Test Discussion Episode 32: 'H.I.V.E. Base' Raid

Thanks for the description Charon.

My issue is the mechanics for that section aren't messaged very well. There is nothing to suggest how the debuffs are supposed to work or that you should use dual roles. As is, the group kind of fumbled around with the mechanics and got through them without incident in a 1/1/1/5 group.

There is a rotating laser beam at 7-8 seconds and I take no damage.

Thanks. I see about everybody taking damage other than lucky you (and maybe EarthGod West). Basically, it's just a beam that goes around in a circle so you can outrun it or you can block for reduced damage. I can't see why it missed you other than favorable server skip or some such. I'll see if I can tinker with it a bit.

I saw at least two examples of it one-shotting group members.

One of the problems with Deathstroke at the moment is the uncertainty of how to react to a skull attack. Blocking isn't always a good option. He may do one of his powered-up blockbreakers.

Bug Report
On the Terra fight, it is possible to get trapped in the rocks on the rock/lava separation phase:


It would be nice if we had an extra second or two to react to the black smoke. As is, there isn't enough time to move out of the area if you are standing in the wrong place.

Also, Terra has a bad habit of one-shotting anyone in the immediate vicinity of her when she returns to the middle of the field after that phase. See what happens at 26 seconds.

Feedback
I was playing the Normal version of H.I.V.E Base with a fairly cooperative group of CR 235 players last night. The Lava/Rock Creature phase of the Terra fight has been buffed considerably and maybe a bit overtuned for the average group. Here's an example of what usually happened:


The combination of the heavy DoT, Terra hitting harder, and rapid spawning of several waves of hard-hitting adds leads to a large difficulty spike at the start of the Lava/Rock Creature phases. You start taking the heavy DoT damage before you've even had a chance to KO a single Rock Creature.

We never did get past the Rock Creature phase. We tried dual tanking it to split damage on the tanks and that helped a little bit. A second healer would have helped a little bit, but we didn't have a second healer in the group.

The current difficulty tuning for the Lava/Rock creatures on Normal mode feels what has been passing for Elite tuning over the last couple of episodes.

These, plus a few others, should be making their way to the server tonight if all things go well.

• Deathstroke's spinning staff beam does different damage per difficulty mode and more reliably hits players.
• Changed the color of the tracking beam and associated assets in the Deathstroke fight.
• Deathstroke's Orbital Strike has a different sound than the Player Mainframe Orbital Strike.
• Fixed issue where stragglers would keep spawning in the Wave Event after it was complete.
• Adjusted difficulty downwards for the volcanic gas and rock creature phase in the Terra fight.
• Players should no longer spawn in the wrong location if joining their group after the Terra fight starts.
• Increased the tell timer for the lava stage slightly.
• Terra and Deathstroke both have Tells before they use their blink/area of effect mechanics.
• Both have had their blink/area of effect mechanic damage reduced slightly for when not blocking.
• Power Destabilizer has been renamed to Power Neutralizer.

Terra has a new array of abilities as well per her rage phases. Most of the more damaging ones are behind skull attacks giving time to block. If you come across any omgwth ones damage wise, let me know and I'll throw it into the special attack pile.
Terra also has a mechanic where she will do her own volcanic strike in response to orbital strikes being used. In normal and event mode it's single target and the cooldown is 30 seconds. In elite mode it's a 20 second cooldown and it can hit everyone but you can block for reduced damage. In both cases there is a ground tell that you can roll out of before it erupts.

I will be gone tomorrow but I worked on getting the following in for testing tomorrow night and through the weekend. I would appreciate it if the Elite can be hammered on with suggested gear and then top gear (they are now available in the vendor). The goal, of course, is to be hard to complete with entry suggested gear and much more manageable with the top gear and augments. I'll be checking in when I can over the weekend - especially on Sunday when back in town and addressing feedback, bugs, and some polish items on my list. Thanks everyone!

• Deathstroke's Spinning Beam Attack shouldn't immediately hit you twice anymore.
• More voice and screen messaging has been added to the Power Neutralizer phase in the Deathstroke fight.
• More voice and screen messaging has been added to the the Terra fight.
• Fixed an issue with the Deadly Disco Ball Feat. It should now be achievable.
• Slowed down the advancement of the floor trap in Elite mode to be more in line of original intentions.
• Deathstroke's Power Neutralizer has more hitpoints in both Normal and Elite
• The Neutralizer role and group debuffs last longer now.
• The Neutralizer group debuffs have been increased in magnitude in Normal and even more so in Elite.
• Deathstroke's Ikon Suit will no longer return to a visual state of going critical if it has been deactivated already.

Ran into this issue trying Hive Elite on test, after we wiped once on Deathstroke the barrier was still up not allowing us to re-enter and the NPC's were just fighting Deathstroke, I have a video clip as well but the picture shows everything needed



edit: just a follow up we were able to reset the instance but we had to run all the way back to the start or completely clear from the area for the barrier and instance to reset

Got that fixed. Thanks!