Notes of 12/6: Rusted blades and End of the Road "nerfed"

[Tid12]

NEW: Overall experience for the quest "House of Rusted Blades" has been increased - base experience for the quest has been reduced, but the experience for the optional objectives has been increased even more.

NEW: The quest "End of the Road" has a new additional quest objective. You must now kill a certain number of Netherese forces in addition to killing the demon to complete the quest.

Both lame.

Can anyone check what's the new exp base of Rusted blades? And how many mobs you have to kill in End of the Road?

Rusted blades

What can I say? At least it was done now and not when MotU was released. Most of the vets will have their destinies done by now so no problem there..but it leads to the next question:

Why change it now?
It just seems silly to do it now. Either do it from the start or don't change it all. It will just hurts new and casual players, and we don't want that, right? RIGHT?


End of the Road:

Depending of the number of the mobs, my opinion will be different. Let me know if you can check and post it here.

[JOTMON]

To be fair its more of a fix than a nerf and who didn't see this coming....

Both those quests had methods to easily comple without working for it.

Rusted Blades optionals were worthless for xp vs just doing the speed completion.


Braggarts that forum post and laugh about how easy it is to run these quests in next to no time for massive xp/min are pretty much guaranteed to result in corrective actions to these quests.

Zonixx's post of an 8 minute completion of him carrying 5 DC'd soulstones to the end and solo killing the endboss for easy completion probably embarrassed Devs to fastrack fix this one.

[shadereaper33]

To be fair its more of a fix than a nerf and who didn't see this coming....

Both those quests had methods to easily comple without working for it.

Rusted Blades optionals were worthless for xp vs just doing the speed completion.


Braggarts that forum post and laugh about how easy it is to run these quests in next to no time for massive xp/min are pretty much guaranteed to result in corrective actions to these quests.

Zonixx's post of an 8 minute completion of him carrying 5 DC'd soulstones to the end and solo killing the endboss for easy completion probably embarrassed Devs to fastrack fix this one.

fix or not, the change to rusted blades is a "nerf", simply because optional xp will decay every completion even when you are capped. Now, if they change that mechanic so that optional xp doesn't decay once you hit character xp cap, then there would be no problem at all with this change. Unfortunately, after a few runs of doing the optional, the total xp available in the quest will become less than it is currently, thus nerf.

[Gkar]

Braggarts that forum post and laugh about how easy it is to run these quests in next to no time for massive xp/min are pretty much guaranteed to result in corrective actions to these quests.

This.

When people come whining to the forums that everyone should use that method to level and not play the rest of the game while levelling it is only reasonable to expect corrective action.

fix or not, the change to rusted blades is a "nerf", simply because optional xp will decay every completion even when you are capped. Now, if they change that mechanic so that optional xp doesn't decay once you hit character xp cap, then there would be no problem at all with this change. Unfortunately, after a few runs of doing the optional, the total xp available in the quest will become less than it is currently, thus nerf.

Run more than one quest to level?

[Tid12]

To be fair its more of a fix than a nerf and who didn't see this coming....

Both those quests had methods to easily comple without working for it.

Rusted Blades optionals were worthless for xp vs just doing the speed completion.


Braggarts that forum post and laugh about how easy it is to run these quests in next to no time for massive xp/min are pretty much guaranteed to result in corrective actions to these quests.

Zonixx's post of an 8 minute completion of him carrying 5 DC'd soulstones to the end and solo killing the endboss for easy completion probably embarrassed Devs to fastrack fix this one.

That's exactly my point. Everyone saw that coming, so why change it now? From day 1 everyone stated that it was an XP fest.
We need to know how the XP was changed for the optionals and the base one. If the optionals aren't done properly, everyone will keep skipping them.

About End of Road, I agree. But, instead of doing a "Kill X mobs" seems lame, they could have changed the evidence's optionals there to be a required objective or something similar. Guess it's just me that I don't like the "kill x mobs" objectives.

[hit_fido]

As far as rusted blades - sad to see it go, there are some things I will absolutely not grind, like chance based drops for seals and shards, but participated in this one just because you knew you're at least getting something useful every run.

