Path of Ascension Question for Blizzard

Question for Blizzard.

The Path of Ascension feels impossible. I know it’s actually doable, but does it have to be nigh on impossible? On the easiest difficulty it feels like you need a nearly perfect run to bring down these bosses. Why? What could possibly be the reason for this being so difficult? The bosses attacks go through everything can’t be LOS’d etc. Why? Is that intentional or just lazy programming?

I feel like the Path of Ascension is, for real, the worst aspect of the game so far. Even the ridiculous shape drawing for the turtles was at least DOable. (the other direction of ridiculous, easy and nonsense. Referring to the Caligraphy quests here)

To head off anyone who wants to jump in and talk about how EASY it is for them, cool I’m glad you’re awesome. Apparently I’m not, I’m ok with that. No need for you to show off how smart and cool you are by adding those comments. Also, yes, I’ve looked up the strats on wowhead, watched the videos etc. So sure i’m terrible, cool. Question wasn’t directed at you.

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Which is it? Is the problem that Blizzard made the challenges too difficult, “nigh on impossible”, including potentially "lazy programming?

Or is the problem that you’re not playing well enough?

One of these is something Blizzard would need to address. The other is something you need to address. Your post implies both are true, but that people should only comment if they agree with the “Blizzard’s fault” assessment. You’re not ever going to improve if you insist that anything you can’t do is too hard, especially if you’re unwilling to listen to any criticism of your own performance.

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Pretty sure i owned up to not being good at it. I have no problems completing all other content in this game, including raids etc dating back to ICC and cata and now Nathria. I finished Layer 8 of Twisting Corridors the second week it was available. Not one single boss fight outside of the Lich King felt as hard as these. Maybe i am just missing something. I’m bad, but I don’t think I’m that bad.

I also never said I was unwilling to listen to critiscism. I was attempting to point out comments suggesting how it’s actually really easy for someone says more about the person commenting than the content.

Also, it is possible for two things to be true at the same time.

Last thought in reply, the question was WHY is it so difficult not, “what do you think about my question” but meh, as expected.
Bastion gets a gladiator fight challenge while Maldraxxus the place with an actual gladiator ring gets build a buddy. The content locked behind these gates is mogs/mounts/pets right? So why the out of scale difficulty. Do you have any actual thoughts about the original question by chance? Happy to hear them.

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I can’t complete the first fight either; my story basically follows yours.

All I can add is how easy it is to throw the Venthyr parties… or plant a seed and get free stuff for Night Fae… it’s a joke what Kyrian has to accomplish right out of the gate.

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If you talk through the tutor NPC’s dialogue options, he does say that your pals get passive stronger with renown levels.

They will also get passively stronger when you update your trial with anima at the sanctum

And then there’s the craftable charms (you can buy a bag of a LOT of the mats from the innkeeper by the parch of ascension, not the main innkeeper)

So… they will eventually get easier, if you’re lazy enough lmao. Try waiting a few weeks of renown levels and see if you can scrape by. I agree, it’s annoyingly difficult, and there are no instructions.

Is there a particular fight giving you trouble? Or are you just venting about the whole thing in general? Truthfully, you should be able to breeze through all the fights as Pelagos. (At least the first tier and Loyalty).

The very first one, to unlock the Heralds Footwear equipment or whatever, just pummel with your basic attack(1), the root(also gives 20 power) and use Unleash after you root her. Use number 3 and run into the left image(the bubble, it gives you immunity for a bit after the next time you get hit). The chains she does are annoying, just try to move as far as you can after she does one, and keep moving(can use a different image for movement speed, if I recall, that may help, if its just the chains and the slow giving you trouble)

It took me a few tries but as long as you avoid the swirls she does when she goes into the air and keep the shield up as much as possible, its not that bad. If its a different fight giving you trouble, which one?

Path of Ascension is much better than the Ember Court in my opinion. It gets super annoying doing the RSVP quests every week. God forbid when we unlock rank 5 and have to do 5 each week before we can even run the scenario. I will admit however, some of the PoA fights for the first time can be a little tricky, since you generally get the equipment to make them easier from defeating them. But again, on the first difficulty, none are really that bad. Now, Wisdom and Humility? Yea, some of those are rough, even using equipment and 5 charms. (I’m looking at you Echela or w/e the spider chick is, also before I knew the “cheese” strat. Gosh, she was rough)

I’m assuming you are actually trying to be helpful and not just show off how cool you are that you think the first fight with each boss is a breeze.

If you find it to be a breeze, good on ya mate, I find it not to be such.

The first boss I beat and i have unlocked two other bosses. One the spider thing and the other one is the two people. Spider thing kicks my rear and so does the two people. Supposedly if I beat the duo I can craft something that makes the spider easier/doable? Well the duo can apparently see through stone walls and also shoot arrows through stone walls etc, I’m guessing this is intentional (though I don’t know what the pillars are even there for if you can’t use them to LOS, maybe just one more thing to make it difficult on the player?) *this is the ‘mechanic’ that i was referring to as the possible “lazy programming” if the situation is actually that they forgot to add physics collision to the pillars.

I agree Ember Court throwing parties is pretty boring but the difference in difficulty between them is somewhat astounding. The other covenants all seem ridiculously easy in comparison.
Apparently for some Path of Ascension is also super easy and thats cool I guess. It’s not for me. Also, I have no charms unlocked so I can’t stack anything. Pretty sure i have to beat one of the bosses i have unlocked to get any further upgrades. I’m confident if i stand there and fight them a couple dozen more times i probably will be able to beat them. I just don’t understand why it needs to be that difficult in the first place. Its f’n transmogs ffs. No other covenant seems to have any level of difficulty built in to this system.

