Talk:Grand Court of Sebelkeh (mission)

Well, how about I do a ... well... more structured walkthru for this mission. This is one of the more tactical mission currently in the game, and unless you are absolutly sure everyone on your team understands how to do it, DO NOT GO IN THERE.

The very first thing you must do when you spawn inside the mission territory is to rush to the center. Yes there's mobs going there too, and yes, it's dangerous. We don't care. you go in the center, and make a last stand in the center until all margonites attacking you are dead.

From then on, always leave at least 2 players in the center of the ring, and their job will be to intercept the blasphemy. No matter what, do not leave one person alone on this job : he will get killed, and you risk losing the center and failing the mission.

As soon as the center is secure, your first priority should be ALWAYS killing the blasphemy, and then his energy balls. the blasphemy should not even get the chance to get to the center : he should be intercepted everytime, and his balls slain. If you are not doing this, eventually the sheer firepower of the balls will kill you, or the blasphemy will ninja the center away from you eventually.

Start working on closing one torment, then the other.

THE PLAN DOES NOT CHANGE when you are at the last torment! A lot of groups thing that by rushing the last torment and trying for the "quick cap" they can win the scenario. THIS WILL GET YOU KILLED. Always, always go for the blasphemy, then the energy balls, then whatever margonites left.

On top of this, alwasy make sure that you are covering your monks. Too often i've seen groups too busy killing things to notice their monk being attacked by 3-4 enemies at once. Your monk drops, you group drops. Keep your monks safe. --Lullysing 22:09, 3 November 2006 (CST)
 * Oh wow. I was extremely bitter when i was faced by a metric ton of people making me while this seemingly simple scenario. While it is slightly better to intercept the blasphemy at the center, and have 2 people quickly gaze the balls into oblivion just as he dies, there is still good advice up above between the raging hate anr rant-filled bouts of anger i posted.--Lullysing 11:51, 18 May 2007 (CDT)

OMG Blashpemy :P --Shady 11:43, 18 November 2006 (CST)


 * A single Mo/Me or Me/Mo can easily hold Blashpemy at bays solo. Echo+LB Gaze is enough to kill Blasphemy, then immediately remove the Last Rites hex so the energy balls don't kill you. Towards the end however, even the echoed gaze usually isn't fast enough to eliminate all the balls before Blasphemy returns. --Thervold 12:46, 22 November 2006 (CST)

In the tips section of the article, what is meant by "all human" party? If it refers to real people as opposed to heroes/henches, then it is impossible, as Tahlkora is required. Perhaps reword it to "as many real people as possible"?

Allowing the Blasphemy to -attempt- to take the altar saves time and effort. The single "pip" of capture that he creates allows you plenty of time to take a rift, then return to the center to deal with the Blasphemy. Then move on to the next rift, take it quickly, and kill the Blasphemy again. In the time it takes to kill the Blasphemy (which isn't long with a full group) you will have gotten rid of all or most of his progress towards capping anyways. I have successfully completed the Master's reward with only henchmen/heroes using this technique (killing the Blasphemy a total of four times). Note that doing it this way means you're fighting fewer mobs at a time, and instead of bringing three monks, you can free up that slot for a damage dealer. There is absolutely NO need to split up your party, so it's easier to manage as well. Using Koss (or any warrior) seems fairly pointless as well, since the close quarters and general disorganization of the fight makes it extremely difficult to control aggro. Though I have not tested this personally (I foolishly used Koss), the Master of Whispers decked out as a minion master seems like a better choice. Also note that it is reckless to charge into the center to defend it right at the start - it is better to let the mobs charge in, then come in behind them. This way they will be more clumped up, and your group will be facing them "head on" rather than being surrounded.
 * This is DEFINITELY the way to do solo masters. -76.166.23.65 19:12, 28 December 2006 (CST)
 * The strategy is sound, but I disagree with the idea of bringing a minion master. After reading this, I first tried taking Olias as MM and got only expert's. I easily got master's using Koss instead. Since the strategy is based on avoiding killing the Blasphemy until it's absolutely necessary, having lots of uncontrollable minions killing him constantly (and spawning the unbound energies) doesn't help. I only had to kill the Blasphemy 2 times using this strategy and Koss. - Bcstingg 10:11, 3 January 2007 (CST)
 * I just did Master's in 5:44 with full heroes and henches, and I was standard MM with OoU. There's of course a difference whether you or a hero is the MM. If you keep your minions busy or out of range, they won't switch to Blasphemy, especially since Blasphemy isn't aggressive. When you have to kill the Blasphemy, just leave your minions out of the fight, the henches can take the Unbound Energies by themselves. --RolandOfGilead 16:36, 4 January 2007 (CST)

