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Make Dragonflights and Strongholds Great Again!
preechr
Member Posts: 488 Arc User
Our Alliance really tries hard, especially on the weekends, to host big activities in order to encourage a feeling of community
When we joined the Alliance, one of the things we really needed was active Dragonflights, as DF gear was relevant at that time
Throughout the week, various guilds will host Marauders events (fighting at one node and quitting at first vote,) nDemo farm runs, and on the weekends (especially) there will be 6-10 DF runs, followed by groups running the 10 man HEs in a SH, others forming to run several Tiamats, and then later some MSVA runs
This is really great for the smaller guilds in the Alliance, and it is a lot of fun
Unfortunately, the only tangible reward (for the Strongholds) for any of this is Influence from Marauders and sometimes some Influence and Heroic Shards from the big HEs if they run those
Strongholds are kind of in a place where they are struggling for relevance... All new players are encouraged to join a guild to get the boons, which is great because it gets them in the door, but then we have to work hard to get new recruits responding in chat and being social... I don't like the idea that joining a Guild for many players is treated like completing the Sharandar Campaign... something you have to do for the Boons and then ignore and forget about until you want to build and raise up an alt
These Alliance events are crucial in socializing recruits, as when they happen Alliance Chat blows up... Recruits that NEVER talk in Guild Chat often pop up for these events just to see what everyone is so excited about... taking that first step into being social within the Stronghold system
Problem is, Dragonflights used to be something everybody wanted to run, and now they are largely irrelevant in terms of reward... nobody needs the fangs for anything, and the boxes are not worth opening to get more fangs and a random blue voucher
Please, AT LEAST make the Dragonflight Chests donateable as salvage gear in the SH coffer, though even that would only be a minor improvement
Ideally, I would LOVE to see an exchange vendor, even a temporary one like the MM, that would trade some Guild Marks and maybe 6 fangs for SH currencies we need, especially Conqueror Shards... The idea that guilds are FORCED to PvP in order to build and upgrade the Power Boon building is a huge bottleneck in SH progression... This is a PvE game with a small, long neglected and extremely competitive (some might say vicious) PvP addition that is completely alien, confusing and brutal to PvE players
It's great that devs are finally doing some work to fix some of the many problems in the PvP realm, especially removing the tremendous expense of Tenacity gear, but our guild is still having to resort to begging PvP guilds in our Alliance for Conqueror Shards, buying Zen boxes and gaming the system to slowly eek out upgrades to the Barracks
The temporary exchange vendor idea would be a popular and welcomed new AD Sink for the economy, as well
While you are thinking about this, which I really hope you do, please consider also a temporary SH vendor (an Ithilid visiting from the Underdark maybe) that would trade, say, 30K Guild Marks and two unwanted +5 Underdark rings for one +5 ring of the player's choice
If you want to be super-awesome, that Ithilid might also consider taking Guild Marks and, let's say: 15K GM plus 4 identical +1 rings in trade for a +2 of the player's choice, 20K GM plus 5 identical +2 rings in trade for a +3 of the player's choice, 25K GM plus 6 identical +4 rings in trade for a +5 of the player's choice, or it could be random
Since the +1-3 rings are largely used for salvage, players that chose to take the upgrade route would also be (gladly) removing AD from the game
Underdark rings are mostly inferior to their equivalent SKT rings, so since they are "second-tier" in terms of BIS, couldn't we help you phase them, so to speak, out a little?
