The Game Seems Insanely Easy....

nem912 · March 2017

Been giving this game a shot for about 3 months now. Almost a Lvl 70 on one of my 3 toons. Overall the game seems kinda boring. There is no challenge, in dungeons there is always some High Lvl running through and robbing actual players from any chance of being useful. Is this just how the game has always been? If so I may as well return to DC where the toons and options are better.

dupeks · March 2017

Yup, unfortunately leveling up to lvl 70 is easy. It's even easier if you have a main toon that can provide certain equipment to your lowbie alt, and if you can get them into a guild with decent boons then everything below lvl 70 is trivial.

At lvl 70 (and maybe even lvl 64 or whenever you unlock Sharandar campaign) things will start to get harder. There are some zones and group content that are extremely hard. Also, all of the dungeons that unlock at lvl 70 are WAY harder than the leveling dungeons you've seen.

That said, the game becomes much more grindy at lvl 70, focusing on daily/weekly quests and repeating content (similar to the harper quests you've likely already unlocked). It can also be kind of overwhelming because almost everything becomes available at once. If you follow the campaigns in order from bottom to top in the campaign UI that can help a bit.

Couple other thoughts:

Up until now you probably didn't need to use any Armor Penetration. At lvl 70 all of a sudden everything has Damage Resistance that you have to deal with. Get your Resistance Ignored % to 60% (can come from ArPen or other sources) to always do full damage to everyone. Going above 60% won't yield any additional benefit in PvE
Even the stuff that I said is extremely hard can be easy with a uber-powerful party. There are probably 2-3 pieces of group content (Fangbreaker Island, Svordborglord's Assault, and Spellpague Caverns) that are properly challenging for a powerful party and need everyone to pay attention. Everything else is more or less solo-able if you are maxed out (albeit it won't be as fast).

dupeks · March 2017

I wrote another reply prior but I think the forum software ate it. So here is an abridged rewrite:

Yup, unfortunately this game below lvl 70 is pretty easy. It's especially easy if you manage to find a guild with decent boons or use certain items that scale with you as you level (dragon bone, ancient / ensorcelled mulhorand, xvim armors).

The game does get significantly more challenging above lvl 64, once you unlock campaigns. It also gets a lot more grindy, focusing on repeatable daily / weekly quests and running epic skirmishes, dungeons, and trials many times.

For a fresh lvl 70, the sheer amount of content unlocked at once can be a bit overwhelming. Much of it will also be pretty tough until you get your boons and gear up.

For true end-game characters (>4,000 item level) most of the game becomes pretty easy. You can solo / carry almost all of the dungeons. There are 2-3 pieces of group content that can still present a challenge, although the challenge is mostly along the lines of "how fast can you clear this" and "what is the optimal party composition for this". But it's a LONG way to get to "Best in Slot" (BiS) gear, so you'll have plenty of challenging content ahead once you hit lvl 70.

And yeah leveling dungeons you often have a mid-geared lvl 70 blitzing through for quick daily AD payout (you get for first 2 dungeons, 2 skrims each day). You can try to find friends to run with instead, but the reality is you'll probably encounter this up until lvl 70.

armadeonx · March 2017

Yep you think it's easy then you hit L70. If you want a challenge, queue for a 5 man dungeon when you get there

The levelling zones really aren't a challenge but they are just a warm-up /introduction to the actual game. If you can scrape together a 2k item level and queue for a 5 man T2 you'll find enemies that you can barely scratch but will kill you in 1 hit.

ravenskya · March 2017

Level 1-70 is the tutorial, then the game begins.

I agree 1-70 is easy.... but it can also be done in 2-3 days. Have you started Sharandar and Elemental Evil?

mebengalsfan · March 2017

dupeks said:
Yup, unfortunately leveling up to lvl 70 is easy. It's even easier if you have a main toon that can provide certain equipment to your lowbie alt, and if you can get them into a guild with decent boons then everything below lvl 70 is trivial.

At lvl 70 (and maybe even lvl 64 or whenever you unlock Sharandar campaign) things will start to get harder. There are some zones and group content that are extremely hard. Also, all of the dungeons that unlock at lvl 70 are WAY harder than the leveling dungeons you've seen.

That said, the game becomes much more grindy at lvl 70, focusing on daily/weekly quests and repeating content (similar to the harper quests you've likely already unlocked). It can also be kind of overwhelming because almost everything becomes available at once. If you follow the campaigns in order from bottom to top in the campaign UI that can help a bit.

Couple other thoughts:
Up until now you probably didn't need to use any Armor Penetration. At lvl 70 all of a sudden everything has Damage Resistance that you have to deal with. Get your Resistance Ignored % to 60% (can come from ArPen or other sources) to always do full damage to everyone. Going above 60% won't yield any additional benefit in PvE
Even the stuff that I said is extremely hard can be easy with a uber-powerful party. There are probably 2-3 pieces of group content (Fangbreaker Island, Svordborglord's Assault, and Spellpague Caverns) that are properly challenging for a powerful party and need everyone to pay attention. Everything else is more or less solo-able if you are maxed out (albeit it won't be as fast).

Telling a new player to get their Arm Pen up enough to get Resistance Ignore up to 60% is pretty useless unless they are going to spam Tiamat, FBI and SVGA, and two of those they cannot get into right off the bat at level 70 unless they purchase BiS reinforcement kits, enchantments, etc... even than, that is just a bad idea IMO.

New players fresh level 70 should aim for 40% resistance ignore. Once you get your character to Item Level 3K than start to increase the armor pen stat up to 60%. I seriously feel that the focus on resistance ignore for 60% hinders plenty of lower character ability to produce max damage when 40% is more than enough for everything but currently the 5 or 6 pieces of content at end game.

As for stuff that is listed as hard but is easy is all due to glitches and game mechanics not working as intended by the developers. For instance, AA spamming in FBI and SBA has made those content easier. Another thing making the game super easy is the stat boost players get from their companions with R12 bonding, which adds 285% of the companion stats to the player, that is not making some character stronger than they should be.

dupeks · March 2017

mebengalsfan#9264 said:
New players fresh level 70 should aim for 40% resistance ignore. Once you get your character to Item Level 3K than start to increase the armor pen stat up to 60%. I seriously feel that the focus on resistance ignore for 60% hinders plenty of lower character ability to produce max damage when 40% is more than enough for everything but currently the 5 or 6 pieces of content at end game.

Fair point. Aiming for 40% RI first is probably the better approach. Depending on how you get your ArPen it makes sense to know you're aiming for 60% but can make do with less than that until you're ready for the tough stuff. I wouldn't suggest running with less than 30% though, even for fresh lvl 70s.

l33tazn · March 2017

for me, it's more like 1-60 was a buildup to get to know your character and the mechanics. 60-70 is the start of the grind and adjustment stage to learn how to build up your character at the higher level. At 70, is when the game changes. For some, it might be like starting from scratch in rebuilding your character as you learn about all the new level 70 stuff. level 60 is more like an intro to 70+ with the intro to boons and etc.... I would say stick with it until you reach level 70 at least to see the whole new world that will unlock for you before deciding.

armadeonx · March 2017

What I do with RI on a new character is to calculate what it will be once I've levelled my artifacts & gear and work backwards. As long as I know my gear 'will' achieve the right RI I'm cool with getting on with everything else. I do sometimes use piercing rings as a temporary booster.

armadeonx · March 2017

I do find a couple of things strange though:

The OP has not been back since starting the thread
It's taken them 3 months to 'almost' reach L70..?

The Game Seems Insanely Easy....

Answers