The final 'Tip' may need further study. I just ran this in HM, hoping to make use of leaving a single Ascendant behind (and Tahlkora to stand there in Passive mode and neutralize his cap effect), and The Blasphemy spawned anyway. --Semantic 15:40, 23 May 2007 (CDT)

Timer
What's the point of mentioning in the article that the timer won't start until someone leaves the ring? Talkora is required, and since heroes spawn outside the ring, the timer starts immediately regardless. As far as I can see, it's impossible to EVER have the timer NOT start immediately.

Timer starts on load.

Edited tips section for clarity.

Removed the "Take back the altar" advice. Blasphemy takes the altar, you lose the mission.

Test advice before posting, please.

--Hey, speaking of the "Timer"... I just did this mission and found it impossible at first because it didn't seem to matter how many rifts were up or captured, the Blasphemy was respawning at the same frequency regardless(like, less than 10 seconds apart). And trying it with human players was even worse b/c no one had any idea what's going on and that just leads to more error. I tried reading the guide here but it was TOO complicated, TMI, no solid direction. It needs to be simpler, like: #1> Farm Djinn's in Lyssa's Mirror until you get Lightbringer Adept Rank + Gaze #2> Enter mission, Rush the Center and stay alive until the Margonite Waves stop. #3> Keep a Mezmer + Mage in the center to kill Blasphemy and Purge his Hex. #4> Have the other 6 players Kill the Claws and then capture the Rifts. ...If your team doesn't split far enough apart, you end up infecting the large team with Torment, and clogging up Inspired-Hex with Margonite hexes and that's the last thing your Mezzer wants. --ilr
 * I noticed one person in the middle offsets the Blasphemy - what happens if you just ignore it and rush the shrines with 7, using one person to just stand around? I stood next to the Blasphemy the whole time the rest of the group conquered a portal and it didn't seem to do anything except try to take the middle shrine (which I was offsetting - he was hunched over), but the seven killed it as soon as they came back, so I didn't get to find out if he did anything else besides spawn stuff when killed.
 * Huh.... VERY interesting. ...I wonder if it's possible then, to continually interrupt his Summoning Spell (Maybe a combat Interruptor like Warrior or Rogue skills) and actually beat it without even killing him once?  --ilr


 * Actually, this mechanic has been changed. I just did the mission, and even with my entire party on the Altar, the capture bar still had a "+1" pip - The Blasphemy now completely negates any negative effects on the Altar's capture bar.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] (talk|contribs) 01:03, 8 January 2007 (CST)

Yay cleanup!
Whoo! Yet another mission article cleaned up by me... after I'd left the Cleanup tag here for three weeks. *sigh* Surprisingly, almost everything that was previously in Tips & Strategy was actually useful (unlike other mission articles), so I incorporated most of them into the Primary section. The only thing I think I left out was the "Henchmen for Masters" tip, and that only because it's useless - I've received Master's on two characters using different sets of henchmen with each, and both of those completely different from what was suggested here. &mdash;Dr Ishmael (talk|contribs) 01:01, 8 January 2007 (CST)

