Marksman is really bad in PvE. I hope Staff takes your advice for this subclass and makes some changes, because active marksmen have been complaining about it for a year or more. Or Staff at least gives us feedback on the subclass improvements you reported.

To go beyond my simple spontaneous reaction of rejection, I would like to address several points showing in my opinion how confusing (not to say disappointing) are the choices made in this quest/update.

A good questline is a subtle combination of a background story, progressing discovering, grinding, and maybe some riddles a normal brain can solve with given hints. Moreover, if quest is too hard for some player at a given moment, he needs to be certain than with correct leveling/building he will be one day or another able to do it *easier*.
Here we have absolutly nothing close to that goal, just a straightforward line leading to a platform-style game with random chances to die a few times, and where dexterity with throwing barrels is much more important than character building.

Besides, in any good RPG game players must be able to approach new monsters little by little, learn to fight them, and progress until being confident enough to fight several at the same time.
Here we have the totally absurd contrary where the first time you meet a new monster is in big group, in the middle of a big mess of traps and other monsters. In summary, once you are able to survive that, hunting those monsters is already outdated.

Sadly, we already see the result : quest was solved in a few hours, and soon people will cry for new content again.

Last but no least remark, that platform-style game is once again a big slap in paladin faces, or if you prefer a further step in definitive killing of the class :
1st step : leave paladins way behind in term of exp/h
2nd step : pretend paladins will become highly desirable, rocking in later game once further contents will be added.
3dr step : make as new content a high level "quest" where paladins have close to zero advantage.

Facing one mob after another in 1 tile large corridor ? Barbs are better (far more damage).
Fighting drunk ? Barbs are better (less necessary correct facing)
Going through or escape from traps ? Barbs are way better (jump)
Recovering lost exp in case of death ? Barbs are way better.
Paladins have better HP ? Let's ruin it by hp dependant hitting traps (and if you think paladin slight healing advantage is enough to survive once trapped, you are wrong).


Come on staff, you are better than that, please recover a bit of RPG logic, and stop listening too much those who just want to rush content as fast as possible.
We have several quests where a barbarian in team is indispensable (jump), can't you imagine some mechanism where a paladin in team would be indispensable ?
Can't you imagine a better way to use traps, without stupid making drunk trees ? Eg a grid of traps we could walk carefully to avoid, together with huge amount of monsters (without being able to run, shooters couldn't do it alone, but with many monsters, tankers would need shooters to avoid respawn. And if not able to do it, level more and come back later. That is true RPG style, not platform style) .


Here is an example (just an example) of how I think quest could/should be. With such quest players would be busy for a while before crying for new content.
- part 0 : 2 or 3 small caves with a few (only a few) vanguard monsters, ending by a stair leading to main vanguard tarmell spawn. Player get access denied and is directed to NPC, he just discovered existence of the quest.
- part 1 : current NPC part, asking Cerberus head AND Cerberus achievement. Reward : access to main vanguard Tarmell spawn (but HC access denied).
- part 2 : Inside that spawn, you find 2 closed access requiring mastering the 2 vanguard monsters to be able to go through. After mastering you are directed again to NPC, he asks you to kill 20 Elder Vanguard Swordmans and 20 Elder Vanguard Rangers. You indeed find those 2 bosses beyond the 2 now open access (one for each boss) and beyond a few more and more harder caves leading to bosses. Returning to NPC, your reward is access to a semi HC vanguard spawn in new continent.
Moreover, player is directing to a new NPC "Vanguard Smith" with the task to bring him two half part of a broken key. Half part 1 is dropped by Elder Swordman, and Half part 2 is dropped by Elder Ranger.
- part 3 : fight hard in semi HC to finally meet NPC "Vanguard Smith" (beyond a particularly difficult room where you have to fight both new bosses). He accepts to forge key back but you need to find some special ingredient. Here you get access to Tarmell HC.
- part 4 : in Tarmell HC you will find that special ingredient in a chest located in hardest room (you need to click chest to continue quest, it's not possible to just buy ingredient from market). You go back to Smith and smith gives you fixed key; directing you to Daramus
- part 5 : give the key to Daramus and he will open acess to the current "quest". After surviving there, you get an item with *good enough* base stats.


Your welcome