Minor correction - in parts of the video I said there were 4 previous dracolich raid bosses...it's actually just 3 - Killing Time, Deathwyrm and Fall of Truth. Kor Kaza was not a dracolich in RTSO...just in KT.
@@Kydrou yep, so the new raid boss makes it 4. I said the new raid boss made it the 5th in the video. Very minor mistake but I noticed it just before releasing the video and wanted to clarify.
I'm shocked and dissapointed Wild and Dead Magic zones aren't more used for the raid. I figured that'd be a major mechanic. But it's 1 spot for 1 mechanic. I don't mind another Dracoliche, as they are def a major threat, but Thay should have a much bigger meaner role and I don't see the Dracoliche doing anything new. And where the hell are all the Demons/Devils that are plaguing Myth Drannor? Now if we had the Dracoliche fight in 1 room, while fighting a Thayan Arch Necromancer in another for control of the dragon, and stopping the Thayan's turns the Dracoliche to an ally or go beserk, then have a Demon Portal open due to the wild magic of the dying Arch Necromancer, and have a new Balor and a buncha summon demons and have the Dracoliche and the Demon fight it out while we gotta kill him on a wild or dead magic zone to cause him to fall apart, then that's a cool raid with no new models/monsters.
MD in general is REALLY barebones. i feel like they went with the "abandoned years ago" vibe to give themselves an excuse to make it less detailed, saving some time and effort. the wilderness feels empty and honestly AI generated. theres a part where you find yourself in what is supposed to be an abandoned dormitory. its just a rectangle room with six beds and literally nothing else. not even a footlocker or trashcan or table. going from that to something like the delirium quests where its obvious someone spent days painstakingly detailing a hotel gives a stark contrast to where this game is headed. its so disappointing. even Sharn is like 10x more detailed than anything in MD, and thats relatively recent
I thought I was alone in this....lol. I was incredibly excited for the expansion....bought it, and had buyer's remorse almost immediately for buying the Ultimate bundle. Never felt that way about a DDO expansion previously, so I figured my tastes were just changing. Lol. But yeah, the wilderness zone is WAY too big, with WAY too much copy pasted buildings. It doesn't look like a city at all, and feels more like a battlefield for someone's Warhammer miniatures game. The quests themselves also lacked any sort of interesting elements (something Ravenloft, Feywild, etc had). In short, if this is going to be the direction going forward then I will be getting the bare bones editions of the expansions....if at all.
I wish it was at least a different type of Dracolich. I know they've talked before about the white dracolich from Breaking the Ranks coming back to DDO in some way. A green Dracolich would be cool too, but this is just a smaller version of the Truthful One.
I haven't really been interested in raids since ToD in Shav..... I ran the hell out of CitW, but honestly that wasn't a great raid either. I want more heroic raids tbh, I don't run epic often and I'm just tired of Epic only raids. I would also like more than one encounter per raid.... Shroud I find fun and worth the time investment since there are multiple encounters. What happened to the lack of encounters (I'm not expecting WoW levels here but one encounter is boring)
Yea man, I love Myth Drannor from my D&D pen and paper days, I even DM'd an end-game mission in that area back about 30 years ago. I hesitated buying this expansion because the content has been a bit lacking and honestly the lag in the game has become frustrating. But because I loved that region of Faerun I felt compelled to purchase it. I regret it and will probably wait or not purchase any future expansions. Sucks, cuz I really want to love the game but the creators do not seem to share our love of the game. Still....I hope. Thanks Axel for your content and such for the game. You are appreciated.
I've played DDO since around 2010. I've done all heroic raids and a small amount of epic raids. Raids aren't my specialty by any means, but that being said I have noticed that a lot of the new expansions tend to have a lot attached them at times which I think isn't always necessary and could open up more time spend on improving other areas. For instance, I don't think every expansion needs a whole giant wilderness area. I know for as many lives as I've ran, Ravenloft feels like a waste outside of doing slayers there at epic. It's HUGE but there isn't really a need for it. Bump up the quest xp to compensate slayer xp and maybe return to some of the more instanced based zones to free up some time and resources elsewhere. Gianthold is another example. It's pretty large and has both a heroic and epic version now which is nice, but I don't see any reason an area like that or Tangleroot, or Searing Heights can't have some quest entrances/minor area revamps done to them instead. Then spend that time and money fleshing out raids more or adding more content.
