Bar Brawl in Blackrock Depths

I hope you are not tired of reading about Blackrock Depths because we’re not done yet.  Last Sunday saw us once again head back into the sprawl that is this dungeon.

Blackrock Depths map

Our group this week was:

• Viniki – level 56 gnome warrior
• Skronk – level 56 dwarf priest
• Moronae – level 56 night elf druid
• Ula – level 56 gnome mage

Our primary goal was to knock out the two quests associated with The Grim Guzzler, the bar that is located in the midst of the instance, marked on the map above as location 15.  So we headed out of Ironforge for Thorium point, passing by one of the hallmarks indicating that Naxxramas had arrived.

It hangs in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t

So it was over to Thorium Point and across into the mountain, down the chains, through the excavation, and into the instance.  We’re starting to wear a path in the textures at this point.

Once inside, it was off to the left again, using the Shadowforged Key and into one of the side doors.

That key comes in handy

From there we retraced the same path we took in episode 4 of Blackrock Depths (Punching Sheep with Marshal Windsor), turning the big cog, crossing the bridge, going past General Angerforge (13), and into the manufactory where Golem Lord Arglemach resides (14).

We did not have to engage either of them, though we had to clear our way through one side of the manufactory to get to the opening on the other side.  From there we could see the entrance to The Grim Guzzler.

That way, past the fire elementals

After clearing the way and enjoying a little pause on the threshold we went inside.  The bar is full of non-aggro NPCs drinking, laughing, dancing on tables, and generally having a good time.  Still, it is best to keep your hands to yourself and not make eye contact.  You can set them all aggro by lifting a drink that isn’t yours as I recall.

Looking out at the crowd

Our first quest sent us to the storeroom… another storeroom… to break up some kegs of stolen Thunderbrew beer.  Those were easy enough to spot on one side of the room with a cog wheel when you moused over them.  We spread out and I commenced breaking open the kegs.

We could have just drank them, Skronk could have finished one keg himself

Breaking the last keg starts and event and some Dark Iron dwarves rush in to stop your keg smashing shenanigans.

Here they come!

Unfortunately, in spreading out, Ula placed herself closest to the way into the storeroom, so when the bads ran in the first thing they did was turn on her and beat her down.  She died before we could react.

We managed to recover from that rather unfortunate turn of events, though it was a near run thing at times.  That got us our quest update and, once we ressed Ula and got everybody buffed up again, it was time for the second quest, which involved obtaining the head of Ribbly Screwsproket.  Conveniently, he hangs out just a stone’s throw from the storeroom.

Ribbly out in the main area

I pulled him and his three friends back into the storeroom and we set about them.  That went better, and we were able to loot his head, marking the second quest complete.  Our goals for the run had been accomplished, but we had barely been at it for an hour, so we set ourselves to head further on into the instance.

To get past we had to go to the upper tier of the bar and start another even that involved Private Rocknot.

There he is

You buy him some drinks from the bar… again, don’t pick up anybody else’s drink… and feed them to him via a quest interaction until he has had too much and starts demanding even more beer.  When he cannot find any he gets violent which activates Phalanx, the peace keeping golem in the corner.  Phalanx is aggro to everybody, so that was the fight.  He went down easily enough and, as part of the whole event, he busts down the back door of the Grim Guzzler, letting us pass further into the instance.

The bent back door visible behind us

We picked up the Love Potion quest from Mistress Nagmara on the way out, which simplifies getting the door open, and pressed on, clearing as we went.  We next ran up against Ambassador Flamelash (16) and we managed to beat him down fairly quickly.

The only hitch was that Ula died.

Not during the fight, but afterwards.  She went looking around and fell off the edge of the platform and into the lava.

Ula’s corpse, surprisingly intact given the pool of lava

Unfortunately there is no way down to the level of the lava and from the platform her corpse was out of ress range.  She had to release and run back to the instance.  We met her at the door and ran back to where we left off.

From there we ran into a room with Flame Golems (17 on the map), one of which walked up behind us as we engaged another group, causing enough confusion to make us wipe.  Oh well.

Down Again

Back we ran and, once we got ourselves set and kept an eye on the wandering golem, we were able to make our way through the room without breaking a sweat.  The surprise of the wanderer upset out balance.

That got us into the Summoners Tomb (18) to face The Seven dwarves.  And yes, they do have names to match the theme.

