Guild Wars 2

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

4. Death is bad

Problem
Getting into a fight can already be annoying, but after being repeatedly defeated to then have to lay there in the hopes someone isn’t AFK, too close to a fight to help, or not interested in you adding more waiting time to their cue, can make this a frustrating experience.

I thought arenanet didn’t want death to feel like such a punishment. One of the worst parts for me is the fact that I lose so much from death in the gauntlet. If no one is there, the trip back is terrible. If people are there, you get to have some fun waiting for everyone esle… cause watching people do this is sooooo exciting. Oh, and now you need to buy more tickets, awesome….

I have a lot of other problems with the dome too, but the death part seems to go against what they said.

The dome itself seems like a false excuse for a challenge. (And yes, i know the few of you that beat her think it is perfectly fine.) Though i will say, if I could freely repeat this over and over, change gear, builds without wasting tons of money, maybe I would notice this as a nice challenge.

EDIT: I will add that I have in fact killed Liadri, but I can’t for the life of me get the 8 orb achievement.

I like all of these, they’re all quality of life things instead of QQ nerf it to the ground!!

A lot of excellent tweak ideas here. Great post!

Durzlla.6295:

I like all of these, they’re all quality of life things instead of QQ nerf it to the ground!!

unfortunately you’ll have the elitists coming soon and reply with ‘’everything here is minor, therefore people just QQ for the sake of it’’

Excellent post(s). Sadly I think we’re stuck with things as they are now. They haven’t really tried to fix things other than bugs and make a few nerfs in between live story releases.

This needs some more attention. I am enjoying the actual gauntlet and the overall event but the excessive, pointless, annoying travel and deaths and such are really dragging it down. They seemed to think it was so important that it received it’s own achievement section and yet when they designed the area for the gauntlet and the mechanics it seems to have just been thrown together last minute.

I’d like a waypoint closer to the arena so I don’t have a much time to contemplate my failure on the long walk back. Makes me kitten kthx.

They should just have npc’s that are standing there rez dead players. That would solve alot of the frustration, and is easily doable.

The thing is, the devs have probably moved on to the next living stories.
They won’t change anything. They can just fix little bugs (like the daily karma spender).

True dat. Especially the dumb dome, and the small yellow text announcing your fight. There is nothing more frustrating than missing that announcement and then being ported into the dome with the camera so far in you’d swear you were playing Guild Wars 2: Black Ops.

Zanshin.5379:

The thing is, the devs have probably moved on to the next living stories.
They won’t change anything. They can just fix little bugs (like the daily karma spender).

Yeah, your are no doubt right, but since this is part of their banked/recurring event inventory it means that they will have a chance to make changes down the line for next time.

I gave up on Suriel. The one before it was completely stupid with all the knockback. Plus I could barely see anything thanks to the dome. It was more annoying then it was fun. I really just got tried of having to run all the way back. At least in Dark Souls I get enjoy the level again, get stronger and gather more loot.

I fully agree with this list. Also everything in Guild Wars 2 suffers from the wiki curse. Even story wise the game gives you nothing. If you want a story you have to read the website. If it wasn’t for Dulfy I would never know what I"m suppose to do in this game.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

10. “Everyone, I beat the boss!……everyone…hello?”

Problem
The tier system makes no sense. Some bosses are easier than others and in the end putting them in tiers really doesn’t matter. What is worse is that you don’t really get an achievement for defeating a boss. It seems so anticlimactic to just pop out after a fight and be standing there. No achievement, no fanfare, just a shrug.

Solution
Each boss should have an achievement. That would allow players to see the list and work their way though what to many is most important, beating the boss. The gambits are for those players who want extra hardcore achievements. The satisfaction of at least seeing each boss checked off the list with some points for my trouble would be a lot nicer.

11. Dome Buggy

Problem
It’s buggy. Quite simply this place has more bugs than Internet Explorer 3.1. For a long list of the bugs, see the bugs, or Queen’s Jubilee sections of this forum.

Solution
Fix them. Or, try to not create time limited content in a short production window that hasn’t had time to be properly tested.

12. WikiDulfia

Problem
Difficult content is totally cool. Content that insta-wipes you and doesn’t even give you a chance to figure out the mechanics is worse, put time limited content in the game is horrible. These three factors means that many players must resort to third party sites to figure out how to beat the boss. You may as well put out a magazine called “ArenaNet Power” that gives tips and tricks because for some, they just have no other means of sorting out the mechanics.

I went straight online after the first fight because after blasting through 5 tickets, I realized I don’t have the time to waste getting insta-wiped and starting all over.

