I am actually ok with the 1-in-6 drop rate for Arcane Focus that I am seeing, but the cost is too high - 10 for the offhand and 20 for the mainhand would be fair - and in line with the other resources.
It does look to me that somebody did some calculation errors. Consider that we have a Zen companion that doubles the drop rate of portal stones, as well as actual portal stones for sale in the Zen store, but this makes no business sense - portal stones are not a bottleneck, and it is easy to gather far more of those than you need - I cannot see anyone buying them. Now, if there had been a companion doubling the Arcanic Focus rate and Arcanic focus for sale as well, then yes..it would have made sense in a twisted way - giving us a choice between a horribly boring grind and paying our way past it, but that's not what we are seeing. (And no, I am ABSOLUTELY NOT suggesting that this be done).
This would be my suggestion as well - reduce the cost for the weapons, but leave the drop rate as it is. There needs to be *some* sort of mild bottleneck present, or everyone would have the new weapons in 2 days and be done with the campaign.
FWIW, I've been doing stuff in the new campaign at a regular pace. Daily EoE task; other dailies (dockhands, stencil, etc.); run a few crypts/dungeons/etc., and I'm just now unlocking the "Investigate X" tasks, and already have 10 Focus and 20 of the Writings. Had I just focused on farming the bejeezus out of the Treasure Ship HE and hopping instances every 5min like the other 99% of people playing, then yes, I'd be ahead on EoEs, but very behind on Focus and Writings. So half the issue is people trying to fast-track and then getting frustrated that they don't have the right stuff. Kind of silly.
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adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
Had I just focused on farming the bejeezus out of the Treasure Ship HE and hopping instances every 5min like the other 99% of people playing, then yes, I'd be ahead on EoEs, but very behind on Focus and Writings. So half the issue is people trying to fast-track and then getting frustrated that they don't have the right stuff. Kind of silly.
Well, actually that makes perfect sense if you are not after the weapons. If you are only doing the campaign to get the boons and unlock the dungeon, there is no reason to bother with the dig sites or the portal stones....just focus on getting the Evidence of Evil and Secrets of the Many-Starred that you need - forget the Focus and Writings.
So, maybe all of the ship-hunting, instance-jumping players are just DPSers who already have the Relic weapons....who knows.
Hoping for improvements...
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
I'm at 6 writings and 12 focus on average per char now. So I'm guessing I'll have to be forced to buy more writings or sacrifice them on one char. Really alt unfriendly here.
I don't mind the rest, it's the writings which are annoying to farm. Boss lair's resource is fine if grindy. Least that rewards you with some salvage.
I'm at 6 writings and 12 focus on average per char now. So I'm guessing I'll have to be forced to buy more writings or sacrifice them on one char. Really alt unfriendly here.
I don't mind the rest, it's the writings which are annoying to farm. Boss lair's resource is fine if grindy. Least that rewards you with some salvage.
The last several campaigns have all been super alt unfriendly, with the exception of Underdark which was awesome for allowing you to buy weapons and armour for your alts from one char.
If the drops were all BtA instead of BtC for this campaign, that would help immensely, allowing us to pool resources from alts instead of feeling almost forced to just level one char. I also liked the ability in Underdark to unlock eDemo for alts once you had unlocked it on the main - not sure if that'll be possible for Spellplague, but would be nice.
1
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
They went to far into the one only land.. i think players have spoken pretty loudly about this.. while this is more alt friendly then mod 10.. its still a bit too much.
Every mod *even mod 4 was better then mod 10.. mod 11 , I would say is more in tune to the grind fest of 4.. just because you wasted SO much time in mod 4.. waiting around on dragons.. (up to a hour a day on each toon)
Every other campaign, weapon set in the entire game.. was/is better then recent stuff.
Why the sudden shift in the game?
I dont know.. some focus jerk Im sure.. who said they were dropping money or some such thing.
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
Hell is going on. I got no arcane focus all of a sudden out of 4 chars I played today.
Hell is going on. I got no arcane focus all of a sudden out of 4 chars I played today.
I did 12 dig sites today and got no arcanic focus.
I still don't think the writings will pose much of an issue later on. You may need a lot for both main hand and offhand (I think it's 100 writings for both correct me if wrong) but u can get writings through many things : 1)HE's 2)Secure campaign task 3)treasure maps 4)dig sites 5)Auction house 6)from your other characters
But Arcanic focus is just crazy. I thought the new weapons were about new options, tank and healers can chose a bonus to their liking. But for the love of god Arcanic focus is a RNG bound on character drop, u except support classes to go through all that digging? I've calculated I need to get at least 3 each day by the time I'll buy the new weapons, yeap I don't see that happening.
