Dev Discussion Episode 32: 'H.I.V.E. Reborn' Raid

Hey everyone!

Welcome to H.I.V.E. Reborn, the first Raid in the Teen Titans: The Judas Contract episode. There is an Event, Normal, and Elite version that you can leave your feedback and reports for here.

I'll bee watching this thread closely to address your questions and concerns. Hope you enjoy the new content!

Thanks for playing!

A lot of poor/absent messaging here. We got through it but there was an awful lot of being killed by stuff unexpectedly.
The Deathstroke role dampeners don’t really explain what you’re supposed to do to destroy the little ones. You just sort of have to rally people until the big one becomes vulnerable. I WAS dps and the dialogue DID sort of imply that the support roles have to destroy their own corresponding dampener, but at one point my damage was lowered and there was a red dampener, but I still couldn’t interact with or damage it.
The Terra fight, we did eventually get blue text telling us to destroy adds to get rocks plug the sulphuric gas, BUT only on the second phase of the second attempt, we died running around like headless chickens the first time that all went down. Also, the black smoke indicating where you’ll get trapped in lava is nigh-impossible to see. Not a huge problem for me personally as my shields were able to bear the brunt of the DOT but still.

Hello Charon, and Thank you.

This raid was interesting and fun, I was able to finally run it a few times on the live servers. Normal mode for now, though I intend on running elite soon.

Note: The Instance was mostly smooth once players were/got familiar with the mechanics. There was one run, in the first room/entrance while killing adds to move forward, one add appeared to be up, when we went to clear the last add it appears that it was stuck/in the ceiling of the rocks. We couldn't target/defeat it so we had to disband and re-queue as we couldn't move forward.

Now we've ran this more than once and we only experienced it once so it was definitely an Isolated incident. Another thing I noticed on my first run was after the raid in the last boss room, it appeared the Jericho was of course on the ground, name and all. But I also seen his name appear up in the ceiling/rocks as if another version of him was stuck up there. Now I did forget to check on my other runs so this could also be an isolated incident. I just figured I bring it up as it was definitely off, unless you guys have a plot twist going on there.

(Side Question/Concern: We've tried several feats but the two that we were a little uncertain about was the 2nd boss feat with the nuetralizers and the last boss feat Rocky..., to kill 30 adds/creatures.

Now the nuetralizers feats' description seems vague and can be interpreted a couple of different ways. When you say "Destabilize the Nuetrilizers before another is activated within the same phase" what and how is that exactly done?

At first we figured 2 of each role to take care of the nuetralizer in the center quick and then burn/defeat the boss before the next one starts. We've came real close but we then looked at the feat again more closely and figured its actually referring to the nuetrlizers within that phase and that it may be linked to some sort of timer and/or pattern. This is a bit rough to figure out as no one else can see what the chosen/heavily debuffed 2nd role player does. So we don't know when or exactly where they must be to achieve their objective in the appropriate time. We may have a general idea as the side nuetralizers are color based off of our roles, though it tends to change around a bit and there are 2 of each which get shuffled around the room/main nuetralizer.

With two of each role we've deactivated the side nuetralizers and cleaned up the main/center netralizer quick (In way under the 60sec timer/possibly 10 secs) so another side nuetralizer activation shouldn't have been possible within that same phase. Unless there is some sort of pattern or timer that must be reached (at the same time) by each player deactivating then the others can't tell exactly what is happening during those few seconds.

Now we could be wrong and neither one of those are the way (or perhaps it is but it may be bugged?), though some clarity and perhaps a little more descriptive in the feat can definitely help. Some feats just have us guessing and trying different things but to no avail it doesn't seem to work. A little nudge in the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

As for the Kill 30 Creatures during the phases, which should be self explanatory but the feat description just says 30, not at least 30 or no more than 30. And the Phases could and should imply the side phases as well, besides the rock/vent phases. We've tried both ways by including the side phases and by not including them but we couldn't get that feat to pop. Maybe an extra was caught in the mix of the correct way/or by not including (counting) the side creatures we were actually over 30, though the description isn't exactly clear like some of the older/similar feats which actually specifies that and includes if the feat will be acknowledged on the boss defeat/raid completion or within the achievement of that feats goal.

The Feats are engaging and I enjoy them, I would just appreciate a little more clarity and certainty. As mentioned before some feats just have you guessing and hoping its one way when it's actually another way).

I am sorry that was a little longer than I wanted it to be but I just wanted to also make sure that I expressed my concern clearly. Thank you for your time and dedication.

Sincerely: Brav

Both Feats will have clearer messaging soon. The Neutralizer Feat was bugged but fixed in tonight's hotfix.

I've also made it so the Rocky Road Feat updates when 30 is reached instead of completing after Terra is defeated. Only creatures in the vent phases count. Not the room division phase.

