It takes so long to do Athenas as they currently are with being forced to do merchant quests now; especially if the quest takes you across the map for a delivery. There should be more options for getting rid of the merchant cargo like selling to reapers or ditching in some way? it's just super tedious to have all the quests in one region of the map then the cargo delivery makes you go across the map for absolutly nothing in terms of money or Athena reputation. Thoughts?
Athena Merchant quest changes?
@wp-avenger
If you bury treasure, then let the map sink and disappear, the treasure disappears also.So if you collect cargo and let it sink in the ocean, does it fail and remove the cargo page? Could this be a way to get around having to deliver the cargo during athena quests like we used to?
Or does it softlock your voyage like losing an animal crate did in year one?
I might test this later.
@testakleze said in Athena Merchant quest changes?:
@wp-avenger
If you bury treasure, then let the map sink and disappear, the treasure disappears also.So if you collect cargo and let it sink in the ocean, does it fail and remove the cargo page? Could this be a way to get around having to deliver the cargo during athena quests like we used to?
Or does it softlock your voyage like losing an animal crate did in year one?
I might test this later.
Let us know your results, but even if it works, players shouldnt have to do such workarounds to try to enjoy such a minimally rewarding voyage.
Athena's needs a reword more than Hunter's Call, IMO. I don't enjoy fishing, but that's ok because there are people that do and HC only has 30 levels. Athena's has 500 levels now and the base voyage is just more of what we did for the other trading companies thus obnoxiously repetitive. Thieves' Haven Runs were(1)/are both obsolete because of veils, and tediously long/repetitive because they're merely more sailing/digging/player versus skeleton activities just more of what we did for the other trading companies. And Mystic Veil voyages needed (2) balancing desperately because activities ran the gamut from so difficult/ridiculous that I used an online guide every time (pictorial maps), more of the same activities (haunted island combats), ridiculously simple and lucrative (ship graveyards), to mildly interesting and fun (zoom maps and lying maps).
Athena's doesn't feel epic because it's got one voyage that isn't entirely just more of the same, but much of it is ridiculous busywork that needs to be worked though before getting to the new and interesting content (the tornado and fort assault). It is so unbalanced and uninteresting that players bought 50 of them and just kept rerolling until they got the ship graveyard. And all they did was make that easier... Athena's desperately needs new, and more importantly good content to feel like the epic end game content being a Pirate Legend is supposed to be.
(1) TBH I haven't tried a TH run since S11 dropped, so I don't know if raiding them is more rewarding or if they're even still available...
(2) I haven't tried a veil since S11 dropped as well. Is this balanced well?@goldsmen
Sinking the cargo did not remove the page from the voyage. So delivering the cargo is still required as far as I know to complete an athena.@testakleze said in Athena Merchant quest changes?:
@goldsmen
Sinking the cargo did not remove the page from the voyage. So delivering the cargo is still required as far as I know to complete an athena.Well thats sad. Thanks for the info though!
@lordqulex
Thieves haven runs are not available anymore sadly.
Veils are exactly the same as before.Yeah Athena is in desperate need of new content. All the other trading companies got nice QOL changes, but athena is (once again...) left behind. Veils are basically the only voyage worth doing, since the normal ones take way too long with way too little payout. If they change ALL the loot of a normal athena to actual athena loot, then they would be worth doing. And losing Thieves haven runs on top of that makes it even worse...
And to make matters even worse, the new raid voyages are not worth it as well...
Completing a Sea fort rewards you with, ONE or TWO low tier athena loot pieces... Siren treasury the same... Ashen lord is slightly better, but only thanks to the talisman. Have not tried the others since im not Athena 40+ yet.
PLEASE buff athena, it is supposed to be the "Endgame" content, but it is just so much worse then all the other trading companies...Want to search for treasure while stacking insane amounts of gold? Gold hoarder.
Want do fight skeletons or ghost ships while also gaining decent gold? Order of souls.
