Guild Wars 2

So the patch is finally here, so how are you feeling about Southsun?

To be honest, Southsun still feels same to me, sure I might be in overflow, but for me it still kinda lacks events and creativity. My predictions is that Southsun is going to become a rugged rock that it was before the patch, especially if we don’t see any permanent changes.

I just spent two hours in Southsun, and it feels a bit depressive to me, it feels like a “little Orr”, rugged, gloomy, filled with mostly OP karkas. Don’t get me wrong, I love those veterans, I love their roll that can easily knock you down, but there are too many of them, and just running from one point of another and evading all the time isn’t that fun.

Anyhow, what do you think about Southsun and do you think it has a bright future or it will turn into a lifeless rock once again?

I like it (the mobs atleast). I came from a game with really hard content at endgame. You should picture a zone with only veterans and champions. That’s why i like Southsun Cove. It’s the only place i feel that i can dye if i don’t watch out.

The rest of the island is quite disappointing but it is getting better.

I’m with you. This temporary change really isn’t doing much for me in wanting to hang out in Southsun after it is over. There needs to be some permanent change and a reason to go there in order for me to frequent the place.

I’m liking it so far because the minigames, events, and the fact that all of this brought some life to a dead island.
I’ll be disappointed when some things go away, but I hope the Living Story will revisit it again afterwards.

It’s given me a reason to come back and revisit the place. It’s also interesting to see how it’s developing so in that respect it lives up to their concept of a living world.

And let’s face it the place IS pretty

Loving it. I loved it before, just wanted more to do. Now there’s as much to do per sq foot as any other zone, except theres tons of players around

I too hope for some permanent change so it doesnt degenrate into a lost zone again

I like having a place with challenging mobs for once. (Orr has a few, but Risen as a whole are more annoying than challenging). The events are fun, and the area is a nice aesthetic change of pace.

Also the islandwide 200% magic find buff keeps me coming back even though I’m done my achievements, a brilliant touch. GJ ANet.

Even with yesterday’s patch, I don’t feel like Southsun has changed much at all.

Yes, there are some new forts built, but the zone’s mobs and mechanics are still more annoyance than they’re worth, despite that parts of the terrain are beautiful. The best part is still the geyser jumping puzzle, IMO, but that’s not new.

I’m hoping the upcoming LS installments change things drastically, because otherwise the only way to keep people in Southsun will be making the magic find buff permanent.

I really liked the openness of Southsun Cove pre patch. After the patch, it just seems to be packed a little too much with settlements and forts and other stuff. Just detracts from the beautiful scenery.

Plus the young karka are not as populous as they once were. Wonder where they all went?

I do like some of the touches they added. The GF and MF buffs to keep people coming back.

The account bound back pieces.

I like it the ability to see the all the changes that have been made is nice we started out with events that build the bare minim camps then we used these camps to take down the first living story boss that over all changed a lot of the environment. Now we see what the build up of ppl living there added on and removed from the island. I cant wait to see what happens next.

I think we really could use more dynamic events. There are whole areas that don’t have anything running (like outside the karka hive).

Also, it’s the mobs have not changed. They are insanely hard to kill and hit tremendously hard.

I can’t stand Southsun Cove and only go there for events or to help guild mates/others there.

Vol.5241:

I think we really could use more dynamic events. There are whole areas that don’t have anything running (like outside the karka hive).

Also, it’s the mobs have not changed. They are insanely hard to kill and hit tremendously hard.

As they should be, they’re veterans in a level 80 area.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

I really liked the openness of Southsun Cove pre patch. After the patch, it just seems to be packed a little too much with settlements and forts and other stuff. Just detracts from the beautiful scenery.

Plus the young karka are not as populous as they once were. Wonder where they all went?

I do like some of the touches they added. The GF and MF buffs to keep people coming back.

The account bound back pieces.

Lore wise, it makes sense for there to be less (but more aggressive) karka. The settlement of refugees will displace them.

Love it now. Loved it when it came back. Love Karka. I will concede that there isn’t much drawing me to the island though.

jheryn.8390:

I’m with you. This temporary change really isn’t doing much for me in wanting to hang out in Southsun after it is over. There needs to be some permanent change and a reason to go there in order for me to frequent the place.

Two words – World Boss.

Zyphent.2967:

Vol.5241:

I think we really could use more dynamic events. There are whole areas that don’t have anything running (like outside the karka hive).

Also, it’s the mobs have not changed. They are insanely hard to kill and hit tremendously hard.

As they should be, they’re veterans in a level 80 area.

The veterans in this map are much much harder than veterans elsewhere. For one, they have double hp and near 1-hit attacks.

And I was talking about the normal mobs – the normal karka can get you to half hp in the first few seconds while the reef mobs have ridiculous confusion.

With the exception of hating Anet as a company for their RNG Southsun is a welcome return for me. I know a lot of people hate the mobs, but a slight challenge is welcome content.

I like that the Karka are much more challenging; and generally in the right way. Their powerful attacks are painfully obvious, and you only really get hit by them if you haven’t left yourself with any endurance or defensive abilities.

