Let me start by saying I don’t post on the forums very much, but do read. I only play one character, a Mesmer named Chuck Mindbender on the Northern Shiverpeaks server. I’ve invested some 400 hours in this game as that one character. If ArenaNet said tomorrow they were removing the Mesmer from the game (hypothetically) I can sleep soundly at night knowing that for $65 I got 400 hours, or more, entertainment out of this game and if I don’t play it again that’s fine. I’ve spent more for less. We all have.
I thought this event was really quite awesome. Did it have some issues? Yes, it did. I’ll get to those in a moment. However, for something that was entirely free and added onto the game after an already great run for my money, I’m very impressed with the content. Also, I happened to be lucky (and did my best to arrange my schedule) so that I could participate in the events all 3 days (some were cut very close). I don’t expect this to be achievable for me for many, if any future one-time events, but for this weekend it was. I’m (mostly) a grown-up. I can accept that in the future, cool stuff will be given out and I won’t get it.
I truly had a great time fighting off sea monsters with my server. It was a delight.
That being said, I can’t imagine anyone getting through this weekend without at least one or two disconnects. Sometimes at extreme moments. I missed almost all of Phase 2 due to a disconnect and appearing on an another overflow server. This was not unique to anyone. I hope ArenaNet looks into it seriously. but it is showing the game has a healthy population after half of it claimed to quit because of Halloween and the other half quit because of Ascended gear (so how we can lose a 3rd half because The Lost Shores is mathematically impossible).
I would like it if AreaNet could maybe structure the timing differently for people in EU and Oceanic servers. However, if it was between that an no one-time world events, I’d rather keep the events (and time it so it landed on Sunday instead of Monday in some countries).
As far as gear goes. Don’t change anything. You’ve made the trek to Legendary’s much easier with this patch. People who couldn’t do the event or did and didn’t get a precursor item are angry because they aren’t “first”. Over time it’ll even out as more champions and one-time events are created and more precursors drop.
Lastly, I love the Fractals of the Mist dungeon (though anyone who’s run it with me knows I fail at platforming so hard), but the entrance being IN Lion’s Arch is annoying and definitely added to the server lag of Phase 1 and 2 (many people were LFG or talking about FotM during those phases). I hope future dungeon content like this is located elsewhere (we joked that it would give people a reason to actually go to places like Rata Sum post-100%).
TL;DR- There were a few technical issues, but not as many overall issues as people’s self-entitlement would have you believe on these forums. ArenaNet shouldn’t cave in to “No More Events!” threads, but could stand to learn some things. ArenaNet should maybe have an event/super-dungeon be somewhere other than Lion’s Arch to avoid super-influxes (at least at the same exact time).
*Note- I did not get a precursor. I got 2 Exotics (1g each), 2 Rares (20s each). I’m a Mesmer so you KNOW I didn’t get ANY loot/exp from enemies during the actual event (I got 1 vile of Potent Blood in Phase 3….).
**Also I missed a lot of the Halloween stuff because of real life/preparing for the worst storm that hit my state in like ever. People have things I don’t. I’m totally OK with that. ArenaNet owes me nothing. I’m glad my house didn’t wash away during Sandy. Some people’s did. Just saying: Prospective.