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What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Release Notes 6/18/2020
kaiserin
Posts: 3,196 Cryptic Developer
Therakiel's Temple
Valerian Scarlet
Black Fang
Baron Cimetiere
Vladic Dracul
Therakiel
Alerts
Dogz Group
Misc
- Fixed an issue where the Doomsday Clock perk was failing in certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where the lair completion perks were not showing their count progress.
Valerian Scarlet
- Added a short delay to Valerian's mob summons to allow for their spawn fx to finish before they can attack.
Black Fang
- Fixed an issue where he was not using his lunge as often as he should.
- Fixed an issue where he would interrupt key abilities when using his stomp attack.
- Fixed an issue where he was only summoning one type of enemy.
Baron Cimetiere
- Fixed an issue where his cursed ground was only being applied to the main target.
- Gave Baron different charge animations for his different shields.
Vladic Dracul
- Fixed an issue where his Shadow Eruption ability had a shorter range than intended.
- Fixed an issue where Vladic would sometimes not properly reset his position.
- Removed name callout on his Cage abilities as it often called the wrong target.
Therakiel
- Minor adjustment to divine light fx to make it easier to see.
- Therakiel's Bleak Glory ability now has different requirements depending on if he is Light or Dark empowered.
- Fixed an issue where some players would not get ported to the correct location upon completing the lair.
Alerts
- The Valerian Scarlet alert has been extended until next Tuesday.
Dogz Group
- Fixed a bug where some Dogz abilities had a range of 5ft.
- Gave Ulfhednars and Berserkers a new ability that can stack up damage buffs on nearby allies.
- Increased the charge time on Ulfhednars and Berserkers lunge.
- Gave Berserkers a new charged ability that can stun players.
- Gave Berserkers a chain lash combo that knocks players towards them on the last hit if they are not blocking.
- Gave Ulfhednars a charged lariat ability that knocks players towards them on the last hit if they are not blocking.
- Gave Ulfhednars a charged short range cone ability that can knock down players.
Misc
- Fixed an issue where Valerian Scarlet's glow tights for legs did not glow.
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Comments
but that dogz buff, is completely unnecessary.
This. Also, nothing in the patch notes about the hellementals detonating early unless it was that vague crap about the aura changes.
Not a fan. People have mentioned several things in need of fixing yet none of those are touched. Instead, you made even more things unnecessarily difficult and overtuned all because a select few said it was too easy.
This isn't "for the players" at all. If you're only going to listen to a bunch of spoiled brats that don't want to share the "new" content, do us all a favor and pull the plug.
I won't name the names, but please don't buff content just because x or y person said it was too easy.
specially if you don't test properly. and I mean test with a legit team setup and taking down the bosses the normal way. because things on paper may look nice but in reality they may not be.
I of course mean 0 disrespect to anyone or the devs. I'm just a concerned endgame player.
Up until the last update everything within the dungeon was appealing, had a challenging difficulty associated to it, and even though there were details to tweak here and there, it was for the most part very enjoyable, challenging and rewarding. The mechanics of the bosses were very interesting and they require actual coordination and thinking at the moment of engaging them.
This is no longer the case. In a very general sense, the instance was severely over-tuned, and added fake difficulty in the form of a completely unnecessary buffing of adds, which were already a nuisance more than a challenge. The only boss that actually felt like a real boss was Therakiel himself after phase 1.
The other bosses merely didn't feel as threatening as the adds that pour in on waves, making the adds be focus of the encounter, more noticeably for Black Fang's gang, instead of the boss. Tossing adds into the boss and buffing them makes the encounter more about defeating the waves and less about defeating the boss itself, which make the encounter more tedious and unfun, more than it makes it challenging. The adds shouldn't be the focus of the encounters, bosses should. If adds should be there for the encounter, make it so that they support the mechanics of the boss, not the other way around. Valerian's Sigils are prime examples of it.
It is currently no longer enjoyable. Far from it. And the reward, unless it was modified to be even slightly higher than what it dropped before the update, is completely disproportionate and not worth the effort.
i feel just about the same with this, the Dungeon felt fine Yesterday up until some of the Mob buff changes happened. If some more changes were to happen to make it more enjoyable id get more people around to enjoy what Champions online has to offer.
More elitist BS. It's supposed to be completable in blue primaries and R5s. It's pretty obviously not. Especially not by (at least 95% of) ATs.
