PTS Update 40 - Feedback Thread for Infinite Archive

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for Infinite Archive. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• What level were you when you went through Infinite Archive?
• Did you play solo, with a companion or with another player?
• What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?
• Which bosses were the toughest?
  • Which Cycle and Arc did you fight the boss on?
• Which Verses did you find the most and least effective?
• Which Visions did you find the most and least effective?
• Did you use any Portals to the Unknown?
  • Which side content did you do?
  • Did you feel adequately rewarded?
• Did you use any Verse Scrolls?
  • If so, how effective were they?
  • Would you use them again?
• Did you have fun?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

couriersix

Yolnahkriin is too strong, at Arc 1, Cycle 4 he should not have over 2 million health. He also spawns too many flame atronachs, 2-3 would be enough.

I also experienced a bug with Yolnahkriin where after I defeated him, I couldn't select a vision or continue. It didn't count my win as a victory.

SasserClubb

Just finished killing Yolnokrin did not receive
a chest nor did I get a portal out

SasserClubb

Well I waited 10 minutes and finally got a chest use unstuck to travel back to the beginning then use portal. The chest should show up for you

TheImperfect

I only did a little because it's late but enjoyed it a lot. PTS is not on my primary server so solo on a level 30 sorceror in trash gear. Completed cycle 1. Love the design of the areas and the fights so far are fun. Like the flame aura verse and the bubble shield (forget the name). Tried portal to unknown with a puzzle to get to the other side - late and tired so did not get across. I don't feel I did enough yet to give extensive feedback, except to say it's a fun concept and design of areas are beautiful and the potential rewards on the vendors look exciting.

Cireous

Not seeing those 71 furnishing plans on either vendor. Or all the books. Confused.

Bluxx

Yolnahkriin is letting a run get Stuck.

LonePirate

The Daily Endeavor to earn 2500 Archival currency is ridiculous when you only reward 220 per cycle. I made it to the Tho'at battle and I only had earned 880 total. I couldn't imagine who has the time to go through almost 3 times to reach 2500. This should be lowered to 220. The other Daily Endeavor to spend 2000 Archival currency is only marginally better if you have that much already banked and just need to spend it. Earning 2000 new Archival currency just to spend it is a massive time sink for a Daily Endeavor. Both of these might be OK for a Weekly Endeavor but not as Daily Endeavors.

I played EA as a Mag DK in a Solo instance. The fights were fine except for The Mage from AA which I encountered as the 4th big boss (4th cycle?) before reaching Tho'at for the first time as the final boss of the first arc. The adds she (The Mage) spawns are simply too numerous and have too much health to make that fight any fun. I think she's fine but those adds have to be tuned down in number, health and spawn frequency.

OtarTheMad

This is probably the oddest suggestion but when you hit F5 and see what verses and visions you have, the numbers at the top that represent Stage, Cycle, Arc… well when you hover over it it would be nice if it told you what each mean. I often forget and my adhd brain just focuses on wtf 4-2-1 or 4-5-3 means vs what is going on.

I know, stupid suggestion… if you don’t do it that’s fine but I just thought I’d mention it.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

The 2500 endeavor should be a weekly not a daily.

couriersix

The Warrior has a poorly telegraphed one shot mechanic I struggled with, especially with the amount of adds he summons. I have noticed that a lot of the raid boss fights feel tuned for two players, instead of one.

f047ys3v3n

This is the official feedback thread for Endless Archive. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

