The Source Wall is still awful.

We really need 2 raids in an episode. That way there isn't so much focus in the difficulty (or lack thereof depending on your viewpoint) of the one raid.

While I do enjoy the raid, certain mechanics, especially the Planet Strike (meteor) AOEs, can sometimes be RNG if timing/AOE spawns/positioning of group doesn't match up too well.

Balancing difficulty of content will only become more difficult with time as more new allies, artifacts etc. get added to the game in later updates. This is where mechanics that need everyone to adhere to it (such as the Rebuked Isolation green stack marker) will come in but they should be more of a feature in elite and especially elite plus and less so in event/normal.

I wonder if they’re running away because it’s the same marker used for Superwoman’s lasso in the alert? Or maybe they’re staying on the move to preemptively avoid the other 47828267 mechanics?

It creates a lot of high-stakes split second decisions when all this stuff happens at once. Is it better to eat a few extra ticks of Isolation, or to get wrecked by Devastator jumping on us, or the Drowned doing that water jaw construct thing, or Dawnbreaker’s orbital, Murder Machine’s crouching AOE… or maybe we won’t have to make a decision because Merciless pulled us all into a meteorite because that’s ALSO happening, ARGH!

I agree with that, as long as the elite players back off one of the raids, which they occasionally fail to do

But one raid in a DLC is always going to lead to conflict, not to mention massive longevity issues.

Yeah, same look, different color could be confusing some. Personally I try to stay near the center and if I get it when someone is downed, I move towards them unless they are in the path of the sweep beam attack or WAY out of the center. Not sure how many times I've been killed doing a pickup when it hits someone else...no good deed I guess.

I generally have subtitles on, so rather than the voice queue, I see the word 'explode' as well. I also try to keep on the opposite side of her as the tank. If I see her spin my way...I block for a sec, regardless of the arrows I might not see. If I'm clear a sec later...I move...if not and someone else doesn't block, I'm at least blocking and might shake off some of the damage to survive (rare).

Hey, remember when blocking used to reduce the amount of damage you took? Good times. As soon as I hear Perpetua say the word “explode” I always block because that feeble white arrow often gets lost in all the other bright white lights. Also, gotta love how the warning for her orbital are the same glowing cracks as the ones already present at the edges of the arena, so if you happen to be in that area, SURPRISE!

It still reduces damage. But mechanical one shots have always been one shots. If the mechanic is failed and a “one” shot was tied to it than blocking would never have helped. This isn’t new

But it used to be the exception, rather than the rule. Not that it matters, I have bigger gripes with this raid.

They haven't always been one-shots for tanks. I used to be able absorb those with a shield as an ice tank and remain standing or as any other tank by blocking/healing through it. I detest that I can be one-shot as a tank after coming back from my break from 2018-2021. Damage that ignores shields has gotten me on several occasions on my ice character to the point that I'm now nervous going into any content I have never tanked before or cannot recall whether it has those "mechanics" to take a tank down.

In most cases, when I am knocked out as the tank, the group wipes trying to pick me up because aggro switches to the less-survivable group members. I personally think normal content should not have mechanics that severe to the group. Keep that idiocy in elite if anywhere.

One shot mechanics are something I too personally do not like. I think they are cheap ways of making content feel harder without actually doing things that are actually harder. That said, while they aren’t as common back than there were some attacks that could 100-0 even tanks in older raids. For example the stomping paradox if I’m remembering correctly. But they were far less frequent than today.

And the the block mechanic in tsw(reg) can technically be healed through. I just don’t advice it for obvious reasons lol. I have healed through it a few times. Thou that may also be mostly luck lol.

Lol

He is the final statue before you beat the round, so we were just close to the end. He does all the same attacks as 6th d superman (charges players, flash whirling hands, etc.), plus he also has a freeze breath attack. So it's really 2 strong bosses but the statue has low health.

Let's not forget when the mechanic fails and even if the person does block it still wipes the group. No greater sense of accomplishment then doing everything right and getting punished for it. I am not the one it happened to so idk what causes it but have run in groups where I can clearly see the person with the arrow is in fact blocking but we still get ko'd by the mechanic and then everyone is ganging up on the person even though I point out I watched them blocking.

I think the beam still can put out damage, so if an HOT is not up, or someone is on the edge already, you can get the KOs.

Not sure I've ever seen it do the full 1 shot if someone is blocking. I've seen it where they block late or release early and technically blocked....but the KOs happen anyway...but I blame that on the short block.

Not saying it doesn't happen though. Just never saw it. I have seen where the combat tab shows 2 people putting out the beam damage when we wipe...maybe that's the situation and I just didn't realize it because the OTHER guy didn't block as well.

Have to make sure no1 is standing next to the person blocking either, else he has to block too.

Wonder if lag affects it? I know from doing the Elite version of the duo that relying on what's actually shown on-screen can be misleading as I swear I've blocked in time or rolled clear of the 1-shot/eruptions only for the game to go "no you didn't, now die!"

Yeah I noticed those too and won't call out direct names just won't let people dog pile on the innocent party and tell people


But I am pointing out the times when the mechanic legitimately fails and wipes the group in and of itself excluding outside interference. Not when someone dies to the beam wiping the group or someone jumps in front of the intended target. Maybe it's lag and the person didn't block in time or maybe its something else. Either way it stinks.

Sounds like you have bad luck with groups. I do wish they would give an option to zoom out of that dome and dim others power effects. The counterplay makes the fight interesting. It brings decision making back into the equation. What's wrong with a mechanic where it can wipe a raid. It's a raid, pay attention. It's not hard to block or keep a safe distance from others. Honestly, how much easier can they make raids? Fights are 5-10 minutes, is that too much to ask to pay attention? Just imagine if you played with 7 other people that understood the fight like you do. It seems your gripe is with players who can't or won't take that time to fulfil their part. I hate being like this but if a group is failing at simple mechanics, I leave.

Ya, I'm with the few that stated this will not be one of my Omni-que runs.

The thing is, I adore mechanics. Mechanic heavy raids are actually my favorites: Fellowship of the Arcane, Fire & Brimestone, both Thrones, Paradox Wave, etc. It's less about burn, more about tactics. The problem with TSW is what's really become the problem with DCUO's gameplay, and it's what Deity described very well above: it's the One Shot. It seems recent content has favored the One Shot mechanic over anything else as a difficulty crutch. This paired with prolonged boss fights and AOEs galore, it's just a chaotic mess most times rather than anything remotely resembling fun.

The Perpetua fight is such stellar example of everything mentioned being cranked up to 11. Prolonged fights with her having shields, add phases, and taking away powers momentarily mixed with the One Shot that is 7/8ths of the time out of your control, not to mention several different AOEs. Someone misstepping for a brief few seconds is enough to wipe most groups unless the healer is on point (like, super on point), and that wipe could be right at the end of a long, drawn out brawl. Those wipes are just the worst...

Strangely enough, the idea that only one particular player is supposed to be blocking is even harder to grasp than just everybody blocking. The following "why?" is usually followed by an indignant " nobody else was blocking." Then after explaining again, the person would block and the group would die again because another player who was the target didn't block because he/she decided not to read the text mechanic since it wasn't addressed to him/her. And so goes the train of headaches in a looped track.

As you probably guessed I've had the misfortune of having this exact conversation too many times..

With all the visual crap going on during that fight, I almost always block anyway just to be safe. Then again, I'm normally face-tanking that fight, so I get the full-on light show in my face. I tend to rely on radar to see where things are in that fight.