@jonathanh.2038 thanks! I've had few recently due to the way things have worked out but don't plan to do more than 2 a month (hopefully will get back to 8 videos a month)
we ran away once with the blade - two cracked gallys and one sloop that somehow had unlimited supplies of kegs - do you think we were in the right? (we still had CoF chest, had 12 streak and tried to fight them for like 20 mins)
I've been saying since the beginning, having the skellies respond to chat wheel text prompts like "Man the Cannons!" and such while at the helm would be a great addition. You would actually feel in charge of the skellies!
The fact that it is being so widely discussed, be it negative or positive, just means Rare added something that actually changed the game. And tho it may need tweaks, this bit of content is set to be something we will use and talk about for ages in game!
Lol ages? Don't gas it up its just a big ship with skeletons it's nothing mindblowing or nice elden ring shadow of erdtree is something to last that long 1 ship and 1 new camp isn't enough
@definitelylorde maybe to you because you're probably bad at the game but the majority of the players like the shadow of the erdtree DLC for Elder ring just look at ratings on it and I agree with the other guy don't gas it up they should have added more than thd burning blade it just gets boring fast now
Boarding is also useless if u r a 2 man crew vs a galleon crew who is in control of BB, u will be ladder guarded, and eventually out-ran, since u r keeping ur distance.
I feel the not being able to turn in if another ship is around would make it near impossible for a blade to sell. By the time they sink one ship, another one will have arrived. I think they should add the ability to disrupt the turn in though, make it longer harder to do. This would be a nice balance because reaper runners can’t just get easy gold, and skilled crews can still turn in under pressure.
Finally, someone who understands this. I agree with your point, but I'll add that you actually can interrupt "sell" by using sword, blunderbombs or blunderbuss
@@silentshadow2620 That’s true, but at the moment it is a bit too easy since the turn in is only a few seconds. I feel they should just change it to either be longer or have another turn in system.
@silentshadow2620 Maybe, but when the ship takes ages to sink, it's not as simple as "throw a couple blunderbombs," you have to hold them off for minutes, while they only have to get by and press a button for a single second, and only a maximum of 3 times
@macewindow149 firstly, it's not a single second. It takes longer than it takes to vote down hourglass. So you do have time. Secondly, good point. But well, if all bb crew is trying to sell, why can't you move the bb out of selling range and proceed to do the usual stuff with your ship? BB is nothing without its skeleton crew, and if it has a gally crew on board - well, it's never been easy to sink a galleon. I'll make it clear just to avoid unnecessary argument - I do agree that selling it is a bit too easy considering that it is a pvp event. But as a person above said - if BB can't sell while there are ships nearby, it will be stuck there because ships will constantly return putting BB in a constant loop until it runs out of skeletons and sinks. As I said in my other comment, if this is going to happen they need to make it so either crews sunk by bb are moved to another server. Or BB itself gives you ritual stacks/aligience for participating in pvp since there is no reward for it now
@@silentshadow2620 It's still way too easy to sell. Maybe it doesn't take a single second, but it takes 3 at most, and all they have to do is just keep sending 1 person at a time and just wait till they manage to vote once
Update! Bonecallers can now be used as an offensive or defensive method on The Burning Blade as of today. Apparently it was just a bug and not a defensive feature.
The reaper runner and world event slot is probably the biggest issues for the BB. Everything else should be fine in my opinion but it’s gonna take some time for people to adapt to this world event which is good, it is the boss world event. More strategies and plays and creative ideas to take down the blade. Off topic but story, a BB was about to drop but we were gonna try and claim it and the biggest mistake the crew did was sail away from the island which worked in our favor, when they realized how good we were they tried to drop anchor in hopes they can sell but were too far so we killed there skellies and sunk them, giving us a 12 ritual blade of souls.
