5.9.2a - Gods from the Machine is still broken.......

[Ocho-Quatro]

Given that the patch notes state: "Corrected an issue where the Veteran Mode Gods From the Machine bosses were harder than intended." - We can safely assume that the bugs/mechanics-issues with VM Gods are all cleared up...? NO

 

Brief Synopsis: When 5.9.2 launched, the following happened to Gods From the Machine VM (that I am personally aware of/saw myself anyway - there may be more.)

 

Tyth - Once Tyth goes into 'burn phase' sub 30%, adds no longer spawned. (This made the encounter easier, not harder.)

 

Aivela & Esne - Once you killed Aivela, Esne would cease all mechanics, and the "wiper blades" would no longer spawn for the rest of the encounter. (This made the encounter easier, not harder.)

 

Nahut - The nails/pins in phase 1 were immune to knockbacks, and during phase 3 when the turrets spawned, the number of turrets was exponentially increased. (This made the encounter substantially more difficult.)

 

There may have been issues with Syvca & Izax, but honestly, none of the raid teams I run with, had any desire to put in the effort to clear Nahut, so we just cancelled our raid nights and waited for a fix. (The only thing I did personally see - was that the Anchor Drones in SM Izax were immune to knockback, and I assume that was the same in VM, but we didn't bother pulling it in the past several weeks.)

 

After pushing back the fix several times, finally the patch went into effect this morning... and drumroll..........

 

• Tyth: FIXED
  
• Aivela & Esne: FIXED
  
• Nahut: STILL BROKEN
  

 

So, while the patch notes say: "Corrected an issue where the Veteran Mode Gods From the Machine bosses were harder than intended." - What actually happened, is that the mechanics that were screwy and were making the bosses EASIER, were fixed, and the ones that were making them HARDER still remain.

 

Given that Gods is our first "new" Operations content in... well, I can't remember how long, can we possibly get a fix for this? Maybe without having to wait a month? I've got a team that's prog'ing Izax, and isn't interested in wiping on Nahut, or dealing with however Sycva or Izax are inevitably also broken I'm sure, so we'll just keep cancelling raid nights, waiting for a fix, until members of my team just choose not to come back at all, and go play WoW.

 

/end rant

[EricMusco]

I'll send this on to the team to look into. Thanks for the heads up.

 

-eric

[RikuvonDrake]

Two new mechanics on Scyva, the purple/pink telegraphs in the room, as Scyva comes down, which deals damage to you if you stand in them are rotating in two circles around the room and during the sub 30% phase and during the execution protocol, you are no longer able to just stack underboss. Personally, it felt like the execution protocol circles took a bit longer to apply their damage if you were standing in the circles so you had a bit of "grace time" before losing health.

 

On Izax phase 2 you are no longer able to knock the Anchor droid to stack it up with the teather and during phase 4 Amplifier Phase with four of them, when the boss is "pushed" to the next location mines spawn on top of each amplifier forcing you to use teathers to save them.

Edited August 22, 2018 by RikuvonDrake

[LordTurin]

I'll send this on to the team to look into. Thanks for the heads up.

 

-eric

 

Please put the nerfs back in for Tyth and A&E as well. The OP as released was more difficult than pretty much all the other HM bosses in the game, which was fine for the progression in the beginning. However, at this point there is no point in making the OP inaccessible to a large portion of the HM raiders in the game. Nerf these bosses so folks can start doing PUGS for this like almost every other HM OP in the game allows for.

[JasmineNyCole]

Are the ridiculously long load in times on a number of planets and strongholds going to be addressed anytime soon?

[Ocho-Quatro]

Please put the nerfs back in for Tyth and A&E as well.

 

Please, no don't do this. Tyth was already easy enough, removing adds in burn phase trivialized the whole fight to the point of lunacy. And for A&E - that's one of the better thought out fights in this game at the moment... Every role has a job to do, both their actual role AND handling some sort of mechanic. Nerfing the burn phase trivializes that fight to the point of feeling like story mode. Please, don't put those accidental nerfs back in.

 

The OP as released was more difficult than pretty much all the other HM bosses in the game...

 

That's the whole point. People said the same thing about Underlurker when ToS was launched. And SM has been nerfed into oblivion to the point that it's not even fun anymore. If HM (or HardMare) is going to be the most difficult content in the cycle, it SHOULD be hard.

 

However, at this point there is no point in making the OP inaccessible to a large portion of the HM raiders in the game.

 

What's your definition of a HM Raider? Someone who does EV/KP/EC and maybe TfB/SnV (at least they have mechanics)? If you can do Master Blaster HM, or Revan HM, you can do Gods HM. It's not inaccessible to the HM raiding population. It's inaccessible to whatever portion of the population doesn't know their class and how to execute mechanics. You can't roll into Gods and just kill it with numbers like you can most of the rest of the "HM" content in the game.

