Please fix Endless Archive difficulty

LordOsiris

Bashev wrote: »

No No No. You will nerf the only challenging solo content in the game.

I am not a PvE-er myself but i just went with my PvP build and my game crashed at arc 3. I had no issues with the bosses and I found them too easy and boring in the first 2 arcs. I just waisted some time to reach the fun part and now I have to start over.

If ZoS nerf the EA to arc 5 let say i hope they will give us an option to jump directly on Arc 6 and not wasting time doing trivial fights.

To be honest, I feel the same way, I entered the EA in one of my PvP sets for special ball breakers in PvP and what shall I say? I reached my vanquisher in no time and my solo counter drove mad and is calling me xxx ups xxx. Didn't reach 50 runs directly cause I started too late but let the server come up again and Im sure it's done in no time. Met old friends back like AA Endboss in HM, Vatenshrane and Falkreach HM settings. During the gameplay I started wondering, is EA a training hot spot for PvP player? there were some special situations I started thinking how could a normal player handle that. Ofc I played it solo and without Companion. I was more busy looking for some books I got a quest for than killing dudes in the hall. I assume, when you are not aware that this mechanics are just a copy of all over collected game bosses you won't reach the cup. I played easily all the content and started wondering when the difficult part is coming. I'm sure I began asking myself when difficult part is coming when 70% of you already began to dig the dirt. And isn't the Arena scalling each player?

Someone mentioned already that solo could be the HM and I totaly agree with that point, but I wanna see you ppl dancing around alone in Veteran HM with the Mage (vAA HM), 3 Atros and 3 Axes ... realy? ... ridiculous in 98%.

The only thing I didn't get was are all the Bosses of Nirn included in this Arena and are they showing up randomly like Daggerfall once was concepted. When this is the case I fall forever in love with this new arena!

Jierdanit

Arc 1 should not be any real challenge to anyone who has played the game for at least a somewhat decent amount of time.
Get a tankier build (at least like 25k+ hp, good recovery and some healing). You might take a bit longer to kill the bosses, but if you dont play too aggressive you really shouldnt die.

This may sound rude, but just because you dont get past Arc 1 it doesnt need to be made easier. You need to improve.

Jaraal

Lugaldu wrote: »

loosej wrote: »

My suggestion would be to keep the difficulty as it is, but draw only bosses from base game content during the first arc. This would make it a lot more accessible for players who are new, don't have a lot of PvE experience, don't have access to the dlc dungeons, ... The final arc boss is always the same, so those are mechanics you can learn as you go. But at least this would reduce the amount of one-shot mechanics people possibly have to deal with on cycle bosses. If implemented like this, maybe allow people to skip arc 1 and start immediately on arc 2 if they want more of a challenge (this could be the distinction between normal/veteran).

I also think that the progression is completely unbalanced. I may not necessarily do the most damage, but I have 42k life and even with that I can't even get to the end of arc 1 because bosses with one-shot mechanics already appear in 1.3.3 (or in arc 1 at all) and If you only have 3 attempts to learn this mechanic, then that's excessive difficulty.

Yeah it's pretty unbalanced when someone who doesn't do trials pulls The Serpent in Arc 1, then you have yawners like Captain Blackheart in the later Arcs. I get the idea behind random encounters... but why not weight them so that newer players have a better chance for success.

AJTC5000

Arc 1 and 2 are fine for the solo player IMO. Arc 3 is also decent but that's when I felt the enemies started to become noticeably tankier.

The Marauders could do with adjusting though, specifically the fire one (Gothmau). Even on Arc 2, his light attacks hit so fast and are coupled with a significant bleed, meaning you have to perma-roll every attack in order to have a chance. Meanwhile the lightning one (Hilkarax) is a lot more punishing in the later arcs where it becomes a DPS race to defeat him before the arena is flooded with tornadoes. The water one (Ulmor) is largely okay as is.

Dragonnord

fizzylu wrote: »

And I agree that the rewards are terrible.

Terrible rewards? Enlight us please with what is not terrible for you.

