Guild Wars 2

I’m level 80 on an Engineer, and still haven’t finished my personal story. At the level 75 or so mission, I started doing dungeons and the special events instead. I’m a new dad, I don’t have a lot of time, and I solo play 6 days a week and group for dungeons one. Orr has really taken the fun out of my personal story.

Things I hate about Orr, in approximate order:
1. My waypoints are constantly contested and unusable.

2. Very few places (I’ve not found one yet) to use BLTC, this makes point #1 a bigger pain when I need to go to Lions Arch

3. Mobs are boring! There’s no ecology or diversity of species like other zones, just “Orr Pirate”, “Orr Eagle”. They are scattered in a pattern that makes it obvious it was done for game design and not realism. Everything there hates you, and not each other. They aren’t in groups, but placed at mine field spacing. Which means it’s work to get anywhere, yet not rewarding.

4. When I die, I refuse to use a Waypoint 2 waypoints away b/c all the close ones are “contested”. So I log off or play an Alt.

I absolutly agree the Ruins of Orr (this includes the 2 zones that are not lvl 80) are by far the worst zones in the game so far. IMO Malchor’s Leap (LVL 75-80) is much more of a pain then the cursed shore(LVL 80).

Agreed. Totally.
Went there yesterday with a friend, and we were actually just yelling at each other during our entire stay. Eventually we decided to leave, because it was just a huge pain to be there. We never got to the lvl 80 zone, just crossing the Cursed Shore and Malchor’s Leap was enough for us to portal back to Fort Trinity.

Really bad part of the world, there, I wouldn’t even dare to go there solo …

Thinking how hard the Lost shore is as a new zone for the lvl 80s, I think the game stops here in Orr or Leap for casual players. Even if I understand it as a game/lore design – zombies are everywhere because of the dragon corruption and they are in endless numbers – I don’t understand why they put those places into the map completion achievements.
They could make like a title"legendary cartographer" for those who wanted it, and leave world completion achievement to the rest of players.

Agree. I haven’t gotten further than the first area in Malchor’s Leap because it’s just not worth it without a party of people doing it with me, which isn’t possible to find because there’s no advantage for anyone else to give up their time to help you get exploration.

And having killed 100 enemies and checking my Daily to see “Kill variety: 1” is not funny.

I’m not having much issue in there… not being able to waypoint IS a pain, but I can usually just run back to wherever I died. Well… MOST of the time. Of course, I have to be careful to not pull too much agro, but I look at that as a “you’re in a dangerous area so be careful!” thing more than anything. I’ve done 3 or 4 missions in my arc in that area so far, not all of them yet, so maybe they get worse?

ImagoX.4718:

I’m not having much issue in there… not being able to waypoint IS a pain, but I can usually just run back to wherever I died. Well… MOST of the time. Of course, I have to be careful to not pull too much agro, but I look at that as a “you’re in a dangerous area so be careful!” thing more than anything. I’ve done 3 or 4 missions in my arc in that area so far, not all of them yet, so maybe they get worse?

Yet it doesn’t feel dangerous to me— just drudgery.

Also, why put in waypoints that are never usable?

SaintHax.2647:

I’m level 80 on an Engineer, and still haven’t finished my personal story. At the level 75 or so mission, I started doing dungeons and the special events instead. I’m a new dad, I don’t have a lot of time, and I solo play 6 days a week and group for dungeons one. Orr has really taken the fun out of my personal story.

+1000

I’m also a L80 Engineer and I haven’t even stepped one foot into the Cursed Shore. In a similar situation; personal story around L77. Impossible to solo these areas. All but given up. Most people have moved on, and you hardly see anyone walking around to help you out.

The only reason I see to go to Orr is for Orich ore. Which there are some places you just can’t get too.

The only reason I can travel there without much issue is because I’m a Warrior and I swim mostly. Which is still a bit of a pain but compared to the insane amount of mobs on the land, the water is nothing.

Mainly I think there are too many mobs out, there damage isn’t too bad as a single. Not like Southsun Cove where one mob can take half your health in two hits but it’s because you get swarmed by an uncountable number of enemies that stack everything and anything on you in seconds. Also why can everything keep up with me while I have 33% IMS?

This is GW1 hardmode all over again. Anet needs to get in touch with Form Software*Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls* and learn how to make difficulty without being completely cheap. At least in GW1 I could use heroes to make up for it. GW2 your all alone. Unless you know people parties don’t form outside of dungeons or DE farming.

I plan on going there, completing what has to be completed, and then avoiding it from then on.

