June 30, 2019 March 8, 2023
Chasing the Storm
Obtaining the Storm Chaser Badge
When Empyrea Part 2 was released in November, Kingsisle added a new badge called Storm Chaser. To obtain this badge you have to defeat the Titan’s Trident 100 times. If you thought defeating it once for the quest during the storyline was hard enough, imagine defeating it 100 times! Since it’s release I’ve been trying to get this badge, and it’s been a long many months now, but I’m thrilled to say that I finally earned it. For badge collectors, the ultra-ambitious, and anyone contemplating earning this badge, let me help you out with some strategy and tips before you start farming the Trident.
The Speed Run Strategy
Speed runs, when done correctly, can make obtaining this badge much easier. You can check out the strategy for defeating the Trident here. This works best with a coordinated team. Do keep in mind that this fight is often highly RNG based, so things will not go perfect all the time. Most of my runs were with random teams formed outside the dungeon or with friends willing to farm. Make sure everyone knows what their role is to avoid complications during battle.
As of May 8th, 2019 Trident was confirmed nerfed by one of the game developers @Mattnetic on Twitter. This can generally save 1 blade for most hitters. The Trident damage nerf does not look like much, but it’s helpful given how unforgiving his cheats can be.
Since then, the damage needed to progress to the next phase has been nerfed again, to 20K.
The Success/Failure Rate
The success rate of using the DoT speed run method is pretty good unless rng is not in your favor. However, there are reasons to restart a run. I’ve found if the DoT isn’t doing 20K damage a tick, it’s not worth continuing the run. Also, if the Trident is allowed to “swing” without a Bad Juju and only one person lives, it’s better to restart than dealing with the minions you’ll spawn from fleeing and continuing. Out of my 100 runs, I’ve had to restart a few times due to the aforementioned reasons. I never expected every run to be a perfect kill since RNG can turn things south rapidly. If you wipe out, just pick yourself up off the ground and try again.
RNG in Titan’s Trident
As mentioned earlier, a few RNG-based factors can effect how your run goes. The speed at which the Trident gains its five shadow pips before the Titan picks up and swings his trident can change how you play your spells, as it varies greatly. The laser cheat can also be a problem, but isn’t as bad as the swing damage. It’s less likely to wipe the group when dealing full damage unless the group is at low health. Oftentimes once the Trident is picked up it will also do the lasers cheat at the same time which can complicate the run if caught unprepared.
The good thing is that you can predict when it cheats, so you can often work your cards around them to avoid getting slaughtered and having to start over. If it was at 4 shadow pips and it had fewer than 3 Bad Jujus on, I would try to make sure it had at least 3 before the Titan pulls it out of the ground. There were a few runs where there was only one Bad Juju on the boss and a swing and lasers were both coming our way. If the juju was used on the lasers and not the swing, it almost always ended in a wipe, due to the swing damage.
Best Team Composition
Forming a Trident team takes many different roles to be a successful. I would not recommend doing it with team up as you may not get the ideal team composition to defeat the Trident. If you do use team up, be sure that everyone is in sync with what need to be done for a successful run before entering the battle circle! This is what I would recommend thinking about when forming a team.
1) Death
Having at least one death is a really helpful to have when setting up a team, having two plays it safe. They should be wearing high resist gear, most often jade gear, to spam Bad Juju protected by Indemnity on the boss. This is needed to counter the high damage from the swing, lasers, and grabbing cheats. Both Empower and Trickster are spells that can help with the pip drain of having to spam juju. This boss can be done without a death, though it can get tricky.
2) Hitter on Boss (Main Hitter)
For this fight, you often will have two hitters. The main hitter focuses on collecting blades and preparing for a damage over time hit that does 20K a tick. Depending on the school, this will take a range of blades to accomplish, generally 10-12. Sorry balance, you can’t play hitter in a trident team, as Balance does not have a DoT spell. The most common schools I’ve run with are fire, myth, and storm. Death, life, and ice can play hitter also if the group prefers. One thing to keep in mind are the boosts and resists for the Trident. It boosts to life and myth, while resisting storm, fire, ice, death, and balance.
3) Hitter on Minions (Secondary Hitter)
After the DoT is cast by the main hitter, the second hitter should be ready to hit. The second hitter’s job is to take care of the minions after the boss phases and summons 3 myth reflections onto his side. Any school with an efficient AoE spell can be the second hitter. Keep in mind that they do have quite a bit of myth resist, so myth would not be the best option for minion killer. These minions like to Earthquake, Stun, and cast shields which make it important to take them out as quickly as possible. A few blades with an AoE should do the trick.
4) Support
Having the support wizards carry different blades to help take fewer rounds setting up the main hitter is helpful. Having a balance play support is helpful with the blades they can provide, but not required. Any school can play support, just coordinate who carries what blades to avoid duplicates. If there is a life playing support carrying, heals can be helpful as the spells without a Bad Juju can do some serious damage.
Trident Drops
Trident is the last boss in the Husk area of Empyrea. The drop system is different there, as you might already know. The groves leading up to the husk drop various types of gear, leaving Trident to only drop the robe and the wand. If you do want to know where the other pieces of gear drop, check this article out. The robe’s stats are not worthwhile, but it can be a cool stitch depending on your preferences.
Various TCs are dropped along with pet snacks and reagents. The most notable reagent dropped is the Pure Aether, as it’s used for the crafted equivalent of the Paradox gear. Each gear recipe takes 3 Pure Aether to craft. There are easier ways to farm Pure Aether though, so if you are looking for this reagent try the astral, elemental, or spirit groves.
My Experience
Why Get Storm Chaser?
Why would anyone want the Storm Chaser badge? At first I said I wasn’t going to go after it because of how hard the fight was the first time I defeated him. I thought this badge sounded kinda cool, but was it worth it? A hundred fights later and now I’m pretty comfortable with this boss fight.
Oh and here’s a funny story that explains why I ultimately decided to undergo this challenge in the first place. I had been farming the Trident for the Paradox hat and boots, unaware that the boss only dropped robes and wands. After completing 40 runs, I realised that the Trident could not drop the hat and boots I wanted. At this point, I had 40% of the runs completed on my death. I then said, “Why not just finish this badge to show off that I actually did it?”. There was a sense of accomplishment from finally earning this badge in game.
This badge took from when the boss was available in live realm to June 2nd to obtain. I did make up my mind that I will not be doing it again on any alts. It was a rather long badge to farm, and if I wasn’t 40 runs in at the time I decided to go for it, I probably would’ve decided to not finish it. For me it was kinda fun and I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would. I did a few runs a night to make some progress even if it was a little bit. Furthermore, I took a few breaks at points because these runs can get repetitive. I learned to not rush the Storm Chaser badge and to learn my limits to know when to stop for the night and do more the next day or even later on.
Would I Recommend Getting the Storm Chaser Badge?
Do I recommend fighting Titan’s Trident 100 times for a badge? It’s hard to say, because I did enjoy the fight to a degree. I had friends who are also trying for it so it’s not so bad when you have people to farm with. I also met some new friends along the way. My opinion is that it’s up to the wizard. There are many reasons to go after this badge. Some wizards like completing every badge and may want this badge, go for it if you want. For those with a lot of time who like farming this might be fun to try too.
Remember there is no rush to get this badge as it’s not going anywhere. If you are trying for it, don’t burn yourself out farming this badge like I did at the start. My advice is to take your time and do runs when you feel like it. If you want, you can set yourself a goal and slowly work towards that goal. You can even adjust that goal if you need to, which I had to do a few times throughout my journey.
