New E14+ dungeon mechanics (spoilers)

Secret World Legends General Discussion [Archived] Rebalance Forum
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From what I can gather, the main change we were given to test for beta 3, outside of some ongoing skill changes, was tier 4 mechanics in dungeons. I don’t see any discussion about that, so I’ll start it here.

Personally, I like that tier 3 (nightmare) mechanics are now at E8+ so players can practice them before the additional gear requirements of E10+ appear, and that there is a new difficulty tier to look forward to after that. As far as the mechanics themselves, I also greatly appreciate that the ones I saw tended to be mechanics that everyone had to deal with, and not something that could be pawned off on the tank/healer.

I only got to play Polaris and Hell Raised 6, but I’m hoping others can fill in the gaps.

Polaris
1- Haugbui Jarl definitely had a new skill, some kind of electrified attack, but I did not really get to see that in action, so we either we got lucky, or it got pawned off on someone else. Regardless, it was a first try one shot where I didn’t have to learn the mechanic.
2- Maddening Melody plus Death Squall and adds made for some interesting variable situations that I liked
3-Electrified crates! YAAASSSSSSS!! It is so obvious that this was always the intended way to have to handle phase 2. I appreciate that vision finally coming to fruition.
4-Maddening Melody strikes again. This time, with no AoE forcing players off the point they are currently on, this mechanic was more static, but still, it caused the responsibility for dealing with adds to be given to a dps, which was cool
5-Does the Primordial Dweller have a new mechanic? If so, I never saw it materially impact the group. Another first try one shot.
6- The blue phase reflect damage is painful. It feels like 90/10 dps allocation is a serious consideration for several fights. Maddening Melody during hide 'n seek was quite the panic for a bit, but again teamwork saved the day, with the group splitting off behind two pillars so players were spread far enough apart to move around.

Hell Raised-
6-I got dragged straight into the MT, and I will say, the change felt fair. There is arguably more going on in the MT fight than any other classic dungeon fight in the game, so the small change soulburn and 3 stacks of LB per tick instead of 2 caused still felt impactful enough. DPS were again tasked with helping, as it appears the healer is hard pressed to keep up the tank, heal off all the forced DoT damage, and deal with that level of cleansing.

What everyone else think? What mechanics did you get to see that I didn’t, and how did the group have to work together to handle them?

4 Likes
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I only got to experience Polaris myself, and was accidentally plopped into an Eblis fight when I queued up and someone had unfortunately DC’ed beforehand.

I actually enjoyed the e17 Polaris dungeon. It forces you to think and I think it felt pretty fair overall. You definitely want to talk strategy through before rushing headlong in if it’s your first/second go through, but after a few tries, most people should be able to pick up the mechanics; they aren’t complicated. Maddening Song requires the most coordination, I can see the potential for group wipes on that one.

Since we were all melee dps, the 4th boss was a bit tricky. I was trying to cast Blizzard preemptively, but in doing that, it twice cast itself down the container hallway and disappeared. Luckily, the other dps waited for them to come out and THEN cast Blizzard on the ground, and that took care of the add bomb problem. Fun fact: No. Your tank cannot stand in the corridor and eat the adds; they deal way too much damage for that method to work anymore.

Far as I noticed, Primordial Dweller is still the same fight (we one-shot ours, as well) but anyone can feel free to say otherwise.

On the Eblis fight, I think the only thing that changed is you can’t attack when he has his shield up (Yup, that shield isn’t for show anymore) or everyone starts taking reflect damage. If I’m correct, that was the only noticeable change. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same fight we have now.

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You can, the healer can heal up the reflect damage. The part where you stop attacking is when you’re too low and might get killed by the next reflect tick.

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Yeah, I was in that fight, too. Luckily it didn’t do too much damage. There was time to notice it was killing you and stop. It was also cute watching the Living Flame get chains instead of Vomher. I was getting a kick out of that.

Soothing Spring has been a huge help for group cleansing, chains, and whatnot. I finally feel like I can help being a Blade/Hammer DPSer.

@Studmonger are you Starrya?

My favorite was Recursive, Many-in-one in Hell Raised. I think because it was the hardest to get through. I never once got bored, and we were there for quite some time before we finally beat it. Eruption us A HUGE help in that fight.

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I don’t know if a Blood or Rifle healer have enough sustained AoE healing on their own to juggle between two cleanses, but I was able to handle all healing and cleansing necessary for this fight with Fists and Shotgun. I’d alternate between using Cleanup and Regeneration for cleansing and rely on Feral Regrowth, Revivify, and Invigorate to heal the group from Lifeburn damage.

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When you left, I think we were using Soothing Spring, Communion, and Cleanup for cleansing, and all from different people. We also went 90/10 to help with healing during Soulburn.

