Veteran Dragonstar Arena bugged? Or intended?

Anjelicus · September 2014

Vokundein made it to stage 9 boss last night, but alas could not kill him with 40 +/- lives.
We like the new challenge of stages 1-8, but stage 9 boss wave seems either over tuned or bugged.
The mini bosses that spawn @ 80% do their split within 4 seconds of the portal spawning, which makes them immune to all damage not to mention spawn more adds both above and below. We spent about 2 hours here alone trying to beat that dps race to get one down before the split, we were able to get him down once, but got rng by the boss with him using bat swarm/poison cloud and siphon health(which stuns you in the aoe) at the same time while still running at me.The other attempts we were but able to deal 16k dmg in those 4 seconds with 2 standards/nova/veil plus focusing him with attacks and executes. We tried sending both dps down till deal with the 2 split bosses + adds while the tank and healer kited above but they were unable to survive, as the stuff downstairs does the same damage and has same hp as the ones above. Is this an intended road block? Or is there something wrong here.

The whole night was off as well.... lots of ability lag and the mobs were rubber banding/re pathing like crazy. Also the set epics are still vr13. Any response would be awesome on this issue.
@ZOS_GinaBruno‌ @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌

TheMast3r · September 2014

Its working as intended and u can kill him as intended ... on the pts you could kill the mini bosses without spawning the ghosts, that was not intended ...

So the miniboss gets a shield and spawns a shade which goes down and you have to kill the add down and then the shield is gone and u can kill the miniboss upstairs.

Keep on trying its possible ... we killed him ...

Last boss is also fixed and working as intended ...

We didn't see any bugs at all or lag, all the bugs we reported and the exploids are gone. And of course the tuned it up compared to pts. Its even harder now ....

I agree the loot is really bad, vet 13 stuff and on veteran u get the same like in normal mode.

Madini

Anjelicus · September 2014

@TheMast3r‌ Ok well that's good to know. So it's just a matter of toughing out the damage siren stairs and kiting the adds up top until they are done each time. As far as the lag, I'm not sure if it was just a heavy server load or what but we will try again. Also you think it's intended for the boss to use all three of his abilities at the same time abd move while casting the drain?

ZOS_GinaBruno · September 2014

Being able to kill monsters faster than they can use the intended mechanic for each Arena was not something that was ever intended, and will be addressed in a future patch. Currently, the Spirit Split is cast much quicker than it was on the PTS, thus not being able to burn them down immediately.

We suggest looking for other methods and strategies. Try to keep a clear mind in comparison to the methods used on the PTS. A lot of this fight is based on timings and the order in which you take certain actions. We are always watching though, so if we determine the fight is overtuned even when proper strategies are being used, we will adjust as needed.

Anjelicus · September 2014

Thank you @ZOS_GinaBruno‌, we will adjust/refine the strat

tyguild_ESO · September 2014

@ZOS_GinaBruno Can you please answer the concern with V13 loot dropping in HM. I don't understand why you gate HM to V14 and make it gruelingly hard only to drop the same loot as normal mode at the same VR level. This is a serious upset.

Manoekin · September 2014

The fight is rather easy except for the multiple one shot abilities that the bosses/mobs use. Very frustrating to get there pretty clean and then have a few wipes because someone gets uppercut, shock AOE goes through block and one shots the tank, archer one shots, ice path thing one shots. All of these can be avoided obviously, but having to deal with each one at the same time makes it feel like the plan was to make it soul reservoir roulette. You either go into the last boss with a lot of souls because you got lucky, or your group gets one shot multiple times and you have very little souls left.

Not necessarily complaining, just putting it out there. We can get it down just fine and have a strategy that works.

G0ku · September 2014

Other thing: is it a fault on my clientside or are the burning talons casted by the npc´s always invisible?

BEZDNA · September 2014

G0ku wrote: »

Other thing: is it a fault on my clientside or are the burning talons casted by the npc´s always invisible?

Talons are also invisible for me.

You can do arena 9 in two ways, first one - you need to kill ghost wich in under arena (just send one DPS to that black whole to clear it) to disable shield, or you can simply fast DPS spawners befor they put shield up. Befor my group realised that there is one more arena downstaire we were using second way of clearing this stage - was real fun

tyguild_ESO wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno Can you please answer the concern with V13 loot dropping in HM. I don't understand why you gate HM to V14 and make it gruelingly hard only to drop the same loot as normal mode at the same VR level. This is a serious upset.

On friday streem they sad it's intended, but i also don't see any logic in it. BTW after clearing arena #9 you have chance to get vr14 jewely of Healer or Footmab, but armor sets are still vr13

Tripwyr · September 2014

Manoekin wrote: »

The fight is rather easy except for the multiple one shot abilities that the bosses/mobs use. Very frustrating to get there pretty clean and then have a few wipes because someone gets uppercut, shock AOE goes through block and one shots the tank, archer one shots, ice path thing one shots. All of these can be avoided obviously, but having to deal with each one at the same time makes it feel like the plan was to make it soul reservoir roulette. You either go into the last boss with a lot of souls because you got lucky, or your group gets one shot multiple times and you have very little souls left.

