Guild Wars 2

just felt like the same old to me. nothing interesting so far

Your incentive to kill them are Key Parts, and of course the Spores which are tradeable for recipes, etc.

I do see a LOT of people just running off, pulling everything. I then pass them later on while they lie dead on the floor waiting for a res. If you find yourself with a little ad-hoc group of people it takes seconds to kill the mobs. Really might as well. Kill mobs, get loot, ascend the tower.

I’m loving it, and the cinematic is just wow. Massive improvement over all the previous ways to convene story, but I doubt that we’ll see much more of that sort of content in the future.

That being said, the loot brigade will probably leave the tower to be abandoned in a matter of week (didn’t look at the achievements so I might be wrong there). Shame that all that work will go to waste.

I like it a lot, you cant really run through alone but with all the people constantly coming in its easy to wait the minute or so for a pick up group and then forging ahead.

On the gameplay side of things, yeah, it’s unique and pretty good. I like how everyone can contribute to bringing the tower down. The way people have been zerging through it reminds me of Mad King’s Labyrinth, which I thought was also fun in short bouts. Also, the Gas mask skin is cool.

Story-wise, I finally have a detailed impression of Scarlet, and she’s annoying and out of place as crap. I hope the next big villain, and all afterward are, for lack of a better term, more “adult”. With her I feel like she’s the villain of a kid’s show who wandered into the GW universe. You can have “adult” villains who are crazy or comedic, but they should fit the tone of the game better.

My other big problem with the story and writing is the fact that nothing seems to have been accomplished again. I know nothing more about Scarlet’s plot or character, and the threat of the Toxic Alliance has been foiled. Everything’s back to square one. It feels like nothing changed in the story whatsoever. There’s no sense of escalation. Things happened and were then resolved.

First impression of Nightmares Within is just like most other releases, pretty good in terms of gameplay, really mediocre for the writing. I hope the next one has better writing. At some point we should be seeing the results of all the feedback Anet has received.

Freeelancer.2860:

and the cinematic is just wow

Yes, it’s well done.

Freeelancer.2860:

That being said, the loot brigade will probably leave the tower to be abandoned in a matter of week (didn’t look at the achievements so I might be wrong there). Shame that all that work will go to waste.

True.
Sad, but true.

As a piece of content, a game to play, this is so much better than stuff they’ve put up lately. Scarlet Invasions were just a sad zergfarm, they destroyed Mad King’s Day due to lack of features and story, even the Tower of Nightmares patch 2 weeks ago showed so little promise. This is fantastic, though, to me. It’s a piece of content I want to play. A huge new explorable area to see and explore. Maybe that’s just me though – I know exploration isn’t for everyone, not if it doesn’t come with a side order of 20 free exotics and rare skins eh.

wookiee.4631:

Story-wise, I finally have a detailed impression of Scarlet, and she’s annoying and out of place as crap.

My comments were notwithstanding the pre-existing “Scarlet is a terrible villain” issue

The Cutscene was the best Scarlet-related cutscene so far though. Doesn’t change my opinion of her.

I’ve given the new update a chance and found it more frustrating and ridiculous than enjoyable. The sounds are cool but sounds don’t make a game. Here are some of the major problems you will run into:
*Unless you are in a large zerg group you have NO chance of getting through any section of this new content.
*Unless you have a fast char that just tries to run with the zerg you have no chance.
*Trying to figure out where you are going is kind of frustrating so you hope someone else knows.
*You will get swarmed with mobs of overpowered foes in tight areas that will be impossible to fight unless you are a large zerg.
*You will constantly get knocked down, stunned, etc, and half the time not even know why or where it is coming from.
I can see this content dying quickly because once players finish it I can’t see too many wanting to go through it over and over especially if there isn’t a zerg running it. Once the zergs die this content will die. This is really disappointing and a real let down. This content is not player oriented but rather only for large groups to run through hoping they can make it. I really miss the old days of Guild Wars and how it was player oriented and players had the opportunity to do things on their own and not be dependent on zerg groups.

How is this different than any other LS update?

Queen Jubilee, Mad King Maze, Scarlet invasion, and now the Tower. Throw a bunch of mobs in one area, have everyone zerg. That recipe is getting old.

Vaxx.3178:

How is this different than any other LS update?

