Volcano T4 Thralls meh

[Boulderkin]

I was all excited when I captured all four of them, having high expectations about Spinas, Erii... yet, I just finished Spinas; not what I had in mind, nowhere near so; he doesn't even fit in the same league as Dalinisia, I'm really disappointed with this, considering the preparation and lvl you need to be able to actually reach them, survive, and find them, and escape the volcano. Dalinisia you can buy for 200 merc coins; am I missing something? these dudes should be monsters, heh, and any of my Berserkers could beat the living snot out of any of them ={ ={

What's the point... sigh

[BigBombz]

Volcano thralls used to be the best of the best when the volcano area was added to the map. Everybody used them, and then Funcom nerfed them to the ground, because that's what they do. They introduce something new and overpowered to get everyone excited, and then they nerf it to make room for something else.

[Boulderkin]

Originally posted by BigBombz:

Volcano thralls used to be the best of the best when the volcano area was added to the map. Everybody used them, and then Funcom nerfed them to the ground, because that's what they do. They introduce something new and overpowered to get everyone excited, and then they nerf it to make room for something else.

I feel robbed of my playtime, aaaall that preparation just to run Skelos? Why would you spend time there? This game could so easily fix many things that just disrespect people's precious gameplay time and effort. It makes me angry, loving this game so much and just encountering bummer after bummer.

[Jaq]

I'm not sure what you're talking about. The Volcano T4s do more damage than Berserkers and gain more armor per point of grit, but start with less health and gain less per vitality point. That's the tradeoff.

The Mercenary Caravans are a travesty that should never have returned. At least they're no longer handing out legendary weapons like candy. But yes, their existence negates the point of most travel and exploration, other than grabbing some better weapon options and a teensy-tiny bit better T4 armorer. The caravans should not exist, along with that guaranteed Berserker spawn all by itself right next to the teleportation obelisk. Bad design decisions.

[Scar]

Originally posted by Jaq:

I'm not sure what you're talking about. The Volcano T4s do more damage than Berserkers and gain more armor per point of grit, but start with less health and gain less per vitality point. That's the tradeoff.

Everybody knows that cimmerians are the best in the game for strength and RHTS for agility everything else is bland, I mean I just wish cimmerians had more diversity in skin colour like 90% of them appear black or w.e....... and with Funcom buffing the cimmerians to be monsters it's a lot harder to solo them alone.

[Jaq]

RHTS have been pretty useless for awhile. 1 out of 4 could be good archers, but their chance of improving agility is so low and it's such a pain sorting the good RHTS from the bad ones that it's not worth the trouble. Just grab guaranteed Du'nemans until you get one with 100% agility gain and they'll end up doing more damage at max level, and be faster to level for that matter.

The best agility melee right now might be the Black Dragon Master Archer, who you can release as a captive from purges. But there's no point to agility melee thralls when one handed maces get privileged attacks that can't be interrupted. And the Black Dragon Master Archer is garbage at archery.

Follower NPCs need a long re-evaluation by the devs.

[Boulderkin]

Originally posted by Jaq:

I'm not sure what you're talking about. The Volcano T4s do more damage than Berserkers and gain more armor per point of grit, but start with less health and gain less per vitality point. That's the tradeoff.

The Mercenary Caravans are a travesty that should never have returned. At least they're no longer handing out legendary weapons like candy. But yes, their existence negates the point of most travel and exploration, other than grabbing some better weapon options and a teensy-tiny bit better T4 armorer. The caravans should not exist, along with that guaranteed Berserker spawn all by itself right next to the teleportation obelisk. Bad design decisions.

They might do a little more damage, but what good is damage when you are dead, the volcano thralls have laughable health, again, any of my lvl 20 berserkers would easily defeat any of the 4 volcano thralls, it is a waste of resources, time an sanity, they just plainly suck.

