devs: time to finish ancient caverns

The latest expansion, Ancient Caverns, is now almost 4 months old. It's decent (for what it is) but there are still some things that need attention to complete it. Here's what is still left on the to-do list to finish the place.

• Fix the quest count. None of the caverns quests count towards the total quest count.
• Add lustrous axe. This item has never been inserted into the game even though the recipe for crafting it has.
• Raise non-weapon recipe drop rates. There are plenty of weapon recipes to be had, but virtually none of the others. Armor/helm/shield recipes are pretty much never available in CS, with most of them having been absent since the first week or so of the release. (I keep records of prices of crafting items in CS. Str shield recipe has never been listed. Str helm has appeared only once in 4 months. These are just two examples.) L77 is hard enough to get to that players shouldn't be stuck with plat recipes as their only way to craft.
• Add the elite weapons. You promised elite weapons when the area was first promoted, but none have arrived. It's not that hard to do the same thing you did in BSM to provide an additional high-level farming opportunity. Plus more firepower for capped players would even the playing field on the high-damage-output mobs there.

These are the minimum items to do to complete the area. Here are some additional improvements that would make it much more fun to play.

• Reduce the armor debuff of golems. This is the single factor making the place a death farming run for int- and dex-based players. Even with thrasher/3x combo, non-str players are almost always dead the instant the massive armor debuff hits them. This is because a) it cuts their armor in half or more, b) there's no warning it has hit them, so they don't know until it's too late, c) the amount of damage being done means a certain 1- to 2-shot kill for them even with 3x armor from elixir/blessing, and d) it also stops mana and health regen on top of it all.
• Reduce the health of the dust ball mobs. These things are just insanely high in health compared to every other mob there. And they don't even drop anything for all the time it takes to bring them down. There's no joy or point in killing them.

Work on these things and you can make Ancient Caverns reach its full potential. And it wouldn't even take very long either. You made a good start; now it's time to finish the job.

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Originally Posted by Fusionstrike

The latest expansion, Ancient Caverns, is now almost 4 months old. It's decent (for what it is) but there are still some things that need attention to complete it. Here's what is still left on the to-do list to finish the place.

• Fix the quest count. None of the caverns quests count towards the total quest count.
• Add lustrous axe. This item has never been inserted into the game even though the recipe for crafting it has.
• Raise non-weapon recipe drop rates. There are plenty of weapon recipes to be had, but virtually none of the others. Armor/helm/shield recipes are pretty much never available in CS, with most of them having been absent since the first week or so of the release. (I keep records of prices of crafting items in CS. Str shield recipe has never been listed. Str helm has appeared only once in 4 months. These are just two examples.) L77 is hard enough to get to that players shouldn't be stuck with plat recipes as their only way to craft.
• Add the elite weapons. You promised elite weapons when the area was first promoted, but none have arrived. It's not that hard to do the same thing you did in BSM to provide an additional high-level farming opportunity. Plus more firepower for capped players would even the playing field on the high-damage-output mobs there.

These are the minimum items to do to complete the area. Here are some additional improvements that would make it much more fun to play.

• Reduce the armor debuff of golems. This is the single factor making the place a death farming run for int- and dex-based players. Even with thrasher/3x combo, non-str players are almost always dead the instant the massive armor debuff hits them. This is because a) it cuts their armor in half or more, b) there's no warning it has hit them, so they don't know until it's too late, c) the amount of damage being done means a certain 1- to 2-shot kill for them even with 3x armor from elixir/blessing, and d) it also stops mana and health regen on top of it all.
• Reduce the health of the dust ball mobs. These things are just insanely high in health compared to every other mob there. And they don't even drop anything for all the time it takes to bring them down. There's no joy or point in killing them.

Work on these things and you can make Ancient Caverns reach its full potential. And it wouldn't even take very long either. You made a good start; now it's time to finish the job.

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Nid Quest counts badly. Add moar quests.

Remove Lustrous Axe, make Recipes for Axe Discontinued to raise price for collectors.

Don't raise Normal Recipe Droprate pls pls pls!

