Festering Timelines achievement feels like it should give a title

frogthroat · May 13

Just finished Festering Timelines in the snail dungeon in The Parch of the Night Market. It was a tough fight, on par with some of the trifectas in DLC dungeons. (Tough like HM, had to be done fast like speedrun, and if you die ressing is almost impossible - no death.)

OO no death was way easier. Festering Timelines is by far the toughest achievement to get in the Night Market. And yet... no title, no extras, and the bare minimum of achievement points (5). This feels underwhelming for the effort. At least give us a title.

Gabriel_H · May 13

It is a toughy. It's very much like throwing up a hardmode banner.

And Gz. My dungeon group looked at it the first time we ran the dungeon. Not had a chance to give it a proper go yet as we had to prioritize speed to help others farm their keys.

frogthroat · May 13

The other rp achievements reflect the achievement points. For the spider achievement, I had done that dungeon twice and even then as a tank, got 2/3 of the achievements done without even checking how the achievement works. I suppose the ele sus I threw at the spider made it count.

Similar with the Ansuul, twice as a tank so I had no idea what the SE portal even looked like. When I went there the first time it was pretty easy. I can understand that for more casual players it might take some effort but my biggest problem was to not burn the boss before the crow comes.

If these three achievements would be in a dungeon update, I would say the spider and the ansuul achievements should be under General. And the snail + 3 Thurvokuns would be the trifecta achievement under Veteran.

Treeshka · May 13

This achievement is indeed harder then the no death Opulent Ordeal. I probably tried this achievement for three to four hours to get with a few different groups. Where in that gameplay time i got three Opulent Ordeal clears.

On the other hand. You can defeat a Faceted Lich and then rush here. Faceted Lich gives you Exsanguinate buff from Infinite Archive. I have suggested this to a few groups and they said it made the achievement far easier.

frogthroat · May 13

Treeshka wrote: »

On the other hand. You can defeat a Faceted Lich and then rush here. Faceted Lich gives you Exsanguinate buff from Infinite Archive. I have suggested this to a few groups and they said it made the achievement far easier.

We were thinking about it. First we tried getting the Swift Gale buff from Roksa in the Skittering, and then the spider oddity buff, Flame Aura. But going to kill Roksa by the four of us, two being tanks, took too long time. We were thinking about exsanguinate, but decided not to start searching for the lich. We ended up just getting the Flame Aura.

But hey, I was a pure DK tank, front barred Pearl (weird, I know) so I can slot Shattered Path. Since the DK shield was not that useful (in the beginning not needed, when things go south not big enough to make a difference) I swapped that to the stamina morph of the fire breath for guaranteed burning. Even as a tank, with Shattered Path, flame aura, ele sus, blockade of frost, and the fire breath I did even 34k dps at times. Since I was standing on the snail's toes the whole fight, I did a surprisingly huge portion of the damage. (Still not worth going with 4t, you need the dds to make the bulk of the damage.) But that setup with Shattered Path might deserve some theorycrafting. Might be something there so even a tank does decent damage. You're throwing status effects in all directions anyway. This one was just "quickly swap some items so you can fit the default Shattered Path, and add one extra skill for guaranteed burning."

tomofhyrule · May 13

Treeshka wrote: »

On the other hand. You can defeat a Faceted Lich and then rush here. Faceted Lich gives you Exsanguinate buff from Infinite Archive. I have suggested this to a few groups and they said it made the achievement far easier.

Imagine having Faceted enemies spawn. I don't know a single person on PCNA who's seen one.

But yeah, this achievement is way harder than the other two dungeon ones. Our group struggled through it for a bit until we went for side buffs.

We did a standard 1T/1H/2D setup where I played pure DK tank with Lucent/Pearl/Bloodspawn. Pretty well every skill I had was selfish, with Fleetstep Wings being my secret. We grabbed the Flame Aura buff (Skittering oddities) and then grabbed Tempest (Parch race) on the way and went in with that.

