Deadly Apocalypse
Overview
The Deadly Apocalypse is a type of zone invasion introduced in the Halloween Event of 2009. Haunting Banners representing iconic horrors appear in a zone and are protected by foes that embody that banner's horror. Players must attack the defenders and then the Banners and then finally a Giant Monster.
Timing
During the Halloween event, the Deadly Apocalypse occurs in most normal Paragon City and Rogue Isles zones on a semi-random schedule. It also has a chance to happen outside of the Halloween event whenever a player turns in Halloween Salvage for an extra costume slot.
Order of the Event
Event Channel Text
The following text announces the beginning of the event in the Hero or Villain Event channels:
- WARNING: Supernatural activity detected in <zone>.
When the event has ended, the following text will appear in the appropriate Event channel:
- ALERT CANCELED: Supernatural activity no longer present in <zone>.
Player Preparation Time
When the warning has been issued in the Event Channel, the zone in question goes through these changes:
- lights go out in buildings
- fog descends (like Dark Astoria, but not as dark)
- citizens cower and flee (heroside only)
- spooky old horror movie music is played for about 30 seconds
A minute later the four Banners spawn marked on the mini-map with red, blue, green, and purple dot-icons. The location of the banners is (apparently) random among a set of dev-selected possible spawn points.
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Banner of Fiends |
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Banner of Mayhem |
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Banner of Terror |
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Banner of Scorn |
Banner of Fiends "Horrible fiends gather at this banner with the intent to commit blind acts of violence and cruelty. As long as this banner stands these Dark Fiends will continue to conjure forth these manifestations of the ugliness within humanity."
Banner of Mayhem "This banner feeds upon humanity's need for destruction conjuring up manifestations representative of this urge. The horrible creatures that guard this banner represent an unimaginable threat to the material world."
Banner of Terror "The Banner of Terror feeds off of humanity's fears and causes it to manifest into the Transparent Terrors that guard this banner. These horrific phantasmal entities seek to shatter the fragile psyches of humanity with terrible fear."
Banner of Scorn "Manifestations of baleful scorned women gather at this banner. The Banner of Scorn channels the vengeful side of human nature to conjure these entities, and will continue to do so as long as the Banner still stands."
When a player is near a banner, their GUI is taken over and they see in the Nav Window:
- four badge-like icons for the four banners
- a red bar over those icons
- a 20 minuter time counting down
- the hyperlinked letter 'i' in a bang graphic that gives more information about the event when clicked
Once the Banners appear, players have four minutes to continue to form teams and organize themselves at the four Banners. When the countdown hits the 16:00 mark, then foes start appearing at the Banners.
Fighting the Deadly Apocalypse
The goal is to destroy the four Banners and the Giant Monster; however, the Banners are not targetable until a certain number of their Defenders are defeated. When the countdown of the event hits the sixteen minute mark, the Defenders start appearing. The Defenders at all four banners must be defeated simultaneously -- fighting at just one Banner in the zone has no effect.
The red bar in the Nav Window shows the progress of the players in defeating the Defenders; it turns progressively blue if the players are defeating enough Defenders. When the bar is fully blue, it disappears and now the Banners are targetable and can be destroyed.
The official website announcing this event warns that there may be Elite Bosses among the Defenders. This does not mean that only the EBs should be defeated. Any foes that spawn are Defenders and defeating them makes the Banners vulnerable to attack.
While the Banners are being attacked, Defenders continue to spawn. Also, the Banner may gain one to four buffs represented by glyphs that appear in the four circles of the graphic runes surrounding the Banner. These glyphs buff the banner or their Defenders.
The Banners have over 43,000 hit points each. If only one or two teams are participating in the event, they may find that they need to all gather at the same Banner in order to destroy them in time.
Once all four Banners have been destroyed, a Giant Monster representing a Greater Mystic Aspect of one of the horrors of the Banners will appear in the zone. The Nav Window will show the players how far the are from the GM so they can zone-in on it.
