PTS Update 41 - Feedback Thread for Oathsworn Pit

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for Oathsworn Pit. 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?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

AJTC5000

Greetings!

Cleared both Hard Modes with @code65536 @ninibini and @skinnycheeks - here once again to provide a Solo Normal perspective as well as a Vet HM DD perspective from the first day of running.

Some general initial thoughts:

• Nice to see Bazrag again!
• The secrets in this one did feel a lot more like secrets, even though the bosses themselves were a little underwhelming - however the "secondary objectives" such as controlling more braziers than the boss was a cool idea. The buffs themselves having secondary effects you can activate during the fight was pretty cool too. However, not the biggest fan of having to backtrack through the dungeon for the second secret - we thought we'd bugged it out the first time, not realising that the second set of braziers to light to open the door were further ahead.

Boss 1- Packmaster Rethelros

The key to this guy just seems to be . . . stay away from him? You can taunt the dog away from him just fine, but since's he's an archer, he'll naturally keep his distance from you, which makes the whole enrage mechanic feel kind of pointless. Other than that, Dread Cellar mechanics to not cross the fire lines, and a protective totem you occasionally have to kill, really not a whole lot to this boss. On Normal I didn't even need the taunt, I just walked to the other side of the arena and the dog naturally followed me.

Boss 2 - Anthelmir and Anthelmir's Construct

This fight was kind of confusing in that a lot of the stuff happening on the screen just wasn't very helpful to process what was going on. This is what I gleaned:

• Anthelmir will shoot fire at you while her shield is up, and the longer her shield is up, the more damaging the fire becomes, so break her shield.
• You can target both Anthelmir and her construct, but it seems like at a certain HP they just merge anyway? Does this mean you only have to focus one?
• We initially thought we'd be able to use all the barrels around the room to our advantage, but they just serve as area denial from the boss (and occasionally from us, as our flame abilities can also detonate them). If any barrels haven't exploded by the time they merge, it seems like the persistent fire cone the boss spews out will fix that.
• Slowly got into the rhythm of Construct picks up the axe, Construct swings the axe, Construct fires the axe.
• The Malacath big-head mode was goofy and I loved it

So this fight basically just seems to be avoid red as well? Not a lot happening once the two merge. This was the fight I did need to swap to Pale Order for as the Construct does a lot of damage by itself.

Boss 3 - Aradros the Awakened

This one seems straightforward at first. The boss hits you with a fire debuff which causes you to spread fire to the tiles, so be careful about moving around the room, watch out for the eruption lines, etc. etc. Again, not a whole lot happening mechanically here, it just seems to mostly be avoid red again.

What isn't super clear is when the minibosses spawn. On Normal, I was just greeted with the two-handed miniboss (who has a pretty vicious multi-pronged heavy attack by the way) in the smelting area. On Vet HM however, we got two more minibosses (I assume from the left and right side rooms?) and each boss seemed to be able to pathfind from it's room of origin to where we were in the smelting area. The eruption from the center room during the room transition period made it seem like we had to leave because the whole center room was going to get covered in fire, but then we could just go back in? It really wasn't clear where we were supposed to be fighting, which made the whole encounter very confusing. We did notice as well that some of the fire tiles changed colour (deep red and then yellow crack-like textures instead of the orange solid glow from the on-fire tiles), but we didn't get a chance to work out what this meant. Maybe something to do with the secret buffs?

We had some joining-encounter-in-progress instances as well, which may have been related to the fight, but one of our team was continually disconnecting, so we wondered whether it was because they were being spawned back into the main room, and we were joining on them.

The Smelter iron atronach itself is a cool gimmick that once you know where it is and how to activate it, is perfectly fine (I was half-expecting that it was going to turn out to be a secret boss like Sentinel Aksalaz, but no, it's friendly, and you can even activate it after Aradros is dead if you want to just have it stare at you). I was half expecting Bazrag to shout something hinting at what it's function was, but we were kind of left to stumble upon it, which I'm conflicted on as to how I feel about it.

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I also completed solo Normal on this dungeon before vet HM as well. On Normal I was able to complete the first encounter solo just using a standard Ansuul/Deadly/Velothi build on my Arcanist - after the second boss I swapped to Pale Order since the incoming damage was higher, but nothing defensive beyond that. Again, definitely easier than some of the previous dungeons on Normal.

Freelancer_ESO

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

Yeah, I had a blast in it. I liked the environment, the story (even though I'm not a big fan of Orcs), the notes, and the enemy npc characterization.

