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 (August 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 (Thank Faathim for Auto-Exemplar...).

Wittylibrarian had reached Level 39, one of the hardest levels to achieve and an even harder level to get out of. There's very little other than the trials now that he can do in-game, because the amount of XP required to level doesn't match the smaller amount of XP gained with each kill, uh capture. With Blue Arc's attempt at this trial, I found this to be a better, and more entertaining, trial than the Sewer one. So I made announcements, made a few contacts with Friends, and lined up a Saturday afternoon Eden Trial.

Witty, through his SG Angels of the Night, lined up NightAngel, fellow Blaster. My good friend St. Gothickia (ReDorthy's tanker) accepted my offer, and asked to bring Ken Satio (AKA madStan), Scrapper, along for the fun. A general call-out on the chat channels brought in B1sh0p (Tanker), Sir Sausage (Tanker), Winter Solstace (Defender, Police Drone S9), and to round it out, St. Goth and Ken invited Elphie (Defender). We had Dr. Phate briefly, but he needed to move on, so I'll keep track and see if he wants to run this trial himself. From that, we got the team lined up and ready to roll...

EDEN SPIRE TRIAL aka YES, WE TOOK THE RED PILL AND WENT DOWN THE WABBIT HOLE

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. Usually the plan would be to split up each tanker with a support team and have them hunt across the grid, but usually we stuck together, or at least in two groups. The 200 count goes pretty fast because the Swarms that spawn count toward the goal, and enough DE spawn 'em to increase the kill count rather fast.

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, oh, wait, I used this paragraph last time. Keep reading.

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, at the end of the ramp. 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. This happened last time too with Blue Arc. Dammit. I thought I was good with directions. Anyway, 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 will be the WICKED-EST looking map you'll ever see. 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 monstrous wabbit from the ancient days of the Old Ones, as mentioned in the Bun-Bunomicon. Again, there's mobs about, but your real target is that VIRD.

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 died and died again. At one point, while I was being crushed by a Greater Devoured boss, as you can see in this picture here, my mind opened up, and these Native American spirits just...leaped into my soul.

During all this, making it worse, you get two Monster Quarrys, which used to be waiting on the other side of the wall but apparently moved to this part of the map. Rates must be cheaper over here. Anyway, this kept our Tankers more than slightly busy, so it took a very long time to deal with the VIRD. The good news is, once the wall's down, the DE spawns disappear, and all you have to worry about are the Quarrys. St. Goth had taken one aside and kept it distracted during all this, so we focused on the second and finished it off as best we could.

We then took on the last Quarry, and this photo I'm particularly proud of because I was able to work in that awesome ribcage you'll come across. Like I said, WICKED-EST map.

JUST LIKE A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED ACID...UM

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. The Ambrosia is a defense boost that supposedly lasts 30 seconds, during which the one-shot kills Titan deals out aren't one-shots. 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).

Our tankers led the charge, while us squishier types held back and dealt with the horrific reality that we lacked Mezz protection (Mezzing is where you can be Held, Slept, Stunned, Immobilized. Tankers and Scrappers have protection powers: the rest of us are screwed). 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 Defenders and Controllers need some love too, so we had to balance out and trade around the Ambrosia counts to where the Tankers/Scrappers have 4 to 6 and the others about 3 to 4. 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.

And you gotta watch out for the potholes that line the bridges. Sometimes you'll need to hop in there and find them Greater Devoureds...the cowards!

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 did. I had run the Numina TF twice, plus this Trial, it added up). 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. There's another set of planted pets, mushrooms that unleash Lichens, very odd acid spitters with extreme range. The previous trial I ran didn't worry about them, but this group did, but it didn't take too long, and the Mold Door was quick to take down.

Now, from here, you enter the BIG ROOM OF TITAN DEATH.

DAYS OF WINE AND AMBROSIA

The room has three parts to it: the antechamber, with the waterfalls, the main chamber of TITAN DEATH (please save for last), and the prison chamber at the far end. All three rooms need to be cleared of the crystal mobs before anything else.

And when I'm talking mobs, I'M TALKING MOBS! There's more crystals here than a meth lab, jewelry store and New Age bistro rolled together! All those DE are entirely crystal based, no Fungoids or Bedrocks, which is slightly nicer but still very brutal.

My previous trial experience had the tankers only herding the mobs in the prison area (needed to, to free the prisoned heroes) and herding the mobs in the main room. They left out the waterfall area, and when I asked then about it they said they weren't important. Problem was, when we attacked Titan, we got swarmed then by those DE and it contributed to our quick deaths: that team assumed we were going to get swarmed anyway by a newly emerged mob, but that wasn't the case, we simply hadn't cleared out the area like we should have. This group wasn't taking chances.

