Sorcerers Dungeon Feedback

[Pawain]

@Kyronix @Bleak

1. The area is too small for each section.
2. The spawn is too easy until the last 2. see other comments below.

I dont know how Atl is doing this. Either its really bad or they are not as populated as advertised.

Every room could be done by one player. Cast an area spell and everything is dead. Repeat. On the last 2 rooms cast area spell, kill a couple of the harder paragons.

It's really kind of sad that nearly everything in the main floor of the dungeon is pathetically weak. The favored tactic seems to be to throw out a reaper and then stand there casting essence of wind or wither. The chances of you dying are low. Very, very low.

Every mob dies as soon as it spawns. The respawn also need to be dialed up (think quicksilver elementals).

@Kyronix

This, so much this.
Everything dies before you can target them.

To solve this:

Do these things in Kotl City or make an area that size in Ilsh. The room should be large enough so players have room to fight. The mobs need the HP of the mobs that were in Kotl City to begin with. those were not one hit mobs but could be done by a small group. When the Mobs are killed, the Boss appears in the middle. Kill him and start next round.

To help right now:

Put paragons on non boss to 90% rate. That wont help much on the first floor, but it is what you could do. Or make the mobs have HP like the red mobs from invasion. Just not generals.

Thanks

 

[Silent Singer]

Well I've only played it on Siege, but my experience has been totally different. The mobs are challenging, between paragons and getting stam blocked every time I turn around it has been fairly hectic. The sub bosses are completed a-holes- that fairy has been stuck all day because every time you get close it calms you, disrobes you, then teleports up close. I like this one way better than the kotl one because it is always running which is better for folks to drop in for 15 minutes, get a drop, and go do real life stuff.

Also, did I mention what an a-hole that fairy is? I'm confused by the Christmas theme (I must have missed the memo on that one) but this one is good. It highlights one of the best made dungeons in Ilsh too, a place folks typically only go to complete the Ararat quest.

 

[Pawain]

The fairy and the snake boss went so fast I didn't even see them. I had to ask what they were in chat.

 

[Silent Singer]

That's interesting. The fairy has been going for at least two hours on Siege. I've seen two RCs and two EVs on it at the same time and it just shook em off. Are we talking about the same creature?

 

[Merlin]

MUCH MORE SPAWN IS NEEDED.

 

[Riyana]

I'm at the nightmare fairy on Catskills right now. There's a fair few people here but we are barely scratching it.

 

[BeaIank]

That's interesting. The fairy has been going for at least two hours on Siege. I've seen two RCs and two EVs on it at the same time and it just shook em off. Are we talking about the same creature?

The fairy has between 93 and 100% energy resist (92 and 99 after disco). Those EVs are ticking her.
Edit: It also has 300+ wrestling.

Throw some earth elementals on it if you want it dead.

 

[Pawain]

The fairy is the first mini boss. Cossack said it was a Travesty Lite.

We had 5 to 8 players on LS. Mini bosses went down in less than a min. Pumpkin King about the same. I didn't see 2 of them and I couldn't target 1. 1 person died cause they ran away with a paragon blood ele. Hint: Run in a circle in the area so others can target it. They will, they want a drop.

 

[transcendent]

Everything dies too fast. You are lucky to get one hit in before a creature dies.

 

[Dot_Warner]

I think the mini bosses are fine, for the most part. However, as I said when this was on TC1, they should guarantee an artifact drop if you get looting rights. Jack should net you several. As of right now, there is no overriding reason (no, I don't mean an RP reason) to kill the bosses.

The regular mobs need beefed up, as does their fame. The drop rate, compared to the same amount of time in Kotl last year, is about 1/3rd due to this Shut down other Ilshenar spawns if you need to free up processor cycles to drastically increase the spawn rate. The groups of 2-3 trash mobs every min or so isn't going to work.

Also, as its working right now, melee fighters may as well not bother participating. They. Have. Very. Few. Opportunities. To. Hit. ANYTHING.

 

[King Greg]

Well... if the issues with the story arc are to continue with this.... Then this is the way the dev's intended it and nothing will be changed

Feel the love.

 

[zamot]

I'm at the nightmare fairy on Catskills right now. There's a fair few people here but we are barely scratching it.

