Upper Tears

I waited a bit to throw in my two cents. Personally, I like that Upper Tears exists in its current state and that it is a highly active scene. In my experience, this is the first occurrence in this game's history where you can regularly find a PUG to do group content that is a mix of players of all skill levels.

 

Attenuation does feel super quick, but you know what doesn't feel quick at all is spamming useless elementals at a training dummy in order to level up one's magic resistance.

You can see from this adventure level XP chart that it takes about 18.6 mil XP to hit AL 80, so at a rate of say 1.1 mil per hour you are looking at about 17 hours of grinding the Tears.

At that rate, it is also possible to become a "Grandmaster" of certain skills... say a Tier 1 combat skill... within 1 hour (that's one Novian day) of your Avatar's arrival in the lands.

Anyway, that's nothin' compared to what happened down at Vertas Pass back in 495 . But only the dark elves would dare tell that tale, as the great Titans have forbid us to speak of it.

 

*shrug*

I like the scene, not just talking about behind the waterfall but also the rest of the scene, too; feels a little small, but I like it... will do a write-up on it with feedback.

In the end, we're still talking about repeating the same content over and over w/ relatively fast re-spawns, ie. heavy grinding, and most people are doing it just to get the XP numbers, which I don't even care about, to get levels that shouldn't matter, or fight against a decay system they feel is too punitive, so I'm not sure why people are getting carried away about it.

 

Have you gone into that room behind the waterfall without dying a few times ? then you'd understand. You may not really enjoy combat too much, I get it.

As long as we get higher end content eventually, like in Ep 2, I'm talking about, Demon Lords, Obsidian Masters, Elder Dragons, Great Wyrms, Gazers, whatever it is, it'll be okay.

It's the most fun thing about the game atm, but people will get sick of it, like they did the Rise and the Fall.

 

@Lord Trady of Blix

Its repetitious whether you die or you don't. If you die, XP decay is capped, so you're free to die as much as you want after the first two times. I've always hated MMO content where you do the same scene over and over dying until you win. Its like being stuck in some circle of hell. If you don't die, its basically just a farming exercise.

Yea, I know, though, eventually we'll need Tier 60 scenes, and then we can repetitiously farm demon lords, elder dragons, and so on.

 

I'm glad you understand redfish

 

Some people strive to be the best they can be.
Others don't.........
You do your thing, others do theirs.
How's that ?

 

Well, whether you solo or group, there is a reason people are coming to the scene. It is giving players what they crave. They are having fun. I just hope we build on that because if we want a very successful game, the clues are there. Imagine if similar mechanics were in all scenes, drawing us in. The key is to incorporate this activity with the next step. Some reason for the grind perhaps incorporated with the story line. An experience opening new paths through the content. I hope the devs recognize the clues here to a good game and not knee jerk an adjustment because too many are having fun and earning EXP. Doesn't this scene along with the new grouping ability fulfill part of the dream of people coming together organically to have fun? Yet it still serves the solo player. This is a recipe for success in my book.

 

Spot on

 

I like upper tears.
I've never been to a public group there, I've only gone with my guild (Jade Dragons).
I've been 3, maybe 4 times, for 1-2 hours each visit. I attenuated every time.
I've been playing since release, and am currently level 90 something. To be fair, I reached level 89 or so before ever hearing about the skeleton room in upper tears.

 

I'm not sure why you think I don't strive to be the best I can be, or why you think I'm criticizing people going to Upper Tears

 

I was really surprised we didn't get another similar addition this release, given how popular UT has become. It would be cool to get one that features a different mob type.

 

Honestly, I severely doubt any changes will be made to lower XP gains in the wave battle.

Double XP kind of messed with it, but due to attentuation, it really doesn't matter all that much.

It truly is a nice zone, all around. The only concern is what will inevitably be coming down the line... A bunch of bored players who reached AL 80 within the first week of play, and then find there is not much else to do but keep grinding.

