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Endgame Bashing
Tedrunai
Immortal
We're looking to gather some input and drive some discussion about 99+ bashing areas.
Couple questions/points to start:
1. Rank the current 99+ bashing areas in order of desirability to bash in.
2. Would a non-autobashable/soloable area get any use? Something that gives a ton of experience but has a level of mechanics and difficulty that would make it impossible to do without paying attention/without a buddy. This would give an option to go to when all the autobashers have cleared everything else out but bashing the area would be a lot more involved.
Couple questions/points to start:
1. Rank the current 99+ bashing areas in order of desirability to bash in.
2. Would a non-autobashable/soloable area get any use? Something that gives a ton of experience but has a level of mechanics and difficulty that would make it impossible to do without paying attention/without a buddy. This would give an option to go to when all the autobashers have cleared everything else out but bashing the area would be a lot more involved.
5
Comments
I would certainly make use of the area mentioned in the second question, but only if the exp rate per hour is competitive with that of autobashing out the high end/most desirable areas.
1. Echoing what Illidan said re: difficulty, except that I'm definitely on some threshold in which Xaanhal and Tcanna are a nightmare and everything else is effortless. If i were to make a list, it'd be Teshen Undercroft at the top, everything else at the middle, and Xaanhal/Tcanna/volcano/Feral Caves at the bottom.
2. No interest myself. Bashing is something i do to zone out and watch movies or play FFXIV. I do think it's a very cool idea though.
Misc. Notes:
- The volcano needs an overhaul. It's a weird gimmick area that doesn't seem to serve a purpose other than to validate your artifact purchases. The map is ugly, the mobs are uninteresting, and the damage resistance is just no fun.
- Undercroft encapsulates everything I love in an area. Lots of smaller mobs that maybe aren't worth as much XP, but still present a challenge and can be mowed down fast enough that it's a great grind. It just feels good. I love that you have to manage how many enemies you're engaging at once, and know how to safely withdraw before the incoming damage gets too high. In contrast to what i said above, it's a fun area because you have to be actively playing it.
- This thread is going to consist 90% of people asking for more instanced areas.
1. I prefer to auto-bash. I like seeing the numbers tick up while I'm working on other things. Without chocolates: Tiyen, Xaanhal, Forgotten Dome, Arbothia, Nal'jin, Vortex, Spiral. With chocolates: Tcanna added. My route is usually Illdon, Spiral, Tiyen, Nal'jin, Arbothia, Forgotten Dome, a few areas in Albedos (not just the one that is default in Sunder).
2. I'm not big on the zones that take a challenge for actual bashing, honestly. I don't mind them for like, group activities, if they provide rewards (such as doing beneath - which I've still not done because I rarely make the effort to find a group myself).
I don't know that instanced content will help the game, honestly, but it's not a terrible idea. Some players (like me) just want the majority of their gameplay to not be affected by having to involve other players. So if most of the content ended up gated by having to bring in other people, I probably just wouldn't bother with it more than a handful of times. I'm required to be social all day, every day, for my job - the game is often an escape from that, though I do still interact plenty. I just don't want to feel like I'm forced to, when I'm already forced with work.
Agreeing with Lin here, the really popular bashing areas will be instanced.
1) I am one of the rare people who do NOT like to auto-bash. I feel that automating the game has its own issues, but to each their own. I do use an auto-target function to make things go a bit faster, but I do move on my own, both in an area and to different areas. Order of preference: Arbothia, Dovan, Forgotten Depths, Fracture, Xaanhal, Spiral, Tiyen, Forgotten Dome, Dramedo Warrens. I would say my difficulty cut-off is Forgotten Mausoleum. The sipping/eating/crystal as a thing is not a terrible idea, but the respawning gets a bit tedious, and the targeting (be it by number or by generic) can be a bit wonky when the dwarf respawns. Volcano, too, needs a bit of a redesign or an emphasis on it being a group area due to mob stacking and the way the afflictions work.
