Quest Feedback: Claw of Vulkoor

[Tarrant]

Escort cursed Drow tribal warriors to the artifact called Claw of Vulkoor. Wind through the cavernous hillside outside of the Red Fens, battling giants and scorpions. Let us know your thoughts on the new Update 6 quest, now available for VIPs to preview on Lamannia!

[Gobbothegreen]

I love how this quest encourages sneaking, altough some things could be implemented better. Especialy the staff is quite annoying it was way to easy for the scorpion to bump into you while the staff slowly stunned it, thus ruining your optional. Otherwise i quite liked the quest except it feels like it might be a bit to easy to do on epic, just kill the first boss then invis and run to the end incapicitating all the guardians, altoughi havent tried it so i don't know if if you added any surprises on epic.

[Karrantine]

I couldn't do this quest entirely properly being on a sorc with as much stealth ability as a bulldozer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. A note to casters - Invisibility won't always save your butt, as sometimes the scorpion guardians are close enough to the switch that they'll hear you, not see you. Watching the curse take place and having to round them all up was amusing, as was the Priestess's dialog right after it happened. It's nice to see a stealth quest implemented well, and for the sneaky folks I think this one's got some serious potential; it certainly beats the **** out of Not-So-Stealthy Repossession. That said, it might lead to cases where the rogue or caster solos the quest while everyone else parks at the entrance, since it *does* give out a good bit of XP for a quest of its level and a good sneak should be able to walk right through it.

Of particular interest is how the explorer area changes slightly after this quest is finished. Very nice touch, Turbine.

[dragonruler]

My only issue with it was that I didn't realize I had dropped the staff and therefore when I got to the end and couldn't figure out why it wasn't finishing it left me confused.

Btw I had Tolero help figure this out that I had dropped the staff and ironically enough it was at the first switch. /sigh

[Claver]

Now this is more like it! Whereas Last Stand felt somewhat pedestrian, Claw of Vulkoor holds up to the standard set by update 5 and its predecessors. It supports smart and varied gameplay, has a distinct & memorable hook and a touch of humor. I grade the quest A- turbine.

- Good finishing touches "Scorpions, why does it have to be scorpions", "I feel like I am missing something....essential".

- It seems like there is a move to make the comments made by the monsters more relevant to the quest rather than just fluff. In a small problem, the Grimm Brothers made some remark about small people being thieves giving a hint that they would attack if anything was taken from their pack. In Claw of Vulkoor the Fire Giants let slip that the lever they are guarding is trapped. More gameplay like this please where the monsters give the hints to the observant.

- The fire giant sorcerer who turns the drow into scorpions needs to be made stronger. He spends so much time talking that parties will be able to get multiple spells off and position themselves behind him swinging that he will drop the second he becomes interactive. I took him down in seconds solo on a level 8 fighter. Either give him more hp or give him 2 seconds of invulnerability so that he can cast a spell or take a swing instead of just going through various animations of getting ready to attack.

- The transformation of the drow into scorpions, whispered advice form the priestess, and the use of the staff to open doors and pacify scorpions lifts this quest above just another dungeon.

- I like the game play where stealth is rewarded, encouraged but not mandated (p.s. Thanks for the giant that flips the fire trap switch, I love being rewarded for eliminating the sentry, more of this mechanic please in other quests). I was running a big awkward fighter but could still avoid a fair number of scorpions by dropping into the pit past the first gate after the secret shrine. The ambush trio of scorpions were very tough, as should be. I was motivated to avoid the sentry scorpions but lacked the skills. I found the "chimney" ledges up from the shrine in the bottom had gaps the scorpions couldn't cross. This is a good design that allows a place to retreat and lick ones wounds. I'm sure ranged gameplay would also be rewarded. Nice to have optionals to avoid being detected and pacifying all the guardians.

- Kudos for using Ebberon lore with the appearance of claw as a sign of divine grace. I had read about this idea in one of the source books and thought it would make a great quest idea - glad to see it come to light.

