Test Discussion Episode 41: Early End Game

Bosses/Missions and instances shouldnt be loot locked, at least that was what was announced.
Instances are very important, but so is killing bountys. I think if you want to farm source marks you should go do instances, but you shouldnt be penalized for doing the bounties you need.
I already suggested a system that would reward players from completing a given instance, instead of spaming the easiest/fastest raid.

Me and friend ran Harley's Heist and something is awfully wrong with the lightning there to the point you can barely see NPC's.
Other than that, we challenged ourselves and ran it with no artifacts, augments or sp spent and it was still really easy to run lol

Except that we kept running out of power, yeah. But doable.

From what Remember it was always that way when it hit test. Open world bosses always have loot locks because they function differently than on duty. With on duty players can be qued from anywhere so the omnibus helps fill extra slots. However there isn’t a way to inform anyone (outside of lfg) that people are waiting for other to join their open world boss fights. So yo compensate they made open world bosses easier but kept their loot locks.

Think of it this way.
Person A qued for khandaq (always spell this one wrong lol) and person B qued for blackest night. Players who qued for Omnibus will fill both ques for them and they will both get their raids.

Person Y is by metal bat and person Z is by the giant robot at titans tower. There’s no option for players to join them unless they shot. Even then most don’t want to go out of their way to go to those zones. So it will be harder for these people to get help.

When we first had the phase menu..the ability to phase with anyone, anywhere was super nice. Ok..I'll let the thread get back on track lol

The devs could remedy people not wanting to run older clamped bounties and instances (for that matter) with a method that DCUO already proved that works for bosses. Using the special currency and vendors with different types of loot, styles & feats like what was used in Legion & Wonderverse. All the devs need to do is have rotating bonus weeks for each of the open worlds bosses and other things. Its so simple the devs are looking right past that solution. Instead they are wasting time tuning the outside worlds trying to stop the belly aching because its (OMG) clamped.

Edit
The last time I played all those open world bosses were kicking because of the new shinies & feats attached. If the devs do something like that and rotate the worlds. It's problem solved on being able to make groups running old bounties. Hard difficulty or not. The problem with using a currency that is needed in game is it makes existing players feel like they're being forced to run content to keep up with the Jones. Special things for different items make people work harder.
Example
Have you seem Shawshank Redemption ( specifically the roofing scene)?
Like offering a cold beer at the end of a day of really hard work. People will come back again and again bust their tails off because they do feel appreciated and received a special reward for their efforts.
I've used this method more than a few times and it works.

So ran some more test with the current iteration of the server and I think this new clamp system is gonna hurt new players as much as vets who don’t like the stat clamp. Here are my avg time results with times to see the different experiences:

CR- 2 (basically naked with a lvl 12 weapons), no sp, no artifact
Sentinels of magic citadel - time = 4:10
Last son of krypton- time =5:48

CR- 2 , 100 sp, no artifact
Sentinels of magic citadel - time = 3:54
Last son of krypton- time= 5:34

CR- 339 , no sp , no artifact
Sentinels of magic citadel- time 4:41
Last son of krypton- time= 5:50

CR- 339, 100 sp, no artifact
Sentinels of magic citadel- time= 4:11
Last son of krypton- time= 5:34

Cr- 339, full sp, 2 artifacts @ lvl 200
Sentinels of magic citade- time = 3:22
Last son of krypton- time = 5:29

The up scale mechanic system is still a big problem for me. I don’t think it makes sense that I can go into any instance as a cr 2 basically naked and no sp and finish it with almost comparable times to a cr 339 with full sp and 2 artifacts @ lvl 200. Like what is the point of getting better gear, raising sp, and getting artifacts if it shaves off a few seconds on my runs. I reiterate that sense of progression is very important not just for vets but also for new players. I want to feel like my time investing to all these stats means something significant, and through all this playtesting from naked to max level these last few days, I felt no difference. As a new player on live that just reach cr 104, I was open to the idea of clamp down to not get super carried through content, but if this is what it takes to get the clamp down, pls just remove this clamp system altogether cause some of us new players would rather play the old version unclamp then lose the idea of progression in this game.

I thought it might be useful (given my opposition to clamping in the past) to come in here and express that I'm relatively happy with where things are heading or are at with the clamped early end game.

I have tested a reasonable amount of open world, solos and duos along with a few raid walk ins and they've generally been fine.

Obviously you can longer one shot raids solo, initially that disappoints because who doesn't want to be a godlike green lantern, nevertheless the slightly more reasonable side of me probably surrenders that such action, despite insisting godlike status is still amazing, is probably inappropriate and I should take my other godlike friends with me instead.

I've not, at this stage, at least, come across an instance that gave me an unpleasant experience where I wasn't satisfied with the balance between the instance itself and my character continuing to feel meaningfully powerful. I'm sure there might be, but I haven't experienced it yet, will provide feedback if I do.

Thanks.

Some changes coming in tonight - solo bosses and group subbosses in open world have less defense now and in some cases less health. They do slightly more damage though. This means they'll go down faster but it would still be of benefit to have some roles around.

