You opinion about Dredge?

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Marna Nindar.8120

Marna Nindar.8120

There would be a really simple fix to make this fractal much more enjoyable: replace the clown cart with the last bosses encounter. You just skip one step while keeping the interesting mechanic at the beginning – and cutting 15 minutes worth of spawnkill. You could even keep the champion with the first mob-wave to keep the challenge up a little… but the cart, WHY???

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Silicato.4603

Silicato.4603

I support 100% the first post. I hate dredge fractal. Its extreamly long and pointless. Reduce the number of dredges please.
I have not encounter this fractal yet, since the patch, but yeah: i expected some changes that, reading these comments… I don’t belive that this happened.
Thank God that I didn´t had to battle it again yet.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Kojiden.8405

Kojiden.8405

The car is annoying because it takes so long. The bomb part is annoying because for it to be smooth you need a thief. I can’t comment on the panel part because I haven’t done the fractal since the change.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: haviz.1340

haviz.1340

You might need a thief if you want to negate whole point of that part.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Kojiden.8405

Kojiden.8405

You might need a thief if you want to negate whole point of that part.

Yes, I do want to negate the point of repeatedly throwing yourself into infinitely spawning dredge.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Cynz.9437

Cynz.9437

You might need a thief if you want to negate whole point of that part.

Yes, I do want to negate the point of repeatedly throwing yourself into infinitely spawning dredge.

as thief i find it exciting xD

but ya i would never run that map w/o thief

All is Vain~
[Teef] guild :>

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: haviz.1340

haviz.1340

Yes, I do want to negate the point of repeatedly throwing yourself into infinitely spawning dredge.

It’s a defense event, not kamikaze bombing. Besides, you could do it at scale 80 solo without dying.

but ya i would never run that map w/o thief

Is it too hard? What would you do if instability that forbids you from stealth existed? Actually, that one was datamined.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Vorch.2985

Vorch.2985

If the dredge fractal started at the bomb path/sonic destruction path, it would be fine.

As it is right now, it is way too long and way too annoying. I love the rest of the fractals…but dredge needs a SERIOUS makeover

Here’s what people thought of GW1 when it first came out: http://tinyurl.com/bntcvyc
“A release is 7 days or less away or has just happened within the last 7 days…
These are the only two states you’ll find the world of Tyria.”

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: haviz.1340

haviz.1340

Make thread, preferably hundreds of them. Anet listens always. They removed tafu, they removed flamekissed skin, they might remove underground facility fractal.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Rezz.8019

Rezz.8019

I hate dredge fractal. It’s pointless waste of time with gimmick mechanics. Fractals are supposed to be mini dungeons. I run arah path 2 way faster than dredge on 40+
Something is wrong there.
Anet should just remove half of the dredge, or just remove the whole fractal and make that abaddon one instead.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Protoavis.9107

Protoavis.9107

So you came to a QQ thread looking for tips?

Figure it out for yourself.

No, I didn’t. However you started talking like you knew something

I’ve been doing dredge since the start of fractals. I’m guessing you guys just got into it. Learning the tricks is always necessary for challenging content such as this one. proper team synergy and utility skills are required. You can’t just barge into it and keyboard-mash your way through, you need to be smart about it. Anet doesn’t need to nerf something that a knowledgeable team can skate through with little trouble. The playerbase needs to become more knowledgeable.

You tell the player base to become more knowledgeable but then refuse to impart any knowledge and then complain that people are asking for nerfs….you’re effectively creating the environment that will see it nerfed.

It’s a lot easier to be helpful and polite when people are asking for pointers but then I guess not everyone has manners.

Let us buy vendor mats (eg spools of thread) in 250 stacks, end the excessive clicking.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Stinson.5972

Stinson.5972

^^^

Every thread like that has to have its share of “2L33T4U just L2P nub dredge frac is fine my guildies run it in 15 mins” responses. As someone who has also routinely run 30s and 40s since the introduction of fractals, I can say:

1. There are strategies to speed up dredge, but those strategies still leave it far longer than any other fractal, and too long overall for something that is supposed to be completed as part of a series of four.

2. Dredge has always been the most exploited fractal because of how pointlessly long it is. Most people before the patch at the very least died on the buttons because that was just easier, and most did and still do make use of at least one of the exploits to bypass the gates in the beginning. I have not seen the gates done legitimately in months.

