City of Villains: Missions

Take Nexus of Thorns

Mission Info
Location:	Nerva Archipelago
Contact:	Trepsarciel
Minimum Level:	34
Indoor:	Yes
Difficulty:	5/5
Posted By:	Sigpaos
Description: The Thorn Tree is a living nexus of mystical power beneath Thorn Island in the Nerva Archipelago. Once a bastion of the ancient Mu, the Circle now draw it's energies for their own mystic experimentations. The energies devoured by the tree are encysted within the heartwood in a thing called the Nexus of Thorns. Now that the Circle are drawing power again, you have a chance to take this power for your own. To do so, you must weaken the tree, then breach it's defenses. It will not be easy. So prepare yourselves, and tell me when you are ready to make your assault. To reach the Nexus of Thorns, you must first weaken the tree itself. Once you are in it's chamber, destroy all the vines, but work in haste for they will re-grow. Next, you must break through the outer layer of the tree, both to reach the Nexus of Thorns and to open the flow of energy. Then take the Nexus and it's power will allow you to remake yourself. You may only benefit from this 3 times. Once from me, and later from... Others. Though if you wish to shepard fellow villains through, I will still provide information.

Writeup

If you've done the first respec trial given by Sparcetriel, this mission will be familiar. Fight your way through the map until you get to the room with the Thorn Tree. The Thorn Tree fight itself has 3 parts: first clear out the Circle of Thorns guarding the tree, then remove all the vines, last defeat the tree and take the Nexus of Thorns. The tree has a deadly ranged attack, so stay away from the tree and out of its line of sight as much as possible, until the CoT and vines are gone.

To clear out the CoT, move around the outside edge of the room and pull the mobs to the team. Once the CoT are gone, you can work on the vines.

The number of vines in the room is affected by how many players are in the team at the start, so if anyone is AFK or has left the team, this next part will be that much harder to complete. After a vine dies, it will respawn a few minutes later, so be sure everyone is ready before starting this phase of the event. Be sure to move quickly from vine to vine and not waste any time, or this part can go on and on. After all the vines are defeated, they stop respawning and the last part begins.

The tree is not that tough itself. It has a couple attacks it can use (the deadly ranged attack and an AoE ground-thorn dot) so spread out as much as possible while attacking it. What really makes the tree tough is that it can summon a huge ambush of CoT during this third part. Depending on the team make-up, either have one or two people ready to engage the ambush and keep them busy while the rest of the team finishes the tree, or have the entire team stop attacking the tree, focus on the ambush and then go back to finish the tree. It may be possible to defeat the tree before the ambush ever arrives, but the team must have very good damage in order to pull this off.

Once the tree is defeated, click on the glowing Nexus of Thorns to complete the mission and earn the respec reward (or choose an SO if you've already earned the respec). To use the respec, talk to Arbiter Lupin standing next to Arbiter Frederick in Nerva Archipelago.

User Comments

Thorn Thief badge

Sigpaos on 08/27/06 15:00

Once you use the respec from this trial, you will earn the Thorn Thief badge.

D-Beam on 08/30/06 15:00

kewl....i got a quesiton i did the respec trail with out doing the first and not being lvl 34 or higher. and i dident get it? why do i have to be lvl 34? or do the 1st respec? maybe both? why! the second one was easy as pie!

Login:
Pass:
Remember Me

Forgot Password
Click HERE to create an account.