Feedback - The Lord of Dust

[Shade]

Feedback thread.. Seems they got this one in early enough to perhaps do some tweaks to make it better so lets discuss.

Ran this a lot today - all difficulties (norm, hard, elite, epic).

Story/Fun:
Not much to say. Pretty straightforward quest. Hack and slash. Not bad.

Challenge:
Norm/hard i wont comment on as they aren't really for me.
Elite: Seemed to be within range. Not nearly as hard as quests of similar lvl like In the flesh elite.. But closer to easy ones like Missing. First in the series, so thats ok.

Epic:
Far too easy.
We ran it in a full group: Mix of veterans/new players:
2 geared fvs.
me (geared bbn)
ranger - likely fairly new to epics, ~350 hp, basic weaponry
Decent sorc/brd - not max geared, but enough for most epics.

We took our time and no regular mob survive more then a cpl seconds. HP are far too low. Saves seemed to be zero as well. Fvs commented that enemies saved against all their spells far more on hard/elite when we tried those difficulties after. I didnt get a single save on my stunnign blow ~DC 35-40 without my +10 stun wep.

Basicly just felt the same as elite. The only danger in the whole quest was the few traps, the ranger died in those a bunch, rest of us just zerged through and had enough hp, didnt even need to dodge em.

Bosses: Pretty much every named in here is just an orange named.. So either our sor/bard danced em, or I tripped em and they did nothing.. I like orange named in epics as it gives us more options.. But they should have good saves against trip and probably mind block so they cant be danced, or at least fairly high SR. Seemed like no attempts to dance the rakshasa failed, so either they have no SR, or very low SR.

End boss: A pure melee mob that does exactly the same dmg as the trash mobs, cept he has twf so hits twice.. Pathetic really. Died in about ~10 seconds.

I mean yea, its hte first in the series, doesnt need to be that tough. But it should at least "feel" epic.. This other then traps (which seem out of place given how easy it is) doesnt atm, but with some tweaks it could.

But on the other hand, the VERY next update we are getting epic levels and seemingly far more powerful enhancements, so why make the content so insanely easy? Why not make it real hard so we can really look forward to the extra power the expansion pack will bring?
I mean we're all gona get epic lvls on doubt, so why not start now on making content that could actaully challenge us when we get there so we have more to run then just the 1 pack it comes with - which while im sure may be very large, definetely wont be enough endgame content to keep players busy for the long haul.

Suggested tweaks:
HP:
Massive boost.. 2x+, Should aim for 6k on melee types, 4k on casters.
I mean we ran Elite Mindsunder just after this quest to check the new end rewards, and we all commented that the monsters hp and overall diffculty of mindsunder (a lvl20 on elite vs a lvl25 epic quest) were far more challenge in mindsunder.. And mindsunder is by most accounts a pretty easy quest itself.
EG: Mindsunder elite basic trash mob: ~6k hp.. This quest: ~1.5k. Doesn't make any sense.

Dmg:
Cultist: Um they seemed to do nothing, perhaps its intended since there shordes of them.
Attack dogs: Reasonable dmg output on par with other epics
Rakshasa: Generally use very weak spellcasting, they should have at least maximize like other epic casters, they clearly do not.
Bosses: Needs a huge boost in dmg output, at least double.. Encourage teamplay and actually taking melee along or this quest will simply be solo'd by casters all the time to save time.

Traps:
Reasonable, they did kill our ranger a bunch, so they did their job of killing the unprepared I guess.

Notably the barrels are bugged on epic tho:
Elite exploading barrel: ~250 fire dmg
Epic: 10 dmg

Loot:
Epic is properly dropping seals, scrolls and shards.. So thats awesome =) Havent seen a proper epic quest that actaully works straight up on lam in like.. ever.

Course there is one bug:
No epic chest. No epic fragments. (Its quite a short quest so ~30-50 frags woudl be appropriate)
The regular endchest does drop the shards tho, just seems to look and sound more epic'er.

Loot stats:
Eh too early to comment, some stuff looks like it has epic potential, but lately everythings been so dispointing stats wise im not nearly as excited as I was back in the day of the REAL epics (Desert, Dragon).
And with epic lvls looming, loot appropriate for lvl25 characters IS exactly what we should start to see here.

Just glad the seals/shards drop, and there appears to be a nice variety of items, seen scroll/shard/seals for at least 10+ items at this point.

[Shade]

Less raging about nerfs, more feedback plx.

Devs like quest feedback. It gives them super powers to get in the mood to reverse nerfs .. Probably.

[LeLoric]

They also like feedback in the thread they started to gather such feedback

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=359416

[Wraith_Sarevok]

Think character copy service is still down. Mine is moving into it's 7th hour since I started. Probably why most people haven't been able to play the new quest.

[AMDarkwolf]

Shade, if I might ask, did u test elite with an epicly geard toon(Sounds like it) and have you tried it with, maybe, an at level toon who 'might' hit it for bravery?

How is the challenge at level on elite? (Compare to running ITF and Acute delirium on elite at 17 or less, or 19 or less for AD?

Just trying to hope that your not 'helping' them adjust the challenge what 'YOU' feel it should be, as both those quests are EXTREMELY challenging and in no way reflect the rest of the series they belong in(On elite)

Also is it possible they toned down AD a bit on elite(to better reflect that pre 20's would be doing it?) and similar to in the flesh, which imo only the end fight needs a slight tweek(Not much, but a few less flayers and beholders during the end fight would better fit for its level)