Final Thoughts On Hard Core League 6

[Mofus]

First off, I made the 5K favor on one of my usual builds, Pally/splash Rogue.
Things I did not care for this time around but know that others are ok with them.
The hounds and the +2 level lock out. The level 2 lock out can make it tough to group, especially towards the end of HC league. They also may make it harder for casual and solo players. The hounds were more an annoyance than anything else. Why they were not tested first to get rid of the bugs is beyond me, and having them spawn so often was really annoying. Also introducing them at level 1 is poor judgement in my opinion. I could see having them spawn at chest openings, but not on a timer and not in Korthos. This caused many groups to zerg through quests as fast as they could. I know people say hard core is not for everyone. That may have been true for the first league with vip only, but once you open it to all accounts, it's for everyone.
Things I did like, the rewards.
Final thought, please go back to the +4 lock out and tone down the extras. If we want more challenge, we can choose from 10 different levels of Reaper.

Thank you and thank you to all the people fronting guilds and ship buffs during hard core league.
See you next season.

[Seph1roth5]

Hated this season, and I've gotten to 5k in every season but the first. This season I got my gear hunter to lv 9, and my favor hunter to lv 7 before giving up.

I don't care about the +2 lockout, or hounds in theory, but the way they spawn is just a disaster. Underwater, in walls, to random party members, etc. It was just extraordinarily unfun to not be able to not pay 100% attention. Even taking a drink of soda was a tense "cmonnnn no hound." Much less checking texts or if someone comes to the door.

I really hope they don't try something like this next season. Maybe talk to people that actually play the game and find ways to make the season hard without making it completely unfun.

[Phoenicis]

First off, I made the 5K favor on one of my usual builds, Pally/splash Rogue.
Things I did not care for this time around but know that others are ok with them.
The hounds and the +2 level lock out. The level 2 lock out can make it tough to group, especially towards the end of HC league. They also may make it harder for casual and solo players. The hounds were more an annoyance than anything else. Why they were not tested first to get rid of the bugs is beyond me, and having them spawn so often was really annoying. Also introducing them at level 1 is poor judgement in my opinion. I could see having them spawn at chest openings, but not on a timer and not in Korthos. This caused many groups to zerg through quests as fast as they could. I know people say hard core is not for everyone. That may have been true for the first league with vip only, but once you open it to all accounts, it's for everyone.
Things I did like, the rewards.
Final thought, please go back to the +4 lock out and tone down the extras. If we want more challenge, we can choose from 10 different levels of Reaper.

Thank you and thank you to all the people fronting guilds and ship buffs during hard core league.
See you next season.

I agree, the +2 lockout made things alot harder this time around. Add the reapers, errrr, I mean hounds on top of that it is frustrating.

I'd like to see (though I don't expect it to happen) a Dev recap of their thoughts on the results of this season, what went the way they wanted, what didn't and if they plan to make adjustments next time around.

Wishful thinking I know...

[slarden]

Nice write-up OP. I agree- grouping was definitely a challenge, but I ended up in two static groups for different accounts so it didn't impact me as much. Unfortunately that's not the case for everyone or my 2 solo projects on different accounts, but I managed to complete those solo projects ok so it worked ok.

I would like to see new "stretch" reward tiers added to hardcore, but it's not a big deal if there is no time to do it or there are concerns it would draw people away from live for tool long:
- Level 32
- 6k favor
- 50 reaper points

This should only be done at the same time as extending reaper rewards a bit
- New wings at reaper pts 125, 150, 200
- 1 hp per point after 156

Otherwise it could make people that don't participate in hardcore a bit salty and feeling like hardcore gets special treatment.

Running some quests on normal, hard and elite as I wasn't vip on my solo projects, the biggest thing I noticed is that the hound difficulty was much higher than the rest of the quest on normal and hard, but about right on elite being just slightly tougher than a normal boss.

At CR 14 (11 on normal, 9 on elite) the hounds became much tougher and were tougher than the rest of the quest on all difficulties. The same is true for CR 25 (21 on normal/wilderness or 19 on elite).

Overall, a fun and great season but I hope the hounds take a long and possibly permanent vacation. At a minimum level range should be +4 for epics. I am ok with the level range at +2 for heroics but it's likely not worth the negative impact on grouping. The grouping issue is more of an issue, however, at epic levels.

[spifflove]

Love the 2 level lockout!!! Maybe level 1 lockout next even numbered league?
Had to cap at 17 running level 19 quests anyway.

Loooooooveeeeee the hounds. How do you top it? Two hounds? Hounds and mimics? I know-gate the reward: you must complete what goes up!

Maybe a soft core league every odd number. Bills have to be payed after all.

[Yamani]

The hounds are a joke after awhile. Once you learn how to time their spawns and all that they become irrelevant. I got 5k favor with 1 other player. I played melee(pure pally), he played a ranged-trapper.