In Endless Archive (split between chests and NPC vendors) you have a new mount, you have a new pet, you have mementos, leads, new furniture, new equipment, you have gold, you now can even buy monster shoulders there, you have also a new coin to buy a lot of different rewards that will be coming too (you know that one of the NPC vendors changes weekly and will continue to bring all type of different items, right?)."

So what do you want? A TV? A car? A trip to the Bahamas maybe?

Give ZOS a break please.
 

Isteris

I cant really say what level of player I am, average I would think but that would be for others to decide. I found the first arc easy to solo, tho on the other hand didn't provide much of a challenge as I could see the mechanics and work out my priority targets but to a new player with 3 lives I think that may be an ask too far. Arc 2 no real problems until I got to Tho again and got one shotted twice until I worked out what was doing it, normal players are probably done on Arc 2 and then it just becomes a grind of 2 Arc's for very little reward. My one life remaining got me to cycle 4, arc 3. now for me that took longer than VMA without any must have loot and I am certain I could progress but I'm just not going to grind 2 Arc's with three lives at least one of which I'm likely to lose on route before having to work out the new mechanic for Tho 3, time vs reward it just ain't worth it.

AJTC5000

Dragonnord wrote: »

fizzylu wrote: »

And I agree that the rewards are terrible.

Terrible rewards? Enlight us please with what is not terrible for you.

In Endless Archive (split between chests and NPC vendors) you have a new mount, you have a new pet, you have mementos, leads, new furniture, new equipment, you have gold, you now can even buy monster shoulders there, you have also a new coin to buy a lot of different rewards that will be coming too (you know that one of the NPC vendors changes weekly and will continue to bring all type of different items, right?)."

So what do you want? A TV? A car? A trip to the Bahamas maybe?

Give ZOS a break please.
 

Cosmetics aside (as these are entirely subjective), the drop rate for the class sets is abysmal when compared to the closest current activity in the game, the Arenas.

Maelstrom for example gives you a relevant item after every stage (let's call it a cycle for consistency). EA on the other hand only gives you a single relevant piece of gear (the class sets) at the end of every Arc minimum, two per Arc if you successfully kill the Marauder. Not to mention the class sets are much larger in comparison to regular sets, being 36 items in total compared to the usual 22, and there are seven of them to fully collect.

This is gonna be the largest gear grind we've ever seen from a PvE activity, and to top it off they're all honestly pretty mid (except the DK set for PvP).

I get that ZOS wants to incentivize repeat runs of the Archive and to really get people to engage with the grind, but the addition of the Overland sets to the Cycle bosses was honestly a slap in the face.

Aislinna

Jierdanit wrote: »

Arc 1 should not be any real challenge to anyone who has played the game for at least a somewhat decent amount of time.
Get a tankier build (at least like 25k+ hp, good recovery and some healing). You might take a bit longer to kill the bosses, but if you dont play too aggressive you really shouldnt die.

This may sound rude, but just because you dont get past Arc 1 it doesnt need to be made easier. You need to improve.

I fully agree... I need to get better, EA doesn't need to be made easier.

Yesterday, I entered EA for the first time on my non-special templar build (19k HP) to check it out and i made it through to the Arc 1 boss without any particular difficulties as I didn't see a marauder, but I didn't defeat Tho’at Replicanum. I expect my next time will be a different experince, as I'll have a better suited solo build and I'll start learning the boss mechanics, which always takes me a few runs to learn.

Braffin

I see no need for making EA easier, neither mandatory nor optional. The average playerbase is fine in there and reaches at least Arcs 2 to 3 if they pay attention to mechs.

Zos could of course implement difficulty options across the whole game, including veteran overland and normal EA.

Changing solely EA to be easier for a small minority while the average playerbase is denied any meaningful overland content is "a waste of resources" tho.

code65536

Jaraal wrote: »

There absolutely should be a non-scoring, lower rewards normal mode

There is. It's called Arc 1.

They nerfed the Arc 1 difficulty significantly since PTS, and there are plenty of people who will just do Arc 1 and stop.

