lets talk about Valkor

[LOVWYRM]

ok.

You have to search for him.
You have to chase him.
He covers a wide area.
that can take a while.

Precious ingame time.

I can live with the fact, that I have to search for SoG in all ED.
And chase him if he is in the mood to hide or run.

But pls- is it really a challange, is it really fun to spend up to 1 h to find one of both??? Concerning me-NO
So send Valkor back to his castle and lock him there!

Next complaint about Valkor:
If you are lucky and find him- you have to get your group there- meanwhile he`s gone again.
I can live with the fact that the one who pulls, dies most of the time, that Valkor whipes group- no matter how strong we are.

But what happened to his guards? They are strong enough to be bosses themselves.

To make a long story short: Obviersly my friends and me are to weak and too unexperienced to kill Valkor, or the anchor or queen, or..

What is left to do- as we all have build up several plots and lairs?

Players of Chaos- as you are the ones who set the benchmarks-
shall Order players be satisfied with rp and crafting- do we have to leave our shard to succeed with the bosses? No probs at all on Chaos?

I know that it takes a lot of tactics to kill bosses- and be sure we know about that.
But its not possible for Order to play with full groups- we simply are not enough. Any ideas? Or is leaving Order the only solution?


and btw: this is not a lovesong;-)^^

[hallucin8]

Hi Lov thought I would start with a nice greeting

[Most of this is probably just tactics and comments, so read at your own peril]

I'm on Chaos and I do consider myself a bit of a SoG hunter, fortunately he has pre-set spawns (and travel directions), so we generally have some place to start looking at least. Of course as we all know, he does have a tendency to hide.

[Just going to mention, I'm a heavily multi-classed Druid primarily used for healer/support/stun, but I also have an Ancient Lunus]

I believe Valkor does run the same large long path, though I could be wrong (Would be lovely if it wasn't so long!). I have been on a few hunts for him and I am typically the puller (first DP), so I'll share my experiences.

Naturally the first issue is getting a big enough group, given his damage output and overpowered guards, death is inevitable. I think we need to accept that and try to minimize losses. Loosely speaking, 4 dragons, myself and a ranger (can he still be stunned?) will do the trick. Any more dragons and I would usually need another healer as my heals will not be able to keep up with his Bats (even 4 dragons can sometimes stretch me a bit thin).

His biggest issue is definitely Bats, which can wipe the group as we well know. The only way to combat this is healing power, so the more healers the better.

When I pull him, I use Perfect Spell, Multi-Cast then use Dispel (blight spell) and that can help remove his Multi-Cast, so when he does use Bats (and he will) hopefully it won't wipe the group from the start. From there it's just a matter of kill, kill, kill (and heal a lot ). Also, make sure people aren't looting his adds as this should slowdown their respawn time.

I don't really know if any of this will help you, but for what it's worth, I've found luck will always play a big part of Epic mob hunting

See yas in Istaria

[Vortura]

I didn't like the change to make Valkor run all around the mountain, although may have been done to stop the spawn camping that used to happen up there.
His personal guards I could do without, but were probably added to stop really small groups, 2-3 players, from taking him down.

The guards have an ethereal attack buff just like a Reaver.
IIRC this can be dispelled. (or I might be thinking of the Blight Hound's lightning claws)
Pretty sure they can also be stunned so their buff wears off. Just need for someone to spot them and take action.

A week or so ago we almost got Valkor, down to about 7k hp before we got smushed.

I have been logging in a lot more of late, and trying to lead a hunt every time.
That Valkor hunt (Hunt Report: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=25887) was the first time many had hunted SoG, Daknor and Valkor, or at least the first hunt for a long time.

I'm not satisfied with Order being just a RP chat channel/crafting shard either. There's so much more to this world.

[LOVWYRM]

agreed Vortura.

I have the prob that returning players, after they`ve sorted hotkeys, bought a plot aso- they want to go out hunting.
They are vets-they used to be uber.

What is there that I could offer?
Not the queen, the Delga-anchor -this,I do explain, is something to do later.
(and they are bugged anyway).

ok-lets go and meet old enemies:
Good old SoG-
we all have his routes marked on our maps, Flame attack-yes still its this-stunnable, yes- now and then. Sog is Ok. Reliable.

Valkor?
not on Order (as described above).

Reklar?
Reklar will be killed by a paroxysm of laughter if a group manages to come to his place- or he`ll get an heart attack, cause he forgot that there is life besides him and his friends in Istaria.

AoP?
dp and what for?

Lets kill blights? Fyakki? Not enough around for a good group hunt.

Lets hunt trophies/comps..
who drops what ?
Sry- all has changed , has new names- I do not remember. Pls new /retunrning player: Read patch notes/wiki

What I want to say, what I ask for is:
Give Order something to hunt (for), something that is not bugged, and managable with a group of vets AND unexperienced (but high level)players.
Something worth organizing group hunts (which is hard work- I can tell).
Like it has been all the years before.
We re gonna loose returning players and all players that just come to endgame content. If there is nothing to gain than dp and lame loot.


hallucin: Thank you for greetings, nice words and advice. Much appreciated!
*winghug*
I am really interested in hearing how things work on Chaos,
never hear complaints from you folks.
I hope I could explain why I want to know, and why I ask for changes.
I love the game too much to stay silent if I see that people are driven away for obviers reasons.


