MAG-athon

[Milrop]

On Saturday, June 21, 2025, I will be running a MAG-athon.  This will be multiple MAG itrials.  The goal will be to get people Ready to Rumble, Triple Threat, and hopefully the Really Hard Way badges.  I'd like to start running them at 1 PM CST and go through 5 PM CST.  Meet spot is Pocket D.  The max per run is 24 people.  You need to have Lore and Destiny Incarnate slots unlocked.

 

Special inspiration information:

 

Ultimate - Purchase these from Luna.  They cost 30 Incarnate Threads each.  They are a level shift and last 3 minutes.  You can only have one running at a time.

Righteous Rage Imbuement (aka team reds) - Purchase these from Luna.  They also cost 30 Incarnate Threads each.  They add 50% damage to up to 16 people within a 20 ft radius.

Intuition Imbuement - Purchase these from Luna.  They cost 30 Incarnate Threads each.  They add 28.12% to Hit, 37.5% to Damage, and 50% to Perception for up to 16 people within a 20 ft radius.

Happy Anniversary! and Present inspirations - Check the Detailed Info.  Some can add 50% damage to up to 16 people within a 20 ft radius as well.

 

Combat Attributes:

 

It is very helpful to monitor, at a minimum, the Damage Bonus.  When Righteous Rage Imbuements are being used, you want to have at least 200% running.

 

Some information about each of the badges:

 

Ready to Rumble

To earn this badge, you need to defeat the initial 250 IDF, Shadow Hunter, Nega Pendragon, Chimera, and Black Swan all within 8 minutes.  For this, each person needs 3 Ultimates and at least 5 Righteous Rage Imbuements (240 Incarnate Threads).  Upon entering the area from the portal, we wait 25 seconds before we go to give the IDF a chance to spawn.  Buff up during this time, including using an Ultimate and Righteous Rage Imbuement.   We lose 30 seconds on the timer, so we actually only have 7 minutes, 30 seconds for all the defeats.  On the initial 250 IDF, try to focus on the minions and LTs first.  Let AoE damage bring down the bosses as much as possible.  Follow the tanks.  They will not be pulling since time is precious.  At the 3 minute mark, there will be a call for lores.  If the initial 250 IDF are defeated before 3 minutes, lores will be called before engaging on Shadow Hunter.  The defeat order for the 3 AVs will be Shadow Hunter, Nega Pendragon, and finally Chimera.  After this, we wait about 20 seconds and battle Black Swan.  She will periodically summon portals.  Those portals spawn shadow mobs that try to run to Black Swan to heal her.  Get the portals down fast and get back to Black Swan.  Hopefully, we defeat her within the 8 minutes.  Finish the itrial by defeating Tyrant to get the badge (maybe get the Hard Way badge too).

 

Triple Threat

To earn this badge, you need to defeat Shadow Hunter, Nega Pendragon, and Chimera all within 5 seconds of each other.  This is an insane fight, but is possible (we succeeded last Thursday night).  No special inspirations are needed, but you can bring Ultimates and Righteous Rage Imbuements to help during this fight.  Defeat the 250 IDF and then the three teams will split.  Each will go to an assigned AV.  Tanks on Shadow Hunter and Nega Pendragon try to pull them to the fountain.  The reason for this is Chimera will teleport people periodically.  If on the other team, they can quickly get back into the fight.  Start by bringing all AVs down to 10% and then maintain it there.  I say maintain because each AV will regen.  Keep them at 10% until all are caught up.  Then all teams go to 5%.  Then 2%.  Then kill.  When at 2%, stop DoT damage, stop pet damage, etc.  This has to be precise.  Additionally, Chimera like to teleport back and forth in the building turret areas.  Nega Pendragon like to shield.  They all regen.  Timing is very important.  Take them out and wait for the end to verify we succeeded.  Finish the itrial by defeating Black Swan and Tyrant.