If they would fix the lag, 80% of the playerbase that existed over the years would come back. More content for a few thousand players(if even that)? I am happy about the DLC and would pay for it. But I can't pay for lag lol
As long as lag (specifically rubberbanding) is an issue, I really hope they keep platforming out of raids. Don't get me wrong, I love platforming, I just hate getting teleported to the floor because it rubberbanded me to never have hit the jump button.
@@UchihaKat I mean don't get me wrong, when I play on the servers without lag, I thoroughly enjoy the platforming sections. It just isn't fun with the rubberbanding, and raids seems to make that lag all the worse.
@@UchihaKat It might be my least popular opinion. Or the people who hate it are just very vocal. I'm not sure. You never see people that like DDO's platforming talk about liking it (well other than me). I've just never had the experience of lag ruining platforming in DDO. Some people say that all the time, but that's just never been my experience. Yes, sometimes lag will make you fall. But not all that often, not nearly enough to ruin it for me in this game. Also I just like platforming games in general. I grew up with them and still play platforming games outside of DDO. It also adds variety to the game, the game needs some of that. Also, my sensitivity to lag in general seems to be a lot lower than other players. I grew up playing a lot of badly performing games. And I don't play other MMOs and never really have. So I am very much used to how DDO runs and don't have anything to compare it to. If I played a new better performing MMO and also DDO, it would probably bother me more. Then again I do play very difficult platformers on my NES that at times require near frame perfect jumps and still am not bothered by the lag in DDO so maybe all the platforming criticism isn't as warranted, or maybe the age range of the game skewing much older just doesn't like platforming games so doesn't want it in DDO. Or maybe it's because a lot of people look for more of a P&P experience in DDO than a video game experience. It's probably a mix of all these things.
@@AxelAlexK I play from the EU and just by the fact of my location adds + 100ms to my connection on a good day. However, most raids failing a critical obstacle usually results in the individual being killed outright, if not the raid as a whole.
@@AxelAlexK That's the thing though. In classic (3D) platformers like Mario and Banjo games, you have excellent control over your jumps, or mechanics to account for mistakes (Kazooie flaps, FLUDD hover spray). That's what is lacking in DDO. Also like ResinSmoker said, raid mistakes are almost always a death punishment, not a simple timesink. I'd be on board with timesink failures, just not VON6 styled 'oops I missed the backup island, I'm booted out of the raid'.
Okay, as you may remember from my past posts, I'm not a raid person. I find them all but impossible to find time to do them in or a group to do them with, so they're pointless for me. That said, this kind of raid does sound like an epic level of disappointment. A small raid area with some sideways instead of straightforward objectives seems like they're trying to create challenge through frustration instead of through creativity, which is supposed to be a big element of successful games, according to Gary Gygax. There are adventures I hate to run that have maps that would make better foundations for raids, like Hiding in Plain Sight. The Invaders! adventure is a challenging enough adventure even if it is on a map every long time player should know well: the Waterworks. Perhaps finding a way to connect maps from several different Myth Drannor adventures like the extended sewers map from Hiding in Plain Sight would have been a better way of creating a raid map. Lord knows PnP Myth Drannor (as I recall) has its own connecting and layered dungeons under it. Not to the level of Waterdeep's Undermountain, but it could have been used. Hell, even the kinds of maps from Phlan in the old Pool of Radiance computer game I played almost 40 years ago could have given more ideas for a raid map, and perhaps a better concept of a raid adventure. Having to have to kill/defeat a possessed dragon or other types of powerful and possibly good aligned creatures to make the possessing spirit flee would be an escalating series of challenges that could lead to a final confrontation in the depths. Hell, with any kind of pursuit mechanism like that it could even be a pursuit through magical portals that have previously just been strange patterns on the walls but that now lead to limited versions/sections of the varied adventure maps from the expansion, like through the portals at the end of each section of the Shroud. It would potentially cut down on dev hours since the maps would already exist and would just have different parameters set for them for the raid environment. ANYTHING would be more interesting than what you've told us about this raid, which evokes none of the spirit of Myth Drannor from past materials and feels like a "we ran out of time, so here's an unkillable dracolich that someone equally unkillable has to keep fighting while other PCs do other things."
