Please fix Endless Archive difficulty

MidniteOwl1913

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your friend have a taunt? If not then you may be a higher actions per minute player, so the boss is more likely to pick you when it randomly picks a target.

How does it know who is a higher action per minute player? Is this a stat that ZOS keeps? Because if it's per instance then shouldn't it be more balanced between two players to begin with? And shouldn't it never target a companion?

spartaxoxo

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your friend have a taunt? If not then you may be a higher actions per minute player, so the boss is more likely to pick you when it randomly picks a target.

How does it know who is a higher action per minute player? Is this a stat that ZOS keeps? Because if it's per instance then shouldn't it be more balanced between two players to begin with? And shouldn't it never target a companion?

I think it just has moments where it checks who it wants to target and it is more likely to target whoever did the most during that moment, rather than constantly keeping track, but IDK for sure.

Jaraal

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your friend have a taunt? If not then you may be a higher actions per minute player, so the boss is more likely to pick you when it randomly picks a target.

He hasn't taunted that I am aware of. I'll ask him if he has a tank he can bring next time. But this happens as soon as the boss spawns before either of us has done anything. I even stayed back as far as possible but she runs straight for me, even with him attacking her.

AFAIK, The first target is random then it picks a random new target based off who took an action during that time period, so more apms makes you more likely to be selected but not necessarily guaranteed. I could be wrong but I think that's how it works. Taunt, ofc, guarantees your picked and forces redirected attention. Don't need to be a tank to slot a taunt, there's an Undaunted skill that lets you.

But I didn't take any action. I stayed back as far as I could while he ran up and attacked her but she just kept running after me. It's beyond frustrating.

He's in your group, so when he took an action, he also placed you into combat.

But why does she chase me the entire time every time no matter which characters we are using?

Some NPCs are programmed to go after the furthest player in the group. Like the final boss in Tempest Island. Try to get far away from her, and she will charge you.

Araneae6537

I beat my personal solo best today and defeated Tho’at 2.0! It was on my HA oaken sorc again and I didn’t even try to keep a scamp in the fight past the first arc, just the matriarch for the heals. So yes, Tho’at was always on top of me, but her attacks are very telegraphed so that I could block and I just stepped off the aoe clumps she summons. I focused on heavy attacking blobs when they appeared, then on attacking her, then same thing with the atronachs. Thankfully there’s no enrage timer or anything like that!

SilverBride

Jaraal wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your friend have a taunt? If not then you may be a higher actions per minute player, so the boss is more likely to pick you when it randomly picks a target.

He hasn't taunted that I am aware of. I'll ask him if he has a tank he can bring next time. But this happens as soon as the boss spawns before either of us has done anything. I even stayed back as far as possible but she runs straight for me, even with him attacking her.

AFAIK, The first target is random then it picks a random new target based off who took an action during that time period, so more apms makes you more likely to be selected but not necessarily guaranteed. I could be wrong but I think that's how it works. Taunt, ofc, guarantees your picked and forces redirected attention. Don't need to be a tank to slot a taunt, there's an Undaunted skill that lets you.

But I didn't take any action. I stayed back as far as I could while he ran up and attacked her but she just kept running after me. It's beyond frustrating.

He's in your group, so when he took an action, he also placed you into combat.

But why does she chase me the entire time every time no matter which characters we are using?

Some NPCs are programmed to go after the furthest player in the group. Like the final boss in Tempest Island. Try to get far away from her, and she will charge you.

Ohhhh I always stay back on this fight. I will run up to her and tell my friend to stay back and see what happens. Thanks!

MidniteOwl1913

Jaraal wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your friend have a taunt? If not then you may be a higher actions per minute player, so the boss is more likely to pick you when it randomly picks a target.

He hasn't taunted that I am aware of. I'll ask him if he has a tank he can bring next time. But this happens as soon as the boss spawns before either of us has done anything. I even stayed back as far as possible but she runs straight for me, even with him attacking her.

AFAIK, The first target is random then it picks a random new target based off who took an action during that time period, so more apms makes you more likely to be selected but not necessarily guaranteed. I could be wrong but I think that's how it works. Taunt, ofc, guarantees your picked and forces redirected attention. Don't need to be a tank to slot a taunt, there's an Undaunted skill that lets you.

But I didn't take any action. I stayed back as far as I could while he ran up and attacked her but she just kept running after me. It's beyond frustrating.

He's in your group, so when he took an action, he also placed you into combat.

