Amazon Fury III Feedback

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

For those who have played Episode 27: Amazon Fury III, please share your thoughts on:
- the storyline/dialog/voice acting
- artwork/graphics
- mechanics/difficulty
- rewards (gear/base items)

Please do not comment about the capsules. I'll do a separate one for that.

1) See Shades Again (solo)

2) Underworld Trials (alert)

3) Olympus (raid)

4) Typhon's Monster Invasion (solo/dailies/weekly)

5) Raising Hades (duo)

6) God of Monsters (raid)

[Arwen Skywalker]

1) A pretty standard chore solo, nothing special. Oh I'm not really heavy on following the story line but yeah, mechanics and flow wise, it's a standard solo.

2) UT starts really good, I really like this appetizer in a form of a mechanic system instead of the usual burn to death. Appropriate looking location, great simple mechanic, overall fun phase. The only thing I enjoyed on the 2nd phase of the alert was trying to get the poached feat and phoenix of vengeance. Getting all the eggs or just p*ssing of the phoenix to fight again. The phoenix fight was bland imo, they could've simply up-ed that fight with multiple fire pools and bigger dots on getting hit with fire spouts, that would've been enough to get off of your rhythm. The only thing I liked in the Medusa part is the unorthodox mechanic, stone gaze, which I think, is the first time we're seeing, correct me if I'm wrong =). Was still not as fun as the first boss, was expecting a mechanic on the pools or the already stoned units but they ended up just as props.

3) Same as the alert, I only enjoyed the first part. It maybe the usual burn to death, but having the divider raise on splitting up the team that was pretty cool. What was uncool though were the balistaes. Second part was pretty much straight on burn, I think even if you're going with feats since one of them is something that goes like "defeat Hecate before this phase" or something. That boss wasn't memorable, forgettable even sooner or later. The Zeus fight is pretty... underwhelming, I was expecting some sort of wipefest when we ran it but surprised to finish it on day one. Olympus is a beautiful looking raid supported by iconic bosses but the lack of mechanics makes it not so memorable.

4) Typhon open world is enjoyable, personally. They juggle the objectives even the instance part where, it maybe just placebo but it's refreshing to fight different adds and do different terminals every once in a while. I really liked what they did with the weekly, instead of having a bounty, it's a farm weekly. It's just up to the person if they want it done on day one or just get through it via doing the content.

5) Raising Hades, for now, enjoying it. New location & having to fight multiple boss on the first 2 fights. Was hoping on a better last boss fight but it was basically lotsa pewpew.

6)God of Monsters, OH BOY, my favorite part of the DLC. The last time I enjoyed and felt accomplished on finishing raids was Origin Crisis. You've got to say that that was a bit looooong ago. The size of the map maybe small unlike Olympus, it regained it's charm with the boss fights and mechanic. First part, 2 cyclops, lava pools, this will test how good you are on positioning while maintaining decent burn since you're fighting 2 cyclops. Second part, which honestly was just burning, I DIDN'T MIND IT AT ALL! 4 different boss to fight? OKAY! in an arena too? OKAY!
The Typhon fight tho, man, it probably is underwhelming for elitist but that, is a proper AND appropriate mechanic for a boss fight. His form is huge compared to the Trigon in Trigon's Prison. In terms of the RPG-ness of it, they scaled it nicely where we can't really fight him directly but needed the help of Zeus' bolt to take him down. Fighting his nasty "jonhsons" snakes. Lining up for the lightning link. That was enjoyable. Unorthodox fight but executed well by the design team.

[Beta Babe]

Amazon Fury III Feedback

Preface

My feedback is tempered by the fact that I see this DLC as a platform building toward the skills matter change and some power resetting which is long overdue.

Because of this it is important to be achievable, balanced, have different levels of play – while being fun and interesting. I believe DCUO has achieved this and I very much like this DLC overall – it is definitely one of my favorites.


1: See Shades again Solo

I agree with Arwen that much of this is the straight on lets go to battle pew pew fights. There is nothing special about the Faust and Artemis fights.

I do like starting in GUS and then moving to Themyscira – most cool. I really wish however we had MORE ARTEMIS! Artemis appears as the last boss – it is a wham bam fight – we all admire her hair – and then it is time to leave! Bummer!

I wish we got a chance to fight alongside her after earning her trust through combat. I also wish her hair was a reward.



2: Underworld Trials Alert

I like this Alert. Minotaur crashing chains, Phoenix Eggs, and the Medusa. I think it struck a balance between straight forward and clever with its secret rooms, hidden investigations, and reasonable mechanics.

Unlike Arwen I appreciate the difficulty level. Going with friends and league mates is hugely different than pugging it. I can run this with a Pug group and get through it reasonably

Alerts IMO are supposed to be the dividing line – some challenge – but content you can accomplish reasonably.



3: Olympus Raid

I love this raid. The scenery is beautiful and I like the boss fights. When talking about difficulty there is a HUGE difference between the normal and elite versions.