Add elite weapons & Dungeon Only if mobs are nerfed. Also want Ancient Cavern's PREMIUM Dungeon for plat. Use ripoff of Golem Gauntlet plz!

Don't buff or nerf gear! We dont want another great Buff/Nerf in the balance of da new META in PVP

Remove dustball cause it makes no sense.

Fixed.

I agree!

If they add elite weapons then thats going to suck for us lvl 76 and under. It will literally take 6 months to level to 77 doing 2k xp a day which takes 8 hours a day for us who cant buy platinum. I guess if elites are added id have to kick everyone with a elite weapon and be hunted by them. Killing 2pc lust people is really hard, to kill a elite lust user would probably be near impossible

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Originally Posted by I will try my best

If they add elite weapons then thats going to suck for us lvl 76 and under. It will literally take 6 months to level to 77 doing 2k xp a day which takes 8 hours a day for us who cant buy platinum. I guess if elites are added id have to kick everyone with a elite weapon and be hunted by them. Killing 2pc lust people is really hard, to kill a elite lust user would probably be near impossible

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Multiple players that rejoined has 3 pcs alr when they cap, aint gonna be gud idea to kick all 77s that has elite weapon, dun worry take ur time to 77.

Agreed, however to my recollection they did not say there would be elite RARITY items.
I think this misunderstanding began when the mod wrote the teaser saying "elite items" which I believe they meant to refer to the lv 77 items already currently in game, not elite purple rarities.
I'd love to be wrong ofc but the more ppl say "they said elite weapons" the more ppl are going to believe they are in the works.
I don't think anything is in the works.
Prove me wrong sts I dare you.

I agree with the quest count and the infamous axe we all tirelessly farm for which doesn't exist.

Regarding the recipes, from what I've found is the weapon recipes drop in level 5 Koznite's domain regularly.
Armor reciepes are more rare and drop in Koznite's domain too.
Helm and sheild recipes are rare and drop in level 4 Blurred vision.
Most farm Koznite because of the Koznite and the golums drop 5 drops each run, and this increases the chances of pinks.
The majority of players use plat recipes to craft the lustrous sets.

The "elite weapons" I agree with Sue. It was a missunderstanding.
There was just a new elite vanity pet. No new elite stage.

"New Ancient Caverns adventure area for characters level 72+.
New Ultra Level 77.
New Elite Vanity Pet for obtaining Ultra Level 77.
Combine the Level 76 Vanity Shield + the Level 77 Vanity Pet for a 2 piece ring!
Level 76 Elite level and Vanity Shield is still there."

Agreed.

Don't submit an unfinished product .

Why bother to add the 2H axe no one will use it anyways its like 99% of str players prefer 1h sword + shield gear. Have you seen a toon equiped with 2h lustrous great sword or savage blade or boulder? None.. :p

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Originally Posted by Fusionstrike

The latest expansion, Ancient Caverns, is now almost 4 months old. It's decent (for what it is) but there are still some things that need attention to complete it. Here's what is still left on the to-do list to finish the place.

• Fix the quest count. None of the caverns quests count towards the total quest count.
• Add lustrous axe. This item has never been inserted into the game even though the recipe for crafting it has.
• Raise non-weapon recipe drop rates. There are plenty of weapon recipes to be had, but virtually none of the others. Armor/helm/shield recipes are pretty much never available in CS, with most of them having been absent since the first week or so of the release. (I keep records of prices of crafting items in CS. Str shield recipe has never been listed. Str helm has appeared only once in 4 months. These are just two examples.) L77 is hard enough to get to that players shouldn't be stuck with plat recipes as their only way to craft.
• Add the elite weapons. You promised elite weapons when the area was first promoted, but none have arrived. It's not that hard to do the same thing you did in BSM to provide an additional high-level farming opportunity. Plus more firepower for capped players would even the playing field on the high-damage-output mobs there.

These are the minimum items to do to complete the area. Here are some additional improvements that would make it much more fun to play.

