What do I do in this stuff?

[Akalabeth]

So I asked in General chat if anyone forms casual level 50 stuff (but I meant task forces/trials) that wasn't Master Of/Speed/max notoriety Aeons/can only use brawl etc. and people said all the time just ask.  The reason is because I haven't actually done most of the high level task forces because people pretty much expect me to already know the stuff to even be able to go.  I didn't play 20 years on live servers like everyone else seems to have.  I was told all I had to do was ask what to do in them and that people were SUPER nice and helpful in the community and would tell me.

 

A short time later someone was forming a MoMAG +3 only, so I asked in general, "What do you do in MoMAG?"  I've never been.  And... no one answered. >_>

 

Should I just... go to all these things?  Without even knowing what to do?  For example when I looked on HC Wiki for Tinmage and it just had messy text of dialogue and google doesn't have any guides and the only thing I saw on the guide page in the forums was an Abandoned Sewers one.

 

I have never done:

 

Abandoned Sewer Trial

Barracuda

Cavern of Transcendence

Dr. Aeon

Dr. Quaterfeld

Eden Trial

Lord Recluse

Market Crash

Ms. Liberty

"MAG"

Sara Moore

"TPN"

"Underground Trial"

 

....annnnnd apparently I'm an "AE baby" because of this even though I don't get leveled in AE by people. 😕

[SeraphimKensai]

Well you could read a guide on them or watch a youtube video of them to get the gist before you try some of them. some of them have no ridiculous mechanics and are pretty easy. otherwise a bit of research can't hurt you and will help you tackle them as you advance to them.

[Akalabeth]

That's what I'm asking... I mentioned I didn't see any guides on the forums for this stuff.  Where are they? 🙂

[Akalabeth]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=city+of+heroes+tinmage+guide&t=h_&ia=web

 

The only thing is a video and a paragon wiki which I mentioned is just the full dialogue/messy test stuff that didn't actually seem to be a guide.

[Albion]

19 minutes ago, Akalabeth said:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=city+of+heroes+tinmage+guide&t=h_&ia=web

 

The only thing is a video and a paragon wiki which I mentioned is just the full dialogue/messy test stuff that didn't actually seem to be a guide.

The wiki itself explains to you the basics of what you need to do in any raid/task force/etc to reach a successful outcome, you can start there and would have the basics down, then add a thorough search on the forums and there is plenty tips, mentions and guides, or you can just go join a run and try to pick up things on the spot, there is plenty people who will guide you trough patiently, there are others who by preference will just engage the run counting on you to get the gist of it by following example, and there will be others who want to optimize their runs and don't look forward to doing a school drive, it is nothing personal there is just many approaches to playing this game, but overall the people are nicer and more willing to show the ropes than in other places; most league organized content includes the lead giving very specific instructions, and depending on the time of the day and the day of the week you could just go and say you are a new player wanting some experience and folks may organize something for you, avoid self isolating yourself by thinking everyone out there has it with you and you will have lots of fun, just join some content and dont think too much about what will happen, league content to start should be nice, if you still feel anxious a quick read of the Homecoming wiki about what you are joining is all you need.

[Akalabeth]

I did market crash just a few minutes ago telling the leader I'd never been and I dunno what I expect from this and other stuff, but MC was pretty straightforward and it was fine.  Maybe I expect raid/dungeon wipes from encounter mechanics and having to start bosses all over and such because of other games. 😕

 

 

[Six-Six]

On Reunion where I frequent, they have a weekly "casual" run of the list you had. On such runs, the league leaders are quite helpful in explaining what the goal is, what the plan is, and what to expect. This is to get players comfortable in the respective trials. I'm sure other shards have something similar.

As for task forces, running around like a headless chicken on your first run is... normal I suppose. I don't there's any other way to get your feet wet but to jump in head first. You'd be lucky if your PUG walks you through it (which does happen), otherwise you just get familiarity from repetitive runs. Or you can try them solo. Most of the sub-50 TFs are soloable, depending, of course, on your AT/powers, difficulty and skill.

