It’s not entirely satisfying, but gear is more important than levels. So, to improve your character you simply need to farm gold, gamble on the highest tier gear available to your class and then forge it up. The RNG stacks though on both the gambling phase of this and the forging (fractures), so it’s going to admittedly be frustrating. Sometimes you do get a good T3-T5 drop without gambling/forging. All of this can be done at the lowest MOFs and Arena (every 5 MOFs).
As the game fleshes out, I hope/imagine there will be more fulfilling and non-RNG ways to tackle gearing out your characters.
I’m definitely not a fan of both current endgame systems where you reset when you die.
I’m okay with the Arena being like it is, where you die and it’s over. Monolith needs checkpoints and I’d be okay with it being the number of quests you’ve beaten so far.
I’d probably be happier with it being the number of echoes you’ve done and the quests you’ve done. It could be when you die, some of the bonuses that you’ve accumulated for the different modifiers could be reduced by a certain percentage, but the difficulty is the same. That would still make deaths matter, but it wouldn’t be as painful as it is now.
Edit: To add to this, I think you could add a reset so that the player could reset progress if the bonuses get too low. You could even make the bonuses go negative or have it automatically reset if it hits 0% or lower also.
If the gear I have accumulated as a lvl 96 Forge Gaurd isn’t adequate enough for me to kill the level 68 Black Sun Boss, what could I possibly find in 20+ more level 68 monoliths that will help my chances?
Additionally, if my highest lvl character, with all its shared stash and 70+ gear gets completely dominated by said lvl 68 boss, what hope do I have with my lowbie alts of killing this thing when their time comes to face him?
I"m not against the hard boss. Don’t nerf him. But please, just put a portal in front of him so I don’t have to suffer though 20 virtually meaningless monoliths every time I fail.
1000 gold and 1000 xp for the quests. My xp bar has moved from the center of the 4 skill to the center of the #4 on the 4 skill in two days.
That is how I feel about all this.
P.S. I have yet to be kicked from chat since the patch. Kudos for that.
Like I said previously this is an issue with us coming into a system backwards, being overleveled, it isn’t intended. It’s intended we start with the system at 55 or so(where you would get relevant exp).
The issue of exp, and coming into the system backwards aside, I do agree that it takes too long to get the third quest completed. 25-30 is excessive, and lowering this would not only feel more appropriate but raise your success rate and feel less punishing(wasteful) if you fail.
I’m not really sure if the item level of drops is also tied to the enemy level or just depending on your character level. If it’s just character level, you could find the same gear no matter what level the enemies are. This would probably result in people only farming lvl 55 area because it’s easier.
Besides that I think they just overturned the bosses. Maybe all their playtesters know the boss mechanics and could beat them by just face rolling over the keyboard. Don’t think its intended to make those fight that brutal.
I played Wolcen story on high difficulty. Bossfights really were intense and I got beaten a lot. But I could retry until I was successful.
I agree with that sentiment but the base point is a character that progressed shouldn’t be stuck on that boss. I do agree that he hits fucking hard on a 85+ character for being a lvl 68 mob. His dance, dance, cone phase clipped me once and knocked out 2k ward and 600 hp, almost killing me(only 300void prot while not channeling) at 85. So I empathize with level 65-70chars tackling that, the damage is too high. But no high level character should be stuck there.
It would feel a lot better if it didnt take 25-30monos to get back to him.
It is tied to the area level. Nothing above 68 drops from mobs. Period. You can however get gear scaled to your lvl in the chest after the monolith.
EDIT: I have now completed 27 monoliths in search of this boss again.
EDIT: I got to the boss on after the 34th monolith (and subsequently got my ass kicked again).
You touched on a couple great points here. I loved wolcen’s story for the same reason, bosses were challenging and it took you learning the mechanics and multiple attempts(like the one-shot fire wave in-out mechanic on the big sword shield guy in phase 3? have to dodge over it to survive). These mono bosses remind me of that, and I really do appreciate it. The difference is, in wolcen you immediately got to try again, not farm 20-30waves to get there.