@@-fireball65-you dive to a raid ashen winds and since ashen lords are pretty easy you kill em fast and your already moving the world event cycle and sometimes if your lucky, the BB will spawn In fast
@@-fireball65- I mean you could but it’s not part of the world event cycle so when you dive your gonna find other world events or The BB that’s claimed by others which is the issue your saying
Tbh instead of just preventing players from turning in the BB due to nearby ships Rare should take that a step further... How about.. A 15min speech from Flamefart berating and condemning crews that run... Of course you can't skip it and it only happens when u turn in while running
I honestly like this idea...it's just such a great way to give the middle finger to people that run to sell and then act as if they are ultra-skilled. Nah man, talk to the pirate lord if that's the kind of gameplay you want
Alliances are so, so rare, because sometimes you can't even SUGGEST alliances. Too many people are just kill on sight in this game. Can't even get close with horn in hand without cannons firing and eyes of reach sniping.
I agree on the fact that the burning blades should be reminiscent to sea fort's sea shrines and sea treasuries Where there is merely a cool down can reappear and not interfering with other world events
If you were blocked from turning in by other people being around you, a large portion of the community would never get to turn one in. Simply due to the fact that you run out of time when everybody's chasing you. Nothing worse than having your entire day ruined because you ran out of time because somebody bothered you for 20 minutes longer than you had to play And I'm sure this doesn't need to be said but everybody's favorite time to attack you is right before you turn in So the options here are attempt to run and turn it in or scuttle yourself
I understand what you are saying but... Most people basically scuttle when they sell because that's what happens. The ship disappears and they "win". Tbh I'm not sure what I would change but it is pretty disheartening when you chase a Burning Blade they run to reapers while multi boarding you while also spamming bone callers then lower while talking shit. Seems pretty unfair to me. I think the idea is that you have entire servers chasing the burning blade at all times and that simply isn't the case.
@@Jadeblades_I agree with allot of what you said . So maybe the solution is pretty nuanced. I usually roll solo so it’d be nice if there was an “escape plan” aside from sinking all enemies .. I’m decent at pvp but even with the BB it seems impossible to take out multiple competent ships (as a solo). Also I agree the entire server doesn’t always chase but it does happen at times.
@@Syrup4prez Even though you are solo you have allot of advantages a full crew doesn't have access to. For instance you can tuck on the burning blade as someone sinks it and then hop down and vote once to aquire the whole ship. Where the enemy needs all crew mates to vote. Also the obvious of lowering by yourself. In my opinion if you are sailing for flame heart as the burning blade you need to fight your way to victory. That being said to compensate being solo I think solos should have access to more skeletons as Ashinyray said. There is no reason why you should be able to essentially run the entire time and lower with no consequences or draw backs.
The main problem I have with this season is that the Burning Blade is just another thing for solos to worry about. Not only does the Burning Blade make it rare for other world events to spawn [effectively forcing players to fight it] but realistically solos are the main target of the Burning Blade, As fighting the Burning Blade on a solo sloop is just flat out impossible [unless you're teaming up with the whole server].
Considering the scale of the ship, and that the skeletons ignore the sails and anchor, I think the anchor is fine as it is. It's a slow, hulking beast of a ship, it makes sense that keeping what little mobility you do have up and running not a monstrous headache. Athena flag buff would make more sense, so I do agree there. As for the turn in, yeah no, this is a PvP world event you should turn in as a clear victor. While I'm not the biggest PvPer in this game, I agree you shouldn't be able to hot drop a WHOLE ship and world event in seconds out from under other players. Especially if they're right on top of you and fighting you. Also, Rare needs to update alliance flag mechanics to give MORE incentive to use alliances, while PvP is a big part of the game, sailing together was also meant to be an equal draw. I'd argue the buried treasure mechanics (quest board specifically) also needs a rework, but that is a different subject, lol. Rare needs to stop abandoning cool ideas, and actually give them the love and attention they deserve. If something doesn't work out the first time or requires tweaks to go from good to amazing, abandoning the feature just to go make something new shouldn't be the answer.
I agree with you i just sometimes wish it was a little easier to pilot as a duo sloop or solo sloop as the sails and wheel turning is quite difficult in the way they just take so long for a two manned crew
@@TheRauzKindred So you've been going for 8 hours and now you have to get off. So does the rest of your crew as your head for turn in three more ships Show up to challenge you Now what you're saying is they should not be given a chance to turn in. They should just have to drop everything and get off and give it to you right?
@@CalumCoconuts Yeah, that is an understandable frustration. Unfortunately, it's hard to say what a good fix for that might be without causing further imbalances.