What level were you when you went through Endless Archive?
Max on everything in full raid dps gear on an arcanist.
Did you play solo, with a companion or with another player?
Played with a buddy, equipped the same.
What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?
Last boss of the second full cycle. I guess that is what you call it. We killed 9 bosses and died on the one that actually gives you a set piece the second time around.
Which bosses were the toughest?
That boss and the surprise spawn boss were substantially more difficult than any of the others. Enough that the others really weren't worth mentioning.
Which Cycle and Arc did you fight the boss on?
Already answered.
Which Verses did you find the most and least effective?
+ class damage, + mag damage, + crit damage, + crit heals
Which Visions did you find the most and least effective?
All the ones with odd proc conditions or that expected me to stand in a little circle.
Did you use any Portals to the Unknown?
yes
Which side content did you do?
Got turned into a goat on one, on the other we picked up some quest asking us to look for book pages, we also had a surprise boss spawn that wrecked us.
Did you feel adequately rewarded?
Not even remotely. Really, it's like 45min worth of play for a single set piece with toons that absolutely wreck face. Probably would have been faster had we not read any of the buff descriptions and just clicked the left one each time. Its not like the buffs matter a hill of beans on those trash pull rounds anyway. How long do you guys actually intend for people to spend in there just trying to get geared in a single set? Did you guys even run the numbers? It looks pretty darn bleak to me. This place is worse than trying to gear up in perfected trials gear. It's full on Korean grind MMO in here and about as interesting as well. No, I didn't feel rewarded either extrinsically or intrinsically.
Did you use any Verse Scrolls?
Yea, I think we got 9 of those.
If so, how effective were they?
Several of the buffs are quite powerful. Anytime you get a buff to face content scaled for the buff you are getting it's pretty pointless though. The bosses could just be scaled a little less and we could be saved the time of picking out a buff. It's not like they added to my experience playing in any way.
Would you use them again?
You sort of have to don't you, the portal spawns after you pick one. I'll tell you what though, you can be sure if I do it again I'm not wasting time deciding on what buff to pick before a trash pull round that takes only 30 seconds total anyway and all the trash pull rounds are like that.
Did you have fun?
Honestly, no, it was pretty dull. Bosses didn't really have much in the way of mechanics and the one at the end of each cycle is so much harder than any of the others that it becomes the only one that matters at all. Everything else just feels like wasting time in order to get to that boss. It is also the only one to drop loot of any note.
Do you have any other general feedback?
Ugg, it's such drudgery. Wreck face through 4 bosses and heaven knows how many utterly repetitive and forgettable trash pull rounds between each of those bosses just to get to the one boss that might actually kill you and is the only one to drop any actual loot. There is no comparison at all to vMA or even vVH. In those arenas each boss offers some challenge on the same order of magnitude as the final boss, each have recognizable and important mechanics, and each does offer some reward. The trash is even sometimes interesting in there or at least might teach you some mechanics. Not so in endless archive. The trash and mid round bosses are not remotely on the same level as the big cycle boss and offer no meaningful loot drops. As for that last boss, the one that might actually kill you, I would love to say I had figured out his mechs but we really hadn't. You only have 3 wipes and our deaths on that boss were basically instant one shots from some mech we hadn't seen. Maybe the mechs are really good, interesting and challenging, With only a couple looks at them it is hard to say. What I can say is that you have to scythe through a crazy amount of drudgery to get to have another 3 looks at that boss. Perhaps, we will take a tank next time, and that might get us a better look to see if we can figure out all the mechs to make a judgement of that fight. There may even be a guide video by then to check out.

I should also mention that bosses having relatively very damage output relative to their total amount of health in several places suggests that this thing is mostly scaled to be done with one dps and one at least mostly tank. I'm not thrilled at this for a couple reasons. 1) Only bosses, and at that really only the surprise one and the end of cycle one have any need for a tank, the rest of the time it's deadweight that will be terribly board. 2) We have a shortage of tanks in ESO and for good reason. Tanks have to maintain like 6 sets of gear, face a much steeper learning curve as it is the easiest role early on and the most challenging in hardmode stuff, and it is the most stressful as a tank mistake is almost always game over for the group, oh, and if that is not bad enough most groups have the tanks to call outs as well.

Also, you know it takes a crazy long time in this place just to get to the first cycle ending boss where you face the first challenge of any kind as well as decent loot with a set piece drop. Since you can't select a harder mode you will have to go through that drudgery every time you exhaust your 3 lives and have to start again. Wow, that is dull. Also, since your basically always going to loose those lives on that end cycle boss you will always be ending a cycle with 20 min or so of time invested without getting a loot peice. How depressing is that.

So, basically my initial impression of the endless archive is pretty grim. Boring, scaled very poorly, super grindy if you wanted the gear, and your always going to feel screwed when you eventually fail on whatever cycle number as your going to feel like you put in a bunch of time on that final cycle only to get nothing.

code65536

What level were you when you went through Endless Archive?

