Looks like the pendulum has swung from boring and simple missions back to impossible. Last week I had a occasional difficulty on the last of the three-star events. Not enough to get my heart racing but a bit of a bind here and there.
This week we are back to facing three and four monsters any of whom can single shot kill a heavily armored Felmor.
To DEVS
We can see that as we move from level to level the monsters get stronger. HitPoints, Armor, and attack all increase. You seem to think that as these grow linearly the difficulty of missions grows linearly but
THIS IS NOT THE CASE.
- When we have to face a monster who can kill with one attack difficulty goes up by an order of magnitude simply because the healer is all but useless to help.
- The super-monster must be made to attack someone who can dance and dodge leaving others to attack.
- Any mistake and a hero gets hit once and dies.
- When a wave of monsters has two such power houses difficulty grows again by an order of magnitude because you have to get both of them attacking the same fleet-footed hero.
- Depending on how the attack starts (party rested with foes waiting to random entry in the middle of a difficult wave...) the fight can range from difficult to impossible.
- If any of these enemies have a RANGED attack or worse, a ranged attack that doesn't jumps targets, then difficulty increases again by an order of magnitude because the hero who needs to run is always changing.
- I'm playing with no stars left to win on the board. My party is 90% maxed out strength wise. Please don't go thinking that I just need to level up a few times because it isn't going to happen. I may bump a level on a runic item or get one of the secondary heroes leveled up and bump the party level a bit but my main fighting party is essentially maxed out.
I realize that this makes balancing missions against potential party strength really difficulty. Please keep trying. Here's a novel idea, try testing. Take a sampling of party stats for players who have won 20 stars, 50 stars, 100 stars etc. Recreate the party and test. Oh, I forgot. You don't have any way of backing up and restoring user state so you would actually have to play the game to test it and know if it works. Never mind...
UPDATE---
The challenge is good in many ways. Impossible difficulty is better than pathetically simple. Sometimes the strongest monsters only do a couple hundred of damage. On the impossible scale I'm seeing 2000, 3000 and more. Wish we could get something in between.
(
newly updated 5 Nov 2013 )
I have finaly managed to beat the last 3-star mission. (504 party level using Felmor, Tlanac, Kassia, Oda. Felmor has his armor bumped up over 2k). Here is what comes at you
+ means pause/ not auto-attack
... means time delayed entry
Most anyone does 1000+ damage per hit but bold guys can single-shot kill if your AC is not close to maxed out. Of course with enough armor you may survive
1. + wizard, fighter
...
Ogre, healer, fighter, gunner
+
Okulo, 2 bats, fighter (earthquake + ice arrow)
+ bat, fighter, wizard
2. +
Ogre, gunner, healer
...
Okulo, red fighter The fighter doesn't quite single shot my heroes but he changes targets and charges so he's unpredictable. The Okulo can single shot with bite or death ray and, like most okulo, does not stay with a taunting Felmor. Ice the Okulo and bombard while your tank does hit-and-run tactics on the red fighter. Also have healing aura going and by ready to kite other heroes if needed.
+ goblin and 4 bats (recharge everything)
+ At least
one horned/chieftain okulo and three or four others. To me this seemed worse than the Okulo rush three fights from the end of the 4-star war-without-end fight. The key here is to freeze the chieftain and then because this is the last fight in the room unload everything everywhere.
3. + Starts with waiting monsters and no auto-attack. I can't remember exactly but there are two rushes similar to the first room but with more monsters. Two bats instead of one. Two gunners instead of one. Only one Ogre though and no Okulo.
+
Massive okulo rush. It's worse than the end of room two but can be beaten with the same tactic. This is the last fight so don't hold back.
Comments
It's too much. I've been repeating quests like mad and I still hardly get any coins for leveling. It's frustrating that between leveling and getting store items and upgrading and stupid chances failing, there's hardly any coin left.
At least in the past, I could count on tokens to get items and perhaps even gems or elements for upgrading. With the superheroes difficulties this week, even that window is closed to me. Sigh...
