Increased difficulty is ok if and only if...

binkypoo

Disclaimer: this post is from the perspective of a newer player. I had ~24k il before the patch and now on pc I'm around 32k with the new combat system.

I've noticed that a lot of "basic" content is now many multiples more difficult. So one quick example: I've been working through legacy campaigns to get boons. I'm currently working on the Cloaked Ascendancy campaign. If you don't know that campaign has a daily that grants 25 "evidence of evil" and you need a ton of this to progress the advancement (120 per phase) and earn all the boons.

Before the patch, I could easily solo the daily quest by just doing mhe's to get to 100% progress with no real effort in maybe 2 minutes or so. After the update the first time I tried an mhe I got facestomped and killed in under 4 seconds. ok, time for a change of plans.

So I approach it from a more "sweaty" gamer avenue. I clear a path outside the mhe area, and then engage 1 group. pull them out of the area and kill them 1 at a time. Taking massive damage and having to heal, occasionally having to run completely away to lose aggro so I can regen divinity (arb cleric) and regroup. I slowly pick them off taking time and guile, needing to retreat and regroup, but I get it done.

So after like 10ish minutes, I finally get the event completed update and man what an epic battle but I got it done.

Now these mhe's only give ~12 - 15% progress so I gotta do like 8 more...

Now I can say 100% I'm down for this challenge. I LIKE hard games. but if it's going to take 5x as long, use 5x more resources, and entail battling 5x harder enemies I should be getting 5x the rewards. That daily at the Cloaked Ascendency should be rewarding 125 evidence of evil, not 25. Period.

Now this is a mp game so the attitude "Just get a group" is a valid critique of everything I just posted. But here again we have another problem. If I'm asking a friend or guildy to help me with some old legacy campaign they've already completed it's only out of the kindness of their heart they would agree to that. People are generous and kind but it's just not necessary for other players to HAVE to make a sacrifice of their own progression just to help me.

So I'm 100% on board with the new increased challenge and I'm 100% cool with the game REQUIRING a group to progress, but how about a system that rewards players for helping people with content they've already completed? So as an example, if I've completed a campaign and I'm helping a friend with it, why can't I earn currency for some OTHER campaign? Or even some other reward like AD, RP, guild currency, event currency if one is active (like the harvester of nightmares that's currently live), etc?

If the game is now MANDATORY grouping up required, at the least provide a system to reward players for helping friends through content they've already completed because before this patch your friends could easily just solo everything and didn't NEED you to divert your progress to boost theirs.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk!

davewe

A nice post and I do agree with much of what you said.

What you have not pointed out though is you've happily been taking extremely easy currency rewards for the last few months/years with no effort the same as I have, hence why it does not bother me that, like you, I am also finding my dailies a bit tougher but I just consider it more that the games 'fixed' now because let's face it this game has been unbelievably easy for I feel many years now.

Name me one game where you've reeled off 3-7 quests off inside 20-30 minutes making huge rewards with this level of ease?

Me? Never, this game was unprecedented on it's difficulty never been a game this easy before.

Let's just pray that maybe there is some hope for this game now, beyond us all spamming our left mouse button's repeatedly before running from A to B a few times a day, more out of habit than because we actually enjoyed it!!

cherryman1

davewe said:

A nice post and I do agree with much of what you said.



What you have not pointed out though is you've happily been taking extremely easy currency rewards for the last few months/years with no effort the same as I have, hence why it does not bother me that, like you, I am also finding my dailies a bit tougher but I just consider it more that the games 'fixed' now because let's face it this game has been unbelievably easy for I feel many years now.



Name me one game where you've reeled off 3-7 quests off inside 20-30 minutes making huge rewards with this level of ease?



Me? Never, this game was unprecedented on it's difficulty never been a game this easy before.



Let's just pray that maybe there is some hope for this game now, beyond us all spamming our left mouse button's repeatedly before running from A to B a few times a day, more out of habit than because we actually enjoyed it!!

The problem is that they aren't huge rewards. Your getting a .8% bonus for all of the boons in there that takes you 30 days to get.

binkypoo

davewe said:

Name me one game where you've reeled off 3-7 quests off inside 20-30 minutes making huge rewards with this level of ease?

You had me up until this point. There are no "huge rewards" being given out. you make maybe ~2-3% progress towards the completion of the entire campaign per day, and the entire campaign only provides maybe 1% max total bonus to a stat or some other similar, trivial bonus.

So yeah I'm also completely and totally in favor of a harder, more engaging game but the rewards should match the risk. Before, the only "challenge" was staying interested doing these trivial and repetitive tasks over and over every single day for a month or longer.

But now there's an actual challenge completing the gameplay which is a huge improvement.

But it still is going to take 30+ days, and it's still only going to give me (in this case) .8% bonus to a stat. Make it take less time, or make the reward better, and it's worth it but having players engage in epic battles for hours on end for a very trivial benefit isn't a good recipe to keep players engaged imho.

As always, ymmv