This one spawned as a paragon and it sucks

 

[Val-Tur]

This is my Great Lakes experience:

I took my dexxer down there & after about 10 min of frustratingly trying to participate, I gave up & watched TV until the boss spawned,. I killed it & then logged out to go do something useful instead of the event. Melee characters are useless except the boss @ the end of each wave - a pet can easily replace you so your not really needed at all. It seemed almost impossible to get a single kill or even one hit on any of the mobs unless they are paragons & you are super fast @ targeting. Why? The rooms were full of necro & mystic templates constantly spamming high damage AE spells like wither / hailstorm / nether cyclone, etc. Most of the spawn have low hit points & die with one spell. Even the paragon versions do not last past 1-2 casts. The only mobs that last are the balrons in the lowest level. And OMG those necro-reaper trees kill most of the mobs the instant they spawn. I sat there watching mobs spawn near them & in less than 1 second they died - no time to try to target them at all. Did I mention that you also can't see a danged thing spawn when everyone is spamming spells & 4 or 5 of those reaper trees are giving off that god-aweful smoke ring AE? I will not be going back with any melee character unless things change.

A few hours later I came back with my mage/spell weaver/mystic. I used summons & I had to pre-cast Hailstorm in order to get hits. Basically its either join this way or don't bother even coming. Things get a bit rougher on the lowest level when the balrons start spawning. That is the only time anyone died. The floor above was a total joke.

It may be a different experience on other servers, but this is how it went today on my server.

 

[Andrasta]

The entire dungeon should be full of monsters. There aren't near enough monsters. They are way too weak. Kotl was fun. This is not fun.

 

[Larisa]

While it was on test, Kyronix talked to the 5 or 6 of us that were testing it.

The first time around, very little spawn, had to wait minutes just for one to spawn and 6 people jump on it...2 of the rooms (Forget which ones, I think the blood fox room) Had WAY TOO MANY and was very overwhelming.

Kyronix tweaked it a bit and it got better..but again only 5-6 of us doing it....more spawn and a bit harder...not sure if he translated that tweak to the live shards but a few of the rooms definitely needed more spawn and a bit harder as you progress.

I haven't had a chance to do it yet, was out all day with my girls So I am just going off what I experienced on test.

The mini bosses were hard, lots of HP and took awhile to take down..if you're taking them down fast it's probably due to the combination of pets/damage being done. Certain pets work better then others.

 

[Pawain]

That's interesting. The fairy has been going for at least two hours on Siege. I've seen two RCs and two EVs on it at the same time and it just shook em off. Are we talking about the same creature?

Ok. Im feeling you now. The Sunday crew is on and theres someone offering Medusa hunts and an EM meet and greet. The Reaper makers left. We pulled the fairy and peeps were dieing all over and clothes were coming off. I put on some drop pants accidently so I didnt notice i wasn't casting. Then someone took the fairy away and we were killing the spawn instead. They finally brought it back so we killed it. Now back to normal quick killings.

I got more drops than in any other room. Got 2 while dead. The calming and clothes dropping are annoying.

 

[Khaelor]

The first time around, very little spawn, had to wait minutes just for one to spawn and 6 people jump on it...2 of the rooms (Forget which ones, I think the blood fox room) Had WAY TOO MANY and was very overwhelming.

Kyronix tweaked it a bit and it got better..but again only 5-6 of us doing it....more spawn and a bit harder...not sure if he translated that tweak to the live shards but a few of the rooms definitely needed more spawn and a bit harder as you progress.

I think it needs to be tweaked back to what it was when it was way too many, 2 people can destroy the spawn.

 

[Pawain]

While it was on test, Kyronix talked to the 5 or 6 of us that were testing it.

The first time around, very little spawn, had to wait minutes just for one to spawn and 6 people jump on it...2 of the rooms (Forget which ones, I think the blood fox room) Had WAY TOO MANY and was very overwhelming.

Kyronix tweaked it a bit and it got better..but again only 5-6 of us doing it....more spawn and a bit harder...not sure if he translated that tweak to the live shards but a few of the rooms definitely needed more spawn and a bit harder as you progress.

I haven't had a chance to do it yet, was out all day with my girls So I am just going off what I experienced on test.

