This evening we threw together a random group of folks from /advice and gave this Adventure a shot. Most of us assumed that since there were dungeons, raids, etc. that Adventures were a sort of mini-dungeon esque thing. We were in for quite the surprise.

Group composition:

Spellslinger - DPS

Spellslinger - DPS

Medic - DPS

Esper - Healer

Stalker - Tank

We were all around 15/16 with one member (the Esper iirc was 17) being above that. Anyone that ran with us feel free to correct me here.

Part One - The Snipers

Easy and straightforward mechanic to learn. Relatively amusing to watch people get one shot until they figured it out. Neat way to start things off.

Part Two - Cold Storage

We all chose the very bottom option the whole way through, except the last option - but I'll get to that in a moment. Cold Storage ended up being a kill all these mobs as they rapidly spawn at you. This seemed to be the theme of the entire dungeon. As we started to make our way through the prison trying to figure out where to go while killing the relentless amount of adds thrown our way, we ended up losing people to the trash after several minutes of combat. We then realized that dying was the fastest way to get to the area we wanted to be, thus the rest of us committed suicide. We started the event and were rapidly overwhelmed by the incredibly dense amount of telegraphs being thrown at us from both sides. We eventually managed to zerg our way through it, but by no means were we terribly organized. After the 'trash' bit of the area the boss spawned. He seemed relatively straightforward, except for the storm mechanic he used, which it didn't seem to matter if you were in the telegraph or not, you would get interrupted and knocked back. We managed to brute force our way through it, but we lost the tank and the healer toward the end of the fight.

Part Three - The Mainframe

We then chose to go to the mainframe, again stumbling around the prison until someone died, then realized that dying and respawning was the most efficient way to get to the next area. As our group dropped into the room all of our FPS dropped significantly - 3/5 members were reporting single digit FPS. I was sitting around 20, but for the rest of the dungeon I was running around 40. Definitely something to look into. As most of our members could barely see, let alone dodge the telegraphs we ended up wiping fairly rapidly on the mission and then respawned at the final portion of the dungeon.

Part Four - Quelling the Riot

We all spawned just to the outside and proceeded to save the various guards that were in distress, all the while dodging the various telegraphs that spawned around us. Once that was completed we were then told to kill the final boss. He was fairly straightforward with 2 interrupt armor, big telegraphs and adds spawning all over the place causing complete chaos. Walking into the fight we didn't know much of what was going on, and proceeded to wipe on him after ~6 minutes of fighting. After regrouping, we worked out how we should interrupt him a bit better and went at it again, this time to much better results. We timed a few of our interrupts and stuns perfectly and got a few good interrupts that made the fight got a bit easier on our tank and healer. I focused a lot on the adds, attempting to keep them off the healer which seemed to work for the most part. We did end up losing the tank and the healer at the very end of the fight (read: less than 1k hp). After ~10 minutes or so of fighting we dropped him and got our auto loot and exp drop.

Part Five - The Aftermath

After saying goodbye to the group and taking the portal my character became stuck at the loading screen sitting at 100%. Unfortunately this is where I am now, so I can't give any feedback on what loot I got.

Overall Observations

The challenge is good, and with a more organized group this could be a lot of fun. For a PUG though with no real experience in the place it was very frustrating for a time until we figured out that the quickest way to move through the place was to die and respawn. For beta testing this is fine, but I would not like to see this mechanic continue to live. It shouldn't be that easy, and dying shouldn't be the answer. Additionally I was personally rather frustrated with the lack of indications that the mobs would continuously spawn until we reached the next objective. Had our group known that from the start we would have made a far more concerted attempt to push toward the objective instead of just killing the mobs constantly until we fell over. The XP reward was decent from what I remember, almost to 17 now because of the entire thing, and I'm not sure if the quest completed itself or not as I may get even more for finishing that up. I don't remember what other rewards we got loot wise, but I do remember getting a few achievements while in the place.

Overall Grade: C - Incredibly challenging from a PUG perspective, but totally doable. More direction is needed to help understand the objectives better on a basic level, but with a few runs it should be understandable. I can see this adventure causing many groups a lot of frustration in its current incarnation. I suggest tuning down the number of mobs that spawn constantly so players have a chance to move about the station at the very least. Its hard enough to figure out where you're going without being constantly beat up by 5+ mobs.

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Greetings everyone! I was the Mechari Stalker (Tank) in this adventure and I figured I'd give a few points from my perspective as well. Now, this isn't my first MMORPG for tanking by any means, but I really felt like I was doing a terrible job in certain portions of the instance.

Part 1 - Entry

The beginning was simple, easily understood, and I liked the reports of how my teammate got headsh0tted by various sentinel snipers. It made me giggle. I really like how you set it up so one player can't run completely ahead and pull. Those checkpoints will definitely make gameplay more enjoyable for the group at large.

