Mabar Sneak Attack Preview!

[Tyrande]

Two issues I have seen:

1. Got disconnected when with Red Network Icon. This has never happened to me. This was around 5:30pm EST and during the 2nd spectral dragon door opening.
2. Some Shadarkai were too low level for characters level 28 and 26 for some reason and got nothing with the drought of midnight.

[Missing_Minds]

...because we ourselves can't test it

Correct actually. They can not test it under the same load conditions it would suffer on live. Load conditions create for interesting happening.

[Qaliya]

Why on earth does Mabar have level instances which basically mean NOTHING???

There used to be no level system at all. This was likely easier to do than doing things properly -- meaning, actual level restrictions or hard mob CR limits per instance -- and they've never gone back and corrected it.

[AZgreentea]

Correct actually. They can not test it under the same load conditions it would suffer on live. Load conditions create for interesting happening.

Where is Mark Wahlberg when you need him?

[tsath1972]

In order of severity:

1. Entering Mabar graveyard from anywhere except the Jorasco front gate puts you in the shared instance, and not in the level instance you left from. Example: you are in the 16-20 instance, you enter the Summoning Chamber to fight the dragon, or Delera's IV for a quick refresh of spell points, when you exit back to Mabar you do not get to select which instance you are going to, but are instead dumped in what I presume is the shared instance. You then must run back to the graveyard-Jorasco gate and exit and re-enter to be back in the appropriate level instance. Fix this by giving the instance-choice menu to a player no matter where he is entering the graveyard from, or else by putting the player back into the instance he left from.

2. After killing the Dragon the summoning chamber doors in the graveyard remain open. Anyone entering into the summoning chamber will have a key consumed and not returned, but will not have a chance to fight the dragon because it is already dead and because you are immediately ejected from the summoning chamber upon entrance. I know you can't close the chamber doors until each instance's dragon is dealt with, but keys should not be lost from accidentally entering a finished instance.

3. Mote rewards from turn-ins are reversed. Cursed finger bones were giving 30-40 motes, while burnt out opals were giving 3-6 motes. Opals are about 20 times more rare than finger bones so I presume you have accidentally reversed the reward levels. Regardless of what the specific bug is, huge rewards for the common drops and tiny rewards for the rare drops makes no sense.

4. Maybe this is WAI, but there was some sort of invisible mob that made vampire sounds and would follow me around casting negative energy and stun spells. Even with DM's Vision or True Seeing the mob had no graphical representation and so could only be destroyed through area of effects since no one could see where it was.

5. Out of level range monsters spawn in the level range instances. If you are going to have level ranged instances then limit the spawns in those instances to that level range. Otherwise you are just creating opportunities for hard feelings via griefing, and look incompetent.

6. While I understand from a game design approach the reasons why non-undead were added, I would like to report from a game-play approach that many of the players in the raid groups I was in largely ignored the non-undead mobs, going so far as to carefully avoid aggroing them with melee, and using area of effect that hurt only undead. Appararently no-one wants them there and they are reducing the level of fun produced from the Mabar event. I would strongly suggest replacing them with more undead spawn.

7. Way too many ethereal key drops. Maybe you had this ratio turned up for the test, but I accumulated about 1 ethereal key for every 200 motes. I remember from back when Mabar was first introduced you said you would eventually add the ability to turn in ethereal keys for motes, just as if they were opals or finger bones. Now would seem like a good time to finally implement that solution.

[MadGardener]

Tonight only (6:00 PM until 12:00 AM Eastern, -4 GMT!) Visit Delera's Graveyard in House Jorasco to see a special preview of the Mabar Festival of Endless Night! Once you're done, come back here and tell us about your experience! Thanks, and have fun!

Thank You for the sneak peek. unfortunately I was unable to try the dragon raid, Having difficulty with the non inst-kill undead toon i brought in to farm ingredients in the time I had available. However I do like the prize of a +5 tome. Also looking forward to a permanent pumpkin head on my druid bear (I have the cult mask, will that replace the benefits from the mask?) the pumpkin heads on the dogs are also great, they look like they are wearing a football helmet (if i works the same as the temp thrown pumpkin heads from last year).

A few issues from last year, and please forgive me if they have been changed (was unable to do the raid), low level or less popular lvs for the raid instances made auto fails, simply not enough at the level required to even man all the stations. And the long time before raid opened especially in non peek times.

Suggestions:
make low volume groups only need to do/fill half the rooms or just give them a by and grant them there end reward and completion. I know it doesn't sound completely fair but i have been in both, high level very, very full group -4 per switch and 10 per alter (very easy) and a low level undermanned group, instant fail do to inability to have even one toon at each station.

make the event have a deadline to activate, after a set time ,say an hour or less, it opens up, or after 30 minutes turns-ins are double, 45 minutes x4 and after the deadline x10.
btw, did the turn-ins to activate the raid go up?

had an issue last year with a lower level toon running in higher (and vise versa) area and spawning inappropriate mobs, they claimed it gave them better drops killing higher lv mobs with their lower toon, but it made a real mess for everyone else.


