hard mode Mazzatun ruins.

DRXHarbinger

What does hard mode actually do? Besides give the boss 900k health. Couldn't actually see a difference in it at all?

Ferrofluid

The adds that spawn are a bit nastier (stoneshapers and masons I think they're called) and I'm not sure but I think the totem has more health too.

code65536

Things that are definitely different:

• More boss health
• Stone Shaper and Stone Mason adds (their CCs are very annoying)
• Reveal synergy is no longer available (so Blind Luck is automatically earned if you do HM)
• The statues take much less damage (about 50% less), so the hallucination periods last longer

It also feels as if things hit harder and take slightly longer to die in HM, but that could just be my imagination; I never really paid attention to the incoming damage or mob health numbers.

dsalter

as you said, more hp and as Ferrofluid said, more damage, thats it.

you can thank soft cap removal for these silly hardmode things since more hp+damage intake = harder mode.

DRXHarbinger

OK thanks. Didn't find it that hard tbh. First time doing it took 5 attempts....cradle is much harder imo. Still can't find what triggers Veles instakill, just goes up top and bang all dead.

Totalitarian

Yeah, chances are if you can cleanly clear the boss on vet mode, you can do hard mode.

vRoM has a very creative hardmode, right up there with Valkyn Skoria and Lord Warden Dusk

code65536

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

OK thanks. Didn't find it that hard tbh. First time doing it took 5 attempts....cradle is much harder imo. Still can't find what triggers Veles instakill, just goes up top and bang all dead.

I agree that mechanic is not very intuitive or well-telegraphed, and it was one of the things that I complained about in the PTS feedback.

That said, the solution had been posted many times in the forums: stay perfectly still when she climbs up (if the statue shoots a red orb at you during this stand-still phase, don't try to move out of it and just block it instead), and once the screen returns to a normal color, get ready to roll dodge and roll when you see a puff of dust at your feet or when the screen rumbles (I've read that controllers will rumble too as yet another cue to dodge--can't verify that since I use a keyboard and mouse).

zerosingularity

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

OK thanks. Didn't find it that hard tbh. First time doing it took 5 attempts....cradle is much harder imo. Still can't find what triggers Veles instakill, just goes up top and bang all dead.

Haven't done cradle HM yet, too lazy. Once thing I do know is on regular vet, Velidreth only goes up for her insta-kill after absorbing enough ult. The amount of ult absorbed seems to be a % of total ult the player has, so slotting cheap 50-100 cost ults and prioritizing spamming these helps alot.

code65536

zerosingularity wrote: »

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

OK thanks. Didn't find it that hard tbh. First time doing it took 5 attempts....cradle is much harder imo. Still can't find what triggers Veles instakill, just goes up top and bang all dead.

Haven't done cradle HM yet, too lazy. Once thing I do know is on regular vet, Velidreth only goes up for her insta-kill after absorbing enough ult. The amount of ult absorbed seems to be a % of total ult the player has, so slotting cheap 50-100 cost ults and prioritizing spamming these helps alot.

Yes, Finn (ZOS's dungeon lead) stated in one of the streams that her Shadow Sense (spike) ability is her ultimate, and the frequency with which she casts it is dependent on how much ultimate she drains. As soon as your ult comes up, drop it--don't save it. I've been in runs where she never managed to do the spike phase at all because she couldn't absorb enough ultimate. But there's a lot of luck involved, too, since she appears to pick people at random--it's great when she sucks in someone who just dropped their meteor instead of me when I'm sitting on 190/200 for a meteor.

Sucks to be an overloading sorc, though.

xRIVALENx

Interesting discussion.. With Velidreth in Cradle of Shadows, if the whole group removes ultimates from their bars does this end up preventing Shadow Sense from going off?

code65536

xRIVALENx wrote: »

Interesting discussion.. With Velidreth in Cradle of Shadows, if the whole group removes ultimates from their bars does this end up preventing Shadow Sense from going off?

No, because you still build and store ultimate even with no ultimate slotted (this is most noticeable with new characters that haven't unlocked ultimates yet).

Also, her Shadow Sense ability is hard only if you don't know what to do (and again, ZOS didn't do a good job of making this mechanic intuitive). But once you learn to how to handle it (see my post earlier in this thread), you'll find that it's actually a very easy mechanic. It's a welcome break from the chaos of that fight to regenerate some resources and to catch your breath. I'm more annoyed that she drained my ultimate right before I could drop a meteor than I am that she's going to do her Shadow Sense.

s7732425ub17_ESO

code65536 wrote: »

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

OK thanks. Didn't find it that hard tbh. First time doing it took 5 attempts....cradle is much harder imo. Still can't find what triggers Veles instakill, just goes up top and bang all dead.

I agree that mechanic is not very intuitive or well-telegraphed, and it was one of the things that I complained about in the PTS feedback.

That said, the solution had been posted many times in the forums: stay perfectly still when she climbs up (if the statue shoots a red orb at you during this stand-still phase, don't try to move out of it and just block it instead), and once the screen returns to a normal color, get ready to roll dodge and roll when you see a puff of dust at your feet or when the screen rumbles (I've read that controllers will rumble too as yet another cue to dodge--can't verify that since I use a keyboard and mouse).

It's the rumble!!!! If you roll dodge before the rumble, you will roll dodge too early and die.

UrQuan

Wow. I've only done the Shadows of the Hist dungeons a couple of times each, and I've learned a lot in this thread. Very informative folks!