You could also consider a Temporary Mount Exchange Vendor that could operate out of the Stable Building that would exchange specific collections of mounts, plus Guild Marks ofc, for Account Bound next tier mounts
Let's say, for example, a player could trade 15k Guild Marks and 3 specific common mounts for a specific uncommon mount... to make it fun you wouldn't even have to put this in a complex UI... Let us figure out what trades work by simply using the trade window and making offers to see what he might give us
The vendor could call the trade window after a simple dialogue where he has 10k GM trades (common to green,) 15k GM trades (green to blue,) 20k GM trades (blue to purple,) and 30k GM trades (orange mount swaps)
Legendary mounts could even be exchanged in this way, for example 30K GM and a Celestial Stag, a Runeclad Manticore and a Skeleton Steed might net the player a Tenser's Floating Disk
All of the mounts received in trade could be Account Bound, but the Vendor would have to take Account Bound Mounts in trade
This would be a little more work to put together, but since most green, blue, purple and orange mounts are bought on the AH, this idea would also take a ton of AD out of the game
Lastly, another Temporary Vendor could trade Guild Marks for Companion Upgrade Tokens, possibly provide a way to unlock Character Bound Tokens
These suggestions seem like they would be (mostly) extremely minor and easy changes that would IMO really strengthen the Stronghold/Alliance system while providing some much needed balance to the game economy while providing some simple solutions to some huge and long-standing player aggravations
When we joined the Alliance, one of the things we really needed was active Dragonflights, as DF gear was relevant at that time
Throughout the week, various guilds will host Marauders events (fighting at one node and quitting at first vote,) nDemo farm runs, and on the weekends (especially) there will be 6-10 DF runs, followed by groups running the 10 man HEs in a SH, others forming to run several Tiamats, and then later some MSVA runs
This is really great for the smaller guilds in the Alliance, and it is a lot of fun
Unfortunately, the only tangible reward (for the Strongholds) for any of this is Influence from Marauders and sometimes some Influence and Heroic Shards from the big HEs if they run those
Strongholds are kind of in a place where they are struggling for relevance... All new players are encouraged to join a guild to get the boons, which is great because it gets them in the door, but then we have to work hard to get new recruits responding in chat and being social... I don't like the idea that joining a Guild for many players is treated like completing the Sharandar Campaign... something you have to do for the Boons and then ignore and forget about until you want to build and raise up an alt
These Alliance events are crucial in socializing recruits, as when they happen Alliance Chat blows up... Recruits that NEVER talk in Guild Chat often pop up for these events just to see what everyone is so excited about... taking that first step into being social within the Stronghold system
Problem is, Dragonflights used to be something everybody wanted to run, and now they are largely irrelevant in terms of reward... nobody needs the fangs for anything, and the boxes are not worth opening to get more fangs and a random blue voucher
Please, AT LEAST make the Dragonflight Chests donateable as salvage gear in the SH coffer, though even that would only be a minor improvement
Ideally, I would LOVE to see an exchange vendor, even a temporary one like the MM, that would trade some Guild Marks and maybe 6 fangs for SH currencies we need, especially Conqueror Shards... The idea that guilds are FORCED to PvP in order to build and upgrade the Power Boon building is a huge bottleneck in SH progression... This is a PvE game with a small, long neglected and extremely competitive (some might say vicious) PvP addition that is completely alien, confusing and brutal to PvE players
It's great that devs are finally doing some work to fix some of the many problems in the PvP realm, especially removing the tremendous expense of Tenacity gear, but our guild is still having to resort to begging PvP guilds in our Alliance for Conqueror Shards, buying Zen boxes and gaming the system to slowly eek out upgrades to the Barracks
The temporary exchange vendor idea would be a popular and welcomed new AD Sink for the economy, as well
While you are thinking about this, which I really hope you do, please consider also a temporary SH vendor (an Ithilid visiting from the Underdark maybe) that would trade, say, 30K Guild Marks and two unwanted +5 Underdark rings for one +5 ring of the player's choice
If you want to be super-awesome, that Ithilid might also consider taking Guild Marks and, let's say: 15K GM plus 4 identical +1 rings in trade for a +2 of the player's choice, 20K GM plus 5 identical +2 rings in trade for a +3 of the player's choice, 25K GM plus 6 identical +4 rings in trade for a +5 of the player's choice, or it could be random
Since the +1-3 rings are largely used for salvage, players that chose to take the upgrade route would also be (gladly) removing AD from the game
Underdark rings are mostly inferior to their equivalent SKT rings, so since they are "second-tier" in terms of BIS, couldn't we help you phase them, so to speak, out a little?
