How to grief wipe a whole party in HC

[kmoustakas]

So if I get this correctly, all I have to do is get marked by a hound, get as far away from my party then once the dog appears teleport out of the quest. Then my group dies to dots because they won't be able to find the hound?

Sounds like nice design to me

(I'm a barbarian I can't teleport)

[Aelonwy]

They either didn't think of this being able to happen which would be further proof they don't play their own game or put much effort into testing... OR... or they are absolutely fine with players getting grief-ed by their new mechanics and left it in on purpose. Neither is a good look for the game.

[Jerevth]

To be fair, I don't think they anticipated trolls weaponizing the mechanic.
At this point they should have, though. Always ask, "How can this be abused/ exploited/ weaponized?"

I'd propose several fixes:
1) Limit the hound AOE DOTs to line of sight- it's after one target, anyway. Dungeon wide AOE is outside reasonable mechanics of the season.
2) The hound is locked on the target it spawned for- if the target leaves the dungeon the hound follows and the clock is reset for that character to three seconds so when they enter the next instance... (Let's face it- TP'ing to escape is a bit of a cheese)
3) The hound floats on water (Cannot sink).
4) The hound's procs cannot happen if the hound does not move. (Because a DOT from a mob in a wall is pure BS) Tie to the blink ability and/or each of its melee attacks. i.e. It hits a target, one stack. Target runs back and it bampfs, add a stack.

HC can be tough enough without essentially resorting to coded cheat mechanics to wipe parties, and I agree they need to fix this asap.

[SiliconScout]

All this said I haven't heard of or seen this happening on hardcore to this point.

Not to say it hasn't or won't but from what I have seen at the very least this isn't widespread if happening at all.

100% agree though that dungeon wide targeting of a DoT makes no sense and is both bad design and poorly thought out.

[Suggestion]

All this said I haven't heard of or seen this happening on hardcore to this point.

Not to say it hasn't or won't but from what I have seen at the very least this isn't widespread if happening at all.

100% agree though that dungeon wide targeting of a DoT makes no sense and is both bad design and poorly thought out.

Guildies were discussing this yesterday and commented that they won't run parties with non-guildies just because this has happened to them (some were able to teleport out and at least not die).

[Assassination]

Besides the malicious intent. Just coming into a quest late is dangerous. A person halfway back of the main party can pull a hound when they step into the quest. This can wipe a party. So fixed groups are probably best, but not very flexible for pugging and such. After level 11 this becomes much more dangerous because the dogs are more difficult to handle.

More thought needed to go into the implementation of these dogs. People who like them are playing in fixed groups, getting "fortunate" and not running into glitching dogs,

[LT218]

More thought needed to go into the implementation of these dogs.

"More" would imply that the devs put any real thought into them in the first place, which should be clear to everyone by now that they didn't.

I mean really...

Don't the devs know that mobs can spawn in walls and get stuck by now?

Don't the devs know that DoTs are buggy by now?

Don't the devs know that overpowered mobs that one-shot kill anything minus a couple of meta builds is bad design by now?

Don't the devs know that continuing to use known, bugged mechanics before fixing them is bad design by now?

Don't the devs know that combining all of the above known problems into one big pile of poo is guaranteed to be the exact opposite of fun? And worse yet, they have the cojones to do drop that mess on HC of all things.


Part of me is glad that they've turned this new HC league into such a train wreck. In theory, it will cause many of the HC players to give up and go back to the Live servers sooner which is probably better for the long term health of the game.

On the other hand, this is a train wreck of epic proportions, so it will also almost invariably **** players off enough that some of them will outright quit DDO rather than going back to their Live server, and that is the thing DDO needs least of all right now given how thin the Live populations already are.

[Jaxtan]

This is exactly why I am only soloing this HC, with lots of hirelings set on aggressive, only on hard or normal quest settings. I could not image being in a group this HC. There is a wall of red text party wipes to Fey Hunt Hounds (especially the Brilliant ones).

Even playing it safe, the more than occasional lag stutters during fights gets the pulse going. And any quest with deep water requires following a timer to ensure the hounds don't spawn in deep water, bug out and do the mega dot of rapid death. Interesting HC season you got going here.

[C-Dog]

To be fair, I don't think they anticipated trolls weaponizing the mechanic.
At this point they should have, though. Always ask, "How can this be abused/ exploited/ weaponized?"

I'd propose several fixes:
1) Limit the hound AOE DOTs to line of sight- it's after one target, anyway. Dungeon wide AOE is outside reasonable mechanics of the season.

