make Normal the New Casual

[CrackedIce]

Please move Heroic difficulties down one notch. Casual is the old normal, Normal is the old hard, Hard is the old epic and make Epic difficulty for heroics a harder difficulty.

As it stands no one runs casual. Make the new hard difficulty available to premium accounts and the new epic locked for VIP. So VIP still get the perks of opening on elite for their
streaks.

In short, the major changes recently made each difficulty setting easier than it had been. And f2p and premium currently have to play in easy normal to unlock the higher difficulties. Normal has become soloable for a newbie when it used to provide some sense of accomplishment. That is what casual is supposed to be.

[janave]

Well, playing casual is extremely penalizing, but is good for those who dont care to wear proper gear and just wanna look around in the different areas. Its use is super marginal.


Id say compress into 2 difficulties.

1. Basic mode (about as difficult as the current hard setting, dungeon scaling is on, dungeon altert is more forgiving)
2. Challenge mode (about 50-80% harder to current elites, due to no scaling soloing is much more risky, mobs get +10% all alacrity, +25% PRR-DR, +25% MRR, when they have a special feature like SR - its amped up.)

On Challenge mode, enemies get 3-6-9% immunity/evasion/dodge/fort bypass/deathward - if orange/red/purple named + stacking with their own if they have any as a feature ability.

EXP and Loot drop rates for doing Challenge mode is +50%.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

noobs need to be able to solo.

few lfms + those lfms mostly tr zerg = bad new player experience regardless of what they are looking for in the game. at least if they solo and still stick around theyve adapted to the culture.

but if they ever address this kind of issue, you know theyre just going to ghostbane it.

[rehakp]

I would say new difficulty harder and more ravarding than current elite would not hurt anybody because heroic elite content is soloable with some exceptions for any DDO veteran. But i would be carefull about discarding cuurrent easymode difficulties whitch probably no veteran opened for months maybe years on heroic life. There still could be new players not familiar with game or DnD system and for those making mistakes in char build is extremely punishing. If new player playing rogue for example gimp some traping skills (not that hard for newbie) then its not funny to see those crossclass immortall 30th life veteran druids that can tank,dps,heal and trap better than 5 those other noobz combined together. When you realize you even as pure rogue (gimp) are unable to even search for traps because of game difficulty is set too high for you. If you add some lagzzzzzz experience where 1 rat just wipe your party on lowlvl content you surely get very very dissapointed new player and probably soon quiter. So i suggest leave the nooby setting there .. maybe 99% of us never use it .... but somone would be happy for it. I vould suggest better addind new veteran difficulty. But still better to focus on fixing lags. Because lagzzz are now way more powerfull than any EE content.

[Powskier]

just put up a tougher diff for those who want it;why complicate the process...besides the new norm ,may mean we end up like a final fantasy with every enemy havin 10k hit points in heroic.

[walkin_dude]

just put up a tougher diff for those who want it;why complicate the process...besides the new norm ,may mean we end up like a final fantasy with every enemy havin 10k hit points in heroic.

A case could be made that adding on a fifth difficulty rating qualifies as "complicating the process."

I say just re-tool the difficulties we have.

[jalont]

A case could be made that adding on a fifth difficulty rating qualifies as "complicating the process."

I say just re-tool the difficulties we have.

Yep, retooling is needed. For all intents and purposes, casual/norm/hard and some elite (and EE) are basically the same. Easily soloable by everyone, including new players. There's no real point in all these difficulties. They need to combine and then add a truly challenging difficulty.

[walkin_dude]

Yep, retooling is needed. For all intents and purposes, casual/norm/hard and some elite (and EE) are basically the same. Easily soloable by everyone, including new players. There's no real point in all these difficulties. They need to combine and then add a truly challenging difficulty.

OR ...

You don't really have to do anything to casual difficulty.
You can probably leave normal alone, too.
You tweak hard up a little bit so that you can tell the difference between normal and hard.
You make the name "elite" actually mean something.

I honestly can't understand the desire to make a completely new system from scratch. We have a fine set of difficulty levels. The only problem with them is that the actual difficulty of running the quests usually doesn't match up to the names.

Actually, I have a suspicion that I do know the reason after all. The people wanting to add a new harder difficulty are probably the same ones who also want the new, harder difficulty to include better rewards to incentivize them to play it. They want a challenge and they want the game not to be too easy, but they won't play the challenging content unless they can also gain exclusive benefits from it.

[axel15810]

Casual has a purpose. It allows you to learn the quest. It's a learning difficulty. Keep it as is. I wish we had a casual difficulty for raids personally (that didn't count towards 20th lists).

I'd like to see Normal and Hard merged together, they aren't much different anyways. Keep Elite as is. Make a difficulty above Elite, Mythic.

Agreed with other posters that the names don't match up to the difficulty.

[Ralmeth]

/Not signed

If you want to make elite more difficult, I don't see how getting rid of casual will help with this. If someone wants to play on casual let them, and only Turbine knows how much casual is run...Instead I think a much simpler way to make heroic more challenging is that we need to stop running quests 2 levels over, and instead run quests at level. Specifically:

When you click on "hard" or "elite" , the difficulty of the quest should remain as it currently is, but the quest should still be listed at the same level.

