All Controller iTrial Domination: Virtue tonight, 16/9
Laev...today is Saturday the 15th. I know you aren't from around my way, do you mean tonight? And if so, I will try to make it!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by BL00DBATH
Laev...today is Saturday the 15th. I know you aren't from around my way, do you mean tonight? And if so, I will try to make it!
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Right.
Yah, I keep forgetting I'm 1 day in the future
It's supposed to be saturday, 15 Sep, tonight!See you blood!
Silly futuristic Asians 
1 hour to D-Day!
Controllers Convene!
Lam, BAF, KIR and UG done. TPN forming now, grab your controllers and pst me!
asdfghjkl I missed this?! >=O
fooey!
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
It's OK emp! We still love you! <3
Thanks to the members of ROBOKiTTY, the speedsters, @Ara for sending some angels my way, and everyone else who showed up at one point or another. There was one guy who transferred their main from Freedom just to come and someone else who transferred their /sonic controller. I was moved.
We only did the first five trials - BAF/Lam/KIR/UG/TPN. By then I was wiped out and I think everyone was tired too. I wanted to see if the plan would work for MoM but that's something I want to try with a fresh league.
Anyway, while waiting for the time to come I kept wondering, "will it be too easy?" (following the general rule of difficulty being in inverse proportion to the number of support sets on team) and "will it be too hard?" (since this will have to be done differently from normal, and confusion might result).
The answer was it turned out to be too easy. How often do you get an UG where nobody dies?
1) BAF
This was a complete walkover, like anyone expected otherwise. If you look at the screenshot below you will see that nobody has warnings. The AVs can't give PAs warnings through their Untouchable status, which I thought was funny, since the design intent seems to be to reward passing aggro rather than just one really tough guy taking fire. There are few things in the game that say "screw you" to the so-called "intended" way of playing louder than a controller.
Also, someone totally upstaged me by pulling NS instead. <3 Exx
I worried a little whether the controllers could kill boss class escapees fast enough. But I forgot to figure in the legion of pets that an all-controller league would bring. Do you think anything short of a trial AV is really going to make it through all this:
In the end nothing did. We pulled Siege flawlessly and kill them both on the mark.
2) Lambda
Lambda was the only trial where there were deaths (that I noticed), with the league having to split up and given the speedrun style that I like to run it in. The poor security bot was mezzed into the floor from the first moment, he never got off his heal.
My death as promised. I'm quite proud of this. It takes real talent to die on an illusionist softcapped to everything. I swear I did not detoggle intentionally.
We overran Marauder while the IDF troops drowned in a sea of pets and debuffs. The kill speed was actually faster than regular leagues. Although the controller ranged damage mod is only 0.55, they do double damage with containment, so for practical purposes controllers really have a 1.10 ranged damage mod vs anything that is not mez immune. (Compare scrappers' 1.125 melee damage mod.) Add in debuffs and the flag that makes trial AVs proc containment, and...
3) KIR
I got a little worried on KIR when I saw that AM had taken 20% damage from PAs in the time it took us to clear the first reactor (I'm not sure how many decoys they had out since I wasn't watching the tanking controllers). It turns out I was just paranoid.
We completed the 2nd reactor before AM could even show himself and the third one a second after he spawned. You can see how blisteringly fast the kill speed was from the below screenshot. With a minute to go, we've almost killed the required amount of Goliaths.
Maybe it's the fact that they're all controllers and used to thinking of themselves as support, but the teamwork on this trial was fantastic. There were people hurricaning warworks off the reactor, others killing them, a few pulling, heals and buffs everywhere, lots of splitting up into mutually supporting groups, etc. It was beautiful.
Antimatter went down like a house of cards. Would you fancy your chances against this? Even if you had a fancy space station with lasers on it?
4) UG
A lot of trial AVs can't put their special attacks on PAs or decoys. But by the time UG was released I had noticed at least one big exception: AM's obliteration beam can kill PA. It made me wonder if it was the start of a trend that would be followed in later content, so I was somewhat worried going into UG.
It turns out that PA can be hit by the "Targetted" power (which gives you "Targetted!" below your status bar), but they're immune to the actual special attacks themselves, like I was hoping for. Not that they would have done any good if they actually hit the league. I went and got shot by Lethal Force in the interest of science. There were so many buffs, it did just 49 damage a tick.
We fought both walkers where they spawned. People killed lichens without me telling them to. You guys were awesome. <3 The final Avatar fight has got to be one of the fastest ever to conclude: its health bar went the way of the Titanic and it died after using its end drain attack once.
I noticed that some decoys were idle during the war walker and Avatar fights. They were literally standing idle next to the big AV and doing nothing, even though they have ranged attacks. You know you're on an awesome league when you make your enemies hit the aggro cap.
5) TPN
This was the only trial that was not significantly faster than a regular league - but it was not that much slower either. We went terminal to terminal killing stuff as planned, although really, I think I should have tried asking people to pull as usual, given that they did perfectly fine on KIR.
There was basically no challenge as we went around completely destroying everything in sight like a squad of tanks (not the AT).
