Oblivion Portals- Problems

Zyva

Has anyone else just wished the Portals in Blackwood were done--- differently?

It only took doing a couple for me to realize that the design, as cool as it felt the first run through, was pretty awfully implemented. Aesthetically, its A+, thats not the issue. Its pretty much everything else.

You have to randomly run around to find a portal; (which i have heard might be changed in a future update with map markers which is nice), then you have to work your way through the entire thing, several waves, to get to the final boss.

This is the problem; other people are gradually funneled in to the portal, and I've realized these portals are not separate instances; its all ONE. And this final chest, is where you get your ONLY reward, none of the other mini bosses along the way give you any loot at all. So you really have zero incentive if you are trying to get gear from these things, to do the entire event, instead people sit at the end and wait for the final boss so they can loot this one chest; and other people who HAVE done the entire thing, they might get to the final boss only to find it done... and they DONT EVEN GET A CHEST AT ALL, because the boss is dead! zero credit for killing the mini bosses along the way. Unless they know to wait for the boss to respawn, they leave sort of pissed off or sad to go find another portal thinking its over (which I did a couple times before I figured it out).

I do not know how ZOS could fix any of this, I just wish it was done a bit differently. Maybe some loot drops from the mini bosses, or anyone who participates by killing adds/bosses along the way, gets to loot the final chest the same way dolmens work? That would be super nice. Because a mythic lead drops from that chest as well. *shrug*

waterfairy

Pro tip- you can fast travel to any guildie that's in the deadlands

Also there's something like a group boss event inside and I'm pretty sure that boss drops loot as well

Lady_Galadhiel

I use add-on to see the possible spawn locations from the portals.
It does not help that much as there are more than 20 possible locations over entire Blackwood where a portal could be.
I think it only spawns at 2-3 different locations at the same time?

trackdemon5512

There are chests and heavy sacks hidden along the way. Also killing the boss in the gathering stairway room yields a chest.

Really if you think about it as a dolmen/Harrowstorm/geyser you’re getting just as many enemies, multiple chests with rewards, and a final boss you can literally sit at and just farm all day without moving.

Idk why you need an icon as you can literally warp to anyone who is already within one and them being “active” means squat in regards to the structure of them.

driosketch

Vigarr wrote: »

Pro tip- you can fast travel to any guildie that's in the deadlands

Also there's something like a group boss event inside and I'm pretty sure that boss drops loot as well

The statues in building before the boss, where the paths meet, also do not drop much loot.

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

There are chests and heavy sacks hidden along the way. Also killing the boss in the gathering stairway room yields a chest.

Edit: I'll need to try it again then because I don't remember seeing a chest.

There are regular chests in the Deadlands, however. There is also a quest marker in there sometimes, you just run back to the Fighters Guild to turn it in for an off weight set piece of armor you can't collect and learn.

Ackwalan

There are chest that respawn, there is also a hidden boss. But most importantly, the zone never closes. You can sit inside and repeat the hidden boss and main boss as many times as you want. You can even go back to the beginning and explore every inch of the place. It is impossible to miss out on the zone loot.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

What really bothers me is I'll enter a portal (sometimes just as it spawns) and all the mobs have been cleared by a group ahead of me. All I have to do is run through the islands with no resistance to the last boss. I don't like this. I'm loosing so much XP (and fun) because of this design.

@ZOS_GinaBruno

BlueRaven

The problems with portals was brought up a lot on the pts. Things such as the difficulty in finding them, their high effort/poor reward nature, and also how new player unfriendly they are.

A dd may be able to solo their way through, but what about a tank, a healer? Are they just supposed to wait around and hope someone comes to help them? At least with geysers, harrowstorms, etc, tanks and healers can get right into the action. Portals, not so much. Portals are problematic on so many levels.

Personally, I have done them once or twice, but I am done with them now. In fact I am pretty much done with the zone really. I only visit it now if I want to unlock a companion on an alt.

So yes, there are other people who are aware of the issues. Will zos fix the portals? Maybe. I am tired of pointing out the issues with the game, and either zos ignoring the problem, or misinterpreting the feedback and just makes things worse (like they did with champion points).

waterfairy

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

What really bothers me is I'll enter a portal (sometimes just as it spawns) and all the mobs have been cleared by a group ahead of me. All I have to do is run through the islands with no resistance to the last boss. I don't like this. I'm loosing so much XP (and fun) because of this design.