Part 2 - Cold Storage

We ran out of the warden's area guns blazing. Morale was high, and I thought we were doing lovely. We cut through our first few enemies and were moving into the second chamber of the instance when BAM! Targets from behind. Killed them, neutralized, continue forward. We pulled 3-4 mobs, and mid-fight, BAM! More mobs from behind. It seemed like this was a constant flow of enemies towards us from behind. It really hurt, and with the constant pressure and amount of firepower concentrated at the front, I found myself flicking back and forth in vain attempts to try and control aggro. Alas, being the level I am, I don't really have too much in my repertoire of threat generating abilities to manage that. And with this in mind, even if I did, and even with the constant heals and support damage mitigation abilities from our Spellslingers and Medic, I was getting blasted with damage. We naturally all died and were teleported to the next objective upon respawn.

This part, we had waves coming at us from both sides and we really didn't know what to do. So many spells were being cast by the Espers, and although I tried to hop and stun/DPS down everything, I saw a suspicious amount of full heals they could get off in an instant with minimum spell casting. As I do not fully comprehend what the mechanic is here just yet, I'll chalk it up to me not quite getting how to deal with the enemy. So we eventually defeated the waves after a few deaths on our part, and moved onto the next area which was the boss.

Completely doable, easy. Only after a few blunders and mistakes, did we start to die. Not even once that whole fight were we able to get a proper stun on his channelling. But later on, we generate a fairly good strategy of committing to the rupture of Interrupt Armor on the final boss. I fall down and so does the healer, DPS manages to finish him off. Good job team.

Part 3 - The Mainframe

My FPS was at an all time low. The flashing strobelights and whatever else, I'm not quite sure but I was literally blinking through this part of the mission. We all got wiped and taken to the next portion of the map after we failed the hold out.

Part 4 - Quelling

We saved the guards, pretty easy stuff there. But after that objective, we ran towards our next objective and were again, being destroyed from both sides. The whole constant spawning of mobs from behind is just murder on us. We got teleported to the boss after the wipe and fought him. Alexai does a great job of explaining how it went. We got some interrupts off on our second run, and I dedicated myself completely to the adds instead of holding aggro on the boss. The medic did a great job of kiting the heck out of the boss, and we managed to pick up the kill just barely.

Overall!

I understand there are some mechanics like the wrenches on the weapon rack, and the stunning object, but it was hard to pick up first time through. It's certainly doable, I just find the constant spawn of enemies from behind us a bit ridiculous. If the map's red dots (enemies) were more accurate (didn't show dead people after they were... Well, you know, dead), I feel it'd be a bit more manageable.

With Alexai on this, I think it should be dumbed down since it is the first starting Adventure Instance and may in fact frustrate people. Add those mob spawns from behind in its heroic version of the Adventurer at endgame. Also, those flamethrower NPCs, overpowered! Give me a flamethrower.

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I disagree with you guys on the difficulty.

While it might be challenging now, think of how it will be in the future, when people really have a good understanding of the mechanics, tanking, healing, and overall gameplay. If it is easy now, it will be a total joke at that point, the fact that your pug group was able to make it through the adventure is what matters.

After all, its called an adventure, it is suppose to be confusing, hectic, random, and FUN!

Personally Riot in the Void has been the most fun I have had in this game so far!

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I think you misread a bit what I wrote. As a PUG it was difficult, but I never said it wasn't doable nor that it wasn't enjoyable. More so that a bit fine tuning was needed. Additionally, dying shouldn't be the quickest way to progress through the instance. On that piece of feedback you could infer that I'm asking to actually make things harder, not less so. At least that's how I view it.

My main concern is the FPS drops and constant mob spawning. As I pointed out, this is the first major piece of organized group content we find in the game. Setting player's expectations high is a good thing. Some direction would be appreciated though as we tended to stumble blindly through the instance until we died. With practice, this would be easier and much faster - and probably death free.

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I've noticed a few people posting about how they found this adventure to be a bit hard to figure out and haven't liked the fact that the Rioting Prisoners continue to spawn throughout the course of the instance. I think that these two things provide a really unique and exciting experience, especially during your first clear. The fact that the instance isn't linear makes it a lot more intriguing because you have to figure out things as you go. I think a lot of us have become used to instances being fairly linear, as in there is a fairly direct path from the start of the instance to the loot at the end. Riot in the Void provides the exact opposite experience because you're constantly checking your map to see where the next objective is, you're forced to collaborate with your group and make choices on which objectives you should go for and no two clears will be exactly the same. In the days of monotonous dungeon grinding I find this to be extremely interesting,refreshing, and most of all challenging.

On the point of the instance being challenging I also think that the "Gauntlet" of Rioting Prisoners also adds a unique experience to the Adventure. There isn't ever really a point where you're given more than a brief opportunity to get your bearings or to pause and wait. Similar to the mechanic with the Snipers at the beginning of the instance this is just one more thing you have to figure out and adapt to. If this Adventure is a taste of things to come with further Dungeons and Raids I think we will have a great and challenging game awaiting us.