I believe Harrowstorms are in need of an update

Rkindaleft · March 2023

This is on PS5/NA, but I'm sure it's a similar situation for the other platforms.

Outside of events, nobody does them and the rewards one gets from a Harrowstorm is not near lucrative enough to match the effort one has to put in. You essentially get the same rewards as a chest and maybe some vendor junk that comes out to possibly 500 gold. The Western Skyrim ones are essentially dead at all times and if there's players there's usually only a couple of them which makes doing them a slog. The ones in the Reach are still somewhat active as long as you're in prime time, but again very hard to find people outside of that.

I am a good enough player to solo them but that takes 20 minutes in a proper setup for a reward that I can get from a base game dolmen that takes maybe 2 minutes to do, on a level 10 character with basic gear. Some of the furnishing plans are expensive but they're also very rare, I did all the harrowstorm achievements and maybe got 2 blue plans that were worth little, leading back to my first point.

I get the feeling ZOS is not eager to touch these as it's now older content and if they were they probably would have by now, considering this has been a problem since launch. Scaling like from Dolmens or the Summerset geysers should have been included from the start, methinks.

Smitch_59 · March 2023

I agree. Currently, I ignore Harrowstorms unless there's an event going on.

Rkindaleft · March 2023

Smitch_59 wrote: »

I agree. Currently, I ignore Harrowstorms unless there's an event going on.

Nowadays, same. I used to find them fun to do with guildies and such but now nobody wants to do them.

Rowjoh · March 2023

the rewards are outdated, unsatisfactory and not worth the effort and numbers required to complete, so it has gone stale.

Necrotech_Master · March 2023

i find them to be a nice challenge to solo, but they are VERY punishing to players who dont have a lot of dps to burn at least 1 of those pikes down quickly, then you start getting those minibosses appearing less frequently once you knock 1 pike down

the minibosses (especially the shrikes) need some nerfs to bring them more in line with the difficulty of these events from other zones in terms of the dmg they output

FluffWit · March 2023

A decent chance at Vampiriic blueprints would make a big difference- the purples are still crazy expensive. I believe there's already a chance but it's way too low to be worth going out of my way to try for. PLUS a mat that drops almost every storm that's worth a few grand- alchemy or a style mat or both.

That model is what keeps a steady group of players hitting southern Elsweyr dragons.

Rkindaleft · March 2023

It would be nice to get something that costs more than the cost to repair my gear after a harrowstorm.

Elsonso · March 2023

Pretty much all of the dolmen-ish things need a bump in rewards.

Hapexamendios · March 2023

Well, at least we don't hace to do three of them anymore.

AcadianPaladin · March 2023

Dolmens are fun. Harrowstorms are not fun so I ignore them. Not a big fan of geysers or volcano vents either but both are better than harrowstorms.

Androrix · March 2023

Love Harrowstorms. One of my favorite parts of the game. I am not sure why you say nobody does them. That is clearly not true.

I would be happy for greater rewards though.

Rkindaleft · March 2023

Androrix wrote: »

Love Harrowstorms. One of my favorite parts of the game. I am not sure why you say nobody does them. That is clearly not true.

I would be happy for greater rewards though.

There are people who do them, yes, but that doesn’t mean they are not unpopular. Having a handful of people (on PS NA it seems to be about 4 or 5 in prime time, and this is the Reach, the more popular of the 2 zones) out of potentially hundreds in a zone show up to one doesn’t mean that it’s not unpopular. Plenty of more people take more interest in other world events such as geysers or dolmens and get the same reward for 90% less effort. Dragons are similar difficulty but tons of people do those, at least in Southern Elsweyr because things like Dragon Rheum are sought after. There are purple furnishings that go for a lot but they are so rare, most players aren’t incentivised to do them.

SilverBride · March 2023

I agree. It's hard to complete the map when there aren't enough players doing the Harrowstorms, and that is something I like to do on all my alts.

tomofhyrule · March 2023

I feel like if Harrowstorms scaled with the population (like Dolmens and Geysers do), they wouldn't be as painful.

Currently it doesn't matter how many players are at the Harrowstorm, the ghosts will always spawn at the same rate. If they set it that the ghosts would spawn less (maybe max 1 or less per pike) when there are fewer than three players at a Harrowstorm, it'd make it easier to handle. Conversely, the ghosts could also be set to spawn at a much higher rate when there are a lot of people so big groups may have a chance to see a Champion pop up.

Dolmens do spawn more add waves and more small adds with larger groups, and Geysers will have more waves when there are more people around, so that technology is there.

But yes, there isn't much lucrative about Harrowstorms as well, especially compared to Dragons (Rheum) and Geysers (Clam Gall).

colossalvoids · March 2023

Best they can do is to have different reward structures for the release and subsequent months, one for events and one for when zone is no more relevant making it at least worth thinking of. Same as difficulty scaling, especially for events. I'm fine with a challenge but not with a mindless zerging.

Rkindaleft · March 2023

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I feel like if Harrowstorms scaled with the population (like Dolmens and Geysers do), they wouldn't be as painful.