The Zeus fight in Elite – IS NOT a walk in the park. But it is very accomplishable in the normal. Again, different levels of play and skill required.

I have completed the elite version of the Olympus raid several times on Cap, and once on Betazon. But the group I run with in there are SP of 200+ and average about 225+.



4: Typhon’s Monster Invasion (Solo/Daily/Weekly)

This is really Gotham under Siege again – but I don’t mind. The dailies are fun and different enough not to be stale.

The weekly is a great reason to get your friends together and run around blasting things while socializing on voice chat – I also like the ancient coin boost.

The solo is boring and a very different experience based on what toon I am on. For Cap, PSI, and Betazon it is zoom in and zoom out.

For Beta Babe it is a slow uphill fight and frustrating due to her highly insignificant DPS – even at 276 skill points. The mission is long and drown out so I don’t die several times over – it really angers me on the difference.



5: Raising Hades Duo

I like the duo…but again…with Beta Babe I need a strong DPS to go with her. This is not a concern with my other toons. But I like the fights and challenge balance.



6: God of Monsters Raid

I like God of Monsters Raid a lot – but it is not my favorite due to the 2nd boss fight. It has some mechanics for a tank which make it a bit tedious – especially if you are there with a 10 to 12 CR Gap from lowest to highest.

The instance adjusts to become 25 – 30 % more difficult – I have seen it firsthand. They really need to drop that trigger mechanic. It is what makes several groups tell other players – sorry – you can’t come.

Otherwise I love the first and final boss fights and the raid overall – but Olympus is my favorite. I really enjoy the Typhon fight and the lightning chain mechanic – most fun.

It is also funny to stun the Cobra’s in that fight and see what happens. Apparently Arwen has – LOL.

While this is less related to the content I am still dismayed on how raid intensive this game has become – at least if you wish to progress – they could still balance that a bit more.

This DLC is dripping with raiding feats. One final criticism would also be their continuing decision to lock feats away in the time capsule lottery.

This was an issue but not so bad in the previous Episode – however they botched it with the Phoenix Material in this DLC.

This was a blatant move to push you into buying insane amounts of replays – which most just can’t do. And since it is so rare the prices on the marketplace are out of control.

Next, you have the issue of the capsules being a limited time – meaning – you now have feats locked away you can’t get to.

Very, very bad move and DCUO better stop doing this or they will turn people away and lose many playing the game right now. It is already being discussed in the community right now and is a very hot topic.

BUT…

Overall, I give this DLC high marks – the DEV’s did a nice job. I appreciate their efforts and the fact they listened to us and got this one right.

[Miss Terri]

[Little Mermaid]

First off, apologies for the very late reply. Usually, I have gathered most of my thoughts during the first few days but it's been busy for me with stuffs. Second, Arwen/Beta kinda already covered my thoughts on the content with their feedback, I don't feel like echoing it again so I'll focus more on the rewards/storyline stuff. Here goes!

The Storyline/Dialog/Voice Acting
Voice Acting is perfection. Everyone nailed their roles, Wonder Woman and Circe are always excellent to hear. The dialogues are amazing. I live for Circe honestly , she always gets awesome lines and her voice actress is TRULY a wicked sorceress. Wonder Woman is perfect as always, not much needs to be said. The other Gods are excellent casting as well, I have nothing but love for the voices. It's very cool they left the story open for a possible return and no doubt we will return to Olympus and face new threats! During the final cutscene in God of Monsters, Hera makes a comment that with the crown destroyed, Olympus will fall to "Strife and Infighting" That's pretty much a hint that we will potentially see the Goddess of Strife/Chaos, Eris as the next possible threat.

The storyline is awesome and definitely one of my faves but it is not perfect. Some notes I made:


-What happened to the Amazons? : After successfully rescuing the Queen of the Amazons, we never heard from her perspective. Even in the briefings and investigations she was noticeably missing. Hippolyta is a key player to the Amazon Fury but we don’t get to hear what she has to say in the aftermath of the Amazon War.
No briefings or even a final message from Wonder Woman in the command outpost describing the events after the whole civil war broke out. It’s like all the briefings they did were completely stolen by the Gods. I mean we can all assume and guess what happened but it would have been nice to hear from various Amazon perspective.


-Typhon’s Monsters: Father of Monsters needed better looking monster minions. A “Typhonized” version of the existing models of the Harpy/Cyclops/Satyrs/Minotaur would have been more immersive than ones we already saw in game in AF1. We have Lions in-game but they didn’t do a Chimera. Also, the Hydra’s surprising absence! This is after all, the offspring of Typhon and could have bring in a challenging mechanic! It is almost blasphemy they forgot to include it when it already made an appearance in AF2!