Solution
The game should be self contained. Players should be able to solve the mechanics of the game without having to resort to online tutorials or forum posts to do so. If the mechanics are designed as such that they’re too unforgiving, or too vague, you need to rethink what is happening.

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Notice I didn’t say anything about the difficulty? I am not here to slam how difficult or challenging it is. Other than the limited time available to learn and beat the fight (remember how we complained about the last dungeon, or the Trials ANet?), it is pretty ok.

The problem is when you add in all these other factors, what could potentially be an amazing activity becomes a long, drawn out, expensive, and frustrating experience for many players.

I have more ideas in terms of arena design, and such, but I’ll leave that for now.

Regarding 12, because you’re arguing from the standing point that Liadri actually instantly kills you without you having a chance at trying out the mechanics and thus figuring out how the fights work. This is a false claim as we have huge red circles showing us where to avoid standing, white vortexes that combined with the boons the boss have gives you a hint to what you’re meant to do, and walking into one of the visions of mortality one time will be enough to tell you to avoid doing it again.

Regardless of how you do content, people are going to go to the wiki or dulfy or curse or mmo-champion or whatever other source you may think off that might provide them with a quick fix for their failing, that is not the contents fault, that is the mentality of the players.

As for your other points I mostly agree, but I’ve yet to experience the camera issues you and everyone else seems to be having(Adressed in point #3 on your behalf).
However 9 is also a blatant lie, you’re not required to spend gold on this aside from the repaircosts, which you will easily cover by the time you’ve farmed the tickets, combined with the full reward of 3.5g (50s,1g,2g) you’re actually able to obtain quite a profit from it. There is no requirement nor necessity for the various buffs and while they do help, it is as always perfectly volountary to actually buy and use them, this is again not at all related to the content.

Aside from the above you’ve got the right idea!
You deserve an imaginary jaffacake, my treat!

Thanks for your response. I would like to expand a tad if you don’t mind.

Lue.6538:

Regarding 12, because you’re arguing from the standing point that Liadri actually instantly kills you without you having a chance at trying out the mechanics and thus figuring out how the fights work. This is a false claim as we have huge red circles showing us where to avoid standing, white vortexes that combined with the boons the boss have gives you a hint to what you’re meant to do, and walking into one of the visions of mortality one time will be enough to tell you to avoid doing it again.

To be fair, there is more than just the battle with Liadri. For example, there is a boss that shoots a fire ring. Now in almost all other places in GW2 I can run though fire, and take some amount of damage.

In this fight however, crossing the fire line means instant death. Getting shot by the fire is almost instant death, and if you don’t keep moving after that, it is instant death.

When you step in there the first few (or in my case 5) times, and each time these new mechanics happen, you are required to react. If you choose poorly, you start over. Other examples of this is the boss with the tornados. I got knocked around and killed over 20 times in that fight before I got lucky and the boss got “stuck” on the side of the dome.

Lue.6538:

Regardless of how you do content, people are going to go to the wiki or dulfy or curse or mmo-champion or whatever other source you may think off that might provide them with a quick fix for their failing, that is not the contents fault, that is the mentality of the players.

There are of course some players that will, by default open a wiki, or watch a video. Many though, prefer to play the game. I have completed all but one jumping puzzle in the game, and I didn’t use an external source for any of them. The reason was because there was no time pressure involved.

I never felt like I only had a short time to complete the task, so if it got the better of me, I simply came back another day and tried again. In the case of the Living Story, players are under much more pressure to use their time efficiently. That means they can’t afford to casually work out the mechanics of a boss fight.

Third party sources will always be relied upon by some players, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for lazy game design.

Lue.6538:

However 9 is also a blatant lie, you’re not required to spend gold on this aside from the repaircosts, which you will easily cover by the time you’ve farmed the tickets, combined with the full reward of 3.5g (50s,1g,2g) you’re actually able to obtain quite a profit from it. There is no requirement nor necessity for the various buffs and while they do help, it is as always perfectly volountary to actually buy and use them, this is again not at all related to the content.

Well, a lie might be a bit of an exaggeration. This content scales all players up to level 80. It doesn’t however scale armor or weapons up. So, if you’re having issues fighting one or more bosses due to your current armor / weapon configuration, you may be required to spend gold to adjust to the fight.

Upgrading weapons and armor, buying food, and better accessories are all examples of where a player may be required to spend gold.

So, I don’t think it is fair to say it is a lie, I think it falls within the realm of reasonable possibility.

I often walk the Green Mile.

