Killable Blight Hounds Would be Nice

[Machaeon]

At one point, anyone skilled enough could singlehandedly kill a blight hound; sure they were a pain to kill but at least you didn't need backup for them. Now, I don't know when this was implemented but the current blight hounds are IMPOSSIBLE to handle on your own. My ancient that used to be able to handle them with little more difficulty than anything else in the Eastern Deadlands now gets completely murdered by them. No kidding. First attack they dish out takes out 90% of my health and then they stun and finish the job. Used to be that only Fafnir could put a damper on hunting down the hounds, when he was in the area you would vacate it immediately unless you had a strong group and were determined to hang a large blight hound pelt in your home of choosing. This is normal, that should be expected, but really should it be that way for a normal blight hound? Myself, Alisto, and his healer tried tackling the 'new and improved' blight hounds and failed miserably. Now Alisto is one of the strongest fighters I know in the game and we only managed to (barely) kill one blight hound though not before dying several times... and several times after before we gave up on me getting my Ceremonial Chest Scale from the Imperial Outpost quest.

What I suggest is keeping the blight hounds challenging to fight but scaling them back down to a point where they can be killed by a single player again. Again, I'm not sure when they were messed with and made more difficult to kill but I do remember a point less than a year ago when they were difficult but not impossible to solo and I would love to have them restored to that difficulty.

Devs, let me ask you: Do we really need individual blight hounds tough enough to require a strong group to kill?

[Azath]

This!

Since when were they given critical strike?

Now to hit you with crit strike then lightning stun + stunning blow...they were already the perfect amout of challenge before!

Please return them to the way they were? Before we got the perfect challenge; they were hard, but soloable, now we have to rely on pure luck and very alert and quick healers to kill them. And unless it's any sort of boss, it shouldn't require healers. Especiallya s these mobs are needed for the ceremonial chest scale amongst other quests.

[Alisto]

If they stay as they are, at the very least I'd hope that 1) Fafnir would be moved so you can fight a normal hound without him running smack into you 2) Have the normal hounds' own spawns spaced out a little. Pulling one and surviving is possible, but they seem to have acquired some sort of long range communication since I last mauled one.

Is the quest doable - yes. Is the effort [you'd] have to put into it to finish it worth the reward...definitely not.

[LOVWYRM]

Just made the same experience.
Very annoying.
Other than a bug would be ridicoulous.
nuff said (better)

[Krinharth]

maybe some of top..but I found, that fight with fiaky also seems different. same equip, same mob, but more miss from me and less dmg...is it changed? or I had a bad luck?

[Tzael]

Yeah this stealth change is pretty stupid, something like this should have made it into the patch notes if it was a deliberate decision by the devs - given that it's not in the patch notes this should be moved to the bugs forum and treated as a bug.

Blight hounds were already a suitable challenge, change them back to exactly how they were before the latest patch please, there was nothing wrong with them.

[AmonGwareth]

Yeah this stealth change is pretty stupid, something like this should have made it into the patch notes if it was a deliberate decision by the devs - given that it's not in the patch notes this should be moved to the bugs forum and treated as a bug.

Blight hounds were already a suitable challenge, change them back to exactly how they were before the latest patch please, there was nothing wrong with them.

There was no stealth change. Go read the notes.

One thing we didn't notice was that they had a 250% damage boost on them (not in their school which is what we modified). That will be fixed in Delta 262 which we'll be sending to blight very soon.

I'll take a look at Stunning Blow and Lightning Claws that the Hounds use.

[Tzael]

There was no stealth change. Go read the notes.

One thing we didn't notice was that they had a 250% damage boost on them (not in their school which is what we modified). That will be fixed in Delta 262 which we'll be sending to blight very soon.

I'll take a look at Stunning Blow and Lightning Claws that the Hounds use.

I checked the patch notes, nothing about blight hounds in there, nor any reference to mobs of their school getting new abilities. Could you do me a favour and mention the specific patch note you're referring to please? I stand by what I already said, this change was not intentional otherwise you would have included it in the patch notes.

[08/25/14 14:04:05] You cast Regrowth V.
[08/25/14 14:05:20] Target is 4m out of range.
[08/25/14 14:05:24] Blight Hound dodged your Dispirit Foe.
[08/25/14 14:05:28] You missed Blight Hound with Magic Crush.
[08/25/14 14:05:29] Blight Hound used Lightning Stun on you.
[08/25/14 14:05:29] Blight Hound used Lightning Stun on you.
[08/25/14 14:05:29] Holy Armament of Istara II failed because Tzael has Holy Armament of Istara VI.
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Blight Hound hit you for 608 slash damage .
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Blight Hound hit you for 523 slash damage .
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Blight Hound hit you for 654 slash damage .
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Blight Hound hit you for 614 slash damage .
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Blight Hound hit you for 555 slash damage .
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Mystical Ward of Istara III failed because Tzael has Mystical Ward of Istara IV.
[08/25/14 14:05:30] Mystical Ward of Istara III failed because Tzael has Mystical Ward of Istara IV.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] You are now bound to Morning Light Shrine.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Melee Ward I has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Earthen Crust V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Enhance Armor V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Enhance Focus V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Enhance Health V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Nature Resistance V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Nature Ward V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Regrowth V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Aura of Resistance III has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Gift of Health V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Gift of Armor V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Gift of Dexterity V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Gift of Alacrity V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Gift of Focus V has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Mystical Ward of Istara IV has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Holy Armament of Istara VI has faded.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] You now have 1 Death Point.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Next Death Point will fade in 1 day 4 hours.
[08/25/14 14:05:33] Blight Hound hit you with Critical Strike for 2085 slash damage .
[08/25/14 14:05:33] You have been killed.