Thank you for the opportunity to express opinions. good luck with the event, i believe it will be very busy and hopefully a good time for all.

[Enoach]

I spent an hour last night in the MABAR event.

Overall it was fun, I did not get a chance to do the dragon part, RL emergency. I stepped in and then my son hurt himself and by the time I got back I was outside the instance. I have no idea if there was even enough to do this part in the to 30 Instance (I was level 27).

Did spend a key, didn't see anything in my bag so I assumed either we failed or not enough people.

In that hour I received 5 Lich dusts, assortment of bones and skulls and no opals or vampire fangs.

I look forward to this event opening.

[Krelar]

Also looking forward to a permanent pumpkin head on my druid bear (I have the cult mask, will that replace the benefits from the mask?)

The cult mask is a clicky now, once you've used it you can remove/swap it around and keep the benefit until the next time you log in. (If you haven't been using it every time you log in then you have only been getting the cosmetic part not the buff, this was a change when they started selling the pre-order for the latest expansion)

[rest]

I was level 13 and these mobs had CRs in the 20s. Again, not one single solitary level-appropriate mob spawned near me.

And I wasn't "griefing" regardless -- both because I was there to play, not cause problems for others, and because I mostly did it off on my own, away from other players.

All that said, I definitely support a minimum CR by instance -- because that should be the entire point. And if I'm in a higher-level instance it's because I want higher-level mobs anyway.

ETA: Those saying that the level ranges don't do anything forget what it was like before them. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.

You're griefing. Denying it doesn't make it untrue.

[Qaliya]

You're griefing. Denying it doesn't make it untrue.

Spurious, unsupported claims don't make things true.

Per Wikipedia: "A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways."

I was not doing that. I was there to kill mobs, and I did kill mobs. Furthermore, since I saw mobs spawning that looked the same as all the other mobs and had CRs over 20, I had no reason to believe there was a problem. Nobody asked me to leave. And I wasn't playing near others anyway.

People have now explained that the mobs near me were likely at lower CRs than they would be near people in the 20s. If when Mabar comes back my presence causes too-low-level mobs to spawn for others even when they are not near me, I will leave the instance. But I don't think that happens, in which case I will play in that instance if I wish, just staying away from other players.

I'm not an unreasonable person. And at no time whatsoever was I engaging in "griefing", regardless of your apparent desire to invent your own definitions of the term.

[MrJHawk]

Tonight only (6:00 PM until 12:00 AM Eastern, -4 GMT!) Visit Delera's Graveyard in House Jorasco to see a special preview of the Mabar Festival of Endless Night! Once you're done, come back here and tell us about your experience! Thanks, and have fun!

I'd love to tell you about how it was for me, but since I live in Europe I didn't get a chance to try it out; bummer! Next time please don't forget about us over here.

[Kyshara]

Lovely
Adorable
Gorgeous

[rest]

Spurious, unsupported claims don't make things true.

Per Wikipedia: "A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game, using aspects of the game in unintended ways."

I was not doing that. I was there to kill mobs, and I did kill mobs. Furthermore, since I saw mobs spawning that looked the same as all the other mobs and had CRs over 20, I had no reason to believe there was a problem. Nobody asked me to leave. And I wasn't playing near others anyway.

People have now explained that the mobs near me were likely at lower CRs than they would be near people in the 20s. If when Mabar comes back my presence causes too-low-level mobs to spawn for others even when they are not near me, I will leave the instance. But I don't think that happens, in which case I will play in that instance if I wish, just staying away from other players.

I'm not an unreasonable person. And at no time whatsoever was I engaging in "griefing", regardless of your apparent desire to invent your own definitions of the term.

This has been an issue every year of Mabar. It will continue to be an issue until Turbine literally locks out people from higher level instances.

Maybe griefing isn't the right way to put it. "Ignorantly and selfishly ruining other people's ability to participate in the event due to either not understanding the mechanics or not caring about how your actions affect other people." There does that sound better? Either you don't know you're doing it (ignorance) or you do know but you just don't care (selfishness).

I'll let you pick.

[PurpleTimb]

I ran VoN3 last night and my entire party nearly died laughing (literally) when we came to the beholder area and found them wearing pumpkin heads. Classic!

[Qaliya]

Maybe griefing isn't the right way to put it. "Ignorantly and selfishly ruining other people's ability to participate in the event due to either not understanding the mechanics or not caring about how your actions affect other people." There does that sound better? Either you don't know you're doing it (ignorance) or you do know but you just don't care (selfishness).