2) It would depend on how the challenges came to be. Due to the fact that most people just auto-bash (as listed above) group bashing apart from taking out newbs is non-existent and most do not care to have anything set up to bash intelligently in groups. I think an area that is larger and -slightly- more difficult than the Squal with some investment of quests or otherwise that could possibly make the mobs less difficult could be fun. I do not think simply throwing more affs onto the table means more fun, though. But I do think that perhaps some challenges, some unique encounters based on what you kill or quests that have amazing rewards - I would enjoy those sorts of things. I would also be okay with being one of the few who uses it while the bots continue to fight each other over scraps. >_>
I think Aetolia has an interesting relationship with bashing, especially with its heavy investment in full automation. A lot of people do not like bashing. A lot of people hate the repetitive task of bashing. Rewards are tied to bashing, however, in the form of augmetics and level 200, so people want to bash for rewards. I am probably in a minority that feel that 200 should continue to remain and perhaps be even more of a challenge to achieve, as rankings show us we have a fair amount already above 180 on top of the four who already are 200. Although honestly 200 is starting to feel like the new 100 and seems to be more reminiscent of the grind done to Dragon in Achaea.
Tangent aside, bashing as a whole might need an eye if more people start to chime in and mirror the answers above, basically saying, "I like to automate bashing because it lets me do things that engage me because Aetolia is not when I bash."
Edit: Since @Saltz was replying as I was, I enjoy Chapel Gardens. The clumps and the Clerics can make it interesting and engaging, but since it is a milestone area and tiny, I try not to be a jerk and go there more than necessary. And even if I WERE to consider it, it is usually clear due to the above mentioned milestone. I would be okay with more Chapel Garden-esque areas that are hard to script.
2) the Bloodwood - As much as I dislike def strip mobs, this place has possibly the best xp on the mainland due to those lingering spirits. Distress/wailing give average/above average xp too, so overall a plus. No bodies to offer is a reasonable trade off, but quite sad it's only available half the day. Slightly faster respawn timer is why I check it before Xaan. Whale status not necessary but lingering can hit hard.
3) Xaanhal - xp is actually probably worse than lair/dome, but it's honestly nice to just have your instance respawn and have a place to bash. Seems to be a high res audit treshold that requires the right class or whale status, but hasn't been a problem for me personally for a while.
4) Luzith's Lair - xp here got a big boost when mobs with voyria were given extra xp due to firstaid changes. Dropbear spiders are a bit annoying, especially since some bashers (me) don't lock on and run by them when they proc, so they get left in the room, then some aggro spider spawns so there's two aggro in the room, then you somehow manage to proc dropbear spider in the exact same room the second time you're running around in it and you die to 3 aggro spiders and some meanies tell you to just sip voyria. Seems easy enough otherwise for most people.
5) the Forgotten Dome - Ditto for voyria changes, for some of the mobs. Aggros stacking will definitely kill fresh 100s and below. Straightforward otherwise.
6) Spiral of the Corrupt - Probably second favorite area after Bloodwood, even if the xp isn't technically that great. The mob density means you aren't wasting .1 seconds running around empty rooms, it's just "kill 3 mobs > next room > kill 3 mobs > next room" etc. Last room can be scary without whale status but not bad otherwise. Also grapple makes unhappy
7) the Nal'jin Depths
7) the Bastion of Illdon
7) the Squal
Three way tie here, Illdon is probably best for xp but def strip makes me mad. Also 4+ rabid hound stacks is often death. Nal'jin is probably what I would consider the "average" for all the 99 areas. The most boring. So boring I literally can't remember what the xp is like. All the room connections means lots of mobs get missed means even a bashed out naljin has some things to kill. Squal for xp would be about the same as Nal'jin, but since the mobs heal, they end up taking longer to kill, and that is sad. Plus grapple. Seems like it's more for gold, since Mausoleum has the same heal mechanics.
10) the Hlugnic Labyrinth
11) Yuzurai village
I know not 99 sue me. When I get to these two places/Squal I know everything is bashed out and xp/hour is gonna start going down. Hlugnic is classified is a 75 area but the xp is honestly not terrible, especially in the village area. They hit hard but slow. Also no one bashes here so like Xaan, it's nice to see my basher hit things. (Whoops ruined that for myself didn't I). Yuzurai is small with high mob density, and xp is probably best/most worth out of the 90s. These two places are also pretty quick to do, and sometimes my path just needs 5 minutes to reset back to the top, so I'd rather clear these than get stuck in Tiyen.
12) Tiyen Esityi - I actually hate Tiyen. It's massive, but the upper area is pretty bad for xp outside of cutters/captains, and the lower area will kill you with enough aggro stacks, especially cause of legs. Not so bad with whale status but even babby whales will die. The xp down there isn't all that great either, outside of snakes and malevolents. I only come here first because I dislike running to Albedos, especially when your bash path starts sending you back and forth as other areas repop. There was a while where I didn't bash Tiyen at all.
