That’s always the problem with this game, @Khaletohep . Meager rewards. People might do it for the fun of it, but indeed it doesn’t seem to pay off. There should be a unique weapon in there or a unique armor recipe, something that made it worthy.
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We come back to what players have been saying since the release of AoW : difficult content without any added value .
No reward worthy of this no, nothing that justifies the loss of enslaved NPCs, the waste of time and resources .
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The mobs there drop millions of things that you can pick up after the fighting so I don’t think you’ll ever “waste” resources doing it, at least. (unlimited food and potions and weapons you can dismantle + few other things)
But yea it’s not good content and not worth doing for most people, no argument there.
I’d be happy if this topic was here on day 1
Of course the first thing I did on patch day was to take two bersekers, both 4.7k+ HP, 1800 armor etc.
I soon found out that I just couldn’t do it alone, somehow I managed to escape before they surrounded me and I just pressed the command for the thralls to follow me (which as usual didn’t work)
Luckily I managed to run out of rendering distance and after a while they both teleported to me , if I remember correctly they both had around 300 hp , so it was close.
I’m not saying I’m a good fighter , hardly average but even though I used the best thralls I had available , with the best possible gear that’s in the game - actually better than what’s in the game because one of them had an old Tellith two handed sword with some unknown upgrade, that I once found in a decayed base and was better than anything I could make at the time and even now is better than the legendary weapons.
It still wasn’t enough - so frontal assault is just passé for most players, at least in its current state
Purges have a mechanism that adjusts the strength of the attack according to how many defenders there are - why isn’t there something similar here ?
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Probably they want solos to go Tarzan, climbing and jumping while screaming for our lives, @Keldy ! 
You guys are scaring me.
No way I’ll risk a thrall.
Well, everything you guys told about it is true and then some.
I could do a frontal assault after tediously bombing the 3 gates. I had to build a sandstone tower to place the trebuchet and see the gates. Wasted a gazillion of explosives to make enough demon barrage projectiles. Those work fast, but there’s no way in hell it pays up.
I found a little trick to aim the catapult. Before reloading, from behind, there’s a square we can use in 1st person so that we line up the shot. It’s more or less reliable. Then just fiddle with the angle and the counterweight and you’ll be hitting about 1 in 3 shots. But bombing the last gate from so far away is insane. I thought it would allow me to run past everyone up to a safer zone, but the dudes all came in my pursuit. It was the biggest mob I ever killed in the game while the PS5 was completely ■■■■■■■■ itself! I don’t know how I made it out alive, especially because bombing the last gate took a toll on the building.
Anyway, it’s done. Also got the Musashi. The purple orbs might work if we cheese it, but I threw five and only put one of them to sleep. Too slow, too heavy and I needed to be fast, so that’s a test that needs another atempt.
It can be done through the front gate, but it doesn’t pay off, neither it is particularly funny.
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This one has pondered how to address this…
Like Conan in the movies, this one merely sneaks into the Setite tower, murders the leader, steals their plunder and leaves.
It also works much like PvP in the game. Find where the anti-climb is weak, infiltrate, use telekinetic explosive placement, call it a day.
However…
Where is the Barbaric power fantasy fulfillment?
Where is the glory of the battle at the mounds where few stood against many and the battle pleased Crom.
In many ways this raid target is both the perfect intersection Conan as a thief and the realities of PvP in the game… and an example of why that doesn’t always work.
Having a clown car of constantly respawning Stygians does illustrated how little they care about loss of life, throwing ever more soldiers to die.
On the other… Where do they all sleep? Where is their food? The immersion break is somewhat jarring.
It’s very gamey, and not in the fun way.
Should it be easy?
No, not for a frontal assault. But a systemic effort to kill everyone there should be as valid as a targeted assassination.
Having such a a rapid respawn rate is fake difficulty.
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Here
A bloodbath. The devs need to tone down the respawn rate. They only stop respawning once you kill the king, it seemed to me. It’s not a pleasant experience. Too stressful and unrewarding. Like your kills meant nothing.
Exactly this.
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I actually wish they dont make changes to siege castle. It is suppose to be challenging. Maybe delay the respawn time by 15 seconds or so would be nice. But it would be very boring if they remove the respawn completely.
If you don’t want to wish losing anything, You can sneak your way in to the boss room without having to destory any of the gates. That is also an option.
This would sufice, imo. Even 10 more seconds would do. The problem here is that you can’t catch a breather. You are always killing. When you move further in, the guys in the outer battlements won’t aggro, but you have to face them on your way out, unless you run. They won’t respawn, even if you clear them all. My mistake here was thinking they would quit if I ran through them to the inner courtyard. I ended up having to fight them all at once, with a brutal fps drop. Somehow I managed. The Hand of War didn’t respawn after I killed the king, neither the warriors on his proximity. The others on the outer skirts were all there, snakes included. But I took my time getting out, exploring what basically is an empty fortress… and I wanted the Musashi and didn’t know where it was. 
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So, a few tips. Don’t blow up the three gates like I did before going in, because you will attract more aggro. It’s better to deal with the respawn while placing explosives than having them all seeing you from the inner courtyards. But try the trebuchet. Farm mats so you don’t run short on quality projectiles. Stone is good to acquire the target. Explosives are awesome. It’s really fun. I felt like a siege master while using it for an extended period. I advise using 1st person while standing between reload and the trigger lever. Be overencumbered when adjusting the direction. You’ll move slower and it will make it easier.
