Ashlands balance problems

[Reisst]

After two days into ashlands I'm positive it's the most unbalanced biome I've ever been in. These are the key factors that make ashlands extremely frustrarting:

1) Enemy spawn rate is insane. I find myself surrounded by enemies each time I exit the portal and by the time I kill them all there is the same amount of freshly spawned enemies ready to fight me;
2) Enemies have no major weaknesses. You would expect fire skeletons to be vulnerable to blunt, frost and spirit damage, right? Wrong. They are vulnerable only to spirit damage and neutral to both blunt and frost damage. There's no weapon in the game that deals lots of spirit damage. That means you have no effective way to deal with infinite hordes of skeletons;
3) You have no protection against the enemies. Flametal armor set gives you +40% fire damage resistance which is good, right? Wrong. Almost every enemy type deals physical damage. There's literally one enemy type that deals fire damage and it's the most peaceful creature in ashlands. Moreover, lava still kills you really fast even with +40% fire damage resistance;
4) Asksvin push power is just insane. You are guaranteed to be thrown into lava by one of those a-holes. Even if you parry the attack you are still pushed too far away to deal bonus damage. They are really fast too so good luck escaping;
5) Your buildings are nothing to ashlands creatures. Asksvin can destroy your portal with one hit and if it happens while you are teleporting out of ashlands... well, sucks to be you.

TLDR: too many enemies, no effective weapons, no effective protection, everyone can throw you into lava which means almost instant death, f*ck asksvin almighty push, your panic portals can't survive even one hit

[Mineralwasser]

Just adapt to the biome and give it some time and you will be fine. There are some lessons to be learned. I can say for myself that there are effective weapons and there is effective protection with the new gear. Maybe have a look into the new meta. Maybe build some thundering berserkir axes or the staff of the wild if you play mage

[Reisst]

Yeah, except you have to clear at least one fortress to create thundering berserkir axes. I mean I can make creatures neutral to get materials but that would be cheating. I also have lvl 3 flametal armor set and it doesn't feel effective. Guess I'll have to go full mage except I don't really enjoy playing as a mage which means I won't really enjoy playing in ashlands

[Soma]

Originally posted by Reisst:

After two days into ashlands I'm positive it's the most unbalanced biome I've ever been in. These are the key factors that make ashlands extremely frustrarting:

1) Enemy spawn rate is insane. I find myself surrounded by enemies each time I exit the portal and by the time I kill them all there is the same amount of freshly spawned enemies ready to fight me;
2) Enemies have no major weaknesses. You would expect fire skeletons to be vulnerable to blunt, frost and spirit damage, right? Wrong. They are vulnerable only to spirit damage and neutral to both blunt and frost damage. There's no weapon in the game that deals lots of spirit damage. That means you have no effective way to deal with infinite hordes of skeletons;
3) You have no protection against the enemies. Flametal armor set gives you +40% fire damage resistance which is good, right? Wrong. Almost every enemy type deals physical damage. There's literally one enemy type that deals fire damage and it's the most peaceful creature in ashlands. Moreover, lava still kills you really fast even with +40% fire damage resistance;
4) Asksvin push power is just insane. You are guaranteed to be thrown into lava by one of those a-holes. Even if you parry the attack you are still pushed too far away to deal bonus damage. They are really fast too so good luck escaping;
5) Your buildings are nothing to ashlands creatures. Asksvin can destroy your portal with one hit and if it happens while you are teleporting out of ashlands... well, sucks to be you.

TLDR: too many enemies, no effective weapons, no effective protection, everyone can throw you into lava which means almost instant death, f*ck asksvin almighty push, your panic portals can't survive even one hit

Devs are still working on balance. Not necesarily for dificulty. The majority of problems folks have with AL is not dificulty is is the tedious slog. Biomes were supposed to increase in dificulty, but the result was tedious slog. Not only is it not enjoyable for many the tedious slog method caused so many performance issues many did not even stick around long enough to make an informed decision. Especially multiplayer.

The good news is the changes are on the way and they will hopefully fix the broken parts. The current build is broken by rng and optimisation. Who knows devs might even change some stuff to get actualy dificult mechanics as opposed to performance hindering tedious slog. Crossing my fingers for actual dificulty!

I have no ide what slog means or if it is even a word...... it just felt right!

[Kackstift]

valheim ashlands is not balance for singleplayer anymore. Sure you can "finish" the game Solo but it is simply not fun to play..

lower the difficulty while playing Solo.. or live with it.

[Psalms]

All the problems you listed have solutions but I'm sure you don't want to hear that. I solo'd the Ashland's and enjoyed the challenge. You either have the skill or you don't.