13) forgotten depths - Not on the 99 list, but the towering abominations are probably the highest xp in the game. If I had infinite knife I'd bash here to 200. Pretty small though. Basically need to have caramel up to out damage the towering abominations otherwise the 2k-3k hits every 2 seconds will kill you.
14) the maul - Also not on the 99 list. Pretty difficult, definitely sperm whale status required. Also pretty small, but also rarely bashed and above average xp makes it worth it.
15) Dovan Hollow - Like the rabid hounds of Illdon, the 4+ stack of defender mobs can definitely pop you. Combined with just slightly above average xp and being Albedos I tend to dislike.
16) the Dramedo Warrens/Ia'shal Barrow - This place is not a 99 area. It's 90 at best, maybe even 85. Not sure why it's listed as 99, might be because there's one mob (ooze) that gives very high xp that is aggro and kills people a lot. But everything else there is miserably low xp, I only do it cause it's on Albedos and may as well stop by since I'm only on Albedos cause everything else is bashed out. Ia'shal next for same reason.
After this I go back to main continent and start blowing up lower levels. The rest of these areas I don't bash because they're practically impossible, and not all that worth it either. No explicit order outside of "I'd try these places with some minor changes maybe"
the Shastaan Warrens - Not whale enough to tank here, don't think even having caramel running for killing things faster helps.
the Feral Caves - Same as above, plus last time I tried some of the split blobs didn't give any xp at all, so not sure what's up with that.
a volcano - Too much stacked aggro and damage reduction for me. Not even sure xp/hour is all that great because of the damage reduction tbh.
The Forgotten Mausoleum - Overall xp/hour feels low when stuff heals/can't be crit. Prob not bad for the Rhyot's of the game tho.
the Shattered Vortex - For all the work that goes into this place (building faction to buy crit items for new chars, waiting for channel to enter, idk other things), just doesn't seem worthwhile. Plus getting pk'd isn't great.
As for 2, unless it is instanced, I don't see why this area wouldn't also just get swarmed when everyone is bashing. Even if "swarmed" is just the 2-3 people who turn their bashers off to do the area. Also my general theory of the game is that everything can be automated, it's just whether or not it is worth it to do so. Also doesn't Beneath exist for something like that, or is it automatable but just not soloable? Also speed run rankings and rewards for beneath when.
Bashable Areas in Order of How Much I like them:
I'll be assuming that the areas are not bashed out/have a full population, but I'll also be noting my reasons for a couple of them.
- Luzith's Lair (xp/minute is unbeatable here for me)
- Xaanhal (Xaan has great xp/minute, is guaranteed to be fully populated due to it being instanced, and enemies drop gold!)
- the Squal (similar to Xaan, but it's always bashed out ): )
- Spiral of the Corrupt (decent xp, but honestly what I like most about it is how absurdly easy to path it was)
- Tiyen Esityi
- the Forgotten Dome
- the Nal'jin Depths
these next few are more or less equal to me for various reasons- the Bastion of Illdon
- the Feral Caves
- Dovan Hollow
- the Bloodwood
- the Dramedo Warrens
- Tcanna Island (I know the xp is good here but the ferry travel time is a huge dealbreaker for me, especially since a lot of my friends pushing for endgame+ are bashing almost exclusively here)
These Areas are actively unfun/bad to me for a few reasons- a volcano (the mobs have huge hp pools, stack on each other, some are aggressive, some aren't, and the xp is really dismal for how much time getting kills takes)
- the Shattered Vortex
- the Shastaan Warrens
- The Forgotten Mausoleum (I know this one can work well for some people, but my overall bashing strategy basically forgoes this place being viable to me. As a vamp, I prefer low-blood bashing, which makes fire damage melt me like wax. As fex, I often over-aggro. Just not great for me. Might work for others really well)
OKAY NOW FOR THE OTHER QUESTIONSo I definitely think of bashing, for me, as an xp/hour thing, generally. "Is the reward I'm getting from this worth the effort" essentially. But I'm hugely into PVE, and something I really would love is to have more of a strategic element to PVE--but it'd definitely have to be worth it in a measurable way. Either larger-than-average gold drops, larger-than-average xp, etc, anything really. But other than that, yeah 100% would be down.
