Proving Grounds first impressions

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Kielex, May 9, 2017.

  1. Arclite Well-Known Member

    I thought the scaling down of all stats so pretty much everyone gets an even playing field is something i can get behind but it does not work currently. All Ascension abilities should be disabled and the only thing you get to use is your base class abilities with all stats equalised across the board for everyone and your own skill.

    If the zone is tweaked to such an extent that you can use certain bonuses to get boosts then I think it would fulfil its intended function and no the weekly box of items does not count. Make use of mechanics already in game, use cloud speed boosters, mid air combat/clicking etc.

    Just like the plague of inflated stats has affected the PVE side of things, PVP should be given a different flavor. Right now you can steam roll the zone within 8-9 minutes easily, not sure if that was intended.

    The points about the losing team just standing there waiting for the team clearing is ridiculous. The losing team should be given a lesser entity to fight so at least they get to do something and perhaps give them some rewards for it.

    If you wanted to keep this as a time base challenge, then combat could have been taken out as the main obstacle in the zone and put in a number of things already in game, like getting around a course without being spotted or crafting something quickly (like barons fight) or a million other things. Would have kept things fresh and added something fun to the game other than the PVE grind.

    It is baffling to see how the shallow content in the GU was not tested prior to release. I can't think of any reason. To release an update and then follow it up with a patch to fix the basics is well.....a sign of where the game is at currently.

    Thumb's up for the concept but thumb's down for execution.
  2. Mizgamer62 Feldon Fan Club Member

    It sure doesn't seem like they do.
  3. DoomDrake Well-Known Member

    Will like 3-4BLs do the trick? :D
  4. captainbeatty451 Well-Known Member

    Well, let me put it this way. I know someone who designs a relatively popular console game. He LOVES his game, and everything he and his team design is created with the idea of 'what would be the most fun?'

    I don't get that feeling here. Though I will say that this game update has some nice concepts that did seem to have fun at their core. They just seem to have pushed it out, a week later than scheduled, completely without solid tuning. It's sad. I would say some minor bugs like the rune sticking to an item would be acceptable. Or the deity pet being overridden that is not intended. But to have THIS much negative feedback on how the main aspect of the update plays and is wonky is very disheartening in terms of looking to the future. I already wasn't really that interested in the proving grounds--though it COULD be interesting if it was a zone that functioned like a pq with stats. But, now my excitement for it is even lower.
    Mizgamer62 likes this.
  5. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    Concept is fine with me, seems great if it was tailored right.

    Biggest problem I am having atm is that the Group Finder aspect of it is not very precise despite these being clearly tuned to be like Heroic content. Not fun to have a group that's a Bruiser, two Coercers, a Beastlord, and a Wizard. XD
  6. captainbeatty451 Well-Known Member

    ha! yeah I know for a fact that other games have things where when you queue you choose your desired role.
  7. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    Actually, I just ran into something that totally makes me facepalm.

    At 83, I can queue for these, but I get thrown in with lv100s. My Shadowknight is good, but he's not THAT good lol.
  8. captainbeatty451 Well-Known Member

    I thought it was intended to balance out stats so any level could go in.
  9. Raenius Well-Known Member

    Just bin that whole Battleground-design, it is horrible, doesn`t work right and its server mechanics is nonsense.

    Why using Battlegrounds as main design in the first place?
    This could easily have been done on common-servers with a time-chart we know from aether races.
    There is no point to cramp two groups in a zone at the same time when there are so many issues regarding filling slots, people going ld etc.

    And please, please, please with sugar on top: get rid off all those scaling-down zones, you just keep breaking mechanics, values, abilities etc. This is just horrid.
    This company just can`t balance right, your pendulum just swings to the max either to the left or to the right.

    NO way to get it done right with that kind of a concept, it hardly happens on live-servers which matter most, in my opinion.

