Idea For Future Client: Improved Auto-Adjustable PvE

[Niixed]

I love a hard challenge. Specifically, I love overcoming challenges with a combination of tenacity and strategy.

I have a character that is well-equipped and I have a lot of experience under my belt. When I am suddenly, unexpectedly faced with a nearly impossible in-game challenge that is ridiculously costly to overcome, it's really quite disheartening.

The new Planar Arena is one such nearly-impossible challenge. At the very least you at STS could have set expectations much better. If I knew my fully mythic mage with combo elixir would be a one-hit joke in the first 10 seconds, at least I would have gone in expecting a bloodbath. If I knew two fully-arcane warriors would be taken out in the first 30 seconds, at least I'd have gone in with my eyes wide open.

All you top players who pooh-pooh those of us who are expressing legitimate concerns over the Arena difficulty need to check your attitudes. I'm so very thrilled that you've breezed through the arena with macros, unlimited plat, arcane gear/pets and whatever else you've used to accomplish the feat. I'm not so thrilled that you seem unable to comprehend that having a feat that close to impossible for serious, experienced players just may be detrimental to the game.

When you start shutting out the serious-but-looking-for-fun players in favor of the hyperactive elitist players, it's not a sign of a healthy game environment. If this pattern repeats too often, the serious players will move on to another game. Has this happened in AL already? Probably to some extent, yes. Another example: arcane pets available only to leaderboard fanatics willing to play (literally) 24 hours a day. Who is being shut out of that? You know. The real moneymaker group for every gaming company is the silent serious players, not the high-maintenance elitist players. STS, which group is your priority?

Thankfully, in this case, technology makes it possible to please both groups.

My idea: Create a robust algorithm that periodically auto-adjusts the boss difficulty to the players present in the Arena zone. AL already has this technology in place, so I am hoping that it would only be a matter of enhancing the existing algorithm. That way the Arena is equally difficult to every player who meets the minimum qualifications to enter.

As it stands now, a party of fully or partly mythic players stands little chance of (affordable) success in the Arena. That means the serious, non-fanatical players are shut out. Their first experience with the new content is very negative. That colors their perception of the game and discourages further game play.

[Vjerevica]

Nothing to add. You've said it all.

[Meemaw]

For me I'm mainly sad about the out of the blue Bulwark and singe buffs, Not saying it was a bad thing, just atleast do something for the people who dont have 20mil in their pockets! :/

Literelly now its considered noob to do arena or pve without bulwark and singe. People walking around with normal every day end game items, but because of one bulwark, they have the same stats as Season 6's best warriors. (maybe even more) :/
Should'nt have rushed the buffs, im probably gonna end up quitting end game. I cant consider even making another mil, already made too many to count and how far has that gotten me? >:/

[Jiarijiba]

+1 But I think that they just delete this thread, since it suggests game not being fair enough for some players...

[GoodSyntax]

I'm building up more and more experience with the arena, and while I generally feel it is a bit too difficult in certain scenarios, other boss and environment combinations are very achievable. I managed my first solo this afternoon, granted with a combo elixir, but in time, as I build up more strategies, I will continue to share what I learn, like I always have.

You cannot go in and simply try to out tank and out DPS this new arena. There are some conditions which require more finesse - spiders in particular are an interesting case. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, move as little as possible, reposition only enough to avoid red zones, so you minimize the number of spiders that spawn. Glob + Spiders is an extremely achievable combination if you stick to this plan. Frostir + Spiders is realistic as well, but when Frostir enrages, things get a bit hairy and the run turns sloppy.

Blood Hammer in all conditions is grossly overpowered - I had a heck of a time dealing with him and the mushrooms together! I did discover that there is a strategy to the mushrooms; you have to purposefully "lure" a group of them and make them start their explosion timer. This clears a space for you to work with for a few seconds. It's slow, its tedious, but it is effective.

Stacking poison smoke pools are evil - avoid them, even if it means you have to go a few seconds without attacking. There is a time to be on the offensive, and times to be on the defensive, and strategically reposition. Positioning into the top left and top right corners seem to be clear of the smoke in just about all cases; so then it is a matter of seeing if you are facing a boss that you can reposition around windups.

I don't really get the obelisk environment. All it seems to do is make the boss AoE windup attacks occur more frequently. The bosses don't hit any harder, so as far as I can tell, this environment isn't a big deal.

The proximity curse is a real killer. This season, with the smaller space, you have to be very aware of your location, the boss's location and your cursed teammate. The mini-map helps A LOT here! Position yourselves on opposite sides of the boss. Tanks, this may mean that you have to take yourself out of the fighting space while cursed, if for no other reason than to preserve yourself. This is a good time for cursed tanks to go into support mode, blowing Horn on windups, using taunts to keep the boss engaged and repositioning yourself and the boss into a more open area.

