PTS Update 26 - Feedback Thread for Kyne’s Aegis Trial

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for Kyne’s Aegis. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
• What level and build was the character you used?
• Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
• How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
• Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
• Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
• Did you complete the Trial?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

SBB

* Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
Pretty fun; enjoyed the new mechanics. Map layout, environment, and trash mob placements make it feel like a big dungeon. There's lots of player movements and spread to avoid damage instead of stacking and parsing. There are no "personal responsibility" mechanics that I saw, which I think was the best part about Cloudrest.

* What level and build was the character you used?
cp1400+ DK tank (and Magblade on a non-HM clear).

* Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Veteran and Hard Mode. Didn't try normal.

* How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
It is similar to Sunspire in difficulty. The difficulty really ramps up with hard mode. I think groups capable of non-HM vMoL clears with vitality can come in and clear non-hard mode with little difficulty.

* Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
Cleared all hard modes.

* Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
The final boss needs a 500ms movement pause after doing the heavy attack. Dodge rolling the attack moves the boss too much because it starts moving toward the tank before the roll is complete.

After the first floor drop and after the 3 adds, the tank needs a second to taunt the boss as it comes down. It will start attacking anyone immediately. Please add a delay for the return animation to finish.

The lightning "bomb" attack from the final boss needs a ground telegraph to make it easier to see the borders and to see who has it.

[BUG] On the middle floor, if you are ressed, you will appear on the top floor. If the coagulate blob phase is active, anyone falling down to rejoin the fight will instantly die.

[PERFORMANCE] After 3 hours, my frames dropped from a normal 60+ fps down to 10 during the final pull. This is also a problem in the engine on Live if you're in a trial instance too long, as seen in vSunspire. Restarting the game clears it.

* Did you complete the Trial?
Yes

* Do you have any other general feedback?
The reward skin needs white or silver glowing eyes. It is too bland and uninteresting as-is.

The coffers at the end should not be giving non-perfected gear. No one completing Veteran wants non-perfected gear in the coffer. Chests in the dungeon can give non-perfected if they really need it.

Looking forward to seeing what the housing trophy rewards look like.

Alucu

• Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
  
  Yes, the ambiance was great and I really liked the concept of Seafaring Half-Giants
  
  
• What level and build was the character you used?
  
  810 cp Greymoor Template - Breton Magicka Necromancer DPS (Ilambris, Mother Sorrow, Perfected False God, Perfected Maelstrom Inferno)
  
  
• Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
  
  Veteran
  
  
• How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
  
  Didnt try normal yet, and I dont think I will until it gets released on live to help friends farm gear, etc. Overall felt quite similar to Sunspire
  
  
• Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
  
  Yes, I tried all 3.
  
  
• Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
  
  First time there, but I had no troubles figuring them out, also I had companions with previous experience, so it was pretty intuitive, others were not so evident.
  
  
• Did you complete the Trial?
  
  Yep, in hard mode (the 3rd day we went there more or less)
  
  
• Do you have any other general feedback?
  
  Yes, I think we need to pay heed to how both Vrol's and Yandir's fights were designed (You need to engage with the terrain, interact with objects, make decisions about how to position the group and the enemies, etc). However, Falgravn's HM feels just stupid, is just a chunk of massive health (276 millions no less) and you need to work around that while paying attention to the tank's damage mitigation. The anti ressurrection mechanic is cool and well designed, though. But overall, the fight needs to be more engaging and driven to use your brain and perception through strategy and puzzles. Rather than just throw a Stat/DPS dense fight to burn with DPS or HPS. Dont get me wrong, it's a Hard Mode after all, and it's neither too easy, nor impossible to complete. But the way to clear it, is, quite frankly, just boring and unimaginative.
  
  I'd like to mention as really good examples of creative and fun PvE content:
  
  - Grapple bow mechanics at Unhallowed Grave along with Secret Bosses
  - Tarcir's fight at March of Sacrifices and sneak phases along with Indrik Secret Hunts
  - Catacomb phases on Velidreth
  - The twins at maw of lorkhaj and backyard running, also lunar phases
  - Refabricated Commitee at Halls of Fabrication and Hunter killers
  
  They are all really good examples on how to create fun PvE content, and my most sincere congratulations goes to the creators. I think most players strive to see similar fights, DPS should be important, but teamwork and intelligence/perception even more so.

