They should open skirmishes to all levels

maxbergen24 · September 2013

Either most of the population of the game is primarily level 60 characters, or no one really wants to play Skirmishes anymore. So if you're a player that is trying to earn achievements on specific characters, this is a problem.

Like lower level dungeons, they should open up skirmishes to be entered by anyone OR combine all the shards already.

syka08 · September 2013

It would be rather nice if they did, and in a way they already do with their Call to Arms event that I hope they bring back sometime soon for a new skrimish (last one was orc assault).

But it would be rather nice to just access them at any time, I agree.

durandurahan · September 2013

They couldn't because they are too busy making a new zen mount.

dardove · September 2013

Their solution to the problem was the Call to Arms events. I wouldn't be surprised if there is another one in the near future.

adinosii · September 2013

They basically said at the time that there would be CtA events for other skirmishes (which would solve the problem that many people have , where they outleveled the skirmishes, and as a result cannot get the relevant achievent points). They also said that we shouldn't expect CtE events every month - I take that to mean something like 3-4 events per year,

stercogburn · September 2013

Call to Arms needs to be a regular feature, not just an event.

Inclusive gaming = lots more happy players. Anything that sets barriers to people being able to play together is less beneficial.

wiserwithage · September 2013

I agree that there need to be more Call to Arms. My personal hope was for them to establish a master calendar that run a CtA for each of the various Skirmish zones in a weekend rotation. Every weekend there would be a limited time CtA and it would switch every weekend. If you couldn't attend the CtA that you needed one weekend, you would know that there would be another chance in a few months.

They wouldn't even need to create special rewards for a regular rotation of CtA events. People just want to catch up on missed Achievements and have some random fun on the weekends. I can't see how this kind of system could ever be a bad thing.

xelliz · September 2013

Special rewards are nice and all, but I'd like to see a different CTA each month. I'd also like to see each CTA last for the entire month. If they did this, I would be ok not getting anything fancy or whatnot.

melodywhr · September 2013

if cta is going to be rare, then all skirmishes with level-scaled monsters should be available.

iteide · September 2013

maxbergen24 wrote: »

Either most of the population of the game is primarily level 60 characters, or no one really wants to play Skirmishes anymore. So if you're a player that is trying to earn achievements on specific characters, this is a problem.

Like lower level dungeons, they should open up skirmishes to be entered by anyone OR combine all the shards already.

there is another option. Underleveling players tempory to play with thier friends low lvl.

syka08 · September 2013

CTA as an hourly event? I could dig that, if it were possible. But I'd hate to see it be only 3 -4 times a year. Since they only do it for a weekend.

neskolf · September 2013

I don't know if they should open up the lower level skirmishes to everyone, but a widening of the eligibility band of some sort might be in order. Over the last three weeks, I've started three characters from level 1 and each has had a progressively longer wait to do lower level instances such as Blacklake Terror, Orc Assault, and even the Cloak Tower dungeon. And that's as a GF, a class that typically has shorter wait times in queues.

My concern is the impression that these increasing wait times could leave on new players. Hey, I'm level 8. I can do a skirmish. Cool. Shame I don't have any friends yet. But, wait! I can queue for now and make friends along the way. All right, I'll queue up...waiting...waiting....hmmm....I'd really like to play the game....play...play...waiting...play...I'm kicked out of the queue? Why? I went past the level? WTF?

Yes, the above is exaggerated a bit for effect, but the point remains. These instances are a sort of first impression for new players when it comes to group play. And there's that old saying about first impressions. Expanding the bands a level either way might help alleviate things. It takes longer to exceed the level requirement, obviously. But with minimal impact, imo. After all, is there really that big of a difference if someone is running Cloak Towr at level 21 as opposed to 20?

Just some thoughts. I'd hate to see someone turned off from the game because they felt the content was inaccessible or that the wait time to experience it was excessive.

raptorskyfire · September 2013

GFs have little trouble getting into a queue for Skirmishes, as I learned when I went for a skirmish on mine. When I queued on my CW however, I was left waiting for close to an hour or something for it, and a little less if Skirmishes are up (AKA Skirmish Hour). Part of the reason for that, at least, in my opinion, is because not everyone knows that a Skirmish exists for their zone. I've gone to endgame with people who had no idea that they could bring up the queue window with K, which is really sad. In the first two zones, there's an NPC that tells you about Skirmishes, well, there WAS one in Blacklake, but she seems to have been removed after a patch for whatever reason, been missing for over a month or so I think. It would be nice if every zone that has a Skirmish (which is nearly all of them) has an NPC like that.

Besides that, I'd love for more Call to Arms events and more Skirmishes that can be done with all levels of players. Skirmishes at 60 besides the Feywild one would be nice. I wouldn't mind a rotating one, like, let's say there's Blacklake Skirmish for 60s on one week, and then Vellosk skirmish the next week.

Still, I've heard rumors that the next Call to Arms is coming, so I'm looking forward to it.

nikowyn1973 · September 2013

I levelled a couple characters past the first few skirmishes when I first started playing because I didnt know they existed. There was no quest over the skirmishes NPC (which has been removed from the Blacklake altogether now), and no indication at the level the skirmish became available that there was one, such as the "U" key panel which tells us we have power and feat points to spend. A notification in that panel that we can queue for "x" skirmish would be handy, could be an empty quest like the dungeon one. This means that character cannot get the Title for Blacklake. And if you level too fast past the skirmish (some are only available for 3 levels, and its way too easy to level past it), then you miss out on finishing the achievement and hence the title (same with the dungeons but that can be picked up later)

If skirmishes could be entered like a dungeon, it would save alot of people alot of bother, esp if it were done at the level intended (as a player could probably solo the content 20+ levels past it, as they can with dungeons).

