Snake Gulch - first impressions

captainhunter1

Great concept (expanding on the Mechanon thread/preacher story already established - yay!).

Picked up the mission in Ren Cen.

Used the instant teleport to Snake Gulch (got there while event was underway).

Fought bad robots with my level 40 for 10 minutes.

But then the Liberator boss shows up....

65 respawns later (with all towers blue most of the time) ... event ends, no reward, no credit for event. The boss just disappeared during one of the many, many respawns - I seriously spent more time traveling to fight than actually fighting.

I know the event is new and that eventually people will learn how to beat it. But seriously - it is simply an exercise in respawning right now. Blocking has little effect against the nearly guranteed defeat-DOT attacks.

Not my idea of fun - and I certainly don't feel like a superhero in it's current state. And no, I don't have the latest, greatest gear for all our forum uberites. This may be just one more event I'm excluded from because I don't belong to the 'uber-equipment club'.

spinnytop

I did it on a lvl 35 melee dps and it was fun ^_^ only died twice

magpieuk2014

I know the event is new and that eventually people will learn how to beat it. But seriously - it is simply an exercise in respawning right now. Blocking has little effect against the nearly guranteed defeat-DOT attacks.

First hour spent with any new piece of software chiefly involves swearing. Go with it. It was quite fun, even though there was no possibility of victory. I doubt there ever will be (as I have absolutely no idea what is going on, it's like trying to assemble an IKEA wardrobe in zero-G) but to be honest that's not the point.

tau41

This event has reminded me why I once liked this game and why I DESPISED healing in MMO's.

I once liked this game because you didn't need a dedicated healer.

I despise healing in MMO's because no one keeps bad guys from killing the healer (namely me). This is a bigger issue with infinitely spawning, somewhat strong mooks, although if you've ever healed the city hall alerts where adds spawn in during the fight, you know everyone in this game is terrible about switching to adds.

Also memory leaks, apparently (game just crashed as I was tabbed out typing this).

guyhumual

These are my feelings

captainhunter1

spinnytop said:

I did it on a lvl 35 melee dps and it was fun ^_^ only died twice

Spinny, you have to remember, even one of your Level 5 heroes is usually equal to about level 70.

beezeeze

tried it twice, first time was all chaos and we failed, second time I camped out at the northern tower thing mostly, had fun and felt somewhat useful and eventually we won. Now not everyone can hang out around the towers, someone has to actually fight the big guy... and yeah when I tried that it did really feel like running into a meat grinder.

Keep in mind these are my first impressions.

revanantmorituri

Big first impression: what the FRELL have they done to the robot voices? They're horrible!​​

spinnytop

captainhunter1 said:

spinnytop said:

I did it on a lvl 35 melee dps and it was fun ^_^ only died twice

Spinny, you have to remember, even one of your Level 5 heroes is usually equal to about level 70.

I'm amazing! \owo/

deadman20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594qtjmhOFE​​

jaazaniah1

Did the whole thing in about 10 minutes today on 1 run (i.e. ca. half the allowed time). Lesson is that your results will vary depending on who shows up, and how many. I tend to camp at one of the towers and spam lead tempest and spark storm until I get killed. Then I run back and repeat. Always nice when there is a healer in the group and a tank as well.

pwestolemyname

Tried it twice so far. Fun both times. First time I was on the big guy, died a couple times, but eventually we succeeded. Second time, I helped sit a tower. We kept that thing turned off, but whoever was up at the big guy couldn't get him taken down.

#ProTip, if you're moving around a lot, you're doing it wrong.

#ProTip 2: this would benefit from a lot more organization. Find an optimum number of people needed to sit a tower, not too many, not too few, and then everyone else pounds the big guy.

While I was sitting the tower, we had anywhere from 3-10 people because people kept moving around. This is definitely non-optimal.

Also, I'm happy because we FINALLY have an event where AOE heave characters can score heavy. If we are getting credit for all mob kills, then that's really gonna rock for me.

Realize that this is exactly the same fight as the giant skeleton chicken. Some people need to baby sit glowies where mobs continuously spawn, while everyone else pounds the boss. The glowies are further apart and do damage instead of heal the monster, but otherwise it's the exact same fight. So, just use the same tactics as you did then, and you'll be fine.

shredmonkey

Key to staying alive in boss battle. Block when you see a tell. Don't let up on block until the ticks of damage end.

It took me a few rounds to realize the bosses AOEs are maintains and not a single blast. But once I understood that, the fight got much easier and began to make sense.

spinnytop

So I did it on Kagami a few times and that's the most fun of all! I love drifting between the boss and the towers as needed, so much more fun than those dumb cosmic fights where you're just "a dps". In cowboy robot fight I feel like a hero! \o3o/ Especially once phases 2 and especially especially phase 3 comes around... that's when those towers usually really need an extra hand, but it also helps to put some dps on the boss. Multi-tasking n_n

magpieuk2014

Can't get into the one zone wonder, so no runs today.

roughbearmattach

I like it.

I wish the Cosmics we have had fights more like this.

roughbearmattach

Final Stage of the Liberator fight needs adjustment.

Pretty much, only the tower that debuffs the heroes needs to be deactivated. The other two (buff Liberator and Deadly Terrain) can be ignored, and everyone piles onto Liberator to win fight, assuming there is at least 10 min left at that point.

