Final Thoughts On Hard Core League 6

[Uska]

Hated the +2-level lock out hated the sometimes-arbitrary deaths hated lack of useable gear on AH this was my first HC as I took a break for 5 years from the game the only good thing was it did get me interested in playing again just don't have as much time as I use to so have really grouped much. I will probably try the next HC but I hope they dump the hounds .

[Dendrix]

Disliked the hounds mechanism.
Disliked the 2 level lockout.
I was killed in Korthos at level 2 by a hound.

I didn't spend anything on this hardcore season, just like I said.
I didn't play on hardcore this season after my 1st character was killed.

[Grindflayer]

My thoughts as a soloer, this being my 3rd HC league. Didn't make it very far this time either, only to about 1000 favor and lvl 11, but I'm somewhat happy with my goals because of my limited time available.

Disliked the hounds. Not because they were difficult -- I didn't die because of them, even though there were a few close calls in the beginning of the season -- but because:
1) Randomness. A game that lags (the term used rather freely here) this much, should introduce as few random surprises as possible, in my opinion.

2) It changed my play style in a frustrating way: Every time I hadn't had a hound appear for a while, and I knew there was going to be a long swim/climb/fight etc. ahead, I ... stopped playing. I didn't want the hound to spawn on me at a wrong time, so I waited .. and waited .. and stared at the screen. Not because it was so exciting when the hounds come, but because I wanted to minimize the chance of dying. It's perma-death server after all, so going on would've been about as clever as running naked into a beholder, on purpose.

That's not fun, terrifying or interesting. It was just dumb and dull.

Didn't mind the 2 lvl lockout, even though as a mostly-favor-runner it felt a bit frustrating to constantly be at XP cap and not be able to benefit from quest XP.

[Zargarx]

This season pushed the "softcore" league out of the worst hardcore league position.
This was the anti-pug league. And very unfriendly to folks that have to attend to unexpected real life tasks.

Part of the fun for hardcore league is meeting up with people across servers & guilds. This league didn't favor that - solo and somewhat static groups appear to do best.
The +2 levels lock out was part of the issue, it was too severe. I think +3 level lockout would have worked well.
The dog mechanism was bad. I was ok with the dogs difficulty on elite (can't say for normal and for the occasional times on hard/reaper seemed ok too) once the disastrous dog bugs at the start of the season were fixed. But had to make a less fun build so to survive for a short while when afk... which was often; ending up having to solo most of the longer quests. No deaths, but some close calls when returned after afk.
I really look forward to Hardcore league every time it is on and is what brings me back to ddo.
But unlike previous hardcores seasons, I didn't enjoy it; just quickly got the 2 easiest rewards and was done.
Primarily due to the annoying dog mechanics.

[Vullgarr]

As someone that finished many of the goals of this season's challenges, I thought the hounds were just too much and no more than an unnecessary bother with no real value added to the League. I also didn't like the only 2 levels above Quest cap instead of the usual 4 finding it just tedious and time consuming without feeling of true reward or accomplishment. Previous Leagues with Mimics were fun and there was some reward for it which made it more worth the while. This season was a challenge but not in an interesting or fun way for me. I believe most people did get through it and know how to build characters for HC and making it harder just because you can didn't hit the right feel. I wish there were a permanent HC Server that reset every 2 or 3 months with different types of challenges, but not the level cap change or Hound type creatures that were just too often and too bothersome to be fun or rewarding.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Would be curious to see if backend analytics support the generally negative feedback through reduced population or is it just folks more motivated to post when they have a complaint.

Pugged my way to 5k relatively late in season during slower playtimes as I am MST and have a kid so weekend days were out too. Some days I stood around for maybe up to a half hour but generally did not have an issue finding LFMs

Died once in Korthos due to my ignorance of how hard they hit and again in Feywild just due to a group splitting up. Learned my lessons. Seems most people did too as pugs were very good at sticking together for most part.

And I don’t buy the real world calls excuse - just log out. It takes a few seconds. Or am I missing something.

[TrinityTurtle]

I know this is going to be unpopular, but I have to admit, I liked the hounds. I was really astonished to realize I was missing them after I came back to live. The random rush of hearing that hound howl and prepping to fight more my life was actually fun. I agree the 2 level lockout wasn't so much fun. While it did shorten the Long Dark Night of level 19 as we like to call it, it just made other levels become the new long nights. Ya'll who went for 5k favor know which ones.

[Paxsmickey]

I was not a fan of HCL VI. I made it to 5K favor, but it was more frustrating than fun.

First major complaint: pushing a massive nerf to clerics and favored souls in the middle of a hardcore season was infuriating. Add to it the nerf to bards’ sonic blast and I was pretty jaded for the rest of the season. I understand there were concerns over the balancing of the classes, and I guess the storm singer archetype was too strong when it had access to an AOE sonic blast, but that change killed any base bard spellsinger build, and did so in the middle of a HCL. Same issue with the nerf to clerics and favored souls. Developers knew they felt those classes were over performing, but left it before the season started. Changing the classes mid season very much felt like a “I got mine, so screw you.” Not that that was the case as that would require the developers to actually play the game. In the future massive nerfs to classes should be done before or after a HCL, but not during. I felt that FVS and cleric was really strong in hardcore, but I didn’t seem them as drastically overpowered on the live servers. It felt like the change was made due to an abundance of FVS/Cleric players on hardcore. They were strong caster classes with access to healing, of course they were being played. After the nerf I joked that next the developers were going to nerf Artificer and Rogue because too many people were splashing those classes for trap skills. Do better.