Ex. If you run VON 3 (a level 9 quest) on elite, the quest should be listed as a level 9 quest (though it will be as difficult as a level 11 quest), so if you want your BB and elite streak you can only be level 9 max.

This seems like a simple change without having to revamp an entire system. Just my 2CP.

[Kaytis]

Yep, retooling is needed. For all intents and purposes, casual/norm/hard and some elite (and EE) are basically the same. Easily soloable by everyone, including new players. There's no real point in all these difficulties. They need to combine and then add a truly challenging difficulty.

They are not easily soloable by new players. They are easily soloable by vets with past lives, gear, build knowledge, and far more importantly gobs of meta knowledge. New players can and do struggle. I have met a few. They run casters without empower, maximize, caster sticks. They run rogues without trapping gear, search ability, intelligence. They run melee using whatever +1 long sword they can find and what they thought was an ok con score. They run without hires because they don't even know they exist. They open the auction house and think it's broken because all they see is a blank screen. And so on. It is easy to say after years of experience that everything is easy and even a noob can do it. But that is patently false and people need to stop saying that.

Casual is fine. Worry about bugs instead.

[DarthCaedus]

I think Turbine should look and see if casual is being played at all. If it is, ignore the idea. It doesn't make sense to drive people away from the game that currently enjoy it.

If nobody plays casual difficulty there is no reason to keep it, but I suspect it is played.

[Oxarhamar]

Hard and Elite are being adjusted upwards already there is no need to change normal or casual.

[Kaytis]

Hard and Elite are being adjusted upwards already there is no need to change normal or casual.

Where did you hear that? I know about hero-bosses or whatever they are called, but I had not heard about any scaling changes.

[Oxarhamar]

Where did you hear that? I know about hero-bosses or whatever they are called, but I had not heard about any scaling changes.

That is exactly what it is. Champions

[FeartheBow]

I am a new player as you can see by my join date to the forum and the number of posts I have made. I think the difficulty as it is now is the way it should be. I only get to run elite when my guild leader is online and runs quests with me. Any other time I am left with Normal because I am free to play. A lot of times Normal is to hard for me running alone. I don't want to join public groups posted in the lfg because they are always elite elite elite or byoh I learned very fast within a week that byoh does not mean bring your own hire. If you want something harder then do what my guild leader does he runs quests naked and the quests are 3 to 4 levels above his level. Problem solved.

As being new and fresh to this game I can tell you that a lot of you have ran the quests too many times and have them memorized, you also have the best gear in the game to protect you/ help you kill things faster. Not to mention past lives and past life feats and somehow epic destinies that work in heroic?
The game is great the way it currently is with the difficulty settings the way they are now. Don't change them. If it was any harder I'm sure a lot of us new people would just quit and move on to something we could enjoy and feel like we are getting something done/ accomplished.
Thanks.........................Dave.

[Vulkoorex]

You want a challenge?

Then play 1-2 levels below, no guild buffs, use random lootgen gear and weapons, and no hirelings.

That should make it somewhat challenging.

[Seikojin]

Please move Heroic difficulties down one notch. Casual is the old normal, Normal is the old hard, Hard is the old epic and make Epic difficulty for heroics a harder difficulty.

As it stands no one runs casual. Make the new hard difficulty available to premium accounts and the new epic locked for VIP. So VIP still get the perks of opening on elite for their
streaks.

In short, the major changes recently made each difficulty setting easier than it had been. And f2p and premium currently have to play in easy normal to unlock the higher difficulties. Normal has become soloable for a newbie when it used to provide some sense of accomplishment. That is what casual is supposed to be.

Revist this a year after lvl 30 is the cap.

[Powskier]

Casual has a purpose. It allows you to learn the quest. It's a learning difficulty. Keep it as is. I wish we had a casual difficulty for raids personally (that didn't count towards 20th lists).

I'd like to see Normal and Hard merged together, they aren't much different anyways. Keep Elite as is. Make a difficulty above Elite, Mythic.

Agreed with other posters that the names don't match up to the difficulty.

i used casual epic to farm some destinies quick - solo'n in gimp mode,late night when there's no lfms ,or just to learn a quest

[Powskier]

I am a new player as you can see by my join date to the forum and the number of posts I have made. I think the difficulty as it is now is the way it should be. I only get to run elite when my guild leader is online and runs quests with me. Any other time I am left with Normal because I am free to play. A lot of times Normal is to hard for me running alone. I don't want to join public groups posted in the lfg because they are always elite elite elite or byoh I learned very fast within a week that byoh does not mean bring your own hire. If you want something harder then do what my guild leader does he runs quests naked and the quests are 3 to 4 levels above his level. Problem solved.

As being new and fresh to this game I can tell you that a lot of you have ran the quests too many times and have them memorized, you also have the best gear in the game to protect you/ help you kill things faster. Not to mention past lives and past life feats and somehow epic destinies that work in heroic?
The game is great the way it currently is with the difficulty settings the way they are now. Don't change them. If it was any harder I'm sure a lot of us new people would just quit and move on to something we could enjoy and feel like we are getting something done/ accomplished.
Thanks.........................Dave.

there's alot of casual flexible players ,will allow hires..dont be shy to ask before joining;and just try to keep them out of trouble...if players respond rudely,just blame it on all the monster energy drinks they had and move on.