Some feedback on fangbreaker's island

diogene0

This is a very nice, well designed, and overall, fun dungeon. The boss fights are interesting, and while we're clearly not on par yet with competing MMOs in terms of complexity, this is a very nice addition to neverwinter. The difficulty seems appropriate if that's intended to be a step forward in this direction.

I played it on my CW, and i loved the trash fights. Those giants were a serious threat and you can't be distracted for a second or you're dead. I was also glad that the control part of the CW had some use on later adds that hit like trucks otherwise.

The first boss fight is very straightforward and not very difficult, but it's a first boss, so that's okay.

The turtle was a step up, and while fun and engaging, it seems to be a little too punishing for squishy melee characters. The bite attack killed the rogue and the GWF several times. The turtle also has a ton of HPs and at the end, the fight drags on, especially since there's no new mechanic to force us to stay focused, and mistakes can happen.

The final boss was interesting. Still fun, but mechanics and how they should be dealt with is not communicated clearly. The battle tactics lore were somewhat helpful but also sometimes misleading or useless on some parts. This could be greatly improved by adding some visuals for instance. Some of us are simple people and images work better.

Now, this fight is very long. We had a few wipes, mostly because of the targeted attack that follows us - we didn't really find out how to deal with it, and hugging like the lore says does not work, so we ended up ignoring it with soulforge revives and various immunity spells and artifacts (I used valindra's artifact as active for the first time).

The loot was okay for me but really meh for others, which brings me to the problematic point: 30 minutes estimated play time is completely delusional. Granted, we didn't have a GF abusing commander's strike to greed 20M hits on double buffed GWFs IBS encounters to demolish bosses in no time, but a paladin instead, and while he did a fine job at tanking, each boss fight was really long, like 10 minutes per fight, and yes, the DC was buffing. I can't even imagine the horror of playing with a healadin and tankadin duo... 30 minutes could be realistic after some power creep and with practice, but currently, the playtime would be closer to 45-50 minutes with no wipe.

I'm not opposed to long dungeons - I played CN back in beta and that was fun, but then the pacing of boss fights should receive a special attention, so that they don't feel like it's taking way too long, by enriching the mechanics with new stuff near the end of the fight. Some room should also be made for small breaks, and while this stuff exists, it seems to be quite scarce during the final fight, and it takes quite a while to kick in.

I'm not saying the dungeon isn't fun, because it is, but IMO if the rewards and pacing of fights don't receive some love, bosses should have a bit less hit points.

mamalion1234

commander strike is bonus damage what is the issue.. And what you describe is not necessary to be a gwf with ibs any class with a strong en counter can do that.

diogene0

mamalion1234 said:

commander strike is bonus damage what is the issue.. And what you describe is not necessary to be a gwf with ibs any class with a strong en counter can do that.

It's only a small part of the issue. The big problem of this dungeon is that it's been designed with optimal buff stacking in mind, instead of addressing the long-standing issue that buffs stacking is and then releasing appropriate content. It means taking the optimal buff party for the dungeons, which means GF + DC + SW + GWF (for easy commander's strike 15-20M hits). That means that if I have a paladin friend I can tell him to HAMSTER off... Great. It also means that if I have two CWs friends well one will most likely be left alone because we need buffs and SS CW buffs are not that great. Unless we're okay with spending 1h on this dungeon. This is IMO the wrong way to address buff stacking, because the less you have access to those buff the increasingly frustrating it is to play the content. It's already difficult enough to find a tank, a heal/buff char and 3 semi competent dps, there's no need to add that layer of selection. Buffs stacking should have been addressed like two years ago by changing how buffs interact with one another, with a soft cap, or with anything else that keeps them under control, not by releasing content that needs this.

mamalion1234

FOCUS then to make your buffers better to need only one. THAT is my advice.