Why Raids 3 Is Losing Interest (OSRS)
| Date | 2022-10-26 |
| Type | news-opinion |
| Video | youtu.be/bxsp-hCAlT8 |
Summary
Gnomonkey argues that Tombs of Amascut is far more accessible than Theatre of Blood, which he considers good, but that it lacks the depth and high skill ceiling of Theatre of Blood, causing better players to lose interest. He criticises the invocation system for mostly detracting from the raid, and the lack of incentive to team up, and wishes future content kept depth for top-end players.
Outline
- 0:00 Introduction and satire of elitist responses to Tombs of Amascut complaints
- 0:20 Tombs of Amascut accessibility and completion counts versus Theatre of Blood
- 1:24 Definitions of skill floor and skill ceiling
- 2:14 Tombs of Amascut scaling issues at high raid levels
- 3:18 Depth in Theatre of Blood, using Maiden as an example
- 4:14 Warden P1 versus Verzik P1
- 5:32 Skill floor and ceiling comparison and top-end players leaving
- 6:40 Critique of the invocation system
- 7:47 Solo versus team rewards in Tombs of Amascut
- 8:40 Nex and why difficult content is not the most rewarding
- 9:30 Final thoughts on accessibility versus depth
Topics covered
Opinion: Tombs of Amascut lacks depth
- (0:00) Gnomonkey frames the video as a Tombs of Amascut complaint video that is really about PvM content in general, covering raids, single-player bosses and everything else.
- (0:20) At the time of writing the script, Theatre of Blood had 5.5 million completions, while Tombs of Amascut had 3.25 million normal completions and 1 million expert completions after being out almost exactly two months, versus four years for Theatre of Blood.
- (0:58) Gnomonkey says Tombs of Amascut is much more accessible than Theatre of Blood for the average player, which he considers absolutely a good thing, but argues the accessibility came at a cost that could have been avoided and possibly still can be with a few solid updates.
- (2:30) Gnomonkey says pushing Tombs of Amascut's raid level higher does not make the raid more difficult in a complex or depthful way: a 500-level raid looks the same as a 350-level raid, with things having more health and defence so you simply must not make a mistake for longer.
- (2:30) Gnomonkey says fighting Ba-Ba at 450 or 508 raid level is simply red-X-ing the boss, just for longer, with no special tech to add complexity beyond getting better at skipping boulders and getting into the red X faster.
- (5:32) Gnomonkey says that if Tombs of Amascut has a skill floor of one and a skill ceiling of five, Theatre of Blood has a skill floor of five and a skill ceiling of ten.
- (5:32) Gnomonkey says Tombs of Amascut appeals mainly to players starting PvM, while Theatre of Blood appeals to the top end of the player base; he says most top-end players have gone back to other raids or quit.
- (5:59) Gnomonkey says he does not call Tombs of Amascut a failure: it succeeded where Theatre of Blood failed on accessibility, and Theatre of Blood is far more engaging for high levels.
- (6:25) Gnomonkey had hoped Tombs of Amascut would be easier to jump into than Chambers of Xeric but have even more depth than Theatre of Blood at the top level, and says that has not materialised.
- (9:08) Gnomonkey says Tombs of Amascut could have been the breakthrough content that respected every PvMer regardless of skill, but is instead more of a stepping-off point towards Inferno, Theatre of Blood and Chambers of Xeric.
- (9:39) Gnomonkey says OSRS needs content to strive for, and that if the depth and complexity of content like Theatre of Blood and Inferno is abandoned in future content for the sake of the majority, the game loses what he loves most: learning and growing as a player.
Skill floor and skill ceiling
- (1:30) Gnomonkey defines skill floor as the minimum skill required to jump into content with no experience, giving Giant Mole as an incredibly low skill floor and Theatre of Blood as a very high one; he says a lower skill floor is typically better because it makes content more accessible.
- (2:02) Gnomonkey defines skill ceiling as absolute mastery of a piece of content, saying Giant Mole has a very low ceiling and Theatre of Blood a high one, and that you typically want a ceiling as high as possible because difficult-to-master content has more longevity.
