Mod 10 - Heroic Encounters Have Jumped The Shark

mrvincent1959

With Mod 10 we get 3 new zones, ONE dungeon ZERO skirmishes, and more Heroic Encounters...IN EACH ZONE. I am beginning to think that the main reason we keep getting Heroic Encounters is due to technical factors since 99% of the feedback in the forums was that we didnt want any more Heroic Encounters. I mean, do you really think these things are fun?

It was bad enough before, but now we have do them in blizzard-like conditions where we REALLY cant see what's going on so it becomes even more of a chore.

It would have been great to have a few new skirmishes to run as a part of mod 10 to give us an option to either get what we need from Heroic Encounters or Skirmishes. I really don't know what the problem is. Dungeons and skirmishes have been replaced with this mindless, middling task.

I cant find ONE person who actually likes doing these.

Ok, whats done is done, but can we please get back to dungeons and skirmishes at some point?

diogene0

I don't mind heroic encounters, they're rather easy, but the rewards are surely not here. What I dislike about this mod is the time daily quests take. Seriously, 4 x "bash 50 npcs"? That's the longuest daily chore we've had so far. Even sharandar, which was poorly received, used to take less time when it was released. No challenge to be had, they barely do any damage, it's just a big pile of hit points. NPCs also spawn slowly, one by one, to make sure boredom persists. There's no RP rewards either, so it's just boring and frustrating.

And don't get me started with the ridiculous amounts of randomly dropped resources it takes to "restore" the gear parts. How can a designer think this is fine and still keep his job? Normally it's either full RNG or long, not both.

zibadawa

This is how Cryptic responds to feedback. "oh, they don't like all of the refining? Let's make that more expensive and then introduce an entirely new refining system that you do in eye-destroying weather conditions! God they'll love this!"

The HE's are definitely an extra pain in the HAMSTER. "kill these. Okay, now collect these. Which you can't really see. Now that you fumbled around and did that, kill these." The Goblin assault one basically requires you to jump off the city wall at one point and then deal with a bunch of ladders blocking the line of sight on your attacks.

wylonus

giving my feedback for devs, EPIC fail!
i tried to do it, got oneshotted, no on else was there.
by the time others shows up, it got expired, with fails. all those "timed" events has to go, clear the timers, just amount of the killeds needed.

oh, by the way, for totem quest. it went overboard, fighting 6 or more is pure sucidical, seeing Totemist Shaman pop around and giving mobs immunitiies at same time beastmaster call his hounds, and suddenly 2 crag cats, the potions i have, didnt even help much, forcing to consume revive scrolls that i need to save for dungeons.
devs you got those bit overkill too much and they are not elites, YOU ARE CRAZY!!!

even those rewards are crappy for all those efforts we did, GGRRRRR! isnt the devs really cheating on us?

marnival

wylonus said:

giving my feedback for devs, EPIC fail!
i tried to do it, got oneshotted, no on else was there.
by the time others shows up, it got expired, with fails. all those "timed" events has to go, clear the timers, just amount of the killeds needed.

oh, by the way, for totem quest. it went overboard, fighting 6 or more is pure sucidical, seeing Totemist Shaman pop around and giving mobs immunitiies at same time beastmaster call his hounds, and suddenly 2 crag cats, the potions i have, didnt even help much, forcing to consume revive scrolls that i need to save for dungeons.
devs you got those bit overkill too much and they are not elites, YOU ARE CRAZY!!!

even those rewards are crappy for all those efforts we did, GGRRRRR! isnt the devs really cheating on us?

Eum totem quest should not be hard imho I think you either a bit undergeared or could perhaps need a bit of help?

Give me a tell ingame am sure I can do something for you that helps :-) @marnival

silverkelt

The major hes cannot be done solo, you will die.

The minor ones, can be done, but they are super long (with 5-6 different gates) they will nearly take the full time to do, even while killing the waves and junk in 4-5 seconds apiece. You have to start with about 7 mins left to finish it appears.

I dont like HES at all, never did and always find it odd that they keep giving us hes.

vinceent1

i remember interview long time ago, where they say HE are future of neverwinter. So dont expect any reaction on this topics

rversant

Are the majors harder than the stronghold majors? haven't actually gone done one yet. lol

urabask

I don't really mind HEs either. If they had tied progression to dungeon runs I'd be pulling my hair out. There's always someone that has to take a bio break, invoke their characters, empty their bags, reset their internets, leave etc. etc.

