Still not sure whats happenign here - dropped il as per usual, got demons, got destroyed totally an utterly. gave up.
Attempt 2 - same as above. got demons tried lots of different stuff, totally destroyed. gave up.
Attempt 3 - went in low il, jacke up all my stats where I could. Got devils.
Round 1 - really pretty easy.
Round 2 - Skull Power up... I was about to die and wait for the shield but decided to have a go. Ran around lots, timed my daily, used stones at just the right moment [boy thats scary] and hit the F button to nuke as much as I coudl with about 30 seconds to go, hoping I could solo the boss before too much more mobs spawned.
Amazingly the Skull nuked the boss as well! Wow. result all round.
Only 2 days to go till freedom fro this event.
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,090Arc User
Anything that requires a reduction in gear to make it easier is inherently a bad design.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
Well, i was fighting against Siege King Krug with my 24k Figther, and the first skull did 0 damage to him while he was right in the middle of the AoE, then the second skull did only some minor damage...
I'm actually glad that there's only one more day left for me in this event.
I do believe in killing the messenger...
Want to know why?
Because it sends a message!
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,206Arc User
I have insisted not to change gear in both Hell Pit events. Fortunately, I have been too lazy to upgrade much. So, my barbarian was around 22k and he is just a bit below 23k. It is tougher to clean up this time. I can still use VIP health potion only and have not used any stone.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
Visage of Baphomet with his inaccurate red circle and immunity ignoring stonewall. And those charming horses around... Luckily I was fighting with below 20k IL equip, otherwise it might have been a quite problematic situation.
Btw: Baphomet seemed to deal a bit more damage in a direct confrontation compared to the Siege commander or Horse-rider whatever, but was rather squishy. Like... a lot squishier.
Visage of Baphomet with his inaccurate red circle and immunity ignoring stonewall. And those charming horses around... Luckily I was fighting with below 20k IL equip, otherwise it might have been a quite problematic situation.
Btw: Baphomet seemed to deal a bit more damage in a direct confrontation compared to the Siege commander or Horse-rider whatever, but was rather squishy. Like... a lot squishier.
I almost cant face it. Honestly, its such a lottery I despair.
I think part of the problem is they really struggle to balance solo play between the class roles because they're so hellbent on making sure everyone does the role they are supposed to and cant deviate in dungeons, it almost calls for three different versions of the game in solo because no one can build their toon to be flexible. Take the recent mess in the rage of Bel before they fixed it, where non dps could not charge their talisman.
What i think has happened here is that Hell Pit is the only event of the year that was designed with tanks in mind, and everyone else has to struggle.
I agree demons vs devils makes a difference, but with a shield to protect against most control effects and shed load of HP, you can just save your daily and big encounters to remove the worst offenders very quickly and I don't think Tanks have to worry too much about which set they get.
For what its worth, i'm going in with my 27k paladin Justicar without making any gear adjustments, and im not finding it much harder than last year. The first two weeks were largely a walk in the park, i think i used a healing potion in the bonus round on day 14, but that was about it.
In week three, days one and two were equally easy. Day 3 did see a jump up in difficulty, had to use a few potions and the fight was a long grind. Day 4 i had a torrid time the leap in difficulty was mad. Just could not kill the mobs with any speed, got completely swamped and had to burn about 5 stones to get through. Day 5 and 6 returned to being really easy again, in fact today Baphomet seemed really weak, as soon as he turned up I dropped the skull pick up on him, followed by my daily (which procced manticore's bite)and then smite and he died all within about 5 seconds.
I also have 27k IL toons in all the other classes, and there is absolutely no chance id try to run it on any of the non tanks, I can only imagine the event turns into madly running around the arena desperately hoping your encounter powers re-charge before the number of mobs become unmanageable, and your healing potion counter comes off cool down before something else hits you.
"What i think has happened here is that Hell Pit is the only event of the year that was designed with tanks in mind, and everyone else has to struggle."
