Eparch Meta Feedback

[HotDelirium.7984]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

-I actually do like the skyscale pre-events with the spell bombs and caustic grenades. Adds a bit of variety. The first mini boss dies too fast before the fountain mechanic even has a chance to happen though Maybe trigger towards the beginning? The escort phase is okay since the mini bossess "teach" the mechanics.

-The battle with Eparch I think needs refinement/optimization. I love the creativity in that the essence pools do different effects and can even make your build (dps, tanky, cc-er, healer) even better. 2 min forced timer I don't love, let us switch at our leisure. Him standing around is a bit lackluster. I think he needs a few more animations or something to do lol. Us getting consumed like the leviathan is fine. I don't love the aoe nor lines that people keep getting tripped up on but I'll deal. The negative essence walls are annoying because where they begin and end is hard to determine. Their borders are very erratic looking. Stopping the summoned spawns is fine. Thank you for your time lol :3

[Gop.8713]

I don't mind him not moving around bc I think your focus is supposed to be on running around stopping the rifts . . .

I actually like this meta, the only thing I'd really like shortened is the two 'descend' phases on either side, since npc pathing makes them a little wonky with no practical way for players to speed them up . . .

Well that's other than the leeching issues discussed elsewhere, but that complaint is general to many areas of the game, not just this meta . . .

[geogiam.5301]

I like the 3rd meta, except Eparch fight, it is horrible.

Forcing players to do the other 2 metas is bad design, one feels tired when one reaches 3rd meta and it is not fun at all at that point, there is no way to take a break.

Eparch, like all SOTO enemies, have too much health, it makes fights really boring.

Also Eparch timer is too short, once people starts to die, it is over, teleportation is too far away, rifts spawn constantly, not fun.

 

[Shadamehr.1284]

Is there a good server time to do this meta ? I'm a bit late to the party, having only just started the latest content (have been playing Guild Wars for the lore for the first time). Have been on 3 metas so far, read the strats after the first one failed (everybody bailed, they must have known it wasn't going to end well). Have to admit a bit shellshocked at the last part, every meta has failed miserably, not even close.

Edit: And just after I posted this had a successful meta 0745am AEST

Edited July 3 by Shadamehr.1284

[Gop.8713]

I had a lot of success in the reset+8-11 window. Very few failures. Preset seemed to be a particularly bad time to run, to me . . .

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

Hot take, reduce the respawn timer on fully dead players to as low as 30 seconds. One of the biggest issues in over-scaled meta evets is dead players lying on the floor waiting for someone to revive them, despite being told by commanders and other players in the map to respawn if fully dead. The event isn't going anywhere, you won't lose participation if it finishes before you get back, but it may well fail if you just sit there waiting for other players to waste valuable DPS time trying to revive you..

[Cuks.8241]

I like the meta. I think its spot on difficulty wise. I havent failed it yet but I only do it if I see the group is competent.

The pre bosses could be  a bit shorter. One phase less on Wyrven, its all the same anyway. But Ive also seen groups to just do the premetas in paralell. You only get the final chest reward from one anyway so I think its even intended.

[Nodani.6932]

Stupid Meta. Couldn't get back to boss, didn't get the achiv. Never doing this meta again.

[Sobx.1758]

7 hours ago, Nodani.6932 said:

Stupid Meta. Couldn't get back to boss, didn't get the achiv. Never doing this meta again.

Or maybe you could ask how to get back and you'd learn that all you need to do is use 2 leylines going towards the boss and then take the stairs down to the boss room tp. It's like 30 sec, half of which you're on "autopilot" due to riding leylines.

[Tuna Bandit.3786]

My thoughts:

1. The Damage is stupidly high. I saw the event ongoing and went in... I was litterly DEAD before I even saw the enemy. No joking! I stepped in the portal - Loading screen - DEAD... And INSTANTLY people screaming respawn or you are leeching. Seriously? Who gave the OK for this toxidity enabling design? Portal entrance should be 100% save spot ALWAYS!

2. I clearly and unmistakenly have Leyline Gliding Disabled on my account... always... The Meta overrides that... Why do you insist (or think) that I want to return to the fight using a annoying leyline? Did you try it? Did you compare the return time between the ley line vs the Updraft + Griffon swap? I can tell you: the 2nd is faster... MUCH faster.

All in all: Not returning to that piece of ... untill they fix above 2 issues.

 

[Futa.4375]

I have four issues with this meta:
- it's a mess visually, they know their game was already a mess visually, they made it far, far worse.
- the invicibility when you zone in the room during the fight should last a lot longer, I died several times the moment I entered the room and still do, nothing I can do about it.
- if I disabled the ley-line gliding that means I want it disabled, not automatically turned on during meta.
- it's boring and uninspired.