Want to just do chill missions with little risk while also mostly not having to leave your ship while also gaining a very good amount of gold? Merchant alliance.
Want to do obnoxiously long missions with comparably little payout while being targeted by every ship that sees your emissary? Athena....Ah and another thing that comes to my mind: Since there is basically only one voyage for athena (veil), it is also the only voyage in the game that is being broadcast to the entire server.
Yeah, athena is just not worth it right now... high risk, low reward....@great-redips Wait, Thieves' Haven Runs aren't available anymore? I was able to buy one still before Season 11 dropped. I hope they can come back with more rewards to be worth something.
@arthur79474
Yep, they gone. With season 11 no voyages can be bought anymore. (RIP my collection of event voyages, I had one of every event since launch...)
Another thing I miss are the ritual skull voyages, especially since the skull of destiny voyages are for free now. I really hope they reintroduce the special voyages.@great-redips
That's sad. So the best way to level Athena's is still rolling veils until you get sunken ships.
Maybe raiding the fast activities (sea forts, sunken treasuries and vaults) and selling the loot before raiding again is faster?
Did the Athena's emissary voyage get any buffs?No the emmissary didnt get a buff. Sea forts give 1-2 low tier athena items, treasuries is like 3-4, same with vaults.
The new piece of loot(The Talisman) only shows up for cloud raid events and there is 3 tiers.Ashen Wind gives lowest tier
Skull fort and Skele fleet give mid
Burning Blade gives highest.I havent done the veil tactic yet cause my main gripe with the Athena voyages is mostly the merchant quests.
Doing all of my voyages in the devils roar is one thing; but then i get a merchant quest from Rubys fall to go to shipwreck bay, Galleons grave or god forbid plunder valley just adds like 30min onto the voyage that should be kept in the same region in my opinion; or atleast give us a way to speed it up by selling it to either A.) Reapers skeleton or B.) sell it to a sea post for a big cut on profit
Once you really get to Athena's or higher levels you dont really need to do the normal quests anyway which is why people used to just speed run islands only to get the tiny Athena chest at the end for rep. I know from personally playing a long time ago before all the voyages were reworked that i had more fun getting merchant rep from just doing skull forts rather than running cargo all over with no rhyme or reason; not to mention the rep gain was SO much better for the items and the gold was better selling the fort loot.
@lordqulex
Actually, the emissary did get buffed.
You are guaranteed high tier athena loot now. The skeletons (seem to) always give the high tier skulls. The riddle gives a treasure chest full of high tier athena loot (the new one that got added with veil), same with the digs.But I really hope they rework the OG athena voyages, because right now Veil is the only thing that is worth doing. One actually playable voyage for the supposed "Endgame" trading company is just sad...
@great-redips
But that's sort of the way it's supposed to be?Think about it: being a PL is supposed to mean we're a cut above the rest... according to the lore anyway. So the fact that the Pirate Lord is just sending us on more vanilla fetch quests is a bit beneath our pay grade as it were. Frankly, according to the lore, they should just scrap the OG voyage. The Veil is the only thing the Pirate Lord asks us to do that is befitting pirates of our acclaim. In that sense, it seems to me the best improvement would be making alternative epic BBEG finales to the veil quest. Yes, the tornado and the fort assault is epic, but there can be other epic battles that can give the veil quest variety. Maybe add a tornado fort assault on land akin to the final Pirate's Life tall tale? Most of the steps getting there are annoying and tedious, but that doesn't mean the variety isn't appreciated and that we wouldn't do them if they gave worthwhile loot.
@great-redips said in Athena Merchant quest changes?:
PLEASE buff athena, it is supposed to be the "Endgame" content, but it is just so much worse then all the other trading companies...
This part sums the entire issue up! Reaching pirate legend is supposed to be this huge moment for everyone, but the main voyage it offers gives less gold for your time since over half of the loot you gain from it doesnt give rep to the faction or even pays out more with the athena emissary since cargo, chests, gems and skulls dont actually count as athena loot even in its own voyage.
