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Elom Flashpoint: VETERAN Mode Feedback


JackieKo

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Please use this thread to offer your feedback for your experiences with the Veteran Mode for the Elom Flashpoint.

 

Please answer the following questions:

 

  • How do you feel about the boss balance?
  • How do you feel about the trash balance?
  • Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.
  • Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?
  • Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?
  • How does the pacing of combat feel?
  • Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

 

Feel free to answer in as much detail as possible to help us understand your thought process and line of thinking.

 

Thank you!

Edited by JackieKo
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Played with a full DPS group on IMP side

 

How do you feel about the boss balance? - The first, bonus boss and Final boss felt really easy for vet, we were able to just ignore most of the mechanics and just do a tank and spank. The bonus boss looked like we were suppose to have them interact somehow with each other due to what the debuffs said, but we didn't have to worry about that. Final boss especially didn't really feel like it was doing any kind of damage, which is a shame because it didn't really feel like the climatic fight like it should have. we were able to first try all three of them. The 2nd boss on the other hand I thought was perfect. The mechanics were easy to understand and execute, the damage being done was enough for us to pay attention and use the med packs, while not being high enough to seem impossible/infuriating. we wiped a couple of times but we were able to beat it on our 3rd try.

 

How do you feel about the trash balance? - Trash was fine. No huge group, and they were very quick to kill

 

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail. - Yes. During the second boss fight, if you get too close to him, practically touching/inside of him, the boss will vanish, combat will end and the whole fight will reset.

Also during the stair portion, the first set of mobs despawned, which made it so all of the other republic enemies stop from spawning while we were climbing up. We were able to easily fix this but just starting again from the beginning of the stair segment.

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress? - Outside of the trash not spawning on the stairs, nothing really

 

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable? - yes they were

 

How does the pacing of combat feel? Felt fast pace to me

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers. - When the trash did spawn, I did find this part very interesting. The adds being quick to kill while trying to avoid the aoes was a nice change of pace from what we normally do in FP's. The only thing to me was that the damage that the AOE's did seemed to be inconsistent. Sometimes it took out half my health, other times it barely did anything. it might also feel a little bit better if it was 2 or 3 little aoes that you had to avoid, but I am not sure about that part. Overall it was a pretty nice segment

 

Overall I really enjoy this FP. I liked the pace and the look of the planet was great. The only big issue for me was that all but the 2nd boss was a bit too easy, though that might be fine for Vet. Can't wait to try it out on Master Mode

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Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

For some weird reason after the first boss the same three droids when traveling keep spawning at the trigger point. Might wanna look into this.

 

There's also a bug with the second boss where if you move too close enough to the boss (i.e. run into it) the boss will reset and the whole fight needs to be restarted, sorta like the Cortanni(?) fight with pets and placeable vendors.

 

I'm not sure what was supposed to happen when the third boss moves all around the place but we fortunately encountered no other bugs from him. Even if that wasn't a mistake, the boss fight made no sense.

 

The stone path segment was very fast-paced and required a lot of clicking. The experience wasn't terrible but rather a bit annoying considering how many grapple points there are and the "Gods" mechanic with the constant air strikes. I'm still baffled how the platforms didn't manage to fall apart considering how many of those were thrown out in our fast-pace run.

 

Our group all encountered a bug where completing the new FP didn't count towards the Veteran FP Weekly, a notable bug that needs to be addressed.

 

 

 

Even with all of these bugs removed, I still have strong feelings toward the new Elom FP and I was able to find a quote that summarizes my entire experience there:

 

 

ARGH! IT WAS WEAK!!

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[bug/functionality]

During the second boss we wiped, we all spawned at a med center that was in the sky up a mountain with no way back to the boss or any other part of the map, even after /unstuck or reentering the flashpoint it would put us at that same med center.

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Logged in Republic side around 9pm central US time 11/10, I was unable to find the flashpoint in the veteran queue. Granted there were only 4 other people on the republic fleet at the time I logged in according to the UI. How do you queue for it, or do you have to walk in or what ?
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Both boss and trash balance feel quite easy, I did it with a team of 3 players (1 tank, 2 DPS and 1 comp healer) and we didn't encountered any issues as far as balancing is concerned.

 

I've experienced a few functionality issues such as constantly respawning enemies (a group of droids as others mentioned), being hit by the first's boss cone acttack. AOE despite not being in it as well as being hit by the 2nd's boss massive cone attack AOE despite not being in it (which also granted me the debuff making his laser hurt more) as for the last issue that I noticed was being unable to kill the enemies by knocking them off during the cliff part of the flashpoint before you get to Malgus.

 

I haven't encountered any friction points myself.

 

The objectives are clear, as are most of the mechanics I'd say the only one I didn't fully understood was Malgus and his rage stacks (is it something we gotta manage like Tyth or just survive like Zildrog's stacks that increase his damage), I would say sometimes I do get a little bit lost in the first area of the flashpoint so if you could make pathways a bit more noticeable on the map I'd appreciate it.

