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What is the Arc Client?
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Release Notes 6/12/2020
kaiserin
Posts: 3,196 Cryptic Developer
Therakiels Temple
Valerian Scarlet Alert
- Fixed a bug where Light and Dark auras were not removed once you completed the lair.
- Fixed a bug where Valerian's Blinding light didn't display its fx on the ground if you were off the ground.
- Fixed a bug where Black Fang didn't always reset to his starting point.
- Fixed a bug where Valerian Scarlet was dropping the incorrect items.
Valerian Scarlet Alert
- Fixed a bug where the alert dropped rewards as if you were level 30.
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Comments
Valerian Scarlet
Alert version
Pretty well-rounded and challenging overall, but maybe a bit too much for a lot of the more casual players which is what alerts are meant for. Only seems to be difficult when your team doesn't coordinate, but that could just be dumb luck on my part. As it is, I'd either leave it or nerf it since it doesn't need any buffs.
Therakiel's Temple version
Still think this is overtuned for an entry boss, especially with how hard the sigils hit. My advice would be to tone down the sigils and mob damage, otherwise it's fine. MAYBE a more forgiving timer on the sigils, but can't say for sure. The flight in both versions is a bit excessive too, as it's a chore to do damage as melee.
Black Fang
Still the most balanced boss of the whole run, especially when you learn about his wombo combo instakill stacks and can keep them under control. Only advice would be to tone down the knocks that ignore block (whenever you can manage to sneak one in, that is) and maybe give the adds a little less health/resistance.
Baron Cimetiere
The boss itself is fine, our biggest issue is still with the ridiculous amount of nonstop-spawning adds and a rather unforgiving enrage timer. Less adds with less damage, if you even want to go that far, would be good as well as upping said enraged timer.
Vlad Dracul
Much like Black Fang, this was a pretty well-rounded fight. Only annoyances would be the collision on the "hold" zones of the cages messing people up and getting them stuck, difficulty targeting said cages still, and the VFX spam on the bats which he never stops summoning. The VFX still have a tendency to overload the game too, causing Vlad to become invisible. Maybe give the bats less effects or have them spawn less, otherwise the fight seems fine as long as you don't miss a block or heal him from the blood pool.
Therakiel
SURPRISINGLY FUN, though very stressful for tanks. Still think the pillars in his phase 2 shouldn't move from where they're summoned. The DoT you get if you don't pick up light or dark, or pick up the wrong one, also results in an instant kill rather than "receiving more damage" as was stated in the release notes and PTS. Could be a severe DoT, but it shouldn't be instant death until he starts blocking again.
Misc. Details
While we do have it down at this point, I still think it should be dialed back a bit so everyone in the playerbase can enjoy it. Heroics would be great as baseline gear, though as it is now, the lair's way too difficult for that to be possible for a whole team. Healers seem to struggle the most, as it's almost necessary for them to have top tier gear to keep up with everyone else, as well as have AoPM slotted.
While it was mostly Black Fang, the bosses after him seem to knock through block as well, ESPECIALLY Dracul. Knock resistance stacks wouldn't matter, so unless the tank and nearby DPS were against a wall, they were getting thrown into the drink which is a free heal for him. Not sure if it's a bug, but it's pretty annoying seeing as how Black Fang gets stacks from knocks (regardless if you block them) and Dracul effectively removes you from the fight for 12 seconds (enough for tank to lose aggro) or gets a free heal from someone who isn't paying attention.
Lots to take in with this lair, most of the mechanics being nowhere in the base game. I wouldn't exactly call that good design, but it's not as hellish once you figure everything out. Looking forward to guides, and I still hope you're not done working on the lair itself.
It added a gated re-entry to Val's chamber at the end which requires players who are defeated to wait out the battle until a stage is complete or all players are defeated - 'You must wait until your friends have finished fighting'.
This is super fun and engaging for people who don't have min-maxed characters. Standing around while other people fight is not my idea of fun. Especially since a COMPLETE re-set happens if all heroes get defeated, making the 'Alert' nearly impossible to complete with a random group.
