Dawntrail is coming to a close, so i think it is a good time to write this post, summarising my and part of community's experience with deep dungeons this expansion and share ideas for future of this content.
Technical Improvements and System Changes
Pilgrim's Traverse introduced some big improvements to the deep dungeon system. Multiple checkpoint floors, matched queue all the way to 100, excellent aetherpool grind and potion farming changes.
I also noted positive combat changes - when a mob casts important skills, the animations are more visible and if a mob has a buff aura, the aura is visible on the mob.
Palace of the Dead also got an update that basically made aetherpool and potion grinding free. While it did provide relief and allowed the community to play more of what we want instead of farming, i believe that Pilgrim's Traverse system is the superior version. I wish it was introduced to Heaven-on-High and Eureka Orthos.
Patch 7.5 change brought removal of KO penalties on "story floors" (PotD 1-100, others 1-30) that proved controversial. While intended as an accessibility boost, players could already clear story floors with KOs on record. The unintended side effect hits the competitive ranking community: because KOs on early floors no longer invalidate a high-score attempt, players can continuously reset sets to farm favorable RNG (such as mimic or treasure room spawns) without losing the run. This rewards raw time commitment over execution and skill. A simple floor 100 checkpoint for PotD would have provided same accessibility without disrupting ranking integrity.
Pilgrim's Traverse Gameplay and Solo Experience
Pilgrim’s Traverse succeeds in casual setting - it’s approachable, fun with friends, and the weekly log keeps steady player numbers going through it.
However, it falls short as a solo challenge. PT’s solo difficulty relies far too heavily on dodging AoE mechanics, most of which can be trivially avoided via Line of Sight (LoS), which while being 'cheesy' is the prefered option due to mob damage nor time management being a threat. By comparison, older Deep Dungeons featured a healthier balance of threat types: direct incoming damage, status effects, area denial, resource and time management.
PT feels like a collection of good concepts cut short before reaching their potential. Votive Candelabras, for instance, skew so heavily toward player buffs that their negative effects are negligible and easily counterable. Given that datamined graphics point to unused negative Votive effect, it’s disappointing that the final design pulled back on challenge.
I suspect this drop in difficulty stems from forcing Pilgrim's Traverse to host the Quantum trial system and intention to have as many people get to Quantum as possible.
While Quantum itself is definitely a good idea and worth exploring further, i dont think it was a good idea to tie it to deep dungeon
I'll continue in comments.
Continue reading...
Technical Improvements and System Changes
Pilgrim's Traverse introduced some big improvements to the deep dungeon system. Multiple checkpoint floors, matched queue all the way to 100, excellent aetherpool grind and potion farming changes.
I also noted positive combat changes - when a mob casts important skills, the animations are more visible and if a mob has a buff aura, the aura is visible on the mob.
Palace of the Dead also got an update that basically made aetherpool and potion grinding free. While it did provide relief and allowed the community to play more of what we want instead of farming, i believe that Pilgrim's Traverse system is the superior version. I wish it was introduced to Heaven-on-High and Eureka Orthos.
Patch 7.5 change brought removal of KO penalties on "story floors" (PotD 1-100, others 1-30) that proved controversial. While intended as an accessibility boost, players could already clear story floors with KOs on record. The unintended side effect hits the competitive ranking community: because KOs on early floors no longer invalidate a high-score attempt, players can continuously reset sets to farm favorable RNG (such as mimic or treasure room spawns) without losing the run. This rewards raw time commitment over execution and skill. A simple floor 100 checkpoint for PotD would have provided same accessibility without disrupting ranking integrity.
Pilgrim's Traverse Gameplay and Solo Experience
Pilgrim’s Traverse succeeds in casual setting - it’s approachable, fun with friends, and the weekly log keeps steady player numbers going through it.
However, it falls short as a solo challenge. PT’s solo difficulty relies far too heavily on dodging AoE mechanics, most of which can be trivially avoided via Line of Sight (LoS), which while being 'cheesy' is the prefered option due to mob damage nor time management being a threat. By comparison, older Deep Dungeons featured a healthier balance of threat types: direct incoming damage, status effects, area denial, resource and time management.
PT feels like a collection of good concepts cut short before reaching their potential. Votive Candelabras, for instance, skew so heavily toward player buffs that their negative effects are negligible and easily counterable. Given that datamined graphics point to unused negative Votive effect, it’s disappointing that the final design pulled back on challenge.
I suspect this drop in difficulty stems from forcing Pilgrim's Traverse to host the Quantum trial system and intention to have as many people get to Quantum as possible.
While Quantum itself is definitely a good idea and worth exploring further, i dont think it was a good idea to tie it to deep dungeon
I'll continue in comments.
Continue reading...