CtA would be nice but it would have to be more regular, and I agree, theres no need for extra items, though a skirmish dye pack is nice, and those savage enchants while handy kinda defeat the point if we level too fast (on utility sockets)

Niko

sockmunkey · September 2013

The next CTA offered will be Battle for the bridge. Cryptic has a way of finding out what everyones favorite is, and picking the exact opposite.

sedryntyros · September 2013

sockmunkey wrote: »

The next CTA offered will be Battle for the bridge. Cryptic has a way of finding out what everyones favorite is, and picking the exact opposite.

Ha! Actually, I'm glad to hear that. I tried for days to get into that skirmish with my alt and eventually invoked myself over the level cap because I didn't want to sacrifice the Celestial Coins.

sockmunkey · September 2013

sedryntyros wrote: »

Ha! Actually, I'm glad to hear that. I tried for days to get into that skirmish with my alt and eventually invoked myself over the level cap because I didn't want to sacrifice the Celestial Coins.

LOL, I wasnt being serious. I honestly have no idea what the next one will be. I just know that one is as close to universally hated as anything can get.

melodywhr · September 2013

neskolf wrote: »

I don't know if they should open up the lower level skirmishes to everyone, but a widening of the eligibility band of some sort might be in order. Over the last three weeks, I've started three characters from level 1 and each has had a progressively longer wait to do lower level instances such as Blacklake Terror, Orc Assault, and even the Cloak Tower dungeon. And that's as a GF, a class that typically has shorter wait times in queues.

My concern is the impression that these increasing wait times could leave on new players. Hey, I'm level 8. I can do a skirmish. Cool. Shame I don't have any friends yet. But, wait! I can queue for now and make friends along the way. All right, I'll queue up...waiting...waiting....hmmm....I'd really like to play the game....play...play...waiting...play...I'm kicked out of the queue? Why? I went past the level? WTF?

Yes, the above is exaggerated a bit for effect, but the point remains. These instances are a sort of first impression for new players when it comes to group play. And there's that old saying about first impressions. Expanding the bands a level either way might help alleviate things. It takes longer to exceed the level requirement, obviously. But with minimal impact, imo. After all, is there really that big of a difference if someone is running Cloak Towr at level 21 as opposed to 20?

Just some thoughts. I'd hate to see someone turned off from the game because they felt the content was inaccessible or that the wait time to experience it was excessive.

my experience? if it took too long, i skipped it. as a matter of fact, i skipped doing the normal 5-man dungeons in nearly all zones. partially because i didn't feel like wasting my time with a pug dungeon for loot that i wasn't going to be needing for long. i like the idea of doing these dungeons for better loot like perhaps a blue weapon that scales with my level all the way up to level 60. because when i get to level 60, i'd rather be trying my hand at the epic dungeon delves.

what can i say? i'm a treasure seeking adventurer.

sedryntyros · September 2013

sockmunkey wrote: »

LOL, I wasnt being serious. I honestly have no idea what the next one will be. I just know that one is as close to universally hated as anything can get.

Oh nos! Should have known it was too good to be true, lol.

morsitans · September 2013

I'm just glad feywild doubled the "available skirms for 60s" figure. Ok, doubled it from 1 to 2, but still. Killing mindflayers in YOUR GPU IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR MY GLASS CHAMBER hell was getting mighty tiresome.

sedryntyros · September 2013

morsitans wrote: »

I'm just glad feywild doubled the "available skirms for 60s" figure. Ok, doubled it from 1 to 2, but still. Killing mindflayers in YOUR GPU IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR MY GLASS CHAMBER hell was getting mighty tiresome.

Yeah, that skirmish is a major pain in the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>!

adinosii · September 2013

sockmunkey wrote: »

LOL, I wasnt being serious. I honestly have no idea what the next one will be. I just know that one is as close to universally hated as anything can get.

Uhm....I missed that one, because I outleveled it before I was able to do it, but if it is worse than Garundar the Vile, then....*shudder'

Some of the skirmishes are actually quite fun - I like the one in blacklake and the tower district...and yeah, the one in Vellosk is OK too, but the best one IMO is the Sharandar one, MotH.

Garundar the Vile, on the other hand....I hate that one.

yyrkoonstyphoon · September 2013

what is the value of these achievements people are mentioning? i thought you just get the title, but is there more to it?

I would like to see all skirmishes have an epic equivalent as well, like the dungeons do.

Oh, and i loved Garundar skirmish on my GF. I ran that at least 3x every time the skimish event came up and I stopped lvling my GF till he was out of range.

neskolf · September 2013

melodywhr wrote: »

my experience? if it took too long, i skipped it. as a matter of fact, i skipped doing the normal 5-man dungeons in nearly all zones. partially because i didn't feel like wasting my time with a pug dungeon for loot that i wasn't going to be needing for long. i like the idea of doing these dungeons for better loot like perhaps a blue weapon that scales with my level all the way up to level 60. because when i get to level 60, i'd rather be trying my hand at the epic dungeon delves.

what can i say? i'm a treasure seeking adventurer.

I'm with you completely. I'm at the point now where bypassing a skirmish or dungeon is just an irritant (heck, I skip some voluntarily). But you (I'm assuming) and I have been playing for a matter of weeks/months already. As mentioned, I just don't want to see new players put off by excessive wait times thinking it's indicative of the game experience as a whole.

They should open skirmishes to all levels

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