• Hate’rel
• Anger’rel
• Vile’rel
• Gloom’rel
• Seeth’rel
• Doom’rel
• Dope’rel

This is another event.  You speak to to Hate’rel at the top of the platform in the room, which sets things in motion.

Are you threatening me?

You then have to fight the dwarves, each of whom represents a different vanilla WoW class.  They come at you one at a time, but go on a timer, so you need to work fast if you don’t want to have multiple bosses on you.

We actually did pretty well on this, even though it was very much a DPS check and as a group of four we are always short on DPS.  We were finishing up one as the next would show up, allowing me to grab the new one and get aggro while everybody burned down the previous one.  Timing was a little tight, but we were good throughout and finished the fight, slaying all seven.  We took a group shot there, just in case that was the pinnacle of our efforts.

After The Seven

Winning that fight opened the door the the Lyceum (19).

The door opens before us

At that point you can see from the map that we were getting very close to the final bosses in the instance.  But the Lyceum would prove our undoing.  It is an event of its own, a room full of non-elite groups.  You have to get two drops, Shadowforge Torches, from the Shadowforge Flame Keepers who wander the Lyceum, and use them to light the two braziers.  That will open the far door and allow access to the final bosses.

But to do that you must contend with the non-elite groups which, in this area of the instance, are on a two minute respawn timer.  To deal with that constant respawn rate, you need a plan, and we did not have one.  We got into the room a ways, near one of the braziers, but the pace of fighting wore us down quickly.  Skronk and Ula went down at one point, but Moronae had a combat ress for Skronk, who then could ress Ula.  But by the time that got sorted we were in deep with the respawns again and soon we were going down in a desperate fight.

Fighting over Skonk and Ula’s corpses

We wiped as the numbers tore us down.

Corpses as Ula releases

We decided at that point that we had probably reached our limit for the run.  Time had moved along, we were now in the respawn zone for the instance, and it was time for dinner at my end.  We revived at the graveyard angel and flew on back to Ironforge to call it.

So we have at least one more run if we want to complete the instance.  But we need to come up with a plan for the Lyceum first.

CCP Reverts EVE Online Drone Aggression Nerf and Other Items

CCP Paradox announced in the forums yesterday that CCP would be rolling back the change to drone behavior that was introduced with Tuesday’s game update. based on feedback they received… and because the change totally broke drone assist.

The statement says drone assist breaks in “certain scenarios,” but so far as I can tell, having  experimented with it a bit, the main scenario is “player is logged in and trying to assist drones to another player.”  You can make the call as to whether you believe feedback or dysfunction was the prime motivator for the roll back.

The statement in the forums said CCP would update us today with timing for the change, but the patch notes update for December 11th say:

• The change to drone behavior made on 8 December has been reverted. This means that drone functionality will be exactly the same as before the patch with ‘Aggressive’ setting once again automatically attacking NPCs. More information can be found on EVE Online forums.

So you may once again let your drones fly free to attack any aggressive NPCs that come your way as you mine or rat or whatever while AFK.

Drones will once again sort out this mess on their own

Also in the patch notes was a change to the Winter Nexus Wightstorm event sites which were inadvertently dropping Nightmare Blueprint Originals rather than single use Blueprint Copies.  The former would be game breaking and extremely valuable.  That has been corrected.

• The Wightstorm data sites from the Winter Nexus event are now properly dropping single-use Nightmare BPCs.

CCP asked players not to copy or try to sell the Nightmare BPOs, which should have all been reverted to BPCs with the update as well.

And, since we’re on the topic of things CCP has been fixing, yesterday they fixed the issue that was preventing people from setting stations without clone services as their home station (or death clone location in game parlance, the place where you come back when you have been podded) .  When this broke it was noticed almost immediately because Jita 4-4, the main trade hub and most popular NPC station in the game does not have clone services, so suddenly nobody could set their death clone there.  This led me to ask on Twitter:

Now that CCP has reverted the medical clone issue, my question is why didn’t Jita 4-4 get clone services with the big renovation? They had budget for a space elevator but not some clone bays?

Seriously, why doesn’t this station have clone services?  The mysteries of New Eden.

Return to the Crowd Pummeler

The group didn’t really align itself over the past weekend, so we spent some time doing quests in smaller groups.  On Saturday Fergorin and Alioto finished off they elite quests in Duskwood and Alioto got to 30, so we have a backup healer close in levels to the group.