 

Really Hard Way

This is probably one of the hardest badges to get.  To earn this badge, you need to defeat Tyrant without popping any lights.  After defeating Black Swan, everyone in the league gets a temporary power called Quills of Jocas.  Using this temporary power while standing in one of the 6 Lights of the Well will make it go away for a short time.  Each Light present effectively gives Tyrant a level shift.  For this badge, we won't be using that temporary power.  Tyrant will stay at max difficulty.  For this, each person needs at least 3 Ultimates.  This gives you 9 minutes of level shift.  We have 20 minutes, but will most likely know within the 9 minutes if we are going to succeed.  Bring at least 9 Righteous Rage Imbuements (can swap in some Intuition Imbuements).  Luna heal inspirations are also very helpful.  Don't forget to load up your email with extra inspirations if needed.  There are several different strategies for this.  We will go over which one we are trying at the event.  The big thing is to hit Tyrant hard and fast while avoiding the Zeus Lightning Bolt he casts about every 30 seconds.  If you see The air crackles around Tyrant!, stop attacking and prepare to run away.  This lightning will kill an attempt fast.  If we can get him down to 10%, we win.

 

It is very important those coming have the Incarnate Threads (or influence for the AH) to purchase the proper inspirations.  We will start with Ready to Rumble and then move on to Triple Threat.  My goal is to have at least 2 attempts on Ready to Rumble, 2 attempts on Triple Threat, and 1 attempt on Really Hard Way.  If we have people and time, we can do more.

[Milrop]

I was asked for a recommended list of inspirations to bring.  Here is what I feel should be brought for each badge attempt.

 

Triple Threat

3 Immortal Recovery (10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

as needed - Perfect Health (100% health - 10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

as needed - Back to the Fight (100% endurance - 10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

 

The Immortal Recovery will get you back to helping your team much faster than going to the hospital and having to wait for the portal to let you back in. 

 

Ready to Rumble

3 Immortal Recovery

3 Ultimate (30 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

5-10 Righteous Rage Imbuement (30 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

as needed - Perfect Health (100% health - 10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

as needed - Back to the Fight (100% endurance - 10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

 

Again, Immortal Recovery will get you back to helping faster.  Since the Ultimate has a 3 minute duration, you need 3 to get you through the 8 minute badge requirement.  Righteous Rage can affect up to 16 people in a 20 foot radius.  Try to keep your Bonus Damage at 200% or higher.  Monitor it if you aren't.

 

Really Hard Way

3 Immortal Recovery

4 Impenetrable Imbuement (30 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

4 Ultimate

10 Righteous Rage Imbuement

as needed if you need more ACC/DMG - Intuition Imbuement (30 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

as needed - Perfect Health (100% health - 10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

as needed - Back to the Fight (100% endurance - 10 Incarnate Threads each from Luna)

 

Ultimate will be used throughout the fight with Tyrant.  The 4 will give you 12 minutes.  We have 20, but the goal is 10 minutes.  At 40%, I'd like to teleport the league together and everyone then use 3-4 Impenetrable Imbuements, 3-4 Righteous Rage, and 1-2 Intuition Imbuement (if needed).  Keep Righteous Rage topped off after this.

Edited June 13 by Milrop

[Milrop]

It took a few tries, but we had a successful Triple Threat run.  Many Master of MAG were awarded.  We were also able to get a very nice Ready to Rumble run in.  We did it in under 6 minutes.  As for Really Hard Way, we tried twice.  The second time, we got Tyrant to 21% before he started gaining back health too much.

 

Watch for future attempts.  Back to discussing some strategies.

[Projector]

Idk if it will help you, but I'm happy to share how I have found success leading Really Hard Way runs on Excel. Feel free to disregard this entirely if you want! 🙂 

I've had multiple successful runs that took less than 2 minutes from start of the Tyrant fight to the finish. League comp matters though.

First, I ask for everyone to bring at least 6 righteous rage imbuements and at least 3 Ultimates. (Macro below)

Second, We pull Tyrant out of the bowl and onto the platform where the cutscene drops you, that way we don't risk anyone hitting lights without us seeing it.