 

Combat is fine, its about what I expect from a veteran mode flashpoint which is to say a pretty easy experience. I'm looking forward to testing this on master mode, if I can find a group for it that is. I'm curious to see the fights balanced for that, especially Malgus.

 

I enjoyed the cliff part, it was a novelty (though I fell once lol) I'd say the only annoying part of me are enemies not dying with knockbacks I feel with the constant bombardment you're suffering it'd best just to knock them as opposed to fighting them on. Not that it killed anyone in my group but we had a healer comp, and I'd suspect the bombardments will deal far more damage in master.

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Logged in Republic side around 9pm central US time 11/10, I was unable to find the flashpoint in the veteran queue. Granted there were only 4 other people on the republic fleet at the time I logged in according to the UI. How do you queue for it, or do you have to walk in or what ?

 

walk in, ask for a group in chat. It's on Odessan

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Tried it solo as a concealment operative.

 

First boss, very easy.

 

There were occassions such as running through the narrow tunnel where the mobs respawn behind you that they keep respawning everytime you get to a specific point in that tunnel.

 

Second boss, wiped as expected - this looks fun.

 

Bug: Wiped on second boss, respawning put me under the map

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Tried the new FP first boss solo, rest of the FP with 1 tank, 2 dps and healer companion.

 

Boss Balance: First boss is annoying with all of the stuns and bleeds, but mostly tank and spank. Also is the giant laser a specific mechanic to it or just take its damage? Second boss is the only good thing about the FP, but I say that with a caveat. I myself liked it, but for casual players trying to solo it in storyline? I think it will be very aggravating for them. Also the amount of AoEs, means classes that can't move easy (like the butchered commando/mercenary) it will be very bad for those players. For us melee classes, its was fine. Bonus boss R/P/S is ok, no loot though. Think that's a bug. Third and final boss. Weak and boring, and not epic at all. Also is the mechanic of him jumping around just "don't get hit with his red lines"? Also the "PAIN!!!!!" and his other comment will become the new 'HOUSE INROKINI!!!" 2.0, hopefully it gets fixed, but if not, fleet chat will be FILLED with people complaining about it.

 

Trash balance: Trash is fine. As was mentioned a few times, the small narrow pathway right before the second boss, the ads keep triggering multiple times, so maybe that needs to be looked at. Also the elite mob that spawns right before the 2nd door, spawns multiple times.

 

Functionally Issues: As was mentioned by someone else, if you die on the 2nd boss, it will spawn you on the outside of the mountain with no way to get back, but for exiting and refreshing the FP. Also the bug with the 2nd boss if you get in the shield, it resets the fight multiple times. Can't think of any other bugs/functionally issues atm.

 

Impeding Progress: ^ basically that.

 

Are the objectives clear and understandable: More or less. The keystones being in different places each time is annoying, but meh. The only thing I will mention is for us players who do HM/NIM OPs, figuring out the mechanics of the cores during the 2nd boss made sense to us, but for solo players? Maybe they need an arrow indicator on the droid > core? Just might help the solo newbs a bit. Rest is fine.

 

Pacing: Pacing seems fine. Just like most VM FPs atm. I will say from a storyline point, it was kind of lame and uneventful.

 

Stone Stairs: It was meh. I get the idea that its going for. The AoEs seem WAY too big though, IMO just make them a little bit smaller so more dodging can happen. I feel a bit sorry for people who arn't used to having to move that fast, but we shall see.

 

The look of the FP is cool and the 2nd boss is interesting. Rest is meh to annoying.

 

Edit: Forgot to add about the 2nd boss. Because of there being SO MANY AoEs, being on a mobile melee character was easy and the fight was fun, but being on a non mobile class (commando, since the mobility was removed from them in order to have survivability) it is not fun at all.

Edited by Lakemine
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Tried solo as an assault commando. (No-one around on the PTS when I tried)

 

Trash was trash. Most pulls felt at appropriate challenge rating for solo play, which isn't what you'd ideally want for a veteran flashpoint. In general I believe it's better to have fewer trash, but in bigger pulls.

Many small pulls = waste of time + too easy = boring

Few big pulls = faster + riskier = interesting

Well you can't exactly remake the flashpoint to make the area smaller at this stage, but please consider grouping some of those trash pulls together.

 

First boss hits rather hard over time. The stacking uncleansable dot seems to imply some kind of agro swap mechanic, which isn't normally possible in veteran flashpoint. I managed to lose my stacks with ranged kiting, something most specs can't do as well as an assault commando. That aside, the fact I managed to solo it indicates it's rather easy.

 

Some trash between the first and second boss was a bit more challenging (groups that included one elite droid and then some), though I doubt it would have been any problem for a full group.

 

Second boss was interesting, I approve. I was unable to kill it as the incoming damage just became too much after killing the second core, and especially the third. Lack of dps causing stacking waves of adds might be a problem with some group comps as it's effectively a soft enrage mechanic.

 

 

No major funcitonality issues on my end. Some constantly respawning trash when entering certain areas, I figured I just needed to move on and fight them away from the trigger. No medcenter problem to report.

 

I got lost a bit at some point before the second boss, might help to improve the mini map to make it clear which way you're supposed to go, or what constitutes a "path" towards the next objective.