The team mostly stayed on the very outside of the arena while I grabbed the first dragon. You can actually move them if you melee them and stand just out of reach, so I got the first dragon into the center of the map by the time the second dragon spawned, and then I could grab that one and start walking both of them to the edge opposite the third dragon by the time it spawned. The third one doesn't really move, but by that time it's an ult dump on B'kifzy's tail. I pretty well ignored the two dragons I put behind me and grabbed her to keep her facing into the center of the map while the team kited the Crushings along the sides of the arena and dumped on her. The flame aura on me was really nice since it wasn't enough to kill any of the dragons, but the skeletons and orbs were dying pretty well instantly from it.

frogthroat · May 13

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Imagine having Faceted enemies spawn. I don't know a single person on PCNA who's seen one.

Have you checked recently? Apparently I got the achievement on the first day but I have not seen them since. Except starting a couple of days ago. They're everywhere. Even two next to each other. So they went from non-existent to being everywhere. However, this is on PCEU.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

We grabbed the Flame Aura buff (Skittering oddities) and then grabbed Tempest (Parch race) on the way and went in with that.

Tempest? How does that work? When we did Roksa's gale and Flame Aura, we had to turn our characters so we don't accidentally hit the dragons with the gale. Even then we had to wipe when a dragon died. Tempest targets everything, including the dragons, right? Wouldn't that be risky?

tomofhyrule · May 13

frogthroat wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Imagine having Faceted enemies spawn. I don't know a single person on PCNA who's seen one.

Have you checked recently? Apparently I got the achievement on the first day but I have not seen them since. Except starting a couple of days ago. They're everywhere. Even two next to each other. So they went from non-existent to being everywhere. However, this is on PCEU.

Yeah, the hotfix fixed EU and not NA.

The prevailing theory is that faceted only are spawning correctly in newly-created instances. Since EU's population is very localized around EU timezones, there are massive population swings so new instances need to constantly be spun up to meet the demand during primetime, but then outside of primetime it's a ghost town so the empty instances shut down properly.
On NA, since many people who don't live in NA (like AUS) also use those servers, there really isn't a 'dead time.' The population doesn't peak as high as EU so new instances don't need to be created, but the population also doesn't completely empty out like EU so instances aren't getting shut down. As such, NA isn't creating new instances to make use of the hotfix, so Faceted aren't spawning.

I'm guessing the next maintenance where they shut down the servers will finally fix it for us.

frogthroat wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

We grabbed the Flame Aura buff (Skittering oddities) and then grabbed Tempest (Parch race) on the way and went in with that.

Tempest? How does that work? When we did Roksa's gale and Flame Aura, we had to turn our characters so we don't accidentally hit the dragons with the gale. Even then we had to wipe when a dragon died. Tempest targets everything, including the dragons, right? Wouldn't that be risky?

The idea here is that we have the DDs and the healer on the other side of the arena, so it's not too risky. Behold the wonderful MSPaint skills:

I walked the first dragon into the center of the map, then walked them both to the opposite edge when she spawned the second. The team was behind her with flame aura and tempest, but the dragons were clear on the other side so the only one really hitting them was me. By the time the third dragon showed up, the flame auras (and DPS executes) were nuking her fast enough that we got her down.
Tempest really wasn't up that much except for right on her butt, and mine was there mostly to take care of the million adds since we weren't playing with the skeletons otherwise.

EDIT because I fail at formatting

NoticeMeArkay · May 13

Hey folks, tried to tank this as a DK and struggled a lot with the scarabs.
I dodge rolled their spawn everytime and immediately put my talons and backed away. Sometimes breathing dragon flames on them if I felt more pressured. It takes a while for them to disappear and with 3 dragons on me, I couldn't manage my ressources good enough to stay alive. You got any advise for me perhaps?

Currently running Nazaray, Turning Tide and for froststaff and jewelry I switch between Drake's rush and powerful assault.
Can't kiss my void bash goodbye yet, so it's still on my frontbar.

Tried the flame aura from the spider invasion, I felt like it helped. I could always range taunt the drakes and back up from them too so it wouldn't damage them, but only the scarabs. If I'd remain in the middle I think it would still be possible unless one of the drakes is pushed too far into the middle and starts eating 9k every second too? I run with random people and my team usually forbids me from grabbing it because they didn't see the benefit. And EU randos don't seem to have the patience to find and grab a facetted foe buff first, so that's out of question for me sadly.