This one's not so hard to master with henchies once you realize how everything works, particularly how to take over the rifts and how you have literally ages to stop The Blasphemy, so you can ignore him most of the time. The main trick is to survive the initial Margonite rush - it's far nastier than the article suggests (6 bad guys max), because the mobs in the back near the rifts help out the others, healing them, etc. They also respawn, so it takes several minutes to establish some sort of order. I never found a good way to get the henchies in the middle without having them start fighting halfway there (heroes all on guard). But it just occurred to me that planning the hero flag right in the middle at the start would probably be a really good move, and minimize the early adds from the rifts. If you can get through the margonites without dying too much or taking too long, the rest is easy. Fox maximum speed, keep everyone focused on the same target by calling targets, especially when you're trying to ignore The Blasphemy - otherwise they'll kill it and slow you down. Casters first, as always. Later I would attack the Claws first when rushing the rifts, because their attack is pretty nasty if it hits. I also swapped my usual two warriors out for two rangers in order to reduce damage from the claws and start dishing out damage from further away (but kept 2 Dervishes). I didn't make any special adjustments to my standard builds, and my heroes skills are still extremely underpowered - no elites, mostly starting skills only. Interruption would be useful against the claw if you're using more melee. Made 6:05 (missed by 5 seconds, d'oh!) on my 4th attempt, and 5:35 on the fifth! My second attempt was a quick wipe - something tossed some sort of silence spell on me (P/W) (as well as possibly my monks) during the worst of it, and we watched our health go down real fast after that. So you might want to figure out who exactly casts those and take them out early, too. --Perko 01:00, 25 January 2007 (CST)

That Well of Silence is a necro spell cast by the Margonite Warlocks. --Amy Awien 07:30, 10 April 2007 (CDT)

I just finished this with hero/hench for HM masters. I took Talkora (LoD), Kihm, Mhenlo, Devona, and Cynn as well as two SF heroes. After failing it about 6 times because of the bug with portals not turning blue, I finally figured out a strategy. Clear the foes completely from 2 rifts first. Yes, they come back eventually, but clear them quick but DON'T cap the first rift until you clear them. Now cap one and while the Blashphemy is slowly capping the center, run over and cap the 2nd. Your team will overpower the 2 margonites that respawned here, so kill them while you cap. Run to center and kill Blasphemy & Co, then run and cap the 3rd. Ignore the Blasphemy trying to cap the center again for the 2nd time until you cap the 3rd rift. Now run back to center and cap the Lyssa shrine once more. If you do it in this way, you will be able to complete it without the Blasphemy opening up any rifts again. IF he opens up the first two, split your team up and recap those two simultaneously. They will not be reopened by much. Hope this helps, I know I sure could have used the info my many failed attempts. Also, with the above team setup it's good to bring some AoE and interrupts. I went Signet of Judgement for AoE and to interrupt the Margonite Clerics and Torment Claws. Perpetual Salvation 18:42, 27 August 2007 (CDT)

Not so easy!
Unlike the previous comment, I have to disagree ; even knowing how everything should go, you may still find yourself painfully stuck if you're trying solo master. Things will never go in the way you may have planned due to the constant moving of opponents and confusion of the fight and just sheer good or bad luck. The fact is : this mission is a permanent six minutes or more of fighting, no break allowed... it's easy, beeing alone, to forget a critical thing at some point. You also have no control of where the Blasphemy is going (closed rift or Lyssa Altar) or spawning, which adds randomness to any plan you may prepare.

Interestingly, I remember doing this mission with my assassin solo+hench in january, and winning the master easily (5 minutes or so) on the second try, and it was not luck (an assassin can kill one margonite in 20 seconds by himself). However, different professions have different experiences. I know that master would not be feasible solo+hench with my monk (unless waiting for a high Lightbearer title and a good streak of luck), and it has been very difficult with my Ranger (but I'm not a very proficient one and I have no level in lightbearer ), trying more than twenty times before beeing successful at 5'54" (and having a streak of luck I guess) : my ranger just doesn't seem to by able to output enough damage... I suspect that having the master here solo+hench may thus depend deeply on your main profession. Of course, that's also true for some other missions, but it is particularly true in time-critical missions.
 * I just did this mission in 5:47 very easily on my assassin. Following the guide's advice, I brought 2 SFers and Tahlk as a Boon healer, with 2 hench monks, Cynn, and Gehraz. With my r8 LB in my Assassin's Promise build I could kill any target there very, very fast, and with the 2 SFers the capping was simple. Call target on the torment claw, LB+Deaths Charge in to aggro everything, wail on stuff while the nukers do their work and let the monks heal you. Then run back to the center, kill the Blasph, and continue. I would've done it faster but he went to reopen the first portal I capped while I was doing the second one. Anyways, it was pretty simple that way, the starting mobs weren't hard this way either.--69.3.205.186 09:32, 13 July 2007 (CDT)