Now, you can choose to continue, for more challenge--and more rewards. But "just do Arc 1 again instead of proceeding to Arc 2" is basically that "lower rewards normal mode".

Lugaldu

code65536 wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

There absolutely should be a non-scoring, lower rewards normal mode

There is. It's called Arc 1.

I don't know what arc 1 looked like on the PTS if that's what we have now is supposed to be the "simple" version. But I don't think it's "simple" if you already encounter trial bosses and bosses with one-shot mechanics in arc 1.

LouisaB75

Jaraal wrote: »

Yeah it's pretty unbalanced when someone who doesn't do trials pulls The Serpent in Arc 1, then you have yawners like Captain Blackheart in the later Arcs. I get the idea behind random encounters... but why not weight them so that newer players have a better chance for success.

As someone who pulled The Serpent in Arc 1 on my first run - maybe you saw one of my other posts - I would say RNG plays a big part in EA and my first attempt was just rotten luck. I have done very few trials and only been to the one with the Serpent twice and not recently.

Made it to Tho'at on my second and third attempts at least. Though got killed swiftly the first time and the second time I got booted from the server when heading to the portal so didn't get to attempt it again.

I was in EA with Isobel who actually did a good job tanking for me and even survived some of the bosses.

I would say I am a below average player, certainly by the comments here on the forums. I am just over 1300CP and am running EA on my arcanist. My gear is crafted and overland, though I may switch to a more tanky gear set for EA depending on how I progress or don't progress. Have only just started to attempt to solo vet dungeons. Only managed one (Volenfell) so far.

That being said, I don't feel that the content needs making tons easier. RNG is always going to have an impact on EA runs as that is the nature of the activity. The more I run it, the more familiar I hope to become with those bosses who I haven't seen before or rarely faced.

Since I have only faced Tho'at once I am undecided about whether that one needs to be made easier for arc one so those of us who are below average can at least complete the daily. I need more attempts at that boss before making a decision.

I would prefer options to save progress and/fewer cycles per arc. I think 3 would have been sufficient and less frustrating to have to do over, whether because of dying or from being kicked. That way those of us who need the practice can actually attempt more of the bosses instead of trawling through mobs.

AlterBlika

Bashev wrote: »

No No No. You will nerf the only challenging solo content in the game.

I'd say it's the most boring solo content in the game. EA is just endless trash fights with weak bosses. Only marauders and tho'at put up a fight. It took me about 1.5-2 hours maybe to get to the 4th arc, and all I got was prolonged trash fights and bosses that are maybe at a level of base game vet dungeons. EA is a failure as a solo content. You can just jump into a vDLC dungeon or even vBRP and you'll find more challenging trash fights, much more challenging bosses, and no thread nonsense.

EA might be fun without trash fights though. I was looking forward to it but was disappointed eventually. Such a shame

Alienoutlaw

the best way i can describe the difficulty curve in EA is this
Arc-1: normal Dungeon
Arc-2: base game vet
Arc-3: DLC Vet Dungeon
Arc-4: DLC Vet Dungeon HM
Arc-5: VET Trial Boss

but thats my simple view

Tandor

<snip>
I don't think anyone is asking for things to be nerfed, rather for there to be a choice in EA between normal and veteran modes, just like in dungeons and trials. At the moment it's completely unbalanced for both normal and veteran players.
<snipped removed quote>

Surak73

Leave it alone.

There is no dogma saying that every new content must be completed in the launch day.

Kartalin

For those of you concerned that this content is too difficult, please indulge the rest of us and show us your build. Just a quick post about what armor sets you're using, the skills you have slotted, how many cp you have, or any other relevant info like do you have enough skill points to purchase all the passives for your class and the other skill lines you are using. Do you or a friend/guildmate have a house with even the most basic taget dummy? Can you achieve at least 15-20k while also having a heal or two slotted for survivability?

Perhaps there's something that is relatively simple and easy to fix or address that other players with more experience have long since moved past.

Dragonnord

Tandor wrote: »

Dragonnord wrote: »

This community doesn't cease to suprise me. I can't believe people in these forums are always asking to nerf stuff.

