Wizzly's Crystal Cove experience and suggestions

[Wizzly_Bear]

I wanted to take a few minutes and congratulate/thank the people responsible for this event. I enjoyed it a great deal. Here are my "notes" with follow-up suggestions.

Foreword: I rarely play epic and don't care much about it so any of this that is not applicable or voided by epic - I don't care.

Overall: B+
I enjoyed it a lot, but it was not quite perfect.

Foremost, it was fun. It was a bit grindy, but it was a varied grind that required at least half a brain cell. Loved the kobolds.

I really like the loot. I think earthen guard is over-powered for a level 4 item, but it's not a "breaker", and the rest of the stuff that I liked primarily moved things to different slots and/or replaced other things.
For instance - instead of having to grind the quest chains for a ml5 mod fort item I was able to craft it = win! Also, was able to craft a ml9 heavy fort to replace my nightforge so I have my necklace open for silver flame from level 9-11 still, so I got nothing new, but rather a better allocation for things I want.
Suggestion: rather than always trying to one-up old loot, doing things like this is much more rewarding and less frustrating. By having more choices for where we want to locate certain effects on our characters we have more ability to acquire, more use once acquired, and less feeling of loss when we replace it with newer loot.

[Wizzly_Bear]

I also really like that we were able to get some xp for this event.
Suggestion: do this more

I did not like that such interesting and desirable items are available only for such a short time. I'm not going to take time away from work, my daughter, or my wife for anything like this, and a lot of other people wouldn't either.
Suggestion: I'm not sure. This is an inherent "problem" with events as opposed to introduction of "real" new content. Not sure how to fix it, but I don't like it (this is the primary factor for the B+ as opposed to A).

All in all - a fun event that I enjoyed for a few hours and got a few new fun toys (actually, I was able to get everything I wanted).

Thank you again,
Wizzly

[Wizzly_Bear]

All told I made off with the following:

(edit: in about 10-12 hours of total playing time with the event)

T3 stalwart trinket
T3 cunning trinket
T3 nimble trinket
T2 bold trinket
Various summons gems
1 non-upgraded level 20 dagger
Dread Admiral's with: ml 5 mod fort and concentration +7
Dread Admiral's with: ml 9 natural armor +5 and balance +10
Dread Admiral's with: ml 15 seeker +6, balance +15, haste aura 3
(thanks Ren for that idea)
Dread Admiral's with: ml 9 heavy fort, concentration +10, haste aura 4, and black dye
~1.2 million plat
Atonement (bought off the AH with 750kpp from the above total)
And most importantly, a lot of fun and meeting some new people

[Wizzly_Bear]

(this post is primarily notes for myself)

Things I wish I had thought to make

Intim +15 hat (probably with heavy fort, nat armor 5, or seeker 6 (this being the least likely due to the min level))

Charisma +6 haggle +15 hat

[bryanmeerkat]

Things I would like to see improved before the event comes back

1) Dowsing rods selling price

2) The unlock part of the quest was extremely frustrating/unrewarding and a lot of people simply ignored it and waited for others to do this until they could get back into the crystal cove and collect greenshards .
The poor drop rate of compass and anything of value from the smugglers rest combined with its general dullness of mindlessly running around looking for pirates to kill .
Adding a small chance 10% maybe to get 1 greenshard on each mob , or scrap this entirely and have a more intresting/rewarding mechanism for opening the cove .

3) I felt upgrading the lower level items was a bit overly costly , seeing as the rewards that could be got for a 20 toon where far easier to achieve as farming level 25 on well geared 20s was a lot easier than a bunch of level 4s trying to farm lv 9 for the same level off greenshards . Not to mention the difference in the quality of the rewards .
Some sort of scaling could be required .

[Westerner]

Dread Admiral's with: ml 9 heavy fort, concentration +10, haste aura 4, and black dye

Hey Wiz, how'd you get the black dye? I couldn't get it to work. Seemed like the black dye upgrade had a pre-req of black dye, which I did not understand.

[Wizzly_Bear]

Hey Wiz, how'd you get the black dye? I couldn't get it to work. Seemed like the black dye upgrade had a pre-req of black dye, which I did not understand.