Not that easy easy for tanks either not counting high end tanks. I've completed every day of HP so this isn't sour grapes either. It takes forever to kill enemies and more than a few of their stuns go through the shield. And, the shield only lasts so long when a dozen + enemies are whacking you at it. Plus, with all the red spots on the ground, you can't really stand still. This si why my favorite 'power up' is the explosive. I literally one shotted one of this week's bosses. It ended up being my easiest day with gaining victory with 35 seconds left. L0L I've also had to face bosses that took me 10+ minutes to whittle down even though he had no chance to beat me. I have not spammed healing pots/stones though so that's good.
The big issue is the rewards while okay are not worth the annoyance since you can get them in easier ways without the headache. L0L Except the mount which will take a year. L0L
The best thing I can say about HP is that it pushed me to rank up my bonding stones. They started at rank 9, and are now rank 13 just waiting for a ward to level up to rank 14. L0L
As an event I'd rate it 6/10 for me since at least I have completed it. :But, I'll be happy when it is done. That is sad, since events should be fun.
I can only imagine the event turns into madly running around the arena desperately hoping your encounter powers re-charge before the number of mobs become unmanageable, and your healing potion counter comes off cool down before something else hits you.
This is exactly what most non-Tanks do in this event.
Fun? Not really.
Exciting? Yes at times.
Balanced for non Tanks? No.
Week 3 Day 6
Took me seven attempts on DPS Barbie.
First six enters, got Demons, after dying multiple times gave up and came back until I got Devils.
Devil Round 1 is fairly easy. Played it at LOW iL 19.9k.
Round 2 was much harder, tried various things and eventually [after 4 attempts] went into the fight on a 26.9k loadout dps and just about won. Got the heart power up, which I used to clear trash mobs from 30 seconds left. Then spammed the boss, who went down rather easily in the end.
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andybones65Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 64Arc User
2 years playing this on my rogue and hr. Never died once used the odd stone both toons over 25 k. 2 more runs, till next year 👍
I guess this was the last day of the event for me?
Round one - big guys. My dwarf was so tiny amongst those giants! And... I messed up and killed them right before the timer went up... so one bonus batch of big guys for me! Yay! Final round was exactly like the last year. You fight a sponge. It is annoying if it directly hits your face, but that is about it. Takes a lot of time and effort to squeeze the last drop of HP out of it as well. (god be merciful to the souls of all the tanks that got bored to death in this fight)
Event idea fine; a system, where killing all mobs before the timer goes off penalizes you, is weird; difficulty totally random, but generally high; scaling really bad (the source of excessive difficulty - so much that I ended up avoiding it since the week 2).
Well, the "fight" against Wilfred was the most boring and tedious day of this whole event... i'm pretty sure there was more then enough feedback given about Wilfred having way too much HP and other stuff before, but it's still the same.
Attack for a while until my HP was down to around 50%, then block and give insignias/enchantments time to heal me up, attack again until it's time to block again, rinse and repeat until this snoozefest was over. I even switched from AoE to single target powers during the fight, which probably helped a little bit.
First round was very challenging with the 19k Fighter, second round against Wilfred was just meh.
I just hope they take some of this feedback into consideration, and improve the event before it returns for the 3th time.
Again, I felt I learnt a lot more about playing my class/toon solo.
But does it add to group content? Not sure on that one.
Scaling - definitely a problem at times. When I swapped stuff around my toon stats would go up, then down, then up again as the software decided on what the impact on scaling would be.
I got two orange mount insignia, worth 1.5million AD so thats good, a Coal ward, 10 pres wards a few stones and bits and bobs. Just over 2 million AD in total or something.
But for roughly ten hours grind was it worth it? Yes I reckon.
PROS
Some good rewards. Learn about defensive stat balancing Learn about your class/toon
CONS
Swing in difficulty from day to day and devils is easier than demons Scaling
So I finished Hell Event with 2 days and 2 hours left ....... 1 token of Achievement ....Only 1 so ALL THIS BS and no MOUNT ????? Did we ever have a shot at the Mount or was this a SET up ?????