Third, I give everyone explicit instructions regarding the lightning strikes that whenever you see "The air around Tyrant crackles," to move until they are not taking damage, since most of the lightning isn't actually visible.

Fourth, we do NOT summon lores until Tyrant is to about 40%. This is so early deaths to the lightning aren't as punishing and gives everyone a little bit to adjust to it and get into a rhythm with low risk.

Once Tyrant is approaching 40%, I wait until the next crackle, get myself safe ASAP, incan in place, and call for an Ultimate and Lores.

Be intentional about bringing debuff. Specifically, you want -resistance debuffs. -Regen debuffs are worthless against Tyrant because he gets the bulk of his regen from the lights, not from a stat line. Since you aren't taking out lights, you need to make him take more damage. Targeted debuffs are really valuable since the crackle will force the fight to be slightly mobile. So, things like Rad Emission really shine here since the debuffs are toggle auto-hits. Trick Arrow is less impactful, though disruption arrow can be recast super quickly. Same with Sleet. 

You also need a lot of damage dealers. Preferably, the more people you have that bring actual damage builds, and not blasters with softcapped defense, the better, but you don't have as much control over that.

The Carnival Pets as well as Banished Pantheon are the best options here, as Carnies do Psi damage that he doesn't resist and BP have a strong -res component. So, encourage people to build those lores to at least T3 Core if they haven't.

Here are the macros I use:

While forming:

/macro INSP s "Welcome! Please get at least 6 [Power:Righteous Rage Imbuement] and 3 [Power:Ultimate] inspirations from /ah or from Luna (located in Echo Plaza by the portal)." 

 

When we load in:
For this badge, everything up until the Tyrant fight will be a normal run. Do NOT summon lores until I specifically call for them. Once we get to Tyrant, we will stay put and the tank will pull him to us.

Continued instructions while fighting Black Swan, and repeated after the cutscene:

Whenever the "air around Tyrant begins to Crackle" you will need to move until you are not taking damage, then resume DPS. The lightning he calls down isn't always visible, so do not assume you are safe until you are not taking damage.
 
I spam this 3-4 times whenever I see the crackle message appear

/macro MOVE s "MOVE UNTIL YOU TAKE NO DAMAGE. RESUME DPS!"

I use this right after I incan everyone together at 40-50%:

/macro LORE s "HIT ULTIMATES AND THEN LORES NOW!"

Also, fun Easter Egg:
At the beginning of the trial, a regular AV version of Tyrant spawns by the statue off to the back left of the map. If you pull him to the rest of the IDF troops before that initial countdown timer hits zero, he won't despawn and you can defeat him as a bonus regular AV for the full exp and influence reward amount. It will not affect the rest of the trial in any way, it's just hilarious because it really trips people up lmao. 

Best part: He only counts as one IDF troop toward the 250 you need to defeat, even though he takes 100x longer to defeat lol. 

I hope this helps, but feel free to hit me up if you have any questions!

[FrauleinMental]

We'd done basically this procedure last night, but there are some tweaks I can make to my main using some of your additional info:

• I'm used to playing my main (Mind/Kin/Psi Controller) more toward support in trials, but maybe there's a lot more damage potential in this fight if Tyrant doesn't resist Psi damage.
• If -regen is useless, then Diamagnetic Interface is likewise.  I don't know about -MaxHP from Degenerative, either.  Reactive (either Core for -res or Radial for DoT) or Cognitive Radial (Psi DoT) may be things for me to try out.
• I think I have crafted both BP and Carnie Lores.

[Glacier Peak]

7 hours ago, Projector said:

Idk if it will help you, but I'm happy to share how I have found success leading Really Hard Way runs on Excel. Feel free to disregard this entirely if you want! 🙂 

I've had multiple successful runs that took less than 2 minutes from start of the Tyrant fight to the finish. League comp matters though.

First, I ask for everyone to bring at least 6 righteous rage imbuements and at least 3 Ultimates. (Macro below)

Second, We pull Tyrant out of the bowl and onto the platform where the cutscene drops you, that way we don't risk anyone hitting lights without us seeing it.

