Different encounter, different take.

• Which event did you join? The one in Stonefalls (Werewolf boss)
• Where you able to complete the event? No. More in general comments.
• Did you understand the event objectives? Not really. More in general comments.
• How many players were in the event with you? Just me and Ember (tanking)
• Did you enjoy the activities in the event? "Less than enthused" comes closest.
• Did the challenge and reward of the event feel appropriate? Don't know.
• Any general feedback? Below
  [/quote]
  
  Chasing the answer to a different question at the time, but running between the three locations (Auridon, Glenumbra, and Stonefalls) until one of them fired and it just happened to be goodies for grandma that fired first.
  
  Instructions on Phase 1 were unclear. Had an 8m timer in which to gather unknown quantities of things with green arrows. The timer might have been longer, but the encounter started when I wasn't at the location and it was at 8m by the time I got to it. Wasn't sure if I was supposed to gather, fish, or both and no idea how much of whatever was needed. Gathered first since the character wasn't perked out for fishing and kept fingers crossed. Nodes respawn very quickly, so I ended up gathering 110% with just plants and that ended Phase 1. Chest appeared and off to grandma's house we went.
  
  Phase 2 was a relatively standard escort mission except that the NPC can take damage and like most NPCs, has no idea how to avoid damage. The character's backbar was some Healer stuff, but there are problems. Probably the biggest was that the Resto staff Regeneration abilities will not target them. So fight Shalks, drop AoE heals, fight Shalks, drop heals, fight Shalks, etc. It kept them alive, but Regeneration not being able to target them meant that they couldn't heal up between encounters. Chest appeared after the last of those encounters.
  
  Phase 3 was the boss fight (4.3M health bar). Ember and I were handling the boss reasonably well, but the NPCs were catching damage from the boss' AoEs so same problem as the other encounters of trying to maintain their health while also keeping Ember in the fight and managing the boss. Unknown to me, the fight was on a timer. We'd beaten down about half the boss' health or a bit more when "we'll try again when it's less dangerous" ended the encounter.

I think a pulsating icon (like the ones for dolmens and other incursions) will help to focus attention on the encounter as it happens, as of now it kinda just looks like any other POI.

• How would you describe yourself as a player? (Examples: Casual quester? High end trial runner?): Somewhere between those two. Perhaps more toward casual than tryhard, but the only things I tend to actively avoid are PvP and Trials.
• Which event did you join?: Farm Aflame (twice, but the first time was accidental)
• Where you able to complete the event?: Yes, and even with Challenge Difficulty set (Master, I think)
• Did you understand the event objectives?: Yes, but more in general feedback.
• How many players were in the event with you?: Just me and companion
• Did you enjoy the activities in the event?: It was fine and not too far outside of other side-quests in the various zones.
• Did the challenge and reward of the event feel appropriate?: Meh. Nothing in the reward chest stood out, but also not "all that work for this?"
• Any general feedback?: I think my biggest "complaint" was the repeating NPC dialogue. "Lady, I know you've got a problem here. I'm working on it. Like REALLY working on it. You don't need to keep yelling that you have a problem and are going to be ruined if it's not solved. I'm here because I heard you the first time." The mechanics of the encounter were a little wonky. Get the horses into the corral, put out all fires, and run the trash baddie gauntlet while accomplishing those two. If you want to call it an issue, killing enough of the trash baddies causes the boss baddie to spawn in and everything goes on hold until the boss is dealt with (all the while hearing how the lady is going to be ruined if something isn't done). I think the horses phase has a timer (too busy running the trash baddie gauntlet to pay close attention). If so, it was long enough to get all three into the corral, which moved the objective to putting out the fires.

Emeratis wrote: »

I think a lot of people also expected it to be all motif pages when it was announced on stream.

Yea, I was one of those people. But I do get why it's like this.

So it looks like that they're doing this by changing the existing tooltip text for every individual motif item, and so covering every motif book and chapter would require changing over 1800 individual texts... per language. The alternative is to create separate sourcing text that gets attached to each motif tooltip, in which case they'll only need to manage 136 individual pieces of text per language, but doing that would require code on the UI side of things to fetch that text and to attach it to the tooltip when building that tooltip.

I think if they want to add this to every motif, not just the crown store ones, it would be much better to go the second route, but that has the problem that it requires code changes while their current approach, while messier to scale, doesn't require any changes to any code.

MoonPile wrote: »

Also, are we supposed to be able to get the achievement "Get Away from it All" during this PTS cycle? Is it related to these Thieves quests?