3. Many of the criticisms cannot be pushed aside with “L2P nub.”I have learned to play and play with people who also know. Sadly, I cannot L2P making the stupid bombs respawn faster (it even slows down doing it with thieves), or have fewer dredge in the clowncar, or make Rabsovich have less health than the bosses of most of the other fractals.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Manuelito.6081

Manuelito.6081

^^^

Every thread like that has to have its share of “2L33T4U just L2P nub dredge frac is fine my guildies run it in 15 mins” responses. As someone who has also routinely run 30s and 40s since the introduction of fractals, I can say:

1. There are strategies to speed up dredge, but those strategies still leave it far longer than any other fractal, and too long overall for something that is supposed to be completed as part of a series of four.

2. Dredge has always been the most exploited fractal because of how pointlessly long it is. Most people before the patch at the very least died on the buttons because that was just easier, and most did and still do make use of at least one of the exploits to bypass the gates in the beginning. I have not seen the gates done legitimately in months.

3. Many of the criticisms cannot be pushed aside with “L2P nub.”I have learned to play and play with people who also know. Sadly, I cannot L2P making the stupid bombs respawn faster (it even slows down doing it with thieves), or have fewer dredge in the clowncar, or make Rabsovich have less health than the bosses of most of the other fractals.

100% agreed!
Please. Anet, r-design part of this horrible instance.

[ROCK]
Desolation

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Rhialto.8423

Rhialto.8423

Whenever I’m running fractals and my group lands the Dredge fractal first, we just zone out and restart until we get something else. It’s really the only one that I consistently find people desperate to skip.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: guardian.6489

guardian.6489

Agreed Agreed. I’ve done this fractal too many times and know all the tricks and even often run with a thief which speeds up some of the more annoying parts but it’s still the most annoying fractal in existence.

It’s just long and boring even after you know what your doing. Usually once you learn a fractal, it becomes a little more fun and much faster (see swamp, Themanova, Aetherblade retreat) however the dedge is always extremely long and tedious and has very few interesting mechanics (the boss is ok I guess). I was hoping Anet would use this update as a chance to tweak this fractal and make it as fun as the rest of the fractals, instead all they did was nerf most of the tricks that sped up the fractal without any adjusting anything else.

Retired Leader of TTS

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Marna Nindar.8120

Marna Nindar.8120

Whenever I’m running fractals and my group lands the Dredge fractal first, we just zone out and restart until we get something else. It’s really the only one that I consistently find people desperate to skip.

But since the patch you will encounter dredge only as third fractal, so you will not be able to skip it – unless you are willing to redo the first to and have a 1/5 chance to find them again…

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Cyninja.2954

Cyninja.2954

Then when you’re done with those dungeons, what next? Is there something else you could be doing while that’s going on?

Runs are smooth and fast compared to dredge BECAUSE prior to the patch, it was pretty simple for groups to actually avoid dredge altogether, and people actually left to avoid doing it. Yes, because it’s long. But it’s also longER because most groups, since they never really play it in the first place, don’t know how.

And if you can run all four of those paths in the time it takes you to do one dredge fractal, I don’t want to run fractals with you.

First, I think it’s great that you are this active in fractals. At least someone who backs up what he is saying (if those pictures aren’t photoshoped etc.).

Second, stop talking out of your a***. There are enough people who have done just as many or more fractals than you (me being at about half with over 100 pristine relics and over 300 fractal 48 runs pre patch. nothing to brag about, just saying you argument with 20-30 scrubs is bs). Only because you enjoy tedious grind in fractals doesn’t make this good design. Dredge fractal clearly HAS issues when compared to other fractals due to length,frustration and kitten scaling at higher levels. Also I’m not even going to comment on the “loot is great” comment. If I wanted to farm I certainly would NOT be doing fractals.

Biggest issue here is that dredge is just in no way comparable to other fractals. If all were equally long, there would be no reason to complain (aside from bugs and maybe uninteresting design. both to be found in dredge but not part of what I’m going for atm).

There are 2 ways to go about this:
a. make other fractals just as long.
b. make dredge shorter and more fun

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Avecess.8513

Avecess.8513

Thank you posting OP.
I know its been said before but still. How could all this be overlooked by Anet.

Been doing fractals since it came into existence. Haven’t met a single person that doesn’t hate this fractal.

