Akaran

I know a lot of people that hit this forum are heavy raiders, so I figure this is going to be pretty one-sided but here goes anyways. I'm not a raider, I don't like raiding in this game outside of single target / minimal target encounters. Nothing against the hard-core class of player, I'm just not into it that much / don't have time / don't like to schedule my life around a game / ect. The usual line of complaints.

But I gotta ask: should SoH be raid only or should it be set up with heroic and raid instances? Here's why I ask. It's being said in every other post that even the casual players are sick of hitting Courts, Chelsith, CoA, ect because it's been done to death. Raiders are tired of hitting the first three tiers and VP - so I hear - is not entirely fun.

So what we have is a situation where both groups are bored... so why not open it for both? Have seperate loot tables, do not require quests in one type be finished in the other, ect. Keep the mobs the same or similiar. Raiders already get more content on average than casual players, so it kinda sucks that SoH is scheduled to go up as raid only (as I understand)...

Thoughts?

Soulforged

First thought is probably not, because SOE likely wouldn't separate loot tables from heroic to epic... (Witness #1: Casual contested loot)

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They who never got sorrow, Grinding grief in their hearts Never lost a thing, Never had a thing.

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T-Assassin

i'd really like to see some X2 instances with mid high-end loot.

something that both the high end raider can find some fun in, and the "casual" player can find some new, challenging content and a slight step up from heroic loot.

not really OT of your post, but there really doesn't seem to be a middle of the road option.

either your high end or casual. not much each group can enjoy.

but it would be interesting if they could impliment a heroic/raidx2/x4 option for future instances.

Alesis

No matter how they play thier cards, one thing is for certain: SOE will fuck it up, and spend the next 3 months nerfing, then unnerfing and then renerfing it. Somewhere in that time frame well discover several things:

1) There is a GM using it exploit some game mechanic for his personal benefit. (Probably on Unrest)

2) Someone will figure out how to make 1000s of plat an hour off the zone. (Probably on Unrest)

3) Someone else will have figured out how to PL an alt from 0 to 80 in 4 minutes flat, (again probably on Unrest)

4) If theres an Avatar involved, it will be exploited somehow making it 1 groupable with 0% chance of failure or risk (prolly on Crushbone)

5) NPU had a map of the zone, as well as detailed boss mob strats 3 days before the update that pushes it live, and will WW first everything there 18 minutes after the server comes back up from the patch.

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Casual Raider, and not ashamed of it.

Akaran

Call me nuts, but I think they -did- do that once before with poets. You had a group version, then two more group versions with harder difficulty (and 'supposedly' a higher ratio of loot, although I never tried) and then there was the raid version. Of course, you also use the same door for Cove of Decay for Manastone as you do for Angler and Crypt o' A as you do for that Tier 8.1 raid zone in Seb...

/crosses fingers

Soulforged

Though honestly, when I did them, there was no noticeable difference in the difficulty of the place. (Poets palace that is). And there was a raid version of the zone, but the mobs in it were completely different, and it was in effect two different zones.

And difficulty settings really only work imo for heroic zones, where its just the standard tank and spank. In raid zones, where strategies are as big of a part as the quality of your raid force and the gear they have, scaling difficulty becomes more difficult. Will the strategies themselves scale in difficulty? Like at group version, mob only has x,y,z effects, but in raids they have w,v,x,y,z effects? Then there's the issue that if a raider were to go to the heroic zone, then they could understand a large part of the raid zones mobs' tactics, and thus make the raid zone itself an easier thing to do. The only way I think they would be able to offer scaled difficulties in the zones is to come up with completely different strats (and I mean not one effect the same from group to raid) for the different difficulties.

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They who never got sorrow, Grinding grief in their hearts Never lost a thing, Never had a thing.

They who never witnessed beauty, That flamed even the all-encompassing night Never lost a thing, Never had a thing.

Illuziun

They did the zone reuse idea in DoF with raid/heroic versions of zones like living tombs and shimmering citadel and it got alot of hate, from myself included.

I thought it was so fucking lazy but with the major lack of content, dicks for brains devs, and 1 year expansion life I don't see it being that bad of a move.

Coel

keep it raid only

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methulah

I had a long argument in my head, but not unnecessarily against your statement, but arguing something else altogether. Then I followed the course of it further and further til I came to the endpoint. This expansion fucking sucks.

sloppy

shard of fear was heroic... shard of hate is raid.. fair game.

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