Change is badly needed to harrowstorms!

GreenhaloX

I'm specifically calling out for a nerf to the shrike crow mini-boss in the harrowstorms. Notably, this is the rare time I'd ever support a nerf in this game, because there is just too much damages from the crow boss's carrion swarms. Not just the crazy amount of damage in itself, but it is also like a silent death; you don't even see it coming. Goodness, I'm getting 21k, 23k and even up to 26k damage showing on the death count from the carrion swarms alone. It is really ridiculous when your toon (or character for those that cannot stand others using the word "toon". Ha ha) only have 19k health. I can be fine and thrashing away at the totem and all of a sudden, dead, and there is that damn carrion swarm showing on the death count. You know.. there could also be 5-6 other players dead with me at the same time, and when you rez, there is that damn shrike crow running amuck nearby. Other times, I can be fine when three other mini-bosses are attacking me with the other little minions, and I would easily just kite them while dropping AoE and burst skills while targeting the totem. Then, all of a sudden, dead, and yes, 20-something k carrion swarm in the death count with the shrike crow nearby.

The carrion swarms damages just need to be nerfed down to 15k at least; so, we could have a fighting chance against it. Personally, I just hate dying in this game. I have soloed the likes of the three crow bosses in CwC as well as the Imperfect boss and any other world bosses throughout Tamriel (except the ones that require another to interrupt) without dying. Yet, I'm dying at a harrowstorm from the carrion swarm alone, and it's the only time I ever get killed at a harrowstorm is when that damn shrike crow is out. So ZOS folks, please, please, please tone down the carrion swarms damage with update 29!

adriant1978

Would be really nice if they did something about the saturation of red during these events. Makes it very difficult to see and get out of red circles.

coop500

adriant1978 wrote: »

Would be really nice if they did something about the saturation of red during these events. Makes it very difficult to see and get out of red circles.

Yeah I had that problem too, everything is RED how can I tell where the dang red circles are?

Teridax941

adriant1978 wrote: »

Would be really nice if they did something about the saturation of red during these events. Makes it very difficult to see and get out of red circles.

You can go into your settings and change the color of the "danger zones" to be an easier to see color. Mine is hot pink (classy I know) so I can see them pop up no matter what the surrounding colors were. It was very helpful especially in lava areas, or darker zones.

phantasmalD

The thing is, you have the power to stop them from spawning. Like in a properly managed fight there are 0 mini bosses.
Harrowstorms are only overtuned if you are trying to solo them or if you disrespect the ghost mechanism.

adriant1978 wrote: »

Would be really nice if they did something about the saturation of red during these events. Makes it very difficult to see and get out of red circles.

You can change the colour of AoEs. The option is in Settings -> Gameplay/Combat.
Mine is set to golden yellow with friendly AoEs being teal.

Starlock

It's not just the damage of the attack, but a combination of the high damage and poor telegraphing, which is further exacerbated by the level of chaos on screen during harrowstorm fights. This results in the shrike attack effectively one-shotting players out of seeming nowhere.

Vevvev

Came here to tell you how to solo them but even I can get behind nerfing that boss. All the others have very telegraphed attacks but that crow deals an insane amount of damage quickly without warning. Whenever I see it being summoned I go into overdrive focusing solely on stunning/killing the ghosts so they never successfully bring that boss onto the field.

Magdalina

GreenhaloX wrote: »

I'm specifically calling out for a nerf to the shrike crow mini-boss in the harrowstorms. Notably, this is the rare time I'd ever support a nerf in this game, because there is just too much damages from the crow boss's carrion swarms. Not just the crazy amount of damage in itself, but it is also like a silent death; you don't even see it coming. Goodness, I'm getting 21k, 23k and even up to 26k damage showing on the death count from the carrion swarms alone. It is really ridiculous when your toon (or character for those that cannot stand others using the word "toon". Ha ha) only have 19k health. I can be fine and thrashing away at the totem and all of a sudden, dead, and there is that damn carrion swarm showing on the death count. You know.. there could also be 5-6 other players dead with me at the same time, and when you rez, there is that damn shrike crow running amuck nearby. Other times, I can be fine when three other mini-bosses are attacking me with the other little minions, and I would easily just kite them while dropping AoE and burst skills while targeting the totem. Then, all of a sudden, dead, and yes, 20-something k carrion swarm in the death count with the shrike crow nearby.

The carrion swarms damages just need to be nerfed down to 15k at least; so, we could have a fighting chance against it. Personally, I just hate dying in this game. I have soloed the likes of the three crow bosses in CwC as well as the Imperfect boss and any other world bosses throughout Tamriel (except the ones that require another to interrupt) without dying. Yet, I'm dying at a harrowstorm from the carrion swarm alone, and it's the only time I ever get killed at a harrowstorm is when that damn shrike crow is out. So ZOS folks, please, please, please tone down the carrion swarms damage with update 29!

One thing that's really helped me (as a 16k health squishy magsorc) with Shrikes is moving. They do a bunch of small aoes that spawn roughly where you are and deal huge amounts of damage until you move out - but if you're already on the move, you'll be out before you're dead or before it even ticks. The other ones are big but slow-ish moving aoe (can actually see that one coming) and the attack they do when they fly up in the air and fly right through you - that one can be blocked very successfully, but it's also unlikely to hit you at all if you keep moving while having agro: you'll be out of its range by when it hits. When I was doing some HS alone at a very low time (I did not solo but I did last until people showed up), slotted Wild Hunt Ring, Lightning Form for Major Expedition and some extra damage mitigation and just moved non-stop. At one of the HS Shrike was the first miniboss that spawned yet I was able to down 2 spikes all alone without dying (after which people showed up, I got distracted and died lol), while having Shrike agro non-stop + getting a couple more minibosses on the way too. I was honestly impressed by how much differene simply moving made. I was just circling the spike non-stop, dodging when something got too close to me, and doing damage in the meanwhile.