Max level

Did you play solo, with a companion or with another player?

Duo with another player. I tanked on my Live character (NB), and I ran it with Skinny Cheeks who was on an Arcanist damage dealer.

What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?

We lost our last thread on the Tho'at of Arc 5. So almost reached Arc 6.

Which bosses were the toughest?

We encountered HRC's Warrior twice, once fairly early on (Arc 1 or 2) and again in Arc 5, and the Arc 5 Warrior was arguably the hardest cycle boss we encountered. In the Arc 5 version, we first got overwhelmed by the adds, before we had the thought, "I wonder if we can aim the shield throw at the adds like we can with the gargoyles in HRC HM?". So on the next pull, we solved the adds problem, but the starfall was hitting for around 11K every half second. I popped a barrier and the damage dealer popped Gibbering Shelter, and they still died (but I survived as the tank and rezzed them). They were able to survive the next starfall by blocking while I healed them, but with the frequency of those hits, it was tough.

The cycle bosses can be pretty inconsistent in their difficulty. In that same Arc, we encountered a voidmother boss who died in 10s and had only 1m health (1m in Arc 5?!) (also, some of the effects from verses are crazy strong), and the cycle right before the Warrior we had The Endling whose mechanics did not feel threatening at all.

Another notable cycle boss was Rakkhat, which we encountered pretty late (Arc 4, Cycle 4). It was cool to see how mechanics from vMoL translated to the EA, but it was a boss where if we didn't have prior knowledge of how the mechanics worked, we could've easily lost a couple of threads figuring it out. In contrast, we encountered The Endling deeper into our run (Arc 5, Cycle 3), and neither of us had fought it before outside of the archive so we had no idea what mechanics it had, but it didn't matter because the knowledge of the mechanics was not necessary to defeat that boss.

In short, there were definitely cases where it felt like the RNG of boss selection far eclipsed the depth of the run for difficulty.

For the Tho'at fight, it felt to me as the tank that the hardest aspect is the visual overload. Everything is crystalline and it's not easy to visually process what is what when it all blends together as a chaotic mess of shiny. Maybe it'll get better with more runs? But I just felt visually overwhelmed the whole time and wasn't always sure what was going on.

Did you use any Portals to the Unknown? Which side content did you do?

• Find book pages quest: we found 4/5 as we ran through.
• Turned into a watcher (twice): it wasn't clear what the objective was, and the only clue was that our second ability helped us locate tomeshells. It would've been nice if there was an on-screen objective text that said "find and destroy tomeshells".
• Fought the arcanist
• Opened a path across by pressing switches (how is this one even possible when you're solo or with a companion?!)

Do you have any other general feedback?

It took us almost half an hour to beat Arc 1. We reached the Arc 5 Tho'at at around the 3h45m mark. We took some time to read the verses and took a break in the middle to explore the vendors in the lobby, but even if we were to just shave off a whole hour, that's still a long time to reach the interesting bits, and it feels like that once we've done this a bit more, the limiting factor to how far we'd get would be how much time we have in one sitting and not how fast we lose our threads.

I absolutely do not like the idea of having to spend hours just to get to the meatier bits in Arc 6 and beyond, because by then I'd probably be pretty exhausted, worn out, and out of time. The earlier arcs are easy, which is important to provide accessibility for a wide range of players, esp. those who are solo, but they also feel like a boring chore that you have to grind through.

It would be really nice if there was a way to skip ahead. We got the Conqueror achievement when we beat the "final evolution" of the Tho'at at the end of Arc 4. Maybe you could add a "start at Arc 5" option if everyone in the run has the achievement?

Or add some way to save progress. Imagine a scenario where a group has just 2 hours, and in that time they got to Arc 4 with threads remaining. I can't imagine that many will be thrilled at the idea of just abandoning the run and having to start all over again from scratch the next day, rather than being able it pick it back up where they left off.

Finally, as someone else pointed out, "Earn 2500 currency" is crazy out-of-line for a daily endeavor. If we were to compare it to the other "Earn currency" endeavor (Tel-Var), 2500 took us more time and effort than the 1500 Tel-Var weekly endeavor. 2500 ought to be weekly, not daily, and the daily should have one fewer 0 at the end.