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Allow me to fill in some of the gaps of your knowledge of the new Nightmare mechanics:

Polaris

  • Haugbui Jarl: Casts an uninterruptable spell called Electrified Strike, dealing an enormous amount of damage to the tank unless it is mitigated.

Hell Raised

  • Antimony Ministrix: Auto-attack now chains to all players, no matter their distance from the boss. Macroshock cannot be interrupted.
  • Corroder: Caustic Outpouring is now followed up with Caustic Puddle, a large damage field that is placed in the area around the boss that was formerly safe to stand in and persists until the next Caustic Outpouring spell is cast. Anyone who steps in the puddle will die immediately. Corroder also periodically casts Flame Armour, in which the boss gains five stacks of Flame Armour that deals damage to anyone who attacks the boss until all stacks are purged. The higher the number of stacks on the boss, the more damage that is dealt back to attackers.
  • Hardwired Fleshtank: Lava now applies Soulburn and Lifeburn to anyone standing in it for too long. Soulburn prevents detrimental effects from being cleansed for five seconds.
  • Traumadriver: Casts Hell Sword in the direction of the tank.
  • Recursia, Many-In-One: Auto-attacks now chain to everyone in the arena, but, unlike the Antimony Ministrix, Macroshock can be interrupted. Applies Soulburn along with Lifeburn.
  • Machine Tyrant: Players receive Soulburn and three stacks of Lifeburn with every application.

Darkness War

  • In the first, second, fifth, and sixth encounters, the Mayan mobs now all explode upon death and hit everyone within 40 meters of the blast. Better not try to kill too many of them at once. :sweat_smile:

The Ankh

  • Squalid Hekaturgist: Periodically casts Ankh Power, in which it gains five stacks that must be purged before the boss reaches 0 HP, or the boss regenerates health. Mummies materialize every now and then that cannot be killed and deal damage over time to players in the group.
  • Orochi Dead Ops: Each Dead Ops gains 2 or 3 Ankh Power stacks that must be purged before each individual can be killed.
  • Dimensional Arachnid: Spiders periodically appear in the arena to deal damage over time to players in the group.
  • Doctor Klein and the Colossus, Melothat: Thanks to Akhenaten’s Legacy, Melothat gains stacks of something every 42 seconds, which can be purged, that summon additional mummies to the field based on the number of stacks (I think?).

Hell Eternal

  • Prime Maker: Boss now applies Soulburn with every application of Lifeburn and has more movement speed to keep up with the tank.
  • Flagellatrix Superior: Summons an Incubus with her Vigil cast, who must be defeated before her absorption barrier will expire.
  • Eblis: Drink Deep can no longer be interrupted. Its damage and healing have been adjusted accordingly.
4 Likes
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Okay, that makes sense. I was trying to pay attention and still keep up with chat, and that’s not my strong suit since I’m used to talking in voice channels.

9

Yes.

Thanks to DumbOx for clarifying most of the gaps we were missing. I wonder if electrified strike and drink deep can still be avoided by outranging the attack. Likewise, Recursia’s macro-shock can probably still be los’d behind the rock or the spires.

After years and years, I have never figured out how the Prime Maker’s draw heat ability works. It kinda feels like it just eventually happens, there’s no way to interact with it, and once it has happened, he does so much damage, it’s nearly always a wipe, even after they chilled out his damage forever ago.

10

@Studmonger I can’t remember if you were with us during Draw Heat problem, but our group found that we had to be in front of the golem so that we wouldn’t get hit. Being on either side or behind him killed us all (except tank). We found that out because the tank wasn’t getting hit by it because they were in front. After a few tries, we also started fighting from the front, and we all made it through after that.

11

With Draw Heat, Prime Maker targets all the flame wisps present in the arena, seems to draw energy from them, and then releases it, causing them to destabilize and explode. Anyone within 10 or 15 meters of the boss and close to a flame wisp will take damage. I actually encountered a bug with Draw Heat in the last open beta where combat summons, such as Living Flame and Fate’s Chosen, would be targeted by Draw Heat and kill anyone nearby to them. :boom: It has since been fixed.

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Maybe that was the problem, because no one was near the Golem or wisps.

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Yep! It was almost certainly the cause of half of our group repeatedly combusting instantly to Draw Heat, Ceruleana, since the Prime Maker’s Draw Heat was targeting everything that wasn’t a player - and that includes all the summons and pets! As DumbOx mentioned, this won’t be a problem in the future. :> Nirvelle was quick on the fix!

Amusingly, this does mean the Prime Maker really was drawing heat from the Living Flame. ;>

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Yeah, and when we fought from the front like we planned, we all lived and beat it, so it made me think we figured out our problem that day. Good to know.