Upcoming Gunbad Updates + QoL Changes

[Rubius]

Hi everyone,

This weekend we'll be updating the PTS with the second phase of the Gunbad Re-work. Based on a lot of the feedback we've been reading from players, we're also taking this opportunity to make some adjustments to a number of Left and Right wing bosses. In advance of the patch hitting the live server, we'd like to share with you the changes you can expect to see below.

This update will also add Hard Mode options for the Wing Bosses and some new Quality-of-life improvements, like an increase in gold payout for One-handed weapon classes, across the board. Separate from the Dungeon balance, we're also trialing a new Goldsink feature that will allow players to spend some of that extra gold on a buff that will apply to their entire party for 2 hours while inside the Dungeon. If feedback is positive, we may expand this to additional Dungeons, like Bastion Stair, City Dungeons, and more.

Finally, we're balancing Gunbad with level 35-36 as the intended starting point for players to enter. The new T3 Dungeon will be arriving around the level 25 point, and will bring a new set with it, so we'll have a Dungeon roughly every 10 levels starting with Sewers/Sac at 15, then T3 at 25, then Gunbad at 35/6. We're going to leave Gunbad's quests with a minimum rank of 32 in the meantime, so characters can still earn gear up until the T3 Dungeon is ready to go and launches next year.

Left & Right Wing Adjustments:
First, let's run through the changes to the Left and Right Wing, which will reduce difficulty and make boss fights faster:

- Reduced trash mobs near Griblik da Stinka and moved others further from the boss, so parties can now use the flat area near this boss to spread out if needed.

- Reduced the damage of the Green Goo in the Griblik fight. It's still recommended to move out of it, but players with lower HP should have more time to react now.

- Ol' Greenwingz cooldown increase has been nerfed, and will now only impact half the party instead of all 6 players.

- Reduced the HP of the Nurglings that spawn in the Garrolath fight, so they die faster and he heals a bit less.

- Kurga's temporary damage boost has been reduced from 50% to 30%, as it was combo'ing with his punt mechanic to almost one-shot lower level players. This boon can be shattered or stripped by any tank. It now also visibly displays a Sword Icon above his head while active to show that his damage has increased.

Masta Mixa was overperforming, and the RNG elements of his stick mechanic could lead to big difficulty spikes, so we're toning his fight down and adjusting the mechanic:

- Masta Mixa's sticks will no longer randomly pick a Tank or Healer as their target, and will instead prioritize a DPS player, unless no DPS players can be found alive. As before, the stick(s) will only ever lock down a single player at a time.

- Reduced the HP + damage of the Dual Sticks so these get destroyed faster, and significantly reduced the HP + damage of the Triple Sticks.

- Reduced the Damage and Radius of the Fists of Gork.


Middle Wing Updates:
Next, let's talk about the Middle Wing and what changes you can expect to see there:

- The Redeye Big Oaf remains largely unchanged.

- Blaz' Da Tamin' Masta remains largely unchanged, as the spider egg mechanic here works nicely.

- Arathremia is largely unchanged. Her adds will now spawn around her instead of near the far wall, which may require slightly faster reactions but should be better overall for AOE DPS to burn them down.

- Solithex can no longer be cheesed by pulling him up and into a corner. We also fixed the bug preventing his Soulstone from being targeted. Beyond this, his mechanics were good, so he remains the same.

- Ard Ta Feed sees some of his mechanics restored, primarily the Mourkain Artifact in the center of the room. The Squig Bubbles which spawn snacks are restored, but once destroyed, they now stay dead and no longer respawn like they did years ago. New VFX and messages have been added to warn players of the Artifact mechanic and the number of Squigs Ard Ta Feed eats, which will heal him significantly.

- Hard Mode can now be enabled on Glomp, Masta Mixa, Solithex and 'Ard Ta Feed by interacting with a Game Object in the room before starting the fight. This is intended for Vanq+ players and awards a Champion's Mark to the entire party upon their first completion. There is also an achievement added for clearing all four Hard Mode fights. These are meant to be quite tough, so let us know if any tester groups think they're too hard or even too easy for Vanq teams.

Quality-of-life Changes:
New Quality-of-life changes:

- Gold Payout Increase: All Purple and Gold bags now contain an item that can be sold to a vendor for just under 10 gold. This change is to make the Gold payout equal among all classes, and will increase gold payout notably for 1-Hander/Tank classes who vendor the items.