Now asking to nerf something that has previously been nerfed and it's easy enough already.

What do you want guys? Really. Honestly. Why don't you ask for a skill that when you put the crosshair on top of the boss it dies instantly?

"Oh! I can't! Nerf it! I used two light attacks and it didn't die! Nerf it. Please!"

"I stepped on top of the read AoE for 5 seconds and I died. Let me step there for 10 seconds."

"The boss was doing the animation of a heavy attack and I didn't block nor roll dodge, and I died. Please make it that time stops if I'm not paying attention and don't block nor roll dodge, and warn me again so I can move away on time".

It's nerf this, nerf that, nerf this again, nerf that again, nerf, nerf, nerf, nerf...

My God!
 

I don't think anyone is asking for things to be nerfed, rather for there to be a choice in EA between normal and veteran modes, just like in dungeons and trials. At the moment it's completely unbalanced for both normal and veteran players.

I'm talking general. It's nerf this and nerf that in these forums. Always. That's why many players left because the game is becomig kinds-friendly.

Regarding the thread matter. See for example the comment of Alienoutlaw above yours, he/she says:

"the best way i can describe the difficulty curve in EA is this
Arc-1: normal Dungeon
Arc-2: base game vet
Arc-3: DLC Vet Dungeon..."

So people asking to nerf Arc 1 (don't tell me no, since OP is clearly saying Arc 1 is difficult) where other players like Alienoutlaw sees it as a normal dungeon. So people asking to nerf a normal dungeon. Nice!!!

Also, people asking to nerf "base game vet" as Alienoutlaw says. Base game vet, that's very old overland difficulty, and people ask to nerf that too. Nice x2!

Again, maybe tetris or solitaire? Well, not tetris since it advances in difficulty too.
 

alternatelder

Confirmed, we lost a Q4 story content to something aimed at a small portion of the population that likes hardmode activities.

Elsonso

Lugaldu wrote: »

Galeriano wrote: »

What do You mean by saying "not everyone can play this thing"? Everyone can enter and play there solo which is what was promised. It was never promised that everyone will be able to venture far into it. Initial stages were designed for players with lesser skill but there is also a limit to how low You can set difficulty without making it so easy it becomes boring even for less experienced people.

Not offering different difficulty levels is an absolutely ridiculous design decision. This means that players are bound to become frustrated - vet players find it boring because it's too easy, and inexperienced players can't get through any of the gameplay at all.

I disagree. The whole point of the arena seems to be one content for all players. That is a significant difference from the existing arenas. Two modes, solo and duo, and everyone gets the same sort of content at the same difficulty as everyone else, for as far as they can take it.

Just the sort of content ESO needs.

Braffin

alternatelder wrote: »

Confirmed, we lost a Q4 story content to something aimed at a small portion of the population that likes hardmode activities.

May we have some proof regarding your claim, that only a small portion of the playerbase is interested in EA?

On the contrary, even here in forums (which are far less frequented by the average playerbase than for example reddit or discord-servers tied to the game) it's a clear minority asking for nerfs.

On a sidenote: Of course we see the very same players, which agitated against any veteran overland as "waste of resources" now asking for nerfs, simply because they weren't catered to the first time in years. Don't expect too much empathy with your situation, as you brought this upon yourself.

maxjapank

Just did Arc 1 on my Oakensorc. Wasn't really that difficult at all. Probably took 40 minutes tops, but only because I'm reading what versus / visions are. I used both a Twightlight and volatile familiar. But never really needed to use the Twighlight heals at all as Sorcs passively heal through attacking. Only thing that I might change up is the slotting something else for the volatile familiar in the last fight. Twighlight was okay, but volatile kept dying. I also used Barrier, but I think I'll just use the strom atro for more dps.

Also what is the difference between purchasing Curated purple gear vs. the blue stuff?

Joy_Division

Arc 1 is quite laid back. Except the main boss. I would agree the spike in difficulty on the main boss is a bit too much. Without the option for a normal mode (which I think is not necessary), the first boss should not be the hurdle that it currently is.

