Monster Champion Feedback

[Blackheartox]

I'm not aware that this is a vote though. I'm fairly certain the intent of this thread is to gather feedback on the system so it can be improved. People are free to come in here and say "I hate it," but that tends to be unhelpful. People who come in and say "I hate X, Y and Z about champions" helps Turbine get a better sense of what aspects need to be toned down or changed.

Really, I'm just trying to get posters to stop bashing other posters because they don't agree with them. I have a problem with you saying someone's feedback is irrelevant because they have a 2014 forum join date, or that they post the same thing in multiple threads, or that you think they are all forum alts of the same account.

I would also say you have a very high probability of exaggerating when you say only 1 person is against this idea. In your eyes, those people might be trying to "own the game." It sounds to me like you're trying to do the exact same thing.

I have nothing against someone with 2014 date stating opinion.
But someone who is using multiple accounts to force his opinion should be made irrelevant as someone who is trying to say something.

I didnt even know that was against rules to be honest.

[cyreme]

Since the update hit I played about 60+ quests, some at lvl, some below. I find the new monster mechanic interesting but I am worried that the way it is currently applied will discourage too many people from playing the game. My main is on his 19th life and I find that I can still solo most content on HE, albeit more slowly. I rolled an EK wiz banker and was able to do VON3 in about 50 min with 12 or so deaths. Considering that this is a first lifer iconic, it is no surprise. Champion mechanic has several notable problems IMHO. Here are a few:
1) spawn rate is much higher than advertised (it is more along the lines of 20-25 percent on average).
2) buffs on "crownies" as I came to call them are not always logical. Example - a hobgoblin in HE BoB had 3200 HP. Most hobs in that quest have <200.
3) I have only been one shotted once, but perhaps this is due to the strategies I usually employ as a solo player. Still damage from CM's is sometimes extreme.
4) It destroys an important playstyle in DDO which involves quick lvling to lv 20 in order to reach epic metagame.
5) It discourages casual players from trying harder content.

On balance it is a good idea badly implemented. To all people cancelling their subscription please consider being patient and waiting a bit. Hopefully this mess will be sorted out soon. In the meantime I will keep leveling my guild on Khyber. Hope to see you all in the game

[Albinosaurus]

I like how most people write the same thing from multiple fresh new accounts they created.
Posts 1, join date 2014.

love that..


Changes like this were never talked about, they were pushed onto community and few that bother enough just make 20-30 accounts and push their own opinion onto devs and that proudeces bad desings and bad conclussion to wonderful mechanics.

Devs, be careful what you do with ch monsters.
This will drive away your vet players if you mess this up.
You should balance it in heroic by either removing or whatever great idea you guys have.
For epic, this brings fresh air.

IF you mess this up, trust me, you will lose he last bit of respect you have from vets.
Dont listen to the new account spammers who think they own the game.
Provide feedback how you guys want to push this so that we can discuss and come to a conclussion where everyone is happy.
My simple idea is remove from heroic keep in epic.
No checkbox or whatever.
Maybe reduce spawn rate in eh and perfect.

That's a nice tin-foil hat you have there. Did you polish it yourself?

Ever think that it isn't the same people posting on multiple accounts, but actual players (that never had much to complain about) really do hate this enough to speak up about it? Of course not; that would break your delusions that this was somehow a good idea. Honestly, they need to just undo this change, and forget champions ever existed.

But just for fun, let's think about what "Vet/Elite" players might actually buy from DDO:

-Another mule character slot?
-A guest pass for a friend?
-Some astral shards?
-Maybe cosmetics?

They already are VIP, have both expansions, all races/classes, Vet lvl 7, 20+ character slots, shared bank maxed out, etc, etc. There is nothing they need from the DDO store, and they probably have 1000's of DDO pts saved up from all the TRing and months as VIP that they don't even have to spend anything on the DDO store. These players provide $15/mo. That's it.

What do new players buy?

-Races/Classes, character slots, iconics, vet status
-Shared bank space, inventory tabs, bags
-Cosmetics, expansions, astral shards, adventure packs, exp boosts

Sure, they can save some money by going VIP (and I highly recommended it before this update), but there are many more things that they need/want, and they are a much richer source of potential revenue than the vet players.

