I gave up on last night’s event. I’m just about to give up on tonight’s. Last night I observed anything up to 1 minute for a skill to fire once I’d hit it, and that was after I’d left the delineated event area.
Tonight (Saturday), the event was late and official in-game communication on the server (Piken Square) was non-existent, as usual. When the event did start, I waypointed to the beach; I ran across the zone to the other waypoint. I started taking damage part way across; I hit my self heal. My self heal never fired, and I eventually died, having taken more damage, about 9/10ths of the way across. I never saw a mob; I never saw another player until after I’d been ressed, and I’ve no idea who ressed me.
Special events are a great idea. But, dear Anet, if you can’t make them work better than this, they are not only a complete waste of time, they are a huge source of frustration for very many players, and will only damage your reputation. Yesterday was bugged, and the bugs weren’t fixed for about 14 hours. Today isn’t working any better. Please don’t push things like this out until you’re sure they are working properly, and until you’re certain you can cope with the demands they make on your systems. At the moment, you are failing on both counts.
Guild Leader, The White Company, Piken Square