TL;DR: TC will be less painful if we use this 5 button strat with the entire group (not solo)
TL;DR 2: Maia gets easily obsessed about stuff. What a weirdo.
Last night at the Boomslang Raid I mentioned the Mesmer portal strategy for TC. Because no one else was familiar with it, I decided to do what I typically do when a "puzzle" like that bothers me: I researched it. (Yes, I know I have a problem. No, I'm not getting professional help.)
From what Mighty Teapot, Nike, and Brazil said about this strat during the Elitist Raiding Party Tournament, it is (as Kintari would put it) the new hotness.
The idea is to do the solo strat shown in this video with an entire party. This way we only have to hit 5 buttons.
https://youtu.be/0qr_daPyYkw
1. Zerg goes right, kills mobs, goes to next room and hits first button. Zerg then purposely ports back to beginning using statue.
2. Zerg goes left, goes through 'pain' room, gets to the next room and kills mobs and continues using behind portal.
2a. One person goes to forward portal, hits the button, returns to the beginning and joins the group by going the left route. (I'm calling this the first split room)
3. At second split room, Zerg kills mobs
3a. Mesmer with falling damage reduction places portal and dodges or falls down to next level (land on arch) and places portal. Open portal. Rest of the group portals down.
3b. One person does not take the Mesmer portal. Instead they take the 'door' portal on the left and waits for door to open, hits button and returns to start.
4. Zerg kills mobs at bottom of stairs, hit button
4a. One person goes back to hit button as shown in video: https://youtu.be/MoAu0J_GQsA at time stamp 0:49
5. Zerg heads through door at top of stairs
6. Zerg makes way to end of maze
7. Win
Videos:
Zerg view: https://youtu.be/v-FiGnV5DpM https://youtu.be/ZOVXJXJiMwU
Mesmer jump and port:
At 18:12 in this video: https://youtu.be/0aqPFP7TpLI
In this one too: https://youtu.be/Mim6W8Vf9xg