- Trial Phase - New Group Buffs: A new NPC will appear after the Griblik fight and offer to grant a special boon to your party in exchange for Gold. He will randomly pick three types of Boons, and then further randomize their power between Minor, Moderate, and Major. Based on those three options, your party can then select and purchase one (right click to purchase), so groups having difficulty can spend Gold to better support whichever teammate needs it, and speed running teams may purchase buffs that shave extra time off the run. Most of these buffs will add a 1%, 3%, or 5% boost to one of your party's stats.

All six members of your group do not need to spend Gold to purchase this buff. When a single player pays the gold, the buff is immediately granted to all allies within 250 feet, and will last for 2 Hours, activating only while inside the Dungeon. The Vendor will reappear on the normal path as you start both the Right and Middle Wings, so your party will have 3 opportunities to purchase a Group Buff for the team.

The full list of buffs can be found here on the wiki, along with the current planned costs. Please note that we might adjust both the power of these buffs and the gold costs around a bit based on feedback, but the goal is to offer small boosts that are both affordable and can be either a crutch to help a struggling group or an extra edge to help an already powerful group run faster.

Thanks for reading!

That's all for now! Let us know what you think if you have time to try out the Dungeon on PTS this weekend, or when it goes live at the end of next week on the main server. Thank you!

[wonshot]

Sorry, but each time you guys put this much effort into pve. Its like hearing City State Entertainment claiming their Ragnarok game didnt pull resources away from Camelot Unchained.

So many fantastic idea and QoL in here, where the Devs are not just in touch and listening to feedback but also showing they are players themselves.
PLEASE assist the RvR team! For real this is getting heartbreaking to see

[Brakh]

Reading this wall of text I see huge dedication from PvE team. If you truly want your efforts to be relevant for the major aspect of the game which is PvP, why don't do try to collaborate with RvR team? If designed properly and implemented well, PvE may become fantastic addition for lake fights. Like some some sort of balancing force, optional random boss encounters, some distraction forces etc. Options are many and would be great to forge your passion and creativity to something that benefits all.

[Ysaran]

The balance of PvE is already higly relevant for RvR, nowdays you get most wards in PvE afterall.

I hate PvE and I would be the first one to appreciate a bigger dedication of the team to the RvR effort, but this guys are not paid to do this. If they like to spend their time fixing the PvE it only fair that they do so.

Thanks for the caring about this game.

[nocturnalguest]

Im absolutely amused.

In no RoR history team x community communications were this toptier. Thats absolutely amazing, you guys exceed all possible expectations. With a speed of light and just few topics you are getting most of brilliant ideas, including tricky ones (like hardmode) to be implemented. And not only you just use them, but you improve all concepts that were shared and bring them into perfection.

Applause!

PvE team best team. Keep it rolling!

[Nameless]

Reading this wall of text I see huge dedication from PvE team. If you truly want your efforts to be relevant for the major aspect of the game which is PvP, why don't do try to collaborate with RvR team? If designed properly and implemented well, PvE may become fantastic addition for lake fights. Like some some sort of balancing force, optional random boss encounters, some distraction forces etc. Options are many and would be great to forge your passion and creativity to something that benefits all.

Scavens were doing such purpose on live some pve mixed with pvp. Beside monsterplay which were abit cheesy imo the scaven instances could bring some more depth to the orvr if implemented properly

[Nikt]

Reading this wall of text I see huge dedication from PvE team. If you truly want your efforts to be relevant for the major aspect of the game which is PvP, why don't do try to collaborate with RvR team? If designed properly and implemented well, PvE may become fantastic addition for lake fights. Like some some sort of balancing force, optional random boss encounters, some distraction forces etc. Options are many and would be great to forge your passion and creativity to something that benefits all.

Maybe it's time to honestly admit that RoR is a PVE game, and PVP is just an add-on whose importance is decreasing. I, and many others, are PvP enthusiasts, but perhaps it's time to connect PvP with PVE by earning zones through dungeons, PQ, crafting, etc. The clarity of the message from DEV team will attract players interested in this type of game and spare others the frustration.

Great work anyway

[saupreusse]

I know you guys do PvE stuff, but I begin to wonder what amazing things you could achieve if you started working on PvP updates.

[Natherul]

While quite offtopic I will say that its not like we are in complete silos of different teams and we do communicate freely internally.

Part of the issue with RvR changes is that those require code and cannot currently be really addressed with scripts or DB changes. We are working on a feature to allow this for RvR but currently its locked to code only and as such the majority of the team cannot currently work on RvR changes.

[Helwer]

Thanks! Sounds good and you heard us. Hope to find a beginner dungeon. Cheers and happy weekdend.