PTS MASTER MODE: Shrine of Silence Flashpoint Feedback

[JackieKo]

Players can provide their feedback for their Shrine of Silence Flashpoint Master mode experience.

• How did you feel about the difficulty and mechanics of the flashpoint bosses, either in general or in specific? What did you enjoy? What did you dislike?
• Did you notice the additional master mode mechanics on each boss? Did you find them notable? Did you enjoy them? 
• Have you run into any bugs? If so, please offer step by step details so we may be able to reproduce your experience. 
• Is there any other general feedback you would like to share? 
   

[euroDSMtuner]

I really enjoyed it, the darkness of it all was just really eerie and the music is wonderful. Definitely my favorite flashpoint to date. But I do have some thoughts to contribute:

This was all done solo with Master mode difficulty chosen, not in a group.

On MM I would expect enemies to hit harder and have better defense, both mobs and bosses. In my opinion, MM should scale ALL NPC's to gold and champion. This would apply to all flashpoints. Make the player(s) sweat a little.

The bosses were okay, mechanics easy to identify and figure the patterns, again in my opinion the MM mechanics would be random so you cannot know which it will be, while also being deployed at a much faster rate both in frequency and channel speed (while being immune from any interrupts.) The attacks should also hit much harder and farther as well.

Vorantikus boss I feel should have another mechanic, the Dreadtooth ground spikes came to mind when I was fighting it as well as Death Mark (one that would be very good with the final bosses). Its a completely corrupted raging monster, make it fight and feel like one.

IMO the voice that whispers occasionally should have a bit more of an echo to it. Sounds like he's right in my ear, very clear and crisp.

Didn't find any obvious bugs that stood out.

The little secret side boss should drop (IMO) the dread master white skull belt with a low drop rate (5-10%) to keep its rarity mostly intact and something to grind for. It's an item that would be appropriate for the dreadful dark corruption vibe going on (BTW, LOVE the combined use of Oriconian, Nathema, Voss and Ilum assets! Definitely makes this one my new most favorite FP).

Edited May 9, 2023 by euroDSMtuner
Additional information

[klizilii]

First boss = boring.  The mechanics are too simple and repeatable with a reasonable amount of time to get out without any real threat.  I went in there solo on a dps companion with a healer.  Would like to see either smaller zones or slightly faster transitions to the zones, They are a little too generous on dodging once you get set up for the first one.  Also, couldn't figure out what the point of the white circle under the player is after the boss finished the tantrum and gets stunned.  Would be nice to have something to figure out what it is for.  Also, the "conal" telegraph often places on the wrong spot on the ground so you don't know where the attack actually is.  The boss just doesn't turn towards the player often when placing this attack and shows it going in whatever direction the boss was facing on your game.

Second boss = Much harder to solo due to the lightning fields hurting companion + the knockback being OP.  Same problem with first boss with the conal telegraphs with a knockback not always being shown on the correct area.  I got punted off the edge even though I wasn't standing in one.  Knockback is overpowered, sends me flying like 100m.  When I finally cleared it, the first boss I killed wasn't visible anymore on the map and no loot was available.  In a group it isn't so bad because you tend to respawn right above the boss arena and can just rejoin the fight.  Not a bad fight, rather predictable once you get it, but still chances for players to screw up.

Bonus boss = interesting.  I quite liked the bonus boss although there were a few things that didn't make much sense.  When the attack happens with the small yellow circle with a large red circle around it.  It is very inconsistent knowing if we're doing the mechanic right.  I tested both standing outside the far red circle, inside the yellow circle, having all players in the yellow, some out/some in, etc. and it wasn't giving me consistent feedback on if the mechanic was done right.  Most of the time staying in the yellow seemed correct, but sometimes the boss would still do significant damage and stun players.  This seemed to be more consistent when not all players were in the yellow circle.  Spawning the extra commandos with the clickable button seemed too difficult on master mode, so I gave up on trying to use it.  Overall a good boss except that it is really inconsistent the feedback to ensure you don't take large damage from blast of hatred.  I never did fully determine why blast of hatred sometimes takes out half your healt and other times didn't hurt.

Last boss = Companions are just too weak, so 2 players with 2 comps, the comps weren't able to keep up with the outgoing damage.  Considering healer companions are usually able to keep up with most master mode flashpoints I found it odd how 2 healer companions weren't able to keep up with the dream phase damage.  I really dislike how there seems to be nothing within the players control other than burn boss down and manage adds.  It doesn't feel very satisfying that the 2nd bosses spawn in and there is nothing you can do other than avoid some extra attacks.  It feels like the proper strategy is to ignore adds (mostly) and just kill the boss before you die.  Finally beat it after many many attempts (not enough players on PTS to try a full group) and it seems like the idea is to have really good dps for the 2nd dream phase to clear it.  Healing requirement is fairly high if the adds are not killed very fast and it seems like a race against the stacking damage from "mind corruption."  Seems like this fight on master mode will prevent a lot of the "typical" activity finder groups from clearing due to the dps check.  Really would like some feedback on when the lightning fields are going to be cast on players so they can be taken away from the boss/kited.