The mini bosses were hard, lots of HP and took awhile to take down..if you're taking them down fast it's probably due to the combination of pets/damage being done. Certain pets work better then others.

Yes. it does work better with 4 or 5 that do not use reapers and other area spells. An archer 2 tamers and a melee player makes it much more interesting.

 

[Riyana]

Okay. I stuck around a while and gave it a shot.

The first boss I encountered, the nightmare fairy, was a paragon and took forever to kill.

However, apparently the drops are coming primarily from the "junk" spawn.

The junk spawn drops too fast for me to even target.

The rooms are like the part of an EM event where people know a boss is about to appear: people are spamming EV and AoE spells. The junk spawn drops almost as fast as it spawns, and it spawns slowly for a decent size group.

Normal level bosses dropped pretty fast, then it was back to waiting in a pile of spam and slow spawn for the next one.

I left in frustration.

Update: Went back on another character and am doing much better, but there are also a lot fewer people here.

 

[Anonymous UOPlayer]

Well I've only played it on Siege, but my experience has been totally different. The mobs are challenging, between paragons and getting stam blocked every time I turn around it has been fairly hectic. The sub bosses are completed a-holes- that fairy has been stuck all day because every time you get close it calms you, disrobes you, then teleports up close. I like this one way better than the kotl one because it is always running which is better for folks to drop in for 15 minutes, get a drop, and go do real life stuff.

Also, did I mention what an a-hole that fairy is? I'm confused by the Christmas theme (I must have missed the memo on that one) but this one is good. It highlights one of the best made dungeons in Ilsh too, a place folks typically only go to complete the Ararat quest.

y x-mas is this movie

 

[Silent Singer]

I forgot about The Nightmare Before Christmas!

So I see what Merlin is saying now. We must have had a Paragon Fairy, once it fell a few more folks showed up and yeah, we are running out of spawn quickly. With 5 or 6 folks and a non-paragon boss there isn't enough spawn to go around. Definitely can see where somewhere like Atlantic most folks would not be getting any drops.

 

[Basara]

LA's Experience:

The Nightmare Fairy is ok when not Para.

When Paragon, the Fairy is nigh-unkillable unless everyone brings a tamer, and the pets spam combinations of AI, Rune Corruption, Mortal and specials that increase damage.

A non-para Fairy took 4-6 people 5 minutes or so to kill.
The Paragon Fairy, 6-8 people couldn't make a dent in its health bar over 2 hours, that it didn't heal completely back after it calmed everyone (half the people weren't tamers, because tamers were useless with the low spawn numbers pre-boss, as AoE would drop each spawn wave before a pet could be targeted). After begging and pleading, we finally ended up with 12-15 people, mostly tamers (and the new arrivals were mostly Fel residents that had blue tamers for EM events), and about 10 massed pets finally dropped the Paragon after another half-hour (especially once we could start getting the occasional WoD in between calms).

Observations:

• The pre-boss spawn needs increased.
• The during-boss spawn is annoying.
• Most bosses are fine as paragon or normal.
• The Fairy, specifically, lives up to its Nightmare description as a Paragon, and there needs to be a way to tone down the paragon version (seriously - It's several magnitudes tougher than Jack; Jack's only difficult because of the paragon blood and poison eles spawning with him)

 

[skett]

Can someone post pictures of the new bosses

 

[Pawain]

Can someone post pictures of the new bosses

They are old art just Rehued. One throws gingerbread cookies at you. Someone should get a video of that.

 

[skett]

Ya I have missed Halloween the last 4 or 5 years so I never seen them

 

[Larisa]

jack in the box is my favorite one

 

[Tyrath]

Hates the stocking serpent as a paragon! Otherwise just another Yamdon.

 

[Tyrath]

Made a sweep of the dungeon with 1 tamer with a Chiv Hiryu and 1 Mystic/Weaver/Mage (Very low pop shard) It took us around 30 minutes - 1 hour per room. Until we hit the Paragon Stocking Serpent, Sparfucil could tank it well enough and we cross healed the poison very well but were not making much progress on its health bar. 3 more folks came and then it went down fairly quick. Jack was a cake walk got him to the entrance and switched between berserk and empowerment with the weaver mystic dropping RCs and a 3rd who hung around dropping EVs and he was dead in 7 minutes or so.

