[Arc 384236] For the Isles

Azerrath · 03-09-2010 10:18 PM

Name: For the Isles
ID: 384236
Lenght: Very Long
Allignment: Villainess
Level Range: 40 minimum
# of Missions: 5
A new group has popped up in the Rogue Isles and they plan to save it. It will be interesting to see how far they go.

Vs Crey, Longbow, & Arachnos
Contains Arch-Villians, Extreame Elite Bosses(ally)

Name: 30 Minute Hero
ID: 386310
Lenght: Medium
Allignment: Heroic
Level Range: 10 - 20
# of Missions: 4

Sometimes, 30 Minutes can last a lifetime.

Vs. Goldbrickers, Custom
Contains, Elite Boss

GlaziusF · 10-31-2010 07:30 PM

Review as part of the CoHMR Aggregator project.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low-level Will/DMelee tanker, +0/x1 with bosses on.

---

Endanger is a verb. The sendoff talking about people endanger should be talking about people in danger or people endangered.

Anyway, my contact for this arc interrupts me in the middle of something else to collapse at my feet and get me an address.

...the Goldbrickers? In Paragon City? Thats pretty big. And why are they at an arcane site? That generally isnt their bag.

Well, apparently somebodys paying a lot of scratch for whatever thing they dug up. I guess thats good enough?

---

Time to go back, Jack, and do it again. ...but exactly why I have to do this in 15 minutes isnt clear. Maybe the compass in the clue should be getting close to telling a certain time, and I assume thats when Ill get kicked back?

The surviving tablets talk about a powerful mage who had his power sealed away in an artifact by an angel, and the raid leader talks about some guy who paid him to get this artifact.

Perhaps the two are related.

---

Hmm. So now Im going back to the raid site again? It seems like I already know what I need to.

Nope, back to the raid site. In 10 minutes, which is a challenge on a pre-DO character against Goldbrickers.

...but it doesnt seem like I get any new clues or insights.

Oh. Okay. Says the debrief, I sped through there so I could go to the meeting site afterward. Apparently I know that this isnt the sort of time loop you get reset to the start of when it goes away.

---

Well, at least its a tiny cave. With only a... claws/fire control EB. With a hold! And a blind! Most classes dont even get status protection until later on, or perception increases for that matter.

There are a lot of distracto glowies around his lair, but none of them seem to really tell me anything new.

---

Storyline - ***. The only problem I have with the story is that I somehow know how this artifact is causing a time loop - that after a particular interval it kicks me back in the timestream to a particular place, and that when this whole thing is over everything Ive done will remain done, hence the need to save people and wreck the archmage in, what is it, 30 minutes?

Maybe the researcher could give me some kind of rundown on this thing when I meet her for the first time for the second time, or I could take some information from her car.

Design - ***. The caves are all well and good, but I question your choice of enemy group to populate them. Goldbrickers are one of the few enemy groups which are in-story native to the Rogue Isles -- Coralax, the Gremlins, Slag Golems, and Arachnoids all qualify here -- so its unusual for them to hop the ocean just for a modest payday.

Especially since theres a decent concentration of mercenaries and artifact-hunting enemy groups in Paragon City as it is. Hellions, Outcasts, Tsoo, Sky Raiders, Warriors...

Goldbrickers are modestly resilient and deal out cascading damage from range, making them slow to fight solo and even slower in teams. It doesnt matter how small the map is -- if its any size at all 10 minutes isnt much time to deal with Goldbrickers, and the time penalty from a loading screen makes it even worse. So they interact badly with time limits, and theres not much of a narrative reason for them to be in Paragon.

Gameplay - ***. Pre-Stamina pre-SO characters, who this arc seems to be aiming at, dont generally have the recovery ability or power to put out the stream of damage needed to drop the relevant Goldbrickers. And the end boss pulls out status effects that non-armor-primary characters (so everyone but Tanks) may not have the tools to deal with.

CoV does throw out elite bosses in their low-level arcs, but the most they can do in the way of status effects is some knockaround now and again.

I can understand that this arc might be considered as a challenge for higher-level people exemping down to 20, after the pattern of some Ouro challenges which are no doubt attempted in this way. But in that case, why just not lock it at 20? Theres a little too much here for level 10s to manage.

Detail - ***. After about the second mission there arent really new elements in the detail. Admittedly some of this is because the first three missions are exactly the same, but I figured thered be more surviving tablets on my third pass through the cave. And the clues for the final bosss chambers all seem to be variations on the original theme - angel fights magician, magician has a hate on.

Admittedly, probably nobody is going to bother with glowies or reading clues with the excessive time pressure on. But after the mission objectives are completed the timer goes away, and reading the clues is a bit like opening presents at that point.

Overall - ***. Ultimately the story plays out a little too much like my hero has already read the script, and the Goldbrickers, while challenging, dont really have much reason to be there.