Third, I give everyone explicit instructions regarding the lightning strikes that whenever you see "The air around Tyrant crackles," to move until they are not taking damage, since most of the lightning isn't actually visible.

Fourth, we do NOT summon lores until Tyrant is to about 40%. This is so early deaths to the lightning aren't as punishing and gives everyone a little bit to adjust to it and get into a rhythm with low risk.

Once Tyrant is approaching 40%, I wait until the next crackle, get myself safe ASAP, incan in place, and call for an Ultimate and Lores.

Be intentional about bringing debuff. Specifically, you want -resistance debuffs. -Regen debuffs are worthless against Tyrant because he gets the bulk of his regen from the lights, not from a stat line. Since you aren't taking out lights, you need to make him take more damage. Targeted debuffs are really valuable since the crackle will force the fight to be slightly mobile. So, things like Rad Emission really shine here since the debuffs are toggle auto-hits. Trick Arrow is less impactful, though disruption arrow can be recast super quickly. Same with Sleet. 

You also need a lot of damage dealers. Preferably, the more people you have that bring actual damage builds, and not blasters with softcapped defense, the better, but you don't have as much control over that.

The Carnival Pets as well as Banished Pantheon are the best options here, as Carnies do Psi damage that he doesn't resist and BP have a strong -res component. So, encourage people to build those lores to at least T3 Core if they haven't.

Here are the macros I use:

While forming:

/macro INSP s "Welcome! Please get at least 6 [Power:Righteous Rage Imbuement] and 3 [Power:Ultimate] inspirations from /ah or from Luna (located in Echo Plaza by the portal)." 

 

When we load in:
For this badge, everything up until the Tyrant fight will be a normal run. Do NOT summon lores until I specifically call for them. Once we get to Tyrant, we will stay put and the tank will pull him to us.

Continued instructions while fighting Black Swan, and repeated after the cutscene:

Whenever the "air around Tyrant begins to Crackle" you will need to move until you are not taking damage, then resume DPS. The lightning he calls down isn't always visible, so do not assume you are safe until you are not taking damage.
 
I spam this 3-4 times whenever I see the crackle message appear

/macro MOVE s "MOVE UNTIL YOU TAKE NO DAMAGE. RESUME DPS!"

I use this right after I incan everyone together at 40-50%:

/macro LORE s "HIT ULTIMATES AND THEN LORES NOW!"

Also, fun Easter Egg:
At the beginning of the trial, a regular AV version of Tyrant spawns by the statue off to the back left of the map. If you pull him to the rest of the IDF troops before that initial countdown timer hits zero, he won't despawn and you can defeat him as a bonus regular AV for the full exp and influence reward amount. It will not affect the rest of the trial in any way, it's just hilarious because it really trips people up lmao. 

Best part: He only counts as one IDF troop toward the 250 you need to defeat, even though he takes 100x longer to defeat lol. 

I hope this helps, but feel free to hit me up if you have any questions!

How many players in the league?

[Projector]

On 6/22/2025 at 7:09 AM, Glacier Peak said:

How many players in the league?

I always aim for a full league. I've done it with 22 though. The lores really make a huge difference, and are really the key to getting through the last part of his HP since he gets an additional major regen boost at roughly 35% from the lights. So, having as many as possible really matters.

I'm sure you, specifically, know the rest of this, or at least can infer it, but I'm going to go a little further into detail below for any other readers 🙂

Aside from Barriers and Rebirth Radial Destinies to get through some of the burst damage he throws out in addition to the Lightning, I would argue that T4 Lore is the most important one to have. The damage difference is wild with Lores. 

For reference of how much damage they really do--during a 4Star LGTF, I only use my Carnie lores during the Dragon/Kong fight, which is basically one summon for a max of 5 minutes. In that 5 minutes, they still make up around 50% my total damage across the ENTIRE TASK FORCE. And that's also including the fact that I bring a proc'd out, max dps fire/fire blaster. That's absolutely insane. Now imagine how much more significant that damage differential is when someone is building for survival first, which is what most general PVE builds I see tend to do.

