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Alert System improved Ao'Qephoth still broken

guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
edited January 2014 in Champions Online Discussion
I love the new alert system, it's something that we've needed almost from the start, but why this stupid contest winning villain is still in the game remains a mystery. I don't blame whoever created him, it's a neat looking villain, but someone made some mistakes when they were coding him and putting him in the game.

Seems like a simple fix to me: recode him or remove him from the game.
Post edited by guyhumual on
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  • flyingfinnflyingfinn Posts: 8,408 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Just give it the "default Alert set' of Infernal Supernatural.
    Seems it's the most favorite set among the villains....
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  • crypticbuxomcrypticbuxom Posts: 4,589 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    GC left him as is to provide a "challenge". It didn't matter since all the alert rotation was random. But now its going to be a hindrance and encourage players from not touching whatever type of alert he occupies.

    If anything its going to hurt Alert queue numbers...Can I be in favor of keeping him?
  • shadowzero66shadowzero66 Posts: 331 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Ao'Q require either ridiculous DPS, Skarn's Bane, heal debuff (Trauma, Cut Where It Counts, Pestilence), or some minor tactics. He is a lot more punishing than Cimetere though.
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  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Ao'Q require either ridiculous DPS, Skarn's Bane, heal debuff (Trauma, Cut Where It Counts, Pestilence), or some minor tactics. He is a lot more punishing than Cimetere though.

    I tried him with a level 40 pestilence character. Didn't work. Kind of why I made the thread.

    I love the changes we're seeing with CO these days, I really appreciate the work, but this dude is broken and not doing you any favors. I know enough to avoid this guy in the queue but supposing someone a few weeks new to the game joined Radiation Rumble with this stupid villain . . .

    It was a great idea to get the fans involved with these villain designs, I would love to see more stuff like this in the future, but whoever put him together for the game made some serious mistakes somewhere.
  • forrksakesexcoforrksakesexco Posts: 435 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Trauma and Skarns Bane are the best things for Ao Qephoth and if nobody in the team brought them then either.
    1. The alert will definitely fail if it is a burst or
    2. The alert may fail depending on how much DPS there is.
    I've taken him as a level 40 in a dockside dustup w Ebon Ruin mostly - I didn't detect any Skarns Bane and we did win (though it was very marginal).
    I don't regard him as broken just challenging in a hit or miss sort of way. Any prepared team would bring the right tools for the job and trounce him and I'm not sure they would need to be 40s either.
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  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Well to be fair I've beaten him in alerts before, not in a Burst alert IIRC, but I no longer queue for him even if I have a toon with Ebon Ruin. I think in a system that's designed to be random group ups, having a villain that requires certain powers is a mistake.
  • forrksakesexcoforrksakesexco Posts: 435 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I understand completely and have been on a coupla Bursts w no Skarns Bane which I quit coz it was a waste of time. I'm just saying he's not unbeatable, tho it's a real good idea not to bother with an AoQephoth burst unless you're packing SB. Either it's on the team or it's not and no amount of DPS will make up for it if it's not on the burst alert team.
    I think broken is maybe too strong a word, theoretically given the very finite number of players we will all eventually learn and fight AoQephoth with the right builds. Lolz hopeless optimism as usual!
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  • cptcooltasticcptcooltastic Posts: 221 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Pfft!

    I solo'd Ao'Q with a lv 10! No Passive, No Heals, No Attacks!

    This chump needs a buff!:biggrin:
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I understand completely and have been on a coupla Bursts w no Skarns Bane which I quit coz it was a waste of time. I'm just saying he's not unbeatable, tho it's a real good idea not to bother with an AoQephoth burst unless you're packing SB. Either it's on the team or it's not and no amount of DPS will make up for it if it's not on the burst alert team.
    I think broken is maybe too strong a word, theoretically given the very finite number of players we will all eventually learn and fight AoQephoth with the right builds. Lolz hopeless optimism as usual!
    I think I'm happy with the word "Broken" for burst Radiation Rumble instances of A0'Qephoth anyways. I would be happy with him gone from just the Radiation Rumble Alerts if they really wanted to keep him around without retooling him.
  • chaelkchaelk Posts: 7,732 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    first drain, get out of melee range plus block.
    second drain- break line of sight. the walls are good for this
    third drain- trauma but blocking still helps.

