Rift Hunting could be so FUN, but….

[Jasper.1864]

I am copy pasting this from my reddit post which has pictures and stuff that better explain what I am talking about: 

 

I make this post because I love this game and want to see it do well. I know the last SotO patch is yet to come, I just hope that some things will change before they release the final version and then it is forgotten about when the next expansion comes out.

TLDR;

Problem#1: The PRE-EVENT! Kryptis are not dense enough and way too spread out.

Problem#2: There are not enough long-term rewards, especially with essence of triumph, for all players including those that already have legendary armor from other game modes.

(PS: Problem #1 does not apply to rifts in Nayos because they are mechanically different. Creatures try to escape out the rift so you can stand near it and smash them before they escape, only having to wait 2 minutes for the pre-event)

#3 Sidenote that I won’t go into more detail about: Convergences have a timer, but no leaderboards? Give us a leaderboard for PRIVATE convergences. I want to see who can push the fastest convergence with a 20-25 man squad. The leaderboard would be ranked by squad size, final convergence boss (sorrow, dk, etc), and time of course. This would make Unstable Kryptis Motivations more valuable because more people would open private convergences, which in turn would make hunting t2 and t3 rifts with motivations more appealing, which then makes those motivations more valuable and that makes my essence more valuable. It is a win-win for everyone.

I will share a few photos to give some examples, then I will go into more detail below.

 

 

 

I finished my last set of obsidian armor today and wanted to share my opinions on rift hunting. Yes, I farmed 54,000 essence of DESPAIR, 21,600 essence of greed, and 10,800 essence of triumph. These are my thoughts based on the countless hours of doing these repetitive events over and over.  Rift hunting could be a true endgame experience for some players and could even be carried over into new expansions and maps. Overall, it is a fun thing to do, but it has some MAJOR annoyances that make it UN-FUN.  

I come from a game called Tibia that I played for over 15 years. There is no level cap and the only thing to do in the game is to hunt monsters in the same circle for hours to gain experience for your next level up. The only reason a game like that was able to hold my attention for so long is because the grind was FUN. Gathering up the monsters and cleaving them down with the awesome skills is fun and satisfying to do. Watching the loot pile up, knowing that there is always going to be a new piece of gear to spend it on, was enjoyable.

Rift hunting could give this same enjoyment; however the pre-events are just AWEFUL. Firstly, from a fantasy perspective, why is it that when I open this rift, monsters are spawning 5000 or more units away from the rift I just opened? Uhm, how did they get there? Didn’t they just come…out of the rift? As you can see in some of my images, these Kryptis spawn in groups of ONE, very spread apart. A lot of the time they are so far apart that even a Necromancers spectral grasp (1200 range AEO pull) cannot gather them up. They are also so far apart or even spawn on DIFFERENT LEVELS, that I must mount up in between killing each SINGLE monster to get to the next one.

Killing one monster at a time, especially when they are the size of a cave spider, is more of a thing that a BOT likes to do. That is not satisfying at all. You know what IS fun though? Using one of the amazing PULL skills to group up a fat stack of mobs, and then shredding them apart with all the sweet AOE skills that this game has. It is so satisfying and fun to do and rifting does not give us that satisfaction on a regular occasion. I will say, some rift locations are good because the area they are in is small enough that mobs can be easily grouped, but most locations suck.

I think that the pre-event was designed to give time for other players to find the rift in time for the boss to spawn, which is great. However, it does not have to be this annoying to do the pre-event.

 

My suggestions are as follows:

1.      When the rift is opened, the Kryptis POUR out of the rift, rather than just spawning in random locations far from the rift.

2.      When the Kryptis initially come from the rift they would either be invulnerable for a duration as they spread out or come fully stacked with every boon in the game for 5-7 seconds. This would ensure that they aren’t just one shot right out the rift.

3.      The density of the Kryptis could be multiplied by like 5 or MORE and it would be amazing!

4.      If you increase the density, increase the number of kills required to fill the bar to keep the pre-event time about the same.

5.      The Kryptis should need to stay close to their rift to maintain their strength, so give them a wandering radius of like 2000-3000 units or so, after they come out of the rift.

6.      Make them keep spawning FASTER, make it feel like an INVASION.

 

The bosses of the rifts are mostly fun and give the developers a lot of room for future content. They could easily reskin every monster in the game with a Kryptis look and add some easy but interesting mechanics to them and slap them on a rift. It would not take much work and would continue to add variety to rifts long into the future.