Once you move in to the fortress, try to fight away and to the side of the blown gates. This way you won’t attract the respawns on the outer battlements. If you get close to the gate, they’ll see you and will come further in and you might find yourself fighting more than 10 enemies with different weapons and some with shields (that will stop your combos). Watch out for the warriors with hamners as they will go through your shield easily. I never saw a warrior with a double sword doing the special attack, so those are easy to stop. The ones with maces and swords will do full combos, so they will project you if you don’t avoid them. Don’t use target lock. It will make you move in a smaller radius which is lethal against big mobs of heavy hitters.
If you have a predatory weapon, it’s a good choice for stamina management, but you can use any other. Don’t enter into negative stamina, you will be stunlocked, surrounded and likely killed very fast. Those guys hit quite hard. Rolling thrust is extremely helpful here.
This just applies if you don’t try to sneak and instead prefer to wreck your amor while getting addicted to potions. 
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I did the same on my first time - it didn’t go so well, lol - I got back to the treasure room, grabbed the gold and started slowly waddling towards the exit - the entire fortress despawned around me and I fell 4-5 storeys. Survived that, but then the fortress started respawning around me (“Waddle Faster! Waddle Faster!” 
) amd the outer walls reappeared before I got past them. So then I had a whole fresh fortress to fight my way out of while completely over-encumbered - you can imagine how that went
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Oh boy… that sounds really bad.
I threw away loot to avoid being too heavy. In the end, got me the Musashi and some gold… meager reward.
But there was nothing good anyway. I got the whirlwind blades recipe. Didn’t have it yet…
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I’m far too greedy lol (it’s not even like I needed the gold )
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Could also have fewer enemies with a slower respawn but make them stronger individually (or add mini-bosses to groups of trash). But Funcom is very bad at making hard enemies in Exiles since they have no AI at all, so they would just make hp sponges with arena champion-like damage I guess 
In this case, having many grunts is quite adjusted, @biglouis . You have the hand of war to content with mixed with a group of warriors, so the combination with a miniboss is also present. An army should expect us. As they can have only so much moving parts at once, the fast respawn was their work around.
I can understand the concept. It’s nice. It’s probably nicer if you do a proper siege with friends.
But for a solo player going alone without risking thralls, it’s a bit of a pickle.
And again, the rewards… nothing special. What you get can be easily acquired just by playing other content. That’s the disappointing part of it all.
And the end is anti climatic. The king is easily defeatable. He shouldn’t have a greataxe. It’s too predictable. But what isn’t, right?
My final veredict would be that it’s a cool idea, needs a little adjustment and the rewards should be improved. Make them unique.
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Well put old friend
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My Lord, welcome back to the forum 
. So happy to have you around. Since age of sorcery i avoid US servers it’s lagging horribly for me and the age of war needs pretty good performance on purges, or else you loose everything. So i really miss my dear American friends.
Really happy to hear from you, really.
Exactly, especially on official servers the spawns never stop, they are just lighter after you kill the boss. For this reason i can suggest you a couple things if you may.
1st. Carry a shield and a sword.
This way you can answer even overencumbered very easy. I have done it, it’s hilarious easy.
2nd. Take with you a named fighter and a camel lvl 0. Tell them to stop to the shrine you learn the dance, it’s safe for them there, make your raid and after you finish order them to come. They will be lvl 20 and you’ll have the camel to empty your load.
3rd. Do the above again if you wish, but don’t call them in the end. To this option your sorcery knowledge must be to the point that you can summon your body. Remove bracelet, retrieve your loot at home and after 15 minutes you’ll have a fully leveled fighter and camel back to your home .
Don’t get me wrong, i like the fortress and these boons, but i don’t find the 2nd door assault correct.
I always jump, climb and go to the last gate assault, i don’t do the trick of breaking the wall behind the boss, i find no fun in it. I go down and i fight all the hords that’s coming. It’s fun.
But it’s fun for solo raid, not with thralls. Thralls die easy from npcs now.
Yet…
I would love to go there as a commander and not as a commando!
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Online on an official server, going through the front gate is asking to get killed if you go alone without thralls. There’s a lot of movement density and it’s nearly impossible not having performance issues.
On single player, I suffered from a tremendous fps drop. The PS5 simply can’t handle it I didn’t choose the right tactic, but I was trying to see if a frontal assault could be done solo. I thought if I would run, the warriors on the outskirts would quit chasing me. They didn’t and as I had blown the inner gates before going in, I also aggroed the fighters inside the keep. It was a deadly cocktail.
I don’t think they spawn slower online. I think it’s the same mechanics. I will tell you why. When you move further inside the fortress, the fast respawn rate doesn’t stop until you kill the king, but you won’t aggro the stygians on the outer battlements any longer once you go beyond the second gate. So, they will be there when you go out, but once you kill them, it will take them a good while to respawn. So, that gives the ilusion that they keep respawning after you killed the king, but, in fact, they respawned before you did it. You just don’t see them because you are inside.
Funcom probably thought this activity both for large clans and solo players. If you go solo, you are an assassin and will use cunning and guile. If you go in wirh a clan, you go through the front gate, steam roll the army and a few hold the lines while a small party goes after the king. This is my guess, obviously, but it makes sense.
You gave me some very nice ideas up there, @stelagel . I might try a few next time I repeat this activity.
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