Guild Wars 2

I think the biggest problem with FotM is that you can only play at the minimum level that any one player has achieved rather than the reverse…. There’s no system in place to really make it worthwhile to even go back and help since you need to beat lvl 4 to achieve lvl 5 and so forth.

The two things I would tweak to the system to make it less of a hard gated effect:

1. The highest level your party can go is the highest level any player has achieved
2. An “xp” system for the fractal levels that’s tracked in the hero tab.

The idea being that regardless of doing a lower lvl fractal, you still get credit towards progression. However, if you have someone who’s in the higher levels, he/she can basically “power level” you through so long as you can perform at his/her level.

So let’s say the following:
Lvl/xp req/xp for finishing
Lvl1, 0, 100
Lvl2, 100, 200
Lvl3, 200, 300
Lvl4, 300, 400
…
Lvln,(100*n)-100, (100*n)

So if I’m level 6, but can’t find a group for level 6 to instantly jump up to level 7, I can still get to level 7 by doing some combination of the lower levels.
Similarly, if I’m lvl 2 and I hop on board with a level 10 group, I can basically jump from lvl 2 to lvl 5 and only need to do one lvl 1 run before I’ve unlocked lvl 6.

I don’t think this totally solves the problem, especially in the long run scenario, but it certainly mitigates the effect in the short run.

I’m sure a question might arise that goes something like “well why even have levels to achieve anyway”? I’m not sure I have an answer to that, but maybe there’s someway to work with what we got with small tweaks (maybe achieving levels bumps your magic find in fractals or something like that)…

There are counter-arguments to your suggestions:

1. Allowing the level entry to be based on highest achieved will mean that people will be “gate monkeying” the higher tiers of the dungeon. You will get people just looking for anyone who has unlocked the a certain high tiers to get the best loot. This means that lower level and new players are being left behind if they do not want to start at the high point or simply can’t. They would enter a high tier and complain that’s too hard. The cause of this would be that they hadn’t experienced the previous tiers. The key point of this dungeon is that it gets progressively difficult to a point where they can’t progress. It would be unhealthy for the new dungeoneers to start at a high tier and try to complete it, then if they couldn’t, to try one below, and so on. This would just cause them to get annoyed and frustrated.
2. Xp system. Same idea. It has to be progressive in difficulty. Doing Tier(1) 9 times would mean that they have unlocked Tier(10) and that’s a big leap in difficulty. Only way this would work would be diminishing xp each time you tier up. Similar to the example of a Level 1 character trying to level to Level 80 in a starting area. The xp should diminish.

I can only access level 1. I ran once with a random group of strangers and twice with my family. I do not feel qualified to try anything harder at this point.

My first try was a 3-man family run, just to see what this new content was all about. We got to the last boss of the colossus, but couldn’t take him down with only three of us (two after my son was killed, which always happened very quickly in the fight). I think this was a good experience for us, and I feel confident taking on the challenge with a group, but am I ready to take it on in a harder context? No, certainly not.

The next run was a PuG. We did the flame legion storming the ascalonian ton and the swamp. We won the first with a lot of learning curve and deaths, the swamp we gave up on. Knowing what I know now, the swamp should have been trivial, but we weren’t thinking after the first one. Again; we relied on brute-force tactics and not planning or strategy. While we beat the one, I wouldn’t say that I’m ready for the next tier.

Last night my wife, son, daughter, and I tried the dredge one. Again, we made it to the last boss, with a little difficulty, but couldn’t finish him. We should have been able to, but, well, my son is now grounded for getting his mother killed several times.

Now, I would like to think that my wife and I could do a harder tier with the right group and no issues. However, I accept that I still have a lot of learning to do for all these dungeons and until I do, I shouldn’t be allowed to ruin the experience for a group of people because I still need to learn it. Even if I could do it, what about my son? Should he be permitted to join a harder tier despite not having exotics or grandmaster traits? As a level 80, he passes the first test that most groups pose, but rest assured he will be found lacking once combat starts. Until he can earn access to level 2, he is a level 1 player.

There will always be a casual base willing to do level 1 because they either need to or they just enjoy the content. Already many have moved on to 4+, but I still see plenty of level 1 groups forming.

Nah. Not good ideas. Progression is a key part of the fractals. If you allow people to unlock higher tiers by doing lower ones, when they go fight in the higher tiers without going through the previous first, they’ll notice a gap in difficulty. That would affect feedback players give about them, probably saying things like they are too hard, when they are not so hard when you do them slowly and learn the quirks in the maps and adapt to the harder spots through successive cycles.