Among the debris of Task Forces and Respecs littered about the maps of Paragon City, there are also the Trials. Single in purpose, focused on one location, the Trials are timed missions that must be completed with the defeat of a Monster villain (High hit points, unlimited endurance, impossible to solo) and in some cases the rescuing of hostages.

At this point in time (Feb. 2005) there are 3 Trials: Cavern of Transcendence, in Hollows for levels 14 and up (but really only accessible to level 18s who get to Talshak the Mystic before they level too high. This is actually the hardest Trial to even enter, as so very few people can get to it!) and MUST keep 8 players at all times for the final step of the mission; Abandoned Sewers, connected to the Sewer network under the Atlas/Galaxy/Steel/Skyway maps, for basically level 38 and up (36s could join but are not allowed to begin the Trial, this is the easiest trial to enter because it only requires one person to start it and others can join as needed during the Trial); and the Eden Spire, in Eden for a minimum of 4 players at levels 39 to 41 only (you could exemplar...).

This Sunday, working on my Witty Librarian (controller), a call went out from Safe Harbor's leader Bert the Viking, that a fellow supergroup the Watchguard was forming an Eden Spire Trial at that moment and needed someone at the level 39 range. Preferably a Scrapper archetype. Well, I had a 39 Blaster (Blue Arc Anom), which has slightly more firepower than a Scrapper but not the durability of one, and since I had coincidentally finished a major story arc at that moment, I sent a contact message to the player forming the Trial team: Nathanator. His team needed one more player, wanting a full roster of 8 for this mission, and after I switched characters to Blue Arc I received the invite.

Nathanator (Tanker), was leading a set of familiar faces from Blue's FF Respec: Kalma (Warshade), Miss Polarity (Controller), and Vylara (Peacebringer). It was at this point they reminded me I had screwed up their ArcheTypes (ATs) from the Respec Diary (oh my Goddess. People are actually reading these things!). Anyway. Along for the run were two more Tankers, Flaming Intern and Blood Owmen (is that pronounced Oh-men like the Damien movies or Ow!-men like getting pu...(Blood Owmen hits Blue Arc) OW! Man!). Desterio (Blaster) was already there as their firepower type (which might explain why they wanted a Scrapper, to balance out the ATs involved on the mission).

EDEN SPIRE TRIAL aka LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING

The Trial is set in Eden, one of the last hazard zone maps you reach during the leveling of your characters (Ritki Crash Site is second-to-last, the last of the last is the 'Hive', where resides the Hamidon supermonster-archvillain!). Heading west across Eden, you will eventually see a tall, skyscraper-sized rock formation, like a fossilized tree: This is the Spire. Halfway up the Spire, on the west side, you will spot a lone contact figure, the Woodsman's Spirit (the ghost we freed from the Numina TF). The Woodsman has a task for us heroes, to make us an example of nobility in these dark times: there are heroes trapped by the Devouring Earth forces and need rescuing.

First up, Woodsman has the team hunt down 200 Devouring Earth that are, nicely enough, encircling the Spire. The Tankers immediately split off into separate hunting parties to increase the number of DE mobs to hunt at the same time. You know, I can barely imagine what it's like to be a Tanker, doing all the herding and aggro control, basically doing all the fighting anymore. My Tanker is 23, and he's not really good yet for herding, he's Stone Tanker too I don't know if he CAN herd ever. He can aggro I know that, but still, I need training on it. Maybe it's me. I digress. Anyway, as a Blaster, it's all I can do to keep up and wade in for the assists, usually with the end drainage powers I have. I feel useless when Tankers go herding, and I worry about that uselessness. If Blasters were more powerful somehow...

Once the mobs are cleared, Woodsman sets the timer for 4 hours, and opens up the doorway into the Spire. Dude. THIS IS A BIG DOOR. And a big hint as to...well. The word BIG is theme for today, kids.

We're talking big tunnels. We're talking big rabbit holes that go ALL the way down (you will pass China at some point on the way down, ok? That's how far you fall!). We're talking big mobs. We're talking Big Macs! Mmmm, product placement (McDonalds' files lawsuit against CoH for unlicensed product placement). Aw man...!