Had fun with it yesterday, as it was a challenge but still workable. Today I made the decision to never touch it again. (I quit out after our 10th total party wipe, so never even saw if the rewards were worth it.)
this game is the main reason why i have pessimistic view of challenge and difficulty. adding much unneeded hoops to the "endgame" stuff with various stuff taylored to the overpower builds ran by those kind of players that aren't happy unless almost all bosses has the potential to reduce their character to atoms.
We get the mechanic and got her to half life....but having that many powerhouse mobs and those sigils...we just couldn’t do it fast enough.
The sigils need to be easier to kill.
On the alert version I'm a lot of "multiple mechanics at once" bugs:
- spawns and sigils over lapping
- sigils and the stun fire loop tell attack
- sigils and the nock back
- got a trifecta once sigils, mobs, stun
Once she just went nuts did no mechanics and just did the knock back attack (no mobs no sigils), the block started going through blocks, no one got knock resistance, and the knock attack started to do triple damage ticks. We died.
Haven't figured out if it is a 'mechanic' (not killing mobs?) twice she reset health totally, she could have lost aggro range on everyone one of those (Like the LI rock boss does if everyone chases jets too far)
I suppose we should be grateful they didn't give her the pathing Kigatilik's dogs have...
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
“Its not "overtuned" or "elitist viewed" anyone can do the lair. Just because you cant does not mean it is too hard.”
———————————————————
Little contradictory there don’t you think?
Anyone can’t just do the lair, that’s the first problem, even experienced players can’t just do it.
lol its made so anyone cant just do the lair
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I am a little worried about the suggested needed for uber dpsers. As experience at dino shows, there really aren't many of those around.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Anyone can do it, so long as they're top 0.1% DPSers. *facepalm*
I've been on several teams at this point (as the tank) that couldn't clear VS because DPS couldn't clear sigils. The sigils do a ton of damage to dps, and most dps simply don't do enough damage.
You can explain the mechanics of fights to people, but there are hard number thresholds here that most players simply can't cut it no matter how perfectly they play. So much for 'play the hero you want to play'. It's use what would be a 'net build' if CO was popular enough to have net builds, or don't bother playing. "Learn the fights" and "teach people to play it" doesn't do a thing if they simply don't have builds or gear good enough to clear the number bar. That's not a challenge, that's fake difficulty.
I'm incredibly disappointed. TT should have been tuned to the numbers of the VS alert. What was the point for taking away the TT lair from 99% of the game population, and making it something only 1% of players can actually do?
Yep.
But you’ll get the same few who will say you are wrong.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I think you'll find what you consider a competent dps is a pretty optimized build. 3k dps is a reasonably limited build set, and you need over 3k dps to clear 16k hp in 5s.
A pretty standard optimized single blade build with blue primaries and R5 mods only hits ~2k sustained dps (measured on dino admittedly, but you're also not exactly going to have the time to build bleed stacks and detonate them on a sigil), and it's going to get brutalized by the sigil damage while trying to dps it down.
AFAICT, 5 sigils spawn, and 2 dps would need to clear 2.5 sigils plus cover the distance between them. Spending much more than 5s on a sigil is probably a death sentence, considering Val tends to hide some up on the top platform - even an R3 tp is only so fast.
Once you start talking about full GCR gear and R7 mods, that's a pretty limited player set.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Assuming it's spammable (single blade's has a short cd, which is remarkably relevant when you're dealing with a 5s window). And assuming its one of the powersets with a powerful attack. Kamokami's build guide lists all the attacks that qualify - that's a pretty limited range of character builds.
You're also assuming you're single-statting with all your mods/gear, that your EU and form work off the same SS, and that you're using one of the PSS which has specs that allow you to double-dip on damage layer. You're talking a limited range of optimized builds. (My single blade character does these things, but it's far more optimized than what most of the game population is probably using.)
The game's biggest selling point is customization. You're describing content for a game that was basically nothing but 'archetypes', assuming the archetypes were designed competently instead of intentionally gimped.
