I really like the potential of the periscope idea. I love the little notification of ‘you feel like you are being watched’ making you pause to inspect your surroundings to find out whats going on.
However…come on. Knock back. Ranged. Spammable. Who in there right mind thought that was a fun and engaging concept?
I even had the situation where I had killed one, did a few bits and bobs in the area and as I was moving on it respawned and knocked me down another 3 times when I was just trying to pass through!
It hasn’t bothered me much. Sometimes I’ve actually found it helpful when I’ve been trying to find one, I just watch what direction I’m knocked in and go the other way.
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Found ranged weapons work best if you are alone… move left and right as it shoots and you can evade a bit – at least enough to harm it and evade the blasts if you can get the sequence right. If you can get closer then you can switch to a whack em style weapon and finish it off when it moves to its neutral cycle and then loot the remains for the audio thingy. Bad luck though if it spawns friends (including a veteran) while shooting at you…. And found at least one just over the border into Snowden Drifts so they are moving outward!
Necromancers only have stability on terrible elite skills. And they nerfed the staff so I can’t attack the things from a long range anymore.
Then use the Flesh Golem on it, either it’ll tank the knockdowns for you or let you use it’s charge on it that will almost completely destroy them.
I honestly didn’t even realize they spammed knockdowns until the third one I encountered since I was destroying them so fast.
That said they are very annoying to fight and make just moving through areas a pain if you don’t see them right away. But on the bright side they only appear in fixed locations that are easy to avoid after you encounter them once and will be gone in a couple months anyways.
Necromancers only have stability on terrible elite skills. And they nerfed the staff so I can’t attack the things from a long range anymore.
They nerfed the staff? Must look this up.
But have you tried minions? Or just that flesh snake-turret thing? Just place it on the opposite side of the direction the sonic is facing and travel there. The easiest way to beat that thing is to just run around in circles because it needs time to move its head and re-target. Easier if you have more then one person and attacking from different directions. Just send you minions after it and run to the otherside! They don’t even take that long to go down.
PS. I get you might not be speced for minions but you don’t need to e specced for minions to temporarily use minion skills.
My brain is shagging under the weight of changes… having six characters was not a good idea!
Necromancers only have stability on terrible elite skills. And they nerfed the staff so I can’t attack the things from a long range anymore.
They nerfed the staff? Must look this up.
They made it so it no longer causes damage past it’s stated range of 1200. However they also changed the horrendous sound he auto-attack made, which I consider to be a massive buff for the staff since I no longer have to mute the game when using it.
Rangers have it wonderful. Pet tanks the periscope and eats the knockback. In a pinch two elites have good long-lasting Stability (Rampage as One, Avatar of Melandru)
Also, traited for extra distance? Rangers can stand outside the range and smack them with a longbow.
Guardians also have it great, Stability on command. (Hallowed Ground)
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Ive found no problem getting close to them by dodging through the sonic blasts. Once you in close you just need to get around behind it and make sure it doesnt get a bead on you and it goes down easy.
Thanks for the advice on dodging and stability, if it weren’t for the posts dripping in sarcasm I would have mistook it for genuine help.
I wasn’t raising this as a skill issue, there are certainly more difficult challenges in the game. I just wanted to see if anyone else thought they were a frustrating addition or just me. If it’s just me then maybe I do just need to man up and take it.
they might not be to much of a problem for the higher lvls and i didn’t have any problems with my guardian who is lvl 80 but as i was trying to lvl a low lvl character in the low lvl area as intended. they are just causing a lot of frustration and for any new people just trying to get the hang of the game i have a feeling they will not wanna deal with this….charr starting area used to be my favorite place to lvl lower toons but i must say that has changed as of now.
Thanks for the advice on dodging and stability, if it weren’t for the posts dripping in sarcasm I would have mistook it for genuine help.
I wasn’t raising this as a skill issue, there are certainly more difficult challenges in the game. I just wanted to see if anyone else thought they were a frustrating addition or just me. If it’s just me then maybe I do just need to man up and take it.
Frustrating? No, I personally do not find them frustration. Annoying? Sure but not in “I don’t want to do this” sort of way, more in the “you annoy me, prepare to die!” sort of way. I take great pleasure in turning those things into scrap.
My brain is shagging under the weight of changes… having six characters was not a good idea!
Are they trouble or frustrating, these Sonic devices, well not really.
Only maybe if u aggro other nearby foes.
But annoying, if u r exploring and fail to notice them.
Wich i got better at, there is indeed a warning icon, and an affect at yer chars feet and u can hear them.