I walked out with 27 turn in and the other person 29. More time involved and we both died more than a few times and in the balron room we both brought a second acct to rez when both took dirt naps at the same time. The Deer was not that difficult it was the paragon balrons and liche lords constant spawning and targeting us that was the hard part there. Started to do it again but figured I really need my beauty sleep So only made it through the first two rooms. By then 2 others had joined and and dropping AOE spells and reapers and it ceased to be fun or worthwhile.

From my perspective 2-3 people working together it is just right until a paragon boss pops. The AOE and Reapers 2-3 more people add just kill it. We were not even dealing with multiboxers there, can't see how this dungeon would be even a little bit of fun on a high pop shard with a army of MBs.

 

[CovenantX]

We were not even dealing with multiboxers there, can't see how this dungeon would be even a little bit of fun on a high pop shard with a army of MBs.

I doubt you'll see anyone multi-boxing this portion of the content, most of the mobs are too weak for a multi-boxer to profit off of it. This is why you typically see them at EM Events, the bosses normally have tons of HP (so many people can earn looting rights) and since there's only a ~20-30% of the people there (including multi-boxers) get a drop, it benefits them for multi-boxing.

Anyway, I took a 2nd character down to the dungeon the first round I was there for... Character A = 18 drops, character B = 1 drop... because character A kills most of the mobs and you need looting rights to be eligible for a drop... after that first run, I'm sticking with one character normally pulling ~50-60 drops a per round, If I add more luck I could probably get closer to 70-80/round (I just don't want to drop much SDI).

Honestly, the Mini-bosses need to have a 100% drop rate up to the top 5 attackers at minimum & jack should drop an item to everyone... otherwise you might as well stick around for the spawn and let the bosses live.... many more drops that way.... you know, since the mini bosses & Jack don't seem to actually drop anything unique to them. *sigh*

 

[Fränk]

How long does it take for the spawn to restart?

 

[Dixie chessy/legends]

personally i think its awful, and was poorly thought out. on a low pop shard it may be fantastic but on shards that have active players it is nothing more than a headache. there needs to be minor creatures spawning at all points in the dungeon. the way it is now i feel that half of my shard is cramped in one room fighting to get a hit on a skeleton who dies with 1 hit from anything. its just blahhhhhh......i was so looking forward to it and to be honest i was over that place in less than an hour

 

[Tyrath]

I doubt you'll see anyone multi-boxing this portion of the content, most of the mobs are too weak for a multi-boxer to profit off of it. This is why you typically see them at EM Events, the bosses normally have tons of HP (so many people can earn looting rights) and since there's only a ~20-30% of the people there (including multi-boxers) get a drop, it benefits them for multi-boxing.

Anyway, I took a 2nd character down to the dungeon the first round I was there for... Character A = 18 drops, character B = 1 drop... because character A kills most of the mobs and you need looting rights to be eligible for a drop... after that first run, I'm sticking with one character normally pulling ~50-60 drops a per round, If I add more luck I could probably get closer to 70-80/round (I just don't want to drop much SDI).

Honestly, the Mini-bosses need to have a 100% drop rate up to the top 5 attackers at minimum & jack should drop an item to everyone... otherwise you might as well stick around for the spawn and let the bosses live.... many more drops that way.... you know, since the mini bosses & Jack don't seem to actually drop anything unique to them. *sigh*

OK MB might be the wrong word choice 4-5 multi clients keeping reapers up. I was only running 1 character active the second was just down the haul to pull pet and me rezs. Long run from the balrons to entrance and back Hopefully I will have time to make another run at it with a better character and max luck this evening.

