3.1 Actual Thordan difficulty?

[Laerad3993]

Let me say first off that I'm happy that we're all getting an upgraded KOTR.

My issue is with their wording in the live letter.

So we have "This will be a different from The Minstrel’s Ballad: Ultima, and it will be closer to an “extreme” difficulty."

Okay, that's great. When I hear that, I imagine it is on Extreme level status. I figure it will be as difficult or close to the others before it.

Then they say: "I believe it will be more difficult than Ravana extreme." More difficult how? As far as I'm concerned, player stupidity, and difficulty stemming purely from learning mechanics, are two completely different things. The Ravana fight isn't even hard with the right group, people that actually know what they're doing.

Then they go on to talk about Savage level difficulty, which I've not stepped into. I don't have the time to dedicate to a static right now.

"Naturally, this isn’t a raid, and it can be cleared by those that have not challenged savage." So where does this difficulty actually sit at? It's close to extreme, harder than extreme, and now it's on par with savage content, but can be done by people that haven't cleared AS1? Wtf? Any ideas from anyone on what they actually mean here? Lol....

[RiceisNice]

L...

If anything, it'd be along the scaling difficulty akin to the EX primals. It's definitely something you'd want to go with a group of people you know, and should be done within a couple of hours of attempts

[Gilraen]

It's probably going to be as hard, comparatively speaking, as Ultima or Dues Van Darnus, two other battles that also got the bardic treatment. Meaning it will be fairly difficult for the time but eventually overgeared after a couple more updates. Should be fun to learn.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Ravana is a fight balanced around 170-180. I'd imagine it's harder as in it's tuned for around ilvl 180-200. I doubt it'll be as hard as savage. I just wish the reward was something besides a weapon that will be easily replaced in 3.15 by the anima weapon. Maybe a ring as well woulda been much more inticing, since getting 2 rings the same ilvl is difficult. The idea of having Knights of the Round weapons isn't terrible though.

[Kietsu]

It's probably difficult mechanics wise. Consider that the story mode version actually has a tone of different attacks, it's just that the damage is so embarrassing that they just don't matter.
(example: MSQ KoTR literally has megaflare pillars. Nobody does them right because nobody's done T13, but all they do is a slightly annoying paralyse for a few seconds. If they show up in Thordan's Reign you can be sure they'll murder the party.)

[Laerad3993]

It's probably going to be as hard, comparatively speaking, as Ultima or Dues Van Darnus, two other battles that also got the bardic treatment. Meaning it will be fairly difficult for the time but eventually overgeared after a couple more updates. Should be fun to learn.

This is what I had a feeling it would be. Not that I mind harder content, but it's extremely confusing trying to read through that and peg the difficulty.

[Nekodar]

It seems to be a 10 phase fight (they considered 13 phase), with difficulty around on par with A1S.

Dps check is not supposed to be the difficulty, so mechanics will be the primary difficulty... Not sure if they said there would be no dps check or just that it wouldn't be what makes it difficult. Might be basic dps checks that most people won't have any problems clearing.

It's supposed to be more akin to what the developers originally planned (likely with some scaling up due to increase of ilevel since story version). I've seen people talk about SCoB vs Savage SCoB type philosophy between story version and minstrel version.

[Kietsu]

What really has me intrigued is that the difficulty apparently doesn't come from a DPS check - so that's one way it would fit in below Savage difficulty.

[Marxam]

Its harder than Ravana because you will be blind for half the fight. Bring some sunglasses.

[niwaar]

Let me say first off that I'm happy that we're all getting an upgraded KOTR.

My issue is with their wording in the live letter.

"Naturally, this isn’t a raid, and it can be cleared by those that have not challenged savage." So where does this difficulty actually sit at? It's close to extreme, harder than extreme, and now it's on par with savage content, but can be done by people that haven't cleared AS1? Wtf? Any ideas from anyone on what they actually mean here? Lol....

One of the biggest issues with Heavensward in general has been the fact that they are routinely skipping the "Hard" mode level of content. Imagine if we had gotten Ravana, Bismark (Hard) and Singularity (Normal) in 3.0. We could be sitting here with joy that we would now be getting Rav/Bis (Extreme) and Singularity (Hard).

The difficulty assumed when Bayohne says it will be A1S difficulty is that it will require 190 Gear and Weapons and require a large amount of coordination/strategy to clear. The encounter has 10 phases and YoshiP said it would not be about a hard dps check but more about the strategy and mechanics of the encounter. This is not going to be Bis or Rav Extreme where you wont be clearing because you hit enrage. It will be you not clearing because someone (or multiple someones) in your group was stupid and messed up a mechanic and died.

Remember if it is geared towards A1S difficulty you should be adequately geared for the encounter if you never stepped into a raid, but still bothered to cap your ESO for a while. Being geared in Alex Normal and some ESO pieces will be enough as long as you are smart enough to understand the fight.