Black Abbot Anniversary

[KatanAztar]

Forgot one, 10-19-2008 Oddlived completes his 20th Abbot.

For historical accuracy

he wasnt the first to get to 20 though...

[Thriand]

he wasnt the first to get to 20 though...

There is at least 4 people on Ghallanda that I know of with 20+ completions and many more getting close

[KatanAztar]

On topic though, here's the things they need fixed

Remove the mana drain from the inferno
Make astroids slower
Make ice wands, astroids, and goggles not be destroed upon death.
Add some time between the inferno dissapearing and his encasement attack

[Angelus_dead]

Making the puzzles non-optional was the single most important factor that truly killed the raid, IMO.

Yes, that's covered under "making things harder". A lich who's immortal until some remote objective is completed is harder than one who's killable.

It's true that that change was the single worst and most important one. On the first page I already detailed what would be wrong with the raid if only that specific edit were reversed.

[Pyromaniac]

making The Puzzles Non-optional Was The Single Most Important Factor That Truly Killed The Raid, Imo.

Qft

[Thriand]

On topic though, here's the things they need fixed

Remove the mana drain from the inferno
Make astroids slower
Make ice wands, astroids, and goggles not be destroed upon death.
Add some time between the inferno dissapearing and his encasement attack

I agree with Aztar completely, I don't want the raid made out to be another
Reaver or anything but with these minor tweaks the raid would be much much easier.

[stockwizard5]

Thanks AD ...

1. Beat Down ...
2. Everyone goes to six (or less) instances of puzzle A ...
3. Beat Down ...
4. Puzzle B ...
5. Beat Down ...
6. Puzzle C ...
7. Beat Down ...
8. Victory!

Fail any beatdown - lose the quest ...

Everyone gets to do all the puzzles. No puzzles solved - grab your uberness and pots. 18 for 18 its a cake walk. Problem solved - fun raid again.

[Eudimio]

Well, "ideal" is a high bar you set, as it's easy to find an imperfection in almost any complex creation. A reverted Abbot raid would be definitively better to the current version, but it would remain non-ideal in several ways:

-cut-

I'm actually a little surprised at your response. I know you are a contrarian, but I think you overlooked one very important aspect that makes the suggestion I presented "ideal".

It requires almost no developer time to implement.

But yes, keeping the "fixed" puzzles would be an improvement, as would many of your other suggestions. But how much more developer time should be spent on this raid? I think they should cut their losses.

[Strakeln]

Yes, that's covered under "making things harder".

No, it isn't.

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

On topic though, here's the things they need fixed

Remove the mana drain from the inferno
Make astroids slower
Make ice wands, astroids, and goggles not be destroed upon death.
Add some time between the inferno dissapearing and his encasement attack

QFT.

With minor tweaks this raid could be really fun. Reduce the number/speed of the asteriods, change so the items are drop on death rather than destroy, and fix the timing on the Abbot's special attacks so you have time to react properly as a group to them.

Ice wands and phase tile are both doable, it's Asteroids that causes problems, if that were fixed I would run this raid (assuming I could find 11 other people to)

Garth

[Mithran]

If you were really committed though, you'd give us daily updates.

[Pyromaniac]

But how much more developer time should be spent on this raid? I think they should cut their losses.

A few days ago I would have agreed. But given we're not getting a raid in mod 8, why not? Its not like its taking away from development of other raids.

[Turial]

i Will Confirm This, But Offer No Proof.

Lol

[moorewr]

Following are some specific suggestions along that line:
1. Longer duration on ice wands, more charges.
2. Ice balls have an obvious melting animation as a warning of when to jump.
3. The ice tunnel is more complex and fun, including forks, monsters attacking you, and places where you can stop on a side platform to do things like disarming traps ahead of you.
4. Back in the main room, ice balls can be cast on the floor, where they create a slush puddle. Characters standing in a slush puddle take 50% less fire damage, applied after all other reductions. (Heck, they can take +50% cold damage too)
5. Asteroids are visible from further away, and approach from a narrower field of attack, including none coming from directly above or below.
6. There is no knockback from asteroid hits. Instead, each one deals AOE hitpoint damage and destroys 20% of your pillar platform.
7. Several invisible but non-changing tiles are added to various points in the phase chasm, where the runner can stop and re-orient himself for more instructions.
8. Some hovering monsters will chase and attack the runner as he goes.
9. After both phase tile players have completed their runs, they are joined together where they must pass three more chasms. The first is beta-phase, the second alpha-phase, and the third a mix. These chasms are done by the players directly following the other character's body. They are stacked on top of each other, so that falling through the 2nd or 3rd will probably mean you land on a lower tile and can walk back up to try again, instead of falling to death.
10. The Phase Wraiths become more powerful, and gain a 10-second "bewildering blow", but they can be easily killed by anyone with goggles.
11. All special in-raid items are drop-on-death, drop-on-exit, and tradable.
12. The Abbot regains his Flesh To Stone attack. However, it grants immunity to Horrid Wilting, Negative energy, fear effects, and other things that shouldn't hurt rocks.
13. The Abbot regains mummy-spawning on all difficulties, but it won't effect Warforged or characters under Spawn Screen.
14. Mantle of Invulnerability can be dispelled. (In this case, the Abbot should also gain Resist Fire or Prot Fire)
15. Inflicting enough DPS on the healed Abbot will trigger a script to bring him down from his perch before the 5-minute timer expires.
16. A second chest in the main room.
17. If all challenges are beaten, a 3rd chest.

I could go beyond that and make even more suggestions, but that would mean diverging from simply fixing what's broke, and get into creating new gameplay aspects.

A really excellent list.

[Staffman]

Living Vicariously through.....a game?

Come on...some of you folks need to get out more.

[Angelus_dead]

Come on...some of you folks need to get out more.

Sure, but if the devs want to earn money, they'd try to supply reasons to not get out. That's their job.

[Turial]

They could just change the asteroids to be tab targetable and keep the current speed and number incoming.

[Eudimio]

A few days ago I would have agreed. But given we're not getting a raid in mod 8, why not? Its not like its taking away from development of other raids.

I would agree if they have a "raid developer" that is sitting around doing nothing. But I doubt that is the case.

[DaveyCrockett]

lol, i was thinking the same thing... how did that convo play out in guild chat?

Gol is an officer in the guild, and the ones that were doing that aren't members anymore. That's how that turned out.

[vtecfiend99]

Gol is an officer in the guild, and the ones that were doing that aren't members anymore. That's how that turned out.

I know he's an officer. Was thinking more along the lines of some of the people I run with alot that are from ur guild. I guess I should've known better than to think it was any of them doing that though, not really your guys style.

EDIT:
BTW: to clarify even further, Gol is the man and I wasnt implying he was wrong. Sorry if it looked that way.