Today I've spent 10 hours in Hunts of Barovia. I'm only missing one little chest piece from Gnarly Jak.
Cryptic made the best content yet and MOD 14 did not fail!
On the side the petty lag issues and stuff like that, but it was quite refreshing to play MOD14 and today I've met and had fun with some new friends from the alliance.
The hunts were not tedious nor completely RNG based as people seemingly enjoyed the way the new system works. That is fantastic and is a seriously good news since people ARE HAPPY for once. The praises go as far to say that it is the best part of the game thus far! It really works and it works well!
There is a little bit for anyone and everyone whether you want to get gear, tag along with people or just earn some AD by selling posters.
The fact that bosses can drop posters is also amazing as people can do rotations. However, for proper gear drops the cards are needed. Although I do not find the new gear amazing in terms of stats, I do find certain items to be fashionable enough to make something nice.
Ever since the hunts appeared as a concept in Neverwinter Online it was a major success and it revitalized the game for me. This time it did it again and upgraded on all bad aspects and RNG nightmare of the previous mods.
Please, more content in the same vein! This was a seriously pleasant direction that the game took. A good spin on things.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
6
Comments
I also do not support your claim that the new system drops less than OMU since I have a team of people hunting in OMU for a very prolonged period of time and they do not get many drops at all, in contrast to the Barovian hunts where equipment falls not only from bosses but also from cards and monsters. Not to mention that you also get seals and coins for the new zone. It makes it the go-to place for anyone and everyone.
The new hunting system is a major success and I sincerely believe that it revitalized Neverwinter Online. Actual quality.
Some issues people have is usually of the whiny nature when they can't get drops. The key is patience. I've had a few whiners in my groups. They are not team players at all.
The tactics is to find trustworthy people and always go in number five. That way there's a higher chance to get more posters. Also kill enemies in the hunt as they will have a pretty decent chance of dropping cards.
Start with T1s, then move towards T2s and finally T3s. Exchange posters with friends, items for posters etc. If you are going to QQ as soon as you do not get an item or because you have to wait your turn to get the lead in hunt groups, then please do not play hunts as those aren't for you. Nobody like to see someone who constantly gets angry or whine or ragequits. At least be civil, you're not playing alone.
The most whining comes from asking "who made monsters teleport to three locations". What's with that question? It is the silliest thing to ask. It is actually a well made solid system of hunting that's been more fun than anything else in recent years, aside from some of the RD quests with Gyrion, Kabal and Nostura which are also a bit underappreciated though quite solid instances with diverse powers.
More twists like this are welcomed and people are happy with the new hunting system.
The downside is the bugged "Leader needs to exit first" kind of a thing, so it is instance changing bug.
But yeah, a much better hunt system than in the past mods.
On a side note I have already gotten two iL 520 pieces of armour from the currency boxes - so I am pretty happy about that, nice and easy to get geared up. Add in the iL 500 primals and really its getting fun.
I spent the weekend with guildies and alliance friends doing the hunts....
Some are kind challenging... and some are easy... and I am not even talking about the cards added in.
Though.. that did provide me and my friends with some interesting stories....
We did one hunt.. I think it was Lycosa the spider... and the party lead dropped cards that increased the aggro... alot
But, when we found out we were all laughing at that... nearly wiped us on that
But compares to Shoshenstar and Omu... yes I agree... Barovia did the hunts right.
For faster runs, use the cards in T 1 Hunts and do the T 3 hunts without enhancements.
1. Need a way to replace a player, if someone decides to leave. ( or if someone wants to bring another character, for example, if we decide we need a tank or healer ). Would also be nice to add another player, if you go solo and find out you're in over your head - I've wasted two hunts because of this.
2. Need the ability for other party members to contribute to the bonus cards being played. Maybe, change the interface, so that there are 5 card slots presented, one for each party member? Leave as is when playing solo.
3. Need loot drops to be separate and distinct for each player. The last group I was in, the group leader took everything.
I also led a group and requested that people only roll if they actually needed the item - naturally, someone didnt listen.
Very Nicely Done!!
The location swapping is cool, leading to a sense of the chase.
The added cards can be great fun.. or why the hell did you do that?
Example - group of 4 of us did the 3-star hunt The Sister.