 

[Tyrath]

personally i think its awful, and was poorly thought out. on a low pop shard it may be fantastic but on shards that have active players it is nothing more than a headache. there needs to be minor creatures spawning at all points in the dungeon. the way it is now i feel that half of my shard is cramped in one room fighting to get a hit on a skeleton who dies with 1 hit from anything. its just blahhhhhh......i was so looking forward to it and to be honest i was over that place in less than an hour

I wonder if there is a way for them to scale the spawn to the number of people in the dungeon or based on server load. Used to play a old game that the more people on server the faster and heavier the spawn was and the less people on server the slower the spawn. Other than the Balron room the spawn goes down fast, and even in there fast until you get a couple of paragon balrons.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I wonder if there is a way for them to scale the spawn to the number of people in the dungeon or based on server load. Used to play a old game that the more people on server the faster and heavier the spawn was and the less people on server the slower the spawn. Other than the Balron room the spawn goes down fast, and even in there fast until you get a couple of paragon balrons.

It seems like that should be possible, considering Shadowguard already does it. The more people in the party, the higher rate of spawn is there. The funny screenshots of the water elemental army that would spawn before that was fixed is a good example of it.

I think it would be a good idea to add that to the Halloween dungeon if possible to give the players of larger shards more of a chance to target something before it dies.

 

[It Lives]

If you get more than 15 people doing this at a time its a cluster, as is. There is no random spawn areas for solo peeps to work or areas for less skilled groups to work. Doom was great for this sort of thing it allowed for a wide range of players to participate. This sorcerers dungeon is big enough with enough levels to make this playable.
Its early enough in the month to add some spawns to the area.

In fact you should get drops from any undead in ilsh. TOT

 

[ShriNayne]

The rooms are quite small for any shard where there is a good turn-out for the event, very cramped, you can't see what's around you for the fields of fire.

 

[Prince Erik]

It's fun having people get mad at you for killing the fairy since it makes people move to another room to get their drops. It's much easier to let the thing live and keep reapers up while casting EQ over and over so you just farm drop after drop after drop without having to change location.

 

[Naitch]

agree with the other posters....

needs random monsters sprinkled in and around all the areas
kinda like Doom has , so everyone can get a chance

 

[Dot_Warner]

@Kyronix

Rooms 1-4 (fairy, JitB, elf, snowman) are the worst rooms to do. The mobs are ridiculously low level and spawn in groups of 3 about 90% of the time. This isn't enough to keep people actively engaged. These rooms also take way too long to complete due to the molasses-like spawn rate.

Room 5 (the tree) is virtually perfect as larger groups of mobs spawn with greater frequency. If anything, this room moves too fast from start to finish. (keep the spawn rate, but raise the boss threshold).

Rooms 6 & 8 can get hectic if multiple mobs spawn as paragon and players run around like damn fools. Sadly, that's the majority of the time.

Room 7 is obnoxious due to the crypt in the center. Mobs get stuck on the top of it, or on/in the inaccessible crypt directly east. Spawn rate here is a bit anemic as well.

Room 9, Jack's room, is a line of sight nightmare. The stairs and the poles are pancaking annoying. Three steps shouldn't cause you to "not be able to see" the area. Could the poles be made passable? They're hard to see with all the corpses and sometimes cause rubberbanding.

While no group I've been part of has had a problem taking down the minibosses, even when paragon, they're a bit on the boring side. All they seem to be is damage sponges with no reward for success. It's a far better strategy to let them live and allow the other things to continue to spawn in the hopes of more drops. (I really like the gargish gingerman though, throwing cookies was inspired)

Template viability. If you aren't using a mystic, a weaver, a necro or some combination thereof, you might as well not bother to participate. Moderately toughening the mobs in rooms 1-4 & 9 would help with this (skeletons, wraiths and liches are rather pathetic). Melee characters tend to have more time to successfully hit things in rooms 5-8.
Drop rate. Yes, I know you said I'd complain...and you were right! This year's rate is about 1/3rd of what it was last year due to the majority of trash mobs having low fame. Increasing the strength along with fame in the aforementioned rooms may help with this, instead of increasing the drop across the board.

Another option is to have skeletons, ghosts and liches constantly spawn on the empty level 1 of the dungeon. This would help.

The other (and possibly best) option is to let Treasures of the Sorcerer's Dungeon event run until the next publish goes live. We have too much to do in just 31 days...

 

[MalagAste]

Room 7 could easily be fixed if there were teleporters to take you up on top or we were allowed to teleport up there... or if you put something up there that the mobs could step on and be teleported down to their deaths... and for the love of gods open up the enclosed rooms on the east and west... crap spawns in there and it's extremely frustrating...

