Guild Wars 2

Hey, so I’ve just begun doing Fractals after having a break since the start of Octobre.

I’ve identified a few problems, some of them are being addressed in the next patch;

First of all, the fact that you have to finish 3 fractals in a row to advance in level, and the bonus for daily, is one of the main issues I have with this; it’s enough for one person to disconnect or have to go afk or whatever for the whole group’s progress to be ruined, partly because of the disconnect bug, which is being addressed, but also because you can’t find anyone to fill their spot if you’ve done 2 fractals and are on your third, because that new person won’t receive anything in return.

Also, the balancing between the different fractals is an issue; it’s often in the Swamp where the PUGs I’ve been with have failed, it’s somewhat like path 3 in Citadel of Flames, it requires coordination and such and after a few failed tries, in particular if it’s the third fractal, someone will leave and everyone’s progress is rolled back.

I would propose having fractal level advancement be counted on an individual basis and saved; finishing 2 fractals, leaving, and finishing another fractal the next day would give you 3 fractals = level advancement. This would alleviate the pain and down-sides of pugging and failing, and would prevent groups from falling apart if one person leaves, since there’ll always be someone who will be willing to finish just one fractal to advance their level.

It would also be less punishing time-wise, since, as I recall, ArenaNet told us they wanted this game to be for casuals, I don’t see how a group of casual puggers would able to complete 3(+bonus) fractals without having to go and eat or do something else.

I don’t see how there is any downside to this proposal, but I’m sure there will be some bitter veterans around who despise it for whatever reason, such as it enabling more people to advance in levels faster, but I hope it is taken into consideration, at least if ANet truly wants this game to be for casuals, this would be one way to make it so.

The difficulty is balanced around completing 3 random fractals in a row. Some are harder than others, which is a problem (although the marsh one certainly isn’t one of them).

If they introduced this change then everyone would just restart and restart until they got the easier fractals, something which is not possible now. Sure, if you get Grawl fractal on your first one you will probably restart, but if you get it on the third one you will not. They also want to sell repair canisters through the cash shop and being able to restart and repair whenever you have broken gear would prevent these sales.

Thus, you will never see the change you request.

Gab Superstar.4059:

The difficulty is balanced around completing 3 random fractals in a row. Some are harder than others, which is a problem (although the marsh one certainly isn’t one of them).

If they introduced this change then everyone would just restart and restart until they got the easier fractals, something which is not possible now. Sure, if you get Grawl fractal on your first one you will probably restart, but if you get it on the third one you will not. They also want to sell repair canisters through the cash shop and being able to restart and repair whenever you have broken gear would prevent these sales.

Thus, you will never see the change you request.

Then the real underlying problem is the fact that some fractals are harder and longer whereas some are shorter and easier; if all of them were balanced with regards to length and difficulty, there would be no motive for leaving and re-running fractals.

Another simple fix would be to prevent the same fractal from starting twice in a row with the same group.

In other words, introducing this change would probably help ANet identify the fractals that are unbalanced and the areas in those fractals in which difficulty is spiked, so that those can be gradually addressed.

The difficulty and time-investment could be increased in some fractals and decreased in other, making them all somewhat the same.

As for the cash shop part, that’s true, though I don’t believe their revenue from repair canisters constitutes a major chunk of gem profits, perhaps when it comes to organized group runs, such as high-end guilds or experienced circles, but the average pugger won’t use gems to repair their gear in a fractal, more likely he will change his armor.

I would prefer they group the available fractals into three distinct groups based upon difficulty and/or length and ensure that you get one of each group during a run. Getting dredge, grawl, and cliffside all together really sucks when compared against the luck of getting underwater, swamp, and ascalon, if only because you’ll take twice as long (or longer!) on the former versus the latter.

the linking of three fractals together and not being able to deathrun/repair is where the difficulty comes in. Now it may change at higher levels, but gear damage shouldnt be an issue.. if it has been its time to find a decent guild to build the base of your groups from.

length of fractals does vary some, but i do not find it to be that much variation as some find. some adjustment could be done to the longer ones to make them slightly quicker, but nothing major should be done. to be honest weighted draws for the fractals so you would not get to avoid 3x longest ones often and also be less likely for 3x shortest ones would be sufficient for me.

The swamp is the fastest run by far, but it is also often the longest/hardest one for pugs to do, but in a good group we all jump for joy when we see it.

cliffside is a bit long, but i do not find it that much longer unless your group sucks passing the hammer around and such. Dredge is a pain if you cant time the drop or the group isn’t doing the same method for some of the parts. grawl is short imo, only long if you struggle with the final boss.

If you were able to do fractals in a 1 at a time, or 2x or 3x(full run) and work towards advancement i think it would have to be done as 6x singles = 2x doubles = 1x triple to really keep the dificulty of working together to not die and do 3 tasks (+maw on evens). the ability to do the maw would also need to be adjusted in this setting also (maybe all need full xp in even to enter, must do maw to level up)

ATMAvatar.5749:

I would prefer they group the available fractals into three distinct groups based upon difficulty and/or length and ensure that you get one of each group during a run. Getting dredge, grawl, and cliffside all together really sucks when compared against the luck of getting underwater, swamp, and ascalon, if only because you’ll take twice as long (or longer!) on the former versus the latter.

not a bad idea

in general I like randomness, which is part of the appeal of fractals. RNG even to some extent. Predictable = boring, imo.

But the above would also combat the rampantness of fotm squads cycling through myriad ‘first’ fractal instances just to start with one of the fast ones, which can also get a bit silly

ATMAvatar.5749:

I would prefer they group the available fractals into three distinct groups based upon difficulty and/or length and ensure that you get one of each group during a run. Getting dredge, grawl, and cliffside all together really sucks when compared against the luck of getting underwater, swamp, and ascalon, if only because you’ll take twice as long (or longer!) on the former versus the latter.

the issue i see here is defining difficulty and length on a global scale can be rather difficult to do. What do i mean? depending on the group setup (same players) the hard fractal (class set A) may be easy and fast (class set while the easy fractal (class set A) may become the hard one (class set.

What really needs to be done is some minor adjustments for some of the longer ones to make them slightly shorter. mainly I’d just suggest removing one seal level from cliffside (this should make its length consistent with the others).

short ones, (swamp, and water ones) somewhat being forced to happen each time from draws from the blocks would bother many more people as many pugs still are unable to get the swamp (imo, due to communication only from chat) and i have seen far to many pugs that relies on just one or two to do the swim and if they dont make it they restart till the one good swimmer gets there. I would start seeing is anyone a good swimmer, if no one says yes the group does not run as they dont want to deal with a 100% swim or swamp.

LemurTron.9261:

ATMAvatar.5749:

I would prefer they group the available fractals into three distinct groups based upon difficulty and/or length and ensure that you get one of each group during a run. Getting dredge, grawl, and cliffside all together really sucks when compared against the luck of getting underwater, swamp, and ascalon, if only because you’ll take twice as long (or longer!) on the former versus the latter.

not a bad idea

in general I like randomness, which is part of the appeal of fractals. RNG even to some extent. Predictable = boring, imo.

But the above would also combat the rampantness of fotm squads cycling through myriad ‘first’ fractal instances just to start with one of the fast ones, which can also get a bit silly

too many times have i seen a group spend 5min (differnce in the length of a long one to a medium one) just to end up with the two long ones they are avoiding as number 2 and 3.

their should be a 5min wait after returning to the lab to be able to start over, fixes this problem instantly. (only issue with this currently is restarting due to a disconnect, but that is getting fixed next patch)