Up the Difficulty Level of Quests.

[MadDruid]

I've been playing now for about 4 years First on Euro and swopped to US after F2P started and still enjoy it however what I have noticed is the game is generally becoming easier and easier over the years as gear has increased in power and the various class enhancements have upped the class's effectiveness.

For example one quest series I used to love was Deleras....a full party on elite at lvl 7-8 had a decent scrap and was a fun quest...Now it's soloable with little challenge to someone of that lvl and it is a shame that like this huge chunks of the game are now walkbyable as class enhancements have wiped out the challenge.

It would be nice if from the early midgame say lvl 6 quests the difficulty of Hard and Elite are upped instead of +1/2 lvl or whatever it is now (never paid that much notice to that detail) difficulty is increased by +2/+4 or even more so that those who are new to the area can play through as is on normal but hard and elite are still a challenge in the current higher power game. Prehaps even at the high midgame lvl 14 onwards the difference is increased even further to make hard/elite setting actually difficult.

[somenewnoob]

The fact you've been running the same quests for 4 years and know a lot about the game probably contributes a lil bit to the easy too eh?

As is any game that you've played for a while. You know what's good, you become a better player, know what works and doesn't, monster weaknesses, etc.

[Gkar]

Just bring back the under-level bonus and people will again do quests at quest L-3 instead of quest L+1

[redspecter23]

I'm not against upping the difficulty of hard and elite on many quests. Make it level +2 for hard and level +4 for elite. Suddenly you open up a whole whack of new potential high level content for us to farm for xp as well. You could use elite gianthold walkups as quests to run for xp at level 18 if you wish at that point. Of course this only works if the difficulty scales up well enough to be a challenge at the appropriate level. In theory it could be good though.

[somenewnoob]

I kind of wish more quests scaled like Devil Assault, 6/12/18 on n/h/e

Who wouldn't want to run a level 18 stealthy repossession! lol

That just would be fun to run old favorites at high levels. I envision level 20 STK!

[mindlessdrone1991]

I've been playing now for about 4 years

/facepalm

[danotmano1998]

Just bring back the under-level bonus and people will again do quests at quest L-3 instead of quest L+1

^^ This. +1.

Sorry OP, I can't agree with you on this. If you want more challenge, run it under level. There ya go!

[Raithe]

I kind of wish more quests scaled like Devil Assault, 6/12/18 on n/h/e

This.

It has been claimed in the past by certain developers that hard and elite already increase the difficulty of the quest by 2-3 or 4-5 levels, respectively.

I would like every quest to scale appropriately for a particular level, have versions that were appropriate for capped characters, and be openable by characters several levels lower than the quest level (perhaps 5 levels or more). This would allow the entire spectrum of quests to be available to any character of any level, and would allow groups that need a higher challenge to find it.

Favor would follow the quest level progression, rather than be associated with normal/hard/elite, which would just go away entirely.

[Lithic]

Just bring back the under-level bonus and people will again do quests at quest L-3 instead of quest L+1

Not on a TR2+, unless you enjoy farming Amrath's 200xp/min quests :/

I'd probably farm a few quests underlevel before lvl 12 though.

[puget]

^^ This. +1.

Sorry OP, I can't agree with you on this. If you want more challenge, run it under level. There ya go!

I couldn't agree with you more. As a strictly solo player, I have a difficult time running ANY quest on elite until I am 4 or better levels above it, only need about 1 and occasionally 2 levels above any low level market/harbor quest though.

[MadDruid]

True knowledge of the game is worth 2 or more lvls in game but so does high powered gear. You get knowledge by being challenged and when lvl 4 toons are running around clearing quests solo by gear alone where are these new players getting the challenge....Yes it's fun but when they hit high lvls join a VOD run and do the charge in all guns blazing approach that has done them so well in everything else can we realy blaim them when things go wrong for they are doing when the game up to that point has been pretty much that approach.

There must be challenge to learn how to play clever and the power of equipment + class's has ballooned over the last few years especially in the mid lvls with the semi-craftable stuff from things like sentinals series or combi groups like the much over farmed Chronoscope.

