New event: High Noon at Snake Gulch

guyhumual · February 2017

This event has such features as:

Damage form no where! Do you enjoy taking damage with no tells and thus no ability to block, damage that's sure to disrupt your charge powers like resurrection? Well then you're going to love this event! you'll even take damage if you have no line of sight or are out of range of all your powers.
One shot kills through blocks! Did you see that boss suddenly target you? Well if he's using one of his single target attacks you're as good as dead (maybe not if you're a tank). Don't bother running, his reach is is too far, and he'll hit you through walls. Want to Block? Well it does over 10 000 through blocks so maybe don't bother.
Spamable bubble attacks! Are you ready to be ground down with area attacks? Sure, we got cones and we've got cylinder attacks, but big area of effects from bubbles are the new thing. There's not much real estate up on the central plateau so big bubbles that can kill multiple people are clearly what you want. Did you manage to survive that first bubble? Well here's another straight away.
Penalizing non flyers! Were you an idiot that picked a travel for thematic reasons? No vehicle? You really are an asshole aren't you? Get ready to be knocked off the plateau loser! Trying to dodge these big area attacks? Don't get too close to the edge . . . Didn't fall off on your own? Well we've got missile attacks that will push you over the edge! Enjoy that tricky climb back up speedster.
Missions spread over a vast distance! Did you find having line of sight to the towers in that nightmare invasion event too convenient? Did getting to them to assist people trying to power them down seem too easy? Well thanks to the distancing and terrain in this new event getting back and forth is going to be an incredible pain. That is if you're a flyer, if you can't fly or don't have a vehicle let me just stress again: wrong choice asshole. Find a tower and stay there. Traveling back and forth as needed is something only folks who picked the correct travel power can do.
communication is the key! Which is why we haven't improved our chat at all. You'd think having the ability to express where help is needed with a single click would be very useful, which is naturally why this is why it wasn't included. Learn how to do quick commands or type that out in the middle of a fight like a pleb!

So come on down to Snake Gulch for the new event: designed to frustrate, and sure to feature low drop rates and crummy prizes to fill up your inventory.

spinnytop · February 2017

I did it on a lvl 35 melee toon, was fine ^_^

sterga · February 2017

I stay at the towers where I can actually be useful instead of dead.

embracemysword · February 2017

Erm, if my AT can survive (hint: block), your's can, too. It sure is a pita, but it's not like SD 70k - 1 shots, out of the blue.

Just stack some con, it helps a ton. I'm a rapper now.. Wow.

Ciao!

guyhumual · February 2017

Masq only has Legion, with 3 con 5 mods. She has a bit over 10 000 HP, I get one shotted from the single attack without blocking (over 15k damage), one shotted from the single attack while blocking(10k). Masq has a block power but no ranks in it.

revanantmorituri · February 2017

Sorry. I am Not A Fan of this event. My DPS got within LOS of the sub-boss at the Yellow Tower, and died, well outside of the 100' range of her longer range powers. My Might/Defiance tank died enough times at the Red tower to run out of stars, and that's without Annie's aggro, just her posse's.

This is an Open World Event, not some raid where you get to pick your team mates, but populated by 30-50 of the most random characters available. I don't even want to think about bringing in an on-level character for this zone. At this rate, it won't matter how nifty the loot is, I certainly am not having enough fun to grind this out on multiple characters a night, let alone do enough repeats to earn much of anything in the week this is slated to run.

bewp · February 2017

I haven't done the liberator fight yet, but I did several successful and failed runs as a tower kicker. Some observations:

1: I saw a support run straight into a tower full of cowboy robots after a wipe, alone, get a few shots off, and die. The people freaking out about how impossible this is are right, but only because they're comparing it to rolling around on monster island solo stomping on lemurians. The enemies are tough and the numbers are designed to challenge a squad of players.

2: I don't have exact detailed numbers on the minibosses but they do hit hard, and they exist on top of the existing cowboy robot spawns. They were definitely responsible for a lot of my deaths, and probably a lot of the people having a bad time were having a similar experience.