Now about rewards. Of course, the legendary Obsidian Armor is a main feature of this update and rifting in general. It is the only reason I did it. However, what about all the veteran players that already have full legendary accounts? There is literally no reason to ever do a rift apart from the wizard’s vault. I suppose they could farm t1 and t2 rifts to make motivations, but is that REALLY a fun way to grind gold? Doing these annoying pre-events and then having to convert all that essence into motivations? Not to mention, they still need the research notes. They would never want to do a t3 rift because the essence of triumph has zero use outside of legendary armor.

 

There are already reward systems in the game that could have just been “reskinned” for SotO maps and rift hunting that would give value to all types of essence long into the future for all players, not just those going for the legendary armor. Here are some suggestions:

1.      Give us a vendor that sells infusions with the +5 stat like the WvW or Fractal infusions, as well as .5% damage increase to Kryptis per infusion, purchasable for 1000 Essence of TRIUMPH each.

2.      Give us a vendor that sells loot boxes like you can buy with Tyrian Defense seals, or something like the daily commendation purchases in Drizzlewood coast that progress a reward track, except the currency you use to purchase the stuff is essence from rift hunting.

3.      Give us SOTO map enhancements like the LWS4 Karma and Exp bonuses that you can purchase with volatile magic and gold. I love the idea of upgrading your own map to make it more rewarding for yourself.  Each tier would require the SOTO map currency as well as Essence of Triumph.

4.      Make the map achievements like “No Rest for the Kryptis” in Amnytas more rewarding. Killing 200 Kryptis in Amnytas only gives me 2 pinches of stardust and a blue chest? Such a lousy reward, I would rather not even see it pop up on my screen, it’s so disappointing. Each rift map should have its own REWARDING reward track. Why not 10 pinches of stardust for each 200 Kryptis kills and an Orange deluxe gear box? Even a lesser arcane chest that can be farmed multiple times per day can give you 10 stardust in a single open.

5.      More on the reward tracks as stated above; each rift map should have its own unique track. It would incentivize me to farm in a certain map vs another rather than just getting your weekly 5 rifts done and not returning to that map until it comes up in the rift rotation again. Examples for 200 Kryptis kills in each map:

a.      Amnytas: 10 Stardust, Exotic gear box

b.      Inner Nayos: 10 Calcified Gasp, exotic gear box

c.      Skywatch Archipelago: 10 static charge, exotic gear box

d.      Auric Basin: 2 Exalted Keys, exotic gear box.

e.      BItterfrost Frontier: 10 Winterberries, exotic gear box

f.        Bloodtide Coast: 1 Vial of powerful blood, 5 vials of thick blood, exotic gear box

g.       Dry Top: 10 Geode, exotic gear box

h.      etc

 

You get the idea. Each map would be rewarding enough and entice players to want to farm the NEW content (rifts) in OLD maps, and not just to get their 5 weeklies done. Also, making rifts events count towards map progress would be amazing. For example, rifting in dry top would make it easier to get dry top to t6! The map selection is large so it’s not like dry top is going to come up each week in the rotation and make it overpowered. Imagine having fun being in dry top again because it is getting to t6 often and encouraging players to be there. After the weekly rotation, the old maps could go back to being dead again.

 

 

My Rift hunting has come to an end. I met some great people along the way. I got to lead large squads of rift hunters and had some great conversations. I am sad that the rift events are not fun enough, nor rewarding enough for me to continue grinding them far into the future. I am hopeful that someone that could do something about this reads this and makes some changes, but I am doubtful. Anyways, see you out there.

 

PS: Hit me up if you’re on NA and interested in the “Dungeoneer” title, my next grindy goal.  I’d love to find some regulars to get fast at dungeon runs with! I played at release and got “Dungeon Master” and maxed out AP on Hobby Dungeon Explorer. I then quit for 11 years  and came back only last November. So, I missed out on getting those achievements when they were popular and am now catching up.

-Jasper.1864

[DanAlcedo.3281]

I already had 3 legendary armors. 

Now I have a character that stores all the essences I don't have use for. 

Needs a sink outside of the legendary armor. 

[Farohna.6247]

8 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I already had 3 legendary armors. 

Now I have a character that stores all the essences I don't have use for. 

Needs a sink outside of the legendary armor. 

Something to use them for besides legendary armor would be a good incentive.  Have a vendor to trade them for mats, skins, minis, karma increases, like the ones for LWS3 & 4.  I think the sink may be one of the biggest issues besides repetitiveness.

Map appropriate additional rewards isn't a bad idea, that would be nice.  

Personally not interested in leaderboards, but I could see some private squads wanting to see how fast they could clear it for fun. 

