Diamond Crusade Review
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:38 am
So I was feeling bored last night and thought I'd check out the alternate progression. Quite simply, although its still a bit rough around the edges I thought it was done fantastically. It was some of the most fun I've had playing on an emu server. In a way I feel it was a waste, since probably less than 5% of THF will ever experience it. The fact that you can level much faster in Crushbone etc kinda spoils the whole thing, but hey, it's definitely a lot more fun. I didn't even mind the exp rate because I was just enjoying the dungeon crawl and completing the quests. I almost wish that once this was finished we scrapped the current method of leveling on THF, however it's basically too late for that. Oh well!
Now here's my laundry list of suggestions, keep in mind that I still thoroughly enjoyed my run through the Warrens, but this is just where I feel it could be improved a bit. I was playing a rogue with a paladin bot.
First of all, some of the tasks take a bit too long to complete. I was told the exp rate used to be slower, so this may be a result of that. I finished most of the tasks in my upper 20s, and at 31 the majority of the Warrens is green with a very few light blues. I still haven't completed Outfitting the Troops (only completed 3 kobold cloaks and 1 kobold mantle so far), Quenching the Thirst (Rat Blood Ales seem to very rare), Menkes Tabolet's quest (haven't seen a Perfect Batling Skull, Giant Tadpole Brains, or Razor Sharp Bat Claw), and Pollina's quest (haven't gotten the bronzewood earring yet... might just be my luck). I also haven't finished Artifacts of the Past but that's because of:
Muglwump is too difficult for melee characters. Making it immune to melee damage is an interesting idea in concept, however it totally closes off that loot / quest to melee characters. Yes there's ways around it, and I'll probably beat it eventually (I got it down to about 28% using the chain arms clicky dot and the choking proc weapon), but I feel this encounter is just way too difficult, especially with the mez. Normally I'd say alright, I'll find someone to group with to take it down, however this alternate progression path is sold as a "solo friendly" endeavor, and the only other person I saw in the Warrens was level 10 (and also a melee).
Next is itemization. First of all, I'd like to see the kobolds drop a bit of coin. With all the items you need to loot for tasks, that freebie backpack doesn't cut it. I had to sell the first cold iron weapon I got (which was a dagger, and an upgrade to me) just so I could buy some backpacks. I was really struggling for awhile affording the tradeskill components until I leveled up enough where a lot of the dungeon was green and I could just run around ganking anything holding a weapon. In the long run everything worked out, but I think it would be nice to ease the financial burden in the lower stages.
I feel like rogues generally get the shaft here. The very few rogue usable weapons are just weak. As far as I can tell, the highest damage piercer you can obtain is 7 damage, and that's the crafted one I've been continually failing on (still using the 6/18 cold iron dagger I got sub level 10). My paladin bot is always out-dpsing me, and it's not even close. I'm considering running through as a berserker just to see how much easier it is (I'm assuming a lot). The equivalent cold iron 2-handed weapon is a whopping 25/38, and I eventually fletched a 25/26 staff with killer stats. My bot just straight up destroys my rogue on DPS, solely because I can't use the 2-handers; his normal hits are harder than my backstabs. And of the available (weak) 1-handers, rogues can't use most of them. Not the spear, not the 1HSers, but we can use the staff... and the H2H knuckles, lol. Rogues seem forgotten on a lot of gear, especially the Cleave I stuff... of all of those types of items here, I think we can use 1 (the ring from King). Pelt of the Mighty Paw seems to have just about every class but Rogues: BER BST SHM DRU SHD RNG PAL CLR WAR.
I would upgrade the Trol's Head Mask. Once I completed the quest, I already had better sans clicky (Engraved Cold Steel Mask). The alternate reward seemed pretty nice if I was playing a caster, though. Also, the text Rungupp gives while exchanging items seriously made me lol irl.
I think the spawn rate of the trash should be doubled, there was certain areas that I could fight in and just continuously get mob respawns without a break, particularly in areas of high mob density.
Lots of grammatical errors.. Outfiting the Troops task is missing a T, Quenching the Thirst task mentions a Silvered Gridle, kobold sentiels are missing an n, rabid kobolts are just another species altogether, I'm not sure what a "Scull" of the Bat Lord is, and the entire Urchun Snowfang quest texts looks like it was written by someone who was severely drunk.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents... despite the criticism I still stand by saying alternate progression was very well designed, I like the idea of slower paced progression with lots of tasts / tradeskills to upgrade through along the way, it would be nice to see an entire server designed this way. I give it a 8/10, mostly due to some weak itemization here and there and length of some tasks.