    You CANNOT simply stand near him and keep attacking. If he targets you, you MUST STOP and block, move or trauma(or hope someone else can.) Otherwise he heals. Too many people just keep attacking and then complain it's not doing anything.

    Don't have pets out, he can drain them too.
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  • joybuzzerxjoybuzzerx Posts: 882 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I've beaten him on all those with out any Ebon Ruin or Skarn's Bane on the team. Though generally it was still a good team and not loaded with level 6's.

    Sadly, I couldn't beat him solo on the Radiation Rumble :(
  • cyronecyrone Posts: 1,028 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    One thing people tend to forget with Ao (and the game as a whole) is Blocking. If you block his Life Drain, he doesn't heal with it.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    He's not broken, he just requires you to do something other than stand there and mindlessly spam a power.

    Yeah yeah I know, in a lot of peoples' minds that makes him broken.

    A fight isn't exactly challenging if all it takes is for one person who has aggro to know what they're doing.
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I never thought of him as broken - I have always found him the villain least worth bothering with.


    Just like all the contest villains, he doesn't drop a costume. That alone kills most of my desire.

    He can be brought down consistently with decent teams, something I also don't expect to see in general alerts of 5 random solo queuers.

    Plenty of people struggle with the easier villains as is, why make things harder? The only reason I used to run elite so often was for the better drops. Now that elite rarely impacts drop rates or rewards save for a few instances, why bother?

    People may defend him on the basis of providing a challenge, but let's be real here, if extra challenge isn't rewarded, there simply is no lasting appeal.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    secksegai wrote: »
    I never thought of him as broken - I have always found him the villain least worth bothering with.


    Just like all the contest villains, he doesn't drop a costume. That alone kills most of my desire.

    He can be brought down consistently with decent teams, something I also don't expect to see in general alerts of 5 random solo queuers.

    Plenty of people struggle with the easier villains as is, why make things harder? The only reason I used to run elite so often was for the better drops. Now that elite rarely impacts drop rates or rewards save for a few instances, why bother?

    People may defend him on the basis of providing a challenge, but let's be real here, if extra challenge isn't rewarded, there simply is no lasting appeal.

    Let me introduce you to a simple concept.... doing stuff for the fun of it.


    I know I know! You don't find it fun. But some people do, and that's why it's in the game.
  • draogndraogn Posts: 1,269 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I recall a dev or cm at one time saying that Ao's passive was bugged and healing more then it should. The same goes for nemesis who use the darkness powerset. They also said at one point, (I'll see if I can find the post or blog about it), that a fix would be hard due to how Ao and the nemesis powersets are coded.
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Let me introduce you to a simple concept.... doing stuff for the fun of it.


    I know I know! You don't find it fun. But some people do, and that's why it's in the game.

    If people found it fun it would pop more often. No other villain can match the worm's nearly empty q that frequently.
  • towershield#4714 towershield Posts: 1,208 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Let me introduce you to a simple concept.... doing stuff for the fun of it.


    I know I know! You don't find it fun. But some people do, and that's why it's in the game.

    And some people do things for the bonuses, for completion's sake, for great justice and simply because it's there, etc. I know I know, people playing the game for different reasons is a hard concept to wrap your head around sometimes, right?

    Seck's concerns aren't unwarranted. Ao'Q's self healing now is at least what Demoiselle Nocturne's healing used to be. When Alerts were first introduced on the PTS her self healing was just crazy, especially in Burst Alerts. It was so crazy overall that it had to be nerfed. Ao'Q doesn't get that treatment because his character, as it was submitted, is supposed to be a self healing nightmare.

    In Ao'Q's bio that was submitted along with the character design the creator stated it's supposed to be some sort of life-siphoning leech creature. He even put emphasis on how the thing is supposed to primarily use drain abilities because of concept. While it's nice that the devs were able to follow that to the letter it made this one villain a massive p.i.t.a. because of it. It also doesn't help that Life Drain has always laughed at blocks too. Blocking will stop the healing component but you'll still take more damage while blocking it than anyone really ought to be taking from such a short maintained ability.
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  • draogndraogn Posts: 1,269 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I'm finding a lot of reports of Ao's passive being bugged from players but none from devs at the moment.

