Dilemma Diabolique Master

Just a quick few notes here. Ran the new trial once on my badger and league full of experienced badgers and here are my thoughts. Please add any suggestions as you see fit. I will probably add more notes as I run it more.

First and foremost, getting in to the trial seemed to be the most difficult part of the whole trial. Though, I'm sure the Devs are aware of the slowness and strange artifacts and this is just a matter of getting all the squeaks out of the new issue.

The run itself seems pretty straight forward and seems reasonable to get most of the prerequisite badges on normal or speed runs.

The first badge, Rescued and Recovered is the badge that takes the most planning. Easy enough to sweep through all three markers on the map to clear mobs, break the league into four teams and make assignments and just pound the spikes. You've got to defeat 4 of them within 1 minute of the first being defeated. 1 minute is a lot of time and wouldn't be surprised if a stacked speed team couldn't do it just hopping form one spike to the next.

The second badge, Sentinel Smasher takes a little forethought... rush and crush doesn't quite work. Just call out the names and have league mates follow the leader around or their team lead to the designated marker. Just have to make sure you release the right heroes: Positron or Valkyrie, Manticore or Aurora, Synapse or Ms. Liberty, and BABs or Mynx. No particular order necessary.

Third badge, Sacrificial Lamb, and fourth badge, Life and Death, are a earned with the same task... defeating Diabolique. Basically, have everyone focus on Diabolique except a few folks with range attacks. Every 30 seconds, little green will 'o wisps spawn called Lifegiving Essence. Create the following macro:

/macro tar targetcustomnear lifegiving

Make sure everyone with range powers has it and uses it. You have to defeat every one before the counter in the league window hits zero and another set respawns. Keep in mind that multiples spawn and they are pretty weak (for 50+3). I'm not sure how many spawn but they like to hide. I believe three spawn every thirty seconds but someone correct me here if I'm wrong. Do not attack the heroes she has with her. They are pretty durable so AoEs aren't a real threat but they have health bars in the trial window so always keep an eye on it... if they start going down faster then Diabolique then cut out uncontrollable pets and AoEs, including judgements.

I say this like it's simple and straight forward, which it is, given that you are with a group of players who are generally will practiced and are all tier 3 and at least marginally well slotted. The less of that that is true, the more difficulty you will have.

Hope this helps and please let everyone know if you find other strategies that seem to work better.

BTW, thanks to globe and zombie man... I did some cutting and pasting from here.

For some strange reason, temp powers are working in the belly of Mot. So, have a taunter pull the two Heroes away from DiaMotique and drop a ton of EB pets on her (Shivan, HVAS, Signature Summons). I was able to use Envenom on her, but Mark III analyzer showed we already stopped her regen without it. I could have even used Warburg missiles... but we didn't need it.

For the Spines, the run I led put first half of team 1 at North, second half at Central, first half of team 2 at East and second half at South. We brought all Spines to 10/100 first. Well, one team wasn't paying attention and blew right through 10 to zero. But it was real easy to finish off the others in time.

For the DD Trials I did, we cleared the guards, had most players just take the spines one at a time and bring them all to 10%-15%, then onto the next. At the fourth spine, we killed it and proceeded around the others, we had a good half-minute to spare.

And Recall Friend did NOT work in the belly of Mot.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

While I don't want to steal the OPs thunder here, I just happened to put together a guide for my SG & thought I'd share it. I welcome constructive changes & am certainly willing to let the OP take the entire contents of this & use it however they see fit.

My apologies for the length.

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(Updated: 3/8/2012) -- Corrected information about the Hero Rescue phase.

Master of Dilemma Diabolique Incarnate Trial

These are my notes on doing this trial for the Master of Dilemma Diabolique badge. Most of it was compiled from a number of successful & unsuccessful runs & some information was extracted from:
CoH Titan – http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/I22
CoH Patch Notes – http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/p..._2012_live.php
CoH Dilemma Diabolique Strategy Guide – http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/g...tegy_guide.php

If you have other ideas, constructive comments, etc. please let me know.