Sometimes it's nice to just whack some mobs without having to deal with all the problems that come with being stuck playing with five people in a closed instance.

rversant said:

Are the majors harder than the stronghold majors? haven't actually gone done one yet. lol

A bit. Bosses can one hit you a lot more often.

zibadawa

urabask said:

A bit. Bosses can one hit you a lot more often.

"A bit"? I tried the one with two giant bosses and they were doing over 730,000 damage base with a single (and unavoidable) attack each. Even with maxed defenses you can't survive for more than a few seconds if you aren't a tank in turtle mode. I can easily solo the stronghold epic HE's (beholders is a bit tougher because there's annoyingly little time between when the red zones pop up and when they hit you). These it's not even within the realm of possibility.

But, yes to the lesser HE's just being annoyances. Four or five stages each with mobs coming in trickles with quest objectives being obscured by the eye-destroying weather effects.

sorce

zibadawa said:

urabask said:

A bit. Bosses can one hit you a lot more often.

"A bit"? I tried the one with two giant bosses and they were doing over 730,000 damage base with a single (and unavoidable) attack each. Even with maxed defenses you can't survive for more than a few seconds if you aren't a tank in turtle mode. I can easily solo the stronghold epic HE's (beholders is a bit tougher because there's annoyingly little time between when the red zones pop up and when they hit you). These it's not even within the realm of possibility.

But, yes to the lesser HE's just being annoyances. Four or five stages each with mobs coming in trickles with quest objectives being obscured by the eye-destroying weather effects.

I would recommend people do the Giant boss HE - the mechanics you learn there help prepare you for Fangbreaker.

zibadawa

confusedpoof said:

I would recommend people do the Giant boss HE - the mechanics you learn there help prepare you for Fangbreaker.

Do these mechanics include headaches and not being able to see anything?

sorce

zibadawa said:

confusedpoof said:

I would recommend people do the Giant boss HE - the mechanics you learn there help prepare you for Fangbreaker.

Do these mechanics include headaches and not being able to see anything?

Ehhhh, Well there is the avalanches which are similar...

urabask

zibadawa said:

urabask said:

A bit. Bosses can one hit you a lot more often.

"A bit"? I tried the one with two giant bosses and they were doing over 730,000 damage base with a single (and unavoidable) attack each. Even with maxed defenses you can't survive for more than a few seconds if you aren't a tank in turtle mode. I can easily solo the stronghold epic HE's (beholders is a bit tougher because there's annoyingly little time between when the red zones pop up and when they hit you). These it's not even within the realm of possibility.

But, yes to the lesser HE's just being annoyances. Four or five stages each with mobs coming in trickles with quest objectives being obscured by the eye-destroying weather effects.

I mean the way I look at it not being able to solo them is more due to the mechanics being such that they're trying to keep people from soloing them. If you do it with a group they're just as easy the SH HEs.

archangelzorak01

Its a solid move making content more difficult to the point where you actually need multiple people to complete it, and the right people as well, your going to struggle doing the large HE's unless there is a tank and a healer around. This is an MMO (kinda) after all, so I approve.

tom

i have to say i really enjoyed running around with my guild in a blizzard and fighting some big HEs altough they were too easy we finished every big HE within 2 or 3 min.

diogene0

zibadawa said:

urabask said:

A bit. Bosses can one hit you a lot more often.

"A bit"? I tried the one with two giant bosses and they were doing over 730,000 damage base with a single (and unavoidable) attack each. Even with maxed defenses you can't survive for more than a few seconds if you aren't a tank in turtle mode. I can easily solo the stronghold epic HE's (beholders is a bit tougher because there's annoyingly little time between when the red zones pop up and when they hit you). These it's not even within the realm of possibility.

But, yes to the lesser HE's just being annoyances. Four or five stages each with mobs coming in trickles with quest objectives being obscured by the eye-destroying weather effects.

I can survive a hit from all HE bosses, including giants, with my cleric that has 2k def... That doesn't mean it'll be in a good shape, but HE monsters do really little damage. You should consider inviting a couple of clerics to your instance if you've got trouble surviving. Not that they're really required in any way with lifesteal doing all the work, but since there's always been too many DCs in this game, why not trying?

diogene0

urabask said:

I don't really mind HEs either. If they had tied progression to dungeon runs I'd be pulling my hair out. There's always someone that has to take a bio break, invoke their characters, empty their bags, reset their internets, leave etc. etc.

