Aletys
U6P Team
- Joined
- May 22, 2008
- Messages
- 580
That was my observation as well. I 'z'd up a few of the champions in my run, and saw a few things.
1 - They can have multiple damage-boosting buffs. I don't know how many there are, but if you get several together, especially coupled with instances where a PC might be vulnerable to a specific type of damage (Undead form Wizards and light damage, for example), then I can see where it's possible for the champion to get enough power for a one shot. I never saw more than 3 buffs though at one time, so it may be very specific occurances *coughMirrorforminthenewDeleriumcough*. Of course, higher level champions may be able to spawn with more buffs active.
2 - The buffs themselves are 10 mins. I don't know if they reset upon running out.
3 - They don't always get extra hp. Most, in fact, I fought had the same hp as regular trash. Maybe slightly higher AC.
4 - They don't always get a damage buff. I fought one Trog who had 4 times the hp of nay other mob there, but was no more dangerous than regular ones. Just more tedious. Another was a normal Kobold with blur.
Quite honestly, I don't think it will matter for vets at all, neither adding challenge nor danger to questing on elite, with some rare instances in already difficult quests (In the Flesh endfight). New players maybe, but even then I doubt it. While Fireflash has two past lives, there's no practicle benefit other than an extra +1 to-hit (irrelevant on a full BaB class). She won't get any decent gear until level 4. Heck, she's still using the Ember G-Axe from the Grotto! As long as you don't aggro the entire map, and watch your health, you'll be fine.
The most dangerous will be casters in difficult to reach locations.
Jo & I rolled up some new toons on Cannith, and also decided that TR'ing is doable, but had some different experiences:
1. After repeatedly wiping in one of the quests, we went & got a couple of hirelings. As soon as we got to level 2, we shipped ourselves to the Harbor, & got ourselves a couple of level 2 hirelings. That helped immensely. However we often saw more than 3 buffs, and every single one of them had a damage boost. We saw up to 6 buffs in a few cases, but then one of them would be a debuff.
2. Those are not 10 minute buffs. Look again & watch the counter. They are 10 HOUR buffs. Do players get anything more than a 20 second damage boost?
3. Agreed, though I think we may have seen one or two with much higher HP, but don't really remember at this point.
4. We didn't see a single one without the damage boost. We did see one that had only that, but he was the only one. Some had multiple variants of the same buff (on hit pierce, on hit slash, plus the damage boost.
We did have trouble when 3 champions dropped on top of us in one of the quests … we ended up aborting because they dropped on top of us at the rest/rez shrine, and there was simply no way we could make it past them. We also went really slowly in the quests, checking out what was ahead wherever we could. It was slow & tedious, but we made it through.
I have a friend who got hit by 6 champions in the Cannith Crystal quest. Needless to say, he didn't succeed. And, the champion spawn rates are much higher than they have acknowledged. 50% of the quests we ran had spawn rates that were between 15% and 27%.
Not sure it's going to be a lot of fun playing in it's current state, but that's TBD.
- Joined
- May 22, 2008
- Messages
- 580