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,090Arc User
So I finished Hell Event with 2 days and 2 hours left ....... 1 token of Achievement ....Only 1 so ALL THIS BS and no MOUNT ????? Did we ever have a shot at the Mount or was this a SET up ?????
It takes 5 events to get the mount.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
Well, would be nice if they make this event into a "Siege of Neverwinter 2.0", to give all players a fair shot at playing towards this legendary mount, and with mythic mounts in the works, why not?
FYI if it will take 2 years to get the mount , say it ...Don't get our hopes up just to crush them ... And if you had made it clear that 2 years away i could get the mount for jumping though your games hoops ....I would have played a different Game ....
1
plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,206Arc User
FYI if it will take 2 years to get the mount , say it ...Don't get our hopes up just to crush them ... And if you had made it clear that 2 years away i could get the mount for jumping though your games hoops ....I would have played a different Game ....
It was pretty clear when the Hell Pit came up even when it was the first time and nobody played the event before. At that time, we have speculated it might take from 1 year to 5 years. Yes, we read the description and many decided not to think about the legendary mount at all. By the way, officially, nobody said it will be 2 years. Who knows? It can be 10 years.
Angel of protection takes one year to get if you play everyday after you learn invocation. Relatively, 2 years (if it is 2 years) to get a legendary mount is within the 'scale'.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
FYI if it will take 2 years to get the mount , say it ...Don't get our hopes up just to crush them ... And if you had made it clear that 2 years away i could get the mount for jumping though your games hoops ....I would have played a different Game ....
Of all the reasons you might have to choose to play Neverwinter; gameplay, D&D setting, fun, adventure, escapism, community, etc, etc, and your sole reason was to get a legendary mount form an event?
From a dps perspective, I ran it with a 23kIL warden HR (biased towards AoE) with Lomm capped stats (before scaling) and power lower than most (135k). This probably worked in my favour as scaling wouldn't have hit me as much as some. I didn't swap any gear or companions out, just ran it as it came.
I only had problems on day 12 or 13 on the last round, where I died several times, but I think revive sickness played a part in that as subsequently I was being taken out in 2 - 3 hits; well before potion or stone cooldowns expired (I used a few scrolls as I thought I'd have to start from round 1 again if I dropped back to the campfire). When I eventually gave up and let myself go back to the campfire and started round 5 again (feeling relieved I didn't have to start from round 1 again), it was manageable the second time. I think I only died on one other occasion during the entire event and that's because I got a bit bored and wasn't paying attention.
On the whole, I found it manageable, albeit a little close a few times in the latter stages of the event. I agree with other commenters, it does feel pretty boring as events go, with a small area of combat combined with little variation and high repetition (especially when taking account the number of times you will need to run the event to get the mount). Assuming legendary mounts still hold the same kind of value to own in however many years this event will be strung over. I'll be very glad when it's done. For me, Hell Pit feels very much like a chore and not a piece of entertainment.
As most have said, it did seem a little inconsistent with regards to rounds sometimes being harder/easier than others depending on the type of foe that spawned. Plus, I felt it was a little harder overall than it should have been when you consider it was listed for 18kIL participation. Personally, whilst it felt generally harder than the previous time the event was run, I didn't find it insurmountable as a dps class.
With regards to having to complete the event 5 times to get the mount. I don't think it was stunningly clear in the description, although if you actually read it and took the information in, you should have been able to deduce the number of events that would be required. To be fair, Cryptic don't have a fantastic reputation when it comes to explaining things clearly, especially in tooltips. Personally, I caught a video on YouTube that explained it clearly. Also, having to complete events multiple times to get the top prize is not new to Neverwinter (Neverwinter Siege (I think that is still the same) and CTA both require at least two events to get the epic mount).
As a minor note, I got stuck in the gates leading to the arena a few times by moving my character too quickly as the gates were opening. Fortunately, the 'I am stuck' option worked ok.