Personnel Needed: 8-16
Trial Level Shift: Bosses (+3), Enemies (+1 to +2)
Incarnate XP: Judgment, Interface, Lore & Destiny (if Alpha Slot is already unlocked)
Zone: Dark Astoria (not Echo) – see below
Zone Entrance: Base Portal, Peregrine Island, Grandville (I haven’t tried the Team-Up Teleporter [TUT])
Zone Level Req: 50
Trial Req: VIP
Misc:
• Your Alpha slot can be unlocked here
• Clarion (Destiny Incarnate) power is quite handy as there are a number of stuns/holds cast by the mobs
• This new zone is accessible by all alignment types
• The typical gathering spot for this trial is in the “new” Dark Astoria (i.e. not in the now-labeled “Echo: Dark Astoria”) and over by the hospital/closed gates to Talos Island
• The reason for meeting here is generally due to the fact that people are running the new missions & story arcs in the zone as well as the zone being a co-op zone
• It is possible to have one or 2 non-level shifted league members however keep in mind that they will be facing effectively level 55-57 mobs -- the Diabolique fight is where it matters

Trial Badges:

Master of Dilemma Diabolique
• Death Denied
• Rescued and Recovered (though it is labeled Gate Crasher in my badge list)
• Sentinel Smasher
• Sacrificial Lamb
• Life and Death

There are other badges that might be awarded to you depending on where you are in those badge progressions (i.e. Apostate, Erasure & even Banisher).

League Mix:

You want a good mixture of damage, tank, crowd control, buff & debuff. Otherwise, you are likely to have problems with Sentinel & Diabolique. Something like:

2 Taunters, 4 Heals, 2 Crowd Control, 2 Debuff & 6 Damage (mix & match here) -- having a dedicated debuffer (i.e. Rad/Rad) helped a great deal with Sentinel & Diabolique fights (duh right?! :-D)
 
Strategy:

First off, save your Lore pets for the final battle with Diabolique.

Phase 1: Repulsive Spines

Badge: Rescued and Recovered (listed as Gate Crasher in my badge list)
Target Goal: Take out all the spines within 1 minute of the first one to be destroyed.

When you first enter the zone, you are at the bottom of the hill leading up to the main gates of the Moth Cemetery.

At the entrance to the gate & at the top of the barred/grated path is a group of mobs to take out.

There are four (4) repulsive spines & they are guarded by Banished Pantheon (BP) mobs. Clear the mobs but DO NOT destroy the spines.

Work in the following order (seems easiest):

Southern Repulsive Spine
Central Repulsive Spine
Eastern Repulsive Spine
Northern Repulsive Spine

Once the mobs have been cleared from around the spines, split the league into 4 teams of 4 (or whatever you think can evenly take out the spines).

Wail on the spines until they are at about 10% health – each spine has 30,677 health so 10% = 3067 HP. Also, if you have the trial info window displayed, this works out to bringing the spines to the “10/100” mark.

The spines regen fairly quickly, so a pet/AoE or two shouldn’t spoil things & regen debuffs are handy.

When you are at approximately 10% on each spine, give the order to nuke them down.


Phase 2: Hero Rescue

Badge: None – however we are setting up for one in this phase
Target Goal: Rescue four (4) of the seven (7) captive heroes. There will be a mix of Freedom Phalanx & Vindicators.

Freedom Phalanx: Positron, Numina, Manticore, Sister Psyche, Citadel, Synapse, as well as the independent Back Alley Brawler
Vindicators: Aurora Borealis, Ms. Liberty, Infernal, Luminary, Swan, Valkyrie, Mynx

The mixture of captive heroes will be random however there will always be 7 of them.

In a non-MoDD run, you might want your strategy to be to rescue those heroes who would otherwise provide the Sentinel with a bonus power that you do not want to contend with (such as Positron/Valkyrie, Sister Psyche/Luminary, Citadel/Infernal & Numina/Swan).