DeathStalker

I got to stage 4 4 1. I was fighting a boss named Rakkhat who just kept wiping the floor with me. I was with a companion only. I fought a few boss fights but never got one of the new set pieces. I didn't feel the rewards were worth the effort. I can't see many casual players doing this endless dungeon. The boss fights ( Rakkhat especially ) are just too hard. The hardcore end-game players already have arenas and dungeons galore. It's disappointing that because of difficulty being too high and rewards too low most casual players will never see this content. Bosses need tuning down a little ( Rakkhat ) and rewards need a massive buff.

I was using a one-bar heavy attack Sorc. About 1200 champion points.

J18696

anyone else feel like the marauders are like vastly harder than any actual bosses in this arena

code65536

DeathStalker wrote: »

I got to stage 4 4 1. I was fighting a boss named Rakkhat who just kept wiping the floor with me. I was with a companion only. I fought a few boss fights but never got one of the new set pieces. I didn't feel the rewards were worth the effort. I can't see many casual players doing this endless dungeon. The boss fights ( Rakkhat especially ) are just too hard. The hardcore end-game players already have arenas and dungeons galore. It's disappointing that because of difficulty being too high and rewards too low most casual players will never see this content. Bosses need tuning down a little ( Rakkhat ) and rewards need a massive buff.

I was using a one-bar heavy attack Sorc. About 1200 champion points.

Rakkhat is a trial boss, and he has pretty punishing mechanics. For people who are familiar with the Maw of Lorkhaj trial, the mechanics will seem familiar and approachable, but I can definitely see it being a problem for folks who do not have that prior experience.

We faced Rakkhat as the Cycle 4 boss of Arc 4 and wiped once because for some reason I failed to process the name and was thinking "Lord Warden" (probably because I was running ICP a bunch during the Undaunted Event), so I was slow to react to the center void and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. That center void ticks very quickly and has no red telegraph (true, it's inky black, but here in Apocrypha, we've been trained to not fear inky black so much), so someone who hasn't completed MoL before would most likely die to that as well.

On the next pull, we drew on our prior experience so we knew how to handle all the mechanics (e.g., standing on the golden pads, turning the gun away from my partner, kiting the meteors), but we still had a death when my partner was knocked off the platform to his death by Rakkhat's Threshing Wings. I expect anyone who has no prior experience with Rakkhat will likely fall victim to that as well, since it even gets people who do have prior experience. Yea, you can figure it all out even if you have no prior experience. But how many threads will that take? In contrast, another Cycle 4 boss that we faced was Laatvulon, and his mechanics were considerably more straightforward.

Speaking of Laatvulon, I did die to him in Arc 2 because I stood too close and was apparently in his aura AoE. The boundaries of his AoE are a bit fuzzy, and unlike the Sunspire dragons, they do not produce a red ring telegraph to warn you when you stand in it. I didn't notice the damage from this AoE because, for a bracing tank, the damage was mild and easily masked by my self-healing (plus, this was only Arc 2). "But if the damage was so mild that you couldn't notice it, why did you die?" Well, I learned last night that after taking enough ticks, the AoE will just 1-shot you with a 100K penalty tick.

J18696

i felt like the marauders at least for solo runs difficulty is very jarring for how early they appear in the arcs i can usually deal with the first marauder that appears in arc 2 but the 3nd arc marauder gothmau deals way to much dmg for me todo anything nearly always results in a thread cut has me feeling like i should just run around in tank gear just incase the bloody thing shows up and swap into dmg on bosses and the dragons can be abit finicky for the size of the arena more likely to die from getting pushed off the map then anything

DeathStalker

code65536 wrote: »

DeathStalker wrote: »

I got to stage 4 4 1. I was fighting a boss named Rakkhat who just kept wiping the floor with me. I was with a companion only. I fought a few boss fights but never got one of the new set pieces. I didn't feel the rewards were worth the effort. I can't see many casual players doing this endless dungeon. The boss fights ( Rakkhat especially ) are just too hard. The hardcore end-game players already have arenas and dungeons galore. It's disappointing that because of difficulty being too high and rewards too low most casual players will never see this content. Bosses need tuning down a little ( Rakkhat ) and rewards need a massive buff.

