Vorkath: Battle of Forinthry - Feedback Update
Hello 'Scapers! We're delighted to see so many of you taking on the Battle of Forinthry, fighting Zemouregal and Vorkath! It's been a pleasure! We've also seen an enormous amount of feedback from all of you around the battle with Zemouregal and Vorkath - the challenge, the rewards and the battle itself.
We've already rolled out several hotfixes to address pressing issues around loading screens and the new Armour set, as well as a fix for the "Death Skulls" Necromancy ability targeting, but we're still going!
A lot of you have come back to us with feedback around these points so we're taking this opportunity to address a few of the major points to speak to these.
- The Loot Drops aren't quite hitting the mark
- Poison Pools are too punishing
- Normal Mode requires you to complete one Place of Power
- Zemouregal's attacks aren't easy to see
- Invoke Lord of Bones Feels Under-powered
So, with these in mind, let's address these in order.
The Loot Drops aren't quite hitting the mark
We've been having a lot of interesting conversations with players from all sorts of communities about Boss Drops. Once the Vorkath Shard Hunt event has ended, we'll be adding those overrides to the drop table, bringing it up to 6 total items to claim (the same number as an awfully similar looking Dragon you might have faced before...) but in the meantime, we're deploying a hotfix on Friday 24th November with some changes.
Once the hotfix has been successfully deployed, you will have to open any hardmode caskets before you can start to earn more and have access to the new drop table.
Hard Mode loot is being re-balanced to make loot feel more rewarding for your investment. We're upping the number of rolls on the loot table, from the current 6, to 8.
We're reducing the chance of receiving some lesser valuable loot (such as banite stone spirits). We're increasing the chances of receiving more desirable loot (such as Black Stone Hearts). The droprate of armour upgrade materials has been increased, along with the chance of receiving a codex.
Ultimately, this means that your investment in Hard Mode is more rewarding, you have more chances to roll better loot and can do that 8 times with each casket, as opposed to 6!
This will be going live today, Friday 24th November - the other points below are still being investigated and we're exploring our options so read on for more info!
Poison Pools are too punishing
These things sting, huh? We hear you. We're going to make some changes to the poison attacks - we're exploring options for how we can make the pools feel less punishing while keeping them a threat.
Normal Mode requires you to complete one Place of Power
The Undead Giant that guards the Western Place of Power (where you face off with Zemouregal and Vorkath) is a point of friction for those of you pushing Normal mode - you're overloaded and full of adrenaline, and the big guy's in your way!
We've discussed this point at length, and we want the fast-track to Vorkath to be an incentive to push yourself to try Hard Mode, if you're a more experienced and confident PvMer looking for faster kills.
With that in mind, we're keeping the Giant where they are, but it's worth noting that we are investigating the Undead Giant's seeming indifference to the Salve Amulet item's bonus effects against undead, with a fix for that going live on Monday with the system update.
Zemouregal's attacks aren't easy to see
He's up to no good, but some of his attacks aren't quite signposted and damage seems to be coming out of nowhere. We're exploring a way to better telegraph what Zemouregal is doing or going to do.
Invoke Lord of Bones Feels Under-powered
We've been taking a look into the Invoke Lord of Bones Incantation and its effect on enemy armour. The change we're making means that more armour will be shredded from targets with a higher overall armour value, rather than a static number. This means it will have less impact on low-level targets with negligible armour values, but the bigger targets will feel its impact significantly more!
That being said...
This has been a very satisfying experience for us. Seeing so many of you (veteran PvMers to newcomers from Necromancy!) take on Vorkath, it has been great!
Seeing everyone react to Battle of Forinthry has been gratifying and has given us even more eagerness to make sure that these fixes do what we can to make this a rewarding encounter for many more kills in the future!