Remove the prep stage of Hamidon raiding.
By
UberGuy,
Posted on: 2010-12-06 07:33 in Suggestions and Ideas
It's not quite on topic, but a related and much more minor request...
Please modify the DE Monsters to not drop little "tier 1" inspirations? It just seems so anti-climactic to get little (non-EoE) inspirations off of them.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
On my home server, Hamidon raids went from an almost daily occurrence to a once-in-a-blue-moon event when Hamidon was updated. I don't believe this is because of the increased difficulty* or the zone limit or anything like that. I think the culprit is the need for a prep stage.
In order to have a good chance of succeeding, you need to build up a good reserve of Essence of Earth inspirations. If you run out, you're almost guaranteed to fail, and it's very difficult to get enough from killing the monsters in the Hive/Abyss.** You have to go monster hunting elsewhere to collect a good safety net on EoEs before you even set foot into the Hive (that or buy them, and they're not cheap), and I think this is the major stumbling block. Hunting monsters is a task in itself, and it's hard to get people to come along if they're not sure they'll actually go on a raid at a later time.
Anyway, here's some ideas for a proposed fix:
1. Increase the drop rate for the inspirations from monsters.
2. Don't despawn monsters in the Hive or Abyss to allow for EoE restocking mid-raid. Use the new tethering technology to prevent griefing.
3. Since Hamidon is meant to be incarnate content, allow us to convert Incarnate Shards into, say, 3 EoEs apiece.
* In fact, I don't think Hamidon actually became more difficult at all, just changed needed tactics. I couldn't really tell you though, because I've only been on one of the few post-update raids.
** I know the people on my server don't have enough experience raiding Hami to do it with that paltry amount for sure.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.