So here's the bottom line: This game can afford to lose its vets, because there are fewer of them and they support the game in a much less impactful way. The opposite is the case for the new players. The funny part is, we've already seen dozens of people in this thread alone say that they are on the verge of quitting, will not renew VIP, or have already left. This says nothing of the even larger number of people who don't even bother to come to the forum about it. Those people probably weren't VIP in the first place, and will happily (and silently) just take their money elsewhere.

So the vets can complain about wanting challenge, but their selfish attitudes in this thread only shows their short-sighted lack of concern for the game's health, and an undeserved disdain for "casuals" who keep this game afloat with their microtransaction purchases. I don't know about you guys, but DDO is the only decent online d20 game around. What are you going to play when it's gone? KotOR? Have fun feeling "leet" in that...

[redoubt]

DUDE!
Complain for dragon breach hit is simply silly. You should get hit for 5k.. Recall, rebuff, step in again than kill 1st casters, hold assasing, complete..
My bard did there in such 5mins quest pretty well..

You think something in a HEROIC quest should do 5k damage? Or did you just fail to read that he was on heroic and assumed EE?

Even on EE... should anything be doing 5k damage to players?

[redoubt]

I know you probably added this new champion code across the board for all dungeons, but the zombies that you beat down for meat in the quest Tomb of the Tormented don't need to continuously spring back up as champions. Also, down below in the maze, the worgs and carcass eaters don't need to be champions either. One is just going to spend more time with their sonic wand or blasting rune arm with these guys until they're dead and out of the way of the maze rat. This rat maze quest is difficult enough as is, please consider some exceptions to champions in future updates.

Oh snap! get a mob in the maze that is a champion, you might as well recall and restart. The stupid rat is never gonna kill it....

[FestusHood]

Those that hate champions will WHINE that it still ruins EE content that they want to solo without having high end gear. They want to solo with basic gear and little skill because they feel entitled. Since they spend money on the game they feel they are OWED this.

So you assume that only people who solo will complain about champions?

[Sushiboat]

Oh snap! get a mob in the maze that is a champion, you might as well recall and restart. The stupid rat is never gonna kill it....

Don't the rats respawn when the die? Maybe if you keep getting them killed one of them will spawn as a champion? Probably takes stupidly long to fish up a champion rat (if that's even possible. I'm not super familiar with that quest and it's been a while since I last ran it).

[redoubt]

Level 6 quests on elite. 3 level 8 characters.

Iron mines: freeing atchka: 11 kills, 2 champions, 1 orange, 0 chest
-- had an ogre with 2 damage boosts

iron mines: justics for Grust: 27, 8, 2, 0
-- earth ele with two damage boosts
-- earth ele with second wind (a damage boost) & I do more damage

Glade watch outpost. Big spawn of champs and dead.

Glade watch outpost try #2: 278, 42, 1, 0

Troglodytes get: 61, 8, 0, 0

Tangle root 6b: 46, 7, 0 ,0

Tanglerood 7a: 20, 2, 0 , 0

Tangleroot 7b: 51,3, 0, 0

In most quests the spawn rate appears to be 20+%. Lots of instances of multiple champions in one place. Lots of instances of mobs having 2-3 damage boosts at the same time.

[MangLord]

As of my lengthy Saturday playtime today, here is my opinion.

My almost-completionist (missing druid, rogue and sorcerer) working on her second round of ETRs doesn't really have a ton of problems with champions. I dislike them mostly because it disrupts the flow more than anything.

I rolled up a brand new 1/2orc barbarian to check out the new enhancement trees, mostly because I was bored of epic stuff, and a couple friends did the same. We all started at level 7, and I crafted us gear so that we weren't entirely fresh off the boat. Personally, I had plenty of named gear kicking around to feel pretty confident in the ability of my numbers, at least. (Carnifex and Antique Greataxe with custom mastercrafted and all masterworked lootgen deadly/false/seeking/speed gear) We linked up with a couple multi-TR level 10 guildies of a more casual persuasion, but who know their stuff, and ran some Sentinels quests on HE. I haven't died so much since I was a newbie. Yes my character was first life, but I geared him out very generously and my pals were well geared also. Everything was going ok as we took a slower pace, but our rogue grabbed a champion's aggro and got one-shotted. Then I was the only melee left trying to cleave my way to glory as the wizard kept failing to Hold Monster on the champion archer that kept chunking out my HP. I had 250+hp at level 7, and I got destroyed. Luckily the archmage wizard and radiant servant cleric managed to team up on what was left of the champion and eventually raised the melees. I had an odd sense of DDO deja-vu 2013, where melee is punished for engaging a tough enemy while casters and ranged can just employ a kiting strategy. It felt cheap and crappy, just like old times. We were doing great, but the randomness of the champions just makes the whole thing pear-shaped, awkward and basically unenjoyable.

