Good & Bad Slayers

[Powskier]

There have been a few Wheelon complaint threads . There is more than enough to keep it going. I just wanna hit messages with a first life character ,and it is so freaking laggy there ,it is on the edge of unplayable every time. Unless you are in maxed out main destiny ,you get surrounded and cant move ,quite often. Enemies are near same color and backgroud and move like spectres-kinda appear from no where. There are great Slayers ,wheel is not one. Stormhorns mechanics seem o k; weird since they came same time. Gianthold is a favorite, and underdark could be too -if there were more dungeons there. Players love Vale of course. Why stray from the ratio of enemies that was successful b 4 ?

[FranOhmsford]

Great Slayers

Heroic Orchard
Sands of Menechtarun
Heroic 3BC
Tangleroot Gorge
The Devil Battlefield
Restless Isles
Vale of Twilight

Good Slayers

With just small changes these could be Great:

Cerulean Hills
Korthos Island
Searing Heights
Ataraxia
Schindylrynn
Eerie Forest, Aussircaex's Valley & Mount Reysalon
Cannith Manufactory

Bad Slayers

Need major changes:

Sorrowdusk Isle
Heroic Gianthold
Red Fens
The High Road
The King's Forest
SubT

Terrible Slayers

Need complete overhauls:

Epic Gianthold
The Underdark
Wheloon
Soami Gardens
Cannith Raid Zones
The Demonweb

Slayer Zones I haven't spent enough time in to rank

The Storm Horns
Epic Orchard
Thunderholm

[Lonnbeimnech]

Caravan & Rats, that's why heroic orchard is good

Bats and Spiders, that's why vale is good.

All other slayer zones suck for xp.

Sands gets an honorable mention because unique named loot, but much of it has become quite dated.

[TasMagar]

Thunderholme for epic is great xp. I've spent an hour there with a 12man party and got my 500k xp.
Of course I was using a greater slayer count boost for 200% bonus kills.Also voice of the master along with guild xp5% and a 10% pot .

Orchard and shavaranth are nice and easy xp.

Also it comes down to playstyle. For example I cannot stand the vast desert of Menechtarun for heroic , but I like the Kings forest which is also huge.

[Sehenry03]

I find 2 different things important for slayers.

1) Efficiency. Rats/Wagons in orchard to me is hands down some of the best xp in the game you can get for a 10-19 slayer area with a slayer pot active. Vale has Spiders/Bats to a lesser degree but still decent. Thunderholme with 6+ people is awesome if people can split up.

2) Fun Factor. Kings Forest and Underdark areas are ok for slayers but I find them fun to do

[SirValentine]

One issue I've run into in certain slayer areas, the ones that have multiple slayer types, is the balance between the types.

In places like Heroic Gianthold, where the different types are in different areas, it's not a problem, as if you cap one type while another is way behind, you can just stick to the area of your missing type.

But in areas where the types are all mixed together, a bad balance is really painful. E.g., in Schindylryn, when I capped Drow Slayers at 3000, my Spider Slayers were only at 700 of 3000. Or in Epic Gianthold, when I capped Giants and Other Races at 3000, my Dragons were only at 50 of 256.

Demonweb has the balance problem, too. (Not enough Drow mixed in!) But it's main issue is very low mob density. Racking up slayers of any of the 3 types is very slow there.

[Sehenry03]

One issue I've run into in certain slayer areas, the ones that have multiple slayer types, is the balance between the types.

In places like Heroic Gianthold, where the different types are in different areas, it's not a problem, as if you cap one type while another is way behind, you can just stick to the area of your missing type.

But in areas where the types are all mixed together, a bad balance is really painful. E.g., in Schindylryn, when I capped Drow Slayers at 3000, my Spider Slayers were only at 700 of 3000. Or in Epic Gianthold, when I capped Giants and Other Races at 3000, my Dragons were only at 50 of 256.

Demonweb has the balance problem, too. (Not enough Drow mixed in!) But it's main issue is very low mob density. Racking up slayers of any of the 3 types is very slow there.

Yep that's why as far as efficiency goes Orchard is hands down the best but after orchard I don't like anything as much.