To summarize, imo they r not a positive addition.
Personally, I thought this might be a reasonably non-threatening way to get people used to using dodges, blocks, stunbreaks, etc.
Getting the timing wrong or just not bothering makes it annoying, but not impossible.
Thanks for the advice on dodging and stability, if it weren’t for the posts dripping in sarcasm I would have mistook it for genuine help.
I was trying to be genuinely helpful. It took me a couple beats to think “Oh, right, Stability” myself since I don’t often have to employ it regularly. Last time I had to consciously remember I had it was Swamp Fractal.
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Thanks for the advice on dodging and stability, if it weren’t for the posts dripping in sarcasm I would have mistook it for genuine help.
I wasn’t raising this as a skill issue, there are certainly more difficult challenges in the game. I just wanted to see if anyone else thought they were a frustrating addition or just me. If it’s just me then maybe I do just need to man up and take it.
As it happens I DO find them annoying, {scene} being on a narrow ledge heading to a Vista and Pop —- over the edge you go because a Periscope just blasted you. And I have not found stability very effective against their knockback, nor is dodge always possible (see above about narrow ledge and vista)
Thanks for the advice on dodging and stability, if it weren’t for the posts dripping in sarcasm I would have mistook it for genuine help.
I was trying to be genuinely helpful. It took me a couple beats to think “Oh, right, Stability” myself since I don’t often have to employ it regularly. Last time I had to consciously remember I had it was Swamp Fractal.
My apologies then. I think thats the point though, people are in the open world not necessarily employing survival utility skills, or just too low level to even have them.
I tried taking one on without a ranged weapon and just could not do it without being knocked down at least once. I have not succeeded in taking one down before my endurance bar is used up.
Go with an Elementalist and equip the Lesser Elemental and Greater Elemental (type doesn’t matter). They don’t seem to get knocked back. When you are down, the summoned elementals keep flailing away.
Throw on some stability stuff and you should be set.
Alternatively, try ranged attacks and let your companion bash at the periscopes (while healing them).
I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming like the people in his car.
The first periscope I found was outside the Black Citadel. Barely even to the first heart in Plains of Ashford.
So let’s think about what sorts of characters might be here. Level 2. Brand new players. With repeated knockdown skills at range.
So… how are they going to deal with this? Simple. They’ll die. They don’t have the skills on their character to help (especially for melee characters that might not have alternate weapons yet). They probably don’t have the gaming skills to dodge properly. They certainly won’t have utility skills to give them stability to deal with the knockdowns.
All of the suggestions on how to deal with these periscopes need to take this into account. We’re not talking about level 80 areas here — but brand new player-ville.
That said, even as a level 80 elementalist I found these periscopes to be highly annoying. Stability is too short with too long of a cooldown to effectively deal with the frequent and repeated knockdowns (though I’ll admit that I didn’t have any elementals out, that might have made things easier).
My solution? Kitten it. I’ll just avoid the blasted things until the Flame and Frost is over.
Also they only drop those scraps and they only give you karma. I have enough Karma, I do not want or need more. I want items I can get weapons or something with. Such as fused tickets? Maybe? So I do not have to gamble to get them?
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Maybe it depends on the class and level you play (having casters/rangers being knocked more easy), but the frequency and the speed the periscope turns can make it hard to dodge/evade Further you can even stand behind a huge rock and still get pushed over. If you have been pushed over once, there is nearly no way of a counter attack, as in the second one get back up on the feet it blast already once again. Also circling around is hard as the periscope nearly turns around instantly (or is it just the lag that make it look like?).
While I liked a lot of the other part of the living story I have to agree that this starts to get unfun…
Ahhh nkuvu you put that into words better then me and that is the same one and area i was talkimg about…granted i kno how to dodge n did use it to do so it still knocked me around a few times b4 i got the timing right and after that did manage to kill the thing… it still took awhile beating on it to kill….btw i was using a lvl 13 necro so no stubility and minions kinda worked for a bit till they got killed….anyways point being that a lvl 2-3 wouldnt as the op said no fun at all
I only had issues with them when I created a new character. Getting hit by one of those things at lvl 3 is not pleasant.
But otherwise they are fine. Usually only takes about 2 dodges to close the gap.
They’re not game-breaking or anything, but it would make a bit more sense if you had to actively trigger it to make it start blasting you, instead of just stumbling into its attack radius. From a pragmatic gameplay perspective, this makes it less intrusive for a player who’s trying to accomplish some other objective in the vicinity. (It’s super-annoying when I’m just trying to harvest and move on, and the scope keeps blasting me.)