The lava smoke tell will change to an object that wont get culled out if too many FX are playing but that will be with the next client fix which will be a couple weeks unless something major forces a client update sooner.

Midscreen messaging happens each time for the rock creature hint. It could be missed by players as there is a lot going on FX wise or delayed due to game system messaging - like the game reminding you to hit Shift when you are CCd - but we have no control over that. For that reason, the bulletin also tells you to use the rock creature debris to plug the vents. If that was somehow missing, let me know.
Also, the following may cause issues with the neutralizer phases and messaging.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• Form changes in the Deathstroke Power Neutralizer phase can possibly cause issues with deactivating the devices. Until this is fixed, it's probably better to not use powerset specific form changes such as Gorilla and Werewolf.

A bunch of balancing is incoming based on Live environment observation, in time for weekend play. It should solve some spike damage issues while still retaining a challenge. Note: we WILL adjust upward if it gets too easy.
Thanks.

In regards to H.I.V.E Reborn Elite and the balancing that needs to take place during the Terra fight I have a multitude of suggestions along with videos to describe what I am speaking about but I would much rather do it in a focused setting such as PM's rather than outlining in length on a open thread where certain aspects of the feedback could get lost in the clutter of the thread. I am more the willing to contact you by using any communication method where we can go over the balancing that needs to take place during the fight in order to make the final fight more realistic. I by no means am I remotely calling for nerfs etc I like the difficulty to the point where you removed the death rally counter specifically for that fight but there are a few issues that complicate its completion that can be adjusted easily.

Cheers and look forward to hearing from you

I watched a lot of the raid that Britteny streamed and addressed a good number of things based on it. Those should go live this weekend. We can offline it and also see how those changes feel over the weekend.

Oh, and the unlimited rally is part of those fixes.

Put the notifications in the chat box like you have been doing? The Black Manta fight became approximately 15346854 less stressful when suddenly my chat box was telling me to break the chain reaction, because I was occasionally missing it for the same reasons.

I'll do that. It's a new thing for us so I forget to use that tool. Thanks!

No no no! Thank YOU! You have no idea how much that improved my experiences in that raid. Such a simple concept, but just so perfect. I think I remember reading that CC prompt is hardcoded into the game, but this is such an elegant way around the issue. Kudos to whoever had the idea.

Let's not get too happy with it. Every time something pops up in my chat window, I expect it to be something someone is saying, which during a raid tends to be important. So I look. Diverting my attention constantly is annoying.

Is it intended that we only get 200 renown for completing Terra? Usually the first 2 bosses are lower renown and we get a purple higher value renown for the final boss but each was worth 200.

I can speak to that because we just beat Hive Elite

We'll do a happy medium and only do hint messages as most messaging is visual or VO for the "omg incoming" content.

Congrats! I'll ask Systems. You could ask that in the Rewards thread as well.

In Hive Elite, the 2nd Boss, Deathstroke does his Knifethrow Execution without a tell before and it's a 1 shot. Is that intended?

It looks like most of your changes made it through, the grasping hand dot is still strong and will force at least a 3 tank setup, not sure the full elite gear will make that much of an impact towards that. If the death counter returns for that fight the Terra tank will certainly die twice to the grasping hand dot in combination with the gas 8k tick.

I did notice that the Rocks are still getting destroyed easily, I would assume this is from prec/weapon damage as when we only use powers it seems they never are destroyed. Also in that stream you watched they threw the rock a few times that made it in, I would say this shouldn't be intended as it just overrides the mechanic of having to separate the rock creatures so that it is close enough to the volcano to place the rock in rather than getting lucky by throwing it across the map.

It only one shots if you're Marked (or should), which is that blue target rotating around you. I can look into adding a tell.

Actually, almost none are up yet and we'll have to adjust difficulty upward if the Terra pushback bug was what was causing the most difficulty, not the other damage stuff.

The next round of fixes makes it so those rocks behave like they do in other modes = not destroyable. That's how you will know it's he damage adjustment patch. That, and the limited rallies.

If the blue target is tell then you don't need to add another one. Thing is I didn't have any blue target around me, probably someone behind me had it, but I died from the knife twice in the course of the same fight, it's too much coincidence.
Also sometimes when I have the blue target I don't receive any damage.

Could you check if the attack is timed correctly with the blue target tell?

Thanks

For Deathstroke, what is it exactly that needs to be done to deactivate the Infrared floor panels in elite? We ended up beating him but still unsure what we did to make the floor panels go away, are you supposed to let the yellow beams touch you?


Beautiful raid too, definitely a step up from previous elite content

The trap floor phase is purely 100% a damage check, all the floor panels will slowly turn red to where the entire floor is covered until enough damage is done to push him to his next phase. If the group saves their orbitals for that phase it will last <20 seconds