Normally, limited time events are just about the top of my priority list, but DDO's Mabar Festival somehow failed to make the cut.
The Mabar event appears to be as much of a tech demo for instanced public group content as an actual event. Delara's Graveyard, which is ordinarily a public lobby devoid of anything hostile, is suddenly overrun by the undead. Non-aggro mobs of approximately your level spawn near you when you enter the zone during the event. They drop tokens which can be exchanged for loot. When enough tokens are handed over to the NPC's, players can participate in a public raid encounter for more tokens used to upgrade the loot.
On paper, it's nice enough, but the execution is a bit rough around the edges. As a low level player, it's easy to get yourself killed because either you accidentally hit something much tougher than you (low level skeletons and high level mummies don't look all that different in the dark) or because you wandered too close to something that someone else was fighting and got one-shotted by its AOE. Higher level characters earn "mote" currency more rapidly, and prices are set accordingly.
My guess is that this event is more fun as a max level character in a group. Given that I had neither, I gave the event a brief try and called it a night. For unknown reasons - perhaps related to server stability questions, as DDO has not previously had anything that puts this many players in a single combat zone - the event was very short, and ended before I got back to it. Oh well, maybe next year.
My guess is that this event is more fun as a max level character in a group.
ReplyDeleteNot really. Being high level meant that you had to kill more trash to get the "level appropriate" mobs to spawn. And, I found that being a group wasn't quite as good as being solo or in a very small group. You just had to be careful about what spawned in the area, since it was based on the level of the person who first approached the spawn location.
The main problem I saw was that this absolutely favored some classes over others. My Radiant Servant Cleric kicked ass and took names during the event. My Dark-focused Monk, not so much.... (Although the even reward handwraps helped even the score a bit.)
The drops also weren't very well balanced. Vampire Fangs, which one only needed 2 of in order to upgrade a single item at higher levels, dropped way too often. The special potion that allowed you to get motes from any undead enemy didn't work very well, as it seemed you needed to score the killing blow to get any rewards. I spent 500 motes on a potion and only got about 50 in return when I was hunting with a group in the Necro 4 Orchard of the Macabre with one character.
The event definitely needs some work, but it was fine for a solo character.
I wasn't too impressed by the event. It definitely wasn't nearly as much fun as the stuff in EQ II and LoTRO.
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