I’ve found there are zones I like and will return to and zones I will probably rarely go back to. I don’t like desolate ugly zones. And I don’t like monsters that yank you around like a rag doll on a string. Yes I know it is doable and yes you can get around the blah blah blah of the monsters but I just don’t find the area fun. It is tedious to me.

Does anyone really like the area? If so, what is it you like about the area?

I’m making my way towards the Orr area – 6 zones left to complete the world explorer.

Sounds like people just hate this area because it’s too difficult. Maybe that is the reason – it’s a challenge?

Death Reincarnated.3570:

I’m making my way towards the Orr area – 6 zones left to complete the world explorer.

Sounds like people just hate this area because it’s too difficult. Maybe that is the reason – it’s a challenge?

Challenge nahh. It’s more of an annoyance then a challenge. Go Fight some Karka for a little while, then go back to Orr. Then tell me if you rather be in Orr then Southsun Cove.

drifter.8453:

Death Reincarnated.3570:

I’m making my way towards the Orr area – 6 zones left to complete the world explorer.

Sounds like people just hate this area because it’s too difficult. Maybe that is the reason – it’s a challenge?

Challenge nahh. It’s more of an annoyance then a challenge. Go Fight some Karka for a little while, then go back to Orr. Then tell me if you rather be in Orr then Southsun Cove.

So it’s quite annoying going against the mobs in Orr? Maybe too many players try to solo those areas and fail. Perhaps, those areas put more emphasis towards team work (guild).

I will let you know how I go in Orr soon enough

Good luck finding other players or a guild to go around the map with you. It’s like asking for charity.

Clark Skinner.4902:

Good luck finding other players or a guild to go around the map with you. It’s like asking for charity.

Is Arah story mode solo-able yet? That’s where I’m at.
Exploration is very easy as a solo thief.

Exploring is super easy, lvl 80 engineer here also. As for annoying? Nah, its pretty relaxing actually, I think I haven’t even died once in Orr outside of group events. The only mobs I have trouble with are Vet rampagers because of their rapid, strong ranged attack. I pretty much stroll right through mobs at my own pleasure. Zero problems.

Waypoints, ehh since FotM its been a little more difficult to access them, but Im not dying so I don’t have issues with it, map exploration was pie for me also, and if you are having issues with it, then ask your entire guild to do it with you, chances are there are few that don’t have it and many that won’t mind. Who knows, maybe you’ll have fun with everyone. But yet again, I wouldn’t know since I solo’d my way through exploring.

As for BLTC, go to your borderlands, a bank, TP, and crafting stations(and mystic forge if you have garrison) are all there. When you’re done, just hit char select and jump back to Orr.

If I missed anything, misunderstood, or you have further questions, ask away.

Edit #1, one of you asked if I liked it, and yes I do like Orr somewhat. The huge amount of mobs is like a loot magnet for me, I just wade in and start blowing everything up. Sometimes I find myself wishing for even more mob groups.

I haven’t played engineer so I can’t say if it’s easier to solo, but for the squishier elementalist, with all of the AoEs and dodging and dashing skills, it’s far too easy to pull more enemies than you can handle.

Also, you can go to the mists to use the Mystic Forge anywhere, and then clcik the same button to return to the exact spot you were. So, all amenities can be gotten without a waypoint fee, BUT your food gets removed when entering PvP, and any stacks from sigils are removed, as is lifetime survivor if you’re going for that.

Lord Aargadon.4135:

Exploring is super easy, lvl 80 engineer here also. As for annoying? Nah, its pretty relaxing actually, I think I haven’t even died once in Orr outside of group events. The only mobs I have trouble with are Vet rampagers because of their rapid, strong ranged attack. I pretty much stroll right through mobs at my own pleasure. Zero problems.

I’ve died twice— once, a mob shouted something and 4 more adds appeared from farther away. It was odd, as it didn’t summon them, just aggro’d them. The other time I didn’t realize a veteran earth elemental was veteran and I lost a close one where he had about 41 health. I do avoid the skill point areas now, as they are thick and I just want to finish my personal story.

Regardless, it’s annoying. Run, if I’m entered into combat pistol 2, bombs, flamethrower, pistol, flamethrower. I finish most single mobs with 80% health. The additional suck— the phone rings and I have no idea where I can leave my PC to go answer it. Again… it’s just not a fun area.

Can’t say I agree with you.

1. “Everything hates you”

-Believe it or not, the ravenous undead are less interested in feeding on each other than they are you, a warm, fleshy vessel of edible sustenance.