The only problem I really have is with the dome camera. Otherwise, I think the gauntlet is one of the better executed living story releases done by ANet.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

To be fair, there is more than just the battle with Liadri. For example, there is a boss that shoots a fire ring. Now in almost all other places in GW2 I can run though fire, and take some amount of damage.

In this fight however, crossing the fire line means instant death. Getting shot by the fire is almost instant death, and if you don’t keep moving after that, it is instant death.

Ah, Salazan.
This boss took me 2 attempts because the description underneath the boss says something like “Lethal Ring of Fire” and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to stand inside it or if I were ment to leave it before X time transpired, so I tried exiting it with a blink and flat out died.

while I understand that the fire waves may be of some concern for most players, it just reminded me of Sartharion, a boss that summons up a firewall that forces you to position yourself in the gaps provided, the fire waves just work the same.. you stand infront of one and when it gets close enough, you step aside.. not a difficult strategy to master and truly not a “one-shot mechanic” that leaves you no room to actually investigate what is going on.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

When you step in there the first few (or in my case 5) times, and each time these new mechanics happen, you are required to react. If you choose poorly, you start over. Other examples of this is the boss with the tornados. I got knocked around and killed over 20 times in that fight before I got lucky and the boss got “stuck” on the side of the dome.

This is another one of those “New mechanic, how to respond to it” issues and nothing else, the main problem here probably lies in the majority of players being opposed to changing up their build and to be perfectly fair, so am I..
But the approach should be something alon the lines of:
ok, I got knocked around alot, what can I do to counter that? Do I have anything that can provide me with stability? Is there anywhere I can position myself to avoid being hit? Can I prevent the tornadoes from spawning in the first place?

In most cases of GW2 you’re capable of just bruteforcing your way through mechanics and thats fine, but the problem with bruteforcing is that you may not be prepared for some newer mechanics presented to you.

All in all the main issue here is probably that you can’t properly observe other players in the arena, if you could, then alot more people would be beating bosses they’re currently stuck at, regardless of which one it is.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

There are of course some players that will, by default open a wiki, or watch a video. Many though, prefer to play the game. I have completed all but one jumping puzzle in the game, and I didn’t use an external source for any of them. The reason was because there was no time pressure involved.

I never felt like I only had a short time to complete the task, so if it got the better of me, I simply came back another day and tried again. In the case of the Living Story, players are under much more pressure to use their time efficiently. That means they can’t afford to casually work out the mechanics of a boss fight.

Third party sources will always be relied upon by some players, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for lazy game design.

I can’t do much more than agree, unfortunately the way the living stories go, you’re under a time-schedule so you will be investing additional time to learn the fights and then that dulfy guide may be looking mighty tempting, but personally I find that it takes away quite abit of the satisfaction of having beaten the content on my own if I were to use said guide.

As for lazy game design, theres only so many mechanics you can use, and when the game doesn’t use the “holy trinity” it alters quite abit what mechanics you can use that actually pressures the players, the approach GW2 is taking is quite frankly new, so I’m withholding any statements of what is or isn’t lazy designs.

Well, a lie might be a bit of an exaggeration. This content scales all players up to level 80. It doesn’t however scale armor or weapons up. So, if you’re having issues fighting one or more bosses due to your current armor / weapon configuration, you may be required to spend gold to adjust to the fight.

Upgrading weapons and armor, buying food, and better accessories are all examples of where a player may be required to spend gold.

So, I don’t think it is fair to say it is a lie, I think it falls within the realm of reasonable possibility.

Fair enough, lie might’ve been abit too harsh, but it was in my opinion a severe exaggeration of a more or less non-existant problem.

As we wont be seeing it for this particular living story, I’d love to see the gauntlet be made into a proper arena where you can actually see the combatants from abit closer.

I came here fully expecting a whine thread, but you make a lot of valid points. Allthough I liked it somewhat, I can agree with most of what you said. Things like the low fps, horrible camera, walking back, yellow text, not being able to exit a queue, etc, really bugged me aswell.

It’s sad just knowing very good threads like these probably aren’t being noticed by Anet, i understand you don’t want to risk saying the wrong thing but come on Anet you know players don’t love broken things, and instead of fixing said broken things fix drop rates or some other phooey.

I agree with all of your points except the first one. I agree it can cause lag etc, but I really like the idea of a live spectator surrounding an arena. As you pointed out however, it wasn’t executed very well.

10. “Everyone, I beat the boss!……everyone…hello?”
There should definitely be some sort of victory emote before you’re teleported from the orb, it needs a lot more flare.

