Arelith

gilescorey wrote:They'll probably still be fine, considering you can still shape into red and be fire immune, and have 60+ ac and 40+ AB, both of which are more than enough to succeed at the Shores.

If you struggle then, it's not a problem of dragonshape being too weak.

What an ugly backstab.

hell yeah it was

I just gave it quick run (dog decided he has to go out!).

Battlecleric, AC 47 half warded and half buffed. Summoned ancient water elemental.

AB 36 was enough to hit all creatures, even to land lots of crits.
AC 47 was sufficient without invis (been using elemental to tank half of enemies).
Spell regeneration + aura caused i missed only two kits (after succesfull sneaks from Mephit).

I used 10 charges of my breach wand to strip shields from margoyles. XPs were 6 + 13 on adventure mode on level 29: all I used are spells and powers availeble from early epic (xps would be higher).

When acid sheaths are done the only thing doing ANY dmg on water elemental were magma giants (and they do, a lot).

Loot is hilarious, yes, collected like 1300 gps and one golden amulet after 30 mins of fighting

WM with breach wand would have it even easier doing almost tripple dmg to me.

@flower

The point being made here is not that the Burning Shores wouldn't be soloable. There are many characters and builds that can solo it without much effort.
The point is that the Burning Shores are too much of a hassle for what it offers. The challenge is comparable to endgame content while there are no grandiose veins or artefact shrines to be found. Furthermore, as you yourself mentionned, the loot drops are laughable at best.
In its current form, by the time your character becomes powerful enough wander into the Burning Shores, unless you have a soft spot for obscure kobold lore or need Abulan's key, you have no reason to go there whatsoever as there are dungeons that offer far better reward while facing comparable challenge. Same can be said about the Orclands Citadel IMO, BTW.

Maybe it's time to visit Burning Shores again.

Also, Cortex, would you please consider removing the Auto Quicken feats from caster mobs that autocast haste? Breach and dispel spamming creeps with damage shields are annoying enough. Not being able to counterspel them removes a huge part of the available counterplays to their gimmick.
Lords of Fire are an example of this (but the Chosen of Baphomet do this too - I'll keep an eye out for more, might compile a list at some point).

We went around the Shores.
Everything hits like a truck.
Everything has as much AB as you.
And without the margoyles fluttering around, now it actually feels 500% better.

Still needs more resources and stuff to merit going around other than Abby's key, but other than that, I give it a "not want to hang myself" out of 10.

That last bit is more on the rotation system than anything. A few days ago, there was an easily snagged addy vein plus arjale and gold there. Not sure what the latest rotation is, but due to the nature of the system, what's excellently lucrative one day may be a heap of zinc the next.

Wouldn't mind a few chests scattered around the rest of the place, tho'.

I just don't want to see it turn into another easy epic area where people just go screen to screen getting rich without much of a challenge anymore. I like areas the "encourage" you to be in a group.

Sab1 wrote:I just don't want to see it turn into another easy epic area where people just go screen to screen getting rich without much of a challenge anymore. I like areas the "encourage" you to be in a group.

Agree 100%. Some zones just aren't meant to be traveled very much. They should exist, and I hope it doesn't become a generic epic zone. There are many, many high level places that already do all that so one can run around getting xp, veins, and looting so if you want that, go there.

To me the Burning Shores is a hard to reach, desolate, horrible place of fire and death with a ton of lore and if your character wants to make the effort and pilgrimage there, then it's all the more sweet when you do.

The only thing I'd change would be to decrease the acid sheath damage and decrease it by 50-75%.

Worth noting that the mobs have been reworked relatively recently. The acid sheathes, for example, are gone now.

Went through it recently: Fairly challenging, but doable with a good party comp, and somewhere you'd actually want to go to if you had the option, now.