    But the passive's shadowfeast is a primary suspect, and why Skarn helps beat him since it removes his passive. Shadowfeast allows him to regen some health each time he attacks, Shadow Destroyer suffered the same bug in NemCon at one point.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    He's not broken, he just requires you to do something other than stand there and mindlessly spam a power.

    Yeah yeah I know, in a lot of peoples' minds that makes him broken.

    A fight isn't exactly challenging if all it takes is for one person who has aggro to know what they're doing.

    Please don't assume, you know what they say about people that assume

    I had agro, I was blocking his drain, but with 10 stacks of deadly poison and four other toons pounding away on him, he was just healing every single point of damage dealt to him. This also happened the last time I met him in Radiation Rumble almost a year ago with my ice tank. Back then I assumed that it might have partly been because of lower level players, sadly my tank being a tank couldn't dish out that much damage between blocks, but his disgusting healing ability defiantly isn't because of his life drain power.

    Besides he'd need to be less then 100% health for the life drain to make a difference and the two times I met him he never dropped below 95%
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    draogn wrote: »
    I'm finding a lot of reports of Ao's passive being bugged from players but none from devs at the moment.

    But the passive's shadowfeast is a primary suspect, and why Skarn helps beat him since it removes his passive. Shadowfeast allows him to regen some health each time he attacks, Shadow Destroyer suffered the same bug in NemCon at one point.
    This is what was reported last year when I last fought him. I'd assumed that he'd been fixed. Guess not.
  • joybuzzerxjoybuzzerx Posts: 882 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    guyhumual wrote: »
    Please don't assume, you know what they say about people that assume

    I had agro, I was blocking his drain, but with 10 stacks of deadly poison and four other toons pounding away on him, he was just healing every single point of damage dealt to him. This also happened the last time I met him in Radiation Rumble almost a year ago with my ice tank. Back then I assumed that it might have partly been because of lower level players, sadly my tank being a tank couldn't dish out that much damage between blocks, but his disgusting healing ability defiantly isn't because of his life drain power.

    Besides he'd need to be less then 100% health for the life drain to make a difference and the two times I met him he never dropped below 95%

    So, you've met up against him a total of two times, and you consider him broken?

    Here's a hint: Get a better team.

    Here's another possible hint: Maybe you need to be higher than level 10?
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    joybuzzerx wrote: »
    So, you've met up against him a total of two times, and you consider him broken?

    Here's a hint: Get a better team.

    Here's another possible hint: Maybe you need to be higher than level 10?
    Here's another hint: don't assume.

    I was level 40, normally doing between 400 and 1500 a tick with my epidemic, but because this was radiation Rumble I was getting upwards of 6000 a tic. Now I'm sure some folks here can deal a lot more damage but I consider that pretty good, and that's not counting the stacks of deadly poison, all that plus four other toons pounding away at him for a minute and we couldn't deal more damage then he could normally heal. I'm not even bringing up the life drain. His regular heal was regenerating that fast.

    Last time I fought him was with a level 38 ice tank, can't remember how much she did, but her damage was respectable for a tank. It was the same story.

    I've been playing this game for over two years now, I've gone from silver to lifetime subscriber, I've got 49 alts, I've done almost every mission, and I know when something is broken. But please, tell me I need to block or have a higher level character or learn to play the game or whatever makes you feel smug. Honestly it's this sort of toxic environment that drives people from these forums and from the game.

    When one assumes they make an ****(out of)u(and)me
  • supersharkssupersharks Posts: 103 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    He;s broken, my team took him down to 50% once in a rad rumble and then we lost two team members (some quit, the other crashed) we both activated block and he kept healing through the block. He doesn't just heal from lifedrain.
  • allthebucketsallthebuckets Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    While Ao'Q is a nightmare for randomly selected pubs, decent teams, or at least one or two people who know what they are doing should be enough, but it'll usually be an upwards struggle anyway.