Also, since it *stole* TT that pretty much everyone could do before from us, it should be doable by pretty much everyone. Fake difficulty in the form of number gating is bad design, and new TT is full of it.
Seriously, take the alert mechanics, make that TT. Put an 'elite' version in for people who want the challenge. (It should have the same rewards - if they really just want the challenge, they shouldn't care about the rewards).
(And i've been told by one person that if i don't have a PA dps toon (presumably FF) in endgame gear, i shouldn't bother to play a DPS role in TT. The second biggest problems with 'hardcore' lairs is the players become elitists who will only play with people who have optimal builds).
In what dream ? It was stated to be a challenging, endgame revamp. Merc and r5 don't fit that definition.
You feel completly mistaken about the purpose of this new TT.
The alert version of the bosses is aimed at more casual audience. And I feel that's good. It allows people to enjoy TT content without the difficulty, and even to train them for the real challenge and make them learn the mechanics. So far, the alerts are exactly the same as the lair : same map, same cutscene, just cut down in alerts.
You have the same, easier content, but not all at once. Is this really a problem, that it's not all at once ?
Try here:
Or here:
(Yep, you can totally invite whomever and learn how to run TT. No, wait, you can't, because most people don't have GCR gear and R7+s).
Or here:
(I'm pretty sure someone also said that the devs had said that Mercs + R5s was going to be the target, but I can't find the quote at the moment.)
Also, why are we pretending that number-gating stuff is 'difficulty'. It's not. If the mechanics are challenging, that's fine. Not complaining about the mechanics of the fights (except perhaps Val's tendency to fly in the air where melee can't even hit her). The mechanics being challenging have *literally nothing to do with the number gating*. And the difference between blue primaries and R5s vs. GCR gear and R7s is literally just numbers. GCR gear + R7s doesn't make you play better.
It's the end of a major story arc. You seem to be confused about what the purpose of story arcs are. The purpose of any TT rework needs to be dictated by that fact.
If the purpose of TT isn't ending the VB story arc, then the new purpose is stupid. (And if the old TT couldn't be maintained, they should have provided a regular version first, then released an 'epic' version of it, if necessary. Taking content away and redesigning for ~20 players is dumb). And they literally could just make a TT with the alert versions of boss fights substituted for the current ones - virtually no extra work!
Yes. Playing it as a lair is a lot different than playing it as a series of alerts spread out over more than a month, especially as a matter of *storytelling*. Why couldn't the hardcore version be the alerts, and the rest of us could just go and enjoy the lair?
You seem to have mistaken this game as a game primarily about challenge. It's not and never was. It's a game about *player creativity* first (FF power choice, costume design, etc...), and storytelling second. Challenge is a much lower priority than either of those in the game's DNA, and making content that intentionally wrecks those two things is bad design *for this game*.
But... For the first time in a long while the SG is active to the point where we can regularly pull a team together for a lair (admittedly this is relatively easy with new content). We are forced to do team work to a much larger extent. We're changing our builds to try and function better together. In short, we are having fun, despite the complaining in team chat after the 10th wipe.
I truly doubt this would have happened if we had blown through the lair on the third try with little need to adapt. At that point it would just become a grind to get the drops we want, and then not running out again.
So I hope this lair will be kept difficult. Very little other content is and if there's no challenge people do lose interest eventually.
A few things though; is it possible to get the Therakiel scripture lore perk now?
And does anyone know what layer the Brilliance mod adds resistance in? I haven't been able to check on PTS yet.
Im sorry what? Did I not say to stop being so entitled to think this content is built around your skills/brain width?
This is changing slowly, and I think the whole thing is going to be this way soon. Imagine when you go into Kevin Poe mission, and get absolutely annihilated w/o 5 people that know what they're doing.
Personally I like having the extra difficult content. I think it manages to keep the end-game fresh. However, rather than relying on raids and difficult lairs, it would be nice to get some more upgraded middle-of-the-road content, like certain alerts. Stuff that doesn't require a fully kitted character but still has engaging mechanics like Rampage Gravitar and Cybermind, two fights that are still some of the most fun imo. More content like that would be perfect and I think that would make a lot of people who aren't hardcore into endgame content a lot more keen on sticking around.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Uh guess what? These complaints are coming from the players you mentioned in this category, cosmics are indeed boring and too easy for us veteran players, so is TA. and before Eido was removed, I succesfully played every role in it, and I know some of the other people voicing their opinion have too
But yeah I guess we have no right to complain, or voice our opinions *shrug*
Like I said on other threads, I love this lair, I love that it's harder than all the content we've got before but I feel like some things are unnecessary, this dogs buff for example. The lair is starting to feel like too much work for little reward. I'd say it was in a good place already. And it still is for the most part. Calm down. Let us voice ourselves without jumping in to attack.