I ran an EH Haunted Halls earlier, just before I ETRed with my main, and the dragon fight was probably 90% champions with all the orange names. I took a screen shot of all the chests on my Facebook account, but I don't know how to link it here. I also did an EH Fleshmakers run, and on the fight with Edgar, all four of his pals were champions. The dev team is aware that the stupid, godforsaken stun grenades don't have a save, right? Talk about frustrating, annoying and not at all fun.

The system could be enjoyable if you want to sign up for the extra annoyance, but there's no way to opt out of it. I was somewhat amused at the novelty for the first day, but now I just groan when I approach the next mob and see the stupid crowns. I hate them already. For me it just increases the drudgery of chopping down mobs, especially when there's no added reward for doing so. The champion buffs are mostly a nuisance, and taking 400+ damage from one seems a little over the top when I'm not getting anything from the process.

If every champion killed increased the chance of landing a named item by 1%, I would actively seek them out. Otherwise, I'd rather opt out.

If you don't want to read my whole post, I thought the champion system was bad on Lamm, and it was a terrible idea to release it without adjustment on live.

[FestusHood]

No idea, been pugging a lot of EEs since U24 and usually in each group there was at least one first lifer.

Doesn't mean they were new. Everybody i play with has multiple alts that they play, and they still sometimes make new ones. Now the powergamers who don't understand why anybody wouldn't just pile all of their xp and acquired gear onto one toon to make it as super powered as possible, do not believe that this is a significant demographic in the game. They are wrong.

[Blackheartox]

That's a nice tin-foil hat you have there. Did you polish it yourself?

Ever think that it isn't the same people posting on multiple accounts, but actual players (that never had much to complain about) really do hate this enough to speak up about it? Of course not; that would break your delusions that this was somehow a good idea. Honestly, they need to just undo this change, and forget champions ever existed.

But just for fun, let's think about what "Vet/Elite" players might actually buy from DDO:

-Another mule character slot?
-A guest pass for a friend?
-Some astral shards?
-Maybe cosmetics?

They already are VIP, have both expansions, all races/classes, Vet lvl 7, 20+ character slots, shared bank maxed out, etc, etc. There is nothing they need from the DDO store, and they probably have 1000's of DDO pts saved up from all the TRing and months as VIP that they don't even have to spend anything on the DDO store. These players provide $15/mo. That's it.

What do new players buy?

-Races/Classes, character slots, iconics, vet status
-Shared bank space, inventory tabs, bags
-Cosmetics, expansions, astral shards, adventure packs, exp boosts

Sure, they can save some money by going VIP (and I highly recommended it before this update), but there are many more things that they need/want, and they are a much richer source of potential revenue than the vet players.

So here's the bottom line: This game can afford to lose its vets, because there are fewer of them and they support the game in a much less impactful way. The opposite is the case for the new players. The funny part is, we've already seen dozens of people in this thread alone say that they are on the verge of quitting, will not renew VIP, or have already left. This says nothing of the even larger number of people who don't even bother to come to the forum about it. Those people probably weren't VIP in the first place, and will happily (and silently) just take their money elsewhere.

So the vets can complain about wanting challenge, but their selfish attitudes in this thread only shows their short-sighted lack of concern for the game's health, and an undeserved disdain for "casuals" who keep this game afloat with their microtransaction purchases. I don't know about you guys, but DDO is the only decent online d20 game around. What are you going to play when it's gone? KotOR? Have fun feeling "leet" in that...

Incorrect, proper vets that played this game for a challenge quit when motu was released.
Or shortly after that.
If we want those players back we need to make the game appealing.
Also new players that play ddo, will realize from talk with any vet that this game has no future in current implementation since the hunt for power is not needed due to how they control what they invent.
Heroic past lifes??
Not needed
Epic past lifes?
Not needed

I got all stacked, but you dont need them.
You are ok by being a third lifer for increased points and thats about it.
Any sort of reason to seek progress in this game is not needed since you can do exactly the same with and without past lifes.
I was the same sorc player 30 epic past lifes ago, and 30 heroic past lifes ago.
Absolutely nothing chaned and there was no real reason to collect those beside forcing yourself to sink time in ddo in hope they make some promised endgame.