I guess it’s my own fault for thinking that Anet would be all over this fractal to fix it properly for this update and bring it in line with the rest.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Kain Francois.4328

Kain Francois.4328

I like dredge. I find them funny and cute, in a goofy kinda way. Great for comic relief.

Too bad their fractal is so kitten annoying…

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Cynz.9437

Cynz.9437

Yes, I do want to negate the point of repeatedly throwing yourself into infinitely spawning dredge.

It’s a defense event, not kamikaze bombing. Besides, you could do it at scale 80 solo without dying.

but ya i would never run that map w/o thief

Is it too hard? What would you do if instability that forbids you from stealth existed? Actually, that one was datamined.

i wouldn’t say it is hard just stupid, annoying and time consumming… if instability didn’t allow stealth i simply either wouldn’t run that level or do the naked runs…

All is Vain~
[Teef] guild :>

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Rainweaver.7302

Rainweaver.7302

I agree with the majority here: It is way too long.

2. Dredge has always been the most exploited fractal because of how pointlessly long it is.

However, I disagree with this. Most people exploited it not because it’s pointlessly long, but because most people are too lazy to do it in a legit, albeit harder way. It’s not about time, but difficult. In fact, most of the exploits (suiciding over buttons, killing Rabsnovich on top of the wooden structure) would frequently take LONGER than doing it properly.

I still don’t see what’s so wrong with the panel/buttons part. Here is what my group does:

- You put one person on first button, the other four players get through the first gate;
- The four players kill any dredge patrolling that corridor area before the panel room;
- One of the four players go up to press the second button;
- All the remaining players get into the panel room, hugging one side (I prefer left) of the room so you don’t aggro all the dredges. Then proceed to kill all the dredges in that side of the room;
- Once all those dredges are killed, leave one person at that side’s button and the rest go to the other side and press the button/start fighting dredge;
- One person go do panel meanwhile. Make sure to aggro any respawning dredge near the panel.

Always done that with my fractals group and it not only works, but it’s usually faster than doing all the mountainclimbing/suiciding/exploiting gate with mesmer and other tricks. Also done it with PuGs before (who were willing to listen) and it was smooth too.

My advice: I’m pretty sure all professions have tools for doing either button standing or panel. Change your weapons and utilities accordingly, adjust traits if needed etc.

As for dredge themselves: I like them. Creative design.

(edited by Rainweaver.7302)

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Metion.9541

Metion.9541

Imho there is one boss too much. It should end after Rabsovich or he should be removed.

That way it would make it way shorter and keep most of it’s mechanics, which I myself enjoy.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: HiddenRage.7408

HiddenRage.7408

I used to like fractals. Take that as you want. And yes I am on topic.

Representing RoF. For Johnny Cash!
What I miss most about old LA (pre-destruction) was
killing people with a portal from the top of the bank.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Rinbox.2570

Rinbox.2570

Being boring is reason enough for this fractal to have some significant changes done to it and devs themselves have said this fractal is unnecessarily long, why was there no changes?

If they have acknowledged it then theres hope for a future change. I am not trying to add to the forum negativity here by any means but it seems like important changes do take Anet a fair bit longer to deal with than other MMO’s. I still see bugs that have existed since beta (other characters using the wrong resource gathering tool on a node ie logging axe on mining node) and the exploits that existed in CoF etc took AGES to finally fix. My hope here is that something will eventually be done about this but it will take time as im sure they have more than enough on their plates already

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Logic.2358

Logic.2358

I’m one of the few who has no issues with the dredge fractal.

I’ve done fractals hundreds of times and honestly – dredge doesn’t take much longer than cliffside or uncatagorized. The only thing i would change is to tone down the excess dredge at the clown car at high levels (40+). Other than that, I love that it takes group coordination and timing, and the boss is one of my favorites in the game.

Elusive
Zombie Coast [ZzZz]

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Eldiora.5836

Eldiora.5836

I hated and groaned everytime I saw the ****** Dredge fractal before the patch. Now I simply have stopped doing fractals, I get Dredge alot now and I simply cannot do it anymore its just too much of a mindless chore to endure.

Do you know how fun Dredge was on 31? With the mosmann killing the guy doing the gears 10 times until we were lucky and he went for someoen else?

Or how awesome it is when the Mossmann appears underwater where you can hardly dodge him because he is super fast.