As for the gear argument it's definitely do-able in most roles with mercenary and rank 5 mods if you have a lot of experience in the game and the right builds, but I feel like healer has more pressure through the whole thing so it might be a bit more demanding for them.
Edit: again before this is misread. I'd like to point out that I am arguing for me and some friends who are experienced veteran players as well as a couple people who commented here. not squirrelloid or some of the others commenting here. So please don't loop me in with that group.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Grind! Grind! GRIIIIND! IF you can defeat the mission.
Shame the old version had to be replaced, can't just add an elite option, can we? Damn shame if everyone was happy.
Yes because the 'old version' that an average of 2 teams played per year was a ton of fun I betcha!
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
oh. i would of run old therakial's lair religiously if therakial's heavy sword was ACTUALLY in the dang lair before the dang "EPIC" therakial's lair remake. but noooo. cryptic had to have a nice shiny reward for their cursed costume contests.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I do think it's a smidge overtuned though, and the dogz buff was in no way needed. But, I think that good players should be able to adapt and overcome by refining builds and tactics. Not everyone is a "good player" though. As a middle-tier player who is struggling w the dungeon, I have to think that many people will never be able to complete this irrespective of builds and gear... which kinda sucks.
Just ran a TA yesterday and, I gotta say, the difficulty jump between TA and TT is pretty huge.
To all you "Elite" self-satisfied types running your mouths and puffing up your lil egotistical chesties... thanks for being you. That kinda comedy never gets old.
Wait how is that an insult..?
42 40s, LTSer.
Bruh this community is so small besides alerts/cosmics everything is two teams per year.
42 40s, LTSer.
It's not, that's the point. Some people love to jump at you and call you trash or a "casual player" if you so much as disagree with any changes in the game, even if minor ones.
In this case I'm pretty sure leucha was being sarcastic haha.
I think this is a pretty nice idea.
Have you tried to run it in blue primaries and R5s?
And really, your comment wasn't limited to gear. It was that pretty much anyone could run it so long as you taught them how (ie, learned the mechanics). Which clearly isn't true, there are builds that will never run it. Heck, most ATs probably aren't capable even with endgame gear.
I await documented proof that a full team of ATs (without any of the ones that don't have capped damage yet) in blue gear with R5s can successfully complete TT. I remain exceedingly doubtful.
It is both the case that endgame gear doesn't make you a better player, and that TT basically requires it anyway. These are the essential elements in a claim that it's only fake difficulty. (To whit, the things necessary to success have nothing to do with how well you play. Here: endgame gear is necessary for success, and having endgame gear doesn't make you a better player).
I ran TT more than 2x in the weeks leading up to the update, and would have run it more if i could have reliably found a team to do it with. Including taking several players through it for their first time.
"All the time"? No, impossible to find a team that often. (And you needed at least 4 people to legit get past all the mirror puzzles). But certainly more than you're saying. I don't seem to recall you ever responding to requests for people to join a TT team, either.
Just takes some experimenting.
But as mentioned above, a full AT team is unrealistic unless you're doing it on purpose. Zen can be grinded (even though it takes forever), and they have freeform sales all the time, and they just had a long freeform give away.
"What I meant was, TT is too hard if you're not in the best gear with the best mods!"
"Er, what I meant was, TT is too hard if you don't have a premade!"
"Uh... TT is too hard if you're playing an archetype!"
I'm just imagining someone carrying a football goal and frantically running with it while a person holding a football is chasing them, ready to score a point the moment they finally leave the goal in one place. Reminds me of some "X is too hard" arguments that have taken place in the past. The more things change the more they stay the same
So uh... I hear that new TT thing might be exciting. Might pop in to try it. Hope you all haven't farmed it into boring yet o3o
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I think I've been explicit, it's not real difficulty. It's arbitrary number-gating. (And I haven't changed my stance regarding gear at all - best gear + optimized build gets you passed the number-gating.) So there was no move in goalposts here whatsoever.
Never said that.