I added 2 cards.. the one where the Mob regen's 2.5% health every 15 secs.. and the one where the Mob health is increased by 30%.
Bad and glorious move on my part. Shades of Syndrith!! Group comp was 2 HRS over 14k, and two GWFs over 15k.
Swear to Stradh we took a long time to take the Sister down. about 16 minutes spent whittling away at her enormouse regenerating health pool. Rest of time was traveling between the spawns spots.
Every one of use had to get rezzed as we each didn't dodge out of the red fast enough.
After she fell for the last time, we collectively drew a breath, spit on her carcass, and to a man/person said "Lets get the hell outta here".
It was glorious!!
Cheers
M.K.
They are really too good, compared to the Chult hunts - controllable challenge/rewards is a massive plus, and you managed to get reward/effort ratio just right. People can do hunts all day and walk away with some nice loot, a ton of salvage and a feeling of having actually accomplished something. I think this is some of the most appreciated content we have seen for quite a while.
Compare this to the Chult hunts - RNG on top of RNG on top of RNG, and you can spend a whole day there without having anything to show for it. I have described the Chult hunts as a design failure and that is still my opinion.
Consider what you need to get one [Rotten Flesh] (the Tyrant lure) in Omu.
Rare mobs seem to have around 10% chance of appearing. So, let's say you kill around 10 groups of bears until you get your Rotting Sun Bear. Fine, except it has maybe only a 25% chance of dropping a Plagued Paw, so in practice, you have to kill 40 groups of bears on the average. Now, I'm just going to assume you have the Razortyrannus Rex Spine - so you can now make your 1-star lure and kill Polaris, but you know what....it also has maybe only a 25% chance to drop the Hoary Paw, so on the average, you have to kill 160 groups of bears for each Hoary Paw.
Same applies to the Thayans you have to kill to get Magehunter's helms to lure Musshussu to get Musshussu's talon - and then you can get your lure to summon Gigantopithecus - but once again, it has only a 25% chance to drop a tooth.
So, on the average, you have to kill 640 groups of Bears and Thayans. Repeat that for the other 4, and the bottom line (assuming the 25% drop rate is close to being correct) is that you need to kill 3840 groups of monsters on the average to get one lure to summon the Tyrant.
And that's just to get the scale. If you want the Tyrant weapons you will have to repeat the whole process multiple times (orjust buy your way to the end)
It's no wonder that people hate the Chult hunts. People will just tell new players "Don't bother with the Chult hunts. You can do the campaign for the boons, and to unlock the dungeons, but don't waste your time on the hunts."
I would really encourage you to do something to make the Chult hunts viable, because, quite frankly, right now they are not. My suggestion would be to change the trophy drop chance to, say 50%. That would be enough to encourage some people to do the hunts, instead of abandoning them completely.
Makes sense to me, since posters can be really expensive.
The non-leader members get rewarded with Omens, Seals and poster drops. The leader is free to pass out other loot if he wants.
To avoid issues, just make sure that the person placing the lure is currently the leader.
- Cowl of the Dead - Good for Tiamat if you are underpowered as it spreads enemies away. It is, however, highly frown upon as it really grinds the stones of CWs, TRs and GWFs alike when enemies get spread around the continents.
- Crown of the Dead - A Seriously good item that goes extremely well with pretty much any class since it can pull the enemies together. The mere fact that enemies can be drawn together like that is amazing as many spells for TR and CW work well with eachother. Each time someone does that to the enemies in my team I'm like "Hell yeah!" So good. So good.
- In a minority as a CW here with this opinion, but as a CW I really appreciate any AC on my gear as I do not like to pursue a lot of defense in my build, so 7 AC gear is not something I would wear even when stats are a bit prettier. It is nice but I just prefer a lot of AC as I like to remain alive in hunts and general content. AC is really my go-to stat I prefer to get, so having content that allows this deserves a big THANK YOU!
NIGHT TERROR :
These are just some fast thoughts made on the spot :
Sort of addition - Night Terror has a chance to drop Purple card in the vein of Donjon? If not possible, that is okay.
Increase Night Terror's HP by 50%? Let him hit a bit slower? Night Terror currently hits a bit faster than what I'd call balanced out. I consider myself a balanced sustainability char as far as a CW can go, but night terror can and will kill me if a lag spike comes around.
