I’ve enjoyed the “Mission Table” since it was introduced. I liked the idea of having my own little personal army going out into the world and taking down threats even when I’m asleep. Getting them levels and gear, and having them bring back little rewards was always a fun minigame for me.
I DESPISE the Command Table in Shadowlands.
First off, I’m Kyrian, which may have the most utterly useless Companions and Troops of any faction. It’s amazing how utterly worthless their abilities are, with very little healing and zero utility.
Second, the whole thing is dramatically underexplained. With previous Command Tables it was very clear what you needed to do to win, and how team composition and gear were going to affect the outcome. The new table gives almost NO feedback when setting up; it’s difficult to tell who is going to attack whom and how enemy abilities are going to affect my team.
Third, the levels of the missions and my companions seem to mean NOTHING at all. There are missions that are 10 levels under my level 31 companions and troops that are mathematically impossible for them to complete! There doesn’t seem to be any gear to help make my companions stronger.
Fourth, the rewards from it are utterly lacking for how much Anima the missions cost. Anima is precious, difficult to get, and used in MASSIVE quantities by almost every other system in the faction home! I spent 50 Anima on one of those adventures that give a bag of crafting goods and got 5 Seraphic Wings. Yep, not doing those anymore.
In summary:
One faction has amazing companions and troops (cough Night Fae) while the rest are useless, the missions themselves make no sense, the levels mean nothing, I can’t upgrade my companions, and the rewards are terrible.
I don’t understand how something that worked SO WELL was turned into something so terrible.
I’d be fine if they scrapped the system altogether. I only do it because it’s right there and it takes a couple seconds to send them on a mission. I don’t exactly enjoy it. It’s just a thing that exists.
to date, I haven’t messed with the tables at all. Never liked the concept of them but that’s just my input it seems they can never get it but they continue to drop it in.
Like pineapple on pizza, nobody likes it, but it’s there as an option, bless their souls for trying.
I get a an Eternal Crystal from the Enchanting cache. That’s 2-5k gold depending on the server. Absolutely worth. The meat/fish ones are also great because that just means easy materials for me to cook up and sell on the AH.
It’s so much better than the WoD/Legion/BFA one. Love it so much more and I enjoy the progression missions to increase the value/difficulty of the table missions.
It’s also optional at this point, so I don’t even need to do it if I don’t want to.
I don’t want to think about how much Anima I’ve spent on EXP and other missions to get my companions high enough to do the Soul Ash quest that’s, what, an extra like 8% Soul Ash for the week? And to find that even though I have a full set of companions in the 30s, including a tank and healer, I still haven’t tried the post-nerf lv 20 Soul Ash mission because it doesn’t look like I’ll win. Even discounting the weather effect, the sheer HP on those guys and their damage reduction/boosting and “dmg to all enemies” look so OP compared to my companions that, oh, heal for 24 every 4 turns or do an extra 40 damage or whatever to an enemy every once in a while.
It’s brutal. But at least the enchanting cache one is nice for gold.
I like and enjoy these too… I would like more interaction between table missions and scenarios or objectives my character can do… i.e send followers off on mission to unlock a dungeon\quest that my character can then go and complete.
I also agree SL was terribly designed and poorly explained.
-The trick is to not do the progression currency missions until your followers have leveled up… and to focus doing the XP reward missions.
-There was a trick to intentionally keep followers at level 1 to lower the average ilvl of followers and fill with followers but I think they have now fixed that and you can level all followers.
I am necrolord and my guys are getting close to level 30. all 6 of them lol. I have enjoyed it so far. positioning is everything. you got to pay attention to the enemy tool tips and position your army as best as possible with the skills you have. Its like chess but with an expensive anima investment to play. Some of the rewards are great and in general, The table usually pays for itself in anima if you can muscle down the anima reward ones with just 1 champ and a unit.
I feel i gain so much more passively than I invest into it so its a keeper for me.
I actually like this version better because I love to watch the combat replay. As Kyrian, winning is about using overwhelming force and those level numbers on the missions don’t mean much.
There definitely could be improvements such as better explanations for it though.
I’ve always liked the mission table and I think this has the potential to be a great version of it, but it needs more clarity on who is going to attack who like you said in the original post.
Oh man, Kyrian here and the worst is Larion girl. She won’t attack in melee, she won’t attack at ranged. Through some voodoo I have set the team up twice to see her be willing to attack, but I have no idea what could have possibly caused it. Maybe she is just hot for Kleia and will try harder if they are touching…? It’s a mystery.
I like the new command table. Before there was just a checklist to fill out and that was it. Now I’m looking at what the enemy does, where to place my tank, do I need more single target or wave clears. And it isn’t complex to figure out who attacks who, enemy says they attack the farthest unit, it probs won’t be the unit you put in center melee. Also when placing your units they have arrows showing what they will attack.