[Jaq]

I don't want to over-emphasize this, because we're probably on the cusp of a follower re-balance that could change everything anyway, but right now the Volcano Boys do about 12% more damage than Dalinsia & The Berserkers. And while it's fair to describe 12% as only "a little more," another way to look at it is if there was a heavy armor piece that granted a +20% strength damage bonus instead of just +8%, people would be losing their minds trying to acquire it. To put it another way: A level 20 Dalinsia who has gained 35 points of strength above what she started with still won't do as much damage as a level 0 Volcano Boy. These guys are the DPS champions.

The tradeoff is health. If both gain 30 points of vitality in the course of reaching level 20, a Berserker will end up with 3616 health while a Volcano Boy gets 2836. A 780 health difference is significant. But consider that, once you have them well-armored, there's really only 3 things that can kill these guys: The Arena Champion, the Rocknose King world bosses, and swarms of NPCs stunlocking them. For the first two, the Berserker's health advantage isn't going to make a difference, he's still going to die if you decide to play pokemon master and sit out the fight. Whereas the NPC swarm is mostly a matter of your own negligence. That's mainly what you're getting from the Berserker, a buffer against your own mistakes. If you're not making mistakes, the volcano guys are better in most fights.

But if you want a tankier thrall that still does damage, what you really want is a Black Dragon Master Archer. They'll do about the same melee damage as a Berserker but have 1000 more health at level 20 if we use +30 vitality as a reasonable goal. But getting a BDMA is a big long grind through purges for a low chance RNG captive, whereas getting a Berserker is about as difficult as using a McDonald's drive-thru. It's just a question of whether there's already a line waiting ahead of you when you go to order your Berserker combo meal with a side of star metal bars (from dismantling his starter gear) at the usual spawn point.

[BudSwift]

The main issue that happens with games like this is the devs cannot or will not separate things eg nerf on pvp and its nerfed on pve. hence why they prob added the thrall bring back to life option.

[Boulderkin]

Originally posted by Jaq:

I don't want to over-emphasize this, because we're probably on the cusp of a follower re-balance that could change everything anyway, but right now the Volcano Boys do about 12% more damage than Dalinsia & The Berserkers. And while it's fair to describe 12% as only "a little more," another way to look at it is if there was a heavy armor piece that granted a +20% strength damage bonus instead of just +8%, people would be losing their minds trying to acquire it. To put it another way: A level 20 Dalinsia who has gained 35 points of strength above what she started with still won't do as much damage as a level 0 Volcano Boy. These guys are the DPS champions.

The tradeoff is health. If both gain 30 points of vitality in the course of reaching level 20, a Berserker will end up with 3616 health while a Volcano Boy gets 2836. A 780 health difference is significant. But consider that, once you have them well-armored, there's really only 3 things that can kill these guys: The Arena Champion, the Rocknose King world bosses, and swarms of NPCs stunlocking them. For the first two, the Berserker's health advantage isn't going to make a difference, he's still going to die if you decide to play pokemon master and sit out the fight. Whereas the NPC swarm is mostly a matter of your own negligence. That's mainly what you're getting from the Berserker, a buffer against your own mistakes. If you're not making mistakes, the volcano guys are better in most fights.

But if you want a tankier thrall that still does damage, what you really want is a Black Dragon Master Archer. They'll do about the same melee damage as a Berserker but have 1000 more health at level 20 if we use +30 vitality as a reasonable goal. But getting a BDMA is a big long grind through purges for a low chance RNG captive, whereas getting a Berserker is about as difficult as using a McDonald's drive-thru. It's just a question of whether there's already a line waiting ahead of you when you go to order your Berserker combo meal with a side of star metal bars (from dismantling his starter gear) at the usual spawn point.

The comment was about how volcano thralls do not cut it agains Berserkers and Dalinisias, not what thrall you dream you can have through a long grind of high lvl purges... well of course purge thralls are stronger, duh. The point is, you can't just walk in the volcano, it takes long preparation gear/consumables wise just to thread through the place. Just on account of that, the thralls should be better in every way. Again, what good is damage when you are dead; I'll take 4600 HP over 12% damage any day, couple of combos from the Arena Champion and you damage is null.

