FIRST: This will be broken down better when I have the time to structure it. With that, it will be easier to learn. For now, this is just all the info.
With the mastery points being added for Triple Trouble there has been a massive surge of interest in doing TT, but almost nobody outside of TT guilds knows how to run the event and ensure success. Nearly every single pug group I have seen that has attempted to do this has failed miserably for a number of common mistakes. This is to hopefully address the lack of knowledge of how to set up TT so that a PUG has a shot at success.
What makes a PUG run different from a guild run? PUG runs are heavily reliant on randoms to step up and fill key defense team roles, command and to not fuck up. If you read through this guide and set up a pug along these lines something will likely go wrong and screw up your run. Murphy's law reigns supreme for PUG TT.
I'm going to start with some mistakes people make in setting up TT:
Not opening (enough) taxis. This isn't teq - you cannot expect to even soft cap a map with no taxis. Just having one person open taxis isn't enough - everyone needs to do it.
Giving up on the numbers too soon. From my experience leading many pug groups you will get your greatest inrush between :45 and :55. I have gone from 60 at :45 to full by :50 before. just taxi and trust that people will come in.
Zerging the escort. You only need 5 to do the escort; any more will upscale it.
Leaving too late. This one goes with #3. You should be leaving on the hour at the latest. Once the 5 minute timer is done for the escort to start you are going to be stuck until the escort completes.
Not explaining. The average GW2 player has not done TT. This is a very complex boss and you cannot press 1 to kill it. Make sure the zerg understands exactly what to do.
Not delaying escorts. This means kiting the husk at the end of the cobalt escort. This is a trick to buy commanders more time to explain the fight to the zerg. Not taking advantage of this is like shooting yourself in the foot.
The Setup Process (Commander tag required)
Teams needed:
2 more commanders besides yourself (1 for each head)
3x reflect teams (1-5 people in each depending on experience, 1 team per wurm)
3x condi teams (5-6 in each, 1 team per wurm)
3x escorts (5 each, 1 per wurm, disband upon escort completion)
Optional:
Mob Control team (5, at crimson; you can just re-use the escort team for this)
Commanders:
Commanders ideally know all of the ins and outs of the wurm and can explain them in a way that anyone could understand what to do. If they don't that's okay - they should at least know what to do for the head they are commanding and have successfully decapitated at least once or come close. Commander tags are good for this, but mentor tags will do in a pinch. As long as there is one commander tag capable to count numbers it's fine.
Reflect:
Reflect's job is to block the eggs that the wurm spits out. This is done via watching the wurm's animations to time projectile reflection and blocking skills so that no eggs get out. The way I do this is a bit different from TTS - no callers are used. This is for 2 reasons: having someone who can call out the animations means that same person is capable of solo reflecting and you cannot require people to use ts in a pug. If you want to learn how to reflect for your particular class (with the exception of revenant) take alook at this guide:https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3bn5cl/triple_trouble_picflect_guide_w_wurm_animations/
Revenant reflect is actually the easiest: center your tablet on the wurm then activate your projectile block skill when the animation goes off. The other two good reflect classes are mesmer and guardian (see the guide for how to do these).
Husk Blocking: as per https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/blocking-infermation-please this is legal. If you have players who can do this you can run without a condi team, but this is a highly technical technique that involves precise positioning and timing. When you have a husk blocker priority should always be given to amber.
Condi:
The dirty husk touchers. Condi's job is to kill the husks that spawn every 90s. Anyone wanting to do this needs to bring skills or items to strip the breakbar and condition damage. A full condi setup is best but with only condi armor and accessories my guard can still put out a fair amount of condi damage. Engineer is really good for this (net turret op). Besides the gear and skill setup this does not require any special knowledge. Usually the 5 man condi team splits up the husks 2/2/1. In case there is a 6th memeber outside of the party (a shadow) the shadow will help the solo.
Escort:
Without the escort there is no TT. They have to safely escort the crusaders to the wurm spawn locations. Although the escort events end after the husks die the escort needs to continue until the probe goes down. Cobalt escort has a special job: they are not to kill the husk at the end until the commander says so. This is to ensure that the commanders have sufficient time to explain everything to the zerg. This needs to be limited to 5 in order to avoid upscaling.