The veil is a very big grand voyage, and i would say its almost worth it, so i can play devils advocate for that, but in contrast the default voyage that take possibly twice as long will never be worth it! Thieves havens runs were pretty bad but bearable since it kept you in a small area of the map and gave more athena loot.
@wp-avenger
That really sucks.
To be honest the old school Athena quest is outdated now. Raid a fort or an ashen winds and get decade five and do your emmisary quest in less time than it takes to run the classic Athena voyage.
Or do a veil and get grade 5 and your emmisary quest in probably still less time.@rahn82
With all the voyage changes and represenative company changes; the only one still unchanged is the Athena. It really needs an overhaul, getting high athena rep takes so much time now I see little to 0 people getting to 100 5 times for distinction level 5. even when you just straight dumped all quests back in the day (cause loot was captains chests and hateful/villianous skulls an athena still took about 30m. My buddy and I started doing veil to emmisary level 5; did emmisary quest then lowered and repeated. by the time we did 2 of that we couldve done only 1 single atehna voyage.@wp-avenger got sunk by a crew who took half the shipment i needed, was server merge am now basically screwed because i cant finish the quest
@capmorgan7818 imagine year1 getting sunk and losing your animal cages, abandon voyage and start over. cargo runs were supposed to be the fix to everyone hating animals. animals got no love in this update. if anything they were made worse when they used to have a chance to be rather good.
a down side to cargo voyages was they never counted toward voyage complete commendation because they didnt want people to cheese them due to how they went away the second you picked up all the cargo. now the fact you have to deliver them to complete that step has now made athenas way worse. at least with the animal voyages on old athenas they had you making 2 outposts stops to deliver animals which had a bonus of you selling your loot at least twice throughout the voyage so bad for thieves since you were selling more often and less likely to have much at all on your ship.
though honestly thinking from a year 1 perspective and even now as the voyages have gone mainly unchanged the fact that you worked so hard to get pirate legend and your reward was a long quest giving you 99% other trade company loot just to get that ONE athena chest at the end was kinda lame. it is why the pve discord i am part of was even formed. the effort it took to gain that single item, the only thing in the game that gave athena rep made it a huge waste of time and effort if it got stolen. right now theres an insanely small chance to get athena loot from an athena voyage. the 2nd voyage we got was thieves haven which had new athena loot! woo!! but half the voyage digs ended up being gems which cant even be handed into athena......
which speaking of gems now that athena has so many levels can well sell gems to them now? havent tried but that would be pretty great...
but now we have legend of the veil. while the last battle can be a bit much for some people there is much more and better athena loot in less time. however the end fight being more difficult and still having the age old athena problem of too many other trade company items when all you want is athena.
athena needs some love. but pirate legends have always been neglected as the minority of the player base. i suspect this update will have people hitting PL even faster than before though
@keylessword4029
Still cant turn in gems to Athenas Fortune(which you know theres 500 levels... so cmon rare)PL's and Athena voyages need a complete overhaul the more i see and play at this point. If I want EZ Athena chest i just do fort of the damned 6 times at this point. Every company quests seemed allot more ballanced EXCEPT Athena which kinda sucks and really give you no reason to do any voyage excluding Raid voyage(if you are high enough to do the ones that are even worth while) and skull of destiny to farm FOTD.
I don't like it.
I actually enjoy the old school roar athena voyages, makes for a chill sesh when working in other stuff but I didn't like the new cargo requirement and don't think it really serves the experience.
No cargo delivery requirement and 1 full athena voyage should be a grade 5 flag imo. Now that they reworked the emissary quest a bit it's improved quite a bit (from what I have seen).
They take me quite some time and I'm pretty experienced, it's not like players need more time added to older voyages that are barely worth it even without the requirement (by today's content standards)
I've done a few to get some ledger stuff done and it just makes it unpleasant imo.
If they want to keep the delivery requirement then there are ways to design that to where it flows with the voyage rather than actively makes it less appealing. I don't think it necessarily needs to be removed, just improved.
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