If you can't convince them confuse them.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
I wasn't sure which side was funnier at the time, the side that didn't want these BIS weapons cause they farmed Relic, or the ones that didn't realize what a farm hamster Cryptic would make of the weapons that use normal marks. I'm slowly doing both, in my own time.
No, I don't have all day to farm, so I'm still working the Relic angle (though I'm close to orange.)
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Its simply they dont have a clue on designing things.. they didnt last mod , they still dont.
Im sure this thread will be generally ignored like the rest of the terrible implementations .. until a mod later.. where they will make some slight adjustments to the drop table and say its all good.
Im more or less generally consigned to terrible coding, design , poor communication and general malfeasance from this company.
I cant even get upset anymore.. just generally consigned to see a once good mmo, pretty much scattered to the winds every mod now a days..
After 5 days of dailies on 4 toons, one toon got 4 focus, two toons got 3 focus, and one toon got 0 focus (this one worries me). So I am averaging half a focus per day. I know it's a small sample to extrapolate from, but at this rate, it may take nearly 3 months of grinding just for the off-hand.
Looks pretty demoralizing at this point. The grind is just as bad as mod 10. The only positive here is you grind on your own terms and you are not dependent on mSVA runs.
Mod 11 starts boring imho. The zone feels empty, I expected at least some large HEs to populate it more often than not. But alas. I zone in, spend 30 min doing the Merchant's daily mission and move on.
On a side note @asterdahl@mimicking#6533 , you guys should really consider dropping the everfrost resistance requirements from SVA/FBI. You've no idea how many 4k toons are simply ignoring those instances thanks to the everfrost (mine included). Just admit your mistake (black ice 2.0 fiasco) and fix it for once
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silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Another day .. ANOTHER no writings at all.. 2 focus on 2 toons, 3 with zero today.
This has to be fixed ASAP.
Or explain how we can get focus and writings.. since THEY Are suppoed to drop from the dig sites.
Something is amiss here and the continued no communication, appears to be standard.
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
edited March 2017
Security should grant 2 writings for all the damn wandering around required. Even in empty instances the frekin guard posts are magically upgraded and other upgraded with no guards in them!
Something is kiting the guards out of the area, resulting in a situation where all the units associated with the post are still alive but not in range to defend the area. There have been times where I could buy archers and a golem but nothing else. However, I've seen large groups of guards and a golem standing around on the road well away from any post. There is a long long running issue where friendly mobs don't leash back to their areas. It is common in Dread Ring with the guards who fight zombies and with named NPCs outside of HE zones. Bruenor can frequently be found fighting mobs at Praddick's grinder, even when the nearby HE isn't running
"We have always been at war with Dread Vault" ~ Little Brother
Bruenor can frequently be found fighting mobs at Praddick's grinder, even when the nearby HE isn't running
Although I've not seen Bruenor/Drizzt fighting at any time a Demonic Escape is not running nearby (nor have I gone looking for them), I think whichever forumite suggested that they are intentionally spawned at a distance from Escape hit the proverbial nail. AI fighter participation would automatically fail that HE. I couldn't say why it's easier to place them in a different location instead of just not allowing them to spawn with Escape, but it's a logical explanation.
The Dread Ring guards are problematic. They can even be dragged as far away from their intended position as down into the Slaughter zone, or past the summoning circle for Sazohiel, but losing the guards doesn't stop the zombies. While this doesn't seem to be the sole cause of Dread Ring performance issues, it probably doesn't help. You can also aggro the camp guards to the training dummies, and they won't ever stop attacking dummies because they can't kill them. Bugged guards will continue to be bugged until their instance closes.
Hmm, I can't swear that I've seen Bruenor persist past the HE, I think I've seen it. However, I know I've seen him or Drizzt fighting in the escape on the SH map without it auto starting the HE.
"We have always been at war with Dread Vault" ~ Little Brother
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beckylunaticMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 14,231Arc User
Hmm, I can't swear that I've seen Bruenor persist past the HE, I think I've seen it. However, I know I've seen him or Drizzt fighting in the escape on the SH map without it auto starting the HE.
You are right about that. My companion, on the other hand, not so much. Naughty companions.
Can you please let the team know, that writings, though tooltipped to drop in dig sites. ARE NOT dropping from dig sites... this is a massive issue.
