PTS Update 31 - Feedback Thread for Red Petal Bastion

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for Red Petal Bastion. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
• How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
• Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
• Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
• What level and build was the character you used?
• Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…
• Do you have any other general feedback?

MyNameIsElias

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

Yes, it is very visually pleasing & the boss fights are stunning to see & the gameplay mechanics were really fun.

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

On normal mode it felt much harder than other normal mode dungeons, perhaps a tad too hard.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Normal mode while alone, doing veteran hardmodes later with friends.

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?

First boss was really funny & a struggle to complete by myself, but the sweetroll mechanic was really hilarious

What level and build was the character you used?

max level magicka templar, 5 false god, 5 medusa, 1 pale order 1 valkyn skoria shoulder.

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…

I was able to find the mechanics that allowed me into the secret areas, but sadly it can only be done with a full group. I was alone and was thus unable to open the doors into secret areas. Being able to reach these secrets solo (like in Unhallowed Grave) would be appreciated, not for finding extra gear or rewards, but to experience the hidden lore in these areas without having to bring other humans along. Craglorn had the same issues in a few places and it was resolved to be doable while alone with the One Tamriel patch.

Do you have any other general feedback?

Over all great dungeon, the team has knocked it out of the park with the quality.

code65536

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

Vet HM seems fairly straightforward. Comparable to Black Drake Villa, I guess.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Vet HM for all three bosses

What level and build was the character you used?

We used our live character copies.

• Tank: NB (me)
• Healer: Templar
• DDs: mag NB and mag DK

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…

The secret areas were fairly easy and straightforward to access.

Do you have any other general feedback?

I think aesthetically, this dungeon is the best of the two. The goat and sweetrolls were amusing. And we had fun playing tourist in the room with all the relics.

Unfortunately, the encounters were not challenging, at least when compared to Cellar. We ran through this dungeon blind on Monday, shortly after PTS went live, activated HM on every boss, and got through it without a single wipe. In contrast, we ran through Cellar afterwards, and wiped 4 times on the first boss, 6 times on the second boss, and 10 times on the last boss (we didn't actually clear Cellar's final boss HM on Monday, as we ran out of time).

Clearly, this dungeon's HM is a lot easier than that of its sibling dungeon. And I think it's because this dungeon does not punish players for making mistakes. For example, there are the moving walls on the final boss, which we all initially assumed would 1-shot us if we touched it, but it didn't, whereas the moving walls on the second boss in Cellar was a 1-shot.

The next problem with this dungeon is that the mechanics are not that intuitive. For example, what's the point of the sweetrolls? If you were to ask me what eating the sweetroll as a goat does, I can't answer that because whatever effect it had, it was not obvious. On the second boss, it took us a while to finally realize that the bubble was blocking ranged damage. And that's partly because there's no punishment for failing the mechanic and attacking the boss when bubbled--if the bubble reflected attacks instead, for example, it would become clearer what the bubble did, as well as make the fight a bit more challenging.

The final boss fight is not very melee-friendly, and our mag DK never stopped complaining about it. With all the movement and things to avoid, it's rather difficult to actually be able to damage the boss.

My final observation is that every fight feels very chaotic, particularly the first and final bosses. I suppose this is thematically fitting, but the amount of stuff that was happening felt overwhelming at times. Adds and ground AoEs everywhere, and that effect from the secret area where you get a jet of fire when blocking, while hilarious at first, quickly becomes very annoying, as there is already a lot of visual clutter in the fight.

CyberOnEso

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
Yes, though I felt the difficulty particularly on hard mode could be greater.

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
The dungeon felt easier than Black Drake Villa and harder than The Cauldron.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Vet HM

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
The second hard mode boss had some attacks that needed to be avoided. I felt that the adds could have had more mechanics that needed to be played around and deal a large amount of damage.

What level and build was the character you used?
Templates
DK Tank - Encratics, Yolnakriin, The new crimson set
Templar Healer - Symphony, Worm, Olorime
MagWarden DD - Slimecraw, Bahsei, Diamond Victory
MagDk DD - Slimecraw, Bahsei, Diamond Victory

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…
We found the 3 secrets, I felt that they should be harder for the strength of the buffs they provide. The secret bosses should be an actual challenge to kill and not just a trash add with more health.

Think unhallowed grave 1st boss, that secret boss had some mechanics you had to play around to kill it. Where these 3 secret bosses feel like they just have more health than a trash mob.

Do you have any other general feedback?
I understand you want to make the dungeons accessible. But the hard mode is there for a reason, don't be afraid to challenge players for the hard mode clears. It felt like we just powered through all three bosses without much strategy or thought to the mechanics.
The final secret boss in BDV was challenging, you can make the secret bosses hard without ruining the accessibility.

AJTC5000

[*] Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

I personally found this one to be the more enjoyable of the two! While the general aesthetics are a little dull with reused Breton and Ayleid rooms, the plethora of artifacts and knick-knacks on display were pretty cool (seems the Order likes doing Crypt of Hearts 2 . . .)

[*] How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?

