Zana, Master Rotationist

this is about leveling zana to 8 in a new league after the changes made in 2.0.

In 1.3 Zana was probably THE most important/popular master. Everyone had her in their hideouts and it was rewarding even getting her to 8 as she (like every other master) spawned a level 76 area (crumbled lab). There was a (daily) chance to get the highest maps and thus zana 8 rotations were quite common. when she opened a 77 or 76 zone most groups fully cleared the map, staying together.
This was something i looked forward to every day and it was fun (at least most of the time).

With the launch of Awakening and the introduction of warbands/tempest they made huge changes to the map system and also didn't leave zana untouched.

GGG hasn't only raised the reputation needed to get her to 8 they also lowered the zone level of the crumbled lab by 2 to 74. With the addition of the new maps and map levels (now: tiers) this means an effective nerf of 6 tiers/map levels.

So with the help of 820 and the fact that most players didn't know how hard zana was nerfed you could find zana rotations all day long at least the first few weeks. As i remember the rotations went quite smooth. however i can't think of a songle zana 8 roatation.
After doing some zana 8 dailies myself this wasn't of any surprise to me. Most of the time i got 73 maps from her, occassionally 74s and like once a week a 75.

So it's no wonder noone had her in his hideout for the following 2 1-month leagues. Especially in darkshrine it was quite difficult to even get zana6 rotations. i guess i got her to 7 but didn't bother any further as it already was a struggle.

so for the current league i was wondering if more ppl would try to get her up - until i saw the challenge.
It seems she was so unpopular that even ggg felt the need to do something. but instead of returning her to her old strength they just added a challenge and gave her the chance to sell a div. card.

The result of this?
Everyone still hates her but in order to get the challenge done you need to level her. And the most efficient way is the master sharing channel 820 and doing rotations.
These rotations SUCKS ASS now! It isn't even fun in any way. It has come down to "get the mission done as fast as possible and then gtfo".
Almost no mobs are slain anymore. if you don't have whirling blades (because you don't use daggers) it is better to stay at the portal and wait for the mission to be done. otherwise you risk being surrounded and killed (unless you have a 6L and can kill 6 player mobs easily alone). Even in dropquests (map/unique) some guys are just going for white mobs because it is faster leaving all blues and rares behind. bosses are only done if you happen to stumble across them and sometimes not even then.
another trick that is quite new is to use a zana you found in a (higher) map and start a rotation off of it. so instead of sharing your zana with other you basically get 5 lvl7 zanas yourself, for free, several times a day.
this is something i didn't mind in the beginning but more and more are doing this and it just goes against what 820 stands for (like so much lately).

Once again ggg destroyed something that was rewarding and i was looking forward to do.
Now she opens 72-74 maps with players being level 85+(+) not getting XP for it and if sometimes a map drops ppl even leave them on the ground.
Other than the challenge there is no reason to level zana higher than 5 or 6 and the daily chance to get a unique at level 8 isn't worth the hassle.

820 consists of elitists and people who wants quick results (myself included, so that i can get that sweet elereon alt/jeweller deal and tora mods) but yes, in general it's just harder and more sterile.

The question is if it's the players fault rather than GGG. They do provide the tools for everything.

Level 1 Zana should be all Tier 1.
Level 2 should be Tier 1-3, Tier 2 on average. (Probability of each would follow Pascal's Triangle.)
For each level after it should be min +0, avg +1, max +2.
So level 8 would give Tier 1-15, anything is possible, but average at Tier 8.

I think a small chance of an appealing reward is a lot better than a certainly mediocre one. And dailies are free so can't really complain.

"

Ruefl2x wrote:

another trick that is quite new is to use a zana you found in a (higher) map and start a rotation off of it. so instead of sharing your zana with other you basically get 5 lvl7 zanas yourself, for free, several times a day.

We were doing this already in Rampage (when the XP req. was worse than its now). But I fully agree - Zana has become boring and irrelevant. Making her relevant again through a challenge, is the lowest possible form of gaming they could have implemented.

From my understanding zana was nerfed specifically because having high maps in the rot combined with popular rots made leveling too inexpensive since it was basically 6 free high level maps a day . maps you would normally burn alchs chisels and chaos orb on....

that could save some people half an exa a week (back when exas were cheaper)


she was always going to be a mandatory master or a worthless one. such is the binary nature of maps. either a map is an ilevel useful too you ... or it is not.


I am not a fan of having a random spread of map tiers for zana. she should simply have higher tiers than she has now but not the highest.

ie she caps out at tier 10 which is a respectable map level useful even for people well into the 90s but is definitively not the best the map mechanic has to offer.

Just to be clear, by "follows Pascal's Triangle" I mean a 1/1024 chance of Tier 14+ at Zana 8 (and an equal chance of Tier 1-2). I know people would try to rot it up, so GGG should make it like winning the lottery. Even a win once in a great while (spread among a guild or rot group) would make Zana much more appealing.

edit: here's a chart for what I'd like to see

She is soo useless now, her mission not just harder and it is usually timed. I have to put my character into higher risk by rushing/skipping mobs to complete her mission. (and yes I dedicated a 0% exp guy for this, so dying wont result in loss of XP)

IMO, Zana was fine as she is if she only consistently pull map 77. Map 78-82 are availability unaffected.

I am not sure why GGG went out their way to nerf her levels. The 1% no lifers are still gonna get 100 in no time no matter what. Why would GGG wanna punish one of the continent way for Casual to lvl up? I had soo much fun in 820 in patch 1.3, all that is gone now.

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Saltychipmunk wrote:

From my understanding zana was nerfed specifically because having high maps in the rot combined with popular rots made leveling too inexpensive since it was basically 6 free high level maps a day . maps you would normally burn alchs chisels and chaos orb on....

that could save some people half an exa a week (back when exas were cheaper)


she was always going to be a mandatory master or a worthless one. such is the binary nature of maps. either a map is an ilevel useful too you ... or it is not.


I am not a fan of having a random spread of map tiers for zana. she should simply have higher tiers than she has now but not the highest.

ie she caps out at tier 10 which is a respectable map level useful even for people well into the 90s but is definitively not the best the map mechanic has to offer.

It's more like one free map. Just compare it to a map group with six players, you only roll one map but run six.

Anyways, the increased necessary master XP needed for level 8 means I will never have them again in challenge leagues. For me it was already mind numbing to do dailys at the end of the first league they were introduced, by now I'm already tired of them before level 7.
Hope the need for master leveling will be removed some day, maybe change the system to spend reputation for crafting with all mods unlocked from the start?

"

Darkkrows wrote:

I am not sure why GGG went out their way to nerf her levels.

it would have made no sense to make something a challenge which is mandatory for players anyway.

The root of the problem is that these rotations are possible.

That was an issue already when masters were added, and instead of tackling the cause, the chosen solution instead ruined Zana for everyone, not only for those who took advantage of the ability to rotate master dailies.