    I am serious: delete that code from the game - its cancer.
    Xyno likes this.
  10. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    You would think so, but it apparently does not. XD
    captainbeatty451 likes this.
  11. -Soteria- Well-Known Member

  12. Raenius Well-Known Member

    Also: why negate all stats into oblivion?

    If there are concers you desperately need to flat out stats for every participant just let values cap earlier and/or create value-caps for uncapped ones, e.g. 3k cb, 15k pot etc....and don`t touch castspeed/reuse.

    Having to play so slow isn`t fun - especially when EQ2 has no global cooldown for abilities and offers a quite fast gameplay in comparison what you see on the market.

    And also: if the other group isnt doing anything, let us get achievements / questpling for killing the boss, not when both groups have completed the zone in the end - guess this was mentioned earlier as well.
  13. Ezoo Member

    Tried a solo instance again. Got one where I was alone this time. (at least at first).

    I went in on my BL and attacked a single mob. None of my attacks did any damage and I died
    in under 10 secs. Even my Asc skill Levinbolt did no damage.

    I tried again in spirtual stance and when my health dropped to about 50% I hit my best heal.
    My health did not increase at all, in fact none of my heals work.

    So, in summary: no dsp, no heals. (and all my stats are near zero)
    This releasing of such untested code is really not going to encourage prospective subscribers to join.
  14. Beyoncia Well-Known Member

    It's not a solo instance. It means you queue as a player, not as a group. The instance is 6-men
    Mermut likes this.
  15. Jrox Well-Known Member

    First off let me say there are a ton of comments here that are on the money in the way of mechanics.
    Waiting at the end on the other team to finish.
    Which spells can do dmg vs. which ones have no effect.
    Your grp being split when zoning back to the BG/PG lobby zone.
    The randomness of how many coins you get. In our 5 hours of the same grp last night our tank received 90 marks and I received 60 while others were somewhere in the middle of that. (Couldn't figure out why or what created bonuses for the tank but not for me. IN 5 HOURS of Testing!)
    And many other things already mentioned above.

    That said, I had a freaking blast. I love the concept and I had a ton of fun running them, even when we had to leash the final named 3 or 4 times to finally get him to quit bugging as we tried to kill him. I really liked the fun I was having and will be spending time in there regardless, and just hope they start working on fixes sooner rather than later. As broke as it is, I prefer it to any other content (except raiding) this entire xpack!
    Revanu likes this.
  16. Jrox Well-Known Member

    Hmmm... I was able to do descent dmg after figuring out which spells were doing the real dmg. To be honest I had to go back to my Pre-DOV cast order, but once I figured that out it went pretty smooth. If you look at your stats in there you can kinda get an understanding of where spells were from, meaning what xpack. Then, and only then, and only if you played that toon back then, will you realize what is beneficial.

    I know there is a ton of broken stuff. And I am surely disappointed in all of that. But the concept was fun to me, surely there are others out there who, while hated all of the brokenness still liked the concept, no?

    Pro tip: If your auto attack isn't working, make sure before you que up, and while your not in the BG/PG lobby but back in Norrath you turn your auto attacks to AUTO. Forced range, Forced Main hand or Nothing will yield zero results. I figured this out as I normally run forced ranged.
  17. Doomravin Well-Known Member

    Just tried this joke of really bad programming - NEVER again.

    Too broken and an insult to release this for live beta testing
  18. Anaogi Well-Known Member

    Tried this last night. Wound up in a group made up of two defilers and three SKs. I see absolutely no effort has been made to fix the pathetic group-building already in place for similar mechanics.

    0/10 will not use again
  19. Ezoo Member

    OK, then it explains why others showed up, but does not explain:

    1. The zone seems to be near empty except for some trash mobs.
    2. Timers seem to be running from different points each time I enter a zone.
    3. My DPS does not work at all.
    4. My heals do not work at all.

    Does it ?
  20. DoomDrake Well-Known Member

    Nope there are 2 option you choose from either group or solo