You could also consider a Temporary Mount Exchange Vendor that could operate out of the Stable Building that would exchange specific collections of mounts, plus Guild Marks ofc, for Account Bound next tier mounts
Let's say, for example, a player could trade 15k Guild Marks and 3 specific common mounts for a specific uncommon mount... to make it fun you wouldn't even have to put this in a complex UI... Let us figure out what trades work by simply using the trade window and making offers to see what he might give us
The vendor could call the trade window after a simple dialogue where he has 10k GM trades (common to green,) 15k GM trades (green to blue,) 20k GM trades (blue to purple,) and 30k GM trades (orange mount swaps)
Legendary mounts could even be exchanged in this way, for example 30K GM and a Celestial Stag, a Runeclad Manticore and a Skeleton Steed might net the player a Tenser's Floating Disk
All of the mounts received in trade could be Account Bound, but the Vendor would have to take Account Bound Mounts in trade
This would be a little more work to put together, but since most green, blue, purple and orange mounts are bought on the AH, this idea would also take a ton of AD out of the game
Lastly, another Temporary Vendor could trade Guild Marks for Companion Upgrade Tokens, possibly provide a way to unlock Character Bound Tokens
These suggestions seem like they would be (mostly) extremely minor and easy changes that would IMO really strengthen the Stronghold/Alliance system while providing some much needed balance to the game economy while providing some simple solutions to some huge and long-standing player aggravations
Post edited by preechr#2215 on
8
Comments
Sorry to bump but this got stuck in the moderator queue for a couple of days
As far as Dragonflight gear, why not make a pass on that similar to the one they did for Guild gear to upgrade it to the Company gear we have now? An increase in IL by +15 or so and improving the stats according - plus keeping a set bonus as currently.
With Seals of the Protector much easier to obtain now the Dragonflight accessories are pretty much useless so they also need looking at.
And reduce some of the lower SH building costs too - some of the shard and especially Tyranny costs are just stupid high even now.
The distinct thing Dragonflight provides is Dragon fang. If the fang store has more useful to sell, people will come. I suggest to allow fang to buy 'competitive' companion accessories for neck, waist, etc. Ring, we have tons. Not so much for other type of accessories. For the minimum, people can salvage it for AD if their companion already have 'everything'.
(still want that exchange vendor though, too)
I just reread your post. I really need to pay more attention to the wording of things. never mind LOL
Can we get any official comment on this?
I feel bad for guilds that didn't, or just plain weren't able to, power to GH20 in a short amount of time. Because I see the lower level guilds struggling to get assistance for DF now. Between a lack of desire to run DF another 5000 times, the players just aren't around anymore. Our guild activity has dropped drastically since the release of M12 and all the 12B announcements.
How do you get people excited again?
Unless you put BiS EQ in the SH top geared players won't be incentivized to run DF. But why run the new content if you can just farm DF.
Do you just add better rewards that aren't toon gear? Better companion gear? Would be great but then why run IG (not that I run it anyway because, well, boredom).
Ability to buy higher ranked enchantments in the SH than you can get anywhere else?
Ability to buy things you would normally have to use professions for? Not like the Chult weapons or MC stuff but more in line with crit kits that you use on your gear.
Do you just leave DF as is and add these rewards or do you introduce a revamped DF or altogether new event? Because, as anyone who helped get a guild from ground floor to GH20 (multiple times) knows, your soul will hate you if you run another couple of thousand DF events.
Whatever the answer it has to appeal to the current BiS players. Than they feel a need to help lower level guilds without killing the newer content. But it also has to be accessible to the lower guys so they can actually achieve it.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
It's very sad, DFs were one of the best things the game had for making new friends and contacts in your guild and darn it they were just plain fun (somthing the game needs more of), it promoted the idea of running as a team to have a successful run, and that different people had different rolls to play to make it happen. It also allowed for individual growth as new people got to do things like stay behind to finish red while others went on to tackle the other dragons.
They really need to take the time to make DFs worth doing again for all of us, regardless of our guilds ranks.
Alliance chat, "need 3 dps and 1 heals plz".
"no talking in alliance chat during dragonflight"
We have alliance chat and guild chat just add a 3rd chat tab called Alliance DF, so they dont take over the entire alliances chat, control freakz
companion gear do drop the HE No Sympathy and others I have not run it enough to what drops from where
Anyway the companion gear is purple and has an item level of 420.... one enhancement slot and a overload slot...
They are ok but you can't sell them but you can salvage them...they are ok but you can get better in game...
I vote to upgrade the DF gear....DF is very fun I just wished the drops would be upgraded...
Maybe they will just make Dragonflights fun and valuable again so you won't be ignoring the event and doing other things when the rest of your Alliance is running them
My guild is standing at level 10, and TBH the player base is only marginally engaged, and there isn't a lot of driving need to push for the next level. Anything offered through the guild (other than the boons) can be equaled or surpassed by gear that can be bought on the AH or T-bar store for fairly low prices - no DF runs or excruciating Masterwork Profession grinding needed.
I'd like to see a plan from the devs on what's cooking with mod 13 to drive renewed interest in guilds, since there doesn't seem to be any guild-related enhancements in 12b.