[Halciet]

I would have enjoyed the Hounds more if their behavior was more like hunters. Maybe not every 5 minutes or w/e, but when a player is isolated or when dungeon alert is up (opportunistic). Maybe not as champs and maybe less powerful, but spawning in packs.
They just felt dumb, "Hey! Get ready to kill me really fast or die trying."

[auntjobiska]

I did not like this season. My partner and I struggled to progress due to the level cap and the hounds. Our first quest after the ramping up of hound difficulty, his character died. We chose not to start again, on the basis that the same thing would most probably happen again to one of us. It was disappointing as I wanted to collect all the L20 reward cloaks. Such is life.

AJ

[Nebless]

The hounds ....I could see having them spawn at chest openings

For the same reason I have a problem with mimic's, I wouldn't want hounds spawning at chest openings. The problem is you open the chest > the large loot screen opens AND you have a monster to fight .... with a large loot screen in the way.

If there was some trigger that would AUTO CLOSE that loot screen fine and dandy, but having something designed to block your view sucks.

[Bunker]

First off, I made the 5K favor on one of my usual builds, Pally/splash Rogue.
Things I did not care for this time around but know that others are ok with them.
The hounds and the +2 level lock out. The level 2 lock out can make it tough to group, especially towards the end of HC league. They also may make it harder for casual and solo players. The hounds were more an annoyance than anything else. Why they were not tested first to get rid of the bugs is beyond me, and having them spawn so often was really annoying. Also introducing them at level 1 is poor judgement in my opinion. I could see having them spawn at chest openings, but not on a timer and not in Korthos. This caused many groups to zerg through quests as fast as they could. I know people say hard core is not for everyone. That may have been true for the first league with vip only, but once you open it to all accounts, it's for everyone.
Things I did like, the rewards.
Final thought, please go back to the +4 lock out and tone down the extras. If we want more challenge, we can choose from 10 different levels of Reaper.

Thank you and thank you to all the people fronting guilds and ship buffs during hard core league.
See you next season.

Going from +4 to +2 was a bit of an adjustment. I found myself running quests at lower levels while holding my level to wait for groups. IE. I was held at level 12 for the longest time, waiting to get a group for Black and Blue, but instead of just sitting with an lfm up, I was joining groups running quests that are base 12-13, elite 14-15.

Now, some might feel that you might not contribute as much being a little lower level, but that to me is based on a lot of factors. I'm playing a build that is enhancement and skill starved, and even though I can spot and disable traps very well, my search ability on some quests that were over level, was a struggle. My spot was high, so I would run in front for some quests, but if there was someone in group with better search/disable, they would take care of trap.

There were also plenty of quests I joined in the middle of, just as much as quests I would start, and also have late joiners. What i liked the most about that was the communication of when a hound had appeared, and the best timing for someone to enter the quest.

As for the Hounds themselves...... This season brought a factor that is requested a lot on the regular servers. I have see many requests over the years for requests for randomness in mobs, and trap locations, and even randomness in quest layouts. Some of these requests have been met with positive response. I feel the hounds added a layer of danger through not only thier difficulty in general, but through the randomness of timing and type. This alone added a variation in danger level to this year's HC season VI.

[Coffey]

Im done with HCL at this time.

Have some friends i am playing with in a static group now that cant deal with the higher difficulty w/o do overs :D

[Nebless]

As for the Hounds themselves...... This season brought a factor that is requested a lot on the regular servers. I have see many requests over the years for requests for randomness in mobs, and trap locations, and even randomness in quest layouts. Some of these requests have been met with positive response. I feel the hounds added a layer of danger through not only thier difficulty in general, but through the randomness of timing and type. This alone added a variation in danger level to this year's HC season VI.

If their timing was actually random than maybe, but they were pretty much on a 5min timer. The only randomness I saw was them phasing in early. When you get 6 in a 20 min quest there's something wrong.

[Kmnh]

This season was so much better than the others. I actualy went beyond 5k this time because I was enjoying it so much.

The hounds were the best addition ever. No piking. No lootbots. No do-nothing survival builds. I hope they come back in the future, or something else that requires people to do damage and keep moving.

[Bunker]

If their timing was actually random than maybe, but they were pretty much on a 5min timer. The only randomness I saw was them phasing in early. When you get 6 in a 20 min quest there's something wrong.

So phasing in early is not representation of possibility of random timing? Or do you mean something else. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment. To me it reads contradictory.

Or did you mean when you hear the hound howl, that the hound would sometimes appear quicker than other times. Because that also happen in my experiences.

As far as "pretty much 5min timer" ......I think there is an argument to say that is true, and also an argument that shows other results. The individual player and thier own sample size would vary..