I was using a one-bar heavy attack Sorc. About 1200 champion points.

Rakkhat is a trial boss, and he has pretty punishing mechanics. For people who are familiar with the Maw of Lorkhaj trial, the mechanics will seem familiar and approachable, but I can definitely see it being a problem for folks who do not have that prior experience.

We faced Rakkhat as the Cycle 4 boss of Arc 4 and wiped once because for some reason I failed to process the name and was thinking "Lord Warden" (probably because I was running ICP a bunch during the Undaunted Event), so I was slow to react to the center void and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. That center void ticks very quickly and has no red telegraph (true, it's inky black, but here in Apocrypha, we've been training to not fear inky black so much), so someone who hasn't completed MoL before would most likely die to that as well.

On the next pull, we drew on our prior experience so we knew how to handle all the mechanics (e.g., standing on the golden pads, turning the gun away from my partner, kiting the meteors), but we still had a death when my partner was knocked off the platform to his death by Rakkhat's Threshing Wings. I expect anyone who has no prior experience with Rakkhat will likely fall victim to that as well, since it even gets people who do have prior experience. Yea, you can figure it all out even if you have no prior experience. But how many threads will that take? In contrast, another Cycle 4 boss that we faced was Laatvulon, and his mechanics were considerably more straightforward.

Speaking of Laatvulon, I did die to him in Arc 2 because I stood too close and was apparently in his aura AoE. The boundaries of his AoE are a bit fuzzy, and unlike the Sunspire dragons, they do not produce a red ring telegraph to warn you when you stand in it. I didn't notice the damage from this AoE because, for a bracing tank, the damage was mild and easily masked by my self-healing (plus, this was only Arc 2). "But if the damage was so mild that you couldn't notice it, why did you die?" Well, I learned last night that after taking enough ticks, the AoE will just 1-shot you with a 100K penalty tick.

A trial boss? Well, that explains a few things. Thanks for the explanation. I guess I just don't understand how most casual players will be able to do this, myself included. The rewards seem so low for the effort required. I had 800 of the new currency when I was done getting my behind kicked. Saving up enough to get anything would be like beating my head against a brick wall for hours on end. I guess this is like trials and arenas just another mechanic for end-game players only.

J18696

DeathStalker wrote: »

code65536 wrote: »

DeathStalker wrote: »

I got to stage 4 4 1. I was fighting a boss named Rakkhat who just kept wiping the floor with me. I was with a companion only. I fought a few boss fights but never got one of the new set pieces. I didn't feel the rewards were worth the effort. I can't see many casual players doing this endless dungeon. The boss fights ( Rakkhat especially ) are just too hard. The hardcore end-game players already have arenas and dungeons galore. It's disappointing that because of difficulty being too high and rewards too low most casual players will never see this content. Bosses need tuning down a little ( Rakkhat ) and rewards need a massive buff.

I was using a one-bar heavy attack Sorc. About 1200 champion points.

Rakkhat is a trial boss, and he has pretty punishing mechanics. For people who are familiar with the Maw of Lorkhaj trial, the mechanics will seem familiar and approachable, but I can definitely see it being a problem for folks who do not have that prior experience.

We faced Rakkhat as the Cycle 4 boss of Arc 4 and wiped once because for some reason I failed to process the name and was thinking "Lord Warden" (probably because I was running ICP a bunch during the Undaunted Event), so I was slow to react to the center void and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. That center void ticks very quickly and has no red telegraph (true, it's inky black, but here in Apocrypha, we've been training to not fear inky black so much), so someone who hasn't completed MoL before would most likely die to that as well.

On the next pull, we drew on our prior experience so we knew how to handle all the mechanics (e.g., standing on the golden pads, turning the gun away from my partner, kiting the meteors), but we still had a death when my partner was knocked off the platform to his death by Rakkhat's Threshing Wings. I expect anyone who has no prior experience with Rakkhat will likely fall victim to that as well, since it even gets people who do have prior experience. Yea, you can figure it all out even if you have no prior experience. But how many threads will that take? In contrast, another Cycle 4 boss that we faced was Laatvulon, and his mechanics were considerably more straightforward.

