New Raiding Mode and 10-man Raid Announced

[Slipmat]

Right now on the PTS (Public Test Shard) for your consumption is a new 10-man Raid coming as part of Update 3.6 and called Comet of Ahnket. This will be a Tier 3 raid in keeping with the 20-man Tier 3 Mind of Madness raid but also with this 10-man will be a nice way for the casual player to experience the raid.

They already tried this with the other 10-mans like Intrepid Gilded Prophecy and Rhen of Fate by having three difficulties, easy, normal and hard modes, now they plan to expand on the easy mode by using a new system called Universal Introduction Mode.

What's that you ask? over to Lead Raid designer Dev Anony

One thing in particular I would like to invite all of you to test is our new Universal Introduction Mode (replacing our traditional Introduction/Easy Mode which rewards only tokens). Unlike other raids, when this instance is set to Introduction Mode by using the crystal at the entrance, your entire party will be granted 1,600 hit. Additionally, the 'Ascended Odds!' mechanic will become active. Our goal with this is to allow players interested in experiencing new raid content to do so without requiring a full progression to the tier.

Ascended Odds!

This mechanic applies a buff which increases your outgoing damage and healing, and maximum health by 2% per stack for every 30 seconds you are actively engaged in combat. These stacks will persist through death and newly joining members will receive stacks equal to the accumulated total when joining an instance. The stacks will only be removed when you beat the encounter, change the difficulty or reset the instance.

Looks good in theory, everyone should be happy, the casual player can start on the new UIM and maybe try Normal after a while, the more hardcore can jump straight into normal and hard mode, sounds a win win for all types of raiders.

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/game-disc...tion-mode.html

[StrawberryZebra]

Assuming this isn't an April Fools joke, its yet another strange and baffling change by Trion. Simply buffing anyone who enters to 1600 hit isn't going to solve anything if they don't also have the stats to back it up with. The damage buff stacking over time in combat isn't going to fix gear at all due to its percentage based and stacking nature. 2% more of sod all DPS is still sod all DPS and its going to take an obscene number of stacks to account for that.

It seems clear that Trion want to encourage more people to try Raiding, but changes like this are just not the way at all. I don't think I ever saw groups doing the easy mode version of RoF or iGP either. They're doing their best not to upset existing raiders, without realising that they're going to have to upset them now in order to keep them happy later on. Trion simply lack the backbone to just straight up add a LFR tool and have done with it which is why we keep seeing these strange half-measures which are going to achieve nothing of any real significance.

They're taking the easy option not the right one, and they're going to suffer for it later on.

[Slipmat]

A map of the new 10-man Raid (with thanks to French player Aeryle), speculation was rife that it was set on Ember Isle due to the rivers of lave around it but Lore master Dev Captain Cursor posted that it's not on Ember isle and so far seems to be the only 10-man Raid added that doesn't (yet) have an actual presence out in the gameplay World.

[zito]

isn't this change a bit redundant?

[Puremallace]

Trion simply lack the backbone to just straight up add a LFR tool and have done with it which is why we keep seeing these strange half-measures which are going to achieve nothing of any real significance.

They're taking the easy option not the right one, and they're going to suffer for it later on.

Clearly you are missing the core issue with LFR. Rift raiders need to feel that their epeen is bigger then everyone else's and that they are special little snowflakes who get to talk to devs in their vents while everyone else wishes they had the attention.

Then on the other hand you have people who do not have 8+ hours to devote to raid grinding who would atleast like to see this mysterious content during the current expansion instead of having to wait for someone to put together a legacy raid when you are 15+ level higher then the content.

One thing that has not changed since I left was that Rift raiders are constantly pissed at the world and forget that raid devs are not CEO's who wave their hand and tell them that this is their last build bugged or not and the content needs to be released. Not sure what Rift raiders are expecting. Like a lead raid dev to come on the forums and start bitching out the CEO.

The game is F2P so they are basically required to keep releasing some form of content to keep people interested in the Cash Store and also keep the lights on. This is not WoW where the devs get the luxury of 7 million people willing to pay a monthly subscription for 8+ months while they constantly bitch but never unsubscribe.

I think people keep forgetting that Rift feeds a lot of Trions other projects.

[Ahovv]

Clearly you are missing the core issue with LFR. Rift raiders need to feel that their epeen is bigger then everyone else's and that they are special little snowflakes who get to talk to devs in their vents while everyone else wishes they had the attention.

Then on the other hand you have people who do not have 8+ hours to devote to raid grinding who would atleast like to see this mysterious content during the current expansion instead of having to wait for someone to put together a legacy raid when you are 15+ level higher then the content.

One thing that has not changed since I left was that Rift raiders are constantly pissed at the world and forget that raid devs are not CEO's who wave their hand and tell them that this is their last build bugged or not and the content needs to be released. Not sure what Rift raiders are expecting. Like a lead raid dev to come on the forums and start bitching out the CEO.

The game is F2P so they are basically required to keep releasing some form of content to keep people interested in the Cash Store and also keep the lights on. This is not WoW where the devs get the luxury of 7 million people willing to pay a monthly subscription for 8+ months while they constantly bitch but never unsubscribe.

I think people keep forgetting that Rift feeds a lot of Trions other projects.

I don't recall people giving a shit if LFR existed. But it would be essentially pointless, or only aimed at solo players. That's what the chronicles accomplished.

I mean, let's examine LFR in WoW. You can literally autofollow people around and still win. The chronicles in Rift were objectively more difficult than LFR in WoW. So, mission accomplished?

It had nothing to do with epeen, and more about questioning who the content would be aimed at. If for solo players on a chaotic schedule, chronicles did that. If not for them, then who?

[StrawberryZebra]

I don't recall people giving a shit if LFR existed.

Really? Anytime anyone mentions the idea of LFR Rift players start frothing at the mouth. Its a hillarious way of trolling level 65 chat because the reactions are so predictable. You've got roughly 12 seconds before someone tells you to "Go back to WoW!" and that "LFR ruined WoW!". They're so vehemently against it in any form.

As for who its aimed at, LFR is the perfect gateway into raiding. While chronicles and IA can take place in the same area as raids, they're absolutely not comparable. There are certain things you'll only need to know for challenging 10 person plus content, things like the Archon soul or the Bard. Essential for raids, surplus to requirements elsewhere.

LFR benefits newer players, allowing them to get to grips with raiding specs and mechanics in a safer environment, while also giving them a cost for failure unlike IA's. It disproportionally benefits raiding guilds, since the potential pool of geared up and experienced raiders is much deeper. I see lots of guilds clamouring for raiders, why they're so against a system to mass produce them is beyond me.

But the simple fact of the matter is that if you want to get into raiding T3 at this point there are just too many barriers to entry. Something, anything to encourage more people to participate would go a long way towards remedying the problem. Rift players constantly claim that Rift has by far the most challenging raid content of any MMO on the market, and that is a fantastic draw for new players. Keeping that kind of content locked away from those same new players is totally counter productive. While they can do the Chronicle or IA version of the raid, just don't offer the kinds of gear you would need to graduate to big-boy raiding. LFR would help break down a lot of these barriers, and offer an alternate way of getting raid ready for players who were drawn in by the promise of challenge, only to have it kept constantly at arms length from them.