Open question on completable, but it's mostly unrelated to the Thieves Guild stuff. I believe the four fragments drop from the final chest at the Dynamic World Events. No idea if they are curated drops or we're at the mercy of RNG, but I strongly suspect the latter.

xylena wrote: »

So what happens when the S+ Tier duelers fight each other? Do they bring tank builds or do they try to race dps? Is Pelican on WW that much better than Pelican on StamSorc?

Pelican on WW will farm Pelican on Stamsorc.

Dueling between S+ Tier duelers is 30% skill, 50% builds, and 20% latency. For example:

Both duelers A and B play on PC NA. They are both S+ tier and have perfect weaving, duel sense, etc. Dueler A lives in America and has 80-100ms ping, while dueler B lives in Asia/Australia and has 250-300ms ping. When they duel each other, these scenarios will happen:

Scenario 1:
If duelers A and B use identical builds, their DPS can be similar, sometimes even identical, but dueler A has a ping advantage and can break free from CCs faster. This means a simple Incap + Spectral Bow combo is often non-threatening because they can break free and roll the Bow. On the other hand, dueler B suffers from 150-200 extra ping. That aforementioned combo now becomes a death sentence, as the game does not allow them to break free from the Incap stun fast enough to avoid the Bow. Dueler A can play defense reactively, while dueler B has to play defense proactively. Dueler B has to output more effort because he has a ping disadvantage. Dueler A will win about 6 times out of 10, while dueler B will win about 4 times out of 10 due to this ping difference.

Scenario 2:
If dueler A uses a superior build/class, then dueler B simply has little to no chance winning vs dueler A. Not only do they have to fight with ping disadvantage, but they also have to fight with a build disadvantage. 9 out of 10 duels will be a loss for dueler B.

Scenario 3:
If dueler A uses an inferior build/class, then dueler B will win about 7-8 times out of 10 duels. This ratio is not the same that in scenario 2 because dueler B still suffers from ping disadvantage, meaning a well-timed CC can give dueler A just enough time to perform a 1-shot combo.

Scenario 4:
If either dueler uses an overwhelminingly superior build (such as WW or Pyrebrand DK), then the other one simply has zero chance of winning. The best they can do in that case is stalemate.

Guess what happened between me and Pelican? It was scenario 4. While we both play with 250-300 ping, Pelican's WW build is exceedingly superior to my stamsorc. If I ran 30k HP in my normal build, I would lose 10/10 times. The fight is 100% in his control, as he is the one with significantly higher DPS. The only way for me to fight Pelican's WW build is by stalemating and hoping that he messes up. That's it.

Not only that, but Pelican and Shoyru both dueled each other plenty of times on PTS (I'm sure you know how good Shoyru is as a dueler). Shoyru plays from America, while Pelican plays from Asia. However, Pelican's WW build is so disgustingly overpowered that Shoyru, in his normal setups, lost 10/10 times. The only way for him to fight Pelican was to stalemate.

xylena wrote: »

Why would I try to tank WW damage? I can beat average meta WW player by Streaking, avoiding their hits, and pressuring from range. They don't do 10k if they can't hit you. If I don't beat Pelican that's because he's a better dueler than me.

That’s not how it works. The argument of beating average players can be used for every previous broken meta in the game. Triple proc stacking meta, Hardened Ward meta, Subclassing meta, DK meta, etc. were all abused by average players, yet the only ones posing a real threat were top-tier ones. Average players are less mechanically sound and optimized than high-level players. They can run meta builds, but they're not going to line up burst abilities perfectly or have perfect weaving and micromanagement to achieve similar DPS as top-tier ones. Does that mean those builds shouldn't be nerfed? No.

Yarcanine wrote: »

hoangdz wrote: »

xylena wrote: »

dark_hunterxmg wrote: »

Yes that player. It's not a dummy parse. I saw it happen in actual fights.

Okay that must be why he said "StamSorc can't break 8k dps" because he runs 43k hp 35k armor tank builds that can heal 10k hps but can't threaten the WW. He's skilled enough to adapt, a more offensive strat that aims to win the dps race would probably be more effective. That's good for the game if the meta demands players end fights, not indefinitely turtle and reset.

The WW in question is either Pelican or Strepsel. Not a chance anyone here is killing them, considering they have 10k+ DPS, 40k+ HP, and 30k+ armor.

You need 43k HP to tank that, which means losing damage.

you literally just need to slot Shared Pain and Cutting Defense, I've killed them

You make it sound like Cutting Defense retaliates against dots as well. Because that is what would be needed for it to be any useful in this situation - on every dot tick.
Shard Pain and Cutting Defense have such low damage values that I wonder if they are truly to "blame" for you winning.