Feedback Wanted: Serpent Boss in Sanctum Ophidia (Difficult Mode)

ZOS_GinaBruno

Hello everyone! We'd like to get some feedback from you if you've had a chance to battle against the Serpent, specifically in Difficult Mode, in Sanctum Ophidia.

1. How many attempts have you put into fighting the Serpent in Difficult Mode?
2. What's the lowest health you've gotten the Serpent to in Difficult Mode?
3. How does the Serpent in Difficult Mode compare to the Serpent in Normal Mode?
4. How happy are you with the level of difficulty of the Serpent in Difficult Mode?
5. What is the most enjoyable part of the experience in Difficult Mode?
6. What is the most frustrating part of the experience in Difficult Mode?

If you have any other feedback regarding the fight with the Serpent in Difficult Mode, we'd love to hear it. Thanks!

Turelus

It would be nice to know the set-ups used by each group as well (for those willing) as I worry that far too much difficulty balance in the game comes from the current FOTM builds rather than more standard array groups.

ZOS_GinaBruno

No feedback on this fight? Does everyone know how to activate Difficult Mode for the Serpent?

rophez_ESO

I'd love to give you some feedback, but I'm not in giant guild, and don't know enough people capable of "hard modes" to organize a 12 person raid. Hard enough to get 4 people to try Arena hard mode.

Considering the trials are based on DPS races (why else put in a timer) they really don't fit the play style of the people I group with. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Ysne58

Same here.

Erock25

Ditto

Kyoma

Me and my guild have recently attempted the HardMode but since it was only a quick attempt there's not alot I can comment about yet. The one thing that I do find strange is that you can activate it by burning only one flag, as opposed to the three orbs and statues in AA and Hel Ra. Meaning if someone sees the prompt and is curious what it does, he or she would be unpleasantly suprised.

Lord Stark

My wife and I also have trouble finding groups to attempt this for whatever reason.
Has been that way with all hard modes, DSA AA HRC and OS.. either you are in an established guild group, or you are fighting an uphill battle getting into trials short of waiting around all day/night..
I also feel as time goes on without new content.. the same issues are popping up with the normal modes.

Gyudan

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

No feedback on this fight? Does everyone know how to activate Difficult Mode for the Serpent?

I don't know what the situation is on the NA server, but in EU only one single guild has managed to clear Sanctum Ophidia in normal mode.
It's kinda hard to give feedback since I have never been past the Mantikora.

Kyoma

Gyudan wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

No feedback on this fight? Does everyone know how to activate Difficult Mode for the Serpent?

I don't know what the situation is on the NA server, but in EU only one single guild has managed to clear Sanctum Ophidia in normal mode.
It's kinda hard to give feedback since I have never been past the Mantikora.

Actually there are 3 guilds (that I know of) that have completed it, several times aswell.

evedgebah

Have not been able to get Manticora down yet and make it to serpent, am in several progression raid guilds. I will be happy to provide feedback once there. Please DO NOT tone down Manticora (the Serpent's Shadow fix is great, and just that - a much needed fix).

Gyudan

Kyoma wrote: »

Gyudan wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

No feedback on this fight? Does everyone know how to activate Difficult Mode for the Serpent?

I don't know what the situation is on the NA server, but in EU only one single guild has managed to clear Sanctum Ophidia in normal mode.
It's kinda hard to give feedback since I have never been past the Mantikora.

Actually there are 3 guilds (that I know of) that have completed it, several times aswell.

Well, all of them are bananas so I wouldn't know. Nerf Ayrenn!

General_Kefka

We just finally killed Serpent Normal Mode on NA, only once did we attempt hardmode and it was due to someone accidently burning 1 banner. Needless to say we promptly got owned on the 1st new mechanic we saw and chose to get normal under our belt 1st.

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is all good, fair feedback. Thanks for the insight, everyone! Keep it coming.

B11zzard

We will start from 1.5 because 72 souls.

BEZDNA

I know it may sound a bit silly, cause i haven't finished heaven normal mode of SO (still practicing last boss) but according to my previous experience in Difficult Modes at AA, HRC and DSA wich i finished several times i can say one thing for sure - For heaven's sake! IMPROVE LOOT! It's extremely frustrating when after finishing difficulty mode the reward for all effort, time and gold invested by members of the group are absolutely unrewarding! Ppl feel sad and they have no intention to repeat this challenge again.

TagaParti

The truth is, players like me and my friend who runs solo or duo only and not in a large organized guild wont even bother to try this content. So for now, we are just waiting for the Solo zone, at least everything there can is soloable. Hope so.

VileIntent

BEZDNA wrote: »

I know it may sound a bit silly, cause i haven't finished heaven normal mode of SO (still practicing last boss) but according to my previous experience in Difficult Modes at AA, HRC and DSA wich i finished several times i can say one thing for sure - For heaven's sake! IMPROVE LOOT! It's extremely frustrating when after finishing difficulty mode the reward for all effort, time and gold invested by members of the group are absolutely unrewarding! Ppl feel sad and they have no intention to repeat this challenge again.

