The Steeleye Span is my favorite area to grind out xp while levelling characters from lvl 35+.
Its not quite as good as the Modniir chain in Harathi, however it is much more relaxed… and the loot is different too. Its actually my favorite (visually speaking) area of the game, IDK i just love it there. You will aquire salvagable/stackable metal things (forget the name), dust, crystal shards, and i seemed to get more unid dye there than anywhere else (maybe just my luck).
[spoiler=Steeleye Chain]For those who do not know, it is a small 2-3 stage event chain that repeats itself 10minutes after the last chain has ended. In between event chain, I run NorthWest to the battle arena and fight against Branded, which takes a few minutes. You can also get to Shatterer quite easily once you get high enough in level.
What i typically will do is this:
Event starts-> Branded Attack the walls. You will want to lure the non-event Branded Minions (typically a devourer or the occasional ogre/charr that is close enough) too the defending NPC Charrs, so that the NPC Charr die.
—If you succeed, the Repair event will start. Thus, restoring Steeleye Span Waypoint to player control for 10 minutes while the event restarts.
—If the event fails (you want this), you get to fight wave after wave of invading Branded Minions as you defend the Tribune. After successfully thwarting the mob, the Repair event starts.
—After Repair Event succeeds you have 10 minutes to go fight in the Arena, although you can also do the Grawl to the northeast, or perhaps the Ghosts at Serentiy which is north. The Ogre Chain is also close by. [/spoiler]
Now when i ask for a Buff to this quest, what I am asking for is a Buff to the Branded Minions. Even without player intervention the Defend aspect of the chain will succeed almost every single time. Even if the event does somehow fail on its own, the Defend Tribune section of the chain is almost impossible for the Branded Minions to ever complete, due to the Charr NPCs rez actions. This is why when most people run past the area, they see the Repair Event up (which may be more trouble than its worth to the passerby, as rezzing the NPC Charr Fixerguyperson can be difficult with the swarming Branded Minions. Leaving the Charr Fixerguyperson dead allows a constant stream of Braned minions to farm, however we know that events will level you much faster than just killing creeps. The rez action of the NPC Charr does not go far enough to rez the Fixerguy, which I think is just fine.
What i propose is this: Increase the mob size for the intial section of the chain. With one or two more creeps in each mob the event can actually fail without player intervention. Even with the extra creeps in the mob, it would still be quite humble by comparison to other creep grinding areas most players currently farm. Secondly, remove the ability for the Steeleye Clan to rez each other during the Defend Tribune Steeleye part. I have actually tried to get this part of the event to fail by bringing in outside creeps, however in ~30h of farming only this quest I have seen it fail but once. Or maybe add in a Veteran Branded somethingorother (howabout a Branded Grawl Shaman!?=D) to increase the pressure on the Steeleye Span.
Make it a little harder! Its easy to complete this quest solo as a lvl 35 (the map is lvl 40-50) And in its current state (possibly intended), its more worthwhile to purposely fail the initial event to get better overall XP.
Steeleye Span is the COOLEST place, imho, in the GW2 map currently… Lets beef up the creeps there! Score one for the bad guys!? Thanks for reading!