 

I appreciate the ability to mount in most of the flashpoint, and that kolto stations don't require clicking. Every flashpoint should have both of these where applicable.

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Played it solo with my main lightning sorc in 306 and full 276 augs with a lvl 50 comp. Got up to the first boss and came close to killing it. Had I been able to get to a kolto station to keep Theron (and myself) alive, I would have succeeded in taking the boss down.

 

Mobs were manageable and sufficient in number and variety (up to the first boss). No problems with navigating anything.

 

Will play with a group and provide additional feedback.

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How do you feel about the boss balance?

 

I ran with a partner, Tank/DPS with two companions. Boss Balance overall was fine. The second boss might be a little over tuned, but companions also didn't react well there.

 

How do you feel about the trash balance?

Trash seemed ok, not too much or too grindy.

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

 

Second boss kept us stuck in combat and we eventually had to kill ourselves to keep progressing. There was an outdoor tunnel that had a spawn point trigger that spawned a bunch of droid adds behind us, but if you would go back to meet them the trigger point would keep spawning another group everytime you passed. While exploring there was also a Lana Voice Over trigger left over from presumably Story Mode.

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?

 

None during the run I made.

 

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?

 

Yes

 

How does the pacing of combat feel?

 

Combat felt pretty good to me.

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

 

It was too easy to knock attacking NPCs off the edge which bugged them out and prevent you from completing the objective.

 

As a final side note, the final boss spammed their combat dialogue to an annoying extent that should be toned down a bit.

Edited by MaximusRex
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Tried first solo and gave up on the first boss as the uncleansable DOT was too much. Tried it again in a group of 3.

 

 

How do you feel about the boss balance?

 

I wouldn't say it was a walk in the park (maybe a question of gear), I run a healer and had to work hard at times but nothing impossible.

 

First boss was definitely easier in a group and the DOT was much less of an issue as we shared agro.

 

Second boss was very buggy, it took 3 tries to finally figure that we shouldn't get too close to the boss (as in not stepping past the force field that protects him once it is down) because it kept resetting the fight. That's where I had to work hard on heals and use the kolto stations as I kept pulling mad agro from everything.

 

Bonus boss was very easy, maybe too much? I can't even tell if there is any mechanic to it, just pounding on each boss one at a time and they were dead.

 

Last boss was very confusing. He seemed to pull us to him and we were insta dead, I don't know if this was a mechanic that we did not understand or if he was bugged. It took 3 tries to decide to "cheese" him, we stayed behind one of the blocks near the entrance of the arena which avoided his pull. It took a bit for him to decide to come and we basically fought behind this block.

 

Also he kept repeating the same lines over and over and over and over and... over again.

 

 

How do you feel about the trash balance?

 

It seemed fine to me. Their number was acceptable, it didn't feel like a chore going through them. Strong and elite mobs didn't pose much of threat.

 

 

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

 

Dieing makes you respawn below the map. Our first issue occured with the second boss after we killed it, a group of mobs kept us in combat (located at the "core" to the right of the entrance), we couldn't see them, I guess they were under the map. So we /stuck it and respawned below the map. It took a lot of effort of holotraverse, dueling, /follow, etc. to get us back on ground.

 

Same issue with dieing on the last boss, we respawned below the map.

 

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?

 

- Respawning below the map.

 

- The mountain stairs, on the way to the last boss: knocking the mobs is a bad idea and could easily end in a situation where you can't target them and kill them.

 

 

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?

 

No issue finding my way and notably figuring the key thing.

 

 

How does the pacing of combat feel?

 

No complaint. You can mount in most areas, you can avoid some trash mobs. Trash is not overnumerous and not annoying.

 

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

 

It felt refreshing. Didn't have any issue with the hooks. We strongly refrained from knocking the mobs to their "death" as the first group almost had us stuck in combat. I actually look forward to see how MM looks as I guess the AOE will hurt even more.

 

 

As a closing note, except for the annoying bugs, the adds that either keep respawning or that can't be seen and keep you in combat, rezzing under the map, the flashpoint looked interesting to me.

Edited by demotivator
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Please use this thread to offer your feedback for your experiences with the Veteran Mode for the Elom Flashpoint.

 

Please answer the following questions:

 

  • How do you feel about the boss balance?
  • How do you feel about the trash balance?
  • Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.
  • Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?
  • Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?
  • How does the pacing of combat feel?
  • Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

 

Feel free to answer in as much detail as possible to help us understand your thought process and line of thinking.

 

Thank you!

 

This'll be a 2 parter since I had to stop half way due to outside work commitments and a bug. Will revise with further boss results as I go along and with a extra person.

 

Attempted content solo on 320 gear and a rank 50 heals companion on tactics vanguard.

 

How do you feel about boss balance? First boss would be almost a tank'n'spank though I found that I had to keep moving. I could live with the stuns and the bleeding dot, though I'd probably stick a max cap of five stacks rather than too much higher due to damage output. For a master mode I could happily go 10 stacks with that one, but for vet and trying to keep newer players who aren't as skilled in mind, I'd keep to 5. I'd also run into issues where I was clearly out of it's conal but still got swiped.