CyberOnEso

Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
Yes, the fights were enjoyable!
What level and build was the character you used?
810, magDK, PFG, NMA, AS Staff
Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Both
How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
Easier than vSS on normal
Between vSS and vMoL on Vet
Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
Yes, all three
Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
Not really
Did you complete the Trial?
Yes
Do you have any other general feedback?
For the hardmodes the first two bosses are a stack and burn, looking forward to the buffs for these two. I hope they get additional mechanics rather than just more health, as all three bosses seem like a damage sponge. Too much of the time is just spent pushing the bosses without having to care about mechanics.

For the last boss on hardmode...
Phase 1 (The highest arena) - Feels good, some decent mechanics. Maybe a bit too easy to push it to 70% ignoring the lieutenant.
Phase 2 (After 70%) - Feels ok, I feel like the knights crimson blood (the two lines on the ground) could be easier to plan for and should one shot if you mess it up. I feel like now it's too hard to see where those lines are going to come from, and you can just block to survive it.
Phase 3 (After 35%) - The 'prisoner' mechanic is fun. However maybe there should be more prisoners to kill. At the moment you have 2 DD's with something to do whilst the rest just stack and burn the boss. Not having to play any mechanics.

I also hope that the speedrun is kept at 35, this seems fair when compared to sunspire. As even if you play all mechanics flawlessly on sunspire you can easily be let down by a lack of DPS. This isn't the case for any of the other trials. If you play mechanics flawlessly you will get GH/ TTT/ IR.
In my opinion trials should test group coordination and player skill with regards to mechanics and dealing with incoming damage, rather than just be a DPS check. You may as well award a title for getting >100k on the dummy if the speedrun becomes the limiting factor rather than group coordination.

Cellentel

Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?

Yes. It felt really good to have a full fledged trial again with ground to cover and plenty of add pulls.

What level and build was the character you used?

CP810 Magcro.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Both. First normal with 7 people (1 tank, 1 healer, 5 dps), and then again on vet non-hm with a full group.

How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?

Quite a few things were one-shotting us, even on normal. Admittedly we had a smaller group and weren't able to keep the adds from stacking on each other, but some of the add pulls were pretty tricky.

Vet felt pretty easy. We beat the first two bosses in 1-2 serious pulls without really understanding what was going on. The final boss take a few tries and a lot of deaths, but we were able to beat it without too much trouble without understanding several of the mechanics.

Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?

We briefly tried first boss HM and died pretty fast, but turned it off because we had limited time and wanted to try the whole thing.

Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?

• The Tidebreakers' wave was extremely deadly at first until our tank learned how to call it. Then it become pretty easy. I like the additional difficulty it provided to add pulls, although it will likely be trivialized by an add-on once it hits live.
• Second boss - the far ballistae's shots often get blocked by the ropes on the ship, particularly towards the end of the fight. I noticed this on both normal and vet. I'm sure there's a trick to targeting it right, but it was annoying.
• Last boss - our first time through on normal, we didn't understand the shock line mechanic at all, so when the boss started it, we just kept dpsing and our healer healed through the damage. This continued until the boss was dead, completely skipping all mechanics and all of the downstairs phases. When I looked at a stream the next day and saw there was a downstairs phase, it suddenly made sense why the quest giver arrow was in the floor. You might want to ramp up the damage or make the boss immune when he reaches the threshold for the next phase.
• Last boss - on vet, we never figured out how the prisoner mechanic during the final phase worked, but we were able to dps through it (with a lot of deaths). It'd be great to make the mechanic more discoverable.

Did you complete the Trial?

Yes, on normal and vet.

Do you have any other general feedback?

The skin is underwhelming. No glowy bits, and it made my character look wrinkly. Why can't we have a trial skin that doesn't make our characters look like they've been underwater for 6 months?

You've said elsewhere that you plan on making all of the fights more difficult before launch. I hope that this includes adding new mechanics (or making mechanics that we were ignoring more visible), because at the moment everything was mostly stack and burn for dps. That said, the line mechanic on the final boss is fantastic.

Why no grappling hooks? I'm seriously disappointed by that.

Princess_Ciri

Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?

Yes, I thought it was fun - had some cool mechanics.