Had to wait a bit for Morbent Fel

Earl, Skronk, Ula, and I also spent some time on as alts, first chasing down some basilisks in the Charred Vale for a mage quest and then just running around leveling up a bit out in Loch Modan.

Trying to flee from our wipe… it didn’t work

Come Sunday it seemed possible that there might be a big enough group for a try at the next Scarlet Monastery instance at some point, but as the day wore on into evening, we could only scrape together three of us.  Our small group consisted of:

• Viniki – level 32 gnome warrior
• Skronk – level 32 dwarf priest
• Moronae – level 32 night elf druid

That makes up the holy trinity of WoW groups, but it is a little light on the DPS front.  Also, it was getting a little late to start on a big new endeavor.  I have a rule about not starting anything new after 8pm on work nights, built on a long history of kicking of something small that ends up keeping me up well past my bed time.

But I did have one idea, a scheme that would either be short or extremely short, depending how well we did.  So I brought up that now tired name, I said, “Gnomeregan.”

Gnomeregan Establishing Shot

We weren’t going to do the whole thing.  Even I wasn’t that mad.  But I figured it was worth a shot to go in the back door and see if we couldn’t get to the Crowd Pummeler 9-60.  He had denied us that two handed mace, the Manual Crowd Pummeler, that Moronae had be looking for.  In three attempts the Crowd Pummeler had dropped the leather boots each time.

Also, at this point, I was taking a bit of perverse joy in returning to Gnomer yet again, it being such an unloved instance.

If we were good enough getting to the Crowd Pummeler wouldn’t take too long.  And if we were not good enough, well, that would take even less time unless we chose to bang our collective heads against a wall a few times.  So we met up in Ironforge and trotted on down the road to Gnomer.

Getting to the back door was a bit of a pain.  As it turns out, past 7pm Pacific Time on a Sunday night isn’t a popular time to run Gnomer.  Every possible mob that could lay between us and the back door was up and awake while the tunnels were just narrow enough that we couldn’t avoid an ongoing slog through trash mobs.

All the leper gnomes came out to play

Still, trash is just trash.  It took us a bit to chop through it all, but we made it to the back door, opened it up.

The door rises

On the far side was out first challenge, a pair of elites and a couple of non-elites around them, the Gnomer special.

The first hurdle past the side door

It was time to put our little group to the test.  I chose the flamethrower mech as the first target.  We got ourselves buffed.  Then I did the pull.

Getting straight to the point, we won.  And pretty convincingly.  I was able to hold most of the aggro, Skronk kept me healed, and Moronae shredded each target in turn in cat form.  The main annoyance was the occasional wrench throwing non-elite that would fixate on Skronk in the middle of the pack.  But otherwise it seemed like we could get through to the Crowd Pummeler.

Battling our way into Gnomer

There were a few tense moments and a couple of lucky pulls, like the time another pair of elites waiting walked just far enough apart that I was able to pull one but not the other.  Eventually though we made our way around and stood just up the tunnel from the Crowd Pummeler.  Would we be able to take him down?

We can see the Crowd Pummeler across the way

Once we were ready I pulled him back into the tunnel, if only to constrain the space in which he could toss us around.

As I said with the last run into Gnomer… or was it the one before… it is much easier to deal with one big mob than a crowd, both when you’re healing and when you are tanking.  And aside from the knock-back, the Crowd Pummeler doesn’t do anything special.

Facing the Crowd Pummeler

The fight was over pretty quickly, and we sent Moronae up to check the loot.

Checking for the pummeler

And… it was the leather boots again.  Fourth time in a row for that drop.

That was a let down.  But it didn’t take us all that long to get to the Crowd Pummeler, so we decided to run back out the way we came, reset the instance, then try again.

Back in the instance we managed to move back through again.  The three of us at level 32 seemed capable of handling each encounter.  Our first run was not a fluke.  It was just the usual dangers of the place.

Have to kill that alarm bot before anybody hears him

In not too much time we were back at the Crowd Pummeler again for another shot.  As with the first fight, the second went very smoothly with just the three of us.  When he was down Moronae once again went to check the loot status.

Here we are again!

And this time it was the Manual Crowd Pummeler that dropped.

Manual Crowd Pummeler stats

There are only three charges for that increased attack speed, which didn’t show up when I clicked the linked weapon.  But even without that it is a hard hitting mace, and has a reasonably distinct look.

Moronae out of cat form with the Manual Crowd Pummeler

That was what we came for, so it was time to head home.

