by Gloriana » Wed Aug 10, 2005 6:09 pm
I originally posted this on the Crucible back in October of 2004. The AE is no longer cureable.
I think the days of uber/raid gear vs. non uber/family style gear might be drawing to a close.
This weekend, I looted a girdle of efficiency. This amazing item dropped in a 6 person instanced event in the Muramite Proving Grounds zone. This is an unlocked zone, reachable by anyone (well, anyone 65+).
Let me describe the event:
1. First, we fought our way to the Arcana projection for the trial of efficiency. The group make up was: warrior, cleric, enchanter, shaman, ranger, bard (all level 70 but me, I was 69). We are a time guild, but the bard is a "new" alt, level 70 but only 80 AAs. We asked for a "small scale" event.
2. We buffed up and zoned in. You zone into the event by clicking the spire directly behind the projection.
3. You show up in an area, ringed with red fire. We ran further in, where a guy was standing on a dias. He asked us if we were ready to begin, so we said yes.
4. There are four waves of three mobs. The mobs are a Muramite Commander, an elite Muramite soldier and a Muramite soldier. Only the Muramite soldier was mezzable (enchanter had new mez, I don't know if that's what she was using)
5. The goal is to kill each wave in under 4 minutes. We were only close to the 4 minute time limit on the first wave, we got better and faster every wave as we figured it out. (warrior turning to next mob while current mob was enraged, etc). Trick is to target fast, don't waste time! If we'd had another off tank, our strategy might have been a little different. If you get done with the wave in less than 4 minutes, you can med/rest until the next wave.
6. Tricky part - AE. There is a periodic AE that knocks your max hitpoints/mana down by like 3500. (so the AE hits, and your hitpoint/mana bar is still "full" it's just 3500 less). It was cureable with 2 casts of RC3, but once cured, you have 3500 hitpoints/mana less than before the AE. The AE went off around 3 times during the waves (not 3 times per wave, but 3 times in all).
7. The mobs did not hit very hard, some of them enraged. The mobs were VERY resistant to cold and poison and possibly immune to disease. Bane and slow landed just fine.
8. After the last wave of 3 mobs, a "boss" mob spawned and charged the platform. According to what my guildie had heard, the boss is supposed to have an AE, he didn't do any AEs during my attempt. He was FULL slowable, which was a pleasant surprise. Since I couldn't land jack on him (besides bane), I sicked doggies and went Rabid Bear!!
9. After you kill the named, his body becomes a "chest" you can open. He dropped the Girdle and a glowing rune. I don't know what his loot table is.
10. Defeating 1 trial gives a bonus AA ability that increases your maximum resistances by 8.
It felt a little bit like the old POJ trial of execution, since cold/poison were so resisted, I didn't feel like I was the best contributor in that event. Truthfully, if my group could have ditched me and added another plate class or a super DPS class, they would have been in better shape. We still won though!
After winning the event, we were locked out of all the events for 2 hours. We were locked out of the Efficiency event for over a day.
We also gave a stab at the Mind trial (fear?) but we failed terribly because we didn't know what we were doing
I was in shock that I got that belt in a single group trial after losing a 234 DKP bid (HUGE bid for my guild) on the gem enlaid ritual cloak that drops in Ikk raid 4 last week.
If you have any other questions, let me know!
FARM ON!!!!
Update -
Guild group did the trial again today, they had two nasty waves where 4 mobs spawned instead of 3 (extra mob was a muramite soldier). They won. The drop was this Eyepatch of Expert Archery and a 69 rune. Chanter confirmed adds mezzable with bliss.
Valsuvious
This trial that Gloriana mentions is the Trial of Efficiency. It's pretty straightforward from exactly what she mentioned.
I've done this one five times before I finally saw the girdle drop.
My usual group makeup for these are: me (sham), war, rogue, bard, ranger, cleric. Doesn't really matter honestly, just as long as I grab a few dps people. I tend to like to have someone that can use RC3. The AE is cast every 5 min, and it can be cured using just one cast, however I usually keep up Pure Spirit to remove the AE if needed. Sometimes I've had it remove the AE first shot, sometimes I've seen someone go through two RC3, then finally the second PS removed it. This trial is better server for melee characters because of the AE lowering casters mana pool immensely.
The trial that Korellan mentioned is the Trial of Weaponry. I would suggest attempting to tackle that trial last. It's been changed a bit since the early days (as of a week ago, only 3 groups serverwide had beaten it.. and I wasn't one of them). Probably not the case now, but before you almost needed to have 5 melee characters there. I'm doing this trial as the only healer/slower soon just to see how easily it can be done.
Easiest one by far I think is the Trial of Destruction (projection of power). I'm not going to go into specifics but it was really cake, and you had no AE to deal with.
Upon completition of each trial, you receive 8 to all resists, and after the final one, you get an extra 2 (for a max total of 600 to all resists with level 70 and all resist AAs).
TorukFV
Ive been doing efficiency as main healer now so ill just explain what i do. Usually im doing it with a 12khp 2.6k ac unbuffed SK so some stuff will have to be modified probably. About 10 seconds before each wave I HoT the SK and usually pop AA3 as well for the first wave. I then stand on the sks hip and AE slow soon as i get in range. Usually then re-hot the tank and begin to slow the mosts with just turgurs usually and sometimes malos for the elite/commander. I'll usually pop AE slow again soon as it un-greys. Basicly do that for the last 3 waves and usually pop 1.5 when possible. Shaman are great for this trial because our mana regen is so high that our mana pool doesnt need to be that high.
Wondering if any shaman have main healed for the weapon bane trial. At the moment, ive only attempted once. Our Enchanter got agro early after our bard faded. So i was just keeping HoT on the SK and chaining our ancient heal. We lost at 53% because our SK went LD. I was at 20m and still had SC and Canni5 up. I think shaman can heal for all 6 trials but Bane seems to be the hardest atm. Any advice for healing in bane would be great
Tracor
I personally have main healed for Destruction Trial. When the trial ended I was still at 30m with C5 up and SC available. So, it seemed very doable to me. I am sure we will end up farming it more in the weeks/months to come.
I have also healed Effeciency. In Effeciency, I saved SC using half way thru the last wave before the boss mob and continued into boss with it. It seems Destruction is even easier then Effeciency since you don't have to conserve your mana for a boss mob encounter at the end.
I bring you gold and silver moons,
And diamond stars, and mists that float.