Queen Jubilee, Mad King Maze, Scarlet invasion, and now the Tower. Throw a bunch of mobs in one area, have everyone zerg. That recipe is getting old.

Why, the difference is that this time if you fall behind the zerg you can’t catch up! Hope you never have to go to the bathroom.

Thugem Chi.6189:

*You will get swarmed with mobs of overpowered foes in tight areas that will be impossible to fight unless you are a large zerg.

Perhaps you just need to put some thought into how you fight them?

I made most of my way up solo. Some parts were tricky if I over-aggro’d accidentally, but nothing really severe.

On the first and second level the mobs and events are manageable and quite fun but the third floor is basically pre nerf Orr on steroids, the amount of cc and conditions flying around is outstanding plus the corrupted debuff as the cherry on top. Otherwise there’s a fair amount of work put into this one so kudos to that at least.

The content looks great, the experience however is a bit … disappointing.

The most exciting part is probably climbing the tower alone while killing enemies. However, since it’s still “open world” content, you can’t avoid people running and pulling additional enemies to you (specially disgusting on the third level).

The chambers (I’ve only done about 4 of them iirc) look all the same and are really unchallenging for a single player (I mean, they are way easier than just going through the tower)
Same goes for the end boss. It looks amazing but is a complete cakewalk when soloing.

Disappointing. Gonna do achiev. and never step into again.

I like it, though on the 3rd level, I was just running by, because it scaled in difficulty so much I couldn’t handle it alone. That said, I would remove the elite and only put them in events,( It may be like that, I haven’t noticed or looked after it) so ppl could do it alone too and would not encourage zerging that much. As a WSR player I haven’t experinced much zerging, it was only a bigger group and smaller ones spread out. I enjoyed it, except the 3rd because of the Aetherblades. Getting stunned and confusion is annoying, and I would thin the mobs a little, so every faction would be present but in mixed groups. Overall I like this place, kind of fun in groups, the only “issue” is I only got into 1 or 2 nightmare chambers. Everytime I found them they were sealed.

I am really enjoying it. The maze is great. Such a fun time. The instanced parts are fantastic and the cutscenes are top-notch. Thank you ArenaNet. I am impressed.

The difficulty here kind of reminds me of the Underworld or Fissure of Woe in GW1, which anyone who looks through my old comments will know that I absolutely loved. So, good job Anet! I almost made it to level 3 on my own, but the champ toxic wurm stopped me… fortunately a nice group of people came along and we slaughtered it.

Rhialto.8423:

The difficulty here kind of reminds me of the Underworld or Fissure of Woe in GW1, which anyone who looks through my old comments will know that I absolutely loved. So, good job Anet!

Actually, gotta agree with that.

People scream for “more challenging content”, then it comes in the form of Tower Third Floor and it’s all: “Too hard, just rush”. Typical dungeon mentality.

Sarie.1630:

Your incentive to kill them are Key Parts, and of course the Spores which are tradeable for recipes, etc.

Both of which are rng.

And since the key parts are untradable, looks like you can have 999 blue and red keys, but you get nothing until green keys drop.

Oh, apparently you can buy keys for spores and cash… welp I suppose that solves that problem. Just (as usual) wish drop rates were higher.

Sarie.1630:

Rhialto.8423:

The difficulty here kind of reminds me of the Underworld or Fissure of Woe in GW1, which anyone who looks through my old comments will know that I absolutely loved. So, good job Anet!

Actually, gotta agree with that.

People scream for “more challenging content”, then it comes in the form of Tower Third Floor and it’s all: “Too hard, just rush”. Typical dungeon mentality.

Well, since we only have to complete ten achievements to get the meta it seems like we can take our time. Also, a difficult third floor prevents people from just rushing up to the story instance over and over and killing the tower in a matter of days (if that’s even possible).

Story advancement: 0/10
Grind factor for keys: 10/10
Zerg factor: 10/10
Overuse of CC: 10/10

Literally the only thing this update has going for it is that they finally released nice weapon skins that aren’t tied to RNG. That alone makes this update worth it to me.

edit: also how can people be so gullible to fall for the “you can kill the tower” crap… it is a bar, that will fill slowly over the next 2 weeks until the next LS update launches. That will magically coincide with the destruction of the tower. It really has nothing to do with how many times you do the instance. That is just a cheap way to get you to grind it for 2 weeks.