You're trying to tell me it's intentional that within 4 seconds of the blight hound landing its initial hit a capable player should be dead? Pull the other one, it's got bells on it mate. I'm really keen to see what patch note you think pertains to blight hounds and other mobs suddenly gaining significant combat abilities. Here are the patch notes mate, trust me, I've been through them twice more after reading your post: http://community.istaria.com/news/?id=566.

BTW there's nothing wrong with the blight hounds using stunning blow and lightning claws, they've had those capabilities all along and players have risen to the challenge posed by frequent stuns. Once we the players understand what this official change to blight hounds is then we can understand why the blight hounds are suddenly not just kick-****** like they used to be, but are now kick-****** on steroids.

[AmonGwareth]

My apologies, the note was marked as public but was in-between two marked internal and got missed. The change was part of Delta 260 and should have read "Blight Hounds have had their stats and abilities completely overhauled". Yes, the change was intentional because they had a lot of abilities they didn't use and some that were pointless. Their resistances and stats were almost copies of Storm Disciples instead of being more monster-focused. So, they were overhauled. The monster object itself had a 250% damage boost on it that I missed and so combined with the additional Crit Strike and the stuns that created a situation we did not anticipate.

Thank you for catching it. Its unfortunate it was not caught on Blight. However, we're fixing it as part of 262 which should be on Blight later this week.

[Machaeon]

Thank you Amon, I look forward to getting my Ceremonial Scale soon~

[Tzael]

Cheers for the update Amon, and I'm sorry for being so blunt with my previous reply.

[Machaeon]

As-is the blight hounds are still quite challenging- I can't fight them off with my hybrid-build level 100 main and require at least one other character to deal damage to even survive just one hound. With two it's not really a problem but given the population issues mentioned in other threads we should't have to rely on other characters unless it's an epic mob. And that means characters with various builds, not just massive melee damage builds, should be able to handle them one-on-one. Currently I'm having to rely on others to get my Ceremonial Chest Scale whereas if I had completed the quest before the blight hounds were tinkered with I could have handled them easily-provided I didn't get a swarm of them.

The hounds are veeery dodgy and have a TON of health so perhaps either dialing back their evasion or their health a bit could make them more manageable. I'm not suggesting that they should be toned down a ridiculous amount just enough so that they can actually be soloed by anyone with a decent idea of what they're doing at level 100. As someone who's soloed Selina the Brilliant based off of my mixed ability to heal well in combat along with dealing decent melee damage, have no trouble hunting level 120+ things in Doom and the ED I should be able to handle level 100-102 Blight hounds but nope! I last about 5 minutes before I run out of heals with my health in the 20% range while the blight hound is in the 80% health range and then the hound finishes me off in short order while I'm powerless to heal myself anymore.

If I could actually hit them more often (reduce dodginess) or if I had to actually hit them less (reduce health) I would have no problem with them- and I shouldn't! It's not a good feeling as someone who regularly hunts in the level 120 range to be decimated by a single level 102.

[AmonGwareth]

There are three issues:

1) They have a lot of health. This is being lowered by "a lot" in the next patch.
2) They have a lot of strength. This is being lowered by 1/3 in the next patch.
3) They now have resistances, when before they did not. Find the damage types they are weak to and exploit those. Ask Lovwyrm, she's tested it out with me.

[Machaeon]

Ahh thank you, that would certainly help a lot... guess I'll have to test out the various damage crystals again for that

[LOVWYRM]

Yes, thank you Amon.
And if possible- take a second look:
Though I had NO probs with my Luna, when we tested it
I recognized some strange behavior, when Mach and me hunted them today (and Luna could not solo a hound anymore):

- they are extremly social
-Fafnir is a group of 4 now.
- they kill you in the skies- though they are out of reach
- gave me a deadly buff i could not see- so could not debuff
- they attack- though I have been sitting far away in the mountain- not moving, casting or pulling.
(other player reported that too)

Anything I can deliver you- so you can look into it?

But Mach got the ceremonial scale- GRATS:-))

[Azath]

- they are extremly social
-Fafnir is a group of 4 now.
- they kill you in the skies- though they are out of reach
- gave me a deadly buff i could not see- so could not debuff
- they attack- though I have been sitting far away in the mountain- not moving, casting or pulling.
(other player reported that too)

To add:
- On social, a group of 3 ancinets were getting new hounds eaisly 40-ish metres from their route just on social radius (as they never aggrod to us at that range unless we attacked another hound or pulled)
- I was killed 40m in the air from a normal attack. Now yes, air attacks are a little odd but 40 METRES should avoid ALL attacks unless it's a spell, but this was a normal attack that ended me.

[AmonGwareth]

They do not have a 40m radius on their aggro or social. Likely they were nearby but hadn't loaded.

[LOVWYRM]

They do not have a 40m radius on their aggro or social. Likely they were nearby but hadn't loaded.

reading that-I do remember:
We had the same prob before, years ago-in excact that area: short in front of/ behind the gate from Hounds/thornwood into blights:
Remember that package of- I think it was aegors- seemed to be one and became up to five after pull/first hit ?
Will try to find that thread again.

edit http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ghlight=aegors