[tonny.7580]

Worst party abut this mete evend is end part is when portl is up and wave thad hit 7k just keep spawn under portal and u go go up and die agen

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Having the boss focus on being on the rifts instead of the boss so it doesn't get silly damage resistance numbers is what makes this so bad. Maybe put the dps and coordination check early in the meta instead of at the end so people know if it is going to fail or not.

[Obfuscate.6430]

Some solutions I think arenanet can implement :

1) add light or indicator to the semi hidden stairwell at the end of the leyline leading down. Currently it is black and blends in to the black shadows. Easy to miss.

2) during the portal spawning events change the champions in to Elites.

3) remove either the damaging waves or the damaging floor grid - or enable them if there is a break bar fail.

4) increase timer. 

These changes would be designed primarily for less organized groups, or people who can't play during peak hours when organized groups are prevalent. 

[Eisinas.4893]

On 7/14/2024 at 12:34 AM, Obfuscate.6430 said:

Some solutions I think arenanet can implement :

1) add light or indicator to the semi hidden stairwell at the end of the leyline leading down. Currently it is black and blends in to the black shadows. Easy to miss.

2) during the portal spawning events change the champions in to Elites.

3) remove either the damaging waves or the damaging floor grid - or enable them if there is a break bar fail.

4) increase timer. 

These changes would be designed primarily for less organized groups, or people who can't play during peak hours when organized groups are prevalent. 

I'd say, don't change boss fight, but force players to change their behavior during fight (all metas in that matter): don't let rez fully dead players when in combat (like WvW). Remove participation, when you're dead certain amount of time. Problem is, bosses/mobs scale on player numbers: dead or alive. This means more mobs health for fewer players. Then there are some players who try to revive those fully dead people which further decreases dps output. Problem is the lack of participation in the event, not the difficulty

[Flowersunshine.7385]

 

On 8/22/2024 at 11:10 PM, Eisinas.4893 said:

I'd say, don't change boss fight, but force players to change their behavior during fight (all metas in that matter): don't let rez fully dead players when in combat (like WvW). Remove participation, when you're dead certain amount of time. Problem is, bosses/mobs scale on player numbers: dead or alive. This means more mobs health for fewer players. Then there are some players who try to revive those fully dead people which further decreases dps output. Problem is the lack of participation in the event, not the difficulty

Not sure why you got a confused emote, I think both these options are a good way to deal with the issue of dead players scaling things up. There's another upside to not being able to res dead people: it means that if I want to res a downed player, I don't accidentally start ressing the dead person right next to it. By the time I've repositioned myself, I'm usually too late to help the downed player. 😞

Although I also agree that this fight is a visual mess. I've done it twice, and tbh I had no idea what I was doing. First round that is fine, new things are new. Second round not so much. I'm pretty sure I'll have to wiki this encounter in order to understand the mechanics, and imo that's bad game design.

(The amount of time someone comes to this forum and to ask a question that could just be answered by checking the wiki is amazingly high. In game it's even worse. Know your players.)

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, Flowersunshine.7385 said:

Not sure why you got a confused emote, I think both these options are a good way to deal with the issue of dead players scaling things up.

Scaling is the least of the issues in this encounter. It never fails just because the boss hps are too high/there's not enough dps. When it fails it is because early on people did not kill the mobs fast enough and the boss gained buff stacks. Those are responsible for the boss hp bar getting depleted at slower and slower rates, not the scaling due to players being dead.

By the time there's enough dead players around for it to matter, the fight usually is already decided.

[Flowersunshine.7385]

44 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Scaling is the least of the issues in this encounter. It never fails just because the boss hps are too high/there's not enough dps. When it fails it is because early on people did not kill the mobs fast enough and the boss gained buff stacks. Those are responsible for the boss hp bar getting depleted at slower and slower rates, not the scaling due to players being dead.

By the time there's enough dead players around for it to matter, the fight usually is already decided.

Ah, like that. Honestly, this is my issue with the fight. I was in squads that have players dedicated to portals, and there were about 10 people in that subgroup. The rest was supposed to be 'on the boss', as far as I understood. So, as a newbie to the encounter, I figured 'I'm not in the portal squad, so I stand on the boss and try to see if I can figure out the rest of the mechanics'. It was such a visual clutter, I never managed to feel like a had a second to check the boss's buff bar for relevant buffs before I'd step into another puddle and be downed. Never realized the mobs were my responsibility and not the portal group's.

(Only did the meta twice as of yet, just to be clear. But I'm used to understanding the mechanics of meta much better after the first run, and knowing how the encounter works after the second. Even Soo-Won made sense to me after the second time.)