I really don't want more Kryptis popping out of rifts lol.   I agree that it would give it more of an invasion feel and more urgent.  Having them pour out would be more effective visually instead of the spacing that currently exists.   If they came in clusters, fine, just not more quantity wise.  Rather just get it done and go lol.  

 

[jason.1083]

48 minutes ago, Farohna.6247 said:

I really don't want more Kryptis popping out of rifts lol.   I agree that it would give it more of an invasion feel and more urgent.  Having them pour out would be more effective visually instead of the spacing that currently exists.   If they came in clusters, fine, just not more quantity wise.  Rather just get it done and go lol.  

Wouldn't that create the same situation similar to the Awakened invasion rifts? Where you can camp the one single spawn location and bomb that to instantly kill everything?

[Farohna.6247]

2 hours ago, jason.1083 said:

Wouldn't that create the same situation similar to the Awakened invasion rifts? Where you can camp the one single spawn location and bomb that to instantly kill everything?

Yep, it would.   I think that's what they were trying to avoid.  It feels more invasion-like, but that's pretty much what I'm visualizing from OP's suggestions.  

[Gwynnion.7364]

Something like the Awakened invasion and branded riftstalker events are what I always envisioned.  They could be in the same predictable locations the existing Kryptis rifts are now.  Basically, fight off the invading demons, invade the portal, and defeat their leader in Nayos.  Fun!  That Kryptis rifts are just these inert things waiting for someone to activate them and then the Kryptis wander around aimlessly until you kill them is kind of -- well, boring.  It definitely doesn't feel like an invasion.  And having to do a bazillion of the things with no non-legendary rewards just makes it even worse.  

Edited April 8 by Gwynnion.7364

[Dragenstein.2671]

I hated kryptis rifts from the start.  I didn't know that this is all there would be in the game from now on.  There isn't one when you need it, or you get there when it's over.  They are boring and tedious.  You would have to farm them FOREVER to get anything worthwhile.  Now it's in the Wizard Vault every day.  I log into this game for the 10 achievement points in the Wizard Vault and move on to another game.  I remember someone saying we got screwed by paying for the SOTO expansion and they were right.

[GBEW.5947]

i didnt read much of your post at all. If your complaint revolves around the first point of having to move around during combat in what is probably the most movement friendly combat available in an mmo, then i say get good. 

But the rewards are pathetic. i imagine most players dont need them since they should already have their wvw, pvp, or raid sets of legendary armor.

Edited April 15 by GBEW.5947

[Gehenna.3625]

On 4/8/2024 at 7:13 AM, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I already had 3 legendary armors. 

Same

On 4/8/2024 at 7:13 AM, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Now I have a character that stores all the essences I don't have use for. 

Needs a sink outside of the legendary armor. 

 I stopped going to SoTO entirely (except maybe for the dailies). There's no reason for me to go there anymore because I won't get the legendary armor set. Same with the gen3 weapons in EoD btw. I also stopped going to EoD because I don't care for the dragon theme 🤷‍♂️

[DanAlcedo.3281]

25 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

Same

 I stopped going to SoTO entirely (except maybe for the dailies). There's no reason for me to go there anymore because I won't get the legendary armor set. Same with the gen3 weapons in EoD btw. I also stopped going to EoD because I don't care for the dragon theme 🤷‍♂️

I do the Soto strikes. That's it. 

[jokke.6239]

Grind content, but I find it pretty chill to do

[corwin.3495]

Tangled Depths, Sandswept Islands, Thunderhead keep, some parts of Bitterfrost, Echovalds, Nayos, Kaineng need to be seriously revisited. Not to mention that after almost a year, some of those maps don't even show the red rift events properly. So, good job for fixing that, the main advertisement for your SoTo is not even working properly and can be a very frustrating experience. 

[Rauderi.8706]

On 4/14/2024 at 8:25 PM, Dragenstein.2671 said:

There isn't one when you need it, or you get there when it's over.

My biggest issue with rift hunting. Vent a bunch of money going to high points on a map so you can gryphon down just to get to the pre-event in time, or suffer a long, tedious map crossing because the rifts are on opposite sides of the map. 

[Ashen.2907]

Homestly they dont seem to be intended to be fun. Hmm, perhaps somewhat for the first one or two, but actually fun? I dont think so.

Edited April 16 by Ashen.2907

[Supernova Starr.2069]

On 4/8/2024 at 12:32 AM, Jasper.1864 said:

Problem#1: The PRE-EVENT! Kryptis are not dense enough and way too spread out.

I'd say is... Working as intended, like everything in SotO, Rift Hunting is there to keep players busy with little to no variation of content.

Edited April 16 by Supernova Starr.2069