3: I tanked one of the minibosses with the assistance of an ok healer on my level 40 mostly endgame gear AT while everyone else killed cowboy robots and turned the tower off on a successful run. The run actually ended with the miniboss at nearly full health, with the tower off and all other bad guys dead nearby.

4: I can personally say that minibosses don't come back after dying (not that this is a secret). I heard someone in chat say that Liberator stays hurt when ignored, so it might be a good idea for the Liberator team to split up and kill minibosses when they spawn, then go back.

5: On my lower level character, I wasn't helping all that much, so I often tried to sneakily turn the tower off while surrounded by cowboy robots on all sides. It worked some of the time! But it often didn't; I would get partway through, take damage, and have to start over. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I was getting caught in the cone aoes rather than getting aggro. If you have aggro it might help to point the cowboy robots away from the controls.

sterga · February 2017

It doesn't really matter how tanky you are if you show up to Giant Robot and get hit up with full debuff stacks before even firing off a single attack. I've also taken huge hits through a rank 2 block for almost my entire HP bar. On a character that solos the Warzone easily and successfully tanked various Clarence models without a healer. Stuff like this is far too extreme for a temp event that's supposed to be for a wide audience.

Yes, I know a lot of the damage is from towers not being shut down. Unfortunately, it's very easy to fail at keeping those towers down considering what **** the mobs are there in that they have terrible placement, wide AoEs, high respawns, can't be knocked or pulled, and stagger spawning.

It sucks that when you try to play smart, you get punished for it. Try to stealth turn off a tower? Can't have that! Try to line of sight an attack? Not gonna work. Position yourself and aggro robot attacks away from the console? Let's have some asshole, out of my power range, lasso me across the console. Did you play melee without a big AoE attack like Shockwave? Have fun trying to draw robot attention with their weird spacing and inability to be knocked. Even cyclone chain are at a disadvantage for positioning because you can't really position yourself to one side and hit everything well. Cyclone powers kind work best in the middle, but without knocking mobs together, you can't move yourself so that robot AoEs aren't hitting someone at the console.

I could go on, but I don't see a point in talking about basic issues that shouldn't have made it to live in the first place.

guyhumual · February 2017

sterga said:

It sucks that when you try to play smart, you get punished for it. Try to stealth turn off a tower? Can't have that! Try to line of sight an attack? Not gonna work. Position yourself and aggro robot attacks away from the console? Let's have some asshole, out of my power range, lasso me across the console. Did you play melee without a big AoE attack like Shockwave? Have fun trying to draw robot attention with their weird spacing and inability to be knocked. Even cyclone chain are at a disadvantage for positioning because you can't really position yourself to one side and hit everything well. Cyclone powers kind work best in the middle, but without knocking mobs together, you can't move yourself so that robot AoEs aren't hitting someone at the console.

I was just trying to rez tanks for the front line, kept getting interrupted by those random attacks for 2k a pop

arizoko · February 2017

My biggest complaint is that there's a 30 minute downtime between events. This event's only going to be around for a week, right?

Every attempt requires you to be logged on at juuust the right times of day and you can't do much if anything (alerts, etc.) during the downtime for fear of losing your spot!

It's frustrating enough as is for me, and I only want the Military emote! I'd hate to be the poor sod who wants some of the more expensive action figures.

theoriginalfive · February 2017

A dumb question, perhaps, but is it possible to add a "teleport home" option to one of the NPCs in Snake Gulch for the event? Makes for a very long trek if a character's not the flying type nor has a vehicle.

ashstorm1 · February 2017

The event's mechanics first tend to make the thing pretty frustrating as long as you don't get the hang of it. Afterwards, it's a pretty basic strat, although you do have to face off with some rather tough mobs, so dying a few times is a thing here.

My own beef would be rather with the rewards, of which only one or two really caught my interest. The rest is just uninteresting or plain useless.

revanantmorituri · February 2017

ashstorm1 said:
The event's mechanics first tend to make the thing pretty frustrating as long as you don't get the hang of it. Afterwards, it's a pretty basic strat, although you do have to face off with some rather tough mobs, so dying a few times is a thing here.

My own beef would be rather with the rewards, of which only one or two really caught my interest. The rest is just uninteresting or plain useless.