Excellent posts. I could make some additional suggestion for how to tweak the dome to maximum quality of life effect (for example, I have my own idea of how the NPC dialogue(s) should be set up for maximum clarity and fun), but I don’t think it would matter. I do very much hope that ANet addresses these points before their next release of the Gauntlet, but I’m sure they’ll want to come up with their own solutions.

And that’s fine, as long as the problems listed above are addressed at all.

Create a walkway that goes around the stage. Allow players to view the action close up.

Personally, i think this could be very disturbing for the person currently fighting. I know that i wouldn’t want it.

Iavra.8510:

Create a walkway that goes around the stage. Allow players to view the action close up.

Personally, i think this could be very disturbing for the person currently fighting. I know that i wouldn’t want it.

I made a case for a permanent solo arena with a degree of privacy here; in the gauntlet though, if they have to allow spectators, it would be nice if they could spectate a little better.

Lue.6538:

As for lazy game design, theres only so many mechanics you can use, and when the game doesn’t use the “holy trinity” it alters quite abit what mechanics you can use that actually pressures the players, the approach GW2 is taking is quite frankly new, so I’m withholding any statements of what is or isn’t lazy designs.here you can actually see the combatants from abit closer.

I don’t have a problem with new mechanics, but good game design (IMO) teaches players while it goes, or gives players opportunities to experiment without a high cost.

The Gauntlet requires players to jump through a lot of hoops before they can even enter the ring. Most players, who have become familiar with their current setup are suddenly tossed into a fight with an unknown opponent, with unknown mechanics, without any real way of figuring out before hand what to do (aside from third party sites).

So, what can end up happening is that players are hit with a new mechanic, killed, and thrown out of the ring (or the time runs out without any indication of how long you had to begin with, or have left), and required to start all over again.

The player is then required to begin costly experiments in the hopes that something will work. However, because many bosses have multiple mechanics, what you’ve just learned to counter, may be only one thing in a chain of mechanics, requiring players to once again start over.

So, when I’m saying “lazy” I’m not talking about the mechanics, or the difficulty. I am talking about everything surrounding the fight. Nothing else has been properly fleshed out to allow players the opportunity to learn, adjust, experiment, or practice. If you don’t have good gear, or weapons (or the ideal combination, or the right character), you may never know why something isn’t working.

I would have liked to see them offer a section that gave players a minimal/free chance to practice similar mechanics. Allowing other players a place to socialize, discuss, and try would be much more MMO and less single player Dulfy.

I dunno, I could go on with a bunch of ideas, but the point is that it is lazy to just throw bosses into a game for a relatively high cost, and then not build structures around those bosses to help players learn and adapt without penalty.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

9. I’m not Maverick, I don’t fight by the seat of my pants!

Problem
You are introducing new fight dynamics to players without giving them any way to practice prior to spending time or money. You require players to farm for tickets, spend money on WP, collect buffs, eat food, spend money on traits/skills/etc, spend tickets, and ultimately WP/repair costs, but give them no option to train, or practice for a fight.

This is like paying someone a bunch of money to fight a random boxer, then finding out it is Mike Tyson, two seconds before he sends your head into the back of the seats.

Solution
Create a “training” area where players can try techniques, builds, and buffs before facing the real thing. This could even cost a few silver for 5 minutes in the “gym” which is still cheaper than jumping in head first.

I remember in the Super Adventure Box, there was this corner jump you had to make underground to get to one of the doors. We tried to many times, failed so many times, and died every time, using up many a continue coin until we eventually learnt how to make that jump. It was an unnerving process, the additional pressure + time required to run back from the gate did nothing to add to the fun of the otherwise totally awesome SAB.

We then went onto the forums and asked whether maybe next time we could have an overground stump to allow us to practice making that jump without falling to our deaths each time. Josh Foreman replied, “Sounds like a reasonable idea.”

A similar principle could be applied to the gauntlet.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

I don’t have a problem with new mechanics, but good game design (IMO) teaches players while it goes, or gives players opportunities to experiment without a high cost.

The Gauntlet requires players to jump through a lot of hoops before they can even enter the ring. Most players, who have become familiar with their current setup are suddenly tossed into a fight with an unknown opponent, with unknown mechanics, without any real way of figuring out before hand what to do (aside from third party sites).

So, what can end up happening is that players are hit with a new mechanic, killed, and thrown out of the ring (or the time runs out without any indication of how long you had to begin with, or have left), and required to start all over again.

The player is then required to begin costly experiments in the hopes that something will work. However, because many bosses have multiple mechanics, what you’ve just learned to counter, may be only one thing in a chain of mechanics, requiring players to once again start over.

