Are there going to be any adjustments/additions to the Crystal Tower Raids?

Hey. I loved doing these raids before HW, and I still like going back to them once in a while. However, queue times for these have been long as all get out. The content is bound to be completely negligible outside of story, so I just want to know.

Are there any plans to revamp the rewards one can obtain from the instances: Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, & World of Darkness?

I would love to do these raids again, but it really does feel as though it's dying content (fast). Especially when queues (as a DPS) are taking upwards of an hour to fill. I'm also afraid I'll never get my Puff of Darkness, since eventually nobody is going to be doing them.

I could do without going back to CT for quite a while.

That said, I think it'd be nice if there was a Raid Roulette that includes Coil and CT, though Coil would dwarf CT and people will insta-quit if they get the harder Turns.
But something like that has merit and can keep the raids more actively (relative to not having a roulette), like the 50 dungeons and trials.

I would only want to do them again if the difficulty was raised to match current ilvls. they were just too easy for too long.

So far the team has been really good at keeping old content alive, so I trust that certain content will not be dead for too long until they stimulate it with new incentives. As far as I know, the only thing thus said about the CT raids is that they are looking into allowing undersized participation (less than 24 players).

Tried queing for ST the other night with half a party already formed. We waited for over an hour and were still missing a healer and half the DPS before we gave up, (and out of the party, three of us were DPS ourselves). We qued again a little later, (one of our members was really wanting to run it to try and get a drop), and waited half an hour. We ended up with 3 tanks, 2 healers, and 5 dps before we gave up that time. The problems is that since we can get iLevel 115 level 50 gear from vendors, and can get Poetics equipment as fast as, (if not faster than), you used to be able to get Soldiery gear, the only reasons to run the CT trilogy now are either for the minion/card drops or for the weekly repeatable quest for an Ironworks upgrade item. This is particularly true for WoD, since while you can get iLevel 120 gear from it, it's purely random chance still that you'll get anything at all that you can use. Combine that with the fact that there's no roulette for them....

I love these 24 player raids, (even at their most frustrating), but right now there's no incentive to go through them for most players, and no way to really get a group for the content for players that want to run it just for fun. Maybe if they added a 24-player raid roulette that rewarded a halfway decent amount of Esoterics, (let's say 70 since the Expert rewards 35 and those runs take less time while rewarding Esoterics on their own), then we'd see a resurgence in this content. For now it would just be the three runs, but once they, (hopefully), add more 24-player runs in the future they could also add those into the roulette......

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Originally Posted by Badguy

I would only want to do them again if the difficulty was raised to match current ilvls. they were just too easy for too long.

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You would be synced down of course as always.

wait until you'll need to do CT-ST-WoD again for a random drop for the new relic. :p

Some little revamp would be appreciated from me, but I have no idea how to do it.

I kinda regret not getting the minions when it was possible.

Doubt it, Welcome to vertical progression MMOs, Old content is irrelevant and will just sit in the corners of time eating the games memory being completely wasted space.

Your only hope is getting a "Savage" or "Hard" mode of the tower through the Bard or something, and even then, a year down the line it'll also be wasted memory. \o/

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Originally Posted by BlaiseArath

Doubt it, Welcome to vertical progression MMOs, Old content is irrelevant and will just sit in the corners of time eating the games memory being completely wasted space.

Your only hope is getting a "Savage" or "Hard" mode of the tower through the Bard or something, and even then, a year down the line it'll also be wasted memory. \o/

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You kidding, with syncing, you have been going to older content for tombs and the 2.x relics had you go to them all old content at some point.

A Raid Roulette would help a bit to bring back players into lvl 50 raids.

However, Coil may need something special to prevent players from quiting if they get it in Raid ROulette due to the countless instant wipe mechanics.

Beyond that if Raid Roulette was introduced then the best thing they can do so far is only have Raid Roulette cover only the 24 member raids and Alexander Story since Coil will have some issues with preventing players from quiting due to being Coil.

Raid Roulette would require first making all coil turns faceroll with minimum dps output, derpy healers and tanks that don't know what tanking means.
It's not going to happen.

I'm all for a raid roulette. Would be a nice addition to the roulettes to yield EXP and maybe tomes. I'd be fine with it just being EXP! I don't enjoy choosing EXP or tomes for my roulettes, so it'd be a welcome change.
I would never queue for a Coil roulette. They require a coordination effort that most pugs won't even attempt.

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Originally Posted by Badguy

I would only want to do them again if the difficulty was raised to match current ilvls. they were just too easy for too long.

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How about a ilevel-synch added to CT?

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

You kidding, with syncing, you have been going to older content for tombs and the 2.x relics had you go to them all old content at some point.

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I agree with Saccharin here. We've been doing older content for the longest time. Even guildhests are done regularly. The 24-man CT raids offer nothing in the way of rewards except for those of us who have yet to get their minions. And even that is a giant fluke.

Just last night, after spending 45 minutes waiting as a DPS, I got in to a group with half the alliance new to the instance (World of Darkness). The first set of trash was a nightmare and over half of the alliance fell at the first Mortal Gaze mechanic, despite an explanation being given on the fight. Yeah, I get it. We were all new at one point. But teaching half an alliance content that is over a year old just isn't that fun to me. Especially when I can get slapped in the face by rolling less than 50 on a Puff, or worse yet not even see a Puff.