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http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?50679-Item-Guide&p=85562#post85562
Runic Item Guide here:
http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?47298-Guide-to-new-Runic-items
DPH, Hero & Party level Guide
http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?53269-DPS-Hero-amp-Party-level-Guide
Runic item capabilities List ( By rewand )
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aon0kRu72Uj7dEtVUWVRQ0Nsd2FteUJqYUlrVkN1V0E&usp=sharing
http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?50679-Item-Guide&p=85562#post85562
Runic Item Guide here:
http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?47298-Guide-to-new-Runic-items
DPH, Hero & Party level Guide
http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?53269-DPS-Hero-amp-Party-level-Guide
Runic item capabilities List ( By rewand )
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aon0kRu72Uj7dEtVUWVRQ0Nsd2FteUJqYUlrVkN1V0E&usp=sharing
I had two or three times when I just about got control of the fight in the second room where the red goblin rushes in and the big Okulo goes around bumping random people for 2500-3000HP a shot. Alas I finally gave up.
What's around the next corner?
im playing all missions relatively easy
mine party:
Death knight
Demon
Succuba
Shaman
Such way you can assing 2 healers on 1 tank and if tank have around 1000 armor, 1600 lives and more than 60% block rate you can survive amasing amount of dmg. and second tank can easily kill targets while first one kites mobs around.
And if you use 2 tanks instead 1 tank and 1 damagedealer - you always can kite with 2 tanks while each of them have healer to heal them. That way you can kill mobs using spec abilities.
I still cant beat last level in game - but all events manageable by mine party(failed only 2 of last event missions).
BTW. I dont donated in that game (Just collected all free gems that i can)
Unlike the map fights which have set difficulty progressing by tiers and stars, these weekly fights have to adjust difficulty to the party they are fighting. I noticed this a month or so ago when I replaced my nexus and had to start over. The weekend fights had been really hard and with a low-level party it got easy. This would explain some of what you are experiencing but not all. With item bonuses my Felmor has over 845 attack, 908 armor, 2139 HP Block is 40 from skills and 25 from armor (only highest item counts). Most others in my party have 1600 to 1700HP. This doesn't mater much when the Okulo in the second room goes around hitting for 3000HP. Ten healers massed on the target won't keep him from sudden death. My theory is that the difficulty scale is pegged to party level (currently 437). If you have 15 heroes ratcheting up the difficulty level but can only fight with four then difficulty will skew high.
All the same since I got Felmor's taunt fully upgraded I haven't gone with two healers. This dungeon doesn't have massive hordes so your tactic makes some sense. I'll give it a try next week.
Sorry took a week off from the forum. I beat the two star lvl 3 is what I meant I having massive issue with it crashing in the last room.
For the thee star lvl 3 I did get to the third room but I can't remember what was there I used Nar'Ghal ability that decreases damage by like %50 and kassia supersonic to gun down the big okulo.
The first room really only has one challenge and that's the okulo in fight 3. If you can ice him the rest is easy. Room 2 needs luck on luck and room 3 isn't too bad until the H bomb at the end that leaves you wondering why you worked so hard just to get obliterated.
I think the difficulty of the event is based on item tier levels. I have just been playing around and is still at tier level 2 but have about 200+ party level and the 3 star missions does not pose and difficultygranted i have tier 5-6 items from the south lerona region. Before I restarted, i was at tier 4 with around 75 party level and it was impossible to even do 3rd mission on 2 star. So i think the difficulty is not just based on party level but tier level as well.
I have thought this same thing for awhile
Months ago, when I was first playing HoD I would complain to friends how the stars were either easy or impossible. Once I won a star doing the fight again seemed easy. Now I can see that what happened was my HP and armor got to a point where my tank could live thru the onslaught and after that the fights were a matter of knowing the board, successful tank aggro, kiting, and attrition. I know we often focus on DPS and fast kills but beating missions depends more on armor and survival than heavy attack.
On this mission the second wave in the second room was a bit tough but Felmor kept the red goblin busy while Kassia iced the Okulo and Oda put him at death's door with a headshot. The Okulo rush was tricky as well but knowing it was coming meant I had the Healing aura going. Then ice and bombtastic took the fight out of them. Same tactic in the last room (yes, the Okulo rush ends the mission). Kassia just survived an okulo death ray with a little dot of HP left. Felmor and Kassia both have equivalent armor except for the additional shield that Felmor gets. The difference is that the death ray left Felmor with a quarter of his HP intact. Unfortunately, Oda got caught in the corner and died as the okulo gave his final bite.
I do wish the devs would fix the glaring game balance problems but I am glad this "impossible" mission is still here. It's more fun than just waiting for southern Jaral to open up.
I have focused on armor upgrades weeks so yes, pretty much full orange, particularly for Felmor + lots of HP bonus items.