2. No variety!

-Dead is dead. What, did you expect a wild, cheery rainforest of colorful parrots and happy go-lucky quaggan with the occasional odd zombie with it’s own unique name such as “Lord Aurious The Third, Undead Noble”?

3. Waypoints contested!

-I know it is hard to believe, but a zombified island might just be filled with hostile creatures that pass time by attempting to devour the living and attacking their settlements and outposts. You know, attacking the waypoints.

4. I refuse to use the waypoints when I die!

-Anet should’ve made a zombification feature for people like you. If you want to die and stay dead on Orr, you might as well become a mindless sack of half-chewed meat like the other deads.

I agree with a lot of the complaints about Orr. It’s monotonous, unrewarding, and all-around a terrible place to be in. Just getting from point A to point B is beyond aggravating.

I was actually looking forward to Orr, based on what I’d heard. I didn’t mind the idea of there being no hearts to complete, since I figured I wouldn’t need them to hold my hand and I’d have my own reasons to explore around. I assumed territory would be gained and lost through real-time events and shared goals, which didn’t seem to be a problem since events were scattered throughout the rest of the game and 9/10 times we finished them just fine.

But, actually being in Orr has proven endlessly frustrating. Being the end-game zones, I thought I’d essentially become engaged in a more intense and gratifying version of the mechanics I’d seen in the rest of the game. Instead, every time I go in there no one’s around. Every waypoint and base is taken by the enemy, and even if we do take a fort it gets taken back within 5 minutes. Swarms and swarms of zombies are everywhere, and you NEED to be in a party to accomplish any real objectives. And aside from all that, it’s just plain boring. Orr is ugly to look at — a barren wasteland, mostly empty, and overall just not as fun as the rest of the game.

I get that it makes sense for Orr to be this way, from a lore standpoint — but not from a gameplay standpoint. Orr should be the BEST place in the world to be. People should WANT to go there, because of how awesome and important it is. We shouldn’t have to go there grudgingly, just trying to get our personal story done, or yelling at the game because we can’t get map completion or resource nodes.

Maybe the problem varies from server to server, so I don’t know what a quick fix would be. Basically, I feel like territories that we’ve won should stay safe for a much longer period of time. Perhaps there should be less mobs just wandering around everywhere. Perhaps more characters, or permanently-held safe zones could be trickled into the game as time goes by (or maybe you can only access it if your character has cleared it in the personal story).

I know Guild Wars 2 wasn’t necessarily designed with an “endgame” in mind, and it shows. But, there are things you could do to entice more players to get into Orr more often, and populate the zones with something other than NPC zombies. Orr-specific daily achievements? More events that aren’t JUST killing enemies? Permanent goals and fortresses that can be gradually won through player involvement?

“We don’t go to Orr.”

“One does not simply level in Orr.”

i soloed orr, it was a painful process rich of player leading aggro to me leaving me dead near a POI or a Waypoint i was trying to reach and never turn back to ress me. i hate that kind of players we could have help each other to get rid of mobs for just a second to catch a breath than go separate ways… and this is not going to happen there…
i used my resurrection orb just out of frustration in the labyrinth were the skill point is, i killed ton of mobs just in there and they were appearing over and over again it was so difficult but finally i did it and i will come back there only in party…

now a liberating cry

spoiler alert so if you didn’t complete the storyline quest in orr read at your own risk:

i wish after beating the game you could have the chance to access an istanced map with normal mob in it, after all, the dragon has been defeated and the land has been cleansed by that useless commander (why is he the main character in my story? why he has a magical weapon that should be meant for me? why as a sylvari ranger, i couldn’t perform a nature ritual to cleanse the land and he a necromancer can manage to do it with a great sword? a great magical sword that i could put to a much better use than he did?)

I think I will finally have to use up my “Call a hero for 24hrs.” token. I’ll give Chuck Norris a call…

What annoys the hell out of me is the kitten respawn rate, its like AN thinks theres a milion+ people out in the world all fighting over mob kills. I actually timed some respawn rates getting the Cathedral of Silence POI last night on the spiders and elelmentals, 20 second respawns is just ludicrous.

adding my name to the list. first time since beta that i’ve not wanted to play.

i hate coming into a map and the only thing that’s posted is “where’s the zerg”, especially when the pre event keeps resetting because only 3 people are doing it. someone asked where the zerg was, i said that we were having trouble with the pre event and they said, “oh well” and left the map. after 5 of us finally finished the event chain after 3 tries, the npcs for balthazar started moving and there were 30+, none of whom had spoken in map chat, or responded to the calls for help.