Not necessarily complaining, just putting it out there. We can get it down just fine and have a strategy that works.

On the plus side, Stage 9 is the only stage which redeems Sorcerers from being complete garbage!

G0ku · September 2014

BEZDNA wrote: »

BTW after clearing arena #9 you have chance to get vr14 jewely of Healer or Footmab, but armor sets are still vr13

Our healer got a V14 necklace after stage 8 so these V14 jewelry seem to be a random drop. After completing stage 9 our healer got a V14 Footman Ring and our sorc the V14 healer necklace. I received blue crap in V14.

Anjelicus · September 2014

i always get blue crap lol

xaraan · September 2014

The stage is do-able, but a bit more of a pain than some of the others. Like many, it seems once you get a plan of attack it that works it goes much more smoothly. (We just need one of those plans for the last stage and we'll be done).

The awards do suck though.

jovial · October 2014

We're also stuck on this stage, thinking there was something wrong with our DPS last night until I read this and realized burning mini-bosses down is "semi-fixed".

I'm sure we will get it on the next try by dealing directly with the black holes/downstairs, but I have to agree with a previous poster that it still seems like a bit of soul reservoir roulette. We get to stage 9 with a lot of souls to spare, but there are so many one-shot or near one-*** abilities both on the bosses and the trash of this stage, and so much trash.

Tripwyr · October 2014

jovial wrote: »

We're also stuck on this stage, thinking there was something wrong with our DPS last night until I read this and realized burning mini-bosses down is "semi-fixed".

I'm sure we will get it on the next try by dealing directly with the black holes/downstairs, but I have to agree with a previous poster that it still seems like a bit of soul reservoir roulette. We get to stage 9 with a lot of souls to spare, but there are so many one-shot or near one-*** abilities both on the bosses and the trash of this stage, and so much trash.

I recommend sending one player down ahead of the spirit spawning to deal with his extra add in advance. If he has an ultimate available, he should be able to take out both spirits within around 10 seconds and allow you to quickly bring down the mini-bosses before they become a problem.

Additionally, if you have a Sorcerer in your group this stage becomes much easier because more than half of the "gib" mechanics in this stage are ground effects and therefore negated. It effectively means you only need to deal with Rubyn and the boss because Jonycnt's (or whatever his name is) only dangerous spell is Icy Reach which is negateable.

EDIT: To be more specific, our strategy was to kill both of the adds who spawn with the boss, stop attacking the boss and send one player down below, deal with the add down below, then resume attacking the boss. This ensures that the minibosses do not spawn until the player below is ready. If you wish you can also wait for batswarm from the boss so that you don't need to deal with it and the minibosses at the same time.

Anjelicus · October 2014

lol apparently there is an EP guild selling this title for RL cash now... so sad

xaraan · October 2014

jovial wrote: »

We're also stuck on this stage, thinking there was something wrong with our DPS last night until I read this and realized burning mini-bosses down is "semi-fixed".

I'm sure we will get it on the next try by dealing directly with the black holes/downstairs, but I have to agree with a previous poster that it still seems like a bit of soul reservoir roulette. We get to stage 9 with a lot of souls to spare, but there are so many one-shot or near one-*** abilities both on the bosses and the trash of this stage, and so much trash.

Yeah, I'd agree with that as well. Too many of the stages in vet arena feel like just a RNG as to whether or not you make it through or not. It's more luck than skill in many cases (not all, and you still have to be good even if lucky).

Big problem with this is tanks aren't tanky enough in ESO. They give up tons of potential dps to let stuff light/heavy attack them, but then they still get one-shotted along with anyone else if it's a magic attack (this is with capped SR and resist rings). There should be a bit more toughness involved in a tank when they are built strictly for tanking and it needs to happen sooner, not later.

Also: on the rewards again. Not only do they suck, but after watching pvp players get 5 gold, many of the 2-3 masters weapons, you should get a guaranteed masters weapon when you finish the arena and every drop should be v14 in the v14 mode. It's much more work to tackle the arena than place well in a campaign (I've done both), especially with all the buff campaigns out there where the same people are sitting in the top every cycle.

G0ku · October 2014

Wait until you get to round 10 and the boss resets to 100% without any reason after you got him down to 32%.

15 hours of trying and then this? We even played it by the books and didn´t bug anything and then the stage bugs itself? You should take special care for such things as dev if you dont implement a save feature but have to start all over again if you haven´t got time to play 6 hours straight.

Man im really upset right now, hope I dont get banned for what I wrote in my bug report...