When Amazon described New World: Aeternum's upcoming 10-player raid, Hive of Gorgons, as the hardest content in the game during a preview event at Amazon's Irvine studio, I'll admit I sort of shrugged it off. This isn't to say I thought it would be easy - far from it. But I was wondering just how hard it could be.
After being completely trounced by the first boss in our run-through, I was disabused of my initial cockiness. Hive of Gorgons is tough, with boss mechanics, puzzles, and creature encounters that feel like proper MMO content.
New World has always had competent Expedition content, with last year's Savage Divide from Rise of the Angry Earth being among my particular favorites. While Expeditions themselves feel like they've taken a backseat a bit to the Soul Trials that populate the story questline now, the team has quite a bit of experiencing designing well-crafted, well thought out boss fights within their instanced walls.
New World: Aeternum's Hive of Gorgons felt like, at least to me, the culmination of all those learnings, distilled into one encounter. A 10-player raid, the first in the MMO's history (the Arena of Shah Neshen, the Devourer, is a 20-player PvE world boss encounter for those keeping score), Hive of Gorgons sees players go up against the Hercyne, all set within beautiful ruins that feel ripped right out of ancient Minoa. Spectacular ruins dotted with elaborate statues, Corinthian columns, crystal clear baths, waterfalls, and more surround the raid, though touches of the Angry Earth are found here and there throughout.
Our group was a bit hamstrung from the get-go as we descended the first pathway on our way to the first boss, the Echidna. For some reason, we felt we could brave the encounter with just a single player kitted out as a Tank. While we did have another heavy-armored player, they were built for more damage than anything, meaning they could Tank in a pinch (spoiler alert: this did come up), but overall if push came to shove our single tank had to pull double duty.
Unfazed, we swept through the first wave of Hercyne monsters, taking out the Reindeer, Wolves, and Corvids as they swooped down on top of us. With the amount of DPS we were packing, it was surprising to me how long it was taking to slice through each wave. As our healer, Dave the Bold, told us ahead of starting the raid, these were level 80 to 85 creatures that, if left unchecked, would wreak havoc on us, so it shouldn't have been all that surprising at the moment, though.
However, we pushed through, making it to the first boss, the Echidna, rather quickly. Yet it was here where we met our match.
The Echidna fight showed that these bosses, unlike the previous creature encounters, can't simply be facerolled. You'll need to prepare, from downing the right food, using honing stones on your weapon, equipping the best Heartrunes to give you an edge, and more. While the Echidna rampages around the arena, positional combat also matters here. Fighting the Echidna from its sides is the clear way to not die, though its massive AOEs can deal damage throughout the arena.
One of the more unique mechanics of this fight was that this AOE ground pound would send pillar of stone jutting up from the ground. Ranged DPS who was atop one of these pillars might take some damage for their trouble, but get a damage bonus to ranged attack while standing on the pillar - and also be immune to those large ground AOE attacks while ontop of one.
Fall off the pillar? Pull out your pickaxe in the middle of the fight to bring it down to a more manageable size. You know, as one does.
Once enough damage had been dealt, the Echidna would throw out Obsidian Spikes that, if not burned down fast enough, could explode and deal massive amounts of damage - like, instant kill damage.
Needless to say, when the spikes were present, we were all scrambling to kill them as fast as we could. One time I didn't even get the chance, as I was literally impaled by a spike as it soared through the air across the arena.
We didn't actually beat the Echidna in our run through, but eager to see more of the raid, the devs did some dev trickery so we could progress. It was here we got to some of the more breathtaking views of the raid. I've always loved the way the New World: Aeternum art team has been able to blend the various cultures and time periods of the world with the Azoth-drenched world of Aeternum, and I feel like the Hive of Gorgons is another stellar example of this. It has such a sense of place that I found myself taking in the sights at times instead of placing arrows in Corvids as I should have been.
Moving through the marble corridors of ruined buildings, we came upon a clearing with columns, statues, and more set within the mountainside ahead of us and a large crystal clear bath stretching out at our feet. It was a subtle reminder that we could swim now as we moved on to the next area: the Labyrinth.
This was another rather unique encounter that saw our 10-player raid forced to splinter off to stand atop buttons to unlock the exit. One catch is that the maze is prowled by two Gorgons whereby a single gaze could turn you into stone. This is another area where our lack of a second Tank was keenly felt as our single Tank (shoutout Polivar) had to effectively kite these Gorgons around the maze, keeping their gaze off us as we downed waves of deadly spiders and then sat helpless on the various buttons to trigger the lock.
I honestly felt a little bad for Polivar as I watched him struggle to keep the two Gorgons taunted and engaged and, ultimately, away from our group as we moved through the arena. It's an example of a key area that could easily turn into a group wipe if there isn't solid communication between everyone. We struggled a bit, and we were all in the same room. I can't even imagine doing this in a pick-up group where not everyone is comfortable using voice chat.
Our raid time came to an end shortly after that as we fought against the second boss: a Hercyne werewolf named Typhoon. This fight was a bit more straightforward than the last, but no less difficult. Positioning, communication, and timing are key to downing Typhoon - oh, and having more than one tank to keep it's attention.
I feel like we did a little better against Typhoon, though, it could also have been that after struggling through the raid for an hour our communication was finally falling into place. Shouting out which half of the arena was about to be engulfed in webs of brambles and thorns was a constant mainstay of the group, while using the pillars to cause Typhoon to give himself a concussion as he lunged at a marked character just got easier as we battled. It felt like we started to get our flow down, and, given enough time, we might have been able to get Typhoon to at least half health before we wiped.
I'm actually going to be very interested in how long it takes raid groups to figure out the boss mechanics and down this raid once it finally launches on October 15th. Considering only PC players will be hopping in right away since this is a level 65 activity, I imagine some of the leading Companies on each server will be rushing for that world first title. And it's exciting to think about that rush being back in New World a few years after its launch.
I don't usually see myself as a raid person, yet I can't wait to hop on my live character, jump in a group, and try my hand at this again when it launches on PC next month. I'm not sure I'll ever see that third boss, but if the fun I had trying here is any indication, I'll have even more fun trying with friends next time around.
Full Disclosure: Travel and accommodation were provided by Amazon for this preview event.
