Planar Arena Feedback

[GoodSyntax]

Per Remiem's request, I am going to sum up my opinions and observations of the new Planar Arena:

I find the new arena unnecessarily difficult. Being a nearly maxed out Rogue, and having a full party with a max tank, either two max sorcs, or a max sorc and Remiem:

BUGS:

• Enrage obelisk can be banished by Samael/Grimm, meaning enrage cannot be avoided
• Ferrix death pools hitting for 35-50% DMG
• Plat revives close to entrance gate respawns you inside of the gate, and insta-kills you
• Stahl - in certain environments is hitting for well over 4k damage
• Poison smoke damage is stacking, so in tight areas is hitting for 60-70% DMG per tick!
• Some bosses seem to have a slow aura around them (like Glacians in Nordr) which makes avoiding windups impossible
• All bosses and environmentals are tougher and more difficult that what we saw in the test server.
• Bosses are one hitting our 7k hp, 2.5k armor tank!

OBSERVATIONS:
This is far too difficult. If a full Maxed out party is struggling mightily in completing arena runs, I can only imagine what mainstream parties will go through. I literally wasted 12 revenges myself in a single run (the one with stahl), and the rest of my party wasted nearly as many.

With the environment capable of one-hitting rogues and sorcs (vortex crystals, mushrooms, overlapping smoke) I feel that this is unnecessarily difficult. It is not a matter of strategy, since I am an arena veteran, and I was very successful in the test server's arena, it is a matter of one or two hit deaths are far too common and for the most part unavoidable.

New boss procs??? simply add to this sense of too challenging. Players should be able to avoid AoE windups, which in some cases is impossible right now with the ensnaring procs.

Honestly, I don't like this increasing tendency for one-hits. I would much rather see higher DPS than more insta-deaths! Insta-death, especially in the arena construct, negates strategy, which turns the game into a platinum black hole.

Especially, considering that the Arena chest is only giving out a single item, I don't think this is fair or balanced. Given the volume of plat I just wasted, the loot I actually received and the immense challenge; especially when I consider myself a far above average elite runner who has been able to successfully solo every elite map, this is simply over the top!

[AL_Newbie]

Add less mushrooms not much room to run away too...
Thanks Kali!

[Blissfulgod]

The damage these bosses are dealing must be a bug... right? I went in with my tanked-rogue build with 3.5k health and 1.8k armor and could't last more than 10sec. spamming health potions. Stahl would snipe me from anywhere in the arena for a 1-hit KO, ouch!

[Caabatric]

went in with my mage felling pretty confident. With 3.5k health, 1.2k armor, and 510 dmg. i felt this wouldn't be too hard right?
DEAD WRONG!!! With a maxed gear tank a very stong rogue me and an average sorcerer we couldn't touch more than 25% of Stahl's health. We tried fighting rutgar, ferrix, and stahl and didn't last more than 2 min each fight spamming pots. Through my shield i was hit with hits that took 65% of my health with a 45% dmg reduction from my shield. No shield meant death on more than one occasion.
I asked my entire guild how they were doing. Only one party was able to beat the entire 4 rounds. This party was a maxed mage a maxed rogue a strong tank and a strong rogue.
I know im not a weak mage since i have seen maxed mages and have better armor value then them and the same health though my dmg is only about 30 lower ( which didnt matter since i couldnt take more than 2 shots anyway).
Pls nerf sooon.

[Raregem]

Glad you got through a full run Kali. Some great points here. I couldn't even make it through one boss, after countless deaths I quit.

I did think the arena was a breeze on the test server (did not have an arcane ring) and was looking for them to buff it a little... but, wow! When you have normal attacks at 3.5-4k, that's just over the top. Most people(mage/rogue) sit around 3.1-3.8k hp, so I am not sure how making bosses hit so hard on normal attacks was a good idea. There is not a lot of room in the new arena to kite either so it's a lot harder to avoid hits. The space limitations would be a fun challenge if the bosses and added obstacles(mushrooms, etc) weren't so op.

[Sean Low]

Bigger arena space please !

[GoodSyntax]

Bigger arena space please !

That was my feedback during the Beta as well.

[MoloToha]

No solo mode as well... Typing /partyi 0 just gives me /partyinvite <target>

[GoodSyntax]

Yeah....posted that bug as well...but, if you invite a toon that you know isn't online it works. So I invited my twink and got solo, but that probably means if you find Bael or Krunch you can't invite guildies.

[FluidShot]

No solo mode as well... Typing /partyi 0 just gives me /partyinvite <target>

null_void stated on another thread that that function now does a name check. Just type a valid but unused name, and the function will be the same. i.e., lkhsdfoi.

[Raregem]

Update for me, I made it through 7 bosses, 27 deaths(yes I counted)...with 4k hp. Pretty much my whole pt was dropping like flies except the tank. So it was basically a revive, die, revive, die.

• Vortex one hitting, at least i think it was the vortex bc something was taking me out and I was no where near the boss.
• Enrage after a min seems impossible barely got him down to half health then it's just game over. What exactly are we suppose to do with the totem? It needs an instruction manual..
• Bug with gate and Ferrix, he enrages everyone dies then the gate just goes up and down non-stop, you die if you try and enter.
• Pools stacking is just bye bye, if you're unlucky enough to be standing in the wrong spot. Which, you can't avoid standing in the wrong spot with the limited space.
• Spiders kill you in two seconds if more than two get on you

I will not be running the arena again until it's fixed. I can deal with a death or two, of course I would prefer none but 27 and I didn't even get to finish 2 full rounds. One epic item in the chest from the first round. Yea, not worth it.