I also think we really should see more instancing. I don't agree with people saying ALL bashing should be instanced. I like how bashing zones feel like they're part of the world, not separate from it, but I do think we need a little more instancing, and maybe a way to reset instances sooner (knife resetting instances? idk). Even one or two more endgame instance zones would alleviate a lot of stress during peak bashing times, I think. You gotta balance this with how frequently you want people reaching level 200 though, so YMMV. I can just say personally I'd like to see more instancing. But also, yeah, more skill-based bashing (and frankly, more player skills being able to be used against mobs in general) would be dope as hell as long as it was balanced correctly and didn't feel like I was dumping 20 minutes to get the xp I can get in Luzith's in 5.
Edit: I just wanna reiterate/upvote what borm's saying, that "not-autobash-friendly" isn't really a thing--Aetolians are insane. They can automate anything. And yeah, Borm, I'd say that you have it right. Beneath is totally autobashable, but soloing it is pretty much impossible due to the boss fight(s) (I've never actually beaten it so idk if there's multiple boss fights lmao).
Tcanna - #2 in my opinion only because of the annoyance in getting there. Make it possible to get here via compendium teleport (which currently doesn't work even if you spend the pages), wormholes, wings or something and it would be #1. The exp is amazing, it's still very dangerous for non-whales and even whales from time to time will die, and the only other problem is that there is only one Tcanna.
Xaanhal - The exp is solid, great mob density, and it gets points for having gold drops to make up for curative losses.
Dome - Same reasons as xaan.
I'm going to stop there because those areas really fit what I define as a good bashing area. Good exp, and plenty of mobs.
2) Aetolia has a rich and complex pk system. What aetolia does not have is a rich and interesting bashing system. I personally have zero interest in manually hitting my bashing attack to gain exp for hours regardless of the amount of exp being offered. If bashing was more than just slinging the same attack over and over, maybe then but with the way it currently works this scenario just sounds tedious.
What I would like to see is enough bashing areas available so that one or two people can't bash out the entire mud all by themselves. Instanced is probably the way to go.
I'd also like to see a realistic and worthwhile group system where I can bash with friends without losing exp per hour. As it stands right now, even with all exp bonuses including an antiquated ring exp bonus, it's just not worth it. For ANY multi-player game it's my opinion that grouping for things should be both encouraged and rewarded over solo play.
Tldr: Simply no.. I wouldn't enjoy a manual bashing area and instead would like to see more instanced solo areas, and areas geared toward groups that give better exp than one can get solo.
2) Everything is auto-bashable if you code it properly, unless it's an area (like the special instance area with the boss mob where you require a party idr the name). That said, if I can't solo it, I'm probably not going to run it. Also, hot take here: I would -NOT- enjoy instanced bashing areas. I don't want to feel like I'm just in a single player grinding game. If I wanted that, I'd go play Valhalla, Odyssey, or Cyberpunk.
That said, I would like to see more areas with the Hunting mechanics of Tcanna and Drakuum. It was supposed to be a big overhaul project that was said to encompass all bashing areas. Also, if you need ideas on new 99+ areas, let me know. I've got A LOT of them.
Instead of looking to source new areas, we could improve on our current ones as volume seems to be the issue with the amount of people hunting these days. I'll use Tcanna's example of NPC's being -everywhere-. The ground, the trees, the skies and so on. This being the third 150+ char to bash up, I cannot say that a non-autobash area would be fun because you'd have to sit down and math out the 'is it worth it' factor. While I know not everyone has an army of knives to reset areas, it really boils down to trying to grind out as much xp as fast as possible especially when your till next levels start reaching higher and higher, and your death loss is nearly a tenth of someones xp to level.
Figuring out what "99+ bashing area" means in practice is kind of hard for inexperienced players. With 5.2k health, a 50% Link, and Avoidance and all resistance mini-skills at Trans, Legyn can mostly tank the Xaanhal instance as long as I manual bash and stay ready to run. Areas with groups of aggressive mobs are a no-go.
2- In practice, I get the feeling harder bashing areas would end up getting monopolized by high-level players who are loaded with artifacts. For it to work, I think you'd need to hard code the area so it's only accessible to groups. A bashing area designed for groups of characters at different levels working together could be interesting and would encourage group bashing at higher levels.
