Has anyone enjoyed Delves so far? They seem like exactly what I thought they would be, unfortunately. It’s like… slightly better Island Expeditions, slightly better/worse than Torghast?
I can’t imagine any player just farming them. I feel like even for the most casual-casuals they would be boring? I will be shocked if I’m suddenly having a blast when the difficulty rises, idk. “Carry a weird item so you don’t get a debuff, kill mobs, fight a boss” and then it’s just standard leveling-mob gameplay… :\ Reminds me of Island Expeditions where the idea of procedurally generated content was fantastic, but then in practice they basically just changed the mob types and everything was just “kill mobs until you’re done.”
I feel like if they want to make this kind of thing work they need to put a LOT more work into it and have way more focus on little stories or mysteries or puzzles to solve. At this point I would say I enjoyed Torghast, Nazjatar, and even the weird Key Tower puzzle hamster wheel island during mid-patch in DF more than I have enjoyed Delves so far. For a system that’s supposed to be a pillar, they’re very underwhelming.
If it wasn’t delves I’d be searching for some other way to challenge myself outside of group play. If I get bored, I’m sure there are half a dozen other ways to do so.
I am glad there is a way to progress in the delves at least, so I’m not removing gear or some other such shenanigans. I hope the devs do decide to expand on delves in the future.
Yes its hard to gauge them fully because we are not at season yet but my impressions curious what others think.
The good -
the rotating paths through the delves daily, never the same path day in and day out
Brann (to some degree)
Brann is cool, his abilities for both dps and healer are pretty neat (im a fan of the devilsaurs personally) and the relic system you can equip him with to figure out whats best or suits you
the music and art is great
The bad -
Brann
his AI and pathing isnt good at all, while the fix is appreciate where you can get him unstuck the start or check points, Brann bouncing all over pulling random things, doesnt FD with the hunter, his placement of relic buffs is questionable (haste buff one) he needs help
Relics (Curios)
while this is a pretty cool system, some of his curios seem kind of useless, other ones were nerfed ahead of the season, and the upgrades for the curios seem to be tied to bountiful delves and or higher tier delves? Would really like to see these flushed out more.
delve buffs (from Rares, chests, and other misc items)
dunno where to begin here, jump pad mushroom (double jump heal) is a terrible heal that sometime sends you backwards, the shredder buff spawns on the player character which for classes like hunters isnt really great as youll get a spawn randomly that doesnt do anything, the potion buffs i dont really understand, nor the shield, the only buff that seems useful sofar is renos bag of random stuff.
Delve stories
the issue here really is there isnt a way to track what stories for delves are up for the achievement, which short of running every delve daily, would almost like to see a way to track this after doing each delve once.
Brann experience (Capping Brann at 15 later 60)
currently once you cap brann any additional experience from things like mislaid curios just disappears, its not converted into anything there isnt a replacement, would be cool to see something here for those who are capped now at 15 and later 60 that converts the experience into what ever currency is for the delve vendor or something else so it doesnt feel as empty.
And M+ and raiding aren’t? Raids are set in stone, one you do Mythic, nothing changes. Its the same everytime. M+ is the same everytime but once a week the modifiers change. It’s par for the course for an Endgame Pillar, except that it is able to be done solo.
That said, I do enjoy them. It gives me a chance to do something without having to rely on someone else. The higher difficulties will be a nice addition when they arrive for the increased loot. Luckily, if someone doesn’t like it, it’s not necessary.
I think the base gameplay of Raids and Mythic+ far exceeds Delves. The fact that Delves rotate more often does almost nothing because the actual stuff you’re doing is way more boring than Raids or Dungeons.
I do agree that the idea of giving you something to do solo is good, I want it to work. It just isn’t working for me so far though.
Torghast was a chore, it was boring and felt awful if you werent a class with broken abilities
Delves arent even fully accessible yet until the season starts, and while i already provided my early feedback, until we have access to the entire system including the seasonal affix, id rather reserve anything else till then.
By far delves have so much more potential than other systems like torghast. While some of the issues to call them out on are fair like Brann AI why judge something when you dont even have the full picture
I enjoy them, I wish there were more bosses, I mean I have only seen one in each delve, but still. They are fun and can be made even better.
edit: Plus good experience, and you find decent gear sometimes. All and all a fun thing they should and probably will keep expanding upon this expac. It makes sense for where we are at.
Brann was actually helpful to me. When I did the 1 today, I got distracted and had to leave for what I thought was a couple minutes but ended up longer.
Either way, I positioned my toon in a spot that I thought was safe but it wasn’t so when I came back, she’d lost a lot of life.
Brann had been attacking the mob, keeping my toon alive and then I joined in and it went down easy enough.
Then he sets a fire and says I have to heal.
That’s pretty sensitive AI. I didn’t have Brann set to healing either, just dps like me.
If I FD he doesnt feign which can be a problem, as certain delves you can skip a lot but him not feigning prevents that
He will randomly be out no where just doing his own thing
His steel trap placement is either on point or ???
Devilsaur is atleast consistent
Yeah I keep Brann on dps for now aswell. The issue with his AI is more that he likes to randomly pull everything (because Lleroy Jenkins?) Or he’ll pop his “Ult” on the last tiny mob.
I think a pet bar for Brann would go a long way.
Overall, his AI is fantastic, it just needs some small tweaks. I have no major problems with him. Just the two small ones I mentioned.
Love Delves! They’re so much fun, and there are so many ways they can be expanded and improved. I’ve put together a post with some ideas for how we can build on the concept even more. If you like the suggestions, please drop a like on the post! And if you think I’ve missed something, feel free to leave a reply with your ideas.
Now, to address a key point: The suggestions in my post aren’t about changing dungeons, raids, M+, or any core group content. This is about improving Delves specifically and adding more repeatable solo content for players to enjoy after the main quest line is complete. We’re not trying to replace the main storyline with a solo experience or change the group content that so many people love. These additions would offer more ways for players to engage with the game at their own pace, without affecting the group activities that others cherish.
I did the first one. It was a lot of fun, I hope they keep them around. Clearly they have come to realize that not all of us can do group activity but we still love to play the game.