Personally haven’t ran the raid yet but must admit ur thoughts and opinion I agree with. Unfortunately I feel this raid is not very myth drannor like hell the raid even references the cult of the dragon. This raid felt like they would have fitted more here but because it’s a MD raid they were swapped out with Red Wizards. I like seeing another marilith as I like them but I’m very disappointed that the raid boss isn’t like the leader of them red wizards. I can’t remember the lich’s name but Ik it’s said in one of the journals in the quest. Would’ve much preferred him or even another (or a few) Zulkir of Thay but nope 😒
Agreed on most, though not for platforming (just not my thing - if i want to play Mario, thats a different game- your comprise of it being optional seemed fair, however). More than a little disappointed it's not multiphase and 100% agreed that the better raids are. VOD - waiting on soulemedes... omg😢........ Skeletons with that initial secrets discovery on release, and simple complexity- wow. 😮😊 Also on board with the idea they had other potential avenues for the boss and a whole litany of lore to build from...and...yet....
At the minimum, I think a platforming section as an optional would be way more interesting than copy and paste traps plus 6 runes to click on...that's just not at all interesting for a raid party. The optional in the raid on Lam just feels lazy. Looking back on the video I kinda wish I would have just not mentioned the platforming idea though because it seems like it's taking focus away from my overall main point, and it's not something I by any means am overly insistent on. It's just one of several ideas of things they could do that would make the raid more interesting.
Optional content / puzzles in raids should ALWAYS drop named loot. Otherwise whats the point? Edit: Case in point, the Raven loft raid for what it is, was great. Though, none of the optional content had named loot, which was further compounded by the fact that the boss-loot was mediocre at best. Now days, its fallen into the category of rarely run as there's no longer a desire or reason to do it other than faction.
Well in the case of this raid, there is, like FoM, a raid specific crafting ingredient that only drops in the raid. So an optional providing no named loot, but some of those ingredients, could be compelling.
Deathwyrm never gets run because it's epic. Double Dragon does. I'm sure they looked at the numbers and realized the smaller the raid the more it gets run. I'm actually surprised this isn't another 1-roomer.
@@jasongrundy1717 People don't like deathwyrm because it has one huge flaw, which is way too many mirror puzzles. The number of mirror puzzles should have been halved, or half of them replaced with something else. Outside of that flaw, every other part of the raid is fantastic. It's too bad that one flaw sours what is otherwise a top tier quality DDO raid.
@@AxelAlexK A good group can finish the mirrors in seconds. It's not an issue. It's a long raid and people don't want to do long raids. With over 30 raids to choose from, people will run 3 short ones rather than 1 long one.
1st take, disagree with title as we quite enjoyed the raid, but I only ran it once. Will edit after I've listed to the video 2nd take - yeah agreed about the small scale and lack of scope. It's just copy paste mechanics aside from a couple of new interactions with the dracolich etc. With the current devs we might be really pushing it to get anything special like the DDO of older times when they had more staff, but YMMV. It's the same story with loot etc, mostly copy paste of stuff we've already seen for years, not much creativity in design considering the cool things we've seen the engine do over the years, and just a frustrating lack of communication or taking on board feedback to make better choices.
I saw the dead magic zones and fire dots and was thinking of a mechanic like sanity from the WoW Yogg-Saron fight, but with DoTs and the dead magic zones stripping them. Seriously, just steal the raids from Burning Crusade and WotLK and you'll do well. It won't even be the first time, as the Bladeforge beginning is literally a one for one of the Death Knight start. Kael'Thas - You have to dispel a mind control debuff. Lady Vashj - You have to pass orbs that paralyze you. Think like basketball, where you can't just grab the ball and run with it. Prince Malchezzar - random AoE dots and he just fucks up tanks in his P2 because his attack speed gets so fast that warriors couldn't stay uncrushable Illidan - honestly, this fight is more about the lore, but it is just really long, it felt like killing an NPC Lich King - This is a long raid with a shitload of mechanics because you are killing a major lore character who has a shitload of power. If you want a good character, have something like a Marilith using a magic ritual to steal the Elfblades and the final phase is she is successful and you have to fight a six-armed snake girl with the strongest artifacts the elves ever made.
