I thought I would share my frustration on the amount of broken mechanics and bugs on the SoA fight, below are a list of things I've seen and experienced as well as videos of what has actually happened in the raid:

 

• Randomly drops aggro through phase 1 - 3 (Known issue to be fixed 1.1.4).
  
• Lightning ball ticks for 3 times rather then once while impacting and/or after exploding.
  
• Despawns around 10-15% and leaves everyone in combat, forcing you to exit area and reset.
  
• Pyramids clearly landing on the boss but not breaking his shield.
  
• Missing platforms while transitioning from phase 1 to phase 2.
  
• Mind Trap spawns right next to Lightning Balls so you take ticks of damage and die within the Mind Trap.
  
• Immediate cyclone straight after soaking a lightning ball and dying when landing, even though you used a medpac just in time to try and stay alive.
  

 

Here's the videos of some of the bugs so far, I deleted the others but I'm going to keep documenting them and posting them on my Youtube channel so the dev's and everyone is aware of this.

 

Cyclone after soaking ball - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtIfMU2rtLk

Trap spawns next to lightning balls - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aBWhlO114A

Lightning ticks after explosion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=315iNT1Cf7o

Missing Platforms - http://www.xterminatz.com/files/Screenshot_2012-02-02_22_39_08_040535.jpg

 

Thanks.

Edited February 20, 2012 by Xterminatz

all this is a feature except the drop aggro and missing platforms

hmm most of the things you stated arnt bug lol it takes group communication / organization. i know the pillar thing on p3 is about tanking exactly under the spot the whirlwind thing is to basiclly tell people that instead of letting your lightning ball get to the middle go to the outer rim and run around. also the 2-3 ticks thing is abit of a problem but with smart people or people who know how to play there class most classes have a solution like sorcs and just bubble sprint wars jump through it ia's are the only class i could think of atm that dont have a real back up but if they get a bubble from a sorc there fine.

Sorry but all this random ******** with this fight does not make it hard. It makes it frustrating. When you can fail due to pure luck, it's a poorly designed fight. We've had all of these and more.

 

My personal favorite is getting sucked into a mind trap and having the crystal drop on you while you are being sucked in. That's quite fun. No amount of "experience" will allow you to avoid that and that makes it a ****** encounter.

I thought I would share my frustration on the amount of broken mechanics and bugs on the SoA fight, below are a list of things I've seen and experienced as well as videos of what has actually happened in the raid:

 

• Randomly drops aggro through phase 1 - 3 (Known issue to be fixed 1.1.4).
  
• Lightning ball ticks for 3 times rather then once while impacting and/or after exploding.
  
• Despawns around 10-15% and leaves everyone in combat, forcing you to exit area and reset.
  
• Pyramids clearly landing on the boss but not breaking his shield.
  
• Missing platforms while transitioning from phase 1 to phase 2.
  
• Mind Trap spawns right next to Lightning Balls so you take ticks of damage and die within the Mind Trap.
  
• Immediate cyclone straight after soaking a lightning ball and dying when landing, even though you used a medpac just in time to try and stay alive.
  

 

Here's the videos of some of the bugs so far, I deleted the others but I'm going to keep documenting them and posting them on my Youtube channel so the dev's and everyone is aware of this.

 

Cyclone after soaking ball - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtIfMU2rtLk

Trap spawns next to lightning balls - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aBWhlO114A

Lightning ticks after explosion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=315iNT1Cf7o

Missing Platforms - http://www.xterminatz.com/files/Screenshot_2012-02-02_22_39_08_040535.jpg

 

Thanks.

 

This. /10char.

My favorite is someone getting lifted up in the air just as we change phases. They get smashed on the ground, the ground shatters, gg automatic death, nothing we can do to avoid it.

 

Pure.

Genius.

Design.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Xzenorath

My favorite is someone getting lifted up in the air just as we change phases. They get smashed on the ground, the ground shatters, gg automatic death, nothing we can do to avoid it.

 

Pure.

Genius.

Design.

 

......................................

 

You control when the boss changes phases.

......................................

 

You control when the boss changes phases.

 

Sure, still doesn't make the design any less idiotic.

My favorite is someone getting lifted up in the air just as we change phases. They get smashed on the ground, the ground shatters, gg automatic death, nothing we can do to avoid it.

 

Pure.

Genius.

Design.