Sometimes it's nice to just whack some mobs without having to deal with all the problems that come with being stuck playing with five people in a closed instance.

rversant said:

Are the majors harder than the stronghold majors? haven't actually gone done one yet. lol

Well I don't mind HEs either, but that doesn't mean it's the kind of content I want. I understand it's the casual group content some people are after, and due to the nature of HEs, playing it with the average, terrible player, might even be fun due to the silly builds and rarely used spells it requires to support them.

However, I wish the game wasn't all about heroic encounters. It's really all what it's about right now. A campaign map cluttered with dozens of heroic encounters that are "heroic" just in name, and more often than not, offer worthless rewards. I wish the devs could get a bit more imaginative sometimes, and try something different, like a module with no campaign or no new set of bland heroics. There's an impressive amount of varied and fun stuff that has been experimented in the early days of online games, and I'm shocked the devs stick to the same two things again and again, even though they do get negative feeback on that matter.

zibadawa

diogene0 said:

Well I don't mind HEs either, but that doesn't mean it's the kind of content I want. I understand it's the casual group content some people are after, and due to the nature of HEs, playing it with the average, terrible player, might even be fun due to the silly builds and rarely used spells it requires to support them.

However, I wish the game wasn't all about heroic encounters. It's really all what it's about right now. A campaign map cluttered with dozens of heroic encounters that are "heroic" just in name, and more often than not, offer worthless rewards. I wish the devs could get a bit more imaginative sometimes, and try something different, like a module with no campaign or no new set of bland heroics. There's an impressive amount of varied and fun stuff that has been experimented in the early days of online games, and I'm shocked the devs stick to the same two things again and again, even though they do get negative feeback on that matter.

Strongholds was a mod without a campaign. Chock full of heroics, though.

urabask

Strongholds was worse than a mod without a campaign; it was a mod recycling other campaigns.

reg1981

No need to adjust the difficulty at the moment, this is what we asked for. Hard content. Visibility and the other environmental issues, yes lets fix them up but nothing more until we get a chance to really play it.

We will all find a way when we are geared enough to do so. It's going to take time but for once strategy WILL be required. Not just run in smash buttons, get bubble, be invincible. Dodges are necessary, there is very little in this game that CAN"T be dodged(Yes we need to see the red on the ground). Many classes can dodge and take no damage, some take reduced damage.

I remember when ECC was very hard. We had to use strategy going room to room to survive it. This will be no different. Learn the content, practice it, succeed.

arabatur

Is there any real reason to do any of these new HE's? Are the rewards worthwhile?

frozenfirevr

You get the Relic Shoes, Lanolin needed to restore them, and Voninblod... That's about it. You get R5s and relics too btw.

wylonus

my main only got 2.9k item score, took me about 8 months from 2.5k to 2.9k since they nerfed T-bar vendor, and invoking for chances of getting the wards are longshot and it seem if it was rigged to fail more often, been on 2.9k for last 3 months.
now i cant afford to get superior mark since they nerfed ADs, so the progression took a major hit and dragging extra months way too long. only options i had was doing the weekly, do the dungeons and skirmish runs for salvagings, these get old very fast.
i have nothing of value to sell on auction to get more ADs.

there would be a lot of angry players getting the torches and pitchfolks, we are sick of bots and causing harm to players and the economy with series of endless nerfings since mod 6.
devs should had put invoking cap with limited alts allowed, those with large numbers of alts getting chances of coffers to yielding more C-wards than those with 5 alts or less, that would cut the flow of ADs transfering from unplayed alts.

those coffers need some improvements instead of serious nerfings, and make them bound to characters.

silverkelt

Skip campaigns and let it be about the new slate of contents.

archangelzorak01 said:

Its a solid move making content more difficult to the point where you actually need multiple people to complete it, and the right people as well, your going to struggle doing the large HE's unless there is a tank and a healer around. This is an MMO (kinda) after all, so I approve.

But there is not tactics needed and you can zerg it without any such set up. BTW at the start of IWD, you couldnt solo any of the major hes either, it just happend over time that you could, because of all the power creep over time.

I just think they are overused , but I wouldve felt that way about any new campaign, just tired of campaigns.

silence1x

silverkelt said:

BTW at the start of IWD, you couldnt solo any of the major hes either, it just happend over time that you could, because of all the power creep over time.

Same as it ever was . . . HEs in new mod/zone are tough at first.

zibadawa

kalindra said:

The point is, in a month or two the number of toons playing them will go down to a tickle, and the all the latecomers will have a hard time doing them.

This wouldn't be the first time this has happened. And they always eventually move things like equipment drops that come from that content to somewhere else. Some black ice gear used to only drop from HEs, now you can just buy it from a merchant with black ice.