Overland Ebon Cultist Patrol Encounters - All Regions

This overland encounter would consist of Ebon Cultist Fighters and Archers. The Ebon Cultists Fighters would be wearing the Obsidian Chainmail* and the Ebon Cultist Archer would be wearing the Obsidian Leather*. The "wave" battle for this would be some higher level Ebon Cultists (Marksman and Champion). You could also (possibly) have a rare random chance of one of the new higher tier tamable creatures, that could accompany some of the archers.

This could be a clone of the already existing Bandit overland encounters, except the spawns would be using these 2 Ebon Cultists. They could appear anywhere on the overland map, as they possibly are re-reinforcements for the various sieges and other areas the Ebon Cultists currently occupy.

All of the Ebon Cultits in this encounter would have a chance to drop various pieces of the Obsidian Chainmail and Obsidian Leather armor.

*The Obsidian Chainmail and the Obsidian Leather Armor are still missing from the game (but the concept art for them does exists). Also it is unknown if these armor sets were actually created yet, or were forgotten or even lost? This would however require the actual art assets to be made (if they do not currently exist).

 

I believe the plan was that the cultists would drop their in-game armor- so the plate and cloth drops (along with the leather, I don't recall chain being an option, but maybe the intention is that the heavy armor they drop was chain and not plate) are not the ones available in the store or as a telethon reward; those are the "ornate" versions of that armor, essentially.

 

While I like this idea, I would add that unless it's event and NPCs within it scaled up from something manageable by the relatively weak player (the same as other random encounters do), then this would become nothing more than feeding our higher players at the inconvenience of our lower skilled players.

Yet also, such a random encounter would also need to be replacing or mixing with the amount that is being provided, so as the overland map doesn't become too cluttered with an over abundance of random encounters.
~Time Lord~

 

I'd say that random encounters are too rare, currently. Also, they tend to all be lower level ones that ramp up at the end. There needs to be a mix of encounters that are worth avoiding, since that is actually part of the encounter process.

• Keep the current encounters where you fight low level creatures (T3+) and then sense a greater threat approaching.
• Add a couple higher-level encounters (T8+), similar to the Unicorn encounter, where the threat appears immediately. This could be the return on the dragon flying around the map, trolls, etc. High risk, but avoidable; would be highly desireable to higher level players.
  
• Add mid level (T5+) encounters, where the fights can trigger special bosses (Cabalists, Undead Lords, Bloody Bones, League of Skulls, Mistress Valdis, etc). These would be my most desired encounters, because they could be lore-based; adding undead swarms to the Perennial Coast, finding Bloody Bones wandering, running into Mistress Valdis again, maybe even finding the Bogman.

Note that you can find Ebon Cultists in the current Undead road encounters. You clear them out of the standing stones to trigger the liches. I would like to see them more places.

 

I tend to agree with what you've said here, as it takes me only 2-3 minutes to run from Brit to Ard. As it stands right now, I may encounter 2 OMW there, which doesn't slow me down at all (dash). Having more encounters would sort of add more meaning to that otherwise un-eventful and far from dangerous journey. It's so safe easy I think nothing of it.

We have allot of fast travel assists around as well, which brings even more relevance to what you've stated.
Adding value to scroll travel is never a bad thing
I almost never use fast travel unless I just can't think off-hand where I need to go to get to others ~Time Lord~