My complaints about the rewards comes from the other direction: the number of tokens earned is ... disappointing. If I am lucky, I will manage to have the patience to do this once a day on the six characters I have tasked to the event. 7x45=315, enough for some of the costume parts, half what is required for the vehicle.

avianos · February 2017

So far i have mixed feelings, mostly I want to scream STAY AND DEFEND YOUR DARN TOWERS you will get credit, look at me I scored #2 by just defending a tower, you can do it too

I don't think that Im going to enjoy this event, consider there is nothing that I really want from the event ventor (BoP Emotes and Auras? HAHAHA What a story mark)
not to mention the constant Mob gangs spamming, I may skip it

guyhumual · February 2017

So I tried the towers today, nobody was fighting the Liberated, and we lost. People were jumping ship at the 8 minute mark for another instance. So, wasted my time again, no rewards, only frustration and death.

roughbearmattach · February 2017

I think most of the event store items are random drops from the Liberator.
I have already gotten Yodel and four action figures as Liberator drops. Quicksilver Auras already in AH for cheap.

pwestolemyname · February 2017

Yeah, my main complaint is the lack of exciting stuff in the event vendor. Couple of pistols and some weird stuff sticking out of my back, meh.

avianos · February 2017

pwestolemyname wrote: »

Yeah, my main complaint is the lack of exciting stuff in the event vendor. Couple of pistols and some weird stuff sticking out of my back, meh.

That's my main problem, thank you for reminding me, I got carried away with the auras

There are certanly REALLY few costumes in the vendor (2 of which are old from power replacements I already have unlocked) my first reaction when I saw the costumes was: That's it? that's all?

spinnytop · February 2017

I think this event is a lot of fun. Floating between the main boss and the towers as a dps is neat, makes me feel like I'm actually doing something - it's actually a lot more fun than something like kiga or ape or dino....or a TA where nothing goes wrong o3o

As for people having trouble staying alive, just keep trying you'll get it eventually. Remember that at the main boss you can actually use line of sight to avoid many sources of damage, and at the towers just be conservative with your aggro if you're squishy. If you have trouble surviving then don't go buck wild and aoe like a crazy person unless there's a solid tank there holding things! Alpha strikes are very useful.

captainhunter1 · February 2017

I agree with you GH.

Tried the event twice again today. Failures - as expected - even though we had plenty of people participating.

As someone said above, this 'event' feels like a raid tuned for the upper-end players - NOT a random open world event.

And did I hear right - even on a win, the token reward is small? Which means a LOT of luck (getting in the right instance with the right groups) and a LOT of grinding? ugh.

I'm out.

Glad the few elite players are enjoying it....

opalflame · February 2017

So far I'm liking the event. It's more fun than the other event bosses, imo. I have done the event a few times now and haven't seen it fail yet, but there were a few times when it almost failed. The one thing that was always the cause of those almost-fails was when people would just abandon the towers for some reason. Maybe once more people realize that abandoning the towers gets the people fighting the Liberator killed, it will go more smoothly for everyone.

guyhumual · February 2017

opalflame said:
So far I'm liking the event. It's more fun than the other event bosses, imo. I have done the event a few times now and haven't seen it fail yet, but there were a few times when it almost failed. The one thing that was always the cause of those almost-fails was when people would just abandon the towers for some reason. Maybe once more people realize that abandoning the towers gets the people fighting the Liberator killed, it will go more smoothly for everyone.

I have yet to see it succeed.

biffsmackwell · February 2017

Tips!

theoriginalfive · February 2017

Now this poster's going to be helpful for everyone.

Is there room for another disclaimer that people who stay at the towers will count as participating in the mission?

embracemysword · February 2017

Okay, this time i died some. But it was my own fault, because i did not watch my aoes. As soon as a tank grabbed the mobs and helt aggro, everything went smooth. And as Biff pointed out > Keep the towers deactivated at ALL times.

I wish we had more awesome content like this. The rewards aren't bad either.

P.S.
and trust me, i usually am not the Cryptic cheerleader guy. This time, though, they did everything right.

embracemysword · February 2017

Bro, everybody can get healing devices from Karneeki or the recog. vendor. They have a low CD and are pretty useful + cheap as dirt. There are also shield devices (three of them), permanent healing devices, dmg mitigation devices, etc. So the having no heal argument, is irrelevant.

