Publish 3 for New Legacy : my opinions

Well done developers! I very much enjoyed the content added to the New Legacy shard for Publish 3! It is a great send-off for the first New Legacy season.

I have only done the entire battle cycle straight through once; which took about an hour and a half. Other times for a single boss, which is a much more managable time comitment. So far I have used the following templates: warrior, mage, tamer-warrior hybrid, bard-ranger hybrid.  The only character template that I found diffcult to manage during the battles was the pure warrior. Not surprisingly Harbinger bosses frequently use AoE attacks so characters that can deal damage without getting close (bows, spells, etc) have an advantage. My characters have completed the main narative, but I haven't run much other content ( farming Legacy points or Forsaken Bloodline loot) so players who have put more time in may do better. And make sure to run through the Shattering prologue quest in Moonglow with each character!

The best bits:
- quick paced champion spawn type battles in town for those who can't commit tons of time
- Harbinger boss battles after the mini- champ spawn give late-comers a good incentive to participate rather than sit out for the next fresh invasion
- Point awards ensures all participants get some rewards, even if you don't earn a special drop

My nitpicks:
- I missed two possible battles with Victor Blackthorn after the last Harbinger was defeated because I had no idea where to go (Fire dungeon Lost Lands entrance north of Papua). Not sure if I missed a prompt or if you just have to figure it out.
- I feel the Harbingers are a little rough on melee based Warrior templates but not sure what could be done about it. New Legacy has very limited scope of character templates compared to regular shards...maybe a special item like a talisman or shield to deflect some of the AoE damage for melee warriors? Or have mini mobs join the boss, requiring archers, mages and tamers do more than stand still during the battle (not an issue during Victor Blackthorm fight, well done).


That's my two cents!

Like you, I also have enjoyed the event on NL the past few days. The biggest knock I have is all of the crashing ( yes even after the patch) which brings me back to a dead toon or boots me from the battle and by the time I get back it's over. 

From the perspective of a player that started NL last year, stopped playing due to lack of content on NL (for content on Prod), and picked up again it's a little disappointing to think that I am likely going to miss out on the Blackthorn (Bloodlines I think??) piece in his castle since there aren't enough people that are willing to do that bc the invasions cut into that time. I wish that all the content would scale with the amount of people doing that content....so if I was the only person do BT it would scale down to a point where I would at least be able to finish it. 

Other than that I don't have any other major complaints...I am able to still do the Fractured Veil stuff with my petless tamers and get rewards...I did notice that using a pure warrior is definitely tough with the constant damage and I do wish I had created more of a hybrid style toon for this event but I will chalk that up to a lessons learned (in  the future I'll try more quirky builds lol).

One thing to add for my opinion after doing the event the past couple days...

The Void Commanders need to either pop in as invulnerable (yellow) for 30-45sec or there needs to be more of a warning when they spawn OR they just need to have more HP. It's becoming a serious issue that 75% of the people are just camping while the other 25% who actually work the spawn get screwed bc the Void Commander dies within 20 seconds of it spawning. I've missed out on several commanders because I was 10 screens away and by the time I got on the screen to cast a spell (and find his bar / name) he's already dead.

I've been on NL today.  Would be nice if players yelled out the city.  When a large crowd is on they stand by the gate area.  There is not much in the city to kill. Then you get to a boss after 15 seconds of not seeing the gate because of the crowd. When you arrive the boss is dead.  Same for the main boss.  Needs scaling for player numbers.

Just did them again, times were good.  I could have used a little more time reaching Victor, This time he lasted a good amount of time.

Statue is awesome!

Pawain said:

I've been on NL today.  Would be nice if players yelled out the city.  When a large crowd is on they stand by the gate area.  There is not much in the city to kill. Then you get to a boss after 15 seconds of not seeing the gate because of the crowd. When you arrive the boss is dead.  Same for the main boss.  Needs scaling for player numbers.

Just did them again, times were good.  I could have used a little more time reaching Victor, This time he lasted a good amount of time.

Statue is awesome!

Stand by a town Crier, they will yell it out for you.

They hot fixed many of the things I saw and heard.

Pawain said:

They hot fixed many of the things I saw and heard.

And ripped your empty spellbooks out of your Shattering crate 

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Pawain said:

They hot fixed many of the things I saw and heard.

And ripped your empty spellbooks out of your Shattering crate 

What's a lucky lute

Grimbeard said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Pawain said:

They hot fixed many of the things I saw and heard.

