for 10 seconds. Use every confuse protection available and break frees. When I run out of Break Frees I either stay near Des or I suicide to hit hosp and fill up on them.

*4) [Cripple] Avatar is about to cripple the group get behind him, or something flashes on the screen, this is one of the main reasons for keeping the Avatars back to the league. It drains everyone it hits of endurance and it can hit everyone in its cone.

*5) [Devour] is a PBAoE with a 40 ft radius that does a ton of damage and buffs the Avatars damage and tohit for everyone that it hits. I believe that is the attack with all the vines that pop up

*6) [Infection] Another 40 ft PBAoE, this one drops Resistance and Defense by 33%

*7) [Grasp of Gaea] aka Will of the Earth appears as a huge yellowish aura around a single target, and for every player that is in the aura after 6 seconds the Avatar heals 2%. That means the Avatar can heal for 2% if one player is hit or 48% if 24 players are hit. Depending on how many players are in range of this attack determines how much damage it does, which if base 10% plus 5% per player up to 8 so the damage ranges from 15% to 50%.

*8) If Des drops to 20% health during the Avatar fight she will become untargetable and invulnerable, this is supposed to happen as a safety measure for league wipes.

I should have even more stuff to add to this soon.

Some info taken from --> (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=268089)

"A true hero has the strength to stand against evil
without wavering where all others despair,
even if it means standing alone." - Kragothe Valour

No, there is not a certain time I run them. I do want to start leading more though, as I have kind of dropped off in how many I have been running lately. Just keep an eye on Level 50 and Guardian chat, I announce them in the other channels too but those two first.

"A true hero has the strength to stand against evil
without wavering where all others despair,
even if it means standing alone." - Kragothe Valour

Updated the 2nd and 3rd WW strategy in post 8. 12-19-11

"A true hero has the strength to stand against evil
without wavering where all others despair,
even if it means standing alone." - Kragothe Valour