Magisterium troubles for some.

As usual, I've always got something to say.

I had what I would call some good fortune on this trial the past two days - two failed runs - and the only reason 1 failed was because we went for a badge, and didn't abort the effort soon enough. The other - was a mixture of problems.

Here are some:
1. Those that use a quill may have re-entered the PBAoE range and missed the warning.
2. Some folks may be +3, but that doesn't mean their destinies or lore pets are t-4d, nor does it necessarily mean that they have anything in Judgement or Interface.
The lack of T-4's may or may not make a substantial difference. But, I suspect that these minute differences add up when you're talking about multiplying them by 24. I'm not math guru, but it seems like they would.
3. Poor player performance - Don't misunderstand - just because you were on a league that failed doesn't mean you're a horrible player. And, it doesn't mean that the league was horrible either. But, it could mean that your system - or several other people's systems are having latency or lag issues. I noticed today while doing Marcus Cole's personal story that when my character used his AoEs, I got an lcms message - there could be something in that code that causes that, and that same effect may be in the trial for some when he uses those powers. I've had lag before, and I know it's no fun, and you certainly don't want to be *that guy* that gums up the works. All I can suggest is that you upgrade. If you have an up to date system and you're still having lag, I think you should talk to support. I had a problem once, and they told me to turn off Enable chat logging, and things got much better. They also told me my video drivers were out of date.
You should also check your options and make sure you're not in ultra mode and reduce your settings.

4. The trial may be bugged.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=116

I think the above post is worth looking at. Now, the trials I was on - no troubles. But, the other night, even though most of us were doing things as normal, we stalled around 40%. A lot of this was because of a lack of dps. Dead people do no damage. (fallout anyone?)

So, if this helps, here's what I would recommend:

Seriously - you want a full league - but it's not required.

You want -regen and lots of it.

You want people that have restores and revive temp powers, as well as mutation and resurrection, and all the othe rez powers. On the last phase, when people get clobbered, they have to destroy a portal and then zip back into the fray. This can take as much as 30 seconds - that dps that's not being applied to Tyrant.

You probably are better off with a heavier concentration of ranged characters. This way they can zip back and forth with their attacks. It takes melee a little bit longer to zip back and forth, because they have more distance to travel.

You will want to take the lights out as soon as you can. Use a targeting macro and press F so you bump right into it. (assuming the terrain doesn't snag you) Oddly enough, you can use the extra quills on Tyrant, but I'm not at all sure if that does anything.

Apex, MoM, Keyes -- and now magisterium - they all have some area to avoid while executing attacks. It's hard for some players to do this.
You're likely to get caught in some of the splash from Tyrant. Take Greens, and big ones.

The less dying you do, the better off the league will be.
Take a peek at that url, it's some interesting stuff.

I'll repost what I did in that thread here just in case it helps anyone:


Oh and to the OP, I've led about 7 or so Mag. iTrials and 5 (6?) were successful.

I know for sure one time we were trying for the "Hard Way" badge but I waited too long to cancel the badge attempt and by the time I said, "just use temps to kill the lights" it was too late and we failed.

Few key things:

1.) Have a leader that communicates what to do/when to do it.
2.) Make sure there is enough debuff/buff and (ranged) damage toons


To expound upon things a bit...


# 1: This is pretty much common for any "new" iTrial (and any itrial that's still requires more thought than "hit him (ie. anything past BAF and Lambda)."

Having a leader say, "MOVE" when the "air starts to crackle" at the Tyrant fight and "Lights in 5 seconds" when the Connections to the Well are about to come up is key.

I guess for some people they don't move unless they are told to do so (not even then sometimes ). They don't see "air crackle" message and just stand there.

They don't pay attention to the iTrial UI saying, "Connection to the well comes up in x seconds."

Why? Too much information? Beyond that, who knows.


One of the leagues I was leading (doing the Mag. iTrial) we were fighting Tyrant and going on for a good 10 mins and looked like we were about to fail (had about 2-3 mins left). Someone in the league that was also in a global channel I was a part of said, "why are we failing?" type of question.

Someone else said, "leader not leading" (paraphrased). It was true I wasn't saying, "move" and "lights in 5 seconds"....by that time it was the 6th or so Mag itrial I ran in a row (back to back) and frankly was tired of saying, "MOVE" and "lights!" every 5-20 seconds.

I thought the league I was in (most of the players were "good" players that I at least knew casually) so I was expecting "more" from them I guess.

Anyways, the one player that asked, "why are we failing?" in the global channel started to say, "move" and "lights" and somehow we beat Tyrant.

So just having that person saying, "move" and "lights in 5!" helps out....just like in the Keyes iTrial telling when the Oblit. beam is coming, etc.


I will point out that if the leader of the league can have 6 people (dependable people if possible) singled out (in league chat for all to see) saying, "these 6 people are going to do the lights/sever the connections, everyone else stay on Tyrant."

Having those 6 people sorted out seems to help. That way when the leader says, "lights in 5!" not everyone is scrambling to look for lights; only 6 are moving away from Tyrant and the rest of the league is still fighting/hitting Tyrant.


Of course have some backup people in case one of those 6 die but...just in general that also seems to help.




# 2.: For all those people that complained about "the Minds of Mayhem iTrial hates melee people!", it seems this one hurts melee the most. I've been on a good 15+ itrials now (not counting the ones where we all decided just to farm the 250 mobs) and the 1-3 trials that I've failed seemed to either have:

a.) lack of communication
b.) were trying for a badge and didn't cut the attempt soon enough
c.) lack of damage


I'm not sure how to explain c. We had quite a few tankers/scrappers a couple of times...but were they doing damage or were they dying too much (or just running around/away from Tyrant)? Did we not have enough debuffs?


