Feedback Dark Dwarf Heist - Community Edition (March 2017)

OK that's rather disingenuous. Yes, I've upgraded all the the smallest of my old gems to Qaizah gems, but that's because I had nothing better than Polished prior to the release of Sands of Malice. And, no, I've never yet crafted anything that would replace an existing piece of gear (I have a few Level 50 crafted 2/4 or 3/4 legendaries, but not enough of any type to attempt to combine them into a 4/4).

I'm assuming your "old" gems are all Sacred and Royal, right? And you've been crafting, successfully, for months, plus have multiple Unique gear sets to choose from.

Yes, Traki, you are still OP.

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Back to the thread:

I ground for over an hour yesterday in various maps (level 49/50 Cradle of Death/Cradle of Life; level 54 The Great Desert and Shady Valley [is that the name?]), dropped one Viscanium Mine map. Each mini takes about 20-25 entrances, and the main event ... I'll recalculate that later.

Today I ran a rather unscientific 10 minute spurt in The Great Desert, dropping 104 Impure Viscanium, or ~600 per hour. That's enough for 3 Viscanium Mine maps when exchanged at the trader in Kingshill. So, approximately 4 maps per hour in combined drops; which means I need to grind for 10-12 hours just to get enough maps to run the mini-events, let alone the main event. That, or as I've suggested before, concede that I can only do half of the event each edition, either main or minis.

SUGGESTION to BP: Offer me an event subscription, say $5 per month, that lets me avoid grinding to just get into the events. My brief peek at the upcoming Sewers event on the test server suggests the grinding there just for keys is going to be even more horrendous. Yes, I can already buy Maps with Andermant, but I'm stubborn, holding onto them as tightly as I can as I'm still opening up storage expansion. Psychologically it might be easier to convince me to pony up $5 per month for unlimited event entrances than forcing me to buy a few Andermant here, a few there to supplement the Maps that I've been able to grind out.

 

If you click to view the event page, every day you will get one map to the mine, gratis. If you run the map, you will typically get enough impure viscanium to purchase a map from Shady Jon. If you run the quest to kill 30 Longhelm Miners, after about three runs you will get another map. If you plan it correctly, and occasionally lose 200 impure viscanium to a map rather than to event progress, you will never be at a point where you can't enter the map.

The issue isn't with the number of maps. That can be addressed. The issue is with the event progress. If you are a part-time player who only has an hour or two per day to play, you won't make it. You WILL be able to enter the map as many times as you want. You just won't have enough pure viscanium to finish.

 

No, the daily bonus was changed last event: Instead of getting a pack with a map, 2 pickaxes and 50 Impure Viscanium [IV] as you receive from the 30 Longhelm Miners repeatable, you get 40 event progress (the equivalent of 800 IV).

But, that quibble aside, we aren't completely disagreeing: Yes, there are ways to get more maps, but they slow down your progress in both the main event and in the mini-events.

I played the first mini-event by thoroughly clearing both the Viscanium Mine (other than opening Geodes; I didn't use a single pickaxe on them) and the Steamship Harbor maps. Going that route allowed me to nearly break even on Lowering Contraption Burners (the keys to Steamship Harbor). I also amassed about 250 pickaxes (total throughout the entire event, not just during the 1st mini) and about 14,000 IV (again, through the entire event). I also was able to play a large number of hours that weekend.

For the weekend of the 2nd event, I was much more pressed for time as I had several other commitments. I ended up with 1,800 progress in the 2nd mini by ~7am Sunday morning. I slept 4 hours, logged back on at 11:15 am, leaving me 1:45 to finish (mini ended at 1pm Sunday in my time zone). I ran past everything in the Viscanium Mine (i.e., picked up no IV, killed no Longhelm Miners, spent zero time outside of the event maps other than running back to the entrance), and at least 50% of the mobs in Steamship Harbor, trying to run as fast as I could to kill just the Towers to get Viscanium Drops. After those 105 minutes of intense sweaty concentration, I had 2,450 progress ... and then it timed out.