Max quest level change: honestly, I was fine with the reduced max level to enter quests. It forces you to run quests at level, and it meant players that were focused o it on reaching level 20 were grouping with the same people running everything for favor. I think this is a fine change and should remain for future HCL seasons. The HCL theme/gimmicks need to be balanced as such though, which these hounds did not feel that way.

Night Revels: I like it when a HCL season is able to incorporate seasonal events, much like the mimic hunt season, but the decision doesn’t appear to be consistent, and I hate the inconsistency and lack of communication regarding these decisions. I shouldn’t have been surprised in the last month of HCL that night revels was being incorporated with HCL, but by that point lack of communication and these types of surprises mid season were Par for the course. Do better.

Hounds: I think they were an interesting idea, but I hated their implementation. They were extremely buggy at launch, and they slaughtered new characters in Korthos. They didn’t feel play tested, and their scaling felt disjointed. The fact that they could spawn in walls, in water, infinitely fall to reset their DoT, etc. was absurd. It removed a great deal of fun for me, and often forced parties to sit waiting for a hound to spawn before we could swim a small portion before having to wait for another spawn. The manner that they spawned punished players for PUGing which should NEVER be the result of a game mechanic. The fact that there was no reward for the added difficulty of the hounds was disappointing. With the mimic event they felt fun, offered a reward in the form of mimic tokens, and you could mitigate the risk by avoiding chests. The hounds this season were an added frustration that offered no benefit, and could not be cc’d, forcing players to make builds that focused on high DPS. Previous seasons I enjoyed playing tankier builds that were built for survivability and support, but this season I was forced to play DPS builds capable of soloing hounds. The fact that a single player going AFK could lead to a party wipe earlier in the season was ridiculous. I had a group where a player went AFK unannounced, had a hound spawn on him, and by the time we realized he was long since dead, but we were slapped with a massive DoT from a hound on the other side of the quest that was actively bugging in a wall. I enjoy that HCL normally opens up different types of builds, typically ones where you focus on survival, but that felt taken away this season, and when I played a strong “meta” build it was nerfed mid season.

I play HCL primarily for the increased grouping opportunities, different play styles due to the season theme/gimmick, and a desire to challenge myself. This season I felt pigeonholed into builds, felt actively punished for trying to PUG due to shoddy hound mechanics, and slapped in the face with class nerfs that should have happened before or after the HCL. During the introduction to HCL it was stated that the game would never be balanced around HCL, only balanced around the live servers. That feels an awful lot like a blatant bold faced lie. Do better.

[GreenGiantIsHappy]

I have played in all HCL seasons but the 2nd, and this one was by far the least favorite one of mine. I was used to the mechanics of previous seasons and had planned accordingly, sadly most of the builds I was used to playing didn't work very well at plus two level lockout as they were often multi-classed and their power developed at a slower rate (as an example, a Cleric 15/Pal 3/ Rogue 2 build which I used just fine in season 5 (made both leaderboards, top 15 in Reaper), failed miserably multiple times this season, for various reasons some my fault but alot of it due to the extreme difficulty increase from hounds and the +2 level lock. I like to multi-box three accounts at times, and group when I feel like that, and usually had different characters for those different kinds of play styles. This season, I found the hound mechanic made grouping significantly less fun for me than previously, much more stressful and often instead of zerging less, pugs zerged more, to the point where it wasn't even fun in the quests anymore it felt like the 40-yard dash and then get out as fast as you can.

Some of my favorite memories over the last few seasons were the players I played with from different servers. This time around, I literally had 11 characters in the land of lost souls by the end of it, and was not able to establish any of my characters to the point where I got close to any reward other than one who hit 1750 favor. In previous seasons, I often ran into fun players I had met from previous seasons as I progressed in level, or met new ones, and that was a huge part of the fun factor for me. This season, I never really got far enough along to meet anyone new, and that felt disappointing. The whole season felt like a Tomb of Horrors campaign where the DM was just delighting in killing off the party in one ridiculous trap-filled room after another. Dungeons & Dragons should not feel like a job, or a race, it is a game, one that can be enjoyed alone or with others. This season failed on so many levels, I hope the development team never revisits these errors again. The spirit of Dungeons & Dragons is in jeopardy. Gary Gygax would be groaning in disappointment at what you are doing, and the devs responsible for the design of this season should be ashamed of themselves. Please go read the original Dungeon Masters guide to help you understand the purpose of the game. I have played this game online since 2006, (and Dungeons and Dragons since 1981), but I mostly play on Hardcore leagues now, and I hope the next season you learn from your mistakes and bring back the fun. Penalties on death, sure. But anti-grouping mechanisms and Doom Reaper Hounds in Korthos at lv 1 is just silly.

The Green Giant (Haven guild leader on Hardcore servers, and sometimes on Cannith)

[Heu]

HCL Vl, I had some fun this season, I never got to 1750 favor or any reaper points, But I met and ran with some very great people this season. Many were very helpful, many guilds were very helpful in inviting to get ship buffs. Which in season Vl you very much needed.
So a very BIG thank you to every guild this season you made everyones season soo much better.
The hounds needed to be scaled to level, but I see what the devs were trying to do, just needs more fine tuning and scaling to be effective as to what they were thinking. Plus there should be a reward to how many hounds you live through. Say you kill 100 hounds is a reward tier. and so on. It could actually work if they do it right.
This was a first time hardcore season for me, and hopefully next season will have just as many or more great people and guilds to run with and have lots of fun.