But why does she chase me the entire time every time no matter which characters we are using?

Some NPCs are programmed to go after the furthest player in the group. Like the final boss in Tempest Island. Try to get far away from her, and she will charge you.

Ah that might explain why my healer gets targeted so often when we are in a dungeon with no real tank...

Necrotech_Master

LouisaB75 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

in a 2 person dps group with the right verses, ive killed arc 1 tho'at in 13 seconds

even solo it takes me under a minute to kill arc 1 tho'at (or faster again depending on verses)

Wow, that is really fast.

It took me a week to get past her and now I can consistently complete arc 1 (unless I get the pillars boss that is broken) and takes me far longer than 1 minute. Or at least it certainly seems that way.

Would love to see a video of the 13 second kill because that is way faster than any of the streamer videos I have watched.

i joined a random person using the group finder and we both were basically DPS spec

and i think we both had very potent offensive verses

if you get a verse like exsanguinate using a multi-hit attack, each hit applies the dot, and the dot does 1 instant tick on application

so like attacks like templar jabs and arcanist runeblades become monsters for dmg especially on a dps setup

other offensive verses can nuke bosses as well such as magical multitudes (if the boss is standing on the center of where the orbs are coming out of, ive reached numbers of nearly 200k dps just because of this), pustulant globs (my dps toon has gotten a 827k crit with those on the arc 1 cycle 1 boss which is enough to 1 shot it)

if you have enough pen/debuffs to mostly ignore tho'ats armor, you can easily kill it quickly

dps specs make arc 1 a breeze, but because of the marauders its extremely difficult to get further than like arc 4

Necrotech_Master

SilverBride wrote: »

It takes me and my friend 30 minutes to run Arc 1.

this is consistent with my experience, usually about 30-45 min (closer to 30 in a duo, closer to 45 solo (or with companion, they dont do much)

caperon

How in the world you need 30-45 min for arc 1. Do you use any skills or only light atack? Is your character using any clothing? I really don't understand. It took me 24 min in my naked sorcerer (video in this same post). Granted, i had good verses, but stil is a naked character.

If you need help finding a build that does more than 0 damage i can provide guidance because really, every time i read the forums I feel I play a different game.

Lugaldu

caperon wrote: »

How in the world you need 30-45 min for arc 1. Do you use any skills or only light atack? Is your character using any clothing? I really don't understand. It took me 24 min in my naked sorcerer (video in this same post). Granted, i had good verses, but stil is a naked character.

People always forget very quickly that not everyone does 100,000 dps. And as SilverBride wrote several times above - the fight against Tho´at can take quite a long time if you are running solo and are constantly just dodging and making sure to eliminate the blobs, in other words, you don't even get the chance to cause direct damage to Tho´at most of the time.

caperon

Lugaldu wrote: »

caperon wrote: »

How in the world you need 30-45 min for arc 1. Do you use any skills or only light atack? Is your character using any clothing? I really don't understand. It took me 24 min in my naked sorcerer (video in this same post). Granted, i had good verses, but stil is a naked character.

People always forget very quickly that not everyone does 100,000 dps. And as SilverBride wrote several times above - the fight against Tho´at can take quite a long time if you are running solo and are constantly just dodging and making sure to eliminate the blobs, in other words, you don't even get the chance to cause direct damage to Tho´at most of the time.

I don't buy it. A character with a decent build (and im talking about 2 decent crafted sets) using ring of the pale order can just stand and dps most of the time in arc 1 final boss. If you dont want to use Pale Order, all classes have self healing, all classes can use vigor hot. It is less confortable but it is not a big deal.

Raw dps doesnt matter in archive, is more a matter of build and knowledge. You get a lot of damage from visions and verses.

Refusing to build properly (this is an rpg btw) and refusing to learn the content and the class is asking for trouble in anything more challenging than main story quests.

And i did the fight with a naked sorcerer, i assure you it doesnt do 100k dps. Is people even trying?

Sirona_Starr

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Yes, it happens to me too. Whether healer or dps is used.

caperon

What about using a taunt skill? There is one in the undaunted skill line. That will keep the agro for 15 seconds. It is what tanks use all the time.

Soarora

caperon wrote: »

How in the world you need 30-45 min for arc 1. Do you use any skills or only light atack? Is your character using any clothing? I really don't understand. It took me 24 min in my naked sorcerer (video in this same post). Granted, i had good verses, but stil is a naked character.

