Adjusted difficulty of group content (2 & 3 chevron mobs)
So I enjoy a challenge; however, things seem way over tuned now.
Example 1:
1st, the difficulty curve seems way off. Last night I was a Level 21 Knight (375 AC & 440 AC with shield), and we were trying to kill our way into the mountain pass for the ember stone update. We had a level 23 berserker, 22 sentinal, and 22 brigand.
On any 1,2 or 3 chevron red con mob, I had to let the berserker tank it with his 100ish AC. Any other group member could tank, except for the tank, since the mob is red and only by 1 level. Especially the three chevron mobs, which would 2 shot me before the healer could get one heal off.
So we stayed and got me to level 22, turning everything yellow. Suddenly the 3 chev mob that was hitting me for 70+ is hitting me for 30 and its back to tanking like normal.
The difficulty curve seems way off here, the mob is only red by 1 level, yet there is no way I could tank them, even with 2 healers going all out. But as soon as it turned yellow, I only need 1 healer, I can hold agro again and it feels like tanking again. Not to mention, classes that aren't even tanks can tank it better and can be healed by a single sentinal with no problem.
Example 2:
After getting the ember stone update in dry foot, we ran back and decided to check on the commander in the exile camp in North Haven, since we have never been able to find this guy and the patch notes said the named quest mobs would be more common.
All mobs are green, by probably 10ish levels. Now we are a 22 Knight (440 AC with shield), 23 Berserker, 22 Sentinal and 22 Brigand.
So we proceed to break into the camp to go check for the commander, only to discover that these mobs were wrecking us at about the same level as the yellow mobs back in dry foot. We were actually struggling to get the camp cleared but we did.
Once cleared and we were dealing with singles as they popped, sure we could hit them hard and kill them fast, but they still required a lot of effort to kill - even though they are at least 10 levels below us. Mobs that should not be able to hit very hard are hitting me for 30-50, and trying to tank just 2 mobs is super painful for the 22 sentinal to heal through. It honestly felt like we hadn't leveled at all, it still felt like the first time we went through the exile camp at the appropriate levels - thus all that extra gear and levels we obtained was basically meaningless on this low level content.
Our group's conclusion:
So we all thought part of getting some of the best gear on your tank was supposed to make your tank tanky, but it doesn't seem like that matters at all - it feels like it's more about whether the mob is a 1,2 or 3 chevron and that's about it. It doesn't matter if that mob is gray, green, blue, or yellow - in all cases, you will get hit about as hard depending on the number of chevrons. As soon as the mob turns red, it doesn't matter what the chevrons are, it's going to wipe the floor with you, even if it's only 1 level red.
I have to question if AC even does anything at this point, and what is the point in all the other stats you acquire if having them is negated simply because the mob is group based?
All that said, I don't feel like I've earned anything at this point since everything I encounter is equally as difficult no matter how far I have out-leveled it. Something just feels really wrong about this.