    I like it that he's "that one boss" where everyone has to pay attention. You can often tell the players who don't know the various methods of fighting Ao'Q when they just charge in and activate their favorite Maintain ability and wonder why he won't die.

    Personally, I think they should keep him as is, but perhaps implement a sort of 'difficulty rating' for Alert bosses. It would only be a guide, but it might say something like "Ao'Qephoth is a difficult boss who heals with every attack!"
  • nephtnepht Posts: 6,883 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    guyhumual wrote: »
    I love the new alert system, it's something that we've needed almost from the start, but why this stupid contest winning villain is still in the game remains a mystery. I don't blame whoever created him, it's a neat looking villain, but someone made some mistakes when they were coding him and putting him in the game.

    Seems like a simple fix to me: recode him or remove him from the game.

    Thats a bit grim. Cause some player designed him suddenly he is stupid. Ao'Q is a great design. The problem is he has a healing factor that puts Wovlerine to shame :P

    All Ao'Q needs is his healing nerfed.
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    And some people do things for the bonuses, for completion's sake, for great justice and simply because it's there, etc. I know I know, people playing the game for different reasons is a hard concept to wrap your head around sometimes, right?

    No, it's actually not a hard concept for me to wrap my head around... because that concept is the exact point I was making with my comment :)

    That word "some", it's a cool word ey? ~_^

    guyhumual wrote: »
    Here's another hint: don't assume.

    I was level 40, normally doing between 400 and 1500 a tick with my epidemic,

    400 ramping up to 1500? ...my suggestion would be to switch to a single-target power so you're actually doing a decent amount of damage :|

    I dunno.. the problem here is, your experience with him isn't the same one others are having. I mean, can it really be possible that the majority of the times I've gone to fight him I've just gotten lucky and always had a good team? Yeah sure, I've failed him before, but not as much as I've beaten him.

    And no, I'm not some "leet pro gamer haxxor phatloot min/maxxor" ...hell ask around, most people wouldn't even rank me average.
    nepht wrote: »
    Thats a bit grim. Cause some player designed him suddenly he is stupid. Ao'Q is a great design. The problem is he has a healing factor that puts Wovlerine to shame :P

    All Ao'Q needs is his healing nerfed.

    Feh, if you nerf him then you might as well remove him... and replace him with this $(KGrHqV,!q8FHnF8-om2BS!E9G0,2g~~60_35.JPG

    If anything, leave him as is so people appreciate the free wins they get in every single other alert more.

    These kids nowadays! Get off my lawn Nepht or I'll put you over my knee! D:<
  • joybuzzerxjoybuzzerx Posts: 882 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    guyhumual wrote: »
    Here's another hint: don't assume.

    I was level 40, normally doing between 400 and 1500 a tick with my epidemic, but because this was radiation Rumble I was getting upwards of 6000 a tic. Now I'm sure some folks here can deal a lot more damage but I consider that pretty good, and that's not counting the stacks of deadly poison, all that plus four other toons pounding away at him for a minute and we couldn't deal more damage then he could normally heal. I'm not even bringing up the life drain. His regular heal was regenerating that fast.

    Last time I fought him was with a level 38 ice tank, can't remember how much she did, but her damage was respectable for a tank. It was the same story.

    I've been playing this game for over two years now, I've gone from silver to lifetime subscriber, I've got 49 alts, I've done almost every mission, and I know when something is broken. But please, tell me I need to block or have a higher level character or learn to play the game or whatever makes you feel smug. Honestly it's this sort of toxic environment that drives people from these forums and from the game.

    When one assumes they make an ****(out of)u(and)me

    I didn't assume. :p You said you've only ran against him two times. So, no assumption there.

    The other was a "Possible Hint" seeing as how you only ran against him twice, it felt like it could be a possible hint to your problems.

    ;) Learn to know what's assuming and what isn't.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    nepht wrote: »
    Thats a bit grim. Cause some player designed him suddenly he is stupid. Ao'Q is a great design. The problem is he has a healing factor that puts Wovlerine to shame :P

    All Ao'Q needs is his healing nerfed.
    I think you're reading my post wrong, he's stupid because of his insane healing not because he was player designed, in fact I really like the fact that he was community made. I'd prefer for him to be re-tooled but if that's not an option, maybe they don't have the man hours to do this, then maybe he should be taken out of rotation.