You keep saying theres a high cost to this gauntlet, but I’ve yet to see it, I’m short a single achievement until I’m completely done with it and I’ve yet to spend over 1g (including repairs and tickets bought).

So in all fairness, I’m not seeing the same costs that you are, there are some, but a 1s/death reparation bill isn’t something ’d call high.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

So, when I’m saying “lazy” I’m not talking about the mechanics, or the difficulty. I am talking about everything surrounding the fight. Nothing else has been properly fleshed out to allow players the opportunity to learn, adjust, experiment, or practice. If you don’t have good gear, or weapons (or the ideal combination, or the right character), you may never know why something isn’t working.

I would have liked to see them offer a section that gave players a minimal/free chance to practice similar mechanics. Allowing other players a place to socialize, discuss, and try would be much more MMO and less single player Dulfy.

I dunno, I could go on with a bunch of ideas, but the point is that it is lazy to just throw bosses into a game for a relatively high cost, and then not build structures around those bosses to help players learn and adapt without penalty.

I’d like to see it be something more like the brawlers guild from world of warcraft in terms of layout, where you’ve got a clear view over the battle going on as a spectator and theres tons of opportunities to actually discuss how to approach the various mechanics. Now I’m not saying people at the brawlers guild actually discusses tactics, but atleast you got a proper view and the opportunity to both observe and discuss tactics ARE present, unlike here.

I wouldn’t want the mechanics to be present all over tyria tho, the challenge kinda lies in having to face something unknown and learn how to counter it.

OP: very good post. I do believe Devs are trying to listen to our opinions, so I’m going to add my two cents as well. I feel most strongly about points #4 and #5, which I feel are related.

To give some background for my viewpoint: I am probably what most folks would consider a casual player, although as an ex-WoW raider I applaud tough content and don’t want or expect everything to be easily accessible to me. I like things that take skill, and I accept that due to my demanding job, and therefore limited schedule, there may be things I never see or get in the game. (For example, I LOVED the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon even though I didn’t get to beat it before it was removed.) I’ve been playing since beta, have 7 characters (4 level 80s), and I generally play for a few hours every Saturday and Sunday morning. GW2 has become the perfect MMO for me because there is lots to do, even when I don’t have a lot of time (sPvP, mini-games, Living Story content, events in the open world).

But what I can’t stand is wasting what little time I have to play waiting to play. The Gauntlet makes no sense to me because it is single player content that requires a queue. Why?!? First, I have to wait to fight. Then, if I die, I have more time wasted before I can get back to really playing as the OP states in #4. Time sinks frustrate me so much more than gold sinks because, if I really wanted to, I could buy gems and exchange them for gold, but there is no way to buy time.

So my suggestion is that, for all content, more effort is spent to make sure that players are playing, instead of waiting.

I almost made this post when Sanctum Sprint was introduced, as it also drove me crazy. Waiting at the end for people to finish, and getting dumped in races at the end where you had to finish them, but they didn’t count, and you had MORE waiting to do before you could start a real race?? It took all the fun out of it for me. Seems like there had to be a better way to handle that game so there wasn’t so much waiting around. Now that I’m seeing another mechanic like that in the Gauntlet, I am taking the time to provide my obligatory wall of text asking AreaNet to please, please do something about this.

For the Gauntlet, my suggestion would be to make it fully instanced, and allow friends to right-click you and “Cheer in Gauntlet” just like you can join friends in sPvP. Also, have a generic spectator queue that allows you to watch Gantlet matches closer by dumping you into random ones to view mechanics (which would address OP’s #7 and #9 a bit). This will ensure that you will often have spectators in your domes. Have a few domes in the open world, that are queued first, so that you still get the experience of seeing people fighting in the dome in The Crown Pavilion, without the wait for players when things get busy.

This is all good feedback.

It would be a sin not listening to it.

MithranArkanere.8957:

This is all good feedback.

It would be a sin not listening to it.

I agree!

Great post and a lot of good ideas. The most important for me are the camera angle issues but I haven’t gone through the whole gauntlet yet. I also hope any improvements Anet makes continue to allow me to watch other people fight.

I think it’s interesting that some people would like to learn the fight from the game, and others would like a wiki. I’m quite used to how WoW raids couldn’t be accomplished well without studying mechanics beforehand, but that always bugged me, so I see the argument.

If someone could play the Star Trek fight theme while I played the game it would make my millennium.

I think a lot of this feedback is ignoring what the guantlet is meant to be in the grand scheme of things. Yes all the feedback is extremely valid if you look at it from just a mechanical point of view but this is not just thakittens a an event plug in a story. The story behind it is its a public arena where players get to show their strength against powerful enemies. Its basically Tyria’s version of gladator fights.