 

The achivements for the "non-bosses" was a bit confusing and I don't know how a player is able to figure it out.  There really isn't any feedback in game that I could find to figure out how it works.  I got one of the two by looking up the abilities on jedipedia to realize you get the required "effect" from killing one of the bosses.  There is no indication how long you have after killing one boss to kill the next and still have the required effect.  I didn't notice any icon to show me I had the required effect.  So I did the 2nd achievement and this time I found the buff on my bar for it.

Edited May 8, 2023 by klizilii

[Bida]

On 5/4/2023 at 1:00 AM, JackieKo said:

Players can provide their feedback for their Shrine of Silence Flashpoint Master mode experience.

• How did you feel about the difficulty and mechanics of the flashpoint bosses, either in general or in specific? What did you enjoy? What did you dislike?

              I played both Story Mode and Veteran Mode.  I felt like Story Mode was quite easy as all SM content is.  On VM, I did it with a friend and our companions.  It was a bit more difficult, but doable.  I enjoyed watching my friend work out the puzzle and was pleased when she got it.  I like that this FP is more like a mini OP with mini-bosses all over the place.  Lots of opportunity for loot drops.  I disliked that there are no extra objectives minus the bonus boss.  

• Did you notice the additional master mode mechanics on each boss? Did you find them notable? Did you enjoy them? 

             The mechanics on the bosses were noticeable, since they are all things that are already in the game.  Its easy to see the cones, circles and areas that the bosses will be hitting, and easy to avoid.

• Have you run into any bugs? If so, please offer step by step details so we may be able to reproduce your experience.   

             Yes, we had one effect that was doing periodic damage to my friend.  It was weird because it wasn't a debuff, it was actually a buff that did damage.  Once we figured that out and clicked the buff off, she stopped taking periodic damage.  We picked it up on one of the last couple bosses.  I don't recall which one.  It damaged her every 3 or 4 seconds without fail.

• Is there any other general feedback you would like to share? 

             Like all of the FPs this one might as well be a straight hallway.  The corners and extra rooms only serve to keep you from seeing to far into the future.  There are no blind traps or things that really make you consider what you are doing.  See a group of mobs, LOS them move to the next group.  After saying all of that, I did like it.  I found the scenery and visuals to be better than average for this game, showing an attention to detail that I appreciated.  I cant wait to see the final forms of the mobs and bosses.
 

 

[Nerodin]

• How did you feel about the difficulty and mechanics of the flashpoint bosses, either in general or in specific? What did you enjoy? What did you dislike?

The first boss felt fairly straight forward. I can see party finder groups struggling with the donut AoE effects but it felt fair for Master Mode. I didn't really understand the white and red circles that appeared below players but the damage on this mechanic wasn't significant anyway. It might be a more complex encounter if the damage on that mechanic in particular couldn't be ignored. I also agree with the previous suggestion that the red circles being randomized on Master Mode might make it slightly more interesting.

The second boss seemed a little too easy. There was almost nothing to heal on this fight as long as your party is moving out of the lightning storms. The only real check is your tank facing the Force Pushes away from the group and moving out of them. Again, this is a fight that could pose challenges for party finder but should be a complete pushover for an experienced group. This fight could potentially be improved by putting an enrage or additional mechanics on the remaining boss after killing one.

The bonus boss was somewhat confusing and I am not sure we completed it the intended way. There is a floor mechanic where the tank needs to stand in a yellow circle to prevent the group from taking room wide damage. There is also an object that can be clicked to spawn adds, but there seemed to be no reason to ever do this outside of doing the achievement. I thought perhaps that the intent is that as the boss gains stacks of Enrage and the tank's circle becomes too damaging to take, the party would need to kite adds into the tank's circle, but this never seemed to be an issue with good DPS and a tank using CD's.

I thought that the last boss was definitely the most enjoyable. The last burn phase with its stacking damage debuff, coupled with the second boss Lightning Storms and tentacle smashes, made this fight really hectic/fun to heal. My only complaint about this fight and the flashpoint in general is that every boss encounter really seems like a single target hard focus for DPS. Most of the adds on this fight are not targetable outside of the mawvorrs which can pretty much be ignored.

• Have you run into any bugs? If so, please offer step by step details so we may be able to reproduce your experience.

Hydraulic Overrides did not prevent knockback from the Force Push on the second boss.

The cast bars for the second bosses seemed inconsistent and did not always appear.

We were not awarded the achievements for defeating the Curse or Kirba despite clearing the flashpoint twice. We also did not receive the "Hard to Handle" achievement for keeping mawvorrs alive during the Curse encounter, but I assume this is linked to the Curse kill achievement not triggering either.

