Amazing Witches Festival! :)

Taril · October 24

Estin wrote: »

I don't know the max group size for the boss, but if it's 12 players like the crow boss, there's nothing to complain about, he'll go down fast.

Aye, 12 players is the max for him.

That's what I had when doing him earlier today. He does go down fast, though the crow phases are a nightmare (Especially the second one with the resource drains) notably because when he targets someone it's a fairly large AoE of insta-death so you can get lots of people dying and getting you killed...

AzuraFan · October 25

I did this with a group. My main is a bosmer and I never have problems going into stealth and sneaking by stuff, but with this boss, I'd crouch and the eye would still be wide open, even though the boss was on the other side of the large area. Given how many folks were dying (myself included) because he kept finding everyone who was crouched, I think everyone was having the same problem. Is this working as intended?

ETA: Okay, maybe there's some synergy I was supposed to use, but the prompt to do so never popped up on my screen. Anyway, I got the achievements for this and crow so won't be doing them again. Was just wondering if it's working as intended.

(Good on ZOS for adding a new quest. Not my cup of tea but kudos where it's due.)

ebls_BR · October 25

Do you guys have the XP bonus? I don't...

Anachronian · October 25

TBH, the feathers feel too rare, should have been a 100% drop from first Hollowjack of the day or something, but otherwise a great event

TaSheen · October 25

ebls_BR wrote: »

Do you guys have the XP bonus? I don't...

Someone said in an older thread where this came up (one of the other events with the "passive" bonus IIRC) that you can check by looking at - um.... "Go to group finder and see how much queue for a random dungeon will give you." (Thanks @Zaria).

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/646010/event-passive-xp-boost-question

I myself see it working fine, because I do daily writs on my mains "off" and "on" passive bonuses so I know the difference - though I don't have a clue about how much queuing for a random dungeon would give under any circs - because I don't do that content.

dcrush · October 25

Event would be cool if I could port back to Tamriel after the boss fight instead of being disconnected every. Single. Time.

Now my toon is just stuck.

Fantastic, really. I love wasting my time constantly having to reconnect.

Edit: the only workaround seems to be to port to a shrine and then ride back. More wasting of time.

Fix. Your. Game.

katanagirl1 · October 25

AzuraFan wrote: »

I did this with a group. My main is a bosmer and I never have problems going into stealth and sneaking by stuff, but with this boss, I'd crouch and the eye would still be wide open, even though the boss was on the other side of the large area. Given how many folks were dying (myself included) because he kept finding everyone who was crouched, I think everyone was having the same problem. Is this working as intended?

ETA: Okay, maybe there's some synergy I was supposed to use, but the prompt to do so never popped up on my screen. Anyway, I got the achievements for this and crow so won't be doing them again. Was just wondering if it's working as intended.

(Good on ZOS for adding a new quest. Not my cup of tea but kudos where it's due.)

There was a synergy with the crows when they landed and that seemed to keep me from losing so much stamina.

The quest up to that point was a good Halloween type of sort of scary thing where you freed the Haunted, some cool, new scenery. The boss battle was pretty fun to do with a group, but I don’t know if I will do this again or not. It is a little anxiety-inducing to join a random group in area or zone chat for me.

Erickson9610 · October 25

I noticed another Werewolf character running away from Lord Hollowjack in the distance...

I'll say that the crouch mechanic for this boss fight — as opposed to the crouch mechanic in the Tarcyr boss fight — is far more exciting. The constant Stamina drain makes it difficult to stay in Stealth, and hiding from a boss who charges toward you if you break Stealth is much more exciting than being instantaneously teleported into the sky at increasing altitudes. Though, I did like how the arena in the Tarcyr boss fight becomes a sort of "bullet hell" with all of the moving ground effects you must evade.

I don't want to keep harping on the fact that Werewolves can't sneak and are at a serious disadvantage in boss fights like these, but it really is unfair that players who just want to play as a werewolf (especially since werewolves are thematic to the holiday) are going to be punished for not doing a mechanic that they cannot do. I genuinely hope Werewolf is allowed to sneak by next year's Witches Festival.