@@Eunostos DDO 2 will be the new money maker, they could sell past lives in DDO 1 for $50 a life and use that money to make DDO 2, and when it's ready just shut DDO 1 down. and launch DDO 2.
Have only ran one raid in DDO Chronoscope and that was a long time ago. Maybe I need to change servers with one of my characters to see why people like running raids so much. nice video
Just stepped into the new mabar quest since I went with a sort of sqishy toon I went at level it killed me before I had a chance to see what was attacking me, I was expecting the vampire and got? Going to try it again with my best toon since they didn't give any indication it was unsoloable. Not going to hold my breath though.
While I absolutely love platforming in DDO I don't think they need to include explicit platforming challenges in regular content. For me I like it when instead of climbing a ladder I can jump on rocks 1 and 2, or pipes, or w/e part of the environment. Snowspeaks Climb was great since it was actually challenging and completely outside of regular content. Things like the platforming optional in Vecna were insultingly easy. Jumping/climbing around in public instances is far more fun.
I understand the disappointment in another dracolich boss but I have to disagree with your comment on Skeletons in the Closet being better than this one. While yes the dread raid technically has more phases going on, like deathwyrm and the "do this puzzle over and over again" I'm not a fan of when the devs decide to figure out a "challenge" that ends up getting way overused. (See puzzles in deathwyrm, beating down skeletons in Dread, or lest we forget the optional). Additionally, the Kopru fight in dread feels entirely out of place. Even going from a storyline aspect - at the pinnacle of the story, Vecna shows he no longer cares or has need of the Kopru. Why one shows up is just fluff to extend the raid in my opinion. The optional in Dread, while way more unique, is an absolute pain in the butt to do and *feels required*. What i appreciate has come back with Myth Drannor is a *need* for group communication and mechanics with substance. You have to think a bit *and* be on your toes with watching around you or for certain mobs, HP thresholds, etc.
It'll be fine atleast on Normal in pugs. People not running away from each other during the spell chain attack or someone picking up the philactery and not realizing it or knowing what to do with it so the raid stalls are the two main issues I can envision happening in a pug.
I don't mean to be an asshole, but you're expectation is coming from the assumption that the folks at SSG are good at their job. I like DDO, but they are riding on old player base who played back when it was TURBINE and not SSG. They laid out a great foundation for a game that even with such shitty developers, the game isn't still so bad.
That's understandable. What would you prefer instead? Other than hack and slash, I mean. I'm curious as to people's other preferences for additional raid phases.
@@AxelAlexK Mechanics like at the end of that one illithid quest on the clifftops in sharn. Power something? It has these moving walls you have to dodge. Difficult but fun. It's the second illithid quest.
Minor correction - in parts of the video I said there were 4 previous dracolich raid bosses...it's actually just 3 - Killing Time, Deathwyrm and Fall of Truth. Kor Kaza was not a dracolich in RTSO...just in KT.
It still makes it 4.
All it does is increase the feeling of "Ugh, another dracolich..." instead of the "Damn! We fight a Dracolich!?"
@@Kydrou yep, so the new raid boss makes it 4. I said the new raid boss made it the 5th in the video. Very minor mistake but I noticed it just before releasing the video and wanted to clarify.
I appreciate your scrutiny on this-asking the devs to work a little harder in their design sensibility is something worth saying out loud.
I'm shocked and dissapointed Wild and Dead Magic zones aren't more used for the raid. I figured that'd be a major mechanic. But it's 1 spot for 1 mechanic. I don't mind another Dracoliche, as they are def a major threat, but Thay should have a much bigger meaner role and I don't see the Dracoliche doing anything new. And where the hell are all the Demons/Devils that are plaguing Myth Drannor?
