Hey all,

I just wanted to write a brief post discussing the experience of my guild, Well-Fitted, along with the many other higher end raiding guilds previously or currently tackling the Maw of Lorkhaj (MoL) on Hardmode (HM) difficulty on the EU server. The reason I have to include the word previously in there is not because the guild has disbanded or quit, it is simply because they have ruled out attempting HM because it is currently in an unplayable state. Since the release of MoL the initial excitement was placed upon completion and then proceeding that scores and farming for various loot. Since about a month before The Dark Brotherhood many guilds began changing their focus on to the HM and this is where the problems began. Hardmode by it's very nature is extremely tough and punishing - which is great if you are a player seeking this kind of content which is not widely available in this game - but not when your fellow Guildmates are crashing on every single pull of the boss. Testing began going into how to setup a 'stable instance' for players to be able to actually get attempts into the HM without crashing, all to little avail. The current working theory is as follows: You Cannot teleport to player to remove the current invisible player bug that has existed since the Thieves Guild Update, You Must enter the instance through the main outside entrance as any form of travelling into or to another player seems to cause more instability and finally you Cannot swap any players in or out of the instance. Now, this seems like huge superstition but in doing these practices over nearly 50 runs this seems to yield the most 'stable instances'. Some also suggested that cross faction alliances also caused these instabilities but this does not seem to be the case.

Through all this though, most instances are often corrupted, causing every player in the raid group to crash on nearly every pull of the final boss. Once the crashing begins this crashing even continues through into the non-HM when simply trying to achieve a completion. As such, many guilds have given up entirely in progressing on the HM which is easily one of the most sought after and enjoyable pieces of content that the game has to offer for these communities. Guilds now choose to rerun SO for gear they have near entirely already got, to speed run this instance or speed run the normal veteran version of MoL (Without HM).

While I appreciate and understand the number of players effected by these issues are minor the MoL HM content is currently paid for but not accessible by the community. I am simply writing this post to make yet further awareness to Zenimax that this issue, much the same as those experienced with the SO HM door closing that the crashing, is effectively content baring guilds from attempting this HM. We as a community wish to enjoy the content you provide, please make it accessible to us to do so.

Sincerely,
Sharmony

P.S: The crashing is random and often cannot be associated with any particular event, most crashes are straight disconnects with no bug reporter whilst others we have been able to provide feedback upon. Nothing has been done in the past 2 and 1/2 months to rectify these issues.