If you need help finding a build that does more than 0 damage i can provide guidance because really, every time i read the forums I feel I play a different game.

I don’t recall how long it exactly took me but arc 1 took a while for my first few runs. Heck, I was dying to Tho’at (because my binding for block is different on PTS than it is on live for some reason, so I got 1-shot by not blocking without realizing I wasn’t blocking…). With practice and a change from warden to arcanist it’s a lot faster but I’m not sure arc 1 was 15 mins fast right out the bat. My warden is slower in general because I can’t just AoE all the trash down. I hit all of them individually with frost reach so they have a DoT on them then I spammable them down one by one.

Four_Fingers

Yeah, because of all the variables RNG boss, builds, etc. it is a little moot to argue how long an arc takes.

SilverBride

caperon wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

caperon wrote: »

How in the world you need 30-45 min for arc 1. Do you use any skills or only light atack? Is your character using any clothing? I really don't understand. It took me 24 min in my naked sorcerer (video in this same post). Granted, i had good verses, but stil is a naked character.

People always forget very quickly that not everyone does 100,000 dps. And as SilverBride wrote several times above - the fight against Tho´at can take quite a long time if you are running solo and are constantly just dodging and making sure to eliminate the blobs, in other words, you don't even get the chance to cause direct damage to Tho´at most of the time.

I don't buy it. A character with a decent build (and im talking about 2 decent crafted sets) using ring of the pale order can just stand and dps most of the time in arc 1 final boss. If you dont want to use Pale Order, all classes have self healing, all classes can use vigor hot. It is less confortable but it is not a big deal.

Raw dps doesnt matter in archive, is more a matter of build and knowledge. You get a lot of damage from visions and verses.

Refusing to build properly (this is an rpg btw) and refusing to learn the content and the class is asking for trouble in anything more challenging than main story quests.

And i did the fight with a naked sorcerer, i assure you it doesnt do 100k dps. Is people even trying?

30 minutes isn't unreasonable. I keep a steady pace but don't rush through full blast. I take time to read what the verses do so I can make the best choice. I also go in all the unknown portals for the mini games.

Others may not understand it and that is fine but this is a reasonable amount of time to run an Arc.

Joy_Division

Some suggestions being thrown around here will have consequences beyond the immediate goal.

If I want to do a run of Endless Archive, I already have to basically invest an afternoon or evening to do so. I can get to Arc 4 and sometimes Arc 5.

Making content easy does not mean we get through content much faster because content is not just a straight progression of targets. Today my DPS is triple what it was 4 years ago, yet my Maelstrom complete times are only about 10 minutes faster, going from about 60 minutes to 50 minutes. If we nerf Arc 1, then Arc 2 will have to be nerfed because that Tho'at fight is *way* more difficult than Arc 1 now as it is, and we're going to nerf the Marauders because they're OP, people like me, who are by no means great players - I maybe can get 30k DPS on a skeleton target dummy - will instead of spending an afternoon or evening spend an entire day doing one piece of content. No other ESO activity make such demands on my time. I can do Maelstrom in 50 minutes. Vateshran in 40. A difficult trial (for me) in maybe 2 hours. A PvP group night for 2 and a half. Now, I've got to slog an entire day in the Archive? Yeah, no. Not going to do that. By aspiring to make the Archive more accessible, it will become way too long of a boring slog.

The archive has to ramp up in difficulty relatively quickly because it already takes a long time for it to become challenging to - again, not a great player who barely can do 30K DPS on a skeleton dummy.

The content has barely been out a few weeks. And if you don;t know the mechanics of course its going to seem hard. The difficulty does not need to be "fixed." The mechanics have to be learned. That's all the Archive fights are. Once you know them, that is the fix, because the fights at that point become not hard at all.

The first time I did the archive, the first marauder killed me in like 3 seconds and Tho'at arc 2 fight was wipe, wipe, wipe, where are all those 20K hits coming from. Yeah, it seemed hard.

By my third time, I killed the marauder. By the end of the first week, I was killing Arc 2 Tho'at regularly. I still do 30K DPS and haven;t used any new gear that I already didn;t already have available. I didn;t need the devs to swoop in and save me from my own mediocrity. Rather, I did not acquiesce to defeat before I even tried and I learned the mechanics. Arc 2 marauder is now a speed bump. Arc 3 marauder is now only dangerous if I make a mistake. I'll still pop a consumable verse for them just to make sure though because the devs already thought of introducing mechanics for people like me who struggle to get 30K DPS on a dummy.

