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Do something about Dragon Hunt IL requirements
janhow
Member Posts: 27 Arc User
I understand for private runs I don't care if there is any requirement. For random queue Ancients it should be 50IL. IL isn't a good requirement, but the game has so many money making modifiers it's all you can use. I'm getting crucified with AWFUL 30-40 IL getting bumped up with HAMSTER gear and stats. Bad enough 50IL will have the craptastic Dragon Bone Vale gear. I'd run with my guild but 90% of them aren't able to run ancients either. Also for random queue limit it to 1 modifier. You thought people would use good judgement doing this? Miserable IL wanting to run T3x3 modifiers... And just remove the Black Dragon if you can't fix it. I'm just about ready to say the 2 pieces of gear I want aren't worth it and bail on this mod.
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What is wrong with the Black Dragon? Yeah some of the mechanics can be frustrating, but it's not broken as far as I know.
For the adult dragon hunts, in terms of IL, I do not check because I presume it does not matter when I am there. It may be a bit arrogant on my part but then again most of my runs have been successful. Also, when choosing modifiers for randoms I always go with the two easiest which is increased power for minions and "Easily Irritated".
For ancient, I have only done that with the active alliance I joined a few months ago as I determined it was time to remove some of my toons from the dead alliance/guild that all my other toons are currently still a part of. I refuse to even try to solo queue with a random group for Ancient as I presume it is a guaranteed failure.
As far as the Black Dragon I do not see the problem really that just means it is the toughest one to beat on Ancient followed by the Red and the other three I just consider those to be the easy ones.
They are definitely doable at lower item level, but the difficulty spike wasn't what I expected from the small jump that is shown in what's required. Ancients add the tank-busting bites + wildly harder aoe powers. I'm assuming the bump is because healers/tanks aren't required in the adult hunts, but still - I think knowing the mechanics, and how to play your class, is more important than item level here.
I got wiped as tank because I was not expecting the hits to hurt nearly as bad as they did. It would be nice if there was a way to prepare for those, but I'm not sure that there is considering there's no party requirements on adult.
TLDR; more ancients are prob failing because you very abruptly need to know how to play your class well
The New Mod is a Grind & the battles are to difficult for casuals...
Random Ancient Dragon Ques are now Time Sinks as OP said.
You have Undergeared randoms who allow the quest for gear to hinder their own chance of success with modifiers lol.
Que up for an evening of play and catch 1-2 fail runs and that’s a wrap.
Wasted an hour plus of your time with zero reward, common sense leads one to log off and do something enjoyable...
It’s already a Grind & when you attribute the Fail / Success ratio we are currently seeing in the Random Ques it is just... Not Fun.
If a game isn’t Fun... then what’s the point?
Yes it can take a little longer but it also might not mostly depending on if your running decent debuff artifacts and mounts, yes the black dragon is the hardest to beat but not because of IL, just purely because it has some serious mechanics you need to watch out for. In terms of the biting it makes no difference if I go in at 20k or 60k, the bites do the same amount of damage, which in ancients, yes is equivalent to being hit by a truck, but in both cases your relying on the healer to be reactiv. again tested with healer at 20k and 60k again barely makes a difference.
Sometimes the black and white dragon are more aggressive and relentless and other times it can be pretty chill but again it's not the IL that is making it difficult it's the dragons numbers and mechanics. The bite attack combined with certain aoe combination is just instant death for many tanks regardless of IL only thing that going to save you is a reactivate healer, and yes if the tank drops in a ancient dragon than everyone starts dropping like flies as itshould be imo. My request wouldn't be to change the IL requirements but to change how much certain attacks hit for, like the bite mechanics if that was toned down slightly would make it more survivable for tanks which would result in less failed runs. That said they have already nerfed the green and blue dragons, removing their bite altogether which not going to lie Im very happy about, another factor they should look into is arena size as yes the white black have smallest arenas which makes their aoes feel worse because there less space to work with from the start.
Well that's my two cents they do not need to change the item level just the actual damage numbers or arena size or both, and they don't need to make it so only 1 modifier gets used, I happen to random queue all the time because I want the random queue system to succeed but I would have less incentive to run random if only a single mod can be used. So no please and ty
I mean it's fine offering Young at 18k, I would have thought initially, they'd have been better to limit Adult to 35k at least similar to Adv Dungeons, then perhaps limit Ancient to 50k given the gear it gives. As it would encourage others to gear up as they progress, yet the decision they made to allow everyone to try, so that's likely not going to change. And yes I'd kind of agree with this, especially as more casuals become less interested. I suspect it's not the item level that's the challenge as Master Yoda said. It's the level of hits many Ancients do even without Modifiers, that is discouraging the willingness to try. Many 20 level Guilds have problems even finding members who active.
