How on earth are the quests in Crows Wood level 5?

cabbageub17_ESO · April 2014

That place is crazy.

Booshy · April 2014

You can't run that place at level 5 - it was originally tuned for level 8 then they did a last minute adjustment to it when they had you skip the starting areas. If you go back and do those starting islands you'll end up level 7 or 8 and can do it with someone else. Challenging place though even on level, let alone below which is what you'll be once you pass the first few groups of wolves at level 5.

Saltypretzels · April 2014

it is a public dungeon and therefore meant to be run with other players

Cascade_V · April 2014

utzpretzels wrote: »

it is a public dungeon and therefore meant to be run with other players

iirc, the first time you enter it states exactly that.

SirAndy · April 2014

It's a group dungeon. I soloed it but i was several levels above the requirement. Still died a few times.
;-)

Captainkrunch96 · April 2014

its not a group dungeon(well, you will most likely require a group, but it is not a group dungeon by design).

SirAndy · April 2014

Captainkrunch96 wrote: »

its not a group dungeon(well, you will most likely require a group, but it is not a group dungeon by design).

It's a public dungeon (not instanced) that is designed for 4 level 5 players. So in that sense, it is very much a group dungeon ...

Captainkrunch96 · April 2014

Yes it may be a group dungeon in the sense that you may need a group, but it is not a group dungeon. Fungal, Wayrest sewers, Elden hollow, Darkshade, Banished cells, those are actual group dungeons as the devs would call them, whereas the crows wood is a public dungeon.

Axer · April 2014

I call em Group-PDs.

Each zone has one.

They don't quite follow the rules of either:
- 1 per zone.
- Public - many players as you want
- Large/lengthy
- Not elite group mobs like real group dungeons, but harder hitting mobs that are in much larger packs then regular pds. (Huge packs of 5-9 mobs in the higher lvl ones)
- No "end boss" that completes the dungeon like regular PDs, instead they have multi-step quests that must be solved, (and generally a side quest too, like most map icons)
- Each has a "group challenge" - a special fight intended for a group. Always rewards a skill point and achievement.
- 1 skyshard (same as regular PD)
- Each has a "slayer and champion" achievement. kill 3 or all optional bosses in the area (Group challenge and quest bosses dont count). Exception: Cold Harbours group-pd lacks this achievement tho does have a few side bosses.
- XP per mob is scaled down to account for how many theyre are (often too much imo: EG: Cold harbour one: outdoor solo easy solo mobs: 450-550 xp each - In the dungeon: 64 xp each (x5-7 packs is still only 320-448, and while you can wipe a pack as fast as solo mob on good aoe classes, thats still less xp and they are much harder).

Still worth doing lots tho, as the loot isn't scaled down. So I run these a bunch to get tons of gear to break down for crafting (and very very rarely something i might use).

vs standard PD rules:
- 5 per zone.
- VERY Short (Not encountered a single one that couldn't be completed in under 10 mins solo at a regular pace, or 5min sprinting thru in a group - and actaully completed one of them in litterally 6 seconds - no joke.)
- Only 1 boss. Killing it completes the dungeon (achievement and 1 time big xp bonus)
- The boss has 1 named item. Green in tier1 zones, blue in t2+
- This boss has special spawn technique that allows for tons of players to run thru and quickly get there completion without having to wait.
- Always 1 skyshard - and never really hidden well.
- Few mob packs, max of 3 at a time generally.
- Easy solo mobs. Easy solo boss.
- A few have quests (later zones most of them have one). Which may involve another quest triggered easy solo named enemy, but I wouldn't call it a boss. 95% of these quest are 1 step only (rest 2 steps, generally kill the named, return to town).

vs Group dungeon rules:
- 1 per zone. However you may do all 3 factions dungeon in any alliance. To get access to the ones not in your zone, head to the zones "main" citys best tavern.. And get drunk with undaunted dudes, they will show you the way. (or group up with a fellow player whos a member of the undaunted)
- Massively tougher mobs intended for 4 player at all times.
- At least 4 bosses, possibly a ton more. Some optional.
- Group bosses get mega health bars and often have advanced mechanics not seen in PDs at all.
- Each boss has 1 named item (i'd expect top tier veteran dungeons to offer multiples, but not sure on that yet).
- Tier1-3 zones are blue items. Tier4+ purple for most bosses (weak bosses still have blues)
- Generally more chests, more hidden stuff
- Each has 1 quest. The quest rewards a skillpoint and named item. No sidequests.
- No skyshard (guess they thought 1.33 skillpoints per go would be too much, tho group-PDs give that amount so i dunno)
-Instanced, so no respawns unless it's a special mechanic.

Kinda boring they are all cooking cutter and conform to a lot of rules.. But yea i guess they did it to kinda keep each alliance/zone fairly balanced.

Cyrodil is an exception to the zone rules:
Has standard PDs, and quite a bit more.
Not sure if it has any group PDs
Has no group dungeon

Given group-pd's special ruleset, I think they should get unique map icons to alert player to them.. Didn't find the Rifts ones tell the last thing i did in teh zone ,and by that point I had reached 46 - which was 1 lvl too high to get any loot. Sucked.

cabbageub17_ESO · April 2014

Running the same group dungeon multiple times doesn't award you more than 1 skill point does it?

BulbousMeathead · April 2014

I thought it was hard for a solo level 5 - doing at as a "group" is quite balanced though. Also, There are a lot of rawhide drops from all the wolves which is good for your stockpile as it's a lot harder to come by later on.

rawne1980b16_ESO · April 2014

I trundled into this at level 7 and thought "how hard can it be"....

The wolves, no problem. Wisps, easy ...... those bloody spiders .... yeah, I hate those spiders.

Axer · April 2014

cabbageub17_ESO wrote: »

Running the same group dungeon multiple times doesn't award you more than 1 skill point does it?

No the dungeon quests work the same as regular quests, they are not repeatable. (and the quest rewards the skill point)

This is kind of an issue though because:
- The dungeon story no longer displays if you repeat it. So your fellow players may be stopped listening to the story, but you see nothing happening, breaking immersion and forcing a wait staring at nothing.
- Related quest items don't work. (at least one dungeon lets you stealth/get a disguise as an option - but you cant get the costume without quest).
- XP is utterly horrible for the kills (3-10 per kill), where as the quest is ok, it really should be repeatable so you can get some xp on repeats. (Juts ave it give a bit less xp, no item (gold instead) and no skill-point.

Crescent · April 2014

Public dungeons are very inconsistent.

Some are truly a solo challenge, meaning you can actually complete them solo. These usually have 3 mob packs at most, and a reasonable veteran.

Then there are other public dungeons who, despite sharing the torch without plys sign icon, which should mean soloable, actually function as torch plus dungeons. These have packs of easily 5+ mobs, often with 2 ranged, and the end bosses call in mobs as well or hit ridiculously hard.

So, the lesson is:

- If you see mob packs of more than 3 mobs, this is not a dungeon meant to be soloed. Maybe some specific classes like an OP dragon knight or templar can pull it off, but not a sorcerer or nightblade at the appropriate level.

Layenem · April 2014

Inconsistent? Each zone has one of the group public dungeons in it. These dungeons have one major boss that rewards an achievement and a skill point. The rest of the public dungeons are solo content (duo if player skill is lacking) and has no boss that rewards a skill point.

That's not inconsistent. That's the standard.