My covenant level is maxed for each week. This doesn’t seem to make a difference. I tried 5 times yesterday, was able to get them down to 10%. Really dumb and a waste of time especially since ending and starting the fight takes twice as long as the actual fight.

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Covenant Renown level doesn’t make a difference. It’s the ranks in Path of Ascension that do, though even that is minor. (Level 2 and 4 upgrades, I want to say).

And I wasn’t trying to show off. They really aren’t tuned so high that you need perfect play, not on the first tier at least. For the spider, I assume you are keeping distance? Running when she tosses the spiderlings and then using 2 to root them in place? The boss herself doesn’t hit for much of anything. That fight is 100% about avoiding the poo on the ground and the spiders, the poison they put on you if they touch you is pretty nasty.

You want to work up enough energy to use Unleash, but you also want to use it when you are in a position so that the spiders are clumped up(from chasing you), so that you can root them in a good clump and then use Unleash so it hits them and the boss. Obviously keeping the shield/immunity from number 3 going helps but don’t be afraid to use the speed boost instead if you need to.

Alternatively, there is a cheese strat you can use(just search youtube), but I feel like that is going to get fixed, so if you resort to that method, I wouldn’t get too used to it, just in case.

The hunter duo, they don’t really do that much damage all things considered, provided you avoid the magical arrows. You are right that the pillars LoS doesn’t work but they do share health. So just keep the shield/immunity and use Unleash to hit both of them when able. Remember the root too. Use it first to put it on cd to get the 20 energy from it, keep that on cd as much as possible. The more you can use Unleash, the easier it is. I want to say, after getting hit with the immunity power, you are 100% immune for like 10 seconds or so, during that time, feel free to stand still and just unload what you can. But otherwise, just try to dodge stuff.

Thank you for the advice. I appreciate it and will give these suggestions a try after school today.

Original question still stands though for Blizzard. Why the huge disparity in difficulty and what is the purpose of the pillars?

For all the fan boys I’d like to clarify I AM NOT bashing blizzard. I actually think Blizzard is the best at what they do in every game they make and have ever made. WoW included or I wouldn’t be playing it still after all these years. I have over 700 games in my steam account and have some small idea about who makes good and bad games. Blizzard is awesome, no one makes a game that encourages people to play together as well as Blizzard.
There are some things i think they are really bad at however, and the top of the Bad List imho is giving clear instructions. They are TERRIBAD at giving instructions for things.

It is intended that you lose the first fight so you learn about the champion gearing system. You then craft the item (after a short chain) needed to cheese the encounter.

Some games these days have something like this in the tutorial stage. Where you are designed to fail so you just learn the basic mechanics. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for example. It is intended that you get your butt kicked by the Second Sister in the tutorial stage.

The path of ascension map uses the Arena map that came with Shadowlands. The pillars are also needed to do some of the achievements. Like the one where you need to survive a total of 5 heavy hitting, long range knockbacks. (you still get knocked back even if you use Pelagos’ immune buff).

Also the fights are designed to get more difficult as you progress, even if they are within the same “column” of difficulty. It is why they get given to you in a staggered way. Also why some of them are locked behind further anima upgrade tiers. In fact that is generally how raids work. The later bosses are designed to be harder than the first ones on that same difficulty. Hell, sometimes the final boss on heroic is harder than the first couple on Mythic.

I understand that difficulty scales as you progress through just about anything. That wasn’t really the question.

The question is why is the Kyrian’s Path of Ascension infinitely harder than the other covenants equivelant systems.

Additionally the other guy wasn’t saying he just did the single fight and lost he’s talking about the first boss in general who I’m pretty sure you are supposed to defeat.

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The first time you fight her, you are designed to lose. The second time you are designed to win via the equipment that removes snares & roots. Which you didn’t have the first time around.

Not sure if it’s a bug or coding thing, but the text of the NPC guy is pretty clear. He says renown, twice, not sanctum level.

https://imgur.com/qvaSI85

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We fully understand that Denona. Are you just working on increasing your posts count on the forums?

Clearly you didn’t since I see a lot of threads on various forums about this and people asking “why can’t I win the first boss”.

At the end of the day, it is completely on you. Your soulbinds in the mini game get stronger the higher your renown is. So if you are struggling with the very first boss on the lowest difficulty with the renown we are at now… the problem isn’t blizzard. It is you.

It’s not a bug. I’ve noticed my soulbinds getting stronger over the weeks (cause of the weekly you get at rank 2) and mine is still at rank 3. Simply because my renown increases.

Just a case of bad players will call anything they can’t do a bug.

I was referring to the poster above who said that renown didn’t affect the power of the soulbinds in any way. It could very well be a bug that blizzard put the text in, but it isn’t working properly. nothing to do with accomplishment.

Also, rude much?

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Not sure why you think that makes it clear that I didn’t understand. Because you read lots of other threads with people asking why they can’t win the first boss? You think that they didn’t realize there was further quest chain to get the upgrade? I finished the first boss. Like I said, I’m at the spider and the Duo who can magically see and shoot through stone pillars. Go forum troll someone else.

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The spider one is easy. Just keep your distance with the adds. The duo is easy as well. Honestly if you are struggling with these fights at the base difficulty then that is on you. Stop blaming blizzard for your failures.

How about you provide some actual help instead of just being a self-inflated jerk?

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How about you lot take some personal responsibility and actually improve instead of blaming blizzard for everything. Sorry that the truth hurts.