Blackwood Depths Available

[Tobias]

Since around two weeks ago, the Blackwood Depths have been fully added in. Saturday still had a bug fixed, but with that, the dungeon should be all ready for anyone wanting to put their skills to a test.

Since the Lower Depths are relatively new and few select-ed people have reached so far down, its boss will only have it's regular mode enabled. Hard mode will automatically be unlocked once a certain number of people have completed the dungeon (as in, obtained its trophy).

This will - as usual - also affect the level cap. Level caps are linked to the dungeons, so I know that dungeons can be beat at a certain level. That's why I know that the Moonlight Monastery can be fully cleared at level 32 in hard mode with all trophies, because people have accomplished that. Likewise, the level cap for the Blackwood Depths has been 39 - which is the current maximum level. Once a first group obtained the dungeon trophies (plus a few weeks grace period to allow other groups to get the trophies too), the level cap will be raised once more.

Once the level cap has been risen, the Guardian Stone Splinters will start dropping from the minor depths bosses well (currently they drop upon defeating the boss in the Lower Depths).

[selectLOL]

A new year, so maybe things will be better than in 2016, thats why i want to state my point. I dont think disabling the hard mode is fair. As the end of the year comes near, almost everyone who is in school or uni has their exams, cutting their time aviable. So the team that wanted to try the mode wanted to go as soon as the trophy was added, but sadly it was not enabled yet. Nobody of us got notified, except one person that the mode was enabled 1 week ago. One ticket was sent as the trophy was in, it was answered that the mode is not enabled, so neither another reply or the stone got updated that the hard mode is enabled. Looking at it always showed that the mode is in progress. And since there were 2 events, halloween and thanks giving, asking when its enabled could have sound rude/nagging staff. So far for the point that was mentioned that nobody wanted to go :P

Anyway, this is also really unfair since it takes away the legit chance we had to do the boss, since it was bugged before. So this will be compensated by having to take alot of people there?

From what i know 8 did it, thats already quite alot.

Also, i think there are other problems, too. For example, the gear from Daphne is not that well balanced. The stuff for mages on EM, sure it gives us dex/magic, but we loose mana, and that in a noticable amount. Sure, what does it help us if we have more dps because we can do 4 instead of 3 spells in the time. But keep in mind, we are using 33% more mana, 1 extra spell, our max mana dropped, and our mana regen skills are depending on a single hit damage, or the max mana we have aviable.

Warriors, huh, they aint that unlucky than us casters (dps). They can get some really nice tank rings from HM.

Priests and hunters, good stuff from both modes (yay).

So might happen that those who need HM, and can do HM will do HM first. And you might know, groups form with ppl that know each other. Then its voted about the mode, so if the group decides to do HM, it quite limits who can join. From the active people arround pvp time, not all can do HM. But hey, what do i see there? They could form a group, too! I see warriors, dps ppl, priests. Some could ask themselves to go, or to make a run. Maybe a lack of motivation? So i personally think that this is more a punishment for everyone because some dont want to, for what reason ever. I checked the number, and to be honest, its too high. I highely doubt as the mona and SS were out, that 15 got the SS with level 32. I also highely doubt that 15 can even do the boss. This sounds more like that we are forced to motivate the ppl who can but dont want, and to gear more to get it. Also something i learned from work, when all is good and ok, customers will say nothing. But if something is bad, they will share their opinion, so like i do now.

Well, now a bit about the depths.
From the difficulty, i would sort it like this:
Keraketh EM and Venyxia, Daphne EM, Keraketh HM, Daphne HM, Zafyre EM, Zafyre HM (tho only tried, never beat).
Personally, i think Keraketh is the best balanced boss, as in bigger team = harder. Daphne is hard with 3, but easier with more. Venyxia stays the same as long as everyone has good AOE attacks. The only bad thing, the loot doesnt increase with more. 5 ppl and 1 charm is cheap.
But Zafyre, i think he becomes harder with each one in the team. Alot of aoe attacks, alot to avoid, alot of chances that 1 screws up. And with a nice attack that has splitted damage, easy to wipe if 1 is dead already.

For mobs + 1 boss (on HM) we needed roughly 1h, less if we tried a speed run. So normally for all 3 main bosses we usually take 3-5h, easily splittable over some days. So i think reducing the time bound from 7 to 3 or 3.5 days is also a good idea to get more ppl to run it.

[Tobias]

The Depths have officially been fully available with this post, which is the notification that was sent out. The stone has also been updated, and the 'Construction Site' gate has been removed. Getting to the bottom earlier was nice and well, and was an accomplishment by itself - but the dungeon wasn't officially complete yet (and as you noticed, it still had a critical bug back then). With this notification, the Depths are fully available and (to my knowledge) without critical bugs.

As for hard mode, it'll will automatically be enabled as soon as enough people have cleared the Blackwood Depths in regular mode. There's no rush, it's not going anywhere. Keep in mind that you're not being charged (no fee, no ads, no goldygems or anything that'd cost real money), so the detrimental effects of a bit of gating to make sure more people are ready and available for the dungeon are rather limited. When SS was released, a lot of people were available and ready to beat it immediately. With the Depths, many are still catching up. Also note that you're not required to take anyone in particular, because everyone can do the dungeon on their own pace, whenever they're ready for it. I do take groups as well, when I'm not organizing lower level runs.

Balance changes (for regular mode in particular) will go out over time as needed - geared groups are encouraged to try and see if any bosses give them excessive trouble, after their group was able to clear the trash mobs leading up to each boss.

Seeing the amounts of dungeons cleared each week it's hardly a question of not wanting to go, but the higher difficulty compared to the last major dungeon (that was 7 levels lower, however). The groups I've tagged along with cleared up to and including Daphne (+ Venyxia), and I am happy with the difficulty so far. For, Zafyre I have yet to tag along with a group, so I can only speak from internal testing and by the fact that people have cleared it. If there's an issue with Leap, and there's an easy to way to fix it without allowing the mechanic to be completely ignored, I'll add that in. This could include making the skill weaker in regular mode.

That being said, I do also keep in mind that this is a high tier dungeon, with high tier bosses, and as such should have an appropriate difficulty, so hard modes will likely remain unchanged.

As for gear, you're encouraged to mix and change. If you find that an item that gives you a lot of Dexterity (and thus faster casting) at the cost of like 5-6 Intellect leaves you with too little mana to play your class effectively, using a high tier item with more Intellect (over Magic or Dexterity) may compensate for that.