- (2:02) Gnomonkey says Tombs of Amascut has amazing scaling difficulty with raid level: a newer PvMer can likely get a 150 raid done fairly easily with practice, and a 300 raid is realistic for just about anybody.
Theatre of Blood
- (3:18) Gnomonkey says Theatre of Blood is very hard to jump into at a base skill level but has an ocean of depth, with every room hiding tech that pros use to speed it up.
- (3:18) Gnomonkey describes Maiden progression: blowpipe around freezing most crabs, then clump crabs for a ranger to chinchompa them, then scythe her while moving each attack to avoid blood, equip a ranged weapon as she attacks to avoid stat drain, and freeze the final crabs to kill her before they unfreeze.
- (3:33) Gnomonkey says another advanced Maiden technique is stacking the first and second sets of crab spawns together to kill them all at once with a lot of area damage.
- (4:01) Gnomonkey says Theatre of Blood has insane replayability because you get a little better each completion, and that he has over 800 KC at Theatre of Blood and is nowhere near mastering it.
- (4:01) Gnomonkey says Verzik P1 involves coordinating with your team to spread out special attacks for maximum damage while running behind a pillar with careful timing, with techniques such as pre-hits and tactically tanking damage at specific times.
The Wardens
- (0:00) Gnomonkey opens the video with a satire of an elitist PvM tip telling players dying to Wardens' Insanity skulls to just click the skulls faster.
- (4:30) Gnomonkey compares Wardens P1 with Verzik P1, noting energy skulls flow from each side of the pillar so you tank one side for a few hits, and the Wardens drop UFOs that can be dodged by moving a few tiles or ignored by running to the safe spot.
- (5:05) Gnomonkey says in Wardens P1 the Wardens fire two damaging orbs: in teams one requires grouping and the other spreading to reduce damage, but in solo you simply take a lot of damage with no mechanic.
- (5:05) Gnomonkey says solo Wardens P1 is purely a DPS check with no technique, no way to avoid damage and no way to improve DPS: you click the pillar and eat food when hit.
Invocations (Tombs of Amascut)
- (6:25) Gnomonkey says the invocation system very rarely adds to the raid and mostly detracts from it, such as Overly Draining reducing special attack use and Dehydration preventing brews.
- (6:52) Gnomonkey lists Upset Stomach shrinking the cleansing jugs at Zebak and Keep Back adding melee chip damage at Akkha as examples of invocations that only slow or detract from the raid.
- (7:19) Gnomonkey says Feeling Special combined with Double Trouble at Akkha, which lets Akkha do a shadow orb special and Simon Says at once, is an example of great invocations because it forces a unique method of pathing.
- (7:19) Gnomonkey says nearly every invocation should have added mechanics rather than detracted, suggesting an invocation that adds the cursed baboons to Ba-Ba's fight, or one making both Wardens fight you in P2 and P3.
- (7:35) Gnomonkey says Insanity was a huge letdown for most because its description sounds ridiculous but it is really just a free 50 raid level.
Opinion: Solo and team rewards in Tombs of Amascut
- (7:47) Gnomonkey says Tombs of Amascut lacks depth partly because solos are equally good as team scales, so there is little reason to team up despite communication and teamwork being a big part of raid difficulty.
- (8:15) Gnomonkey says the OSRS Wiki's crowdsourced data shows a duo has roughly twice the purple chance, a trio three times, and so on, so solo is as rewarding as teams.
- (8:15) Gnomonkey says most people appreciate being able to solo Tombs of Amascut, and that it increases accessibility, but the lack of incentive to team up reduces the raid's depth.
Nex
- (8:43) Gnomonkey says Nex is still the best money in the game, not because she is the hardest boss but because she is so boring that no one wants to kill her.
- (8:43) Gnomonkey says Nex's fight is chip damage that makes it a brew-chugging adventure and, while he thinks there is more to her than people give credit for, she lacks the depth of any of the raids.
- (8:43) Gnomonkey says the most complex and difficult content is not the most rewarding, because Old School RuneScape has yet to provide content that truly satisfies players who want a hard challenge.