However in a MoDD run, we want to rescue a specific set of heroes.

As there are mobs of BP guarding each captive hero, I recommend freeing one hero at a time unless you have the league mix to do more than one.

Once you clear the mobs from a captive hero, the hero will be freed & immediately attack the league so take ‘em down – they are mind controlled by Mot so the only way to completely free them is to defeat them.

For the badge, we need to allow Sentinel to have three specific powers (Aura of Decay, Touch of Death, and Grasp of Death) by rescuing the 4 trapped heroes that do NOT grant him those powers.

IMPORTANT: The following are the heroes who are to REMAIN captive (DO NOT rescue them):

Numina/Swan – gives Sentinel the Aura of Decay (AoD) power
Sister Psyche/Luminary – gives Sentinel the Touch of Death (ToD) power
Citadel/Infernal – gives Sentinel the Grasp of Death (GoD) power

NOTE: Be very careful when traveling around the map from captive hero to captive hero (especially your pets/lore) as you do not want to aggro the mobs guarding the above mention heroes. Had this happen once & that cost us the badge.


Now, free the other four (4) heroes (doesn’t matter what order but generally people start with BAB/Mynx & work back up the map by going counter-clockwise -- since one of the heroes will be in between two that you don't want to free):

Back Ally Brawler (BAB) / Mynx -- in a non-MoDD run, they would boost the Sentinel's Damage and Recharge Rate
Positron / Valkyrie -- in a non-MoDD run, they would boost the Sentinel's Defense and Regeneration
Synapse / Ms. Liberty -- in a non-MoDD run, they would boost the Sentinel's Recharge Rate and Damage
Manticore / Aurora Borealis -- in a non-MoDD run, they would boost the Sentinel's Range and Chance to Hit

Part 3: Sentinel

Badge: Sentinel Smasher
Target Goal: Take out Sentinel

Once you have freed the captive heroes, one of the remaining 3 captive heroes will be encased in the Sentinel who will spawn out of Maw of Mot (red dot on map) which is in the center area where the captive heroes were held. Sentinel will be granted a specific bonus power based on whichever hero is inside Sentinel:

Numina/Swan – Bonus Power: To Hit/Range
Sister Psyche/Luminary – Bonus Power: Regen/Resist
Citadel/Infernal – Bonus Power: Resistance/Defense

This guy is tough & hits very hard. Keep everyone under the healing blanket & keep it tight -- don't chase mobs, let them come to the league. Then just tank & spank him. Keep in mind that you only have 10 minutes to take him down – and I have had one failed run where that happened (not the right league mix).

When Sentinel gets to 50% health, the captive hero is spit out & he loses his bonus power from that hero. He's a "bit" easier to take down now. :-) He still has AoD, ToD & GoD powers.

Phase 4:

Badge: None
Target Goal: Survive 5 minutes inside Mot’s stomach & fend of waves of Banished Pantheon mobs.

Once you’ve downed Sentinel, have everybody quickly head into Mot’s Maw (red dot at the top of the map).

NOTE: If you do not enter the Maw, you are not teleported inside.

NOTE: Make sure to have a few wakies/rez powers or enough people with rez powers -- there is hospital to go to however I am not yet sure if you can get back inside Mot's stomach.

NOTE: I have heard that Recall Friend may not work (if you are outside) however the Incandescence incarnate power does. I haven’t been able to verify either though.

Not any surprises here. Basically, just stay together under the healing blanket(s) & stay alive for 5 minutes. The BP mobs will come to you so you don’t have to chase them to the edge of Mot’s stomach. It may help to have taunters stay near the edge of the healing blanket & taunt the mobs that don't like to close into melee.

Now is a good time to prepare for the final battle (unless you did that earlier or before the trial start – I would advise the latter). I recommend you have at least 2 people on LE duty (though in recent runs, I've found it to be better to have 3 people) & 2 tanks to taunt off the remaining 2 heroes (one hero per taunter) & one healer keeping an eye on the LE & tank teams – details are in the next phase below.