I just completed Master's in 5:45 with full heroes and henchies. I'm a monk, only Lightbringer L2, and I stayed tooled as a prot (Shield of Regen). For henchies, I took Gehraz, Devona, Cynn, and Mhenlo; for heroes I took Tahlk (tuned healer, WoH), Sousuke and Zhed. I think there were several keys. First, I tooled Sousuke and Zhed as E/Me with SF builds and arcane echo. Secondly, I flagged all seven into the dead center, first thing. Yes, there is some respawning, but the aggro is reduced when all are in the center. Then, when I cleared the first rift, I left Tahlk flagged there. I left Zhed flagged at the second rift, and Sousuke at the third to capture.68.219.238.56 16:56, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Your best bet if you fail to master here on your first trip is probably to go following the story on to the realm of torment and to boost your lightbearer title there (not so hard in the Nightfallen Jahai), and just come back later, when you're rank 3 or better. Or go hunting elementals south of the Gardens (but that's a bit slower). With a good Lightbearer rank, the fights suddenly look like much easier ; I suspect that this was taken into account when setting the limit to 6 mn to master the mission. And I guess that if you could board a team of human players all with 3 ranks of light bearer, the master should be a joke...

As for the fight itself, you should indeed wait for the first margonite wave to reach the center, and then rush your group there : this will ensure that you fight only six margonites, packed together (good for AoE), and limit the risks of aggroing margonites sitting on the rifts. 81.57.120.128 05:04, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Hard Mode?
Anyone done this (masters) on hard mode with hench/heroes? Gave it my first try today, not easy. If anyone has pointers I'm all ears. -- ~ Epinephrine 14:56, 8 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Good effing luck. For starters, you better be LB r8. Though you can't do it with H/H, 8-man LB r8 gaze spike = hax. --8765 12:15, 18 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Yes. Completed it in HM in 7:03 with a LB8 Paragon and H/H.  Tactics were the same as Normal Mode.  At start, I let the Margonites rush the center, then rush them.  This prevents over-aggro of 2nd wave stragglers who hang around close enough to get drawn into the fight if your melee types are running out to fight casters.  This is the only really difficult part of the fight, and high LB definitely helps.  There's plenty of time to rush portals after the dual-wave is over, cap them with the whole group, and kill The Blasphemy on the way to the next portal.  The only mistake you can make after that is accidentally killing a Blasphemy while fighting at a portal (or forgetting to fully cap a portal).  Note that I employed the last 'Tip' mentioned in the article, but The Blasphemy spawned anyway, so don't count on being able to delay its appearance by leaving a Margonite behind at the Lyssa shrine. Just kill them off and get capping. --Semantic 15:40, 23 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Did it in HM with no LB gaze, 6:10, my friend had warrior, 1 warrior hero 2 rangers hero, while i had my ele with 2 heal monk heroes and 1 prot monk hero. Just kill one side, go kill the guy in middle etc. Just remember to kill the blasphemy LAST. Paul revere 03:28, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Water Trident, Iron Mist; Icy Shackles
While looking through skills, this mission came to mind when I was thinking of a PvE (not pvp) use for snares that do not do much damage. If used with low water magic, Water trident won't kill the blasphemy. Iron Mist doesn't do damage and neither does Icy shackles. All are possibilities for keeping him off the middle. --&raquo; Life Infusion &laquo;T&raquo; 13:47, 2 June 2007 (CDT)
 * As an additional bonus, Iron Mist will keep your idiot heroes/henchies from killing him --Gimmethegepgun 18:44, 27 August 2007 (CDT)

Pro Runner Point of view
Hi I went and read everything that has been written on this mission so far some have gotten it wrong some have gotten it right.I have gotten masters on this run with 6 hero/henchmen and myself combo while running two people with lb rank 5. I know it can be done with less too though I did It masters with lb rank1 with a full party of heroes and henchmen. What I would like to do is outline why Pick up groups fail this often and what works best imo. My ign is Edwin Phate.

-Guide with heroes and henchmen

-Bring two Searing Flame ele's(sf) and I bring my tahlkora as a light of deliverance healer(lod). For henchmen I recommend both Monks.

