No idea why previous thread about this zone was locked but I have to say, we went today to EM version and I really enjoyed it. There was a challenge, although after listening to last podcast and what Kander said, I thought EM will be very easy . We did manage to kill 4 names there and it was great fun. Last name, Necromunger Maxl, looks like it is broken. It casts 2 different curses on 3 people every 20 sec: 1 is ability casting debuff, 2 have to be cured. Well, I think it should be other way around - 1 to cure and 2 not We also tried HM version, but first name was... hard But as I said we enjoyed EM and only 2 people had problems and were going LD on swarms. Overall EM is a very nice zone with some challenge attached and I love it
You actually can skip the first name in HM and try the second. Considering that you killed 4 names in EM you shouldn't have problems with second name in HM. Grats on kills!
Interview with Dexella about the new x2 raid zone: Kander: This is a x2 or two-group zone. There’s a regular version and challenge version. The challenge version is not geared to the top challenge raid people, it’s actually geared to people who are clearing Easy mode content that want progression. Kander: The Normal version is going to be a little on the easy side. Hopefully a pickup group x2 style raid can participate in it. Today on the forums a few hours ago: Kander: The zone was never stated it was intended for heroic players, that was never the intention. It was stated it should have some content do-able by pick-up raiders. So I guess there is some group of players who are between "heroic players" and those "clearing Easy mode content" and that's who the new x2 normal version is intended for. Raid geared people who aren't clearing Easy mode content? That's the target audience for this new zone?
Cause CoE was so great from public testing? That obviously didn't work and I don't have a problem with them trying small, more focused testing that doesn't have them dealing with wide-spread feedback. Dreadcutter looks pretty solid so far. And scripts look okay in the x2. I like that even if it was over-tuned a bit that it at least wasn't under-tuned like the last two content releases. And I read Kander's comments as the audience being somewhere between easy mode CoE and HM CoE to help guilds get over that hump without waiting for a level increase to do it. Considering Skyshrine and CoE releases were almost entirely easy mode it's nice to see something challenging to work on.
Well, that's disappointing. If SOE didn't make a x2 raid zone that could be done with heroic geared groups.... they should. That's exactly the kind of new zone I wanted to explore. Something our guild could do after running the heroic group zones over and over and over.
Public testing is pointless if they're doing the private testing right, and just the fact that some mobs have too much health doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing it wrong. Private testing means that they can be in voice chat with the players, and they can fix bugs and tune encounters right as they're being tested. Why would they want public feedback on stuff that they have already changed during the private test? Yes, more eyeballs might catch a few issues that slip by the private testers, but the signal to noise ratio on that feedback would be so absolutely atrocious that it would be practically worthless.
how didnt public testing work for the content? How do they draw the average and above average? from a small selection or a large selection? I get that wide spread feedback can be diluted, but look how this game is currently developed, its totally marketed towards the idea that EVERYONE can play it. How can they appeal to everyone if everyone doesnt have the chance to test it? they cant. Selective testing produces selective results. I know that COE had its issues, but i dont think they were a result from open testing. Alot of things were exactly what they wanted for the majority. The biggest issue in CoE was unfinished or poorly made/broken things, it had nothing to do with testing a finished product. Its about finishing things, its funny how when you become ingrained in this game you tend to make sense of it being broken( i am guilty of this), but the point still stands: testing is good, not finishing things is bad. The point is they wanted to open this game up to a larger crowd, but they still gate their progression by unreasonable means so they can develop at their own pace while still being able to make a release date. It they want to design the last challenge mode mob with a select few of elites thats fine, but im sure they could of sent a few people emails and gotten some of the best geared/skilled players to participate in it, and develop from the top down. but for the rest of the easier content? What basis of design is there? They need to get onto eq2u or players and find people with the target gear that they think complies with the encounter, which they obviously didnt do. They added a number to a program, told the HAL item making machine to just wing it, closed their eyes and hoped for the best it seems. This is not how you make things work. Can anyone on these forums post that they in fact were a person that got to test this content before release? I can only hope at the least they used fans of the actual game for testing. It is pay to play our way right?
You could take two groups and do the Skyshrine x4 raids. Plenty of new content for you if you've only been doing heroics and the gear is still an upgrade. Once you've done that a bunch you'll have gear to do the Altar of Abhorrence x4 with two groups (if you can't right now). Or old Sleeper's Tomb x4. Heroic-geared players have a lot of content there for them.