Or all the other effects of the higher level fractsl. Oh exploding enemies…. yay for 100000 trillion dredge exploding!

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Shiren.9532

Shiren.9532

If dredge was a dungeon path, it would have been replaced by the Thaumanova path because “it’s one of the least popular paths in the game” (ala TA F/U). Instead it’s a fractal and many players are forced to abandon one or two paths progress or play through it.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Vissarion.6509

Vissarion.6509

Long and boring, something has to be done about it.

Most mechanics can’t even work 95% of the time due to mob respawn times being faster than actually killing them.

An explorable path takes from 10 to 20 minutes average with a pug, dredge fractal takes from 30 to 40 minutes, and this is a part of 1/4 of the whole dungeon, is this ok arenanet??

They called us TEMPESTs, but we can use our elite to cheat death instead

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Xae Isareth.1364

Xae Isareth.1364

If you got the optimal 1 mes, 2 guard, 2 warr party, dredge isn’t so bad, especially if one of the warrs has a thief to switch out for. As for other class setups, good luck.

It is a lot longer and more difficult than most other fractals though (the only one that can be more troublesome is grawl if your party doesn’t fight too well), and it really should have better rewards to compensate for it.

Maybe put a whole bunch of ori nodes in the fractal or spawn a chest in it like in the grawl fractal that rewards you with a bunch of T6 mats or something (numbers of which scales with fractal level).

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Rezz.8019

Rezz.8019

If dredge was a dungeon path, it would have been replaced by the Thaumanova path because “it’s one of the least popular paths in the game” (ala TA F/U). Instead it’s a fractal and many players are forced to abandon one or two paths progress or play through it.

This is so true.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Karril Daltaya.4980

Karril Daltaya.4980

Dredge is the only fractal that even if you hit it at the last fractal, you can go back to the start and go through the full set of another 3 fractals faster than beating it.

This frequently happens.

Please fix it or remove it.

Tarnished Coast since Beta, now Banished forever to the Megaservers…

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Falkor.7932

Falkor.7932

Honestly, if they removed all the trash in front of the first door, replaced the first 2 button room mobs with 3 re-spawning guards each, and just plain eliminated the bomb side, this fractal would be do-able.

“One time! I slightly blew some of us up one time, and you won’t let it go.”
- Explorer Bekk

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Celestina.2894

Celestina.2894

I’m honestly reluctant to give my opinion about anything dredge related, simply because as a whole a despise the very existence of dredge in regards to their………what’s the word, mechanics?

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

This fractal alone can ruin fractals. Mainly because it totally violates some of the basic principles of the rest of dungeon design – mobs respawning and mobs being immune to alternate methods of damage mitigation (blinds and projectile blocks). It also splits the party up at the first stage which just sucks.

Please, this fractal is terrible. Delete it or rework it. I was pleasantly surprised by the changes made to fractals otherwise (especially the lowering of Defiance to 5), but the fact that this fractal is still as terrible as ever really makes me wonder if ANet tested this place at all.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: DanteZero.9736

DanteZero.9736

My thoughts on the dredge fractal:

  1. The buttons/gate zone is not fun or challenging because you’re facing infinite spawns of dredge and can be easily interrupted while opening the gate.
  2. The bombing run has infinite spawns and they remove the bombs once placed.
  3. Rabsovich and his clown car feels like an arbitrary mini-boss fight and doesn’t do much to add to the challenge. It feels like an obvious time sink (much like the drill in the molten facility).

It seems that if you notice, two out of the three points all include infinite spawns and one of them just feels misplaced.

As for the dredge themselves, they’re a whole slew of annoying that I’d rather save for a topic about creatures and what I like or dislike about them.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Dragus.1853

Dragus.1853

Dredge should not take more than 30-40 minutes if you (and your group) are good and know what you are doing, which is a little bit too long imo. They ought to just take out or reduce the amount of dredge that keep spawning from the cart. Avoiding the dredge is pointless, you could just end up getting it again. The problem is that with this new update a bunch of non-regulars are running fractals again so everything takes 2-3 times longer than it should on higher fractals.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Plyte.8130

Plyte.8130

I get annoyed at the invisible mobs or underground ones near the bomb doorway.

Why?