Sarie.1630:

Rhialto.8423:

The difficulty here kind of reminds me of the Underworld or Fissure of Woe in GW1, which anyone who looks through my old comments will know that I absolutely loved. So, good job Anet!

Actually, gotta agree with that.

People scream for “more challenging content”, then it comes in the form of Tower Third Floor and it’s all: “Too hard, just rush”. Typical dungeon mentality.

The third floor would be a fairly acceptable solo content. It’s not really challenging, but at least it’s not the faceroll we are used to.

The problem with the tower (and specially the third floor) is the “open world” nature.
You advance carefully, making sure you don’t train too much and you’ll handle the fight at the next spore cleanser and then, midfight, some random players reach your position pulling half a dozen more enemies.

Really? I think it’s the worst update since Southsun Cove. Poor mob concentration and mechanics, lack of incentives to kill things, poorly thought out achievements (must do the Injector achievement to unlock the other Toxic Hybrid achievements, and Toxic Hybrid Master Slayer counts deaths at all points – not just the boss fight).

Overall, I -hate- this update. Literally the only thing of quality it brings is the concept of placing an instanced zone within a living world zone – it does that very well, but the actual content is frustrating and almost impossible to enjoy.

I find myself complaining less and less about LS updates. Not because the story/mechanics are getting better, but because of what they release in the gemstore. I’m super happy about that Sanctified Finisher. If only there’s a backpiece version of that.

It’s like the labyrinth where your best bet is to find a zerg. Even then, if you get downed good luck as everybody just keeps pushing forward. You can have the meta done in a few days and then the content means nothing. As a bonus you get yet another backpack and mini.

Two thumbs down.

I really liked it – we 5-manned the last floor and had a blast. Last boss was pretty easy 3-man but looked great, as does his mini.

Getting sick of Scarley Quinn now though. Still no idea of what her plan is (if she has one) and no motivation other than ’I’m mad’.

Scarlet is in it. Its already horrible. Even worse. SHE RAN THE kittenING AWAY, AGAIN.

This update was suppose to give us the detail about the krait and how they form up with the Nightmare Court but nope, we got “Its all Scarlet idea” and gave us a mediocre boss fight. Big kittening deal.

I didn’t think there was a single good thing about this living story, it took everything bad from queens jubilee. There’s rewardless zerging to get to the top, cakewalk instances, I felt the cinematic was just pointless and dull yet still somehow cheesy. and everything that looks good is either in the cash shop or locked behind rng.

I agree that scarlet running away is getting old.

I do really like the whole concept but there is one thing that’s bugging me. That is the way elements scale.

The first time (shortly after the update) I facerolled to the top in the zerg. I got some rewards and went to la to sell and decided to go some title hunting.

1: the top level (where the chest is) needs a travel golem. The third floor is very challenging. I do think the keyparts should only drop and shouldnt be for sale to promote doing the content, but instead off that if you got a key you should go straight to the chest. Specially cause the third level is the hardest level and needs a group off people teaming up (the rest is more or less soloable). You should be able to use your chest, go to the goggles, etc without need off doing that level again, specially cause there are two diving goggles that bring you all the way down. making it needed to do that level several times.

So overall, it is a lot better then usual, but allready tonight I saw trouble with the scaling where it was too hard in some overflows cause the zerg wasn’t running and to avoid that keeping people away from achievements it should be that the third level has a travel golem as well (so you can always run to the achievements without beiung blocked by the lack off a zerg, wich is going to happen in a few days)

Yeah it’s actually be pretty terrible.

I’m loving it and you should be too ffs! Ugh why do I even bother coming onto the forums when there’s stupid qq and drivel everywhere lol, this update is pretty awesome if nothing else than that it’s original compared to the other stuff that’s been released recently. I thought the whole tower would be one giant instance, but it’s exactly like OP said, the meshing of open world and dungeon is really, really awesome. And it’s actually not totally facerollable content which is freaking fantastic, you actually have to engage your brain to make it to the top without getting a whole bunch of nasty things on ya.