I still think arcane focus is a issue as well.. but writings appear to be not doing what they should be doing..
Focus should be upped a bit too.. but we need writings to start dropping asap.
1
beckylunaticMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 14,231Arc User
I've only been playing lightly, and I think I was at 8 focus +8 writing when I logged off last night. I haven't been tracking where the writings all came from; some were in HE rewards, but surely not all. Maybe maps?
I am not farming HEs at all, but when I get an abundance of resources I'll try to go trigger the ship.
At any rate, if the tooltip says something that is misleading or impossible, that's a serious problem.
Got the Aboleth off-hand today. 2.5k Treasures, 15 Tainted Soil, 20 Volatile Ichor, 45 Writings and 40 Focus are what it takes to restore it.
Yeah, that's about double what it should be. At least for the Writings and Focus. Treasures, Soil and Ichor (or equivalents for whichever weapon you want) are pretty easy to get. But 45 Writings and 40 Focus are going to take people weeks, if not months. I'm at about 10 Focus and 20 Writings after a week of mod 11, and think I'm doing pretty well.... others are for worse off.
25 Writings / 20 Focus per item seems more fair.
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ghoulz66Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,748Arc User
Or at least make the stupid guard posts easier to upgrade. WHY are they all upgraded in an empty instance?!
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silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
They either need to cut some of the costs.. or make the items a tad easier to handle.. not looking for a rainfall here.. but , like you know, make writings actually drop where they should and and maybe increase focus by double drop rate.
this would fix most of the issues with this.
Where is there response!!!!!!
Are they so lazy they cant get on here and tell us.. woops, ya, sorry misplaced some loot tables.. we are on it..
nope , silence of course.
Every day we go and waste time , when we should be earning the mats.
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adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
Got 37 writings, but only 15 arcanic focus....at this rate, the focus is toing to take more than twice as long to collect than the other resources.
I think someone made a mistake in their spreadsheet calculations.
Hoping for improvements...
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
I literally have like 2-3 writings per toon.. becaue I have been doing dig sites (THAT ARE supposed to drop them, but dont)
without adding them to the dig site loot table and also increase arcane focus a bit.. this is a HUGE pita..)
that means anywho who does their daily with dig sites mostly.. are basically going to have to also donate huge amounts of reclaims as well..
They either need to cut some of the costs.. or make the items a tad easier to handle.. not looking for a rainfall here.. but , like you know, make writings actually drop where they should and and maybe increase focus by double drop rate.
this would fix most of the issues with this.
Where is there response!!!!!!
Are they so lazy they cant get on here and tell us.. woops, ya, sorry misplaced some loot tables.. we are on it..
nope , silence of course.
Every day we go and waste time , when we should be earning the mats.
I guess we all here prove they made the right decision according to drop rate. We are bitching about, but the strain is not so hard as to drop out.
Don't misunderstand me, I really, really hate this grind and the low drop rates, the BtC stuff (in crafting resources .. really?!), the tedious slow lairs with 6 groups at the end, the very few hero groups with incriminating evidence, the buged HE's etc. etc.
I am pretty certain that the product manager thinks "if no one is complaining we did something wrong" and commands to reduce the drop rates.
Imaginary Friends are the best friends you can have!
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adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
Comments
FWIW, I've been doing stuff in the new campaign at a regular pace. Daily EoE task; other dailies (dockhands, stencil, etc.); run a few crypts/dungeons/etc., and I'm just now unlocking the "Investigate X" tasks, and already have 10 Focus and 20 of the Writings.
Had I just focused on farming the bejeezus out of the Treasure Ship HE and hopping instances every 5min like the other 99% of people playing, then yes, I'd be ahead on EoEs, but very behind on Focus and Writings.
So half the issue is people trying to fast-track and then getting frustrated that they don't have the right stuff. Kind of silly.
So, maybe all of the ship-hunting, instance-jumping players are just DPSers who already have the Relic weapons....who knows.
I don't mind the rest, it's the writings which are annoying to farm. Boss lair's resource is fine if grindy. Least that rewards you with some salvage.
If the drops were all BtA instead of BtC for this campaign, that would help immensely, allowing us to pool resources from alts instead of feeling almost forced to just level one char.
I also liked the ability in Underdark to unlock eDemo for alts once you had unlocked it on the main - not sure if that'll be possible for Spellplague, but would be nice.
while this is more alt friendly then mod 10.. its still a bit too much.