 

[Nyghtmaire]

@Akalabeth I’ve been in your shoes it seems. While I played in Live, I was not in a place (career and family constraints) that permitted much of any formal TF/SF teaming. Tried one or two here and there, and was lucky (or otherwise, depending on your perspective) to run the initial incarnate trials.
 

Fast forward to Homecoming and a pandemic, it’s a different story. I’ve found, without a single negative experience, joining a team and explaining at the outset that I haven’t a clue what I’m doing in the specific trial to be completely fine. Everyone has been helpful and most kind (play on Everlasting FWIW). And really, the first time or two is usually spent being zipped around by Assemble the Team or Team Teleport as those in the know zip from objective to objective. 
 

The mechanics in this game are pretty standard for the most part, especially if you have done any other games: stay out of colored patches around the big bad, aggro control mechanics, etc. There usually aren’t guides for most of the encounters because of that, and the Homecoming wiki is more than sufficient. Playing the content will give you the necessary exposure to specific enemy groups - like which minion or lieutenant needs to be taken out first (Malta sappers for example); the rest is dealing with a bag of hit points. 
 

Recommend being comfortable with your character, figure out the mechanics under the hood - defense soft-cap, ToHit calculations and such - and a willingness to court some debt all to be invaluable. 
 

Good luck and welcome to the game!

 

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by Nyghtmaire
Spelling/clarity

[Player2]

I played the game on Live since Issue 1 (took a break between Issue 8 and 10) all the way up to sunset.  I came back to Paragon City here on Homecoming when they were running just one server (Torchbearer) with very long waits in the queue to even get into the character select screen...  and I will tell you this:

 

I hesitate and often shy away from announcements of teams forming for alphabet soup.  I don't know what MoMAG is because there is so much content that I don't want to have to figure out what someone is referring to by whatever the commonly used acronyms or abbreviations are.  If I see it over and over because they're having a difficult time getting enough people to join, I might ask what those letters mean... but generally I'm turned off by open calls for teams, Task/Strike Forces, trials, and whatever without knowing what they are.

 

Should I learn what those things mean?  Maybe...  or maybe they should take the time to type out 2 or 3 full words to eliminate confusion.  Someone says "Maria Jenkins missions LFM" and I know immediately what they're doing and want in.  Cavern of Transcendence?  I'm in.  Give me an acronym and I'm just going to tune you out.

[Six-Six]

I feel the exact same way with kids these days... LOL, ROFLMAO, WTF (which incidentally is not Wow! That's Fantastic). But I suppose after a while, you do get used to them.

MoXXX means Master of XXXX, where XXXX is a particular task force or trial. 
MAG is Magisterium Trial [https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Magisterium_Trial]
ITF is Imperius Task Force or properly known as Times Arrow task force in the LFG Queue
LGTF is Lady Grey Task Force
LRTF is Lord Recluse Task Force
MC is Market Crash
APEMAGE or TINPEX is a back to back run of Tin Mage TF and Apex TF
MSR is MotherShip Raid in RWZ, Rikti War Zone (also sometimes known as Lag Fest, though not to be confused with the Hami Lag Fest or Eden Lag Fest)
 

There's more but I need to go IRL 

[SuggestorK]

6 minutes ago, Six-Six said:

MoXXX means Master of XXXX, where XXXX is a particular task force or trial. 
 

Exactly and this is probably the reason the OP didnt get an answer, for an Master of run as leader u supposedly await ppl to participate that know it basically and only have to explain what is special for Master to do.

 

Im sure the OP would have gotten an answer and Invite if it wouldnt have been a Master run.

Edited December 30, 2021 by SuggestorK

[SuperPlyx]

One thing I would add is be patient, most if not all of the task force you listed are at times the WST (weekly strike target) and when they are they will be run alot more without worry of badges/master of stuff.  