#edit: The post i replied to, somehow disappeared.. in case you're wondering who i am talking to.

ordinaryplayer · February 2017

Piffle .. edited my post and killed it

So, again

Overall
- Works well when it works, but too many rough edges
- Failure do to low player numbers major issue

Rough Edges

Low Player Failure
- As I wrote this people wanted to play, had all towers organized. No one left for boss. OM Failure, not player.
- Spawn rates need to change with player numbers, preferably a tower deactivate or disappear (sadly they are static objects)

Fields:
- Static Field lingers, and so should its bubble as a warning for re-spawning players
- Deadly terrain, imbalanced. Shrugged off by those with heals, deadly to those without. Needs to ramp better with stacks (less at low stacks) or changed entirely.

Towers:
- Red has excess mobs
- Mobs a bit too sturdy in relation to numbers and respawn rate
- Add some AI so mobs don't spawn with mini bosses or less spawn. (again can balance with player numbers)

Boss
- Punch and ranged bolt attack: Poorly telegraphed, real cosmics have much better telegraphs for such hard hits. This is OM boss

Fixing these to not hit as hard means more attacking -> more threat -> more possible tanks. (Dangerous but not 1 shot. Healer and Tank need, not Tank+Shield+Luck). Overall OM Boss shouldn't need to require threat mods and cosmic single dino tanks on OM to control boss. Non-cosmics tanks are trying and right on the edge. Yes the elite cosmic tanks are going to be bored as OM tanks, but they've geared/bought themselves into that problem.

Level 20 experience
- Poor
- Ineffective at boss area due to fields, not making a dent in mobs at towers. Alot of splash damage

Grades

Idea: A-
Implementation: B-
Openness: C-, probably less

roughbearmattach · February 2017

With a good group, fight can be won by ignoring the Red tower completely when minibosses arrive. I've been in winning groups that ignored both Yellow and Red, and another ignoring Blue and Red (in the final health bar).

Need tuning.

guyhumual · February 2017

biffsmackwell said:
Tips!

I love the poster Biff, it's something that should be included with the mission as there's next to no instructions within the mission itself. However, having said that, last time I tried this everyone knew what they were doing and the mission still failed as nobody was fighting the boss, everyone was on tower defense. The map limit is 30 and so if you've got more then 8 people at a tower that means there's probably not enough people at the boss.

roughbearmattach · February 2017

I love your poster, too, Biff.

I think the map limit is 50, not 30.

akaara1 · February 2017

I am loving this event with my AOE queen. Unlike the cosmics (boring) this even I can freely spam my AOE taking out large mobs of robots. I love it. But having a tank at the tower is key because of being squishy. So I am enjoying it even with no rewards.

Kiga: No AOE
Ape: No AOE
Dino: No AOE
Eido: AOE but limited usefulness

Most cosmics are geared towards single target dps... boring.

spinnytop · February 2017

I also am not very excited by the rewards, but the event is fun enough that I'm doing it anyways so I'll just pick something. Thinking maybe the revolver skin. Or maybe that dumb horse vehicle. Man is that thing dumb.

avianos · February 2017

They could have added more costumes in my opinion

roughbearmattach · February 2017

There was one costume I wanted (Back Wires), which I picked up just now. I got the Quicksilver Auras I wanted as drops from doing the event.

Otherwise, nothing I want. I don't have any toons with munition powers, and wasn't interested in the other stuff.

However, munitions are really popular, and I am absolutely raking in the Gs by fusing and selling R5 ACSII's Precision mods.

jaazaniah1 · February 2017

Marshall "Wild Lightning" McGraw needs the horse and the yodel. Finally an event that fits one of my themes!

guyhumual · February 2017

Two days in and I had my first successful run.

xel · February 2017

I'm noticing the event's not as ridiculous in the damage department as I first thought (so long as things are kept under control), but it's wrecking my brain since I still haven't settled on an end plan for my powers. I could stick to control and help manage the swarms of cowboy robots, or make myself able to take a hit (which'd also help for the warzone when I get there), or be some hybrid thing.

...