Because there are archetypes, and therefore that's the standard around which numbers should be calibrated. You can make the *mechanics* of a fight as difficult (ie, real difficulty), but the numbers should be tuned to archetypes (in reasonably available gear).
Considering you can mess a FF up enough to do worse than an Archetype, and considering the whole point of F2P is to have more people to play with, that isn't exactly an unreasonable standard.
So no, my goalposts haven't really shifted at all. You'd have to be really uncharitable to conclude otherwise.
The whole point of insisting on ATs was (1) removing (most) build optimization from the equation, and (2) setting it on a reasonably well-defined build power level. (ie, it intentionally prevents me from being able to say 'doesn't count, you used X power).
Maybe the sigils were killing the dps too fast? Maybe you just find really bad teams by advertising in zone? idk, hard to notice what the objective point of failure for the dps is when I'm tanking. But that's not been my experience. Nor am I sure what you mean by 'completely new players'.
But none of this even addresses the fundamental argument that number-gating is not real difficulty. Would the Val fight really be easier as a matter of actual difficulty if the sigils had 8k or even 1 hp compared to current? I don't think so. The only actual difficulty they introduce is noticing they appear and making it a priority to kill them.
I didn't just rush to play it because the revamp was coming (although that did make it easier to fill a team) - i'd done it as often as i could get a team since I came back in early May. I also ran it several times last fall before anyone had even heard a whisper of a TT revamp. (I've also run all the other lairs since I came back in early May, although i had to solo Rhinoplasty and got only a single other person for Viper's Nest - but full teams for Mandragalore (2x!), Destroid Factory (at least 2x), Teleios Tower, and Burial Mound. And of course Andrith several times, but that's easy to get a full team). I like the old story content, it's much more fun than grinding alerts or killing cosmics. And TT (old TT) *was* my favorite story content in the game.
And FWIW, population is not higher because of the TT revamp compared to the lockdowns. There are definitely less people in the game than there were in early May. Population has been dropping consistently for weeks. There wasn't even a noticeable break in that decline due to TT being released. Significant numbers of people did not come back for the TT revamp. If you'd been here in early May, you'd definitely have noticed the much higher numbers that were likely because of quarantine. (It was at least twice current game population).
However, that isn't any time soon for me. So, yeah, count me "gone for now". I'll be back eventually.
-=-=-=-=-=-(CO in-game handle: @WarCan )-=-=-=-=-=-
"Okay, you're DEAD, what do you do NEXT?"
Even then there is still a lot, of content, even endgame content that you ***could*** do on an archetype, the game has variety, let it have it. It woudn't be fair to the people who pay, grind or take their time to build a proper freeform, to get content made easy for AT's.
now back to not pretending, AT's can be really useful, if you know how, which is literally the same case for freeforms, you can butcher them badly. now I will agree a bit of the AT's(mostly support ones) need some changes/upgrades. But I think they are meant to be trials so people can eventually upgrade, I know that kinda sucks, but be happy AT aren't actually bad or useless, and that you can actually grind for a freeform or get giveaways every year and there is FF sales all the time where they become a fair price. case closed.
--on a side note--
My only two complaints about TT right now is the dogz mobs in the black fang fight. and the fact that ranged dps can kite away most fights avoiding most of the mechanics in some bosses, while melee are forced to deal with them all.
Otherwise it seems to be in a good spot.
Just yesterday a friend and I did Rhinoplasty with our modestly equipped lvl 35s. Hadn't done it in quite awhile. Took patience and teamwork, but cleared it and had fun. Probably we'll do a few more of the older lairs now.
One reason why I asked about advertising above is because I am worried about game population. Seems like if one is going to put money into doing a revamp some effort/money should be put in to promoting it in venues other than the game itself.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Yeah I do agree that it favors AOE builds they help -a lot-, and I feel like melee AOE is underrated we did really well when we had 2 dps with dragon kick, arc of ruin, shockwave, havoc stomp, scything blade, lightweave slash, stuff like that. Still think the dogz are a bit overtuned now though, atleast for that fight. Way too much CC going on, mostly knock spam from the boss and the mobs at the same time making you a ping pong ball.
As for the other thing. I played a PA build and a munitions build and I atleast felt like I could avoid a lot of the mechanics in the boss fights all together except the instant death stuff like baron block, therakiel empowered, val sigils. That's just my experience/opinion though of course, different perspectives are perfectly fine. And I could be wrong on that front.