Imo the people who cant see that, arent looking forward enough.
A smart company tries to keep its whole player base and not just this or that.
They can tweak this champ idea and get the best of it for vets and new players.
IF you erase the idea new players will maybe stay, but vets will go away.
IF you dont tweak it, vets will stay but there will be no new players.

Understand that?
You cant just dismiss vets for the sake of new players.
You need to help both sides.
Since most new players wont ever spend a single $ anyways.
But that monthly vip from vets is income you can count on.

Im not gonna talk what player base is better.
Imo both are good and both need to have a reason to play.
Currently vets dont have, new players dont have.
Tweak champs and both will have.
Erase champs vets wont have.
See my point?

[Talon_Dragonsbane]

I see this as a negative for new players. A new player only starts with 28pts and with no twink gear. I know that most here will say, so...they can stick to normal. But that's the catch...a new player only sticking to normal will not find the game enjoyable...because as most have said, its too easy.

Most people here recounting how its not much harder for them on heroic hard or heroic elite are not brand new players. They have 32-36pts, twink gear, quest knowledge, character build knowledge, past lives, etc, to assist them in gameplay.

The goal of Turbine should be to hook these new players and convert them into DDO addicts. I cannot see how extreme challenges (for a brand new player) meant for veterans, will help convert a brand new player. This is especially problematic for a brand new player that is a VIP, because one of the perks is to be able to open elite. But what is the point if a brand new player gets smoked on heroic elite in low level quests? He/she will feel ripped off, and Turbine just lost a customer.

My suggestion is a tiered approach. L1-10: No monster champions on all difficulty levels. L11-20: Monster champions on hard and elite, but with spawn rate lower at 2% and 5% respectively. L21-28 Monster champions on hard and elite with spawn rate at 5% and 10% respectively. (Apologies if someone already suggested this, but I haven't read all 32 pages!). I don't know if coding will allow for this, so crossing my fingers.

From L1-L10, a new player will either get hooked or leave the game. L11-20 suggestion is a gradual transition to the more difficult levels of epic.

If Turbine does not care about the new player category, then I guess my comments don't apply, and I begin to worry about the longevity of the game.

[FestusHood]

Checkbox is a bad idea.
Very bad idea.
I dont want to have a choice of making ee harder, i want it harder no matter if i want it or not.
I want ee to become harder not only for me but for everyone.
I want ee to become a difficulty that you fear to step in with high chance to fail.

I think i got it. You are doing an impression of Lee J. Cobb in Twelve Angry Men, right?

You are very much against the idea of a checkbox for this. Are you against the ones we had before champions too?

Tell the truth, putting champions aside, do you think that the game would be better if they removed all the difficulty options and only had one difficulty? If your theory is correct, any difficulty above the lowest one will never be used anyway. Yet everybody agrees that heroics are only run on elite, despite that it is undoubtedly harder than the other difficulties. How do you explain that? It's the xp right?

I have no problem if they give an extra xp bonus for people who would choose to run with the champions checkbox checked. In fact, i think they should make all kinds of other things available from them so that not one single player would not find something desirable from them. It doesn't have to be better gear, although i would not really care if it was.

[MangLord]

In the current iteration, an orange named champion (almost guaranteed) is way more dangerous than the red named end boss of the quest. For example, I did an EH HHoE today and 3 of the 5 Horrors guarding Whisper's apprentice were crowned. Those things are awful as it is. Whisper's Apprentice wasn't an issue, but 5 Horrors critting me endlessly with greatswords were. Bypass my incorporeal/concealment? Check! Bypass my 145% fort? Check! Why did I make a lightly armored swashbuckler again?

Needless to say, I burned an awful lot of SP pots to stay alive through the end fight on what used to be a fun-challenging farming run. I can't sustain that, because I don't dupe my stuff and I can't pour money into my acct like water. If that's what I have to do as a guy that plays at odd hours, that wants to earn gear at a reasonable rate, I'm gonna have to find a new hobby.

[Celebras]

Yep, tweak it Turbine. U have plenty of suggestions here already how to tweak it possibly.
Nothing bad about dying on elite, its elite for a reason. But WHY or HOW u actually die is somewhat ppl look on. And if u just get hit by a truckload of MCs that spawn randomly and even withbest tactics u die just because u made a lvl 5 elite quest a lvl 15 elite quests, just because ur the DM, players will get frustrated i could imagine.