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Nerodin

[LadyAdmiral]

• Annoyed could not share Master Mode quest with my friends they all had to pick it up.
• First boss was fun but a good challenge!  Healer said it was not easy to heal. Tanking was fun. Circles/flashing fun/interesting. Liked the additional circles.
• Only my third time running this I realise that the room "covered by brambles" was just the next area to be unlocked, not a secret room I missed. oops.
• Commando push mobs got me good off the ledge lol.
• We tried the opposite achievement this time, trying to kill the Soul Coil first and see what happens. It was fun to kill with the extra debuff splashing everywhere and the pull lol!
• Middle boss, the twins, was the easiest. It was ok. I'm not sure I even noticed the differences other than more health/damage.
• Final boss was soooooo chaotic. It took us either three or four pulls which was neat. We don't fully understand all the mechanics yet. Definitely noticed the new ghosts and lightning! First half of the fight feels boring in comparison when having to re-do the fight.

[klizilii]

Ran the flashpoint again post changes.

1st boss = seems to hit harder and having dsync issues with getting hit by furious tantrum rings even though I was out of them (do they move faster than before?)  I actually like the fact that it's harder now to dodge the furious tantrum patterns.  The boss is now properly turning to place the conal/knockback attack in the correct direction.  It was a bit harder to clear due to getting caught in tantrum, but was still able to clear it reasonably easy with 2 players using companions.

2nd boss = Didn't notice anything different except companions didn't seem to get the purple lighting fields anymore, made it much easier not having to worry about companions as much.

Bonus boss = seems to be a tiny bit easier than before, Didn't have any problems clearing it.  The blast of hatred attack still doesn't give good feedback in game as to the fact that more players in the yellow circle = shared damage.  There seems to be a huge range of damage it does. Here is the testing I did to see what impact players being the circle means.  Both players were damage class with boss always having player A as target.

	Player A	Player B	Players in
1st	94k	124k	A, B
2nd	87k	151k	A, B
3rd	147k		A
4th	111k		A
5th		0 (resist)	B
6th		225k	B
7th	133k	151k	A, B

3rd boss = EASY.  It was not even slightly challenging compared to before.  Cleared with 2 damage classes at 26k each and 2 heal companions.

 

Other things: Mobs still have weird behaviour being knocked off.  Sometimes they die, sometimes they don't.  Some of the trash mobs at 1.1m health seem a little excessive.  Killing Nil-Uu and dying you lose the buff required for the achievement, a bit of an inconvenience as I died right after killing the boss.  The bonus puzzle room can be mitigated by using phase walk to teleport through the door with the last flame.

Edited May 13, 2023 by klizilii

[JackieKo]

On 5/13/2023 at 5:38 PM, klizilii said:

Other things: Mobs still have weird behaviour being knocked off.  Sometimes they die, sometimes they don't.  Some of the trash mobs at 1.1m health seem a little excessive.  

Hi, 

Can you please provide the exact location of these specific mobs and also their enemy names? Thanks! 

[NeoBlakkrstal]

the issue with mobs not dying when knocked off is not isolated to this one FP on the PTS. It is everywhere in SWTOR. You knock something off, and instead of dying, it disappears from the screen but continues to be aggroed, fires upon you, and does not die. Or, it reappears in the same spot, but aggro does not drop, and it does not die. This is not constant, it is intermittent as sometimes they do die. Has been an ongoing issue across SWTOR for a long time now.

[klizilii]

2 hours ago, JackieKo said:

Hi, 

Can you please provide the exact location of these specific mobs and also their enemy names? Thanks! 

first set of mobs after the 2nd boss. Sith Temple: Inner Sanctum

• Group of 6 "Cursed commando Grunt"  I can upload a quick video of our experience if that helps
• Cursed commando Captain after this group

[olagatonjedi]

Boss 3 (the curse) is still very difficult when using a companion healer or tank.  Too much damage being taken from multiple sources in the 2nd half of the fight, and even a 4000 presence healer is unable to keep up with anything longer than 90 seconds.  Additionally, a tank companion does not agro the adds at all, and requires extreme micromanaging to direct it to each and every add.  This is impossible considering all the other damage you need to avoid, while also trying to dps or heal.  Additionally, mitigation and health levels are lacking for companion tanks.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

1 hour ago, olagatonjedi said:

Boss 3 (the curse) is still very difficult when using a companion healer or tank.  Too much damage being taken from multiple sources in the 2nd half of the fight, and even a 4000 presence healer is unable to keep up with anything longer than 90 seconds.  Additionally, a tank companion does not agro the adds at all, and requires extreme micromanaging to direct it to each and every add.  This is impossible considering all the other damage you need to avoid, while also trying to dps or heal.  Additionally, mitigation and health levels are lacking for companion tanks.

I'd like to think this is working as intended.  It's mastermode and companions are NOT supposed to be equal to or better than another player. 

[olagatonjedi]

On 7/6/2023 at 10:09 AM, LD_Little_Dragon said:

I'd like to think this is working as intended.  It's mastermode and companions are NOT supposed to be equal to or better than another player. 

I agree that a companion shouldn't be able to perform better than a player, but they SHOULD be able to perform their role, at the very least.  A tank that doesn't taunt isn't a tank.  A healer that can't keep up with the minimum unavoidable damage isn't a healer.