@@Why-are-my-opinions-illegal No need to get snide about your opinion man. Despite that, you do make a good point, that would be very frustrating. Counterpoint, you still made the choice to horde for eight whole hours rather than turning in sooner. That is almost no different from making that choice on your normal ship. Risk vs reward is a major part of this game's thematics. If the enemy turn in lock solution isn't an ideal fix for this, possibly better solution might be making a turn in timer. Defend the burning blade within a set amount of time IF other ships are around to fight you. Thematically, you could argue that Flameheart is taking longer cause of the distractions, so he commands you to delay the opposing forces while he performs the ritual. So don't sink in a certain given time, and you can still turn in the ship. This would give both parties a fair fighting chance at the rewards.
@@TheRauzKindred The game's not designed to limit the ways you can play it It's intended to have as little rules as possible. The old saying was tools not rules They try to stay away from anything that forces you into a particular type of gameplay That way they can appeal to the greater player base
I think my buddy and me got the most rare intended BB experience recently. We got control of the ship and finished rituals while one duo Sloop was constantly fighting uns and sinking but they came back time after time. This delayed Un so much the rest of the server got interested and at the end we fought 3 sloops and a galleon all of them more or less knowing how to fight the BB. We sunk at the end but it was an amazing experience
The Obsidian Skelly's don't bail water. They are really just that good. As a solo I was in a fight with two sloops at the same time and took at least 10 cannon shots before they sank. There was literally only a single bucket worth of water in the hold.
I think they need to allow it to do hour glass, but not invade. To incentivize people invading the burning blade just make it worth their while. Like when a sloop gets a streak and is allowed to punch above their weight class
I always figured when they added a man-o-war to the game, it would have two anchors like a proper man-o-war. One anchor down would slow the ship to 50% speed, and two would be full stop. I think that would be an interesting way to balance it, and still manageable even for a solo crew.
Fighting the Burning Blade as an Athena Emissary should give you some sort of special commendation Wouldn't it feel awesome and lore accurate to take down flame hearts servants as a representative of the guardians of Fortune!!!
I can understand why it's so easy to turn in the burning blade. The bb is susposed to be a call to all ships to band together to take it down, and having that many ships when you're trying to turn in becomes impossible. However, the reality of it is very different. Most either ignore or leave. Those that do are too busy trying to fuck over the other crews. They don't want to ally and they don't want to share because "it's a pirate game" and rather troll others by any means necessary.
Tbh I don’t think the anchor needs changing either. If you’ve done your job of taking out skeletons and boarding aggressively, the BB crew has to send someone below to bilge, sometimes two. The rest have to do boarder defense. It’s very difficult to find a man to spare to raise the anchor. Also, as of today’s update, the BB crew can summon skeletons on their own ship using bone callers. So now part of boarding the BB also means stealing bone callers. Big agree on the turn in radius. Just 1 square around Reaper’s is enough. I do NOT want other world events while the BB is up. That heavily disincentivizes rituals, which is the whole point of the blade. Those worlds events would also be almost exclusively for the BB, no other ships would stand a chance against them. Absent a competent alliance crew, letting other world events happen while the BB is on the server, is just giving the BB more loot without any major added risk. What I would like to see is the BB in hourglass, legitimately. My pitch is once the BB gets 5 rituals, it can then be invaded by Athena faction champions. This would create some real risk for BBs that otherwise have a dead server, and ensure they face competent opponents. Guardians of Fortune would get an enormous gold/rep payout from the faction stash of the sword and the 5+ streak win turn in.
The changes I'd propose. 1. If the burning blade is scuttled under your command, you change seas. (This also solves *another* exploit that exists/existed that I won't go into.) 2. In the vicinity of Reaper's Hideout and the Burning Blade, a crew should be able to commit to fighting the blade, and take the same rules - If they sink before the Blade, they change seas. This way the blade can't simply get permanently heckled. Some sort of Athena Ghost Magic could come out when in range, the Pirate Lord's voice could spell out the bargain, and a token of some sort appears on the Captain's table for the crew to vote on to prevent the claim.
We just cant pretend that some people will never be happy and that doesnt make their complaints valid in the slightest... entitlement and narcissism is out of control in this world.