Comments
Still not sure whats happenign here - dropped il as per usual, got demons, got destroyed totally an utterly. gave up.
Attempt 2 - same as above. got demons tried lots of different stuff, totally destroyed. gave up.
Attempt 3 - went in low il, jacke up all my stats where I could. Got devils.
Round 1 - really pretty easy.
Round 2 - Skull Power up... I was about to die and wait for the shield but decided to have a go. Ran around lots, timed my daily, used stones at just the right moment [boy thats scary] and hit the F button to nuke as much as I coudl with about 30 seconds to go, hoping I could solo the boss before too much more mobs spawned.
Amazingly the Skull nuked the boss as well! Wow. result all round.
Only 2 days to go till freedom fro this event.
I'm actually glad that there's only one more day left for me in this event.
Btw: Baphomet seemed to deal a bit more damage in a direct confrontation compared to the Siege commander or Horse-rider whatever, but was rather squishy. Like... a lot squishier.
What i think has happened here is that Hell Pit is the only event of the year that was designed with tanks in mind, and everyone else has to struggle.
I agree demons vs devils makes a difference, but with a shield to protect against most control effects and shed load of HP, you can just save your daily and big encounters to remove the worst offenders very quickly and I don't think Tanks have to worry too much about which set they get.
For what its worth, i'm going in with my 27k paladin Justicar without making any gear adjustments, and im not finding it much harder than last year. The first two weeks were largely a walk in the park, i think i used a healing potion in the bonus round on day 14, but that was about it.
In week three, days one and two were equally easy. Day 3 did see a jump up in difficulty, had to use a few potions and the fight was a long grind. Day 4 i had a torrid time the leap in difficulty was mad. Just could not kill the mobs with any speed, got completely swamped and had to burn about 5 stones to get through. Day 5 and 6 returned to being really easy again, in fact today Baphomet seemed really weak, as soon as he turned up I dropped the skull pick up on him, followed by my daily (which procced manticore's bite)and then smite and he died all within about 5 seconds.
I also have 27k IL toons in all the other classes, and there is absolutely no chance id try to run it on any of the non tanks, I can only imagine the event turns into madly running around the arena desperately hoping your encounter powers re-charge before the number of mobs become unmanageable, and your healing potion counter comes off cool down before something else hits you.
Not that easy easy for tanks either not counting high end tanks. I've completed every day of HP so this isn't sour grapes either. It takes forever to kill enemies and more than a few of their stuns go through the shield. And, the shield only lasts so long when a dozen + enemies are whacking you at it. Plus, with all the red spots on the ground, you can't really stand still. This si why my favorite 'power up' is the explosive. I literally one shotted one of this week's bosses. It ended up being my easiest day with gaining victory with 35 seconds left. L0L I've also had to face bosses that took me 10+ minutes to whittle down even though he had no chance to beat me. I have not spammed healing pots/stones though so that's good.
The big issue is the rewards while okay are not worth the annoyance since you can get them in easier ways without the headache. L0L Except the mount which will take a year. L0L
The best thing I can say about HP is that it pushed me to rank up my bonding stones. They started at rank 9, and are now rank 13 just waiting for a ward to level up to rank 14. L0L
As an event I'd rate it 6/10 for me since at least I have completed it. :But, I'll be happy when it is done. That is sad, since events should be fun.
Fun? Not really.
Exciting? Yes at times.
Balanced for non Tanks? No.
Week 3 Day 6
Took me seven attempts on DPS Barbie.
First six enters, got Demons, after dying multiple times gave up and came back until I got Devils.
Devil Round 1 is fairly easy. Played it at LOW iL 19.9k.
Round 2 was much harder, tried various things and eventually [after 4 attempts] went into the fight on a 26.9k loadout dps and just about won. Got the heart power up, which I used to clear trash mobs from 30 seconds left. Then spammed the boss, who went down rather easily in the end.
2 more runs, till next year 👍
I think this illustrates [possibly] that its very class based/build based as to ease of completion
Round one - big guys. My dwarf was so tiny amongst those giants! And... I messed up and killed them right before the timer went up... so one bonus batch of big guys for me! Yay!