 

Nerf these bosses so folks can start doing PUGS for this like almost every other HM OP in the game allows for.

 

SM is for pugs.

[Jerba]

Please put the nerfs back in for Tyth and A&E as well. The OP as released was more difficult than pretty much all the other HM bosses in the game, which was fine for the progression in the beginning. However, at this point there is no point in making the OP inaccessible to a large portion of the HM raiders in the game. Nerf these bosses so folks can start doing PUGS for this like almost every other HM OP in the game allows for.

I totally agree. One year after release, the first two bosses are way overdue for a nerf. My raid group took a look at the 5.9.2 changes and while the bosses were easier, they still pose a significant challenge and you cannot ignore the mechanics. (We have not been in post-5.9.2a, so can't comment on that.)

I've seen many VM raid guilds on my server dissolve during the last few months, in the middle of the content drops, because the bosses were too difficult and they lost interest. A nerf is badly needed at this point, IMO it was already needed when the bosses first released and we didn't yet know that MM was cancelled, but it is definitely needed now.

To the devs, you can find great feedback regarding the 5.9.2 changes in this thread.

 

For Nahut onwards, I don't think a nerf is necessary yet since those bosses have not been out that long, and since Nahut and Scyva were always easier than Tyth and A&E. Nevertheless, the 5.9.2 stealth-buffs adding MM mechanics (adds immune to knockback etc.) were totally unneeded and must be reverted ASAP for raid groups doing progression ATM.

Edited August 23, 2018 by Jerba

[Beckwith]

Please, no don't do this. Tyth was already easy enough, removing adds in burn phase trivialized the whole fight to the point of lunacy. And for A&E - that's one of the better thought out fights in this game at the moment... Every role has a job to do, both their actual role AND handling some sort of mechanic. Nerfing the burn phase trivializes that fight to the point of feeling like story mode. Please, don't put those accidental nerfs back in.

 

 

 

That's the whole point. People said the same thing about Underlurker when ToS was launched. And SM has been nerfed into oblivion to the point that it's not even fun anymore. If HM (or HardMare) is going to be the most difficult content in the cycle, it SHOULD be hard.

 

 

 

What's your definition of a HM Raider? Someone who does EV/KP/EC and maybe TfB/SnV (at least they have mechanics)? If you can do Master Blaster HM, or Revan HM, you can do Gods HM. It's not inaccessible to the HM raiding population. It's inaccessible to whatever portion of the population doesn't know their class and how to execute mechanics. You can't roll into Gods and just kill it with numbers like you can most of the rest of the "HM" content in the game.

 

 

 

SM is for pugs.

 

I agree, SM is for pugs. HMs are supposed to be hard, not easy!

[Eloi_BG]

Was the no-adds on burn for Tyth real though... Seemed kinda random, did it twice before patch (once the day just before) and we always had adds in burn phase. Haven't tested since patch but just want to correct what was happening on A&E. No matter which one you pushed, straight as one of them goes into burn, wipers stop. Not sure what you mean by "stop all mechanics" because circles were still happening and she was still attacking, seemed to me the only difference was the absence of wipers.

 

As for Nahut, when you talk about turrets, do you mean it goes 1-2-4 instead of 1-2-2 (haven't pulled him since patch)? I get how this can be slightly annoying but if you still only need to push 5 turrets shouldn't be a game changer, I'd suggest you guys keep at it cause you never know how long fixes will take...

[RikuvonDrake]

As for Nahut, when you talk about turrets, do you mean it goes 1-2-4 instead of 1-2-2 (haven't pulled him since patch)? I get how this can be slightly annoying but if you still only need to push 5 turrets shouldn't be a game changer, I'd suggest you guys keep at it cause you never know how long fixes will take...

 

No, we mean that in the first wave of turrets, there are three instead of the normal one.

[ultimarb]

Was the no-adds on burn for Tyth real though... Seemed kinda random, did it twice before patch (once the day just before) and we always had adds in burn phase. Haven't tested since patch but just want to correct what was happening on A&E. No matter which one you pushed, straight as one of them goes into burn, wipers stop. Not sure what you mean by "stop all mechanics" because circles were still happening and she was still attacking, seemed to me the only difference was the absence of wipers.

 

As for Nahut, when you talk about turrets, do you mean it goes 1-2-4 instead of 1-2-2 (haven't pulled him since patch)? I get how this can be slightly annoying but if you still only need to push 5 turrets shouldn't be a game changer, I'd suggest you guys keep at it cause you never know how long fixes will take...