If you hear it enough times, in chat, in game, on forums that the true time is in fact 5 minute intervals, you will start to believe it. So when you are in a group. A party member makes a note that it is almost 5 minutes since the beginning of the quest, and the hound doesn't show up till 6 minutes.....can we say that it was 5? It might feel like 5.

Plus how accurate is everyone own timer. Did they wait seconds before buffing, maybe a minute before buffing, waiting on the group to come in. Perhaps that created an invalid calculation on the suggested timing of the hound.



I will say that the hound interactions created a level of randomness that allowed the players in this season of HC to come up with new tactics. Different strategies. Than other seasons. I think overall the development of HC 6 was met with new challenge. I do feel that this was met with mixed responses of likes and dislikes, which is understandable. We as a player base are a mixed bag of skill level, available playing time, solo and group vaiations, and any other metric that makes us all different in the ddo community. For everyone to agree or disagree equally on our personal view of whether this season of HC was good or bad will be impossible.

[Seph1roth5]

In a static group it would've been fine I guess, but it felt like this whole season was extremely pug-unfriendly (and I pug 99% of HC). I remember entering misery's peak and there was a straggler back in town. I was a druid/barbarian so I waited for him in the quest, and when he entered a hound jumped us. We managed to survive, but again, horribly unpuggy.

[Plitus]

Final thought, please go back to the +4 lock out and tone down the extras. If we want more challenge, we can choose from 10 different levels of Reaper.


I totally agree!!

[GeneralDiomedes]

All the +2 lockout did was force me to run higher level content than my character as opposed to last time around. Grouping has also been encouraged because of the hounds, so it is probably a wash - I'm still finding groups at level 15 this late in the season.

The hounds were a great idea. Put a lot more excitement into the season, and certainly made soloing more stressful. I do make sure that I have a chunk of time where I won't be interrupted when I play. So far, so good. I suppose you could just logout if you have to answer the door.

FvS balancing helped some too, questing hasn't been a total "watch FvS and Cleric one-shot everything before you get there" although they are still the strongest builds in heroics by a margin.

I'd say it has been a win all around.

If DDO had more players, it would be even better.

[Aelonwy]

Final thoughts: Implementation of hounds was awful. +2 level lockout was onerous and made grouping and some chains a PITA unnecessarily. A variety of Wings (just not exact duplicates of HC) should absolutely be available in the store. Updates with character nerfs should NOT happen during a HC season. Massive amounts of downtime should extend limited timed events. Changing content such that some favor becomes unavailable when favor is a part of a competition during said competition is... *being polite* contemptible.

As usual the HC players themselves were kind, generous and amazing.

All in all I would give the devs 1 star out of 5 for this HC season and that is only because the wings are beautiful.

[Coffey]

For the same reason I have a problem with mimic's, I wouldn't want hounds spawning at chest openings. The problem is you open the chest > the large loot screen opens AND you have a monster to fight .... with a large loot screen in the way.

If there was some trigger that would AUTO CLOSE that loot screen fine and dandy, but having something designed to block your view sucks.

I liked the Mimics with the useful rewards you could get from the collected tokens. Was easy to get used to the possible spawn and the disappointment when there wasnt :D

You can quickly press Esc key to close the loot window and collect your loot afterwards.

[Annex]

Never write a post in the middle of the night while in pain. Let's try this again.

I tried two Hard Core Leagues, both without any success. I found the experiences very stressful, all players impatient, most players crazy, and the time requirement immense. There was a lot of anger and disappointment. I do not want more of those things in my life. Since I lack ability, comprehensive understanding of character builds, and an encyclopedic knowledge of quests, I cannot reach 5,000 favor or 20 Reaper Points. My internet lags quite often, adding another hurdle. Lag contributing to the loss of my favorite Hardcore League 5 character after 5 weeks of play. For me, the 1,750 Favor and Level 20 rewards are not worth playing for.

DDO is a very difficult game to begin with. Hardcore League is more difficult still. I do not envision Hardcore League ever being a place someone like me can succeed, which is fine.

No one event, or event type, can serve every player. To remain entertaining, DDO needs to offer a wide variety of events with comparable rewards. Hardcore League currently gets the best and most rewards. If you want to keep all players happy, that needs to change. The current update to Night Revels, adding a steed, shows great promise and movement towards a more balanced approach to rewards.

[NemesisAlien]

They shouldnt do 2 events at the same time, crystal cove and hard core together, I want to do both! How do I do both at the same time?

[Bunker]

They shouldnt do 2 events at the same time, crystal cove and hard core together, I want to do both! How do I do both at the same time?

I ran with some players on the HC server that would break group here and there. One of the reasons I over heard was they would have raid night on the regular server.

Time is always against us, this much is true. Some events always feel like they weren't long enough. Thankfully for most events, they come around again and again.

Ddo time management and having a few friends/guildies will help with most of this.