Whenever I try to do my stealth combo (13 seconds on my engineer), my big ol bomb hits an invisible mob or something, no damage number shows, and my stealth breaks. Its so kitten furstrating.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Eulolia.2467

Eulolia.2467

This fractal would actually be quite well designed if the dredge themselves weren’t so annoying. On level 1-19 it’s fine but it scales harshly after that. For one thing they have that shockwave attack, which just mows down a whole party when there area large number of mobs all casting it, and they get protection which makes them a pain to kill. This makes the door-bombing part a suicidefest. If the mobs were useless grubs or something there would be no issue. Other thing is the “clown car” taking ages (takes twice as long every tier, why?) but at least they drop nice loot.

Suggest 1)getting rid of the door bombing (give cannons every time) 2) just delete the room with the clown car, one thing i like about fractals is it rarely feels like you’re clearing trash mobs, but that part goes against that 3) (possibly) make the cast time to open the first time lower, or stop it breaking on damage

Subscribe for exciting guild wars 2 videos! https://www.youtube.com/user/eulololia/

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: CptAurellian.9537

CptAurellian.9537

Dredge are annoying, and the fractal is even more annoying than the mobs themselves. Too long and too boring.

Warning! This post may contain traces of irony, sarcasm and peanuts.

There is no loyalty without betrayal. -Ann Smiley

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Becka Williams.4978

Becka Williams.4978

I just want Anet to explain to us how the dredge tunnel up through a wire cage that’s suspended in the air to respawn the dredge in the button puzzle room.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: GoldenTruth.2853

GoldenTruth.2853

Terrible fractal. The only thing good about it is the final boss.

Panels: Can’t die on the panels anymore, can’t dodge the attacks or we fall off the panel, can’t even blind them. It’s doable but extremely annoying.

Cannon Room: Fine

Bomb Room: To much respawn at high levels, should just make it cannon every time.

Clowncar: Boss is boring and the clown car takes forever at high levels

Final Boss: Both are pretty interesting.

Suggestion: Start the fractal in the cannon room, have Rabsovich with a few adds around him (no clown car) even though mechanically he is a terrible fight, keep final boss, make dredge a medium length fractal.

Alara Vesmir – Guardian
Tyr Sylvison – Warrior
Illyiah – Revenant

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Chokolata.1870

Chokolata.1870

Why did they fix the button dying strat ? seriously , its a tedious fractal anyway and that was a perfectly fine way to do the first part . Jesus

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: XxNoahxX.7813

XxNoahxX.7813

I was with pug and did it for achievement on lvl34. We spent freakin 2.5 hours for the whole crap. I would surely port back to lab next time even if it’s lvl 20.

Or, I stop playing fractals for avoiding dredge. It is just simply wasting time.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Zentec.2536

Zentec.2536

My suggestion is to end the Dredge fractal at Rabsovich. Also change the respawn rate for Dredge during the panels and the bombs.

Have the rest of the fractal (hallway + power suit/ice elemental) become a new boss fractal.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Faedrivin.5382

Faedrivin.5382

Although I skipped half of this thread because of some people’s almost rude posts, I still want to share my opinion on this fractal after doing it now on several levels in the 30s and 40s, I actually happen to had it just an hour ago on level 46.

The mechanics
The mechanics of this fractal are challenging, and I like that fact. You have to coordinate your team well and it’s no silly killing of another 50 mobs involved. (Most of the time!)

Gates
The main entrance is a beautiful designed puzzle.

I have to admit I don’t even know if the mobs at the first two pressure plates respawn – I usually just try to get one character up there, let him trigger the plate as long as needed and retreat. Often those players die and have to respawn. If the second person dies or doesn’t get away far enough, the rest of the team usually has to do the final challenge, the control panel, with four people. I wrote “doesn’t get away far enough” since after the patch the dredge guarding the second pressure plate seem to follow longer than they did before.

There are many ways to stay alive long enough. Mesmers can make use of Inivisibility chaining, Evasions, etc. Thiefs have Shadow Refuge. Elementalists have Mist Form and Arcane Shield, which by far is not as helpful as Invisibility, but it does the job. Guardians of course can stay alive quite well, especially when they have Renewing Focus equipped. A Warrior can make use of Endure Pain. Engineers have Elixir S. I can continue the list further, but I have to admit I don’t know exactly which skills are helpful on all classes.
Staying alive long enough at those two pressure plates means usually about 2-5 seconds, depending on the reaction time of the team. For the second pressure plate this can be longer since the person from the first pressure plate also has to get in. (Mesmers and their portals can speed that up.)

