Convergences??

[SRoode.7318]

I am not a fan of co-op play (PvP, WvWvW, Strike Missions, Fractals, etc.), but I can more than tolerate these Convergences.  I've done 2 so far in public instances, both against Sorrow and we won both times.

The weekly reward for doing 3 is great, especially if you are looking to make at least one piece of Legendary armor.

It's just a lot of button mashing really, and you get a fair amount of experience and essence in return for about 25 mins of button mashing.

I can see myself doing it 3 times a week for the weekly reward.

[Tony.8659]

Right now I don't like how it is, when your trying to join. It's more of a nuisance than fun trying to get in. I don't feel like buying an Unstable Kryptis Motivation plus I don't even want to buy a commander tag which makes waiting to enter a public instance so long and in LFG not many are even doing it when I'm playing. This needs a rework to make it way more accessible. Or just like other content after a while I just ignore and move on to something else in game to play.

[xersues.7189]

On 11/11/2023 at 5:04 AM, TheNurgle.4825 said:

Hmm. It is true that wyvern move few times and knight is more static. We will see.

 

Like I said WASN'T a premade. This is a premade - right in the description of the video - I have never failed a premade either. 

The issue with Sorrow that we've all found out by now is she moves and if she's in the water, NO orbs will stay on the ground. Meaning you're going to lose unless you can get her away from that. Times where she hasn't done that have been a success. 

[Ashantara.8731]

12 hours ago, Tony.8659 said:

which makes waiting to enter a public instance so long and in LFG not many are even doing it when I'm playing. This needs a rework to make it way more accessible.

I suppose the next two SotO Updates will each bring another Convergence, making it one per hour eventually.

[Eekasqueak.7850]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I suppose the next two SotO Updates will each bring another Convergence, making it one per hour eventually.

The impression I got was more bosses being added to the pool, there are only 2 right now. 

[Tony.8659]

On 11/17/2023 at 9:33 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

I suppose the next two SotO Updates will each bring another Convergence, making it one per hour eventually.

I hope so, because when I'm trying to find a grp in LFG very few have a squad together.   The LFG is in Inner Nayos, I think it should be in Strikes because you enter through the Wizards Tower, even though it was introduced with the update I feel it doesn't belong there.

[Rauderi.8706]

The convergence isn't so bad. Mostly a neutral experience, but one that very neatly divides players among tasks (boss splits, healing Zojja, etc). Not great, but the essence rewards are good. 

Sorrow, though, makes me not like the convergence as a whole. And it's for the same reasons ANet still doesn't design bosses well.

There's just no conveyance. The lattice attack that splinters over the ground and sometimes knocks players into the air, no tell.

Abilities that have no counter. Stop it. Rework the shoving/pushing toilets and wing buffets, because they're not interesting, just infuriating. We can lay down Stability, then the monster goes "Nuh uh! My Dynamite blows up your rock!" 

The only counterplay available against Sorrow is Get Lucky. Be lucky enough to not be in the ground attack. Be lucky enough to not be facing/targeted by Sorrow, so the wing attack doesn't blow you back. 

[Myrianda.6438]

The concept of convergences is pretty good and I liked it quite a bit...until I ran into Sorrow during a public instance.

Some of mechanics are extremely hard to see without graphics turned way down and you can't use stability for anything. Zojja also just melts randomly while fighting it and no amount of Kryptis essence can keep her topped.

What really bothered me about this boss is that it can run into the wall or the water, which almost breaks the encounter or makes it impossible to do any of the mechanics. In the instance I was in, it charged into the wall and stacked all of its mechanics around it to the point where you couldn't cleanly hit it w/o getting thrown into the air every 2-3 seconds.

When it reached the second platform, it ran into a skyscale launch pad against the edge of the cliff and you couldn't even hit it properly without getting sent into the air. Why are the skyscale launch pads even active during this fight?

On the third platform, and like many other have covered, the dragon went into the water and just stopped dropping orbs and Zojja's hp just tanked very quickly. Which was a nice waste of 30-40 minutes to wipe to a buggy and obviously poorly tested boss.

I'm so glad I only have to clear this 10 times for the relic. It sucks running this to fail a coin flip to get this boss, then have another coin flip for the boss to not bug out, glitch, etc.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Myrianda.6438

[jusef.5261]

7 hours ago, Myrianda.6438 said:

On the third platform, and like many other have covered, the dragon went into the water and just stopped dropping orbs and Zojja's hp just tanked very quickly. Which was a nice waste of 30-40 minutes to wipe to a buggy and obviously poorly tested boss.

I'm so glad I only have to clear this 10 times for the relic. It sucks running this to fail a coin flip to get this boss, then have another coin flip for the boss to not bug out, glitch, etc.

Content being buggy for months after release is about what I'd expect from ANet at this point. You only have yourself to blame for expecting better out of ANet, they're neither professional nor competent. Adjust how you approach their products and you'll still retain some fun - if you treat them as an indie company with no experience on the market, then what they push out is acceptable if you get it with at least 50% discount.

[Gustavef.6730]

As of this weekend, the success rate on Sarrow has improved a lot.  I think it is people know the mechanics well enough and less people hording orbs.  