From a story-immersion perspective, it would make more sense to have to actively trigger it because these are supposed to be spying devices, right? Why would you want your spying equipment to randomly start blasting the people you’re trying to spy on? I thought the whole point of spying was to keep a low profile. Also, I think it would have been fun if they were a sort of hot-and-cold puzzle where you had to figure out where they were hidden based on the strength of the noise.
I only had issues with them when I created a new character. Getting hit by one of those things at lvl 3 is not pleasant.
But otherwise they are fine. Usually only takes about 2 dodges to close the gap.
How are you dealing with them once you get close? I found them much harder to dodge at melee range.
I would have made them turn more slowly, but give them some sort of minor turret attack that shoots while the heavy pushback is slowly turning to target. This lets a mobile, aware player fight it with some pew pew, whereas the slow, or innatentive player gets pushed over and shot by the mini gun.
Circle strafe should be enough to avoid the knockdown, but knockdown shouldn’t be its only trick.
As it is, they are cool at first and then very very annoying.
Yes, dodge.
We’ve all got a dodge skill, which in itself goes a long way to highlighting just how important it is.
Honestly i feel it has become overly important. Btw, that thing shoots a knockback cone at least 1200 units out. And doing it so fast that unless you have swiftness up you need to dodge two times before you get close to it, only to get knocked back once the third blast happens before your endurance is back unless you happen to also have vigor going.
Never mind that they spawn in the weirdest of places, like on the hillside sporting a vista on top. Meaning that you need to get past it to get to the vista. This is on par with the sonic knockback dredge they parked on the unsecured walkway right next to a vista high above a major drege dig site.
I only had issues with them when I created a new character. Getting hit by one of those things at lvl 3 is not pleasant.
But otherwise they are fine. Usually only takes about 2 dodges to close the gap.
How are you dealing with them once you get close? I found them much harder to dodge at melee range.
Circling around it so it has to readjust it’s aim all the time seems to be working for me…so basically how you deal with most heavy hitters that don’t use aoe lol
First of all I like new content and I like challenges, but this is my story. I decided to make a char Thief (The last profession I never played). I needed at level 2 the first heart. Got wiped in 2seconds by one of these things. This should be the tutorial area, where you have time to master your profession, learn the game and unlock your skills. I had to go to Queensdale to learn how to play my new profession.
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- Standing behind a tree while minions kill it
- dodging
- using an axe. (Dodge, skill 2, dodge into cover; repeat)
- Setting the flesh wurm behind it and then ignoring it until the wurm kills it
- making the golem charge it
- detonating bone minions on it
- setting the bone fiend to immobile, and letting it plink away
These things don’t have a lot of hit points. Why the complaints? They’re SUPPOSED to be annoying, that’s part of the whole concept.
How are you dealing with them once you get close? I found them much harder to dodge at melee range.
As an experiment, I did one on my warrior. I mostly walked in a lazy circle around it and dodge rolled as soon as it finished drawing a bead on me.
So in essence it is like any other mob, pain in a behind to deal with unless you zerker strafe it to death…
Nice work ANet, do anyone on the team not main a sig zerker?!
. . . you do realize that was the intent, right? That you not just stand and wail on things but actually have to dodge?
My ranger, I drop “Rampage as One” and it dies before it runs out. My guardian, I drop “Hallowed Ground” and maybe it dies in time. My warrior lacks Stability right now so instead I just club it to death and sometimes bring my Shield Stance out.
And as I said, I’ve successfully taken them down at range or up close by waiting for them to draw a bead and then dodging the blast.
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Tenacity and creativity deal with the sonic periscope just doing the knockbacks. Look to your strengths to take them out. I deal with those ok. You just have to watch for what else is in the area that gets aggroed while trying to take it out and make sure you are not overwhelmed. The really harder ones are the odd ones that spawns the veteran and friends that are not fun especially if you are alone. I don’t really mind them overall except for the spawning ones.
These sonic periscopes do lend a lot to the story especially if you are ranging further afield and not just staying in one area. Seeing them deeper in Snowden Drifts says the Molten Alliance are making headway from Wayfayer Foothills. It makes me wonder if we can slow them or stop them by continuing to take out periscopes as we find them. (would be a nice touch to see that we had an impact if we kept hitting them over and over by reducing their scope of area)
I have not checked out other areas outside of Diessa to see if they are also spreading there but I suspect they have or will be.
My strategy is simple, set up the rocket and rifle turrets within range, let them get smacked around by the sonic periscope, while I go a little further back, pop the mortar out, and hit skill 5. BOOM! Instant sonic periscope death, no knockback troubles. (It also does not knock you back while you are operating the mortar I have found.)