These first two gates are quite okay and doable. The most trickiest part is the following control panel.
I realized that it works very very good if your team has learned that fractal before. Usually you clear one side, let two people there, kite the other side, pick the veteran away who tries to attack the control panel user. GG.
Unfortunately this can need several tries, every time having to start all over again. This can be very annoying and is the reason why so many people still like to skip it with stealth. Now, depending on the instability, this becomes really painful.
But I made the experience that especially those teams, who want to skip the entire thing by using stealth and such, are those, who are able to do it the normal way. In fact today I faced the for me common situation that the stealth attempts failed twice or more times before we decided to go for the normal attempt. The normal attempt worked perfect, we did it in the first shot.

But here is the problem. Until that moment where you finish that control panel, you already spent 5-40 minutes (huge span, I know) in this fractal. While the other fractals of the same tier take around 20-30 minutes in total.

So what to do about the gates? I can imagine several solutions. One might be to reduce the time the control panel needs to be channeled. You could also reduce the number of mobs at the first and second pressure plate. I wouldn’t remove them completely, as one challenging element is to get all players into the last room, but those standing there on the platforms are often just like lambs brought to the slaughter, waiting for their deaths. Give them some chance to actually survive. Maybe some weapon they can use to shield themselves a few seconds (like the new gun in the turret room of the Thaumanova reactor fractal) would be enough. Or a “trapdoor” to get away quickly after using the pressure plate.
On the first levels the player at the control panel could get a shielding bubble. This way players would have time to learn the mechanics, how to kite and keep those on the pressure plates alive, how to get all people inside, without having to bother about the one person which might get attacked by enemies as well.

I would not change to much of that puzzle mechanism itself, but reduce the difficulty or give players more tools. This way players wouldn’t even need to try to take shortcuts like the Blink/Portal stuff – they could simply go straight through it.

Blocked door
The second mechanic, the blocked door. The left side works quite good if you have some stealth, Time Warp, reflects, etc. Especially getting to the door is fine if you are careful.
However it becomes difficult if you don’t have mentioned utilities with you. Then you actually really have to face a tough fight. But one can still do it, even if four people defend while one person opens the door.
So the left side is not a big deal.

Septimum Confoederatio Draconis [Sept]
Seafarer’s Rest (SFR)
Human Mesmer

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Faedrivin.5382

Faedrivin.5382

But the right side. Before the patch we stealthed, placed the bombs, pushed the enemies away to hinder them from fetching the bombs and if we had a very dedicated hard he even placed a sanctuary over the bombs. And if we were lucky 4 or 5 people made their way back to the entrance.
Even without stealth it used to work quite good, but swiftness and some coordination were/are kind of a must have.

But now the situation is worse. For some reason (I don’t know exactly, I didn’t have the time to figure it out yet) the best tactics seems to be: 1. Grab bomb while stealthed. 2. Since you lose stealth and the amount of enemies is huge and they will start carrying bombs away if you attack them, just die. 3. Just die. Really, most parties just put their armor off, pick a bomb, place it, and die on top of it. Takes down the door in two to three attempts if all works well, but it’s a big problem that the best tactics here seems to be not to fight at all, not even to struggle. Just go there and wait and hope.

This needs to be redesigned. First the bombs need to respawn faster, so that you have a chance that if one bomb gets stolen you can replace it. Then there should be an amount of enemies you somehow can beat. It’s so cluttered with enemies there, I feel like fighting a whole group of 40 players following there commander. It would not be too bad if you were able to pull them like you can on the other side. But it’s just almost impossible to kill a reasonable amount before they respawn, if it’s not even impossible at all.

Rabsovich
Killing him is okay. It’s tough to do that on levels >20 where he is, so pulling him away seems to be inevitable, but that’s okay, since you still have to fight him in the open now, which itself is a challenge.
The following is the most boring part at all. I think on level 46 we had to kill approximately 100 dredges, if not more. I got at least 40 miner’s bags, what is no bad loot at all for this fractal! On lower levels, where this fractal’s enemies are easy to kill, we in fact always hope for this fractal since the loot is quite good compared to other fractals.

But on higher levels just standing there 30 minutes mindlessly killing dredges is no fun at all. It would not even be better if they respawned quicker or in another way. The only solution I can think of is reducing the number of needed kills. Yes, it will reduce the loot, and I can see people cry about it. But this is the time killer number one in the fractal, and not too much of a challenge.

