The problem with Journey To Perfection missions and how to fix it

[Quaix]

Something felt a bit 'off' about these missions from game design point of view. Once I realized what it was, it seemed obvious:

The difficulty curve for these missions is a complete opposite of what it should be. They're hardest for new players and easiest for veteran players.
They get easier because:
 - Improved player skill
 - Enchants
 - Spells

And the only way they get harder is once elites are unlocked, some of which make JtP missions frustratingly difficult. Some monster types just aren't appropriate for these missions.

I think Chris was on the right track with disabling some spells in JtP missions, we just need to take that to its logical conclusion. Here's what should be done to fix it:

 - One hit kill is unchanged.
 - Either disallow all enchants or give player the enchants they can use for the duration of the mission and equip them automatically. (Also prevent the player from opening the enchants window)
 - Same for spells. Either allow only one spell, such as energy orb, or a set of spells. Crates and platforms should still be allowed. (Clear out the inventory and spell list for duration of the mission)
 - Some elites should not appear in JtP missions. Have a custom list of monsters which can appear in JtP for each type of terrain.
 - Increase enemy detection range based on difficulty and/or tier.
 - Remove the anti-air missile towers.

[Tobias]

I've only ever tried one JtP mission. The start of the map spawned me in front of a HUGE cliff, it wouldn't let me use any of my legs enchants to try and get up it, and I had no crates.

RNG could do with tweaking there I think.

[Misery]

Also, until some sort of changes are made, these seem IMPOSSIBLE if you are not using a shield.

This being mostly because the game insists on creating cliffs that you cant see the bottom of no matter what you do.   It's either drop straight down and just HOPE you dont A: crash into a monster, B: crash into a projectile, C: crash into the ground too fast, or you can do a leap of faith and just HOPE there's a non-monster-filled platform out there for you to jump on, or you spend ages dropping crates and wondering why you're not getting a stack of them to jump on (MOST of the time when I've tried this, something's walking around down below just smashing every one I drop)

I wasnt able to finish even one of these no matter what until someone suggested I use shields.

[FrostSabre]

I've never really had any issues with these, although i can see why some people might...

Although the lines drawn from a Cloak of Shadows enchant worked quite well, as long as you take your time...
The only thing i can agree on, is that it takes way too long to get to the end, and you don't know when your going to get there. (No Map)

[Varil]

With cloak of shadows and either a rapid firing or enemy piercing spell, JtP is pretty incredibly easy. I did a lot of them early on to help with monster unlocks(one shotting Urban Crawlers? Yeah, I can get behind that.)

I do agree that they take forever, and without Cloak of Shadows they can be reeeeaaallllllyyyy tedious. Enemies have incredible reaction times and longer ranges than the player, so if you drop into range of one of those tiny robots(hard to see against certain backgrounds), WHELP, starting over bud!

I'm not sure how you'd really improve upon it, though. I like the mission, but its one of those that as-is, it kind of needs a certain sort of play style or enchant setup to do without driving yourself up the wall in frustration. Maybe if the mission forced enemies to always have those little indicator lines(so you could accurately predict their location) it'd be better? With that you could up monster frequency a bit to keep things interesting, without worrying about the player getting ganged up on by a billion monsters off screen.

[Finndibaenn]

With cloak of shadows and either a rapid firing or enemy piercing spell, JtP is pretty incredibly easy. I did a lot of them early on to help with monster unlocks(one shotting Urban Crawlers? Yeah, I can get behind that.)

This.

Actually cloak of shadows makes those missions much easier for 2 reasons : the stealth obviously but also for easier spotting of fast and hardly visible monsters (snow bats on white background , I'm looking at you !).
And as pointed above, you would do yourself a favor in using a piercing spell (whatever as resistances are not a problem here).

Currently, (I just finished continent 2), the reasons I still loses some of those are explosive espers (dreadful explosions) and the occasional mobs that fall on you in buildings

[Quaix]

With cloak of shadows and either a rapid firing or enemy piercing spell, JtP is pretty incredibly easy.

To reiterate, that's exactly the problem with these missions. They get easier as you progress through the game, not harder.

[nanostrike]

I refuse to do these missions most of the time because they turn into a really un-fun version of Super Meat Boy for me...