The crypt in the center IMO isn't really the main issue it's the two areas that have no entry/exit where crap spawns...

 

[CovenantX]

Dev's should throw some Skeletal Dragons & Bone Demons in the spawn instead of things like Zombies & Skeletons, at least people could get hits in for looting rights, besides just us Spell-weavers =D

That'll make me actually look at what's spawning before I start thunderstorm spamming... but since everything that's not a paragon dies instantly, it's hard to pass up on all the drops...

 

[lineman]

Should have multiple spawns going though, way to little for more than like three people lol.

 

[TB Cookie [W]]

As a Mage SW, it's the first content I've been able to join in on since Halloween Kotl city last year, so yes, I'm relieved, and enjoying it.
I have genuinely been waiting all year for this, I have not even played my Necro for the entire year, and had considered deleting him, but kept him up for this.
I was locked out of Invasions due to their stupid mage general drop system I didn't ethically want to be part of.
I've been locked out of Roof, and Doom, and pretty much all other high end content - so, nice to have something for a mage to play.

I've played this on Atlantic and Europa.
I would agree that the spawn seems too little.
Yet even with such little spawn, in certain rooms, Ginger bread room, and the Rabid Nightmare room, I've seen all the players wiped out numerous times.
{I've not died one single time - and am on my way to 50 drops. People just don't know how to play mages anymore}.
The paragon nightmare fairy has taken me 2 hours to kill - having said that, I've just realised, maybe I don't even need to bother killing it, can quite happily farm the drops from spawn.

But yeah, I get all the above points, personally, I cannot complain, and it's nice to be able to join in.

 

[Mene (DF)]

The best way would have been not to allow area spells in this small dungeons

You all could say what you want to say... the best way to make this type of events would have been the first and second Tokuno miniarti event. Bash whereever you like in the country, collect your mini arties and than trade them for somewhat higher.....

and plz - because it make always a lot of fun and a sence for hunting in a nice landscape or dungeon - and get rewarded aside -
PLZ LEAVE THIS INGAME PERMANENTLY - totally equal if we speak of Tokuno, of Doom, of Kotl City or now of Ilshenar! And at last - the Virtue Items we get hunting in the virtue dungeons ...

Ah, before I forget it....plz - leaye also the mini arti drop from the paragons in Ilsh.....

 

[ShriNayne]

I agree, if it had been done like the larger area Treasures of.... events everyone would just find a little corner and camp it, not annoying anyone else or getting annoyed themselves. It's nice that the Devs took the time to make us a new event but again there are some problems with the way it's been done, the rooms are too small and there are usually way too many people, spread out events tend to be more fair for everyone. On the plus side I think the drop-rate is much better than at the Kotl event.

 

[MalagAste]

I find that there is little to no incentive to kill the boss. Why would you? They don't drop anything. If they were more like Captains from the lighthouse events... where killing them got you 2 or 3 drops then sure... It'd be worthwhile but as is they just aren't worth the time.

 

[Kolka]

I agree with most of the other posters - spread out the spawn, run it simultaneously, throw in some more difficult monsters. Maybe throw in something that can dispel the reapers once in a while. As it is, I just go with a spell weaver, drop a reaper into the ever present disco forest and stand there safely in the middle. I get plenty of drops, but it’s not challenging and therefore not likely to hold many players interest for very long.

 

[Spellbound]

Very negative at this point, if there is non-existing Sorcerer's Dungeon content to contend with on Napa!

 

[Silent Singer]

Well I have successfully got my Jawbone on Legends and I only need 5 more drops for the one on Siege. I agree with the poster who said this was a good event for their mage, I have been playing a straight high SDI mage and overall it has been a lot of fun. The drop rate is noticeably better than Kotl City (I think Dot already mentioned that). I tried a mystic mage but harldy got any drops (maybe 1 in 40 minutes?). I agree that if more rooms were running at a time or each room gave more spawn it would probably be a much better received event. Still, this is my favorite one of the last few years. If ALL the rooms were active at a time it would be AMAZING.

 

[Laura_Gold]

(I think it's a very clever design. ...and I agree with Silent Singer that it would be more amazing if all the rooms were active.)