The Archive is *significantly* easier with a second player. As in the bosses die before even doing any mechanics easy.
People commenting on the difficulty seem to forget the archive can be played as a duo. A welcome addition given that there are already multiple solo arenas and this game is ostensibly an MMO.

Alienoutlaw

Kartalin wrote: »

For those of you concerned that this content is too difficult, please indulge the rest of us and show us your build. Just a quick post about what armor sets you're using, the skills you have slotted, how many cp you have, or any other relevant info like do you have enough skill points to purchase all the passives for your class and the other skill lines you are using. Do you or a friend/guildmate have a house with even the most basic taget dummy? Can you achieve at least 15-20k while also having a heal or two slotted for survivability?

Perhaps there's something that is relatively simple and easy to fix or address that other players with more experience have long since moved past.

im a "mid" level player at best, play on a controller, run a Mag sorc HA build with all the trimmings i can parse around 80k on a good day, ive done solo to Arc 4 and just short of Arc 5 in Duo (due to some insta deaths buggyness) i am by far NOT the best player on the block, i do find Arc's 1 & 2 very easy, 3 starts to challenge and make to think more about "priority targeting" Arc 4 onwards i would say experience in vet content helps alot with knowing how and when to mitigate damage etc etc. in a nutshell the more experienced players will generally get further than an inexperienced player, simply due to mechanic knowledge & Add managment 50k dps is more than enough for EA in my humble opinion but knowledge and experience will carry you further.

Alienoutlaw

maxjapank wrote: »

Just did Arc 1 on my Oakensorc. Wasn't really that difficult at all. Probably took 40 minutes tops, but only because I'm reading what versus / visions are. I used both a Twightlight and volatile familiar. But never really needed to use the Twighlight heals at all as Sorcs passively heal through attacking. Only thing that I might change up is the slotting something else for the volatile familiar in the last fight. Twighlight was okay, but volatile kept dying. I also used Barrier, but I think I'll just use the strom atro for more dps.

Also what is the difference between purchasing Curated purple gear vs. the blue stuff?

no difference other than quality i think

MachineGod

I went through Arc's 1 & 2 as a duo with no buffs. Just heavy attack. For context that was because of a bug where if you get transformed by the watcher side quest for the tomebooks it strips all buffs and sets bonuses until you re-equip them.

So if you cant progress through Arc 1 and find it "difficult" beyond holding a heavy attack button for 30 mins then you really should find something else to do besides basic combat.

Lugaldu

Elsonso wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Galeriano wrote: »

What do You mean by saying "not everyone can play this thing"? Everyone can enter and play there solo which is what was promised. It was never promised that everyone will be able to venture far into it. Initial stages were designed for players with lesser skill but there is also a limit to how low You can set difficulty without making it so easy it becomes boring even for less experienced people.

Not offering different difficulty levels is an absolutely ridiculous design decision. This means that players are bound to become frustrated - vet players find it boring because it's too easy, and inexperienced players can't get through any of the gameplay at all.

I disagree. The whole point of the arena seems to be one content for all players. That is a significant difference from the existing arenas. Two modes, solo and duo, and everyone gets the same sort of content at the same difficulty as everyone else, for as far as they can take it.

Just the sort of content ESO needs.

But that's exactly what doesn't work. You can already see it in the discussion in this thread. If arc 1 is supposed to be an equivalent to a base game dungeon, which more or less "everyone" can do solo, then it would have to be something like the good old fungal grotto that you can quickly run through (e.g. because you have to do a daily). And if you need more challenge, then it gets more difficult from arc to arc. But at the moment arc 1 is not that easy, if you are unlucky and get some difficult trial bosses and bosses with one-shot mechanics then its even impossible to finish that one. And even if arc 1 had the difficulty of a base game dungeon, I would still doubt that beginner players would be able to get through solo or with a companion, because they probably also cant solo the base game dungeons. Such players are completely excluded here. It would therefore definitely make sense if there were a gradation of difficulty and not one content for everyone.

jaws343

Lugaldu wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Galeriano wrote: »

What do You mean by saying "not everyone can play this thing"? Everyone can enter and play there solo which is what was promised. It was never promised that everyone will be able to venture far into it. Initial stages were designed for players with lesser skill but there is also a limit to how low You can set difficulty without making it so easy it becomes boring even for less experienced people.

