Nests and Abyss

[Pyroatheist]

About half a year ago I made this post:

So a while back the rather questionable decision was made to remove the abyss difficulty from all dungeons outside of endgame. Additionally, all leveling nests were removed (mino/cerb/manti/etc). Additionally, all lower level dragon nests were removed (SDN, GDN, etc). Additionally, the difficulty of all content up to the very endgame was nerfed to the point of "watch me 1shot bosses with my left click."

These changes made the game utterly unplayable outside of the very endgame. Why bother having skills on your bar when spamming left click does the job too? What's the point in leveling if there's no cool gear around the corner, or a new nest to try out? Who really wants to slog through 90 levels of nothing just to get to something interesting?

At the time, the scuttlebutt was that these changes were temporary and would be reversed once ED figured out how to scale the skills without the absolute + % values the way they used to be, but I didn't really buy that excuse at the time. Has any progress been made to reverting these changes yet?

So...any progress on this front or is playing DN still an utter waste of time? Additionally, is this issue persistent across all versions or is there a version doesn't incorporate this problem?

[Zengeroff]

No. You could not left click your way through the new Abyss dungeons. Enemies do too much damage to do that now. You'd be killed before you cleared the first mob.

[Pyroatheist]

No. You could not left click your way through the new Abyss dungeons. Enemies do too much damage to do that now. You'd be killed before you cleared the first mob.

Can you be a bit more specific? I'm referring to the problem that until you hit the level cap, abyss dungeons and nests did not exist. At all. Has this finally been changed?

[AjiBuster499]

I never saw this post, so I'm breaking down your points mentioned in the quote based on what ED plans to do or what I think their intent is:

Removal of Abyss difficulty until endgame: When this is looked at from the perspective that was most likely in ED's minds when they consolidated all the towns and fields before Saint's Haven, it makes sense that they acknowledged a playerbase that had few new people coming in, and decided to make things smaller in the earlier levels for the convenience of those who are just there to grind alts (like I do every two weeks ._.). I don't like it either because ACL abyss was THE BOMB, but that's how it is now, and leveling is very easy these days even without 10 capped characters like me.

Leveling Nests Removed: ED stated that they planned to take these out and "revamp" them into stronger nests for the higher difficulties. I think this was actually a good change because, while I do miss some of them *cough Titan and Apocalypse I love you cough*, the fact is that nobody was really seeing how fun they were because the higher-level players were basically carrying, and nests frequently share mechs. This leads to a lack of knowledge on mechanics, and means that people at cap have to learn things they could've learned while leveling. Now, I also dislike this because those nests were fun *cough ED bring back Apocalypse and Titan Nest plz*, but I trust that ED will bring all these nests back. In fact, GDN is going to be 95 cap's 8man (just got released on KDN, see Vahr's Divinitor blog for more info).

Content Nerf: Ties into first point. I miss challenges, but a lot of players in the low level zones are either bots or veterans who just want to grind an alt. While I have seen a lot of new players to the game recently, it's not as much as the amount of veterans who just want another capped character quickly. Easier dungeons means quicker leveling.

These have not changed, except for the fact that some old nests were reintroduced (guardian, incoming mist, incoming GDN, volcano nest)

[Zengeroff]

"What's the point in leveling if there's no cool gear around the corner, or a new nest to try out? Who really wants to slog through 90 levels of nothing just to get to something interesting?"

The answer to this is incredibly easy for anyone to figure out if you apply even a modicum of critical thinking.

Because items get obsolete very quickly. This shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

The good stuff is at the cap, as it should be.

[Zengeroff]

Can you be a bit more specific? I'm referring to the problem that until you hit the level cap, abyss dungeons and nests did not exist. At all. Has this finally been changed?

No. But it takes no time at all to cap now.

[Pyroatheist]

AjiBuster499 : thanks for the explanation. It's unfortunate that they haven't changed at all then. I (and likely many others) am not going to bother playing if it's completely dull from 1-94. So much of the enjoyment of leveling came from hitting a new cap, pulling together a fresh set of nest gear, then going to see how well you can remember the ghoul jingles in titan, escape stompy hugs in apoc, or beat up the krag brothers.

Similarly, the difficulty nerf in normal dungeons makes unlocking new skills or hitting the effectiveness breakpoints on skill levels pointless because everything withers if you so much as sneeze on it. It's really a shame, because leveling in this game used to be quite enjoyable.

@Zengeroff: you don't really understand it clearly. This isn't a question of item obsolescence or gearing. It's an issue of not being bored to tears while leveling to the endgame. The leveling experience right now is about as engaging as filling out an Excel spreadsheet. They may as well just add a 'skip to level cap' button if levels 1-94 effectively have no purpose except to bore you.

[Zengeroff]

I do understand it clearly.

You're bitching about having to do the leg work to reach the end game content. Pretty easy remedy for that. Either play the game and deal with it or don't. You want to skip all the way to the end game? How about you create a character and immediately have +20 Lgrades too while we're at it.

Ffs.

[Breamiin]

They have no plans to bring back any lower level abyss dungeons; people complained about it being too long to level to cap and now people are complaining that leveling is too easy. If you hate the direction the game has gone then don't play and forget about the game. Leveling for weeks on end is not something I see has fun. The old nests were definitely fun and the Devs have said they have plans to bring them all back. They're revamping them and focusing on end game which is how it should be. I have never heard anyone say "I enjoy the leveling process more than the actual content waiting for me at level cap." You want a challenge? Get to level 80 and try to solo Red Dragon Nest practice. Theres a good training place for your skills. How can you even learn about the class you're playing if you don't have all the exs/awakening skills/class masteries that make the class actually function. Might as well be trying to plug an android charger into an iphone. Shit won't work.

Bollocks is what that is. A lot of the players in other server griped about how long it took to get to cap back in 80 cap so thank them for this revamp. T4 was atrocious and I hope it never returns. That includes the boring ass leveling process too. You got jack crap from nesting for exp just because of how little it gave. At least now once you hit 90 you can solo the 90 nests and get decent exp if you run out of FTG. Now you know and can tell your friends.