All hard mode loot should be guaranteed legendary loot drops to promote progression. no random pos item either should always be a set item.
I stay broke buying potions to run trials, I should see something for the money im pumping out.

killedbyping

VileIntent wrote: »

BEZDNA wrote: »

I know it may sound a bit silly, cause i haven't finished heaven normal mode of SO (still practicing last boss) but according to my previous experience in Difficult Modes at AA, HRC and DSA wich i finished several times i can say one thing for sure - For heaven's sake! IMPROVE LOOT! It's extremely frustrating when after finishing difficulty mode the reward for all effort, time and gold invested by members of the group are absolutely unrewarding! Ppl feel sad and they have no intention to repeat this challenge again.

All hard mode loot should be guaranteed legendary loot drops to promote progression. no random pos item either should always be a set item.
I stay broke buying potions to run trials, I should see something for the money im pumping out.

I dont think it should guarantee any legendary drop. What would Legendary mats and crafters worth then ?

I think those items should come with increased Set bonuses instead along side with improved enchants.

VileIntent

killedbyping wrote: »

VileIntent wrote: »

BEZDNA wrote: »

I know it may sound a bit silly, cause i haven't finished heaven normal mode of SO (still practicing last boss) but according to my previous experience in Difficult Modes at AA, HRC and DSA wich i finished several times i can say one thing for sure - For heaven's sake! IMPROVE LOOT! It's extremely frustrating when after finishing difficulty mode the reward for all effort, time and gold invested by members of the group are absolutely unrewarding! Ppl feel sad and they have no intention to repeat this challenge again.

All hard mode loot should be guaranteed legendary loot drops to promote progression. no random pos item either should always be a set item.
I stay broke buying potions to run trials, I should see something for the money im pumping out.

I dont think it should guarantee any legendary drop. What would Legendary mats and crafters worth then ?

I think those items should come with increased Set bonuses instead along side with improved enchants.

To reward you is why. shouldn't all ways need a crafter. those things get expensive and I'm dumping cash just to do the hard mode. I don't want to have to pay to improve my hard earned reward. its hard mode ffs reward us.

Arandul

VileIntent wrote: »

killedbyping wrote: »

VileIntent wrote: »

BEZDNA wrote: »

I know it may sound a bit silly, cause i haven't finished heaven normal mode of SO (still practicing last boss) but according to my previous experience in Difficult Modes at AA, HRC and DSA wich i finished several times i can say one thing for sure - For heaven's sake! IMPROVE LOOT! It's extremely frustrating when after finishing difficulty mode the reward for all effort, time and gold invested by members of the group are absolutely unrewarding! Ppl feel sad and they have no intention to repeat this challenge again.

All hard mode loot should be guaranteed legendary loot drops to promote progression. no random pos item either should always be a set item.
I stay broke buying potions to run trials, I should see something for the money im pumping out.

I dont think it should guarantee any legendary drop. What would Legendary mats and crafters worth then ?

I think those items should come with increased Set bonuses instead along side with improved enchants.

To reward you is why. shouldn't all ways need a crafter. those things get expensive and I'm dumping cash just to do the hard mode. I don't want to have to pay to improve my hard earned reward. its hard mode ffs reward us.

All of the equipment that drops is bind on pickup anyways, so either way crafters wouldn't be very useful. Normal Serpent is hard enough to kill, so I'm in agreement that there should be legendary drops for anyone able to kill with the HM mechanic.

That aside, I think the normal mode mechanic is incredibly annoying when you get the Serpent to 0%, It will be almost impossible to survive for inexperienced groups, and cause further frustration and discouragement to these groups, severely limiting the amount of people willing to even try to get the Serpent to 0% just to see if they hopefully survive this time. In-fact, it's because of this, and not having it down to a point where we can clear every single time that I haven't even bothered to attempt HM.

Cutholen

Arandul wrote: »

That aside, I think the normal mode mechanic is incredibly annoying when you get the Serpent to 0%, It will be almost impossible to survive for inexperienced groups, and cause further frustration and discouragement to these groups, severely limiting the amount of people willing to even try to get the Serpent to 0% just to see if they hopefully survive this time. In-fact, it's because of this, and not having it down to a point where we can clear every single time that I haven't even bothered to attempt HM.

The first time you encounter that mechanic, you will probably wipe, yes. But every try after that and you know what is comming, we never had really much troube to survive this phase. It's quite annoying the first time you are right, but after that it's working okay. The Serpent trys to finish us with his last breath, i like that lore wise.

s7732425ub17_ESO

To be honest, 99% of the player base has never completed a single Trial. For the 1% that have done a Trial, more than half of those have only run AA. I don't know why people never run Hel Ra. However, Sanctum is definitely the hardest, and it is only run by very, very few groups (most of which have practiced on it for weeks). That's probably why you are not getting much feedback.

eserras7b16_ESO

My guild started Trials 3 weeks ago, I hope we finish Hel-Ra by this week and then i'll tell you how Sactum Ophidia goes..!

TehMagnus

We may give it a shot this weekend and post here thoughts about it.

Fecius

Killed normal mode at last being 2nd guild in Pact after Hodor. We wanna take a look at HM, but as i know it's:

1. 1kk more HP for boss.
2. x2 HP for Adds
3. Some kind of ani-stack rays of "love".

