TONG repairs needed

prairierose1985

Here is a list of the ways that TONG needs to be fixed. First of all, a dungeon that is advertised as 12k needs to be completed by a group of people at 12k. This is NOT doable with the current mechanic. First, the 3 buffs before orcus bug alot. Half of the time the person who takes the temp hit points does not receive them and we have to start over. Second, orcus has disappeared several times immediately after entering the arena. Third, my 13k paladin tank CANNOT hold aggro despite using vow and other mechanics that say they pull aggro, which in turn kills my party. Fourth, this dungeon should not require 2 clerics to finish it. Fifth, the DR that orcus has, makes it so that even in an above item level party has difficulty dps-ing him down. Sixth, the orbs have a tendency not to pop when the person who has the temp hp hits them. That ends up killing someone if the orb is not responding to the person trying to get rid of it. Raising the item level of this dungeon is not a fix, it is a band-aid on a gunshot wound. The mechanics need to be refined, and a group of developers on EXACTLY 12k toons need to attempt to finish orcus. If the mechanics are fixed, and a group of 12k devs CANNOT complete the dungeon, THEN the item level can be raised. I am a nearly 3 year veteran of this game and I do not have the time or money to bring my main past the 13k level for the time being, and if I cannot get to the newest gear, I am going to have to take my business elsewhere for entertainment. Orcus is the hardest part of this dungeon, and with some fixes, such as lowering his DR to 50-75%, rather than 85%, should help more people continue to play. If you ONLY raise the item level, you are not addressing what is wrong with this mechanic. I do not play FBI either, because the mobs leading up to the first boss are too hard for even those above the item level to fight through without dying multiple time. If your goal is to make people buy scrolls, then say that is your goal, and I will move to another game. It should not require 30+ scrolls to get through a dungeon. A game that is not playable is not fun and as adults with limited time, we want to get the most out of it.

mysticmarks

I agree with everything stated in general about the end game content. Signal latency does not seem to be properly accounted for during simulation. You can't VPN test latency if that is being done. Real world latency is a true transition over medium and VPN's do not represent that. Over years I've seen every end game dungeon suffer this issue. Fine tuning new content from a principal of 0 latency isn't fun. Nor is the Mass life scroll consumption rate now; definitely looking to move zen on an item none of us want to use zen for. It was a bad idea from all the way back. A 300-500ms allotment for player ping variance and total live simulation calculations would make far more sense. Neverwinter uses a lot of baked particle simulations attached to character animations for all skills; when those animations go into calculation during battle things get ugly. This is mainly due to the unpredictable nature of what event is occuring at what interval, variances in player hardware simulation, AND due to the lack of a reasonable base latency being accounted for. That's also the reason MangoDB gets bad data and can't be considered an ACID compliant database. Maybe its time for a clean recompile. Sadly, the pain of rebaking every simulation with a more runtime realistic volume of particles is a nightmare i couldn't blame anyone for avoiding. Looking at it all over time, the particle count has ballooned though(way too many layers per particle system). Sparkles are pretty, but costly. Is backside culling done? I'm one of your oldest supporters and pains, so it's important to know something longterm hasn't really been overlooked vs used as a marketing gimmick.

On a more supportive note, you all smell lovely rubbed in coconut oil. ;D~

neon

Hi,
I also play OP in T9G and the aggro loosing is a class problem to me. GFs don't have this issue. The OP needs a hard taunt equivalent to the GF since the protection mechanic is insufficient even with VoE when running with hdps. The OP needs a taunt that forces ennemies to pass automaticaly into pursuit mode. I also play a HR and I often steal Orcus attention from a very good OP a play with xD Its unfair and it never happens when I run with a GF.

Devs, the OP needs your devoted attention!

pitshade

I have tanked it multiple times on a 13k OPP using TW, Bane and SW. SW + Bane will get his attention but the wing flap and finger of death are targeted randomly as far as I can tell. The other people in the party have to dodge those attacks, or try to in the case of the wings.

The client server issues are very bad though with the wing buffet hitting you out of the red and the unresponsive orbs. Same at Ras Nsi with the Paralysis and shield break attacks. It is usually a waste of time to try and avoid those.

krzrsms

mostly agree.. but not about the aggro thing. I have an alt pally and run with a pally friend almost every day. Orcus in particular will always target someone else occasionally, but that is not to be confused with losing aggro. Its supposed to be a random shot. ..and I take the 'supposed' from reading all the ancient threads about t9g when it first came out. At the very least its known, if not intentional.

Its perfectly survivable by a team that is coordinated. It takes having enough protection on the non tank members from whatever sources you have along in your party. ..mount shields, DC shields, KV, various damage debuffs, etc.

And I dont say this as a member of the mastercard race either. Our team worked our way through each of these bosses, pounding our way through from 12k to where we're all about 15.5-17k. It is hard, but somewhere in the 13-14k range orcus becomes doable, and by 15.5 the whole thing starts to go. (given perfect luck like good soul placement) A few scrolls will probably be necessary for bosses 2 and 3 for a non-uber group, but certainly not 30 ish. Maybe 5-10 for the whole group, for the dungeon, and I wouldn't call that a good run at that point.

..and yes the 12k thing is a joke. Im gonna need to see some video of that happening before Ill ever believe it. ..and even then Ill need some convincing it wasn't gamed somehow.

rikitaki

There are moments at T9G Orcus when he waves his hand, skull appears next to you - and then every enemy in reach attacks you. I consider this as enough clues to think this is intentional.
It is perfectly survivable for any class - if you are not a tank, just stand out of the Orcus reach and do not let the zombies eat you. Orcus will not follow you, just resentfully stare at you. This curse expires after about 5 secs.
I bet this really was intended to pass though any threat, taunts or such.