tier difficulty order

[aalwein]

Got a game dynamic question here. Anyone know what the difficulty order is for the tiers? Here is the default order from the default ui:

Weak
Average
Heroic
Heroic + Tier <-- what's that mean?
Epic
Raid4
Raid3
Raid2

I'm guessing the order is:
Weak = solo
Average
Heroic
Heroic + Tier
Raid2
Raid3
Raid4
Epic

Can anyone confirm or correct me?

[Tarrant]

Captain Oleg in Commonlands was Groupx2 and is now Epicx2...so I'm guess epic is just above Heroic and raid# are above epic.

[Zonx]

Weak = solo single or double down
Average = solo no arrows or any solo up
Heroic = 1 group double down - no arrow (may include the toughest solo encounters)
Heroic+ = 1 group any up arrows
Epic = Any mob formerly labled as Epic (may include group triple ups)
Raid2 = 2 group mob
Raid3 = 3 group mob
Raid4 = 4 group mob

Note, Raid 2-4 are modifiers to Heroic and Epic. You can for instance have a 3 group Epic encounter.

Notice how the first 5 all include "Tier" in the image name. These rankings are intended to mimic the 5 tier system used for everything else. Loot quality is very likely tied to or going to be tied to these rankings. Epic mobs will drop the best loot, Week mobs will drop the worst.

Also note these cons are per individual mob. A 3 pack of average mobs would display as a Group encounter in the old system since that system evaluates the entire pack.

[aalwein]

ok that data makes sense in terms of the text you get when you hover over something. It doesn't make sense from a graphic point of view in terms of the new target system, however. Solo mobs and group mobs all have the same indicators, but i guess its all individual based instead of group based.

[aalwein]

question in terms of the target window... the tiers that are "visable=false" are not implemented yet or what? is there any indicator to show whether a target is grouped or not?

[aalwein]

ok here's how I've created a new target window for v2.

weak = one grey widget
avg = two grey widgets
heroic = three grey widgets
heroic+ = three grey widgets + silver bracket widgets
raid2 = one red widget overlay
raid3 = two red widgets overlay
raid4 = three red widgets overlay
epic = gold bracket widget overlay

How it works:
weak through heroic+ when a mob is targeted the graphic simply pops up. When a raid target is selected, the weak - heroic widget is shown (so far this has always been all three grey widgets) and a red overlay is placed over the grey widgets to indicate how many raid groups. Finally, if the encounter is epic in nature, a gold bracket overlay is placed over the entire image... be it raid or not raid tier. In any case, the highest point of difficulty would be a four group epic mob. This would be indicated by three red widgets and the gold brackets.

Dunno if that is clear, but does it make sense in terms of the new targeting system?

[Zonx]

Makes sense, thought I think its theoretically possible to have a 1 group Epic encounter. Using your system, this would result in a gold bracket with no dots.

BTW, the "Group" indicator on the original con system has nothing to do with weather a mob is linked to other mobs. Group vs. Solo was intended to indicate who should attempt the encounter. It's just an indicator of the overall enoucounter difficulty. A pack of solo mobs was rated as a group encounter because the encounter is extra tough due to numbers. A single heroic mob was likewise rated as a group encounter because the 1 mob was extra tough, even though there were no linked mobs.

There has never been anything to indicate linked sets of mobs other than vissually seeing multiple highlights.

[Kryoclasm]

I took the time to assess a lot of mobs when I was redesigning the frame images, this is my conclusion and results.

Weak = solo single or double down arrows
Average = solo no arrows
Heroic = 1 group ^ or ^^

Heroic+Tier = *Not implemented in game or for target window yet.* This might be a placeholder.

Epic = multiple groups ^^^ (see Raid indication for # of groups needed)
Raid2 = 2 groups + Epic indication
Raid3 = 3 groups + Epic indication
Raid4 = 4 groups + Epic indication

This info was applied to Moab's Target Window.

[Zonx]

On further investigation, I don't think the tier icons have anything to do with the old group/solo rating.

The problem with comparisons is that the info indicator in the old system no longer lists things as Solo/Group, they switched to the new termanology so its hard to varify what was what before.

Mobs with up arrows rated as solo were rare. There were some Giant Vulritches in Comonlands with up arrows rated as solo, but when I just checked, any with arrows were labeled "heroic" in the old target window.

The "Epic" 1 group mobs were both new and rare. I think all were rare named mobs or named mobs in the mini-instanced zones.

To make things worse, they've obviously been changing con values. I know Rockbelly on IOR was a triple up 1 group and now he's double up. Bladefin also lost an arrow off his con. Both mobs are reported to be as tough as they always were.

I've seen serveral previously group rated packs with no arrows giving the Average icon.

I've also seen several previously group rated packs with a single down arrow mob in it that shows the Weak icon. Pups, calves, etc. mixed in with a pack of adults. The adults in the same pack con higher.

Basicly I think the tier icons are a rough replacement for individual mob arrows. The group/solo tag really has no effect on it, just the number of up and down arrows.

Weak = 1 or 2 down (described as suitable for a solo adventurer)
Average = no arrows (described as suitable for a solo adventurer)
Heroic = 1 or 2 up (described as suitable for a 2-3 adventurers)
Heroic+ = prbly 3 up (described as suitable for 4-6 adventurers).
Epic may be reserved for multi-group raids, but then why split up the graphic? I suspect they are at least planning for 1 group epic encounters.