Since Thunderforged can be bought off the AH... Is the pack worth it?

[Nayus]

Due to the ridiculously high level requirement to enter the raids I didn't buy Ruins of Thunderholme until now, it was too punishing for an Iconic Character in constant reincarnation cycle.
It seems that we can now enter the raids at Level 20, but then I ask: is it worth it?

Dwarven Ingots can be bought in large quantities even for plat. Scales are more expensive but according to my observations, it would take 2,5~3,5kk PLAT to upgrade a TF to Tier 2 and get my Dragon's Edge. Some Astral Shards and you're set...
All you need is 1 (one) friend you can trust. Pass him/her the mats and voila. CoVs don't even matter anymore.


Then I tried to look at the content. The Ruins are quite a dull and uninnovative, huge area full of zombies and skeletons. I don't hear anything good about Deathwyrm (at all), Thunder Peaks looks "okay". Dragons aren't all that fun in DDO when you're playing a melee........

And LAG.

[Bridge_Dweller]

Phlogs are BTC, you need them for the weapons.

There are a few raids items that are BTC and worth it.

The explorer area is fantastic, the raids are fun when they don't lag out.

[Uska]

Found the whole area boring but that's just me and I don't need thunderforged stuff for now

[Clatterfist]

I like both the raids and the explorer area, personally. Content-wise, I think it's pretty solid. You've got the longer, more complex raid and the shorter, simpler big fight raid. The explorer area is a good size and features some decent encounters as well as some rather good terrain. I especially like the part where the ruins break into the underdark.

Loot-wise, it really depends on whether or not you've got any desire to "Tier 3" some thunderforged loot. It takes a lot of time spent at max level or close to max level, but it is tremendously good stuff with a decent amount of options. Some of the stuff that drops is pretty nifty as well.

[Angelic-council]

Well. You can't forge anything if you don't have a pack. Also, armors + tier 2.. 3 is bound to character. It's funny how you ask, because I know you post a lot and it's not like you are new to the game :p.. But never mind, I'm sorry. It's well worth it.

[blerkington]

Hi,

Despite the lag issues for the whole area and the bugginess of the raids, I'd still recommend getting the packs.

I quite like the explorer area. Doing stealthy rare runs, or rampaging through in a party, are both enjoyable for me. It didn't take me long to get to 7500 kills on both of my characters and I still go there sometimes for no other reason than to have fun. Helping other people get started on their TF weapons and armour is nice too.

I can see why some people don't like the raids, but I'm still enjoying them, even after using timer bypasses to get most of my TF crafting out of the way as quickly as I could. The dragons are harder on melees that on ranged builds or casters, but because of the way the raids work, it's likely as a melee you will spend most of your time taking care of trash spawns anyway, which can be quite a fun race.

If you generally like raiding and want to be able to make TF items yourself then go ahead and buy it. If you're happy to buy stuff from the AH instead and have a low tolerance for lag wipes it might be best to avoid it.

Thanks.

[redoubt]

Haunted Halls is a great quest all by itself and has lots of good loot in it.

The explorer area in thunderholme is pretty good and is actually broken in to easy to use map pieces.

Fire on Thunderpeaks is a quick raid and is pretty straightforward.

The deathwyrm is longer and uses lots of puzzles and places that need teamwork. One less set of mirror puzzles on the way in would make it better because you have it figured out before the third set and it becomes unoriginal by then. The different and random rooms on the way are nice. I even like the way you need to coordinate and split up to beat the boss. Your really have to work as a team on this raid. I like that. If not for the lag and too high phog cost, this would be my new favorite raid.

I would actually recommend this pack, then I've been a subscriber since launch, so I don't even get to see how much the packs costs...

[Wh070aa]

Unless you have bunch of friends staying at level 28, its not worth it.
I have it, and I still haven't ran all the quests.

Loot is good, but quests are hard, tedious to navigate, and overall not fun.

[Powskier]

loot is only good for a few lvls....lag is way bad (for me at least there)in slayer as well as raid,prob need the newer super fast internet connection there?.Enemies really mass on your character since last mob tweek;last run there i had 14 skeletons attracted to battle when I challenge a small pack of three.I like the slayer layout;though you really need to be at full powers to fight the cool variety of red names.I'd say nay on the pack,i only have it from vip.

[janave]

Easily worth it if you plan to stay at lvl28 (there isnt much else to do really) or just need some easy SRE xp and fairly easy access to low tier weapons.

T1 is super easy to make, and it can be quite an upgrade. If you still have characters that play GH Tor and FoT, again the weapons can help you quite a bit.

[redoubt]

Unless you have bunch of friends staying at level 28, its not worth it.
I have it, and I still haven't ran all the quests.

Loot is good, but quests are hard, tedious to navigate, and overall not fun.

Which map in there is hard to navigate?