 

Second boss....I'm not sure if it bugged out on my account or what but I honestly wasn't sure what to do and all the cores still remained green barred and unattackable. Adds that spawned for me just kind of sat in the middle of the room for a bit until I came close enough then they roared over. It was after they killed me eventually that I ran into the bug that stopped me playing any further. (I also shot him from the middle of the room with basic attack if that helps any)

 

Bonus and Third: Still to be tested.

 

How do you feel about trash balance? Trash is okay in it's current levels. Got startled a bit by roaming ranphax as I was exploring a ruin. Suits the mood quite effectively.

 

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? Quite a lot honestly...

 

I ran into issues where weak enemies would repeatedly disappear through the floor. Particularly on the initial area's ranphax and the droids that came later. Sometimes they'd disappear and there'd be no issue, other times they wouldn't die and I'd repeatedly get shot until I evaded.

 

Another problem I noticed was scripted area ambushes along the Acolyte's Path, in a house and a long tunnel nearby where the enemies would repeatedly respawn if I walked over a certain spot in both. Rather than just spawn once and be done with it. Also for whatever reason a phantom Lana speaks when you're inside the house about the droids and that's not supposed to be there.

 

There's certain droids that have stealth sensing to them and it says ranphax senses...which they shouldn't have since...well...being droids as well. :p

 

If you hop up a certain ramp bit to get to the second boss's door a blood crazed ranphax spawns...which promptly ran away from me backwards into unknown oblivion and wouldn't let me escape the fight until I walked up to the door. Then it decided it wanted my trooper as a dinner time steak and came back.

 

Dying and clicking return to medcenter sent me under the map entirely and no amount of /stuck'ing (which just killed me) or leaving the FP and returning fixed it. I just ended up in the same position. It was that point where I stopped entirely.

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress? Beyond the areas stated above? No. But we'll see when I can actually do a proper run with a friend of mine.

 

Are the objectives clear and easy to understand? Getting from A to B? Pretty fine. Bosses, thinking on a average pug group (and not someone who's played for ages on end and is very familiar with the content) 1 and 2 could be a little more clear in what they wanted though I need to confirm that what happened with 2 was a bug before I can confirm on that.

 

How does pacing of the combat feel? Pretty alright all things considered, nice areas for exploration and to take in the creepy scenery. Music was a nice touch. On a slightly related note I was having a problem with two music tracks running at the same time. This's happened to me in the past where I'd have the Balmorra track just...stuck while say Coruscant's was on top of it. Or sometimes even Odessen's. Not sure if there is a fix for that but it's something to look at.

 

Other comments: So far it's looking okay for a experienced group considering it's vet mode, however I do see average pug groups struggling a bit on boss content. Especially considering the higher damage output on first and repeated ad summon on 2nd boss. With some of the defensive prune in self survivability (particularly for shadow tanks which I also main) it puts them more reliant on healers to keep them afloat which they may not be entirely up to task. Which has the double effect of putting off players from playing FP's in general or only keeping to easier ones. Taking into account the high drop rates any time Blood Hunt, SoV, Copero, BoR or Umbara pop up as examples.

 

I realize it's a awkward balance trying to keep two audiences pleased with the result. Hence why I'm trying to review from the pov of a average pug who may be fairly new to flashpoints in general and only recently using the group finder, rather than someone who's played a number of years and knows most of the content inside and out. Just for the added perspective.

 

Anywho, that's my two cents so far. Will revise and edit once I drag in my friend to help me later with the second half.

 

Edit: Part 2

 

The trash didn't phase through the earth when I brought a friend in to help me but there were a few extra issues I noticed instead. (Friend was a telekinetic sage in 318 gear, rank 50 comp that got flipped to heal with mine after first boss)

 

Firstly the scripted spawns still occur whenever someone steps over the trigger points causing repeat fights. The weak enemies stopped magically phasing through the earth. Not sure what happened, maybe they were happy at the prospect of more dinner steak and decided to stick around.

 

Second: while first boss is easier to handle with more people, the dot effect is still nasty on 4 stacks and melts through a vanguard due to lack of internal damage resistance. Laser beam could afford to be tuned up since it just bounced off my utility shield effect thing. Barely made a dent in my health. Cap on the dot stacks to 5, tune up the laser in short.

 

Third: Second boss could be a lot more clear in what it expects you to do. While sure, it borrows off of secrets of the enclave, the fact that there's so many adds coming out at once, makes it hard to focus. Damage overall needs to be tuned down. I'd expect the current output in master mode but not vet. Less continuous adds would also be a good thing for average pug groups. On a side note: the second boss did bug out and kept myself and my friend in combat. While clicking on the item next to the box (not the reward one) actually crashed my client for no reason. Friend was fine.

 

On a extra side note it also needs to tone down it's voice box since it talks too much.

 

Fourth: Bonus boss could afford to be a little more clear as well in what's expected, otherwise we made it through the sequence just fine. No loot drop appeared though.

