Unknown Passage Enemy Feedback (Spoilers)

I figured since we didn't test it on the Test Server, and I haven't seen any threads, it is time for us to talk about the new enemy faction, the Swarm.
So far, I really like the concept. A blended mix of monster types and damage types means that most gear is viable against the Swarm. Some choices are better than others but most are useful. Also, the various types of monsters have different attack patterns, so it isn't simply a matter of dealing with zombies x a large amount.
However, I do have some gripes.
The first is that most don't feel threatening enough. At the final fight you've got, I dunno... 3 zombies, 2 gremlins, 3 slimes, a lumber, 3 wolvers... something like that. The problem is, the zombies are pretty weak, the gremlins are pretty weak, and the wolvers are pretty weak. Also, the gremlin AI is awful - they run away to use pills, basically crowd-controlling themselves, since normally Swarm monsters that are killed would just respawn with full HP and rush you again.
The second thing is that the slimes feel far too deadly. 95% of the damage taken is from the slimes - I believe they do split piercing/shadow damage, and they poison you for 10 seconds. The projectiles are basically invisible and travel extremely fast. Their attack animation is basically non-existent; they show a white-ish aura under them and then spines explodes out of them.
That's just my feedback. I'm interested in yours. How do you feel about them?

I think the slimes are the easiest of the enemies in there, they stand nearly still and their attacks are almost impossible NOT to block or dodge, they also die in no time to a gran faust + max attack bonus.

I'm not sure if you're trying to brag or something... you struggle with Vanaduke so I'm having a hard time believing you have Magnus level reflexes to block invisible projectiles. You've run Unknown Passage once and probably required several CE revs. Lying has no place in honest feedback to 000.

I don't take damage on vanaduke, and easily solo him without deaths.
If I had Magnus level reflexes I would be struggling with vanaduke, as he dies with full vog when using exploits. We have it on video, no need to lie.
I already have Shadowfire Vanaduke on video with no deaths with a party of 3.
Multiple guild members of mine have done SL with you and said that you failed miserably the whole way through.
Unknown passage is a joke, please stop talking about how hard you think SLIMES are before you make yourself look like an even bigger fool.
I pity how hard you try to bring me down child.
On topic with your first post: The gremlins do about as much as slimes and definately need to be more aggressive. They just kind of stand around and sometimes swing their sword. I also think zombies should have curse breath and that there should be 2 rooms instead of 4 in the passage.

...would it make sense to make a bit of shameless self-promotion? I have suggested to make a level type that includes the Swarm so we can "practice" with them (but, as normal enemies instead of respawning always, maybe I should have put that in the suggestion). That way we could practice the areas and actually enjoy part of this new content. I mean, we, the people who don't spend +50$ each hour.
This would be the link to the suggestion > http://forums.spiralknights.com/es/node/30645

Three Rings is just money hungry, we have better see a migration to some servers that aren't trash soon as a result of this update.

Seriously Chris, stop calling people 'children' - you only make youself look even more childish. If you wish to be taken seriously as a mature person then adopt some decorum and stop directing personal attacks at anyone who disagrees with you. Stopping the ceaseless bragging would help too.
If I see you outright insulting people in a discussion thread again and I will be reporting you for violating the forum rules.
Good day.

I have to agree. Let's be mature and respectful. It sounds like what happened is that the OP had a bad run, or maybe was less than expert at it. I wouldn't fault someone for dying a lot in the SHADOW LAIR as being incompetent or bad at the game. This content in particular sounds like it's extremely hard.

Certain sections of the shadow lairs go beyond extremely hard.
I don't know how much they nerfed from the test servers, but at the moment its waaaay too much to handle for me.
I know there are some experienced parties out there, though I'd like to see a recording of a shadow lair solo run.
Do it.

I had no problem with what the OP said, it was the OPs childish response to what I said that I had a problem with.
Grow up OP.

The shadow lairs were not on the test server, only the new boss strata.

Then I was mistaken. I know nothing much of the Unknown passage. (Because its unknown)
Do we refer a shadow lair as the entire run, or just the boss strata?

I haven't actually done any shadow lairs, and the entirety of my experience with the Unknown Passage comes from a single video I've seen of it, so take what I'm saying here with a grain of salt. Basically what I wanted to say here is that I've noticed the swarm has a representative of every monster family...except fiends. I don't really get why OOO seems to dislike fiends so much, since I barely see them nowadays, aside from the occasional Trojan or Silkwing. Maybe there's a reason story-wise for there not being swarm fiends, or maybe something else, I'm not sure. I suppose swarm fiends would be pretty difficult to deal with, but hey, high difficulty is kind of the point of pseudo-endgame content, right?
Again, I've not even come close to this place, so I could be completely off on this.