If you can stomach the quests, maybe another 1-2 weeks of play.

At this rate, by Episode 2, any new player that wants it could easily earn 1 billion XP, which will put them around AL 125 or so.

It's easy to imagine that, in just a few releases from now, players will be clamoring for harder zones and new bosses. So let's hope the bugs are fixed by then.

 

As long as AL is the goal, then I guess you are right. However a person who is AL 100+ that earned it all by grouping will always be looking for a group to do something rewarding. I guess the point is a level 100+ group person vs a 100+ solo person is two different animals. Management of skills, decks, strategy for advancement is always available to the player who wants to overcome the challenges in a different way. In either event, the group people and the solo people will seldom meet and each will be competing with a different set of parameters. The group persons will have high AL, but have a difficult time alone or with a less expert group. The solo will have a lower AL, but the challenges are similar despite the great AL divide.

 

Like I said previously ut is good for grouping the xp might be a bit op esp on dbl xp times.

15 mins to attunment w8 45 rinse and repeat does not sound like the best way to deal with this. At least they should make it 3 mill to attenuate if they dont really care about xp per hour.

Ut is the best and easy xp per hour compared to the harder cps like superstition they should make those more rewarding.

 

It's not really a challenge though.

Would be nice if there were real challenges that required players to work together.

But pretty much everything can be overcome with DPS. It was the same in Superstition Canyon and the Monkey Room, and now UT.

Managing your skills implies they are working correctly. Unless something changes, you will eventually have to choose between sticking to the character you originally wanted to build, or just giving in and using whatever works.

Unless you just happen to choose a fully functioning build from the get go. In which case, you will rapidly ascend to the lofty ranks of the super elite and quickly become as bored as they are, and wondering why one or two crazy outliers are still complaining about Bludgeon being broken.

Take it from somebody who tried to roll with an earth magic-based druidess for over two years.

If you don't have the so-called "right build" you will not get invited to high level groups, no matter what your AL is. At best you will get a "charity case" slot in the group and get to ride on the coattails of whomever is rocking the highest leveled FotM build.

 

@Aldo
5 Gold Stars for your post!

I sincerely hope @DarkStarr & @Atos are really considering how valuable LFG & Upper Tears Cave is a truly tangible & positive Social building addition to Shroud!
We need more places like Upper Tears, to help keep the Social momentum going.

 

A lower tier version with hordes of IMPS!

 

I made a brand new toon over the weekend. Used the starter teleport scroll to go straight from highvale to UT, used exclusively LFG pugs, recalled about 4 times to skill trainers, and now I have, a couple days later, yet another level 80.

It didnt matter how much I died, how much damage I did, how many of my swings hit the air. The biggest mistake I made was not paying enough attention to the soccer match I was watching and missing a goal. Dying in game doesn't cut off the XP gains, which cover decay before I can say ooOooOoOo.

The fundamental reward cycle has been reduced to cow clicker. My Pokemon go raids are more involved. This shortcut makes the other scenes redundant like circuits on a board that has a direct wire from power to ground.

What comes from UT's continuation is enui and nihilistic epiphanies about the point of the game. This is the core element of the game being trivialized.

What comes from its (imo inevitable) nerf is CP hangover part deux: where the game feels slow speed, and activity feels petty in context. Withdrawal emotions get in the way of reward feelings. New players become bitter as they were not given the same lucrative advantage.

Either way, the only path forward is developing a new reward cycle that captivates the players even more than XP. For that I am excited.. because I know I'm not the only one burned out by XP being the primary goal of this game.

 

Regarding what I said about the scene feeling small, it would be great if there were more passages, and such so it wasn't just one wave battle. Also, I imagine the passages behind the waterfall could eventually have an underworld passage, and you have to get past some of these waves to get there.

There are other areas in the game where there are continual passages and more fights, but like others here have said, they're not for low-level players.