Stoning out of Gnomer again

So maybe that was our last run into Gnomer.  It has equipped the group pretty well, with the Acidic Walkers and the Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator hats having dropped a couple of times each.  Still, I wouldn’t mind a Manual Crowd Pummeler for my retribution pally.  We shall see.

The Burning Lands Expansion Launched Just After Layoffs at Daybreak

We learned a little over a month ago that The Burning Lands, the 25th EverQuest expansion, was slated to go live today.  And so it has.  We knew it was coming, but we were finally getting some detailed information.  Also, pre-orders were open.  You could start giving Daybreak your money.

Does this feel a little “Disney” to you?

The high level points of the expansion seemed to be about on par with what we have come to expect annually from the Norrath team.  Some new zones around a hub, new raids, new quests, new abilities, and a new mechanic.

• Luck Stat – A brand new stat that influences just how lucky you are! This stat will randomly increase the amount of gold in your split, the amount of critical damage you do, your chance to succeed at a trade-skill combine, and much more!
• 6 Expansion Zones – You’ll adventure throughout the grand and fantastic environments and architecture of the Planes of Fire, Air, and Smoke!
• New Raids, Quests, and Missions
• New Spells, Combat Abilities, and AAs
• New Collections

There is nothing on that list that is going to drag anybody new into the game, but that was to be expected.  MMORPGs beyond a certain age become more about tending to the installed base than trying to grab new players.  Anybody proposing otherwise is fighting history and wasting money.  Once you’ve launched and gone free to play there isn’t anything left to attract new players in anything like the quantity needed to support any radical change.

So a normal autumnal expansion release for EverQuest.  Maybe a couple weeks later than we might have expected… November is more the norm… but close enough.  All seems normal in Norrath.

Or would seem normal if Daybreak hadn’t just laid off a big chunk of their staff on Friday.

Daybreak, not being a public company, doesn’t have to tell us about layoffs.  But in the age of social media, word of layoffs get out quickly and this round was no exception, with John Smedley echoing what he had heard on Twitter Friday morning.

Once the press had been alerted Daybreak issued an anodyne statement about optimization while refusing to mention any details.

We are optimizing our structure to ensure we best position ourselves for continued success in the years to come. This effort has required us to make some changes within the organization and we are doing everything we can to support those impacted in this difficult time. As we look to improve efficiencies and realign resources, we remain focused on supporting our existing games and development of our future titles.

That statement is an example of one trying to have ones cake and eat it too.  Reports say that between 60 and 70 people, or roughly one third of Daybreak’s staff, was given their notice on Friday.  When you are down by a third it will be difficult to both support existing games and develop new titles.

Of course, what even are the existing Daybreak titles at this point?  EverQuest and EverQuest II,  holding up the fantasy end of the catalog, were merged into a single shared group some time back.  DC Universe Online is the superhero game and reportedly the most consistent revenue generator, the PlayStation 4 version being the breadwinner there.  And then there is PlanetSide 2, which has been problematic in the past, though it is still getting updates.

H1Z1 Battle Royale went to NantG Mobile as part of the joint venture between NantWorks and Daybreak announced back in September.  NantWorks had the money and Daybreak had the IP I guess, though Daybreak apparently held on to the PlayStation 4 version of H1Z1.  So if there was anybody left working on H1Z1 or the esports league, they were probably seen as expendable.

Word is that the layoffs were concentrated in the Daybreak Austin office and were related to a new project being developed there around a “top IP.”  Daybreak said that the Austin office was not being closed, but I guess that they are no longer working on that “top IP” if they’ve been mostly let go.

People working on the new thing are gone and people working on the old stuff were already spread a bit thin.  Where does that leave Daybreak.

Back in May there was a post on Reddit alleged to be by a former Daybreak employee about plans for the company.  I summed that up in a post here, and a good thing too as it was removed from Reddit by the author not too long later.

The removal led to it being declared a fake, but some key details certainly ended up coming to pass.

Sure, Just Survive sunsetting was hardly a reach.  Even I predicted that back in January.  But the whole Z1 Battle Royale was alluded to, something we didn’t end up hearing about until September.  And the trajectory for PlanetSide 2 seems to line up.

So, in looking at the rest of that post, you have to ask if we are looking at the end game for EverQuest and EverQuest II, if Daybreak is holding out for one last anniversary update for each of them (they turn 20 and 15 respectively next year) before moving on to the alleged EverQuest 3 and its plan for PvP focus anchored on a fantasy battle royale feature.