Arc 1 Tho'at is in an empty room. The only thing to watch for aside from her highly telegraphed heavy attacks are little green blobs that take less than 3 seconds to kill. That's the whole fight! That's it! Aside from that, you can always purchase a verse (i.e., use the in game make-it-easier mechanics). Some of those verses are an I win button. If you get the eye, Tho'at doesn;t even attack you. If you get the guardian of pestilence, it can do over a million damage. If you get the bleed on direct damage, she'll die within 45 seconds. If it's still too hard, it's a MMO, just group with someone. If arc 1 Tho'at is too hard, then those players are already asking for help in zone for world bosses or the dolmens/events. Options, options, options. They're already there. But as I said, these options are ultimately not necessary because Arc1 Tho'at fight is all about mechanics and once you know them, you won;t be hit by constant 20K hits.

SilverBride

Examples of players that do not find Tho'at too challenging for the first Arcs does not mean that she isn't for a large part of the player base. Of course a player needs to be geared and have a decent build, and yes mechanics have to be learned as with any new boss encounter. But this is the first Arc.

I find the biggest opposition to bringing this boss back into line with the rest of the Arc is because it will then take longer for those who want to reach the more difficult Arcs to get there. But that is how the EA was set up. We start with lower difficulty and it ramps up as we progress.

There are 2 things that need to happen that would solve both of these issues.

• Adjust Tho'at's difficulty in the first few Arcs to be more comparable with the rest of the Arc. This will allow more players to be able to enjoy the EA and the rewards that can be earned through it.
• Put in a save so those that want to progress further can do so without having to run through the first Arcs every time they want to enjoy this content. The save could expire and the EA reset once a week so it doesn't completely change the concept of seeing how far a player could progress.

LouisaB75

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

and i think we both had very potent offensive verses

if you get a verse like exsanguinate using a multi-hit attack, each hit applies the dot, and the dot does 1 instant tick on application

so like attacks like templar jabs and arcanist runeblades become monsters for dmg especially on a dps setup

other offensive verses can nuke bosses as well such as magical multitudes (if the boss is standing on the center of where the orbs are coming out of, ive reached numbers of nearly 200k dps just because of this), pustulant globs (my dps toon has gotten a 827k crit with those on the arc 1 cycle 1 boss which is enough to 1 shot it)

if you have enough pen/debuffs to mostly ignore tho'ats armor, you can easily kill it quickly

dps specs make arc 1 a breeze, but because of the marauders its extremely difficult to get further than like arc 4

Thanks for the info. I am mostly running EA on my arcanist and have noticed the exsanguinate on runeblades being a great help - though I tend to roll that one on mob rounds which at least makes them go faster.

I haven't tried magical multitudes much as my main AOE is fatecarver which of course doesn't count for that one.

Pustulant globs I have used but not on Tho'at. I find the fight too fast and busy to get to them and aim in time. I do like the pestilent skeever one though as I find that easier to activate with high damage.

My DPS is down for EA as I found I was too squishy and so run either as a tank with a friend who does DPS or if I am solo on a hybrid build that is less squishy but at the expense of some of my DPS. At least that way I can handle the two easier marauders without losing a thread to them.

Galeriano

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Besides feeling that Tho'at is way too difficult for Arc 1, there is something else she does that I just don't understand and it's making it very difficult for me.

I've been running duo with my friend and it doesn't matter which character I bring, Tho'at immediately runs towards me and doesn't stop chasing me no matter what we do.

I've brought different characters of different classes with different builds and it still happens. My friend has brought different characters too but it's always my character that gets chased. We've tried having my friend run up and attack first but nothing we do makes any difference. All my characters are damage and I am not using any skills that pull aggro.

If just once I could actually stop running and do some damage it may go a lot better but I can't figure out why this keeps happening every single time. Has this happened to anyone else?

Does your friend have a taunt? If not then you may be a higher actions per minute player, so the boss is more likely to pick you when it randomly picks a target.

He hasn't taunted that I am aware of. I'll ask him if he has a tank he can bring next time. But this happens as soon as the boss spawns before either of us has done anything. I even stayed back as far as possible but she runs straight for me, even with him attacking her.

AFAIK, The first target is random then it picks a random new target based off who took an action during that time period, so more apms makes you more likely to be selected but not necessarily guaranteed. I could be wrong but I think that's how it works. Taunt, ofc, guarantees your picked and forces redirected attention. Don't need to be a tank to slot a taunt, there's an Undaunted skill that lets you.

