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)

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.

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)

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)