Making them instance makes sense performance wise but how would that fit the story? You cannot have public games with no public.

Same with no queues. You can avoid them if you want by going to an arena thats no being used but you have to pay a price for that by running back if you fail.

I do agree with the dome issue. I think an open arena would probably have been better for camera control.

As for the walkways. I think we’re far away from the action on purpose. If we’re broad close we could aid in the fight which would be a bad idea

As for learning the fights / wikis I think its fine as is, nothing you do is going to prevent people from going the easy route through wikis but its totally possible to learn each boss and develop your own strategy against him/her. Thats like whats best about this sort of challenge. Quick thinking you you’ll pay the price.. literally

Completely agree with everything the OP said – nice post. For me Camera issues are one of the main bugbears with the game and the flaws with it make this and other great content almost unplayable and very frustrating.

One other point the OP missed though which has been an issue since launch and which constantly frustrates is the awful targeting. Closest target is a complete joke and the inability to be able to lock a target without joining a party is another massive issue which should have been sorted months ago. The system is so poor that at one point during one of the gauntlet fights while trying to re-establish a target lock, I managed to target on of the Centaurs in the area below!

Yes. The camera. As a charr I totally approve all camera fixing. This is often jump puzzle level bad. Windcaller is the worst for this.

I still never understood why there isn’t a 1st person option.

boredinbc.2786:

True dat. Especially the dumb dome, and the small yellow text announcing your fight. There is nothing more frustrating than missing that announcement and then being ported into the dome with the camera so far in you’d swear you were playing Guild Wars 2: Black Ops.

actually it is…
get the announcement, notice it, start to preparing to the fight, wait 10 minutes, and only see how some players are jumping into dome actualy without any wait – just wp (or rezz from my side) talk to NPC’s and they are in.

yeah of course, my fight will start shortly :P

Eh, that happened to me before I knew hot to look up my place in the queue (which, for the record, is ridiculously well hidden – can you please put the timers and other information back in the top right corner?) so I got to hang out there a looooong time.

Lue.6538:

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

10. “Everyone, I beat the boss!……everyone…hello?”

Problem
The tier system makes no sense. Some bosses are easier than others and in the end putting them in tiers really doesn’t matter. What is worse is that you don’t really get an achievement for defeating a boss. It seems so anticlimactic to just pop out after a fight and be standing there. No achievement, no fanfare, just a shrug.

Solution
Each boss should have an achievement. That would allow players to see the list and work their way though what to many is most important, beating the boss. The gambits are for those players who want extra hardcore achievements. The satisfaction of at least seeing each boss checked off the list with some points for my trouble would be a lot nicer.

11. Dome Buggy

Problem
It’s buggy. Quite simply this place has more bugs than Internet Explorer 3.1. For a long list of the bugs, see the bugs, or Queen’s Jubilee sections of this forum.

Solution
Fix them. Or, try to not create time limited content in a short production window that hasn’t had time to be properly tested.

12. WikiDulfia

Problem
Difficult content is totally cool. Content that insta-wipes you and doesn’t even give you a chance to figure out the mechanics is worse, put time limited content in the game is horrible. These three factors means that many players must resort to third party sites to figure out how to beat the boss. You may as well put out a magazine called “ArenaNet Power” that gives tips and tricks because for some, they just have no other means of sorting out the mechanics.

I went straight online after the first fight because after blasting through 5 tickets, I realized I don’t have the time to waste getting insta-wiped and starting all over.

Solution
The game should be self contained. Players should be able to solve the mechanics of the game without having to resort to online tutorials or forum posts to do so. If the mechanics are designed as such that they’re too unforgiving, or too vague, you need to rethink what is happening.

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Notice I didn’t say anything about the difficulty? I am not here to slam how difficult or challenging it is. Other than the limited time available to learn and beat the fight (remember how we complained about the last dungeon, or the Trials ANet?), it is pretty ok.

The problem is when you add in all these other factors, what could potentially be an amazing activity becomes a long, drawn out, expensive, and frustrating experience for many players.

I have more ideas in terms of arena design, and such, but I’ll leave that for now.

Regarding 12, because you’re arguing from the standing point that Liadri actually instantly kills you without you having a chance at trying out the mechanics and thus figuring out how the fights work. This is a false claim as we have huge red circles showing us where to avoid standing, white vortexes that combined with the boons the boss have gives you a hint to what you’re meant to do, and walking into one of the visions of mortality one time will be enough to tell you to avoid doing it again.

