Praise for Illusionist's Gambit

tyrtallow · February 2017

First of all I'd like to say that I still think that class balance (relative to changes) was handled very, very poorly in mod11 and you people still need to learn to reign in your first-world-problems playerbase, but dear god Illusionist's Gambit is an absolute TRIUMPH content-wise. This is exactly the type of content that originally had me playing this game. Content that takes player input into consideration? (its a simple yes or no, but hey at least its there) Flame traps? Reflected damage? Disabled powers?(tweak this mechanic a bit and rename it to dead/wild magic zones and you're golden) HORDES of weird, wacky and interesting mobs and bosses?
The main thing it really lacks is a more challenging version (with a reasonable improvement in rewards, of course). ATM the difficulty is reasonable for decently geared 70s, but it's much too easy for people in legendaries/mythicals.

Keep up the good work content devs!

jonkoca · February 2017

Yes, that's a very fun skirmish.

oldbaldyone · February 2017

I have to disagree. I went through it a couple times last night, and its really pretty boring. Things come at you so fast you really don't get to see any of them. The fire mechanic is sort of cool and its always neat to fly...but the other things are just annoying and since Neverwinter doesn't allow us to actually have real buff bars to see what buffs/debuffs there are (without a magnifying glass and stop motion camera that is), its confusing to know what is happening. All 3 phases are the same idea, and just the background and the mobs change. Having to stop each time and tell him you have to continue is annoying at best, though could be good for a BIO.

There is no tactics involved, nothing but chaos accompanied by a guy taunting you. Spam your attacks at whatever you can, and hope it ends quickly.

The drops seem often enough that they will be fairly cheap on the AH soon for most of them (like insignias), an there isn't much else to get from there except campaign resources (I haven't reviewed the new campaign enough to know if its a good or bad amount).

In the end, its an unimaginative skirmish that someone on the foundry could have probably made in a weekend. I'm not really impressed, but I'm sure there will be a reason I need to farm it.

tyrtallow · February 2017

That's the difficulty problem I mentioned.
In an ideal scenario people would be protecting the ally turned into a chicken or (if the polymorphed player dies) risk losing a player for the entire length of one challenge. Against the spinning firetrap people should ideally be adjusting their tactics to account for the constant movement, because atm the firetrap can safely be ignored by geared players. The reduced gravity condition would actually be dangerous if mobs used knockbacks (causing players to stand near the middle as much as possible or risk falling off the platform), except atm mob CC is rather meh. Wild/dead magic zones and the unique mobs should promote class variety while reflect damage mobs should make the player think twice about when they should use their strongest nukes, but atm people just ignore these.

The skirmish has amazing potential which is why I suggested that they make a geared level 70 player-version. The version we have is much too watered down for a geared player, and seems to cater more to fresh 70s.

tripsofthrymr · February 2017

I find the skirmish fun but mostly not challenging for a well-geared team.

This afternoon, there was an exception. I went in with a group of 2.6K - 3.3K players and we nearly wiped in the second phase. We didn't have a tank (because you know, content easy, "LF Heals or Tank"). In order to win, we had to actually communicate and play somewhat cohesively. When people were running all over the place, beyond my DC's ability to target a heal, people started to fall.

This reminded me of the great fun in the pre-Module days when teamwork was paramount, there wasn't one-meta-to-rule-them-all per class, when the CW would actually communicate "sing" so the others knew when to concentrate fire. When you could control stuff worth controlling.

The new skirmish is innovative, surprising and fresh. It's a huge step in the right direction. I hope to see future content take things up a notch, not with more CC immune mobs that can one-shot you but with challenges that require teamwork to overcome. It is, after all, a MMO. The game should be at its best when members of a team work as a team rather than as hordelings.

Great work, and use this as a stepping stone toward even better content.

mamalion1234 · February 2017

WIth what mentality i will press vote yes for last phase when after the completion: +1 +1 +1 +1 +! +1?

thrilla · February 2017

It's good fun but once you do two rounds or more it starts to get really stale. The main goal to run anything in a MMO is for the reward. The experience is a secondary thing. This skirmish doesn't even let you open a chest (surprise factor), completely ruining any sense of excitement that rewards should bring. The duration is way too long for how repetitive the mechanics are. A good idea would be to add the trap run after you die to get back in the arena a part of the main challenge.

tripsofthrymr said:

Great work, and use this as a stepping stone toward even better content.

Yo I don't know what you're smoking but I need some. This game's been out for 4 years now and you're saying they need a stepping stone for better content? That's as naive as it gets or just a lot of sugar coating for no clue.

Praise for Illusionist's Gambit

Comments