Game Design Sky Islands Lootrun Feedback

Hi Hi!

I have ran my fair share of lootruns here, and although not perfect, I really like this lootrun camp! However, I believe there are some glaring issues, as well as some less obvious ones that would make lootrunning here a lot less painful, if they were patched up. A quick note that I mostly run with Acrobat, so there may be some mobility issues I am not fully aware of.

Sorry in advance if the post is almost totally negative, it's mainly because the thread is about things that should be changed, though I will sprinkle in some comments about features I really like.

1. Throwclouds
I like Throwclouds. When they work.

Their trajectory is inconsistent.

Outside of the Lamprophis Lair, the Throwcloud sometimes throws you into the underside of a small island. If the movement was more vertical, this would help a lot. I think showing the direction you will be launched by a Throwcloud would help with traversal, even if it is usually obvious. Also, adding a Throwcloud near the opening behind the chest in Scarred Ingress would provide a proper exit, as the only ones I have found is to movement spell into a nearby waterfall, or by backtracking, the latter of which is not very fun.

2. The Void
When you are thrown into the Void, you are 'outside of the playable area', so you must return to y>0 before the 10s or so is up. This, unless you have a good vertical movement spell, is almost inescapable, and, instead of this counting as a death, ends your run. This is not a good design decision. I'm sure this has been discussed earlier, but I will provide two solutions:

• If you fall into the Void, get killed within/after 5s.

Or:

• If you fall into the Void, get launched back up, but get damaged a bit, similarly to falling off the platform in the Floating Aerie challenge. I personally would prefer this because it is cooler than straight up dying.

The other camp with environmental hazards (the Molten Height's lava and fire) is pretty much a joke, as water is fairly accessible, and you can usually out-heal the damage with HPR Boons anyway. Any way to make the Void not destroy your run/kill you would be much appreciated.

3. Challenges
Most of the challenges are fairly good, but some have issues. Now, before you say 'skill issue', these are just my opinions, and my thoughts have been collected over several runs. I would instead prefer for this section to open up dialogue and discussion about the various challenges discussed below.

Spoiler: I: Spelunk

Angel Falls

• Because of the cave's two-path design, when you exit one of the paths, you get placed outside of the cave, in a small bush. I would prefer if this was instead directly outside of the cave, as sometimes I get lost after getting battered by the angels outside (this is a skill issue but still).
• I also think the Angel of Agony should stop spamming Heavy Arrow Storm, as this is a needless HP check in an already small arena, making it almost impossible to dodge.

Lamprophis Lair

• No Issues. Could do with more difficulty.

Mycolite Mountain

• Similar feedback to Lamprophis Lair.

Overgrown Rubble

• The cave is too long and cluttered in my opinion. Constantly getting stopped by the Moles' Multihit (and I'm fairly sure pull? I might just be imagining things though) is obtrusive, and is not helped by the sheer length of the cave. Where most other caves are open and direct, this one is winding, and cluttered with various leaves and rocks.
• Difficulty is good though, and is encouraged by the cramped space, bring the enemies closer to the player.

Sky Shroom

• Would be cool if the parkour was removed, as it is near impossible without movement spells when you have +280% Walk Speed from an Equilibrium Boon you didn't choose. The small entrance to the chest room also makes it annoying to enter with movement spells. I guess changing the parkour to something like the Library parkour from RoL 4 would fix most of my issues.
• The scripted attacks from the Sky Shroom are cool.

The Donjon

• The Green Key should drop in a designated spot, instead of sometimes falling of the statue's head, sometimes not.
• Way too many Vampyrs spawn around the first chest. I have died several times to these gremlins.
• The Sticky Splitter in the parkour room is also unnecessary and serves no purpose other than making the parkour artificially more difficult.
• Sometimes when you kill the Malfunctioning Totem from high above (~6+ blocks, only an Acrobat/Battle Monk issue, but still), the wooden barrier will not open, forcing you to /class, and go back to the first chest in an infuriating race against the minute you wasted, and then you fight the Totem again, praying you are low enough this time.

Windwalker Temple

• I don't know whether you are supposed to just blaze past the Sylphid Guards, but if you're not, their HP needs a significant nerf in their second phase. I think the Observer in the middle is OK, but I don't really understand its existence.

Forgotten Excavation

• Needs to be nerfed. I dread whenever I need a beacon from here, it's just so painful. The arena is clunky and not very spacious, so the Charge feels like a death trap, and so does the Push. The Rock Throw, which I feel should be the main gimmick, rarely gets me, and doesn't do that much damage. A heavy focus on this, and a removal of his Push, and Charge, would make this boss a lot better.

Scarred Ingress

• Other than the aforementioned potential Throwcloud at the exit, no problems here.

Azurite Island

• Also no big issues. The floating rock cloud mobs (I can't find the name) outside are a bit annoying earlier in the run before you get Equilibrium or sufficient Boons, but generally this is also one of the better caves.
• The Bijou Bandit mini-boss is kinda just a pushover. It can be easily cheesed by just standing outside, and using AOE spells on him, but I suggest an arena rework instead of some dumb anti-camp mobs.
• Could do with a slight nerf to difficulty, but it's not too bad as is.