[Powskier]

Some great points up there. I like the slayers to be casual enough for a 1st lifer to enjoy the scenery a little ans still get some kill count. Wheelon is worst for this- every 3 to 7 seconds mobs swarm you ,and you never get a chance to get your bearings & learn the map initially.

[Full_Bleed]

Terrible Slayers

Need complete overhauls:

Epic Gianthold
Wheloon

I've only done Wheloon on Heroic, but I have really enjoyed it. Looking forward to checking it out when Epic. If it's like other heroic/epic slayers I suspect my static group will have a ball racking up the kills with a much denser mob population.

As for heroic Gianthold, I feel it isn't populated enough. Epic Gianthold, however, was a lot of fun when we last ran it.


I wonder if most of the slayer complaints come from soloers.

[Sehenry03]

I've only done Wheloon on Heroic, but I have really enjoyed it. Looking forward to checking it out when Epic. If it's like other heroic/epic slayers I suspect my static group will have a ball racking up the kills with a much denser mob population.

As for heroic Gianthold, I feel it isn't populated enough. Epic Gianthold, however, was a lot of fun when we last ran it.


I wonder if most of the slayer complaints come from soloers.

Probably. I like Wheloon also. I just wish they had an option at the window when entering a slayer area to increase the mob population based on a number you pick. If I want to have a 6x multiplier to simulate a full group I think they should allow it to happen. I like running slayer areas but lots of people don't so it can be tough to get people to run a full 12 people in Thunderholme and people don't know the insane xp you can get this way.

[DANTEIL]

Great Slayers
[snip...]

This an interesting list, but you don't give any indication what your criteria are that makes a slayer area 'great' or not. Personally, I disagree with several of these, but that's probably because I weight certain things differently. I enjoy ease of navigation, feeling of steady progress through slayers, and interesting and not monotonous landscapes. I'm not really about efficiency when it comes to slayer zones.

[Vicania]

Caravan & Rats, that's why heroic orchard is good

Bats and Spiders, that's why vale is good.

All other slayer zones suck for xp.

(...).

You dont even realize how utterly wrong you are in this sentence.

Three best epic areas are : Kings Forest (ill explain why)
Epic Orchard of the Macabre
The Ruins of Thunderholme

Other with acceptable xp/min are: 3bc and GH (lots of quick explorers)
Sometimes its also worth to step into Wheloon and High Roads but not as much as before becouse mobs dont respawn there anymore .

In Kings Forest all you have to do is to get full group and find "Grim Disturbance" random encounter. Sometimes it requires few instance restarts but it spawn pretty often. Untill you kill red named boss mobs spawns infinitely in groups in this encounter. He can be lured away by one of party member and rest can focus on killing spawns. With slayer/xp pots its 2M+ xp in 1-1,5h.
For Epic Orchard you need full group of strong characters which can zerg mobs groups quite fast (this area compared to other wildernesses is kinda hard). Again with xp/slayer pots its 2,5M xp + in maybe a bit more than one hour.
Same with The Ruins of Thunderholme. Full party (12 members) 5-6 full area cleanups + explorer and rares. And you are sitting on 2,5M+ xp.

You can cap from 20 to 28 on those three areas only in half day of effective farm. I would say 5-6h of playtime, maybe a bit more. How it can be sucky for xp ?
I really regret that they changed mechanics in Wheloon and High roads (mobs used to respawn there). Probably due to lag issues . Mostly in wheloon when whole instance was able to totally lag out which always ended with wpipe.

From heroic areas prolly Vale and Orchard are best. You dont really need to use others. There are plenty xp in heroic content and its really no need to farm for it on slayers.

[Sehenry03]

You dont even realize how utterly wrong you are in this sentence.

Three best epic areas are : Kings Forest (ill explain why)
Epic Orchard of the Macabre
The Ruins of Thunderholme

Other with acceptable xp/min are: 3bc and GH (lots of quick explorers)
Sometimes its also worth to step into Wheloon and High Roads but not as much as before becouse mobs dont respawn there anymore .