Now if we had the Dracoliche fight in 1 room, while fighting a Thayan Arch Necromancer in another for control of the dragon, and stopping the Thayan's turns the Dracoliche to an ally or go beserk, then have a Demon Portal open due to the wild magic of the dying Arch Necromancer, and have a new Balor and a buncha summon demons and have the Dracoliche and the Demon fight it out while we gotta kill him on a wild or dead magic zone to cause him to fall apart, then that's a cool raid with no new models/monsters.
MD in general is REALLY barebones. i feel like they went with the "abandoned years ago" vibe to give themselves an excuse to make it less detailed, saving some time and effort. the wilderness feels empty and honestly AI generated. theres a part where you find yourself in what is supposed to be an abandoned dormitory. its just a rectangle room with six beds and literally nothing else. not even a footlocker or trashcan or table. going from that to something like the delirium quests where its obvious someone spent days painstakingly detailing a hotel gives a stark contrast to where this game is headed. its so disappointing. even Sharn is like 10x more detailed than anything in MD, and thats relatively recent
Ikr? Most quests feel very barebones as well. It feels very, VERY lazy. Big disappointment, a few good ideas...great music imho.
Delerium, amazing quest. Turbine > SSG.
I thought I was alone in this....lol.
I was incredibly excited for the expansion....bought it, and had buyer's remorse almost immediately for buying the Ultimate bundle.
Never felt that way about a DDO expansion previously, so I figured my tastes were just changing. Lol. But yeah, the wilderness zone is WAY too big, with WAY too much copy pasted buildings. It doesn't look like a city at all, and feels more like a battlefield for someone's Warhammer miniatures game.
The quests themselves also lacked any sort of interesting elements (something Ravenloft, Feywild, etc had).
In short, if this is going to be the direction going forward then I will be getting the bare bones editions of the expansions....if at all.
Seems Im gonna save some money and don't waste on this expansion
You want the Mall experience for a raid, not the Garage sale.
*sigh* ANOTHER Dracolich?
Someone needs to inform DDO that there are a host of other monsters they can use.
I wish it was at least a different type of Dracolich. I know they've talked before about the white dracolich from Breaking the Ranks coming back to DDO in some way. A green Dracolich would be cool too, but this is just a smaller version of the Truthful One.
I haven't really been interested in raids since ToD in Shav..... I ran the hell out of CitW, but honestly that wasn't a great raid either. I want more heroic raids tbh, I don't run epic often and I'm just tired of Epic only raids.
I would also like more than one encounter per raid.... Shroud I find fun and worth the time investment since there are multiple encounters. What happened to the lack of encounters (I'm not expecting WoW levels here but one encounter is boring)
Yea man, I love Myth Drannor from my D&D pen and paper days, I even DM'd an end-game mission in that area back about 30 years ago. I hesitated buying this expansion because the content has been a bit lacking and honestly the lag in the game has become frustrating. But because I loved that region of Faerun I felt compelled to purchase it. I regret it and will probably wait or not purchase any future expansions. Sucks, cuz I really want to love the game but the creators do not seem to share our love of the game. Still....I hope.
Thanks Axel for your content and such for the game. You are appreciated.
I've played DDO since around 2010. I've done all heroic raids and a small amount of epic raids. Raids aren't my specialty by any means, but that being said I have noticed that a lot of the new expansions tend to have a lot attached them at times which I think isn't always necessary and could open up more time spend on improving other areas. For instance, I don't think every expansion needs a whole giant wilderness area. I know for as many lives as I've ran, Ravenloft feels like a waste outside of doing slayers there at epic. It's HUGE but there isn't really a need for it. Bump up the quest xp to compensate slayer xp and maybe return to some of the more instanced based zones to free up some time and resources elsewhere. Gianthold is another example. It's pretty large and has both a heroic and epic version now which is nice, but I don't see any reason an area like that or Tangleroot, or Searing Heights can't have some quest entrances/minor area revamps done to them instead. Then spend that time and money fleshing out raids more or adding more content.
If they would fix the lag, 80% of the playerbase that existed over the years would come back. More content for a few thousand players(if even that)? I am happy about the DLC and would pay for it. But I can't pay for lag lol
As long as lag (specifically rubberbanding) is an issue, I really hope they keep platforming out of raids. Don't get me wrong, I love platforming, I just hate getting teleported to the floor because it rubberbanded me to never have hit the jump button.