Speaking of Laatvulon, I did die to him in Arc 2 because I stood too close and was apparently in his aura AoE. The boundaries of his AoE are a bit fuzzy, and unlike the Sunspire dragons, they do not produce a red ring telegraph to warn you when you stand in it. I didn't notice the damage from this AoE because, for a bracing tank, the damage was mild and easily masked by my self-healing (plus, this was only Arc 2). "But if the damage was so mild that you couldn't notice it, why did you die?" Well, I learned last night that after taking enough ticks, the AoE will just 1-shot you with a 100K penalty tick.

A trial boss? Well, that explains a few things. Thanks for the explanation. I guess I just don't understand how most casual players will be able to do this, myself included. The rewards seem so low for the effort required. I had 800 of the new currency when I was done getting my behind kicked. Saving up enough to get anything would be like beating my head against a brick wall for hours on end. I guess this is like trials and arenas just another mechanic for end-game players only.

Yeah you will get everything from overworld dungeon trial bosses with their mechanic's adjusted for duo/solo able but if you dont understand the mechanics it can just brick wall some players

code65536

BTW, the little endian format of Stage-Cycle-Arc feels like a very odd and jarring choice.

For the most part, humans treat numbers as big endian, from most to least significant. Two hundred and fifty-six is written as 256, not as 652. We say that the time is 2:56, not 56:2. Your change is 2 dollars and 56 cents, not 56 cents and 2 dollars.

Please fix this. Thanks.

kojou

What level were you when you went through Endless Archive?

Both of us were ~2300 CP

Did you play solo, with a companion or with another player?

With another player.

What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?

We made it to 4, 5, 2

Which bosses were the toughest?

The Arc end boss was by far the toughest. We also wiped on Magma Incarnate on Arc 2. We went in as 2 DPS just to see how far we could get without a tank, and the Arc end boss on Arc 2 was it. I think we could get past him with a bit more understanding and preparation though. We went in cold with regular 12 person "raid" DPS builds, so we didn't expect to be optimized.

Which Cycle and Arc did you fight the boss on?

We fought the Magma Incarnate on Arc 2, but I don't remember the cycle. Even on Arc 1 the end boss was by far harder than anything we fought up to that point.

Which Verses did you find the most and least effective?

I generally didn't like the utility ones and the defense ones all seemed a bit weak. The one that buffed Alliance skills damage seemed a bit useless, since there are not many skills besides Caltrops that would be useful in there.

Which Visions did you find the most and least effective?

Visions in general seemed to be pretty good.

Did you use any Portals to the Unknown?

Yes, 2.

Which side content did you do?

We did the goat/sweet role one and the quest for the pages

Did you feel adequately rewarded?

Short answer, No.

Long answer, we spent roughly an hour in there and got one set piece and 3300 of the currency, which lets you buy another set piece. If you compare that to a trial at 45 minutes or less, or DLC dungeon also 45 minutes or less, you can expect at least 3 armor pieces and 1 weapon or jewelry piece for a total of 4 pieces of gear (not including chests). Given that if we had run with a combination that was more survival oriented and less DPS oriented, then we would have spent a longer amount of time to get the same reward.

I feel like the Cycle bosses should either drop enough of the currency to buy a non-curated drop, or drop a curated body set piece, while the arc boss should limited to drop jewelry or a weapon. This would at least put it inline with dungeons and trials in terms of reward. The currency distribution is a bit to low and infrequent to not get any gear until the end of an arc in my opinion.

Did you use any Verse Scrolls?

No

If so, how effective were they?

N/A

Would you use them again?

N/A. I think I would start using defense ones in later levels, but we got so little points I didn't want to spend them on that in early stages.

Did you have fun?

Mixed feelings. I was ok in general with the concept, but it really felt like the pace was a bit slow overall, and the individual rounds were really short, which gave kind of a weird dynamic. I think I would prefer longer rounds, but less of them, or a boss fight after every "Stage" to increase the reward rate. One problem, in my opinion, was that we would get a cool "Verse" but the stage would be over so fast we wouldn't really get to see it work, and then we would select another one.

I don't know what kinds of things the development can change at this stage in terms of the design, but I think I would prefer if we could keep verses until the end of a cycle if we want, or change them at the end of a stage if we don't like the one we have. Selecting a new verse almost felt like an annoyance in and of itself after a while when the stages are so short.