If a lot of people join in, Night Terror drops only for one person Night Terror initially hit or attacked or was initially hit by or attacked by a person.
Maybe make Night Terror to have a 50% drop chance of an Aggro card (me and my pals call it "spice") and only Aggro card.
There are people who absolutely hate Aggro card, but what they usually do not realize is that there are like 20 minutes of time to hunt the mark and killing enemies around can be fast enough if the team is good enough.
I don't know, I wasn't thinking much about it so I don't know if any of the given suggestions can be exploited. I do not want to suggest something that can be exploited, only something that would prove to be just slightly more challenging for the people.
So, a bit of a chance to survive the Night Terror so that it does not attack as fast, yes, but also a bit of added HP so when three people attack him they do not have a fast kill.
HUNTS :
As for the hunts - just one thing > MORE! If you could manage to make something like 30+ hunts in the future with 3-4 different item drops per hunt, you'd be heroes, guaranteed!
I know it sounds like a lot of job, a lot of balancing afterwards and is downright crazy, but seeing how it works and how people are in fact happy I think it is a solidly good idea.
As for me I am perfectly fine with everything the way it is now. This content was such a great refreshing thing for all of us who do not orient towards Dungeon-only content. Some diversity, some quality, some spice... Good times guys.
And some offtopic...someone from Yaku...guild demanded exp player already for CR in one of the elitists channel a few mins ago, grats!!!!
This. If you guys could occasionally sprinkle in a few new hunts in future updates, that would REALLY extend the life of Mod 14. With many players already running Castle Ravenloft, and the rest of us likely unlocking it next week, as well as people grinding the hell out of the hunts BECAUSE hunts were done so well this time around, it is an unfortunate fact that people will pretty soon not be going to Barovia any more. But if you managed to throw in a couple new hunts each month, it would keep people coming back to try to get the new gear. I'm not saying throw in 30+ right away, but hell, 3 new hunts each month or two? One for each difficulty ranking? I don't think that's too much to ask.
To my knowledge and experience all lesser critters in Barovia drop Wanted Posters, but as a general rule the enemies that have 5+ HP bars will be dropping more frequently both Wanted Posters as well as Epic Gear (purple).
So in the normal Barovia map those would be
- Witches
- Big Werewolves
- Honor (Vampire) Guards
Honor guards have a somewhat higher chance at dropping Purple gear, although there are no more than five and they only spawn at night with a seriously long spawn rate. They are somewhat harder to kill, but equally interesting opponents.
Other critters dropped posters for me as well, but I'd say that they have a way lower chance to do so and only have a chance at dropping the Blue gear. Not sure if that is completely correct, though, as I was not farming the lesser critters extensively.
The thing is - > once you use some heavier cards in the actual hunts (HP, Aggro or Damage) you will see an increased drop rates with regular mobs from the hunts themselves. I think it is logical and self-explanatory.
There is a bit of a reward for anything you use at the end of the hunt, but most people just go and kill bosses right away. I think that is an oversight fueled by greed as there will be critters around that drop a lot of cards. There will be cards dropped by regular mobs in the actual hunt maps for people who are keen enough to kill mobs and collect whatever drops.
Hey it's nwo man
The drop rate is - in the little over a week I've been playing, outstanding compared to Chult and prior campaigns. I played Chult for over a month before getting access to top level gear - I was getting that in Ravenloft within the first hour.
Would be good if once a day or week you could pick up a T1 poster from a notice board (like they used to have for the foundry quests) and then it would really be like being a bounty hunter. Like the very first poster you get.
Anyone doubting that hunts in Barovia are fun I call you to join and play them for several hours, you will change your mind I guarantee it!
Total ilevel 540 items from hunts so far: 3
And I'm not grinding the hunts regularly, so I'd say they made it a VAST improvement. I've already picked up two of the pieces I wanted from hunts for my main. Compare to, say, what was required to get a Rex Corona...
This same way to beat or defeat the content should also be applied to the Epic Dungeons themselves which would open the door to different classes alike.
Oh I have done hunts with others... and gotten 2 and 3 star posters... but... i cant seem to get any 1 stars anymore.
I have defeated the "major" NPCs.... witches, beserkers, large werewolves, etc... but none are dropping posters.
I have been getting blue tarokka cards and even some gear...
But not the posters