I ran the normal version multiple times without any issues but 3 scarabs spawns on me just put me into my place it seems.

beer781993 · May 13

I did it 2 times for friends. Once with 2 tanks and once with heal and tank.

It's very hard. The trial no death is nothing compared to that.
Took an hour+ each time.

In my opinion you should get a title and maybe a skin. Nightmarket rewards are really bad in general and I am really not looking forward to clearing the trial another 6 times to get the monster set from each faction...

tomofhyrule · May 13

NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

Hey folks, tried to tank this as a DK and struggled a lot with the scarabs.
I dodge rolled their spawn everytime and immediately put my talons and backed away. Sometimes breathing dragon flames on them if I felt more pressured. It takes a while for them to disappear and with 3 dragons on me, I couldn't manage my ressources good enough to stay alive. You got any advise for me perhaps?

Currently running Nazaray, Turning Tide and for froststaff and jewelry I switch between Drake's rush and powerful assault.
Can't kiss my void bash goodbye yet, so it's still on my frontbar.

Tried the flame aura from the spider invasion, I felt like it helped. I could always range taunt the drakes and back up from them too so it wouldn't damage them, but only the scarabs. If I'd remain in the middle I think it would still be possible unless one of the drakes is pushed too far into the middle and starts eating 9k every second too? I run with random people and my team usually forbids me from grabbing it because they didn't see the benefit. And EU randos don't seem to have the patience to find and grab a facetted foe buff first, so that's out of question for me sadly.

I ran the normal version multiple times without any issues but 3 scarabs spawns on me just put me into my place it seems.

My group was struggling until we did side buffs. We tried a few different strategies including 2T/0.5H/1.5D and also slowing the burn to clear the skeletons between each dragon, but the only thing that worked was getting the Flame Aura buff.

I play pure DK tank, but I didn’t really talons anything. Fleetstep Wings stopped the snares and gave me the speed boost, and Flame Aura took care of the shalks before they hit me. I also made sure to have a clutch Magma pretty soon after the third dragon popped right around B’kifzi’s enrage point. But honestly, I didn’t really spend a thought on anything but the dragons since the adds were going down fast enough from Flame Aura and me just running back and forth. It was really just a matter of “survive until the DPS get the sload down” more than anything else.

The best option is honestly to tell your normal group that they may want to try going for sides, because we progged that over multiple days getting nowhere until we did buffs and then got it within a half hour. I can see if one of my groupmates made a video of ours so you can show them.

EDIT: he did take a video. This is from the DD perspective, but you can see what I'm doing as pure DK tank in the background there.

https://youtu.be/LmPM-_jMiz4

NoticeMeArkay · May 13

tomofhyrule wrote: »

NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

Hey folks, tried to tank this as a DK and struggled a lot with the scarabs.
I dodge rolled their spawn everytime and immediately put my talons and backed away. Sometimes breathing dragon flames on them if I felt more pressured. It takes a while for them to disappear and with 3 dragons on me, I couldn't manage my ressources good enough to stay alive. You got any advise for me perhaps?

Currently running Nazaray, Turning Tide and for froststaff and jewelry I switch between Drake's rush and powerful assault.
Can't kiss my void bash goodbye yet, so it's still on my frontbar.

Tried the flame aura from the spider invasion, I felt like it helped. I could always range taunt the drakes and back up from them too so it wouldn't damage them, but only the scarabs. If I'd remain in the middle I think it would still be possible unless one of the drakes is pushed too far into the middle and starts eating 9k every second too? I run with random people and my team usually forbids me from grabbing it because they didn't see the benefit. And EU randos don't seem to have the patience to find and grab a facetted foe buff first, so that's out of question for me sadly.

I ran the normal version multiple times without any issues but 3 scarabs spawns on me just put me into my place it seems.

My group was struggling until we did side buffs. We tried a few different strategies including 2T/0.5H/1.5D and also slowing the burn to clear the skeletons between each dragon, but the only thing that worked was getting the Flame Aura buff.