1) Lower Ia'shal (myconids). The withering myconids are easy, being on par with the kelki in The Forgotten Dome. The towering myconids, however, are the most powerful mobs in the game, in my opinion. They hit hard, they hit fast, they stun, they give balance knocks, and they break limbs. Unless you manage to crit them, they'll delay your attacks and escape to the point you cut it close. The only saving grace is that none of them are aggressive.
2) The Volcano. The smoke elementals, fire elementals, and lava daemons are resistant to many types of damage, and all the mobs tend to spawn in large clusters. The fire elementals are consistent; all 20 spawn in a single room with 3 of the 20 being aggressive. All the other mobs, however, will have a random number of aggressive spawns. Sometimes I see six or seven aggressive smoke elementals or daemons in a single room.
3) The Teshen Undercroft. The mobs aren't much trouble, but there are hundreds of them, they're all aggressive, and they all spawn behind the locked door. You'll find over a dozen in each room, they move frequently so you're constantly having more attack you, and the Drones stun.
I realize I'm not answering the question by saying which areas I think are the most difficult. The best area is Tcanna because the xp is good and there are over 600 mobs there. If the mobs dropped gold, I'd never leave.
I'm lucky I only really have to "compete" with Borminchia in the off hours that I usually play in. I can't imagine enjoying this experience at all if I was based in the US and had to compete with the majority of players who want to bash.
For areas just listing the ones that show up in AREAS.
With chocolate: Tcanna is best. The Squal, Luzith's, Illdon, Spiral, Xaanhal, Nal'jin, Dovan, Forgotten Dome are pretty much all good. Tiyen is ranked slightly worse because it's just a lot more dangerous in the lower area and experience overall is not high enough to compensate for the risk.
Without chocolate: Basically the same list without Tcanna. I can probably do it if I filtered out certain mobs but it's probably still too risky.
As for the rest:
Bloodwood: If I can remember to do it it's great but for some reason every time I think about doing it it's daytime.
Vortex: Is good but I don't like being separated from the rest of the game too long. Also lots of non-crit mobs.
Volcano: the stacks of randomly(?) aggro mobs on top of resistances just makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to bash here.
Feral Caves: I am usually in one of the better classes for handling this and it's still a big nope for me. Just too much potential damage and need to retarget too often.
Shastaan Warrens: It's not in my route but I will come here if I'm desperate. I am in one of the better classes for it though.
Dramedo Warrens: I feel like experience here is incredibly low given it's a level 99 area. There are just better areas for me to bash imo.
Forgotten Mausoleum: I sometimes do this with chocolate. They are non-crit and can hit hard so it's not at the top of my list. The only saving grace is they do drop a decent amount of gold. The respawning mechanic just makes it a bit annoying for similar reasons to Feral Caves (although it is much easier to handle here)
Special mention:
Xaanhal: all areas should have respawn rates that are at least as quick as this.
I think instakill mechanics are just bad and uninteresting. I want to take an opportunity here to point out that there are some mechanics in the game that are incredibly unfun. The biggest reason I don't do Beneath is because the knight has a counterattack instakill that can trigger instantly after the "warning" line is given. With 250ms ping if the line comes up just before my equilibrium comes up I basically have no chance of stopping my attack in time. If you do have to design such mechanics in future please only make them much more forgiving.
Everyone who bashes regularly is using a script and don't let anyone ever fool you about it. No, areas that require a higher complexity of scripting to bash in would not be interesting. I don't think anyone bashes Tcanna because it is more interesting than other areas.
Note that most people who have posted are whales. It's very hard to compare that experience with someone who barely has any artifacts and is just reaching end game.
Volcano, for reasons already having been stated.
The Mausoleum.
Otherwise, everything is pretty much on my list of things to cover. Unfortunately, I generally feel like I'm robbing other people of bashing these areas when I have my limited buffs up. It's not a good feeling either. More instanced bashing would probably be a good thing to give people something to do in the event all of the other areas are bashed out. At least enough of them to where it doesn't feel like you're wasting your chocolates.
Another option that would be nice and have benefits outside of this would be the ability to BUFFS PAUSE or something. Pauses all of your buffs so you can go do something else for a bit and not get anxiety about timers running out. A big world event happens, or some important city/guild duty comes up that your character has to address. No more "but my chocolates!!" feeling? Sign me up.