So, I not only stressed myself out without getting to the finish, I burned 8 Mine Maps without earning anything back towards buying / earning additional maps. And without making any progress on the main event bar.

(Yes, even in hyper-active mode, it takes my low-average Lvl53 RA 15 minutes to get through Steamship Harbor).

For the week, I completed mini-event #1, nearly completed mini-event #2, stressed myself nearly to a coronary (ok, slight exaggeration, but only slight), used up all of my maps, made less than 1,200 progress on main event, with enough IV left over to buy 700 progress or 70 maps next event. 70 maps: That's about how many I used throughout the week, without barely making a dent on the main event progress.

So, let me pay my $5 so I won't have to worry about Mine maps or Harber Lowering Contraption Burners and can just focus on earning progress on both the main and the minis.

 

There should be DDH map entrance in some new and not so new/old urban areas.

Thanks!

 

Actually it alternated from day to day: 40 event progress one day and map/2 pickaxes/50 Impure Viscanium the next...repeat.

 

Maybe that was yet another bug / feature: Random user login reward.

None of my 4 toons got anything but 40 event progress from the daily event login bonus. 3 ended up getting the 3 amphora key progress reward and a few Draken because of those daily logins, but did not participate in the event itself (i.e., never entered the Mine even once).

 

Interesting. I got the map/keys/impure viscanium every time.

I completely agree that the grind was very slow and if you missed a day, you lost out. I've done this event several times so didn't really need it for anything other than the gems.

 

No ... I don't have a single new set. Also my crafted gear is obsolete now and I have to start all over again ... because I never used crafted rings and belt with crit hit enchantments ... I was using double RoDs.

I don't think so ... my ranger is just an average character.
It is just you who are progressing slowly and having below average character.

Why would they do that ... when with this concept you can spend a lot more than just $5 per month?

 

I regret the day i threw the wings from that event.. The events are becoming more and more boring... Traki is the new event like this?

 

I didn't play very deep into it, but I'd say it's worse:

4 sewers

1st under the fairgrounds is free. Drops event progress, keys to dungeons 2 & 3, special essence (not certain the purpose of the essence, but by the name suggests it somehow protects the toon from poison????), 4 special items which can be combined (in specific ratio) at the workbench to create more of the special essence.

2nd dungeon is under the docks to the west. Need 12 keys each time to enter. Drops event progress, more of the special items to create essence, up to 4 special items which can be combined at the workbench to creat entries into 4 dungeon. I only did a few runs, picked up 2 and 3 units of 2 of the 4 items needed to get into dungeon #4.

3rd dungeon is under Crypt of Kings. Requires 18 keys each time to enter. Never entered it. Presume more parts to the dungeon 4 "key" drop here.

4th dungeon is under the king's throne. Need Sewer Valve (created from the parts found in dungeon 2 and possible 3) every time you enter.

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So there's a lot I don't know, but you can see that you need to run one dungeon to get parts to enter another dungeon to get parts to enter another dungeon. With DDH, we at least only had two entry items (Viscanium Mine Map from various sources, including PVE; and Lowering Contraption Burners dropped from 3 specific fixed mini-bosses, with a guaranteed drop of betwen 30 and 60 units ... i.e., 2 or 3 runs in Mine --> one entrance into Steamship Harbor). With this event, everything is random, so it may take 1 to 12 runs in sewer #1 before you get enough keys to make a single run in sewer #2, or up to 18 runs in S1 to earn a single entry into S3. Who knows how long it will take to gather the pieces to create a Valve for just one entry into S4?

My first two runs in S1 resulted in a total of 2 Sewer Keys towards entry into S2 / S3. Then there was an update, and Sewer Key drop rate in S1 improved. Also, there was a mini-event focused on runs into S3, with it's own progress bar that included several Sewer Key rewards, but in puny amounts, equaling 1 or 2 entries into S3. So, grind, grind, grind in S1 to grind, grind, grind in S2 and S3, just to get to S4. Temper my whining against the fact that my toon on test server just turned Level 35, has crap equipment, can't run in Painful or above modes where, presumably, drop rates improve.

One good thing I can relate: All the event-specific items seem to be auto-pickup.