HC can be tough enough without essentially resorting to coded cheat mechanics to wipe parties, and I agree they need to fix this asap.

They did this with Fear Reapers, they should see that it needs to happen to Hounds too.

I have no problem w/ the hounds as generally implemented, their strength, in all quests, etc etc - but when there is no defense something is broken, and "broken" is broken.

[fatherpirate]

the joys of solo HCL

not worried about that issue.
I just kill it.

[Assassination]

The blame for this issues really needs to be pointed at management, er upper management. It's hard to blame the "3" devs that I think actually work on this game. It's pretty obvious management is pushing things out before it's ready or been tested. And that's embarrassing for SSG. The 3 main devs just finished Isle of Dread, and god only knows, but they are probably pulling customer service duty as well. SSG really needs to pull it together.

So that would be Tolero or Severlin. Maybe they should come out with a statement of "apology" for the mess. Boy that would be putting on the big boy pants for sure.

[Episkopos]

So that would be Tolero or Severlin. Maybe they should come out with a statement of "apology" for the mess. Boy that would be putting on the big boy pants for sure.

This. This. This.

[slarden]

the joys of solo HCL

not worried about that issue.
I just kill it.

That might protect you from griefing which is just being discussed theoretically, but it won't save you from the bugs with dots and how the hound spawns.

[Mofus]

Cordo already said they weren't making changes to the hounds, so it is what it is. Not sure why they had to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with.

[Oxarhamar]

Cordo already said they weren't making changes to the hounds, so it is what it is. Not sure why they had to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with.

Idk they fixed some of the same problems with reapers so

[NemesisAlien]

The blame for this issues really needs to be pointed at management, er upper management. It's hard to blame the "3" devs that I think actually work on this game. It's pretty obvious management is pushing things out before it's ready or been tested. And that's embarrassing for SSG. The 3 main devs just finished Isle of Dread, and god only knows, but they are probably pulling customer service duty as well. SSG really needs to pull it together.

So that would be Tolero or Severlin. Maybe they should come out with a statement of "apology" for the mess. Boy that would be putting on the big boy pants for sure.

In japan one upper management would have jump already.

[hale99]

So if I get this correctly, all I have to do is get marked by a hound, get as far away from my party then once the dog appears teleport out of the quest. Then my group dies to dots because they won't be able to find the hound?

Sounds like nice design to me

(I'm a barbarian I can't teleport)

Last night while playing I saw 2 - 3 man party wipes come across the obits and a 5 man wipe. Wonder if this is what happened.....

[Jerevth]

In japan one upper management would have jump already.

I think this is a bit excessive, Nem.
No number of character deaths warrant losing anyone's life.

Maybe we're letting ourselves get incensed beyond the reality of the situation.
It's frustrating as hell- both because of the bugged hounds situation and the griefer possibility, but we can choose to walk away from the challenge, or accept it knowing these are the risks.

[fatherpirate]

That might protect you from griefing which is just being discussed theoretically, but it won't save you from the bugs with dots and how the hound spawns.

I have not had the 'spawn in wall and dot you to death issue'
I think that is because how I deal with them.

since I am solo, I know it is coming 'blue arrow'
and as soon as I know it is coming I quickly move to as big a open area I can
find near by and do a backwards circle until it shows.

so there is no wall near them, it zones into the open area.
-as soon as it zones-
I sic the hirelings on it (I am not standing near it)
and as soon as the hirelings have aggro I quickly kill it at range.
heal any hirelings that got dotted and move on.

I know this does not address the bug issue.
but so far it has helped me avoid the bug.

[Oxarhamar]

I have not had the 'spawn in wall and dot you to death issue'
I think that is because how I deal with them.

since I am solo, I know it is coming 'blue arrow'
and as soon as I know it is coming I quickly move to as big a open area I can
find near by and do a backwards circle until it shows.

so there is no wall near them, it zones into the open area.
-as soon as it zones-
I sic the hirelings on it (I am not standing near it)
and as soon as the hirelings have aggro I quickly kill it at range.
heal any hirelings that got dotted and move on.

I know this does not address the bug issue.
but so far it has helped me avoid the bug.

This workaround won’t work in 100% of situations not all quests are going to have a big open area that you can get to in time many have tight corridors and tunnels that you must go down

I’ve seen them spawn in the open but never go active lucky they were not the dot type but had they been it would have been trouble since that made them unkillable