all frostgorge is is people running up and down the same ice path (and not the one with the champion or veteran) until jormag is up then it’s droves of people.
the tarnished coast is virtually empty except for the crowded beach of afk players. the same thing in blazeridge, there’s always at least 15 people, often more, just standing around waiting for the pre event to finish. not actually helping with the pre event at all god forbid they do anything else on the map. everyone knows the dragon is the most important thing, there’s no dynamic group event chains or minidungeons or champions, just one thing that happens every 4 hours.

all the orr maps are a mess, you can’t go anywhere because all the waypoints are eternally contested. you’ll have a glimpse of someone running for ori every 10 minutes or so, but if you get anywhere in a group event chain and die, you have to run across half the map to get back and realize everyone else left or gave up.

there is zero activity in the map chat. i’ve been playing in 2 zones and no one has said anything or responded to my requests for help with group events or champs in 4.5 hours. i saw people running around. occasionally i’ll help them with an enemy and once they see that they don’t have aggro anymore they run off to finish whatever they were doing. probably because who cares, you still get credit even if you only hit them once.

i love the game, i love running around and helping people and running events together and working together. but none of that is happening and it’s preventing me from running solo. i can’t do anything in the higher level zones because they’re all group events that start over when you fail instead of going on a timer.

SaintHax.2647:

ImagoX.4718:

I’m not having much issue in there… not being able to waypoint IS a pain, but I can usually just run back to wherever I died. Well… MOST of the time. Of course, I have to be careful to not pull too much agro, but I look at that as a “you’re in a dangerous area so be careful!” thing more than anything. I’ve done 3 or 4 missions in my arc in that area so far, not all of them yet, so maybe they get worse?

Yet it doesn’t feel dangerous to me— just drudgery.

Also, why put in waypoints that are never usable?

They did put waypoints there because when they were designing the game, they expected the players to run around and do events anywhere in the world, as it was supposed to be fun. As this idea failed miserably, now we have to suffer consequences like contested WPs.

You are missing the point of Orr. It is for farming, turning in Karma for obsidian shards at the temple of Balthezar and for doing Arah occasionally if the events that you need to do do open it aren’t bugged.

No. Uh, uh. I will never believe that the game designers intended to aim us all in this direction so we can grind and farm.

I still believe their intent has always been to make the gameplay fun, with YOU as the central hero. That makes you come back again and again.

Maybe Orr IS a good place to grind and farm, but to make it FUN ANet needs to listen to the overwhelming majority of complaints here – not aimed at being too hard, but being too annoying. Having to constantly fight for every inch of ground to get to your destination is fine. Once. But if you should happen to die, and the nearest waypoint means another half hour of fighting to get back to where you were, many people will give up for the day and go elsewhere. If they give us just a FEW more waypoints that aren’t under constant contention, then more people will stay in Orr, and with more people we can liberate the rest of the waypoints ourselves. It just needs a little balancing.

I agree with the OP.

Orr is horrible. Orr is a chore. Games are not supposed to be horrible chores.

PolarApe.9351:

I agree with the OP.

Orr is horrible. Orr is a chore. Games are not supposed to be horrible chores.

Once they add another major end-game area (Jormag/Icebrood area/dungeon, please!), Orr will be forgotten.

It is a horrible couple of areas that are designed to be as frustrating as possible.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

Can’t say I agree with you.
1. “Everything hates you”

-Believe it or not, the ravenous undead are less interested in feeding on each other than they are you, a warm, fleshy vessel of edible sustenance.

Believe it or not, the fact that all the undead stand 50’ apart from each other, and never group doesn’t seem realistic, which is what you inferred. They never group, there’s not place devoid of them for a while— just a systematic mine field placement from the ravenous undead? Not even wandering looking for “warm, fleshy vessel[s] of edible sustenance,”? That seems odd.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

2. No variety!

-Dead is dead. What, did you expect a wild, cheery rainforest of colorful parrots and happy go-lucky quaggan with the occasional odd zombie with it’s own unique name such as “Lord Aurious The Third, Undead Noble”?

A game is supposed to be “fun”. Perhaps several large zones of repetive undead wasn’ the best idea? And “risen eagles” and “risen chickens” are just kitten Yet there are no “risen bears”, “risen panthers”, “risen pigs”, or “risen Moas”.