Currently it doesn't matter how many players are at the Harrowstorm, the ghosts will always spawn at the same rate. If they set it that the ghosts would spawn less (maybe max 1 or less per pike) when there are fewer than three players at a Harrowstorm, it'd make it easier to handle. Conversely, the ghosts could also be set to spawn at a much higher rate when there are a lot of people so big groups may have a chance to see a Champion pop up.

Dolmens do spawn more add waves and more small adds with larger groups, and Geysers will have more waves when there are more people around, so that technology is there.

But yes, there isn't much lucrative about Harrowstorms as well, especially compared to Dragons (Rheum) and Geysers (Clam Gall).

Precisely. Vile Coagulant is not even worth that much and isn't even guaranteed to drop from every storm, so the only thing that is valuable is the purple furnishings which are too rare to make them worth farming outside of events.

They either need to buff the rewards to incentivize people to participate in the content or make them more solo friendly.

robpr · March 2023

Rkindaleft wrote: »

Precisely. Vile Coagulant is not even worth that much and isn't even guaranteed to drop from every storm, so the only thing that is valuable is the purple furnishings which are too rare to make them worth farming outside of events.

Its because they were overcautious with Minor Timidity (drain ultimate) so using it as a poison is not very impactful with the ult gain from minor heroism gained from sets or pots. Even Chaurus Eggs, dropping from the same chapter are more useable for pvp - you can make Detection, Major Prophecy, Restore Magicka pots with them.

IMO Harrowstorms should drop same reward structure as Dragons: a chance for additional bag with materials, gold trash or document satchel with random furnishing plan + all 3 new alchemy ingredients, no matter how weak they are.

Necrotech_Master · March 2023

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I feel like if Harrowstorms scaled with the population (like Dolmens and Geysers do), they wouldn't be as painful.

Currently it doesn't matter how many players are at the Harrowstorm, the ghosts will always spawn at the same rate. If they set it that the ghosts would spawn less (maybe max 1 or less per pike) when there are fewer than three players at a Harrowstorm, it'd make it easier to handle. Conversely, the ghosts could also be set to spawn at a much higher rate when there are a lot of people so big groups may have a chance to see a Champion pop up.

Dolmens do spawn more add waves and more small adds with larger groups, and Geysers will have more waves when there are more people around, so that technology is there.

But yes, there isn't much lucrative about Harrowstorms as well, especially compared to Dragons (Rheum) and Geysers (Clam Gall).

dolmens spawn a pretty fixed amount of waves lol

ive both soloed and group fought dolmens and they all are about the same

the adds on dolmens stop spawning once all 4 pinions can be closed

geysers definitely dynamically spawn (including the named boss or miniboss that spawns depending on how many waves were killed)

harrowstorms on the other hand are the opposite and get significantly easier with more players, not harder lol

dsalter · March 2023

easy way to make the harrows more relevant is add in some additional alchemy drops and a piece of random overworld armor/weapon ontop of the jewelry, this will encourage some set farmers as well as potion makers

jle30303 · March 2023

My biggest issue with harrowstorms is that the three Witch Pikes are just too dang tough. As are the miniboss spawns. Like, they're ALL tier-3, which is World Boss or Dungeon Boss level.

By comparison, Dolmens have nothing above tier-1 elites except for the final boss which is a tier-2 elite, which is Public Dungeon boss strength. Abyssal Geysers have either a generic tier-2 boss (of approximately Public Dungeon boss strength) or a tier-3 final boss (World Boss strength), the latter becoming more likely the more players are present.

Harrowstorms have *multiple* tier-3 bosses... starting with the witch pikes, AND any more that get spawned before the pikes are destroyed, and the fewer players you have, the more bosses you're going to get, AND then there's the final boss as well. And pretty much all of these except the witch-pikes can one-shot a player, while the witch pikes regenerate (due to absorbing lost souls) unless under constant fire - and one player can't keep all three under constant fire... so, the fewer players you have, the *more* bosses you're going to have to deal with, which as pointed before is the reverse of dolmens and geysers.

Androrix · March 2023

jle30303 wrote: »

My biggest issue with harrowstorms is that the three Witch Pikes are just too dang tough. As are the miniboss spawns. Like, they're ALL tier-3, which is World Boss or Dungeon Boss level.

It does indeed get hairy! If I start a Harrowstorm someone usually turns up. If not, the last pike becomes a swarm. That said, I did finally manage to solo a Harrowastorm last week! Because I mostly solo I hit reasonably hard (not amazing numbers) have crowd clearance and am very robust. My hand was completly numb at the end, and my little bosmer archer was surely dizzy from running around the crowd of beasties collected at the last pike spraying away at them. Not sure I want to do that again lol.

I do love Harrowstorms though. It is about the only time I interract with players.

Dolmens and Geysers for me are a complete yawn because they are so easy at this point.

On rewards...you can get purple vampiric furnishing designs form harrowstorms worth millions, but they are very rare. I have gotten a few.