When you have survived 5 minutes in Mot’s stomach, everyone in the league is “killed” and then rez’d at the beginning of the next/last phase with Diabolique – just so people are not surprised by this. Anyone who was still defeated at the end of this phase is auto-rez'd to full health/end.

Phase 5: Diabolique

Badge: Sacrificial Lamb
Badge: Life and Death
Target Goal: There are 3 things to do here:

1) Take out Diabolique WITHOUT taking out either of the two remaining captive heroes
2) keeping total league deaths under 20
3) take out the spawning Lifegiving Essences that Diabolique summons.

At the start of this phase, Diabolique will pontificate for a short bit – enough time to summon pets/Lore/cast RAs, etc. I recommend you cast buffs after pets/Lore are summoned.

Pets/Lore: When the fight starts, have them focus on Diabolique – you don’t want them to decide to go after the other heroes (I’m talking to you Jack Frost! :-D)

Also, I have found that it is best to have 2-4 people put on Lifegiving Essence (LE) extermination duty. Plan this before this phase. The LE’s (50 +3) are somewhat easy to take out so massive damage is not necessary but very much appreciated. Every 30 seconds, Diabolique summons 4 of these at a time – there is a giant blue text message that appears on the screen when she does. You have a short time to take them out. I haven’t timed this yet but I think it is 30 seconds. There is a big red text message that indicates when she tries to consume the remaining Lifegiving Essences. If she eats even one, you miss out on the Life and Death badge.

Here are two macros you can use for targeting the Lifegiving Essences:

/macro LG targetcustom_next life
/macro LG targetcustomnear lifegiving

About the remaining 2 heroes, these are the remaining 2 captive heroes (you freed 4 & one was inside the Sentinel). They don’t grant Diabolique any bonus powers, they just make her more powerful (if you defeat the heroes, she becomes more powerful and you won’t get the Sacrificial Lamb badge which is required for this trail’s Master badge). DO NOT kill these two heroes. If either hero is defeated, then you miss out on the Sacrificial Lamb badge.

I recommend that a tank/brute pull one each of these 2 heroes off of Diabolique – not too far, just enough to be out of the way of the league’s beating of Diabolique yet close enough for heals, etc. This way the league can use their AoEs on Diabolique without hurting the other 2 heroes. Healers/Buffers keep an eye on the tanks/brutes doing this as well as the LE team.

Speaking of deaths, each time a league member or one of the captive heroes is defeated, Diabolique is healed some & her power increases – she gets a bonus to her Resistances, Defense, Regen & Chance to Hit. Also, after 20 league deaths, the trial is failed. Also, each defeated Lifegiving Essence raises any defeated league members – which also give a Heal over Time (HoT) to all living league members.

Also, I would recommend that everyone (who is beating on Diabolique) stay under the healing blanket(s) which should be set up next to Diabolique (I summon my Lore pets close to her if I can – I use WarWorks so one of them is ranged).

So, in a nutshell:

1) Upon entering this phase, summon pets/Lore & buff up immediately
2) Tanks/Brutes pull the 2 captive heroes away from Diabolique – out of AoE range of league
3) Lifegiving Essence exterminators take out their targets ASAP
4) Everybody else (including pets/lore) burn down Diabolique

Easy right!

Luck to you all!

Had a bug tonight on the final battle. We were going for Masters and had people assigned to kill the Essences. The timer got off somehow and the following was happening:

Essences spawned at 20 secs.
Diabolique consumed Essences at 18 secs.

It was thus impossible to kill Diabolique as she healed back to full every 30 secs. and it was impossible to target and kill the Essences in 3 secs.

What Sandy said..

Though, ran another right after with the remaining folks who didn't need sleep for work (or didn't care - I'm looking at you ). Trial before - essence timer not bugged. Trial after - essence timer not bugged. Just that one. Nice smooth run. Ah well. I jinxed us by saying it (that middle trial) was the last trial of the week to finish up folks alternative badgers.