    I don't blame whoever designed him or even whoever coded him into the game. I just want him fixed or removed (until he can be fixed).
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    joybuzzerx wrote: »
    I didn't assume. :p You said you've only ran against him two times. So, no assumption there.

    The other was a "Possible Hint" seeing as how you only ran against him twice, it felt like it could be a possible hint to your problems.

    ;) Learn to know what's assuming and what isn't.
    First time I ran him and came across this problem, the insane healing, I assumed it could have been pure team randomness. I was at a decent level, I had so-so DPS, and I had a tank to hold agro, but it was possible that my team just didn't have the DPS to hurt him. I was the one blocking his life drain so I was certain that wasn't the problem. I was pretty sure that he wasn't behaving like normal so I came to the forums and sure enough others were noting the same problem. I hadn't bothered queuing for him since then. I actually love the alert system, I prefer missions and content, but I think the alert system is a wonderful idea when it was first introduced and more so now that it's been tweaked. I don't mind loosing, timed missions can be a challenge, missions like Gravitar are great, but I want to have a chance.

    Now maybe I've experience a bug 100% of the time I've fought him, maybe others are just better or on better teams, but how many times should I get burnt before I conclude that fire is hot? Two times is more then enough for me to conclude something isn't working as intended.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    400 ramping up to 1500? ...my suggestion would be to switch to a single-target power so you're actually doing a decent amount of damage :|

    I dunno.. the problem here is, your experience with him isn't the same one others are having. I mean, can it really be possible that the majority of the times I've gone to fight him I've just gotten lucky and always had a good team? Yeah sure, I've failed him before, but not as much as I've beaten him.

    And no, I'm not some "leet pro gamer haxxor phatloot min/maxxor" ...hell ask around, most people wouldn't even rank me average.

    Normally I would for when there's only the villain remaining, but I needed to maintain my stacks of deadly poison in hopes of countering his passive heal and block against the life drain, and so there wasn't time to do much else except try to counter the insane heal and prevent more healing from the life drain.

    The other thing is, yes, my experience is the same as other have been having, these reports aren't new. This is a known issue. I have no idea if this is how he always behaves, maybe sometimes his passive behaves as it should, but the two times I've queued for him he was broken.

    Now if this is how he's supposed to behave, and if I was twice on a poor team, then maybe he needs to be moved to a elite or special alert status and taken out of regular rotation? If a level 40 (that has never failed a Gravitar PUG), plus four other toons (minimum of 15th level now), couldn't handle Ao'Qephoth then maybe we aren't the problem.
  • ilztasilztas Posts: 95 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Huh...

    I'm kinda surprised honestly that so many people seem to think Ao'Qephoth is broken. I mean... I know, he heals a lot, when he's allowed to heal, though as we're aware, all you really have to do is block his drains. The only problem cases I see might be Radiation Rumble and Pyramid Power which MIGHT possibly increase the percentage of healing he gets (which I believe is less than a 5% chance) from Shadow Form, but that's about it. I haven't seen many failures against him.

    'Course I'm also carrying Skarn's Bane on me, but there've been times when people just dished out so much damage that even a life-leecher like Ao'Qephoth couldn't recover.

    Personally, I actually like that there's a villain who requires a bit more thinking to defeat, but I might be one of the black sheep in this herd.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    guyhumual wrote: »
    Normally I would for when there's only the villain remaining, but I needed to maintain my stacks of deadly poison in hopes of countering his passive heal and block against the life drain, and so there wasn't time to do much else except try to counter the insane heal and prevent more healing from the life drain.

    The other thing is, yes, my experience is the same as other have been having, these reports aren't new. This is a known issue. I have no idea if this is how he always behaves, maybe sometimes his passive behaves as it should, but the two times I've queued for him he was broken.

