TDS T3 time trials?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Kiras, Jan 10, 2015.

  1. Kiras Augur

    Anyone had any luck beating time trial on the group missions in TDS tier 3? I've been using a monk-ranger-wizard-pal-cleric group and not really getting close. I'm curious just what level of DPS it takes.
  2. Ravengloome Augur

    A 5 man group probably isn't going to cut it, unless you have some pro level DPS.

    if you added a bard to round out that group, and the people don't suck, you could probably do them all. Or maybe another DPSer instead of a bard. Your basically going to have to push people really hard or make them push themselves though.

    (I haven't done Arx time trial yet tho, but I know there was a person that had all challenges done within 36 or 48 hours or something crazy like that)
  3. Kunon Augur

    Like he said, a 6th would help a lot. I've gone through all the time trials several times over with wildly different group compositions.

    The constant is always killing multiple mobs at once with more mobs constantly being brought in. That shouldnt be too difficult to tank with a Pal, real healer, and a Monk. The DPSers should be rotating burns to kill several mobs at once and using abilities as they pop. Then don't waste time looting, go from place to place as quickly as possible.
  4. Dibab Augur

    the cost of balance time trial is really easy honestly. the rest i havent had much luck with but a few in my guild have everything completed
  5. Inke New Member

    I've done all the time trials. For most of them the group composition was War, Shaman, Necro, Wiz, Monk, Rogue. Not the ideal group dps set up. But I think the key is to have 6 real players and someone pulling to keep multiple mobs in camp at all times. It also helps to be familiar with the missions. Knowing where to go to get to the next set of mobs and not waiting to follow the npc's to the next location.
  6. Pwnography Augur

    I ran them all with a group of six live players, generally being my fellowship group of Warrior/Cleric Wizard/Mage/Monk/Beastlord. As you can see, there wasn't much aDPS but with paragons, it gave our casters a chance to let loose and never have issues over the duration. I'm sure subbing in a bard or enchanter to play on caster synergy would have sped it up, in the same way shaman aDPS would for a melee-stacked group. Think on that.

    I can't speak to the level of dps needed. I never did them more than once, given I was running a solid group of all raiders. I can give you some tips, though, that will make life easier as I've repeated the missions.

    1) Burden of the Past - Here I have dps rotate burns. The nature of "Kill 4" wait a while "Kill 5" wait a while "Kill 4" really sucked. Instead of wasting all our burns combined, we had a dps class rotate for each pack. That nullified the stupid time barriers for hails and engage waits. It helped get to the final pack quickly.

    2). Thuliasaur: Fit for the New World - At thirty minutes and large packs, you just have to burn hard. The second and third packs, spend your time picking off the mobs that correspond to caster or dps classes. The knights have a ton of hp and aren't worth killing. There are extras in most packs. Be familiar so you can immediately move to the next spot. Might as well burn all at once, and use em as they get em. Don't leave dps on the floor.

    3) Deep Lies The Snow: This one sucks. Why? Tank mezzes. Bring a real cleric. I found it handy to have someone group invis the moment a pack dropped by instinct. The general idea was invis -> up ramp, to the cubby on the right - clear floor - repeat. The moment the floor is clear, click the orb and the mob will pop/path right to you. Invis and immediately get to the next spot.

    4) All Rivers Lead To The Sea: The biggest tip I can give you here is that you're going to need to know the directions in advance. You can run ahead of Firiona and shave minutes off your time. If you get to her destination before her, she just teleports there. When the packs drop, just move to the next spot.

    5) The Cost of Balance - Not much to say here. Bring a Rogue or Bard. Put your entire group up top at the second Firiona. Have the Bard and Rogue request and run around picking locks. In a bind, you can clear and use the A5 device from CoTF to pick the locks. Zone in and kill Una. Our runs were looking at 5 minutes here.

    Good luck!
  7. silku Augur


    Caster LDON spells (was it ldon we got those?) also work to unlock these.

    Wuggan's etc.
  8. Sancus Augur

    Did the non-Degmar ones with War/Clr/Mag/Mag/Nec/Rog. Pwnography gave a pretty good overview, but here's what I have to add (or in some cases repeat :p ):

    Degmar: This one wasn't particularly DPS intensive. Did it with 3 mages and 3 healer mercs and we were well within the time trial. Other than not over-DPSing the main boss guy (so you can kill adds 1 at a time) there really wasn't much to it.

    Thuliasaur: We had the rogue pull and basically just went through the mission. We spam hailed as fast as possible and moved to the correct spots on time, but didn't do anything too special. I think the rogue said something like 150K sustained DPS was required (group-wide) to beat the trial when factoring in hails and such. I think we were at something like 190-200K +/- group wide, and we finished with 5 or so minutes to spare.

    Combine: It helped to have pets to fill in for the tank when he was mezzed or died or whatever (each happened once or twice IIRC). Other than that, kill and make sure you run quickly.

    Arx 1: We tried this once with War/Clr/Mag/Mag/Rog/Merc (forget which merc), and we were just over the time needed. With the addition of the nec, we got through it in time to get the trial. Like pwnography said, one of the keys is anticipating where the NPCs are running to, as the running wastes a ton of time.