I play pure DK tank, but I didn’t really talons anything. Fleetstep Wings stopped the snares and gave me the speed boost, and Flame Aura took care of the shalks before they hit me. I also made sure to have a clutch Magma pretty soon after the third dragon popped right around B’kifzi’s enrage point. But honestly, I didn’t really spend a thought on anything but the dragons since the adds were going down fast enough from Flame Aura and me just running back and forth. It was really just a matter of “survive until the DPS get the sload down” more than anything else.

The best option is honestly to tell your normal group that they may want to try going for sides, because we progged that over multiple days getting nowhere until we did buffs and then got it within a half hour. I can see if one of my groupmates made a video of ours so you can show them.

EDIT: he did take a video. This is from the DD perspective, but you can see what I'm doing as pure DK tank in the background there.
https://youtu.be/LmPM-_jMiz4

Thank you very much, I absolutely appreciate your input and especially the video. I'll have a look at it once I'm back home. If I got any further questions afterwards, I'll post them here again if that's alright.

frogthroat · May 13

tomofhyrule wrote: »

EDIT: he did take a video. This is from the DD perspective, but you can see what I'm doing as pure DK tank in the background there.
https://youtu.be/LmPM-_jMiz4

ggs, that was beautiful.

frogthroat · June 1

After doing and/or trying this achievement with multiple groups I think the biggest issue is the desync. Especially the scarabs. Sometimes you see them spawn and can react. Other times you know they have spawned when your mag and stam go to 0 and you can't use any skills. In such case you know that sometime in the next 5 seconds you are dead. Well, you already are dead but your client hasn't registered it yet.

I think the success is tied to pure luck whether the scarabs spawn so that you can see them or not. That is not fun to play. If I fail because I need to git gud, no worries, then I just git gud. But if I fail because the game desyncs constantly and the success depends on pure luck, that is extremely frustrating.

Yesterday it was even that bad that at one wipe I crashed, apparently. I tried to rez, but the E button didn't work. Rezzing to wayshrine didn't work. I could turn my (blue, death recap screen) view around normally, but none of the buttons worked. Then the others asked why I am offline. No idea, because on my screen I was just in the death recap window trying to rez.

So yeah, I think this achievement is based on mainly luck and stubbornness. Stubbornness is needed to bash your head against a wall until you get that one lucky run where you survive despite the absolutely horrible desync.

Gabriel_H · June 1

For me, as a tank, this fight is bugged to hell and back. Multiple attempts on multiple days and the same result. My health and resources, despite nothing else being de-synced, are wildly inaccurate. The game simply isn't reporting my stats correctly.

frogthroat · June 1

Gabriel_H wrote: »

For me, as a tank, this fight is bugged to hell and back. Multiple attempts on multiple days and the same result. My health and resources, despite nothing else being de-synced, are wildly inaccurate. The game simply isn't reporting my stats correctly.

I've played that with all roles, buffs and no buffs, and yes, absolutely, tanking is the most horrible. The resource bars are mere serving suggestions. As a DD or healer you can kinda work around it but for a tank knowing your resources is pretty much mandatory. Might as well play without UI at this point.

Gabriel_H · June 1

frogthroat wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

For me, as a tank, this fight is bugged to hell and back. Multiple attempts on multiple days and the same result. My health and resources, despite nothing else being de-synced, are wildly inaccurate. The game simply isn't reporting my stats correctly.

I've played that with all roles, buffs and no buffs, and yes, absolutely, tanking is the most horrible. The resource bars are mere serving suggestions. As a DD or healer you can kinda work around it but for a tank knowing your resources is pretty much mandatory. Might as well play without UI at this point.

Ran a vKA last night to get someone the Deepest Gratitude achievement. Only 10 of us. 2 tanks, 1 healer, 7 DDs. I sent the other 9 up the stairs each time, while I handled Fargravn solo, relying on my own resource management, self-heals and ability - could have done it in my sleep.

Afterwards, 3 minutes into TW, I was ready to throw my keyboard through my monitor because I had no clue how much health I had, let alone stamina and magicka.