Do you have any other general feedback?

The boss fights varied wildly in difficulty and the randomness is both good and bad. The Mage from AA was one of the more difficult and interesting boss fights, but for some reason we got her 3 times. Tremorscale on the other hand, we got once and we nuked almost instantly and it performed no mechanics. I think I would like it better if the algorithm for which boss took into consideration if you already had a boss and made it much less likely to get that boss again, until you have done all the other ones.

XSTRONG

Im curious if anyone have opened a material container yet?

If so how much mats did you get? 1 container costs 3000 currency if I remember correct.

kojou

code65536 wrote: »

I absolutely do not like the idea of having to spend hours just to get to the meatier bits in Arc 6 and beyond, because by then I'd probably be pretty exhausted, worn out, and out of time. The earlier arcs are easy, which is important to provide accessibility for a wide range of players, esp. those who are solo, but they also feel like a boring chore that you have to grind through.

It would be really nice if there was a way to skip ahead. We got the Conqueror achievement when we beat the "final evolution" of the Tho'at at the end of Arc 4. Maybe you could add a "start at Arc 5" option if everyone in the run has the achievement?

Or add some way to save progress. Imagine a scenario where a group has just 2 hours, and in that time they got to Arc 4 with threads remaining. I can't imagine that many will be thrilled at the idea of just abandoning the run and having to start all over again from scratch the next day, rather than being able it pick it back up where they left off.

I feel like this is the most important feedback of this thread and will hurt the replay-ability of the content the most if it is not addressed. No player is going to want to spend over an hour on early stages where the difficulty is easy and mundane and the reward is insignificant.

I for one, generally only get 1 to 2 hours of game time a night at most, and I would rather do something with a better rate of reward, and difficulty level that matches closer to my skill in those 2 hours, not do the equivalent of a really long normal dungeon (albeit with 1 or 2 harder boss fights) for almost no reward.

kojou

code65536 wrote: »

BTW, the little endian format for Stage-Cycle-Arc feel like a very odd and jarring choice. For the most part, humans treat numbers as big endian, from most to least significant. Two hundred and fifty-six is written as 256, not as 652. We say that the time is 2:56, not 56:2. Your change is 2 dollars and 56 cents, not 56 cents and 2 dollars.

Please fix this. Thanks.

This threw me off at first too. I agree.

RaddlemanNumber7

What level were you when you went through Endless Archive?
CP3600 template

Did you play solo, with a companion or with another player?
Solo

What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?
The boss at the end of the third cycle on the first arc killed me

Which bosses were the toughest?
Chimera boss

Which Cycle and Arc did you fight the boss on?
end of the third cycle on the first arc

Did you use any Portals to the Unknown?
Yes

Did you feel adequately rewarded?
No. 440 Archival Fortunes, and almost no other loot, for over 30 mins fighting is not enough. It is not enough to buy anything in the store except one-shot verses. The good stuff is all priced in the thousands.

Did you use any Verse Scrolls?
No

Did you have fun?
No. It feels like I'm working for Archival Fortunes.

Do you have any other general feedback?
I can't get past the feeling that an infinite task has no objective. It feels futile. I can't complete the task and get the precious feelings of success that go with it, unlike regular quests.

OolongSnakeTea

What level were you when you went through Endless Archive?
CP 2000+

What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?
I was forced to stop by my 3rd Cycle with Yolnakrin. He died, then there was no chest or portal spawn.

Which bosses were the toughest?
The Weaping Woman's telegraphs were not well excuted, very faint- even with my adjustments.

Which Cycle and Arc did you fight the boss on?
Yolnakrin. He was defeated, but forced to stop due to bug.

Which Verses did you find the most and least effective?
Anything related to 'regen on kills'- to much juggling with finding an add that died to get the benfit (as a solo player)

Which Visions did you find the most and least effective?
They seemed alright, nothing crazy but at least each option made sense.

Did you use any Portals to the Unknown?
One. Butcher room. very cute.

Which side content did you do?
None

Did you feel adequately rewarded?
No. Reward vs grind even as ESO+ feels like a pain. Either make the curated boxes cheaper, or add more currency drops.Or just more other non-currency drops (I Only got 1 non-currency drop my entire runs). Table feels a bit to rough.