I can't answer it but it does seem to favor ranged toons that can do damage/debuff so....*shrugs*


Now I've rambled....


But I hope it helps!

Just in case there's any doubt - I'll say it right here.

@energizing ion is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to leading trials.

Not just for his willingness and ability - but because he doesn't express that rage or call anyone an idiot like I might when I lead a trial. That, and he spends a good bit of time on the beta server learning this stuff before it goes live. They ought to give him a special badge or three to go with his 1389 or however many he has now.

I blame QP.

The debuffs when applied are wow. Just awesauce. You need them that is for sure.

I can definitely tell when I am on a 'farm' trial or a completion one... lol

@Tax E - RIP CoH 2012

I'm still hoping to actually get this done on Patriot at some point. Unfortunately at the moment it seems all people want to do is farm the 250+ and reset. Hell I've even suggested tackling the first 3 AVs just to mix it up and break the monotony.

Sadly, the devs were warned this would happen, so really it's their own fault. Still it's kind of pathetic that it's nearly impossible to find someone actually wanting to complete the Magisterium.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to learn there are a few people out there who actually think the first phase of the Magisterium is the entirety of the iTrial.

Yeah, you totally need 4 real debuffs. Not the fake kind.

This just in:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...63#post4260963

Well that certainly sounds like if we can get The really hard way now that it is going to be made a million times easier in a future patch just from the shear amount of players and pets who aren't actually receiving the level shift buffs from the Light Well defeats.

This would explain why my monitoring my level shifts never displayed anything but 3.

Well, tonight was a successful series of runs. Since the level shifts cap at 16, I capped the league at 16.

We won 4 out of 5. On the third run, someone used the lfg queu, and it seemed to make an incredible difference, at least to me. We had gotten him donw to like 14, and he got all the way back up. UGH!

But, I learned, I locked the leagues at 16, and no more hassles.

I am curious as to how the league would fare with 12 people.

When I played my regen scrapper, I built it for perma-dp. Obviously, the more hp I have, the more regen. So.... if it is true that the av hp scales with league size ( and yes, it's true), then it would stand to reason that 12 would have an easier time with Tyrant's regen. (as the regen, in theory would scale down because his hp is scaled down)

But -I have not seen the combat attributes. For all I know there's a minimum or something. But, it's worth investigating. (assuming the league can get past black swan - she was tough with just 16 - tougher than I thought she should be. )

I'm not sure if I may have missed it but, has this server attempted a Really Hard Way run of this trial?

I still think - until a fix is patched in regarding the level shifts - that a team of 16 is the way to go for The Hard Way.

The Hard Way requires only 12 lights to be shut off - so, using Raze's 4 at a time -- making the 16 players all 50+7 for about 100 seconds --it becomes a question of can 16 players dish out enough damage to overcome his regen when Favor of the Well kicks in at 50%. The lower his hp goes, the higher his regen gets.

Critical would be -
1) Timing - the right time to turn off 4 lights. It makes no sense to turn off 4 lights - only to have to move because of crackling air.

There are periods after lights go out where players can actually get a good attack chain or two in before he pumps his fist in the air.

2) Getting back into the fight. After Flow Lightning hits, there are several columns of damaging energy to avoid -- all depends on where the league members were before he executed the attack. (supposedly. I've found myself moving out of the way several times, only to be hit by that column - but hard to say if that's because of where I landed, or someone else was there before I was. I think it's like my blasters ice blast - when the baddies run away - it chases them up, sideways, around corners, regardless of where they go. Just have to move faster, I think.

Getting back into the fight after he does flow lightning is a simple matter of getting behind him - if all league members are in front of him - and the warning shows- people can essentially move sideways and circle around to the back of him without worrying about columns.

Again - contingent upon fast reflexes by league members - easy to say, hard to do.

At a moment when Flow lightning has just occurred, and lights are spawned - if we can kill the lights by 37 seconds - and then reengage - that will be about 30 seconds that we can be level 50+7 against his level 54+5.
Then we lose about 7 seconds of it because of having to move again. Essentially, what it comes down to is this - can we beat him in 120 seconds - and overcome the regen he will have during those seconds it takes to move out of the way, reengage and take out the lights a few times.
It makes perfect sense for those ATs that deal less damage to be on the lights. A blaster being on the lights, or a scrapper or a brute makes poor tactical sense. Buffs are also critical, as well as debuffs. That essentially leaves tanks and Doms to do the lights.
Regardless, whoever does lights needs to really, really try to be at that location the light spawns at when the clock hits 40 and then use the temp. The trick is to do the light without camping it. Maintaining dps and team buffs are important!

Stretching the map out and using thumbtack while your character is at that light so you can find you way back to it will save a lot of hopping around.

A call will have to be made at that time to get lights - or not get lights if anyone is dead or in the hospital. And the thing is - if you're ranged - you can, for the most part (not always, of course) avoid defeat by being behind Tyrant, and moving when you see the warning about Flow Lightning.
Avoiding long animations is also important. Know your abilities!

You want to use the attack chain that deals out the highest dps - that can be sustained over the course of the battle.

Consider using sleet, or rain of fire - any of those Targeted AoEs with DoT - if you can get them off before he does his Flow lightning. The Flow lightning is about every 30 seconds - so if you don't have light duty - you can use the light timer to gauge about when he might do that attack.

I may try this tonight, if it doesn't step on any other leader's toes.