Feedback - Quest - Missing

[rest]

Anyone else find the playground SUPER SUPER SUPER creepy? It weirded me out like crazy.

[SisAmethyst]

Quest:
Very nice setting, the fog, the light, the color ... a shuddering Atmosphere
I did run it over level with my lvl 20 Paladin, however some of the mobs died a little bit too fast (e.g. tharaak hounds) and I had expected the optional red name hound to last a bit longer, but that may be due to dungeon scaling.
What I like is the things with the mirrors and the Mind Flayers or the way through the water, or the chest where you know when you open it something will happen and last but not least when suddenly the view change and get all blue and gray
There are however some strange things... why the Guard is standing in hit range of the Taken but not get active, that doesn't feel right. If you approach him and there are still Taken around, he should involve himself in the fight, even if he only do 0 damage per hit and is invulnerable by the Taken, but it would fit the scene!

Also while you can read the notes on the floor I got lost in the storyline a bit.

Monsters:
I like this glue from the Taken "what the heck is that?" I agree with Shade that they could use it a bit more often as I only saw it I guess once in this quest and that something like remove curse or whatever would be nice to get rid of that glue.

A single Taken is not a threat but as they come in groups they maybe get interesting at level.

Endboss:
As well something that looked very suspect to me was that I could freely cast spells and keept buffs on that Beholder? While his beams may hurt it is very irritating that an optional Boss in Rainbow is more of an Challenge then this Endboss! I think this Boss need definitely some more love.

[Knockback]

Hey folks, the beholder boss at the end of the quest got an upgrade on the first of the month. Try him out now and let us know what you think of his new tricks!

[Claver]

Hey folks, the beholder boss at the end of the quest got an upgrade on the first of the month. Try him out now and let us know what you think of his new tricks!

Great news! Thanx

Will Do later this week

[Shade]

Hey folks, the beholder boss at the end of the quest got an upgrade on the first of the month. Try him out now and let us know what you think of his new tricks!

Tried him again on hard..

Didn't really notice any difference. Could of kill him about 5 seconds, but instead let him wail on me for a while. His damage output is still so low I can't see how he poses any threat to parties on hard (except maybe the rare 1 in a 100 chance he gets ya with a primstic insta kill ray and you fail your save). I kept my hireling outside the fight and was gona call him in for heals.. But even after about 2 minuts of letting him wail on me, I didn't need any healing.

I'll try him again on elite and see if he has any good tricks there.

[Shade]

Hey folks, the beholder boss at the end of the quest got an upgrade on the first of the month. Try him out now and let us know what you think of his new tricks!

K just tried elite on my worst geared character: lvl20 barb.. But really weaker stats then what my halforc could do at lvl15.

He's not a great solo char at all. If he did a similar lvl quest with a beholder end boss like ghost of perdition elite - he would die.. Very very badly.

No ToD sets, no real epics that helped any here (some unkors cleavers, whch are weaker then greensteel weapons for dps).. Just decent str/con, and some mineral 1s for weapons, not even min2s. Imo much weaker then what a lvl15 elite group of 6 could muster in terms of power. No silver flame pots either, has rather poor self helaing, just csw pots.

So I took a hireling, lvl14 - beleth. Shes pretty **** tough, probably the best one that that lvl, but she stil died a bunch to the trash mobs as I couldnt always get the big swamrs of taken off her. Wasnt an issue tho, rezzed her up and moved on.

I'll go over each mob quick before the boss:
Taken - No real challenge even on elite by themselves. Tho when swarmed by large packs of em, they could overweal a weaker character for sure. There sticky special abilty showed up more this time, but sitll the ~6 second duration made it rather non threatening. When I had to ran away cuz I generated like orange alert by argroing a ton of em, even harried + stickied,, I was able to get away. Shoudl be longer/more severe for elite. Plus they have terrible saves, my stuns landed every single time, without a stun weapon equiped. DC was only about 30-35.
Flesh Renders - Theyre about what id expect. DR15 and high hp means you should use the right weapons at least.
"Greater" Tharaak hounds - Not sure why there called greater, they seemed weaker then most of the ones ive encoutnerd in lower lvl quests. DR was only around 8ish? mm really should be higher and provide incentive to use correct weaponry at least on elite. Plus there damage output was nearly nothign since they attack so slow.
Mind Flayer - meh. Anyone remeber a real mind flaye from the classic DDO? You know the, ones that actually sucked out your brains using there badass 1 minute mind blast? These new ones seem to not care for brains.
My will save is decent on that guy, so I saved on most mind blast.. But as a test I let one mindblast me tell I failed. He got me, while at aken was beaten on me too, and went for the brains.. But the mind blast only lasted about 7 seconds, so I broke out and ran off before he do it - pathetic. The mind blast should definetely last long enough for them to eat your brains, at least on elite. There other abilitis like wall of fire were no threat.. lvl15+ elite characters can easy get access to resist 20/30, and they did not dmg beyond that.
Young beholder - nice touch adding him on elite.. He did a good job of knocking out my buffs and giving me a neg lvl before i chopped him up, so thats cool.
Named Tharrak hound - He was ok. Nothing too serious, but could maybe kill someone unprepared for his ice shield , which does about 60 a hit on elite.. Good thing I had an ice resist cloak.