    Now if this is how he's supposed to behave, and if I was twice on a poor team, then maybe he needs to be moved to a elite or special alert status and taken out of regular rotation? If a level 40 (that has never failed a Gravitar PUG), plus four other toons (minimum of 15th level now), couldn't handle Ao'Qephoth then maybe we aren't the problem.

    You fought him twice. You read that some other people have failed at him (without any ability to discern how much they're exaggerating). You seem pretty certain that he's broken for having so little to go on to support that idea.

    Yes, people fail Ao sometimes... you know what that means? That means he's the most normal encounter in this game. All the other encounters "that you never fail even with a pug" are what's broken.

    Exactly when did "I win 100% of the time, or there's something wrong with the game" become a standard?


    Yeah yeah yeah, we come here to feel super heroic. Superman's dead, what's your point?
  • jaguar40jaguar40 Posts: 204 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    From perspective of average or below player that never build forum posted builds, never build specificially for damage and build for concept above anything else and qued for Ao' many occasions.

    SOmetimes we win, sometimes we lose. With built teams with roles specificially chosen, sometimes we win sometimes we lose. Sometimes with skarn bane we sometimes we lose, with all 40s sometimes we win sometimes we lose. Even with many combinations of levels from a level 6 to 36 sometimes we win sometimes we lose.

    Even with the same team that failed prior and decided to try again, we lost first time, won second time (no skarn's bane)


    Ao' to me is tough as hell, and quite refreshing that it takes a bit more than the usual rush in spam favorite power and win.

    Usually the teams that I been on that win, doesn't discount the blocks, yes he still heals some through the block with some powers, and teams with members that make use of that vehicle in the middle of the smash arena to break lien of of sight. Most of his heals are target based it seems. I could be wrong. But the point is even random or formed teams, the most cases of victory comes using tactics that are rarely used in the other alerts. Even then sometimes failure still happens. He don't seem unbeatable. Does this mean he isn't broken? I don't think so. The question is if that is intended functioning process. If it is, then he isn't broken even if he is trouble to defeat. If it is not how he supposed to work, then he is broken even if he has been defeated.

    Usually I que up for Ao' just as often as I que up for any other alert because the rewards and stuff are merely a side effect to me. I probably wouldn't even noticed if they removed the rewards. And many times I exited an alert without even claiming the reward. Others, he may be too hard, or they are there for the rewards or there to only win, or hell they may not simply like fighting a worm headed leech dude and may not que for it. Ao' is hard, he's ugly, he is not usually a sure 100% easy win, and that cuts out many people that otherwise would be rushing to que.

    Like imagine if there was a way to know which nemesis is popping up as soon as you que. Many people would drop the que as soon as they realize it wont be their nemesis.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    You fought him twice. You read that some other people have failed at him (without any ability to discern how much they're exaggerating). You seem pretty certain that he's broken for having so little to go on to support that idea.

    Yes, people fail Ao sometimes... you know what that means? That means he's the most normal encounter in this game. All the other encounters "that you never fail even with a pug" are what's broken.

    Exactly when did "I win 100% of the time, or there's something wrong with the game" become a standard?


    Yeah yeah yeah, we come here to feel super heroic. Superman's dead, what's your point?

    I really don't think you understand what I'm saying. I've failed many alert missions since it's inception, heck I've even been on teams that failed against Blackfang, I queue for gravitar, I solo lairs, I don't mind a challenge, but in order for it to be a challenge there needs to be a chance to beat him. If a team needs specific powers and doesn't have said powers and that means you auto fail him how is that a challenge? Perhaps with Ebon Ruin this guy becomes trivial? A mission that fails or succeeds based on what powers someone has isn't a good mission and shouldn't be in the rotation in a PUG.
  • joybuzzerxjoybuzzerx Posts: 882 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I know I'm not the only one who loves to run against Ao'Qephoth in alerts. :) He's one of the fun ones! One that takes longer, feels like you actually accomplished something. For those who can't handle the difficulty, they can always wait for a new one to pop up.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    joybuzzerx wrote: »
    I know I'm not the only one who loves to run against Ao'Qephoth in alerts. :) He's one of the fun ones! One that takes longer, feels like you actually accomplished something. For those who can't handle the difficulty, they can always wait for a new one to pop up.
    This is true, and with the new alert system it shouldn't be a long wait for another burst alert, but why leave in something that so few people seem to enjoy? Something that frustrates players? I don't like missions like Forum Malvanum because it requires a specific build to run (DPS, DPS, and more DPS) but I wouldn't call for it to be removed. I like a challenge but I hate futility. I suspect that Radiation Rumble is a very specific case with Ao'Qephoth but I'm not queuing for him in anything else just in case.
  • joybuzzerxjoybuzzerx Posts: 882 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    its not "difficulty" he's broken. what part of broken do you not understand?

