New World Brimstone Sands Impressions (Part 2: The Ennead Expedition)

For my other impressions of Brimstone Sands

• Part 1: Quests   

Part 2: The Ennead Expedition - read on!

 With Brimstone Sands comes the new The Ennead Expedition and with it, in my opinion, the most challenging mechanical boss fight in the game.  The rest of the expedition is great as well and it doesn't overstay its welcome (...unless you struggle with the mechanically challenging boss fight).  Here are my thoughts as a 620+ gear score tank taking on the regular version.

 The Ennead is themed as an ancient pyramid and features a number of the new enemy types from the Brimstone Sands zone.  While not as visually stunning as Tempest Heart it is still a good looking expedition.  There is a mix of corruption along with the ancient theme and lasers, lots and lots of lasers!  Slight spoiler, but at the end of the expedition there is a neat little console you can activate for a quest line that calls in the trademark upside down pyramid top that is heavily featured in the Brimstone Sands area.

 As far as fights go there is not a ton of trash to work through.  There is one part that is maze-lite but nothing too challenging to work through.  There are floating guards that go through the expedition laser zapping anyone that stands in their sphere of influence. The guards are invincible so you do not fight them.  They keep players on their toes.

 When it comes to bosses there is some pretty tough mini-bosses throughout the dungeon.  They are mostly tank and spank but all seem to come with a group of adds and ranged minions.  The first major boss is a giant scarab in a room full of lasers and the scarab features its own giant laser beam.  While the scarab has an array of attacks and some positioning by the tank can help avoid group wipes it is a straight forward fight.

 The next boss, General Crassus, is fun filled mayhem.  The fight features a lot of continuously spawning adds and progresses through three phases.  The last phase is where it gets interesting with two hard charging cyclops, of course with laser beams shooting of their eyes, and its a race to either DPS the main boss down or take the cyclops down and then the boss. 

 The last set of bosses in the dungeon are sure to make plenty of players mad.  The last fight is a pure mechanics fight.  Players have to know what they are doing and when to do it in order to succeed.  My first run took us two hours to get it down and I've had multiple more that just can't get past the hump of the final fight.  It is a very challenging fight and I can't imagine how players are doing it on higher mutations; it is rough even as a 620+ gear score tank on regular! It's a fun fight to figure out and a sense of accomplishment once done!

 The only real issue I have The Ennead is that the last fight is hard and that sets it apart from other expeditions.  While there is the reward of earning a unique heartgem, Detonate, from the final bosses the rest of the rewards are your lock and stock expedition rewards: shards, materia, and some named items.  Unfortunately since other expeditions are far simpler and faster to run I do worry we will see a limited number of players wanting to run The Ennead in the future. It feels like some of the other new items with Brimstone Sands could of been added to this more challenging expedition such as glyphs for runeglass gem crafting.

 Over all I really like the new expedition and it was good to be challenged again.  I like the mechanically challenging fights but do think they will keep other players out since "quick run" can turn into a slog or a wall at the last fight.  I won't be running this one nearly as much as I've run the other expeditions, but feel like the challenge is worth the time spent even if rewards are the same as other expeditions.

 Have you got your butt handed to you in the last set of bosses in The Ennead? Share a comment!

 

New World Brimstone Sands Impressions (Part 1: Quests)

  I wanted to start sharing my thoughts on the Brimstone Sands release for New World.  This was a huge release that brought the new Brimstone Sands zone, a new expedition, major updates to the early game leveling progression, and multiple other changes to the game.  I will be breaking up my impressions into multiple parts over the next few days.  I wanted to start off by sharing my impressions on the quests in the new zone.

 Before the release I was nervous I may find myself uninterested in doing the quests in the new zone.  Since my character is max level I have no need for experience.  I have not done many quests in the game because I am holding out hope that at some point they add an aptitude system for experience gained after max level.  So I set off and did the zone unlock quest which I thought was a neat way for players to progress into the zone instead of being able to just charge in.

 My concern about not wanting to do the quests was put to rest when I got a look at the quest rewards.  Yes, they still grant experience that goes to waste, but all of the quests in Brimstone Sands are LOADED with other rewards.  There are numerous legendary weapon rewards, and not just mediocre weapons, but actual weapons I have and will use.  On top of that quests also grant gypsum orbs, umbral shards, and numerous end game crafting materials.  Bottom line: I felt rewarded for doing the quests and a little bummed I've finished the majority of them!

Legendary weapon as a quest reward!?

 

 The quests also lead players to the new heartgem runes which are like ultimate abilities you can use.  I'll have more thoughts on heartgem runes in a future post, but using quests to introduce new features is the right way to go.  Quests also introduce players to the glyph system unique to the Brimstone Sands zone.  While I have not gotten all of the glyphs it was fun being sent around the zone to unlock glyphs which in turn let you unlock more aspects of the zone (for example you can open new doors once you have learned the glyphs for them).

 Also the glyph quests were used to help me learn about different mechanics in the zone. For example a quest had me try and unlock a glyph in a pool of acid so that I would learn how to use acid tinctures to avoid death while standing in the acid pool (note: I may not have paid attention to this detail so paid for it in repair costs to my gear after multiple failed attempts...).

 The quests themselves are also greatly improved compared to the "kill 10 rats" or "loot 10 crates" quests of the original zones.  One of the most memorable quests features a jumping puzzle and some uniquely placed goats that I am sure I will fondly remember years from now (not really, fuck the goats).  There was also a lengthy puzzle quest involving portals that I had to just cheat and look up online.  And my favorite was the quest line that lead to an instanced solo boss encounter with a fight that was actually challenging as a solo player.  I really hope they add more of these instanced solo boss fights.

 My comments are also just touching on the quests in the new end game Brimstone Sands update.  There is also plenty of freshness to the quests in the revamped new player leveling experience from 1-25.  I have not done much of it but the quests I have done have the same level of polish and uniqueness as the ones in Brimstone Sands.

 The new approach to quests and how the Brimstone Sands zone was set up with things like glyphs really gives me hope for the future. If the developers keep looking at ways for us to progress horizontally and not just vertically this is a winner for me.  I really enjoy this approach to MMOs and it was immediately familiar to me as a long time Guild Wars 2 player.  I had so much to do on day one and still have so much more to now progress and while I am taking it bit by bit I don't feel in any regard I am behind other players as far as power level. 

 Part 1: Quests = 10/10!

 What are your thoughts?  Leave a comment.