Supporting PvE Raiders in Ashes

They have been pretty clear over what they intend to deliver. You can advocate and say "I want this. They should do this!" all you like. Won't change what you are going to get. And as mentioned in the quotes below, they are ok if you take your toys and go home. What we're creating is a PvX game; and what that means is our target audience is the PvX player; and that is our golden cohort. And so to a degree if a player is solely interested in the most elaborate raid boss mechanics within a controlled and curated setting that is instanced gameplay, Ashes might not be the game for them and that's okay. However, with that being said, we do have a division of curated experiences that exist in an 80:20 ratio; and what that means is roughly 20% of the content that players will experience will be instanced, because where we want to have that granular control over the design and mechanics of a particular storyline or encounter we utilize the instance setting to provide that.[1] – Steven Sharif They won't be best-in-slot type items. You will not accomplish that from in from instanced-based content. Those will be found within the open-world. It'll be a competitive area for you to achieve those things, because other forces will want to achieve them as well; and because it's open-world there will be a limited number of those who can successfully complete on: Whether it be some timer for a world boss, or some condition or other world state predicate. Those are things that people are going to have to contend with each other for.[6] – Steven Sharif In situations where we want to contain a particular type of raid, we will utilize instancing; and that can protect certain engagements with certain bosses. But that's really more on the 20% of the scenarios will have instancing protection like that. Around 80% of the content is open-world, where competition is- healthy competition is an instigator for soft player friction; for potential cooperation; for the ability to yield alliances; and the political theater that comes with it. So that's an intended part of the PvX design of Ashes. It's a core philosophical point. And just to be clear, that is not for everyone. We are not trying to make a product that appeals to every MMO gamer. That's impossible; and so we've been very upfront and forthright with what we are trying to accomplish and what our core pillars of philosophical design are.[2] – Steven Sharif There will be some open dungeons that have bosses at the end of the dungeons. There will be some open dungeons that just have a multitude of dungeon bosses, not necessarily world raids or something; and there will be lots of different rooms and they'll be progressive in the sense that in the earlier parts of the dungeon they'll be lower level and then at the later parts of the dungeons deeper down they'll be higher level and more difficult; and that creates again I think an ecosystem of where players across a multitude of levels have an opportunity to coexist within certain areas of the world; and that's good from a social dynamic. It's good from a recruitment dynamic. It's good from just a liveliness and relevance of particular areas. So that you don't end up with these locations that once you pass a certain level like it's empty.[13] – Steven Sharif In a majority of cases, we do not want to prevent another group from engaging potentially in PvP. We disincentivize it by creating safeguards within the flagging system that make that decision very concerning for the people that might go corrupt; and if you're in the large enough group of numbers I doubt you're going to experience that unless there's some rivalry between guilds. In which case there's apparatuses like Guild Wars that are more opt-in. You can drop guild tag if you want. But anyways, the competitive nature of this environment is a PvX element.[2] – Steven Sharif

Content Suggestion: - Put the final boss at the end of an open-world dungeon in an instanced arena. - Look at making 3+ of these boss arenas for release. - Have the number available to the server based on node setup. - Fight lengths will be long (10-15+ mins), have multiple stages/waves and possibly separate rooms to change up the arena. - Content needs to take time to learn and complete. Nothing you can walk into and master in a couple of days. - Look to current games that are focused on PvE Raiding. - Only allow one party in the instance at a time. It's not required from a PvP aspect, see paragraph above, I do think it could help eliminate people zerging your fine-tuned mechanics. - Consider allowing only one instance at a time. This has a lot of implications. Especially around watching the door for PvE and PvP. Just something to consider. - Consider reduced death penalties in this "event". I'm not positive about this, but I tend to think tough content will require wiping and plenty of it. - Include achievements like speed, no-death and other fun unique ones. Reward Suggestion: - Do not drop exclusive materials, but valuable ones. - Small chance to drop a unique gear recipe (that can be sold). - Small chance to drop a low-quality version of that gear. - Very small chance to drop skins/cosmetic items. - Miniscule chance to drop a flying mount. - Performance metrics drive drop rates. - Completing achievements awards small cosmetics or titles. It is important to remember that your group will have to fight through an open-world dungeon to get there and to bring the loot home. Thank you for reading.