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Honestly i feel it has become overly important. Btw, that thing shoots a knockback cone at least 1200 units out. And doing it so fast that unless you have swiftness up you need to dodge two times before you get close to it, only to get knocked back once the third blast happens before your endurance is back unless you happen to also have vigor going.
Never mind that they spawn in the weirdest of places, like on the hillside sporting a vista on top. Meaning that you need to get past it to get to the vista. This is on par with the sonic knockback dredge they parked on the unsecured walkway right next to a vista high above a major drege dig site.
Amen to that. If the Monthly achievement didn’t include these things as part of the monthly list, I’d permanently avoid them. The ranged knockback spam requires all of your concentration and resources to deal with. Yet all too often, they’re also placed around hostile mobs. So while you’re trying to kill the mobs, the periscopes just troll you to death. Or if you ignore the mobs to go after the periscope, then the mobs will kill you in the process. It’s all exceedingly stupid.
I shouldn’t feel the need to pull out an 80th characters in full Exotic to slaughter mobs in lvl 15-25 zone because it’s the only sane way to get things done. It’s just aggravating and out of whack for where the difficulty should be.
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How are you dealing with them once you get close? I found them much harder to dodge at melee range.
As an experiment, I did one on my warrior. I mostly walked in a lazy circle around it and dodge rolled as soon as it finished drawing a bead on me.
So in essence it is like any other mob, pain in a behind to deal with unless you zerker strafe it to death…
Nice work ANet, do anyone on the team not main a sig zerker?!
. . . you do realize that was the intent, right? That you not just stand and wail on things but actually have to dodge?
My ranger, I drop “Rampage as One” and it dies before it runs out. My guardian, I drop “Hallowed Ground” and maybe it dies in time. My warrior lacks Stability right now so instead I just club it to death and sometimes bring my Shield Stance out.
And as I said, I’ve successfully taken them down at range or up close by waiting for them to draw a bead and then dodging the blast.
Funny how many solutions right now seems to involve elite skills, when these things are popping up in areas meant for characters that are working towards their third utility slot…
And i have no problem dodging things like the ogres, but those telegraph their major attacks strongly. This thing spams a long range knockdown as its basic attack from the word go. Walk into range (never mind trying to judge the max range, as it seems the attack propagates more than 1200 units out) and boom.
I was not aware that this game required the reflexes of a energy drink guzzling squirrel for basic open world fights.
Honestly i feel it has become overly important. Btw, that thing shoots a knockback cone at least 1200 units out. And doing it so fast that unless you have swiftness up you need to dodge two times before you get close to it, only to get knocked back once the third blast happens before your endurance is back unless you happen to also have vigor going.
Never mind that they spawn in the weirdest of places, like on the hillside sporting a vista on top. Meaning that you need to get past it to get to the vista. This is on par with the sonic knockback dredge they parked on the unsecured walkway right next to a vista high above a major drege dig site.
Amen to that. If the Monthly achievement didn’t include these things as part of the monthly list, I’d permanently avoid them.
Actually i think that is a mistake. What is required are reports from a whisper agent, distributed in various places around Diessa and Wayfarers in much the same fashion as the refugee items. The audio logs from the periscopes are just a karma source (100 a log, iirc) with no affect on the achievements.
Actually i think that is a mistake. What is required are reports from a whisper agent, distributed in various places around Diessa and Wayfarers in much the same fashion as the refugee items. The audio logs from the periscopes are just a karma source (100 a log, iirc) with no affect on the achievements.
Well my April Monthly was updating from those periscope loot drops. You are correct that they are worthless for the Living Story achievement updates. Those updates only come from those glimmering location logs. But unless you want to ignore the audio log category of the Monthly, then you will need to farm periscopes.
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Hrmf, either the shockwave is instant or dodging on the sound is already too late (i have yet to notice any tells). Or it could be that these turrets highlight the, imo, issue that dodges have a windup just like skills. Meaning that you basically need to dodge a split second before you actually need to dodge to make sure you are actually evading when you need to be evading, if that makes any sense what so ever!
Only issue I might have with the spamming of knockdown (which you can avoid and it cant go through things like trees) is when mobs are nearby. The idea then is to take the mobs out nearby then go for the periscope. I prefer ranged for this. However, if you take too long to kill the periscope, it summons Molten Alliance mobs with a chance for one of them to be a vet. I know this cause that’s what I got from one periscope in Diessa Plateau.
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