Mob Control team:
As I noted above, this is optional. I never use one and instead just have the zerg pull adds on top of the wurm during burn phases to kill with cleave damage. Their job is to keep the vet wurm population in check.
Setup Timeline:
:30 - Tag up, stand on the campfire at Firthside Vigil Waypoint and announce that you are organizing a run. Open a taxi yourself and ask everyone to open taxis. You should start looking for volunteers for tags and defense teams (not escort). Ask the first people that volunteer for the defense teams if they can lead and have anyone else who volunteers to join on them. Defense teams should be told to organize off stack. Remain in communication with your defense team leads to ensure that they go to the right places.
:30 to :45 - keep track of zerg numbers, encourage them to step up and work to keep the zerg interested.
:45 - critical number check: 30 means no more than 2 heads, 60 can still attain triple numbers.
:50 - decide on the number of heads. 30 = 1 head, 60 + 2 reflect and condi teams and one other commander = 2 heads, 90 + 3 reflect and condi teams and 2 other commadners = triple.
Commanders should split off the fire at this point and the zerg should be told to pick a tag. Recommended colors: red - crimson, blue - cobalt, purple - amber (yellow tag can have issues with the abom tag). Tags should be off the fire in the same direction efach escort goes. As soon as people start coming off the fire each tag should be organizing the escort parties.
:55 - hopefully the zerg is not afk and has split properly; there should be a minimum of 30 on amber and cobalt and at least 25 on crimson. In general crimson can go smoothly with a small number of people but because of the complexity of amber and cobalt they need more. If all heads have sufficient numbers then drop food in a central location; this food should give 100 power ideally - crit food is also ok, but not as reliable (I drop Orrian Steak Frittes).
:00 (aka escort timer starts) - hopefully you have your escorts set up and the entire zerg has eaten at this point. If not you have a few minutes of slack, but you should be planning on moving out very soon. Waiting too long will get you stuck behind the escorts; this is workable but not as easy to do.
:03 - you should be gone by now; if not you have to move at this point or wait for the escort to finish in order to move
Individual Zerg Setup
At this point you should be at your wurm with your zerg. Expect only part of it to make it; give the rest a bit to catch up before starting your explanations.
Invuln Mechanics
Amber
Amber is the wurm where you get eaten. In isolation this is the middle wurm in terms of difficulty however it is the easiest wurm for a triple decap. You start out by killing the abomination mob that spawns. Upon death the abomination will splash all surrounding players with the wurm attractant buff. This will make the wurm want to eat you. The zerg then stacks on the spot maked by the red arrow (there should be a little green cloud on the ground at this location before the wurm spawns - make sure to show the zerg the spot) and once on the spot drops reflects and stability. If any husks come near the zerg at this point the zerg should focus the husks with cc and conditions. Once 20 are on stack the wurm will eat the zerg. Once inside, the zerg should put down water fields for healing and grab the harpoon from the dead sailor. This harpoon is what will be used to remove invuln stacks from the wurm. The zerg will use the harpoon to kill the pyoric valve. Upon killing the pyoric vavle the wurm will spit everyone out after a short delay (delay depends on when the valve kill happened). Each harpoon will have only 1 shot left so it is important not to waste any shots. The zerg should come in close to the wurm and fire only once a clear shot is achieved. Once 20 shots hit the wurm will be vulnerable for a burn phase. Immediately following the burn phase the zerg will still have the upset stomach buff that they recieved upon being spit out by the wurm. This will prevent the abom buff from being applied and so the zerg needs to kill vet wurms until it expires.
Notes:
The only places that you can speed up the burn downtime on amber are the abom buff pickup window and the valve kill. Unless the zerg is exceptionally slow there is no risk in taking your time with the harpoon shots.
The first abom that spawns is a decoy. Don't kill it.
