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Official Feedback Thread: Heroic Encounters
dpaynedev
Cryptic Developers Posts: 6Cryptic Developers › Arc User
Greetings Adventurers!
The Icewind Dale module introduces a new type of adventure to Neverwinter, the Heroic Encounter. Heroic Encounters are dynamic events that occur throughout Icewind Pass and Dwarven Valley. Completing Heroic Encounters earns your hero special rewards and bonus Black Ice.
Overview
Heroic Encounters (HE) are balanced for groups of players. The size of the group needed for a particular HE depends on its class. There are 3 classes:
Class A: 6 to 10+ players
Class B: 3 to 6 players
Class C: 2 to 3 players
Heroic Encounters can be found by looking at your map. The positions of active Heroic Encounters are marked there. The larger and more ornate the map icon, the more difficult the Heroic Encounter. Nearby HEs also cause a beam of light in the sky to guide you to their locations. The objectives of a Heroic Encounter appear on your mission tracker when you enter the mission area.
Class A & Class B Heroic Encounters have time limits for completion. The time remaining for an HE is also visible on the map.
The Icewind Dale module introduces a new type of adventure to Neverwinter, the Heroic Encounter. Heroic Encounters are dynamic events that occur throughout Icewind Pass and Dwarven Valley. Completing Heroic Encounters earns your hero special rewards and bonus Black Ice.
Overview
Heroic Encounters (HE) are balanced for groups of players. The size of the group needed for a particular HE depends on its class. There are 3 classes:
Class A: 6 to 10+ players
Class B: 3 to 6 players
Class C: 2 to 3 players
Heroic Encounters can be found by looking at your map. The positions of active Heroic Encounters are marked there. The larger and more ornate the map icon, the more difficult the Heroic Encounter. Nearby HEs also cause a beam of light in the sky to guide you to their locations. The objectives of a Heroic Encounter appear on your mission tracker when you enter the mission area.
Class A & Class B Heroic Encounters have time limits for completion. The time remaining for an HE is also visible on the map.
Post edited by dpaynedev on
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Comments
We need to collect as much feedback as possible on this so we adjust the difficulty and rewards of the Heroic Encounters and stomp any bugs. Given that, we would like you to categorize and color code your feedback so we can sort it and act on it most effectively! Please use the below format to submit bugs/feedback.
Type: Bug/Feedback (Please only choose one)
If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use BLUE.
(Concise Feedback & Screen Shots are much appreciated)
Examples:
Bug: Could not complete Caravan Attack
The second wave of Barbarians never spawned and we could not complete the Caravan Attack HE.
Feedback: Prospector Rescue too hard
There were too many undead in the second stage of the Prospector Rescue encounter. Our group of 6 could not clear them before time ran out. We started the HE with 12 minutes remaining.
Presumably given that the party size limit is still 5, anyone who deals a certain amount of damage to a HE would be eligible for the rewards and no partying up is required?
Also, to put things into perspective, the Duergar Blasphemer in Gauntlgrym is in comparison to the planned HE of what class? I ask because currently any decently geared CW, GWF or TR can solo the Duergar Blasphemer without using any potions and with all the surrounding spawns considered in about 5-7 mins.
Will there be a limit for how often a HE (or HE in general) may grant rewards to a character on any given day? Otherwise there will be "farm groups" camping known spawn locations across instances and generally be locking out other players.
The critters in the Icewind Dale maps are a step up in difficulty form the other campaign zones. We're recommending a gear score of 10k or better for adventuring there. The critters in the HEs are more difficult than that. They all have a Black Ice buff on them that makes them tougher and stronger. The best counter to this is to have Black Ice gear of your own.
At the moment there are no limits on how many times you can play an HE. There are a lot HE locations in each zone, however, and the active HEs move around the map, so camping a particular location is not going to be a productive strategy.
I am not saying that would be bad - in fact, I would really like to be a part of a crowded 20-man fight - just wondering if this is actually the way it will work.
I played a game before called eden eternal that had a similar mechanism with powerful elite boss spawns and even though it was pretty much a zerg fest it was very enjoyable ,plus everybody who participates gets rewarded so I like the sound of this too .
Feedback: Marauding Barbarians
It is a 2-3 encounter so it was pretty easy. So easy I managed to solo it a few times on my TR (not permastealth).
Feedback: Wolf Den one (forgot exact name)
I don't know exactly how many people joined each time (though probably over 5) , but both times I ran it was pretty simple. Only issue I had was someone gathering all the corrupted wolves together so there was too much red area for me to fight. I noticed the boss dropped some unique green items (Fang Dagger for TRs and Elemental Belt for DC). Given the requirements to get into the zone, I think either these items need a unique look and/or better stats otherwise they are junk not worth picking up.
