What's with these short trials?

Raudgrani

Why are trials getting smaller and smaller? Is this the way people want it, or is this just ZOS getting lazy?

I love trials such as Hel Ra Citadel and Sanctum Ophidia, where you actually have to make your way through some content. Nice scenery, atmospheric dark places - filled with nice loot and so on. Loads of trash mobs, where there are always a few of them you need to pay extra attention to.

I guess we started to see it coming with Halls of Fabrication, which is still pretty fine; but I feel it's the start of a new kind of trials where it's only about a DPS race burning down bosses, and figuring out how to avoid unavoidable instant group wipes. I dislike the "insta wipe if you don't do this" kind of mechanics, I like the idea of powerful adds appearing more. Like, if you don't do this or that quickly enough some really nasty adds show up, which are likely to wipe the entire group but not guaranteed to do so. Yes they might be ridiculously powerful, but still. That gives memories, like: "Do you remember that time when xxxx's appeared, and only me, you and xxx was still alive - and we managed to resurrect xxx who got xxx and xxx up, and we were just about killed again before xxx and xxx dropped their ultis simultaneously and got the last xxx down, that was epic!". Not "Yeah, do you remember before we figured out we couldn't bar swap, and we were wiped 13 times due to this unavoidable mechanics, cool huh? It's really easy now when we know that part".

I know the top players of this community want more demanding content, and a few instances of unavoidable instant group death "if-you-don't-do-that-thing" is ok, but I feel it's tiresome when it becomes the norm.

What I want: Bring back more thrilling, thought through trial content. I want to feel like I'm intruding into a big hostile place - going raiding; not going to some gladiator arena or boxing match. There must be more people feeling this way? I mean, just the social aspect of searching for heavy sacks and chests after clearing out an area is really appealing to me. When you only have "boss drops" it's just not the same thing. I also like when you have to split up the group, and clear out an area separated. It feels more like a military operation, when you communicate with half of the group somewhere else, having no way to help them out etc.

VaranisArano

The mini trial design is the easiest way for ZOS to create difficult content that.caters to a wide range of trial groups since its literally "Choose-Your-Own-Difficulty".

So its part laziness and part designing something that's easy to balance for a very wide range of trial groups compared to the other trial designs.

BuddyAces

Any answer you get is going to be BS. The only answer is that they are taking the cheap way out. Look how long it takes from concept to inception between something like HOF and CR. Have some intern throw together some cheap POS trial and call it a day.

Yeah, you heard me @ZOS, go yell at your marketing team if this hurts your feelings but your half assed trials are a joke. "11 million players" and this is what you come up with? Give me a f'ing break.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

As I recall there was a lot of negative feedback when Cloudrest was revealed to be a mini-Trial instead of a full-sized Trial, so it isn't just you OP.

Moloch1514

Frees up more resources to design Crown Crate items. Sad but true.

Raudgrani

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

As I recall there was a lot of negative feedback when Cloudrest was revealed to be a mini-Trial instead of a full-sized Trial, so it isn't just you OP.

Yeah. I'm fine with some mini trials for some DLC's and what not. But I'm starting to wonder when we ever will see a full blown "raid size" again, like the ones I'm talking about. I'm starting to feel the answer might be "it ain't gonna happen".

CrazyWolf712

I think the smaller trials are for the players who may not have the time to dedicate to a lengthy trial run, especially if you’re going for vet. That being said, Asylum is my least favorite because of the secondary boss fights and the fact that not a lot of people in our guild have CWC so we’ve never been able to run it with a full group. Cloudrest was pretty alright. It was quick and easy and allowed us to clear more trials in one night.

I can agree though that the longer trials are more fun to do. The Craglorn trials are super easy and MoL challenges us to be better. Maw is my favorite of the ones I’ve ran. Have yet to try Halls so we’ll see how that compares.

Shad0wfire99

Cloudrest is what Asylum should have been. I was wrong about Cloudrest. It's a really fun encounter with some cool mechanics that take actual teamwork to deal with. That being said, a chapter is no place for a "mini-trial." Chapters should come with full-on raids/trials. No matter how fun a mini-trial is, it still boils down to one encounter. That isn't a trial.

Mojmir

Its a good thing, get in get out.