By the way, I find your Mc Donald's sarcasm offensive, as if berserkers and Dalinisias were french fries... they are not; they are the fine cuisine of the regular game sans the purges, regardless of the dedicated spawn of the beserkers. Dalinisia is not easy to find, and try getting one with high strength percentage for growth, you are in for a grind. Your condescendence is simply out of context.

[AncientGhostGuerrilla]

Originally posted by BigBombz:

Volcano thralls used to be the best of the best when the volcano area was added to the map. Everybody used them, and then Funcom nerfed them to the ground, because that's what they do. They introduce something new and overpowered to get everyone excited, and then they nerf it to make room for something else.

Don't feel bad. I crossed over from Play Station to Steam 2 years back during the second release of the Sorcery installment. I had read the updates of the Devs for the upcoming DLCs, and they admitted that they removed or debuffed a lot of Tier 4 or named NPC's because. Well why else would they make any alterations in the first place? Because someone's important yet bratty child and their Friend of Developers Parents, whined and complained that it wasn't fair to have nerfed Thralls, so they scaled them all down and even totally removed a few of them from the game.

Not to mention that they also modified a lot of mechanics that were much needed and others that were totally excessive and useless. For instance, they improved the climbing system that was broken since release. For 5 plus years whenever you climbed a cliff side or reached the top of any building, you had to double jump to stand on the top. You could never just climb and your character pulls themselves up. Updates for years and patches galore and they just recently fixed that mechanic like 8 months ago. But then they introduced this pathetic Skill tree system where you have to complete each set of Alchemy, Smelting, Carpentry, ect tasks therein to get credit for it. Which is absolutely pointless in my eyes because you don't gain Attribute points when you complete them.
W+T+F is this even in the game anyway???

I even remember when you could knock out Thralls underneath Conan's bar in Sepameru, put a rope around them and drag them to the surface. And they were all T3 and T4 fighters and archers. They eliminated that ability.

They also eliminated being able to place a Wheel of Pain in the Witches Palace in the Jungle, knock her out, place her on the ♥♥♥, train/cook her and make her your thrall. And the funny part was that when you went back to West Sepameru, she'll still be in the cut scene in that house with the ajar door to explain how you can remove your bracelet.

There was a time when the Volcano, New Asgard, Mounds of the Dead, and Hanuman's Grotto had T4 Workers and Named thrall fighters and Archers. Now they're just low level Thralls.

The saddest day in C.E. history was when they got rid of the Daughter of Ymir. She only exists in the Admin panel now...

[Boulderkin]

Originally posted by Holt:

Originally posted by BigBombz:

Volcano thralls used to be the best of the best when the volcano area was added to the map. Everybody used them, and then Funcom nerfed them to the ground, because that's what they do. They introduce something new and overpowered to get everyone excited, and then they nerf it to make room for something else.

I feel robbed of my playtime, aaaall that preparation just to run Skelos? Why would you spend time there? This game could so easily fix many things that just disrespect people's precious gameplay time and effort. It makes me angry, loving this game so much and just encountering bummer after bummer.

Ever heard of the Blade of the Adventurer? That's why,

[Reeva!]

This is why we love mods. Mods are magic for terrible design choices.

[Boulderkin]

Originally posted by Reeva!:

This is why we love mods. Mods are magic for terrible design choices.

Hi =] I am kinda mod-shy since they have ruined some games for me gameplay-wise, such as s+ for ARK evolved, it's cheating in a way that makes the game... well, bleh; that's why now I only use cosmetic mods, nothing that changes the core game as such. Are there some mods I should be looking at to "correct" the infamous design flaws without making it easier? Rather, without cheating yourself from experiencing the game as it was conceived?

[BondageSpider]

Keep in mind also that much of the Volcano approach (from Hidden Way) used to be a non-hostile area, where you could capture enemies easily by ambush if you were quick enough.

I'm not sure when or why they changed it to them attacking on sight, or even if that change was intentional? It might be a good change, considering how easy it was to catch them.

[Sublime Entropy]

There is only one volcano thrall you need.

Syra Brennerhet, T4 Dancer

The rest can be turned into rugs and alter fodder.