Feedback - Quest - The Lord of Stone

[Meretrix]

Those look nothing like half orcs

[Angelus_dead]

Those look nothing like half orcs

And why is that relevant? It's not as if DDO's Orlassk looks like a half-orc.

Hint: Having broad shoulders doesn't make you a half-orc.

[arkonas]

did it on hard and i was very disappointed. there wasnt much of a difference and only 2 chests one for the medusa and end one. figured more excitement but MEH. hoping elite might be more fun but we will see

[Claver]

To those complaining about appearances, .... I think that they more or less match the human guide the Daelkyr are so fond of.

For me, it's more a question of context. Take Bishop Dryden by comparison. He's just some old guy in robes but in his chamber he exudes power because he is shown on top of a dais with a throne, flanked by braziers and iron defenders with a banner behind him and impressive lighting from the stained glass above.

Now compare this to the Lord of Stone. He just looks like a random hireling climbed atop a pile of rubble in a coal mine for a game of King of the Mountain.

It is implied he likes gems and says he can create them during dialogue so if he is trapped underground for all of eternity wouldn't he have created some Topaz chandeliers, Sapphire columns and maybe a Ruby throne just for kicks. More to the point, putting him in such a setting would have made him seem much more Lordly.

Even a setting of granite twisted in some baroque Dr. Suess-ian/Daelkyr mad design would have gone along way to establishing trappings of power; but a pile of rocks - not so much.

[Meretrix]

I think the boss in this dungeon should have been a giant Gargoyle since I don't think we've seen any of those yet. A giant Gargoyle boss doing his regeneration thing could make for quite a challenging encounter on elite.

He should drop a cloak called the cloak of stone. It gives dr and a chance to proc stoneskin on being hit, its also got a clicky which makes you unable to move or perform any actions for a short duration but grants more dr and regeneration.

[Claver]

I think the boss in this dungeon should have been a giant Gargoyle since I don't think we've seen any of those yet. A giant Gargoyle boss doing his regeneration thing could make for quite a challenging encounter on elite.

He should drop a cloak called the cloak of stone. It gives dr and a chance to proc stoneskin on being hit, its also got a clicky which makes you unable to move or perform any actions for a short duration but grants more dr and regeneration.

That would have been cool; for that matter, a special attack where a player would get turned into gargoyles for 30 seconds (the quest giver mentions 2 of the emissaries were turned into gargoyles) would have been interesting.....anything, ANYTHING to differentiate this quest from others would be good. It simply adds nothing new to the game.

[Dark-Star]

Very unlike the other new quests, sure did not seem to fit with the theme. Almost feels like it was rush-added last minute.

That said, there is a very simple way to make this quest better by changing two things:

Put a timer in the quest, and either make it a fail if it goes over, or optional xp and chest if you finish X amount of time, something less of a reward if you finish in x-5 minutes, etc. Something to make it less of snooze hack and slash quest.

Second thing, make the end fight much harder.

While not a bad quest, like others have said it was the least creative of the new U10 additions.

[Bodic]

This quest begs zerg invis haste go.

weak mobs on Norm solo ran it twice took lvl 15wiz/ 20 fvs thru in a breeze.

Yes the zone could use a graphic upgrade, but he is Mad and tells that you only rate viewing his domain as a cavern not a grand palace.

end fight blah cheese.

[Crazyfruit]

I had the same "meh" feeling my first time through. I went with a fast group and was only thinking "Well, it's better than Sinister Storage at least. Big cave, doesn't really fit the other dungeons or feel like another plane. A few nice rooms & funny boss."

I don't like leaving that kind of feedback though, so I went back in alone to poke around. The dungeon was better than what I expected when I immersed myself in the experience looking at details instead of running through.

Overall:
I was very disappointed in this dungeon. BUT it's not because of the dungeon itself. The storyline placing it in Khyber, knowing it was a demigod's lair, that he created medusas & my expectations after completing the last two built it up to be something else in my mind. With a different story attached, bit lower level (felt 13ish) & some other guy at the end I'd have liked it.

The last dungeon I felt this way about was "Mining with Ancient Secrets", way back in Update 2. The quori just started opening portals and invading Eberron again... and then we got a small cave with a bunch of wildmen & humans... ramble ramble. Had a lot more potential in my imagination - I put a bit of what I remembered hoping for below

Challenge:

• as 16 sorc, solo norm
• Melees I did it with the first time were taking a lot of equipment damage. That's a good thing IMO. I'm assuming they were attacking regenerating gargoyles.
• Kudgel was neat looking, but no threat at all.
• Stone golems seemed like they'd be pretty nasty if I didn't have damage reduction/blocking, the rocks they threw were around 60 damage a wave.
• The petrification attack some of these monsters did worked on Warforged. That almost got me killed, thought mine'd be immune
• Gargoyles would've been a bigger threat if they could petrify people too, or had some form of secondary attack.
• Lots of shrines at expected places, but the areas before them weren't hard enough to make me need to use a single one.
• I wasn't challenged at all soloing normal on a level 16 earth savant other than being petrified at the wrong time, I did have to heal around 900 hp through the quest though. The group I did it with earlier lawnmowered the dungeon.
• I could've just exclusively used my Melf's Acid Arrow SLA in here. Almost all the monsters died in one casting of that, and they were spread out enough that the cooldown was never a problem.

