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General issues noticed whilst leveling up
benyr
Member Posts: 238 Arc User
Hi, just for some context im a long time player who walked away from the game when the last set of stat changes etc hit preview, as id just had enough of the constant shifts in direction - but then i got COVID and whilst trapped in self isolating with nothing else to do i decided i'd level up a Bard to pass the time.
Firstly full credit on the levelling rework, pushing campaigns into adventures so they can be completed without timescales etc is a real improvement, and the introduction storyline and training flows far more fluidly as well now.
Just some things i've noticed as ive progressed that don't seem to work as intended:
1) The friends in high places quest has two errors on it. Firstly you get it from Knox in the new training building and he directs you to the claims vendor "just across the temple" but of course Knox has moved twice since he was near the temple himself. Then when you get to the vendor, you can claim the class artifacts, but the quest doesnt recognise you have done, so you can't turn it in.
2) On completion of the 4 elemental adventures I decided to try and get one of the elemental artifact weapon sets, but could not work out how to do so. The Collections page advises they can be obtained from quests given by the archdruid, but the only quests he is giving out are the repeatable visists to the elemental islands. Have the weapons been removed from the game, or is there another way to get them? either way the text in the collections page needs updating.
3) In the Undermountain adventure, right at the start, when that litch asks you to kill 10 members of opposing factions discuised as the other, the amnimation is broken for the Bard whilst disguised as a wererat. You basically just stand there in a frozen frame with your lute hovering just away from your hand, there is no combat animation at all.
4) The Well of Dragons Legacy campaign - this has really been broken since mod 6, with the quests in the zone not giving out dragon coins required to complete the campaign tree. Historically this was resolved by taking the quests fromt he guys in the protectors enclave to go slay dragons etc, which rewarded the coins. But those guys dont provide quests anymore, so the only way i can see to get coins is to either run Tiamat or complete HE's in the zone (which as a legacy zone isnt easy - you often have to sole a small one for 3 whole coins). Given you need hundreds of these coins to get the boons there is a real road block to completing this campaign for a new player.
5) Genies gifts, these just don't work as they should to my mind. As best as i can tell there are now 4 zones you can turn these in for currency. They are the Dread ring, the Well of Dragons, Icewind Dale and Storm Kings Thunder. They work absolutely fine in the Dread Ring giving you all the currency you need - but its probably the last campaign you should be looking to use them on, as its quick easy and quite fun. In the Well of Dragons they are a good way to get the missing coins mentioned above, so its probbaly the best campaign to use them on - but they dont give the Linu's favour so you can only use them to progress so far. Using them in Icewind Dale is a complete waste of time, as whislt you get the currency you need you dont get any reputation, and the only way to get the reputation is to run the quests that grant the currency anyway, so you save precisely zero time. Then on Storm Kings Thunder they dont grant Vorninblood, so whilst you dont have to run the quests, you do have to spend hours farming for it seperatly which is probably even more tedious than running the quests. I just think that given these are the oldest 4 zones remaining, the Genies gifts should give you everything you need to complete them if you open enough.
6) A general point about difficulty, possibly linked in to scaling? My Bard is 4 days old, is not in guild, yes it has some good account wide mounts and some tier 1 avernus hunt gear, but it its largely thrown together from what ive found completing zone quests and adventures. Green insignia, random enchantments etc. I've paid zero attention to balancing stats, they are literally what they are from equiping what ive found, and i dont really have any idea how to play a Bard. Despite this everything seems so easy now. Previously there was a scale, i could go to the dread ring and one shot any mob i found or i could be in Avernus or Vanrakdoom and have to be a bit careful not to pull multiple mobs ontop of myself with a well built toon. Now its all the same where ever I am (ive not been to the new Fey zone yet). And whilst its not one shot easy anywhere, i dont have to worry about pulling half the mobs on the map onto myself either. Doing Demon HE's in the well of dragons (the secondary ones where a powerful Demon emerges after a Gold completion) or doing the "ape" HE in Avernus I keep on getting full aggro. Whilst thats encouraging for me, that i must have built my Bard ok, im guessing the other people in the instance must be new players who are not built all that well but are getting on just fine as the game is really easy now. The problem comes when those players queue for a dungeon which i guess is nothing like as easy following the rework and scaling? Assuming the dungeons are more challenging this is where the conflict in the game comes from, as absolutely nothing in the solo aspect of the game shows a new player how they should build or demonstrates the setbacks of not balancing correctly. These people then queue for a dungeon run that no doubt fails and everyone gets angry. I feel thats on the game design, getting these players to a point they can run dungeons within a few days of starting but providing no guidance on how to prepare themselves to succeed is why no one who has an alternative option runs random queues.