 

Fifth: Final boss needs to put a cork in it and tone down the mouthing off A LOT. Mechanics for rage aren't clear and it's hard to assess what exactly it's doing in relation to his attacks. Some things hurt, other things barely scratched. Other than the basic don't stand in silly model it behaves more like a freeforall battle than something strategic.

 

Final comments: The final trail up to the summit needs the add damage toned down especially considering the explosives being hurled at you. I can see average pug groups having a hard time. Doubly since it's unskippable enemies as well which slows the pace a lot. I'd expect a lot of the pain in MM but not Vet.

 

The invisible boundary walls do need to be pulled in a fair bit since I was having a little too much fun parkouring outside of the boundaries which caused me to hover in mid air above first boss as well as elsewhere.

 

Beyond that, just boss mechanics need to be more clear and damage output adjusted on first and second bosses. Otherwise I think it should be just fine to ship out once the bugs are cleared out.

Edited by RandomJane
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Just finished it solo with a comp, it's nice that it is possible to do this Vet FP without a group, solo players will be happy)

How do you feel about the boss balance?

The first boss was good, not really difficult tho you still better watch out for his conal attacks and it didn't take a lot of time to kill it. The second boss was interesting, I liked the puzzle, it was a bit hard to deal with adds tho. Bonus boss was ok but I felt like there were too many things going on that you can simply ignore. The third boss was the longest and the most boring fight of all 4: I didn't feel in danger at any time of the fight and his series of dashes looked goofy cuz he wasn't hitting anything most of the time.

How do you feel about the trash balance?

Sometimes I had the same group of mobs spawn all the time while I was in some cave (don't remember the location)

Overall, trash balance felt good, not annoying and it didn't take a lot of time to kill a group. I'd like to see 1 or 2 encounters where trash can pose some threat (like the corner pull on HS), but some people hate those so idk.

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

I wish that map was better optimized or smth, I had performance issues from time to time.

I remember jet charging into the second boss right after I destroyed all the cores and it instantly had reset the encounter.

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?

The second boss fight was hard, but it didn't feel impossible.

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?

Yes

How does the pacing of combat feel?

Feels good most of the time, it peaked at the second boss fight: trying to kill the correct droid near the core while running around and trying not to die at the same time from being overwhelmed by the adds felt very fast-paced and a lot of fun, but after that fight, it went a bit dull.

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

I thought that the big red AoE destroys the terrain and I will fall down if I stay in it, so I ignored the adds thinking they gonna die from that AoE, but when I got up I still had the task to kill the rep troops. And I was very surprised to find out that I can't use those grappling points to come back and kill the adds (they were out of LoS) so I had to jump off to respawn.

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Please use this thread to offer your feedback for your experiences with the Veteran Mode for the Elom Flashpoint.

 

Please answer the following questions:

 

  • How do you feel about the boss balance?
  • How do you feel about the trash balance?
  • Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.
  • Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?
  • Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?
  • How does the pacing of combat feel?
  • Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

 

Feel free to answer in as much detail as possible to help us understand your thought process and line of thinking.

 

Thank you!

 

Played imperial side on a lightening Sorcerer, with a Deception Assassin, Bodyguard Mercenary and companion. Due to some issues with companions brought in another player who was another Deception Assassin

 

How do you feel about the boss balance?

1st Boss encounter felt OK,

2nd Boss encounter: encountered an issue with companion, after taking down the target they were focused on for (tank/dps stance companion (range or melee companions)) they would disengage and launch towards the wall boss. Even in tank stance after using grapple on mobs, once first target was taken down, they would ignore the other trash they grappled and leap straight on the boss). This also issue also happened with companions on healer stance with the healer companion jumping to the boss, which also caused an issue of being out of range of you and the group if you were on at the processor cores at the opposite end of the wall the boss was on. (Note wanted to mention this as could be a serious issue for Story/solo mode). Trash in this fight also felt very imbalanced, some felt like they belonged in Story/solo mode as went down fairly quickly, while others of the same type of trash could take several hits before going down. Mechanics for the fight did feel like there were more meant for Master Mode content. So lessening the spawn of the some AOE bombs/rockets would be helpful along with some koltos being closer to the processor cores. As a full DPS group on Veteran mode would struggle on this fight, especially for new players. Also once the fight was over you still stayed in combat once the boss was defeated. Of note during the fight when you were on the wall on the right-hand side of the boss, standing near the processor cores, the titles of the trash would disappear, and at times become unable to be targeted.

Not sure if this area counts as a boss fight but the area with the 3 champion droids, koltos and reactivating of droids seemed ok.

3rd/ Final Boss encounter: for ranged seemed fine, melee players in the group had issues with the boss jumping into the Bosses AOE and were not able to attack or limited in abilities to attack the boss.

 

How do you feel about the trash balance?

Outside the boss encounters felt fine, on the second boss encounter trash felt like there were very imbalanced. Some of them being easier to kill then others when they were of the same type and quality.