Feedback: Bear Rider Roundup (I think that was the name)
Again had quite a few people there so had to judge challenge. One issue I had was that it was hard to tell the leader apart from the regular riders during the final stage. He should look unique. I would also like to see unique names for the bosses of heroic encounters. Beast Rider Leader just isn't cutting it.
Feedback: General
I like the concept of them, could be a touch harder maybe. More testing on my part will be done. How rewards works is a mystery to me. Do you get a chance to get stuff no matter what or must you do well in the encounter. Also it always says I got junk tier rewards which is a little disheartening.
Would like to see more variations, especially for the class c ones. Maybe some class c encounters that are just a unique named boss. I would also like to see variation in what you do besides just "kill this wave of enemies". Look at some of the different objectives CO had in their open missions.
Also when there are 2-3 people recommended, anyone can join, so that sucks. How is that heroic if everyone on the map heads towards the dull encounter?
Side note, fun fact: my drops fell in the pvp area while not flagged for it. Was like "WTF" when it happened. Expect some rage posts on the forums about it.
Bug: I had a merchant in distress 2-3 people heroic encounter (had to defend horses). Nothing happened after I killed the initial group.
I like the concept of HE where anyone can join in and get rewards as long as they help meet the requirement. Variations to the HE in future will prevent boredom. I guess everyone has different take on it. You cannot satisfy everybody I guess..
Can be soloed with bad PvP spec and bad PvP gear CW.
Disappointing.
Heroic should be TOUGH.
REALLLLY TOUGH...
I did the Maruading Barbarians one a few more times and found more failure than success when going at it solo. If I can get everything but the bear rider down quickly, I'm good, but if I leave the others alive too long they will take me out before I can kill them.
I think for the barbarians, the spawn order should be flipped. The 2nd group of spawns is much easier than the initial group.
Feedback: Corrupted Wolf Pack
Did this one again. During the first stage there was 2 or 3 people (GF was there with me at first and was later joined by a second TR) and we did just fine just fighting one group at a time.
During the 2nd stage, the other 2 people left after fighting off 2 groups of corrupted wolves. I'm guessing it is because the shown radius for this HE is too small so when you are fighting the corrupted wolves at their spawn points you are outside the radius and therefore don't see progress. Even without them, I was able to kill a group of 4 corrupted wolves myself without a single issue (though they juggled me a few times because I wasn't dodging at all). A GWF and CW however showed up and made quick work of what remained of the corrupted wolves.
With stage 3, the boss went down WAY too quick. I think he was alive for a whole 10 seconds and then a bunch of people showed up to clean-up what remained.
Bug?: Remorhaz Hunt/Ill-Gotten Gains
I don't know if it was intended, but both of these spawned on the same area and the Giants were beating up on the Remorhaz.
Bug: Corrupted Bears
Only 17 of the 18 required bears spawned during the first phase.
I also like how anyone can join. Certainly preferable to grouping for me.
as a decently geared experienced CW, i think on my own, the 2-3 heroic encounters were challenging. but "challenging" certainly is subjective. i didn't die and i did have to use pots, which i don't usually have to do when doing sharandar or dread ring dailies. having groups of people engaged in the encounter certainly does make it easier. overall, i like the concept. the rewards are nice as well, although i'm sure those will likely change a bit before this goes live.
Don't worry about it lol 14.6k CW and the 2-3 man ones solo are a nice challenge , I tried one of the other ones that need more than 3 players and swiftly got put down , I'll try more today but so far I like the fights and the reward system.
I agree, even a not very well equipped CW can handle a heroic encounter 2-3 and 1 CW very well equipped can handle an encounter greater difficulty, eg 5-6 frost giants. My suggestion is to increase the level of the enemies of the area for at least 62.
Yeah, because CW has no target cap and the skills that do, have an off the wall TC.
You serious?
The "heroic" encounters are 3-4-5 mobs? What target cap advantages do I need for these?!?
Stop dreaming of CW nerfs in every post. Time will come, have patience.
yeah cw can more then easy solo all epic encounters
So can GWF, TR, HR, GF and even DC. Meanseasons has video on twitch soloing the "heroic" encounters on a DC.
I will try with my 13k GWF tonight, but I doubt it will be any different.
Just won a Hammerstone Scepter (for DC) on a heroic encounter with my GWF. Its BoP so why give other epics for other classes?
Video of you soloing a 6-10 man HE plox? or for that matter a 3-6 man one , it's so easy it should be simple for you to provide proof ,oh and no overgeared friends hiding in the bushes picking off mobs , no need to reply to this just post a vid to show us your mad skillz
With a bunch of people there, the Remorhaz went down fairly quickly. Not that bad of a 6-10 HE.