[NemesisAlien]

I ran with some players on the HC server that would break group here and there. One of the reasons I over heard was they would have raid night on the regular server.

Time is always against us, this much is true. Some events always feel like they weren't long enough. Thankfully for most events, they come around again and again.

Ddo time management and having a few friends/guildies will help with most of this.

But fundamentally they shouldnt do 2 events concurrently.

[Bunker]

But fundamentally they shouldnt do 2 events concurrently.

I think this is a rough example since 1 of the events is CC. Crystal Cove is so dated that for mos,, there might be just 1 or 2 things to farm. I can see why CC is more of a ghost town.

Hardcore season VI has been going on for a few months. I think if nothing else happened during those months, the outcry would be greater than that of having two events clash.

All and all, it is pretty common to have players complain no matter the situation. Fact is we all cannot be pleased at once. In this case, I think running these two event at the same time is less of an issue than if they only had HC season running and nothing else.

SSG is like a jester, constantly trying to juggle the best they can, but ultimately getting mocked and berated for their poor planning. I do not envy being on that side of the table, having the constant juggling of trying to please the ddo mob.

[Annex]

But fundamentally they shouldnt do 2 events concurrently.

There is a compromise solution. Ask for a Crystal Cove encore weekend sometime in the next few months. Explain that you could not attend Crystal Cove during Hardcore League 6 but would very much like some of the items. Many people would benefit from such an encore. If enough players support the suggestion, it could happen.

[gravisrs]

HC league is the best way to cure your DDO addiction. And HC6 was the best one.

Amount of anger that escalated quickly if someone dies "because of you" (not helping killing the Hound, no matter the reason). Uttermost feeling bad if that was your fault.

Amount of stress that Hounds gave - you had to be 100% aware all of the time. First time I peed to the bottle because couldn't afford AFK in a longer quest ;)

Amount of lost investment feeling because of easier dying - Hounds in a really bad moment + 2 lvls window made it really stepping thin ice.

First time dying on HC gave me a stunning feeling "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot im doing here". Also my first week without DDO in years :) gosh I realised I'm having a family IRL.

[zooble]

There still seems to be a disconnect between Heroic - Epic. It could do with another reward at level 32 (or whatever the cap is at the time) while keeping the main level reward at 20.

Destinies or power creep seems like it helped bridged the level 20 Epic gap - I didn't get Sharn set but it didn't matter in the end - soloing EE Borderlands with level 8-12 gear and a level 20 weapon (don't get me wrong you get hit very hard so you still need to build/play correctly).

Hound is a pain in the *ss when it spawns in water, you're trying to loot and leave the quest (even worse in a group and people gtfo), when it just slows down general questing through people waiting around to kill it or preventing splitting up. I do like how it has curbed piking/boxing significantly.

I often found I didn't group intentionally or put up an lfm since I didn't want to deal with a champion hound (I later found this spawns with 4 or more in the group). Like if I can deal with a non-champion hound, why would I want a champion hound which could kill me?

+2 levels should be the norm although it could do with some kind of flex scaling system so that you can't use abilities or you get scaled down if you are too high to promote more grouping.

[tsotate]

I got my wings, which are beautiful, but I hated every minute of this season. The hounds weren't hard, but they made it stressful instead of fun. The +2 lockout didn't really matter, except to make the giant wall of level 3 quests seem even longer.

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

First off, I love hardcore league and my time playing with everyone - you are all amazing, truly lovely people and a great community.

Next congrats to the other guilds and guild masters - I believe we all achieved new heights during this season despite numerous setbacks
including extended downtime, meta changes, and nerfs.

And congrats to all the players who did so amazing and achieve 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 of the rewards. Truly we get some of the best players in DDO on server for this event.

I feel like the +2 instead of +4 brings with it a downside of making grouping very difficult for it limits who you are able to quest with. It's not the difficulty,
running at elite streak level is fine - it's the LFMs - I waited sometimes days to find groups once I was over lvl 10 hunting for favor. And unless you can play 24/7 (which
most of us cannot) +2 does not put the event in a position to allow for adults with lives outside of a videogame to realistically set goals and achieve them.

The hounds were inspired and brilliant in concept, yet their implementation was ghastly. The random spawn that made any zone a threat, not allowing you to AFK for more than
a few seconds - I am an adult, there are things that pull me out of videogame land that are beyond my control - I should not ever be forced to have my eyes glued to the screen.
It just did not work as a viable mechanic because there was no way to safely mitigate getting to a safe spot so you could AFK for whatever - a bio, kids, food, doorbell, phone, etc.