(and yes-with a group of my old uber-friends (team from Unity) -We`ll kill èm all. But does that makes sense? Elite end-game content? No new members allowed in that club?)

[Northwind]

What keept Valkor alive at our last attempts on Order was actually a simple matter of lacking healing power.
Basically we could not find a second healer to support our group of 5-6 dragons/bipeds and one healer was simple not able to keep us alive.

Edit: We also lacked discipline and within 10 minutes we were spread all over, but shhhhh!

[Peaches]

Hrmm Cant remember which, but we succeeded with one healer, ermm or did we? Lol I cant remember now. Sheesh

[LOVWYRM]

lol peaches- we did- thy to our perfect healer-kitty

and Morkx- who pulls Valkor to where he wants it to be
and gives us time to form up far behind Valkors first attacs.

[Guaran]

Once you pull valkor be sure to keep dispelling him so that he doesn't get a multicast off mid fight, which can happen. Don't ignore the guards, kill them first, just keep valkor stunned as well during this time. Once you get valkor alone, do your best to keep him stunned (gives you the time to dispell his multicast) and you should do ok.

Is he still only vulnerable to Life damage? Might need blighted weapons which convert damage to life. (But I think this was changed).

[Garfonso]

Nature does not damage him, which makes my poor kitty pretty useless against him. So I concentrated on the guards... But that drew their aggro against me, and my poor kitty can't take up with more than one (or maybe two) of them. So I was gone quite fast...

But I was there only for one try... so maybe with a bit more tactics it could work. My cat can also stun and dispel. He's a Shaman after all.

[LOVWYRM]

primal attack works fine against Valkor, Guaran.
And thank you for your input!

Maybe I was not clear: Valkor is not the prob:
His long ways and his sudden resettings (even if you`ve already pulled him)
along with the mighty guards make it unmanagable most of the times.
Pulling without group-whipe,keeping it stunned- dispelling, killing guards -healing...it needs a tough and experienced group. No chance for beginners...
besides the fact, that we do not have all those schools available all the time on Order.

I am not asking for a silver plate, and yes I want it like "no pain no gain"
but I do not want to be Valkor and Reklar be an "veterans only" event.

btw: I forgot in previous post:

PLEASE SET SOG and VALKOR on 1 HOUR RESPAWN

its wasted time to look for him after
1h to find out he`s back after 1.40, 1.50. 2 h.
Would be much appreciated!

[Finkledbody]

primal attack works fine against Valkor, Guaran.
And thank you for your input!

Maybe I was not clear: Valkor is not the prob:
His long ways and his sudden resettings (even if you`ve already pulled him)
along with the mighty guards make it unmanagable most of the times.
Pulling without group-whipe,keeping it stunned- dispelling, killing guards -healing...it needs a tough and experienced group. No chance for beginners...
besides the fact, that we do not have all those schools available all the time on Order.

I am not asking for a silver plate, and yes I want it like "no pain no gain"
but I do not want to be Valkor and Reklar be an "veterans only" event.

btw: I forgot in previous post:

PLEASE SET SOG and VALKOR on 1 HOUR RESPAWN

its wasted time to look for him after
1h to find out he`s back after 1.40, 1.50. 2 h.
Would be much appreciated!

Though I would like to see a shorter time on SoG. This would once again lead to spawn camping. SoG and Valkor only spawn in so many areas and for some players, whom carry 3-5 accounts, can easily cover all of these areas. Converge on the him and wipe him out time and time again. These toons that do this, are very good at it, can take SoG down with as little as 3 toons in 3 minutes.

I say, keep it the way it is. Its random, can take up to 4 hours for him to spawn, making it very difficult to camp him. Its the only way to control the toons exploiting the generous spawn rates that we all truly wish for.

[LOVWYRM]

*sigh* this is still going on on Chaos? That is sad and I did not know.
I was there when it started...

Well*shruggs* be it

We on Order hardly have enough players to fight èm, but surely not enough to camp the bosses..

(but we have òl tough heros who can solo SoG- without any cheating ,
and gimmi a healer- thazts enough^^- but I love full groups: Greenhorns must be trained- right? )

[Freelancer]

These toons that do this, are very good at it, can take SoG down with as little as 3 toons in 3 minutes.

There would be very few players that would be able to solo SoG in 3 mins with 3 toons. Fastest that I have done it with three is 2:01. That was with moss club, Demon Claw, Flame damage, and hero's resolve (back when it was a 15 min buff). When you have all of those thing working together... well see my sig (and drain strike can do 3000 damage by itself). 2:01 was with three individual players. However I have heard of many players that dual box him. Dragon and biped is all you need.