Defeating the Giant Monster will grant 6 Merits and a Reward Table for a choice of Temporary Powers (see Powers below) or Medium Inspiration. Any player who has done any amount of damage to the Giant Monster and is nearby when it is defeated will get the rewards; there is no requirement to do 10% or 25% of damage. Thus, there is no need to rush to kill the Giant Monster. The badge for defeating the Giant Monster is another story; you or your team will have to do at least 10% of the damage to get credit for the badge.
The event ends when the Giant Monster is defeated, or when the countdown has reached zero, whichever comes first.
New enemies
- Women Scorned protecting the Banner of Scorn appear as the Trick-or-Treat Coven and various female models from other factions such as the Crazed or Vahzilok Eidolons.
- "There is no fury more intense than that of a woman scorned, and The Banner of Scorn has conjured manifestations of wronged women with a bone to pick. They seek eternal revenge for the horrible things that society, and life in general, has inflicted upon them."
- Dark Fiends protecting the Banner of Fiends appear as Trick-or-Treat Vampires, Red Caps, and Wailers.
- "The depraved ugliness festering in the underbelly of humanity is called forth at The Banner of Fiends. These Dark Fiends are a physical manifestation of pure malice, seeking calculated cruelty and malevolence, just because they can."
- Transparent Terrors protecting the Banner of Terror appear as Trick-or-Treat Spirits and Ghosts.
- "These phantasms are actually manifestations of humanity's fears come to life. At the Banner of Transparent Terrors, they seek to inflict unimaginable terror upon their victims and as long as the Banner of Terror persists, these parasites will feed off of the fear of others."
- Abominations protecting the Banner of Mayhem appear as Trick-or-Treak Werewolves, Hydra, Shivans and Devouring Earth rock creatures.
- "Humanity's dark desire for mindless mayhem and destruction have been channeled by the Banner of Mayhem. The results are these creatures that are fueled by the need to blindly destroy everything around them."
- Elite Bosses that appear as a Lesser Mystic Aspect
- "These horrible creatures are a mere fragment of the wicked Greater Mystic Aspect. Small as they might be they still pose a terrible threat."
- Greater Mystic Aspect (Giant Monster) - The Greater Mystic Aspect belongs to the Deadly Apocalypse faction and has many possible forms. Forms observed during testing:
- "The malevolent mystic banners have released their energies to form the Greater Mystic Aspect. This colossal entity represents all of the negative aspects of humanity coalesced into physical form."
Badges
These badges are awarded for defeating the four Haunting Banners and the Greater Mystic Aspect (Giant Monster). The accolade is for having all five of these badges.
Your contribution in destroying the otherworldly Banner of Fiends proved to be key in thwarting the diabolic schemes of the mysterious Dark Fiends.
You've helped thwart the plans of the enigmatic 'Women Scorned' by destroying their ritualistic Banner of Scorn.
The legions of terrible spectral fiends that guarded their Banner of Terror were no match for you.
You helped thwart the schemes of the horrifying Abominations by destroying their Banner of Mayhem.
The colossal Greater Mystic Aspect proved to be no match for your might.
You've endured the spells of witches, the might of misshapen abominations, the ghostly touch of spectral terrors and the schemes of the supernatural fiends, earning yourself this Accolade.
Powers
Defeating the Greater Mystic Aspect allows you to choose from several rewards including four new temporary powers and a random medium inspiration.
Auto: Self +DMG
Your body has been infused with a small portion of the power of the Mystic Banner protected by the Abominations this will increase your damage slightly for 1 hour of in game time.
Ranged, Foe Fear
You've gained a portion of the power within the Mystic Banner protected by the Dark Fiends, this will allow you instill fear into the hearts of your enemies with just a glance. A foe that is affected by this power will become Terrorized and will cower in place. Recharge: Long
Ranged, Foe Confuse
You've obtained a fraction of the power of the Mystic Banner protected by the Women Scorned. Using this power will confuse a target for a short time. Recharge: Long
Auto: Self +Def(All), Res(Negative Energy)
Your proximity to the Mystic Banner protected by the Transparent Terrors has left a temporary effect on you, tying you to the Netherworld. While this power is in effect you will gain a small bonus to defense and a moderate amount of resistance to negative energy damage. This power will last for 1 hour of in game time.