This is the spot to stand to get eaten: http://imgur.com/GGLdghI
Crimson
This is the only wurm that you can't screw up. You just run in circles then kill the wurm. Crimson is the colors wurm. At crimson you want to pick up colors by running through the color clouds that spawn then run the colors to the extractors. The usual pattern is that the zerg will run counterclockwise starting with the red extractor. The commander should mark the locations of the extractors to the zerg. This is the only wurm that the commander can safely pull double duty on (like reflect).
Notes:
Blinks, teleports, etc will cause you to drop colors.
Combat needs to be avoided for maximum speed.
Extractors will not fill at the same time; the commander should call out full ones and the zerg should stop running those colors.
While you can't screw it up, you can be too slow; you should average at least 1 burn per 2 minutes.
Red Extractor: http://imgur.com/DFKm15O
Yellow Extractor: http://imgur.com/JEGuKHx
Blue extractor: http://imgur.com/kar1KCj
Cobalt
This is the hardest wurm, period. On paper it's simple: just run kegs from their spawns to the spot marked by the arrow until there are 20 then you can hit the wurm. The reality is this: kegs will be dropped, kegs will despawn, and there will be chaos. There are three keg spawns: easy to the north, hard to the northeast, and plank/medium to the east. Easy is the easiest spawn - you have a fair number of mobs that you have to dodge but if you can dodge you can run from easy as there are no other obstacles. Hard is out on the water at the end of a short jumping puzzle (can be bypassed going out via swimming). What makes hard hard is that missing a jump and falling in the water will cause you to drop your keg and then you will have to wait for another one. Plank spawn is at the end of a long plank/log. While there is no jumping puzzle involved, it still is easy to fall in the water if you are careless. The spawn will change every 2 minutes and this can wreak havoc on the keg running. For this reason if a burn ends around the 2 minute mark no kegs should be run until the spawn changes (kill vets instead).
Notes:
At the start everyone should stack at hard; this is to avoid having to get out to hard should the first spawn be at hard.
Any keg placed will despawn after 2 minutes; even kegs that are eaten will trigger despawns so you have to be careful.
This is the keg spot http://imgur.com/CGGcUr2
Burn Phase
So you stripped invuln from the wurm, what now? Everyone should stack at the base of the wurm for this part. The commander should position on the double damage spot so that melee do the most. Once on the stack everyone should be stacking might - this means dropping fire fields and blast finishers. All other fields should be saved for when the commander calls all fields. Ele weapons should be dropped on stack for the zerg to use (Icebow 4,3 drop, lightning hammer 4 then spam 1 for blast finishers) and warrior banners should be dropped off stack. At the end of the burn the wurm will stand up - the zerg is to keep on hitting the wurm until the commander calls off.
Sync Burns
All wurms should be at the critical point prior to the final burn - this is 5% hp. A wurm siginificantly above this should do a baby burn. This is a burn where the zerg intentionally does not use full dps and possibly stops early.
Final Burn
This should happen after the 2 minute mark in order to let the cobalt keg spawn change. Cobalt should be stacked on the kegs but not running, crimson should have blue and yellow filled with everyone holding red but not fliing the extractor and amber should be stacking on, but not killing, the abom. At about 1:35-1:30 abmer should kill the abom and get swallowed. Once swallowed amber commander should signal the other two commanders to go.
Phase 2!
If all 3 heads get decapped you enter Phase 2. This is roughly the same for all heads. The decapped head has 3 attacks: a charge, a stomp, and a flop. The charge attack will pick someone and charge a set distance in that player's direction, knocking everyone in the path away. For this reason the zerg is to stack on a wall. By getting the head to charge into the wall you can keep it from running all over the place and possibly out of the combat area. The stomp will have the wurm leap up and come down on the zerg, knocking down everyone it hits, most likely downing them too. Warriors should bring battle standards for this. Lastly the flop is just like a magikarp splash. Just stack and burn during this one. If you kill all 3 within 2 minutes you just succeeded.
Stack Locations
Amber: http://imgur.com/YKA7SQa
Crimson: http://imgur.com/NY0unO1
Cobalt: http://imgur.com/220JPuW
Many thanks to all of those in EVOS who helped me in learning the roles for TT.