    "for those who can't handle the difficulty"?!? who appointed you "good enough"?!? who gives you the right to call a broken boss a feature? I'm tired of BS like you keep spouting on this thread. I met you in game and you seemed nice but now you're coming off as a total snobbish loser who has no idea what they are talking about.

    I am nice. I just disagree. This isn't snobbish. I think anyone can do anything I've done, and many who can do it better.

    But I don't discount something just because I haven't done it. And I don't discount people just because I've tried and failed and they say they've done it. I just keep trying. *shrugs*

    Seriously, if Ao'Q is thought to be to hard, just don't queue for it. Queue for a different alert. Or just go in and have fun pressing buttons...that's pretty much how I look at it.

    "YAY! HOLD DOWN TWO AND FIRE TO PISTOLS! WHEEEE!" :D
  • joybuzzerxjoybuzzerx Posts: 882 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    guyhumual wrote: »
    This is true, and with the new alert system it shouldn't be a long wait for another burst alert, but why leave in something that so few people seem to enjoy? Something that frustrates players? I don't like missions like Forum Malvanum because it requires a specific build to run (DPS, DPS, and more DPS) but I wouldn't call for it to be removed. I like a challenge but I hate futility. I suspect that Radiation Rumble is a very specific case with Ao'Qephoth but I'm not queuing for him in anything else just in case.

    As I was telling Gradii in game, only beaten FM twice myself. I've tried many more times than that.

    I still try, still enjoy it. Alerts are all optional. You don't have to queue for any of them. I have a friend who won't queue for Pyramid of Power because she hates them. She considers them to long for her to enjoy it.

    Now with the new alert system, this might mean waiting longer. But does one really lose anything for trying and failing? Not really.
  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    guyhumual wrote: »
    I really don't think you understand what I'm saying. I've failed many alert missions since it's inception, heck I've even been on teams that failed against Blackfang, I queue for gravitar, I solo lairs, I don't mind a challenge, but in order for it to be a challenge there needs to be a chance to beat him. If a team needs specific powers and doesn't have said powers and that means you auto fail him how is that a challenge? Perhaps with Ebon Ruin this guy becomes trivial? A mission that fails or succeeds based on what powers someone has isn't a good mission and shouldn't be in the rotation in a PUG.

    You don't seem to understand that people are telling you that the fight can be beaten without ebon ruin, without skarns bane and without "forum builds". However, it seems like you just plain don't want to believe it. That's fine though... you don't have to que for Ao, and he's only one alert out of many.

    Why is it so bad that there's one alert that you won't do?
    gradii wrote: »
    its not "difficulty" he's broken. what part of broken do you not understand?

    "for those who can't handle the difficulty"?!? who appointed you "good enough"?!? who gives you the right to call a broken boss a feature? I'm tired of BS like you keep spouting on this thread. I met you in game and you seemed nice but now you're coming off as a total snobbish loser who has no idea what they are talking about.

    The fact that people are successfully completing him means he isn't broken. Sure, you may not agree with the particular playstyle that that one alert caters to, but why does every alert have to cater to your playstyle?

    Why is it so bad that there's one alert that you won't do?
  • shadowzero66shadowzero66 Posts: 331 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    its not "difficulty" he's broken. what part of broken do you not understand?

    "for those who can't handle the difficulty"?!? who appointed you "good enough"?!? who gives you the right to call a broken boss a feature? I'm tired of BS like you keep spouting on this thread. I met you in game and you seemed nice but now you're coming off as a total snobbish loser who has no idea what they are talking about.