I can solo the Vet Karkas with my Guardian, it’s a fun challenge.

The area was always pretty, the mini-games and the beach section make it more relaxing at parts, and the ground search mechanic helps breaking out the pace of the exploration too.

Overall, the new southsun is mechanically a breath of fresh air to Tyria’s exploration. Exploring southsun is not a mathematical-driven grind for % map exploration, like the rest of Tyria is, and there’s actually content enough to make the beach area feel… well, like a relaxing beach.

Exploring in GW2 is decent, but quickly became monotonous and repetitive. All the maps feel and play the same. You’re almost never given time to appreciate the maps of Tyria in an unique way.

With this new approach, I feel this map is more immersing. Each settlement feels like it matters, because lore-wise many events and acchievements are focused around them. The relaxing flavor is no longer just visual, it can be mechanically felt with several mechanics or little touches that add diversity to the rhythm of the game. And more importantly, the way the whole thing is set up, it incentivates you to cycle around or come back to several areas (and not in a repetitive way, imo), unlike most other maps in Tyria, where you are always seekingmap completion in new sections and never looking back, never having the time or mechanical support to let the map’s ambience and feel sink in.

Overall, I’d say that, for all those reasons, southsun’s map feels like it has a soul. I actually feel like I’m playing a RPG where I get to immerse myself and interact with the world around me, and set up my own pace. I no longer feel that the only purpose of being at a map, is to rush to a new place for that extra map completion % and never look back.

Of course, I’m afraid that after this content is over, southsun might get back to being bland. Why? Because of temporary content. The acchievements and the ground search mechanic will have to go, because they’re clearly tied to the current story. It’s a pity. The mini-game will have to go, but I can understand why. The settlements will probably lose their own set of events once the story is finished. Only the relaxing beach area seems to be there to stay, because it’s not tied to the story.

Regardless, I hope that this is an indication to how Anet will treat its own world and map system in the future. (But, please, next time, if these changes make exploration better and each map more unique, don’t make them temporary!)

I would love to go back to any other map in Tyria, and feel it as an unique map with its own pace and activities, and not just another variant of the same “rush in for that little % exploration” system with a different visual skin. Maybe someday.

I’ve always liked Southsun, although I couldn’t go there for ages because it took me until the end of March to hit 80. It looks a lot nicer than Orr and the enemies are a nice challenge.

It’s nice that there’s a lot more activity now but I am curious about what the permanent changes are going to be. Although whatever it is I’m sure it won’t keep up the activity level we have now because either new Living Story content will come out and everyone will go somewhere else or a lot of people will go back to farming the world bosses.

Wind riders still have way too much hp in comparison to other mobs.
Reef drakes can still drag you into confusion cloud and instagib you.
Karkas other than the young ones are not worth the time.

Risk/Reward Assessment: Not worth bothering with.

Even with enough magic find to choke a horse, DR kitten in my cheerios after a half hour. I guess southsun is for mats and the new boxes only, because I didn’t get any rares/exotics, and only one consortium chest.

I really quite like it. Admittedly I liked it before now but it really offered little lasting incentive to hang around. I just hope there will be enough content lasting after SoS is over to ensure that it stays, at the very least, a moderately compelling zone to visit. Even if that isn’t the case though I’m sure I’ll still visit occaisionally for the Consortium JP and chance to massacre some young karkas or the odd guild mission. At the very least it’ll have been fun while it lasted.

What bravoart said! This, time vs reward in this zone is a joke.

Hey ANET, get some of your awesome developers together and for the next live event, make mobs that don’t just not die in one complete health bar, or two, no go extreme make them not die in 40 complete health bars, each time just as hard as the last. And then as the cherry on top, don’t let them drop loot either, or at the very best a grey item worth 3c.

You guys are pro at what is fun!
/s

The music is the main reason it feels so melancholic.

I really like Southsun as it is now. The drop rates are much improved (still not on a parr with Orr but eh), the “escort the lionguard” event now has a nice number of break points where your skills can recharge enough to take down the karka it spawns and there are so many people, it feels like the Beta zerg again

But you know; I’m reserving my actual judgement and waiting to see what they do after the fancy event is over.

been on for 15hours.. got 7 crates… and made 50gold… im happy.
-Ehmry Bay President

I like it a lot. There is life there, the mobs aren’t impossible when you have a bunch of people working with you to bring them down. The content is interesting, the game play is fun.

I spent a few hours there getting my creepy octo back peice.

I enjoyed it, t6 mats actually dropped, I ended up with 5 or 6 rares, and one exotic. It was also nice having mobs that were not laughable cake walks without being OP.

Only thing that disappointed me was not getting a chest to drop.

Its better but the mobs still suck badly, horrible stuff especially the Drakes…

I did achievements and got the two backpieces, and it was nice to revisit the island.

I was reminded how challenging and fun the JP can be there, and the mobs are refreshing in their danger. I don’t visit them enough.