Tomorrow the elites will be similar to normal levels when clamped down in terms of the players being 10 levels above the NPCs. Elites still get no EEG buff and the elite levels of the NPCs will climb like they normally do in the instances but even at the end, you'll still be above them in level. Elite NPCs have increased stats in general so it'll help with that. Also mechanics that rely on pure DPS will be less deadly but mechanics that have - do this or you probably will die due to percentage health attacks, will still happen - like always. CR307 vs CR30 - you still going to suffer if you don't follow the mechanic if there is percentage damage involved.

Should make elite go faster, feel better, etc. but still have a distinct need to learn and follow mechanics.

This is actually great news for those who struggle with elite stuff so I’m happy. Should make this clamp be better received by some (not all unfortunately)

Can you give any more details? I only ask because everyone else’s testing contradicts this. I’m everyones testing having artifacts and sp made a clear difference in how the experience felt and how fast it went. If you happen to be able to capture a video it should help. Or screenshot?

Not sure if this is the right place, but I'll ask anyway lol. I see in the hotfix that the CC bounties are now able to be reset. That's a great thing. With that being said, do we still need to have the mission for the bounty to count in regards to the feats?

What details u wanna know? Unfortunately I don't have a setup to record my games. But my times and set ups are posted in my original post to show u why I'm saying I'm not seeing a significant difference in game experience from wearing almost nothing to full end game cr.

I couldn't replicate it either, ran mainhein chinese theather and science spire. The difference is pretty noticeable between a naked character and full cr/full artifacts .

Now something people have to note is that in most solos you'll spend your time waiting for spawn timers and cutscenes, so the difference in completion time won't be very big.

How about set your parsers for after combat. Then after boss fights more down time of completion between no gear and max gear. What artifacts did you use? Dps arts or support arts? Where you a dps (I assume yes) how many colas and barrels did you use in each run if any. The reason I ask is because every other test have reported the complete opposite of what you described. I can’t seem to replicate your results and neither can others.

When you go in naked.
Can you get killed very easily or does it feel like running event level stuff in new content?

I'm running atomic dps with solar amplifier and manacles at 200. Colas, usually none or maybe 1 if I need more power. I don't usually use barrels. Also when you say you can't replicate my results, are you saying you can't complete the last son of krypton naked on test server?

Feels like event level stuff. Like I can die if I try to skip the adds and a big group comes after me, but otherwise my health stays above half.

^^^IKR All these guys belly achin about down clamps. Its still going to be easy. xD

Using your same set up as before.
Try some duos first and then try a few alerts if you can get a queue to pop. I felt like difficulty went up as the group became larger. You should try and see if you get the same feeling.

IMO
I suspect that the solos are close to event level because the devs do not want new players to get frustrated and leave. Considering new players run solos first and they are still lost & would be by themselves. Its easier to say screw this if its too hard. Thats what I am assuming anyway.

I tried to replicate your experience but it just simply wasn't real.

Instance Run - Last Son of Kyrpton

CR 174 - Naked - Items Equipped - Duel Wield Item Level 295
Aritfacts Removed
Augments Removed
All Gear and Trinkets Removed
All Skill Points removed - except one in duel wield, whirling dervish, super speed and robot sidekick (to maintain equality)
Power - Earth
Loadout - Whirling Dervish, Robot Sidekick, Jackhammer, Entomb (not used), Tectonic Break, Unstoppable

Time to Complete - 3:26 (including cutscenes)

Comments
Running with this set up was extremely terrible, my health got low at one point, power was absolutely atrocious, I was running out of power quicker than trying to run a car light of a single AA battery, quite quickly in the last battle I had no choice but to primarily defeat the boss through lunging and swiping him with limited weapon attacks I had access to (through not setting skill points) and some might moves when power became available again.

Instance Run - Last Son of Krypton

CR 339 - Clamped to CR204
Artifacts - Grimorium Verum, Transformation Card, Strategist Card (All Level 200)
Augments - Mighty Speed Force Cell x2 (Rank 11), 4 Mighty Origin Augments Rank 302
Gear - Full set of Item Level 295 Gear
Skill Points - Superpowered, 20 Crit Chance, 40 Crit Damage, 295 Might Power, 200 Precision
Power - Earth
Loadout - Whirling Dervish, Robot Sidekick, Jackhammer, Entomb (not used), Tectonic Break, Unstoppable

Time to Complete - 2:10 (including cutscenes)

Comments
Running with this set up, power was literally never an issue, the SP, Artifacts, particularly the Grim removing the power penalty and the augments were clearly providing me with a vast and evidently different experience when it came to power, this made my experience far more enjoyable if what I was going for was a fluid might based damage experience. The difference could literally only be described as night and day in terms of feel and overall ability, I was able to kill everything without resorting to weapon attacks at all including the boss.

% Increase in efficiency between time taken to beat instance with all my toys, despite the clamp - 58.46%

so roughly speaking just that particular combination of artifacts and leveled toys are giving you a 58.46% increase in performance over not having them within the real world application of that one particular instance.