Yes, the loot is good and the quests are harder than a lot of what we see, but are they really that hard? Its nice to have something hard enough to want a group again. I have a friend I duo with a lot. We will run HH on EH, but not extended. We save extended for when we get a few more people. I think its good that we actually need some help finally. I'm sure many can solo it anyway.

BTW... HH alone is one of most well done quests in a long time.
1. Huge map. If you like to explore you can spend a long time in there and there are lots of optionals.
2. Objective based completion. If you want a fast completion, just get the two crests and complete.
3. Some really nice loot from optionals and the loot is self contained; no need to run other quests for upgrade.
4. Good xp from optionals.
5. Has things that different builds are good for. Rare to see one build good at all the parts. That is nice.
6. There are 3 versions of the quest.

Even if you dislike thunderholme, this quest is great.

As far as not fun, I think HH is great fun as well as are the raids. If you get lag'd out, I can see where you would hate them. Fire is one be chaotic free for all, but still requires teamwork. Deathwrym is a little tedious as there are one too many mirror puzzle sets (imo), but it has decent story that is built up by the explorer journals and has team based mechanics and requires people to actually work together... I think this is great.

I hope the devs can fix the lag issues, but otherwise, its great stuff and I'd rather see 10 more packs like it before we epify old content. This was a great example of new content, I hope we see more.

[Alternative]

posts

Haunted Halls are not part of Thunerholme pack

Thunderforged weapons can't be bought off ah, unless you plan to swing a blank and carry extra ingots/scales in your bag. (though there is some bug that allows posting of bound handwraps, and only handwraps) The OP is yet again misleading people on purpose and hurting possible Turbine sales.

[depositbox]

Thundefroged are the best weapons in the game, by far. Except for Sireth for staff users. The Dragon Masque, Battlerager's Harness, and Dumathion's Bracers are all great items.

[redoubt]

Haunted Halls are not part of Thunerholme pack

.

You are correct. I did not realize that. I did admit that I have had a subscription since launch and Turbine does not show us the packs in the DDO store.

Turbine released HH and Thunderhome in U21. I had no idea they would sell them as separate packs. That they did seems absurd to me, but they did not ask me.

Now knowing that they are two packs, I'd highly recommend the HH one. I still like Thunderholme as well, but unless you are a raider at heart, its probably not worth it.

My apologies for lumping them together in error.

[Svartelric]

Thundefroged are the best weapons in the game, by far. Except for Sireth for staff users. The Dragon Masque, Battlerager's Harness, and Dumathion's Bracers are all great items.

This. Also, if the argument is "do I NEED this pack" the answer is always "no, you don't NEED it", but if you want to play the game and have fun, it might help enhance your experience. Because it's endgame, it has 2 raids, it's got a big wilderness, etc.

[slarden]

It's definitely a fun pack. There were non-stop raids up all weekend so obviously people like it.

There is the potential that the raid dies when the level cap is 30 if there are better weapons/armor available - I seriously doubt people will grind for a good leveling weapon from 28-30. I hope they add a tier 4 to keep these raids relevant when the level cap is 30.

[Kriogen]

As you said that content is not fun for you, don't buy.

Loot comes and goes. What is now uber, is obsolete junk in a couple of modules, upgrades, expansion packs. Buy only if it's fun content for you.

It's a game, entertainment.

[Portalcat]

The Ruins are quite a dull and uninnovative, huge area full of zombies and skeletons.

It's an explorer area. You can only ask for so much.

That said, I do think it's one of better explorer areas in the game.


I don't hear anything good about Deathwyrm (at all)

You aren't paying attention to very many people then.

Deathwyrm is a fun raid and one of the best overall pieces of content in DDO.


Thunder Peaks looks "okay".

It's a pretty straightforward and decent beatdown raid.





As to the basic question of whether or not someone should buy Thunderholme, well, do you like raiding, like, at all? These will be 2 of your 3 endgame raids for at least 6 more months. Given that they're scaled to level 30, they will probably be permanent fixtures of the endgame raiding scene until the day the servers shut down.

[Ausdoerrt]

Finally tried Deathwyrm the other day (was basically carried through the flagging by the guildies but w/e). What can I say - it's a true endgame raid. It has a bit of something for everyone. It's long, frustrating at times, but ultimately fun and feels like an achievement if you succeed. The lag sucks though.

BTW, you can still sort of contribute if you're in the low 20s, though it will be a bit more challenging.

[kmoustakas]

The wilderness is awesome if you get 10+ people for it. Reminds me more of an fps than an mmo and the xp is stupid good.

Deathwyrm is fun once you get to the raid room. Fire raid is cute, fast and funny.

More important than everything, there's lfms for those EVERY day and on sarlona that's the number one priority for any raid.

