I wasn’t expecting the server to be up yesterday evening since news page didn’t update the “server maintenance until further notice” post, but since I was able to play I decided to check the new episode and see how I could level up my main from 470 to 480.
Step #1: starting the episode 14-2 quest line and direction Delmore Garden to finish map completion to get exp cards from WoV NPC – yielded some level 16 exp cards that I used to get a few % of exp.
Step #2: entering new Delmore Waiting Area map with old Vasilisa equipment (75k atk + 120k def) and checking new mobs – surprisingly easy to kill (roughly the same difficulty as mobs in Delmore Garden) and giving 0.2% exp PER kill, an insane amount without any exp buff meaning using an exp x32 tome would level up a character really really fast by just randomly killing mobs on that map
Step #3: doing the quest line – well I was expecting something fancier, we only get “fetch this” and “kill that” quests on the way to the last map where we meet the Beholder, who escapes, so expect an episode 15 where hopefully everything will be resolved; but for now, we need to be level 475 to continue the quest line on the next map so it’s time to go back and level up
Step #4: before doing that, Delmore Waiting Area map is complete so I go back to WoV NPC and get level 20 exp cards… which can only be used up to level 469 so they get discarded… go figure…
Step #5: using an exp x32 tome I go back to Delmore Waiting Area and kill mobs… and 15 mins later I’m level 480 – well that was fast…
Step #6: instead of going back to the quests I decide to succeed my Vasilisa equip into the new level 480 stuff – need to remove gems (since I didn’t see anything about a free gem removal service I spend 10 VV coins to get a scroll and remove the gems during the next 15 mins to get back my skill gems) and engrave old random ichors (they’re probably better than the new random ones for the time being), succeed the equip, reapply the gems and engraved random stats + VV visions and voila… new shiny level 480 equip and, omg, almost 100k atk and… 500k def (!)
Step #7: back to Hidden Passage and quests… but something feels REALLY wrong
Didn’t I just gain 25% more attack and a defense value that would make me feel like a plate-wearing knight attacked by goblins wielding sticks?
Going one on one with a mob on the level feels like I’m naked instead. Testing basic attack vs said mob compared to the old Vasilisa stuff feels like no improvement at all, final damage +70% on new stuff vs +75% from Balinta and some awakening/enchants can’t make that much of a difference no? And still I do 8k damage per attack with a raw atk value of almost 100k… that’s some heavy damage reduction there! And what about defense value? Mobs on the previous map were barely doing any damage with old equipment, surely these mobs with 500k defense can’t barely scratch my char, right? Well… think again. Each attack ticks for 15k damage, and the area is crowded with mobs that have thrust attacks that can hit you from far away (and it seems they hit even if the mob is not facing the char but hitting empty space miles away).
Needless to say, I was impressed by the new mobs to actually KILL my main char in seconds while I was barely scratching them with huge sfr skills (well need to take into consideration that bugged mouse mode discards your own damage if you don’t constantly hover your mouse over your target and have it locked when you use skills). This reminded me of the first time I entered Sausys Room or Zeteor Coast maps…
What didn’t impress me though were the boss fights during the quest line. I don’t get it… it took me like five seconds to kill those 150mil hp bosses while it’s a struggle to even dent a simple 20mil hp mob on the same maps. Something must be off there…
So after the quest line was completed…
Step #8: enter the portal and try the new raid (solo version)
With new level 480 equipment, I was expecting the same level of difficulty as Vasilisa or Jellyzele when first released, so roughly four mins to complete the raid. Of course I entered unprepared and without knowing any of the mechanics, but, even if the raid is nothing more than a boss fight (at least for the solo version), it took me 17 mins to complete… to just get 14 of the new mats to improve the equipment (when you need 8 at +14 to get a 33% chance of success – you see where the problem is if each run takes 17 mins). Will have to improve time spent vs rewards gained here… (I’ll try automatch tonight if there are still people playing to see how different the raid is)
So that was quite the journey for the first day. Hope this patch didn’t make the game lose too many players, yesterday we lost one of our remaining veterans in our guild that was a really sad day