I would put this around Black Drake Villa difficulty - definitely the easier of the two, we one-shot bosses 2 and 3 on their respective HMs during the only blind run.

[*] Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Veteran, and HMs for all three bosses.

[*] Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?

Rogerain the Sly is definitely a unique and interesting boss, which is quite refreshing, and the goat mechanic was pretty fun (once we figured out what the sweetrolls did . . . kinda? Some sort of ult regen? Not incredibly clear exactly, but they buffed something).

[*] What level and build was the character you used?

Our team was all max level live character copies with the following comp:
- Templar Tank
- Magicka Templar DPS
- Magicka Sorcerer DPS
- Warden Healer

[*] Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…

The secrets in this dungeon were fairly easy to find, but I really liked the Goriseli Moraburo area and was glad to see more of it after Murkmire and its associated Battlegrounds map. The fire jet is really annoying to look at after a while though, especially for our tank.

[*] Do you have any other general feedback?

This dungeon might be too easy - we've gotten into the habit of assuming every red area is a one-shot for DLC Vet HM dungeons, but things like the charging wall on the final boss which simply stuns was a surprise.

The dungeon is also incredibly chaotic in terms of AoE damage and ground effects, which causes a lot of movement and isn't friendly to melee players (read: me, the sweeping Magplar) - combined with a ranged shield on Boss 2 and 3, it can make things overwhelming. However due to the dungeon being less punishing in terms of damage, one-shot potential from red areas etc, this was more easily mitigated.

Overall though I was having a lot of fun doing it regardless, it was nice not to be completely stomped (like in Dread Cellar, lol).

Disturbed125

-Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

Definitely yes, I thought the first two bosses had some pretty interesting mechanics to them.

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

Probably as others have said, around black drake villa or unhallowed grave difficulty

-Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Veteran HM

-Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?

It has to be Rogerain the Sly. The triplet boss 2 is a close second for actually having neat new mechanics but I haven't been as entertained doing a boss fight as i was fighting Rogerain in a LOOOONG time.

-What level and build was the character you used?

All characters in the group were max level - Nightblade tank, Magicka Dragonknight, Magicka Nightblade, Templar Healer
I was the MagDK - 1 piece Slimecrawl, 1 piece zaan , 5 piece Perfected Bahsei's Mania, 5 piece Diamond's Victory

-Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…

Yes, as others have said the secrets were fairly straightforward to find once you knew what you were looking for.

-Do you have any other general feedback?

Really just re-iterating what others have said:

Some of the fights are a bit TOO chaotic, it makes it hard to really see whats going on. By that i mean too many effects/mechanics firing at the same time making it hard to get a grasp on what is important.

The bosses might be a little on the easy side as you're not really punished by death for doing many of the mechanics wrong, unlike its sister dungeon.

The flame jet from blocking while entertaining and fun to play with gets a little obnoxious as it simply adds to the visual clutter in fights that are already pretty visually overwhelming.

Overall I like this dungeon, it might be one of my favorites to launch in a long time. Looking forward to progging the achievements on live!

Dangst8ofm9d

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

Yes, I enjoyed the dungeon.

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
This dungeon was similar to unhallowed grave and black drake villa.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
We completed the dungeon on Veteran (HM on Boss 1, Non-HM on Bosses 2 and 3).

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
My favorite boss was Rogerian Sly. His dialogue and the sweetroll mechanic was fun to play through.

What level and build was the character you used?
Team composition:

• Tank: Warden | Max CP
• Healer: Warden | Max CP (me)
• Damage: Magicka Templar and Magicka Nightblade | non-max CP

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…
The secret bosses were easy to discover once the general mechanic was discovered. When you're in the room for the cellar boss, the corner on the right side of the door allows you the option to enter the previous room.

Do you have any other general feedback?
The first boss was fun to play despite not learning the mechanics. We were able to survive with general actions of keeping heals on the group and good damage. However, that didn't translate to the 2nd boss (cellar boss). We did that one on hard mode and there were too much chaos happening in the room. We were unable to determine which mechanics to prioritize as well as unable to determine what was actually causing us to die. The death recap was not helpful since it would provide the name of the attack and enemy like normal but the hints were not helpful. As mentioned earlier, the mechanics were not helpful due to the fact that there was not any punishment for failing the mechanic. We tried the 2nd boss multiple times and got him to 60% before wiping. For the final boss, we were able to complete on non-HM but similar to the previous boss, there was a lot of items happening in the arena that we weren't able to determine mechanics. We also think that our damage caused multiple mechanic skips since at one point we were overwhelmed by mobs. From my experience, the difference between normal vet and hard mode is too immense especially when the mechanics are not able to be determined.

Aliyavana

I am dissapointed that yet antoher Ayleid Ruin was added to high rock. It should be a Direnni Ruin instead. The Direnni have acquired assets thanks to the Summerset Chapter, and have been using those assets since that chapter release, so there is no excuse to not include Direnni Ruins in High Rock. They have been a part of High Rock lore since the earlier games, they should have soem ruins scattered about, with less Ayleid Ruins.