Did you use any Verse Scrolls?
No. I don't think it'll be effiecent to either, becasue of the cost vs the need of currency stack for boxes/goodies.Maybe if they dropped as a freebie I'd be incline to use them.

Did you have fun?
Yes! Some bosses (encounter bugs) def put a damper on my stride, and called it a night. But its to be expected for Week 1 I suppose!

Do you have any other general feedback?
Several of us were having problems with dragons not properly telegraphing their attacks (Laatvulon, Yolnakriin, Mulaamnir). They fly up, and not show their breath trails or much else- so you kind have to guess - which at like later in a run can be dangerous.

The end rewards at the end of the run seemed not very great for the scale vs effort either. And how much grind it'll be to get say the mount, pet, and other cosmetic rewards. Defeating the replicant twice and only getting 2 of the ichor seemed like how much effort solo that one put it- was kinda disapointing with how hard it can get to that point.

OtarTheMad

I’ll answer more in depth after a few more runs but I am having fun despite the low rewards and new currency grind. Rewards need to be more frequent for sure.

Also, bosses that have huge AOE’s or one shot mechanics should be reworked a bit. I don’t mind those mechanics but these need some changing. I faced The Serpent, which is a trials boss and the fight never lasted long because I would just get one shot like 10 secs after that sword dropped. This was in Arc 1. I didn’t know what to do because I tried killing the sword, died immediately to one shot. I tried ignoring the sword, died quick to one shot. I checked for a synergy or press X mechanic… nope… died to one shot. I ran out of time again so I just logged.

The other boss I had issues with was Taupezu Azzida, a world boss. They have a giant lightning AOE that, after a while, is hard to stay out of so you just end up dying to that and adds. Now, I could have beaten them eventually but I ran out of time and had to log out.

couriersix

What level were you when you went through Endless Archive?
CP 1000+ Necro, with my vMA build (Medusa's, False Gods, Pale Order)
Did you play solo, with a companion or with another player?
Solo
What Stage, Cycle, and Arc did you reach?
Kept getting stuck on cycle 4 boss due to either bosses being too difficult or a glitch
Which bosses were the toughest?
The warrior and Baron Zaurdrus, they just summon too many adds for the average solo player to deal with while fighting the boss and have too powerful of attacks. If I had more lives I could likely take longer to figure them out but as they are, they're just too punishing for a solo player and are probably much easier with a duo
Which Cycle and Arc did you fight the boss on?
Cycle 4
Which Verses did you find the most and least effective?
Most effective - the ones that increase your healing, damage, etc
Least effective - The ones that summoned a pet or made you stand in an AOE
Which Visions did you find the most and least effective?
Most effective - the ones that increase your damage / healing / etc by a percentage
Least effective - the one that increases experience gained
Did you use any Portals to the Unknown?
Yes
Which side content did you do?
Had to solve a puzzle to get across a black pool
Fought the duelist
Got turned into a watcher (but the abilities were unclear)
Did you feel adequately rewarded?
No
Did you use any Verse Scrolls?
No
If so, how effective were they?
N/a
Would you use them again?
N/a
Did you have fun?
Sometimes, but I found getting stuck to be very frustrating
Do you have any other general feedback?
The adds in the cycles were too easy and the bosses need to be tuned for solo players.

Cireous

Outside of the confusion about where those furnishing patterns are (I don't think I saw a single one on the vendor), my only feedback on the Endless Arena is:

• Feels like a slog at earlier levels. I think the enemies should die just a little faster. It's just something you kind of would expect at the very beginning. Faster kills at the start, with their health becoming increasingly higher as you progress.

Elvenheart

Based on the comments above I’m worried about how much work it will take to buy a single furnishing item. I’m not asking that they be given away for nothing but if several items are desirable I’d like to be able to finish a house before 2028 😂

prof-dracko

Sounds like a lot of the criticisms are the lack of the ability to trial-and-error some of the harder bosses. In trials you have time and basically infinite lives to learn mechanics, or the mechanics were gradually introduced throughout the trial. In EE you have three goes with no instruction and if you're not already familiar with them then whoops, too bad. Back to the very start with you.