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

After the first boss encounter and on the way to the second did encounter a section where walking through a passage way the droids that spawned after they were defeated, they would then respawn. So you had to run out of the area to a section with another trash mob take those and the trash following you down to stop this cycle. Another issue was the broken stone path to the final boss, the trash kept respawning after you killed them especially if one of the party members was a bit behind or had died and was making their way back up. Once the trash was killed you were kept in combat so couldn’t replenish you own health. Also the trash if pushed off the edge at times didn’t die.

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?

Second boss encounter needs some work, as whipped a few times. Also had issues with companions, as mentioned in boss encounters balance. That and the trash mobs respawning as previously mentioned can hinder your progress. Also with the broken stone path if you pushed the trash off the edge sometimes they didn't die.

 

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?

Mostly this is ok. The parts going from the arrival area to the first and second boss feel like you are running around in circles an example of this is like finding the sections with the walls to click on to open the door to the second boss. Was also easy to miss the 3 Champion droid encounter, with having to find all the artifacts to click on especially with the final one being after the area in which the encounter takes place.

 

How does the pacing of combat feel?

Second boss encounter was the main issue here, trash in the fight was unbalanced, mechanics felt more like were meant for master mode. That and melee players in the group had issues with the boss jumping into the Bosses AOE and were not able to attack or limited in abilities to attack the boss.

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

With the stone stair segment, (note: as it is PTS I do acknowledge that then content and context maybe missing. Once in live game the story may address this issue) giving an honest opinion this part felt like it was just added in just to drag out the time spent in the flashpoint. Other issues with this section are: Not being able to get out of combat in this section was annoying, especially to replenish your health. The AOE seemed a bit excessive and over powered and the trash felt a bit pointless. For some general advice/opinion for this section: Would have been better to of had arrive at this area, use grapple, once on the other side, go into a cutscene with a zooming out of the mountain to show the scale of the task ahead. At the ending of the cutscene you arrive at the last spot to grapple to, jump over to the final grapple point and make you way to the next section.

Edited by Stariessaber
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Dear SWTOR team,

 

Here is my feedback for Elom Flashpoint: VETERAN Mode.

 

Here is some general information: the first time I did it was with a friend, so we were just 2-manning the flashpoint with companions. She was tanking and I was dpsing. We did it on pub side. The second time we did the flashpoint was on imp side and with 3 people (1 tank, 1 healer, and 1 dps) and 1 companion.

 

Trash mobs before the 1st boss: didn't provide any challenge and nothing was wrong.

 

1st boss: Based on the healer's experience, it was very hard to heal through, as the boss conal attack was doing like 50% HP damage, and the DoT that the boss was putting out was also ticking for a lot. In both of our runs, the tank died due to conal attack and DoT (the conal attack seems to be buggy sometimes too) , then after we killed the boss, I went down due to DoT. To me it seemed that the DoT was doing a lot more damage after the fight, not sure why.

 

Trash mobs before the 2nd boss: everything was ok, except there were 4 spots where the adds were appearing endlessly (1 group in the pathway to the ruins with the second key and the door, 1 mob in the ruins with the first key, the single beast add named manslayer, 2 sets of droids (1 elite and maybe 1-2 standard) near the ruins with the second key).

 

2nd boss: Can be very buggy, it can reset if you get too close to the boss when it's vulnerable, trapping the player inside as a result. The adds seemed to be overwhelming, the time when we were 2-manning it, it seemed that the fight was going through faster than when we had 3 people, not sure if it is inconsistent or if it's just my imagination. Healer told me that healing was rough, but not as much as the first boss. After you kill the boss, there are invisible adds that persist through the entire flashpoint (as we found out during our first run on republic side).

 

Trash mobs before the 3rd boss: everything was ok, except orbital strike that hit you while you climb the mountain seemed to be doing random damage. Sometimes you don't take any damage, sometimes you take massive damage.

 

Bonus boss: It was a little bit unclear whether one person needs to have debuffs from obelisks, or one of each. It was nice that the obelisks were still clickable to remedy a mistake. We didn't figure out exactly the entirety of the fight, but it seemed that each of the droids was making the other ones vulnerable with a certain ability. There was like a triangle pattern. It also seemed that some of their abilities increased/put debuffs on group members, we couldn't figure out how that works yet (probably part of mechanics), however when the fight has finished, both me and the tank got cleansed of the debuffs from obelisks, but not the healer. Although, healer said that at some point later, the debuffs disappeared.

 

3rd boss: Nothing out of the ordinary. Healing was manageable. Once the flashpoint was finished, when one group member clicked on the exit console (that seemed to be on a launch pad, maybe for a shuttle?), the exit console disappeared with the person, leaving the rest of the group stranded on the planet (guess we are not leaving :) ) I guess the shuttle can take one person at a time :D

 

Other than these comments, we had a lot of fun with the flashpoints, and overall had a positive experience,

 

Thank you and let us see where it leads,

 

ViShAsh

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We tried the FPS with a friend, I had no companion (made a lvl 1 toon) and he had a lvl 50 Shae Vizla out.

 

How do you feel about the boss balance?

The first boss was quite easy and with little mechanics. The second boss was really good and probably one of the best bosses we found in a FPS for a long time. Bonus boss seemed to not be doing any damage and last boss was easy like first one.