And that's all. If you've not done an all-controller league before, you really have to experience it at least once before the end. A lot has been said about how great the community, the devs, the costuming, etc. are, and that's all true, evidenced by all the wonderful people who showed up.
But I also think the Controller belongs in that list as one of Paragon's more unusual accomplishments. You get controls, support, damage and mitigation in a single character. I doubt there will ever be anything as versatile as it in another MMO. Wherever I look, they all seem to believe in the myth of "If one character can do everything, nobody will bother to team!"
This game didn't subscribe to that idea (at least, not very strongly) and we came together to put the lie to it one more time.
Thanks to all of you who came.
Till next time!
(cross-posted from Controller forums)
All Controller iTrial Domination
Where: Virtue server, highest numbered Dark Astoria
When: 7pm EST on Sat 15 Sep (yes, that's today)
Contact: @Laevateinn
Requirements:
This is a spur of the moment thing, but in memory of the Controller AT I'll be running all the trials with an all-controller league. Meet me today night on Virtue with yours or transfer one over!
For all their strengths, controllers are weak at pulling in the face of ally fire, and some trials demand pulling to precise locations. So we'll be doing some things a little different than usual. Note: There are a lot of mentions of illusionists in here since we'll be using PA to tank autohit unresistable attacks. But we won't need more than 3 and I don't want EVERYONE to show up with one. I would prefer that most/all primaries and secondaries are represented, just play what you like and don't feel pressured to come on an Ill.
Strategy
1) B.A.F.
I will pull the AVs (or someone with a debuff toggle, if I die hilariously) and we will fight the prisoners at chokes. PAs are immune to sequester and will tank the AVs.
2) Lambda Sector
Over the wall and into the base at once, clear 60 IDF in the courtyard, kill security team and split for acids/grenades. Once the cutscene ends, we will not use any acids and zerg Marauder at once. There is no way the IDF can actually kill anyone as long as the entire league stays together.
I won't kill the turrets since I find them boring to fight. Turrets shoot you if you go too high; to get over the wall without being shot down, fly low and briefly pop up to go over the wall.
3) Keyes Island Reactor
Only fill the terminals on 1st and 3rd floors of each reactor, and unlock all terminals before AM arrives. One illusionist with a backup will keep AM occupied using Phantasm decoys and PA (unsummon two of the PAs to reduce damage done to AM) while the rest of the league proceeds as normal.
To clear the terminals of war works so that you can use power cells, there are a few options: 1) KB enemies off the terminals, 2) pull with non-mezzing debuffs/APP attacks/Judgement, 3) confuse the spawn (confused WW do not prevent you from using cells), 4) or just kill them. 2) is fastest if you can pull two spawns at once; just attack and go hide behind one of the reactor's support pillars while the War Works fall off trying to get at you.
If the league is too slow and AM spawns before we can unlock terminals, the entire league will unsummon all pets and move from terminal to terminal clearing it. There won't be any aggro control issues since anyone he could possibly aggro on is at the terminal and there's no way he can kill the league through hardcapped defenses, heals and rezzes.
4) Underground
We will fight the War Walkers and Avatar where they stand and not pull them. A squad of illusionists will spam PA/phantasms to tank the War Walker and its autohit unresistables while the league engages from maximum range.
For the Avatar we will repeat the same process, however the entire league should stand together so that Clarion covers us all. We'll be skipping the bombs for this one.
5) TPN Campus
Instead of pulling the spawns to the center and fighting them in one big mass, a small squad will go to save HD while the rest of the league moves from terminal to terminal clearing IDF and activating them. This is slower, but it avoids frustration over accidental aoe immobilizes and such.
If I get enough Ills/Minds/Darks I will have a seperate squad staying outside to keep all Telepathists perma-confused.
6) Minds of Mayhem
This is the only remotely challenging one where the controller's poor ability to pull cannot trivially be overcome.
For phase 2 (storm voids phase) the whole league will huddle around Mother Mayhem and spam heals/buffs until a storm void wanders close enough to her. Once it does so, everyone open fire and kill it, then kill her. It's going to be fire-at-will; everyone should use their own judgement and experience on how close is "close enough".
For phase 4 (Mother Malaise phase) I will pick a squad of players whom I know have non-mezzing, non-slowing, non-KB attacks. People on this squad will pull GMs towards the AV; everyone else should focus fire on the AV itself.
Note that KD attacks will KB the GMs; do not use them on the GMs. This includes the Rag proc in your APP fireball! Also do not spam your AoE immobilize on GMs and make them impossible to pull.
7) Dilemma Diabolique
I'm not even sure it's possible to fail this one. In fact, I don't even know where the hospital is since I've never died in one.
8) Magisterium
Like DD, there is no difference from the usual way of doing it. The only challenge here is mustering enough raw damage to kill Cole, since he is nearly immune to -Regen. The entire league should save all Lore pets for Cole himself. After the nuke goes down we'll summon all Lore pets, pop all Hybrids and try to overwhelm him before the pets run out.
Poke me
At 7pm EST I'll be on Lady Divine on the global account @Laevateinn
See you tonight on Virtue!