Regardless of how you do content, people are going to go to the wiki or dulfy or curse or mmo-champion or whatever other source you may think off that might provide them with a quick fix for their failing, that is not the contents fault, that is the mentality of the players.

As for your other points I mostly agree, but I’ve yet to experience the camera issues you and everyone else seems to be having(Adressed in point #3 on your behalf).
However 9 is also a blatant lie, you’re not required to spend gold on this aside from the repaircosts, which you will easily cover by the time you’ve farmed the tickets, combined with the full reward of 3.5g (50s,1g,2g) you’re actually able to obtain quite a profit from it. There is no requirement nor necessity for the various buffs and while they do help, it is as always perfectly volountary to actually buy and use them, this is again not at all related to the content.

Aside from the above you’ve got the right idea!
You deserve an imaginary jaffacake, my treat!

regarding your regarding of question 12
Some of you points are moot cause the red circles cant be seen on orange grated floors. Just cause you can see the circles doesn’t mean everyone can individuals have different applitudes in recognizing color contrast(no matter who you are red on orange is very little contrast). Also even if you get out of them sometimes you still die cause of the 250ms natural graphics lag where game still recognizes you as inside it even though you left it. This is not counting the lag from zergs mining the pavilion for drops slowing down your game.

Most excellent points. I certainly hope ArenaNet takes these to heart.

I think I’d be able to stomach most of these frustrations if it weren’t for the way the gauntlet tickets were implemented. I don’t mind that we have to use them, but do wish they were more plentiful and they remained account bound rather than being changed via patch to soulbound on acquire. I have an abundance of wasted tickets on that I’ll never use because I can’t transfer them to my gauntlet fighter. Which is absolutely frustrating when I’m working on gaining the skill required for these challenges and my learning progress is completely blocked by running out of tickets and have to go back to grind (or even worse, pay 20s + 15 watchwork sprockets) for more tickets. If progress is account-wide, then the entrance tickets should also be account-wide.

The Mad King’s Clocktower is by far still my favorite challenge in the game to date. It was by no means perfect and certainly needed some polish to make things more smooth. But I was able to try again and again and again without punishment until I was able to gain enough skill to get the top. It took me a good solid 6 hours, but I was able to master it without it feeling punishing and it truly felt like an achievement that I could feel proud of (and yes, I still have those shoes in my bank). All it took was time, patience and persistence. And the experience completely transformed me from a JP hater to an avid JP fan.

I wholeheartedly feel this gauntlet concept with one-shot mechanics would have been FAR better suited for the sPvP framework used for the other mini-games. Had they used the sPvP framework like other mini-games, I think it would have felt far less punishing and would have solved a LOT of the problems folks are complaining about.

Anet fully understands that the players are frustrated. But the challenge is designed to push the best players. If people want an easier fight, there’s the Shadow Behemoth, Fire Ele, Shatterer, Jungle Wurm, etc etc. Hard content is hard. Challenging content is challenging. If you can’t do it, or don’t have fun doing it, find another enemy boss to kill.

Note – you can always join the zergs below farming the Champions. They drop good loot.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Anet fully understands that the players are frustrated. But the challenge is designed to push the best players. If people want an easier fight, there’s the Shadow Behemoth, Fire Ele, Shatterer, Jungle Wurm, etc etc. Hard content is hard. Challenging content is challenging. If you can’t do it, or don’t have fun doing it, find another enemy boss to kill.

Guess you missed this part…

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

Notice I didn’t say anything about the difficulty? I am not here to slam how difficult or challenging it is. Other than the limited time available to learn and beat the fight (remember how we complained about the last dungeon, or the Trials ANet?), it is pretty ok.

The problem is when you add in all these other factors, what could potentially be an amazing activity becomes a long, drawn out, expensive, and frustrating experience for many players.

Manoa.5897:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Anet fully understands that the players are frustrated. But the challenge is designed to push the best players. If people want an easier fight, there’s the Shadow Behemoth, Fire Ele, Shatterer, Jungle Wurm, etc etc. Hard content is hard. Challenging content is challenging. If you can’t do it, or don’t have fun doing it, find another enemy boss to kill.

Guess you missed this part…

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

Notice I didn’t say anything about the difficulty? I am not here to slam how difficult or challenging it is. Other than the limited time available to learn and beat the fight (remember how we complained about the last dungeon, or the Trials ANet?), it is pretty ok.

The problem is when you add in all these other factors, what could potentially be an amazing activity becomes a long, drawn out, expensive, and frustrating experience for many players.

