Baphomet's Wall of Stone is cheap and annoying

two30

Each week when the Ballad of Baphomet weekly quest resets, I'm reminded how annoying Baphomet's Wall of Stone ability is.

1. It ignores control immunity.
   
2. It hits outside the red warning-circle.
   

Neither of these issues prevent me from completing the quest solo, but it's bad gameplay. For my Oathbound Paladin, I don't even bother trying to escape the red circle. I just keep swinging until the walls encase me, then twiddle my thumbs waiting to be released.

I reported these issues back when Maze Engine was in-development, so I know that it's Working-as-Intended or Working-as-Acceptable. Still annoying.

wildfirede

I can only agree with you, for me it seems oghma's artefact helps. I just cant remember if it removed the stoneblock or made immune but only one of those two.

zibadawa

You can avoid it for non-shield classes, but the red zone is noticeably larger than it shows (50% to 100% larger, I think).

But, yeah, it's just a kick-to-the-nuts design. Thanks, devs!

wylonus

yes, i noticed those too, i was outside of red effects and still get hurt no matter how far away you tried.
i call that BS!
it is very unfriendly to those playing clerics if they solo, that is too long. i have seen so many players who played clerics/healers needing help.
i personally dont like seeing Celestre healing the demon boss few times before i was able to reach her to get her out. dont like longer fights because of the hostile healers when i want to kill them faster and move on to next missions.
devs should consider taking the healers from those battles because those bosses have massive health.

greywynd

I ran Ballad on my GF yesterday. First call in was Xuna. Smoke Cloud, Wall of Stone, Smoke Cloud, Wall of Stone, etc. Fight took a half hour.

blackjackwidow

LOL, yeah, doing it with my DC yesterday, had the ultra magical combo; first Xuna, then Celeste. ugh

silverkelt

Well I like it..

=P.

sockmunkey

I once had Celeste, followed by Linu, with Drizz at the end.

I honeslty felt that the game was trying to punish me for some past misdeed.

beckylunatic

Because I are slow to finish the campaign the first time, I've only had access to this quest for all of two weeks. I think Minsc is the worst add for me. Chain-prones are not my favorite.... Most of them, I'm kind of used to fighting from Phantasmal Fortress.

Oh... uh... am I doing it wrong by just killing the NPCs as soon as possible after they spawn in?

spike

Don't know if its wrong Becky, but its opposite of my gf approach. I ignore everything and hack away. Doesn't take too long nor too much health. Besides, i'm not quick enough to avoid the stone splat anyways.

two30

A new annoyance! It's possible to get knocked onto the glowing perimeter wall. I was stuck "prone", wiggling my feet in the air and taking damage. Eventually, my character died, then Soulforge revived my character, but I was still stuck in the air and eventually died a second time.

silverkelt

I run my dc, cw, sw, hr , gf and gwf through this, with all varying degrees of builds/i level. However, anybody say, above 2.5k I level should be able to solo this with no issues, as long as your built right.

I fail to see what the issue is here.

Its actually something that makes me think on my lower alts. I of course, wouldnt try this on my unbooned, ungeared alts , carrying lessers around.. but still.

I prefer to leave something semi tough in game, no need to remove anything on this.

two30

silverkelt said:

I run my dc, cw, sw, hr , gf and gwf through this, with all varying degrees of builds/i level. However, anybody say, above 2.5k I level should be able to solo this with no issues, as long as your built right.

I fail to see what the issue is here.

Its actually something that makes me think on my lower alts. I of course, wouldnt try this on my unbooned, ungeared alts , carrying lessers around.. but still.

I prefer to leave something semi tough in game, no need to remove anything on this.

Yes, obviously the best way to give us the challenge we desire is to let enemy attacks ignore control immunity, make the red telegraphs misleading, and shape the arena's geometry so that characters get stuck in midair.

I've never had a character reach 2500 ilvl, yet as I said in my original post, I solo this encounter every week. However, my success or failure is irrelevant, as this is bad design.

beckylunatic

silverkelt said:

I fail to see what the issue is here.

This isn't a cry for a nerf. It's a cry for boss powers that actually follow game logic, such as it were.

zibadawa

silverkelt said:

I prefer to leave something semi tough in game, no need to remove anything on this.

"Haha, screw you" is not a good game design way of making something "tough".

lirithiel

zibadawa said:

silverkelt said:

I prefer to leave something semi tough in game, no need to remove anything on this.

"Haha, **** you" is not a good game design way of making something "tough".

Couldn't have put it more eloquently myself. Well said!

forumnamesuxs

I don't mind tough.. I hate annoying.
I avoid Baphomet for this reason alone.
Double his damage? Double his health? I don't care, just get that HAMSTER out of there, or get it fixed. PLEASE!

chemjeff

Well, the guy *is* a demon prince. We're supposed to be at least a little bit scared of him.

jumpingmorks

greywynd said:

I ran Ballad on my GF yesterday. First call in was Xuna. Smoke Cloud, Wall of Stone, Smoke Cloud, Wall of Stone, etc. Fight took a half hour.

lol ouch!

beckylunatic

I had the opportunity yesterday to run this quest for the first time on an HR.

All the other classes I've gotten to this point can dodge and keep moving (or just sprint) and *usually* avoid the Wall. Not so the HR with the current short dodge distance.

I can imagine how obnoxious this is with a character that has nothing but a block mechanic that doesn't work here.

greywynd

...and then you get Xuna with the Smoke Cloud, followed by the Wall of Stone. Lather, rinse, repeat.

artifleur

Bump. I hate this attack.

I believe the problem with the red circle isnt really its size but rather the game deciding weither you will be affected or not several seconds before the animation occurs.

My GWF can sprint extremely fast (bravery + gladiator's guile + movement enchantments). I remember sprinting to the opposite side of the room just before the attack and getting encased in stone nonetheless.

rafaelda

two30 said:

Each week when the Ballad of Baphomet weekly quest resets, I'm reminded how annoying Baphomet's Wall of Stone ability is.

1. It ignores control immunity.
   
2. It hits outside the red warning-circle.
   

Neither of these issues prevent me from completing the quest solo, but it's bad gameplay. For my Oathbound Paladin, I don't even bother trying to escape the red circle. I just keep swinging until the walls encase me, then twiddle my thumbs waiting to be released.

I reported these issues back when Maze Engine was in-development, so I know that it's Working-as-Intended or Working-as-Acceptable. Still annoying.

MY CW and HR can avoid by using dash/teleport even inside the area if you time it well

As GF i use "Line Breaker Assault" on Baphomet if i can reach his back i'm safe (almost everytime)

As GWF i cant avoid (but this is my main toons so he can survive) i never tryied to use that Jump power (can't remember the name) that one maybe works to scape if you really need ...

zibadawa

rafaelda said:

MY CW and HR can avoid by using dash/teleport even inside the area if you time it well

As GF i use "Line Breaker Assault" on Baphomet if i can reach his back i'm safe (almost everytime)

As GWF i cant avoid (but this is my main toons so he can survive) i never tryied to use that Jump power (can't remember the name) that one maybe works to scape if you really need ...

My GWF can sprint out of the area no problem, with no significant movement boosters. You just have to sprint really far outside of it and do it right away.

beckylunatic

Ahoy @panderus - You mentioned in discussion about EF damage on preview that it initially wasn't respecting proper immunities because it had not been flagged to do so. Wall of Stone does not respect expected immunities either, and it would be nice to know if this is a bug/missing flags or intended and justified because he's Baphomet and is just that big of a jerk. Regardless, the red splat should be larger since you can be outside of the area drawn and still get held.

forumnamesuxs

FYI. This is still annoying.