Ferrix is a super easy boss, both him and Glob are soft landings in my book, because regardless of environment, I don't feel too threatened by them. Sure, Glob may connect with the occasional charging shoulder attack, but really, all of his other attacks are easily avoidable. Ferrix is very much the same as Glob, only the difference is that Ferrix drops poison pools (purple goo?), which hits way, way too hard! Simply avoid the Ferrix death pools because his windup attacks are very easy to avoid.

Stahl is a problem for me....he has very, very long range (so can't be kited), and he hits way too hard. Unless you are on a DMG reduction kit/lix, almost every one of his attacks are a one-hitter. Honestly, I have a pretty serious issue with this guy. Either way, for almost every environment, park yourself in the middle of the arena and don't move! Use ranged attacks and try to pot though the considerable damage he deals. Reposition as little as possible, because movement often sets off more mushrooms, more poison smoke, more spiders, etc. The only time you try to DPS him is when he is paired with the obelisk.

I will also add that pets with stun/panic are very valuable when you get into those cases where you simply cannot avoid a windup. It's like a get out of jail free card....something useful that you should always have in your back pocket! Only use stuns/panic in emergencies, don't waste it unless it's necessary to prevent your death or the death of a teammate.

I'll do a commentary/guide on my Elite Chronicles thread as I learn more, but these are my initial observations.

[obee]

I'm building up more and more experience with the arena, and while I generally feel it is a bit too difficult in certain scenarios, other boss and environment combinations are very achievable. I managed my first solo this afternoon, granted with a combo elixir, but in time, as I build up more strategies, I will continue to share what I learn, like I always have.

You cannot go in and simply try to out tank and out DPS this new arena. There are some conditions which require more finesse - spiders in particular are an interesting case. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, move as little as possible, reposition only enough to avoid red zones, so you minimize the number of spiders that spawn. Glob + Spiders is an extremely achievable combination if you stick to this plan. Frostir + Spiders is realistic as well, but when Frostir enrages, things get a bit hairy and the run turns sloppy.

Blood Hammer in all conditions is grossly overpowered - I had a heck of a time dealing with him and the mushrooms together! I did discover that there is a strategy to the mushrooms; you have to purposefully "lure" a group of them and make them start their explosion timer. This clears a space for you to work with for a few seconds. It's slow, its tedious, but it is effective.

Stacking poison smoke pools are evil - avoid them, even if it means you have to go a few seconds without attacking. There is a time to be on the offensive, and times to be on the defensive, and strategically reposition. Positioning into the top left and top right corners seem to be clear of the smoke in just about all cases; so then it is a matter of seeing if you are facing a boss that you can reposition around windups.

I don't really get the obelisk environment. All it seems to do is make the boss AoE windup attacks occur more frequently. The bosses don't hit any harder, so as far as I can tell, this environment isn't a big deal.

The proximity curse is a real killer. This season, with the smaller space, you have to be very aware of your location, the boss's location and your cursed teammate. The mini-map helps A LOT here! Position yourselves on opposite sides of the boss. Tanks, this may mean that you have to take yourself out of the fighting space while cursed, if for no other reason than to preserve yourself. This is a good time for cursed tanks to go into support mode, blowing Horn on windups, using taunts to keep the boss engaged and repositioning yourself and the boss into a more open area.

Ferrix is a super easy boss, both him and Glob are soft landings in my book, because regardless of environment, I don't feel too threatened by them. Sure, Glob may connect with the occasional charging shoulder attack, but really, all of his other attacks are easily avoidable. Ferrix is very much the same as Glob, only the difference is that Ferrix drops poison pools (purple goo?), which hits way, way too hard! Simply avoid the Ferrix death pools because his windup attacks are very easy to avoid.

Stahl is a problem for me....he has very, very long range (so can't be kited), and he hits way too hard. Unless you are on a DMG reduction kit/lix, almost every one of his attacks are a one-hitter. Honestly, I have a pretty serious issue with this guy. Either way, for almost every environment, park yourself in the middle of the arena and don't move! Use ranged attacks and try to pot though the considerable damage he deals. Reposition as little as possible, because movement often sets off more mushrooms, more poison smoke, more spiders, etc. The only time you try to DPS him is when he is paired with the obelisk.

I will also add that pets with stun/panic are very valuable when you get into those cases where you simply cannot avoid a windup. It's like a get out of jail free card....something useful that you should always have in your back pocket! Only use stuns/panic in emergencies, don't waste it unless it's necessary to prevent your death or the death of a teammate.

I'll do a commentary/guide on my Elite Chronicles thread as I learn more, but these are my initial observations.
Kali for president!

[Anarchist]

Give it a week or two to learn the bosses and the difficulty will drop considerably :)....hopefully.

[Niixed]

Thanks GoodStyntax for keeping us informed of your discoveries. You should be nominated for the community award.