The early part of the map is easy: avoid the mobs and get down the tunnels. You COULD fight the mobs, but that will take up time. Fly through or stealth through the first floor until you get to the first big hole. Then jump down. (I don't think you accrue damage if you fall down, but just in case aim for the wall sides and sorta skip off them if you can) There's another floor, and another tunnel to jump. Then there's one more.

At this point I got lost, not too certain which way I was going. I foundered a bit, and was too far for some reason for the other teleporters in the group to lock onto me. It took me a few minutes to head down the right tunnel and quickly worked my way to the Very Important Rock Door (VIRD).

This was, by the way, the wicked-est looking map I've ever seen. The sheer vast size of the tunnels, for example, more than enough room for a MegaMech to swing a MegaCat in. And you pass by...well, the bone-like remains of some creature, the rib cages of a monstrosity that makes you think we'll be running into a Lovecraftian demon-alien-god whose name is made entirely of consonants and apostrophes (Lovecraft emerges from the Chaos Void where his soul has been consumed by formless beings and gets his lawyers to file a lawsuit against CoH. At least, they LOOKED like lawyers!).

The Rock Door is preventing you from approaching your goal, so you gots to knock it down. Problem is, attacking the door unleashes spawning DE right under your feet (as a Blaster, this can be...disconcerting). There was some confusion early on as we stopped focusing on the door and worked on the spawns, but Nathanator issued the order for the Tankers to worry about the mobs and the non-Tankers to worry about the door (also, to get rid of the Cairns emanators that rejuvenate the VIRD). I did get a death moment at this point, but revived by teammate to continue the fight against the Door Of Near-Eternal Resistance (DONER). Of course, being merely near-eternal, we were able to punch a hole into it.

Past this, you get to deal with a Monster, Quarry, waiting for you before the next major tunnel. This is pretty standard, by now anyway, simple monster removal for an 8-team group. Past this...

The second part of the tunnel is a long acid lake with three bridges. Atop these bridges are mobs of DE that you HAVE to kill. You HAVE to kill them for one very good reason: The Greater Devoured bosses among the mobs drop inspirations known as Ambrosia (the icon looks yellow with purple grapes). YOU NEED AMBROSIA TO SURVIVE THE ARCHVILLAIN AT THE END OF THE MAP. Sorry for the shouting. This was for emphasis. Anyway, of the mobs you pass en route to the final map area, this is one of the two mobs you NEED to fight. And you NEED to empty out Inspiration slots so you can pick up the Ambrosia (just hold on to the Awakens...just in case).

Led by Nathanator, we charged into each group, being careful not to fall into the acid lake below us and being careful not to aggro the nearby mobs. We went up the middle ramp first, which arches over the left bridge (leave that for last). Mob after mob, Greater Devoured after Greater Devoured, and at the end of the ramp we paused to check our Ambrosia counts. It helps to let the Tankers and Melee fighters get the most Ambrosia (as they will be the direct targets of the Archvillain/Monster), but the Blasters and Controllers need some love too, so we had to balance out and trade around the Ambrosia counts to where the Tankers have 6 or more and the others about 2 or 3. Once we shuffled about some Ambrosia and cleared a little more Inspir space, we took the next high ramp back across the lake. More mobs, more death, more Ambrosia, mo money mo money mo money! Ahem. We regrouped again at the far side, and balanced out the Ambrosia amongst us. We then took the third (under) bridge, which has breaks in it, meaning you had to hop or fly across the gaps to avoid the acid lake. Again more mobs, again more death.

Another thing that happens is the emanator, dropped by various DE creatures to promote and protect their own. The emanators like Quartz and Cairn give them health and defense boosts, and for us heroes we get a Protectorate badge if we wipe out enough of them. Between the Numina TF, the various DE door mission story arcs you get with your contacts, and this Trial, you should get that badge. (I didn't, came up short 12 emanators, but I took care of that later). But I digress.

