A fight against incredibly strong enemies that most ATs won't be able to beat on their own.

What's one of the most basic things you learn in school?

Trial and Error

Our equivalent of learn to play. If they take offense to that, that's on them, because that is exactly what it boils down to in this kind of situation.

Are there things that "learn to play" won't really help you at? Probably, the version of Rularuu in the CoP that has insane regen and fighting Statesman in the SoA Arc as a Crab because of the short cool down timer on his Unstoppable...though I haven't revisited that particular fight since I finished it on both SoAs when they were new *shrug*

I've said it before, but only in this game is it considered problematic to suggest to someone that they practice to get better at playing the game. Folks post these long tirades about how the game is so unfair, but they never try very hard to fix their own problem. In most games it would be absurd to suggest that every piece of content must be able to be completed first time through. In fact, everywhere I see that people complain about it.

It's simple, not every bit of content in this game is going to be for everyone. Just because something is a story arc mission doesn't mean it has to be face-rolling easy on the base difficulty. The difficulty slider is intended to provide superior challenges for those whose builds can handle them, but the base difficulty is supposed to provide a moderately challenging experience itself.

Flames don't make your point. It just makes it seem like you have no argument. Which, you don't, so I understand.

I remember one of the Pietoria arcs had a 2 EB fight for the last mission at something like lv10

I don't think many of us complaining about this really want everything to be 'faceroll easy' (though I personally don't care, as I'm in it more for the story). We just want consistancy in the difficulty and (in my case) moderation in how often (and in what numbers) certain mobs types are used.

That means, a storyarc should not spawn bosses at all if I have the difficulty set to 'no bosses' (looking at you, Malaise and your two identical twins). And yes, I get that EBs will still spawn under that setting: I accept that.

I would also like some...restraint...in the use of certain mob types, like the taunting Eternal Guards. I do not enjoy facing whole battalions of those things at once (Bedlam assualt mission), NPC helpers or not.

Remember, 'fun' can be very subjective. Challenging content may be fun for some, but it would be an exercise in tediousness and/or frustration for others (which can, and has, lead to /ragequit reactions). There needs to be a balance between the two and the difficulty slider is supposed to help toward that. However, for some content, said difficulty slider is not working properly, resulting in the frustation myself and other's have faced.

Black Night taunt cooldown is set to increase, according to beta/test patch notes.

I do agree that downscaling mobs should not downscale helpers. One could post that to Suggestions, but with a 100+ post thread I suppose it has already been noticed.

DA arcs are incarnate, that is endgame, content. They do not need to match the difficulty of non-incarnate content. Having a larger base spawn size in them seems fine to me.

It seems to me that the DA arcs were meant to be completed as a player became more of an incarnate instead of all being played through after unlocking Alpha, though the addition of Gabriel complicates that.

Regarding that mission from Sister Solaris. Judgment does wonders against the large spawns. And it recharges in 90 seconds, unlike the old nukes. Minotaurs and Cyclops have one ranged attack and cannot fly - and jetpacks can be bought for inf.

The solution to the biggest parts of the problem is easy really, what we need is an option to turn Elite Bosses down to normal Bosses, like we have for AVs and Bosses already, and NPC allies in missions need to never have their rank lowered by the difficulty.

Sure, that wouldn't solve everything, like too many ambushes or spawns purposely increased in difficulty, but it would solve the worst parts of the issue while still maintaining a difficulty increase where desired.
Where a player on "normal" would fight Bosses at the ends of missions then then an Elite Boss at the end of an arc, a player on "easy" would fight Lieutenants at the ends of mission and then a Boss at the end of the arc. The player on "easy" would both have an easier time of it and have a more difficult final boss than what they normally fight.

Of course, technical implication might be an issue, they might not have the tech for the latter, but given Malaise seems to spawn as a boss regardless of difficulty, that would suggest they do have the tech.
As for the former, they clearly do have the tech for that, as they do it with AVs and Bosses already. The only issue I can see is that they might have a cascade effect where AVs get downgraded to Lieutenants when the mission is soloed. Which obviously is not a desired outcome.

Of course, there is the question of if First Ward's and Night Ward's EBs are native EBs or already downgraded AVs. Anyone know?

I remember one of them having purple triangles so I imagine that yes, on the proper difficulty they'd probably be AVs.

I think the problem here is a general misunderstanding about this game.

There are going to be arcs that are fun for some, but not for others. That is the way of life. There is nothing the Devs can do to change this. They can put in better difficulty sliders, they can customize the content to Hell and back, but there will be things that some people just don't find fun because it doesn't jive with their chosen method of play.

I could see a reasonable argument put forth about extreme difficulty of a mission if it weren't the last mission of the entire arc, but we're talking about THE END. 'The End' no matter what arc we're talking about, is supposed to be harder than what you did before to get to that point. The End should have an extremely tough Boss fight, if not EBs. The End should not generally take less time than any one mission before it or have ways to skip around things.

There are ways to mitigate difficulty already in place. Ignoring them doesn't invalidate them as relevant options. If you choose to play exclusively as support and wish to solo content, you will have a more difficult time compared to hardier ATs. If you choose to play without using IOs, generic or sets, you will have a more difficult time with the newer content compared to someone that does use those things. Difficulty sliders won't change this disparity.

No one is saying people that have a hard time with 'X' are bad players. No one is saying that people that find 'X' easy are good players. 'X' is just not your cup of tea. Find a way to adapt, or don't. Other players do it all the time with other content.

here's a tip:


I have yet to run into an obstacle presented by the solo game that can't be overcome with enough giant inspirations.


Before anyone whines about how EXPENSIVE those purples and reds are, here's another tip:

You can buy as many oranges and blues as you have market slots for 10-30k each, all it takes is a day or two of lead time. And the more patience you exhibit, the cheaper they get. Combine the cheap ones to make whatever you want.

If you find your inspiration tray to be too small, email the appropriate # of insps to yourself for defense/damage cap on tap.

Personally, I just look at the Night Ward as challenge content. Soloable, but not solo friendly. Unless you're someone like EvilGeko. Since I'm not hardcore like EvilGeko, and my reaction times aren't that great, I stick to soloing the Wards with characters who are specifically designed to handle that kind of thing. Plus I'm not hesitant to use the autocomplete option if things get too frustrating. My other characters have plenty of other content to do.

Would I prefer it if certain missions in the game were more solo friendly? Sure, but it's not like I'm hurting for solo friendly content.

I remember when you had to defeat actual AVs* in story arcs. And we did it. Because that was the only way to progress through the game. So we persevered. It wasn't "hardcore", it was "normal" difficulty.

And I still maintain RWZ is FAR tougher than either First Ward or Dark Ward. There is an AV who summons multiple EB ambush spawns, and an AV ranked Longbow Ballista, who is a right *******. And that is a mid-arc mission. You just have to accept that "normal" difficulty for story arcs is not the same as "normal" difficulty for newspaper missions.


*The weren't so tough in those days, but they where tougher than an EB.

I agree, an option to add EBs to newspaper missions would be awesome. I'd turn that on in a flash.
Good idea PRAF.

Thank goodness we're all in favour of adding more options for people.