Seems like main reason this happens is because the minibosses simply blow away small groups, who quickly realize that their constant respawning guarantees no mission credit. The combination of Black Hats and minibosses is just harder than most groups can handle.

Gotta be fixed so that the tower miniboss stage isn't quite as tough, and so that Liberator is harder to beat when towers are active.

aesica

I tried it last night for the first time and wasn't really that impressed. The tuning is horrible for off-hour players because 1 person isn't enough to keep a tower clear. The trash respawns too quickly, especially considering the fact that a single player needs to play defensively to avoid getting yanked into the middle of the robot cowboy circle jerk.

The boss also has a lot of magic "what the hell is hitting me" nonsense going on. That's generally not good.

I'm going to try it again now, and hopefully, it will be a bit more enjoyable.​​

roughbearmattach

aesica said:

I tried it last night for the first time and wasn't really that impressed. The tuning is horrible for off-hour players because 1 person isn't enough to keep a tower clear. The trash respawns too quickly, especially considering the fact that a single player needs to play defensively to avoid getting yanked into the middle of the robot cowboy circle jerk.

The Towers are meant for groups of three or four heroes, supposedly: a tank, a healer, and DPS. In practice, a group of Cosmic-trained/ready heroes works fine.

With average players, a group of 5-6 is needed to keep a tower deactivated: 2 tanks, 1-2 healers, 2 DPS. If you find yourself at a tower without this mix when the minibosses come, just leave. Everyone will be wiped rapidly, and, unless you coordinate retaking the tower carefully, you'll just get picked off individually when you come back or use a self-rez power.

revanantmorituri

roughbearmattach wrote: »

I tried it last night for the first time and wasn't really that impressed. The tuning is horrible for off-hour players because 1 person isn't enough to keep a tower clear. The trash respawns too quickly, especially considering the fact that a single player needs to play defensively to avoid getting yanked into the middle of the robot cowboy circle jerk.



The Towers are meant for groups of three or four heroes, supposedly: a tank, a healer, and DPS. In practice, a group of Cosmic-trained/ready heroes works fine.

Which brings us to the problem: this is an open world event, meaning, it is open to everyone, not just our awesome cadre of Raid grinders. And in all honesty, at least 3/4 of the characters in this game are DPS, even if the role symbol next to their portrait suggests otherwise.​​

spinnytop

revanantmorituri said:

Which brings us to the problem: this is an open world event, meaning, it is open to everyone, not just our awesome cadre of Raid grinders. And in all honesty, at least 3/4 of the characters in this game are DPS, even if the role symbol next to their portrait suggests otherwise.​​

eh, people seem to be doing fine. the event is being pretty reliably farmed.

captainhunter1

spinnytop said:

revanantmorituri said:

Which brings us to the problem: this is an open world event, meaning, it is open to everyone, not just our awesome cadre of Raid grinders. And in all honesty, at least 3/4 of the characters in this game are DPS, even if the role symbol next to their portrait suggests otherwise.​​

eh, people seem to be doing fine. the event is being pretty reliably farmed.

Sure - when you're there Spinny (again, you have uber characters and this seems trivial to you).

But for 80% of the rest of CO players - it's simply a respawn exercise with little chance of seeing completion (unless people like you show up to help).

Unknown

This content has been removed.

magpieuk2014

That's how they like it.

fireballhero

I've tried the new mission and am pleased with there being a reason to go back to the Southwest Desert at higher levels. The mission is a challenge, but there are some problems - already mentioned in earlier posts.

The DOT practically ensures blocking is useless since it bypasses it. Having to respawn over and over is not fun. Success is heavily dependent on large numbers of players and defeat is guaranteed at off hours, which indicates it is not balanced well. I've had many good runs with high end characters, but wouldn't even try it with lower level characters. The DOT is just too much and I'm not talking about the rocket spray that the Liberator does, which is fine.

Teamwork is fine. You can do quite well if a group of players coordinate. But getting killed just because you don't have a build made for tons of HP seems to set this mission as more of an endurance run with lots and lots of respawns.

A little fine tuning is in order. But don't get me wrong - I like having the new mission.

sterga

I see another issue that was also a problem with Clarence: there isn't often a healer or enough healers to go around. Tanking Clarence without a healer blows. You know who can't do that? All the poor behemoths I saw crushed by him. Liberator hits a hell of a lot harder than the Clarence models which makes this even worse without a healer.

Dedicated healer has never been and never will be a popular role. It'd be super if open missions didn't have bosses that require one. If only devs could be creative with these events instead of the same old ho hum bag of HP and damage out the wazoo with a healer and main tank requirement. Especially when it's painfully obvious the tank was intended to be a juggernaut con dump build using *icator and defiance.

These event boss fight are becoming ridiculous. Clarence was super cake to tank with a decent healer. I mean the difference between blocking nothing at all and blocking 80% of the time, wondering what miracle is allowing you to keep aggro. I suspect that this entire event would feel mostly the same if there were ever healers around.​​

spinnytop

captainhunter1 said:

Sure - when you're there Spinny (again, you have uber characters and this seems trivial to you).

But for 80% of the rest of CO players - it's simply a respawn exercise with little chance of seeing completion (unless people like you show up to help).

I'm playing a dps in the event tho. Not much I can do to make the event succeed if there aren't already others there doing a good job of it.