Great work Arenanet ! People not enjoying themselves, heck I dunno, get the freaking antitoxin spray healing skill and l2p? Like for real guys it’s not that difficult lol

The Labyrinth is going to have exactly the same problems as the Mad King’s Labyrinth. It’s fun to wander round solo while there are plenty of people around. As soon as people realize it is dangerous the zergs form. The zergs rule the place and the only skill is spotting the animations of creatures buried in a haze of spell effects. Without a zerg people die far too often and eventually stay out. Mixing solo, group, and raid content will always fail since the zerg will take over.

Having said that, it was quite fun to scamper round in small groups linking up with people as you go. That’s the newbie way of playing it so it won’t last long.

On the + side
Chat codes indicate precursor crafting is making progress and pvp rewards might be slightly less garbage in the near future
Acc bount per harvesting tools (Whether they determined this was a better way to milk money from the players or they got rid of that nexon thing masquerading as a human)

On the – side
Everything else.

Mal.1670:

I’m loving it and you should be too ffs! Ugh why do I even bother coming onto the forums when there’s stupid qq and drivel everywhere lol, this update is pretty awesome if nothing else than that it’s original compared to the other stuff that’s been released recently. I thought the whole tower would be one giant instance, but it’s exactly like OP said, the meshing of open world and dungeon is really, really awesome. And it’s actually not totally facerollable content which is freaking fantastic, you actually have to engage your brain to make it to the top without getting a whole bunch of nasty things on ya.

Great work Arenanet ! People not enjoying themselves, heck I dunno, get the freaking antitoxin spray healing skill and l2p? Like for real guys it’s not that difficult lol

That is part of the problem, THERE IS NO DIFFICULTY. None. it’s not there, the closest it gets to being challenging is on the third floor if the portal is up and you can’t exactly do that alone.

Finished everything in 2 hours (all achievements), My content rate is: 3/10.

• Horrible open area gameplay, mainly due to high mob density and annoying CC skills (you really didn’t learned anything from Orr feedback)
• Easy/weird top dungeon, which you also have to grind few times to get the achievement.
• Forced cinematic on a story I couldn’t care less (very unappealing to follow)
• RNG obtainable keys
• Crappy end chest loot.

The only shocking part is that some ppl actually enjoyed it. But I guess it’s a matter of taste.

PS: this is not hard content, it is frustrating content. You do it for achievements and never look back.

Thank god, I thought I was the only one actually enjoying the update.

I had a lot of fun exploring the labyrinth with Scarlets almost cartoony, silly (I love her voice-actress) side comments.
That being said I usually do not take game stories too seriously (they tend to do the same cheesy stuff over and over),
but it was entertaining, had some funny spooky, post-halloween feel to it!
And no, I would probably not spend another 3 month in it, even if i could, but honestly, its a free two weeks content, give it a break, people.

People will always complain, which is good, because it will ultimately improve things. That doesn’t mean that some people don’t enjoy what’s there.
They try to do different approaches on updates and some work better for some than others.

So far my favourites are:

- Super Adventure Box (Both updates)
- Bazaar of the Four Winds
- Queens Gauntlet

Those I would love to keep forever ingame, but that’s just my opinion

Already sick of it. Repeatedly porting to level 3 and hoping you catch a group going in so that you can run blindly past 90% of the content without aggoring it all is not a “game”, it’s a waste of time. Same crapsack design as most updates that insist on trying to be all things to all people. Either make things raid-level content or don’t, knock off the half measures that just create these situations where it’s near-impossible alone but turns into a mindless lolfest in a zerg. I like solo, I like raid, but please stop trying to do both at once.

Also not quite sure what the point of the instances is after running through thirteen thousand three hundred and ninety seven enemies (half of them vets) in one 10 foot hallway. I just kind of smashed my face on the keyboard in each one and a toxic chest magically appeared with no other effort.

Mal.1670:

And it’s actually not totally facerollable content which is freaking fantastic, you actually have to engage your brain to make it to the top without getting a whole bunch of nasty things on ya.

This is where you’re wrong. It is faceroll content. Hop on a zerg train, and get to the top, then solo the toxic hybrid. The chambers are….nothing, they take around 3 minutes to finish.

Floryn.6307:

PS: this is not hard content, it is frustrating content. You do it for achievements and never look back.

Sums it up perfectly.

I’m having fun with it.

