Hardcore Epic Grouping doesn't function well with 2 level limit

[Marshal_Lannes]

I hope future HC seasons go back to the previous grouping format, at least in epics. Having a 2 level over quest lockout is awful for epic grouping. You can spend (literal) hours waiting for a group. Yes, there is attrition that lessons the population in epics but the highly restrictive 2-level limit makes getting going painfully arduous. I hope this doesn't return in the future and is marked down as an experiment that didn't have good results for group play.

[Valerianus]

considering that...


they are doing the same old turbine (it still lingers) worst mistake again and again even on live, that is, introducing crippling anti-grouping mechanics, e.g. i mean the whole epic level quests (20-29) being zero-rewarding for the whole legendary characters population across 11 future legendary levels (30-40), splitting a really thin playerbase and literally trashing the best game feature past level 20, that is, easier grouping...what do you think you are playing, a mmo or something? do you want to group? sheesh dude chill out


...i won't hold my breath for hardcore and its special rules.

[balvix]

I hope future HC seasons go back to the previous grouping format, at least in epics. Having a 2 level over quest lockout is awful for epic grouping. You can spend (literal) hours waiting for a group. Yes, there is attrition that lessons the population in epics but the highly restrictive 2-level limit makes getting going painfully arduous. I hope this doesn't return in the future and is marked down as an experiment that didn't have good results for group play.

I have played, and succeeded at every hc league so far. No deaths, not even this season. I can honestly say that this is the worst and least thought out league so far. The hounds are really annoying, I have kids, I have a life, so being forced to either leave a quest, which is a real pain when you're with a group, especially a pug, or risk the deletion of however many hours you have spent to that point is really really irritating. Personally I thought a game was supposed to be a bit challenging but still fun, not an exercise in irritation. If I want irritation I will simply do real life things. Thank god I'm not handicapped and have to take regular emergency breaks, this would bar that kind of person from playing at all for the most part. However that's not even the worst part of the season, the two level lockout is crippling to the hc server. Sure, ok, I get that the devs revel in trying to kill the players on hc. I find that to be somewhat interesting thb. Two level lockout really doesn't make the game harder in the way I'm sure they meant to make it. It makes it harder and less of a mmo experience only because it stops groups from forming. When you do finally make it past 20 the groups get very scarce, and only because of the lockout. For a game that claims to be a mmo centered around group play, these sorts of adjustments really force the play in to the other direction, forcing people to have smaller groups if they can group at all and don't have to just try to solo quests. Its also an issue in the lower levels, it took me almost 4 days to get necro 4 done because nobody was joining the lfm. This isn't just my experience, you see it constantly in game, people saying the same things about not being able to fill a group and in some cases nobody joining at all. What really boggles my mind is the fact I know the devs are intelligent people, and most likely realized what this was going to do to the grouping aspect in hc, and yet still went ahead with it. Sorry if my thought train isn't exactly coherent, its past 4 am here and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.

[Marshal_Lannes]

It's been a week now and I've gone from level 20 to level 22. For a point of reference that takes me about 2-3 hours of Live. This is the worst most quagmire experience I've had in DDO. There simply aren't any epic groups because of the 2 level lockout. I've had LFMs up for 30 mins to an hour and nothing. I simply can't get groups for things like Lords of Dust where the level lockout is 23. It took two days to find an Eveningstar 1 group. Please Devs, don't ever do this 2 level epic limit in HC again.

[Oxarhamar]

It's been a week now and I've gone from level 20 to level 22. For a point of reference that takes me about 2-3 hours of Live. This is the worst most quagmire experience I've had in DDO. There simply aren't any epic groups because of the 2 level lockout. I've had LFMs up for 30 mins to an hour and nothing. I simply can't get groups for things like Lords of Dust where the level lockout is 23. It took two days to find an Eveningstar 1 group. Please Devs, don't ever do this 2 level epic limit in HC again.

Static group is best

Otherwise it’s pug time or short man

If you are worried about leveling which apparently by your post instead of favor what are you waiting for?