What I am curious is how private groups are splitting up get the convergence done quicker than 20 minutes.  Also what are ideal splits/tasks for squads around 20 to 30 as well.

 

[Cameirus.8407]

I'm fine with the idea, it creates a new form of event which can be pretty difference if they are creative as its in a separate instance.

BUT .. FIX THE BUGS PLEASE

Bored of wiping in public groups because sorrow spawns...goes into water...cant heal Zoja....

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Cameirus.8407 said:

I'm fine with the idea, it creates a new form of event which can be pretty difference if they are creative as its in a separate instance.

BUT .. FIX THE BUGS PLEASE

Bored of wiping in public groups because sorrow spawns...goes into water...cant heal Zoja....

Yea they got no time to do raids, hardly and fractals or strikes either but somehow they will be able to add 1 more additional instance/open world mode for essence farming?

[Obfuscate.6430]

I've done two of these so far, both were public. we failed that one because it wasn't dropping essences. 

The experience was alright, a little laggy but its relatively easy to understand. Not bad. 

[mari.6394]

They are a pain to get into. I've been partied with a guild friend about 6 times and not once has it put us in the same instance despite entering at the same time, and only once did I manage to queue and get to join them. And the 3 hour timer......ugh.

[Tiviana.2650]

This will be like marionette few people want to bother and public was a nightmare 

[disForm.2837]

I don't mind them. Outside the obvious bugs others have mentioned, I'd like it to be a tad shorter. 

Current times for organized squads is around 20 mins while public is 30. If they can make it 15/20 would be fantastic.

Also, that forced ready check at the beginning is obnoxious, we just entered through a portal seconds ago. 

[BlueJin.4127]

My game crashed just as soon as the legendary spawned, so I just wasted 20 minutes... Sigh...

Edited November 22, 2023 by BlueJin.4127

[RAZOR.7246]

I've done convergences over 40 times now across multiple accounts both in public and private instances. 

The big issue that I think needs to be addressed is the significant disparity when it comes to the difficulty of Demon Knight vs Sorrow. DK is literally a DPS golem. I can stand there with my full essences, expect supports to run essence to Zojja and still finish the instance comfortably without really having to move at all. Even the large AoE attack can be easily countered with a reasonably competent healer. On the other hand, you have Sorrow who has multiple mechanics that move you around, interrupt you, prevent you from doing mechanics and really kitten up your zerg. The worst of these is undoubtedly the one where you have to CC while he's trying to blow the group away. Now most of his mechanics can be avoided by simply standing behind him. However, try translating that to a bunch of players in public who either don't have the skill or are simply just not bothered to follow instructions. Having done as many as I have, I can tell you that people that are coming in just to AFK or not willing to contribute much to the fight are becoming a bigger and bigger issue in public on Sorrow exclusively.

It has to be taken into account, that unlike other fights, players are already significantly handicapped without access to Waystations (EMP 2.0). Sorrow's mechanics dictate that multiple players have to make significant alterations to their builds just to compensate for the overall CC requirements. More often than not, your group might be trying to run essences to Zojja when he starts blowing and you can't recover in time to CC. Most of the time, a public group just doesn't have enough CC to deal with his mechanics. Difficulty aside, it has to be taken into account that this is not a short instance and it is excessively punishing for the time investment when you're forced into an uncooperative group in public instances. Because of Sorrow's mechanics and the need for your entire group essentially to run Essences, your group would probably be doing around half the damage they would be otherwise doing on DK.

In lieu of this, I propose the following changes to these fights that maintains a certain level of difficulty, yet makes things significantly less punishing for players:

1. Firstly, the CC bar should come up first for at least 5-7s before he starts blowing players away to give groups a fairer chance to break his bar. If the bar fails to break, similar to the Matriarch fight in VB, then Sorrow should start doing the blowing mechanic. Similar to that, DK should also have CC bars before his AoE attack.

2. CC mechanic should activate at every X5%, including phases on Sorrow, to avoid significant clashes with running essence at X0%. On DK, CC mechanic should spawn more frequently every 5% instead to add another layer of difficulty to the fight. 

3. On Sorrow exclusively, breaking the CC bar should reward players with a 5% cumulative damage buff to compensate for the significantly lower damage that a group would be doing on this fight. 

Other solutions could include reducing the health on Sorrow significantly or halving the CC requirements on his CC bar. Zojja could also provide significant buffs to players who actually bother to run Essence to her as an added incentive. 

 

[Molesworth.1684]

Firstly, this isn't a whinge, just my own impressions of the mechanics.

I've done 5 public convergeances, 2 wins and 3 fails. The first boss was the knight,then 4 Sorrow in a row. So firstly, is this intentional? That the rng is weighted towards getting Sorrow? Because the other boss is a walk in the park in comparison.

Secondly, after you pick up essences they seem to decay after a few seconds, certainly the bar vanishes. So if you pick up a lot of essences far from Zojja there's no chance of handing them in.

Another thing: I noticed when Zojja's health is low and you hand in essences, she seems to use them for the resurrection spell rather than healing herself. No wonder she dies.