A Shadow Lair is the entire boss stratum. The Unknown Passage is the level after this and is the same regardless of the boss stratum you went through, so I would not consider it to be a part of it.

@Klaxoff Suddenly, shadow greavers. Thousands of them.
Hope you weren't planning to do anything useful with that CE.

My reaction if there were Shadow GRIEVERS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyophYBP_w4

Chris, stop talking. The first childish post on this thread was yours.
"I think the slimes are the easiest of the enemies in there, they stand nearly still and their attacks are almost impossible NOT to block or dodge, they also die in no time to a gran faust + max attack bonus."
-This is a feedback thread, not a "look at the size of my wallet and length of time I spent in game" thread.
-and on that note, nobody even cares about your max attack bonus
-Your feedback is invalid, because the vast majority of people who play this game have not spent upwards of $400 trying to get perfect gear. They have grinded by themselves on gear that they specifically leveled for this. On top of this, all you ever do is brag, and have been proven to be a liar in your own thread. Were I a game developer with someone like you testing for me, I would've removed anything you said as "feedback", and in fact banned you from testing immediately for giving false feedback and potentially ruining the final product.
- Stop calling people childish. It's ironic. No really, this is a kids game, not designed to be competitive in the slightest (save for pvp which was recently added and you also complained about in testing). This would be like going into Neopets(if that's even around anymore) and bragging about how awesome you are with your little frog that can kill all the other not-player frogs because you spent too much time and money on it. Oh, and it has 60 rare, expensive, and entirely pointless hats. Nobody cares, the only reason why we post to counter you is because we're sick of seeing your crud all over the place
Yes, Khasmin could've replied better, but he's right; lying has no place in honest feedback. This was supposed to be a helpful thread with individual's opinions, and now you've gone and diverted it from what it was meant to be with your trolly posts. BTW, UMAD wasn't funny in 2003 when it started, and it certainly still isn't 8 years later.

"I don't take damage on vanaduke" Your best attempt has you taking damage at Phase 1. I pretty much skimmed over the rest of you post after you flat out failed with your first comment.
Also, you've done one Shadow Lair and probably used several CE revs. All I detect is jelly because I was the first to get Mercurial Demo in the entire game and you've only been able to run one Shadow Lair.
@ Klaxoff : Swarm seeds are considered fiends. Also, none of the fiends except Trojans feel like they'd fit in with the style of the Swarm. Lumber already seem Trojan-ish enough though.

I'm currently uploading a video where I took 3 bars of damage on the whole vanaduke fight.
No exploits
No shivermist
No blitz needle
No Leviathan
And the only reason I took 3 bars of damage is because I had my barb thorn shield on instead of my grey owlite
Also...
No gun trinkets
No Max uvs
Stop being mad.
Multiple people in Edwin had merc demo before you did.
My guild mates who have done shadow lair with you said you sucked horrible the whole way through (snarbolax).
I've killed Darkfire Vanaduke twice now, once without a single death during the fight and no CE rez during the entire run.
Stop talking smack child.
@ Seesevn
Slimes die in 4 hits to a gran faust when you are also wearing 2x damage trinkets and a barb thorn shield. If you can't afford these 4 items, you should not be in shadow lair, this makes your post almost 100% invalid.
I was providing great feedback, this guy said slimes are hard, I have never had a problem with them in the passage.
I have spent no money in real life on the items I was using to kill the slimes in the passage.
Stop trolling yourself child.
Let me know when you can post something factual.

Pics or it didn't happen lolz
Also, stop being so hilarious. While humorous, you detract from the point of the topic.

I gotta say, there are too many people in the world that think being one of the top players is the most important thing when it comes to games. Real pros don't constantly glorify themselves, real pros don't bash people that they view as less skilled, real pros play the damn game and don't care if they have the best gear or are viewed as one of the best; they play for the fun.
...And then there's people that think this game is competitive. I don't even know what to say.

Also, I'd like it to be noted that the slimes Khasmin says are hard to dodge, take a whole TWO SECONDS to charge up their spinning spike attacks. The animation is VERY noticible. If you can't put your shield up in the two seconds it takes, you have more problems than slimes in the passage rofl...

Congratulations, you get a gold star.
In all honesty though I really am not impressed at the thought that someone is that obsessively perfect with the online game. Yeah, it takes some skills and reflexes but it's not really a talent that's going to serve you well.