[The Hand]

The real issue is the random lava blasts while your hopping those platforms that just launch you into the lava. That is some of the cheapest ♥♥♥♥ I have ever seen straight outta the NES days

[w.f.schepel]

Originally posted by Reisst:

After two days into ashlands I'm positive it's the most unbalanced biome I've ever been in. These are the key factors that make ashlands extremely frustrarting:

1) Enemy spawn rate is insane. I find myself surrounded by enemies each time I exit the portal and by the time I kill them all there is the same amount of freshly spawned enemies ready to fight me;
2) Enemies have no major weaknesses. You would expect fire skeletons to be vulnerable to blunt, frost and spirit damage, right? Wrong. They are vulnerable only to spirit damage and neutral to both blunt and frost damage. There's no weapon in the game that deals lots of spirit damage. That means you have no effective way to deal with infinite hordes of skeletons;
3) You have no protection against the enemies. Flametal armor set gives you +40% fire damage resistance which is good, right? Wrong. Almost every enemy type deals physical damage. There's literally one enemy type that deals fire damage and it's the most peaceful creature in ashlands. Moreover, lava still kills you really fast even with +40% fire damage resistance;
4) Asksvin push power is just insane. You are guaranteed to be thrown into lava by one of those a-holes. Even if you parry the attack you are still pushed too far away to deal bonus damage. They are really fast too so good luck escaping;
5) Your buildings are nothing to ashlands creatures. Asksvin can destroy your portal with one hit and if it happens while you are teleporting out of ashlands... well, sucks to be you.

TLDR: too many enemies, no effective weapons, no effective protection, everyone can throw you into lava which means almost instant death, f*ck asksvin almighty push, your panic portals can't survive even one hit

TLDR: you failed to use the right tools and blame the game.

[FreeMe]

As usual, the typical "git good commenters" are around. Just block them. Makes like more pleasurable.

OP, I agree with you. This biome is just annoying. It's not difficult, it's annoying. basalt bombs sinking after just 30 seconds, flame metal spires sinking within 30 seconds or so, grausten which can be found in lava not resisting lava when used as a material, lava killing you nigh instantly, nearly nothing being effective against the creeps, spawn rate, etc.

The only reason I'm still playing the biome and not restarting with mods that add new content is because my group wants to finish the biome. Were it not for them, I wouldn't even finish the ashlands. Worst biome to date.

[JimmyEatSquirrel]

Very experienced player here, all solo. Many areas of this game are a "slog" or a grind and that I do not mind. With some minor tweaks AL can be great. I started a new playthrough when AL dropped and noticed changes to spawn rates in many areas, particularly in the spawn rate of starred mobs. Before I rarely saw starred greydwarfs and skeles but now they are common on normal setting. Seems any enemy that has a high spawn rate also has a high starred spawn rate game wide when before that didn't seem to be the case. Makes sense but also makes AL hell with the damage the mobs do in numbers. At one point my AL shore base had three 2 star warriors just camping me and it took forever to get rid of them as they just destroyed everything in sight. I cant think of any point in the game where I ever had multiple 2 star mobs in one spot. Even in Mistlands the 2 star seeker was a rare sight.

Also for me the flametal spires need some tweaking. I was ok with the sinking, just don't have it sink on the first wack! I never had a leviathan sink on the first barnacle, ever.

And also AL is very noisy.. falling embers make trees fall and that causes more spawns and mobs making noise seem to just draw in more spawns. Some small tweaks could make this much more enjoyable and looking forward to the fixes.

I do give some credence to the "get gud" crowd as lots of YT videos I have seen are people who played through quickly to get to AL but lack combat skills and tactics that make things so much easier when mastered. ( parry/dodge roll etc) I will admit I am a little disappointed with AL and think I could have been fleshed out a bit better.

And whats with the factions? I was hearing that was going to be super important but I haven't seen any of that? Iron Gate definitely missed some opportunities here to make a more dynamic update but as of now it feels a little out of wack.

