over 3 years ago - /u/CreatureTech-PHX - Direct link

Thank You!

We are gathered here today to celebrate private hunts for the Hunting Grounds. First off, a big thank you for providing us with feedback. We truly believe that Dauntless is at its best when our devs and community work together.

So, let’s break down how these work.

https://preview.redd.it/hl2xsbq5xgm61.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44d25a6df98a77fbc7b6c579dc5322ef9d563ffa

  1. Open the Hunt Map and select Hunting Grounds.
  2. Select your desired island.
  3. Press the Private Hunt button.
  4. You’re done!

This will bring only you and your current party to the island you chose. If you’re playing alone, that means it’ll be just you!

Level Requirements

Next up is level requirements, which will launch in 1.5.6. The goal behind these level requirements is to make sure all Slayers are tackling the Escalation and Hunting Grounds content that’s appropriate for their level. This means you’ll no longer end up alongside a low-level Slayer who got lost on their way to Ramsgate and ended up in Cape Fury.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s important to note that level requirements will not impact private hunts. Feel free to tackle challenging islands alone or with your best Slayer friends.

Escalations

In Development Mockup

Escalations will now have level requirements and recommended levels. 1-10 Escalation is being renamed to "Normal Escalation" and 10-50 will become "Hard Escalation." We’re also introducing Heroic Escalations in the near future to provide an even stiffer challenge.

  • Normal Escalation
    • Required: 5
    • Recommended: 10
  • Hard Escalation
    • Required: 14
    • Recommended: 18
  • Heroic Escalation
    • Required: 18
    • Recommended: 20

Keep in mind, these requirements only apply to the party leader. A responsible party leader doesn’t take their low-level friends into a Heroic Escalation … Be a good party leader!

Hunting Grounds

Similar weapon level requirements will be present on Hunting Grounds islands.

  • Embermane Cove
    • Required: None
    • Recommended: None
  • Boreal Outpost
    • Required: 0
    • Recommended: 2
  • Revelation Rock
    • Required: 0
    • Recommended: 3
  • Restless Sands
    • Required: 0
    • Recommended: 4
  • Iron Falls
    • Required: 0
    • Recommended: 5
  • Sunderstone
    • Required: 2
    • Recommended: 6
  • Aulric's Peak
    • Required: 3
    • Recommended: 7
  • Frostmarch
    • Required: 4
    • Recommended: 8
  • Thunderwatch
    • Required: 5
    • Recommended: 9
  • Fortune's Folly
    • Required: 6
    • Recommended: 10
  • Brightwood
    • Required: 7
    • Recommended: 11
  • Coldrunner Key
    • Required: 8
    • Recommended: 12
  • The Snowblind Waste
    • Required: 9
    • Recommended: 13
  • Undervald Defile
    • Required: 10
    • Recommended: 14
  • Cape Fury
    • Required: 11
    • Recommended: 15
  • Hades Reach
    • Required: 12
    • Recommended: 16
  • Razorcliff Isle
    • Required: 13
    • Recommended: 17
  • Twilight Sanctuary
    • Required: 14
    • Recommended: 18

Switching Gear in the Hunting Grounds

In Development Mockup

When switching gear in the Hunting Grounds, the UI will clearly communicate which of your weapons are at the appropriate level. This means you won’t be able to swap to a piece of equipment that is deemed too low-level for the island you're on. Appropriate messaging will also be shown if you’re trying to switch to an unsuitable loadout.

Trials

Trials levels will be normalized in 1.5.6. This means that all Slayers entering Trials hunts will be adjusted to the same weapon level. Trials will now have an even playing field for everyone, regardless of their progression or reforging, and as such, Trials will have no level requirements.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

External link →
over 3 years ago - /u/meatocracy - Direct link

Originally posted by A-C_Aksan

Will the level reqs have any effect on your ability to change weapons once in an instance?

Correct.

you won’t be able to swap to a piece of equipment that is deemed too low-level for the island you're on

over 3 years ago - /u/tinouti - Direct link

Originally posted by A-C_Aksan

Will the level reqs have any effect on your ability to change weapons once in an instance?

As long as the level of that weapon you're trying to switch to is above the minimum requirement, nope. 👍

over 3 years ago - /u/meatocracy - Direct link

Originally posted by A-C_Aksan

Oof, my bad. I did try and look for this before asking.

It happens! <3

over 3 years ago - /u/CreatureTech-PHX - Direct link

Originally posted by -Texas-Ranger-

The trial change is absolutely ridiculous. A Huge amount of people grinded their asses off just to get all the reforge bonuses to have upper hand for trial top times.

I am one of those people and this feels like a complete scam. I sacrificed nearly 8 hours every day when reforge launched just to get all reforges done asap. That includes real money investment in countless bounty tokens and other premium resources.

What's the point of doing reforges anyway after this change? Since when do you need 5% attack speed or other non-existing bonuses for casual gaming on escalation(where most things dies stagger locked) or hunting ground where it makes absolutely no difference.

Reforges only mattered for top trial times, where those small numbers could shave off 1 or even 2 seconds with perfect positioning and optimization, and they actually felt significant. Another thing is we actually get a sense of satisfaction after getting all the reforges.

After this change you can remove reforge nodes and that won't change a single bit in the game. This is just unfair and is completely not necessary.

Sorry you feel this way.

The goal here is to make sure everyone is on the same playing field during competitive play. This way, no one has an advantage or disadvantage. It all comes down to skill.

over 3 years ago - /u/tinouti - Direct link

Originally posted by Infernal_pizza

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s important to note that level requirements will not impact private hunts. Feel free to tackle challenging islands alone or with your best Slayer friends.

To me that sounds like you’ll be able to do it even if the party leader is lv0, you could even go straight to twilight sanctuary if you want!

Indeed! 👍

over 3 years ago - /u/tinouti - Direct link

Originally posted by faceblam420

want to level with fiends? too bad! not all at once, somine needs to out sync the xp.

Just go on a private Hunting Ground with your friends. There's no level requirements there. ;)

over 3 years ago - /u/tinouti - Direct link

Originally posted by Arrotanis

Keep in mind, these requirements only apply to the party leader.

Why is this a thing? If there are no requirements in private hunts, people can just go there if they want to carry friends. No reason to put them in matchmaking with other people who actually meet the requirements. It's unfair. If I get matched with someone who is carrying 2 underleveled friends, I will just ALT-F4 like I do now.

Just make the requirement based on party's minimal level.

So the explanation behind this is that locking party leaders when someone in their party is under leveled adds a bunch of complexity in terms of UX and UI in order to not ruin the experience of being a party leader.
We know how much of pain it is currently to be queued up with low level players, and we wanted to get these level requirements out there as soon as possible.

Like all things though, that's not to say that we'll never add it. If this scenario you are describing becomes a problem, there's a good chance we'll reconsider and try to prioritize that work.

So please let us know what your experience is once you get to play with it, we want to hear it! :)

over 3 years ago - /u/CreatureTech-PHX - Direct link

Hey everyone, there's a lot of great points being made regarding Trials! We're thinking of ways to avoid any wonkiness, and we're reading all of your feedback. There are already some plans being drawn up due to this feedback.

We will have a dedicated Trials post in the future and we'll outline exactly how Trials level normalization will work.