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

Overall, I would say it felt to be at a similar difficulty to the recent DLC dungeon releases on normal for the most part. It felt like the difficulty on the last boss was a bit of a drop from the prior bosses and the prior might run a little high difficulty wise.

The bonus boss that spawned the flame atronachs seemed a little weak.

The difficulty of some of the fights (including the trash) might run harder on squishier characters than it did on my 50k+ hp but then again the npcs would also likely be dead faster and as a result send less moths.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Normal

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

I liked the Arados fight the best as it felt like it had a nice balance between having things to do without totally feeling like I'm constantly under tons of pressure. Meeting Anthelmir and the Construct after reading the note about them was amusing.

What level and build was the character you used?

I did it with Mirri on a CP 1800+. I used Leeching and Crimson on a HP stacked Warden.

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting?

Yeah, I noticed the opportunity to send some people flying but, I attacked normally right as I noticed so I didn't get to do it. I found the three bonus

bosses.

. I also assembled the

Atronach

at the end.

Do you have any other general feedback?

I ended up getting hit with a join fight in progress on the last boss fight because I ended up in the wrong room. It didn't mess up the fight at all but, it was a little odd. Probably a mess up on my part missing the fights movement.

Soarora

[*] Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
It was alright.

[*] How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
I'd say the 2nd and last boss are comparable to recent HMs but the first boss is much easier.

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

[*] Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
The last boss for sure. I enjoyed rolling around to place AoEs where I wanted them to be and doing so felt very rewarding.

[*] What level and build was the character you used?
CP 2k+ sorcerer tank with turning tide/yoln/tremorscale/dragonstar arena sword and board

[*] Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting?
I really liked the statue of Malacath with the beautiful blue lichens around it. The second boss having burning flags and using the axes on the walls is a nice touch as well. The secret boss statues when lit up are beautiful. I love the 4 guys to kick off.

[*] Do you have any other general feedback?
It felt like there weren't enough trash enemies. Some packs had three enemies in them and it just seemed like a lot of straight running with nothing in between.
The first boss felt way too simple. As stated earlier in this thread, it just felt like the only mechanic of note is to keep them separated and roll dodge occasionally.
The secret boss buffs should be looked at. The ult gen one in particular is too powerful, allowing people to barrier spam right through.

I think this dungeon suffers heavily from lack of communication.
The second boss is confusing in that:

• It isn't clear which boss to be attacking since doing enough damage causes the second form to happen

The last boss is confusing in that:

• It is not clear what the cracks in the ground do
• It is not clear what causes the side bosses to come out of their rooms or if this is even intended
• What the atronach does (if it is worth obtaining)

James-Wayne

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
This was a great dungeon, the length of the dungeon was decent not short like some of the previous ones. The artwork and world design always top notch and plenty of ways to be interactive.

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
We found this SUPER easy compared to previous DLC dungeons. The environmental effects like the burn from grates hits like a truck thou, almost no time to react if you get burnt but the bosses yeah super easy for us.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Only Normal as we were just a Duo. Never any players on PTS when we test so Vet is out of the question.

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
I'm actually going to say first secret boss because of the location you need to trek to get there, totally surreal place. Boss itself not that great but the location you fight in was very cool. Main bosses didnt survive lonmg in Normal me to form a opinion, I guess we were trying to understand mechanics mostly.

What level and build was the character you used?
I'm max level over 2500CP, Templar bruiser style build seeing you nerfed my Tormentor set

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting?
There was a rock passage right at the start of the map that doesnt go anywhere, very interesting indeed. We also like the fact the secret unlocks had both a passive effect and an ability to use throughout the fights but on normal they are needed, not sure about Vet.

Do you have any other general feedback?
It would be nice to have more interactive things to do in the dungeons, for example your fighting a boss and then there is a optional element where you shoot a section in the roof say, causes a rock fall which knocks the boss out and applies a short debuff but the mechanic is totally optional. Kind of like fighting games where there is environmental elements that you can interactive with to give you the upper edge in a fight, might make Vet content easier to do in Solo/Duo. Could even be something like provides a AOE heal, increases your speed, its like the secret boss buffs but the way you get these is by interacting with the environment instead. Provides a different way to play the dungeons so there is more replay ability. Just a thought.

MyNameIsElias

Would like to submit a bug report:

On the final boss hardmode, during the 3 mini-boss phase, the 1-hand and shield boss will spawn aoes on the floor beneath players. If the mini-boss dies while channeling this ability, the players inside the AOE instantly die, even when the telegraph was no where near firing completely.

Notably, this also happens while fighting the fire version of Vanton in his portal during the ansuul encounter. If he dies while casting wrathstorm, the AOE instantly fires and kills people