Onto the end boss:
Harder for sure, especially for this character.. But noticed no real new tricks. Seemed like the taken respawned faster for sure, and they killed my hireling long before I could react, so I was on CSW potions. Despite that, I didnt feel threatened.
I mean he still only did about 1-6 dmg with his flesh sear.. his chaotic beams hurt a bit more for sure, and I definetely had to run away after beind dominated for a good ~12 seconds and assaulted bytaken. I went from 500 hp to 100.

But the guy moves SOOOO SLOW. So it was rather trivial to just hide behind the covient corners placed in the fight, and chug pots, he took like 60+ seconds to find me.. plenty of time to chug pots.

Here is a screenshot of where I hid from him:
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/4...nshot01599.jpg

Once he found me ther,e was just a matter of driking a haste pot, then runnign to the oposite corner and doign the same. Some taken spawn thre sure, but there fort save seems to zero or something, not a single one saved on any stunning blow attempts.

Suggestions (at least for elite):
Make him move MUCH faster.. so hiding isn't as viable an option on elite. You should really need some actual player healing and not just be able to solo this with csw pots on elite.
- Greatly up his flesh sear dot dmg.. 1d6 is a bit of a joke for elite.. Elite should be around 5d6 at least.
- Slightly extend his psionic dominate duration. 12 seconds was just a few seconds short to kill me, so 20ish would do it.. Sure take off some hp for being lvl15, but then add back a healer to the party to heal the dominated person? mm, not gonna kill any well prepared groups. And I imagine prot evil blocks it anyways? Think it did on my wizard.

[Alanim]

Taken have a CON score of 10, that's why you thought they had a fort save of 0.... because they do...

Also, I noticed it took awhile before I saw "the taken" this time, I liked that, it felt more polished...

The end boss STILL mis-fires his prismatic spray, STILL.

As shade noted, he moves slowww I also hid behind the corner while plinking away at him with-out multi-shot...

I also agree with shade, he needs to do more damage with his DoT, it's too weak currently...

Over-all I didn't really see a upgrade done to him....

Also another interesting note... That taken, are they bypassing my fortification? If not why are they hitting crits past my heavy fort? I've noticed this in ALOT of content... not sure if it's intended.

[Seikojin]

I like the look and feel of the quest. But I agree that it is really easy. I think there either should be more enemies, or make them tougher. I would like to see the swiftfoot casters using empowered spells, or at least deal more damage from their spells. I also would like to see more of them.

For the Taken, I think they would be more of a challenge if they did overruns since they seem like the kind of creature to do so.

Also I think they should have more than just their sticky goo attack too. Maye some holds or debuffs on hit.

The mind flayers were a joke as previously mentioned. Same with the hounds. I would have preferred a bigger mix of hounds with renders. Or hounds with Takens. I think that would be better.

The beholder was interesting in his ray selection, but again, nothing to write home about. I think his pattern to do his work should be changed to make him a challenge. Like tk people back then do his barrage of debuffs and holds.

When I fought him, I thrashed on him where he grows and half the taken didn't seem to care. They stayed where they spawned and didn't notice their maker dying.

[Claver]

I’m happy to report the End Boss does now seem respectable.

I soloed on a relatively weak character on NORMAL – a level 14 Drow (6 tempest ranger, level 8 paladin hunter of the dead) finesse build dropping down to just under 200 hp when swapping into a silver flame necklace for negative level absorption. I used +1 greater aberration bane & weakening light mace and a +1 paralyzing rapier through most of the quest. I also used paralyzing bow and silver long bow.

I suspect my play experience with this under geared character is more representative of the unwashed masses without green steel than feedback received from most of us level 20 veterans on lamannia.

I can see now Turbine did an excellent job of designing this quest to support solo play. Monsters can be pulled into tunnels and shot from the top of ladders, there are several roofs for sniper play, cold fire can be ranged from a balcony (if he gets too tough you can retreat to the shrine below), monsters can be pulled from the playground through the narrow school hallways (note, the hounds and Reavers sometimes became stuck in the hallway allowing you to shoot the ones behind) and you can always dive into the water to drink cure pots in an emergency. Furthermore, you can skip optional like marking the mad with the sign of Xoriat to avoid respawns.

If anything, the quest could be made tougher given so many options for ranged tactics. Double the monsters hit points and I still would have ranged them to death – it would have just taken longer.