I think the challenge since the reduction from Level 80 to 20, that also see's Enemy dropping far less Gold, Silver, or Copper that drops from defeated Enemy. At 75-80 you'd even see Giants in Sea of Moving Ice or Cold Run sometimes rarely drop a Gold; now at best maybe 15-35 Copper or maybe 50-75 if you really lucky!
It be nice if some more Heroic's offered some Silver, maybe a few Gem's too to all area's. Elemental Evil area's & Icewind Dale still drop them, yet there the only ones, and even they could add a few Silver too!
*sigh* Yes I'd agree, especially given their AoE's are often so large an area, and no where to escape, let alone very limited time to do so.
It takes teamwork, and if tank dies, someone needs to take aggro away quick, so tank can be revived, use potion and take it right back.
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Many will now only limited Modifiers on Black now to 1-2 (3rd Tier) Mediums, or 1-2 Hard (3rd Tier) will likely result in 1 or 2 failed attempts unless entire party is above 60k at least or equivalent buff's...
...you can still do 2 Hard (3rd Tier) on most Ancients since Thursday, yet is best to do at least One (3rd Tier) Medium at least since a.18 update. I'd also limit Hard's (3rd Tier) especially if 1-2 party are low 50k item level, or even less. Also wouldn't be doing too many Extreme's unless the entire Party is 70-75k or closer to maximum buff's now!
Still Item Level does make a difference, despite many don't think it does.
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*sigh* Before you could at least have fun, it was challenging, yet would advise most avoid Extreme Modifiers now!
You went to pugs q and complain that they are not well geared? Kinda amusing complain.
The dragon hunts are not desing with aiming to high or end game playerbase. This is aim for all spectrum of playerbase. Dragon hunts act as bridge for players who don't have good gear to get better ones.
Other thing is that, as far I know you where not put on chain and thrown in dragon fight, you have option leave anymoment.
Even before dragon fight when party get in waiting place, you decide do you want fight dragon or leave group.
Don't like pugs and low IL players in ancient dragon fights? Perhaps time to use private q?? In Zone/LFG chat you can always find players who making private q's.
When I do q for pugs, I accept fact that other players would have less than good gear. That's how it always where since old days, and it is same now.
Remember, game does not run arround any x one person, we all just part of game..
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
Gustave Le Bon.
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/sarcasm off ...it is a scaled content, IL does not play a major role there. The choice of skills and bonuses does, the player's abilities as well. But that is not reflected by IL in the slightest.
24k player would be slaughtered in the new Tia without scaling, but with scaling it would be possible to pull it out, because...
...scaling not only downgrades those above, but upgrades those below too. (it is there to level the field for all participants)
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
Gustave Le Bon.
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Yes sure some higher item level use lower gear, with better buffs. Everyone has different goals as well, it's not for one person to judge another's choices. Still most 1225-1260 Armor can earn without too much effort like Vallenhas, while others requires a bit of luck if it's a drop from Dungeon; those can take a few weeks, depending how lucky or focused you are.
Some also aren't interested in chasing older gear, they want more challenge of using the new gear, as it makes fights more relevant too! It actually takes more skill, not less, to use the more current (higher) item level stuff, even though the buff received may be less. It's likely because most claim they want more challenge, yet you still have (many) running around in lower item level gear; as their focus is different, being singularly on damage delt. It's why Cryptic always reevaluates over time, looking at whom wears what, and why...
There is nothing wrong with that either, were all different.
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I just would have thought they'd open Adults at 35k similar to Adv. Dungeons, as that makes sense as a normal progression. Then maybe at least limited Ancients at +45k (Similar) to Dragonbone Vale. That was my only thought, yet they are unlikely to change this after the fact, and they likely did this to give something new to everyone; so I don't see any wisdom in debating this.
Still I'd hope most limit Hard (3rd Tier) Modifier's to 1, or 2.
╘ substitute at least 1 Easy/Medium depending how much lower than 55k party members are.
It will be fastest your Dragon hunts, all with BoA, quick melting dragons hp, less seconds wasted with pugs who don't have them..
Sorry for sarcasm.
But It's amusing when someone try consider that due higher IL your hunt will be shorter.. I give you example, I can take Dragon_vale weapon at legendary rank, put some random high IL gear. This will show that I have over 70k IL. Yet it will be poorly build up, not even properly optimised. I don't even want to speak about companions, some may pick highest ranked ones, even though it may give no benefits to him..