What level and build was the character you used?

I completed the veteran version (without HM) on a cp810 altmer templar magicka healer. I used hollowfang, symphony/earthgore monster set and olorime.

I also completed the veteran HM version (of each boss) on a cp810 altmer magicka dragonknight DPS. I used false god, elfbane and grothdarr.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

I have not done normal but I have done veteran.

How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?

(As I have only done vet I cannot comment on the difficulty of normal) I think if the group can perform mechanics correctly, then the trial is probably on the same difficulty tier as the Craglorn trials, perhaps with the exception of the last boss as on the last stage our tank had difficulty staying alive (and she is fairly inexperienced at tanking), however one of our more experienced tanks did not have this issue so I am thinking it's going to be fairly straightforward for experienced players and more challenging for less experienced ones. But the trial's HM were all completed by my group (some of them were brand new to the trial although they were really good players) on our second time going in, so I don't think the trial will be too difficult for end game raiding groups.

Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?

Yes, all of them.

Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?

Our tank had some issues surviving the damage from the 'crimson knights' or 'blood knights' in the trash packs. But we were still able to get past them without too much trouble.

Likewise, our tank had some issues staying alive on the last boss, especially on the last stage. I think it was quite unforgiving that when the tank dies, the boss immediately enrages and wipes the group. For a 12 minute fight this can be quite demoralising!!!

Did you complete the Trial?

Yes

Do you have any other general feedback?

I do!!

First Boss

This fight was really hard until we figured out the mechanics, then it wasn't too bad. I thought it was nice that it required group co-ordination, although I feel like the non-HM version was too easy. My group managed to get through it without really understanding the mechanics. It was only HM we had to do things properly but even that we managed to complete in 1-2 tries.

I know that ZOS have said that this HM fight was made easier so that we can experience all the HM, which is awesome, but I also think that if the HM difficulty will be increased, it would be nice if this was done by adding extra mechanics and not just buffing the health of the boss.

Second Boss

This is my least favourite of the boss fights. The ballista mechanic is cool but also felt kinda random and not at all challenging. Unless you are on ballista duty the fight is basically just tank and spank with very limited additional mechanics. I'd hope that this fight could be made more challenging either by making the adds that spawn more dangerous, or giving the main group (who arent doing ballistas) more to do during the fight. As it felt super easy for us and we cleared the HM after a few tries and the vet non-HM on the first try.

Final Boss
I really love the last boss, it has fun mechanics and was interesting to complete. However, the boss has waaaay too much health. There are long periods where you aren't doing mechanics, you are just dpsing the boss like a target dummy and this can be a bit boring after a while. If there was more time pressure to do mechanics + the boss had lower health, I think it would increase the difficulty and make the fight more fun.

One thing I also really hope gets changed for the live version is something to do with the resurrecting mechanic that I felt was a bit unfair. If I resurrected a member of my team, I got dropped into that portal and had to run through it, avoiding the boss doing his 'slam' attacks on the floor. This was fine, but sometimes I got dropped onto the boss doing this ability and due to me falling through the air, I couldn't get away and would instantly die. This felt kinda unfair.

Secondly, the barbed wire/blood thing that players get when they are on the 2nd stage is a cool mechanic, but again, it applied to the group just as I was being dropped back in after going through a portal after resurrecting a team member. Because falling counted as moving, I was killed by the ability as I came back. Seemed a bit unfair as the mechanic started as I fell down, so I didn't have any way to prevent it from killing me.

jescerwin

Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
It felt a bit like a dungeon compared to a trial, I expect once the bosses are buffed a bit, it'll be better

What level and build was the character you used?
Max level template characters to test new gear
Templar healer in Roaring opportunist and Jorvuld's Guidance
Necromancer healer in Roaring opportunist and Jorvuld's Guidance

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
We've completed Vet and Vet HM for all bosses with multiple groups trying different strats

How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
Vet HM was much easier than Sunspire, Halls of Fabrication, and Maw of Lorkhaj. Doesn't really compare to the mini-trials. On the first day, we did a run through of just vet to see all of the mechanics. Then went back through and easily cleared the first 2 bosses on HM. Our raid time ended before we got to try the final boss on HM. At a later raid day we cleared all 3 HMs multiple times and got speed run. In another group, we went in and cleared all HMs with little difficulty. It was a bit disappointing being able to clear all 3 HMs that quickly. The most challenging thing we've found, is figuring out how best to stack trash packs. I would imagine that since vet and vet HM do not differ for trash, it will be frustrating for progression groups.

Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
We have done HM for all three bosses

Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
For the first two bosses, meteors and lightning can target pets. Since the necro mage/archer/mender tend to be within the aoe radius for mechanics, getting hit with double mechanics was frustrating. Especially on the second boss, operating the ballista. Once the mage on the boat starts doing the animation for meteors, the ballista mechanic has a delay to exit and block.

On the trash before the final boss, some of the topography and attributes inhibit taunt and interrupts, I would assume because they block line of sight. While most of the mechanics are well done, the telegraph for Wrath of Tides isn't consistent, and spawns in oddly relative to the position of the Tidebreaker.

On the final boss, the resurrect penalty is interesting, but spawning downstairs to be one-shot by an add that's unavoidable is frustrating. The synergy on the second level of the final boss, is pretty confusing, most of us have no idea what it does, other than giving the healers a little extra work. There also don't seem to be major consequences for skipping some mechanics throughout the trial. However, that may have been intentional to allow people to see as much of the trial as possible in the first week of the PTS.

Did you complete the Trial?
Yes, completed the trial multiple times, and achieved speed run.

Do you have any other general feedback?
As previously stated on these forums, increasing the difficulty would help. The first boss fight stands between 2-3 minutes, which is really short, especially compared to last year's trial. The second boss fight is within the same time frame, and while there are some interesting mechanics, as it is, supports have been relegated to doing the mechanics and the DPS just parse.

Overall, I appreciate that the new trial is a full trial and requires the group to coordinate in order to clear easily. There are interesting mechanics that have a lot of potential, and that may yet be improved. I hope that the future patches will increase difficulty, and possibly encourage teams to get damage dealers to perform some of the mechanics. As it is, supports mainly focus buffs, debuffs, and doing the mechanics so the dps can just parse and kill bosses more quickly.

ZOS_Finn

We've got some balance tweaks added to the new PTS for the Trial. Any feedback on those would be great.

WrathOfInnos

Would it be possible to get some telegraphs added? I’m usually good at getting out of red circles, but many mechanics here don’t seem to have them. The Tidebreakers for example, do a giant AoE that will one-shot if you don’t block, but there is nothing showing where or when this will occur unless you are specifically watching that one enemy. In contrast, the Sea Lurchers in March of Sacrifices do pretty much exactly the same attack, but we get a red circle that tells us where it will hit. It’s not a massive issue on PC since we already made addons to alert us about the poorly-telegraphed attacks, but I imagine this will be a pain point on consoles.

And it’s not just this one attack, I’d say at least half the mechanics in the trial are missing visual indicators: Shaman meteors, Raider javelins, various frontal cleaves, call lightning, some blood type AoEs on trash, Shock circles on last boss, the blood hands that chase you (sorry I don’t know all the correct names for these abilities). Even things that are fairly easy to see like the poison totem AoEs on 1st boss, are difficult to accurately judge size, can we get a red circle under the green fog like we have in vSO?

SvariBK

Edit: We cleared it before the recent update for the PTS

Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
I was playing Offtank and felt rather useless for the most part, i think for tanks this is one of the more boring trials. More info below. The trash is probably more interesting than the boss fights.

What level and build was the character you used?
Nord DK Offtank (Ebon/Worm/Thurvokhun)

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
I did one Veteran and one Veteran Hardmode

How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
The trash seems to hit very hard, i don't really mind that but it for sure is harder than Sunspire which i consider the strongest trash. But it might be that I didn't have a good tactic to stack and kill it. The Bosses also hit very hard, even the light attacks.

Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
All three we cleared after about 2hours trial time. That was the second run. Our first run without hardmodes was about 1,5h iirc.

Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
The mechanics seemed to be very straight forward mostly stack and burn. I think especially for tanks this trial doesnt have anything special

Did you complete the Trial?
Yes

Do you have any other general feedback?
So this is only from my offtank PoV:
I feel incredibly forced in a very defensive playstyle. I have to perma block at every boss fight because the adds and the bosses hit incredibly hard with their light attacks, this makes a cheeky heavy attack for ressources or weaving very difficult. Or skills with a cast time are very punishing to use. Like Stone Giant. For the first 2 bosses I taunt the adds stack them on the boss, block and wait until the groups kills it. I think if you have a very good maintank an offtank won't even be needed for the second boss at least.

