Post by nippon on Nov 11, 2015 23:18:03 GMT -5
All instances so far has been with Bruce Mc'Alister, who has an average skill level in the high fourties. He wears full plate(40) in a full set with varying mods. I would loosely use the term 'juggernaut' to describe him.
Arena
So far I can say I love this feature. It was difficult to kickstart as I was a high level fighting gladiators that'd fall effortlessly for the first 30 levels. Now that I've reached my own level the enemies are challenging and the fights are fun. The AI seems to have appropriately leveled skills for the level of the arena, using third tier actions in the 50's. I've tried just about every numble of AI companions and settled on 4-5 team battles. The 8 man battle was a madhouse of action and unfortunately, using AOE's turn all your allies against you. The result was a 15v1. I've not been able to utilize the elite fight option yet. I'm under the assumption that it doesn't unlock until level 80 or it only tallies your wins in a row for the reset. The payouts have scaled dramatically from the starting levels and although they are not much (I'm averaging 50-80$ per win in the level 50's) they do add up over time - as matches are quickly finished.
Desert Voyage
I will try to be vague and avoid spoilers here because this part totally caught be by surprise in a good way. This boat ride had me at the edge of my seat. It alternated between two of the encounters (Not sure if there's more surprises up PE's sleeve here) and I managed to scrape by both times by running down the clock. The concept is great and I'm hoping for more instances to be added to this so that one never truly knows what's going to happen. Positive encounters in the future maybe?
Desert Village
Bruce wandered around here for a while. The outdoor inn looks great and I really love the unique way PE creates these landscapes. Gushing aside, the first thing I looked around for was the shops. I believe there's supposed to be two shops available but at the time there was only the weapon shop with an NPC standing across the way that wouldn't respond to poking. Some basic supply shop would be grand here, as the instances outside the village are incredibly punishing. Snagged up the quests and immediately felt moral qualms for the details of one - but nothing stands in the way of imperialism!
Sand Elf Desert (CR 50?)
I would recommend a group for everything out here. The only reason I was able to do this solo was because I use high damaging mods in the form of a chainblade weapon and flame gauntlets as well as a healthly amount of grenades. The elves seem to strictly use spears and hunting rifles which results in extremely high damage application in a short amount of time. Solo resulted in 2 elves being at each spawnpoint. I sit at 50 armor DR and frequently use "Hold the line" but I still scraped by here by the skin of my teeth. A suggestion I have here is to throw other nomadic weapons into the mix that the elves might use like scimitars or six-shooters. That might soften things up a bit. Embarassingly enough I stared at a pile of crates and boxes that deviously look just like the placables we're accustomed to for some ten minutes or more before I realized they were just decoration. -Shakes fist.- I wandered around the entire area looking for an entrance to some secret elven enclave, but got lost several times and decided to just proceed onwards to the oasis.
Oasis (CR 60?)
Man . . the entrance to this area is just too good. This place was masterfully done and climbing up a massive dune that served as a barrier to the oasis really immersed me into the setting. Unfortunately Bruce did not get to fill his canteen with the precious lifesaving water of the oasis - as he was immediately slam dunked by a Wyvern. These guys . . There's just no way to solo this. As I was watching the toxicity bar fill up between the short instances in which this thing wasn't in the air - I realized the necessity of a toxicity purging medic for these encounters. My antidotes were not enough to keep the accumulation down and the bugger wouldn't stay grounded long enough for me to fight back. Bruce decided retreat was the best option, and chevorlegged it the hell out of there when the Wyvern jumped back up into the air. Later on I returned with Bruce to try and tackle the Wyvern predicament again with knowledge of how the creatures worked. The toxicity bar filled up to fruition through potions though, and the result was instant death via the Wyvern poison.
Sand Pit (CR 70?)
I watched tremors recently so sand worms were a treat. There must be some special trick to fighting sand worms - like not fighting them at all - to get through this area . . as my experience with a worm firsthand was being killed in two strikes. Stuck a pin in this one for a later day.