    Arx 2: Did this w/o the nec; had rogue SoS to the generators and pick the locks while we stood at the FV instance giver. We cothed him and went in. It's pretty smooth until the end where Una has a DS; rogue died first time so we re-did it. This was also back when everyone zoned in outside of zone geometry... was really useful to have coth.
  9. guado Augur

    They are all indeed doable. The most counter intuitive part of the Time Trials in T3 are when it's under 30 minutes yet the missions have the most Hails. If there's 20+ hails in a mission, auto make the Time Trial 30 mins. There's no sense in calling it a "25 minute time trial" if literally 5 of those minutes are spent Hailing and/or waiting for scripts.
  10. Aghinem Augur

    Yeah - its pretty annoying. If I were a dev, I would just put in a code that would credit a player 5 seconds for every /hail update they have to do.
  11. Axxius Augur

    Deep Lies The Snow is absolutely the worst. That feeling when you get to the last mob with 3 minutes to spare and then fail the time trial because the hails and lore scenes take more than 3 minutes... :mad:
  12. segap Augur


    All the scripted lore scenes are driving me batty. It was really cool the first time I saw a cut scene in Wing Commander years ago. Yet they were wise enough to understand that once people have seen it once, they need an esc button to bypass it each subsequent time. Some of these things actually take 60-90 seconds each while you just sit there doing nothing but waiting. I fondly remember the funny emotes that some mobs gave on death. I'm really doubting I'll ever think back on these scenes with the same fondness. Perhaps if the game is still around in five years, the hail/watch madness will be remembered as a right of passage. "You kids have it so easy! You never had to endure the boredom we did just to access the next zone and get 1 AA reward!"
  13. Iila Augur

    Unskippable cutscenes and dialogue are the natural enemies of speedruns. Right up there with autoscrollers.

    The hail delay was even added after the achievements were done, so there wasn't any consideration for the 30 hails eating time in the time trial runs. They're all still possible, but minutes of lore when you're racing a clock isn't cool.
  14. Issk Journeyman

    I believe the toughest Time Trial is All Rivers Lead to the Sea in Arx Mentis in under 25 min. Did that with sk, ranger, bard, rogue, wiz, and a healer merc. Only had a couple min to spare.

    Issk
  15. Leex Pewpewer

    I've gotten most of the time trials in T3, a majority of the time it was a Mage/Wiz/Warrior with alts/merc. It's helpful to have someone who's run the event before along with having the write up in the background.
  16. Apoc Augur

    A slack wiz at that :)
  17. Sirene_Fippy Okayest Bard

    If your group can sustain ~130k DPS, you can do every time trial.

    The hardest one is definitely All Rivers Lead to the Sea. As previously mentioned, you can cut down a lot of time by running ahead of the NPCs and knowing where to go. You need some good DPS, everyone should be discing at the beginning and again whenever discs are up.

    Here's some parses from when I did these:

    The Cover of Night in 652s, 85579k @131255sdps [Time Completed: 16:00] (20 min limit)
    --- Magician + pets 36232k@(56791dps in 638s) [42.34%]
    --- Druid 15014k@(23908dps in 628s) [17.54%]
    --- Enchanter 14040k@(23557dps in 596s) [16.41%]
    --- ShadowKnight + pets 11015k@(17238dps in 639s) [12.87%]
    --- Bard + pets 8132k@(12472dps in 652s) [9.5%]
    --- Cleric 1145k@(2792dps in 410s) [1.34%]

    Fit for the New World in 1018s, 195317k @191864sdps [Time Completed: 22:34] (30 min limit)
    --- Magician + pets 91209k@(91209dps in 1000s) [46.7%]
    --- Druid + pets 36613k@(36723dps in 997s) [18.75%]
    --- ShadowKnight + pets 25480k@(25454dps in 1001s) [13.05%]
    --- Enchanter 24939k@(25370dps in 983s) [12.77%]
    --- Bard + pets 13900k@(13668dps in 1017s) [7.12%]
    --- Cleric 3177k@(3917dps in 811s) [1.63%]

    Deep Lies the Snow in 1077s, 183374k @170264sdps [Time Completed: 26:43] (30 min limit)
    --- Magician + pets 61212k@(60786dps in 1007s) [33.38%]
    --- Wizard 52718k@(52560dps in 1003s) [28.75%]
    --- Druid + pets 25218k@(25193dps in 1001s) [13.75%]
    --- ShadowKnight + pets 19016k@(17706dps in 1074s) [10.37%]
    --- Bard + pets 15228k@(14628dps in 1041s) [8.3%]
    --- Cleric 9983k@(10399dps in 960s) [5.44%]

    All Rivers Lead to the Sea in 883s, 170304k @192870sdps [Time Completed: 23:50] (25 min limit)
    --- Magician + pets 80586k@(91472dps in 881s) [47.32%]
    --- Druid + pets 30598k@(35292dps in 867s) [17.97%]
    --- ShadowKnight + pets 20459k@(23223dps in 881s) [12.01%]
    --- Enchanter 20243k@(23483dps in 862s) [11.89%]
    --- Bard + pets 14673k@(16617dps in 883s) [8.62%]
    --- Cleric 3726k@(4332dps in 860s) [2.19%]
    Spellfire and Sancus like this.
  18. Apoc Augur

    Yea the last one is a little rough with 2 wiz 1 war 1 nec 1 sham 1 monk i think we had 7.5 mins left when we got to the final room or so.
  19. Sancus Augur

    Can I say this is the most beautifulest group composition I've ever seen? I dream of that level of ADPS...
    Spellfire likes this.