And ripped your empty spellbooks out of your Shattering crate 

What's a lucky lute

I am not entirely sure unless it's one that is sold in Brit at the conservatory.

Grimbeard said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Pawain said:

They hot fixed many of the things I saw and heard.

And ripped your empty spellbooks out of your Shattering crate 

What's a lucky lute

I got one during the bard quests.  300 uses recharges.

Bard's quest gives 2 instruments. I just posted a picture in another thread.

Mariah said:

Bard's quest gives 2 instruments. I just posted a picture in another thread.

Are they exceptional?

They do not say exceptional. 

The Victor event is not conducive to melee.

@Kyronix @Parallax ;

There has been a nice crowd in NL all day and late.  Great Job!  I and many others are having a lot of fun!

You increased the Riders damages too much.  Their damages are killing everyone over and over.
Would be nice if we had a period of time to sit and kill them, then they go crazy.  They just crazy all the time.  Their life span is good, everyone has time to do the damage they can.

The times are good now thanks.

Victor.  He does too many effects.  The whole area fills with goo.  The fire is relentless.
We just die over and over, until we just stand back and wait for him to die.

I have never seen him on my screen for more than 4 seconds after 20 seconds in.  I have no idea how he is killed.  He kills pets in 2 seconds.  Kills players as fast.

The good thing is, I get credit, so that part works Great!

Pawain said:

@ Kyronix @ Parallax 

There has been a nice crowd in NL all day and late.  Great Job!  I and many others are having a lot of fun!

You increased the Riders damages too much.  Their damages are killing everyone over and over.
Would be nice if we had a period of time to sit and kill them, then they go crazy.  They just crazy all the time.  Their life span is good, everyone has time to do the damage they can.

The times are good now thanks.

Victor.  He does too many effects.  The whole area fills with goo.  The fire is relentless.
We just die over and over, until we just stand back and wait for him to die.

I have never seen him on my screen for more than 4 seconds after 20 seconds in.  I have no idea how he is killed.  He kills pets in 2 seconds.  Kills players as fast.

The good thing is, I get credit, so that part works Great!

It's called suicide bombing, rez pet, send it, cast a spell and then go rez yourself, pet's and do it again. Not sure how the Melee is doing their version. but it's hectic, crazy, and a whooooole lotta fun. Another euphemism would be, "How do you eat an Elephant? One Bite at a time . . ."

Pawain said:

@ Kyronix @ Parallax 

Victor.  He does too many effects.  The whole area fills with goo.  The fire is relentless.
We just die over and over, until we just stand back and wait for him to die.

I have never seen him on my screen for more than 4 seconds after 20 seconds in.  I have no idea how he is killed.  He kills pets in 2 seconds.  Kills players as fast.

The good thing is, I get credit, so that part works Great!

Thats what we call beating a boss with sheer numbers by avoiding mechanics.

If the players were aware and paying attention more to the ‘void strikes’ and running away to place the void AoE elsewhere than on top of the Victor or killing Tenebris when it spawns midfight during first phase instead of staying on Victor are just 2 exemple of mechanics skipping. If it was of me, skipping these should actually wipe the group and force the encounter to reset like most other mmos.

I had never been close enough to see those when crowded.  I've never seen the other guy.

Last night we had a small group.  I did see a couple of players with numbers and that lightning.  I was able to actually stay near him with my archer until the goo covered everything.  

The 4 riders were better with a small group. I could stay alive longer.  The one that puts up the ice,  puts up too much.  I spent most of my time away from the rider and killing those with my archer.

Pawain said:

I had never been close enough to see those when crowded.  I've never seen the other guy.

Last night we had a small group.  I did see a couple of players with numbers and that lightning.  I was able to actually stay near him with my archer until the goo covered everything.  

The 4 riders were better with a small group. I could stay alive longer.  The one that puts up the ice,  puts up too much.  I spent most of my time away from the rider and killing those with my archer.

I'd be curious to know if an archer could get credit for the kill on the Harbinger and an opportunity for a drop just killing those "Ice Rocks" 

I gave feedback in the Patch notes thread but overall I think the difficulty of the towns and riders is fine; although I do agree about the ice rocks... there is a ton that gets thrown up and if you get frozen near a few you are likely dead. I think the range on the aura needs turned down to just 2-3 tiles away rather than like 10 or whatever it is now.

I agree with you Pawain that final fight with Victor needs to be scaled back a bit. I'd like to see either the wave of flames end during the second part of the fight (that is when he uses the riders specials) or make the area of goo limited in amount and time it stays there.

