Dungeon (Darkhold, Toto, et al) Scaling?

[Random0]

Posting this for a LS mate who was throwing ideas around.

There seems to be some discussion among some people that current endgame dungeons are tilted towards a small handful of very specific party setups and strategies. An example is the "Run like hell through Darkhold skipping every fight you can possibly run from so you've enough time to fight ogre/batty" strategy.

It works, and it's the easiest method to ensure best chance of victory and drops, but what if you can't find enough healers or your tank has a freak accident and dies. Going into darkhold without "The Right Setup" increases the difficulty drastically.

So, the proposed idea would be to set star levels for instanced dungeons similar to those used in guildleves, with difficulty and rewards changing accordingly. Then make it so that certain gear (or HQ versions of it) only appear on certain difficulty levels.

* - Might be comparable to a ***** leve, might get some NQ gear. Good for those who want to 'practice' or just wanna do it for RP/story/quest completion purposes.

** - increase in mob level/density, better chance at NQ gear

*** - New areas accessible, mob level up (Just under the current difficulty of dungeons now), High chance of NQ gear, possibility of +1 gear

**** - Mob level up (this tier would be slightly MORE difficult than how it is currently), time limit (1.5 hr), NQ gear guaranteed, greater possibility +1 gear, +2 gear rarely

***** - Mob level up (this tier is for those looking for the most difficult challenges), time limit (1hr), high chance for +1 gear, +2 maybe, +3 rarely

With a difficulty/reward scale like this you could go into a dungeon with a sub-optimal team and still get some challenge and reward, but if you wanted the best rewards you'd still have to work at strategy and team building. Also, this allows to salvage a run where someone DCs or just isn't the right fit for the strategy in mid run by lowering the star rating like we do in guildleves.

If this idea has been proposed before, our apologies, and just fold this thread into the other discussion.

Otherwise, what are some thoughts on the idea?

[AlphaDragoon]

I like it. One thing's for sure, the ridiculous "run through mobs and let the tank get hit" strategy NEEDS to be resolved. You should have to fight your way through the Darkhold, as that's how it was designed.

[Eruantien]

I like it. One thing's for sure, the ridiculous "run through mobs and let the tank get hit" strategy NEEDS to be resolved. You should have to fight your way through the Darkhold, as that's how it was designed.

I dont think it wasn't necessarily designed like that as you see the dev team running through them when they should us a video of it.

[Jinrya-Geki]

The downside is. There is no way to make it to Batrall if you stop to fight every single mob on the way there. All you can do is run through the dungeon and beat the key fights.

You can say you did it, but there would be no way to prove it, unless you can post an unedited 30+ minute video of a Darkhold run, where you fight all the mobs and be batrall.

[Random0]

The downside is. There is no way to make it to Batrall if you stop to fight every single mob on the way there. All you can do is run through the dungeon and beat the key fights.

You can say you did it, but there would be no way to prove it, unless you can post an unedited 30+ minute video of a Darkhold run, where you fight all the mobs and be batrall.

The fact that there's a time limit coupled with the difficulty level of the mobs/bosses themselves is the main reason why most strategies are limited to the "Run through the cave following the supertank" method.

With a scaling system similar to the one proposed above, people could try different strategies free of that pressure and still reap decent benefit in rewards. Additionally, a team could use the lower tier levels to experiment with different strategies and team configurations to find alternative ways that work then work their way up to higher tiers and rewards as the team gets more practice and experience.

By analogy, it's usually a bad idea to run a 10k marathon after spending the last six months with your ass parked on a couch. You might wanna start with a few laps around the block, then around the park, then maybe a 1k, then a 5k...