On Saturday I got quite annoyed with this weekend but after it’s all finished, felt that it’d be better to be constructive rather than just rant – so here it is.
For developer info I’m a UK player who started the weekend at level 43, on Aurora Glade. I played it all with my wife who was the same level.
Phase 1:
I logged on at 8pm and went straight to LA. The event popped up on my overflow server however when trying to attack found that the lag was so bad, it was more like we were all playing ‘musical statues’. I repeatedly got disconnected from the server (internet connection was fine), accumulated broken armour by foes I never saw killing me, then at some point I logged back on and the event had ended (no reward). The next quest stage was fine and entertaining except for Canach not working. I did manage to fight and repel Karka in Caledon Forest.
Phase 2:
For me, this was the worst. I logged on at 8pm again to find the event in the overflow was already well underway. The Ancient Karka was being attacked and retreated back to the wall. At this stage it became bugged and his health would reset once reaching 75%. About 40+ of us then spent nearly 3 hours trying to get new players to stop attacking so that he could come forward and we could “finish him”. We didn’t want to leave the overflow in case the event on the next overflow had finished. At 11pm a new build was announced however early joy by the players ended after we found it merely ended the event so once again no reward. It was now so late (almost midnight by now & have two young children who wake early) that we had no time to try the island.
Phase 3:
Despite yesterday’s disaster we once again logged on at 8pm, chose a waypoint on the Cove to travel to and waited for the main event. The initial part was tricky since heroes were in small teams taking on veterans (and their rolling skill caused regular wipes) however once we formed a big squad, it got easier. Things were then fine until the first of many reinforcement metas as these just took a very long time, got very repetitive and caused even the best players to die repeatedly (naked players started getting common). I think a lot of players felt the ‘pace’ of the event would’ve been better with less of these too – it got quite dull fighting these. Once we reached the final cave the number of hatchlings was staggering! They may be easy to kill but sheer volume caused a challenge with lots more dying. The final fight was slightly anticlimactic since we’d all killed so many Karka that he became just another rather than the Karka to kill. Once died though it was extremely satisfying to have made it!
About the final reward: I understand that items are random so will not comment on how applicable the items were. We both got items with a required level of 60-62 (except the shell earring) so great for ‘growing in to’. Very happy with this! Personally claims of new players get level 80 gear sounds far fetched given both of our rewards.
Summary:
Yes there were a lot of things which annoyed us about this weekend but we can see what you were attempting to achieve.
Was it perfect? No. It was very disappointing in places but then this was the first time I’ve seen a company do anything like this so perfect would be difficult first time round.
Did I enjoy it? The bits I did play were great!
Would I do it all again? Definitely – I love that you put these things in for us to keep it fresh. Despite everything I can’t wait four the next event and hope they never end. As long as you learn from this weekend I’ll be happy :-)
On a side note, the final event took about 2 1/2 hours of continuous fighting. That’s a long time to go without leaving the PC & in Guild Wars 1 we would’ve had messages popping up telling us to take a break!
I’d also like to thank any players who were on the over flow server with us for the final event. The level of teamwork was brilliant with many players dying trying to resurrect each other or help someone in need. This is truly one of the best things about Guild Wars 2.
(edited by Dorsk Khomm.6803)