Elvenheart · October 25

katanagirl1 wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

I did this with a group. My main is a bosmer and I never have problems going into stealth and sneaking by stuff, but with this boss, I'd crouch and the eye would still be wide open, even though the boss was on the other side of the large area. Given how many folks were dying (myself included) because he kept finding everyone who was crouched, I think everyone was having the same problem. Is this working as intended?

ETA: Okay, maybe there's some synergy I was supposed to use, but the prompt to do so never popped up on my screen. Anyway, I got the achievements for this and crow so won't be doing them again. Was just wondering if it's working as intended.

(Good on ZOS for adding a new quest. Not my cup of tea but kudos where it's due.)

There was a synergy with the crows when they landed and that seemed to keep me from losing so much stamina.

The quest up to that point was a good Halloween type of sort of scary thing where you freed the Haunted, some cool, new scenery. The boss battle was pretty fun to do with a group, but I don’t know if I will do this again or not. It is a little anxiety-inducing to join a random group in area or zone chat for me.

I was lucky and found a group in the group finder under Custom.

katanagirl1 · October 25

Elvenheart wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

I did this with a group. My main is a bosmer and I never have problems going into stealth and sneaking by stuff, but with this boss, I'd crouch and the eye would still be wide open, even though the boss was on the other side of the large area. Given how many folks were dying (myself included) because he kept finding everyone who was crouched, I think everyone was having the same problem. Is this working as intended?

ETA: Okay, maybe there's some synergy I was supposed to use, but the prompt to do so never popped up on my screen. Anyway, I got the achievements for this and crow so won't be doing them again. Was just wondering if it's working as intended.

(Good on ZOS for adding a new quest. Not my cup of tea but kudos where it's due.)

There was a synergy with the crows when they landed and that seemed to keep me from losing so much stamina.

The quest up to that point was a good Halloween type of sort of scary thing where you freed the Haunted, some cool, new scenery. The boss battle was pretty fun to do with a group, but I don’t know if I will do this again or not. It is a little anxiety-inducing to join a random group in area or zone chat for me.

I was lucky and found a group in the group finder under Custom.

There were lots of people asking for others to type X in area chat today so I got in. As the event goes on there will be less demand, though.

spartaxoxo · October 25

The Hollowjack Quest was fun and compelling. The Haunted actually made Hollowjack spooky and not just a meme. And the fight was actually good too. I soloed it for my first try and it was just the right amount of difficult for an event quest. Not so easy as to ignore mechs but not so hard that it would feel more at home in vet content. Felt about on par with the boss in NMOS I enjoyed it. Mech wise, I'm unsure about HP.

MasterSpatula · October 25

It's entertaining until your dang stamina runs out, then it really just seems unfair.

spartaxoxo · October 25

MasterSpatula wrote: »

It's entertaining until your dang stamina runs out, then it really just seems unfair.

Kill the scarecrows

spartaxoxo · October 25

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

I wish this new boss had a solo mode. I mean it is not like it is hard, but rather time consuming if you are soloing, as everything is bullet sponge...

Don't kill his adds. Just him and his scarecrows. He'll finish them off himself twice. And then for the last phase, you can just kite them.

notyuu · October 25

For anybody that wants to solo the fight, it's perfectly doable BUT you must kill the scarecrows or they'll drain your resources, and in sneak segment you MUST shoo the birds, or again, they'll drain your resources.

Also, try doing it with other players, it's designed for it and is actually fun when done as such.

colossalvoids · October 25

I'm kinda puzzled at incoming damage as it's almost absent, compared to the Crow which is considered more of a solo encounter due to how fast it's going down whilst this one looks like a at least duo oriented but does no damage for some reason.