@ZOS_GinaBruno

why would you ping her about something that could happen in any public dungeon or place that's not instanced? Sucks when people get in right ahead of you but that's part of playing an mmo

Mik195

Maybe I haven't done enough, but they all seem to look the same. And its kind of boring.

Zyva

I didnt know there were chests along the way, nor that you could port into them. Thanks for the info! I dont think it detracts from the issues I raised regarding not getting credit for doing the event and getting chest loot from the final chest at the end if you participated. I will spend more time in there looking around now though trying to find things I missed, I'm going to guess that the chests must have already been looted the last times ive been through.

Shantu

The only issue I've found is that they are so over-populated it makes running them essentially a waste of time.

FlopsyPrince

Ackwalan wrote: »

There are chest that respawn, there is also a hidden boss. But most importantly, the zone never closes. You can sit inside and repeat the hidden boss and main boss as many times as you want. You can even go back to the beginning and explore every inch of the place. It is impossible to miss out on the zone loot.

You can't go back to the very beginning since it has the drop along the route.

what_the

driosketch wrote: »

Vigarr wrote: »

Pro tip- you can fast travel to any guildie that's in the deadlands

Also there's something like a group boss event inside and I'm pretty sure that boss drops loot as well

The statues in building before the boss, where the paths meet, also do not drop much loot.

After killing the "secret" boss in that area, a chest drops not unlike the one that drops at the final boss.

Zephiran23

The trash mobs drop less than public dungeons, but more than dolmens. Unfortunately, if you enter at the wrong time all of them may be dead until you get a long way through and catch up to some other players. This is a problem.

There's 3 miniboss encounters. A random boss that you need to kill 1 of each to tick off the achievement. The titan that is a challenge for anyone with mismatched gear, levelling companions or non-optimised builds. Not great loot from those 2, but you will get something.The 3rd is in the room with the 4 flame giant alcoves. I've seen several players run through there even when I've started waking them up. That encounter guarantees a chest once the miniboss is dead.

As with any instance, there's plenty of containers along the way. However, with the way they are structured finding chests or heavy sacks is a matter of luck. Some of the chests aren't visible if you stick to the path. So your average speed runner is going to miss those and everyone is going to see the ones near the siege machines.

Knowing how long you have to wait for the final boss to respawn is annoying, but it doesn't matter how many players fight him - everyone can open the chest.

whitecrow

I love that the portals seem random and you just have to come across them. I know they aren't really random, but they feel like they are. I think it adds a bit more "life" to the game.

Unfortunately that's the only thing I like about them.

I find the mobs tedious to fight through and am actually relieved when I see someone has cleared them out before me. Sometimes I try to sneak past them. It's more fun.

The final battle, I just don't understand. Havocrel taunts you to fight, and then hides behind a shield for 3/4 of the battle. When he does come out, you have about two seconds to get hits in. The adds that walk to the center... do they heal him or something? They fall after one hit so they aren't a challenge anyway. The whole thing feels like a waste of time.

fall0athboy

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

What really bothers me is I'll enter a portal (sometimes just as it spawns) and all the mobs have been cleared by a group ahead of me. All I have to do is run through the islands with no resistance to the last boss. I don't like this. I'm loosing so much XP (and fun) because of this design.

@ZOS_GinaBruno

You can just wait five minutes or so for the bosses to respawn. The first miniboss cycles, the second miniboss is always Salosuum, and the final is always Havocrel. I camped the first miniboss and the final one for respawns to get the achievements and barring the antiquity lead that I still need to finish, I have no intention of going back.

Túrin_Vidsmidr

It's not A+ at all, why did we get flaming rabbit holes instead of the real stuff?

fall0athboy

Túrin_Vidsmidr wrote: »

It's not A+ at all, why did we get flaming rabbit holes instead of the real stuff?

I don't know. I was thinking "hey maybe it's because Covid and lowered development time or something" but then I saw the Oblivion portals that Ghemvas the Harbinger WB uses and it's like "okay those are already here in the game why aren't we using those?"

Phaedryn

First off, once you are in you do not have to leave. Secondly, everything respawns. There is no "missing out on" the final boss, just hang tight and he will respawn, as many times as you like.

ADarklore

It's basically a type of Public Dungeon, that's how the devs in the interview I saw described it. Much like typical Public Dungeons, there isn't much incentive to replay them once completed.

Tan9oSuccka

Agreed. Poorly designed, rewards are minimal.