Sorrow is a nightmare to fight, with all the knockbacks and being lifted into the air. And unless it's simply my eyes, it seems to be transparent so it's hard to even see which way it's facing, with all the visual noise.

I don't need the essences and the rewards are pretty poor, so sadly it looks like yet another bit of content I'll abandon, unless it's adjusted. I am a patient person and don't particularly mind the repetitive killing of sub-bosses, but repeated fails after 20+ minutes' work is frustrating, when you are in an instance with 49 random people who may have low dps and survivability, and might even stand and slack.

[Trejgon.9367]

6 hours ago, Molesworth.1684 said:

So firstly, is this intentional? That the rng is weighted towards getting Sorrow? Because the other boss is a walk in the park in comparison.

Cannot say about intentionality, but I am getting way more sorrows than demon knights as well.

6 hours ago, Molesworth.1684 said:

Secondly, after you pick up essences they seem to decay after a few seconds, certainly the bar vanishes.

The bar only shows for short period of time after pickup, but if you track your active effects, you will see the essence stacks there, continuing to be there. The only ways to loose them I am aware of is getting downed or handing them in. UI in here can be slightly misleading.

6 hours ago, Molesworth.1684 said:

Another thing: I noticed when Zojja's health is low and you hand in essences, she seems to use them for the resurrection spell rather than healing herself.

She does both independently.

[Inari Kamihara.6908]

There's not much to like when an otherwise perfectly good Public run gets ruined by Sorrow charging into the water.

That's 30 full minutes that 50 people are never going to get back thanks to this bug that should have been at least acknowledged by now. If nothing else, Sorrow spawning should be disabled until they bother to fix it, but they haven't even done that as a bare minimum.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Yes, I like them. For me it is a welcome way to farm essences. I'm not so fast and with the regular rifts I can only farm T1 rifts myself and when I follow T2 and T3 groups the event is usually over before I arrived. Here I can just complete the mission in the instance with public or private groups and get the reward.

[Killthehealersffs.8940]

After fixing the water bug , i propose to release one more and stall it a bit .

Without an auto-lfg to cycle throught different pool of contents in the future (IBS+Strikes+Dunegons+ Convegernce) , those types  content will be forgoten and they will do their damage by psyfoning  content  from the OW  , which is more crusial to keep it alive (we want something like HoT OW and not like PoF/EoD ) .

Edit; Or there could be new OW "Rifts" that after the solo pre events , teleport you into a random place , like Marionete , so we dont need to buff the rewards all the time 

 

Also could you create a pre-dungeon solo experiance , wating for the other people to show up , without looking in the lfg  ? Like the Rifts pre events . And red marks on the World Map around them as "hotspots" ? edit2: Defend the Dungeon portal kind of Event ?

The pre dungeon could be enabled like the 3,5 hour Conv , or if an new player start it .And a popup message will choose random players outside the Dungeon and  expant to other areas slowly

Edit7: Or new player's soul is snatched ,  and get teleported to the newest-expansion Rifts/areas  (with +80 stat food), with a black-cannot-see-throught-buble around him and the system after an OW events have finished  ask some people to join the new player instance , and some other do other events? (Hero Choice Box reward) Essentially the new expanion areas are movable hotzones/hubs , where people gather and then gettin splitted up if they accept

 

Spoiler

(Not intercating with lfg for the convergences and puting them on auto-timer , did the trick to start an tiny instanced community .:P:P Now the only left is an official DPS addon at very specific ereas (CM + from Guild's portals  only) so can create a "casual/firndly instance scene" like the OW.

Or we can ditch out of the windows the idea  of creating instanced community after  3 years , because you will have more people trimming Sollars chair in the future :P

Lately after the P2W relic steam review , i want to do that ! We only need to have casuals to "restart" the whole thing using the same steps , old gg )

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by Killthehealersffs.8940

[BlueJin.4127]

I got EoD on sale a few days ago and I gotta say… Dragon’s End meta (the final battle) is awesome. There’s actually some challenge since it can fail if players play poorly. There are a lot of different mechanics that prevent things from getting repetitive, mindless, and boring. The atmosphere is also awesome. This is what convergence should have been, with more challenge, more mechanics, and better atmosphere (but not as long). We already have rifts for players who want braindead stuff. Convergence should have been made for more skilled players.

Edited November 26, 2023 by BlueJin.4127

[vares.8457]

48 minutes ago, BlueJin.4127 said:

I got EoD on sale a few days ago and I gotta say… Dragon’s End meta is awesome. There’s actually some challenge since it can fail if players play poorly. There are a lot of different mechanics that prevent things from getting repetitive, mindless, and boring. The atmosphere is also awesome. This is what convergence should have been, with more challenge, more mechanics, and better atmosphere. We already have rifts for players who want braindead stuff. Convergence should have been made for more skilled players.

I totally agree but unfortunately the casuals  don’t want a challenge, all they want to do is auto attack. That’s all they can do and when they fail they get a complete meltdown.
They cried and complained for months about Dragons End.
Sadly Anet seems to listen to them. Because of them we now have boring and easy stuff like rifts and convergences  

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by vares.8457