Test Discussion Survival Mode Season 3

This is more a rewards question until I get a team to run that but - are the base items loading screens posters on the vendor new aswell? I can't tell for the life of me if we had them before. I wish they had like release year or season in discerption to know.

Edit: Just saw the other thread ... nvm

I was in a group that cleared 1-10 yesterday. Currently for Sixth Dimensional Superman's Solar Flare attack, if even 1 group member is not blocking then it would wipe the group and in the combat tab would indicate that ("Person who did not block") damaged them with Solar Flare. Not sure if this is intended but this normally happens around the time that the sub bosses spawn. In the case of Mera spawning, her Water Golems pose a huge threat to the group because they can block break the tanks during Superman's Solar Flare attack causing a wipe. Furthermore, the adds for Impassioned Catwoman are Red Lanterns instead of Violet Lanterns. The big blue pools linger even after Impassioned Catwoman dies, they were still ongoing in the timeout phase. I also firmly believe that Possessed Beastboy (Round 1) should be switched with Baron Von Savage (Round 8). Baron is incredibly easy and should be put in earlier on while Beastboy (a returning boss from Trigon SM) has 4 different forms that are just being burned through. Newer players haven't experienced Beastboy, they most likely have played last SM. I believe he should be on the latter end of the rounds in terms of difficulty. Lastly, I believe Darkfather (Round 4) should replace Cosmic Boy (Round 5). Darkfather poses an insane threat to the group due to adds. Cosmic Boy on the other hand, (while he does have some mechanics) does not pose the same threat as Darkfather. Rounds 5 and 10 have always been known as gatekeeper rounds (Vampire-Ultraman) (Mr.Freeze-Zeus). The round 5 bosses in the past all had adds. Darkfather should be Round 5 instead of Cosmic Boy.

I'm very concerned about block breakers' interference in this fight as well.

I don't know why Impassioned Catwoman is chosen tbh. We already have Carol Ferris as a Star Sapphire representative. I'd rather have her appearance be inspired by Gotham University Warehouse with those possessed cats.

I just want to point out the pools make no thematic sense. Either has the 6th dimension heat vision or colour it green to suit the titans' hologram theme.

That is certainly not going to change, certain rewards are already inspired by Legion and there's no turning back on that now.
On the other hand, R4 has been the BS round with speedster nonsense, but I don't really have a strong opinion on shuffling Darkfather elsewhere.

Enough with all the over usage of floor mechanics.

I love the new 6-player concept. Maybe we will see more of it in upcoming Episodes? ;-)

I like them - if they're clearly visible.

Survival Mode Feedback:

This is independent of what has been already mentioned thus far in this thread and is based presently only on multiple runs from 1 to 10. As I progress through the later rounds more feedback will be added.

General Feedback

• The health pools for 1-10 feel more like they were scaled to 4man SM rather than 6man SM. The first few round bosses are dying in less than 30 seconds and that is even with a balanced group. You don’t require a heal for most of the rounds

• Round 6 when the Poseidon Damage Pools start doesn’t make any sense. There is no theme that fits that damage pool from Wonderverse: Crypt of Penthesilea. I could see the mirrors being added from Sixth Dimensional Superman related content but the mirrors also are what would cause a one-shot bug on Superman so don’t need that possibility allowing groups a free round. All the Poseidon Damage pools do is to make SM much more of an issue for might dps that would have to continually cancel channels to move because of the large outside radius still causing damage. Also the Poseidon Damage Pools will still stay active after the round is completed and throughout all the add rounds after Round 6.

• If the Poseidon Damage Pools are going to stay, eliminate the damage proc on the radius and just have the larger/one shot damage in the middle of the pool that explodes upwards. This will allow less forced movement on might dps and still present a risk to the group.

• Alternatively, you could completely remove the Poseidon Damage Pools and just have each round an npc related to the round will spawn at health or time based internals on each round. This will give the group the option to either have the other tank keep the adds off to the side or the group can focus and kill them. This mechanic of having extra NPC’s spawn mid round is unique and will fit better with a 6man setup. On Rounds 4/14/24 and 10/20/30 this wouldn't be required as there are already enough adds to deal with. Also adds difficulty to R21-30 as the group will have to decide either to kill it or keep it with the additional tank.

• Despite what other players may say the solar flare mechanic is nice where groups will have to control when the adds spawn, which we can as they are based on health. Also has synergy with group immunity so that the tanks wouldn’t get block broken. Tying into this the Poseidon Damage pools again interfere with the core mechanic of round 10/20/30 as if a pool spawns under you while you have to block solar flame that is completely RNG and would cause a round wipe, which in that case isn’t acceptable to have a RNG group wipe and have to redo the previous round because of the no checkpoint each time.

• Carol Ferris could be because of the health pool or because its this new meta of range tanking that is causing her just to throw blockbreakers and not even attempt her skull attacks which were the main component that made her difficult.

• Catwoman rounds 1-2 of npcs are Red Lanterns instead of Violet Lanterns

• Minotaur when he charges the holographic chains it did not stun him at all, their effects were ignored. Also it could be just that it was round 7 but there was no debuff on the damage, which is usually present until he hits the chains and you hit for full damage. You could easily complete round 7 without needing the chains at all

• Vice – He doesn’t deal his suck in attack (sorry didn’t get hit by it so don’t have combat log reading) as that is typically a one shot in past OAN SM rounds and is what is a danger to the group. Also the radius on his bloodlust pool should be increased. The damage ticks were ok it was 114k+ per tick in the pool. Round 9/19/29 should be difficult just like Ultimate Soldier which if the tanks have to make sure immunity is there for the pull in attack and the group needs to spread out enough with Vice continually moving it keeps the group always active.

