Feb ToH: Down to the Depths

[GM-Ayu]

For the first Trial of Heroes of 2023, The Dark and Light Allegiances will form parties to travel through a new instance, and try to find an elusive MVP hidden within! Based on your allegiance's performances, points will be given. The allegiance with the most point will win for this instance of Trial of Heroes.

The new dungeon is rated to be a high end location, though not necessarily harder than Blackout Clocktower and probably easier than regular biolabs if you are going through the floor regularly. Certain builds with specific gear are made to be able to solo there, though the MVP will definitely require a party. It is recommended that participants have been to high end parties and what the highest tier custom monsters in heRO can do.

Once again, the winning allegiance will have a better reward, and there will be allegiance balancing factor once again. The allegiance with more participants are required to split up into 2 parties, while the allegiance with less participants can enter as a single party. The average scores of the 2 parties for the allegiances with higher turnout will be evaluated in comparison to the scores achieved by the other allegiance. It is up to the allegiance members to decide how they want to divide up their allegiance into two parties of similar strength level.




Entry Requirement

• Level 89 or higher
  
• Have 50 allegiance points for your allegiance
  
• You cannot switch characters or change your party assignment once you joined one of the event parties
  

Time

• Meet up at Saturday Feb 18th, 21:00 for allegiances to do party up, gearing and so on
  
• Allegiance point check happens at 21:45. All participants should be present by now.
  
• Dungeon exploration starts sharp at 22:00- if your party is not assembled by then, that's too bad
  
• No late entry to the event once the 3 parties (1 for the lower attendance allegiance; 2 for the higher attendance allegiance) enter the instance
  
• Event ends after the instance expires, which is an hour.
  

Point Scores
Each party will be given points based on the accomplishing the following feats at any time during the event:

• 1 point: obtain 100 of a certain new etc item within the dungeon BEFORE the instance closes. Prove this by showing GM-Ayu 100 of this specific new etc item in a trade on behalf of your party.
  
• 1 point: spawn the MVP. Please ask GM-Ayu to teleport to your party for verification.
  
• 1 point: spawn the 2nd MVP. Please ask GM-Ayu to teleport to your party for verification.
  
• 1 point for each unique new gear/card found within the dungeon.
  

Participation Rewards
All participants will get these rewards.

• ToH Voucher
  
• 1 of 3 "any slot" cards from this dungeon at random
  
• 5 mil exp and jexp
  

Winner Reward
The winners will get this in addition to the participation reward.

• ToH Voucher
  
• 1 of 6 defensive gear (3 armor, 1 garment, 1 footwear, 1 accessory) from this dungeon at random
  

Event Details

• You are not allowed to change or leave your party after ToH starts.
  
• The map is EXP-LOSS like a regular dungeon.
  
• There will be no guidance from the GM in how to proceed in the instance.
  
• You can leave the instance and return to it at any time, so long as at least one member of your party returns to the instance within 5 minutes. It's recommended that at least one person should be inside the dungeon, even if they are dead, to "hold the instance" so that it does not close prematurely.
  
• You can access kafra, healer, and any other npc services by leaving the instance, and return to the instance later at your own cost of time
  
• You can teleport inside the instance, so fly wings have its advantage possibly. It's up to you if butterfly wings is worth it or not.
  
• There will be no information about the monsters, or what to @mi prior to the event. You'll have to play by ear and adapt within your party as much as possible on the spot.
  
• If you DC, you'll be booted out of the instance and you'll need to regroup with your party on your own.
  
• Whatever the instance allows you to do within the instance is considered a fair strategy.
  
• In case where both allegiance got the same number of points, all participants will get the winner rewards, but the allegiance with the lower turnout will "win" the ToH for the month
  
• In case where both allegiance have the same number of players in turnout, both allegiance can enter the instance as a single party for their respective allegiance.
  
• In case where both allegiance have the same number of players in turnout AND have the same number of points, all participants will get the winner rewards. However, the allegiance that did not win the previous time (that is, the Light Allegiance) will win by default.
  
• Reward is only given to the character that participated in the event (you cannot claim the reward on another account), and only if you stayed for the entirety of the event
  
• There are no banned skills or banned items
  

ToH Tips

• The theme of this dungeon is that it is EXTREMELY mobby. As time goes on, the dungeon gets increasingly mobby.
  
• There are Holy and Shadow monsters present, so don't be too reliant on traditional Storm Gust-only scenarios.
  
• Keep your party flexible: all physical or all magic party typically may result in something being able to hard counter you (especially since Holy and Shadow are present).
  
• If you don't think a "random" party can take on the MVP, then focus on avoiding the MVP or only spawn it, but don't engage it. Try to grab points by mobbing and looking for gears.
  
• For allegiance with higher turnout: as it's the average score of the 2 parties that is being evaluated, it's strongly advised that the 2 parties are of similar strength. Remember that you cannot change party once the event starts, including the case where you exchange party members between the 2 parties of the same allegiance.
  
• Voice chat is available via discord: sometimes it's fun to listen in on the chaos
  

General high end dungeon tips

• Green Potions: there's no excuse not to have this. Your high priest got better things to do
  
• Bring pets: on this one, pet for effects is probably more useful than looter pet unless you need that many healing items.
  
• Prepare to use consumables. It's still a high end dungeon. You will need healing items or sp recovery items sometimes. It is not recommended for your sp source solely comes from a friendly Professor or Dancer/Alchemist. You shouldn't be doing nothing because you got no sp until the professor or alchemist bails you out. Use some sp items immediately if you can't sustain your skills to buy time for your sp source to help you.
  
• Familiarize yourself with heRO/3rd class skills: all of them are fair game, especially if you are tackling the MVP. The MVP definitely has unique skills that are atypical on monsters in other servers.
  
• Have ways for the party as a whole to handle various status ailments: it's not realistic for everyone to wear status resistant ailments for every status, but your party needs a way to recover from them.
  
• Long range resistance is the most cost efficient way to contribute to a high end party without lots of expensive high end gears- if you aren't a front line member, then long range resistance will give you defense against both ranged physical and magic attacks.
  

Disclaimer 1: We'll do a maintenance/server reboot on Saturday before the Trial of Heroes to apply the necessary changes.

Disclaimer 2: it's a Saturday night so the chance of cancelling the event due to work is extremely low... but there's always the possibility. I should always know by Friday Feb 17th by ~18:00.