Secondly, the part about beta testers is spot on. When you don’t know what the boss does, its very easy to die the first time. Less so after that. Given the standard that you’re not meant to know what he does initially and are likely going to die, this means its now 40-50 mono runs to get a successful kill. That’s a lot of investment. Being able to repeat attempt him would feel so much better(likely the luxury beta testers were afforded!).
I’ve picked up Sorcery staves, Oracle staves and amulets from the level 55 zone, and 68 zone, and I’ve also picked up many t6’s. I’ve also picked up the new 72 class base gear. I believe it’s based on character level.
If it was based on zone level I would see none of this. I think the confusion comes in due to zone level previously being tied to our character level at all times(scaling).
They could just increase the chance for the next quest echo for each timeline you completed that wasn’t a quest echo. For example, if it’s a 10% chance to get a quest echo, then each timeline you complete that isn’t a quest echo increases that chance by 10%, so after 10 non-quest echoes, you’re guaranteed to get the next one.
Yea, or simply making it a guarantee on 5/10/15. 13 to complete the first one on patch day felt completely fine. My next few taking near 30 was terrible though. I also like the idea someone had earlier in the thread about a death only setting you back to your previous echo quest, requiring 5(or so) stages to get back to the boss fight.
It’s always going to be a problem though. You spend a few hours getting to the boss, gain some XP, fail the boss, and then the next time you go through it you will be higher level from the previous attempts so your XP will be lower. The more times you fail the more you will out level the content.
For Science: 29th Monolith, map: “Umbral wasteland” Black sun… Map lvl 68.
I did a full clear for you guys and checked every item. I kept anything over lvl 60. I got 1 lvl 60 helmet and 3 lvl 64 axes.
I’m about ready to embark on my 30th monolith. I’m in it right now, I have never received an item above lvl 68. (I do occasionally get some in the golden chest).
Monolith 30 (yes its taking me 30 maps this go round to get to the boss).
“Devoured Armoury” lvl 68 1 lvl 62 club. Thats it.
I’m telling you guys the loot is tied to the level of the map. The golden chest is tied to the level of your character.
It’s possible you’re right about this, it’s possible I could have picked them from the chest. Also, seeing t6’s drop, I realized, doesn’t mean much because t6 affix was set to drop from 55 on. I’ll do some further testing.
edit: I just realized since I’m midway through the 80 zone, it’s possible I remember picking them from that lol. Also, I reallllllly don’t wanna slog through 55/68 again just to test lol! So I shall concede
Pre patch it did not matter, because everything scaled to your level. But I think it makes sense that item level is tied to enemy level. Otherwise you could just farm the easy content for high end gear.
In conclusion theres no advantage in out leveling the monolith currently. Through the various attempts I now have that many arena keys like never before. I could run arena 29 times in a row to level a bit. But I would not get better loot in mono or any xp. And the bosses kick your ass# no matter what level you are. So these 2 systems don’t match currently.
But I have to admit: as frustrating it can be actually… I never had such an adrenaline rush in LE before when facing a mono boss now. Makes me realise that I should not play hardcore because I may risk a heart attack
So on my 34th monlith I finally get to face “Rahyeah” again. Can you believe that? 35 monoliths.
Here is a fun fact: in those 34 monoliths I didn’t need to use a potion… ever. Ran around with impunity. Now just to get beyond this stagnant situation I have to defeat him.
I’m so curious how a lvl 68 character is going to deal w/ this guy.
Edit: Failed miserable… I have 100 percent void damage as fire with 78% fire protection.
Doesn’t matter. I got spanked hard again. I thought I was ready.
I’m not doing 35 lvl 68 monoliths again.
What really pisses me off is I totally waltz through every map… NO potions. Its a complete and utter cake walk, then 15 seconds into the boss fight I’m dead. Thing is if I didn’t have to do 35 monoliths to fight him I’d just pick myself up and try again.
I guess they wanted the boss mechanics to matter… I was able to barely tank one of the pizza slices but I made sure not to repeat that mistake lol. I will say, it would probably be a lot harder if I didn’t have teleport(thinking about my sentinels…).
