Shadows of Vanaheim expansion

[Lureal]

I have to say I am very dissapointed in this expansion. When my friend and I heard it would be able to be done as a pair we were happy. Then we tried to play it. We were fine untill we got to Heimdall, then it's a joke. We went in with a Barb and a Pom,(both fully faction purple with WB cloaks), not that it should matter what classes go together, they should still be able to deafeat him, otherwize what's the point? We tried over and over again and couldn't come close to killing him. With the hit points that boss has, trying to click horns, not to mention the eight level 85 adds or more that were attacking us it was impossible to finish. The Pom didn't even have time to throw me a heal. I have done it solo with a number of my characters and I do enjoy the content, but it's simply not worth the time or the effort. I can go through the Refuge, Dead Mans Hand and the The ilse of Statues and make 10-11 rares in less time than it takes to go through Shadows and receive TWO! You kill the one Boss and get 2-4 Moa's, you get 14-20 for one quest. I received 40,000 faction points for over two hours of grinding. You receive more faction points for one quest with the Jiang faction in KK. The loot throughout Shadows is a joke. If you want people to play this expansion, make it worth playing ! There are many dungeons in this game that could be made solo or pairs to add more choices to the game. You can only go through the same instances so many times before it become redundant. Not everyone wants to play in groups, raids and K6. I have done them all, but also enjoy the challenge of soloing. It would be nice to have more instances like Refuge, Dead Man, and The Ilse. Forgotten city can be fun, but for ONE rare, not worth it. AOC is such a good game, but it could be much better with a few changes.

[Texan615]

Ah, Shadows of Vanaheim has another satisfied customer!

[slackjoint]

Ey Lureal i got good news then : They want to release X-pacs like these on a regular basis

[Jarundr]

Are they leaving it as is or are they planning to do some update, fixes and polish?

[Scaevacas]

Are they leaving it as is or are they planning to do some update, fixes and polish?

fixes and polish are usually the last thing on a manager of a small development teams mind, unless the fix impacts a critical system (server crashing, client crashing, or exploitation).

As an example, the 2 frustrating bugs in my signature have been around for over a year.

[Mellaus]

Then we tried to play it. Fine till we got to Heimdall

I'm shocked. I did not expect anyone to qualify the abysmal quality of that pack as "fine".

But yeah, Vanaheim is a steaming piece of crap, and ultra grindy on top of that.

[Kurt2013]

fixes and polish are usually the last thing on a manager of a small development teams mind, unless the fix impacts a critical system (server crashing, client crashing, or exploitation).

As an example, the 2 frustrating bugs in my signature have been around for over a year.

You should have added of a small "unsuccessfull" development teams mind. Priorizing makes sense only to a certain degree. If you overdo it to the point no constant work is visibly done, you crossed a line and maybe fixing one or two easy small things can work wonders.
It is like good and bad customer service. Of course you can try to ignore annoying complaining customers and click their incoming calls away...and depending on what other work you do, this is sometimes essential and important to do so...BUT if you do it as a rule and too often it will backfire...a lot. Some small call can work wonders there as well (to both sides). It is not believeable to avoid small things because you claim to be always working on "more important" stuff...team size does not matter as much as claimed here too. It is a matter of how you work and manage in general (where of course, this not only depends on the worker, but also on the environment and superiors).

[Lureal]

I'm shocked. I did not expect anyone to qualify the abysmal quality of that pack as "fine".

But yeah, Vanaheim is a steaming piece of crap, and ultra grindy on top of that.

I wasn't refurring to the pack as fine, I meant we were fine until we got to Heimdall, this pact needs some tweaks for sure !

[Raeil]

I've only done Vanaheim solo but based on what I read/hear... and I could be totally wrong of course:

It's meant for three people therefore doing it solo absolutely is going to take a long time. Three should rip through it in short order especially once they're familiar with it. The adds were meant for three people and as such are going to be a bit much for two unless they are very well geared. Obviously you don't get the adds at all solo. The npcs themselves will kill Heimdall, eventually, as long as you can kite him without dying which I'd say is a questionable mechanic in itself but does make it possible even with a poorly geared and/or otherwise weak character. Also you get 6 rare trophies for beating it on hard mode.

Short version: You're trying to do something meant for three people with only two. Sort of like attempting Khitai hard mode dungeons with four people instead of a full group.

[GeneralFear]

So, I know I'm in the minority, but I've quite enjoyed running this place solo hm with my shammy - 70k faction points and 6 rares makes it worthwhile, though I could get more rares in less time farming Iron Statues if that's all I wanted.

With 27 random quests, it's never quite the same, and now I have the quest achievement to boot. A couple more runs, and I will be rank 4 and picking up that nice vanaheim ring. I never much did Atzels and hadn't been there for years with any of my 80s, so it was fine with me to have a reason to go back there. Definitely faster for me to get ring there than grinding Khitai factions or endlesssly raiding where I never get the ring or lose the roll for it.