I've taken control of the BB solo about 20 times now with default supplies, it's extremely easy to manipulate the ship AI and can just sail behind it slowly and keep forcing it to change directions while hitting lowers on the rear. Then I just sail straight to reapers, knowing nobody can stop me, hop off with COF sell and repeat lol. Also, a fun "side quest" that I thoroughly enjoy is just getting up in the crows nest of the PVE event and tucking and waiting for another crew to come take the ship. The instant they defeat the ship, I jump down and place my 1 vote on the table, take control, wipe whoever is on board and sail to reapers while they chase me. Yes, it's stupid. But clearly it's how they intended so screw it.
The skeletons do NOT bail water. They react so quickly to holes, depending on the size of the ship used to crew the Blade, that it seems like they do. A decent brig/sloop will notice they almost never have to bail at all, unless skeletons die. Galleons may find that the fewer repairing skeletons result in more bailing, albeit still not insanely frequent unless they die. And I'm surprised they reversed the Bonecaller bug. (I thought it was a feature, honestly.) It was nice not having to worry about them, and knowing you couldn't use them (because you already have a skeleton crew). Now just imagine a Galleon controlling the Blade, getting attacked by another Galleon, and 24 bonecaller skeletons just running around the ship. It's already laggy enough lol.
My main dislike about the Burning Blade is, like you said that you don’t go to a g5 from sinking it. Solo play feels horrible with the burning blade, I’ve had the ship a few times at this point and I’ve had to skeletons despawn on me a few times randomly. I was fighting a duo sloop crew and mid battle I see all my skeletons turn to dust instantly. I have no clue why the all vanished in front of me, the crew didn’t board, they weren’t shooting cannons and the time, they just vanished
And the loot you get from sinking a fresh spawned Burning Blade is also shit. That being said it’s not hard to sink a fresh burning blade, you just hit it anywhere and it sinks. All you get is a few trinkets, chests, COF, Obsidian Skull and the Blade of souls. Which isn’t work fuck all when it’s a fresh spawn because there’s no rituals, gives you piss poor rep and gold.
The Burning Blade can seem overpowered pretty easily if crewed by a full galley or competent players but I still think it offers lots of counter play. They should also consider changing the anchor on it.
I like the idea of having an Athena reward for taking out a crewed Burning Blade. Maybe there could be a Special Athena Quest that is only available while there's a BB on the server. It could take the place of Briggsy's Invitation and automatically enter any crews that accept it into an Alliance.
One issue I’m noticing is that people are not going for the burning blade like they used two even when at like 6 rituals. Maybe it’s cause of the inflation of the exploit but there needs to be more incentive in my opinion
I had just taken over the Blade with my brother. Immediately without a break, or supplies, fought off 2 gallys. Eventually a cheater sloop came by and ruined everything. They were flying with kegs, and had that dumb dive glitch, their ship didn't leave below the waves. Couldn't even see their mast. What a fun first experience with the shiny new content. Its good content, but the server stability, and countless other issues or cheats need to be adressed before making another giant content update. Idk. Maybe im just salty i sunk to flying cheaters. Maybe im salty that my game chugs or crashes when the burning blade is near.
Honestly, I feel like there should be options for solo sloopers who take out the Burning Blade. Either allowing commands for the skeletons or allowing them to turn their open crews on and getting more than just one other person to then be stuck sailing a large galleon.
me and my brig crew actually just took down a burning blade. it was piloted by a sloop duo who spent literally like, 3 hours running from us (even after they reset their skeletons twice) and then called us cheaters before scuttling.
Burning blade is literally a burden if you are not that optimize crew, but if a sweaty crew handles the ship, it is OP. However, enemies spawn infinitely while the skeletons you have won′t respawn unless you do the rituals again
This season is heavily skewed towards large crews. I’m a solo slooper and getting all the obsidian bone caller set feels all but impossible. Definitely need tweaks to skeleton crew and ship functions based on crew size. Hopefully next season has a more balanced gimmick, still having fun tho.
