Test Discussion Episode 45: Abandoned Subway Duo

Thanks for the feedback! Sounds like elite needs a bit of tuning - especially Turtledove's charges. I'll take a look.

- Quixotic

Wow, thank you! I really appreciate you giving me that info straight up & it does makes sense!

Ran the Elite Duo, wasn't able to complete it. Definitely got a huge annoying buff on all the bosses. Adds come in now and it just makes each fight bad for 2 DPS. If this is intended to be this way, it's not worth running for just a measly 50 renown. I'm pretty upset by this. It was a good duo, but now it's an annoying one.

Bug, we got spontaneous alert feats just randomly in the duo for some reason.

The Alert feats are being fixed. As I understand it, some data was missing so it was giving credit on things like any kill rather than the actual requirements.

As for the adds in the Duo, I toned them way down and limit them to one at a time. Those are for feats and aren't intended to add much to the challenge. I default to raid mentality sometimes and have to remind myself that this is a Duo

- Quixotic

Thank you for at least toning them down, but the most annoying part was Ebon's fight. There are too many mechanics going on in the encounter that makes it nigh impossible to get through unless you A) sweat or B) have someone to keep you alive, like a healer or tank.

He has this attack that puts a dot on you and doesn't seem to have the ability to avoid. I can see him point and these black spheres come out, but even if you avoid them, you still get the dot. It's a heavy dot, 3/4th your health is gone. The range on the black circles on the ground is wider than the animation. I rolled by one, wasn't in it at all, and it finished me off. Then he has a tap to break out stun, that prevents your teammate from trying to pick you up OR, if you get hit, the dot on it is way heavy and a soda is necessary. Which doesn't help you later, when he inevitably hits you with the heavy dot. He also has a pull, that usually just brings you right through some floor hazard. I very much dislike this duo, no offense. You guys do great jobs with the game, but I'm just frustrated with this current build.

The worst part is, you get through ALL this for 2-3 marks and a whopping 50 renown. This, even if adjusted, is NOT worth doing daily. Unlike the previous duos that had a similar renown gain at the end of the instance, they at least were not very frustrating. (Though SpaceLex encounter was pretty bad, not going to lie.) Effort needs to be rewarded. When the elite solo gave renown per boss, it was really good, I don't understand why we went backwards to at the end of the instance?

Thing is...if they increase the amount of renown gained on the duo, they have to increase the renown from the raid (alert too). Otherwise replaying the duo would be better than replaying the raid.
And seems like having that "much" renown earned wasnt in their plans for this Episode.

They should do those too. If they are trying to artificially extend the life of the episode by limiting renown, that is kinda cruel. Especially when you can convert bounty marks to currency and the only thing not able to be acquired is renown. The way the game does renown requires you to run elite content and there are ways now to earn it at a slower pace if you can't run raids or alerts. It was a great step forward with SOBA's renown gains, there is no reason to go backwards.

I see a few things need to be fixed but duo in terms of difficulty was fine.

The amount of renown earned for the elite duo was increased. I believe the same is true for the elite alert and elite raid as well. That was handled by someone else so I'm not sure of the specific amounts, but it should have either been in the most recent update to PC Test or in the next one.
- Quixotic

Thank you. I'll be testing it later when I can.

can you test how many renowns each instance in the new episode and how many renown it gives per token.I would appreciate it amd thank you for taking time out of your schedule to test this for the community.I would test it but I’m a console player and I’m trying to get a cheap pc to start pc master race path

After tonights update the Duo give 100 renown, the Alert gives 150 renown.

thanks,Is the raid 300?

Definitely a lot better in terms of overall feel to it. I appreciate the change to renown. Makes it a lot better.
Feedback to encounters:
First boss, her charge is still feels the same size, but I'd have to run it again to try and measure it. Her encounter is pretty tough, but the reduction of the adds helped a lot.
Second boss, its... kinda straight forward in difficulty. His shield reflect mechanic appears to be timed base, but maybe it should be health based instead. To avoid a straight burn to make players think a bit.
Third boss (ebon), I like the adjustment to his tap to breakout attack. It does a little less than half your health. The problem I experienced was his pull. It finished me off the moment I got out of it.

Ran the Elite duo with a friend (both DPS), nothing of concern to note, it felt well balanced in terms of the difficulty and what it expected of the player, my friend did have a shield on their build for added survival, but I did not.

The mechanics appeared to all be functioning normally and although it hurt, nothing was deadly if we mechanically complied.

Happy with the Elite duo.

Would really like an elite+ duo this time around as well if you can.

Any answer on those names? Not poking fun at the devs, just really curious as a static fan why Talon & D-Struct were both renamed to turtledove & daboom.. licensing issues?

It's probably licensing issues. Talon was animated originally and just like Terry M. from Batman Beyond, they might not be able to use it. D-struct on the other hand was comics originally, but it kinda looks like they used the animated version for the game. IE, these two are DCUO only versions, different enough to make it work for what they wanted story wise.

I have pretty much the same opinion, however i feel like feats can become a hard task when run with 2 DPS. If they dont change their loadout to be more defensive. For example waiting for 8 ***** Shadows to appier (Forgot the name). Maybe you could make Static give players an electricity shield in specific intervals or a mechanic which players need to grap to get extra defensive abilitys (Which still require to follow the other mechanics)

I dont know, maybe its good that feats will require the need of a true role like tank/heal.

I feel that should be fine to require the intent of prep for feats. Running it with DPS should be completable, but if you want specific feats, you should have that in mind forming groups. Example would be the Spacelex duo with a tank being very helpful in the last boss or a healer in the first boss. They can be done with a 2 DPS group, but you will struggle.

I think the Elite Duo is in a great spot.

Feedback:

After the new test build of 04/14 fighting Daboom I got stuck inside the shield wall, I was in combat but couldn't attack and once my duo partner died I had to backtrack against the wall to free myself