Firstly full credit on the levelling rework, pushing campaigns into adventures so they can be completed without timescales etc is a real improvement, and the introduction storyline and training flows far more fluidly as well now.
Just some things i've noticed as ive progressed that don't seem to work as intended:
1) The friends in high places quest has two errors on it. Firstly you get it from Knox in the new training building and he directs you to the claims vendor "just across the temple" but of course Knox has moved twice since he was near the temple himself. Then when you get to the vendor, you can claim the class artifacts, but the quest doesnt recognise you have done, so you can't turn it in.
2) On completion of the 4 elemental adventures I decided to try and get one of the elemental artifact weapon sets, but could not work out how to do so. The Collections page advises they can be obtained from quests given by the archdruid, but the only quests he is giving out are the repeatable visists to the elemental islands. Have the weapons been removed from the game, or is there another way to get them? either way the text in the collections page needs updating.
3) In the Undermountain adventure, right at the start, when that litch asks you to kill 10 members of opposing factions discuised as the other, the amnimation is broken for the Bard whilst disguised as a wererat. You basically just stand there in a frozen frame with your lute hovering just away from your hand, there is no combat animation at all.
4) The Well of Dragons Legacy campaign - this has really been broken since mod 6, with the quests in the zone not giving out dragon coins required to complete the campaign tree. Historically this was resolved by taking the quests fromt he guys in the protectors enclave to go slay dragons etc, which rewarded the coins. But those guys dont provide quests anymore, so the only way i can see to get coins is to either run Tiamat or complete HE's in the zone (which as a legacy zone isnt easy - you often have to sole a small one for 3 whole coins). Given you need hundreds of these coins to get the boons there is a real road block to completing this campaign for a new player.
5) Genies gifts, these just don't work as they should to my mind. As best as i can tell there are now 4 zones you can turn these in for currency. They are the Dread ring, the Well of Dragons, Icewind Dale and Storm Kings Thunder. They work absolutely fine in the Dread Ring giving you all the currency you need - but its probably the last campaign you should be looking to use them on, as its quick easy and quite fun. In the Well of Dragons they are a good way to get the missing coins mentioned above, so its probbaly the best campaign to use them on - but they dont give the Linu's favour so you can only use them to progress so far. Using them in Icewind Dale is a complete waste of time, as whislt you get the currency you need you dont get any reputation, and the only way to get the reputation is to run the quests that grant the currency anyway, so you save precisely zero time. Then on Storm Kings Thunder they dont grant Vorninblood, so whilst you dont have to run the quests, you do have to spend hours farming for it seperatly which is probably even more tedious than running the quests. I just think that given these are the oldest 4 zones remaining, the Genies gifts should give you everything you need to complete them if you open enough.
6) A general point about difficulty, possibly linked in to scaling? My Bard is 4 days old, is not in guild, yes it has some good account wide mounts and some tier 1 avernus hunt gear, but it its largely thrown together from what ive found completing zone quests and adventures. Green insignia, random enchantments etc. I've paid zero attention to balancing stats, they are literally what they are from equiping what ive found, and i dont really have any idea how to play a Bard. Despite this everything seems so easy now. Previously there was a scale, i could go to the dread ring and one shot any mob i found or i could be in Avernus or Vanrakdoom and have to be a bit careful not to pull multiple mobs ontop of myself with a well built toon. Now its all the same where ever I am (ive not been to the new Fey zone yet). And whilst its not one shot easy anywhere, i dont have to worry about pulling half the mobs on the map onto myself either. Doing Demon HE's in the well of dragons (the secondary ones where a powerful Demon emerges after a Gold completion) or doing the "ape" HE in Avernus I keep on getting full aggro. Whilst thats encouraging for me, that i must have built my Bard ok, im guessing the other people in the instance must be new players who are not built all that well but are getting on just fine as the game is really easy now. The problem comes when those players queue for a dungeon which i guess is nothing like as easy following the rework and scaling? Assuming the dungeons are more challenging this is where the conflict in the game comes from, as absolutely nothing in the solo aspect of the game shows a new player how they should build or demonstrates the setbacks of not balancing correctly. These people then queue for a dungeon run that no doubt fails and everyone gets angry. I feel thats on the game design, getting these players to a point they can run dungeons within a few days of starting but providing no guidance on how to prepare themselves to succeed is why no one who has an alternative option runs random queues.
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