The biggest issue I had playing it was the last boss. We played the safe tactic so we killed the 56mil add first before pushing the boss to 90%. And after that add is dead I don't have to do anything for the rest of the fight. I am basically just there to rez if needed and wait until everything is over.

I really liked the lightning mechanic on the last boss i think that's something unique and very well programmed it looks great and worked flawlessly on the PTS. Maybe having it on the second phase of the fight too?

Last stage of the fight is also kinda boring for me but the worst part of it is if the maintank died the whole group gets killed, on vet and on hm I don't know if that was intended but it is super punishing and annoying even if I am there to taunt it in 1 second the whole group is dead. I probably wouldn't mind that but on a fight that is easily 15mins long to wipe on the last phase is too harsh. Especially if you have an offtank ready to take over immediately. Maybe we just don't understand that yet, that could be too.


TL;DR:
Overall the trial is nice, I am looking forward to find out the best trash strategies. I think on a DPS it is defo more rewarding to play than on a tank. Taunt and perma block is just not fun imo. The last boss wipe mechanic on the last phase if the maintank dies is very frustrating.

I think jay_zos was watching my stream on twitch and I made a highlight so you can see my PoV for all bosses + that wipe mechanic

Noxavian

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Kyne’s Aegis. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
• What level and build was the character you used?
• Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
• How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
• Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
• Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
• Did you complete the Trial?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

Why doesn't this trial have any vampire themed sets? The skin is randomly an ice-one? What....?

I fail to see how a trial about a vampire lord leading an invasion from the sea onto mainland doesn't have ANY vampire themed sets, personality, or skins....

saf227_ESO

We did this with our usual vet trial group on April 29th. We're not top-tier, but we complete most content.
Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
Mostly. There were certainly annoying / buggy things about it.
What level and build was the character you used?
We were all max level toons. I was on my magplar for DPS.
Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
We did Vet and did not complete
How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
Difficulty wasn't bad. The 1st 2 bosses were a lot of wash, rinse, repeat: Just keep following mechanics, pay attention, wait for them to die
Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
Nope.
Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
We wiped 5 times on the final boss before calling it a night. It was late. We wiped every single time on the electric bolt mechanic where we had to form a line. We ran out of time 5 times in a row. We're an experienced group, and used to working with each other. We came really close the final 2 times. With more practice, I'm sure we can complete it. But that is REALLY tight timing. If we had any pugs there'd probably be no chance of completing it. You need to add 3-5 seconds to complete that phase.
Did you complete the Trial?
Nope. As stated above
Do you have any other general feedback?
There were a number of visuals we had difficulty with:
-The bubble you need to dps when fighting the Crimson something-or-other. We kept having trouble spotting it & the party member that needed saving.
-We also had trouble seeing the 'lightning circles' on the final boss. With all the AOE on the ground, they were just often hard to spot.
-A lot of the environment got in the way of the camera while trying to fight. Maybe this is intended; I don't know. But it's very annoying. And I don't know why it always seems you have devs who think their job is to just annoy players who are trying to enjoy the game.

The constant lightning was also a pain to deal with, especially when trying to res. I realize that's the point. It's a vet dungeon & it's not supposed to be easy. But all of us agreed it would have been more fun / interesting if you had included an optional side quest like in March of Sacrifices. Something like a quest for a Grounding Rod, that would pull 60-80% of the lighting to wherever you planted it. It's too late for it now, because obviously the design is set. But that would've been fun. And it would've given groups a choice: Do it to make it a bit easier, or skip it for speed /score.

emilyhyoyeon

Alucu wrote: »

• Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
  
  
  I'd like to mention as really good examples of creative and fun PvE content:
  
  - Grapple bow mechanics at Unhallowed Grave along with Secret Bosses
  - Tarcir's fight at March of Sacrifices and sneak phases along with Indrik Secret Hunts
  - Catacomb phases on Velidreth
  - The twins at maw of lorkhaj and backyard running, also lunar phases
  - Refabricated Commitee at Halls of Fabrication and Hunter killers
  
  They are all really good examples on how to create fun PvE content, and my most sincere congratulations goes to the creators. I think most players strive to see similar fights, DPS should be important, but teamwork and intelligence/perception even more so.