-Models Overused: For a DLC they worked on for quite some time, I must admit I was disappointed to see the overusing of the models. Once again, we saw the Amazon Priestess and Sorceress we first saw in AF1 but just gotten increased in height and name changed to Olympian Alchemist/Necromancer. Not even recoloured? Come on now! It kinda ruins immersion when you've already seen the characters IMO but that's just me..


Artwork/Graphics
Visually stunning environments and beautifully done models. Highlights for me are Athena, Hecate, Hera, Medusa and the Gorgons. I never thought they could pull of the snake models. The Goddesses are soo beautiful and I just wish we could get their styles. Olympus is a beauty and the new areas of the Underworld are stunning. Very pleasing to get to see the River Styx closer.The art and environment team continues to excel and amaze us each new DLC they release.


Mechanics/Difficulty
Because of CR differential, it’s either too easy or too hard at varying levels. Not really going to elaborate further on this matter because stats matter is in the works.




- Rewards (Gear/Base Items)
One of my biggest issue is collectables rewarding base items. To me, collectables, all of them should reward STYLES. We always tend to want more than 1 of the base item so to have one only available as a reward for completing a collectable is not right. Also, it is a missed opportunity when the reward could be a style. Quite disappointed that in AF2, we got styles after Hades and Ares, 2 of them even and for this DLC, we did not get any from Athena/Hecate which btw have gotten popular requests to have their style available to us players. Moving forward, they should consider this, more styles in collectables and keep base items to loot/vendors.

Most of the base items they have in this DLC are AMAZING. I've already begun using some of them to update my base. However, we got soo many uncessary base items like the small chains and way too many egg variants! There are other cool structures I would have loved to have than those. There are lots of cool archs, columns, torch, etc. in Olympus that we didn't get. Hopefully they release an Olympian Base Item pack that includes exclusive new items. The statues of the Gods are amazing, loved that we also got LH versions of them too! I do wish we got an updated statue of Hera with her modern model!

That's pretty much it for me!

[Shyia Butterfox]

The only strong opinion about two things in the DLC:

First, I cannot stand what they are doing with the gear drops. I want to know what level something is, if it's going to be an upgrade to a slot or not. I get that you can defer upgrades until later if you have a particularly strong piece of gear and get another drop for that same slot, but it really does seem bonkers to have the gear be RNG for what slot, then make you guesstimate what level that gear is going to be. It's really frustrating for someone like me who was still trying to catch up to the previous DLC's CR when this one dropped. And on that note...

WTF were they thinking making the raids more difficult if there's a CR discrepancy? I'm assuming this is to discourage some form of power leveling, or dragging under-geared people through content that they might not be up for yet... however, since the gear has a variable CR this problem has basically been addressed and so this feels like a slap in the face to those of us who are more on the casual side of things as just the mere presence of someone who is 10 CR below the top person in the group makes some fights harder, if not impossible, especially if the lower CR person happens to be a non-DPS. It just seems to be the height of short sightedness.

Bonus nitpick! It's weird that the duos gives you plot points from the raid/alert... since in general you'd complete the duo first.

Other than that I don't have any real complaints about things. It's mostly just an adjustment, like getting base items instead of marks/gear from reward boxes and things.

[Alyssa Goldenblade]

Shyia Butterfox wrote:

The only strong opinion about two things in the DLC: First, I cannot stand what they are doing with the gear drops. I want to know what level something is, if it's going to be an upgrade to a slot or not. I get that you can defer upgrades until later if you have a particularly strong piece of gear and get another drop for that same slot, but it really does seem bonkers to have the gear be RNG for what slot, then make you guesstimate what level that gear is going to be. It's really frustrating for someone like me who was still trying to catch up to the previous DLC's CR when this one dropped. And on that note... WTF were they thinking making the raids more difficult if there's a CR discrepancy? I'm assuming this is to discourage some form of power leveling, or dragging under-geared people through content that they might not be up for yet... however, since the gear has a variable CR this problem has basically been addressed and so this feels like a slap in the face to those of us who are more on the casual side of things as just the mere presence of someone who is 10 CR below the top person in the group makes some fights harder, if not impossible, especially if the lower CR person happens to be a non-DPS. It just seems to be the height of short sightedness. Bonus nitpick! It's weird that the duos gives you plot points from the raid/alert... since in general you'd complete the duo first. Other than that I don't have any real complaints about things. It's mostly just an adjustment, like getting base items instead of marks/gear from reward boxes and things.

The gear drops are a little confusing because not all of them will be upgrades. This post explains it in a nutshell:
http://www.odyssey-gaming.net/combatrating

You can also calculate exactly with this:
http://www.odyssey-gaming.net/combatrating (see gear colors at bottom)

AF3 was made to work in the current system, but with the upcoming system in mind. So there is a big gap still when a character is in penalty vs bonus. I did like that they made things doable in penalty... they just take a loooooooong time.

The story order is not in the order of content size (as I would like as well). It has rarely worked this way. The order is the numbered list in the first post.