New Fractal 100 Lonely Tower - NM Easy? - CM Too Hard? - Fat Discussion & Guide For Completing The CM

[Nephalem.8921]

18 hours ago, Kunavi.2407 said:

Regardless whether or not people find this or Surf CM easy(Some people find TOP or DRS in FFXIV easy for them)- The design they're going for isn't a good fit for GW2 even if they polish it. One recurring worry I've been having is that ANet may be trying to FFXIVise their encounter design, for lack of a better term. If I wanted that, guess which MMO I'd still be playing...

The dev who left brought in some ff14 encounter designs. The new ones don't. You know what all ff14 encounters have in common? you can play melee just fine. The recent encounters are not like FF14 encounters at all. Cvirt stacks everywhere. Portals required. Extreme layers of rng and untested content. Silent surf forces you to afk for way too long. how is that ff14 design?

[rotten.9753]

2 hours ago, Nephalem.8921 said:

The dev who left brought in some ff14 encounter designs. The new ones don't. You know what all ff14 encounters have in common? you can play melee just fine. The recent encounters are not like FF14 encounters at all. Cvirt stacks everywhere. Portals required. Extreme layers of rng and untested content. Silent surf forces you to afk for way too long. how is that ff14 design?

SS was most likely designed by that dev, he left a month before SS release which at that time was already finished and "tested".

[maxwelgm.4315]

3 hours ago, rotten.9753 said:

SS was most likely designed by that dev, he left a month before SS release which at that time was already finished and "tested".

It would make no sense for devs to ever admit this, but SS was probably done and tested _as a strike_ before that person left, and the post release status of the strike/fractal strongly hint at it.

[SidewayS.3789]

You all know that the team who created Nightmare+Shattered Observatory+Sunqua Peak are loooong gone from Anet. No wonder we got Silent Surf and this kitten Tower fractals. who are screaming Strikes but turned into fractals.

[rotten.9753]

1 hour ago, maxwelgm.4315 said:

It would make no sense for devs to ever admit this, but SS was probably done and tested _as a strike_ before that person left, and the post release status of the strike/fractal strongly hint at it.

That's highly improbable. Content must be ready to be shipped much earlier than you think, ANet doesn't even want simple changes if they are not warranted to be high priority, game breaking hot fixes. That's their pipeline. SS fractals was ready to be shipped before Cameron Rich left ANet and he was a Lead Designer. I'm pretty sure he had a lot to do with designs of SotO strikes, you start design phase much earlier.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

I really don't think SS was a big deal. Lots of people complain about it but the only thing I think is wrong with that fractal, is there are too many wonky/buggy problems that can happen with the initial JP in normal mode, the harpoon kits, and the mushroom jumps. Outside of that, when you run CM and generally avoid all of those mechanics, it really isn't a big deal. In fact, SS ends up being the 2nd easiest fractal CM next to Nightmare. I straight up see more deaths/wipes on Sunqua, Observatory, or even MAMA, than I ever do in SS.

[Kunavi.2407]

19 hours ago, Nephalem.8921 said:

 

I don't even know where to start addressing all you said... I'll just say I can't agree with a single thing except that CVirt is too strong.

Edit : 

Here, I'll try a small part of it- The recent encounters are indeed like FFXIV ones because it's too many mechanics at once, that punish players too severely... For how GW2 works. That style fits FF, it doesn't fit GW2 though. I hope what I was saying can now make more sense to you.

Edited June 10 by Kunavi.2407

[Nephalem.8921]

1 hour ago, Kunavi.2407 said:

I don't even know where to start addressing all you said... I'll just say I can't agree with a single thing except that CVirt is too strong.

Edit : 

Here, I'll try a small part of it- The recent encounters are indeed like FFXIV ones because it's too many mechanics at once, that punish players too severely... For how GW2 works. That style fits FF, it doesn't fit GW2 though. I hope what I was saying can now make more sense to you.

No it doesn't. FF14 never designs content around class gimmicks and usually allows you to play melee everywhere. Bosses have a lot of mechanic but there is always an intended way to do things that works and usually mechanics don't repeat that often within an encounter. the encounters also have major mechanics and minor ones like stacking in a specific spot. Usually the major mechanics don't really repeat and when they do they behave differently in some way. The cerus cm has 4 mechanics you repeat for 10 minutes. you could remove the first 40% of the encounter and you would miss out on nothing and would still see all the mechanics. that does not happen with ff14 encounters. 

Also ff14 has a intended strategy for things. I am not even sure how a split in 5 player content should work. the adds have 6m hp. how are you supposed to do that without the lifesteal bug? Resistance running out on cerus is also not intended and would make the encounter so much worse to play especially without cvirt. The double wall mechanic requires portals and i am really not sure if the devs even tested for that because there are some cases in which you basically can't collect the orbs because mechanics overlap in such an untested way.

