Guild Wars 2

Throwing this out there-
How about a training instance that can (must?) to be completed before taking part in these open world events where such a high level of coordination is needed?
I believe that in the Tower of Nightmares release, players were automatically sent to an instance when zoning into Kessex, so this should be possible within the game.

When zoning into Lornar’s, you go to the story instance:

Vigil NPC: “Hey, I know you are ready to get out there and smash some gears, but this is a case where we need to have all of out troops on the same page, otherwise we’ll all end up toast.”
Whispers NPC: “We’ve done some scouting and have a good idea of what Scarlet has in store. Other pact teams have made some holographic simulators of what you’re probably going to face, speak to Flappi when you’re ready to begin.”
Flappi: “Condescending Asuran intro”, then briefly explains mechanic of Warden 1 and sends you into a battle arena with a veteran version of the warden. Continue on with 2 through 5. Make it no armor penalty on death and let people retry as much as possible.

Pro:
-In-game teaching reduces need to rely on dulfy and outside sites to learn mechanics (yes, I know that mechanics are under the nameplate, but that seems to be difficult for some people to get)
-Ability to practice without a 2 hour timer and/or wrecking the event for everyone else
-Reasonable gearcheck to say “hey, being level 30 with that lvl 17 armor and lvl 19 sword really isn’t going to cut it here”. This gearcheck basically occurs on the platforms anyways, except by then it is too late to prevent failure.

Con:
-People will complain about having to do the instance in order to be able to do the boss. However, precedent exists in having to complete a basic solo instance in order to access the harder version (Canach’s lair, solo instance before Kessex tower)

Have at it.

yes

15 chars

Some sort of way to practice would be good. Though ideally I’d rather see it given more of a real story to frame it.

Fighting a veteran version of Warden 1 alone probably wouldn’t help much, though.

I don’t think ANet should be holding our hands through every new fight they add. Discovering mechanics, ability patterns etc is part of the fun and is more interesting when done in the real fight instead of a simulator.

On that note, I believe players are already being trained to these fights. What seems like a problem to me is the 2 hour wait time between tries. It is likely that some people will leave after a single try, getting little experience from the fight. If you could start the fight more often, it would be easier for players to adapt to the mechanics and that would eliminate the random player factor.

EDIT: I also believe that down leveling is an issue. It is obvious that exotic geared level 80s with fine tuned builds are better for the fight, so what’s the point with it being level 59 (or whatever)? Health and damage numbers even seem to be balanced for that audience, so the down leveling of the fight seems sort of pointless.