Also the recent patch added a few new Master of badges and that  has increased the Master runs.

[Dona Eis Requiem]

The wiki is actually not as daunting as it may seem once you get familiar with it. 

The colored/blocked in text is just cut scenes/dialogue. Think of that part as a cue for the next phase, task, etc.

Using the Contents section at the top of the page will take you to each specific mission within the TF, SF, Trial or iTrial you are reading up on.

If there are special badges (Master of...., for example) you'll find what's necessary to achieve it at the bottom of the page.

It will make more sense once you've experienced a few runs. As has been suggested, try soloing the the sub-50's simply for familiarity.

I don't suggest joining a Mo-anything until you're abundantly familiar with it. It will take time to learn, so don't be discouraged. 

When you see a shout out for something you'd like to join, just let the team leader know you've not done it yet and would like to join, if that's okay.

(Most will be happy to let you join. You have to start somewhere)

 

[Marshal_General]

Since it was brought up, I was wondering if there is a Master of Masters badge for getting all of the Master of XXX badges?

[cranebump]

42 minutes ago, Marshal_General said:

Since it was brought up, I was wondering if there is a Master of Masters badge for getting all of the Master of XXX badges?

Why, yes. It’s MoAB.

 

Master of abbreviations:-)

[SuperPlyx]

50 minutes ago, Marshal_General said:

Since it was brought up, I was wondering if there is a Master of Masters badge for getting all of the Master of XXX badges?

There should be!

[Nyghtmaire]

1 hour ago, cranebump said:

Why, yes. It’s MoAB.

 

Master of abbreviations:-)

Love it!!

 

(Mother of All Bombs)

[Greycat]

If you feel like organizing (not necessarily leading these, though it's not that hard to lead a team - keep the wiki handy,) I'd go to  your server's board below, Discord and an announcement or two in game and say you're getting a "newbies run everything" team (or something similar) together.

 

No master runs, no speed-this, +Xthat, just "I want to see this content."

 

Pick a day and time (or talk with whoever's interested,) and just start running them. If you're not a 50/incarnate, you'll need to level for some of them, of course, but again - read through the WIki and plan with that, it should tell you requirements.

[Zhym]

"What do you do in MoMAG?" is actually kind of hard to answer in chat.  The wiki really is helpful here and is far better suited to explaining what's in the trial and what's needed to get the badges. 

 

As for all the other trials:

10 hours ago, Akalabeth said:

Should I just... go to all these things? 

Yes!  Look for non-Master runs to start, and say you're new.  Most leaders of iTrials often do a good job of explaining what you need to do (and not do).  You will probably still feel lost the first time (or five) through many of them (I certainly did), but that's all part of the experience.  Just follow along with the group and do what you see them doing.  

[Ukase]

10 hours ago, Akalabeth said:

So I asked in General chat if anyone forms casual level 50 stuff (but I meant task forces/trials) that wasn't Master Of/Speed/max notoriety Aeons/can only use brawl etc. and people said all the time just ask.  The reason is because I haven't actually done most of the high level task forces because people pretty much expect me to already know the stuff to even be able to go.  I didn't play 20 years on live servers like everyone else seems to have.  I was told all I had to do was ask what to do in them and that people were SUPER nice and helpful in the community and would tell me.

 

A short time later someone was forming a MoMAG +3 only, so I asked in general, "What do you do in MoMAG?"  I've never been.  And... no one answered. >_>

 

Should I just... go to all these things?  Without even knowing what to do?  For example when I looked on HC Wiki for Tinmage and it just had messy text of dialogue and google doesn't have any guides and the only thing I saw on the guide page in the forums was an Abandoned Sewers one.

 

I have never done:

 

Abandoned Sewer Trial

Barracuda

Cavern of Transcendence

Dr. Aeon

Dr. Quaterfeld

Eden Trial

Lord Recluse

Market Crash

Ms. Liberty

"MAG"

Sara Moore

"TPN"

"Underground Trial"

 

....annnnnd apparently I'm an "AE baby" because of this even though I don't get leveled in AE by people. 😕

Honestly - your situation is enviable! Embrace the novelty. 