While I do actually like many of these ideas for they give you reason to replay quests other than xp but at the same time they have skewed the difficulty lvls in favor of the player to a point where like I said you can just run through a lot of the low/middle level stuff without ever needing to talk to another person. DnD and DDO are primarily social games but to group up for a lot of these quests now is to make them so easy as to be boring.

I'm not suggesting as someone has said huge jumps such as harbour (I recognise that for totally new players the harbor can be a challenge) runs at lvl 18 but certainly starting from the midgame some increase in difficulty would be welcome at least from me.

[Bardgellor]

One problem is self manageable, stop twinking your lowbies with gear and plat. Play each character with the same limitations as a new character would have. Most quests are plenty hard at level without twinkage. Of coarse, playing with a bunch of TR's who are powering through everything would ruin the effect, so pug as well and avoid TRs. I guarantee the game will be more difficult without Turbine having to adjust everything based on the gear available to long term players.

Regarding the increase in power due to class enhancements, nobody says you have to take em at lv 6, wait a while, play like it was the good old days if that is what you want.

Also note that many of the mobs in the game are now a bit deadiler after the last spell pass. In particular, lightning bolt is rather deadly now (at least if you don't use 30 pt ship resist buffs that is).

The moral is, don't use the easy button if you want a challenge.

[der_kluge]

The only thing making the game harder will do is to kill more new players.

[MadDruid]

It was not twinking a new toon that brought this idea to mind, I recently started a mage as I have not played one since I left Euro so long ago...Decided to go from scratch no item transfers or cash injections and apart from being a 32 point build and Veteran was as bare naked as he could get and I'm shocked how easy it is these days.

I dont think it would have any negative effect on new players as I wasn't suggesting we make the basic quests harder...normal stays as it is, it is hard and elite I suggest get bumped to make them...well hard. And the reason I suggest it only starts from lvl 6 quests onwards is because that discounts the korthos/harbour and a good chunk of the market by which time the player should be ready to face the fact quests can fail and require more than just a autoattack button.

[Kushiel]

Allow the Dev's to focus on new content... especially since, I think, they are in the process of continuing to add the higher level content sets(?) which will meet the desires that many have expressed for where gaining XP becomes a struggle. (And also the desires for newer high level content that allows the capped 20's something exciting to do with their "finished" builds.)

If there is an effort applied to peremptory changes on already existing content, there likely would be a upswing on the routine arguments and "discussions" over things are too hard, things are too easy, everything keeps changing, and the new thing is bad. ;-}

The world overall - in general - still has need of more content. Lots more content at all levels. Not so much for the *need* to bring in XP (even for us multi-TR'd sorts)... but to broaden the scope of the stories, to give people more options about where they will explore to gather XP, to provide a spread of different experiences while leveling for the multitude of existing classes (and those yet to come).

And... yes, selfishly... some of the "old" quests, as they are now, are actually becoming *fun* to run (on Elite even with an imperfect party, a "sub-optimal" build, a lightly geared character) instead of a lurching PITA that is only a harvest of frustration for the time invested in a try for completion.

[Gkar]

Not on a TR2+, unless you enjoy farming Amrath's 200xp/min quests :/

I'd probably farm a few quests underlevel before lvl 12 though.

Hmm... you may have a point. My first TR2 is only L16ish right now and I'm looking nervously ahead. But if they ever add a proper amount of high level content and/or address the totally stupid xp on some high level quests it would be viable.

[Gkar]

One problem is self manageable, stop twinking your lowbies with gear and plat. Play each character with the same limitations as a new character would have. .

I did that for the first 3 years I played. At which point it was no longer challenging even untwinked and far less fun.

[sirgog]

I kind of wish more quests scaled like Devil Assault, 6/12/18 on n/h/e

This.

Devil Assault itself was a really dull quest (although it's fine on Epic).

Sadly, the 6/12/18 baby seems like it was thrown out with the '1 room wait ages for spawns' bathwater.