While other player with lesser IL, may have optimised his build, Use mirage set, use companion which provide additional dmg increase against dragons. Maybe use companion which buff party members over all dealt dmg ( Drizzt Do'Urden),, or lets take lion companion.
I may not use high IL artefact set, but use let say, Apocalypse dager set. Which when you hit crit apply debuff and make boss take increased damage by 1% , ( stack 4 or 5 times).
Or I may use Lantern artefact to again improve over all whole groups dealt dmg.
Remember, this is still action combat RPG MMO game. To fight ancient dragon require Team Work. It's not a gear/stat benchmarking simulator.
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
Gustave Le Bon.
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And strangely enough, I typically make use of the "lesser" artifacts because they tend to provide great party damage buffs (think apocalypse dagger, lantern, wyvern, etc. that cause debuff to the boss). What does surprise me is how few people in any pug run, not just dragon hunts, don't use their mount debuff powers.
I remember when you could, in a bad group with no coordinated attacks, run Lostmauth and die in the scorpion section multiple times only to get slaughtered by the dragon. Yet in other runs, using a coordinated attack, could one or two shot the dragon. While that style of play has been minimized considerably, it is not completely eliminated. Proper teamwork and gear still help make the run more successful.
All that said, I still hate scaling.
I love this game so much but I don't know if there is anything that could fix it.
In past we had exchange rate 500ad for 1 zen.
Then some "Clever" players started suggest solution, just like what you have wrote. And where telling that ZAX issue would be fixed with it.
Have it ? nah. the issue only increased.
So question, why repeat same flawed idea?
@aslan3775
Well, lot of players here, simply forgot how to play mmo games. For most think it's all about high IL and show off their personall dps. Yet mmo is not about that. It's about teamwork.
One player may bring Lion companion which provide damage increase, other bring Drizzt Do'Urden which ability is increase allies outgoing damage. Some may bring companion which provide debuff and make enemy take more damage.
Some bring artefacts which maybe slighly lesser IL, but provide over all dmg increase for all party. As example here is list of artefacts for party content like ToMM/Zariel trials.
Wyvern-Venom Coated Knives : deals damage around you, poison for 10s, poisoned enemies take 12% more damage and deal 12% less damage.
Frozen Storyteller’s Journal : deals damage in a 25' radius area. Also with all Tales : stuns enemies for 3s (plus Control Bonus percentage), summons 3 ice dwarves that fight for you for 20s, reduces incoming damage by 10%, increases you and your allies' damage by 10% for 15s.
Lantern of Revelation : deals damage to foes around you, increases the damage they take by 10% for 10s. Also lets you see hidden targets 10' further.
Charm of the Serpent : attacks enemies in a cone in front of you, increases damage against them by 10% (thank tooltip inconsistency, it's written 16% both Legendary and Mythic but it's really 8% at Legendary and 10% at Mythic).
Heart of the Black Dragon : deals damage to up to 7 enemies in a line in front of you and inflicts a damage over time for 6 seconds. Enemies take 10% additional damage for the duration.
Token of Chromatic Storm : summons 9 chromatic meteors that will strike near your target’s location after a brief delay. Each meteor deals damage to nearby enemies and has a special effect depending on its damage type. One of them increases damage taken by the target by 10% for 10s.
Thirst : lunge forward, deals damage to enemies, enemies hit take 10% more damage for 10s (difficult to handle because of the movement, which can be cancelled to avoid being in front of the monster, not recommanded if you can use another one).
Sparkling Fey Emblem : creates a field that buffs nearby allies and debuffs nearby foes. Enemies take 5% more damage, while allies gain 5% Defense and 5% Critical Avoidance (actually a decent damage mitigation, around 5.2% total damage mitigation for damage dealers), for 15s.
Vanguard's Banner : gives 5k Power and Critical avoidance to allies, and foes take 5% more damage (though it's written that they gain damage resistance...), for 30s in an area.
Flayed Storyteller’s Journal : deals damage in a 25' radius area. Also with all Tales : adds a stackable effect when you attack (after 15s, your next attack deals 5% additionnal damage and reduces your targets' Critical Strike by 400 times the number of stacks), stuns enemies for 3s (plus Control Bonus percentage), summons an intellect devourer that fights by your side for 20s, increases your Deflect by 10% for 20s, and increases you and your allies' Recovery Speed by 10% for 20s. .
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
Gustave Le Bon.
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