Past this, through the long not-that-empty tunnel, will be the next Very Important Mold Door (VIMD). This is similar to the VIRD except the spawns are Fungoids who stun and sleep you, and that will be that. This is still a DONER, though, so it takes time to punch a hole same as the last one.

And now, past a set of three waterfalls, further into the tunnel, past another mob of wicked fiendishness, you will bear witness to...the Archvillain...the Monster of Monsters...the one and only...Titan. Titan?!?! They named him Titan?!?! That's so bloody generic! Why didn't they name him K'Th'L'Mk'Ch or something? At least Jurrasik sounds cool! But NOOOOO, he has to be Titan! Like a new car model from Dodge or GM. The Saturn Titan, at $24,000 plus extras! That is so...

And then you actually see him for the first time, standing atop a pedestal in the middle of a vast BIG room. You could stack 3 MegaMechs atop one another and still have room to put a baseball cap on top, that is how big this room is. And Titan practically reaches the ceiling all by his lonesome. Well, except for the pedestal he's on. Still...

Okay. Titan can call itself whatever it wants!!!

This part of the mission breaks down into 2 key areas: 1) Rescue captured heroes in the far end of the room and 2) Defeat Titan. The first is the easiest, as you can circle past Titan much like the rest of the floors. You can then use the tried and true Tanker herding method (uh-oh. The entire agricultural industry is going to sue CoH for unauthorized use of herding techniques!) to round up the bads into a tight corner and wipe them out. Nathanator took it upon himself for this task, and circled about the room getting as many of the DE to foll...

MAPSERVER ERROR

This is, by far, the greatest complaint regarding any MMORPG: the disconnects. Network shutdowns. The sudden, middle-of-the-game, OMG-I'm-going-to-die-now interruption. 'Mapserver' is a four-letter word. I found myself kicked off Champion Server. Worse, I couldn't even log back into the game proper.

Frustrated, because as I'm locked out of the game, the Timer is still running. If everyone else gets kicked (which sometimes happens on some mapserver moments), the Timer is STILL running. We had more than 2 hours to go to finish the Trial, but worst-case we wouldn't be able to get back in and beat the clock.

After a few minutes, and finding via Internet that the servers were up, I logged back in and made it back to the game (Because I was kicked by the server and did not fully Quit the team, I was able to re-join, albeit from the outside door, meaning I had to travel back inside! OY!). I got teleported back in time to find that I was the only one affected by Mapserver (at that moment), and that the team had already freed the four heroes that needed rescue.

Nathanator was now focused on getting the mobs surrounding Titan. When we go after the Monster, they would naturally swarm against us, making it impossible to focus on just Titan. Nathanator herded them back into the prison room (where, unfortunately, one of the freed heroes died. The Heroes DO jump into the melees with us. Whoops, we need to buff 'em!) and we finished them off. So then it was just us, and Titan.

We sat there for about 5 minutes going over last-minute arrangements, shifting of Ambrosia between Tankers, living wills, final meals, and a visit from an old priest and a young priest.

And then, well. You have to. It's the objective. We charged at Titan for the CLASH OF THE...no, wait, we'll get sued again for that. We charged at Titan.

Here's the plan. The melee types (Tankers and Scrappers) go for the legs. The squishys (Blasters, Defenders, Controllers) go for the head, and they better be flyers with Hover power. Everyone takes one hit of Ambrosia to last them 2 minutes. You will need another hit of Ambrosia sooner than you think, though. Without the Ambrosia, even a Tanker will fall with just one Footstomp from Titan. Keep hitting until Titan shatters.

Here's the result. A mob of DE comes rushing in to protect their Monster/AV Boss. Nathanator said they spawn once (and just that once) from the surrounding holes in the ground, but I'm not sure, a lot of them were rushing in from the tunnel we had exited (and which we hadn't properly cleared). So not only are we dealing with Titan but with 100-plus minions and lts and a few bosses. And I don't think the Ambrosia protects us from them. I need clarification on this, though. Did we need to clear out that tunnel ahead of time? And does Ambrosia protect us from the mobs as well, or just from Titan?

