Guild Wars 2

Besides the two jump puzzles and extra nodes, the new zone doesn’t really offer much beyond that. No vistas, none of the waypoints or POI’s count towards exploration, no skillpoints. There aren’t any meaningful events to do after the one-time event considering that after the event ended, there’s nothing that actually needs the waypoints.

The karka were rather disappointing, especially considering that they were hyped up to be an “ancient evil”, with the reality being that they were just animals who had their jimmies rustled because a group of idiots wanted to make their home into a resort. I had really hoped that they would have something to do with the DSD (Deep Sea Dragon, for those who don’t know).

All in all, the zone looks nice, but beyond that there’s no real point to it unless you want to do the jump puzzles, get some extra nodes, or fight overpowered enemies. It just doesn’t have anything special compared to Orr.

Sarcazar.6148:

All in all, the zone looks nice, but beyond that there’s no real point to it unless you want to do the jump puzzles, get some extra nodes, or fight overpowered enemies. It just doesn’t have anything special compared to Orr.

Seconded. I can’t find a reason to care about running around this zone after the first time through. Maybe there will be more of a tie-in in the future…

Sarcazar.6148:

The karka were rather disappointing, especially considering that they were hyped up to be an “ancient evil”, with the reality being that they were just animals who had their jimmies rustled because a group of idiots wanted to make their home into a resort. I had really hoped that they would have something to do with the DSD (Deep Sea Dragon, for those who don’t know).

The karka could still have something to do with the Deep Sea Dragon for all we know. They actually remind me a little of destroyers.

We conquered that island for the 1 rich orichalcum node!
Maybe they’re adding something this week, otherwise that was pretty pointless.

I don’t really see whats wrong with Southsun Cove being “just another normal zone”. Why does it need to be some huge special area thats going to lure everyone to be there constantly? I see nothing wrong with simply expanding the game world with an additional area.

I do agree they could spruce it up with a few vistas (the landscape is beautiful, I want to see it in those nice sweeping camera angles) and skillpoints. And more DE’s, since a lot of the existing ones were related to the event and probably won’t be happening any more. I do seem to remember the devs saying at some point that they would indeed be adding new DE’s after the event, though I may be remembering incorrectly. Not sure about making it count towards exploration, though (aside from maybe its own seperate achievement / exploration reward, not related to overall world). On one hand I’ve seen people with 100% exploration who’d be more than happy to have another area to explore, but there are others who hate the idea of their 100% becomming anything less.

They could also stand to tone down the HP of the enemies since they potentially upped it just because they expected people to be grouping due to the event (and tone down everything about Reef Drakes because screw Reef Drakes).

Yeah, Southsun is very small and there just isn’t enough to do. They need to put in more dynamic events. And they need better drops. The loot so far has been abysmal. Most of the time nothing drops for me. Not even junk items. The only thing of worth that dropped was from the chest for that one time only event. There needs to be more incentive to come here.

I would hope and assume that there will be a number of non-event DEs that will be activated in the zone now that the event is over. I really hope it will also be fleshed out with PoIs, SPCs and Vistas. The optimist in me says that these may just have been disabled until the permanent, post event version of the zone goes live. However, I have a feeling that they just didn’t have time to complete the zone in time for the event and if we ever get those things, it may take a while.

I’m hoping there will be some interesting events and maybe a dragon there once things settle down as well.

I couldn’t see much reason to go back either (I’m sick to death of barrel-rolling karkas and “crap, there goes half my health” drakes) except for all those ridiculously easy-to-get-to mithril and cyprus nodes, plus the rich, unguarded rich orich node, plus a couple of ancient trees. And the fact I can send any character I have over level 60 to go get them because they’ll be boosted to 80 and thus be reasonably able to survive the place.

Kadera.7861:

I couldn’t see much reason to go back either (I’m sick to death of barrel-rolling karkas and “crap, there goes half my health” drakes) except for all those ridiculously easy-to-get-to mithril and cyprus nodes, plus the rich, unguarded rich orich node, plus a couple of ancient trees. And the fact I can send any character I have over level 60 to go get them because they’ll be boosted to 80 and thus be reasonably able to survive the place.

The level upscaling is going to be removed post-event , so I wouldn’t get too used to that aspect…

Xenesis.6389:

We conquered that island for the 1 rich orichalcum node!
Maybe they’re adding something this week, otherwise that was pretty pointless.

Ha! One measly rich ori node? I was hoping to see more harvestables available but the Island feels very, very empty. I even took my level 33 Guardian down there late yesterday evening and got not only the two way points I could from the guy on the Lion’s Arch docks, but managed to get to that small area south east for that way point.

Noticed that one of the way points where there used to be one, a bit inland south of one of the way points, is totally gone now. Managed to get some exploring done but was pretty disappointed.

I wouldn’t surprised if the Karka turn out to be another aspect of the Titan’s under Primordius’s (or another Elder Dragons) control. Their mechanics are almost too close to that of the Titan’s to be co-incidence.

I was disappointed there wasn’t a single vista in the zone, maybe in the future.

But as far as things to do, it really doesn’t offer much better then Orr. My experience with material drops was pretty minimal compared to Orr, hoping that it was partly to do with some kind of drop rule they had in because of all the upleveled people. Who knows.

As far as nodes go didn’t seem to be a vast amount (quite a lot of trees and mithril, but Cursed Shore has a lot too). You can easily sweep the entire cove pretty quickly for an Ori run. But there is only 3 nodes I think, not sure if that Rich Ori node will be there always.

But I do think you need Karka shells for a recipe or two for the Mystic Forge…so thats a reason to go there. :/

I was almost glad to get back to killing Risen after the weekend though…all that complaining I had about their pull abilities pales in comparison to barrell roll 2x hp Karkas.

BUT, the event to help the dude kill off the nests near the Lion’s Point gives Ori picks for Karma. Bought up a bunch of those. Will definitely go back for that.

I like the challenge, but they at least need to increase the drops on the trash mobs. Those champion (and even veteran if you aggro more than one) can dole out some serious punishment for relatively meager rewards.

TabMorte.5297:

I’m hoping there will be some interesting events and maybe a dragon there once things settle down as well.

I wouldn’t say a dragon, but I was hoping there at least something left after the event.

The Skelk drop powerful blood pretty frequently, so there’s that.

But yeah, it’s just a normal zone at level 80. I think it’s fine like that, and look forward to going back when I get to level 80 for the resources. Some vistas would be fun too.

kinda seems like the ancient karka should have been added as a dragon style event (without the 3 hour tedious pre-event garbage). since we can kill the dragons over and over for loot, why not the ancient karka?

I like the new zone. It is all level 80 and has a greater variety of enemies for my daily “kill variety” achievement. The loot was decent. More high-end areas means alternatives to Orr, Frostgorge and WvW for top-end loot and events.