    Yeesh... Aren't you coming off as a "snobbish loser" because your uber-build or whatever can't rofl-stomp him? Yes, Ao'Q is a crapload more punishing on people who just sit there and mindlessly spam attacks than Baron Cimetere. I'd say Ao'Q would be Rampage Alert material if it weren't for its crippling weaknesses even if Skarn's Bane and heal debuffs were taken into account. People can solo the burst version if they know what they're doing.

    If you don't want to touch Ao'Q, that's fine. Leave Ao'Q for the kind of people who get off to soloing Gravitar and Vikorin and whatnot.
    Grind for the Grind God! Tokens for the Token Throne!
  • ashensnowashensnow Posts: 2,048 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I don't think that Ao is a difficult fight, but rather a different fight. It plays differently than others but doesn't require more skill. You may very well need different tools but using them is no more difficult than the tools used to succeed elsewhere in the game. I would qualify the Ao fight as increasing the variety in game, not increasing the difficulty.

    'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    ashensnow wrote: »
    I don't think that Ao is a difficult fight, but rather a different fight. It plays differently than others but doesn't require more skill. You may very well need different tools but using them is no more difficult than the tools used to succeed elsewhere in the game. I would qualify the Ao fight as increasing the variety in game, not increasing the difficulty.
    Please explain. He heals faster then I can damage him. What am I doing wrong? And don't say "block the life drain" because that would just be ignorant to the discussion thus far.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    People can solo the burst version if they know what they're doing.

    If you don't want to touch Ao'Q, that's fine. Leave Ao'Q for the kind of people who get off to soloing Gravitar and Vikorin and whatnot.
    How? How do you solo something that heals faster then I can damage them? And please keep in mind that I have soloed Gravitar and the Andrith Ruins, and while I found them very difficult, with this same character I found them completely doable.
  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,391 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    spinnytop wrote: »
    You don't seem to understand that people are telling you that the fight can be beaten without ebon ruin, without skarns bane and without "forum builds". However, it seems like you just plain don't want to believe it. That's fine though... you don't have to que for Ao, and he's only one alert out of many.
    I'm sure you believe he isn't broken. Who knows maybe I got a rare bug the only two times I fought him. Clearly you've never had a problem with this villain.
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Why is it so bad that there's one alert that you won't do?
    Why is it bad that there's one possibly broken alert in the game? Gee I don't know. I mean if level 40 and 4 minimum level 15s can't hurt him and quit after a minute of frustration that's solid challenge!

    spinnytop wrote: »
    The fact that people are successfully completing him means he isn't broken.
    Or it means they've never faced him in Radiation Rumble, or it means they had the very specific powers that allowed them to beat him, or, if it is a bug, it means they've never encounted this bug.
    spinnytop wrote: »
    Sure, you may not agree with the particular playstyle that that one alert caters to, but why does every alert have to cater to your playstyle?

    And what playstyle would that be? I tried him as a tank and I tried him as a hybrid support. I suppose I never played him as a pure DPSer, maybe this is what you mean, because god knows the game as very little content for DPS builds.
  • secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    gradii wrote: »
    its not "difficulty" he's broken. what part of broken do you not understand?

    "for those who can't handle the difficulty"?!? who appointed you "good enough"?!? who gives you the right to call a broken boss a feature? I'm tired of BS like you keep spouting on this thread. I met you in game and you seemed nice but now you're coming off as a total snobbish loser who has no idea what they are talking about.

    I'm elitist but you wouldn't see me say a word of it on a random team - you'd probably hear me spouting off in trade =P.


    It depends on how we define "broken". Is his challenge rating well above other alert bosses. Very much so. Most alert fights are typical tank and spank, the worm requires more than what's required of a typical alert.

    I don't see him as "challenging" so much as needing a more specific team makeup. Just like "Duraclad" in Malvanum, the challenge isn't so much the fight but the team comp. A single player can do everything right and an alert boss will eventually go down regardless of other teammates (short of them feeding horribly in a recruiting drive). The worm can leech off your teammates and completely negate your output.

    A capable/balanced team can wipe the worm out without breaking a sweat. Solo queue isn't know for that as far as any alert goes.
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