The Tankers fell, one after the other. Without the Tankers attacking him as much, Titan turned his attention to the flyers (Desterio, Kalma, Vylara and myself). Along with his Stomp, Titan has a cone-range attack that is just as lethal. As I had used both of my Ambrosia at this point (not good!), well. One hit. I died.

Only Miss Polarity and Kalma survived, and then only Polarity. As our Healer/Controller, she was able to escape and hide from both Titan and his mob. Unfortunately, she didn't have Recall Friend. Kalma revived herself twice, once to move further from the mobs before dying again, and then a second time, at that point getting far enough away to survive. Once repowered, she teleported us away from the pedestal area to be revived by Polarity.

We also got hit with another Mapserver disconnect, this time with Vylara. We waited a few minutes, mostly to heal up, for Vy to return. I was able to tp her back into the cavern where we had regrouped. Meanwhile Nathanator went back out to round up the mob to clear them out for good. And then we refocused our attention on Titan.

Unfortunately like other AVs and Monsters, Titan rejuvenated himself to full strength during the time we regrouped. So this time we had to charge in as though it was the first time. We shuffled about our Ambrosia collections again, so I got one from Flaming Intern, before we charged again.

This time, no mobs charged us. But we still had problems fighting Titan. We each faced a death moment, with Polarity doing what she could to Revive us without getting killed herself. My Ambrosia finally gave out, and about a minute later he threw a cone attack at me. Dead.

By that point, thank Dog, he was at 1/3 strength. Everyone kept pounding it on, while I took the relative comfort of death to encourage the others to keep fighting. Which didn't last long. Polarity and this time Kalma both got away safe, and they teleported us to safety and revivals. We recharged while Titan got back up to half-strength, and then charged back in one more time.

This time I didn't have an Ambrosia, and even keeping a safe distance (Zapp sniper range) wasn't safe enough. I died a third time, but the others were doing a better job of it, and within another two minutes after my demise, they succeeded in shattering Titan into a million enh pieces. Actually, eight pieces, one for each.

Mission Completed. Although half of us had died at that point. There had to be incredible amounts of XP on this, because almost all of my three-death debt had been erased (the previous death-debts were cleared by the mobs we fought at Acid Lake). Anyway. We won!

We won the Trial badge Liberator, we each won a Titan shard (a dual-power enhancement that combines two aspects of a talent, say Damage and Accuracy, or Health and Endurance). I think Polarity gave me hers, as for some reason she could not use it (please inform me who the gift was from, thanks).

As per tradition, we gathered for a photo shoot (although Kalma was the one insisting on it), placing ourselves atop the pedestal from which we knocked Titan. W00T!1! Some of us stayed to finish a bit of herding, others left, and then we all exited back to Woodsman's spot on the Spire, said our farewells, and departed. Miss Polarity, if I recall, said something about repeating this Trial with another group that very night. We wished her luck, which she needed because more Mapserver errors occurred to the point the Devs forced us off for a quick maintenance check of the server. Champion server suffers this more than the other servers for some reason.

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This is a tough Trial, although planned out well you can get it done well within the 4 hour limit.

The things you will need:
1) Tankers and lots o them. You need to herd the huge crowds of bads;
2) Controller with healing abilities and Recall Friend; more than Defenders, because Controllers can 'control' the mobs that will swarm on you;
3) Empty Inspir slots, with the noted exception of Awakens, have at least 2 of those;
4) Ambrosia, at least 6 to the Tankers/Scrappers and 3 to the Squishys;
5) Taking screenshots. You will not see another game map like this, I don't think...

Again with many thanks to the Watchguard and their allies and alternates. I hope I provided enough support and firepower to keep you all...yeah, I know. Blaster. I was pretty much there for comic relief. Sigh. DAMN YOU, DEVS! STOP NERFING US!

And now, for the sewer trial...ACK!

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back to TF/Trial page | back to Witty main page | email me if I forgot about the time we all fell into the acid lake and had our boots burned off and...

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