I've been a Reaper Runner with the BB and the reason was always that we were done for that night. fights can stretch out for a long time if the other crew keeps running away and repairing and we often just don't want to deal with them, so we run for Reapers Hideout and turn in the BB. it might be annoying for the others, but the risk is too high for the BB crew (and no reward) vs no risk for the others, so why even bother? plus since players are constantly trying to kill BB, it'd means Reapers Hideout would keep getting contested. and that's not even mentioning people camping the hideout. this could potentially be solved by having a second hideout, but idk about that. something that absolutely needs fixing is BB running out of resources, I don't understand why this is even a thing, they should get "unlimited" cannonballs and food that respawns after each ritual.
My fix for the « world event » problem would be to move it to the Skull of siren song pool. This would help the Skull of siren song so much by making it more active since everyone would try to clear it to get the BB to spawn and thus also allowing to do other world events like you mentionned
Probably the strongest feature of the burning blade is the hull auto-repair managed by the skeletons. Usually you can sink a galleon by forcing at least two people in the lower hold, one repairing and one baIling: they lose the ability to put pressure back, you keep shooting, someone goes to board them and it's done. But the burning blade allows its crew to withstand so much more pressure while keeping on the offensive. This creates some much needed freshness in ship to ship combat and will force many players to invent some new tactics, at the very least mixing the pvp usual with what you need to do to sink a pve galleon, guarding lower hold holes and killing skeletons.
Its really funny that you cant turn in hourglasses if as much as another crew looks at your ship the wrong way. But the burning blade can be turned in while actively taking damage.
My big problem with it is that is is not really viable to use the Blade as a sloop crew. Those of us who don't have a 4-player crew readily available can't really hope to get anything done with it.
I must say, Me as a guy who plays this game with his childhood friends alot…Having world events AND The burning blade active sounds so fun, like imagine your doing a Fort of Fortune and you hear your friend yell “GUYS THE BURNING BLADE IS HERE” like all hell would break loose and Id love that xD
Every time I've pledged my crew to the burning blade we weren't sunk, even while being attacked by stronger crews. On the other hand, every time we've attacked it while controlled by players (except when I tried as a solo) we managed to sink it and get the sword. We aren't really strong players, especially in TDM, so my guess is you simply need to use some brain and sail your ship the best you can. I would add that you need at least two ships if the burning blade has a 3+ player crew, but only if they know how to do naval combat. I think that the event is still too new for most players to understand it, even if Rare explained quite a lot about it. It will be interesting to see what happens when people get used to fighting in and against the burning blade
The one point I have with the anchor is asking why it matters for the attacking crew if, as you pointed out, the tactics needed to take down the BB are different. Boarders should focus on taking out the skeleton crew, and making the anchor easy to raise incentivises this over the meta the BB changes up.
Would love the ability to have other world events up as soon as players take control of the blade. The seas feel a bit emptier without world events spawning in. Also a little note, the skellys cannot bail water from the blade. They’re just really efficient at patching
The only sucky part is that any crew that just sits on ladders will not be sunk whatsoever by normal players because that’ll just ladder guard and run to reapers to lower.
I think sinking it as an Athena emissary should also give some Guardians of Fortune reputation, given that hourglass is canonically taking on the opposing faction to fight for the Sea of Thieves. Taking down Flameheart’s flagship should absolutely count towards that. Nothing too crazy though. Maybe 2 and a half levels for AI controlled Burning Blade, and 5 levels for player controlled. I know that sounds like a lot, but keep in mind how difficult that fight can be (especially for Solo Sloops), and how significant that would be for both factions. Hourglass as a whole needs an update in my opinion. It’s gotten to be more of a drag than it used to be. They need more rewards between levels, more reputation earned per battle, and/or more ways to earn reputation apart from what’s available. Maybe allow us to buy levels with dabloons. You could for the Sea Dogs, which were also exclusively a PvP mode, so why not?
The Galleon we fought while manning the Burning Blade the other day, would beg to disagree. We were all experienced players, 70 days played, all Pirate Legends. It took us 5 hours to finally sink that Galleon, they kept boarding us and dropping our anchor in matter of seconds, evading our attacks, we almost sunk nearly a dozen times, it was nerve-wracking and stress inducing. The anchor may be Sloop, but the Helm Wheel is still Galleon, and it takes a lot to manage those sails without help. My point is, the Burning Blade is easy enough to sink and fight if you're a competent enough crew, even with people manning that ship. So no, I don't think it needs to be changed or rebalanced.