 

What we do is stop dps at around 32% because after we destroy a mind trap he will cyclone someone, once that person hits the second pillar we tell them to call out over voice comm then we burn/push and whoever was the next person to be in mind trap gets exploded out for transition phase.

 

The mechanic is stupid but you can control it every time, I hope this helps you because we had issues with this when we first started until we learnt how to control this part.

What we do is stop dps at around 32% because after we destroy a mind trap he will cyclone someone, once that person hits the second pillar we tell them to call out over voice comm then we burn/push and whoever was the next person to be in mind trap gets exploded out for transition phase.

 

The mechanic is stupid but you can control it every time, I hope this helps you because we had issues with this when we first started until we learnt how to control this part.

 

Thanks, it will definitely help. It still is definitely poorly designed though.

 

They should have a trigger around 35% that prevents the "lift and crash" mechanic from executing. I mean all it does in it's current state is delay the fight for no reason other than to work around poor design.

They should have a trigger around 35% that prevents the "lift and crash" mechanic from executing. I mean all it does in it's current state is delay the fight for no reason other than to work around poor design.

 

I definately like that idea... because you are right, having to slow the dps just to account for that fight design is just silly.

Soa isn't a DPS race like other bosses. It's a strategy and precision fight.

 

Not every fight is a button mashing facerolling encounter.

 

L2strat

They should have a trigger around 35% that prevents the "lift and crash" mechanic from executing. I mean all it does in it's current state is delay the fight for no reason other than to work around poor design.

 

To be honest I like the fight the way it is I don't think they should nerf it any more because it does require a good amount of communication and execution, I just want them to fix the bugs and broken parts because at the end of the day you're not fighting a boss ... you're really fighting RNG / Bugs / Luck factor which is not fun.

 

We're all sitting at over 18k+ HP how much more is needed...

Thanks, it will definitely help. It still is definitely poorly designed though.

 

They should have a trigger around 35% that prevents the "lift and crash" mechanic from executing. I mean all it does in it's current state is delay the fight for no reason other than to work around poor design.

 

Except like another poster said, this isnt a dps facesmash race. Its a control and execution fight.

 

Soa has no enrage timer, you can sit in phase 2 practicing forever. Literally.

 

Having to CONTROL the transitions on your own, is a great design element imo. It gives you chances to set up for the next phase (before transitioning) or prevent things like this from happening.

 

Basically what im hearing from you is "We dont have control of our raiders and cant time our phase transitions well. We also dont know what life grip is or how to save people from falling with it"

Except like another poster said, this isnt a dps facesmash race. Its a control and execution fight.

 

Soa has no enrage timer, you can sit in phase 2 practicing forever. Literally.

 

Having to CONTROL the transitions on your own, is a great design element imo. It gives you chances to set up for the next phase (before transitioning) or prevent things like this from happening.

 

Basically what im hearing from you is "We dont have control of our raiders and cant time our phase transitions well. We also dont know what life grip is or how to save people from falling with it"

 

Then your reading comprehension is horrid.

 

I know how to execute and complete the encounter, otherwise I wouldn't have completed it. Still doesn't change the fact that in it's current implementation, it doesn't provide any additional difficulty or interesting elements to the fight. You pause, then you resume DPS and keep progressing. Unfortunately there is a couple DERPS in my guild who forget every now and then or DOTs end up pushing the phase and we wipe over a silly oversight in encounter design.

 

I never said they need to nerf the fight and make it easy. I said the current implementation does nothing but slow down the fight and cause un-necessary wipes because a couple specials in my guild can't handle pausing DPS properly. Compounded with the other issues, this can get old after a couple wipes.

I know how you feel we still have guys in our raid back peddling into balls or just not paying attention to them some times.

 

Fight requires every person's attention 110% of the time because you have 8 people losing 1-2 is very critical to the end result ... If it was 16-man would have been easier and could have carried the bads since you can afford to lose a few with the error margin.

Then your reading comprehension is horrid.

 

I never said they need to nerf the fight and make it easy. I said the current implementation does nothing but slow down the fight and cause un-necessary wipes because a couple specials in my guild can't handle pausing DPS properly. Compounded with the other issues, this can get old after a couple wipes.

 

You bring people who cant listen to instructions to raids, you risk wiping.

 

This is not a fight design issue.

Soa isn't a DPS race like other bosses. It's a strategy and precision fight.

 

Not every fight is a button mashing facerolling encounter.