In Kings Forest all you have to do is to get full group and find "Grim Disturbance" random encounter. Sometimes it requires few instance restarts but it spawn pretty often. Untill you kill red named boss mobs spawns infinitely in groups in this encounter. He can be lured away by one of party member and rest can focus on killing spawns. With slayer/xp pots its 2M+ xp in 1-1,5h.
For Epic Orchard you need full group of strong characters which can zerg mobs groups quite fast (this area compared to other wildernesses is kinda hard). Again with xp/slayer pots its 2,5M xp + in maybe a bit more than one hour.
Same with The Ruins of Thunderholme. Full party (12 members) 5-6 full area cleanups + explorer and rares. And you are sitting on 2,5M+ xp.

You can cap from 20 to 28 on those three areas only in half day of effective farm. I would say 5-6h of playtime, maybe a bit more. How it can be sucky for xp ?
I really regret that they changed mechanics in Wheloon and High roads (mobs used to respawn there). Probably due to lag issues . Mostly in wheloon when whole instance was able to totally lag out which always ended with wpipe.

From heroic areas prolly Vale and Orchard are best. You dont really need to use others. There are plenty xp in heroic content and its really no need to farm for it on slayers.

He's not wrong...he is just referring to Heroic and for heroic he is 100% correct.

You are correct when talking about Epic.

Its 2 different games.

[FranOhmsford]

I've only done Wheloon on Heroic, but I have really enjoyed it. Looking forward to checking it out when Epic. If it's like other heroic/epic slayers I suspect my static group will have a ball racking up the kills with a much denser mob population.

As for heroic Gianthold, I feel it isn't populated enough. Epic Gianthold, however, was a lot of fun when we last ran it.


I wonder if most of the slayer complaints come from soloers.

E-GH has even worse Mob Density issues than Heroic!

Heroic's bad, Epic's atrocious!


As for Wheloon:
I've completed every single slayer prior to Heroic Wheloon on my 1st life Monk - Lieuk - who is now back at Lvl 20 on an E-TR and not taking 21 till he's completed Heroic Wheloon.
Something that is going to take forever! As he can get the slayer count up easily enough {already past 5k} but rare spawn rates are just plain broken!

I think I've got about 1k kills in E-Wheloon just through running out to the quests in groups - Chances of me getting the rares/random encounters maxed = ZERO!

This an interesting list, but you don't give any indication what your criteria are that makes a slayer area 'great' or not. Personally, I disagree with several of these, but that's probably because I weight certain things differently. I enjoy ease of navigation, feeling of steady progress through slayers, and interesting and not monotonous landscapes. I'm not really about efficiency when it comes to slayer zones.

I didn't want to mess up my list with long winded talks about each zone.
AND
I didn't want to give quick one/two word issues either as that would end up being misunderstood.


However:

I'll give reasons for why one zone in each list is in said list:

Great

Tangleroot Gorge
This slayer zone is a slow burner: You might get fed up of it early on but after a while you realise just how good it really is.

115/116 kills per instance depending on whether the Barmaid rare is up or not.
Good rare spawn rate.
An easy 15 minute circuit starting at the tavern and ending at Splinterskull that takes in every single mob!
Multiple mob types to count towards Monster Manual kills
Very nice scenery and plenty of good explorers.
And best of all - The quests can be teleported to straight from the Tavern once you've spoken to the questgiver {Separating the slayer/explorer/rares from the actual quests}.

Good

Cerulean Hills/Korthos

Cerulean has a tremendous KPI of 150+ per instance {max slayer count is only 400!}.
Korthos has a steady 94-97 KPI

Both have decent rare spawn rates {The Halfling Farmer you have to rescue in Cerulea could do with being made a guaranteed spawn though!}.
Multiple mob types in Cerulea - Not so much in Korthos but that's no slouch either.

Scenery and Explorers in both are pretty good.

The main thing I'd change {other than making that d@mn Halfling rare spawn everytime!} is to swap their max slayer counts round.
Make Korthos go only to 400.
Upgrade Cerulea to a 750 maximum.


Bad

Sorrowdusk Isle:
You'd think that because I like Tangleroot I'd also like Sorrowdusk right? WRONG!

KPI is basically the same as Tangleroot {Max Slayer count for both is 1500}
Rare Spawn rate is pretty much the same
Scenery's good, Explorer points are good too.

BUT there the similarities end!

