Prophecy Of Madness Too Easy To Cheese

lonerath

Did a random skirmish today only to get PoM and the usual four people standing by the door and not bothering with the portals. 8 minutes later the balor pops up and they still stand by the door and let me kill the boss alone, just like I did the portals alone.

The sad part is, you can't if you ignore the portals. All you have to do is stand by the door and if some dumb sap is actually there to play the game and kill the balor for you, you win. Free loot, no effort, 10-12 min of your time.

Great mechanics or garbage programming, depending on your point of view.

plasticbat

Well, it is about the reward. In its time (long time ago), when people cared about what gold reward provided, they would fight for gold reward. Silver was considered a failure of the 'challenge'. Today, nobody cares about its reward. What they care is its random skirmish rAD.

If all 4 of them did not come out to deal with the end boss with you, that means all 4 of them were willing to waste more time to extend the wait. I think all 4 of them did that intentionally against you personally somehow.

lonerath

The first four people quit after sitting at the door for 3min, the second set sat at the door until I killed the boss. The game teaches you the mechanics of how to "win". Right now winning in PoM is sit at the door and do nothing.

plasticbat

lonerath said:

The first four people quit after sitting at the door for 3min, the second set sat at the door until I killed the boss. The game teaches you the mechanics of how to "win". Right now winning in PoM is sit at the door and do nothing.

Well, why did the first 4 quit when they could just sit at the door and do nothing? What triggered them to quit? And all 4 of them? There must be a reason. There is no gain for them from quitting.

"Normal" operation is to sit through first 2 phrases and then come out to kill the boss.
The first 2 phrases are indifferent between fighting or no fighting.

lonerath

The 10-12 min of doing nothing is a waste of time for most people. Why bother waiting when one person is willing to take the 30min lockout? Why is someone willing to take a 30min lockout on an easy skirmish? Lack of reward for the time it takes to do it. Just like everything in this game.

I never spoke with any of them, I didn't provoke anyone as you seem to be inferring. I just played the game and they did not because that is what the game allows.

plasticbat

lonerath said:

The 10-12 min of doing nothing is a waste of time for most people. Why bother waiting when one person is willing to take the 30min lockout? Why is someone willing to take a 30min lockout on an easy skirmish? Lack of reward for the time it takes to do it. Just like everything in this game.

I never spoke with any of them, I didn't provoke anyone as you seem to be inferring. I just played the game and they did not because that is what the game allows.

Based on what you said, the first 4 just do not want to play this skirmish because it is too long for them and it has nothing to do with the 'mechanic'. This kind of player usually would quit before entering the room. I guess they were playing chicken among themselves to see who would take the penalty first.

Your beef is more about the 2nd set of players who collectively do not come out to fight the boss (that would shorten their waiting time).

The first group 'valued' their waiting time.
The 2nd group is opposite and did not care about their waiting time.

fritz

PoM has a long history of failure. I think one variant where you have to fight enemies to close portals is still broken because the portals do not correctly add enough score towards gold. They might have fixed it at some point, who knows. Regardless, the skirmish is outdated and nobody needs to achieve gold any longer. Since the phases are on a fixed timer and you can't fail, well, what are players supposed to do? I would also queue in and do something else for 7-8 minutes until that Balor pops. It's simply a better use of my time.

Think players leeching is unfortunate, but you can always premade and communicate that you legitimately want to attempt PoM or Throne. I wouldn't recommend it since it's not necessary though.

Fun fact: Sitting out phases is the only way to do RC by the way. The first phases are so overtuned that even great teams often don't even have a shot at staying alive long enough to do anything. So you just wait for the Balor and kill it.

rockster

fritz#8093 said:

PoM has a long history of failure. I think one variant where you have to fight enemies to close portals is still broken because the portals do not correctly add enough score towards gold. They might have fixed it at some point, who knows. Regardless, the skirmish is outdated and nobody needs to achieve gold any longer. Since the phases are on a fixed timer and you can't fail, well, what are players supposed to do? I would also queue in and do something else for 7-8 minutes until that Balor pops. It's simply a better use of my time.

Think players leeching is unfortunate, but you can always premade and communicate that you legitimately want to attempt PoM or Throne. I wouldn't recommend it since it's not necessary though.

Fun fact: Sitting out phases is the only way to do RC by the way. The first phases are so overtuned that even great teams often don't even have a shot at staying alive long enough to do anything. So you just wait for the Balor and kill it.

They removed it from RC for this very reason.

mintmark

What a shame... we've lost something now that the rewards don't reflect the bronze, silver or gold result level.
Just like we lost the skirmish specific rings dropping in the chest (although you can get one as the skirmish finishes... never seen a legendary there though).

But you can get Psion's shroud in the chest, which looks quite nice...

I am annoyed by player's just standing there...

pitshade

The first four people sat at the door for 3 minutes waiting for one of them to have had enough and take the leaver penalty. Then the other 3 bailed without penalty. Perhaps the same mechanic at play with the second group, though honestly it would be generally a better outcome to help finish the instance. It's quite likely they have become convinced that it's just too hard, that seems common among players these days. Decide something is too hard and therefore absolve yourself of having to even try.

rockster

I don't think it's that it's too hard, it's easy compared to other ones, I think it's more that whatever they do it's going to be the same amount of time spent, so it's easier to just stand there. The timer goes down at the same rate for the same time regardless of what they do so they take the easiest route. All the devs need to do is make it 1; if no monsters are hit the timer does not start counting down. 2; if monsters are hit they follow u to the stairs. 3; if battle stops while the timer is going down and no more monsters are hit, the timer recognizes this and also stops and waits until battle resumes. Problem solved.

ksell

Personally would like to see timer goin up instead of down - especially in Throne variants
Any tweaks for those skirms should be considered

In menatime consider reporting players for toxic behavior - they dont wanna run certain content, they can quit, not ruin other ones experience

pitshade

Back when we had the CTA Season running I tried screenshotting and reporting the AFK leeches. All that happened was support telling me they wouldn't do anything. The only real option for a player is to join a premade. Otherwise, if everyone bails, leave as well. If everyone else afks, don't carry them. AFK yourself or leave.

callumf

Have a cup of tea, take a break or read a book for 6 minutes [or whatever it is] then go smash the Balor.

I agree its a bad skirmish, but it is what it is

mintmark

pitshade said:

Back when we had the CTA Season running I tried screenshotting and reporting the AFK leeches. All that happened was support telling me they wouldn't do anything. The only real option for a player is to join a premade. Otherwise, if everyone bails, leave as well. If everyone else afks, don't carry them. AFK yourself or leave.

I think it's sad that we're led to a choice between rewarding (and encouraging) them or being like them

melotai

For that particular skirmish I do the same thing and just wait for the balor to pop before doing anything as there is no reason to even do the first two phases. Although, for me I suspect if it were still possible to get a gold finish I would do it even though I no longer open the chest for that one.