TBL Unlocked?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Fuzzy, Jan 4, 2021.

  1. Fuzzy New Member

    I didn't see anything about it, but...

    I noticed one character who never completed a smoke trial yet was able to open the gate in Smoke Instance and zone to Empyre.

    Also another char that camped out in the instance and returned the next day ended up in static Smoke I think.

    How does one intentionally zone into the Static Smoke zone so I can try it with an unflagged, without instance collapsing?
  2. Jumbur Improved Familiar

    Maybe he got a taskadd from someone just did complete a trial? or was grouped with someone who recently completed one?
    Campfire?
  3. Fuzzy New Member



    Was boxing, all mine had not recently done a trial, wanted to try and get one done to make it to a raid. I did have time to do one, so I tried clicking the gate out of desperation, and it actually opened.
  4. Rondor Augur

    From my experience, there is either a flag on the entire instanced zone, or is a slightly separate instance that is created, that determines whether or not the gate in the center of the zone can be opened by anyone, regardless of their personal flag or lockout situation.
    • When the group leader, or person requesting the instance, or first to zone in, (not sure who) is flagged to open the gate due to recently having completed a PoSmoke trial (still has lockout in ALT-Z DZ list) or due to being flagged with all 5 trials, then EVERYONE who zones into that instance is permitted to open the gate between the Stratos and Empyr parts of the zone regarless of their own personal lockouts or flags.
    • But when the requester does not have a PoSmoke lockout or has all 5 trials complete, that instance doesn't let anyone open the gate in the center. I don't know if a person flagged with all 5 trials can even open the door in that case.
    • If the instance was created in "can't open the door" mode (unflagged/no-lockout requester) and then I beat a trial inside that same instance,I was still unable to open the central gate, even if I get the message while zoning in that says something like "Since you have recently completed a trial in this plane you can pass through". I would have to drop the instance and get a new one to be able to open the gate since now I have a trial lockout in the ALT-Z window.
    Fuzzy you mentioned that when you did this, nobody in the group had a recent lockout or completed all trials. Were you in raid format and maybe the raid leader had all trials done or had recent trial lockouts?
  5. Accipiter Old Timer

    I was able to get into regular Plane of Smoke by accident. I tried a trial and failed. I decided to come back later so I camped for a while. When I logged back in I was in the regular Plane of Smoke. I don't recall whether I still had the trial task active. I stayed in Smoke for several days gearing up. On a whim I tried to zone into Empyr, which worked. I imagine this is because Empyr is gated by Plane of Smoke. I could not zone into Aalishai from Empyr, though.
    Rondor likes this.
  6. Sasrayk Journeyman

    I do not own TBL or the later expansions yet, upon reading your post, I attempted to patch and then tried the guild hall port to Stratos, No go. Also, once TBL does open, I believe, the shared bank slots 5 and 6 will become availalable.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  7. Vaeeldar Augur

    I seem to remember campfire in to TBL was possible but.I could be wrong.
  8. Nolrog Augur

    No, you are correct. Campfire and guild banner, but you cannot get a TL or zone in regular.

    A bit frustrating I think because So much of the TBL expansion is locked behind those Smoke trials and they are challenging and certainly not box friendly.
    Gyurika Godofwar and Skuz like this.
  9. Nolrog Augur


    Yes they did on Phini.
    Skuz likes this.
  10. Vaeeldar Augur

    I certainly think they should unlock it now but I have to admit i enjoyed TBL as a boxer for the challenge the missions brought.
  11. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I agree, frankly I think they could use a down-tune, the content after it is certainly much easier than one would expect given the difficulty the trials were set at.
    Gyurika Godofwar and Kaenneth like this.
  12. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    They aren't so bad, some are harder than others, some are boxable, you just got to work on the strat.
  13. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I think you missed the point I was making, the content after the trials is relatively easy, gating quite easy to box content behind tricky & pretty hard to box trials is pretty dumb in my book, it needlessly blocks content that is really not that challenging behind an artificial high difficulty hump.

    I would have expected Mearatas to have been a ramp up in difficulty above the prior zones as it is the end zone but in this expansion all of the difficulty is pretty much front-loaded making progression starting with a wall of difficulty rather than a slope.

    If anything the zones beyond the trials were a huge anti-climax, they felt trivial in comparison, to me it was like the whole expansion was designed backwards.
  14. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    PoP was all about having easy content locked behind harder content.

    Its been over 2 years since this content was released, those comeing through on TLP servers should be able to experience the content as it was created. I don't think the challenge should be ruined for those coming through on TLP servers.

    If they have a way to change it once the content has been out for 2 expansions then sure.
  15. Accipiter Old Timer


    In 8 weeks...
  16. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    No?
  17. FranktheBank Augur

    PoP had like 2-3 instances of that maybe? Rathe Council is harder than a lot (or all) or time. TZ/VZ > P5. I guess Quarm is pretty ez for an ultimate boss.
  18. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Yeah at least the hurdle was close to the end of the expansion, rather than as TBL does having it right after the entry zone.
  19. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Lots of group content was locked out due to needing raids completed. That was just the way PoP was.

    If players cannot beat Cyclone or Wending Ways they have other issues, these are by far the easiest, the hardest being Ashes of Rusted Cliff's Glory is the hardest.

    The only thing that really should have happened at release was Estanti being changed to only needing 1 trial and a partisan quest in Stratos, not the progression in higher tier zones, but we have to follow the story.

    Simple tricks
    Getting from Stratos to Empyr without doing a Smoke trial every time - Have someone already flagged for Empyr trigger and zone into the smoke trial from Empyr side - get others to zone in after the triggerer has entered and you will all be Empyr side of the zone and can zone into Empyr without doing a trial

    Campfires work, if you have 3 flagged people to place a campfire others can click in.

    Lamp from Chambers - need to have campfired into zone first to use the clicky lamp
    Getting to Empyr - use clicky to Aashanti and zone out (lockout doesn't work the other way)
    Getting to Estanti - use clicky to Mearatas and zone out to Estanti (lockout doesn't work the other way)

    Not got 3 flagged in your fellowship chat up your guild get 12 flaged to move to Mearatas & Aashanti and plant a banner, then let everyone one zone in and get their access sorted to use clickies. Zoning into instances I think also works to unlock the zones for lamp use the same as campfire.
  20. Accipiter Old Timer


    I still haven't done a trial. I decided to gear up non-visibles in GMM for my tank and then go back to trials.