Environment:

• Loved seeing a dungeon with lots of underused monsters.
• I liked the new artwork touches. The monsters did seem stone-like.
• Most of the other dungeons in DDO feel as if they were made with "dungeon tiles" & touched up with decorations, this one totally didn't. The constantly uneven walls added a lot to the immersive atmosphere.
• It didn't really seem like the home of an insane demigod. Some creative graphic objects the DM comments on would've helped with that.
• The giant molten rocks bouncing out of lava were cool. I swam through that area looking for a secret.
• Most rooms & corridors felt "the same", even though there were a lot of little differences. This feeling was intensified going through the dungeon quickly.
• This dungeon didn't seem otherworldly. I'm not sure what you could've done to change that, maybe a few glowy sparkly stuff/eyecandy effects scattered around like those colored jagged points... I think using a bit more of the lava & its bouncy rocks with flaming gargoyles as regular monsters would've helped.

Story:

• Didn't we just hand over the MacGuffineye Scepter to the Daelkyr so he'd close the portal to Khyber (and Xoriat)? And then another is casually open in the middle of the 12? That would've been less offsetting if there was a little room at the start of the dungeon. With a few 12 guys talking about the storyline, and opening the portal for you themselves.
• Those of us not familiar with Eberron outside of the game could use a bit more explaining about the backstory between these two and those rules/their game or whatever.

Monsters:

• I was expecting a lot more medusas in here.
• While the baddies most certainly fit the dungeon with their appearances, they also helped contribute to the "sameness" of every room & area.
• A little more graphical variety with the gargoyles and stone golems would've been nice. Like a few of them having crystals stuck to them, or using a different texture.
• Liked the Eye Spies helping us fight monsters, then turning on us after.
• Would've loved to see some monsters appearing to climb out of the walls, like that optional in Undermine... maybe even the floors!

Optionals:

• Khyber gems all seemed in the same locations on my runs.
• The quest giver mentions sending other groups before who were transformed into gargoyles. I was looking for them the second time through.
• This dungeon would've perfect for some crazy optionals! Like a big medusa fight, 6 at once. With enough health/immunities that groups couldn't simply crowd control or obliterate them. Or an optional room like Fleshmaker's Laboratory, where weaker waves of them keep coming. Those would've helped the immersion aspect too, if they were say announced by a gargoyle bringing a message from the daelkyr who tells you about them & hopes you'll want to play with his creations.
• The eye spies were begging for a named commander Evil Eye.

Daelkyr:

• Orlassk's dialogues made me a laugh a few times.
• I didn't get the feeling that he could easily destroy me or turn me into a stony creation.
• His throne looked good, but needed something else at the top to give a real impression of how powerful he is.
• End battle didn't really show his power either. It would have been more impressive seeming if he had transformed piles of rocks/unrelated decorations into the final two battles instead of just dropping walls.

Rewards:

• Found very few polished stones in here. Only 6 from 118 kills.
• Khyber Gem xp seemed low for all the looking around & optional fights you had to do for them.
• Experience seemed pretty low. But I wouldn't suggest improving it without bumping up the challenge, it's a very easy place compared to other level 17 quests. I really would've liked to see it bumped up through completing crazy optional battles though.
• Pretty low number of chests, especially compared to Acute Delirium.

Bugs:

• Some of the gargoyles guarding a Khyber gem had the Medusa fighting music.
• Talking to the daelkyr while the fights were going on brought up his 1st dialogue.
• Using the crest (2nd one) with a full inventory progressed the objective and woke up the boss even though I didn't pick it up yet.
• Some of the stone giants were inactive until I stood next to them, even though they were partrolling a bit. I could not target them with my spells until they attacked me. These were not named guys, just a few randoms in the corridors.

normal Completion Time: 54 minutes
That was in slowpoke mode. I'd guess it'd have taken me around 20 minutes to solo it quickly, or quite a bit faster relying on AOE attacks like EatSmart.