 

How do you feel about the trash balance?

Well..... auto aggro again. Why do you have to have adds that aggro even stealthers?? There is evven an objective to kill trash. Please give us one FPS where we can skip all trash with a stealther. Otherwise the trash is fine.

 

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

There was quite a bit of lag. Probably due to graphics or the new font, not sure. Otherwise it was OK.

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?

What I hated were a few points where you ran into an obstacle on the ground, like a small step etc, it was really annoying.

 

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?

Yes.

 

How does the pacing of combat feel?

The fights felt too long, but that was mainly due to us being just 2 players and we had to set the comp for heal from 2nd boss.

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

That was fine and the tight passes were kinda cool!

 

What I didnt like was something the other players already mentioned, the speech of the bosses, mainly the 2nd and last one. The repetitive and frequent same lines..... it was terrible! Another "for house Inrokini"

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  • 4 weeks later...

How do you feel about the boss balance?

I actually think the bosses are all very decent and interesting in their own way.

The first boss appears to be the weakest because his mechanics are the easiest to predict and counteract. He does punish you for being exceptionally careless or just trying to tank and spank it all thought, but he has only telegraphed Abilities (With one exception) that are all focused on one player, so if the others stand behind him, all you have to worry about is Tank survivability. The only threat happens when he starts to jump randomly across the players and knocking them back.

Second boss is probably the most DPS check fight I have ever seen. Once the 4 cores are down, you go for the boss and ignore the ads entirely, as they spawn faster than you can kill them anyway. It is going to be tough for a full 318 geared squad and is the primary reason for me to say unless the whole team has at least a dozen 320 items they should not engage the FP at all. Compared to the other bosses, the second boss, Regnal, is obnoxiously punishing for low DPS groups.

Bonus Bosses are a change of pace compared to the rest. Since they need to hit each others with their Abilities to lose the shield, burning them one after the other makes the fight a lot longer than it needs to be. But overall, the boss is purely time-consuming, as the damage is negligebly low and they don't have many other disruptions like Crowd Control en masse. I definetly recommend adding some punishment mechanic for people who do take them down one after the other rather than wittling down all 3 at once, and make it more rewarding to actually break their shields down. As they are right now, they take way too much time to deal with.

Malgus is a strong final boss for an FP and satisfying. His Dash Mechanic is very punishing for people who let him hit the team multiple times, as the stacks he builds make his global Stun hit harder, which has resulted in me and my team getting wiped more than once before. But other than the dashes, he is exactly the same like Boss 1. Just have 3 people stand behind him so his telegraphed skills don't hit the entire team, as he focuses all his casts on one player. The by far most annoying thing about him right now thought is just how often his lines trigger. Most people I personally met play the last fight without sound because it's annoying to hear "YOU CANNOT KILL ME!" and "ARGH! YOU ARE WEAK!" every 5 seconds for 4 minutes straight.

 

How do you feel about the trash balance?

Nothing negative to say here so far. Elom feels pretty good as far as trash mobs are concerned.

 

Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

Second boss fight, Regnal. If he dies while adds are still active, instead of being defeated like they are supposed to, they bug out and become invisible and untouchable, but remain there on the minimap and the In Combat status remains permanently. The reason this is an issue is because the Obelisks needed for the Bonus Boss can't be interacted with while in combat. They also do not de-aggro, ever.

 

Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?

None note mentioning so far. Maybe there are but I just haven't seen them yet.

 

Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?

Yes

 

How does the pacing of combat feel?

As mentioned, the Boss fights are all time-consuming (Except Regnat, who puts you under pressure), but other than that, pretty okay.

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

It is a refreshingly new experience. I don't think there was anything like this in an FP before (The Artillery, yes, but not in combination with a narrow space with enemies in it) which is an exciting difficulty-challenge for positioning, as the footing is pretty limited and needs to be managed and the Artillery needs to be put aside so it doesn't wipe the squad. BUT it is also very peculiar about its requirements. All units that spawn need to be killed or the Flashpoint Objectives don't advance to the next stage, which means new players who try to stealth through or just run for the hills have to die and re-run the entire thing and make sure every single add is actually dead. I like this because it means no cheesing the FP with a 4 man stealth squad. It was a very annoying time when MFP groups were looking exclusively for stealthers to speed run everything to farm gear and mats, so I am happy for it.

One thing I noticed, which I hope is just a bug that needs to be resolved but, every player's respective Artillery void damages ONLY them and not the other group members. I am pretty sure it's meant to damage all players, so maybe that should be noted.

 

All in all, I am pretty happy with this new Flashpoint. It has some new and refreshing mechanics and the map is gorgeous to look at. It has small issues here and there but it is surprisingly polished so far.

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#1 first thought:

The flashpoint takes too long. It's just too long.

 

In terms of does it feel like there are too many enemies or not, the number of enemies is not horrible, it seems reasonable except for the cliff walking portion. It is really frustrating to have to walk that much while in combat during that section. Especially if you die and have to walk back in combat, that is just abuse. I would suggest slightly less enemies on the cliff section, moving the medical droid to the start of the section, and adding a 2nd droid along the way. There was a part where most of us thought we could jump a gap and died trying, LOL, leave it in... people will learn quick enough and as much as it was frustrating in the moment I laugh over it.