However, the solution of lower base and higher optional xp was among those frequently offered/affirmed by players, and Turbine did put it out there in advance release notes instead of sliding it in unannounced. So, it's hard to complain about this change overall.

[Grosbeak07]

These are both fair fixes.

Essentially the player base didn't run these quests as the Devs had designed. As was hinted at in the one dev post, the initial feedback (mournlands?) seem to support that players were running Rusted Blades as "expected", but that quickly went out the door on live.

It was a good run for 6 months. Go grind something else now.


As for End of the Road, I'm not fond of the the Kill X mob to complete, but I assume that was a simple enough fix without really mucking about with the quest. I agree, making the evidence gathering required instead of optional would also achieve the same thing, by causing players to kill at least a few mobs on the way.

[Tid12]

This.

When people come whining to the forums that everyone should use that method to level and not play the rest of the game while levelling it is only reasonable to expect corrective action.


Run more than one quest to level?

As far as rusted blades - sad to see it go, there are some things I will absolutely not grind, like chance based drops for seals and shards, but participated in this one just because you knew you're at least getting something useful every run.

However, the solution of lower base and higher optional xp was among those frequently offered/affirmed by players, and Turbine did put it out there in advance release notes instead of sliding it in unannounced. So, it's hard to complain about this change overall.

These are both fair fixes.

Essentially the player base didn't run these quests as the Devs had designed. As was hinted at in the one dev post, the initial feedback (mournlands?) seem to support that players were running Rusted Blades as "expected", but that quickly went out the door on live.

It was a good run for 6 months. Go grind something else now.


As for End of the Road, I'm not fond of the the Kill X mob to complete, but I assume that was a simple enough fix without really mucking about with the quest. I agree, making the evidence gathering required instead of optional would also achieve the same thing, by causing players to kill at least a few mobs on the way.

All of you are missing the point of the post. I don't consider them nerfed in the strict meaning of the term, hence why I put " ". We all saw the nerf coming to Rusted Blades.

However, we saw it from day 1 of MotU live. So my point is: there is no point in changing it NOW, even if it is a FAIR FIX, like you AND ME are saying.

And about End of the Road, I don't like that kind of objective. That's it. Now, if we must kill 100 mobs, it's lame anyway. But it's just a guess, once we get the proper number of mobs required, I'll state my opinion on it.

Also, neg rep to the OP, really?

[rdasca]

Fair or not it is a nerf to Rusted Blades, to unlock 18 fate point requires a lot of XP, there is not enough XP without running quest over and over wheather it is one quest or ten different ones, so there needs to be a way to grind the XP out.

As it was already said, optional XP degrades the more you run it, therefore this quest will be worth less than it is now no matter how you run it.

And BTW, not everyone has ED capped all their toons, heck I do not have even one of mine fully done yet, because I like doing other things besides farming a quest until my eyes bleed, but I still want somewhere I can go and run a quick quest for a good XP amount when I have nothing else going on.

We all knew it was coming but that still does not make it right, it is just another slap in the face of players who do not cheat and do not take advantage of loopholes like this quest to get all the XP they need in a week-end.

[lugoman]

So I guess now everyone will run down to the weapons rack and take an extra minute to kill the matron before ddooring back and killing boss.

[Bolo_Grubb]

exploit early, exploit often

[Enoach]

Fair or not it is a nerf to Rusted Blades, to unlock 18 fate point requires a lot of XP, there is not enough XP without running quest over and over wheather it is one quest or ten different ones, so there needs to be a way to grind the XP out.

As it was already said, optional XP degrades the more you run it, therefore this quest will be worth less than it is now no matter how you run it.

And BTW, not everyone has ED capped all their toons, heck I do not have even one of mine fully done yet, because I like doing other things besides farming a quest until my eyes bleed, but I still want somewhere I can go and run a quick quest for a good XP amount when I have nothing else going on.

We all knew it was coming but that still does not make it right, it is just another slap in the face of players who do not cheat and do not take advantage of loopholes like this quest to get all the XP they need in a week-end.