Not offering different difficulty levels is an absolutely ridiculous design decision. This means that players are bound to become frustrated - vet players find it boring because it's too easy, and inexperienced players can't get through any of the gameplay at all.

I disagree. The whole point of the arena seems to be one content for all players. That is a significant difference from the existing arenas. Two modes, solo and duo, and everyone gets the same sort of content at the same difficulty as everyone else, for as far as they can take it.

Just the sort of content ESO needs.

But that's exactly what doesn't work. You can already see it in the discussion in this thread. If arc 1 is supposed to be an equivalent to a base game dungeon, which more or less "everyone" can do solo, then it would have to be something like the good old fungal grotto that you can quickly run through (e.g. because you have to do a daily). And if you need more challenge, then it gets more difficult from arc to arc. But at the moment arc 1 is not that easy, if you are unlucky and get some difficult trial bosses and bosses with one-shot mechanics then its even impossible to finish that one. And even if arc 1 had the difficulty of a base game dungeon, I would still doubt that beginner players would be able to get through solo or with a companion, because they probably also cant solo the base game dungeons. Such players are completely excluded here. It would therefore definitely make sense if there were a gradation of difficulty and not one content for everyone.

Or maybe, beginner players shouldn't be trying to solo content built for duo players.

Y'all want normal and vet versions, but maybe you need to realize that the normal version is the duo version, WITH another player. And solo is Vet. And running with a companion is a step between the two.

Lugaldu

jaws343 wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Galeriano wrote: »

What do You mean by saying "not everyone can play this thing"? Everyone can enter and play there solo which is what was promised. It was never promised that everyone will be able to venture far into it. Initial stages were designed for players with lesser skill but there is also a limit to how low You can set difficulty without making it so easy it becomes boring even for less experienced people.

Not offering different difficulty levels is an absolutely ridiculous design decision. This means that players are bound to become frustrated - vet players find it boring because it's too easy, and inexperienced players can't get through any of the gameplay at all.

I disagree. The whole point of the arena seems to be one content for all players. That is a significant difference from the existing arenas. Two modes, solo and duo, and everyone gets the same sort of content at the same difficulty as everyone else, for as far as they can take it.

Just the sort of content ESO needs.

But that's exactly what doesn't work. You can already see it in the discussion in this thread. If arc 1 is supposed to be an equivalent to a base game dungeon, which more or less "everyone" can do solo, then it would have to be something like the good old fungal grotto that you can quickly run through (e.g. because you have to do a daily). And if you need more challenge, then it gets more difficult from arc to arc. But at the moment arc 1 is not that easy, if you are unlucky and get some difficult trial bosses and bosses with one-shot mechanics then its even impossible to finish that one. And even if arc 1 had the difficulty of a base game dungeon, I would still doubt that beginner players would be able to get through solo or with a companion, because they probably also cant solo the base game dungeons. Such players are completely excluded here. It would therefore definitely make sense if there were a gradation of difficulty and not one content for everyone.

Or maybe, beginner players shouldn't be trying to solo content built for duo players.

Y'all want normal and vet versions, but maybe you need to realize that the normal version is the duo version, WITH another player. And solo is Vet. And running with a companion is a step between the two.

The EA was announced as a solo activity or duo activity and it was not stated that solo automatically means a "vet version". I still think that the differences in player skills are light years apart, as you see again and again in the discussions about difficulty of the game, and that you simply can't bring them to a common level.

Jack-0

Castagere wrote: »

The replies prove that not everyone can play this thing which they said could be soloed by everyone when they announced it. To the OP I would just forget about it. It wasn't made for you. It clearly is for arena and trials vets.

Heaven forbid you actually have to work at it and can’t just faceroll through it like you can in overland, delves and public dungeons! If you can’t do it first time, adapt and try again.