Xie

I already jumped ship ... but I still miss Vindi

The raids and combat in Vindi were the reason why I kept playing for four years. Compared to other MMOs, the raids in Vindi felt challenging, yet also rewarding because of its combat. At the same time, it felt fun playing and trying to figure out raids with everyone. But at some point, every thing became a dps race. It got extremely annoying because mechanics would get ignored and stuff till eventually, I stopped raiding with people and started soloing raids. I miss the old days when people used to just play for fun like run an entire raid train naked like my guild used to do. But I guess time changes and I'll just have to accept it.

To be honest, I would've stuck around if Nexon released new raids or dungeons more regularly even if it's just side content. I don't care much about new characters. Maybe, it's just me, but I'd rather explore a new dungeon or figure out how to kill a new boss. I was sad when you guys teased Arcana and Aes Sidhe only to find out they're not Redeemer raids. Dullahan sucked but Neamhain alone had kept me around for half a year!

Besides raids, the other thing that kept me playing was Lann. Out of all of the male characters in other MMOs that I've seen so far, I think Lann has the best abs. No abs in other MMOs have the same level of detail. The male abs in BDO might have a run for Lann's money but the male customization in that game sucked so Lann's abs takes the win as the best male abs in MMOs.
(I wish that there were more male hair options and cooler male armor...)

PS: I'm sorry, Lann, I wish that I'm not cheating on you with Miqo'te's abs but I haven't seen a new Vindi raid in ages!

tom50574 wrote: »

for 3 weeks or so i have been looking to buy a +13-15 xgun or bow lvl 90 - 95 and none in east market forums or in game market .

There are many reasons why there are fewer +13-15 weapon on the market now, compared to before.

1. A lot of players don't think upgrading to 95 gear is worth it at the moment unless you're a Sword Lann with low enhance swords. The prices of mats for level 95 equipment is still sky high so not many players have the gold to upgrade yet. Plus, their current equipment is most likely still fine for all content at the moment, including Dullahan and Neamhain so the urge to upgrade or create new gear is less needed. So imo, most likely players are holding onto their high enhance weapons cause it's still viable. Players may start upgrading when Aes Sidhe's update come closer around Spring maybe.

2. +13-15 is a bit harder to reach now. The chance for +13 is 20%, +14 is 16%, and +15 is 15%, compared to the old chance of 33% for +13, +14, and +15. Sure, mats are easier to get now to try for higher enhance but there's a very high chance that the higher enhance weapons you're looking for are already bound and can no longer be sold.

3. The player base now is also a lot lower than before so there's a lot less people selling their weapons.

4. This might be silly but since OP is looking for a bow/gun, another reason why it might be harder to find a high enhance level gun/bow might be that 75% of the population are playing as female characters. I don't know how it is on East but lately, it's becoming much more hard for me to come across another player who's playing a male character. Often times, I'm the only one in the party playing a male character but maybe, that's just my experience on West and pugs. So since fewer players are playing male characters, it's become harder to find high enhance weapons for some classes but it's just a possibility.


But KR has released a guaranteed +13 seal shop rune that you can get that only works on level 90 weapons. I expect it to not be here until around mid-late Spring, if you would like to wait for that.

On another note, I've just finished making a +11 C/S level 95 weapon yesterday. A lot of my friends were surprised that I was able to make it so quick. I had spent many months in advance preparing for Dullahan's update since I saw the huge amount of crit to be worth the upgrade since I play Sword Lann. I decided to take the new 95 sword on a test run in Neamhain and Dullahan to see how it goes and compare it to my old +13 level 90 swords. In the end. even though my new level 95 swords allowed me to finally be able to cap both Neamhain and Dullahan and play more comfortably, my old +13 still beats it in damage even though I'm not capped on Neam/Dulla with it. Then again, my +11 lvl 95 only has 1k AD compared to the 2k AD on my +13. Too bad, I can't enhance the +11 level 95 anymore, it already boomed and I'm too broke to make another one. So, in conclusion, if you want to do more damage, go enhance lol and maybe wait another month or two for more people to make more +13 weapons if you want to buy it.

For me, Dullahan was ok, it was interesting for the first two days but he was not really difficult once I learned him. He just hits really hard.

My only complaint is "ghost duty."

Already, some pugs are dedicating only one person whose job is to keep ghost aggro while the other three dps. If the ghost teleports to one of the dps-er, they would simply run to whoever's on ghost duty so they can get the ghost aggro off them and the dps-er would run back to the boss and do whatever they're doing.

Even though it works, I don't agree with this method. For me, it feels like Lakoria's old gimmick, where one unfortunate "runner" is forced to lure the tail. It is not fun. It feels the same, if not similar with this method of "ghost duty." I want everyone to be able to get a chance to play together, not have one person left out for 95% of the run to take care of a gimmick.

Overall, I just wished pugs are more willing to take turns luring the ghost away when it teleports to them instead of making only one person responsible for ghost duty. Plus, that person can only hold the ghost aggro for a minute before it teleports to the next person. Maybe, I'm losing my patience with pugs.

Other than that, he's not bad. Third phase is amusing, reminds me of a less intense final phase Zecallion. I wouldn't mind if they made final phase longer but that's just me.

---

Some Dullahan tips! (Hope they were useful to you)

You can tell when the ghost is about to teleport and set her next target even if you don't have any visuals based on sounds.