Sidenote: most of the screenies in this post are made in solo quest. On purpose for testing or do u guys actually solo most heroic content.

The reason i ask is that while i solo heroic content alot, I DONT WANT TO...
I would rather GROUP up, but my primetime of playing wont get me parties to group up. Maybe 3manning quests is the most for heroic lower lvl content.
Now maybe this will change in future since the update ( those soloing and not putting lfm up might be forced to do it to minimize the redofactor of quests dueto death), or maybe u see more post like: Elite run, NO PUGS, U DIE U LEAVE.
But for now the funfactor drop that much that yesterday evening, even though my wife GAVE me time to log on Ghallandas primetime, i DIDNT log in. Didnt have that in my last years of playing...

[Thalone]

I haven't reviewed the entire thread to see if anyone's already commented on the issues I've seen. Thirty pages is a bit too much reading material.

I've dualboxed a fair bit of base level 8 stuff since the champion implementation. The active character was a Bladeforged paladin in heavy armour, so I haven't found heroic elites to be overly difficult compared to before the update. I won't say I didn't die, but I don't believe dying was due to champions--it was in the necro 2 quests where there is constant stat drain and large spawn groups. On that build, I did not feel that champions added to difficulty, fun, or reward. They were just obstacles to moving quickly (sack of HPs, see invis). That being said, I imagine things would have been more difficult if I'd been controlling my light armour character instead.

On that note, since they see invis, it seems many quests that were invisisneak-viable are not so any longer, including ones where the optionals explicitly encourage bypassing fights. I'm thinking especially of Claw of the Vulkoor here. It's probably possible to actually boost Hide/Move Silently to put on sneak mode to do these, but frankly, it's stupidly slow compared to invis/playing with the monster search AI. I haven't played with invising enough against champions, but I suspect an entire way of playing, viable for any class, has been completely invalidated.

Self-healing monsters that get crowned are now especially brutal. Referencing Claw again, the group I was in wasn't really following me and ended up dropping down and fighting a mob of nigh-invulnerable enemies.

I PUG pretty much exclusively, which means I'll encounter people of diverse levels of preparedness. Some of the champion buffs require player defenses that would not otherwise be necessary--e.g., I've noticed the presence of Negative Energy guard damage. I've been playing long enough that any serious character of mine is going to have Deathward clickies from Tangleroot, but any new or first-life player won't. Fort bypassing, massive damage buffs, etc are just going to be another wedge between the haves and have-nots. There's been a lot of fragmentation of the player base over the last two year (epic vs. heroic, TRing to start at level 1 vs. level 15). I don't think further fragmentation is helpful, especially at heroic levels where the new players start. Yes, new players can run normal, but only theoretically. Most anyone who bothers posting a group will be a vet, and will be posting elite.

Lastly, my EE experience since the update has been in lower-level stuff like the Spinner chain and Druid's Deep. My habit is to take the first six people and go, no matter the class mix. Where there was CC available, the presence of champions was completely irrelevant--again, they added no difficulty, fun, or reward. Where CC was not available, they certainly added challenge. Packs of mobs with a champion or two in them could kill me too quickly for me to react. The promotion rate also seems way off. Every single wood woad I saw in the Druid chain was a champion. Literally--every single one.

[Ivontoske]

Back when this game first came out I bought it, I installed it, and started it up. A few quests later I was in an instance where there was this chest. I opened the chest thinking oh this is awesome, and spiders came from everywhere. The spiders were ridiculously overpowered and I could not do any damage to them. I quit the game for years, it was not worth the time or frustration. No game should be worth your frustration.

That said, I still have never done Epic Elites, I've made 3 iconic reincarnations, and leveled them all through Epic Hard. Never teaming with anyone. Bought the points I needed for Iconic Reincarnation, and kept a VIP account.

Today I have been doing many quests with champions and for the most part the experience was enjoyable. I can't gather the instance and AOE them down like I used to with Ice Storm, or firewall. Thus it is taking a LOT longer then I would like to actually get back to lvl 20, most likely I will never TR again with the amount of sheer time this is taking me.

But then It finally occurred. The 1 shot people were talking about. I was doing sorrow dusk isle, 2nd to last quest where you have to kill the altars and mephitis. There is an altar behind a swinging blade trap, that alter had 3 champions that spawned on my arrival, and 3 more spawned from the altar. At first it was fine since my wolf is a ranger and he seemed to be evading everything, I will still trying to recover from the nasty trap that was just infront of it. My hireling healed me to full when a mephit spawned and instant killed me with a lightning bolt. The bolt did around 640 damage. I was level 11, with 270ish health.