I have as much right to kill the mobs in that instance as anyone else does. Since I was sensitive to the potential issue involved, I took specific steps to avoid affecting others. I think that's a reasonable compromise between my needs and others' needs, and given that nobody indicated that I was causing them any hardship, I quite honestly couldn't give a fig how you put any of it.

[TheBenWalker]

Firstly, mabar is one of my favorite events that you guys do. I love the feel and the pace of the event, and enjoyed the instance again last night. Would advise a few changes to improve the experience:
1. Thanks for removing the giants, the new mobs are a lot less annoying. Would be kinda' fun to see an occasional red-named giant pop up with some kind of bulk loot like 10 finger bones, or perhaps killing him just drops the turn in count by 100... just a thought.
2. The lvl 26-30 instance had monster spawns that were registering as too low to give rewards to my toon. perhaps automatically lock people into instances based on their lvl?
3. Would like to have an option to swap something from the old currency for the new currency. Ethereal dragon shards perhaps.
4. Would really like to see those +6 tomes
5. Had a run ruined by lack of people in the instance (not enough to fill the rooms much less kill the dragon. Anyway you could autocap the numbers that enter each instance, or perhaps drop some hirelings into instances/rooms that don't fill up? When you lose the instance after having waited and worked for 2 hours trying to open it, its quite disheartening. (alas, I didn't get a sucessful run last night, and missed my permanent pumpkin head)
6. Would it be possible to put another tier of upgrades on the present mabar loot - LEVEL 28 please . I've gotten most of the gear for all of my toons in past runs of the festival, and would love to have some legitimate reason to farm the area again this year.
7. What about a possible second tier to the festival solar? perhaps a 2d4 light possibility?
9. Any chance you can allow the "festival" feature stack rather than replace? I feel like random loot should have a chance with upgrades to be comparable to end game gear. Such that one could work to get multiple festival bonuses throughout the year... maybe even with an additional bonus for collecting all festival upgrades. It would totally make random gear interesting, and give us a reason to hang on to those rare good drops.

Thanks again for all of your work. looking foreward to October

[Phoenix-daBard]

My only requests are as follows:

1. Make the level specific instances limited in the level spawns can occur so if someone too high or too low goes into the instance they are properly encouraged by the game to switch over.

2. The dragon chamber needs a minimum of one opening per hour. Last few times of Mabar running I only saw 3 or 4 openings a week.

3. The dragon chamber needs to scale to the number of players in the instance. Most of my experiences felt more like griefing by game mechanic.

[Cordovan]

I wanted to answer a couple of questions I've seen in this and/or other Mabar-related threads, and thanks again for all of the great feedback:

On the Signet timing questions: The Signet reward is once per day per character, not per account, and the day is based on the server clock, which means that the "day" will reset at the same time the Challenge tokens do. I think the server clock is based on Coordinated Universal Time.

Cosmetic helmets suppressing pumpkin heads is working as intended, due to an issue that came up during development. When working on Mabar, it was discovered that if you had a cosmetic helmet on and were hit with a pumpkin head, the visuals of both would display, which caused clipping and other issues. So, the decision was made to give cosmetic helmets priority. People hit with the Pumpkin Grenade who want to see the pumpkin on their heads should temporarily remove the Cosmetic Helmet from their cosmetic headwear slot.

We are also taking a look at the possibility of making some tweaks to several things that could make it into a patch that would be released prior to the activation of the Mabar event, but it's a bit early to give any definite confirmation, since that work has not yet taken place nor been validated through the QA process. Among the things we're looking at is adjusting either the drop rates or Mote cost of Vampire Fangs and/or Lich Dust, fixing the issue where mummies are sliding on their backs or crawling out of the ground incorrectly, and looking at the "invisible vampire" issue, along with several other things. Again, don't read the above paragraph as a promise, but that's the goal. We'll bring you more information on this possibility soon.

[Maelphistez]

Hey Cordovan,

I bug reported it and posted a ticket in game, but just wanted to point out that I was dead when the dragon was successfully killed... this shouldn't be too awful of a thing but in fact, when the instance closed it booted me to my bind point (the 12 if it matters) and did not give me either a scale or a signet. I'd really like to see that fixed as those dragon instances are just too far apart and too likely to fail for me to appreciate getting nothing when we *do* actually succeed.

[Nebless]

2 things I forgot to add:

- Except for my very last turn in of the night, I couldn't get the stones / bones / skulls turn in pumpkin to reset to accept the new item after completing a turn in of one type. I would have to close out the window and re-open it each time after turning in one type of the items needed.

- Were motes suppose to show up somewhere last night? If so I couldn't find them anywhere in my inventory.