 

[Asuran.5469]

i can't find group to do this fractal wait in lfg for fourty minutes and no one join

[Xentera.4560]

3 hours ago, Asuran.5469 said:

i can't find group to do this fractal wait in lfg for fourty minutes and no one join

Welp I think anet needs to understand that if you waste time and resources on half baked, untested content like this, it will be a waste,  because the community WILL skip it.

I am just disappointed this did not get a quick fix yet.

[Supernova Starr.2069]

1 hour ago, Xentera.4560 said:

I am just disappointed this did not get a quick fix yet.

And they probably won't fix anytime soon, as in designers are already working on the next shinning thing

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

1 hour ago, Supernova Starr.2069 said:

And they probably won't fix anytime soon, as in designers are already working on the next shinning thing

Here is what everyone wants to see in the next patch:

Fractals

We decided to call in 3 Negans and hand then nerf bats vs. Eparch's formula:

• Reduced the damage ramping on all of Eparch's orb stacking.
• Fixed a bug that causes Eparch to still be able to consume orbs if a player picks them up too quickly before the names appear on the orbs.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Eparch to spawn orbs after entering consume phase.
• Completely overhauled & redesigned the 66% and 33% rift phases so they are realistic to complete without using orange gluttony rift kill bug.
• Massively decreased the amount of stacks that Eparch receives during rift phases.
• Added a way to control the targeting of consume.

[note tobi.7146]

This Fractal isn't that difficult, the only changes Anet should make are:

1. Remove the pre-events and go directly to the final boss.
2. Change the Gluttony mechanic and slightly reduce the health of the champions that spawn at 66% and 33%. That's all.

From what I've seen, a large part of the players don't even make an effort to understand the mechanics of the orbs and just complain that it's too hard. In 80% of the runs I've done, no one picked up the orbs. The orbs are the main mechanic, learn it. I managed to complete it after a few tries with pugs, each member knew what they had to do.

Like Silent Surf, after several nerfs, this challenge mode has become too easy to complete. So no, the difficulty of the CM should remain as it is.

[mirage.8046]

Having a fractal that encourages ranged play isn't horrible, but having to camp it because this fractal is melee-unfriendly is a terrible reason to go range. Unless you wanna die to Eparch's whirlwind attacks, you're asking for death. 

The spongy health is disgusting, and that trend is continuing with the new fractal designs. At least this fractal doesn't have long phases before the boss on regular mode. Idk about CM though. I hate this fractal so much more than even Mai Trin t4. Besides the cons, I don't mind encouraging bringing boon corrupts, boon strips, or boon theft. You do not want Eparch grabbing boons from your allies, so supports need to be careful with Eparch having Envy. I learnt that the hard way playing my power quick harbinger. Regret is also so annoying unless you're playing with non-projectile ranged skills... Thankfully anet lets you take care of Eparch's buffs by taking yellow, blue, or purple orbs.

Wanna know the salt in the wound? A bug makes Eparch not reset its health after a group does /gg, unlike Twilight Oasis's final boss or going straight to Captain Crowe on Siren's Reef. Hopefully, Anet will look into that.

[Kunavi.2407]

On 6/11/2024 at 3:08 AM, Nephalem.8921 said:

No it doesn't.

 

Well OK then 🙂 Let's agree to disagree, we seem to have completely different experiences.

[lare.5129]

new 100 fractal looks as fail
this is t4, so you should take any 4 members from guild with 150 agony and complete it. It is not possible? So fractal design is fail.

some cms+t4 party skip 100nm if it dayli.

 

About cm  .. what a point say about cm if nm already fail?

[Katary.7096]

1 hour ago, lare.5129 said:

this is t4, so you should take any 4 members from guild with 150 agony and complete it.

I can understand the expectation that any group is guaranteed success in fractals as long as they simply try them when we are talking about T1 fractals, possibly even T2. But T4? Outside of CMs, which are only available for a small number of fractals, T4 is the highest difficulty setting for FotM, if that is not allowed to bar groups from guaranteed success then there is something wrong with the design of the content.

[Maria Murtor.7253]

I gave it a couple of tries on 100 and 75 with pugs. While I as a experienced player (playing since the very beginning of the game and each and every day) can handle it the mechanics, the average player can't handle mechanics, pressure and dealing damage. It doesn't help that the boss doesn't take a single break and overwhelms you with a garbage fire of mechanics. Not  to forget when he poops out emotions and immediately claims them for himself. The groups weren't even close to beat him. Not a single attempt was beneath 50 %, while the fight duration was already at 10 minutes. I'm running from mechanic to mechanic and from res to res. Fighting against the inevitable defeat while the boss gets more and more emotion stacks during the fight.