Was only available from the store as far as I could tell, which is why I only got one. I had wanted to make a red one too, but wasn't going to pay for another so soon.

[Lcdr_Swizzle]

I agree Wizzie ... good points. Especially the one about this being a short-term event, and for those of us out-of-town, or busy with other short-term commitments ... too bad.
Having been a VIP since Beta, I know Turbine has a lot of my money driving it, and to miss things because life is life ... grrrr.

Having said that, I really enjoyed this and my admiral's hats off to the devs!!!
Cutting down to 6 for the quest, is great ... less piking!
Being able to do 2 in a row ... GREAT!

Also,
It was BORING to stand around for the last 4-8 minutes, after getting 300 crystals, waiting for ... time to pass. Yes, we killed more hobgoblins, etc. Either end the quest at 300, or start a 3rd group, maybe for another 200 crystals.

and, it would be nice ...
- To be able to trade gold dubloons for silver or copper.
- To trade emeralds for lower gems, or to use them in their place.
- If red names on the island actually dropped something worthwhile.
- To need less maps turned in to repeat OR to find a way to keep people off the ship while the counter goes down. I did enjoy AFK time between quests, as I had chores to do at home.

Again, it was very good, better than the Halloween event. I see that the devs learn, which is awesome. I hope we players help out!

[Wizzly_Bear]

Also,
It was BORING to stand around for the last 4-8 minutes, after getting 300 crystals, waiting for ... time to pass. Yes, we killed more hobgoblins, etc. Either end the quest at 300, or start a 3rd group, maybe for another 200 crystals.

and, it would be nice ...
- To trade emeralds for lower gems, or to use them in their place.
- If red names on the island actually dropped something worthwhile.

Again, it was very good, better than the Halloween event. I see that the devs learn, which is awesome. I hope we players help out!

/qft, especially these points. I probably would have crafted more if I could have traded down my emeralds and diamonds for other gems.

[Bunker]

We've all seen past events time and time again. Some more than others. I don't think it is out of the realm to expect the CC to be back in the future.

[Zenako]

I'll just add that the wait time between openings of CC was not that long on Sarlona, at least during East Coast hours of 6PM to 3AM or so. Many times we had just emerged from the second run and the count was back down to 2000 or less already. Enough time for an AFK and repair run, so probably less than 15 minutes of "down time". You know, goof around, enter first time after about 5 minutes of it being open. 20 minutes later exit with rewards, repair and afk and then reenter for the second run at the 30-35 minute mark. When you exit 10 to 15 minutes after the doors close, that leaves little time before they open again. Makes for a more relaxed approach to the runs.

I think they selected the number of map turn-ins pretty well. Kept the action going, but also made it so that off hours users would not be shut out, like it was seeming with the Mabar event. Also it was easier to get more Map pieces for CC than it was ingredients for the Mabar turn in.

Perhaps now life returns to a more normal pace...

[Isolani]

Definitely agree with being able to trade gems down to lower level ones. I would have liked just the base items for a lot of the lower levels but it's too much of a pain to get the gems. I made some L16 stuff just by gem zerging below my level, but you get no xp and no shards doing this so it's basically a wasted cove opening just to get some gems.

The money problem should be fixed obviously.

Being able to finish out after you get 300 is a good idea also. Even soloing it I would get to 300 with 4 or 5 minutes to spare sometimes.

Increase treasure map drop rate, in off-peak times of the day it takes way too long to open CC. Too bad CC doesn't open based on the number of people standing around at the ship or the inn doing nothing...would be open in 10 minutes. I like the idea of a 5 or 10% chance of 1 green shard dropping off explorer area mobs, anything to get people out there finding maps would help.

[Wizzly_Bear]

We've all seen past events time and time again. Some more than others. I don't think it is out of the realm to expect the CC to be back in the future.

Indeed. That's why I'm making notes of what I'd like to still get should the opportunity arise again.

[Fejj]

I wanted to take a few minutes and congratulate/thank the people responsible for this event. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Yes, thanks to everyone for all the hard work the event was great.