Now here's my laundry list of suggestions, keep in mind that I still thoroughly enjoyed my run through the Warrens, but this is just where I feel it could be improved a bit. I was playing a rogue with a paladin bot.
First of all, some of the tasks take a bit too long to complete. I was told the exp rate used to be slower, so this may be a result of that. I finished most of the tasks in my upper 20s, and at 31 the majority of the Warrens is green with a very few light blues. I still haven't completed Outfitting the Troops (only completed 3 kobold cloaks and 1 kobold mantle so far), Quenching the Thirst (Rat Blood Ales seem to very rare), Menkes Tabolet's quest (haven't seen a Perfect Batling Skull, Giant Tadpole Brains, or Razor Sharp Bat Claw), and Pollina's quest (haven't gotten the bronzewood earring yet... might just be my luck). I also haven't finished Artifacts of the Past but that's because of:
Muglwump is too difficult for melee characters. Making it immune to melee damage is an interesting idea in concept, however it totally closes off that loot / quest to melee characters. Yes there's ways around it, and I'll probably beat it eventually (I got it down to about 28% using the chain arms clicky dot and the choking proc weapon), but I feel this encounter is just way too difficult, especially with the mez. Normally I'd say alright, I'll find someone to group with to take it down, however this alternate progression path is sold as a "solo friendly" endeavor, and the only other person I saw in the Warrens was level 10 (and also a melee).
Next is itemization. First of all, I'd like to see the kobolds drop a bit of coin. With all the items you need to loot for tasks, that freebie backpack doesn't cut it. I had to sell the first cold iron weapon I got (which was a dagger, and an upgrade to me) just so I could buy some backpacks. I was really struggling for awhile affording the tradeskill components until I leveled up enough where a lot of the dungeon was green and I could just run around ganking anything holding a weapon. In the long run everything worked out, but I think it would be nice to ease the financial burden in the lower stages.
I feel like rogues generally get the shaft here. The very few rogue usable weapons are just weak. As far as I can tell, the highest damage piercer you can obtain is 7 damage, and that's the crafted one I've been continually failing on (still using the 6/18 cold iron dagger I got sub level 10). My paladin bot is always out-dpsing me, and it's not even close. I'm considering running through as a berserker just to see how much easier it is (I'm assuming a lot). The equivalent cold iron 2-handed weapon is a whopping 25/38, and I eventually fletched a 25/26 staff with killer stats. My bot just straight up destroys my rogue on DPS, solely because I can't use the 2-handers; his normal hits are harder than my backstabs. And of the available (weak) 1-handers, rogues can't use most of them. Not the spear, not the 1HSers, but we can use the staff... and the H2H knuckles, lol. Rogues seem forgotten on a lot of gear, especially the Cleave I stuff... of all of those types of items here, I think we can use 1 (the ring from King). Pelt of the Mighty Paw seems to have just about every class but Rogues: BER BST SHM DRU SHD RNG PAL CLR WAR.
I would upgrade the Trol's Head Mask. Once I completed the quest, I already had better sans clicky (Engraved Cold Steel Mask). The alternate reward seemed pretty nice if I was playing a caster, though. Also, the text Rungupp gives while exchanging items seriously made me lol irl.
I think the spawn rate of the trash should be doubled, there was certain areas that I could fight in and just continuously get mob respawns without a break, particularly in areas of high mob density.
Lots of grammatical errors.. Outfiting the Troops task is missing a T, Quenching the Thirst task mentions a Silvered Gridle, kobold sentiels are missing an n, rabid kobolts are just another species altogether, I'm not sure what a "Scull" of the Bat Lord is, and the entire Urchun Snowfang quest texts looks like it was written by someone who was severely drunk.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents... despite the criticism I still stand by saying alternate progression was very well designed, I like the idea of slower paced progression with lots of tasts / tradeskills to upgrade through along the way, it would be nice to see an entire server designed this way. I give it a 8/10, mostly due to some weak itemization here and there and length of some tasks.
any chance of adding in alternate rewards that you can turn the beads in for? Also... found some magic weapons... got my MR up high enough to resist the mez... Muglwump went down 
maybe not so bad, but I was 32, Mugl was light blue before I could barely kill it.