Yeah, idk why Axel is always asking for more platforming in DDO, platforming is AWFUL in this game. Gotta be his most unpopular opinion.
@@UchihaKat I mean don't get me wrong, when I play on the servers without lag, I thoroughly enjoy the platforming sections. It just isn't fun with the rubberbanding, and raids seems to make that lag all the worse.
@@UchihaKat It might be my least popular opinion. Or the people who hate it are just very vocal. I'm not sure. You never see people that like DDO's platforming talk about liking it (well other than me). I've just never had the experience of lag ruining platforming in DDO. Some people say that all the time, but that's just never been my experience. Yes, sometimes lag will make you fall. But not all that often, not nearly enough to ruin it for me in this game. Also I just like platforming games in general. I grew up with them and still play platforming games outside of DDO. It also adds variety to the game, the game needs some of that. Also, my sensitivity to lag in general seems to be a lot lower than other players. I grew up playing a lot of badly performing games. And I don't play other MMOs and never really have. So I am very much used to how DDO runs and don't have anything to compare it to. If I played a new better performing MMO and also DDO, it would probably bother me more. Then again I do play very difficult platformers on my NES that at times require near frame perfect jumps and still am not bothered by the lag in DDO so maybe all the platforming criticism isn't as warranted, or maybe the age range of the game skewing much older just doesn't like platforming games so doesn't want it in DDO. Or maybe it's because a lot of people look for more of a P&P experience in DDO than a video game experience. It's probably a mix of all these things.
@@AxelAlexK I play from the EU and just by the fact of my location adds + 100ms to my connection on a good day. However, most raids failing a critical obstacle usually results in the individual being killed outright, if not the raid as a whole.
@@AxelAlexK That's the thing though. In classic (3D) platformers like Mario and Banjo games, you have excellent control over your jumps, or mechanics to account for mistakes (Kazooie flaps, FLUDD hover spray). That's what is lacking in DDO.
Also like ResinSmoker said, raid mistakes are almost always a death punishment, not a simple timesink. I'd be on board with timesink failures, just not VON6 styled 'oops I missed the backup island, I'm booted out of the raid'.
Another basic "1 room" raid, for an expansion is totally lame IMO. SSG is backsliding in the creative aspect.
@@Laggin1 Well just to be completely clear it's not 1 room, but it is a small closed in map.
Okay, as you may remember from my past posts, I'm not a raid person. I find them all but impossible to find time to do them in or a group to do them with, so they're pointless for me. That said, this kind of raid does sound like an epic level of disappointment. A small raid area with some sideways instead of straightforward objectives seems like they're trying to create challenge through frustration instead of through creativity, which is supposed to be a big element of successful games, according to Gary Gygax.
There are adventures I hate to run that have maps that would make better foundations for raids, like Hiding in Plain Sight. The Invaders! adventure is a challenging enough adventure even if it is on a map every long time player should know well: the Waterworks. Perhaps finding a way to connect maps from several different Myth Drannor adventures like the extended sewers map from Hiding in Plain Sight would have been a better way of creating a raid map. Lord knows PnP Myth Drannor (as I recall) has its own connecting and layered dungeons under it. Not to the level of Waterdeep's Undermountain, but it could have been used. Hell, even the kinds of maps from Phlan in the old Pool of Radiance computer game I played almost 40 years ago could have given more ideas for a raid map, and perhaps a better concept of a raid adventure. Having to have to kill/defeat a possessed dragon or other types of powerful and possibly good aligned creatures to make the possessing spirit flee would be an escalating series of challenges that could lead to a final confrontation in the depths. Hell, with any kind of pursuit mechanism like that it could even be a pursuit through magical portals that have previously just been strange patterns on the walls but that now lead to limited versions/sections of the varied adventure maps from the expansion, like through the portals at the end of each section of the Shroud. It would potentially cut down on dev hours since the maps would already exist and would just have different parameters set for them for the raid environment. ANYTHING would be more interesting than what you've told us about this raid, which evokes none of the spirit of Myth Drannor from past materials and feels like a "we ran out of time, so here's an unkillable dracolich that someone equally unkillable has to keep fighting while other PCs do other things."
