I've seen some threads about some adepts being too hard (Traekoth), and some being too easy (Tarx) over the past few months.
How are adepts balanced? Are they balanced to need a full raid group of 12 non-twinked players? That's kind of what I'm guessing for the mid to higher level adepts.
I ask because I've recently been making attempts at the Spectral Hunter (max engage 25). Try as I might, I could spend 2 or 3 hours getting a raid force together of almost every person online in the level range, and sometimes alts that will log on for the raid, and we can still only scrounge 8 to 10 people together. I haven't suceeded on this mob in a few months now, only because we can not get a full raid going. My issue is NOT that the character is only sitting there to raid this mob, I don't care about that.
What I DO care about is that it seems the mob may be balanced for needing a raid group that you can never realistically find enough people for at that level range (at least with the current population level in SoD). And these attempts have all been during peak playing times (usually weekend evenings). This is further complicated by undead adepts, who get harder at night. If it takes 2 or 3 hours IRL to even get enough people together for an attempt, and half the time it is dark out and they are even stronger than usual... it makes getting the people needed very, very, very hard. And yes, I have tried several times in both day and night hours.
Now there are a LOT of people who are level 50+ who play on a regular basis. And I never have trouble finding enough people for the Beetle Queen (max engage level 12), but finding enough people online in the mid-range levels is very, very hard. Now, Beetle Queen is not balanced to require 12 non-twinked players, I am almost sure because I have done her with only one group before (and I was untwinked myself for those). And I am pretty sure all adepts that are higher level, like Pounders and Traekoth, probably ARE balanced to require a full raid of 12 characters, and maybe some of them even DO need to be twinked (I don't know). So there does seem to be some sort of difficulty level that scales up with adepts the higher level they get, at least in the number of people required.
I am suggesting that mid-range adepts be adjusted (whether higher or lower) to be balanced with needing more people than say, the Beetle Queen, but less people than Traekoth for example. So maybe for from Angar through Tarx (or Icefeather, maybe) - so max engage levels 14 through 36 (Tarx) or 44 (Icefeather). So maybe be balanced for needing at least 8 people for Angar, and move that up slowly to needing 11 for Icefeather (and a full force of 12 for high adepts).
What this would do is help make it more possible to kill these mid-range adepts taking into account the current server population at those mid-range levels. I would always invite everyone I possibly could in the level range and I could never scrounge together more than 10 for Spectral Hunter. Sometimes I would have every single person online in that level range (who is not anon, at least) and be shouting in Dalaya's Beginners and OOC for anyone else, but just couldn't find another soul online who could help out. That's pretty frustrating, and after a few hours of organizing, you just have to try it anyway... and if you don't have enough people, you're going to fail, which is to be expected. But if you can't get enough people, even during peak times on the weekends... well maybe it can be tuned for the number of people that CAN be found at one time for those levels. And if the total server population increases (not just the level of people who are 50+), I would have absolutely no problem with increasing the difficulty of these adepts accordingly. A lot of times it seems if there were just 2 or 3 more people online of the right level(s), we'd be able to do it. But many times we could wait and wait and never get those extra people to fill the raid to 12.
I'm not asking for an across the board dumbing down here, just making the adepts more in line with the maximum number of people that can be found at any given time (at least over a several hour span, if you can get enough people to wait for others to log on). If I could get full raids of 12, even once in awhile, I'd be fine with constantly failing it because that would mean we were doing something wrong that could be fixed. But I suspect we just can't ever get the manpower together to do these mobs the way they are balanced at current server population levels. I DO realize this also means some adepts might get bumped up in difficulty also (like Tarx), but I think that's a much better situation (they would still be killable, you'd just need more people - but not more than can be found during peak times).
Well, that's my suggestion and my reasoning. Maybe it will help.
How are adepts balanced? Are they balanced to need a full raid group of 12 non-twinked players? That's kind of what I'm guessing for the mid to higher level adepts.
I ask because I've recently been making attempts at the Spectral Hunter (max engage 25). Try as I might, I could spend 2 or 3 hours getting a raid force together of almost every person online in the level range, and sometimes alts that will log on for the raid, and we can still only scrounge 8 to 10 people together. I haven't suceeded on this mob in a few months now, only because we can not get a full raid going. My issue is NOT that the character is only sitting there to raid this mob, I don't care about that.
What I DO care about is that it seems the mob may be balanced for needing a raid group that you can never realistically find enough people for at that level range (at least with the current population level in SoD). And these attempts have all been during peak playing times (usually weekend evenings). This is further complicated by undead adepts, who get harder at night. If it takes 2 or 3 hours IRL to even get enough people together for an attempt, and half the time it is dark out and they are even stronger than usual... it makes getting the people needed very, very, very hard. And yes, I have tried several times in both day and night hours.
Now there are a LOT of people who are level 50+ who play on a regular basis. And I never have trouble finding enough people for the Beetle Queen (max engage level 12), but finding enough people online in the mid-range levels is very, very hard. Now, Beetle Queen is not balanced to require 12 non-twinked players, I am almost sure because I have done her with only one group before (and I was untwinked myself for those). And I am pretty sure all adepts that are higher level, like Pounders and Traekoth, probably ARE balanced to require a full raid of 12 characters, and maybe some of them even DO need to be twinked (I don't know). So there does seem to be some sort of difficulty level that scales up with adepts the higher level they get, at least in the number of people required.
I am suggesting that mid-range adepts be adjusted (whether higher or lower) to be balanced with needing more people than say, the Beetle Queen, but less people than Traekoth for example. So maybe for from Angar through Tarx (or Icefeather, maybe) - so max engage levels 14 through 36 (Tarx) or 44 (Icefeather). So maybe be balanced for needing at least 8 people for Angar, and move that up slowly to needing 11 for Icefeather (and a full force of 12 for high adepts).
What this would do is help make it more possible to kill these mid-range adepts taking into account the current server population at those mid-range levels. I would always invite everyone I possibly could in the level range and I could never scrounge together more than 10 for Spectral Hunter. Sometimes I would have every single person online in that level range (who is not anon, at least) and be shouting in Dalaya's Beginners and OOC for anyone else, but just couldn't find another soul online who could help out. That's pretty frustrating, and after a few hours of organizing, you just have to try it anyway... and if you don't have enough people, you're going to fail, which is to be expected. But if you can't get enough people, even during peak times on the weekends... well maybe it can be tuned for the number of people that CAN be found at one time for those levels. And if the total server population increases (not just the level of people who are 50+), I would have absolutely no problem with increasing the difficulty of these adepts accordingly. A lot of times it seems if there were just 2 or 3 more people online of the right level(s), we'd be able to do it. But many times we could wait and wait and never get those extra people to fill the raid to 12.
I'm not asking for an across the board dumbing down here, just making the adepts more in line with the maximum number of people that can be found at any given time (at least over a several hour span, if you can get enough people to wait for others to log on). If I could get full raids of 12, even once in awhile, I'd be fine with constantly failing it because that would mean we were doing something wrong that could be fixed. But I suspect we just can't ever get the manpower together to do these mobs the way they are balanced at current server population levels. I DO realize this also means some adepts might get bumped up in difficulty also (like Tarx), but I think that's a much better situation (they would still be killable, you'd just need more people - but not more than can be found during peak times).
Well, that's my suggestion and my reasoning. Maybe it will help.