The remodeling to areas of the island is a nice visual for how it’s maturing thanks to the Consortium and others, and it’s been neat to see the refugees hanging out / complaining / etc.

I don’t see this making the map zone active again, especially once the content is gone in a couple of weeks.

Mentalhead.5721:

So the patch is finally here, so how are you feeling about Southsun?

A beautiful map full of annoying monsters. They are also challenging, which is good, but in an annoying way because of the stun/daze/bind/electrocute mechanics. I play GW2 for fun, so I avoid Southsun Cove.

I think we are starting to see the true potential of the Living Story model. Not only is Southsun fun again, but the nature of the events/achievements/farmable areas is pulling people into the same zone in a way that makes gameplay reminiscent of the days following launch. That isn’t to say that the rest of the world isn’t fun (it still is), but this model works – and it is repeatable.

Part of the fun obviously comes from the challenge of a lvl 80 zone – even for those who are auto-leveled up. Add in the rewards and it creates the perfect environment for the type of Dynamic Event gameplay that is core to GW2. I hope they keep that in mind with future story steps. Even if the story takes us to Brisban or Fireheart Rise, it needs to offer the challenge and reward model were currently seeing in Southsun (even if it means leveling the zones to 80 for the duration of the events to entice more players to participate).

The Secrets of Southsun event is turning into one of my favorite patches – but what excites me most is seeing the true potential of the Living Story in GW2 open world gameplay.

For everyone talking about the fight mechanics of drakes/karka/etc – it is learning to deal with those mechanics in different ways on different professions that is partially responsible for making the zone so much fun. They become much less annoying when you move away from a zerg mentality and think about how you can best deal with various mob attacks (or combos when multiple types attack).

I still hate it. I hate the low drops, I hate overflow, I hate having to go to the gemstore to gamble to get the skins.

Vol.5241:

I think we really could use more dynamic events. There are whole areas that don’t have anything running (like outside the karka hive).

Also, it’s the mobs have not changed. They are insanely hard to kill and hit tremendously hard.

I couldn’t agree more about the dynamic events, the more the better. I like the challenging mobs, but there are far too many Veteran Karkas. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy taking them down with others, but when I’m exploring alone it can be a bother.

There’s a nice cave (the one with the diving goggles and lava) that looks like it’s full of male body parts , I nearly had heart pulpations runing in there, Oh my lord I had to use swiftness and run with my eyes closed. (well i peaked just a little bit) LOL

Seriously though

As for content I like it, there is always some event on, and its not super easy or boring and rewards that are better that the campfire (that made me cry lots) at the end of the Flame and Frost

I like the content so far and hope they improve upon it next month. So far it’s a notable improvement over flame and frost’s opening and it’s given me a reason to visit Southsun again. The mobs are tough but they’re manage once you learn how to fight against them. Bringing a stunbreaker and block skill especially if your melee helps: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun_break

At this point, Southsun’s better than Cursed Shore. At least at Southsun we don’t have unkillable Champion Risen Wraiths spawning at open world events, Champ Risen Chickens 2 shotting us with nuclear eggs, and swarms of Veteren Hatchings killing us in seconds though the ‘lil crabs grabbing one’s face for 30 seconds without being able to do anything about it is majorly annoying.

Don’t get too used to it folks. As soon as we get to liking it Anet will FUBAR it like they did with Cursed Shores.

You can dodge or roll when you have crabs and it will squish them,

I do like the updates to the area, but I feel I still have no real reason or desire to hang out in Southsun apart from checking on the new stuffs. I think the problem’s got to do with the area having no world boss or dungeon entrance. It’s just out of the way, nowhere close to activities I like.

does anyone else see that something big is going to happen in the karka lair? All the signs: the petrified hole is open again, the mysterious explosions everywhere,…

to the people who think they’ve added little content here: just compare it to repairing sign posts and collecting amulets. It’s only phase one and for that a lot has changed imho.

Yeah, the lack of rewards from mobs is still a problem, but karka shells and champion events with treasures is an excellent step up.

If they ever add a permanent world boss, I can see the area remaining decently active after the story is over.

I’m really having fun being in Southsun this time. Mostly because so many other players are there running around zerging stuff. Kinda has that WvW feel… and it looks so much better than Orr.

Nah, zerging isn’t a problem so far for me, a lot of veterans and champions make sure that people find a challenge everywhere on the island. Most of the time I found 5-8 players running around… so scaling wasn’t being broken as much as anywhere else.

I like it now, I hope they can keep it this busy. Before the patch, I used to go there for some farming and felt like I was the only one there.

I like it except for Wind Riders (who take FOREVER to kill. Seriously, the dragons die quicker.) and the Reef Drakes who just spam their knockdown and daze effects until you die.

I like the added events and just the general population increase. It is definitely a nice change of scenery. And I’m interested to see where the story will go. I always enjoy new in-game events and something new to do.

Sadly I don’t think it will make anything better with the place when the event is done. Some of the enemies still take excessively long to kill as compared to just going to Orr for tier 6 mats. Even with the increased drop rate Orr yields better results just because of the kill : time ratio for me.