 

I'm not 100% sure what makes it too long, but I think it's just how much walking there is coupled with how long some of the boss fights are with our current gear?

 

There are some neat/fun things that the different bosses do and I like how the bonus boss you can do mechanics to deal extra damage to enemies if you want, but it is kind of counter acted by the fact that you need to spread your damage out across all 3 of them instead of burning one at a time.

 

Honestly, I found the experience rather flat. Most of the map is rather repetitive and drab, the first boss is just meh, the 2nd boss is more just a puzzle room with lots of adds, bonus boss is a nice addition, final boss is a real long walk from 2nd boss and I mean REAL LONG, final boss it's really frustrating how far he travels and moves around the map... even as a ranged unit near the middle of the map I often couldn't hit boss how is it going to feel as a melee class???

 

One last point you didn't ask for, what is up with the in game performance of this flashpoint? the fps is BRUTAL and my GPU was being maxed out for the first time in this game. I have noticed the 2nd combat style cutscenes are also like this, causing horrible in game performance.

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Just throwing this in the mix. The reviews below are perfectly accurate, however, I'm into the environments more than mechanics. I found it to be uninviting and dull similar to the Nathma environment but maybe even less inspiring. The second boss was a nice challenge but the scenery is the same old uninteresting colorless landscape. Seems like a reskin of some other trenches we went through in earlier chapters. One and done for me on this one.
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Tested this with a guildie yesterday. I was on a Lightning Sorc with 320 greens. My guildie was on an Anni Mara in the basic 318 gear. We also brought an influence 20 Vette on DPS and an influence 50 Nico on heals.

 

  • How do you feel about the trash balance?
  • How does the pacing of combat feel?

Answering this bit first because it's fast. Trash feels fine. The combat pacing itself is reasonable. However, the part of the flashpoint where it makes you go backwards to find a couple clickies is unnecessarily long. We've had flashpoints send us backward before (Umbara and Enclave immediately come to mind), but usually it's not this far. Going all the way up to the door before backtracking to get the clickies you need may be sensible from a story perspective, but from a player perspective it is an obvious time-waster.

 

  • How do you feel about the boss balance?
  • Are there any friction points that hinder your progress?
  • Are the objectives clear and easily understandable?
  • Are you experiencing any functionality issues? If so, please explain in detail.

I'm going to answer all of this in one go. The first boss is fine. Fairly straightforward, in any case. But we have to have a conversation about the second boss.

 

So, about Regnant. This was a frustrating boss. It doesn't matter that we one-shot it. The whole time we were fighting, my guildie and I were trial-and-erroring our way through the puzzle.

"Uh, there are cores. Is this a Mentor situation? They're green..."

"This add explodes. I think it's like the Enclave bonus boss."

 

In addition to the poorly-telegraphed puzzle, there's a lot of hard-hitting stupid to avoid in this fight. Then the add-swarm at the end (my least favorite mechanic in most fights)... I think this could easily pose problems for more casual players. The addition of some red-text prompts would go a long way to easing potential confusion. (Consider the last boss of Directive 7, which tells the players when cores have become unshielded, or when someone is being attacked by the claw. More prompts = better.)

 

Visual Bug: There's also a problem with the second boss room itself. The LoS objects cause nameplates to vanish in several locations throughout the room. Because this is an error I've seen in similarly structured rooms in other parts of the game (some arenas, for example), I assume this will not change before launch. Please keep room structure in mind when building future encounters.

 

The bonus boss was fine, I guess. I need to go back to ensure I understand its mechanics. However, yet again...

BUG(?): While unlocking the bonus boss, my guildie and I each took 2 debuffs. After killing the bonus boss, my debuffs cleared, and all four debuffs were placed on my guildie in multiple stacks. He had them for the remainder of the flashpoint. It is unclear whether this is intended behavior.

 

The last boss was okay from a ranged dps perspective, and frustrating from a melee perspective. The zippy-zoom mechanic is annoying, but can be worked around.

 

Please give us details on your experience with the stone stair segment where you need to traverse a tight path with enemies and other area dangers.

Ah, grapple points. They're buggy in Copero, they're buggy in Umbara, and they're buggy here. Being stuck in combat taking AoE damage while climbing stairs is miserable. At one point, the guildie I was testing the flashpoint with fell into one of the gaps in the staircase and could not get out on his own. It took me two tries (playing a sorc) to find a position from which I could extricate him back to safe ground.

 

On visibility--the color I call "lore object blue" has never mixed well with snowy environments. There were a couple places where I could not see a grapple point and just used force-speed to make the jump. I found the grapple points later.

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There's no way to complete the flashpoint. You get to the exit location and there's a shuttle that you can't interact with. Only way out is to use the exit area button on the ui, which doesn't complete the flashpoint, it just throws you out and resets the entire flashpoint.

 

Which is going to make completing the flashpoint weekly for the title reward somewhat impossible -_o

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