When there are a lot of players, it is impossible to use a melee fighter and live more than a few seconds.    

Last night with just 10 to15 or so,  I could have used melee on all the riders.  The Ice one would have been deadly because you have to be inside all the ice formations.  

With Victor, it is difficult to get close enough to see him with all the goo, much less be close enough to hit him.  You would have to deal damage at the beginning, then stay back and let the others finish him off.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Pawain said:

I had never been close enough to see those when crowded.  I've never seen the other guy.

Last night we had a small group.  I did see a couple of players with numbers and that lightning.  I was able to actually stay near him with my archer until the goo covered everything.  

The 4 riders were better with a small group. I could stay alive longer.  The one that puts up the ice,  puts up too much.  I spent most of my time away from the rider and killing those with my archer.

I'd be curious to know if an archer could get credit for the kill on the Harbinger and an opportunity for a drop just killing those "Ice Rocks" 

I played a round just killing the "Ice Rocks" and some light healing and got a scroll drop, looting rights, a Foe point and an antiquity. so I think it's possible to stumble your way onto a drop here. I'll have to play around a little and see what else i can do. Maybe dust off the old Arher/Blacksmith lol.

I think @keven2002 mentioned mages and not being able to cast a lot.

All the templates are very weak and slow.  I use a repeating crossbow or a Compound bow.

This was taken during the Ice rider.  The first is about 10 seconds in.  The next is when I almost died, look at the stamina.  I have to see my guy which is near impossible to know they are shooting because the special will take forever to go off.  The giant pets are in the way, mostly their ghosts.

Stamina drops for everything.  I think I had the repeater on in the first pic and switched to the Compound.  

Each special cost mana you can do about 4 or 5 and you are out.  Your regen is very slow. Bard regens song doesn't help a lot because they cost mana and consume mana while active for a short period.

I use the specials then look at the tamer screen and res a pet to send back to die in 3 seconds, sometimes the pet can make it to the boss before he dies.



As Vic said the drop rate is pretty consistent.  Dying helps.

And don't forget Stam blocking from all the Pets and players.  You get trapped constantly.  I have enjoyed the content and can pretty much survive most of the encounters until i get stam blocked once again (mostly from pets). 

Yes at the entry to the riders, The pets jam the middle. Players cant enter until they are called.

Also I cant walk through a crowd of players when trying to get to the corpse. The gates are too close to the bodies, players will walk in those because they are blocked from getting to the body.

The same pets each time.  Dang Flappys.  


@Community Manager
An NPC is at the bank entrance in MG my archer cant leave the bank without many tries. Stamina block, he has stamina!

Pawain said:

Yes at the entry to the riders, The pets jam the middle. Players cant enter until they are called.

Also I cant walk through a crowd of players when trying to get to the corpse. The gates are too close to the bodies, players will walk in those because they are blocked from getting to the body.

The same pets each time.  Dang Flappys.  


@ "Community Manager"
An NPC is at the bank entrance in MG my archer cant leave the bank without many tries. Stamina block, he has stamina!

I would say when this happens to page a GM, they can move them to where they should be. 🙂 

@Community Manager - Hoping that you could answer a question for me about the thought behind a season in NL when it comes to "throttling".

My initial take on the season (when it first started) is basically to throttle everything so that the season is "won" by the first month. I don't love that but I get the thought process. Is the intention that as the season moves along and now that we are in the final month or two of the season that things should essentially be "throttled up" to allow late comers a chance? If that is the case, I don't think that is happening as intended.... and if it's not the case then I think that needs to be looked into because it makes it very hard on people getting a late start (and might prevent people from playing NL).

The main thing I'm talking about here is the items to bring new players up to snuff to do things like fractured veil. It's imperative people have Invuln and Vanq gear in order to at least somewhat partake in the event, so it seems to me like all the "Random armor/weapon" drops should be top tier. Anything that is not transferrable should be super easy to get now as we near the end to at least allow people the chance to compete. If that's not the intention, then why are you limiting people within the first X months when maybe they have more time to play?