[ministrog]

Originally posted by Reisst:

After two days into ashlands I'm positive it's the most unbalanced biome I've ever been in. These are the key factors that make ashlands extremely frustrarting:

1) Enemy spawn rate is insane. I find myself surrounded by enemies each time I exit the portal and by the time I kill them all there is the same amount of freshly spawned enemies ready to fight me;
2) Enemies have no major weaknesses. You would expect fire skeletons to be vulnerable to blunt, frost and spirit damage, right? Wrong. They are vulnerable only to spirit damage and neutral to both blunt and frost damage. There's no weapon in the game that deals lots of spirit damage. That means you have no effective way to deal with infinite hordes of skeletons;
3) You have no protection against the enemies. Flametal armor set gives you +40% fire damage resistance which is good, right? Wrong. Almost every enemy type deals physical damage. There's literally one enemy type that deals fire damage and it's the most peaceful creature in ashlands. Moreover, lava still kills you really fast even with +40% fire damage resistance;
4) Asksvin push power is just insane. You are guaranteed to be thrown into lava by one of those a-holes. Even if you parry the attack you are still pushed too far away to deal bonus damage. They are really fast too so good luck escaping;
5) Your buildings are nothing to ashlands creatures. Asksvin can destroy your portal with one hit and if it happens while you are teleporting out of ashlands... well, sucks to be you.

TLDR: too many enemies, no effective weapons, no effective protection, everyone can throw you into lava which means almost instant death, f*ck asksvin almighty push, your panic portals can't survive even one hit

1- yep, we all felt it. we all seen it. best part about this situation, the dev's are doing something about it.

2- there's a spirit bow and silver arrow combo... but somehow i don't think that'll be enough damage in ashland. tbh, if you're going melee into ashland with mistland gear, you only really have limited choice. i went back to mistwalker with caraspace shield for long while. which as you know already, the charred warriors are a slog to beat down.

on the flipside, once you got the full ashland melee gear. things die within 3 hits if not 1.

3- yep again. i personally complained very early for melee to not have the ashen cloak (not askvin) be made out of ceramic plates rather than flametal. like seriously, it doesn't give melee that much more of gear progression. you'll still be 3 shot range. without it, most things stagger you within 2 hits if not first. add that on top of what you mentioned already and melee is just an unmitigated disaster like the point 1-

4- this one is all about spacial awareness. new biome means you gotta learn the new topography. it's pretty rough to be mindful on where these brutes come at you. i just imagine myself like a poolball and askvins the cueball.

5- yep i died to a valk that caught up to me. wiped me and the portal during the teleporting animation. good thing i got a backup and another unlinked back up offshore.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by Mineralwasser:

Just adapt to the biome and give it some time and you will be fine. There are some lessons to be learned. I can say for myself that there are effective weapons and there is effective protection with the new gear. Maybe have a look into the new meta. Maybe build some thundering berserkir axes or the staff of the wild if you play mage

I just made one of those axes, and, even with 20 axe skill, it's impressive! I might try another run as an axe main. Last time I tried it, I just couldn't go on with the slow axes early game, but knowing there's better at endgame could push me on.

Originally posted by Reisst:

I also have lvl 3 flametal armor set and it doesn't feel effective.

What? Full flametal armor, 3 health foods, and bonemass ability for emergencies, and you're pretty much indestructible as long as you stay out of the lava.

[Reisst]

Well now I can say that berserkir axes are really good. Almost too good. Mostly it's because they abuse the stun mechanics with those fast swings. Later I'm gonna build other flametal weapons just to see if any of those can be as effective as axes and if they can't it just means weapon balance isn't that great in ashlands

[Mineralwasser]

Originally posted by Reisst:

Well now I can say that berserkir axes are really good. Almost too good. Mostly it's because they abuse the stun mechanics with those fast swings. Later I'm gonna build other flametal weapons just to see if any of those can be as effective as axes and if they can't it just means weapon balance isn't that great in ashlands

Jeah, you could test everything and compare everything to each other. On the other hand. Maybe try to have some fun.

[hammerinn]

Originally posted by Mineralwasser:

Just adapt to the biome and give it some time and you will be fine. There are some lessons to be learned. I can say for myself that there are effective weapons and there is effective protection with the new gear. Maybe have a look into the new meta. Maybe build some thundering berserkir axes or the staff of the wild if you play mage

By all means, PLEASE post some axes solo gameplay I'd love to see you take on three asksvin, a couple archers and three warriors with a valkyrie hovering nearby.

[hammerinn]

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Originally posted by Mineralwasser:

Just adapt to the biome and give it some time and you will be fine. There are some lessons to be learned. I can say for myself that there are effective weapons and there is effective protection with the new gear. Maybe have a look into the new meta. Maybe build some thundering berserkir axes or the staff of the wild if you play mage

I just made one of those axes, and, even with 20 axe skill, it's impressive! I might try another run as an axe main. Last time I tried it, I just couldn't go on with the slow axes early game, but knowing there's better at endgame could push me on.

Originally posted by Reisst:

I also have lvl 3 flametal armor set and it doesn't feel effective.

What? Full flametal armor, 3 health foods, and bonemass ability for emergencies, and you're pretty much indestructible as long as you stay out of the lava.

Indestructible. Playing on easy settings?