[meepsa]

not gonna be asking for a major SoG buff, but might I add that, compared to Valkor, SoG is just a little puppy, though it has been a while since I last fought him with an actual group (mostly trying to solo him, got him 3/4th of his health one day)

now Valkor actually was just as easy, perhaps a bit harder, but if I'm not mistaken either himself or his guards got some crazy buffs a while ago (and that basicly was when I stopped hunting him) where he just became impossible to hunt. before this we could basicly take him down with say....3 ancients, 1 adult and a ped, and I'm pretty sure we actually had a rather large group of dragons another time to hunt him, and we got our TAILS HANDED TO US.

our personal record for SoG: 3 dragons, no deaths, under 5 minutes (though the vid is a bit sped up) Vid
only Valkor vid we have on our channel (the 3 ancients, 1 adult, 1 ped one): Vid

[LOVWYRM]

*rofls: "TAILS HANDED TO US"- never heard that
*Imagines Valkor handing out tails of all colors to those on the ground-- ROFL*

[Dhalin]

So if I'm reading all of this right..

One shard (Order) gets punished because people on the other shard (Chaos) camp him?

I can't help but to say that's kinda stupid. So basically, if you want to do anything in Istarian endgame, better go move your character over to Chaos, because all of the Endgame stuff is balanced around Chaos's actions, population, and players available, while Order remains very difficult, and from what some of the people have been saying, absurdly hard (I'll try to avoid using the term 'impossible')?

This does not sound like good game design IMO.

Isn't there some kind of middle-ground that could be reached here?

One server's endgame shouldn't suffer because of the other server's population and dual-boxing antics.

[Chioxin]

Heh, really Dhalin?

I think that's a bit over exaggerating, to say it's bad design and also that we need to change servers. It's nice to think that there's a happy solution for the two and ... frankly ... I think they've probably done the best with what they have. It's hard to balance a game that's meant to be a world and enjoyed as a world for all, when that world contains both super hard core min maxers, and casuals alike.

What would your solution be? Your middle ground? Remember, the two servers MUST stay the same! One server can not be different than the other, a problem they ran into when trying to run major events. I believe Feladan had a delayed spawning on one server because the other server was taking to long to complete the task.

Anyway... it's a hunt! It's epic! It's an endeavor and a challenge! It's also doable, apparently? So those of us on Order just need to get better, more focused, more awesome!!! =)

I for one, would be against them making it easier to do... if I know it's doable by others. Doable by others dual boxing is actually a kick in my face =P Time to step it up!

[Dhalin]

Well, considering the amount of high-end players continuing to post about their troubles in killing these guys, I have my doubts that it is "just" a problem of lack of skill or anything like that.

How many threads have we seen that "this is unbeatable", "that is unbeatable", and "we round up everyone we could but still couldn't kill the stupid thing"?

And said threads always come from players on Order; I've never seen one of these threads come from someone who plays on Chaos.

Now some of these mobs might be bugged, but Chaos has the sheer player population to handle the bugginess of said mobs (or, maybe they're balanced around Chaos's population and the devs expect us to "throw more bodies at it" even when that is highly impractical on Order).

What do I expect them to do?

Well, for starters, maybe tone to mobs down just a hair to some happy middle-ground, so that they can be done on Order with a fewer number of players?

Chaos might have more people with old overpowered items, but that doesn't mean you should balance endgame content around items, spells, and techniques that are no longer obtainable. Boar's Hide Mask, Triple PV scales, etc etc etc etc.

I'm not asking them to make the servers different, we both know that can't happen, it wouldn't be practical for them to not only develop but also to test two different sets of code. They'd need two test servers instead of one, for starters.

However... toning the mobs down just a tad so that Order sees a few more kills might be prudent? OR, allow some of those "awesome items" to be obtainable once again, it sounds like there's more of them floating around on Chaos than there is Order. If you're going to balance the game around a few old-time vets having them, then you need to make them obtainable for everyone OR simply remove/nerf the items (which would make said old-time vets unhappy). OR, balance the mobs around NOT having them and those few who do just get easy kills. *shrugs*

[Finkledbody]

However... toning the mobs down just a tad so that Order sees a few more kills might be prudent? OR, allow some of those "awesome items" to be obtainable once again, it sounds like there's more of them floating around on Chaos than there is Order. If you're going to balance the game around a few old-time vets having them, then you need to make them obtainable for everyone OR simply remove/nerf the items (which would make said old-time vets unhappy). OR, balance the mobs around NOT having them and those few who do just get easy kills. *shrugs*

This is simply out of the question. Nerfing old items, that people worked hard for, have paid their dues, paid their subs over all this time being the true supporters of this game all the while you have not?

Put yourself into the shoes of a hardcore istaria gamer... Take into account a $15 a month payment to a game over 8 years (could be longer), and you suggest to nerf old hardcore items? $15x12mx8y= $1440 dollars.

So if you paid $1440 dollars to a game, would you want them to nerf your stuff?

Nope.

[Chioxin]

I really wish I could go on some of the hunts so I can have a better say here. I'm not geared at all for it though. Everything I hear about comes from people who go on hunts. They're complaint is usually not how hard the fight is or gathering people, but more that people just aren't geared for it. I'm not talking about epic weapons, but just standard T5 teched scales.

I didn't even know there was a need for health scales, until someone told me why. Twas an eye opener on how important "gear" matters in the game. Again, not talking about epic weapons.