I died in 3 places. The first two were avoidable. I was beating on cold fire and had him at a fraction of his hp and thought he would die before I did – I was wrong. With some more patience and a cure pot or two I would not have needed a res cake. When you turn in the last clue to the guard outside of Smythes house there are numerous Taken near the school house. I was intent on using the shrines in the school house and had forgotten the Taken respawn. My plan to clear them out Rambo style led to my eventual undoing.

Finally, the end boss killed me – several times. I had him down to 80% health at best. When I would res he could kill me in 5 to 10 seconds. I was usually dominated, then stoned. I found my death block items were not always saving me. If I used a rescake inside or adjacent to the beholder I would sometimes immediately die? My death block items had become broken by then so this might have played a factor. When I rezed in an alcove and buffed up I found I was soon debuffed. I was basically going toe to toe with the Beholder, not trying to move around or use missile attacks from a safe location as I might in a non test environment.

The boss seemed fair; I approve of the changes. If I wanted a push-over with an under level under gear character I would have selected the Casual option.

The challenge felt right for Normal.

[Shade]

finesse build dropping down to just under 200 hp when swapping into a silver flame necklace for negative level absorption. I used +1 greater aberration bane & weakening light mace and a +1 paralyzing rapier through most of the quest. I also used paralyzing bow and silver long bow.

He doesn't actually have any death spells, nor energy drain abilities.. And silver flames prot evil doesnt work. So wearing a silver flame vs him, actually has no effect. (he can insta kill you with the prismatic rays, if they dont back fire like they do 90% of hte time, but deathblock wont help ya there)

I suspect my play experience with this under geared character is more representative of the unwashed masses without green steel than feedback received from most of us level 20 veterans on lamannia.

I'd agree for normal or casual. If you went in on hard/elite and expected to do well on such a character.. id have other things to say heh.

If anything, the quest could be made tougher given so many options for ranged tactics. Double the monsters hit points and I still would have ranged them to death – it would have just taken longer.

True. Very easy encounters for ranged characters, especially casters. The takens ranged attacks are rather trivial. Tho more hp I dont htink would add much challenge here.. They have quite a bit on hard/elite as is. Higher saves and more DR would work better imo.

Finally, the end boss killed me – several times. I had him down to 80% health at best. When I would res he could kill me in 5 to 10 seconds. I was usually dominated, then stoned. I found my death block items were not always saving me. If I used a rescake inside or adjacent to the beholder I would sometimes immediately die?

He very quickly applies his flesh sear DoT. It's only 1d6 (initial + every 2 seconds), but if you rez with several death penalties, i imagine that your hp may be in that range, and thus drop very fast if not instantly.

The boss seemed fair; I approve of the changes.

Exactly what changes did you notice?
I couldnt find any.

Tho the release notes today say something about his abilities being upgraded yet again, maybe this was the real patch to make him a good challenge.

[Alanim]

Something I'd like to note, why exactly do the taken have a con score of 8?(I was wrong when I said 10.)

And I don't even think they have a inflated save like most mobs... I have a feeling their fortitude save is ACTUALLY -1, which is the... WORST IDEA I'VE EVER HEARD, You can WoP then... a level 1 can stun them(if he can hit), wail them, etc. etc. They NEED a fortitude save.

Also I fought the chaos beholder in "In the flesh" and I have a feeling if this beholder is now anything like that one, then it could be pretty fun, but he lacks that... kill you really fast if you're unprepared effect that most beholders have... Unless you're a warforged, most beholder fights last about 10-20 seconds, and one of you are going to die in those 10-20 seconds... this does not feel that way...

Perhaps you could give him like a scorching ray eye ray/lightning bolt/something that hurts, I noticed he used cyclonic blast but that has a reflex save(and sucks) Or maybe give it the standard beholder disintegrate/horrid wilting? That could be fun?

[Terebinthia]

By far the best quest in this series. It has a very neat atmosphere, and gives the impression that this little corner of Stormreach might have been pretty nice if it wasn't for all the creepiness. I like running across all the crazy people and that insanity effect when finding evidence is really well done. I actually wish you would have used it a bit more throughout the series

I really like the quest, but I almost feel like some of the creepiness was a bit lost towards the end. All the flesh renders and tharaak hounds that appear after the school house pretty much point immiediately that all this is happening because of Xoriat. I think it would be a bit better if they were saved towards the final third of the quest. Prior to that it should be more about crazed animals and other things that have been drive insane.

I actually don't think we should even see a "Taken" until the very end of the quest. That would build up the whole "Where have all these people gone, and what are they doing with them." Then the beholder can do the big reveal.

Anyway, I do really like this quest. I wish all the quests of the Taken series could get that same feeling scariness and insanity.

This is very much my line of thinking on this quest too.