Final fight
This is a nice fight, I’d only change a very small thing:
It would be nice if the boss wouldn’t run up too easy anymore. This way all players could fight, and all would get the loot.

Time
Most parts of this dungeon are of a nice design, the mechanics are – with the problems mentioned above – well defined and done. The biggest problem here is that most things take some time by itself. I mentioned earlier that the time for the first part can take anything between 5 and 40 minutes very easy.
The bomb door takes ~5-10 minutes, depending on how many bombs go off.
Rabsovich is another good 5 minutes, ~30 seconds (this is very rough estimation, but I heard on level 79 it took somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes) per fractal level to fight dredge waves, I assume a level 30 with 15 minutes.
And the final fight can also take some time between 5 and 20 minutes, depending on the teams performance.
In sum I get ~35-90 minutes. Let’s say on average it’s about 50 minutes.
That is a little too much I think.

Solution
So in my opinion the easiest solution would be a split. The problem is: Where.

I suggest:
Fractal one: Breach into the Underground Facility.
Fractal two: Take care of what’s inside of the Underground Facility.

Fractal one
I would start with the Control Panel and leave its mechanics as they are, maybe introducing one or two of the ideas mentioned above. After the Control Panel I would not let people face the Veteran Mining Suit but instead approach the Wielding Door.
After they opened that in the room with Rabsovich the Veteran Mining Suit (or some other boss) now upgraded to a nice boss fight.
After that the fractal is stabilized because the team breached through the first door.

Fractal two
Since we “just” breached the first door, we are now facing a second door. It starts with the bomb phase, followed by Rabsovich and the Legendary Ice Elemental or Mining Suit.

Conclusion
With this solution we had all mechanics preserved, no more big time problems and another fractal to be added to the rotation.
It could be a little bit odd to have two fractals on the same topics, but hey, it’s fractured.

Sorry for the double post, I had more than 5001 characters.

Septimum Confoederatio Draconis [Sept]
Seafarer’s Rest (SFR)
Human Mesmer

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Vena.8436

Vena.8436

The only real problem I know of with this fractal is just its NYAHNYAH spam, which comes from the dredge spam. But in terms of difficulty, I wouldn’t say its actually difficult just tediously long if you get the door-bomb side.

For one, people seem to really get caught up on the switch room but I have no idea why they go about it by rushing it. If you don’t kill all the mobs, they don’t respawn immediately and the only thing that spawns is the vet by the switch which you can pull.
Switch room:

  • Kill vets outside.
  • Aggro mobs and kill off most of them, leave one (squisher) player on the switch that is now cleared of mobs.
  • A tankier player goes on the other switch.
  • Two players kite and aggro anything that respawns, making sure to aggro the vet that spawns at the panel.
  • Fifth player uses the panel and is usually completely untouched unless he gets an unlucky aggro.

The real annoyance is the door bombing side which is just “throw yourself at door with bombs until it blows”.

Vena/Var – Guardian/Thief
[Eon] – Blackgate

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Dyrus.6507

Dyrus.6507

this fraktal is hated by everyone i know, pls remove some dredge and PLS dont make them endlesly resparwn. endboss is fun, every otherthing isnt

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Barkas.2863

Barkas.2863

Dont know whats the problem is. Yeah its long, but if watch the other fraks taht nearly can all done in 10-15 min, than it is okay. I´m doing it with my mates in ~20min on 40+. The only annoying thing is the car part when u can´t deal damage the adds.

Legendary Weaponcollector Vijay 9/11
Legendary Weaponcollector Vi Jay 0/5
Fractal Lvl: 50 | EU/World First Team done 50.

You opinion about Dredge?

in Fractured

Posted by: Hammerguard.9834

Hammerguard.9834

When I heard that Anet had made changes to the dredge fractal, I thought it was understandable. Take out the exploits that allowed players to skip any of the content. But then I saw the champion dredge room and noticed that they even changed the pipe terrain and I eff’n lost it. Why the hell would they screw us over on a simple trick used all over the game (LoS)? Smart players using their environment to help defeat some enemies and they actually thought they should waste time and money TO “FIX” IT?! It was such a scumbag move in my opinion. Can’t wait to see how else they diseased fractals with their update.

… I still want tengu.