He said challenge mode is geared to people clearing EM content. The normal version is going to be a little on the easy side. He even said hopefully a pickup group x2 style raid could participate in it. I can understand the x2 CM being aimed between EM CoE and HM CoE based on what he said since he said it's for people clearing EM. What I don't understand is how something that is "a little on the easy side" from that and that hopefully a pickup group x2 style raid can participate in is still somehow never intended for heroic players. That sounds exactly like heroic players to me. Let me clarify though that I haven't said anything yet about the actual content of the zone. My issue is with the intended audience. It sounded like the intended audience for the normal version was well geared heroic players from what he said in the interview. But once it got released, he said it was never intended for heroic players. We went in last night with heroic players, pulled the first two named, and killed them both. Didn't have time to try anything further yet but so far, I really liked the zone. I like the challenge. It's a welcome change. And it's possible that Kander's definition of heroic players and my definition of heroic players are two different things. If the CoE heroic content was supposed to be challenging for heroic players then I'm glad the new x2 isn't intended for them. If it were, it wouldn't be much of a challenge just like the heroic CoE wasn't much of a challenge. I'm not used to going into an expansion wearing last expansion's gear plus a few quest upgrades and clearing the heroic zones on the first try. So perhaps to Kander, heroic players means people wearing quest gear, a couple heroic upgrades, not max on AAs, and zero adornments. Whereas I see heroic players as those wearing mostly upgrades out of the heroic zones, max AA, fully adorned, and fully mastered. That could be it.
There's a difference between challenging and straight out impossible. The third name, as it is, is straight out impossible for the target audience of "people who are clearing easy mode content." The rest (of what I saw) was fine. It was challenging to a point, although the script for the second named left more to be desired. (Adds only spawned once at 85% and the rest of the fight was a tank-n-spank) If challenge is what they were going for, they kind of dropped the ball in some areas and completely overshot on another.
I guess I read it as showing two groups of easy mode x4 players, CM are for players who are clearing (meaning cleared it all and working on or maybe have beaten some of the hm mobs like Ancient Sentinel) and those who are working on easy mode still. Those still working on easy mode would likely be at least partially geared in fabled pieces as opposed to heroic players that are mostly in the legendary or at best Drinal Steward type gear. Not that there's a big gap between those two, but people who just pug heroics typically aren't as prepared (adorned, mastered, skilled) as people who raid organized.
also confused why the last thread was locked. reality is this content simply needs some amount of tuning, either encounters made easier or the loot they are dropping made more desirable. No one decked out in PoW gear is going to run this zone to get 179 stat pieces and the people for who 179 stat pieces are an upgrade arent making it very far in this content.
Well the X2 has 179 jewelry.... to compliment the 170's Fabled armor from the Solo Zones... so yeah Heroic Players will have Fabled Gear. Two groups of Heroic Players can tediously make it past the Fear Feaster in AoA for Em-Raid loot. So, I guess this is an alternative for EM-COE. Still I like the zone, it just needs a smidge of tweaking.
Like I mentioned above, I think me having a different definition of "heroic player" could be my issue. Your definition seems to be close to what I suspect Kander's definition is. Our "heroic players" are all ex-raiders that chucked the raiding life a while back and instead do the heroic progression. Or at least we did up until Skyshrine. Once Skyshrine hit, heroic progression pretty much turned into undergeared, underprepared, underskilled heroic progression IMO. But as I said, I like the new zone.
You should never need gear that is better than the gear that drops in a zone in order to be able to do it. And for the rewards in this zone, it needs to be doable by a full heroic geared force. Epic x4 EM - Doable in heroic gear (160 stat) gear drops are 187 stat. Epic x4 HM - Doable in EM gear (187 stat) gear drops are 200 ish stat. Epic x2 EM - Barely doable in HM gear (200 ish stats) gear drops are 179. Something doesn't seem quite right when you can do most of the x4 EM gear with 1-2 groups in nothing but heroic gear, and the x2 zone that has lesser drops require HM/EM gear to do. Why can't you admit you fubar'd on the difficulty and it wasn't properly tested and tell us that you are fixing it? Man up to your mistakes, people would respect that more than you think.
I think it's a bit out of whack, but only a bit out of whack. A little tweaking and we might all be happy. Increased difficulty through the zone is acceptable (even desired). The third named is just out of whack progression wise. I do not see anyone killing that named that does not have gear far superior to what drops in the zone, and that's always a problem when it happens.
From first topic which was closed: We killed that name with 5,7 mln dps. We killed first 2 heroic adds and then simply burned the name. After 3rd add was absorbed bards casted BD (named was on 14% at this point). That's how we did it. With 2nd named - we had around 10 adds every 40 sec I think. They died fast from aoe. 1st and 4th name are really easy. 5th name was impossible for us. Too many curses which had to be cured. It was a nice thing to see something actually challenging in the Easy Mode zone
I disagree. It's not infrequent that I laugh at auction chat because something goes for 600+ plat in auction that is a whole .1 CC higher than obol stuff. Also, previous topic was locked because it went off topic. At least that's what I was told. I'll certainly run it (once it's reasonable to run as an EM raid geared player) if it means avoiding farming obols and essences for alts.
I think it's very interesting zone to run. Needs a bit of tweaking as majority here agreed but this is not going to be boring not like solo though they are similar in layouts. Just two group set up needs maybe tweaking on our sides as well to maximize dps output. But otherall it's refreshing.