 

L2strat

 

Ok sure I get that. Where are the non heroic quests here that prepare you for it? Where are the quest and story hints of elements that might tell you what to expect? Or the plot conversation choices which may have some impact on how a fight proceeds?

 

My biggest annoyance with this game is that with a vast majority of content available (90%) you need only be a solo button masher. This would also include most of the heroics, area's and FP's which do require a group, but otherwise just button mashing and action bar cooldown watching.

 

There is nothing dynamic or engaging about the Questing. Its either easy sauce, or overtly difficult beyond expectations. If player communication is so important to overcome the 'hard stuff' why was voice over IP not built into the game? As for the comment that it's about strat and precision, you are not fully correct. Given enough equipment and exposure to the quest they too will become button mashing boing content like the rest.

Last night I ran into issue, along with many of the ones you listed, (sadly I don't have a video) where as I was being pulled into the mind trap the pillar dropped to break Soa's shield in phase 3, effectively one hit killing me

My favorite is someone getting lifted up in the air just as we change phases. They get smashed on the ground, the ground shatters, gg automatic death, nothing we can do to avoid it.

 

Pure.

Genius.

Design.

 

actually a sorc can pull you to safety when you drop (if properly timed).

Nothing about Soa is RNG (except the platform disappearing bug- that is def rng).

 

 

Randomly drops aggro through phase 1 - 3 (Known issue to be fixed 1.1.4)

.

 

Kill this guy every week and the only time I've ever seen the agro dump is in p3 - never in p1 and p2 - that's just your tank being bad and losing agro most likely. And even in P3 it's not hard - wait for mind trap - taunt as soon as he changes direction - problem worked around.

 

Lightning ball ticks for 3 times rather then once while impacting and/or after exploding.

 

Don't try to kite it - run directly into it then stop, don't run through it. Use shields and defensive cooldowns if you have it - and I run this on 16's where the lightning balls in nightmare will one shot you if you are under 17k health without a shield.

 

Despawns around 10-15% and leaves everyone in combat, forcing you to exit area and reset.

 

Only does this when your tank is in mind trap - learn to have someone taunt and offtank until your tank is out - problem solved. Soa hits for crap, any dps with a taunt can easily tank him.

 

Pyramids clearly landing on the boss but not breaking his shield.

 

While this does happen, and is annoying, it's not a design breaking or raid wiping encounter - even in enrage soa hits for crap, the only thing that does more damage is the pillar falling and hitting the ground - and nobody should be getting hit by that anyways. You have an unlimited amount of time to kill him in p3 - one pyramid not hitting shouldn't wipe your raid.

 

Missing platforms while transitioning from phase 1 to phase 2.

 

Already conceded this annoying little feature.

 

Mind Trap spawns right next to Lightning Balls so you take ticks of damage and die within the Mind Trap.

 

I have never seen anyone take ticks of lightning in mind trap - what I HAVE seen, is people take ticks of damage coming out of mind trap next to a lightning ball - move fast and you can live. Or have people pop lightning balls faster or control when you kill the mind traps so that a lightning ball isn't right next to it.

 

Immediate cyclone straight after soaking a lightning ball and dying when landing, even though you used a medpac just in time to try and stay alive.

 

Sorc Pull ftw.

Experienced the Lightning Ball bug tonight, our first attempts on Soa NM. the first 2 times i got one on me it was fine, the third and foruth time, i took 2 ticks of the dmg, leaving me at <5% health, the last attempt, i got thrown into the air after taking 2 ticks, meaning instant death.

The best one we've had so far is one person gets thrown up just as the lightning balls spawn, so instead the other person gets both lightning balls. On Nightmare this is a suicide walk.

We're using Assassin tank for all our fights and having Jugg offtank when possible however our assassin tank seems to lose threat a fair bit.

 

Anyone had any issues with assassin threat? or maybe any advise I can give him to hold threat a bit better?

We're using Assassin tank for all our fights and having Jugg offtank when possible however our assassin tank seems to lose threat a fair bit.

 

Anyone had any issues with assassin threat? or maybe any advise I can give him to hold threat a bit better?

 

Our guild has been having a few issues with tank threat, especially with snipers pulling aggro. Make sure your dps are using their threat reductions on cooldown and funnel at the very least rakata weapons to your tanks. Tank gear matters A LOT for threat generation in this game, it's not like wow where you can stay 2x 2nd on threat with ease. Also prompt your tanks to try to being doing their rotation optimal at all times.