Two seconds is an exaggeration. If anything, it's a second, and while the white telegraph-light is noticeable, the lichen itself doesn't show much warning. In other words, you can tell that it's attacking, but it's harder to differentiate which attack it's using. Additionally, the black spikes they shoot are a tad inconspicuos when most everything in the Passage levels are black, the same color as the projectiles. They should be more red, if anything.

"Stop trolling yourself child.
Let me know when you can post something factual."
Let me know when you start reading the entirety of my posts. Or when you grasp a firm understanding on anything logical. Or at LEAST when you have the decency to come up with something new as a completely pointless insult. Take your time, I know you need it.
And no, bragging is not helpful feedback, especially when it's you simply calling others incompetent. He's commenting on the new mobs and how he, being part of the target audience, has a slight problem with the game mechanics. You say you have no issues with this enemy because you have gear specifically designed to counter this enemy. That's nice. This thread isn't about gear is it? Wait, don't ask rhetorical questions, you seem to not comprehend logic beyond that which you call everyone else in this thread who disagrees with you. The answer is no, it wasn't, nor was it about you.
So seriously; stop talking.
And with that last post with the pictures and you claiming photoshop, any credibility you had left has gone out the window.

I'm currently uploading a video where I took 3 bars of damage on the whole vanaduke fight.
That's still not "I don't take damage on vanaduke" though, is it? Stop posting your crap until you can prove you're as "good" as you think you are. It honestly baffles me how someone can continue to be as deluded and condescending as you are despite having been proved wrong over and over, in your own threads no less. You can't be infamous and still change your story - everyone's going to know it if you put it out there. That's why we know you tried to lie about your join date and how much cash you've spent on the game.
inb4 lol u child.

Game is so easy for Chris, who thinks it's a better idea if he starts a harder game? I would LOVE to see that impossible game only Chris can beat. I'm kinda tired of seeing you continuously go on forums to brag about whatever. You the best. Happy? We wanna play a game. And by the way- I think that's some good Photoshop if it is... and pretty funny for anyone to say that. But really Chris, if you go online to criticize inexperienced players, you should criticize yourself for doing so. Tough for many, this game is. They want to play to get better, not to see someone rub nerdly prowness in their face.

Biznasty and Magnus are better than you and I want proof of the Darkfire run because you are lying boy.
Now back onto topic, Devilites would be awsome for it, but make them throw a shadowy like substance than funature.

Chris posted originally to say something, you don't have to change the entire subject of this thread...

Back on topic okay! Forget Chris already and talk about the swarm enermies!

He keeps trying to redirect the idea of a challenge to many people by inserting his own bragging. Anyways, if people think this has brought a little more challenge AT LEAST to this game, I feel it's a victory for OOO. As for Chris, what would you think an ideal battle would be, you know, to challenge you to another level. While some may grow to your level, they would want more challenges. Any ideas, Chris?

My first time through was enjoyably very hectic, what with never ending waves of monsters, tight spaces, running for my life, etc.
However, second time through it lost a bit of it's appeal, knowing what was coming. The map doesn't change, and is itself slightly on the short side.
The slimes though, ugh. I really don't think they're near as bad as you make them out to be, Khamsin, but a nerf would still be appropriate. There's another aspect that you missed, that I find particularly annoying: the range of the spines relative to the telegraph delay, travel speed, visibility, and damage. Look at 4:45 of this video and see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ijbSUfik0
With that exception, though, I do have to agree it is easier than it could be, which may not be all that bad considering the all that we have to go through just to get there.
Overall, well done. Seeing that last monster gate fall has got to be one of the most satisfying moments I've had playing SK ^^
...and an aside...20+ minutes for a solo vanaduke? Even if you're trying not to be hit....bwahahahahaha...oh...that's just, I don't know...good job Chris, you're so amazing sadfghjkl I wish I could be you. *3*

Reading ...well... about chris (sorry continue thread

I will absolutely offer feedback on the Unknown Passage... if someone brings me on a shadow lair run!

There's no sign of PS on either of those photos, stop lying to try to save your non-existent reputation.

Ladies and gents, let's pull back from the personal attacks on each other.

Last real post of mine was asking Chris for any ideas. Anyone else have any experience of challenge or lack of challenge the new worlds presented?
I like them from a story point, as well as in aesthetic structure - the axe-wielding Swarm Lumbers are especially cool. I do get the feeling that swapping the Wolvers out for Alpha Wolvers would make the Unknown Passage too difficult, though >.>
Changing Swarm Lichens so that they telegraph their attacks better would be reasonable, as would fixing the Swarm Gremlin AI to charge the front more..