Umbrascale Event Recap

keven2002

As the Umbrascale event winds down I wanted to do a recap of the event based on my experiences; since this will likely be the last time I'm able to do a complete review (and I think I saw Discord has a text limit). 

TLDR: Overall I enjoyed the event and think the Dev team did a lot of things right with this one; especially giving us multiple ways to participate. There were a few things I think could have been better but there was way more I think was done right. Tagging both @Kyronix & @Community Manager while we are still in the forums.

One thing that I liked that touched multiple parts of event was how they gave us multiple dungeons/facets and it changed. I also like that we were able to get drops from all aspects of the event and the drop rate seemed "good". The one overall improvement I'd like to have seen was on the mature egg drop rate... I know it's permanent content but it just seemed lower than it should (especially when hitting 5k+ luck). I also think they should have guarantee drop at X (either matriarch kills / nests dug or burned / etc).

One last overall suggestion for this event and every future event; ALL items should have a cleanup value assigned from birth. Ex: Splintered tree should be worth something to trash...even if it's only 50-100 pts.

Hidden Chests:

• I liked the new sparkle alert when you sense a hidden chest and while it was a PITA sometimes the random "explosion" after you open the chest was a nice touch.
• I liked the mix of loot... I think it was total RNG but it felt right from the way it spread. I liked how Fel gave more Umbra drops (more risk more reward). The effigy drop rate seemed to be where it should be...mature egg drop rate seemed low.
• For detecting the chests; I wish there was some sort of way to know if we failed to detect or the spot we picked was a bad location (won't be revealed there). I also wish there was a little more consistency with the reveal area... sometimes I'd detect right next to the chest without it showing and other times I'd be 5 tiles away and it reveals... at GM detect I feel like successful use of the skill should reveal like a 3x3 area.

Dungeon (ToT Style):

• I think the team has kind of perfected this over the years. I like that these were in various dungeons and everything switched over to event spawn. I like how they did the Fel Champ (Broodmother) spawn...I do wish she dropped something special though for those that were brave enough to do the spawn.
• As mentioned above, I think the drop rate was "good" when boosted with luck and/or using a luck potion. This sort of thing is why I bother trying to use luck on my suits. 
• I think the spawn rate (at least on ATL) was good... it pretty much kept up with the influx of bots people.

Matriarch:

• I'm only speaking for ATL here when I say this, but spawn rate was good (glad it wasn't limited like a stage 3 from last event). I didn't love the 5min wait for the matriarch to spawn as she's throwing fire at you...but I understand some sort of delay is needed to allow others to get there.
• Another thing I liked was the scaling of difficulty (HP) based on the number of people and the limited requirement to get a drop... there were times I was finishing my own map when I had to run to the matriarch and just caught her towards the end.
• I think it was a good idea to include bags of 10-14 drops as a reward...this was my preferred drop aside from wanting the mature egg. I like that they decided to make deco eggs something we can turn in...but I do wish they put the vendor up a couple months ago... I've had zero room for 1.5 months now due to collecting deco eggs with nowhere to spend them.

Nests:

• I like what they did with nests. I like the cypher and it not requiring to be a treasure hunter. I also think it was smart to allow us to buy the massive maps from the reward vendor... this keeps other phases of the event going AND like that drops were in the nests too so you get a little bit of a refund for doing maps.
• Overall think the various levels of difficulty were good based on the level map/what spawned. 
• Would like to see luck impact the drops a bit more... all dissolved/chewed/charred armor was minor/lesser... at 5k+ luck I think we should be able to get some Legendary gear from massive maps.
• Would like to see something that proves luck is enhancing the mature egg drops...wearing 5k+ luck and wearing minimal luck (maybe 500) seemed to have the same outcome.
• Would like to see the nests be easier to open/burn.... currently you need to click a certain spot on the nest instead of anywhere. 

One last comment of the overall event was on the Umbrascale rewards. There were a few very cool items (the reptile slayer weapons / talisman / luck clock); must haves in my opinion. Outside of that though I thought the number of actual (usable) rewards was a little light (ie; there are 8 robes for really only 2 unique items). I don't think everything on there needs to be a best in slot item when I say this either... I think there should have been 1 or 2 other "consumable" type reward where people can keep working the event and burn them up like massive maps and I think they could have added a few other items that are just options based on certain builds. 

What is everyone else's thoughts on the event??

BTW - Make sure everyone turns in and collects everything by Feb 1st so that you don't get burned in they remove the turn in vendor early on Feb 2 (when it says the event will end). 

Potgut

I wish they tweek the Town Cryer so it wouldn't repeat the same thing 2 times in a row, it's annoying when it's repeating the one thing you don't want to hear like 5+ times in a row.

I felt like this event could have been like at least 1 month longer with soo many trade-in rewards options. At first I thought there would be plenty of time to participate with event starting in October, but because due to Holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, X-mas, and New Years) there was a lot of real world stuff that got in the way, and I felt like it was the same case with many players too, family holiday travel and real life holiday related things going on which didn't get to play UO as much as we wished. I didn't do Krumpus or many other UO stuff that I wanted to do because it was either that spend my time to get turn in points. I'm coming out with much less rewards from this event than I hoped I would get.

Other than that, I like the spawn rate in dungeons that kept pacing fast and switching of dungeons to keep things feeling fresh, 2 dungeons at a time was good too.

Pawain

Yup, I could use another month before the next one.  I have yet to get my drops on LS for armor rewards.

popps

Do I recall it as right that, so far, for each Event usually, there has been a "best in slot" item that was introduced ?

I was surprised that for this event there was no item that was really a new "best in slot" reward item that one could claim.

It also seems that none of the current Event claimable reward items are really a "must have" one to claim for points... or am I missing something here and some of the items was a "must have" one to get ?