Another thing is I feel the red is hard to see with the general red HS theme and perhaps changing it in settings to be another colour would help. I rather like red though so I choose to suffer XD Also, like with most things ESO, sometimes shrikes' aoes seem slightly desync'd with their visual indicators, I have definitely died to aoe that never touched me according to my screen.

Overall, I feel Shrikes are a very troll encounter, but I rather like them, they spice it up Besides, as has been mentioned here, the perfect way is having none of them spawn anyway, which is achieveable with 2 people already (you can CC the ghosts, that will stop them moving for a while).

GreenhaloX

phantasmalD wrote: »

The thing is, you have the power to stop them from spawning. Like in a properly managed fight there are 0 mini bosses.
Harrowstorms are only overtuned if you are trying to solo them or if you disrespect the ghost mechanism.

adriant1978 wrote: »

Would be really nice if they did something about the saturation of red during these events. Makes it very difficult to see and get out of red circles.

You can change the colour of AoEs. The option is in Settings -> Gameplay/Combat.
Mine is set to golden yellow with friendly AoEs being teal.

Good tip.. thanks! I've never really look into this until now. Sure, I changed the color to gold and can really see the bad AoE much easier; particularly with the flame dragon's AoE when the area is saturated in reddish tone and definitely can see the shrike crow's AoE much better. Good piece of advice.. Now, do you have any for me in the stock market? Ha ha

jle30303

To be honest, I think the biggest and most annoying thing about Harrowstorms is that the three Witch Pikes are (a) all tier-3 boss level, and (b) keep self-healing thanks to the lost souls. You basically need a large crowd there to take them down - even if you know that they *should* be taken down first (when I'm in Western Skyrim I keep on having to shout in zone chat, to people at the harrowstorm to hit the pikes, not the monsters) because a solo or even small number of players can't take them down fast enough to stop bosses spawning - and when you've got one, then that one is an additional powerful tier-3 boss, and will do enough damage to distract you, slowing down your assault on the pikes, and before you know it you've got several tier-3 bosses on your hands.

Honestly, I would reduce the witch-pikes to tier 2, and reduce their HPs accordingly, but otherwise leave harrowstorms alone.

kind_hero

jle30303 wrote: »

To be honest, I think the biggest and most annoying thing about Harrowstorms is that the three Witch Pikes are (a) all tier-3 boss level, and (b) keep self-healing thanks to the lost souls. You basically need a large crowd there to take them down - even if you know that they *should* be taken down first (when I'm in Western Skyrim I keep on having to shout in zone chat, to people at the harrowstorm to hit the pikes, not the monsters) because a solo or even small number of players can't take them down fast enough to stop bosses spawning - and when you've got one, then that one is an additional powerful tier-3 boss, and will do enough damage to distract you, slowing down your assault on the pikes, and before you know it you've got several tier-3 bosses on your hands.

Honestly, I would reduce the witch-pikes to tier 2, and reduce their HPs accordingly, but otherwise leave harrowstorms alone.

Good points. I wouldn't change anything though, just add a harrowstorm icon on the map, same with the dragons in Elsweyr, because it is very annoying not to see where the next is or to arrive when it is over.

GreenhaloX

kind_hero wrote: »

jle30303 wrote: »

To be honest, I think the biggest and most annoying thing about Harrowstorms is that the three Witch Pikes are (a) all tier-3 boss level, and (b) keep self-healing thanks to the lost souls. You basically need a large crowd there to take them down - even if you know that they *should* be taken down first (when I'm in Western Skyrim I keep on having to shout in zone chat, to people at the harrowstorm to hit the pikes, not the monsters) because a solo or even small number of players can't take them down fast enough to stop bosses spawning - and when you've got one, then that one is an additional powerful tier-3 boss, and will do enough damage to distract you, slowing down your assault on the pikes, and before you know it you've got several tier-3 bosses on your hands.

Honestly, I would reduce the witch-pikes to tier 2, and reduce their HPs accordingly, but otherwise leave harrowstorms alone.

Good points. I wouldn't change anything though, just add a harrowstorm icon on the map, same with the dragons in Elsweyr, because it is very annoying not to see where the next is or to arrive when it is over.

After changing the enemies' AOE color to gold, I can definitely see the "stupid" a lot better and much easier to avoid and evade; even the stupid one being shot out from the pikes or totems. It has been much easier to avoid the shrike crow and other mini-bosses to the point where I can take out the pike by myself. Just dropping DoTs, AoEs and ult on the pike will take care of the soul minions and the pikes while also damaging the mini-bosses. The only other thing really to keep an eye out for is the line shot from the vampire mini-boss. Yes, that can also be a one shot, and it is still a red color line of death which is hard to see during saturation of the area.

Still, that damn shrike crow's AoE and DoT damages need to be nerfed. It has been easier me to avoid and not get hit by the carrion swarms, but there still other players getting wiped all around by the shrike crow. Ha ha