I'll try to add more to this later, I really want to tackle this place with a well formed group of varying classes.
Arena
So far I can say I love this feature. It was difficult to kickstart as I was a high level fighting gladiators that'd fall effortlessly for the first 30 levels. Now that I've reached my own level the enemies are challenging and the fights are fun. The AI seems to have appropriately leveled skills for the level of the arena, using third tier actions in the 50's. I've tried just about every numble of AI companions and settled on 4-5 team battles. The 8 man battle was a madhouse of action and unfortunately, using AOE's turn all your allies against you. The result was a 15v1. I've not been able to utilize the elite fight option yet. I'm under the assumption that it doesn't unlock until level 80 or it only tallies your wins in a row for the reset. The payouts have scaled dramatically from the starting levels and although they are not much (I'm averaging 50-80$ per win in the level 50's) they do add up over time - as matches are quickly finished.
Desert Voyage
I will try to be vague and avoid spoilers here because this part totally caught be by surprise in a good way. This boat ride had me at the edge of my seat. It alternated between two of the encounters (Not sure if there's more surprises up PE's sleeve here) and I managed to scrape by both times by running down the clock. The concept is great and I'm hoping for more instances to be added to this so that one never truly knows what's going to happen. Positive encounters in the future maybe?
Desert Village
Bruce wandered around here for a while. The outdoor inn looks great and I really love the unique way PE creates these landscapes. Gushing aside, the first thing I looked around for was the shops. I believe there's supposed to be two shops available but at the time there was only the weapon shop with an NPC standing across the way that wouldn't respond to poking. Some basic supply shop would be grand here, as the instances outside the village are incredibly punishing. Snagged up the quests and immediately felt moral qualms for the details of one - but nothing stands in the way of imperialism!
Sand Elf Desert (CR 50?)
I would recommend a group for everything out here. The only reason I was able to do this solo was because I use high damaging mods in the form of a chainblade weapon and flame gauntlets as well as a healthly amount of grenades. The elves seem to strictly use spears and hunting rifles which results in extremely high damage application in a short amount of time. Solo resulted in 2 elves being at each spawnpoint. I sit at 50 armor DR and frequently use "Hold the line" but I still scraped by here by the skin of my teeth. A suggestion I have here is to throw other nomadic weapons into the mix that the elves might use like scimitars or six-shooters. That might soften things up a bit. Embarassingly enough I stared at a pile of crates and boxes that deviously look just like the placables we're accustomed to for some ten minutes or more before I realized they were just decoration. -Shakes fist.- I wandered around the entire area looking for an entrance to some secret elven enclave, but got lost several times and decided to just proceed onwards to the oasis.
Oasis (CR 60?)
Man . . the entrance to this area is just too good. This place was masterfully done and climbing up a massive dune that served as a barrier to the oasis really immersed me into the setting. Unfortunately Bruce did not get to fill his canteen with the precious lifesaving water of the oasis - as he was immediately slam dunked by a Wyvern. These guys . . There's just no way to solo this. As I was watching the toxicity bar fill up between the short instances in which this thing wasn't in the air - I realized the necessity of a toxicity purging medic for these encounters. My antidotes were not enough to keep the accumulation down and the bugger wouldn't stay grounded long enough for me to fight back. Bruce decided retreat was the best option, and chevorlegged it the hell out of there when the Wyvern jumped back up into the air. Later on I returned with Bruce to try and tackle the Wyvern predicament again with knowledge of how the creatures worked. The toxicity bar filled up to fruition through potions though, and the result was instant death via the Wyvern poison.
Sand Pit (CR 70?)
I watched tremors recently so sand worms were a treat. There must be some special trick to fighting sand worms - like not fighting them at all - to get through this area . . as my experience with a worm firsthand was being killed in two strikes. Stuck a pin in this one for a later day.
I'll try to add more to this later, I really want to tackle this place with a well formed group of varying classes.
