Cashews

Necrochild wrote: »

Yep, thus the state of the game. On the upside, there are some nice looking action RPG titles that have combat more similar to how the game used to play coming down the pipe this year.

But is there really though? Been hearing this for like 4 years and nothing ever comes close, lol.

It actually took a while before we had anything to run besides Regina, and the thing that did come after was Braha, which is one of the worst bosses in Vindictus history (since you're complaining about not getting enjoyment from Dullahan). Episode 3 didn't even add a new dungeon. But anyway, with the 90 cap we did not have 4 bosses to choose from; we had 1. Pretty sure drop rates were also worse, but at least there were those shard remnants or whatever to get RNG oranges eventually (don't know why they removed that).

I don't think they were spread out as poorly though, as 5 months of Dullahan only is kind of long. The main issue here is that Aes Sidhe and Arcana don't drop alternate gear, and Aes Sidhe only drops 1 essence as far as I know. If it's anything like Eochaid, that means good luck seeing it. I don't even know if they come out with more dungeons or what Arcana drops.

Rezi wrote: »

Prototypemind wrote: »

10,000 phases of red unblockables and invulnerability cycles on bosses.

Exactly. These things don't increase difficulty, just boredom and annoyance. Make me get disabled then combo'd by a boss for failing to do a perfect dodge, instead of knowing dodge patterns to dodge easily out of the way if ever need be or being unable to dodge because of terribly large hit ranges that assume you have max resist skills.

Goes back to one of the original problems I highlighted though. When every character has 20 seconds of invulnerability frames, you've powercreeped your game to the point you have to do something to make sure people can still get hit. I actually am probably in the minority in that I am a fan of the red attacks, because they emphasize positioning over just iframing through everything, which is pretty similar to other games I've loved playing like Monster Hunter or Dark Souls. There's a limit though: Abomination's red diving attack is really stupid and Braha in general is stinking garbage.

But yeah, after having recently started S2 quests and realizing Zaka takes longer to kill than actual bosses (and even then, they still go down in like 20 seconds), it's clear everything before 90 is a shitshow. As far as post-90, maybe it's because the friends I usually play with aren't extensively geared, but I have never seen a season 3 boss go down in less than 5 minutes. They usually take about 7-10, which is probably right in my personal sweet spot. Though yes, when one of those +15 top 10 rank people comes in to my quick battle, it's very clear additional damage is absurd. I also prefer smaller parties over larger ones, so the removal of 8 man raids isn't a huge issue for me. Still, we already had the option to do 4 man raids if we wanted to in the form of Oaths of Honor. I can't understand why the new director is so adamantly against giving players choices.

Question2 wrote: »

If you want raids to take longer there are no shortage of ways to increase kill time by yourself.

-Solo
-Use weaker gear
-Do raids on hero mode

I don't want raids to take longer. Everything past lvl 90 is fine. I just don't want the battles I enjoyed while leveling other characters reduced to 5 second wastes of time that can't even be classified as tutorials. It takes all the way up until episode 8 for things to survive past their entrance animation, and then after that they increase their HP by a few seconds.

I hit level 70 while still barely in Rocheste story, but I decided to visit Lakoria in level 60 gear for exp. It took about 7 seconds. Stuff like Klaus and the Giant Spiders, which used to be really enjoyable to solo and gauge how well you have been learning your new characters, are now reduced to 3 mouse clicks. It's simply unacceptable.

I remember when I first discovered how many bosses you could cheese using chain hooks. Good times...