Melee damage dealer and puller(person)

-I recommend a dervish or warrior has to have around 600hp at least with endure pain. any extras are your choice.

Outline...

1)Target Clerics 2)Do not have anyone camp alter(lead person kills blasphemy's and pull energy's to group instead safer/smarter he will have to break from group from time to time for this) 3)Use Lb gaze on torment claws while there using that charge up skill. 4)Use lb gaze on energy balls. 5)Stay in a close group remember monks heal best while your close. 6)Melee fighter aggro Executioners so they wont bother casters. (Keep a eye out for blastphomys at all times after you capture your first rift)

Other comments

I'm currently level 7 lb and have a 20% demonslaying mod thats customized i did the math i do 90% MORE DAMAGE with all my mods, my average skill does 70-80hp damage and sometimes past 200hp. I'm Wammo if i was a derv i cant even imagine how much i would do.

This isn't taht ahrd actually...
With me as ZB and a lvl 17 talkhora as SoR I was able to do this easily...and my only ele was cynn.- Cheese Slaya

"Capture Point"
When you get close to the Altar of Lyssa or any of the Torment Rifts, an environmental effect called "Capture Point" is brought into play. The text reads as follows:

''Spell. While witin range of a capture point, Heroes and Henchmen take the initiative in attacking targets.'''

...or something like that. Basically, what it does is set all Hero/Hench to "Fight" mode; they will aggressively defent the Rift/Altar against any approaching foes, whether or not they have made a threat by attacking (eg. the Blasphemy who does not attack).

Is this some new thing? Because I don't see it listed anywhere in the article...Anyways, it can make getting Masters solo a bit more difficult, since the Hench will sometimes attack targets when you don't want them to. (T/C) 16:34, 29 July 2007 (CDT)


 * I've seen that happen as well. Dunno if it really affect anything --Blue.rellik 20:59, 21 August 2007 (CDT)


 * I think what it means is simply that the H/H will fight to clear all foes from capture point even if you are standing there doing nothing. If you start attacking or calling targets, though, they will behave as they normally would (that is, they'll start attackinig your target after you've called it 20 times >.>).  Setting heroes to "passive" should keep them from doing anything, but there's nothing you can do about henchies. &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 21:41, 21 August 2007 (CDT)


 * Don't know if this is a bug or not, but doing this mission today, I flagged my heroes at the altar while I took the hench to cap the rifts. As the blasphemy moved toward the altar, my heroes (Koss, Tahlk and Master of Whispers) just stood there... Doing nothing... At all... I had to manually target the blasphemy from where I was standing (at a rift) and call target before Koss (set to "fight") would finally start to move. It went like this twice. The first time I wasn't really aware that my heroes were being passive so I lost the shrine and the mission and had to retry. So whatever this "Capture Point" effect is, it's not helping.

Problems with the article?
Just did this mission. I swear they have changed something; it was SO ridiculously hard this time. Killing the Blasphemy recharged some of the portals slightly, some of the clerics AI reverted and they kited constantly. You do NOT need, and I stress not, all the rifts on 100% captured to complete the mission, but each time the blasphemy died, he refilled each rift slightly. VERY annoying, and I swear it has never been this difficult on any of my other 5 chars to pass through there. - Yellow Monkey 21:32, 5 August 2007 (CDT)

This happened to me to and its ridiculous. ive never had trouble with this mission before but this time around, I cant keep more than one rift capped! The blasphemy is using summon torment as soon as he spawns and is capturing EVERY SINGLE rift with it. Ill cap a rift, go back to the center and kill him and recap the alter. then ill go about cappign the second rift. But wait! he spawns and before taking one step he uses summon torment and starts capping the rifts back! and no i cant recap them or flag a hero over to the rifts! its totally bugged! I stood on a rift with two heroes and still could not repair the damage he haxedly did to the rifts! I found myself spending the whole mission trying hopeles;y to run in circles! WTF is up with this?! Im positive this mission has been bugged and its driving me nuts! >.< (68.63.233.200 09:43, 9 August 2007 (CDT))