Final round was exactly like the last year. You fight a sponge. It is annoying if it directly hits your face, but that is about it. Takes a lot of time and effort to squeeze the last drop of HP out of it as well. (god be merciful to the souls of all the tanks that got bored to death in this fight)
Event idea fine; a system, where killing all mobs before the timer goes off penalizes you, is weird; difficulty totally random, but generally high; scaling really bad (the source of excessive difficulty - so much that I ended up avoiding it since the week 2).
Attack for a while until my HP was down to around 50%, then block and give insignias/enchantments time to heal me up, attack again until it's time to block again, rinse and repeat until this snoozefest was over. I even switched from AoE to single target powers during the fight, which probably helped a little bit.
First round was very challenging with the 19k Fighter, second round against Wilfred was just meh.
I just hope they take some of this feedback into consideration, and improve the event before it returns for the 3th time.
The final battle.
Round 1 - Three giant things, relatively easy, sprint around and take them down slowly.
Round 2 - Wilfred [Part 1] very easy.
Round 3 - Wilfred [Part 2] just like hitting a sack of potatoes over and over again. No major challenge other than staying awake.
Again, I felt I learnt a lot more about playing my class/toon solo.
But does it add to group content? Not sure on that one.
Scaling - definitely a problem at times. When I swapped stuff around my toon stats would go up, then down, then up again as the software decided on what the impact on scaling would be.
I got two orange mount insignia, worth 1.5million AD so thats good, a Coal ward, 10 pres wards a few stones and bits and bobs. Just over 2 million AD in total or something.
But for roughly ten hours grind was it worth it? Yes I reckon.
PROS
Some good rewards.
Learn about defensive stat balancing
Learn about your class/toon
CONS
Swing in difficulty from day to day and devils is easier than demons
Scaling
Angel of protection takes one year to get if you play everyday after you learn invocation. Relatively, 2 years (if it is 2 years) to get a legendary mount is within the 'scale'.
I only had problems on day 12 or 13 on the last round, where I died several times, but I think revive sickness played a part in that as subsequently I was being taken out in 2 - 3 hits; well before potion or stone cooldowns expired (I used a few scrolls as I thought I'd have to start from round 1 again if I dropped back to the campfire). When I eventually gave up and let myself go back to the campfire and started round 5 again (feeling relieved I didn't have to start from round 1 again), it was manageable the second time. I think I only died on one other occasion during the entire event and that's because I got a bit bored and wasn't paying attention.
On the whole, I found it manageable, albeit a little close a few times in the latter stages of the event. I agree with other commenters, it does feel pretty boring as events go, with a small area of combat combined with little variation and high repetition (especially when taking account the number of times you will need to run the event to get the mount). Assuming legendary mounts still hold the same kind of value to own in however many years this event will be strung over. I'll be very glad when it's done. For me, Hell Pit feels very much like a chore and not a piece of entertainment.
As most have said, it did seem a little inconsistent with regards to rounds sometimes being harder/easier than others depending on the type of foe that spawned. Plus, I felt it was a little harder overall than it should have been when you consider it was listed for 18kIL participation. Personally, whilst it felt generally harder than the previous time the event was run, I didn't find it insurmountable as a dps class.
With regards to having to complete the event 5 times to get the mount. I don't think it was stunningly clear in the description, although if you actually read it and took the information in, you should have been able to deduce the number of events that would be required. To be fair, Cryptic don't have a fantastic reputation when it comes to explaining things clearly, especially in tooltips. Personally, I caught a video on YouTube that explained it clearly. Also, having to complete events multiple times to get the top prize is not new to Neverwinter (Neverwinter Siege (I think that is still the same) and CTA both require at least two events to get the epic mount).
As a minor note, I got stuck in the gates leading to the arena a few times by moving my character too quickly as the gates were opening. Fortunately, the 'I am stuck' option worked ok.