- Prince of Gonads bludgeoned me to death repeatedly. It was an optional so no need to make him less difficult. I made the mistake of opening one tiny clam shell and bought several res-cakes for my sin. I don't know if this is intentional but he comes back to full health when your res on solo. I eventually figured out that I could hide behind a pillar and drink healing potions while he would shoot at me with his bow. You may want to tweak that aspect of his A.I. as it makes him much easier to defeat on solo.

- The transformation of the scarrow was a bit anticlimactic. I was ok with this since I had just had a big fight with the skeletal Gonad but that fight is optional. If players skip that fight they may be disappointed at the end.

Perhaps the scarrow could help fight the Skeleton giant if he has not been activated. If the party has killed to many scorpions to reach the top of the claw perhaps a giant avatar of vulkoor appears for battle or the scarrow turn on the party.

[Althotas]

Noticed an odd bug in this quest. Took a rogue in 4 times. the last guardian scorpion every time was sitting right on top of the last pad. Result, you had to beat it down.

[MrCow]

Noticed an odd bug in this quest. Took a rogue in 4 times. the last guardian scorpion every time was sitting right on top of the last pad. Result, you had to beat it down.

I have my doubts that it is a bug. The scorpion can be moved via making noise (ranged weapon from around a corner, rogue noisemaker trap, bard playing a song, etc.) to get the last guardian pacified.

[FlimsyFirewood]

Not a bug. Working as intended.

If you know how to make noise without being detected, you can lure that scorpion away from the pressure plate.

[Drfirewater79]

Escort cursed Drow tribal warriors to the artifact called Claw of Vulkoor. Wind through the cavernous hillside outside of the Red Fens, battling giants and scorpions. Let us know your thoughts on the new Update 6 quest, now available for VIPs to preview on Lamannia!

is this quest in house P????

I didnt see it as part of the carnaval quest line ... at least it wasnt memorable if it was ...

is can someone tell me where i can find the mission entrance and the quest giver please ...

[TreknaQudane]

- Good finishing touches "Scorpions, why does it have to be scorpions", "I feel like I am missing something....essential".

Indiana Jones.. Replace Scorpions with Snakes.

[ArkoHighStar]

is this quest in house P????

I didnt see it as part of the carnaval quest line ... at least it wasnt memorable if it was ...

is can someone tell me where i can find the mission entrance and the quest giver please ...

this quest is part of update 6 which is in house k, there is a caravan near the tavern that takes you to a new outdoor area

[Tarrant]

Deleting everything that is not relevant to this quest feedback. Annnd, continue!

[ArkoHighStar]

I guess i am just not used to having updates that arent current on lama at all ...

or maybe its been like this the whole time and i only even noticed the current stuff ...

while yes i know its not the same people .... and really the missions have never been an issue with me .... missions are always well done ...

i just dont understand the reasoning for launching update 6 content months (maybe as many as 3 or 4 if you take update 5's time line in consideration) before its needed as this is NOT A TEST SERVER ... its a preview server ... meaning before it comes to lama it already has to be tested ... on ML server.

asking people to test stuff from an update that is after an update that isnt even life suggests to me that .... it should be in this update ... if its ready for preview then its ready to launch ...

other wise it shouldn't be on lama till after update 5 is live ... and even then only a couple weeks to a month before expected live date to make sure no little dumb bugs work there way into the mission .... stuff that could have been missed on ML.

look at it this way in order for update 5 to meet the May28th go live it had to be more or less feature complete and programmed by early/mid April, which allows QA to run it through its paces and for them to get ML feedback etc. Quests generally get done sooner and they can start working on the next update say late March.

Turbine has to keep its mod every 2 month schedule going, so at any given time they probably have

next mod in dev or qa
mod after in intial design or in art for landscapes dungeons etc.

Once Update 5 goes live, art team will probaly be on update 7 with systems team doing the same, with QA finalizing update 6.

My bet is some devs have been working on half orcs for update 7 for a good few months already not even touching updates 5 and 6

[Zenako]

I also suspect that in this case it was a situation where they were making Lemonade from lemons. Due to a glitch/bug, it was possible for players to get out to the update 6 content that was in development and the "cat was out of the bag" so to speak. Since it was so far along, they were not about to ditch the quests and zone, so why not build on the discovery, close the glitch and let players formally poke around and give feedback with more than enough time to effect changes to the content if needed.