They are just horrible and killed all the good PvE in the game.
Server with raid finder, world boss and slithering chaos disabled, 6 man difficulty set to 2010, raids set to the original state they were killed in (within reason, we don’t need that version of Hollow Knight again) and a requirement of 5 pieces of raid gear from 1 tier to progress through to the next is a PvE saga server I could actually enjoy.
This saga was too easy, you can do the entire quest chain in T1 gear, none of the raids are challenging, they are so nerfed into the ground. T5 and T6 are a little more serious but didn’t take long either, and gearing up takes no time at all (I’m a mix of T4/T5 without receiving a single armor drop from either raid).
No reason for that to be limited to top players, maybe it should take a few weeks longer but that’s neither here nor there. Every raid needed was successfully pugged on Crom years ago on a daily basis, and you can gear up extremely fast with raid finder (unless you’re extremely unlucky) so within a few weeks you’re char gear wise will probably be in a better state than we were back then.
What you say is true, nonetheless is it not a question of gear, as you can see on the numbers of guilds that kill T5 and T6, and on the number of guilds and raidforces still in progression in this raid tiers.
So for top, well organized players “none of the raids are challenging”, but they are a minority, and a very tiny one. A server with more challange und un-nerfed raids would cater to only a very specific, very small group of players, to which you belong. So from a buisness perspective it would be not smart to follow your feedback, because the number of customers you would cater to are too small.
I think doing something like this is a great idea when adding a new race or class into the game
and that’s pretty much all I can think of feedback,
just to start fresh with no power leveling , or mass gold to gear your way through from a higher level sponsoring a new character . . well not so much
could just as well gave everyone a free character slot, without the extra limited time server.
though starting fresh and going down memory lane , of what it was like to start with nothing or a sponsor, is still good, and I liked it, not complaining
The thing I dislike the most about the Saga Server is the fact that I have to play the same character the whole time. It’s boring not being able to switch to the class that is needed, on bad days I can wait hours until something happens (I don’t actually need to do the quest anymore since I am done with it so I just do dungeons for fun) or my class is finally needed. On Crom I could just switch to another character and help out. A lot of my hours on the Saga Server are probably waiting, standing around and doing nothing until I finally find some group activity. I am just missing the variety since I have at least 6 or 7 characters I love playing and reducing that to just one is… meh… (I know I can still play my other character but let’s be honest, Crom is a desert right now, only a few hours on mondays there are at least enough people to do the RF)
Other than that it’s kinda nice to see so many raids happening, many big guilds and so on. I would have liked a longer Saga quest with interesting challanges but I guess I was expecting too much from the whole Saga Server.
Teleports :
Not having teleport paths is annoying. Having to do panoramas and other silly stuff to get some paths is even more annoying.
Mount :
Having to ride a camel and being knocked down by random mobs is annoying. Give us a tough-enough mount to ride on. Could be a reward in the saga quest.
2nd Spec :
Most classes need at least a 2nd spec to be efficient. This should be given for free to premiums.
Level Up :
The level up experience is chilling and fun only when you are NOT in a hurry. Saga experience would feel better if we didnt have to level up the toons. If we absolutely have to do it, at least give a generous XP buff to help us get faster to 80 or let us start at Lvl.60 or something.
Raid Finder (most important) :
Before raid finder everything was great. Dungeon groups were going all day long -I couldn’t believe it! Thank you for that!! For me, having to run old dungeons in old gear again was the No.1 reason to enjoy Saga. That is what makes Saga different.
Then RF came and RUINED it all. Everyone just farmed RF and very few do dungeons now. RF is the best way to gear up and absolutely destroys everything else.
AAs :
Playing a mage and being a premium I was good with AAs. Soldiers need a lot more AAs to be able to tank tough content. Please consider a way to help soldiers with AA gains.
All really good poins Skull. But the one that really I think could be looked at is this:
“Mount:
Having to ride a camel and being knocked down by random mobs is annoying. Give us a tough-enough mount to ride on. Could be a reward in the saga quest.”
I mean for example grinding rank 4 of faction for a mount (or get very lucky on an Imp/Zodiac roll) and getting the Exotic Creature Handling for 20 gold is all good. The mounts shouldn’t be given out for free but that you also have to pay 50 gold(!) for advanced riding is way to steep. F2p-players wont be able to get this anyway as the Exotic Creature Handing is 20 gold. Probably not gonna change it now but that insane gold requirement is a bit to much imo. That we, who have subscribed for a log time, usually get the Advanced Riding via vet tokens on Crom and you are selling it for real cash here is a bit meh but oh well, I stick to my camel for now.
Also, now that I have another character at 80 the need for a dual spec is more apparent than before. I know you said you were talking about this earlier but havent heard anything since. Mussagna any word on this?
Edit: And just to make it clear, I dont want freebies as Funcom needs to make money too. But I think some of these things could have been handled diffrently, espicially for subscribers
Enjoying the server, it’s great to see it so full. Even without the double XP boost for a week I’ve been burning through content and levels, even dropping some of the older stuff I didn’t get to in time.
With the limited time left I hope you do some more Double XP weeks as it won’t be enough just to hit 80 by May 15th. One will need to hit 80 2-3 weeks prior to be able to get the remaining requirements done.
All of the raids picked for us to have to clear are ones that are regularly pugged out and cleared on Crom for years…so should not be beyond the reach of semi-geared adequately played characters.
They are currently being cleared on Saga regularly either all “in house” for many guilds or in friendly alliances.
I think the rewards we get for just making 80 and doing your level 80 destiny quest is more than enough freebies for just participating…full t1 then a t4 cloak …something that people usually spend weeks to get either by going to t1 raids, entity fights or saving tokens.
