Getting fed up with Trial Primers

[Guest]

I guess this is just gonna be a rant, but the Koda's Trials/Trial Primer mechanics and associated achievements are TERRIBLE, and I'm getting really fed up with them.

First, it's completely unclear how these random event chains are related to Koda or Koda's teachings - the title makes it seem like a kind of rite of passage for following the path of Koda, but the actual tasks are just unrelated random busywork. Second, it's completely counterintuitive that only completing the primer event gives you credit for the trials achievement. But once you learn that somehow, you can move on to the REAL frustration.

Save The Scouts, Bait the Icy Waters, and Close the Rifts aren't too bad. They appear with some regularity, can be done solo, and have reasonable timers for completion (Bait even allows you to finish the primer AFTER the main fishing event concludes).

Plant Banners to Challenge the Svanir's problems are well documented here. The name is completely non-intuitive, and has no bearing on what the actual task of the primer is. It spawns VERY rarely, and cannot be completed if you finish the event too fast, making it difficult to solo (have to kill enemies, but not too many too fast or you can't finish, but you have to stay alive and not get interrupted during many extremely long channels during a short duration) and even harder with others unless they are also looking to do the primer and understand the mechanics. But finally after weeks of trying I managed to get this one. Which brings me to...

Destabilize the Champions. This one is just making me rage after all the previous one's issues. Like PBtCtS, it spawns WAY too rarely, the event has a very short timer, and now the spawns are spread in at least 9 locations throughout the whole map. AND you can't solo the champs to reset the events faster like you could with PBtCtS hoping for the trial spawn. It's likely that if you do find the event, it won't have enough time left to gather people and complete it - champs get only 7 minutes to kill from the second they spawn. If you find one even at 5 minutes, by the time you get enough people there you don't have enough time to throw enough essences to complete the primer and then kill the boss. You don't get credit if you complete the primer but don't finish the boss in time - found that out when we ran out of time with a champ having <1% health left. Been trying to get this for a week now, hanging on the map for hours, asking people to call out champs. I have seen the Trial spawn maybe 5 times, twice without enough time to even start the boss, once the aforementioned 1% fail, another time up fail, and once when others ignored me asking to help with the primer and just killed the boss.

I guess what I'm saying is that this content is just rushed and terribly designed and needs a rework, and even worse that they gated a mastery point behind it.

[Jilora.9524]

I'm sure they are a pain now in empty maps and there is some bugs/confusing things on a couple esp the plant the banners. They sit there for 15m instead of before hey were done instantly after pop and new ones would spawn so waiting must be bad now

[LucianDK.8615]

Yep, just hopeless to geth now.

[Guest]

I finally got it. Some advice that may be helpful:

The trial markers (yellow triforce looking icon) show up on the map when they spawn, even if you aren't nearby - if you know the champ spawn locations you can tell without running around if the champ is up with it. I don't think it shows up instantly, though - maybe 30s to a minute after spawn.

Camp out an easy spawn location - I eventually got it on the Berserker just outside Jora's Keep. Helps people get to you faster. Don't even bother with the champ in the fallen camp (upper right) - mobs do insane CC - or the Svanir champ lower left (hard to get to). I never saw it spawn on the pinesoul outside Still Waters Speaking but that would be another good location if it can proc there. As a matter of fact I only ever saw it on the Svanir Champ, Whisp Champ, Fallen Champ, and Berserker. I would imagine it could appear on any of the 9 non-meta-related champs with fixed spawns (3 for each corrupted spirit).

It might be helpful to do some map swapping using the lfg, especially as people gather for a meta or groups remain listed after one. Increases the number of spawns per hour you can check, though you run the risk of missing one while you flip around. That's why I say camp one main one - if it pops without the trial, then go peek around while you wait for it to end and respawn.

Good luck.

[Rauderi.8706]

Full agree on all points. I came back after a while of playing other games, and trying to get this Koda achievement for a mastery point (6 obscure events that don't spawn regularly and easily fail or get stuck fix the fish one already, it's all bad) was literally over an hour of waiting and no payoff. It's a terrible design.

[Blude.6812]

@Rauderi.8706 said:It's a terrible design.

Seeing this voiced more often now with lots of the games design choices recently.

[Galmac.4680]

Fully agreeing. You have to do all the achievements when the map is new and all people are there. Going back only one map/story part is quite difficult.

[Rauderi.8706]

@"Blude.6812" said:Seeing this voiced more often now with lots of the games design choices recently.

It's not "literally everything is bad" like most folks would claim. But I'm noticing a trend in some things that are definitely questionable in concept or not well executed.Especially when it comes to 'achievements' and goal setting. The achievements definitely feel like they're designed around "how many times should we make them do this to extend play time" at its most insidious or "pick a number and go with it" in its level of carelessness.

The same goes for "Collections". After the announcement of the underwater skimmer being tied to a "collection", I cringe at how much busywork it's going to be for something that should be released through the Mastery system.