I understand not allowing the pets to be easy to get since they transfer off... but I still dislike that from the aspect of the undead dragon is probably one of the toughest pets in game (NL) and having one allows things like horde chests or blackthorn castle (all things I missed while other Prod events were running) to be completed to work towards those rewards. Just my 2 cents on that, although I can see the argument there that top tier pets that transfer should be worked for. 

keven2002 said:

@ "Community Manager" - Hoping that you could answer a question for me about the thought behind a season in NL when it comes to "throttling".
...
The main thing I'm talking about here is the items to bring new players up to snuff to do things like fractured veil. It's imperative people have Invuln and Vanq gear in order to at least somewhat partake in the event, so it seems to me like all the "Random armor/weapon" drops should be top tier. Anything that is not transferrable should be super easy to get now as we near the end to at least allow people the chance to compete. If that's not the intention, then why are you limiting people within the first X months when maybe they have more time to play?
...

Keven2002 would like all drops to be highest tier...it would certainly cut down on junk on the corpses.

This is a video of my playthrough with my Swordsman Warrior : 

The vid shows most of the drops I earn from the bosses are armor Hardness and Fortification and weapons of Force and occasionally Power.  That doesn't mean there weren't higher levels drops of Invincibility and Vanquishing available, I just wasn't the lucky player that earned them.
Loot drop quality is often brought up as an issue in the main servers as well, particularly from players looking to farming Legendary Artifacts.  

As I mentioned in my original post, I'm not running New Legacy characters with top end armor or weapons. My characters are running:
- Fortification level armor, which is enough to get to 70s in resists, but weaker than Invulnerable.
- Force and Power weapons since I don't have any Vanquishing level weapons
- Drakes for pets since I haven't earned Undead books or Dragon books for taming. 

I was able to kill mobs and get looting rights to the bosses. I had a hard time with some fights, especially with my swordsman warrior. My mage, bard and ranger faired better. Quite a few deaths in the process too due to taking massive damage from the bosses.

Would having Vanquishing weapons and Invincibility armor get me more drops?  Maybe, but then if I already have top tier equipment, what's the point of farming more?

Thalon said:

keven2002 said:

@ "Community Manager" - Hoping that you could answer a question for me about the thought behind a season in NL when it comes to "throttling".
...
The main thing I'm talking about here is the items to bring new players up to snuff to do things like fractured veil. It's imperative people have Invuln and Vanq gear in order to at least somewhat partake in the event, so it seems to me like all the "Random armor/weapon" drops should be top tier. Anything that is not transferrable should be super easy to get now as we near the end to at least allow people the chance to compete. If that's not the intention, then why are you limiting people within the first X months when maybe they have more time to play?
...

Keven2002 would like all drops to be highest tier...it would certainly cut down on junk on the corpses.

Would having Vanquishing weapons and Invincibility armor get me more drops?  Maybe, but then if I already have top tier equipment, what's the point of farming more?

AAt this point in the NL season (which is about a month or two away from being over); I'd ask what's the point of farming items you cannot bring with you; period? 

That is where my question about throttling comes in. To keep NL a place people still want to play even as things wind down they should be pretty loose with the non-transferrable items (IMO) to keep players engaged. Currently I have relied on other's generosity to get my Invuln/Vanq items and then pay it forward as I get them, but I'd like to see people who just want to play be able to earn it themselves (easily) as the season comes to an end....this does NOT apply to the beginning or middle of the season though.

I was lucky my archer found vanq composite and repeating on VS. But I got the last cheap ones.

Bows that do other than physical damage are expensive and not common.

The other weapons are cheap.

Armor except head gear were free or cheap when I started the invasions. 

I have been looking at my damage with vanq bows I do 1 damage.   With others I do 1 damage.  This is on commaders and horsemen.  Same with spells.  Flamestrikes do barely more than fireball.

On Victor your spells and weapons do more damage but because of no FC FCR you can cast more fireballs.

Pawain said:

I was lucky my archer found vanq composite and repeating on VS. But I got the last cheap ones.
.....
I have been looking at my damage with vanq bows I do 1 damage.   With others I do 1 damage.  This is on commaders and horsemen.  Same with spells.  Flamestrikes do barely more than fireball.

I think I got the last cheap couple of bows/xbows of vanq this weekend and they were not the ideal ones. I've found myself using more looted force weapons and getting a little more damage because of the type and special moves.

Another opinion for next season @Community Manager - Special currency (ie fractured veil points) should be account bound and not char bound.

I started the event as my mage because my melee guy wasn't finished and now I'm kind of locked into playing my mage for the event until I get enough points to grab a reward (otherwise I wouldn't get to use them). It's similar for the legendary foes as well... when there are more pets to tank stuff I'd like to use my melee guys to save reags, but if I'm one of the few tanks I'd opt for mage to summon stuff instead; I think those points should be banked between 2 chars not 1.