The Official Breaking the Ranks Discussion Thread!

[SqueakofDoom]

Please use this thread to discuss the Storm Horns Quest: Breaking the Ranks.

[oradafu]

I did this on Epic Normal without a healer. Big mistake. I died. I didn't complete the quest, although I got the main boss activated, so I don't think I missed much of the quest.

This is a decent variation of Ring of Fire. Ring the bell and mobs spawn. Kill mobs then deal with a new set of mobs of a different type. It looked like there was four rounds/waves before getting the big boss activated.

Before starting the Epic Normal quest, I checked out the XP for the Heroic version. Horrible XP: 1984/3553/3676/3800. I can only imagine how bad the optional XP is for Heroic since the Epic Normal optional XP was about 550 XP. Ugh! The Heroic XP needs a big boost here and the optional XP for Epic needs to be increased a bit also.

[-Zephyr-]

I noticed the boss optionals coming with each wave are not counted as being part of the waves (probably because they're optional). But this cause the next wave to be coming before I was actually done with the previous wave... because trash dies much faster than those optionals.
It wasn't a problem on epic normal, since I didn't have to shrine for the entire quest and was able to ring the bell before each wave came, but on higher difficulties this can mean no pause between waves, especially for weaker groups who need them.
I'd like it better if the waves only ended after the boss's death (like in Devil's Assault), or when you ring the bell again (so that the bosses are still "optional", you can make the next wave come while they are still alive by ringing the bell, once the rest of the wave is dead).

[Grosbeak07]

Is there a way to fight the dragon?

Very similar to the arena fights in Eveningstar.

This quest was probably harder than it really is, due to the super inflated hp of the red named mobs.

Some more optional rare named monsters would be fun (stuff that doesn't always spawn). Something to make groups, go "On no,.. not again".

[oradafu]

Is there a way to fight the dragon?

I wasn't able to complete the quest (mostly because I was taking too much damage on a character with no evasion from the various spells). But I was able to get the Dracolich activated. I still had the Red named Giant (too many HPs) and th red named Shar caster to deal with, and maybe the Shadar-Kai spawns. The Dracolich was no longer sitting on his perch but hovering over the perch so that previous safe spots from it was no longer safe. The Dracolich never landed where you could melee it when I ran the quest (again, I didn't complete it so maybe it does drop down to be meleed). But it took range damage from me while both perched and hovering.

[patang01]

This one is tough - the red names have way to much HP - I did it on EN with among all 2 hirelings and since you can only shrine once they eventually ran out of HP.

Most of all because the dragon kept smacking them with ice damage and they eventually died. The death wards are annoying and really don't serve a function other then making maneuvering hard.

I don't mind wave type quests but please look over HP on the red named - I was running my 2 weapon handed fighter at it took forever for him to grind them down.

I never got to fight the dragon - only the bosses, but it was tough going.

[Meretrix]

Like all new quests I soloed on EH with my xbow arti (human, no hirelings or pets) and this was the first time in a looong time I have actually felt challenged. Good job there, DDO seems to be getting way to easy lately it's nice to actually have to try.
Large sprawling quests with puzzles and mazes are my favorite but once in awhile an arena style quest is a welcome diversion.

[Texlaw1992]

Waves were fun, but again, too many hps on the red names.

For those wondering, you never fight the dragon - wizard's the last one.

The dragon keeps firing his iceballs at the middle no matter where you are. Since the mobs congregate in the middle for some reason (not sure if WAI or not), you can stand inside the drawbridge and let the dragon do a lot of the work. I must say, the giant boss spotted me and threw a rock straight at me - it did no damage, but I swear I felt it (lol).

However, there's no gold chalice when the quest concludes - it took me a few seconds to realize it was done.

[RealKorike]

Waves are fun, with CC this quest is moderately easy. This may become an ED farm quest, since it's a quick in and out, if the red named HP are set to be consistent. Otherwise, folks will ignore them as they are listed as optional. If that is what you wanted to create, you got it right.

[LadyKoneko]

Over all fun, kinda like the challenges.

I like another person, didn't realize when the quest was done.. and was kinda disappointed that you couldn't face the dracolich... maybe that as a optional? a path leading up there?

[Leclaire1]

In a way, this quest is one of the more memorable ones in my playtesting experience, but not necessarily in a good way. The concept is great and the opts are great and I like that you can use strategy by standing in the Gnoll camp and drawing mobs in, which was critical to soloing on ehard. It has one fatal flaw, however, and that is that the xp sucks bad. Really bad in proportion to the challenge of the quest. The red-named bosses, for instance, had an incredible amount of hp and took forever to take down soloing on EH. I got all of them, but all I got in return was hundreds of xp, which in epic level content is meaningless. This may just be a big mob fight, but it is a difficult one, and should grant experience proportioanl to that. If the xp isnt fixed on this quest it will be a once per life quest for me.

Two other things. First of all, there isnt enough time to use the shrines before Prefectus summons more mobs, defeating the purpose of shrining or getting an opt. There needs to be more time for people to shrine if they choose to skip the opt. This is especially critlcal for those soloing with hires, as hires arent smart enough to get to the shrines quickly enough.

Additionally, as with the Wheloon chain earlier, this quest broke the chain for me. I turned it into the Swordcaptaon, and yet Lorant just kept telling me to talk to the swordcaptain, which was annoying since I couldnt get chain end rewards.

Overall I think this is a great quest and gives variety to the chain, but it needs a significant xp upgrade in addition to the above two bug fixes.

[Urjak]

Did it with my monkcher ... very fun quests ... soloed at 28 on epic hard ... didn't find it very hard ... the endquest is a lot tougher IMO (the moment where you suddenly go to yellow dungeon alert :O ... soloed the whole chain on EH (without hire) ... only quest I died in was "What Goes Up" ... and I died twice in there lol)

[Melange]

Next version will have a second available chest. Sorry about the lack of loot.

[Carpone]

I had no problems soloing Lines of Supply, Tracker's Trap and a Break in the Ice on Epic Elite the first time I completed them. I died within the first 60 seconds of this quest three times and gave up. There's way too much incoming damage from mobs. The spellwards are annoying and their placement makes no sense.