2 OP items but same resources?

Does it mean the game is losing players so they make the grind more to keep what's left of the players to grind more.
Or they are risking of losing more players by making the grind more?

The only silver lining in this grey cloud I can think of is if you somehow manage to grind two OP items you'll have two gear pieces be Elite for 2 maybe 3 DLCs from now? I am worried with current game direction they'll make OP pieces even more redundant even more quicker so yeah not exactly optimistic here either. I look at it as maybe my one main toon will get two OP gears maxxed by next episode but probably won't on any other alts.

I would much rather them give us like 4 OP pieces at the beginning of the year to level up over the next 4 episodes. Each new dlc just add more levels to it. I would be perfectly fine with adding an omni weapon, neck and rings for that 1 purpose, just to upgrade them so you dont have to waste marks on every single piece of gear.

Weapon, u-belt, rings, neck, face... All of those so it doesnt take away from the main attraction of each gear set, the styles.

That way it makes ALL the content released in that year relevant, farmable and not dead when the next episode comes out like we see every time. Kaznia is now quite literally dead on EU now, no one runs it or asks for any of the instances in LFG, only the open world bounties thats it.

To be fair it's like the second week of the new chapter and a lot of players want to get thru the new content so I can see Kaznia dropping for the first month then people will go back to farm feats etc especially if they add a bonus week later. Otherwise then yeah that doesn't look good if the chapters before totally go dead then it seems it's all for nothing.

Here's a novel idea: why not make it so OP gear pieces can be upgraded every episode? That way, you'll eventually have a full set of OP gear (don't think they'll ever do rings, weapons or utility belt trinkets).

I did the intro, realised the same thing, played some re used old content and haven't logged back on since. I came back 3 months ago and I can't play this game 24/7 to catch up on the new content. It's just to much to carry on doing daily.

I didn't even get all full 412 gear for the rings, neck utility belt. It means I've to play kaznia for a million more times too to upgrade that.
The team are putting to much pressurre on the content and it made me not even want to carry on playing it. Lso I don't have artifacts to play the game anymore

6 months isn't that bad of a grind. It's plenty of time.
It's not like it's a dlc every 3 months and have to long grind it before it gets obsolete in the next episode.
op items lasts through the next 2 episodes and still stronger until the 4th episode from its episode before it eventually becomes obsolete. It's plenty of time and casual.
And also 2 of the materials can be purchased in the broker and traded by friends and donated by league.
The only "soft grind" is the currency and just 1 of the materials.

I random queued AnB on 3 of my alts and was surprised it only took 13 minutes. The split on reg was pretty quick since it's harder to die in the metro open world. I joined and AnB elite LFG group and it took less than 25 minutes. You have to work as a group in the open world unless you just have a tank grab all the canisters. As long as someone knows how to work the maze controls it's pretty fast. In some of my random queue groups the longest part is being stuck in the maze. I should check the Oracle DB section to see if there is an old maze guide? Or maybe YouTube?

My recollection of the maze was mainly that it was better if people were in communication. You could call out which way you were sending the group, vs the people just deciding which way to go and sometimes going the 'wrong' way. Also NOT having everyone go in. I remember staying by the controls with like 1 other person and they would fail to protect the crystals and reset, meanwhile there were 6 people IN the maze for no reason. Having more than 4 people in the maze unless you are doing the '4 corners' feat is useless as the adds will be burned long before the next maze shift is available.

Granted, some of that might change in Elite, but for regular or casual, 4 in and 3 guarding the cogs while 1 runs them should be the norm IMHO.

Yeah, the communication was usually the key. In general, we'd aim for either up or to the left (and both if you could hightail it) on a particular choice, but sometimes if you needed to send the group to another spot or have them stay, it was on the person operating the cogs. You do need someone keeping the crystals safe, too. I haven't done the Elite on this one, so you might need a balanced group. Back in the day it could get touchy if you didn't have a healer with the maze runners and outside with the crystal guards.

There was another way to help with the crystals, but that might be dipping into exploit territory, so I won't elaborate.

Yeah as I recall, without communication, the group would kind of just go for whatever open door appeared, and sometimes you are only choosing between 2 bad choices, where you'd rather just have them stay still....but then they go anyway.

1 guy on mic in the maze pretty much was all that was needed, then he was 'trail boss'.

This episode has hasn't made me want to log on longer. Ot has had the opposite for me. This episode and update hasadee not log on. I don't know why they thought it would be a good idea to try and make this last longer when players are trying to catch up on the other 40 million episodes that are out there.

I came back 3 months ago. Subbed for 3 months. After this episode dropped I haven't logged in since. Yes, it seems dcuo is upping th grind but losing players.i left so I'm not sure what their end game is. Hopefully they reverse the episode grind, and help players out to get to 5 artifacts without selling them to us. Bit even then, I'm already weeks behind on this episode so I don't even think I could come back and compete in it. I won't be able to find the patrol mission off in time. They actually forced me away lmao a subbing member who had to leave.

My face is still level 38 from the dor episode. I dodn come back late but I got given quite a few upgrade pieces and cats to put in them or it would be a lower level. Now there are 2 op items. No chance fore to grind that.

For elite you need to have at least 2-3 dps plus a troll for CC on adds protect the crystals. In reg just 1 dps can kill the adds fast enough but not in elite. I haven't tried using lasso yet, but I think that should work on those adds. If a dps has lasso then you can keep the adds away from the crystals as you kill them.

If and when I try ABE at some point, I'd probably do it on my tank/dps just to make sure 'someone' would be able to do the job of holding the adds...while probably running cogs. On any other toon, I normally pack chromatics (especially with this new OW escort mission, where they are also handy).

I ran the Arkillo bounty yesterday, and I hate it. Between that, and what I'm reading here and on the thread about the Lantern Assault mission, it looks like I won't be participating in any of the multiplayer content for this DLC. :/

I wouldn't mind this, if it wasn't for the fact that the length of use is essentially 3 DLCs. Having a chase is healthy for longevity of content, but they have always treated OP items like this since they reintroduced them after the original helm. It was even worse when they made them a collection drop that would only happen after you got that gear feat. Nothing about something that doesn't last long makes you want to chase it.

I don't want OP items to be forever, but more than 3 DLCs would be ideal. Have a reason to run the content, even when you no longer need the regular gear from the content.

Except it feels like they also lessened the drop rates. Now, could be that it just feels that way, but...well it does. That and whereas you used to be able to start working alts at 1/2 rate by unlocking the feat at 1 OP item, it now takes 2.

And the fact to even GET the 2 pieces it's 90 marks....it was normally 25-40 OR free in the past. How many 'let's make them play longer' things do we need at once? Sheesh.