Disclaimer: Feedback from one test run(2+ hours). I'd like to do additional testing, but this is my initial feedback on the changes to Rumble's Grotto.
Really quick, as I have to go to bed soon for work tomorrow! Here are my major concerns with the revamped Rumble's Grotto(non-Ascended version, the Ascended version can be plenty hard and extra frustrating if you like):
-The 'totem' daily only gives the party member that destroyed the Kaur Totem credit for destroying the totem. This is a very party-unfriendly mechanic, and will definitely lead to ninja-toteming. I suggest changing this to a party-wide totem counter or adjusting it in another way.
-Granite boss: Purple koolaid AoE cloud damage is very strong, and has an enormous radius(despite the awesome name, Purple koolaid AoE clouds appear to work exactly like rocks....except there are three of them, with a large radius. This fight is very troublesome for undergeared or laggy characters, especially considering the tight confines of the fight allowing little to no dodging room from the splashes. Our healer pretty much had to go back to town, get a shield, and spend most of the fight keeping himself alive instead of the tank(wasn't too bad, would hate to be a pure tank in that fight though).
Edit: Reading around, it may seem that the splash damage is a reverse-rock; that is, it does less damage at the center than it does at the edge. I'll have to test this further. I'm still concerned about how the cloud damage areas overlap with one another, though.
-Trash packs and enemies in general: I haven't run RG much pre-patch in the last week, but the trash packs seem extremely, extremely slow to kill compared to before. I don't think their HP has been increased much, but perhaps a significant defense or damage reduction buff occurred to the monsters. It extended the dungeon time greatly(even with wipes to bosses while testing mechanics, it should never take almost as long to clear trash in non-ascended RG as it does to clear trash in ASV).
-Rumble: The new mechanics are interesting but do not actually fix the issues with the old Rumble.
The issues with the old Rumble:
- tedious, boring fight
- healing mechanic.
The issues with the new Rumble:
- first 50% of the fight is a tedious, boring fight
- healing mechanic not only still exists(he will auto-heal twice, although for less hp than previous) but is now made significantly worse with the healing crystal that heals for 50,000 per tick, and cannot be killed quickly by DPS unless they have exceptional gear (this is the real big one, and I am kinda sad that you guys took the mechanic that was the worst part of the Rumble fight and made it worse). I HIGHLY suggest limiting this mechanic to Ascended Rumble's Grotto.
- prison crystal and healing crystal spawn at the same time in 3rd phase
- Rumble can chain-CC the tank in 3rd phase with his stun followed by crystal prison, or in the 2nd and 3rd phase if the tank crystal is not killed immediately, because the cooldown on crystal prison is very low
- no crystal prison immunity(not an isolated problem to just Rumble).
-Bugs:
- The repeatable quest that requires the Kaur Bows(forgot the exact name) gives both the remnant and the flake reward instead of the option to choose one.
- Kaur Archers(and archer mobs in general) bug out heavily if you let them attack you and then run out of line of sight.
First attempt, went for 2+ hours, I had to go to sleep for work, healer had to log as well. It's kind of cool, but I feel the non-Ascended version needs tweaking, as casual parties are going to get absolutely murdered in there.
The dailies are cool! However, I do not want to do the dailies in lieu of running the actual dungeon(which can be accomplished by killing the trash, one spider, blowing up totems, and never actually bothering to kill Rumble ever, and then running BT in 25-35 minutes instead of RG in 1-3 hours).
I think what I've seen so far in the new RG will make for a very cool and challenging Ascended version, though, and I look forward to trying that out when I have time! For the non-Ascended version, though, I think that the dungeon is much less attractive to run as it was previously as it currently stands(and is now significantly worse than BT, whereas before it was equally fine, minus Rumble). I think it can certainly be adjusted properly to be fun again, though!
Edited by huhbum, 08 May 2014 - 05:30.
) more then rumble, at least in rumble i can have 1504 dps...