1. The ghost will "scream" when she teleports and there's a one-second interval before she reappears at the next target. The one-second interval can be used to put some distance from the boss just in case she's targeting you.

2. There's also a "crack" sound when the ghost sets you as her next target, similar to the sound when you get a cursed during Ben Chenner boss fights. If you dont hear a "crack" after one-second the ghost screams, the ghost is not targeting you.

- Character Ranking System: This update is okay but also not that good. It's based solely on stats so if you want, you can p2w your way to Rank 1, which is not something that I approve. I feel like this may eventually be like the other ranking system that we have for battle clear times; eventually, it may fall to the wayside. At the same time, if I were to come up with a better ranking system, I don't really have a good idea. The way Vindictus is set up, it's a little difficult to come up with an interesting ranking system. Plus, I heard some players voiced that they would like a way to not let other players see their gear in the new ranking system

- Changes to Level Requirements of Content: Level requirements for Abyssal and Ein lach is now lvl 80 and lvl 90 respectively. Before Rise, I sometimes do Einlacher and Abyssal for bravery seals and it's beneficial for lower level characters, but I guess if we get free +10 gear now and drop rates have been improved, maybe this change doesn't matter too much ...

=======================================================================================

Sorry for the rant/long post but I just wanted to voice my opinion on the changes and hope something changes. I guess I still like the game but don't want it to see it go this way. There were a lot of good changes for lower players and I like the direction that the game is going for lower levels ... but the changes at end-game are .... depressing. Since 87% of the playerbase are at end-game right now, the bad changes are really hitting us hard the most.

- Additional Damage: Please nerf, the game is boring now just steamrolling through everything, nothing is fun and challenging anymore. Also, see Item Enhancement Revamp below.

- Meditation: I think it's only bad that we now can't gain AP while offline which is not good for players who are taking a break from the game. But with the cost to revive weapons sigificantly reduced, the AP piled up can be use to rank up skills. So this change leans more to the "ok-ish" category but it would be nice if we could gain AP while offline again, especially for characters that needs a ton of AP to rank up skills.

- Item Enhancement Revamp (aka +20): I think we should've stayed at +15 as the enhance cap instead of allowing up to +20. But if +20 absolutely needs to be the new cap, I think it's better to have increased chance of success up until +15 instead of dramatically decreasing the chance after +13. This makes it a lot harder to get +15 now compared to before Rise which enraged a lot of players. Not to mention, the additional damage buff pretty much throws everything out of order. The bosses are getting steamrolled in 2-3 minutes ... which doesn't feel right. Where is the challenge? Where is the satisfaction of putting some effort into beating the boss?


I think we should've added more new content and bosses to keep more players around instead of releasing +20. I have not been playing much myself because all of the content for the past several months have been terrible. Abomination was not good of a raid, if the host is laggy, then that raid is absolute cancer. Ein Lach kidnapped all of my friends to go solo, plus, the "special raids" are just two bosses copied-pasted from two different maps. I remembered a silly forum discussion a while back about different boss mashups but I don't think they were serious about wanting it. At least, Neamhain was pretty fun, the only things I didn't liked about her are the high requirements to cap stats and get timered for 8 minutes if you died, otherwise, it was fun trying to learn her. If the gearing process wasn't so difficult, I would've ran her on my alts too but they were nowhere close to having acceptable stats to run Neam because Brynn was too evil before Rise.


This enhancement revamp may be the worse change out of Rise update. I guess the only thing that, imo, is positive about the enhancement revamp is that you can no longer enhance after it breaks. At least, you will still have a weapon if you try to ragequit so you can come back. Or perhaps bump +20 down to +17 maybe. Unlocking +20 is like dangling a delicious cake from a ridiculously high branch on a tree (sorry, that's a really bad example). You want it badly but you cannot reach it. Yet, you can still see it and know it's not reachable which is very irritating and that's one of the bad things about +20. DevCat said you don't need +20 but I guess we kind of live in an age where we like to be able to get everything at some point. Not to mention most of us on other regions can barely get past +12 compared to KR. I heard that there's a stone for other regions except KR that helps with with higher level enhance so I guess we'll see what happens. Again, this is just my opinion so don't take it too seriously.

- Removal of Assist: How will I randomly be able to stalk my friends now?!

- Damage Contribution based Reward System: Some say it's good, some say it's bad, this change only encourages me to just go solo more, rip raids. Sure, it discourages leechers, but now, the top dps mentallity is intensified. I used to like joining raids and meeting new people but the top dps mentallity drove me nuts so I just ended up soloing everything or running it privately with friends. I really missed the old days of 2014 - 2015, it was fun joining raids (Though running in Lako, Kraken tents, and Annywyn was cancer). But now people are too busy trying to get that top dps.

- Battle Balance Changes: Rip, not really sure how to feel though. I think it's better if it was changed to 5-6 players max instead of 4 if the issue is having players fill the boats or letting players have an easier time hosting. These were supposed to be raids, it doesn't feel right anymore ... and the game feels more empty...All of the changes after "The following raids will be changed to a normal battle," I think, are pretty cool though.

**** Can we have the Damage Contribution Screen back in Neamhain please? :c How will I be able to tell if I've improved now? I use the damage percent to tell whether or not I've gotten better after each battle. Neamhain's the only fun thing that encourages me to log on lately, and now the change is demotivating me :c