[Chauncey1]

Due to the ridiculously high level requirement to enter the raids I didn't buy Ruins of Thunderholme until now, it was too punishing for an Iconic Character in constant reincarnation cycle.
It seems that we can now enter the raids at Level 20, but then I ask: is it worth it?

Dwarven Ingots can be bought in large quantities even for plat. Scales are more expensive but according to my observations, it would take 2,5~3,5kk PLAT to upgrade a TF to Tier 2 and get my Dragon's Edge. Some Astral Shards and you're set...
All you need is 1 (one) friend you can trust. Pass him/her the mats and voila. CoVs don't even matter anymore.


Then I tried to look at the content. The Ruins are quite a dull and uninnovative, huge area full of zombies and skeletons. I don't hear anything good about Deathwyrm (at all), Thunder Peaks looks "okay". Dragons aren't all that fun in DDO when you're playing a melee........

And LAG.

But hey, if you want to spend a ton of shards on gear...

[JOTMON]

Due to the ridiculously high level requirement to enter the raids I didn't buy Ruins of Thunderholme until now, it was too punishing for an Iconic Character in constant reincarnation cycle.
It seems that we can now enter the raids at Level 20, but then I ask: is it worth it?

Dwarven Ingots can be bought in large quantities even for plat. Scales are more expensive but according to my observations, it would take 2,5~3,5kk PLAT to upgrade a TF to Tier 2 and get my Dragon's Edge. Some Astral Shards and you're set...
All you need is 1 (one) friend you can trust. Pass him/her the mats and voila. CoVs don't even matter anymore.


Then I tried to look at the content. The Ruins are quite a dull and uninnovative, huge area full of zombies and skeletons. I don't hear anything good about Deathwyrm (at all), Thunder Peaks looks "okay". Dragons aren't all that fun in DDO when you're playing a melee........

And LAG.


1. It is the current endgame content and as such you should be in that range .. 24-28 I would say is appropriate for the Thunderholme stuff.
I expect 40+ runs in here for crafting & bracers/belt on 20th incrementals.. chest drop rate for me has not been good..

2. AH buying.. and ASAH buying is available for lots of things even outside of Thunderholme.. the issue is not exclusive.
Don't buy them no point in supporting exploiters.
T2 is BTC.. so you still need Phlogistons and have to craft the rest yourself.
Rightclick-Report the Exploiters that are linking obvious excessive quantities...

3. Ruins are well laid out and is a good run for XP and challenge.
Deathwyrm is fun, it is a bit long on the repetitive mirrors, and some of the puzzles are annoying, but it is a well balanced raid, and will be repeated often.
Thunderpeaks is easy now that the yellow circles were removed, Melee have allways been useful in these.. lots of trash to beat on, and bosses once aggro is established if not tank worthy, or a pewpewer.

Lag lately has been frustrating.. must be doing server backups in preparation for the next release..

[Nayus]

But hey, if you want to spend a ton of shards on gear...
Pff. Just noticed Tier 2 is BtCoA... I never bought anything with shards, I just think it's stupid, I used the word because I know I'm a minority with this mindset.
Well, if Tier 2 can't be bought then a Tier 1 Thunderforged is worth around 150k plat


@Jot
Don't like it? Use the "Report" button.

[JOTMON]

Pff. Just noticed Tier 2 is BtCoA... I never bought anything with shards, I just think it's stupid, I used the word because I know I'm a minority with this mindset.
Well, if Tier 2 can't be bought then a Tier 1 Thunderforged is worth around 150k plat


@Jot
Don't like it? Use the "Report" button.

You are not alone. I have no love for the ASAH it should never have been brought into the game.
Especially the selling of BTC items.. the whole point of BTC was that items were too powerful to not be bound.. then they introduce a pay to bypass their on blocking system..

I am sure it makes them money, but I wish they would just delete the ASAH and everything in it.

..

I tired to report the entire ASAH for exploiting hard working players, but Cordovan wont delete it..

[Seikojin]

More quests always = more doing. So I think they are worth it.

[Blackheartox]

Even if we try to disregard and ignore the part that made the raid semi dead, look at the other side of the coin.
THe only thing you can get from the raid arent only weapons, the named in there are amazing.
I would say the belt is a must have even after necro comes out for any non caster build.

I would say the pack is worth it only because of the belt alone.

Also i like personally mask/bracers and shield for funky druid builds.

[brian14]

It seems that we can now enter the raids at Level 20, but then I ask: is it worth it?

We can? Where did you hear that?

To answer your question -- I enjoyed both the wilderness and Deathwyrm raid; had not done Thunderpeaks raid yet. I would say Dragon Emissary is one of best fights in DDO.

[PermaBanned]

We can? Where did you hear that? (Lama) Release notes for U23. All Epic characters can enter all Epic quests.

[brian14]

(Lama) Release notes for U23. All Epic characters can enter all Epic quests.
Nice to know! But does it include epic Challenges? Currently you need to be 21 to enter them.