I actually tried to swim underneath a PvP controlled Burning Blade with a Strong hold keg like I usually do with some ships thinking it would sink it and I almost made it to ship but one of the players had jumped into the water and hit the keg with their sword.
The 2 issues I personally have with it are that it stops other world events from spawning, and since you can just board to take the cof (or any of the other loot, but I'm not sure it would be worth the time to get the rest) the only loot being earned for sinking an unpledged BB is the sword with no rituals which doesn't sell for a whole lot cimpared to other world events, meaning there's no real incentive for sinking an unpledged BB outside of cycling world events and stopping other people from taking it and holding up the world event on that server.
Had one flight against the burning blade after sinking it our alliance member took the sword of souls as they did most of the work in the fight. They then proceeded to leave the alliance right before selling the sword of souls. So if you decide for an alliance to fight the burning blade it will most likely lead to betrayal.
I understand not being able to turn in the Burning Blade with ships nearby, but I feel like I'm going crazy when people say it's fast. Me and my friends spent a solid hour last night chasing a single sloop and regardless of if we were with wind, against wind, or with no wind, the sloop out sped us
I dont really agree with the "no-turn-in" radius. I had a ten streak and we were attacked by players way better than us (Gold Ghost Curse) but we were already on our way to lower and we managed to knock their sails down. Then all 4 of them camped in the reapers hideout and us a trio managed to kill all of them and lower. Now if they would be a certain radius we couldnt have done that and itwould just be unfair because we were also one player less than them.
Idk… DH and I are both decent players but we had a galleon and brig come after us this evening just as we were about to turn in at RH and while we fought, bailed, and even tried to jump off and at least get to Flameheart, we were thwarted. I think it’s pretty well balanced so long as people are smart about taking it on (these guys hid until we were in a vulnerable position and while we nearly had it all repped and ready to go again, while not allianced, the two ships worked together with the galleon shooting and the brig players constantly boarding. We sunk and lost it all. Frustrating but just goes to show that if you approach it properly, you CAN take it, even from a fairly skilled crew. By the end, the galleon had either taken off or sunk but the brig stuck around and their constant bombardment eventually paid off. I think that some people simply don’t understand it but like anything, watch some videos and then give it a go. Learn by doing. So yeah, in my opinion, it’s pretty well balanced. I haven’t really seen many crews chasing other ships down once they have it, I mostly see those who have taken it over being chased (I personally feel like it’s new enough, I don’t mind letting whoever has it keep it while I go about my own business but as a WE it’s fun to do). I think that crewed solely by PVE or a mixture, it’s well balanced and should be left alone but that’s just my opinion. I absolutely agree that Athena should get SOMETHING for going up against their sworn enemy and this goes for the Skelly Camps too. Why would they be the only emissary that can’t get rep from selling the orbs when once again, it would make sense for them to be the ones thwarting Flameheart! Reapers got their update, it’s time Athena got theirs… Not to mention HC…
I "ran" with my first BB simply because the two brigs trying to fight me had 0 idea what they were doing and I realized I was better off saving my limited Obsidian Skelly supply (was playing solo) for an actual fight instead of the same couple of swabbies trying to firebomb the ship or ram into it. The world event itself is great and I am 100% down for more "giant ship" world events, here's to a Grand Maritime Union Man-o-War in the future!
I think sails should scale with crew size too. Maybe if you're a solo or a duo and positioning your own sails the skeletons will grab the others and mimic your adjustments. They could also just make it faster to move sails on a smaller crew too.
I agree with the running BB’s. I put on an Athena flag so I could get commendations to help “sink” it but also I like to give players who are crewing it with the Skelly curse on the ability to earn their commendations sinking an Athena emissary as there isn’t a lot of them just sailing around these days. But most BB crews I’ve seen will just run away instead of fight…
My friend, who has never played before, and I, playing for the first time in 4 years, saw the burning blade with no idea what it was and just decided to full send. Rammed our boat into the side, boarded, eradicated everything on board, and promptly sailed to the nearest outpost to sell everything. Unfortunately it sank for... some reason. We had patched all the holes from fighting, unless there is a third floor belowdecks
On Alliances: Commendations appeal to such a small group that I highly doubt that adding any more (there are too many) would affect gameplay much. Instead, I’d go with Loot or cosmetics as my “carrot”.