 

The problem was that there were 3 Turrets spawning in first wave and another 3 in second wave.

So nahut was pushed into burn phase after two turrets waves spawns and has a really high amount of hp left. 40-50%. Then the burn is really long and you'll need the full circle.

 

normally you have one turret at first which can one dps can deal with...so you have much more dps on nahut until you push him in burn phase.

[ultimarb]

I'll send this on to the team to look into. Thanks for the heads up.

 

-eric

 

Maybe a hint for the devs. Some of those "new" abilities we now see on live-server was leaked on pts prior to 5.9.2 as mentioned in your database (datamining) and master mode achievments for gods where visible for all players on pts.

 

On live server you can actually see a lockout for Mastermode in the Lockoutsection of the new Groupfinder after 5.9.2a

 

I think something is interfering from your database on master- and veteranmode on live servers

Edited August 24, 2018 by ultimarb

[ceazare]

Another nightmare mechanic bleeding through: Taking damage from blue Radiance while player is polarized red gives a stacking buff called "Positive Polarization Shift (polarization toward the positive Radiance causes you to take increased damage from the Negative Radiance blast.)" which increases all damage Esne does to that player if he switches to blue polarization.

 

It does not happen with red radiance however.

[Force_Seeker]

Eric, Keith, Charles, someone - can we please get this addressed and emergency fixed?

 

We're going into week 4 of HM GftM being bugged. That's right, for nearly a month your latest and greatest premier PVE content has been bugged. How about some urgency on this matter? You knowingly let the bug persist for two weeks deciding not to decouple the fix from the non-gameplay fixes and then you botched the intended fix. You've effectively shut down progression raiding in more than a few isolated cases. This should be an all hands on deck issue. The face of your product's Operations content isn't working properly and it garners so little attention while fringe/non-gameplay issues with strongholds and decorations had the development team working through the weekend. I don't get it.

 

You tried to fix the issues with 5.9.2a and failed - that's rough, but okay. Last Wednesday when the fix was identified as ineffective I would have expected the team to be grinding away to do whatever possible to get a proper fix in that same week, yet we didn't even receive an update for the remainder of the week. Again, this is your company's calling card for 2018 SWTOR raiding. I just don't get it. I can't imagine any other triple-A title allowing their top end PVE content to sit in a bugged state for a month. Is this a commentary on the studio's commitment to this game?

[ultimarb]

Eric, Keith, Charles, someone - can we please get this addressed and emergency fixed?

 

We're going into week 4 of HM GftM being bugged. That's right, for nearly a month your latest and greatest premier PVE content has been bugged. How about some urgency on this matter? You knowingly let the bug persist for two weeks deciding not to decouple the fix from the non-gameplay fixes and then you botched the intended fix. You've effectively shut down progression raiding in more than a few isolated cases. This should be an all hands on deck issue. The face of your product's Operations content isn't working properly and it garners so little attention while fringe/non-gameplay issues with strongholds and decorations had the development team working through the weekend. I don't get it.

 

You tried to fix the issues with 5.9.2a and failed - that's rough, but okay. Last Wednesday when the fix was identified as ineffective I would have expected the team to be grinding away to do whatever possible to get a proper fix in that same week, yet we didn't even receive an update for the remainder of the week. Again, this is your company's calling card for 2018 SWTOR raiding. I just don't get it. I can't imagine any other triple-A title allowing their top end PVE content to sit in a bugged state for a month. Is this a commentary on the studio's commitment to this game?

 

I think we need an communication update on these issue or a fix asap.

Edited August 28, 2018 by ultimarb

[Eloi_BG]

Another nightmare mechanic bleeding through: Taking damage from blue Radiance while player is polarized red gives a stacking buff called "Positive Polarization Shift (polarization toward the positive Radiance causes you to take increased damage from the Negative Radiance blast.)" which increases all damage Esne does to that player if he switches to blue polarization.

 

It does not happen with red radiance however.

 

Did Tyth and A&E yesterday. Didn't see this issue at all on sisters, though I can confirm lasers are back in burn phase. Nahut still bugged but we're getting better at dealing with it, would be nice to know when this is going to be fixed (the new mechanics are pretty fun though, looking forward to eventually seeing them on live for real).

[Jyroshi]

I'll send this on to the team to look into. Thanks for the heads up.

 

-eric

 

Eric, do you have any update for us?

[Jerba]

We did GftM VM today and can confirm that:

• Tyth and A&E were reverted to the pre-5.9.2 state, in other words the nerfs were undone with 5.9.2a: Tyth adds once again spawn in the burn phase, and the A&E beams continue during the burn phase.
  