I'm still glad they're remaking events and adding more encounters, even if that's literally Tacyr which is one of the most bugged parts of any dungeon I can think of. Hope next ones could do with something more unique and satisfying.

ellmarie · October 25

katanagirl1 wrote: »

There was a synergy with the crows when they landed and that seemed to keep me from losing so much stamina.

The quest up to that point was a good Halloween type of sort of scary thing where you freed the Haunted, some cool, new scenery. The boss battle was pretty fun to do with a group, but I don’t know if I will do this again or not. It is a little anxiety-inducing to join a random group in area or zone chat for me.

I doubt I will do it again. I got lucky with some fellow guildies that were on and X'ing up. I know they are all good, but felt bad because I suck. And I know HollowJack kept gunning for me! So many times I'd be crouched and tried to move as slow as possible, if at all, to reach the crows, but when I got to the crows, my character would stand up after pressing the synergy. Then of course he'd see me and rush at me. I think there were about 6 or 7 of us. We did it, but....ugggg

AzuraFan · October 25

I joined a group for Hollowjack by waiting near the portal. It doesn't take long for someone to invite others in chat to join a group. I soloed crow.

Calastir · October 25

Even without the lag I can't be bothered to crouch, watch out for crows, watch out for scarecrows or whatever and dodge a lightning speed one-hit-kill boss I can't even see and can only hit for a few seconds before its next invulnerability phase. I'll just expect dying multiple times and hope my team survives, less stressful.

Last night I planned on only playing for an hour or 2 but with the lag, all the bad quest directions and endless hoops they make you jump through for little reward and unpopulated zones it took me 5 hours, leaving me not enough time for any other stuff I'd planned on doing.

Sadly not as fun or engaging as previous Witches Festivals for me.

Shawn_PT · October 25

I love Halloween. It's the only real life holiday worth celebrating imo.

I used to love this event.

Now it seems it gets worse/more annoying with each passing year, at least to me.

Rewards are more and more diluted.

The common drops (purple skulls) hardly feel worth it since all they ever have is some guts or crawlers and an item to sell. At least that's how they feel to me. The old purple motifs hardly sell anymore, and all of my alts have already devoured as many as they possibly can so now they just serve to take up space/destroy.

Last year's spooky netch pet, I'm atill at 0.

Making players jump through hoops (gather 30 feathers) before you can even participate in the fight only forces one to stack skulls from the previous day, or have to keep riding like a dolt from place to place to farm some skulls, then back to the witch hut which by the way is so unnecessarily away from *any* wayshrine, at least on EP side, it's not even funny.

That crow boss where you have to group with other people, I hated having to solo it back then. The Jester's boss is just the right amount of challenging. But no they had to keep making things harder to force people to group up.

Soloing the Hollowjack is even worse this year. That's something I will definitely not be repeating. Which means that in order to farm the bust, I'll be forced to group with other people, something I avoid at all costs since these past years grouping up with random members of the community ends in nothing but frustration almost every single time.

I will do it until the bust drops. By when I'll probably be irritated beyond measure, and don't bother with any of the event things again.

It's so sad that all events are starting to feel like this to me. An endless pointless grind where the things we want don't drop, and the things we drop have a single convoluted method of attempting to acquire it once per day, and never really enough to get them all while just playing the game. But hey you can buy them with tickets. Don't have them? You can get them from the crown store! *wink wink*

Some might say, buy the things from guild stores. I could. I avoid as much as possible doing that because to me, buying things from other players does not count as playing the game. Log in, scroll the store, add to cart, congratulations you have filled the event quota. THAT imo is not playing.

There I go, ranting again. This is why I stepped away from this forum. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Oh there is ONE nice thing, at least. The tickets drop from any skull source and we're not forced to run one of the stup

.... Quests.... To get them.

Estin · October 25

colossalvoids wrote: »

I'm kinda puzzled at incoming damage as it's almost absent, compared to the Crow which is considered more of a solo encounter due to how fast it's going down whilst this one looks like a at least duo oriented but does no damage for some reason.