Ovine Spire

• Oh, Ovine Spire. I dread. With high enough enemy Walk Speed, the first mini-boss (Dust Devil Ovis) will catapult itself off at mach 3, and his Pastoris Canor minions do not help.
• The tower section is also extremely annoying if you aren't Acrobat. I can't really tell how you're supposed to legitimately approach this without the use of movement spells; I'm sure there's a parkour somewhere but you would probably get pushed off before you can get to the teleporter platform. Luckily, with Pirouette, all of your problems fade away.
• And then there's the Heat-Lightning Caprine. Here's how it attacks: Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Teleport, occassional Meteor, Flamethrower, Flamethrower.. It's just not really fun to fight. Combine that with his support Pastoris Canors spamming heal, it just doesn't make that fun of a boss fight. The Caprine also just does way too much damage, meaning that I only do this challenge when it's early in the run, or after I have a deluge of Boons from Equilibrium.

Spoiler: II: Slay Mobs

Angelic Site

• Very few issues. I used to struggle with this challenge, before I realised that if you get rid of the Angels of restoration first, the challenge becomes fairly easy.
• Personally, I think buffing the Angels of Splintering would be good, as they kind of just die instantly in my experience.

Debris of Furcation

• Not too bad, I just think that spawning more Plummeted Angels as an anti-camp is unnecessary, considering the Void Barnacles already serve that purpose (and there's not really a good place to camp in this challenge? I might be blind, so don't quote me).

Floating Aerie

• An interesting challenge, I really like it. Sometimes the mobs get stuck under/next to a rock, so you have to look for them, but other than that, it's fine. I think the bounce mechanic should stay until all chests are looted, as I can recount a few times when I have fallen off as soon as the challenge ended, and then I have to movement spell back up to the platform to collect the rewards.

Raiders' Plaza

• Anti-Camp is a necessary evil. Not much I can really say on this one, it's pretty chill.
• Maybe make it so that the Trained Hounds don't get stuck in bushes so easily (could be fixed by removing the tree near the entrance to the port, and cleaning up the bushes)?

Kandon-Beda Beanstalk

• Well designed, no issues here.

Spoiler: III: Slay Target

Astraulus' Comet

• Platform is way too small, could do with Floating Aerie treatment (the bounce back if you fall off mechanic).
• I also think that some of the elemental defences of the Darkness Between The Stars target could be removed/toned down, as it is kinda annoying to need to use a high Neutral Damage weapon to effectively slay it. With that being said, I do use Nullification so there is some bias here.

Colossus Islet

• The Angry Agates and Shocking Sapphires are hard to hit, especially with high Walk Speed Curses.
• I think the elemental defence problem with the boss Fractured Sentinel is similar to the Astraulus' Comet one.

Phantasmic Field

• Also near perfect. Could probably deal with removing the teleport from some of the enemies, but other than that, it's a very good one.

Spoiler: IV: Destroy

Colossi Rune

• Perfect. Bear in mind I do use Acrobat, so this challenge is probably harder with non-airborne archetypes.

Only 1 Destroy objective? Could probably deal with more to be honest. Destroy objectives are fun.

Spoiler: V: Defend

Wybel Satellite

• No issues.

Scared Wybel

• No issues. Wybeleater's Heavy Pull is only an problem with Acrobat, and even then, they're fairly easy to kill.

Empty Nest

• This one's good. I dislike how the Melee Poachers die in 2 hits, so this could probably be buffed, but I really enjoy having to kill the Mini-Airships before too many of them spawn in. Unlike the other Defend objectives, your attention is on two things (taking care of Airships and the Defend objective), instead of just one.

TL;DR
- Add consistency to Throwclouds, and another one just outside exit of Scarred Ingress
- Void sucks, either make it like Floating Aerie or just straight up kill you
- Most challenges are fine, some could have more difficulty, other with less (Ovine Spire)
- Big disparity between difficulty of some challenges

Conclusion
I really enjoy lootrunning at this camp, and, while some of my issues might be personal, believe that if most of my critiques and suggestions were considered, this camp would be even greater. I think the disparity in difficulty between some challenges (take Ovine Spire compared to Mycolite Mountain, for instance) hurts this camp a lot.

Once again, this post is supposed to be constructive, so sorry if it is too negative, but if I included everything I liked, it would probably be double as long! Hopefully this opens up dialogue about this camp, as I'd like to hear what everyone else has to say.

Thanks for your time,
//Rythew

 

Agreed with everything here. You should post a link to this in the constructive feedback section of the Wynncord so it gets more attention, there’s some really good feedback in here.

 

If you fall into the void, you can escape using /kill. I don't think it even gives you a penalty if you're outside a challenge.

 

The azurite cave also needs the enemy models reworked, they lag the game really bad :/

 

I used 1 frost gear skin

(Also it's one specific enemy, not all the enemies. your lag issue comes from the shaman relik used in one)

 

Is it possible that that could be changed or removed? It makes it quite laggy to even go near or look in the direction of the island.

 

sure

 

thank you madlime deusphage wynncraft™

 

Very good feedback here. I find it interesting how much experience can differ from class to class. It may just be a skill/build issue, but I found the Floating Aerie challenge to be the most annoying slaying challenge of them all. I mainly run with archer, and once knocked off the edge, I often find myself getting chain-knocked off over and over again when mobs start getting lots of curses, unable to cast escape (since I never really get close enough to the floor) to actually get up. End result being that I just get tossed around a bit until I take near fatal fall damage and die. Its not that big of an issue since I just avoid the specific challenge later into my runs, but it doesnt feel very good. On the other hand, I found Forgotten Excavation to be really fun and challenging, I felt like I could predict the boss' movement and mostly dodge it, except when it sometimes combo'd heavy charge and arrowstorm, which is admittedly scary.

Otherwise I agree with most of your points. Some of the stuff like the Angel of Agony I have no issue with, but thats just because I can cheese it as archer lol.