In-Game Event Description
When a player clicks on the information graphic in the Nav Window (the letter 'i' in a bang graphic), they will see this information:
Basic Event Background
When the Circle of Thorns secretly began linking their magical energy in an effort to make them more powerful, experimenting with ways to extract the power from other magical groups, they inadvertently put into play an event that would change the magical landscape forever. During a series of incantations, with the use of extensive symbols and magical rites, they formed Banners that could summon the 'aspect' of nearly any entity, alive or dead, to be used as a mindless slave in any way the Circle wished. While they could not actually summon the true entity, a piece was certainly enough for their purposes.
At first, they were delighted with their success, imagining a multitude of uses for this new type of slave: more bodies to use as an army, return fallen Thorns to battle, use the entities of other groups as assassins: the possibilities were endless. Unfortunately, the ritual on All Hallows Eve didn't go as planned. The Banners they summoned behaved independently of the Circle's will, summoning Defenders who would not to obey their commands. Worse, they discovered that while these 'haunted' Banners were active, Glyphs appeared one after another, making it more and more difficult to banish them and that as the closer they came to the Banner, their once nearly infinite well of power reversed on itself and made them weaker. They disappeared into the night, leaving the mess for others to clean up, not realizing that an even greater threat had manifested itself.
Tactical Summary
The Haunting Banners are surrounded by powerful magical barriers, initially rendering them invulnerable. As you defeat Defenders, the red progress bar will begin to change as blue appears, signaling that the Banners are becoming vulnerable. Once the Banners are vulnerable, they focus energy and grow stronger, indicated by one or more glyphs that 'activate' as needed to protect the Banner.
Pay attention to these glyph markers on the ground: they represent the Banner's level of protection. The more glyphs that are visible, the stronger the Banner's protection. Each Banner has its own type of protection, indicated by the color of the glyphs.
- Purple glyph - [Glyph of Defense] ~2.5% Defense per glyph.
- The Mystic Banner gains power by having more creatures near it. It is currently drawing a small amount of additional energy from nearby creatures granting it a small defense bonus.
- Orange glyph - [Glyph of Resistance] ~10% Resistance per glyph.
- The Mystic Banner gains power by having more creatures near it. It is currently drawing a small amount of additional energy from nearby creatures granting it a small resistance bonus.
- Red glyph - [Glyph of Might] ~25% Damage buff to nearby Defensers per glyph.
- The Mystic Banner gains power by having more creatures near it. It is currently drawing a small amount of additional energy from nearby creatures granting it a small damage bonus.
- Green glyph - [Glyph of Restoration] AoE heal
- The Mystic Banner gains power by having more creatures near it. It is currently drawing a small amount of additional energy from nearby creatures granting it a minor healing ability it can use every 15 seconds.
As each Banner is defeated, the Event UI icon 'blacks out' and also disappears from the MiniMap. If all four Banners are defeated in time, a Greater Mystic Aspect appears. The UI changes when this happens and shows the distance to the Aspect.
Strategy
Macros for Zone Leaders
Macros are made available to bring a multitude of teams together for events. In this event it will help with teamwork of multiple teams and completing in a timely manner.
- Just copy and paste the macros into your text bar in-game. An icon will appear in your power tray. Clicking the icon will post the macro.
/macro ALL b We need players at every banner to start the process. Call out your banner when you are at it, if it has not been called yet.
/macro SINGLE b Please, all Teams to the first target to complete this in a timely manner and so that everyone receives a Banner CREDIT/Badge
/macro RED b Next Banner all on RED (Banner of Fiends) *Please teleport slow players*
/macro PURPLE b Next Banner all on PURPLE (Banner of Mayhem) *Please teleport slow players*
/macro GREEN b Next Banner all on GREEN (Banner of Terror) *Please teleport slow players*
/macro BLUE b Next Banner all on BLUE (Banner of Scorn) *Please teleport slow players*
/macro GM b Search for the GM. When found call out your location. Try to allow everyone to get there. *Please Teleport slow players*
/macro TY b GREAT JOB EVERONE! Thank you for allowing me to help with the Banner Raid. Hope to see you all soon again.