Jan 2021 ToH: Blackout Nightmare

[GM-Ayu]

For the first Trial of Heroes of 2021, it will be related to the new dungeon to be released in January. The Dark and Light Allegiances will form parties to travel through the Instance Dungeon, and defeat the challenges along the way! Based on your party's performances, points will be given. The allegiance with the most point will win for this month's Trial of Heroes.

The new dungeon is rated to be on par, if not more difficult than Nydhoggur dungeon at certain parts. It is recommended that participants have been to either Nydhoggur dungeon or Biolab 4 to be accustomed 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 90 or higher (not 89); though max base level is strongly recommended
• 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 Jan 23rd, 19:00 (or later if maintenance is longer, but no earlier than 19:00)
• There will be a brief period to review rules and mostly let allegiances sort out their parties/gears.
• No late entry to the event after dungeon exploration starts, and the 3 parties (1 for the lower attendance allegiance; 2 for the higher attendance allegiance) enter the instance
• Event ends after 1 hour of the parties entering the instances. The instance should expire itself when 1 hour is up.
  

Banned Items and Skills
Whatever is naturally banned by the instance: ToH has no further/additional restrictions. God items, MVP/Rare cards are all good to go.

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 the new etc item within the dungeon. Prove this by showing GM-Ayu 100 of the new etc item in a trade.
• 1 point: kill an "out of place" monster somewhere on floor 1: this monster will not respawn once it dies and will not be present in regular runs of this instance. Please ask GM-Ayu to teleport to your party once you defeated the monster for verification.
• 2 points: successfully access floor 2- Please ask GM-Ayu to teleport to your party once you reached floor 2 for verification.
• 2 points: kill an "out of place" monster somewhere on floor 2 (this monster will not respawn once it dies and will not be present in regular runs of this instance. Please ask GM-Ayu to teleport to your party once you defeated the monster for verification.
• 5 points: defeat the MVP on floor 2: obtain its unique etc item drop as proof.
  

Participation Rewards
All participants will get these rewards.

• 3 Old Card Album
• Enriched Ore
• 5m base and job exp
• Heroic Armor Chest
  

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

• ToH Voucher
• Shield Barrier Unit[1]
  

Special Underdog Victory Reward
If the winning allegiance has less number of participants than the other allegiance, the winning allegiance will get this in addition to the participation reward and winner reward.

• ToH Voucher
• (If Light Allegiance won while being the underdog) Costume Light Stylish Cap
• (If Dark Allegiance won while being the underdog) Costume Dark Stylish Cap
  

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 dungeon. As long as you read though, there should be no problems.
• 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"
• You can access kafra, healer, and any other npc services by leaving the instance, and return to the instance later
• You cannot teleport inside the instance, so leaving the instance still has its drawbacks in speed. Most likely, your party needs to walk back to the entrance of the instance to safely guide people who left the instance to rejoin safely.
• 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. There will be no underdog victory bonus for anyone.
• 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 month (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
  

ToH Tips

• Keep your party flexible: all physical or all magic party typically may result in something being able to hard counter you.
• It is extremely unlikely to be able to get all 11 points within 1 hour time limit. Evaluate your party's strength as the dungeon goes on, and decide what is the best way to maximize your points.
• Note that doing everything but kill the MVP, will result in more points than not doing everything, and fail to kill the MVP as well. While killing the MVP almost all but ensure that you'll get the most points, the MVP has lot of hit points and is extremely difficult. Decide within your party if it's worth challenging it.
• It's recommended to try the dungeon out for just ~5 minutes or go until you find one of the floor 1 minibosses. Once you got a feel of the dungeon, get out to change your gears specifically based on what you see, and then re-enter the dungeon to do it "for real." Remember that one person should stay in the instance to hold the instance map active though!
• 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 strongly recommended: 3 channels will be created in hero discord for this event (1 for each party)
• You can instantly leave the dungeon via log out as that will boot you back to your save point, but once again, it's on you to rejoin the party somehow
  

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: be it looter pet, attack pet or pet for effects. Even though this event allows you to return to kafra, it can be bothersome to return to the entrance to escort you as that costs valuable time.
• Prepare to use consumables. It's 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 monster exclusive skills: all of them are fair game
• 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.