Nerfing the classes mid-event while an active competition was going - this sort of thing would not happen in any other event in the world - it was bush league and completely
borked the competing players vying for spots on the leaderboard. Player X is number 1 but did it prior to the nerf on a build that no longer exists, etc etc - no major content meta
changes should occur during an active hardcore event - otherwise what is it? Either this IS an event where players compete for top spots or its just a money grab by SSG who
telegraph 'we don't care' about players or their time, badges, or sanity.

[slarden]

First off, I love hardcore league and my time playing with everyone - you are all amazing, truly lovely people and a great community.

Next congrats to the other guilds and guild masters - I believe we all achieved new heights during this season despite numerous setbacks
including extended downtime, meta changes, and nerfs.

And congrats to all the players who did so amazing and achieve 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 of the rewards. Truly we get some of the best players in DDO on server for this event.

I feel like the +2 instead of +4 brings with it a downside of making grouping very difficult for it limits who you are able to quest with. It's not the difficulty,
running at elite streak level is fine - it's the LFMs - I waited sometimes days to find groups once I was over lvl 10 hunting for favor. And unless you can play 24/7 (which
most of us cannot) +2 does not put the event in a position to allow for adults with lives outside of a videogame to realistically set goals and achieve them.

The hounds were inspired and brilliant in concept, yet their implementation was ghastly. The random spawn that made any zone a threat, not allowing you to AFK for more than
a few seconds - I am an adult, there are things that pull me out of videogame land that are beyond my control - I should not ever be forced to have my eyes glued to the screen.
It just did not work as a viable mechanic because there was no way to safely mitigate getting to a safe spot so you could AFK for whatever - a bio, kids, food, doorbell, phone, etc.

Nerfing the classes mid-event while an active competition was going - this sort of thing would not happen in any other event in the world - it was bush league and completely
borked the competing players vying for spots on the leaderboard. Player X is number 1 but did it prior to the nerf on a build that no longer exists, etc etc - no major content meta
changes should occur during an active hardcore event - otherwise what is it? Either this IS an event where players compete for top spots or its just a money grab by SSG who
telegraph 'we don't care' about players or their time, badges, or sanity.

Great thoughts and I just want to say thanks to leaders of the big guilds on hardcore which are you, Strimtom, Foaly and I am not sure who leads Pay it Forward but that was quite large this season and I landed there on a few characters. All the effort you, the other leaders and some of the hard-working officers in those guilds put in was impressive and much appreciated!

[Aelonwy]

Much appreciation and respect for the HC guild leaders, you guys are heroes.



I feel like the +2 instead of +4 brings with it a downside of making grouping very difficult for it limits who you are able to quest with.

I am an adult, there are things that pull me out of videogame land that are beyond my control - I should not ever be forced to have my eyes glued to the screen.

Nerfing the classes mid-event while an active competition was going - this sort of thing would not happen in any other event in the world - it was bush league and completely
borked the competing players vying for spots on the leaderboard. Player X is number 1 but did it prior to the nerf on a build that no longer exists, etc etc - no major content meta
changes should occur during an active hardcore event - otherwise what is it? Either this IS an event where players compete for top spots or its just a money grab by SSG who
telegraph 'we don't care' about players or their time, badges, or sanity.

Absolutely agreed, these are excellent and valid points.




Either this IS an event where players compete for top spots or its just a money grab by SSG who telegraph 'we don't care' about players or their time, badges, or sanity.

IMHO this has been answered by deed if not by word. When or if next HC hits I am going to be loudly and repeatedly reminding players of the disrespect shown to players this season.

[KoobTheProud]

This was probably my last HCL.

I have no interest at all in the type of play that the hounds fostered.

[Acrisius]

Great thoughts and I just want to say thanks to leaders of the big guilds on hardcore which are you, Strimtom, Foaly and I am not sure who leads Pay it Forward but that was quite large this season and I landed there on a few characters. All the effort you, the other leaders and some of the hard-working officers in those guilds put in was impressive and much appreciated!

Thanks for the kind words! The PIF guild is led by Docdead on Sarlona (our 'home' server). This HC season, I (Dawnstrider) led the HC PIF chapter, since I could be on more often than him. Made some good friends this season. Working together to overcome hounds, etc. made for some great memories. I'm proud to have achieved 5k for the first time in HC. Finally, as a guild leader, I'd like to thank all the members who contribute plat & shards to their guild banks for all to share in the amenities.

[Uska]

After a 5 years hiatus I came back and tried hard core for the first time and at first I enjoyed it but sometimes what seemed liked dying arbitrarily I finally quit hard core and went back to regular play so at least it got me back in the game

[Careall]

Before the season started, I complained about the time waiting since the last season. I'll say now VI was worth the wait.

Perspective: I mainly play heroic non-reaper, and my comments reflect that. I'm not referring to epic or reaper play.

