The Knights of Mercy met yet again for Secret Monday. Scooter took the night off due to an early morning, and so I was "bach-in' it" for the evening. With Syp having just completed the Gatekeeper challenge, we gathered up the first 5 Knights that came on and decided to cut our NM teeth on Polaris. FOr me it was the first time in a Nightmare level, and wow, they aren't kidding with the name. In all honesty, we got our butts handed to us repeatedly by the first very first boss. Syp's GK victory had occurred so early yesterday that he was fighting a losing battle with the ZZZ Monster, and bowed out before we got locked out of the Instance.
By then Pid was on and we decided to knock out a filth run one-shotted the first couple bosses, and then came up against our second serious challenge of the night. The filth puppy wasn't the hard part. Flappy pooping all over the group proved our downfall.
I've got a little criticism for Funcom on this particular event. To engage the players, you need high intrinsic rewards (e.g., fun, novel gameplay) and/or high extrinsic rewards (e.g., loot) The current Nightmare "Enter the Filth Phase 2" provides neither. The fights were fun, in the regular version, but quickly became repetitive. The fight in the NM are not more fun, just more challenging, but the loot is not commensurate with the increase in effort. Funcom needs to either bring the rewards up to at least the equivalent of Elites—or better yet, NM, or revamp the fights completely, or those tentacles will still be there months from now. I'm guessing it would be easier to change the loot table.
Not wanting to end Secret Monday (or this post) on a low note, we decided to run a scenario (that I didn't get any pics of) without the Uniforms on. We had a blast blasting stuff in the Castle.
I also wanted to say—and I may elaborate later—this is what guilds are for me, a group of friends that get together to help each other, cheer each other on, celebrate our victories, and laugh through our defeats. Basically, to have fun. Any more serious tone would be (has been) a turn off. If I want to feel like I'm working, I'd rather get paid for it.
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| Hey we're all wearing Orochi Uniforms; what could go wrong? |
I've got a little criticism for Funcom on this particular event. To engage the players, you need high intrinsic rewards (e.g., fun, novel gameplay) and/or high extrinsic rewards (e.g., loot) The current Nightmare "Enter the Filth Phase 2" provides neither. The fights were fun, in the regular version, but quickly became repetitive. The fight in the NM are not more fun, just more challenging, but the loot is not commensurate with the increase in effort. Funcom needs to either bring the rewards up to at least the equivalent of Elites—or better yet, NM, or revamp the fights completely, or those tentacles will still be there months from now. I'm guessing it would be easier to change the loot table.
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| Action! Sorry, WickedTryx was offscreen. |
I also wanted to say—and I may elaborate later—this is what guilds are for me, a group of friends that get together to help each other, cheer each other on, celebrate our victories, and laugh through our defeats. Basically, to have fun. Any more serious tone would be (has been) a turn off. If I want to feel like I'm working, I'd rather get paid for it.
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"The fight in the NM are not more fun, just more challenging, but the loot is not commensurate with the increase in effort. Funcom needs to either bring the rewards up to at least the equivalent of Elites—or better yet, NM"
ReplyDeleteVery common complaint on the forums from the 1st day the current phase went live. And then they also added scenarios right after and. . . . no one is doing the filth event anymore. Not when NM dungeons award 10.1 and 10.2 drops and bullion, while scenarios award augments and oreos that can be used to buy 10.0 gear, and running the filth gets you. . . . . . . a green drop, maybe?
Also, for 1st boss in Polaris -- the tank must impair Mjolnir's Echo to prevent aggro reset, and it's a good idea to impair Charged Hack (high damage attack) as well to keep the healer sane. Keeping an impair on tap for Deep Calling makes it REALLY easy for the dps -- that's the only thing that would make them move, and if it gets impaired.... they just blast away. OTOH, it's pretty easy to dodge it too, so if that doesn't get impaired and the dps avoid the "bad" like they're supposed to anyway, it's not a big deal.
ReplyDeleteBiggest thing in NM's is the tank has to know what to impair, the dps and healer need to know what to dodge. And occasionally the dps need to know what to purge too ;-)
We honestly didn't spend too much time at it before Syp had to sign off. And it was the first time for at least two of us. Our tank knew what to impair; but timing was off, or someone would hit the wrong button, or dodge into a rock, etc. It was amusing at least, if not very fruitful. :)
DeleteOne of these days I will not only have Monday nights free to join all of you, but I'll also play enough to be geared for some of those NM's!
ReplyDeleteHeh, I suppose I'm geared, but Nightmares definitely require you to bring your A-game.
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