• Sixth Dimension Superman has mental distortion but we don’t have martian manhunter to cleanse so it is just a constant doc proc on players and even after you die/wipe the FX will still be on the player continually unless you leave SM. If a statue of manhunter could be added, even temporary it would allow 1 or multiple players to cleanse the dot, which more than likely will become a greater issue on 20 and 30 rounds.

While I was doing some runs on test I noticed after a wipe, poseidon's pools stop spawning on round 10. Maybe it was some luck but that raised the question: are these pools even intended on these rounds?

Addition to last paragraph: when involment of these pools to rounds like these are causing more RNG heavy fight than challenge, theres a problem. Indeed we need a clear answer if pools are intended or not.

Mental Distortion goes away afterawhile when effected players(players with gold arrow above their head) do not spread the distortion. Thats always been like this in TSDE raid. Also you are only getting damage from another player's mental distortion. If distortion pulsing on your character its only a "stay away from me" sign. No actual damage ticks hitting you if you are alone.

In my experience and what I saw in your stream is the FX part is only visual. Im talking about the sparks around character's head not the pulsing circles. Sparks have no effect on distortion procs or spreading. Distortion is only active and dangerous when player has golden arrow in his/her head.

Another thing I noticed is when Superman do his mental distortion skull he applies it to a few or all players randomly. The first initial golden arrow has about 10 seconds uptime and during that time if a player spreads to others the latter distortions having longer uptime. I can see the logic behind distortion mechanic and why they didn't add Martian Manhunter to round 10.

Thanks for all the feedback!

I'm working on changes/fixes for this version of Survival Mode and hope to have as much of those in as possible for an update to PC Test on Friday (is tomorrow Friday already?!?). I'm still considering what to change or improve or just fix, so don't have detailed list yet. Well, other than everything needs more health

- Quixotic

For the round 10 , we cant pull the adds and perma stun them, is it a bug or is it normal ? we can perma stun the adds in round 4 so that my question, is the round 10 bugged ?

If they can't be controlled at all, i's a bug - they should be controllable to some extent. I'll fix that.
- Quixotic

I have some Survival Mode changes ready for PC Test.

The biggest change is a shift or change for some of the bosses in some rounds.
The new Boss configuration is:
1 Baron Von Savage
2 Carol Ferris and Impassioned Catwoman
3 Deathstroke
4 Darkfather
5 Evil Cosmic Boy
6 Lex Luthor
7 Conjured Minotaur
8 Possessed Beast Boy
9 Vice and Krona
10 Sixth Dimension Superman

The two bosses in rounds 2 and 9 are a nod to the original survival modes where those bosses fought in pairs. Krona was an end boss and not paired with anyone else, so he might be too much paired with Vice. But I suspect he won't be as tough as he was in the past.

Some other updates:

• Increased health for all bosses
• The Watchtower and Hall of Doom now have the season 3 trophy and pets on display instead of season 2
• The statue adds in the 6d Superman fight should no longer block break
• Reduced the number of adds in the Darkfather boss fight
• Fixed an issue causing the Cosmic Boy adds from spawning
• The Minotaur chain should better detect when hit
• The Eruption Pools go away while 6d Superman does his Super Flare

I think that's everything in today's update.
More to come! Including looking at the added mechanics such as Eruption Pools.
Let me know how the increased boss health and updated sequence of bosses feels.
- Quixotic

Vice and Krona on round 29 will be a challenge for sure but we have to have a group on test to make it there first to really see how much of a menace that is. I think either Vice and Metallo or Vice and Atrocitus would be a better suit if it is determined to be a bit much. I think if we can at least have a group on test make it to 19, that will give a better idea if those two can be combined as bosses because it's only going to get a lot harder and more challenging from there.

Does that mean statues are stripped away from their block break attacks completely or they still do block break moves but do not actually block break; meaning they are still interruptable?

That means they should no longer look for players who are blocking and try to break that block. That kind of thing was okay in the Sixth Dimension raid, but not a good pairing with the Survival Mode version of Super Flare where anyone who isn't blocking can wreck their entire team.

- Quixotic

Health is buffed way too much. It took like 15 minutes to beat rounds 1 and 2. At this rate, it will take 2-3 hours to beat round 30 if anyone makes it there when every other SM has only taken 60-80 min to beat round 30. I think buffing the health was a good thing but it was calibrated a bit too high in my opinion. I know this is the first 6 man SM so it might take several adjustments before it feels like a good spot.

I feel like Baron Von Savage is never given an opportunity to shine and is always stuck on these lower rounds, I also note that a lot of people really like the abyssal horns, so I'm wondering whether you might consider swapping Conjured Minotaur to round 1 and put Baron back at round 7, so that it expands the access to those horns a little (especially since this is the 3rd season now) and also gives Baron a chance to be back up at a higher round - thanks.

- I think that health pools were buffed way too much, this may not seem like an issue on lower rounds, but once you reach the second (11-20) and third (21-30) bracket would be too much because of the scaling; excessively time consuming and frustating.

- On that same train of thought, i would ask the developers to add progress points for each round instead of 2 we have now. I think that if you already completed a round u earn the right to try to defeat the next one without wasting time on a round already beated; Its redundant, pointless, and frustating.

- On Round 9, Krona Arbitrary Bash needs to be removed, toned down or at the vey least, give an skull warning and 3 seconds to react and block. Right now, he just points at you, and you`re dead along anyone near to you.
I think this fight has a lot of things going on, and Krona himself has 2 mechanics that need to be avoided/blocked, that plus the blue eruption circles on the floor makes this fight way to hard and chaotic due to overlapping mechanics.

Thumbs up to this post, agree with all of it - also agree with the idea of every round getting a check point.