I think ssg is really running low on labor =(
Personally haven’t ran the raid yet but must admit ur thoughts and opinion I agree with. Unfortunately I feel this raid is not very myth drannor like hell the raid even references the cult of the dragon. This raid felt like they would have fitted more here but because it’s a MD raid they were swapped out with Red Wizards. I like seeing another marilith as I like them but I’m very disappointed that the raid boss isn’t like the leader of them red wizards. I can’t remember the lich’s name but Ik it’s said in one of the journals in the quest. Would’ve much preferred him or even another (or a few) Zulkir of Thay but nope 😒
Agreed on most, though not for platforming (just not my thing - if i want to play Mario, thats a different game- your comprise of it being optional seemed fair, however).
More than a little disappointed it's not multiphase and 100% agreed that the better raids are. VOD - waiting on soulemedes... omg😢........ Skeletons with that initial secrets discovery on release, and simple complexity- wow. 😮😊
Also on board with the idea they had other potential avenues for the boss and a whole litany of lore to build from...and...yet....
At the minimum, I think a platforming section as an optional would be way more interesting than copy and paste traps plus 6 runes to click on...that's just not at all interesting for a raid party. The optional in the raid on Lam just feels lazy. Looking back on the video I kinda wish I would have just not mentioned the platforming idea though because it seems like it's taking focus away from my overall main point, and it's not something I by any means am overly insistent on. It's just one of several ideas of things they could do that would make the raid more interesting.
@axelalexk Off topic, will you be posting your current bear build?
Yeah, it'll be my next video.
Optional content / puzzles in raids should ALWAYS drop named loot. Otherwise whats the point? Edit: Case in point, the Raven loft raid for what it is, was great. Though, none of the optional content had named loot, which was further compounded by the fact that the boss-loot was mediocre at best. Now days, its fallen into the category of rarely run as there's no longer a desire or reason to do it other than faction.
Well in the case of this raid, there is, like FoM, a raid specific crafting ingredient that only drops in the raid. So an optional providing no named loot, but some of those ingredients, could be compelling.
@@AxelAlexK My problem with optionals isn't just a raid problem but extends to most of the game in general.
Deathwyrm never gets run because it's epic. Double Dragon does. I'm sure they looked at the numbers and realized the smaller the raid the more it gets run. I'm actually surprised this isn't another 1-roomer.
@@jasongrundy1717 People don't like deathwyrm because it has one huge flaw, which is way too many mirror puzzles. The number of mirror puzzles should have been halved, or half of them replaced with something else. Outside of that flaw, every other part of the raid is fantastic. It's too bad that one flaw sours what is otherwise a top tier quality DDO raid.
@@AxelAlexK The problem with mirror puzzles is that they are not even complicated, just time-consuming.
@@AxelAlexK A good group can finish the mirrors in seconds. It's not an issue. It's a long raid and people don't want to do long raids. With over 30 raids to choose from, people will run 3 short ones rather than 1 long one.
1st take, disagree with title as we quite enjoyed the raid, but I only ran it once. Will edit after I've listed to the video
2nd take - yeah agreed about the small scale and lack of scope. It's just copy paste mechanics aside from a couple of new interactions with the dracolich etc.
With the current devs we might be really pushing it to get anything special like the DDO of older times when they had more staff, but YMMV. It's the same story with loot etc, mostly copy paste of stuff we've already seen for years, not much creativity in design considering the cool things we've seen the engine do over the years, and just a frustrating lack of communication or taking on board feedback to make better choices.
I saw the dead magic zones and fire dots and was thinking of a mechanic like sanity from the WoW Yogg-Saron fight, but with DoTs and the dead magic zones stripping them.
Seriously, just steal the raids from Burning Crusade and WotLK and you'll do well. It won't even be the first time, as the Bladeforge beginning is literally a one for one of the Death Knight start.
Kael'Thas - You have to dispel a mind control debuff.
Lady Vashj - You have to pass orbs that paralyze you. Think like basketball, where you can't just grab the ball and run with it.