Every mod *even mod 4 was better then mod 10.. mod 11 , I would say is more in tune to the grind fest of 4.. just because you wasted SO much time in mod 4.. waiting around on dragons.. (up to a hour a day on each toon)
Every other campaign, weapon set in the entire game.. was/is better then recent stuff.
Why the sudden shift in the game?
I dont know.. some focus jerk Im sure.. who said they were dropping money or some such thing.
I still don't think the writings will pose much of an issue later on. You may need a lot for both main hand and offhand (I think it's 100 writings for both correct me if wrong) but u can get writings through many things :
1)HE's
2)Secure campaign task
3)treasure maps
4)dig sites
5)Auction house
6)from your other characters
But Arcanic focus is just crazy. I thought the new weapons were about new options, tank and healers can chose a bonus to their liking. But for the love of god Arcanic focus is a RNG bound on character drop, u except support classes to go through all that digging? I've calculated I need to get at least 3 each day by the time I'll buy the new weapons, yeap I don't see that happening.
No, I don't have all day to farm, so I'm still working the Relic angle (though I'm close to orange.)
Im sure this thread will be generally ignored like the rest of the terrible implementations .. until a mod later.. where they will make some slight adjustments to the drop table and say its all good.
Im more or less generally consigned to terrible coding, design , poor communication and general malfeasance from this company.
I cant even get upset anymore.. just generally consigned to see a once good mmo, pretty much scattered to the winds every mod now a days..
Because more grind.. is always the answer right?
Looks pretty demoralizing at this point. The grind is just as bad as mod 10. The only positive here is you grind on your own terms and you are not dependent on mSVA runs.
On a side note @asterdahl @mimicking#6533 , you guys should really consider dropping the everfrost resistance requirements from SVA/FBI. You've no idea how many 4k toons are simply ignoring those instances thanks to the everfrost (mine included). Just admit your mistake (black ice 2.0 fiasco) and fix it for once
This has to be fixed ASAP.
Or explain how we can get focus and writings.. since THEY Are suppoed to drop from the dig sites.
Something is amiss here and the continued no communication, appears to be standard.
This is starting to become utterly HAMSTER.
The Dread Ring guards are problematic. They can even be dragged as far away from their intended position as down into the Slaughter zone, or past the summoning circle for Sazohiel, but losing the guards doesn't stop the zombies. While this doesn't seem to be the sole cause of Dread Ring performance issues, it probably doesn't help. You can also aggro the camp guards to the training dummies, and they won't ever stop attacking dummies because they can't kill them. Bugged guards will continue to be bugged until their instance closes.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Insane.
@nitocris83
Can you please let the team know, that writings, though tooltipped to drop in dig sites. ARE NOT dropping from dig sites... this is a massive issue.
I still think arcane focus is a issue as well.. but writings appear to be not doing what they should be doing..
Focus should be upped a bit too.. but we need writings to start dropping asap.
I am not farming HEs at all, but when I get an abundance of resources I'll try to go trigger the ship.
At any rate, if the tooltip says something that is misleading or impossible, that's a serious problem.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Treasures, Soil and Ichor (or equivalents for whichever weapon you want) are pretty easy to get. But 45 Writings and 40 Focus are going to take people weeks, if not months. I'm at about 10 Focus and 20 Writings after a week of mod 11, and think I'm doing pretty well.... others are for worse off.
25 Writings / 20 Focus per item seems more fair.
this would fix most of the issues with this.
Where is there response!!!!!!
Are they so lazy they cant get on here and tell us.. woops, ya, sorry misplaced some loot tables.. we are on it..
nope , silence of course.
Every day we go and waste time , when we should be earning the mats.
I think someone made a mistake in their spreadsheet calculations.
without adding them to the dig site loot table and also increase arcane focus a bit.. this is a HUGE pita..)
that means anywho who does their daily with dig sites mostly.. are basically going to have to also donate huge amounts of reclaims as well..
Im on the verge of one of my epic rants..
This company..
We are bitching about, but the strain is not so hard as to drop out.
Don't misunderstand me, I really, really hate this grind and the low drop rates, the BtC stuff (in crafting resources .. really?!),
the tedious slow lairs with 6 groups at the end, the very few hero groups with incriminating evidence, the buged HE's etc. etc.
I am pretty certain that the product manager thinks "if no one is complaining we did something wrong" and commands to reduce the drop rates.
First, you can solo-grind the M11 weapons.
Second, you can get the M11 weapons even though your IL is far too low to get you into Svardborg.
This justifies giving the weapons a weaker bonus.