I managed to succeed once on level 100 with a guild party. Other than that, only on 25 to help people or to get the Fissure Walker achievement. Haven't tried 50 yet. But I agree on the opinion someone stated yesterday: "This Fractal is a giant waste of time". I have to skip it from now on. It's not fun. I can deal with every Fractal with pugs on my side, because there's always a way to compensate/to carry pugs, if things go rough. But not for this one.

[Inssengrimm.7924]

Even if you were to compare encounter designs with those of FF (Ultimate Legend btw) which really don't compare well... 
The "qualitative diferences" are just completely diferent. In FF fights are tested by actual gametesters, is a game that their developers actually play, like, for their work and as a game.

In GW2 is clear that testing is barebones to say the least.
And that a good part of the design choices of the developers are totally out of the loop with how a player of this game would play it.

This fractal is proof of that.
The developers really don't understand what the community wants out of fractals and why the community do them, because they don't play fractals on a daily basis and it shows. 

Edited June 13 by Inssengrimm.7924

[lare.5129]

t4+ rec, or cms+t4 is dayli rotation for many players. Now I prefer skip is from my dayli rotation.  It was yesterday, it was today.  How I see most players use same way.

If me, as 160K ufe player skip 100 in any mode, it is real was delivered as untested and not measured.

It is looks like TOF cm. I mean concept. What a point make something and name is "new content" where me and my mates come once, run, fail and 95%, and say, ok, let forget/skip that, and never more try it. I not understand for what reason make it in what way.

[rotten.9753]

23 hours ago, lare.5129 said:

t4+ rec, or cms+t4 is dayli rotation for many players. Now I prefer skip is from my dayli rotation.  It was yesterday, it was today.  How I see most players use same way.

If me, as 160K ufe player skip 100 in any mode, it is real was delivered as untested and not measured.

It is looks like TOF cm. I mean concept. What a point make something and name is "new content" where me and my mates come once, run, fail and 95%, and say, ok, let forget/skip that, and never more try it. I not understand for what reason make it in what way.

You have 160k ufe, a static and still fail to complete this fractal?

[maxwelgm.4315]

14 hours ago, rotten.9753 said:

You have 160k ufe, a static and still fail to complete this fractal?

It's unsurprising to see any group whatsoever failing this encounter unless they figure out or hear from word of mouth they should be abusing the gluttony stacks. It is legitimately incredibly difficult to pull off by properly killing the champions especially at 33% and being difficult alone does not mean it's somehow a good thing. This is true even if that player is straight up lying or being hyperbolic. People have already raised it that this fractal is only "easy", "ok", "doable" by exploiting quirks at best and completely encounter breaking bugs at worst.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

35 minutes ago, maxwelgm.4315 said:

It is legitimately incredibly difficult to pull off by properly killing the champions especially at 33%

I'm actually not sure it's even possible.

As of now, I've not heard any group claim they've done it and there aren't any "no-bug" completion videos posted either.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

i've been thinking about it alot, and i would change the fractal like so:

- in normal mode, a good percentage eparch's health and damage would be removed to instead buff cerus and deimos. in challenge mode, the puzzle and the fight with the demon brothers is removed entirely to make the fractal more similar to sunqua peak and silent surf.

- at 75% and 50% of eparch's health, you are teleported to nayos, and cerus and deimos will be fought for 33% of their health per phase, for a total of two phases. this allows the party to have a break to recover rather than the entire fight with eparch just being an onslaught.

- your movement speed and endurance regeneration in nayos is reduced (like story mode), making failing mechanics like the oil much more punishing,

- eparch will only use his own skills about half as often now, and orbs will spawn around the arena in preset locations (in a star pattern) with the same marker and "catch the orb" mechanic from quadim the peerless, and there will be a shield protecting the location, and  eparch can't suck the orbs in until the shield disappears.

- below 25% of eparch's health, portals to nayos will open up and you will fight eparch, cerus, and deimos all at the same time until all three are defeated. in this phase, eparch also enrages and starts to attack at the same rate as he does currently, however the shields are always up so he can't take any more orbs.

 

the amount of changes here would be rather basic but it i think it shows how the fight could've been instead of what we ended up with. it would also follow the tradition of having the bulk of the difficulty being in the last part of the encounter, which allows players to ramp up instead of just going balls to the wall.

Edited June 16 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[rotten.9753]

21 hours ago, maxwelgm.4315 said:

It's unsurprising to see any group whatsoever failing this encounter unless they figure out or hear from word of mouth they should be abusing the gluttony stacks. It is legitimately incredibly difficult to pull off by properly killing the champions especially at 33% and being difficult alone does not mean it's somehow a good thing. This is true even if that player is straight up lying or being hyperbolic. People have already raised it that this fractal is only "easy", "ok", "doable" by exploiting quirks at best and completely encounter breaking bugs at worst.

I would imagine someone posting on forums is well aware of the "mechanics" of gluttony.