If that is the case, my prediction would be to prepare for disaster and a belated attempt to return to catering to the installed base once EverQuest 3 flops, because PvP has never been much beyond a distraction in Norrath.

But, the word has come out that we might be hearing about something new from Daybreak on Thursday.  Bets on what it will be?  PlanetSide 3?  EverQuest 3 PvP?  PlanetSide Mobile?  EverQuest Mobile?  What else have they got to work with?

Sources:

• Polygon
• Massively OP
• Variety
• MMO Fallout
• Gamasutra

The December Update for EVE Online brings War Dec Changes, New Ships, and the Start of the Holiday Event

It is time for the December update for EVE Online.  One of the key things up front for this update are changes to the War Dec system.  CCP put out a dev blog on these initial changes, but the key is eligibility.  As was discussed previously, this change will not allow players to war dec a corporation unless it owns a structure.  The following structures count:

• All Upwell Structures (including Upwell FLEX structures)
• Starbase Control Towers
• Player-owned Customs Offices
• Sovereignty Structures (Infrastructure Hubs and Territorial Control Units)

If your corp does not own one of those structures then you should be immune to war declarations.

And, to close a glaring loophole, the second change is to add a setting to disallow structure transfers.  At least CCP could foresee that war dec corps would seek to bypass the structure rule by simply transferring a structure to their prospective victim and then declare war.  There is now a setting in the corporation details tab that allows automatic rejection of structure transfers, and the default setting for that will be true.

That is expected to be the first round of changed for war decs as CCP tries to figure out how to deal with this issue.

Also coming with the December update are two new Triglavian ships, the Rodiva and the Zarmazd.  These are the previously mentioned Triglavian logi cruisers.

Logi cruiser hull model

Unlike other Triglavian ships, this one comes as both tech I and tech II, aligning to the logi cruisers from the empires.  Only the blueprint for the Rodiva will drop and you must go through and do invention on the copy to get a Zarmazd blueprint.

There are also armor rep blueprints going in to match the two new ships, available as Abyssal drops.

The niche for these new logi ships is that their reps get stronger the longer they stay on their target.

Also coming to Abyssal space is a set period of invulnerability when transitioning through Abyssal gates.

The update also introduces the 2018 holiday even for EVE Online.

Thirteen Days Only

Called the Thirteen Days of EVE, you need to log your account in daily to claim prizes… like an advent calendar… but you have 17 days, so you could miss a couple days and still get all the presents.  The prizes include some new things EVE, including a standings booster, new Candy Chromatic SKINs, straight up skill points, and, for Omegas only, a booster with three uses that will allow the pilot to use skill injectors without the diminishing returns penalty.  That means people like me, with over 80 million SP on a character, could get the full 500K of skill points from an injector rather than the 150K one gets normally in that situation.

A sample of the rewards

That last item requires you to log in for the full thirteen days.  But that is easy enough and there is no reason not too.  Details are available at the event site.

The update also lays down the groundwork for the next in-game event, Operation Permafrost.

Coming soon

As usual, the event will come to you via The Agency and will require you to accumulate points for rewards.  At EVE Vegas is was mentioned that this event will bring your ship down into the atmosphere of a planet, giving the art team at CCP a chance to show off some more fancy new environments.  Details are currently up on the live event page.

Also on the graphics front, CCP has added atmospheric auroras to planets.  They only show up at random times though, so you have to be there at the right moment to catch them.

A Megathron spotting an aurora

Another possible background for screen shots.

A lot of the rest is just the usual tweaks and minor fixes that accompany any update for the game.  However, there is one innocuous one in the mix that I want to call out.  This one:

Adjustments have been made to the respawn rates of certain nullsec anomalies. These adjustments are part of a gradual ongoing process that will see further tweaks for this type of content.

As rumors have it, the “certain nullsec anomalies” are havens and that this is a direct poke at titan ratting.  Yes, titan ratting is a thing.  The alleged reason is that at the current respawn rate a titan can can use its boson doomsday, clear a haven, and another one will have spawned by the time the titan has recovered and is ready to keep rolling.  We will see if there is a corresponding dip in the NPC bounties with the coming of the December MER.

So that is it.  CCP has already announced that the update has been deployed successfully.  Information about it is available via the patch notes and the updates page.