I totally feel you about the interactive mechanics thing, except I would say the Tarcyr example is actually not too great of one. Imo, its interactive-ness either needed to include the possibility to dps at the same time as getting the wisps (rework the wisp phase) or the wisp phases needed to be a lot less drawn out time wise. I hate stack and burn fights, but the Tarcyr fight honestly feels like a stack and burn with a simply annoying mechanic because of its drawn-outness. I guess it's subjective. But I think interactive stuff IN the actual fights (grapple in UG, MOL stuff, HOF stuff, and as an addition pretty much all of SCP Zaan HM) instead of interactiveness that STOPS the fight (Tarcyr, catacombs to an extent although they feel wayyyyy more fun than Tarcyr, or as an addition Frostvault HM rat phase) is better imo.

titaniumdust

Did you enjoy this new Trial overall?
Yes. There were are a few things that I think should be adjusted, but it was overall enjoyable.

What level and build was the character you used?
Max level magDK and mag warden DPS.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Completed vet on week 1 and 2.

How did the difficulty compare to existing Trials on Normal and Veteran versions?
The hard modes of the first two bosses seem to be in line with Lokkestiiz/Nahvintaas hard mode. Maybe they're a bit easier because they don't require specific builds from the healers to complete. They are easier than the mini trial hard modes. The final boss on non HM vet seems to be more difficult than the other full trial final bosses on non HM, but that may be down to practice. The chain lightning in the second week became very unforgiving time-wise. My group had a diagram of where everyone was supposed to stand and we still cut it close. I think craglorn groups will have a lot of trouble with this, even on non HM. The damage on the tanks also seems to be pretty high. I think you guys want to see more "selfish" tanks, but this is going to be way harder for tanks than it will be for everyone else. The fight is very long, which doesn't make it more difficult, but I can see it being more frustrating than other trials for groups that are learning. Overall I think the difficulty of the non-HM trial is similar to vHOF. HM final boss is probably harder than any of the other trial hard modes if only because of high incoming damage in multiple phases. The damage was probably a bit overtuned on this after the 2nd week update.

Did you try any Hard Modes? If so, which bosses?
Tried all 3 hard modes week 1 and 2.

Were there any mechanics you had difficulty with?
The increase in damage ramp up on non HM of final boss chain lightning seems unwarranted.
Sometimes the X shaped blood lines AOE can be really hard to see.
The ramp up time of the lightning spear/chain in the Vrol fight is really short. It can kill in a couple of seconds and sometimes it spawns on top of a person at the ballista, where it can't be targeted by the people below.
On Yandir, his animal summons can come out and attack immediately. They seem to be targeting people before they're fully summoned and tauntable.
On Vrol, when I took the portal onto the ship with my Warden bear, the bear remained aggroed on the main boss and I had to direct it to attack the add on the ship. I think pets should auto target switch to him since they can't reach anything else.

Did you complete the Trial?
Yes

Do you have any other general feedback?
Possible bug: We got the instability shock rings around us while doing the chain lightning mechanic on the last boss. I don't think that's supposed to happen.

Overall I like the trial. After week 2, I think some of the giant bosses mechanics hit a bit too hard for how random they are. If a totem spawns in group, it dies instantly, if it spawns far away, it's way more deadly just based on RNG. Maybe they should have a lower damage output, but more health to balance it? Otherwise, I like the fights and I like that they have a paradigm shift at 50% health.

Slothylicious

I would like to give my opinion about this trial from the Main Tank and the Off Tank point of view. Because I'm a tank.

I will also try to suggest a few changes that would make the fights more interesting.

This will only be about the bosses, and not about anything else in the trial.

I will also assume that the group that is doing the trial is a group that performs well in HM DLC trials.



FIRST BOSS

Opinion
First 50%
- MT: This fight is pretty good. The MT needs to dodge a telegraphed attack which requires good timing, and position the boss at the right place and facing the right way.
- OT: This fight is not very engaging. The OT needs to stack a pet on the boss, and the pet does very little, at least to the tank. They also enrage, which almost doesn't change anything, for the tank.

