MPG Trials vs DoD spell missions

[Thaeliun]

I know I am way behind the curve here but I'm curious if the MPG trials are harder/easier then the DoD spell missions as a rule.  I mention the details of my DoD 68.2 woes in the spell quest forum.  My goal in this thread is to find out if I should redirect my guild's efforts to the MPG trials to gear up there before working through the DoD missions.

I'm also curious about the level of difficulty of some of the new gear quests like those in PoR and even the older ones from DoN progression and tier 2 OOW.  Whatever is the most reliable route to improving our gear beyond bazaar attainable stuff.  We can't field more then 2 groups and those consist of bazaar geared players so raid content is not an option. 

[Tardar]

Most of the lower level POR quests in Arcstone and Relic can be raided.  Obviously the more people you have, the longer you will stay doing one task, but the items you receive are pretty good.  IMO, those POR tasks are easier than both MPG trials and DOD missions.  As far as which of those are easier, it depends really I think.  Fear trial is easier than some missions, but 70.4 is easier than most MPG trials, and you can have others help the group doing it.  Hint, might want to make sure those that are helping are NOT grouped so there is no danger of them KSing the mission group.

[Pakratz]

Think I'd lean toward dod missions for the reason that everyone in group gets the reward instead of 1 drop for mpg trial.  I think you'll find both are very challenging for baz-geared group, you may need a ringer tank whos further along. Dunno much about POR, but it seems darn easy to me - I believe that 250hp cloak is easy to get for starters.

[Gunzak]

70.4 was very easy.  We set up 3 groups of people and just did the mission over and over till all 3 groups had the win.  As for DoD missions some are very easy 69.1, and some are insanely hard.  I believe 70.2 my group had about 15 deaths from mobs just doing insane dps and it took over 4 hours but finally we finished it.

As for MPG trials, single group, you can do the trial that drops the Horn of Doomcalling pretty easily.  Have your guild plow to the mission and have 3 or 4 seperate groups do the single group trials over and over.  I believe they all drop 1 item, 1 rune and 1 other piece.  As for the single group trial I did I off tanked the adds which came 2-3 at a time while the rest of the group concentrated on one mob.  I was never in any danger of dieing as the max hit was around 500 and they were easily slowed.

[Kanan]

MPG trials are guaranteed one loot drop item that is caster, melee, or all/all.  A level 69 or 70 rune CAN drop.  It is not guaranteed though.  Most of them aren't that bad.  There are strategies around for most of the trials.  Some are much harder than others.  At least one requires a very specially designed group (ie, only really got room for one person to sit around for the duration until the boss doing nuthin.. and that person will be you ><)

[Thaeliun]

Thanks for all the helpful replies.  I don't think a ringer tank is an option and most nights I would be hard pressed to get even 2 solid groups together. 

Sunday I 3 boxed my mage/cleric/bst combo to help the best tank in the guild complete the DoN gimblax mission to get him plus 10 to all stats.  Even that fight wasn't a cakewalk for us.  The tank died before the end.  I still need to do it again since I didn't have the right faction.  Makes me think that the other stuff is further out of our reach then I originally thought.

[jitathab]

If you struggle to get 2 solid groups of people it does sound like your pretty "casual" as far as raiding goes and that does severly limit your choices, however a few options are.

I would highly recommend the 250hp cloak named in Arcstone. You can take as many as you like, it is realtively straight forward strategy wise and will give everyone a good cloak, eventually.

Also get people Sol Ro tower flagged by doing the alt quest in WW? I believe it is. Then go kill the 5 mini named up there for the drops. You should be able to handle Xuzl.

You say you are bazaar geared, but this can mean a large variation in gear. If your averaging 100 hp gear then thier is a fair amount you can do as opposed to averaging 175hp gear.

However what are your goals in gearing up? Is it so that you can get even better gear? or to expand guild to raid? MPG group trials really arent a guild goal as such its a group goal. And the same goes for DoN missions.

[Thaeliun]

I don't see real raids in my future at all.  I think my guild only has about 12 people over level 68.  I have 4 level 70s spread out over 3 accounts and a RL friend of mine has 5 toons 68+ spread out over 2 accounts.  Most of the single group content I do involves my friend and I boxing plus one other person. 

My BST is my main, (naturally) and has gear that consists of a mix of 100 hp and 170 hp stuff.  My total HPs fully buffed hover right around 9k now.  I have just a little over 600 AAs.

My friend's main is a warrior with gear that's a little better then mine.  He has just over 12k HPs and a little over 700AAs.

The goal is to progress as much as we can with single group content, improve our gear as much as possible and help guildmates and friends to improve along the way.

If effective raid progression ever became possible with participation of one or two nights a week I would love to do that.  Of course that does not seem realistic to me at all.

[Shieara]

Well, this is sort of off-topic but...

The reward for the Coldain series of MM is a really good aug.  I haven't completed it yet, but I have a couple friends who have done so.  It might be something you want to check out, since it sounds like you have a lot of mixed-levels/classes.

Not sure what it entails on faction though.

[Sariss Bloodscale]

You don't need any faction to do the Coldain stuff.  I am MAX kos to the Coldain icerats and I've done all 3 missions and just lack the seal for #2 to have a maxxed aug.  Just invis into Icewall and run over to where the Historian is (should be less hinky now that the fableds aren't around anymore).  There is an occasional mob used for Coldain Skin Boots/Gloves quest that pops (A scribe, I believe) but he's a pushover.  The historian himselfwon't respond to a kos person who prompts him (standard "Did something die in here?" lines), but if you know the trigger words you can request and enter all 3 missions, just drop your invis first so he'll notice you at all :)