I'm still glad they're remaking events and adding more encounters, even if that's literally Tacyr which is one of the most bugged parts of any dungeon I can think of. Hope next ones could do with something more unique and satisfying.

I think the amount of incoming damage is low on purpose because the primary mechanic that kills you is the resource drain. It's tricking people into thinking they can nuke the boss without following mechanics like with the crow boss. Solo wise, the amount of adds that spawn is a blessing because it means more healing through AOE damage with pale order.

Bo0137 · October 25

FabresFour wrote: »

Congratulations on the encounter with Lord Hollowjack! I found it very entertaining.

I did it with three other friends, and it was SUPER fun to figure out the mechanics for the first time. It’s not super difficult or anything like that, but it’s fun at just the right level. Having to pay attention to the mechanics and laughing when your friend simply forgets to crouch will forever be one of the most fun moments I’ve had doing an ESO seasonal event. It’s not as hard as a veteran dungeon, but not so easy that it’s forgettable—just the right balance for a group annual event! But I’d be 100% open to new events that are even harder and require more people, I thought it was SO cool, congrats ZOS!

(The quest is also really nice, I had fun with the characters, and I hope the number of Haunted increases in the coming years, with different and fun side stories).

1 Boss per major event would be awesome. Imagine a special end-of-year boss, a special anniversary boss, etc., etc.! (Anyway, it’s been a while since an ESO event made me this happy hahahaha).

I absolutely agree! It's a really fun battle/minigame

I would also like to suggest a hide and seek game for next year's Witches Festival. Guild Wars 2 had a very amazing hide and seek game. It was really fun.

And they don't even have crouch or invisibility as default. They had to build the system from scratch just for the halloween.

I strongly believe we can take advantage of ESO's very well built crouch system to make a very entertaining hide and seek minigame!

Aggrovious · October 25

Hollowjack is a cool boss. Happy I have a new trophy and it only took me and two buddies to kill him. He is not hard if you have good DPS and crouch during mech immune phase.

cozmic72 · October 25

During the hunt phase people need to spread out. Tired of people stacking and one person running out of stamina and pulling boss over to wipe the group.

robpr · October 25

Hollojack in the sneak phase also randomly targets companions, even if their owner is sneaking.

Pelanora · October 25

Great boss and so fun, sneaking around hiding is so fun. I absolutely love how he bows when he arrives. Will happily do it over and over.

Thanks zos!

ApoAlaia · October 25

We have been doing the encounter back to back trying to get the bust for everyone in the party.

Attempt 30 and counting. 2 busts so far out of 7 people.

Indeed well done. A new encounter that should be just laid back fun turned into yet another grindathon chore.

I am delighted to see that lessons were learnt from the (10th) anniversary event and the soul-crushing grind for the bound style pages.

maximusrex45 · October 26

I am enjoying the event and the new encounter.

There are just two things I hope they adjust for future years.

1. The sound that seems to be played when you are aiding the three Hollowjack victims and when the portal to Detritus is opened in Olyve's Brewery it very loud compared to other game sounds and is physically uncomfortable, I hope this is evened out in the future.
2. Despite having plenty of empty niches in Olyve's Brewery, the Detritus portal is right in front of the portal to Evergloam for the Crow. Please try to spread these out better in the future.

Overall, a great event!

ines2015 · October 31

maximusrex45 wrote: »

1. The sound that seems to be played when you are aiding the three Hollowjack victims and when the portal to Detritus is opened in Olyve's Brewery it very loud compared to other game sounds and is physically uncomfortable, I hope this is evened out in the future.

The sound effects from that portal is absolutely terrible. I committed the mistake the first time I played The Lord of Fear quest to be using headphones... it was really bad. Now, every time I need to go to the Witches Coven I always turn off the sound or remove the headphones before enter. It's clearly not tested because it's louder than everything else and it's not at all safe when using headphones. I really hope we don't have the quest with this portal next year, or they could just make it like the Evergloam one with a different color. There's no need for more different and louder portals. In fact, the portals don't need sound.