You're gonna get exceedingly fed up of Ogres and Trolls!
The Circuit takes slightly longer than Tangleroot {18 minutes is my standard at level} BUT places you at the exact farthest point from the first two quests at the end of said circuit and entails either recalling and stepping back in + a 1 minute run to get to even the closest quest OR a 5 minute run all the way back through multiple portals!

I regularly feel that I spend more time running to and from the questgivers through an empty slayer zone than actually in the quests {only two quests in the entire 10 quest chain regularly take more than the 5 minute slayer reset interval - and those only just!}.


Two major changes needed:
1) Allow us to jump off from the Temple back to Lower Sorrowdusk.
2) Move the Questgiver Ogres dependent on what point of the chain you are on!


Terrible

Wheloon {Heroic}:
What can I say that I haven't already said about this zone?

Here: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...dom-Encounters

not just the OP - I've posted multiple times in that thread!

[FranOhmsford]

In Kings Forest all you have to do is to get full group and find "Grim Disturbance" random encounter. Sometimes it requires few instance restarts but it spawn pretty often. Untill you kill red named boss mobs spawns infinitely in groups in this encounter. He can be lured away by one of party member and rest can focus on killing spawns. With slayer/xp pots its 2M+ xp in 1-1,5h.

Two issues:

1) That sounds incredibly like a word we're not allowed to use on these forums.

2) Even if it is WAI the random encounter system of King's Forest makes it virtually impossible to actually get that specific one to spawn without doing a full instance clearance each time anyway!


My biggest issue with The King's Forest is the random encounters -
They work fine in High Road because it's a small zone.
They don't work in The King's Forest for the exact opposite reason - The Zone is HUGE!

A Zone the size of The King's Forest needs actual specific rare spawn spots so we can learn them and run to the spot/s we need to when we get to the point where we're only looking for a few specific ones out of what is a massive list!

Oh and sorry but I absolutely loathe having to have my map take up half my screen because otherwise I wouldn't even know a random encounter had spawned at all!



EDIT: In fact...If it wasn't for the obvious fact that The King's Forest is smeggin' gorgeous I'd categorize it as Terrible rather than just Bad

[Oxarhamar]

Best are the newer ones that scale with Party size.

Grab a group and get your red alert slay on.

E Wheloon, Thunderholme, E Orchard.

The bigger the party the more monsters to slay. All other slayer zones are inferior unless you enjoy farming specific chunks of an area then recalling to reset. Bleh.

Wish they would do a slayer area pass so they all scale with party size.

* Epic Gainthold is fun only because, of the dragons.

[Vellrad]

Best are the newer ones that scale with Party size.

Grab a group and get your red alert slay on.

E Wheloon, Thunderholme, E Orchard.

The bigger the party the more monsters to slay. All other slayer zones are inferior unless you enjoy farming specific chunks of an area then recalling to reset. Bleh.

Wish they would do a slayer area pass so they all scale with party size.

* Epic Gainthold is fun only because, of the dragons.

This system is terrible garbage.
It makes solo player extremally inefficient at wilderness, and anyone who already have a party is better running quests over wilderness areas.

[Oxarhamar]

This system is terrible garbage.
It makes solo player extremally inefficient at wilderness, and anyone who already have a party is better running quests over wilderness areas.

Maybe you've not run one of these slayers with a full group maxing out the slayer count in under 3 hours is a ton of fun.

As for punishing the soloist. So be it! We have enough mechanics in game which reward soloing over grouping already. One up for grouping!

As for party being better off questing the same can be said for the soloist @any level they are likely better off questing than running explorers zones after the initial explorer point run & minimal slayer score it is all diminishing return.


Hey, I'd even be fine with those slayers being fully scaled full time no matter the party size but, somehow I feel that would not go over well.

[Connman]

So I basically live in explorer areas. My new favorite is Sschindylryn it is just missing a shadow dragon rare. I love the dark imagery and the music.

Shavarath is my second favorite because, again, I like the dark tone and when you realize that the "flowers / grass" is really thousands of arrows, well... I also have a lot of fun beating on big chickens.

I did not see anyone mention the Subterrane. It could be good, the rares and some of the explorers are cool, as in "The eye Tyrant council." But.. The XP is very low.

[Eth]

...and anyone who already have a party is better running quests over wilderness areas.

EOrchard and Thunderholme are some of the best XP/min places in the game.