A major roadblock that is fueling this bottleneck is the need to create locker toons capable of competing at mordris and necro, so that we can gear our mains. This means that we are forced to choose between using yellow crowns on level 200 rangers, to win locks, or level 220+ rangers to succeed on proteus and gelebron (and, often to appease mains so they don't rage quit). Not every server has this issue I'm aware, but many do. Implementing buy-able weapons that aren't better than EDL, but good enough to use on lockers, would help. Anything that doesn't give divine damage simply won't be viable, so raid weapons with divine strike proc is something to at least consider. The major problem here is in the lock/boss dynamics itself, divine damage is too vital at endgame and you can't win locks over groups that have DL/EDL weapons. This system supports clans that are established, have been farming for years, and are high in numbers. The only 3 solutions are:Not a big fan of the buying idea. I am a firm believer that the best gear should be earned from bosses, something that hasn't been implemented, crafting or some other alternative that requires time and effort. If there weren't the option to buy in game gold with money I would be all for being able to buy gear as its a bit of a grind for players to get gold.My question is this -
Does anyone still camp Stonefang? We certainly did at one point. How long is the respawn?
Why can't frozen work the exact same way as any meteoric boss? We stopped farming meteoric years ago. Logically, we should be in a similar position by now with, at the very least, frozen. The only difference that I can tell is respawn times. Reduce them. Or should we increase the respawn timer on meteoric/warden bosses because those are too easy?
Additionally, 180 5 star needs to drop crowns just as often as 215 5 star drops runes. Eggs urns and gems need to be removed from 180 loot table. And 215 6 star needs a guaranteed rune, just as snorri is a guaranteed crown.
I also still believe an additional guaranteed crown-dropping boss with shorter respawn times would be the most productive solution, as well as increasing 5 and 6 star spawn rates. This is very important.
OR
Create new game dynamics that don't rely so heavily on players being geared with DL/EDL weapons.
New buy-able alternatives, such as lux weapons and armor that grant divine damage. Raid loot which includes weapons that have a Divine Strike proc chance. Not necessarily better than quest armor and weapons, but viable enough that you can gear lockers and compete with dominant clans that way.
OR
Make the quest armor and weapons tradeable so we can get them off at least some of the 100+ inactive toons in every server.
Making the quest armor and weapons tradeable is something I am a little on the fence about. I think it would be more beneficial if players could break down their old armors from the quest line as LadyNymeria suggested. Not a bad idea by any means but I feel like this could cause some problems.
The fix for frozen is a good idea, its a very outdated armor quest in terms of when it was put in and it makes sense. Only problem I see with this is it brings the bottleneck from frozen to dl and makes the dl bottleneck even worse. Though I don't think that spawn times are the big issue causing the bottleneck it's still a factor that if changed can help relieve the problem.
I definitely agree that increasing spawn rates for 5 and 6 stars should be looked at and additionally fixing the drop rates for them. The bottleneck, in my eyes, started because of class specific drops and expanded with the increase of players.
A) redo the entire lock system and divine damage fluctuation
B) create alternative ways to obtain divine damage, through raid boss drops or lux vendors
C) make DL/EDL weapons much easier to obtain by implementing the feedback mentioned in this topic
I agree with LadyNymeria as well. In fact, I like everyone's ideas. The point is clear being that something needs to change so that everyone can start enjoying more endgame content.