St. Gothickia took charge of the herding among the three tankers (Game Devs, Statesman, all of you, the Defense nerfing of Tankers with Issue 5 will make this Trial sooooooooooooo sad and unhappy. Thank you so much (sarcasm intended)). One herded, another one waited at a herd point, the third one buffed up and readied to get another mob. They then took turns, leaving the Blasters Defenders and Scrapper to finish off each herd.

This is Sir Sausage's herd coming in. This was herd number 3, I think.

Ah, the beauty of a Blaster's superpower. Nova comes in handy once the mob's assembled.

And then there was Titan. There he is again, upon his pedestal of DOOM! The Tankers had pretty much cleared out the front two rooms, and were at this point herding out the prison guards for a final beatdown. From there, we circled Titan's area, being careful not to attract attention (as long as you don't land on that island pedestal you're okay) and heading in to the prison area.

There are four heroes here, each imprisoned in a stalk. You need to shoot or shatter each crystal cell to free the heroes, each of whom perform as acting NPCs on the map: they can fight, they can die. If any DE are in the area, they'll attack. Otherwise they just sit there. I had wondered about being able to teleport them using my recall power, but I didn't test it. I probably couldn't, since they were not on the team and it's a team-only power, but still...

And then, there was only Titan left.

We had more than 2 hours (2:17 at that point, really) to go, so a Bio Break call was issued and the team rested up. Except for the Mapserver errors that suddenly cropped up.

It's the game graphics. Those massive crystal mobs take up so much memory to execute, all those colors, all those animated villains, that some computers can't handle the amount of data and simply freeze up. For some reason, the freeze-ups happen well after the majority of mobs are done away with, so it's not lethal to the team or to the frozen player, but still it throws off the lineup. Sir Sausage had frozen and so we waited for him to reboot. Elphie, the Defender with Recall Friend AND Resurrect (most useful in this situation), then Mapservered as well. We waited for her to return. And then finally, we were ready.

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. We determined to time our Ambrosia usage, to make certain we re-buff ourselves with that inspiration to prevent Titan from One-shotting us straight to debt hell. As team leader, I took it upon myself to alert people to when we needed to use the grape-shaped fruit of defensive protection. We waited for the game timer to hit a zero second... we used an Ambrosia...

And then, well. You have to. It's the objective. We charged at Titan.

The attack went better than before. No mobs swarmed us, so YES you do need to clear out all three rooms in this area. You also need to have a time manager who makes quicker announcements to use the Ambrosia, because after 30 seconds I noticed the Ambrosia was still active, so I didn't encourage people to use their second inspir. Problem was just as the Ambrosia wore off within 1 minute, two of our players, St. Goth and NightAngel I believe, got one-shotted. Damn. THAT'S WHY YOU TELL YOURSELVES IT'S FOR 30 SECONDS, so the inspirs overlap. Gotta remember that for next time. Sigh.

Thankfully, our attacks were working well against Titan: without other distractions, all of our energies and damages were on him. Within 90 seconds, we had gotten the guy down into the red on his health bar, and then...Slammo! He shattered into smaller Crystal minions. Those were easier to take out, and then they shattered into shards. Very easy to take out. And thus...

Mission Completed. 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).

As per tradition, we gathered for a photo shoot, placing ourselves atop the pedestal from which we knocked Titan. W00T!1! I also messed about with the photo, adding text and logos to make this into a Wallpaper. The text font, RedCircle, came from the CoH Webkit that the game devs promoted recently. Yeah, it's a bit messy, but hey, share amongst yourselves!

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Things you need to know about this Trial:

1) Multiple Tankers. The mob sizes are just too big for one aggro-taker. Three Tankers work best.
2) You don't have to take on all the early mobs: just get the Walls, the Bridges, and the final rooms.
3) Be wary of Mapservers. THEY WILL HAPPEN to you and your teammates due to the high graphics count.
4) Time management on the Ambrosias. They last a minute, but use them every 30 seconds just to let them overlap.
5) Sigh. DAMN YOU, DEVS! STOP NERFING US! When the Tankers lose their ability to herd, this trial map will be 50 times more difficult. Sheesh!

And now, for the sewer trial...Never!!! NEVER!!! And now, to repeat this... BTW, I've got 2 Ambrosias left over, will I be able to keep them...?

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