I know folks complain about the hounds, but they weren't that bad. Even soloing, the hounds became easy enough to beat. As a previous comment said, the hounds became more annoying than a challenge. The level lockout did make finding groups more difficult. Once I realized soloing hounds wasn't an issue, soloing the quests wasn't a problem either. I accidentally ran elite Diplomatic Impunity with a level 11 toon trying to power-level catch up to some from friends so I could help them. It wasn't until I was about to start Frame Work that I realized how under-level I was. I wanted to level and make sure I didn't lock myself out. Heh.

[kmoustakas]

I'm not VIP so I've only played on season 3 and onwards.

I didn't die. But the +2 level lock made it impossible to find groups for quests I was missing. Grouping was actually so bad I went back to the main server and my racials.

Hardcore was never a challenge. It has always been about playing it safe and being full of groups all the time. With the grouping gonne I couldn't really be bothered.

[LurkingVeteran]

Maybe hounds and similar play mechanics shouldn't spawn/aggro on players that have been static for say 30sec? or maybe there should be a similar /pause command that you can use if you don't have aggro. That would give players a way to deal with real life interruptions. The current mechanic kind of encourages an unhealthy neglect of real life considerations.

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

This was my second season trying HCL. Best I could do was lvl20 with less than 500favor.
I could run solo on elite with my build up to level7, hard to level 12 and normaled the rest. Spent a lot of time in wilderness areas.
I killed more than 10 alts, some stupidly, using 3 accounts actively. Leveled my solo guild to 24.

In summary, I am awful at HCL. But one account has a sash..

[cru121]

For me, hardcore league is a source of free DDO points. I ran 4 accounts to 1000 favor (pugging every time). 5th account (my first HC character this season) died to the first hound she met at around 50 favor. My last, 6th account got to 200-300 favor and then I got bored.

For the levels I was playing (1-7), this season's rules did not affect me too much. What I noticed is that most pugs preferred elite to reaper. The combination of level lockout and hounds made people more careful.

[Kaliya]

Final results, all four accounts (primary VIP, son's VIP, wife's VIP, and F2P) reached their modest goals of L20 and 1750 Favor, no deaths. I ran primary with my son to L20 and then took the F2P to L20 and the wife's to L14, son finished the wife's yesterday.

Time constraints and grouping challenges made the 5k Favor prohibitive for us and I can live with that, big congrats to all who made it!

Thoughts: I loved the hound concept. It is unfortunate that the original implementation was less than ideal which I think gave the whole idea a black eye it could not recover from. I like that for us it forced different tactics, planning, and approach to the quests. Love them or hate them it definitely was not the same gameplay we've experienced for years on live and that, to me, is what makes HCL special. Heard my first hound while recalling out of Heyton's, truly haunting.

While hounds in Korthos quests and wilderness may seem harsh, I would just note that there were sure a heck of a lot of folks that made it out.

+2 lockout, while brutal to grouping, seemed appropriate. Being forced to run quests at or below level? I can live with that too. All told, it did not seem to make this season noticeably more difficult although I was definitely more circumspect in quests.

Anyways, enough rambling. There were some pucker moments, there was anxiety with a little trepidation mixed in, there was sadness watching party members we'd been running with buy it. But we also got to group with folks from other servers, the overwhelmingly majority helpful (only a couple of corncobs), learn different tricks for quests and share some laughs. Let's do it all over again next season. :)

Opinions expressed here are entirely my own and are meant in no way shape or form to be a commentary on anyone else's.

Best regards,
Pokeme, Henry, Karya, and Karra

[Uska]

Hated the +2-level lock out hated the sometimes-arbitrary deaths hated lack of useable gear on AH this was my first HC as I took a break for 5 years from the game the only good thing was it did get me interested in playing again just don't have as much time as I use to so have really grouped much. I will probably try the next HC but I hope they dump the hounds .

[Dendrix]

Disliked the hounds mechanism.
Disliked the 2 level lockout.
I was killed in Korthos at level 2 by a hound.

I didn't spend anything on this hardcore season, just like I said.
I didn't play on hardcore this season after my 1st character was killed.

[Grindflayer]

My thoughts as a soloer, this being my 3rd HC league. Didn't make it very far this time either, only to about 1000 favor and lvl 11, but I'm somewhat happy with my goals because of my limited time available.

Disliked the hounds. Not because they were difficult -- I didn't die because of them, even though there were a few close calls in the beginning of the season -- but because:
1) Randomness. A game that lags (the term used rather freely here) this much, should introduce as few random surprises as possible, in my opinion.

2) It changed my play style in a frustrating way: Every time I hadn't had a hound appear for a while, and I knew there was going to be a long swim/climb/fight etc. ahead, I ... stopped playing. I didn't want the hound to spawn on me at a wrong time, so I waited .. and waited .. and stared at the screen. Not because it was so exciting when the hounds come, but because I wanted to minimize the chance of dying. It's perma-death server after all, so going on would've been about as clever as running naked into a beholder, on purpose.