Personofsecrets · June 1

Festering timelines just requires the bare minimum DP. Too many people don't pull enough DPS. One group had like 60K and I was pulling a chunk of that as tank. When I finished the achievement, both DPS had 70k to 90k DPS eacg during the fight. If DPS is too low, then dragons start to die from the tank damage and other AOE. So this should br considered to be a DPS race / check. If you bring 3 DPS, then make sure they can heal out of the curse. All 3 DPS using Vigor is a good place to be. Someone, even the tank, can run Altar.

frogthroat · June 2

Personofsecrets wrote: »

Festering timelines just requires the bare minimum DP. Too many people don't pull enough DPS. One group had like 60K and I was pulling a chunk of that as tank. When I finished the achievement, both DPS had 70k to 90k DPS eacg during the fight. If DPS is too low, then dragons start to die from the tank damage and other AOE. So this should br considered to be a DPS race / check. If you bring 3 DPS, then make sure they can heal out of the curse. All 3 DPS using Vigor is a good place to be. Someone, even the tank, can run Altar.

How much DPS is needed for skipping the desync? Which, might I add, seems to be getting worse and worse over time. Or I might be getting more and more frustrated at the desync over time. I would love to keep helping others getting that achievement, if getting it would only be about how you play, not how lucky you get with the desync.

At least my 34k dps as a tank is not enough to stop the servers desyncing.

Gabriel_H · June 2

frogthroat wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

Festering timelines just requires the bare minimum DP. Too many people don't pull enough DPS. One group had like 60K and I was pulling a chunk of that as tank. When I finished the achievement, both DPS had 70k to 90k DPS eacg during the fight. If DPS is too low, then dragons start to die from the tank damage and other AOE. So this should br considered to be a DPS race / check. If you bring 3 DPS, then make sure they can heal out of the curse. All 3 DPS using Vigor is a good place to be. Someone, even the tank, can run Altar.

How much DPS is needed for skipping the desync? Which, might I add, seems to be getting worse and worse over time. Or I might be getting more and more frustrated at the desync over time. I would love to keep helping others getting that achievement, if getting it would only be about how you play, not how lucky you get with the desync.

At least my 34k dps as a tank is not enough to stop the servers desyncing.

Last attempt I made, the group was pulling over 160k dps. It helped nothing. Still got invisible scarabs. Still got attacks passing through block. Still had no idea what my resources were.

frogthroat · June 2

Gabriel_H wrote: »

frogthroat wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

Festering timelines just requires the bare minimum DP. Too many people don't pull enough DPS. One group had like 60K and I was pulling a chunk of that as tank. When I finished the achievement, both DPS had 70k to 90k DPS eacg during the fight. If DPS is too low, then dragons start to die from the tank damage and other AOE. So this should br considered to be a DPS race / check. If you bring 3 DPS, then make sure they can heal out of the curse. All 3 DPS using Vigor is a good place to be. Someone, even the tank, can run Altar.

How much DPS is needed for skipping the desync? Which, might I add, seems to be getting worse and worse over time. Or I might be getting more and more frustrated at the desync over time. I would love to keep helping others getting that achievement, if getting it would only be about how you play, not how lucky you get with the desync.

At least my 34k dps as a tank is not enough to stop the servers desyncing.

Last attempt I made, the group was pulling over 160k dps. It helped nothing. Still got invisible scarabs. Still got attacks passing through block. Still had no idea what my resources were.

When I got the achievement (12. May) my (tank) dps was 17k and group dps was 87k, so I don't think it's a dps race. The desync is the biggest issue. And I have noticed... well, I have a gut feeling, that the server pop is also affecting this. Off peak and the desync is less, during peak time the dungeon is unplayable.

Gabriel_H · June 2

frogthroat wrote: »

When I got the achievement (12. May) my (tank) dps was 17k and group dps was 87k, so I don't think it's a dps race. The desync is the biggest issue. And I have noticed... well, I have a gut feeling, that the server pop is also affecting this. Off peak and the desync is less, during peak time the dungeon is unplayable.

Oh, I very much agree it is getting worse. Back in May, during my 2nd run in TW and exploring the mechanics of getting this achievement (positioning, skills, timings etc) it was no where near as bad as it is now.

Lokiator · June 2

When I finally managed to get this, the group I was in failed over and over trying to burn Not-Zmaja down as fast as possible. In the end, we succeeded on our first attempt when we slowed down the DPS and made defense our primary focus.