A specific mechanic where alliances that take down the burning blade get full rewards for selling the blade no matter who sinks them and sells them would be kinda neat for this specific world event. It should be incentivized that multiple ships work together to take down the burning blade. Just after the ship sinks alliances would go right out the window with people fighting over who gets to sell the blade
You explained it perfectly I love that you have to use different strategies to take down the ship but most people that I fight when I have it just try to fight it as a big galleon which usually results in easy sinks
I think it'd be less of an issue if Rare hadn't screwed up the scaling dependent on crew size. They even mentioned in some of their patch notes after the season dropped that the scaling's off with the Burning Blade.
After Interrupting a temple ritual you should be able to have the option to load the orb in the cannon and use if as an explosive cursed cannonball but only against the burning blade.
So today I got on to try and the new ship and man o mannn. The ship is a solo’s dream, I used the ship about 4 different times testing things out and just seeing what the hype was about, I don’t know if rules change with more people but as a solo those skeletons did bail water repair to the point to where I wouldn’t even need to go patch or bail any water after take multiple hits, the crew is solid in terms of repair and keeping you afloat. They lack in accuracy with the cannons but if you can get 5 of them shooting they can skin even a gally in just seconds if the stars align. All in all I think the new ship is great, although seemingly better for solo /duo’s as the crew really does work wonder in the bottom decks.
Yes!!! I agree the turn in is absolutely ridiculous. Three times now I have had a Burning Blade b-line to the Reaper's Hideout while I and other ships were fighting it. Even while we were right next to it, blasting it to pieces, it was handed in....if you have the Burning Blade, you must be prepared to defend it. It's appalling that they can do that, meanwhile I can't dive down to my next hourglass match because a sloop is digging up chests a couple islands away from me.
Proximity should not stop you from turning in The Blade. If you don't have thousands of hours in the game, it would be way too easy for a semi-competent crew to endlessly block you by hanging out near the edge and running when you came to to sink them. Also, thematically, the goal of the event is not to sail around fighting people. The goal is to collect orb knowledge and deliver it to Flameheart. If someone stands a chance of stopping you, the correct way to complete the objective is to go straight to Flameheart with the knowledge, and there's nothing about the setting or lore that contradicts that. Reaper daddy won't be happy if you lose his knowledge and ship over an ego kill. The best way to handle it is to make the Blade crew anchor at Reaper's, interact with an object (preferably an orb) on the ship, and walk it in to Flameheart. That way if you get there first, you can capture the flag, turn it in, and win. Disabling turn-ins while other ships are around is a rule. An orb you can take from them and turn in is a tool.
I assumed the ship would already be balanced depending on the crew size. But if not that is definitely something I think would help. Having a 4 player flameheart ship is basically META. But playing solo is very challenging. Ive done it multiple times. Not too rough fighting one other player ship but it tends to attract ALOT of attention especially if you’re doing the rituals. I did this last night got 6 done and realized 3 ships had teamed up and camped reapers until i fought them to sell… i lost that battle, although i got some revenge and dropped a keg on one of the galleons after i spawned with the sloop. Ran it again and sold at 2 rituals to satisfy myself. I like the new change but could use some work for sure.
As a solo who's helmed the Burning Blade a number of times, I think there's definitely room for improvement with skelly spawns for solos/duos. And- unfortunately -sometimes running with the Blade is the only reasonable option you have in a fight. It's not exactly fun to get anchored and spawncamped by a galleon of TDMers who are bent on depleting your skeletons and parking 2 yards away from your hull before they even fire a single cannonball. I'll fight a naval crew 4 times my size any day, but if I see a galleon fire 3 boarders at me immediately while I have 4 ladders to watch? I know there's no way in hell I'm winning that fight. So, might as well at least TRY and cash in my hard work. In hourglass you at least get a little rep for losing, so there's incentive to keep trying even against spawncamping boardlords. There's no such compensation on the Blade, so there's no reason to even attempt a battle you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you'll lose. I'm not defending Reaper Running, mind. it's an annoyance that should remain stigmatized since nine times out of ten, the Runners are fleeing from a fight they could reasonably win, or could at minimum die in honorable battle. But with how the Burning Blade works, and how a lot of sweats refuse to use projectile weaponry at long range (both guns AND cannons for some reason), you're more incentivized to run in some dire situations.