I'm a bit confused, on one hand your saying the players need a bunch of XP to level destinies and this change will make it harder to do that because their won't be as much XP available. Then you seem to indicate that running a quest over and over is not your cup-o-tea and then you say its a slap in the face to people that don't run quests over and over until their eyes bleed... If that is what your saying I've lost you somewhere. The only ones that are hit by this change are those that were planning on lining up a running this quest after cap to level destinies.

I think we need to ask ourselves if Turbine ever intended for us to earn Cap and all destines over a weekend of playing, I bet the answer is "No".

I'm not even a 100% convinced they intended the ED system to be traversed in a single life time.

Personally I don't like quests that can be run in 1-2 minutes by killing a single objective. I'm also not fond of Kill X number of... either.

I actually believe the Challenge System was what was intended as "XP Filler" for the Epic content, its the only way I can rationally think why they would make the FR challenge tokens BTC instead of BTA avoiding the outcry that happened when Cannith Challenge was initially BTC.

[Cyr]

The xp/min on that quest was just wrong. If the optionals really are giving a large enough boost to more then make up for it then good.

The design which encouraged running one quest to death (and rusted was not the only one done like this...) to cap xp was bad design.

The game overall would be more enjoyable without those limited number of quests dominating leveling at endgame. Sadly, players will just shift to the next quest in the list for these purposes as this quest was certainly not the only one with this design flaw.

As for End of the Road...well that one I really do not see the need for a change at all.

[Dandonk]

The nerfs are fair enough, who didn't see them coming? Personally I don't mind them all that much. But then, I have only done 8 or hours of grinding Rusted before I started getting homicidal and/or suicidal impulses and had to stop.

I do think that it's time to get the challenge XP back up, though.

[Cyr]

I do think that it's time to get the challenge XP back up, though.

/signed

[JOTMON]

All of you are missing the point of the post. I don't consider them nerfed in the strict meaning of the term, hence why I put " ". We all saw the nerf coming to Rusted Blades.

However, we saw it from day 1 of MotU live. So my point is: there is no point in changing it NOW, even if it is a FAIR FIX, like you AND ME are saying.

And about End of the Road, I don't like that kind of objective. That's it. Now, if we must kill 100 mobs, it's lame anyway. But it's just a guess, once we get the proper number of mobs required, I'll state my opinion on it.

Also, neg rep to the OP, really?

Hopefully they dont screw the base xp like they did the Cannith Challenges so it is still worth something.
That was an XP nerf and killed any interest in me ever running Challenges beyond the first time per life for favor.

Agreed, the kill x mobs is annoying, will have to see how bad that ends up being. Would hate to have to search the map for some missing mob and being unable to complete because they didnt spawn enough of them. Would rather have seen them make us pickup all the scrolls so you could at least use strategy instead of brute force.

That Rep thing is annoying, there should be a better system for giving -rep, anyone can look at your post and give you a -rep with complete anonymity just because they dont like your opinion on a post.

[Hokiewa]

Fair or not it is a nerf to Rusted Blades, to unlock 18 fate point requires a lot of XP, there is not enough XP without running quest over and over wheather it is one quest or ten different ones, so there needs to be a way to grind the XP out.

You contradict yourself here. You were running one quest over and over and over again. You can still do that, albeit just a bit slower.

[hit_fido]

Fair or not it is a nerf to Rusted Blades, to unlock 18 fate point requires a lot of XP, there is not enough XP without running quest over and over wheather it is one quest or ten different ones, so there needs to be a way to grind the XP out.

I suspect Turbine never intended players to feel obligated to grind out 18 fate points. I suspect they intended three twists like 4-2-1 or so on to be a sort of "completionist" level undertaking that would give something for the 1% to work on while everyone else could be well satisfied by a few fate points. The twists really are icing on a very big cake, and running in a maxed destiny even without twists is a big boost.

It may help explain why they didn't change it earlier - what started out as "the 1%" later turned into a significant chunk of the playerbase and then later we/they started becoming frustrated and complaining about how hard getting 18 fate points is when it was supposed to be really hard for most of us to get all along!

[Zonixx]

Rule #6,576

Always have a backup plan.

[Dandonk]

Rule #6,576

Always have a backup plan.

Ah, but I always have a backup to my backup!