That's not fun, terrifying or interesting. It was just dumb and dull.

Didn't mind the 2 lvl lockout, even though as a mostly-favor-runner it felt a bit frustrating to constantly be at XP cap and not be able to benefit from quest XP.

[Zargarx]

This season pushed the "softcore" league out of the worst hardcore league position.
This was the anti-pug league. And very unfriendly to folks that have to attend to unexpected real life tasks.

Part of the fun for hardcore league is meeting up with people across servers & guilds. This league didn't favor that - solo and somewhat static groups appear to do best.
The +2 levels lock out was part of the issue, it was too severe. I think +3 level lockout would have worked well.
The dog mechanism was bad. I was ok with the dogs difficulty on elite (can't say for normal and for the occasional times on hard/reaper seemed ok too) once the disastrous dog bugs at the start of the season were fixed. But had to make a less fun build so to survive for a short while when afk... which was often; ending up having to solo most of the longer quests. No deaths, but some close calls when returned after afk.
I really look forward to Hardcore league every time it is on and is what brings me back to ddo.
But unlike previous hardcores seasons, I didn't enjoy it; just quickly got the 2 easiest rewards and was done.
Primarily due to the annoying dog mechanics.

[Vullgarr]

As someone that finished many of the goals of this season's challenges, I thought the hounds were just too much and no more than an unnecessary bother with no real value added to the League. I also didn't like the only 2 levels above Quest cap instead of the usual 4 finding it just tedious and time consuming without feeling of true reward or accomplishment. Previous Leagues with Mimics were fun and there was some reward for it which made it more worth the while. This season was a challenge but not in an interesting or fun way for me. I believe most people did get through it and know how to build characters for HC and making it harder just because you can didn't hit the right feel. I wish there were a permanent HC Server that reset every 2 or 3 months with different types of challenges, but not the level cap change or Hound type creatures that were just too often and too bothersome to be fun or rewarding.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Would be curious to see if backend analytics support the generally negative feedback through reduced population or is it just folks more motivated to post when they have a complaint.

Pugged my way to 5k relatively late in season during slower playtimes as I am MST and have a kid so weekend days were out too. Some days I stood around for maybe up to a half hour but generally did not have an issue finding LFMs

Died once in Korthos due to my ignorance of how hard they hit and again in Feywild just due to a group splitting up. Learned my lessons. Seems most people did too as pugs were very good at sticking together for most part.

And I don’t buy the real world calls excuse - just log out. It takes a few seconds. Or am I missing something.

[TrinityTurtle]

I know this is going to be unpopular, but I have to admit, I liked the hounds. I was really astonished to realize I was missing them after I came back to live. The random rush of hearing that hound howl and prepping to fight more my life was actually fun. I agree the 2 level lockout wasn't so much fun. While it did shorten the Long Dark Night of level 19 as we like to call it, it just made other levels become the new long nights. Ya'll who went for 5k favor know which ones. :)

[Paxsmickey]

I was not a fan of HCL VI. I made it to 5K favor, but it was more frustrating than fun.

First major complaint: pushing a massive nerf to clerics and favored souls in the middle of a hardcore season was infuriating. Add to it the nerf to bards’ sonic blast and I was pretty jaded for the rest of the season. I understand there were concerns over the balancing of the classes, and I guess the storm singer archetype was too strong when it had access to an AOE sonic blast, but that change killed any base bard spellsinger build, and did so in the middle of a HCL. Same issue with the nerf to clerics and favored souls. Developers knew they felt those classes were over performing, but left it before the season started. Changing the classes mid season very much felt like a “I got mine, so screw you.” Not that that was the case as that would require the developers to actually play the game. In the future massive nerfs to classes should be done before or after a HCL, but not during. I felt that FVS and cleric was really strong in hardcore, but I didn’t seem them as drastically overpowered on the live servers. It felt like the change was made due to an abundance of FVS/Cleric players on hardcore. They were strong caster classes with access to healing, of course they were being played. After the nerf I joked that next the developers were going to nerf Artificer and Rogue because too many people were splashing those classes for trap skills. Do better.

Max quest level change: honestly, I was fine with the reduced max level to enter quests. It forces you to run quests at level, and it meant players that were focused o it on reaching level 20 were grouping with the same people running everything for favor. I think this is a fine change and should remain for future HCL seasons. The HCL theme/gimmicks need to be balanced as such though, which these hounds did not feel that way.

Night Revels: I like it when a HCL season is able to incorporate seasonal events, much like the mimic hunt season, but the decision doesn’t appear to be consistent, and I hate the inconsistency and lack of communication regarding these decisions. I shouldn’t have been surprised in the last month of HCL that night revels was being incorporated with HCL, but by that point lack of communication and these types of surprises mid season were Par for the course. Do better.