 * I just did this mission solo with heroes and henchmen, and they have changed something. I could change a rift from red to nothing, but even if I continued to stand at the rift, none of it turned blue. Add on, as soon as I left the area, the rift would slowly start to fill up again, even without the blasphemy's help. Which, the blasphemy and his summon torment does increase the red on all rifts, weather there's anyone there or not. I also tried to go back to 'reclose' rifts that were close to re-opening, and I couldn't get even a single pip toward closed again. The only way to do this now is to go VERY quickly to cap all rifts before the first rift re-opens, otherwise, you'll end up running around a lot, and that most certaily will mean death and failure. Skeeve2010


 * go VERY quickly to cap all rifts before the first rift re-opens <-- That's what I've always done, I've never gone back to a rift I've already closed. Just did the mission last week, and yes, the Blasphemy re-capturing the rifts is changed from how I remember it before, but otherwise the mission's still the same.  Still got Master's without any trouble.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 23:12, 20 August 2007 (CDT)

After trying this many different ways I finally finished this Mission solo/hench last night after doing this many times. I had many scores in the 6:01 to 6:20 range and finally got this in 5:21. I was ele with, Lightbringers Gaze Lvl3, Meteor Shower, Firestorm, Searing heat, Flame Djinn's Haste liquid flame, ele boost,flare and elite recharge. I used Talhkora, (Protector/smiter) Koss (endure Pain), Olias (M/M with elite Golem) and Henchie Monk, protector, Cynn and Devona. Don't waste anytime start attacking as soon as margonits run to altar. Make sure to target all enemies for your group. Go for the first Cleric on the left hand side when you start and then flag your group to the altar. Since this is the biggest battle kill the second cleric (right side) ASAP and then all the rest of the nearby margonites. It's important to kill quickly here. I was very successful with Flame Djinn's haste and Ligthbringers gaze. Takes the margonites down quickly and you move much quicker. Flagged Koss and Talhkora on the altar to hold blashphemy. I used a sequence method in taking the portals. As you enter the area I took the left first, then right then top. Used AoE and lightbringer skills to kill torment claw and then moved group to rift to start capture and finish killing margonites. They go down faster when everyone is on the rift. Once the onscreen says it's captured you're done. Ran back to altar between rifts to help koss/talkora. On final rift kill blasphemy everytime he comes and use Lightbring on energy balls, get the torment claw ASAP (Meteor Shower, LGaze). Once claw is dead move to capture rift. Doesn't matter if margonites are still on the rift you can still close it. Sad thing about this is after you close the last rift it takes forever to go to the cut scene. Not sure how this effects your score. Hope this helps. Good luck to all.

Another heroes/hench strategy
Just completed for Masters in 04:46. Two monks (Thalkora one of them, using Blessed Light), one MM (vamp and shambling + jagged) and the remaining slots filled with ranged attackers. No LB used, as my rank is still 1... I did the middle first, making sure to clear both waves. Then I went and cleared one gate and while capping it I flagged the MM -- who now had a decent stack of minions -- in the center and took out the last two gates in turn while the MM kept killing Blasphemy and his piddly lightbulbs in the center. The only tricky bit was the initial rush and when Blasphemy would spawn at a gate I was capping and insta-die, but enough firepower fixed the former and a couple of secondaries changed to Mesmer for inspired hex fixed the latter. --Bishop 23:18, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Jesus Christ
worst mission ever in all the 4 campaigns in the HW history since its launch ...kthxbye 70.83.195.29 16:03, 15 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I did it yesterday eve in 4:19, no deaths... --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage 16:12, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Hard mode
Did anyone else notice that once you captured a rift that it'll be recaptured by red even with no enemy near it? Had that twice already (that were also those two times I actually survived the first part that I could go capture the rifts). I don't get it. I think that doesn't happen in normal mode. I even stood with Gwen in a previous captured rift corner, watching how the red bar filled (not with a pip, but in blocks step by step). Our presence didn't change anything to it. -.- Is that an additional hardship? --Birchwooda Treehug 03:24, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Unbound energy hint
this is my hint i found very useful the unbound energy are EXTREMELY weak to lightning damage, using ancestor's rage with 16 channeling magic will kill them 3/4ths the way or more about 350damage. making the blast not even an issue.