Last 50%
- MT: The fight changes a little bit. The boss now jumps to the MT's position, which is dangerous for the rest of the group, so the MT has to pay attention to this mechanic and choose the landing position accordingly. The boss also does something that resembles a shatter, which increases the damage done by the boss, which is noticeable when he heavy attacks, but the MT can still tank the boss with ease.
- OT: The pets don't spawn anymore, so the OT now has NOTHING TO DO.

Suggestions
First 50%
This fight could be better for the OT if the pets were more dangerous for the tank, or if their enrage mechanic actually meant something.

Last 50%
This fight could be much more engaging for both tanks, especially for the OT who has nothing to do. If the shatter mechanic would make tanking the boss extremely difficult or impossible for the MT, then the OT would have to tank the boss instead. If the pets were also still spawning after 50%, because why not, then tanks would have to swap between boss and pet.




SECOND BOSS

Opinion
First 50%
- MT: This fight is all right. The ice mechanic is a good mechanic, which requires fast reaction time and good positioning. However, this is the only mechanic that the MT has to deal with, so it makes the rest of the fight a bit empty.
- OT: This fight is perfect. The OT has to take care of 3 adds, position them correctly, be mindful of their ability (deadly cleave for bulwark and channel for the apothecary and raider), who also enrage, and on top of that needs to be careful not to step into the MT's ice. Perfect OT job.

Last 50%
- MT: This fight changes quite a bit and becomes a little bit more challenging. The double heavy attack and the channel from the storm twin both require attention as a misstep is lethal. The ice mechanic disappears.
- OT: The OT has NOTHING TO DO. So the OT has to do the ballista mechanic on the left side, which is in my opinion a repetitive and boring mechanic, so would be perfectly adequate for a lesser role like a DD (I jest).

Suggestions
First 50%
Nothing to change really, not exceptional for the MT but good enough.

Last 50%
The fight could be different and arguably more challenging for the MT, and infinitely better for the OT. This would require only one thing, which is keeping the ice mechanic after 50% make the storm twin stronger or behave in a different manner in order to interact better with the boss and the tank. Holding the storm twin and the boss at the same time would become pretty much impossible for the MT, because the combo of the ice stun and the storm twin's heavy attack would be impossible to deal with. The OT would then have to take the boss while the MT deals with the storm twin, then when this one is dead either the MT takes the boss back right away and repeat, or lets the OT deal with the next storm twin and they swap roles completely.
If not for the ice, then another mechanic that would at least require a tank swap or a significant contribution from the OT would also do. Make the storm twin do something different for example.



THIRD BOSS

Opinion
No need here to talk about different phases, because the fight is exactly the same from the beginning to the end. This fight, both for MT and OT, is the most boring, least engaging, most badly designed fight in the game. It's abysmal.

- MT: For the whole, obnoxiously long fight, the MT has exactly 0 mechanic to deal with. I do not count light and heavy attacks as a mechanic. The MT has to block the former, and dodge the latter. That's it. And to say that doing this is the same than any other fight in the game in any DLC trial, is frankly laughable.

- OT:For the first 10% of the fight, the OT has to deal with the lieutenant. It's something I guess, but not very interesting. Dodging the blood cleave attack has to be well timed. The chains are kinda there. But then, most importantly, for the whole rest of the fight, which again, is very long, the OT HAS NOTHING TO DO. The OT can literally /lute.
So pretty much for the 276 million health worth of fighting, both the MT and the OT have close to nothing to do.

Suggestions
Honestly, I don't know. The amount of work that is needed to make this joke of a fight better for tanks is so immense that it would need to completely redesign it. It's catastrophic.



A recurrent theme in this trial is that the OT has nothing to do, especially in the last half of the fight. This trial is overall poorly designed from an OT point of view and could be made much better with just some tweaks in the fights mechanics.

Overall, the first two bosses are good fights, but I'm a bit disappointed that the changes in PTS week 3 haven't made them better. They stayed pretty much the same and didn't require a change in strategy. They could have been much more interesting by just using the mechanics that look like they would mean something, like shatter, enrage, or additional entities.

The third boss is utter garbage and as such belongs in the trash can. From the tanks POV anyway.