Prince Malchezzar - random AoE dots and he just fucks up tanks in his P2 because his attack speed gets so fast that warriors couldn't stay uncrushable
Illidan - honestly, this fight is more about the lore, but it is just really long, it felt like killing an NPC
Lich King - This is a long raid with a shitload of mechanics because you are killing a major lore character who has a shitload of power.
If you want a good character, have something like a Marilith using a magic ritual to steal the Elfblades and the final phase is she is successful and you have to fight a six-armed snake girl with the strongest artifacts the elves ever made.
Time to sunset DDO and use the funds to make DDO 2.
what magic money do you think appears when a product is shut down?
@@Eunostos DDO 2 will be the new money maker, they could sell past lives in DDO 1 for $50 a life and use that money to make DDO 2, and when it's ready just shut DDO 1 down. and launch DDO 2.
@Eunostos U sound mad bro. U mad?
Have only ran one raid in DDO Chronoscope and that was a long time ago. Maybe I need to change servers with one of my characters to see why people like running raids so much. nice video
Ugh, another Dracolich? Is it even at least Ebondeath?
Just stepped into the new mabar quest since I went with a sort of sqishy toon I went at level it killed me before I had a chance to see what was attacking me, I was expecting the vampire and got? Going to try it again with my best toon since they didn't give any indication it was unsoloable. Not going to hold my breath though.
Was a much easier run with a hire, think it's not one to true solo. The devs seem to hate us soloers.
I felt the same about the quests in the pack - completely forgettable and simplistic
While I absolutely love platforming in DDO I don't think they need to include explicit platforming challenges in regular content. For me I like it when instead of climbing a ladder I can jump on rocks 1 and 2, or pipes, or w/e part of the environment. Snowspeaks Climb was great since it was actually challenging and completely outside of regular content. Things like the platforming optional in Vecna were insultingly easy. Jumping/climbing around in public instances is far more fun.
I understand the disappointment in another dracolich boss but I have to disagree with your comment on Skeletons in the Closet being better than this one.
While yes the dread raid technically has more phases going on, like deathwyrm and the "do this puzzle over and over again" I'm not a fan of when the devs decide to figure out a "challenge" that ends up getting way overused. (See puzzles in deathwyrm, beating down skeletons in Dread, or lest we forget the optional). Additionally, the Kopru fight in dread feels entirely out of place. Even going from a storyline aspect - at the pinnacle of the story, Vecna shows he no longer cares or has need of the Kopru. Why one shows up is just fluff to extend the raid in my opinion.
The optional in Dread, while way more unique, is an absolute pain in the butt to do and *feels required*.
What i appreciate has come back with Myth Drannor is a *need* for group communication and mechanics with substance. You have to think a bit *and* be on your toes with watching around you or for certain mobs, HP thresholds, etc.
Would you be happy to lead a full pug in there with 11 ppl you do not know? Is it pug friendly so all have access to raid?
It'll be fine atleast on Normal in pugs. People not running away from each other during the spell chain attack or someone picking up the philactery and not realizing it or knowing what to do with it so the raid stalls are the two main issues I can envision happening in a pug.
All the raids in ddo kinda suck though
I didnt have a sad Axel on my expansion bingo card.
482 Verda Streets
Heroic abbot is absolutely thr best quest in game...has everything's u said 3 extremely unique puzzles
381 Merle Fork
I don't mean to be an asshole, but you're expectation is coming from the assumption that the folks at SSG are good at their job. I like DDO, but they are riding on old player base who played back when it was TURBINE and not SSG. They laid out a great foundation for a game that even with such shitty developers, the game isn't still so bad.
I am NOT a fan of the puzzles in raids like in Shroud!
That's understandable. What would you prefer instead? Other than hack and slash, I mean. I'm curious as to people's other preferences for additional raid phases.
@@AxelAlexK I like VoD, Strahd, Nemesis or Too Hot to Handle
@@AxelAlexK Mechanics like at the end of that one illithid quest on the clifftops in sharn. Power something? It has these moving walls you have to dodge. Difficult but fun. It's the second illithid quest.
@@rodrigohinke3477 In Stolen Power, yep, a bigger version of that would be cool actually in an end fight. Good idea.
@@AxelAlexK I would prefer stages KT