You have no idea how many times I've been on mint/caramel and had to stop 2-3 hours after eating them to handle something IG that lasted another 2-4 hours... usually some drama or global RP event. I made the decision to attend, as such, it's my consequence to miss out on buff timers.
Some older promotion stuff is different. Stockings count them as undervalued, I believe. So they take up like, a single roll, but other stuff should be there too. The wheel used to do that too.
More engagement with the game can only be good for the game, but the fact that people pay for buffs (whether the game thinks they're worth anything is actually completely irrelevant) should be exactly why they shouldn't need to choose between engaging with other players/an event and the feeling they aren't just wasting the buff.
a shimmersand hourglass - 250cr
The owner of this item can TURN HOURGLASS to pause or unpause all timed buffs currently affecting them. Can only be turned once per Howling, though using an item that grants a new timed buff will cause the others to resume if currently paused.
Tcanna - very high risk even for whales, high reward, plenty of mobs. Quite fun if I can stay alive. Also possible to only target animal and go bashing, which makes it simple in that sense.
Tiyen - upper is alright, but a bit boring, and often cleared. Abyss has too many different target shifts to be fun for leisurely bashing, and a lot of aggros make it dangerous when they group up and chase.
Xaanhal - decent amount of available mobs, which makes it good.
Dome - good amount of single-target mobs, often cleared out, though.
Luzith's Lair - similar to Dome, but seems more dangerous.
Nal'jin - boring
Shastaan Warrens - too small
I feel like dividing these areas up into more than 99+ would be a good idea. Some feel closer to 99 than others, which seem more suitable for something even higher or perhaps whale-class area rather than connected to level. Perhaps a minimum health level to survive. I don't know.
Available mobs.
Tcanna has a lot to offer, mostly because the xp is fantastic despite the dangers involved. There are so many mobs in the area that you can just keep going for a long while before shifting to a new location, unless you happen to be bashing while everyone else is. Another similar area would probably help here, with a ridiculously high number of mobs, with a good balance between risk and reward. It wouldn't have to be quite as high damage/xp as Tcanna, but I think the mob count matters.
Xaanhal is nice because it's a place you know will be full of mobs at a reasonable rate. A few more of those would probably make a lot of people on all levels pleased, since availability often is an issue. At times lower level people can't bash their areas to reach 99 because high level people come in and breeze through the lower level areas because the high ones are all empty.
Strategy bashing
Naturally I'm biased when it comes to Chapel Gardens, but I would like to think there are people who enjoy a bit of strategy, like that and the Beneath instance. I have an idea about another puzzle-solving, mob-bashing, group-themed area, if anyone is interested in picking my brain for it.
Unused potential
There are a lot of areas that could be promoted better, or should receive a bit of love to make them more desirable to make use of, and I'm not just speaking of the 99+ areas. I know some areas have seen an overhaul, but make sure it's promoted, along with information regarding which target level it is angled towards. It makes it easier for everyone to guide others right.
Perhaps populate Clawhook Range, which at the moment is a vast empty area with no use whatsoever? It could easily become an alternative to Tcanna in terms of mob count. If you plan on branching out to the rest of Albedos through it, just keep aggro mobs in specific ravines or something.
Maybe you could see if it's possible to scale mob strength to player level to maximize the use of some areas and turn them into personal instances like the mines. I could see Raugol, Maghuir, Dun Fortress, Tornos, Raim and Tarean Ice Caverns being used for something like that.
I think it'd be a huge relief to have more Tcannas in terms of difficulty, experience drops, and amount of mobs to hunt in it.
The additive vs multiplicative is about a ~200 damage differential on my end after a small round of testing.
I can't say what the old crit rate is going to be as I didn't really take a sample of criticals prior to the changes versus what they are now. With my small sample, I can say that the last two levels seem much more rarer than they were previously. I see a lot of the other three more often. Unfortunately, without anything to compare them to or without knowing what the formula was versus what it is now, I have no way of confirming just how severe they are.
The one thing I'm going to impress upon the administration is that, while I realize game balance and health are important, this is the 2nd time now I've gotten something on a promo only for it to be impacted a month later due to changes. Please stop doing promos for stuff on offer if your intent is going to be a change a short bit later. It comes off as pretty "bait and switch"-y, and it happening twice now makes me less confident that anything I get in the future is going to just be downgraded shortly after acquisition. I have no intentions of getting anything off the cart next time as a result of this happening twice.