So, i belive, we need to improve our group setup and get 30% of raid DPS somehow. Hope we'll manage it, after i'll try not ot forget about this thread.

osaceeub17_ESO

I am not sure this is the right place to post these comments, but I cannot find a better spot.

I would like the developers of ESO to consider the long term big picture.

Now that you have scaled up the difficulty level of the Vet dungeons, I am concerned that you will lose your less hard core players. I understand the people that have the need to beat everything, to be the best, to be number one. These hard core people will be with you as long as they can work up a sweat in a dungeon. But when the newness and challenge wear off they will go to the next new game. Well-- unless ESO keeps raising the the bar more and more. Leaving the everyday players further and further behind.

It is very hard for most players to get into the 12 man instances. Most guilds have there chosen few that run together all the time. Even if should you get into a group, you will most likely get told how you are not playing your toon correctly, or how your equipment is inadequate. I realize you have no control over the players themselves, but I know you can develop dungeons that give similar achievement for smaller groups..ones that you do not have to be a "star" to complete.

12 man teams are a logistical nightmare for the majority of players. It is very difficult to fill out a squad, often a lot of time is wasted waiting for people, or if someone has to leave, you then have to find a another player that is willing to run the dungeon and not get credit.

I would like to see that changed-- four man dungeons are usually manageable. Anything larger than that outside of cyrodiil and PVP is just frustrating for all the reasons I mentioned.

I am writing this because I have had people voice their concerns about the direction ESO is taking. Mostly they are concerned when they hit craglorn the game is pretty much over for them. They will have no where to go. Of greater concern, is the continued upscaling of dungeons to keep the MMO one %ers happy, forgetting about the other 99% of the players.

What about the players that just like to explore, run four man dungeons or solo dungeons? What is the long term plans for "ordinary players"? The ones that like to craft, farm and make nice equipment. Those that pay six months in advance because they believe you will return to the soul of the games you developed (Morrowind, Elders Scrolls, Skyrim).

I played another MMO for 7 years. I brought many people to this game when i left, but they have now all gone back. Mostly because of the changes that have incorporated. "It was more fun." "It is less frustrating." were just some of the comments. That is what people want--fun, a sense of accomplishment, rewards that are useable (not like the style traits we get in our mail that we can buy from any Black smith, clotheir or wood crafter--you should never send something to a player as a reward/prize that they can buy at a vendor). (Don't get me started on the writs and there cost benefit ratio--but that is just a personal note).

There are many things i would like to see changed, but i believe this is the number one concern of myself and most of the folks I have spoken with. They love ESO, they have waited a long time for it to become and MMO. Please do not forget about us.

osa

Fecius

Ok, now we saw the Hard Mode. We have some ideas for the strategy but we desided to spend a bit more time in Serpent Normal Mode to get some staff and practice.

Here is the short video of our 1st look at the Serpent in HM:

http://www.twitch.tv/fecius/c/5621216

As for our feelings:

1. We are rly far from kill )))
2. I like this epic new boss skill. It looks beautiful, it calls greate World Shaper, and it makes all fight with boss somthing different. And omg it's every 20-30 sec! And even small green missiles can kill with 2700+ dmg unblocked.
3. We want to kill em from now on!

timidobserver

So, we actually tried hard mode a few times, so I can actually give feedback on difficult mode as the thread requests.

It's not that bad, but things do get really chaotic. Give World Shaper(The AoE Poison Bomb) a smaller radius(decrease it by about 20-40%.) Increase the time it takes to go up in the air and come down by 15-20%.

Fecius

timidobserver wrote: »

It's not that bad, but things do get really chaotic. Give World Shaper(The AoE Poison Bomb) a smaller radius(decrease it by about 20-40%.) Increase the time it takes to go up in the air and come down by 15-20%.

I'm sure this will kill Hard Mode as Hard Mode. In this case every sleepy player can get out this coolest void in this game just walking around. The case is that it's not easy but possible and u can do this if u run with Shift and in time or at least Rolldodge.

World Shaper is Epic! I wish it stay Epic.

Fecius

Now, after trying a bit I can say that it's possible to kill. Ofc, we have some problems yet that stop us. Like some kind of mess cause of World Shaper and sometimes 50% Mantikora starting her slams if something goes wrong. But twice we managed to survive till Boom-phase with pink shields. I guess we left about 83% of his HP as our best try, but i'm sure, that a bit more practice will help us.

I'm afraid of a little problem in DPS, cause we need even much more of it: we have to find the way to kill 2 Mantikoras after 3d Boom-phase or kill Serpent for that time as we do it in normal mode.

Some tips:
1. Boss has for about a 4,5kk HP.
2. Mantikora is about 200k HP.
3. There are two World Shapers every micro phase and one in phase right after the BigBoom, so it's 9 Shapers for a big phase from one Boom to another.
4. World Shaper deals true dmg that u can't resist or low with any abilities (we tried to use all save abilties in the game, but it still hits 10k HP).
5. Green missiles can be blocked or u can use annulment.