My first question is what server are you on? What I think would suit your situation best would be a supergroup. 
For example, on Excelsior, there's an SG called Cosmic Council. Typically, a chap named @cadd (actually it's caddoch of helios, but most all of his characters are Cadd***** in some way, shape or form) who does an excellent job of explaining these Master of Magisterium. He runs it with the SG every Saturday night (except these past two because of the holidays). 

I don't know about other groups, but he demonstrates a lot of knowledge and will make things super clear, allow you to ask questions, etc. And, if you join the discord (which is required to participate - you can do this with words instead of by typing. The group has some leaders tho, who simply are not effective at communicating these things, but they do the best they know how. But Cadd...as far as Magisterium goes, he knows that one very well and is good at relaying what's going on. 

Other SG groups likely do similar things, but I've no idea who they are. 

TinMage is a player derived abbreviation for two short task forces. 
Tin Mark IV and Apex TF. Both Task Forces pay 40 merits, and when you "Speed" them, they take about 10-15 minutes each, on a good team. For someone who would want to experience the content, I'd plan for about 25 to 40 minutes, depending on how much you wanted to explore. 
 

[Greycat]

2 minutes ago, Ukase said:

TinMage is a player derived abbreviation for two short task forces.

 

Tinpex, typically. I've seen some people try to call it ApeMage, too, though that hasn't quite caught on. :)

[Ukase]

4 hours ago, Player2 said:

I played the game on Live since Issue 1 (took a break between Issue 8 and 10) all the way up to sunset.  I came back to Paragon City here on Homecoming when they were running just one server (Torchbearer) with very long waits in the queue to even get into the character select screen...  and I will tell you this:

 

I hesitate and often shy away from announcements of teams forming for alphabet soup.  I don't know what MoMAG is because there is so much content that I don't want to have to figure out what someone is referring to by whatever the commonly used acronyms or abbreviations are.  If I see it over and over because they're having a difficult time getting enough people to join, I might ask what those letters mean... but generally I'm turned off by open calls for teams, Task/Strike Forces, trials, and whatever without knowing what they are.

 

Should I learn what those things mean?  Maybe...  or maybe they should take the time to type out 2 or 3 full words to eliminate confusion.  Someone says "Maria Jenkins missions LFM" and I know immediately what they're doing and want in.  Cavern of Transcendence?  I'm in.  Give me an acronym and I'm just going to tune you out.

The acronyms I can deal with. It's the very lazy method of typing "u" for "you" and "ur" for "you're" or "your". These people need to be stripped of any advanced education they have and go back to school until they learn to write properly. Now get off my lawn! 

[Without_Pause]

I've played the game for roughly 9 years and doing speed runs of things while being my first experience with said thing is easily on the list of worst CoH experiences. It would be good if somebody started to make video guides to various trials and TFs/SFs.

[Uun]

The requirements for "Master of" vary by TF/trial. For some, it just requires no deaths with temp powers and incarnates disabled. For others (like the Incarnate Trials), there are particular tasks you must complete to get certain badges. Some of these are mutually exclusive and require several runs to get all the badges, while others can be achieved in a single run.

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

The acronyms I can deal with. It's the very lazy method of typing "u" for "you" and "ur" for "you're" or "your". These people need to be stripped of any advanced education they have and go back to school until they learn to write properly. Now get off my lawn! 

I still spell the word okay, not as "ok"; I'm not trying to abbreviate the state of Oklahoma.

 

This I concur, and advanced degrees shall be ceremoniously striped.

 

Need everyone with a doctorate (especially including juris doctorates) [as who like a lawyer?], and line up with your degrees for a brief interro... inspection by the Grammar Gestapo.

 

Anyone with a Masters be warned your inspection is next week...