With the latest installment of the LS, it looks like Anet devs were trying to take players back to pre-WOW days, where dungeons were tough open-world experiences. I know another thread bashed the Tower, and generally I’m not big on the EQ nostalgia like some are, but I think Anet delivered a very complex project that did many good things, some of which harken back to old EQ dungeoning. I give the Tower a solid B as a grade.
The good?
- Community building from challenging open world content, but in a limited, non-essential setting (i.e., not “required” for progression). I’ve met and recognized more non-guild members in this event than in any game I’ve played in recent years. That type of community building is what many old EQ players reminisce about (when they forget the bad parts).
- A good try at dynamic scaling of mobs. This needs work, but I think it was a bold move that can be built upon with more attempts. I think a LOT of the issues it has can be solved with a more vigorous respawn schedule of mobs that have lost aggro (BUT keep a longer respawn schedule if they’re killed) so that small groups aren’t stuck with the mobs that a large group has abandoned.
- A good influx of end goals, rewards, and instanced content to being players in with different incentives. I think this is the big success story of this event. Spawn camp farming is hopefully dead and gone with EQ, so some other incentives were needed to unite players towards a common goal. This part alone I would grade as a solid A.
The bad? Lots of tedious, unfun design decisions that felt much more like abuse than “challenge.”
- Finishers required for toxic nightmare court mobs. Coupled with the rampant AEs and knockdowns, these were horribly, horribly tedious to deal with. Take down the krait first, right? Not if they’re veteran or elite, you aren’t. In all parts of this event, the need to subject yourself to conditions, knockdowns and multiple attacks while trying to finish a single kill was nothing but painful, stupid torture. It also ruined a key game mechanic that the game was designed around – player revives. Whoever came up with this at Anet needs a good dose of unpaid leave to teach them a lesson.
- Hallucinations: like the finishers above, these were tedious and disruptive. They combined multiple knockdowns and another mob type that could not be used for reviving (at least, not reliably).
- Scaling inside the instances. This seemed pretty out of whack at times; solo and five man seemed more or less manageable, but in-between had some ridiculous amounts of mobs with a lot of hp to deal with. Keep trying, Anet – I think you can really do a lot of great things in future events if you get this one done right.
- Endless add spawns. The final instance with the Hybrid just loved to pile on adds endlessly, mainly the last two rooms. Many games do this, and I always hate it. The mantra that all the uber-doofs recite in this game is bzrk-or-go-home, and endless add spawns only serve to reward that single-minded approach. You guys can do better than making every fight a dps race.
I run solo or with two friends. I strongly encourage alternative event models, especially with dynamic scaling, since this game is very unforgiving to duos and trios. Keep trying, Anet.
And I do like that it is open world.