• Reduce the armor debuff of golems. This is the single factor making the place a death farming run for int- and dex-based players. Even with thrasher/3x combo, non-str players are almost always dead the instant the massive armor debuff hits them. This is because a) it cuts their armor in half or more, b) there's no warning it has hit them, so they don't know until it's too late, c) the amount of damage being done means a certain 1- to 2-shot kill for them even with 3x armor from elixir/blessing, and d) it also stops mana and health regen on top of it all.
• Reduce the health of the dust ball mobs. These things are just insanely high in health compared to every other mob there. And they don't even drop anything for all the time it takes to bring them down. There's no joy or point in killing them.

Work on these things and you can make Ancient Caverns reach its full potential. And it wouldn't even take very long either. You made a good start; now it's time to finish the job.

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imo any armor debuff reducing is unneccesary. im a pure dex bird and im doin fine there even with 1.25x combo. you just have to chooooose ur steps and range wisely. if you dont have a working tactic, u can still spam pots. otherwise wuts ur chellange out there?

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Originally Posted by Epw

imo any armor debuff reducing is unneccesary. im a pure dex bird and im doin fine there even with 1.25x combo. you just have to chooooose ur steps and range wisely. if you dont have a working tactic, u can still spam pots. otherwise wuts ur chellange out there?

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I agree that it's a viable tactic for birds to kite. Nearly every skill has 12m range and birds are a pure DPS class. Therefore they can operate at nearly full efficiency while always staying out of range of the deadly debuffs. Unfortunately, the other classes do not have this option.

Mage - An int mage could stay back and just use the 12m fire and ice attacks to kite. However, the party expects (and needs) mages to support as well. In order to reach the other members with buffs and (most critically) heals, mages must move in to closer range. No party would accept a mage who stays out of heal range the whole battle.

Fox - A dex fox is not expected to support, but has no long-range skills. It must close in to use any damage skills at all, which means it's vulnerable most of the battle. The only other option is to use a bow at max range, doing only auto damage the whole time. This adds close to zero value to the party.

Rhino - Regardless of stat build, rhinos are always vulnerable. All skills require closing to close range to use, and they have very low health to work with. And the debuff puts such a huge negative H/s on them that even their heal with large H/s boost doesn't compensate for it. It's inevitable they with be hit with the debuff and die at some point due to low health plus high damage output of mobs.

As for spamming pots: this simply doesn't work. Pots have a limit on how quickly you can use them, and the amount they heal is too low compared to the damage that comes in. Even just two golems targeting a player will overwhelm his ability to spam pots to survive it.

There's nothing wrong with a challenge as long as there's a way to overcome it. The current design of the area leaves no solution for the classes I mentioned above. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways the devs can fix it. They could turn down the debuff as I mentioned, or make fewer golems able to do it, or make its range smaller so kiting becomes more viable for other classes, or turn down the damage output a bit so there's at least an outside chance of surviving once hit with the debuff. Or they could do literally dozens of other things to make it a challenge that can be survived with reasonable tactics. This is what I hope the devs will do so that all classes and builds have a chance to enjoy the area.

Just popped on to see what's up. First thread I clicked on (this one) took me right back to why I hardly play anymore. :/

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Originally Posted by I will try my best

If they add elite weapons then thats going to suck for us lvl 76 and under. It will literally take 6 months to level to 77 doing 2k xp a day which takes 8 hours a day for us who cant buy platinum. I guess if elites are added id have to kick everyone with a elite weapon and be hunted by them. Killing 2pc lust people is really hard, to kill a elite lust user would probably be near impossible

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Lust birds are ez

Agreed, but something tells me that this thread is gonna be closed before long.

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Originally Posted by Mayaross

Why bother to add the 2H axe no one will use it anyways its like 99% of str players prefer 1h sword + shield gear. Have you seen a toon equiped with 2h lustrous great sword or savage blade or boulder? None.. :p

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http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psdxbte5f3.jpg

I had a feeling I wasn't real.

U dont get it do you ? This "mega" cap is nothing but a way of telling that pl is done and over , u wanted a final cap ! There u go , now don't disturb us for another 2 years pls

Folks, we know your stance on this, and you know ours. We appreciate the thoughtful ideas on how you would like it wrapped up. If that possibility comes around again, we'll definitely engage your for more ideas.

In the mean time, I am going to close this one down to prevent further drama.

- g