I've owned the game now for a long time and have played periodically, and always had a VIP account when I elected to play. If I keep getting 1 shotted or endless spawning of champions, I'll take my money elsewhere as well. I don't play horror games, I don't watch horror movies. I don't want to be frightened of what may spawn upon me at any given moment. Spending an hour in a quest then getting 1 shot at the end is not fun or challenging. It is frustrating, and a waste of my time.

Each person obviously will have their own opinions of champions. I may not matter in the overall scheme of things, but as of this moment I am a VIP, and was considering buying myself some coins for Christmas. I will give it a few days to see what happens, But my money and time will go elsewhere should the status quo remain the same.

[bsquishwizzy]

Ok, after my first real encounters with champions - running heroic elite content at-level with my first-life barb - here's my impressions:


It...was...AWESOME!!!!!!!


I got one-shotted a couple of times. I had 4 deaths by the time we ended Madstone Crater. Elite just turned into the elite of several year past! Another person had 11 deaths, no armor, and I had to give them weapons to finish the quest with. It took running these quests from a predictable slug-fest, into a genuine chore.

Likewise, some of the champions (I think the orange-named) dropped chests which was a nice surprise. I didn't think they did that.

More importantly, it forced the group of us to work together. The rouge with his repeater wasn't doing much damage, but between the paralyzing repeater, those sticky grenades, and two melee DPS types we had to be coordinated as to how we played. Goodbye to "everyone for themselves." It was a group effort again!

My only criticism would be that the spawn rate was way too high. We had three champion casters show up at the end fight of Feast or Famine, and we were getting one-shotted all over the place. Likewise, they cast displacement and glitterdust, making taking them out extremely difficult. So, if you cut the spawn rate by at least a half, I think the balance would be just about perfect.

Aside from that, I think the concept works great! I can't believe there are people whining here because their easy grind runs now have speed-bumps. Well...ok, maybe I can believe that...but I like what I saw. And I think Turbine should keep it.

[Qezuzu]

How is lol not a mmo?
Massive multiplayer online, over thousands of players playing at same time 5v5.
How is that not massive, and how is that not multiplayer, and its online.

Call of Duty is an MMO now I guess.

[silverm_22]

Wow, so many opinions. I guess I'll throw in my own 2¢. I tr'd right before u24 so my experience has been with low level quests on a squishy rogue. I'll admit that I'm somewhere between casual and leet and that my toons arent min maxed or FOTM builds, but they do have some tomes and past lives. Now that introductions are done, these are some of my experiences.

I usually solo, and did so after the champions were introduced. It is now MUCH more difficult, but can be dealt with. I've found that it makes elite bb much easier to maintain in groups even at low levels. Which is how it should be. I haven't had any issues grouping up nor any major problems with said champions unless I screw up. And if I screw up at level in an elite quest, I should die. Its elite. That wasn't the case before the update, and neither was requiring a party to maintain an elite streak; to that end, I give a thumbs up to you devs!!

The MC do the job for me right now. In running waterworks, STK, Sharn, and tangleroot I've found the party actually challenged. Yeah, the champs killed us a few times before we took them seriously. Once we started traveling behind the rogue, bluffing enemies, using cc, targeting champs first, we had few deaths. However, when we bum rushed war master muurj, or ran ahead of the rogue, or drew too much aggro (which had 5 champs of 8 mobs, may wanna turn that down a bit), and things like that we had deaths. To me, this is a very good thing. This is an elite bravery bonus, the highest level of the game until epics, it should punish a party if they don't act like one. That's why its the hardest difficulty of the four options.

I will state that I haven't run into mobs one shotting me or frustrating things that are out of the party's control. Maybe that becomes more prevalent once you pass the 'easy levels' but so far, its doing what I wanted it to. Make elite an achievable party goal that's possible to solo, just extremely time and consumable intensive.

The only problem I see is wayyyyy too high a spawn rate for champs cause it is NO WHERE NEAR the 10% you stated. A few other tweaks would be nice, like showing their buffs, giving some sort of minor reward, and of course, lowering the spawn rate. I don't even want to think of trying some quests if 35% of mobs are champs.

Thank you devs for making our highest difficulty difficult again.