[fatherpirate]

I know they did it to make it more - challenging
but it does create issues.

Besides grouping issues (which are there),
if your going for favor you end up sandbagging
levels at about 5 because of the huge number of level 3 dungeons.
not that I want less dungeons, but that still happens
because you can't level up and lock yourself out.

They might want a different mechanism next time.
Maybe just boost the difficulty of all dungeons after Korthos by
one or two levels .... same effect, less issues.

[Oxarhamar]

I know they did it to make it more - challenging
but it does create issues.

Besides grouping issues (which are there),
if your going for favor you end up sandbagging
levels at about 5 because of the huge number of level 3 dungeons.
not that I want less dungeons, but that still happens
because you can't level up and lock yourself out.

They might want a different mechanism next time.
Maybe just boost the difficulty of all dungeons after Korthos by
one or two levels .... same effect, less issues.

Doesn’t matter 2 levels or 4 levels above you are going to be sandbagging ifn you are going for favor there is no problem with that

That’s really a good thing it means that there is more xp than favor & players are not required to run every single quest to level up

[rish]

. Personally I thought a game was supposed to be a bit challenging but still fun, not an exercise in irritation. If I want irritation I will simply do real life things.

You sir, based on that comment, are my hero

[adamkatt]

+2 lvl limit worked just fine for me. got the reaper horsey just fine with all pugs no less.

[Hanul]

It's been a week now and I've gone from level 20 to level 22. For a point of reference that takes me about 2-3 hours of Live. This is the worst most quagmire experience I've had in DDO. There simply aren't any epic groups because of the 2 level lockout. I've had LFMs up for 30 mins to an hour and nothing. I simply can't get groups for things like Lords of Dust where the level lockout is 23. It took two days to find an Eveningstar 1 group. Please Devs, don't ever do this 2 level epic limit in HC again.

It's understandable not to find group is boring... but it's worse to be able to play quests level 1-18 while been level 20 for example. There would be more groups if people did not die so much...

[radule]

It's understandable not to find group is boring... but it's worse to be able to play quests level 1-18 while been level 20 for example. There would be more groups if people did not die so much...

It's not that they die, it's that they don't come back to life

Personally, I'm still in heroics (lvl15), and there are still plenty of groups in my lvl range. I don't contradict what the OP said, it's just that once you've passed initial goals (lvl20 and 5k favor) you will need a static group to get through the epics and farm reaper XP at cap, if that's your goal.

[Hanul]

It's not that they die, it's that they don't come back to life

Personally, I'm still in heroics (lvl15), and there are still plenty of groups in my lvl range. I don't contradict what the OP said, it's just that once you've passed initial goals (lvl20 and 5k favor) you will need a static group to get through the epics and farm reaper XP at cap, if that's your goal.

I am level 15 and is more difficult to group now. Maybe they should allow you to enter in any dungeon no matter what level but to give a penalty similar to negative levels for example. This would solve the problem (although negative levels may not be enough of a penalty however) if added with some other penalties like penalties to ac dodge damage etc maybe even block spells not in the level range...

[Tanky]

The 2 level limit is the best thing about this hardcore season. It needs to be in every hardcore season from now on.

[kmoustakas]

I hope future HC seasons go back to the previous grouping format, at least in epics. Having a 2 level over quest lockout is awful for epic grouping. You can spend (literal) hours waiting for a group. Yes, there is attrition that lessons the population in epics but the highly restrictive 2-level limit makes getting going painfully arduous. I hope this doesn't return in the future and is marked down as an experiment that didn't have good results for group play.

"Hardcore grouping doesn't function with 2 level limit"

That's what my oppinion would be. Worst HC ever

[archest]

kept locking myself out of quests , favor and sagas with the 2 level lock out .
I dont like it .
3 maybe better.

[MathisMagic]

Yeah, this was the first HC season I did (those wings were jsut soooo pretty) and it was really rough that they added a mechanic that makes it pretty necessary to group (hounds) and a mechanic that makes it very difficult to find groups at the same time. From about level 12 or so on it was slow going, and above level 15? Good luck!