Death sentence not fun..

[Sdbigdaddy]

Not that fun. Is there any strategy? Or just spam pots?

I couldn't really tell considering how quickly I was dying. Mage=> shield up, ok. Shield down = dead. Lol. That will be my only experience / recollection of the arena.

[GoodSyntax]

So, here are some tips after about a dozen completed runs:

• DMG Reduction and DMG elixirs are necessary! Combo is even better (I used combo)
• Stun/Panic pets = success. Rotate stuns on boss AoE windups!
• Shady & Surge's death pools work extremely well on spiders
• Rogues with Vortex, stay in one corner (top, left), until 2 or 3 vortex drop, then pierce to other corner and do it over again, lapping works as well, but just makes the small space that much tighter
• Enrage doesn't seem to do anything besides making the windups a bit more frequent. Bosses aren't hitting any harder - so, good, I guess?
• Don't bother trying to take out the enrage obelisk - it isn't worth the effort
• Proximity curse is a KILLER in this confined space....be extra careful, our party blew A TON of plat due to proximity curse
• Root proc on Elon gun is more helpful that you could imagine! It gives your team a few seconds to hit the boss really hard while he is rooted and armor is reduced.
• Ferrix's death pools hit super hard, be aware of where they are and avoid them. 2 or 3 seconds in a death pool will kill you
• Stacked smoke clouds will kill as well. In this environment, don't use Shadow Veil, you won't see the poison clouds and it will lead to deaths
• Stahl still seems to be the hardest hitting boss, tanks, use your enfeebling skills early and often! I hate Stahl -.-

I'm finding a lot of bugs, and I still think that this could be toned down a bit. I think it would be fair to make normal damage received equivalent to what you would get while running with DMG reduction elixirs. That way, you still get one hit sometimes, but not by everything, because, in all honesty, my first few attempts before I resorted to combo were sadistic.

Beyond that, the tighter confines make the environmentals far more deadly. Kiting honestly isn't much of an option in such a small space, especially when you add Vortex to the mix. The fact that Vortex is routinely capable of one-hits while on combo is still more than I want to see.

Honestly, this arena is rough - even with elixirs. Running arena for a while and then going to elite Tindirin truly feels like you are taking a break.

[LibertyBells (Jasper)]

Yes, a whole team with slag, and we were able to knock half of Ferix's health down.

As a mage, I found it a LITTLE helpful to use curse. When your shield is down, IMMEDIATELY charge curse up, and make sure you have your curse MAXED out. I still get 1 shotted, (I have 1100 armor & 3999 hp)

[killarrow]

Thanks Kali, your posts are very informative and to the point as always

Kind of scary to know that we are going to farm 5-30 deaths, revenge buffs, damage and reduction lix, 100s of pots, lot of time and effort just for a chest that drops epics.

Just wondering if STS test with legendary gear at all ?
Seems some supertoon like "Farmerpain" was used to do the testing.

[SacredKnight]

http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...eedback-Thread

If your making a separate thread a URL is required ^_^

[Sdbigdaddy]

Yeah, you guys are pretty awesome. I think the arena is made for you top players. How you guys can actually think and experiment in that little room is beyond me. Im just trying not to die with one shot haha. Keep it up and enjoy. Hopefully there will be some cool drops and we all get to benefit when those items come to market.
Cheers.

[Sdbigdaddy]

Yeah, you guys are pretty awesome. I think the arena is made for you top players. How you guys can actually think and experiment in that little room is beyond me. Im just trying not to die with one shot haha. Keep it up and enjoy. Hopefully there will be some cool drops and we all get to benefit when those items come to market.
Cheers.

[GoodSyntax]

Trying different combinations.

Ran with Danley duo.....we couldn't finish the arena pure (revives aside). The only way we were able to complete any runs was when both of us had combo. And, even then, it was a one-hit fest! Vortex one hit, Stahl one hit, when Frostir enrages (not with the obelisk), and the party wipes, he doesn't cool down, stays enraged. Bloodhammer's normal attacks are one-hitting (all on combo I might add). Random, unexplained instadeaths. Issues targeting boss when obelisk is the environment. Impossible to pot through Ruger poison.

There are a lot of problems with the arena IMHO...

[Soundlesskill]

I too honestly don't think STS bothers to test their new contents wearing Legendary gear.
I use an expedition bow and an archon ring to at least TRY to catch up to mythic bow DMG. With dmg lix I hit 600 DMG, so I'm quite happy about that. My hp is 3,2k with Slag and a little a above 3,2k with HJ. With this health pool, I can't survive anything. And if I spec STR I obviously lack DMG and then no one wants to run with you. I can solo Ferrix and rugter if I'm lucky with environment... I can't spec any kind of STR as I don't have any plats or any offers (that work). I can't magically get 20m for a mythic bow. I won't get away from spending hundreds of gold on lixes just to stay alive.

STS test your maps in pink gear, it cannot be true it now also is gear>skill in PvE. This kinda stuff makes me want to quit.