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Originally Posted by hagare

wait until you'll need to do CT-ST-WoD again for a random drop for the new relic. :p

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You must gather 10,000 light! But this time, it's colder!

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Originally Posted by Daralii

You must gather 10,000 light! But this time, it's colder!

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lost souls, not light. 1 lost soul for every dead player you meet in the CT.

New relic step: Run each wing of crystal tower for a %10 drop chance for upgrade item.

Please no. Please don't make the CT raids relevant to the new relic weapon at all, outside of any light farming. Just please.

I hope they revitalize it in some way because I really want to finish my labyrinth glamour + get a puff, I already have full sets from ST/WoD. Most other content its easy to find/create an undersized group of 4-6 people and clear it, which is obviously impossible in CT so the queues are pretty long.

Maybe they'll adjust the weekly CT quest reward to provide something of value or they'll be included in the new 3.1 relic grind. SE usually does a pretty good job of making sure old content is still doable, which I greatly prefer - especially as someone who only started playing a couple months before HW.

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

Raid Roulette would require first making all coil turns faceroll with minimum dps output, derpy healers and tanks that don't know what tanking means.
It's not going to happen.

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Nah. They just need to change the penalties for derp.

First of all, players who don't like the Raids to begin with, aren't going to magically start playing them. Second people who normally try to get carried through these need to be "let off at the first stop"

So let's have it changed so that the "weakest" party members are eliminated and kicked from the instance automatically with no chance to get gear, and with no opportunity to fill their spots unless the party/alliance wipes. This could work for CT, but it wouldn't work for Coil/Alexander.

For Coil/Alexander roulette, the system just needs to tag players with stiffer penalties for abandoning (including vote abandon), disconnecting, or being kicked. Where any time the instance is abandoned, the players will be locked out of the roulette and all the raid instances for the length of time it would have taken to fail the duty from a timeout. Thereby disincentive zooming through instances until you get one you like, or trolling others.

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Originally Posted by Doki

New relic step: Run each wing of crystal tower for a %10 drop chance for upgrade item.

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make that 5% and we have a deal

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

So far the team has been really good at keeping old content alive, so I trust that certain content will not be dead for too long until they stimulate it with new incentives. As far as I know, the only thing thus said about the CT raids is that they are looking into allowing undersized participation (less than 24 players).

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They do this by gating content behind it. Remember looking for those 16 items in your relic? imo old content becomes relevant only when it becomes easily attainable.

No one who's done it is going to grind for loot that they know will never drop and I've been through the horrors of never seeing a piece in WoD for weeks only to loose it in a roll. If they adjusted the loot roll so that all items appear but you can only pick one then people will grind for glamour and minions if they know its a guaranteed, or at the very least "assured" drop.

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Originally Posted by Felis

lost souls, not light. 1 lost soul for every dead player you meet in the CT.

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shouldnt take very long then

I imagine the new relic quest will have us revisiting them at some point.

Also they did leave room for it to be revisited later at the end of WoD.

Anyone know if you can queue undersized as an allaince into the 24 man?

I seem to remember them mentioning at some point a revamp/modification of the crystal tower raids into 8-man runs, which should reduce the queues considerably and allow you to actually pull together a full group for it.

I just wish we'd get some sort of ETA on those plans :3

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Originally Posted by Whiteroom

I imagine the new relic quest will have us revisiting them at some point.

Also they did leave room for it to be revisited later at the end of WoD.

Anyone know if you can queue undersized as an allaince into the 24 man?

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You cannot. :(

Seems to me that a simple introduction of law and esoterica would stimulate the use of the raid in itself. Possibly add some new rare items/cards/minions along with that...I personally would like to see something unique like ( if u except a quest dealing with the 3 levels, once completed each week u obtain an item that allows u to break the esoteric cap by 50) just a thought and it would be nice to actually have an option to buy something each week!!. Guess we'll see wat they do....prolly something we all will dread.

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Originally Posted by Noxifer

I seem to remember them mentioning at some point a revamp/modification of the crystal tower raids into 8-man runs, which should reduce the queues considerably and allow you to actually pull together a full group for it.

I just wish we'd get some sort of ETA on those plans :3

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I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen until late in HW. Unless some upcoming stuff makes CT relevant again, completely reworking 3 raids is probably low on their priority list.

They should also put 70-100 Law Tomes and 30-40 Esoteric here, BUT only for people who go do it as level 60 jobs. You will not get it if you do not have 3.0 or coming as level 50 jobs :) Maybe also put the upgrade level 180 as options on items you can get from the weekly quest, if you do it as level 60 jobs. And put the accessories upgrade level 180 into the final bosses on all three CT, maybe make them drop two of those.

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Originally Posted by BreyVoreas93

Seems to me that a simple introduction of law and esoteric would stimulate the use of the raid in itself. Possibly add some new rare items/cards/minions along with that...

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Law should've been implemented in CT as soon as they introduced Esoteric and then later on add a small 10 Eso in the patch just before new tomes get introduced. More rare items exclusive to CT wouldn't hurt either...

Bump. Would love to get an answer on this.

Just spent 30 minutes wiping to Angra Mainyu before the group vote abandoned... :|