Reign of Madness pack preview opinion

• These quests did something I never expected from just a content pack... brought back my interest in DDO. Update 9's changes (Super overpowered Savant SLAs, Epics having casters be gods or like carrot chopping for melees, Echoes of power, instadeath immunities removed, ramble ramble) pretty much killed my desire to play. It was really nice seeing your developers are still trying to give players a challenge with some of the other quests. And now I want to do these quests with a bunch of different groups to see how they'll react to the weird stuff & challenging bosses. I'll be taking a 2+ month break after that though hoping update 11 swings DDO back to being interesting/harder.
• The crafting effects are "something for everyone", instead of just benifiting a single type of character. Love that.
• Will be a first day purchase from me. Unfortunately for you, that'll be with free TP I earned doing everything on elite in the past months trying to challenge my Savant. If you guys threw new cool stuff into the DDO store too with u10 I'd have probably bought them, because these quests were good enough that I'd want to pay for them. But here's a virtual $1000 - fun pack, and something I'll be recommending to my friends.
• New evil eye monsters are awesome. They encourage active combat dodging rays, and different ways to kill them with their huge reflex saves & evasion. Sometimes they also wander for 20 seconds instead of attacking though.
• New eye horrors are very underused. Die too fast to get a good look at them.
• New mimic was neat. Hope to see more of them.
• New beholders aren't very threatening, at least that I've seen. Every non-boss battle would've been more of a challenge if they were the regular kind. But I'm also glad they're not, yikes @ all the negative levels we'd get. Their textures could use a little more variety in color.

@Claver:
A big plus one to you for that meeting, lol

@Dark-Star:

Put a timer in the quest, and either make it a fail if it goes over, or optional xp and chest if you finish X amount of time, something less of a reward if you finish in x-5 minutes, etc. Something to make it less of snooze hack and slash quest.

I'd normally agree, but I don't think people would enjoy rushing it through it without some environmental changes. Other timed dungeons like Prey & Invasion work well because they're mazey and each area feels different. Here it'll be a blurry (boring) zoom to the finish... but I imagine many people will run through it that way anyways instead of poking around.

[Crazyfruit]

Elite
(Party) sure this isnt epic!?!?
(Party) never had to heal that much. ever

That was from the very first fight. Soon after:

(Party) < officially scared

Much better challenge - improve normal though please

Characters: level 16 sorcerer & level 12/2/2 favored soul
Completion time: 79 minutes. 5 deaths

Resources used:
Around 80 reconstruct scrolls
Around 6 mana pots.
Siberys Cake
Repair Efreeti

- The sideroom after the hole where you drop down into lava area is so not worth it here. DDoor'd and left the monsters there to avoid them.
- Minibosses easier than expected.
- We wanted more shrines hehe.
- Respawns got to be a little annoying. Also surprised by them when going afk... not sure why they do that here, it made sense in the other dungeons.

[RandomKeypress]

Lev 20 repeater rogue w. lev 20 FvS hireling. Normal. 42 minutes.
Never actually felt threatened. Using ranged damage, so weapon wear wasn't an issue. Enjoyed looking for the extra bits, but a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be too many hidden areas. Picked up twelve or thirteen gems and killed eleven eyes. Slightly curious to know what happens if you don't bother.
Long quest - lots of running around without lots to do.
Nice to see the interesting monster selection.
Not a fan of the orange dangling crystals - they just looked lifeless in comparison to other crystal formations in the game.
I nth the comment that the ultra-powerful insane god-like being could stand to be a bit more impressive. If he's imaginative enough to create medusae, I'd hope that he'd be able to come up with something more interesting for his throne room.
An optional mass medusa fight would be fun! Or lethal. Sounds good anyway.

Like many others, I had built up expectations for a visit to khyber, and I must admit I hoped for something along the lines of Rainbow.
I would like to say thank you, though, for making the gems obvious and visible - pixel hunts are never fun.

[arkonas]

i went back on elite to solo with my 18fvs 2 monk. no challenge still. zerg zerg kill zerg zerg zerg kill. didnt even get xtra stuff at the bosses. sadly i was disappointed. no xtra monsters at the boss fights to make it worth a challenge. i just think some optional bosses would make this place shine traps would have made it fun like a huge boulder crushing you as you run for your life and kill stuff with a timer on the quest and traps added. now that would make people jump. their like omg its right behind us lol if you get hit by it you die not hurt but die no save like undermines nice explosives

[MrkGrismer]

He just looks like a random hireling climbed atop a pile of rubble in a coal mine for a game of King of the Mountain.

Now there you go, giving away the next Challenge Quest...

[Claver]

Now there you go, giving away the next Challenge Quest...

LOL! Stock up on your grease clickies now and make a killing on the auction house.

[Crazyfruit]

i went back on elite to solo with my 18fvs 2 monk. no challenge still. zerg zerg kill zerg zerg zerg kill.

I'm assuming you used Blade Barrier, would it have been harder for ya if the gargoyles had improved evasion?

This wouldn't have made it much worse for my lil group that had trouble ^.

[Raveneia]

Very stale and way too stoney
The atmosphere reminds me of in the demons den
what about some new monsters? gargoyles are so lowbie sorrowdusk..lol

I'd like something abit more exciting to keep me in interested in the quest like chronoscope graphics or new monsters would be cool.

Very little challenge too

[arkonas]

this quest had a lot of potential to it. i really did enjoy the looks but just not the challenge offered like the other ones :P nothing really new. just they might hit harder and yes i used blade barrier