• Nahut was partially fixed; the nails and pins can once again be knocked back. However, there are still three turrets spawning at once, meaning you have to put 3 DPS on the turrets and are forced to trigger the burn phase earlier so the turrets don't enrage (at around 40-50%).
  
• We did not yet check out Scyva or Izax post-5.9.2a.
  

This is a major issue and should be fixed soon. Whether or not the Tyth and A&E nerfs are reinstated I leave to the discretion of the developers, but the turrets from Nahut are definitely bugged and must be fixed.

Edited August 31, 2018 by Jerba

[Jerba]

We did GftM SM via group finder today and noticed the following changes that were not present pre-5.9.2:

• On A&E, you take Radiance damage in SM. I believe that pre-5.9.2, Radiance only did damage in VM but never on SM.
  
• On NAHUT, you have three turrets spawning at the same time, similar to VM.
  
• On SCYVA, the voids around the boss are now constantly revolving, and not moving in steps like before. In addition, there is a new void directly beneath the boss.
  
• On IZAX, there is a new lightning animation when you get pulled into the shield. In addition, the Anchor Drones are now immune to knockback. Also, in the puzzle before the boss, standing in the beam now deals massive damage (around 100k) and puts you in combat.
  

NAHUT definitely must be fixed, the three turrets are too much in both SM and VM. I don't have a strong opinion on the changes to the other bosses.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Jerba

[Ocho-Quatro]

Another nightmare mechanic bleeding through: Taking damage from blue Radiance while player is polarized red gives a stacking buff called "Positive Polarization Shift (polarization toward the positive Radiance causes you to take increased damage from the Negative Radiance blast.)" which increases all damage Esne does to that player if he switches to blue polarization.

 

It does not happen with red radiance however.

 

We saw this tonight. Essentially it adds an extra DPS check because the longer you're in wiper blade phase, the more damage you take because you keep having to swap colors, making the increased damage grow exponentially.

 

It's actually not a bad NiM mechanic for a "soft enrage" but it doesn't belong in an already established HM op, by accident, without any communication from the devs as to the timeline for a fix

[Eloi_BG]

I'll send this on to the team to look into. Thanks for the heads up.

 

-eric

 

13 days and counting...

[Ocho-Quatro]

13 days and counting...

 

Some kind of update would be nice here.... GFTM has been broken since August 7th. And the patch that was supposed to fix it, came out 2 weeks ago, and it didn't fix it.

 

In the past month, I've lost 2 people on my prog team to WoW. If this goes on much longer, especially without communication, I'm probably going to lose more, and finding Hardmare/NiM raiders to fill spots is getting harder and harder.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Ocho-Quatro

[EricMusco]

Hey folks,

 

Thanks for the detailed reports and definitely let us know of anything else you find. Right now the team is verifying we have caught any issues present after 5.9.2a.

 

The current intent is to address these issues with 5.9.3.

 

-eric

[Eloi_BG]

Hey folks,

 

Thanks for the detailed reports and definitely let us know of anything else you find. Right now the team is verifying we have caught any issues present after 5.9.2a.

 

The current intent is to address these issues with 5.9.3.

 

-eric

 

I'm guessing that means at least two weeks from now, since 5.9.3 is on PTS right now, I'd be surprised if it was released next Tuesday. Don't see why there can't be a 5.9.2b. Anyhow, bad news is still better than no news, thanks for the update, helps to plan our raids.

[Jerba]

Hey folks,

 

Thanks for the detailed reports and definitely let us know of anything else you find. Right now the team is verifying we have caught any issues present after 5.9.2a.

 

The current intent is to address these issues with 5.9.3.

 

-eric

Thanks for the update but some more details would be appreciated. For example, what is the dev's general opinion on the state of GftM? Are the bosses too easy, too difficult or just about right? I'm sure they see the low participation numbers in this operation compared to other operations; do they plan to change the bosses to increase participation or not?

Specifically, were the nerfs to Tyth and A&E intended? And then why were they reverted, and will the nerfs be reinstanted? What else can we expect to change with patch 5.9.3? Which of the bosses will become easier or harder, and how?

 

A little communication here would go a long way. It is frustrating not knowing what has changed, so it's like going into the operation blind and randomly discovering new "features". It's especially frustrating when the patch notes are sparse on details and what is written in them is incorrect (talking about "reverting buffs" when in fact the patch was "reverting nerfs").

 

It really feels like operation players are treated as second-class players. If you want to rebuild the endgame community like it existed during 2.X, you need to do better than that. At the current rate of raiders leaving and guilds dissolving, I expect that there won't be any more PuG raids on my server in 6 months time, with any operations only being run internally by the handful of remaining raid groups. You already drove off the theorycrafters; please don't make the same mistake with the operation players, they are a cornerstone of an MMO community.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Jerba