With Caravan Attack, a CW using singularity caused a wipe of the handful of people there. Before the CW pulled everything together, I was fighting several barbarians on my own with no troubles. These guys need to hit harder in the harder HEs. After I put out most of the fires without getting attacked, I was able to complete stage 2. Though some more people helped and they cleared out the enemies while I was working on the final fire. Managed to finish stage 3 with a minute left on the clock. Was nice to see a stage of a HE that wasn't just "kill these enemies".
Bug: Caravan Attack
The raiders during the second stage at named Corrupted Wolves. They are barbarians, not wolves.
No they can't. They can solo a 2-3 person HE easily, but that's all, but 2-3 HEs can be solo'd by any class if you have half-decent gear and some skills. Try soloing a 6+ man HE on a CW on anything else, the ones which location are shown by a purple beacon of light, that's impossible.
And to give my feedback too:
2-3 man HEs are easy, but they were probably meant for new players with 10k-11k gs, not exped players with 15k+ gs, so that's okay, they need something to do too. 3-6 man HEs aren't that hard either, a decent group can easily do it, probably even a full team of 10ks. 6+ man HEs on the other hand are really enjoyable, i love them, we did one today, the one where you need to fight giants and some kind of worms. At first i was alone, since i was just killing some giants when a HE spawned upon me. The first phase is kind of doable with a well geared CW, but you can't solo it because of the time limit, it's just way to slow to do it solo, and you'll use a lot of potions so it's not even worth it, even if you could. A few minutes into the fight a random GF and DC joined the fight, it was a bit easier then, but still to slow. A few more minutes and 3 more CWs arrived from my guild, then it was kind of easy, until the last part when a giant boss worm got summoned and it one-hited the entire party, using the same attack as the tentacles use in DV. We would have failed the attack anyways since we had only a few secs left, but it took me by surprise that an outdoor boss can 1-hit an entire party.
One more thing that may not be related to HEs, but that's the only time i've ran into it, is that DCs can't heal. In the HE i've described above, it seamed to me that i wasn't receiving enough heals. I was standing in AS and the biggest heal i've seen was ~1000 and that happened 2 times in like 10 secs, the entire duration of AS. So either i wasn't receiving heal because the DC was from a rival faction, even though none of us was flagged for PvP, or the 1000HP heals i've seen was from my lifesteal and the DC was healing me for like 200-300, with AS, or idk. I've also inspected the DC in the middle of the fight, cause i've thought he's a new 60, but he had more than 14k GS, can't remember exactly, so he should've healed me for a lot more, my 13.8k HP DC can heal for 700+/tick with AS.
The same thing happened to us yesterday. We had a party of 1 GWF, 2 CW, 1 DC, a few of us who went to test mod 3 asap. We were flagged for PvP, doing a 6+ man HE when a DC & CW from the other faction arrived, so we started doing both HE & PvP. The point is that our DC, couldn't keep the GWF alive.
To sum it up, the HEs are a lot of fun, i was really waiting for something like this, love the outdoor bosses in every MMO, the only downside is that the 3 man HE give the same rewards as the 6+ man HEs, at least they both rewarded me with random stuff for the black ice profession, a rank 4 enchant, and 75 (today) / 150 (yesterday) black ice.
I can solo the 2-3 people ones on my CW in under 20s and not even use a potion. Wow. Where's my heroic feeling? I've been able to get on a quite empty map, and a tank and I two manned a 10 people "heroic" encounter with bear training. 3' left when the boss died. Used maybe 2-3 potions, and at the very end when the boss was half dead, a cleric stepped in but was in no way useful. My conclusion is that the 10 people heroic encounters are easier than all of the T1 dungeons. I felt I was fighting something easier than the cragmire crypts boss - maybe the cloak tower one, and even this one hits harder -, which has nothing heroic at all. Encounter for at least 5 people or more should have more NPCs, all lvl 65+ and probably hit harder just to make sure clerics have something to do, otherwise, it should be very soloable by experienced players. The only challenge is the timer when you're two. Come on, cryptic. After the good challenges that MC and VT were, this is a huge step backward, and the zone is probably more suited for 6k GS people, not 10k+ ones.
Edit: The rewards for some HEs are weird and not really appropriate: bind on pickup and not for my class. Please at least consider making the rewards bind on equip/account, I really don't feel the need to get more rough astral diamonds except for my mules. Something my class can use would be nice too. On the other hand, the game told me i received junk and this is exactly what I felt.
When I do heroic encounters I don't want to be killed by enemy pvp mobs!!!