The healer was tasked with keeping the tank alive and providing orbs for resources while supporting DPS only briefly during the curse phase.

DPS both had Vigor for self-heal and concentrated on blocking empowered necrotic swarms, kiting the Grave Darkness, and trying to stay in the safe spots during the wyrm cone attacks. Both DPS had Templar subclassing, so spears were being used for resources in addition to the occasional orb that drifted over from the healer. Tempest (Parch race buff) was dropped on the boss and direct attacks were only made during brief intervals when there was a lull in the incoming damage.

The tank used Flame Aura (Skittering spider game buff) to kill scarabs while trying not to do too much damage to the wyrms.

Everyone who had Reviving Barrier was using it as an ultimate, and we took turns using it during the curse phase. This made it a LOT easier to get rid of the curse. The damage shield absorbed the curse damage long enough for everyone to heal to 100% to remove it.

At the end, it was a close race between boss health and the most badly damaged wyrm. At about 10-15% both DPS switched to full burn on the boss and we succeeded.

frogthroat · June 2

On an unrelated note, Flame Aura, DK skill* and Shattered Paths Signet on a DK tank is ridiculous in NM. In overland boss fight you do easily 60k damage, 30k in NM dungeons, but if it's a trash pull, man, the numbers look insane. My build in this picture is:
- Medium&light Archdruid
- 4pc Glacial Guardian on body&jewelry
- 3pc Crimson body&jewelry
- Shattered Path
- Front bar: Trainee sword & Glacial Guardian shield
- BB: Crimson ice staff

*for DK skill, Burning Embers is great for ST and Disintegrating Dragonfire is great for AOE.

I have tried this outside of NM but you don't get anywhere near the same numbers so better use a standard build outside of NM. Outside of NM, do tank stuff -- as in, buff your group, debuff the bosses. Your dps doesn't matter. But in NM... big number go brrrr.

code65536 · June 2

I've done this achievement with several different groups (I have a number of alt accounts lol), each time as a tank, and here is what worked for me...

Useful skills to have:
1. Shimmering Shield (Winter's Embrace), for dragon light attacks and for the main boss's heavy attack in execute; I basically try to keep this up 100% in execute
2. Polar Wind (Winter's Embrace), for a bursty self-heal
3. Siphoning Attacks (Siphoning), for sustain
4. Hearth and Home (Ardent Flame), for a 70% snare AoE for the scarabs
5. Soul of Flame (Ardent Flame), for an AoE interrupt for taking aim
6. Shield Discipline (One Hand and Shield), for 6-8s worth of breathing room (its cheap cost paired with Shimmering's ultigen means I get to use this multiple times)
Useful buffs:
1. Flame Aura, to help thin out the army of skeletons
2. Boulder Bash, to help thin out (and CC/interrupt) the army of skeletons
3. Tempest, because why not, it's right there next to the boulder thing
4. We get the Flame Aura in Skittering, then go to Parch and do the Boulder and Unstable Creatia that are in the southeast before heading to the dungeon. The southeast boulder is super-easy, just need to keep green and yellow paddles up at all times and ignore red and blue.

My groups were 1T 1H 2DD; the DDs ignored the adds and just focused the boss, while the healer kept an eye on everyone (and threw me burst heals when Sapping Mark is applied in execute). The only adds that the DDs kill are the melee adds that aggro onto them. The ranged adds, the scarabs, and the melee adds that are aggroed to me are the reasons why I have flame aura (to kill them), tempest (to kill them), boulder (to CC them and to kill them), and soul of flame (to interrupt taking aim, if a boulder is not available). Since the DDs are focusing boss and ignoring adds, the only damage that the dragons take are from my buffs, and that's not enough damage to kill a dragon.

No, I don't taunt the adds, only the dragons. The boss seems to keep aggro even when taunt expires, which is good because while I do try to maintain taunt on the boss, in execute when there's a bunch of things in the way, it's a little hard to reliably target the boss for a retaunt. [The dragons do change target when taunt drops, so prioritize those over the boss.] The only taunt I have slotted is the ranged Undaunted taunt since I'm not going to be in melee to pierce the boss, so why waste a bar slot. Healer should be maintaining breach on the boss since the tank is not in a good position to do so, esp. in execute.