Lores make or break this, and if people can't stay alive, then it's going to be rough. 

[Projector]

On 6/22/2025 at 6:03 AM, FrauleinMental said:

We'd done basically this procedure last night, but there are some tweaks I can make to my main using some of your additional info:

• I'm used to playing my main (Mind/Kin/Psi Controller) more toward support in trials, but maybe there's a lot more damage potential in this fight if Tyrant doesn't resist Psi damage.
• If -regen is useless, then Diamagnetic Interface is likewise.  I don't know about -MaxHP from Degenerative, either.  Reactive (either Core for -res or Radial for DoT) or Cognitive Radial (Psi DoT) may be things for me to try out.
• I think I have crafted both BP and Carnie Lores.

Just proc Dominate and Terrorize, and you'll be a monster (I also think that's all you can meaningfully proc in that set at the moment) 😄

Dominate - 1 Acc/Dam HO, Ghost WIdow Psi Proc, Neuronic Shutdown Psi Proc, Unbreakable Constraint Smashing Proc, Gladiator's Net Lethal Proc, and a Gladiatior's Javelin Proc

Terrify - 1 Acc/Dam HO, 1 Glimpse of the Abyss Proc, 1 Javelin Volley Proc, 1 Positron's Blast Proc, and one Bombardment Proc.

As for Interfaces -- my school of thought on this is that it's better to go Radial since you are likely going to max out the debuff proc stacks anyway, and the raw damage will mean more in scenarios like this. Reactive and Degenerative tend to be the most common ones I reach for, but Cognitive would be good here, too. Overall, however, Interface will not be the difference maker in this fight. It's free damage, so absolutely take it, but it's not worth a major headache trying to "solve." 

More offensive builds make a huge difference here, as long as people can actually dodge the lightning. 

Procs will also let you bypass the damage cap for your character, since their damage is additive as a flat amount (though that flat amount does change based on enemy level difference). If an attack does 400 damage at damage cap, then without procs you will only ever do that 400 damage. But with procs, you'll do 400 + whatever the procs add on to it. So even having one or two proc'd attacks in any powerset can make a huge difference. Put simply, there's a lot more damage potential across the board, regardless of set, but this is especially true for those who do psi damage. Especially since you can also just stock up on some large or Super purple inspirations to get you through that fight, specifically, making the build survivability also less important. 😄

Also, idk if you know this, but it's a fun fact: for some reason, Dominate doesn't seem to be coded as a positional damage type (Melee, Range, or AoE), which means all versions of Dominate, whether from an Epic pool or from a core power set, work as melee attacks on the yellow Hami mitos and anything else that is only vulnerable to melee attacks, 😄. 

[Projector]

On 6/21/2025 at 9:32 PM, Milrop said:

It took a few tries, but we had a successful Triple Threat run.  Many Master of MAG were awarded.  We were also able to get a very nice Ready to Rumble run in.  We did it in under 6 minutes.  As for Really Hard Way, we tried twice.  The second time, we got Tyrant to 21% before he started gaining back health too much.

 

Watch for future attempts.  Back to discussing some strategies.

Btw, I'm happy to transfer a character over to help with this if I'm available the next time you are going to run this. I suck at checking the forums regularly, but you can global me in game as @Project0r if you want and notify me there.

[FrauleinMental]

18 hours ago, Projector said:

Also, idk if you know this, but it's a fun fact: for some reason, Dominate doesn't seem to be coded as a positional damage type (Melee, Range, or AoE), which means all versions of Dominate, whether from an Epic pool or from a core power set, work as melee attacks on the yellow Hami mitos and anything else that is only vulnerable to melee attacks, 😄. 

 

I didn't know that, though I had damaged the yellow mitos before.  If I'm reading the tooltips and COD right, that seems to be the case with all of the Mind Control powers.