I’m really enjoying this. I like that they made it so you can’t access the next area without first finishing the group event. This forces people to stick together and helps get through the mass of mobs. I like that there is a mass of mobs, it helps add to the feeling that you are on their turf and that they aren’t going to let you climb their tower so easily. Also, all these people that complain about CCs should learn the importance of having stability. The nightmare rooms were fun, especially when they tied in the personal story. Caught me off guard and added a nice surprise. I also felt like Scarlet actually was starting to get into my head and that all that stuff we learned about her before when she went into the mists and “saw everything” starting to come forth. Good job Anet!

I just wanna say I agree with OP.

I got frustraited once in there yesterday and that wasn’t realy becouse of the content but becouse of some rushing morons pulling loads of enemies to where my group where fighting and had us all whiped.

More doors would had been perfect Otherwise I love this update and the story was totaly okay, I wanna know more!!!

Edit: Doors as in doors to block progress for rushers.

Well, I’m not “genuinely shocked” as the original poster is (I tend to look on the positive side of things beforehand), but yes, I do like this update, especially the chambers (fun to instance through and reward chest at the end) and also the big chest at the top requiring a key.

I’ll be happily replaying this content until it’s gone.

It’s quite fun to roam solo and help people around.

People seem rather happy when I kill the Elite (+ stuff with it) on top of them and then resurrect them.

I’m not close to being uber so most of the fighting was still a challenge and therefore fun to me. The zerg, well, that’s just silliness beyond silly, with those that make it justifying it to those who fell. Really, you can’t blame Anet for those idiots who think the ‘fun’ in the game comes from running as fast as you can to a chest. When I got in groups that played the game, meaning fighting our way up, rezzing the fallen, it felt like we accomplished something, like we deserved the chest.

I loved this release. I’m not going to complain about loot – it is what it is. I like the feel of the map, the maze, like the Labyrinth in some ways. When paired with the other styles of gameplay, WvW, PvP, open world, dungeons, meta-events, this was slightly different, requiring teamwork from a large group without just pounding away at a big champ.

Storywise, I agree it was lacking. This is starting to feel like those old serial TV shows, sort of a Monster of the Week, where the show’s core villain is teaming up with another faction in a new environment and nothing has changed by the end of the episode. Baddy gets away and heroes are left vowing there will be a next time. I’m a Cubs fan, and while I believe in Next Year it hasn’t happened yet. I hope Scarlett doesn’t play out that way. As others have posted, we need more evolution to this series of events, not just new surroundings. Overall though, I’m pleased with the content. Good work!

I traveled with a guild group of 5 and rather enjoyed myself. We climbed all the way up to the top without much trouble but had some really fun boss fights that we tough and actually created some fun moment.

This is the first living story update I’ve liked since the tequatl update so I’m quite happy with Arenanet.

However my favorite part was seeing all the poor dead PuGs everywhere and ressing them on the way up :P. I think we had an army of them by the end.

The idea of tier’d open world content like this is good. But poorly designed. 9/10 people need to be part of a group to go through it. Unless you are one of the few amazing elitists that are probably decked in ascended gear. Not to mention, once you go into the instanced portions and come out, you lose the ‘zerg’ or the open group you were with. So…you wait ? Thats bad design.

I am a mediocre to above mediocre player. Im not elitist, I cannot solo Lupi or anything. But I can definately hold my own and solo enough content in the game. But I cannot solo this. You do need a group. Most people need a group.

cesmode.4257:

The idea of tier’d open world content like this is good. But poorly designed. 9/10 people need to be part of a group to go through it. Unless you are one of the few amazing elitists that are probably decked in ascended gear. Not to mention, once you go into the instanced portions and come out, you lose the ‘zerg’ or the open group you were with. So…you wait ? Thats bad design.

I am a mediocre to above mediocre player. Im not elitist, I cannot solo Lupi or anything. But I can definately hold my own and solo enough content in the game. But I cannot solo this. You do need a group. Most people need a group.

But is there anything really wrong with that though? I find this content is fun because it’s designed to be beaten by a group but it’s still possible to run into random people.

I mean the LFG group tool exists for a reason.

Sarie.1630:

I was skeptical. Very skeptical.

Gotta be said, I’m stunned. You’ve somehow meshed “open world” and “dungeon” together in a way I didn’t expect.

I agree 100%, this is a great update! I think it is great how you get that dungeon feel, but can come and go as you please. It is great how you just start out and the smaller groups just begin to form. And there is always help coming down the pipe if your group is overcome.