I still think the burning blade needs something that can counter it, something the crew of it can watch out for and other crews can use to not make it a total server domination. Say for example they make an "Athena cannon ball" that damages the burning blade for level 3 holes per hit *max stack of 10 separate from normal cannon balls, but also do no damage vs normal crews ships*, but can only be acquired via the new shrines, And also while carrying the Athena cannon ball you glow like a villainous skull outside a chest, easy to spot from a distance, and the one to be targeted via the burning blade.
The exploits HAVNT BEEN FIXED!! I am still being boarded by people who shoot out of a cannon and then fly through the air while switching to their fishing rods and literally curving through the air like a bullet from the film "Wanted", and landing right onto my deck! THIS NEEDS FIXING ASAP!!!
They need to make it easier on solos, as personally I can take a solo, but a duo gets so much more difficult for me as I'm not the greatest. Si imagine how difficult a galleon is, there needs to be a buff for skeletons as a solo, where they can help raise anchor or pull up and repair broken masts, as it's essentially maintaining a galleon without them
I agree, the ship should be in safer seas. Obviously make it so loot / progression is severely limited. As a solo slooper, it would be nice to casually sail around fighting skeleton ships with an npc crew.
In my opinion the turn in process is fine. The defending crew has already: Taken down the burning blade possibly against other ships. Possible fought off invading crews whilst completing Skele camps. Then defended to make it to reapers for the turn in. The attacking crew has had plenty of time to take down the player controlled blade. The defenders deserve an easy turn in.
Good thoughts. The only time it was in Safer Seas was on the Insider's servers for testing. I agree that it needs to stay on High Seas due, due to the PVP aspect of it. I am interested to see how the fixes implemented today will change things. Bone callers actually working on the Burning Blade will make for more chaos for crews to deal with. I personally will wait for the hype to die down and try to take control of it, and also sink it at some point for the commendations. What really has me interested at the moment is a week long calming of the Devil's Roar starting Thursday, and the new ashen bottle quests. I might actually see other ships in the roar for a change, as that's my favorite place to just chill and do voyages or fishing.
The main thing me and my crew keep having an issue with is a galleon/brig crew either ramming on the moment the blade is about to sink, stealing it from under us or just sitting on the ship where skeletons can't get them then claiming moments after it is open thus giving them a full ship for no work. I feel like the blade should once set to the claim mode only be claimable by crews whose ship is nearby and/or do not have another ship nearby IE: You want it? come and take it from me (have the blade not sink for the duration multiple ships are nearby + a bit extra if crewed by skeletons)
Honestly, I had more issues defending the burning blade because 4 ladders and the fact that the other ships can respawn all the time without anything to lose is just hard to defend against.
The more often you fight the Burning Blade, the more you know how to defeat it. (I fought the Burning Blade 17 times and only after the 10th time did I figure out how to fight it best without stress)
Most people basically scuttle when they sell because that's what happens. The ship disappears and they "win". Tbh I'm not sure what I would change but it is pretty disheartening when you chase a Burning Blade they run to reapers while multi boarding you while also spamming bone callers then lower while talking shit. Seems pretty unfair to me. I think the idea is that you have entire servers chasing the burning blade at all times and that simply isn't the case.
The world event is supposed to be the more difficult when captured. It is said over and over that the burning blade is supposed to be the most powerful ship on the sea. You can’t solo the burning blade that easily. If you’re complaining about it too much; you need to be more strategic about how you engage the ship. Just as he said in this video. Over and over again my friends and I have taken down capped burning blades over and over cause we choose to engage the ship in a smart behavior. Take out their masts. Keep moving as much as possible. Stay as far away from the front as possible to avoid the roar. Then board as much as possible and keep the skeletons down while distracting the players as someone is shooting at the bottom of the ship. Soloing a captured burning blade is near impossible