Some Ideas
- Downward gem exchange
- Downward Coin exchange
- Maps in explorer area add 1% shard drop for every 10 turned in (capped at 20% for 360 max shards)
- Reds in explorer drops need improvements (10 maps would be ok)
- Rods (obviously)
- Renown bonus after 300 gems in Cove
- Stacks > 1,000 in collectible bags please

[patang01]

I made a tier 2 cunning trinket for my FvS. I would like to know if it's suppose to be 50 SP or 30 (double for my FvS). It won't change me using it, but it would be nice to know. I could also consider making the stalwart for earthen guard if the event comes back.

I created a bold and a stalwart trinket for my level 8 (now 9) fighter. It's a very good combo. I also created the level 8 plate and a level 5 moderate fort hat and a level 9 heavy fort hat (with jump +10). First I used the stalwart with my moderate fort hat. That increases it to 85% which is pretty darn good for anything level 5. Now I use it primarily for the earthen guard but as soon as I find a better pair of gloves (use charged gauntlets) I will start using the bold trinket instead.

All in all the combinations of items are not overpowered and I like how some of the items are more complementory to my over all gear sets as suppose to better. I still have to make some tough choices, but adding abilities to slots and to give me a reason to change the way I 'gear' up is a good thing.

It have already caused me to think about changes tactically again. That's always good.

[EKKM]

I liked it better than Mabar becasue the quest was able to be done by a party rather than a bunch of people who couldn't really communicate.

I thought the itmes were overpowered for the amount of time it took to acquire them.

In these events I think I would rather see an alternate way to acquire existing loot like the chattering ring or bloodstone rather than ramping up the loot tables with new easy to acquire overpowered items. I don't think it should be running a quest twice in 45 minutes and getting a bloodstone. I did this event for maybe 6 hours and got a +15 intim/SFL hat, tier 2 ornamental dagger, tier 2 spyglass and tier 1 splyglass. That seems a little excessive.

I assume part of the reason is they want to give the new players a chance to catch up to the vets in term of gear.

[Wizzly_Bear]

I liked it better than Mabar becasue the quest was able to be done by a party rather than a bunch of people who couldn't really communicate.

I thought the itmes were overpowered for the amount of time it took to acquire them.

In these events I think I would rather see an alternate way to acquire existing loot like the chattering ring or bloodstone rather than ramping up the loot tables with new easy to acquire overpowered items. I don't think it should be running a quest twice in 45 minutes and getting a bloodstone. I did this event for maybe 6 hours and got a +15 intim/SFL hat, tier 2 ornamental dagger, tier 2 spyglass and tier 1 splyglass. That seems a little excessive.

I assume part of the reason is they want to give the new players a chance to catch up to the vets in term of gear.

The min levels are very different. Not sure what the dodge event item was, but I'm sure it was close to ml 20. The seeker 6 hat is ml 15, bloodstone is 9. Also, the hat precludes the use of Minos.

I do agree that your last sentence probably has some truth though.

[Wizzly_Bear]

The min levels are very different. Not sure what the dodge event item was, but I'm sure it was close to ml 20. The seeker 6 hat is ml 15, bloodstone is 9. Also, the hat precludes the use of Minos.

I do agree that your last sentence probably has some truth though.

Further, bloodstone is not btc unlike the hats.

[Eelpout]

Being able to do 2 in a row ... GREAT!

Also,
It was BORING to stand around for the last 4-8 minutes, after getting 300 crystals, waiting for ... time to pass. Yes, we killed more hobgoblins, etc. Either end the quest at 300, or start a 3rd group, maybe for another 200 crystals.

I think letting people get out of the quest early without being able to put a limit of 2 runs per CC opening would be a bit tricky. The way it currently works, if you have the compasses, everyone can do exactly 2 runs per unlock, so it is even across the board. It certainly would be nice for an option to leave the quest once you maxxed out on crystals, but I think there would have to be something in place to keep a somewhat even playing field.

Just an opinion though.

[RazorrX]

I would have liked to have been able to convert higher gems to lower ones, this would have prevented me from having thousands of emeralds and diamonds to get rid of on the last day.

Another option would be to have the gems required be X type or higher. That way you could use high end gems in place (exact number still though) of the lower gems.

I really liked how the crafting worked. I loved how each level item could be brought up to tiers, etc. that was really nice. MUCH better than shroud crafting to me. The main thing I wish would change is to be able to substitute higher gems for lower ones.