Possibly. IDK, i've always had to tank. But I can understand why lots of dps can't clear that bar.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
People shouldn't have to adjust their builds. The game's about building the character that you want - content which tells people there's a very small range of acceptable builds is a terrible design philosophy *for this game*.
I'm not negative because I can't put up a character who could do it, or that I'm unwilling to learn the mechanics. I'm negative because the design philosophy is counter to what this game is. Pretty much any level 40 character should be able to complete a major story arc lair. That new TT doesn't allow that is why it's bad.
I mean, just look at what you're saying. "No garbo powers" = forget theme, theme characters can't play this. "single stat it" - you have to be boring and net build to matter. Yawn. So much for all that freedom. You're basically saying the options the game gives you are all traps, and there's a small subset of very specific builds which are what everyone should be playing.
It's especially bad because the problem parts are fake difficulty number hurdles, not real difficulty.
If were all to play identical streamlined builds might as well burn down the FF store make every one identical ATs with no flexibility. Sounds like WOW style game and players not CO.
Some of the comments in the thread remind me of neverwinter, people bought all the power items, ran through the game (plus skipping things with convince items) had 0 challenge and 0 game to play. They essentially paid to be bored and complain, the problem might not be the non-ideal players but the bored cash shop meta-only hurting themselves.
Devs don't want to. Grumbling from the early days I remember people running with the dev team proposing something and getting immediately snapped with "No, this isn't how I'm doing it" "No this isn't how I want it". Never We or cryptic, always *I*.
Either way so far TT seem super popular (sarcasm) 0 runs in the mornings, 2 at best in the after noon. 90% troll comments about it, to quote theendgame "Based on the people I've seen running it I wouldn't trust the comments for accuracy of how easy it is".
At least a few are starting to admit there is challenge, and issues needing to be addressed.
+1 for pointeless request to fix that challenge system for all content: solo, duo, 5man, elite, epic.
Too bad cryptic can't even afford to add a few lights to Vals cave.
Theme characters are fun. It's why I play the game. If I wanted to just kill everything the fastest I can I would just make a fire using ranged character and spam fire ball all day.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
The range of effective builds is apparently an average of ~1 primary attack power per framework for dps, ~2 tank passives (barely, and one of which is only playable in a straight jacket), and a very limited set of support builds (lots of passive options, but few effective heal options). That's pretty limited. Also only ~5 PSS, ~half the other spec trees, and darn close to just a single gear philosophy (stack mods in one stat).
Compared to the range of options the game offers, that's really small.
And I picked that example because i haven't even gotten to the other parts of TT, and keep watching the DPS I'm tanking for fail at sigils despite promptly going and doing it. (And not infrequently dying to the sigils).
It's a major story arc finishing lair. It should be available to just about everyone. It's fine if there's difficulty in terms of doing stuff that isn't numbers-gated, but there should be basically no numbers gating. If that means the sigils have only 1k hp, or even 1hp, fine, punish people who don't play the mechanics. But what's the point in giving them 17k hp except to say 'players who don't have the numbers to pass this point can't go on'?
For the people who do 8k dps/s, the difference between 1hp sigils, 1k hp sigils and 17k hp sigils would barely register. It's certainly not adding any challenge for them. It's just a meaningless number gate.
(I haven't gotten to experience the rage timers yet, but that also sounds like a terrible idea implemented solely to punish people who don't want to play a cookie-cutter power build).
i agree with you, they should have kept the old version of TT for casual players with old reward and then add epic version of TT for hard core players with better reward, rather than removing the old version and suddenly making it super hard, considering this game has low population, it make no sense to make things harder and make number of players even smaller. in my opinion the way eso and gw2 and swtor are doing dungeons with normal mode for casuals and hard mode for more hard core players is right thing to do, making content for only one group will hurt the game in the long run and this will back fire in my opinion. but we have to wait and see.
I'm usually running TT on a Force themed, ranged tank, spamming Force cascade. Do you read that ? A ****ing ranged tank using Force Cascade. I also managed to solo kill all the sigils with an Open Palm Strike "magic-ninja" DPS. Not even a top tier main power. Is there really such an excuse like "muh theme" ?