Also this event is begging for a McCree cameo. It's High Noon!

roughbearmattach · February 2017

xel#8768 said:
I could stick to control and help manage the swarms of cowboy robots, or make myself able to take a hit (which'd also help for the warzone when I get there), or be some hybrid thing.

Also this event is begging for a McCree cameo. It's High Noon!

If your toon isn't level 40 yet, and you are freeform, just make whatever you want to try now, and use your free retcon at level 40 to set up for QWZ.

akaara1 · February 2017

I wish this was 2 weeks instead of 1

avianos · February 2017

akaara1 wrote: »

I wish this was 2 weeks instead of 1

It is

jonsills · February 2017

I just wish I had more free time. Haven't even been able to pop in yet. Too bad, too, as the horse vehicle would be perfect for Space Cowboy...

jaazaniah1 · February 2017

But, if you check this page it says it is going to the 2nd, not the 9th.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/10408443-champions-online:-high-noon-in-snake-gulch

Not the first time there has been this kind of event confusion. It's pretty nearly impossible to get the 700 snake buck horse in a vehicle week of farming, so I'm betting the 9th is the correct date.

avianos · February 2017

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

But, if you check this page it says it is going to the 2nd, not the 9th.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/10408443-champions-online:-high-noon-in-snake-gulch

Not the first time there has been this kind of event confusion. It's pretty nearly impossible to get the 700 snake buck horse in a vehicle week of farming, so I'm betting the 9th is the correct date.

The person in charge of writing the news articles and the launch news keep screwing up

arizoko · February 2017

So on a different note: How do you guys keep yourselves entertained while waiting for the event to start? Here are some of my favourites:

- Pulling nearby trash mobs and/or the Neutronium Posse into the spawn point to give the Primus Guards a chance to get in on the fun.

- Picking up vehicles and then using the "Follow" setting on the Saloon Lassy's that wander around in a circle. At one point I managed to get a conga line of about 2-3 people (not including me) all carrying vehicles going.

jaazaniah1 · February 2017

I'm working on whatever the kill 5000 cowboy robots perk is.

chaosdrgnz43 · February 2017

Really underwhelmed with the new event. There was barely anything interesting in the event store. But the Open Mission is somewhat fun.
The Liberator's aoe knockback is just ridiculously annoying, if you blocked late for a milisecond. Falling off the cliff is a nuisance for players w/o flight.

blockwave · February 2017

The event is fine and fun, you just need decent healers and people who stay at one tower to defend it. The titles buyable with action figures is good addition too !

roughbearmattach · February 2017

chaosdrgnz43 said:
Really underwhelmed with the new event. There was barely anything interesting in the event store. But the Open Mission is somewhat fun.
The Liberator's aoe knockback is just ridiculously annoying, if you blocked late for a milisecond. Falling off the cliff is a nuisance for players w/o flight.

Remember to let go of block once you start falling. You will take less damage.
You take little or no damage if you fall off while Super Jump is active, and less with acrobatics active.

chaosdrgnz43 · February 2017

roughbearmattach said:

Remember to let go of block once you start falling. You will take less damage.
You take little or no damage if you fall off while Super Jump is active, and less with acrobatics active.

I don't really mind the fall damage. It's getting knocked off the fight is what's annoying.

roughbearmattach · February 2017

Honestly, I like the Repel off the cliff (and I think it's a repel, not a knock). Makes one consequence of a hit something other than damage or hold.

Also, it gives a reason to use flight in the fight.

riverocean · February 2017

akaara1 said:
I am loving this event with my AOE queen. Unlike the cosmics (boring) this even I can freely spam my AOE taking out large mobs of robots. I love it. But having a tank at the tower is key because of being squishy. So I am enjoying it even with no rewards.

Kiga: No AOE
Ape: No AOE
Dino: No AOE
Eido: AOE but limited usefulness

Most cosmics are geared towards single target dps... boring.

I must agree - there's relatively few if any requirements for participation in this event - And I LOVE it - all a player must do is pay attention. While events like Kiga or Teliosaur are interesting the long list of do's and don'ts is a turn off. I'm hoping we'll see more events designed like this one is.

New event: High Noon at Snake Gulch

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