Challenging content is challenging. You take away the challenge, then it becomes a freebie giveaway for a mini and Achievement points.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Challenging content is challenging. You take away the challenge, then it becomes a freebie giveaway for a mini and Achievement points.

Making players pay for new gear, retraiting, armor repair, waypointing, and entry tickets is not a challenge. That’s a goldsink.

Making players run a long distance from the waypoint or grind for entry tickets is not a challenge. That’s a timesink.

Making players deal with a confusing registration system and significant FPS drops due to the zerg below is not a challenge. That’s poor planning.

Making players deal with camera glitches and domes not clearing out between matches is not a challenge. Those are game bugs.

Nobody in this thread is calling for scaling the difficulty of the encounters down. Folks in this thread who posted their feedback want the same level of challenge with more polish and less annoyance. The encounters would STILL challenging even if every single one of Crazylegsmurphy’s ideas were implemented.

True the que is inconvenient, but this allows us to watch the matches of others who are in the individual que with us. Also, apparently, the different arenas have slighly different mechanics which can also be observed. These positives far outweigh the negative of the time spent waiting for a turn. The time spend waiting is short. I have not seen a que longer than 3.

I have to agree with the camera angle issues as a Norn fighting Salazan was a pain because most times you were backed against that wall and couldn’t see where to stand. I did have a great view of the back of my head though!

The OP is right, this is another example of how ANet doesn’t really test things all that well. (And how can they really, with the rate they’re putting out content? Can’t expect too much polish on things.)

Manoa.5897:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Challenging content is challenging. You take away the challenge, then it becomes a freebie giveaway for a mini and Achievement points.

Making players pay for new gear, retraiting, armor repair, waypointing, and entry tickets is not a challenge. That’s a goldsink.

Making players run a long distance from the waypoint or grind for entry tickets is not a challenge. That’s a timesink.

Making players deal with a confusing registration system and significant FPS drops due to the zerg below is not a challenge. That’s poor planning.

Making players deal with camera glitches and domes not clearing out between matches is not a challenge. Those are game bugs.

Nobody in this thread is calling for scaling the difficulty of the encounters down. Folks in this thread who posted their feedback want the same level of challenge with more polish and less annoyance. The encounters would STILL challenging even if every single one of Crazylegsmurphy’s ideas were implemented.

1) If you want to beat it, you need to retrait if you’re set up incorrectly. Trail and error. Anet’s not gonna tell each player how to play within their skill range. If you do better as a pure Zerker rather than PVT, trail accordingly. Same with armor setups. This challenge wasn’t meant for everyone anyway, so you gotta do what you gotta do in order to win. If that means paying 100 Gold to respec, that’s your choice.

2) If no one gives you a rez when you die, you Waypoint and run back. Pretty simple concept. If you don’t like that, be sure you win next time you go in.

3) I agree with the zerg below part. The 2nd level of the area should have been a separate map.

4) Game bugs… Anet should fix them. But we live with the cards we’re dealt.

As for the queue, I see no problem. The fights are fast enough, and it gives other players the opportunity to watch and learn.

Baladir.2736:

True the que is inconvenient, but this allows us to watch the matches of others who are in the individual que with us.

I personally don’t find the queue to be much of an issue. But if the gauntlet were implemented using the sPvP framework rather than it’s current incarnation, there is the possibility that the devs could have taken advantage of spectator mode to allow folks to watch other players.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

1) If you want to beat it, you need to retrait if you’re set up incorrectly. Trail and error. Anet’s not gonna tell each player how to play within their skill range. If you do better as a pure Zerker rather than PVT, trail accordingly. Same with armor setups. This challenge wasn’t meant for everyone anyway, so you gotta do what you gotta do in order to win. If that means paying 100 Gold to respec, that’s your choice.

Why does the hardcore zerker crowd always assume if someone is struggling with challenging content, that person must be wearing PVT? For the record, I don’t run PVT on my gauntlet character (and never have).

But with one-shot mechanics, there’s simply no point in players specing for defense whatsoever. Not complaining about the one-shot mechanics, but there’s no denying this content heavily favors glass cannons. After the big hubabbaloo about the devs wanting to encourage build diversity with the big rebalance patch, it’s no surprise that players are frustrated that ANet put in content that favors full zerker builds so heavily. This is Guild Wars 2, not Zerker Wars 2.

As evidenced by sPvP, gear does not equal skill. An event about challenging skilled players should be about skill and knowledge of your profession, not the gear you’re wearing. I wholeheartedly feel that the gauntlet would have been far better implemented in sPvP.