But I didn't take any action. I stayed back as far as I could while he ran up and attacked her but she just kept running after me. It's beyond frustrating.

He's in your group, so when he took an action, he also placed you into combat.

But why does she chase me the entire time every time no matter which characters we are using?

Some NPCs are programmed to go after the furthest player in the group. Like the final boss in Tempest Island. Try to get far away from her, and she will charge you.

Ah that might explain why my healer gets targeted so often when we are in a dungeon with no real tank...

IS it You who is always a group leader when You both port inside?

SilverBride

Galeriano wrote: »

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

Ah that might explain why my healer gets targeted so often when we are in a dungeon with no real tank...

IS it You who is always a group leader when You both port inside?

In my case my friend is almost always the group leader, yet I am the one always targeted and chased. I am going to test if me being next to the boss when she spawns and him staying back makes any difference.

Artanisul

Alienoutlaw wrote: »

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.

I havent finished the thread, Or EA for that matter, but its posts like this that show how out of touch people are. Parsing 80k might be "mid" to the forum people but it is FAR from mid in the player base. Most people dont even parse. The comments are clearly coming from people that parse and weave and are not even close to "average players."

Artanisul

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.

Another example of the forum disconnect. Average players dont solo 4 person content. The standards are being set in looney land.
I really should get into EA and see what the difficulty actually is....

spartaxoxo

Artanisul wrote: »

I havent finished the thread, Or EA for that matter, but its posts like this that show how out of touch people are. Parsing 80k might be "mid" to the forum people but it is FAR from mid in the player base. Most people dont even parse. The comments are clearly coming from people that parse and weave and are not even close to "average players."

The companions had to be capped at the damage they are capable of because they were afraid of them being used consistently as a replacement for other players. Most players in my personal estimations are in the 10k-25k range, but IDK for sure. The design of the companions certainly supports that idea though.

That said, Oakensorc is a pretty easy build. And players who use it have access to more damage than they might be able to find with a light attack build. There's no light attack weaving involved in that build.

SilverBride

I haven't seen anything written anywhere that indicates what the initial EA difficulty was meant to be or who the target audience is.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin Are you able to share some light on these?

RMW

Big EA fan - the difficulty is not as much of a problem as random bugs like losing buffs or losing threads (or my inability t not roll dogde of the edge).

But I like @Braffin idea of a training version outside the leaderboard - would not only help with bosses but also marauder encounters that could be trained (got eliminated the first time I met one of them haha)

Elsonso

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SilverBride wrote: »

I haven't seen anything written anywhere that indicates what the initial EA difficulty was meant to be or who the target audience is.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin Are you able to share some light on these?

I'd like to see this information, as well.

MidniteOwl1913

Elsonso wrote: »

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SilverBride wrote: »

I haven't seen anything written anywhere that indicates what the initial EA difficulty was meant to be or who the target audience is.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin Are you able to share some light on these?

I'd like to see this information, as well.

I would be very surprised if they comment, because really there is no right answer here.

From the looks of it though I think it's more aimed at the 10% than the 90% and it isn't just the difficulty. It's the lack of save points. The contiguous time commitment. (The need for a huge hunk of time makes it hard to use the group finder so it means solo or no go.) It's the level of RNG. It's the obsession with the leaderboards.

spartaxoxo

They said Endless Archive was for everyone. They have strongly implied that Arc 1 was specifically for casuals when they nerfed it because it was for a different target audience than later levels, which they also made reached more quickly.

But, they also said it was meant to be challenging and that solo players may have to adjust their builds.

Personally, I think that means "Endless Archive is meant everyone" means level of skill, not view of combat and challenge. If someone doesn't like challenge, I don't think they'll enjoy the archive.

Lexalious

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Personally, I think that means "Endless Archive is meant everyone" means level of skill, not view of combat and challenge. If someone doesn't like challenge, I don't think they'll enjoy the archive.

well it plays much like a solo arena so it feels like there needs to be some sort of challenge.
plus the power creep is real, every single year any content that comes up its just slightly more difficult than similar things that came out earlier. the dragonstar vs blackrose or vateshran vs maelstrom might be good examples for that.

with the endless mythics and skill lines that we are given these days, anybody with well picked crafted gear, some decent 1kish cps and a build that makes sense should be able to breeze through first few arches. maybe not the first try but with practice definitely.