This is a request for upcoming expansions, simply to have a brutal zone or two. Tune it towards endgame raiders of the previous expansion. No mercenaries allowed in these zones, the named would challenge full groups of said raiders. Trash would, perhaps, be doable by a full group of the expansion's best geared group players. Much like the fire giants in Sol B or dragons in WW, named would be two or three groupable by group players. Rewards? The best experience in the expansion, named dropping fun clicklies and a few chase items. Opinions?
Why would they make a group zone to cater to end game raiders when they are outnumbered by non-raiders?
I could see that being a factor if the best "group" gear dropped there, thus the fun clicks and chase items. I don't raid often, but would love to see a challenging zone or two. I don't think I'm alone, as many casual players found HoT and RoF to be easy as hell. One or two zones that don't drop anything necessary to the group game shouldn't hurt anything.
Sepulcher in alaris was hands down the most unforgiving tier 4 alaris zone in terms of named mobs and camps (paleodontis, the central camp deeper in, the maze camps) etc People were still able to kill them, groupers too but the ultimate outcome of that zone being so much more challenging than the rest of tier 4 was that most players (including raiders) got the few items or hunter credit they needed in sepulcher, then moved on and never came back, instead choosing to use city of bronze / windsong for exp grinding and farming. I don't think a "brutal" zone would be that popular, zones like this tend to be abandoned very quickly. I am sure it would be very popular for 2 weeks then the thrill would die down and people would fall back on easier content. Also Xorbb already has some "brutal" content in it such as xolok the blind and he already challenges full groups of raiders but I know of non-raiders that can beat xolok np.. It's more about an individaul players skill and ability to adapt than their current raid guild status. I know amazing players that dont raid, I know some amazing players that raid in casual guilds, I know some amazing players in end-game guilds, but on the flipside I also know TERRIBLE players that fit all three of those categories as well.
Falos said it correctly. Sepulcher was no walk in the park and even raiders stayed away like the plague when they were finished. Noone touched that zone save for raid leaders needing specific flags and a VERY small handful that wanted a challenge. 98 % went to City of Bronze and ventured no further. Doing my Rod of Alsa Thel task, There was a period of FIVE straight days I was alone in that zone 90 % of the time.
Not gonna happen, too many whinebaby would be crying about gear that are out of reach from them, there would be and endless amount of thread about how unfair it is that average joe can't go with his merc and get this uber gear while other more skilled grper with full grp can access it with "ease"!
I'm still unsure. There have been countless posts on requesting two to three group raids. This idea seems to fill both areas. Again, the drops shouldn't be "group gear."
If the drops aren't 'group gear' then they're raid gear and raiders already get exclusive content in the form of raids. It's been tried every xx expansions or so with little to no success. VoA had it, Underfoot (to a small extent), even TSS's two end group zones had to be tuned down. Group content is supposed to be doable by group folks; raid content by raiders (that's what I believe I heard was the last SoE stance).
I'd be all for more zones that genuinely reward strategic planning, precise timing, and solid reflexes, all the way to the upper-end of player skill (i.e, zones designed for hardcore gamers, even to the exclusion of casual gamers/MMO socialisers.) Tuning a group zone to raid-geared players, on the other hand, seems on the surface to be that typical error MMO designers make when they strive for "challenge" -- inflating mob values beyond the threshold of endurance for those players who don't/can't treat raiding as their second (or even first) career, and therefore are unable to make the requisite gear checks. If brutal zones = strategically difficult zones designed to break players out of complacency and routine: great, bring it on! If brutal zones = regular zones but with inflated mob values so that raid gear is required: not only is that dull, but surely so niche as to hardly justify the dev time spent. And making that content rewarding is difficult: obviously the gear can't be better than that which the players already bring in (because they're end-game geared raiders, with gear from actual raids); making the zones have the "best experience" seems excessive, given that raiders already get the best experience from group zones because of the ease with which they can handle group content... so, a few clickies, etc. It's not a *bad* idea, and it would be nice to have small-scale raid content, but it's rough around the edges!
very unlikely to happen. the devs / soe has come to realize that the majority of players are in the mid-lvl range and design content for that rather then towards the top end. the players hammered the devs with requests for hard content when underfoot was under development, so the devs made a very hard expansion and it was a failure for the group players and very difficult for raiders, quite a few guilds folded and lost players. when players requested "hard raids " for Seeds of Destruction , instead of creating events with harder content, they just added same raid but with limit of 36 players , and slighty better drops - net result same raid but with a lot of people having to sit out raids. lastly, how hard could they go ? it took 2 weeks for some guilds to complety clear all of RoF while over 50 guilds are still trying to beat half the expansion. it would leave the game very unbalanced.
So has had zone like OP requested before and except for elemental planes they were all massive failures. The elemental's only worked because of how staggeringly over rewarded players with access to them were compared to those without. Huge exp bonus's compared to other zones and along with a virtual lock on highend tradeskill drops. Every attempt to replicate that with more rational rewards has failed horribly. EQ finally kicked the habit on those types of zone in TSS when they retuned ashengate and frostcrypt just after release.
The zone is completely pointless, if raiders wanted to be challenged in group content they would get group gear and/or do the content half naked. There is absolutely no reason to spend the Dev time to carefully tune a zone to create a challenge for players who can create their exact desired level of challenge in the 30sec it takes them to swap and/or remove some gear.
I agree, if you want challenge in the group game, do it in group gear. Don't waste time creating group content for raiders.
No thanks. Even those who demand challenging raids want something easier to fall back on for down time. If people want brutal than sprinkle some in across more zones as opposed to created a whole zone full of nothing but merciless death fest. It would end up just standing empty most of the time. There just isn't the patience in the player base to have a zone that takes you 2-4 hours just to battle your way to your destination, only to get curb stomped once you get there.