And just completing one raid finder after that gets you a tier 6 necklace …something that would need you to actually kill lady Zealandra and/or Cetriss on Crom/fury … well THAT in my view is “icing on the cake” … the weapons need more than just “hey I was there”…they are the best pve ones in game after all.
Sorry, but T4 and especially T3.5 were dumbed down immensely already, if you dumb it down more you can just let the raidfinder update the quest.
Seriously, if you don’t put any kind of effort into doing real raids then you simply don’t deserve T6 weapons. You can already get the best rings, the best cloak and T4 items for basically standing around being AFK 99% of the time.
Make Social Armor sets available from the Veteran Vendor (or better add new sets to this vendor)
Daily Login Changes
Change the daily login rewards to be focused around the limited time factor. Meaning, each day should give you something truly rewarding. For example: Day 1 get 1 hearty meal + 1 XP potion 4 hours. Day 2 get 2 tokens of Gilding + 1 XP Potion 4 hours. Day 3 Get 2 more tokens of Gilding + 1 XP Potion 4 hours. Day 4 get 3 tokens of gilding plus a baby mount (level 20 friendly) + 1 XP Potion 4 hours. Day 5 get 4 tokens of gilding + 1 XP Potion 4 hours + Hearty meal. As long as you keep the rewards something that has no ingame currency value and cannot be traded to others you can go wild here. Reward your customers for participating on this server. Make them feel it is not just “another character” it is an EPIC Character.
AA Grind
Something needs to be done to the AA grind. From what I’ve been lead to believe Funcom has a skeleton crew working there at present, so I am going to refrain from making any big suggestions that require serious coding, etc. But can you give a special level 80 daily reward system that is in addition to the existing one that gives AA points per day. That way players can get all of the AA they need without going through the intense grind of it.
Clan Cities
Clan cities should be Tier III from the start. Or when the leader creates a city give them a bonus pack object that gives them all of the items needed to make it. Borderlands are dead because people are not interested in farming the things needed for their cities.
Raid Tokens for Dungeons Ruleset
Give raid tokens from doing 6 man content. Something crazy like. Tier 1 at level 40, Tier 2 at level 50, Tier 3 at level 60, Tier 4 at level 70 and Tier 5 at level 80. So that people have an alternate path to get to the Tier 6 requirements without being forced to grind RF. Yes of course Tier 6 should be exclusive to raids, but make the dungeons worth doing. On my Bear Shaman I was able to pull together a few dungeons, but that was only because I was a healer. Finding a healer willing to try the dungeons when all they care about is hitting 80 is painful. They all say… Sorry, I need to hit 80 I don’t have time. Thanks for the invite.
PVP Rule-sets
Start everyone at level 80, make all zones level 80 NPCs. Replace regular rewards with Vanity rewards.
General Changes to AoC
Please make NPCs not locked based on who attacks first. See Guild Wars 2 Make the game feel like an MMO by letting people help each other and get rewarded for their effort.
Can you please put a new option under Sounds “Disable Vocal Self Damage Indication”. Hearing your character go… oh… oh… oh… eh… uh… oh… ohh… ohh… just because you have a dot on you that lasts 20s and ticks 1 time per second is REALLY REALLY ANNOYING. Thanks. Or make it a group of options like: Only on first hit of combat, disable sound from dots (bleeds, poisons, etc) or totally disable your characters voice in combat.
Final Thoughts
In short, this was a good first try. It has been fun and I got my wife playing which is something I have enjoyed. But the main draw and advantage to this server should be “Level up quickly with others, Get great rewards and vastly reduce the amount of time needed to grind in this game.” That way people are more interested to come back and do it again and again.
Since the majority of your suggestions seem to target the Saga server set up I’m confused by this one. Since there are no vet vendors on Saga this would take them out of the game.
Also if you do this on Crom or Fury it would take vanity armor away from anyone that started playing after the big F2p change when they stopped giving out vet tokens.
The current way allows all player to access vanity armor via the tokens you get via the daily login bonus.
We no longer accumulate veteran reward tokens at all. All we ever get is the number your account was entitled to prior to 30 June 2016…and that is issued to your characters when they are created.
So any unique additions to this vendor will make them unavailable to the majority of the players. This is the reason pets that are available at the veteran rewards vendors are duplicated at the gilding token vendor.
So I rolled another toon on Saga (a Dark Templar) and I have done 3 Raid Finders (I might have done Sheng/Basilsik one extra time for a friend).
From those three RF’s I have recieved: T6 Necklace, Black Dragon Helm, Black Dragon Boots, Fearless Souls Chest and Fearless Souls tasset and soon I will have the most op ring of them all.
I dont have to roll agianst other people, I dont have to wait for the raid to fill, I dont have to wait for tactics to be explained, I dont have to wait for roles to be sorted, I dont have to pay attention to any mechanics. I could literally stay afk at rez pad and still get all the goodies.
Ok I was unaware that we no longer got vet tokens. I wasn’t playing the game when it went F2P. I came back some time after that and have so many vet tokens that I never really noticed that they weren’t going up anymore. haha… Anyway having said that. I still think there should be some kind of social armor goodies for people with veteran tokens on Saga. You know a reward for being a long time player. Maybe make it like Tier 1-4 raid armor social sets or something. Just a thought. Anyway, I really like customizing my character’s appearance to look unique so I’m all for mixing and matching different sets to find that magic combination.
Ok, I misread what you said. I was not suggesting moving the social gear out of the gilding vendor, simply adding more options for veteran players. Something that would be in the spirit of what Saga is all about by making the rewards available not alter the abilities of the players to give an unfair advantage. By making it social armor it is literally just how you look only. Which is why I didn’t suggest adding any mounts, pets, etc., to that vendor. Hope that clears it up for you. I updated my post to make it clearer too.
