Critical hits, bad behavior & "end game" content

[ProfessorCat]

A couple of thoughts about the unbalance regarding unexpected or "cheap" tactics the enemies use.

Chain stuns:
I love the stun mechanic, and it really is needed for most builds, and certainly any group dungeon attempt. However getting chain stunned - resulting in death - brings my joy level to zero, and my blood pressure to rage attack. A really noticeable place this can happen is Yeti cave with the yeti war screamers, where even a small group of 3 yetis (often most battles in yeti are 3+ mobs)can kill a level 70 player.

Another place I see chain stuns happen are in longer combat with multiple mobs, whether soloing wolf cave, or fighting a handful of orcs in GK. Let's say you're tanking, and the group is fighting 4 of the same mob. If the whole group is focused on the first mob, then the other 3 are building their rage bars in sync. Let's say all 4 mobs are still alive when the monster rage bars get full. Now the initial puller has a stack of 3 or 4 stuns on them, and once again you find that frustration where you are stunned for too long of a length of time to have a response. Yes, this is where healers should come into play, but being stunned for 5+ seconds is never fun. Ever. Battle is fun and stressful - in a good way, but with high emotions during combat, its easy to turn a positive rush of emotions into an equally powerful negative emotion.

Skill Lockout
A couple examples I see skill lockout as a positive are the Llamia mobs, and the Golems rage attack. These are FUN mechanics that are also expected. I love the thrill from back when Lab was top dog. If you had new players, you always had to stop and explain "expect this lockout on burst, manage rage, have your heals, and stack your DOTs" The one time a group actually survives a "whoopsie" 2 golem combat was legendary, and made us feel powerful! Such a fun way to handle a frustrating mechanic. Same to be said for the llamias. Let the tank get locked, and archers/mages better go for the llamia first!

An example where it makes me want to throw my monitor out the window is combat with the tacticians in GK. It's too common. As the above situation with the stuns, if you have 2 or 3 tacticians, their rage attacks are going to be around the same time if you cant kill them before they rage - which isn't probable, and also probably not intended to be able to kill gk elites before they rage.

I've always thought that if the lockout on rage was intended to make the combat longer, then why don't they just have more hitpoints. I understand the differences between lockout and stun. One you can move while under the effects, the other you cant. I would dare say that stuns are less frustrating, due to their shorter length, and typical single target mechanic. The Tacticians use it as a burst, reducing fun for the entire party at once. If there was a mod for panic charge that gave monsters lock-out, I'd wager 3/4 the server would use mentalism.

Critical hits
Honestly, reading Citan's reply makes me think the crits are working exactly as intended. I've also never gotten as upset about crits as I have stuns/lockouts. I play defensively most times, and anticipate entering combat and plan my shields, heals and buffs guessing I'm going to be crit a couple of times. I've not noticed any more death in my solo adventures than I did before crits were released.

I understand this will be an unpopular opinion, but I think crits are working as advertised, and don't net me a noticeable loss of fun. We should all have gotten used to dying in Anagoge, or the original cave. And if you're in GK without a res, you're a bad teammate. Similar to above where I mentioned it's a memorable experience to take on a difficult situation. It's a memorable experience if a party wipes, and you can choreograph everyone being revived without having to re-spawn. These are those moments that make PG special. I certainly don't want an easier time. Just less frustration.

One hit kills - Regardless of HP/Armor
I'm not talking about crits, I'm talking about the kraken burst attack. When I had over 1k armor, and 900hp, with a 40% damage mitigation buff on, the kraken did 1700 damage to me. I understand it's an event monster, but there is virtually no way to block that attack if you're melee (you're also usually stunned before it goes off if you have agro, so you cannot run) I can't think of other mobs that this is capable of, but if there is any boss that can crit a burst rage attack for over 900 damage, it's not ever going to be perceived as fun (scale for the intended levels of course, at level 100 I hope I have more than 1k hp)

Possible Solutions
Pulling mobs without calling for help. With the GK patch, came a "correction" to hook shot(archery) and grappling web(spider). Both of these skills now make mobs call for help, where they did not int he past. This made the impossible task of pulling that beetle before Llamia locks us all out of combat actually doable. We've never had a GK experience with this option either.

I understand it was unintentional, and was corrected. I put in the suggestion a couple of times in game, but I'll beat the drum again, and suggest a rare mod to bring this back. Those two skills IMO are the best ones to use it, as they are the only two "pulls". Thematically, I really can see grappling web shot over a mobs face, keeping them from calling for help. Hook shot.... well maybe change it to Net shot, or harpoon. Even if these two skills don't get this option, I believe pulling a single mob without calling for help on a longer cooldown skill would add value to the game, without breaking it.

Crit immunity? Perhaps you cannot be crit again for 5 seconds after suffering a crit. I'm not a coder, and I'm sure that's a lot of extra work. I've noticed that it's usually getting crit back to back that results in my death, rather than just one.
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I hope it doesn't come as a self plug (but hell, self plug too!) I've qued up start times of GK groups from a few dungeon crawls in case you wanted to view a sample of what it looks like.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/397008732?t=00h39m14s
Semi-coordinated full group doing all bosses in GK in a little over 3 hours - fairly reckless pulling, and a handful of deaths, I dont think we wiped until the end.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/391967574?t=01h36m51s
Group of 5 going until we got "stuck" on the map, and had to recall beginings to get out.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/395568646?t=02h06m08s
Group of 6 making their way to the bottom, and wiping to a group of a million beholders

I had a very enjoyable time on each of these runs.

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Lastly, I can't thank the devs and admins enough. I love this game. It makes people feel excitement in a way they haven't since childhood. I get so heated when I lurk the forums or discord, and unfortunately sometimes ingame chat, because the negativity is always the loudest. I know the internet has been heading that way as a whole, but it saddens me to see it seep into this community.

I spent some time as a volunteer firefighter, and when I found myself frustrated, I would remember that we only see the people who are struggling and in need of help. The regular, upstanding, and healthy people don't call 911. I think that sentiment applies here, and the majority of people who play this game aren't going onto the forums to tell you how much they appreciate all this hard work, so please please please don't take the emotional criticism to interpret that people aren't enjoying Project Gorgon.