Hounds: I think they were an interesting idea, but I hated their implementation. They were extremely buggy at launch, and they slaughtered new characters in Korthos. They didn’t feel play tested, and their scaling felt disjointed. The fact that they could spawn in walls, in water, infinitely fall to reset their DoT, etc. was absurd. It removed a great deal of fun for me, and often forced parties to sit waiting for a hound to spawn before we could swim a small portion before having to wait for another spawn. The manner that they spawned punished players for PUGing which should NEVER be the result of a game mechanic. The fact that there was no reward for the added difficulty of the hounds was disappointing. With the mimic event they felt fun, offered a reward in the form of mimic tokens, and you could mitigate the risk by avoiding chests. The hounds this season were an added frustration that offered no benefit, and could not be cc’d, forcing players to make builds that focused on high DPS. Previous seasons I enjoyed playing tankier builds that were built for survivability and support, but this season I was forced to play DPS builds capable of soloing hounds. The fact that a single player going AFK could lead to a party wipe earlier in the season was ridiculous. I had a group where a player went AFK unannounced, had a hound spawn on him, and by the time we realized he was long since dead, but we were slapped with a massive DoT from a hound on the other side of the quest that was actively bugging in a wall. I enjoy that HCL normally opens up different types of builds, typically ones where you focus on survival, but that felt taken away this season, and when I played a strong “meta” build it was nerfed mid season.

I play HCL primarily for the increased grouping opportunities, different play styles due to the season theme/gimmick, and a desire to challenge myself. This season I felt pigeonholed into builds, felt actively punished for trying to PUG due to shoddy hound mechanics, and slapped in the face with class nerfs that should have happened before or after the HCL. During the introduction to HCL it was stated that the game would never be balanced around HCL, only balanced around the live servers. That feels an awful lot like a blatant bold faced lie. Do better.

[GreenGiantIsHappy]

I have played in all HCL seasons but the 2nd, and this one was by far the least favorite one of mine. I was used to the mechanics of previous seasons and had planned accordingly, sadly most of the builds I was used to playing didn't work very well at plus two level lockout as they were often multi-classed and their power developed at a slower rate (as an example, a Cleric 15/Pal 3/ Rogue 2 build which I used just fine in season 5 (made both leaderboards, top 15 in Reaper), failed miserably multiple times this season, for various reasons some my fault but alot of it due to the extreme difficulty increase from hounds and the +2 level lock. I like to multi-box three accounts at times, and group when I feel like that, and usually had different characters for those different kinds of play styles. This season, I found the hound mechanic made grouping significantly less fun for me than previously, much more stressful and often instead of zerging less, pugs zerged more, to the point where it wasn't even fun in the quests anymore it felt like the 40-yard dash and then get out as fast as you can.

Some of my favorite memories over the last few seasons were the players I played with from different servers. This time around, I literally had 11 characters in the land of lost souls by the end of it, and was not able to establish any of my characters to the point where I got close to any reward other than one who hit 1750 favor. In previous seasons, I often ran into fun players I had met from previous seasons as I progressed in level, or met new ones, and that was a huge part of the fun factor for me. This season, I never really got far enough along to meet anyone new, and that felt disappointing. The whole season felt like a Tomb of Horrors campaign where the DM was just delighting in killing off the party in one ridiculous trap-filled room after another. Dungeons & Dragons should not feel like a job, or a race, it is a game, one that can be enjoyed alone or with others. This season failed on so many levels, I hope the development team never revisits these errors again. The spirit of Dungeons & Dragons is in jeopardy. Gary Gygax would be groaning in disappointment at what you are doing, and the devs responsible for the design of this season should be ashamed of themselves. Please go read the original Dungeon Masters guide to help you understand the purpose of the game. I have played this game online since 2006, (and Dungeons and Dragons since 1981), but I mostly play on Hardcore leagues now, and I hope the next season you learn from your mistakes and bring back the fun. Penalties on death, sure. But anti-grouping mechanisms and Doom Reaper Hounds in Korthos at lv 1 is just silly.

The Green Giant (Haven guild leader on Hardcore servers, and sometimes on Cannith)

[Heu]

HCL Vl, I had some fun this season, I never got to 1750 favor or any reaper points, But I met and ran with some very great people this season. Many were very helpful, many guilds were very helpful in inviting to get ship buffs. Which in season Vl you very much needed.
So a very BIG thank you to every guild this season you made everyones season soo much better.
The hounds needed to be scaled to level, but I see what the devs were trying to do, just needs more fine tuning and scaling to be effective as to what they were thinking. Plus there should be a reward to how many hounds you live through. Say you kill 100 hounds is a reward tier. and so on. It could actually work if they do it right.
This was a first time hardcore season for me, and hopefully next season will have just as many or more great people and guilds to run with and have lots of fun.