Your response here was just asssinine too. Complaining that a bland selection of monsters is no where close to asking for named mobs and “happy go-lucky quaggan[s]”. Why doesn’t a risen pirate, risen defiler, and risen eagle count as 3 mobs on the daily quests? If they aren’t going to give us anything else. Regardless— it’s BORING

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

3. Waypoints contested!

-I know it is hard to believe, but a zombified island might just be filled with hostile creatures that pass time by attempting to devour the living and attacking their settlements and outposts. You know, attacking the waypoints.

You are missing the “game” and “fun” part again. Which if you are going to say this is for realism, you need to look at all the other things in Orr that breaks verisimilitude. In addition— the waypoints often don’t have an event going so you can clear them out. You can kill all the mobs there, they are still contested…. hold on: so the mobs can pass time by attacking waypoints, but we can’t .. .you know… clear them?

+1 here totally agree 99% of my game play stops at fort trinity, the orr maps are just insanely painful to play, i cannot be in groups 24/7 so i stay clear of orr completely its just annoying and not fun.

I also feel the drop rates suck A 16c skull, and only one of like… 8 mobs drop anything?

80 engi who just finished (finally) my first world completion last weekend. Malchor’s and CS were my last 2 zones to do. I enjoy being in orr much more now than I did previously actually. You will eventually pick up some tricks for getting around and through the hordes of risen. The more time I spend there the more I appreciate the environment.

If you are trying to do world completion, ash legion spy kits help immensely with commune skill points.

Dredgehaunt is still the worst zone in the game in my book.

I think there are two versions of Orr: The one super easy that me and several other players share, and one nightmare version that everyone who complains goes to.

I don’t get it. Die? In Orr? Sure, if you go afk in a boss fight.
It’s easy to stroll around Orr, the spawnrate isn’t too fast, the mobs aren’t some immortal beings with DPS over nine thousand… I don’t get it, where is all this complaining coming from?

And no, I don’t play some super tough class, in fact, I play a squishy elementalist. And no, I haven’t min-maxed my skills, don’t pay attention to gear or care about my traits. In fact, my gear is just MF since stuff dies so easily I might as well use the little bonus for rarer loot. And half the time I’m not even paying attention to the game, just watching some Anime or something from my second screen. While running around.

Could someone crank up the difficulty of Orr a bit?

Fred Fargone.3127:

I think there are two versions of Orr: The one super easy that me and several other players share, and one nightmare version that everyone who complains goes to.

I don’t get it. Die? In Orr? Sure, if you go afk in a boss fight.
It’s easy to stroll around Orr, the spawnrate isn’t too fast, the mobs aren’t some immortal beings with DPS over nine thousand… I don’t get it, where is all this complaining coming from?

And no, I don’t play some super tough class, in fact, I play a squishy elementalist. And no, I haven’t min-maxed my skills, don’t pay attention to gear or care about my traits. In fact, my gear is just MF since stuff dies so easily I might as well use the little bonus for rarer loot. And half the time I’m not even paying attention to the game, just watching some Anime or something from my second screen. While running around.

Could someone crank up the difficulty of Orr a bit?

Cute piece of trolling there Fred. No, Fred, Orr is not so easy to go through you can watch something on one screen while playing on another. I’ve completed it largely solo (94% world completion at this point) with my Thief. Difficult, challenging and occasionally very frustrating but an accomplishment. The only part of my personal story I have left is the very end in Arah and I finished my personal story to this point entirely solo. I only rarely go back to Orr and when I do its to grind for exp or maybe look for some partners for the final part of my personal story (no luck on that yet). Some of the Temple events are worth the trip for end loot, and it is a good for ancient wood and Ori but that is about it. You certainly can’t complete your dailies there. At this point I only really only go there to grind grind grind . . . because that is all the place is . . . one big grind.

The two major problems I see are are the same as other posters have noted:
1) The respawn rate is so ludicrously short/fast/quick; and
2) Nothing stays uncontested without at least 1 player standing continuous watch.

For players to be willing to return to the Cursed Shore/Orr generally in large numbers and stay for any length of time, the devs need to ratchet down the respawn rate to something slightly closer to sane and/or either crank up the AI on the “good guy” defenders or lower the undead counter assault rates on the waypoints. Players actions need to have an impact that lasts longer than 5-10 minutes.

I typically do my daily achievements and materials farming on the Cove (once I figured out which skill to use to neutralize the OP Karka range attack) and Frostgorge. Either are infinitely preferable to Orr for farming exp, mats, $ and karma.

I have no problems in Orr. I can wander from one end to the other with out an issue. Is it a challenge? sure sometimes. Do I die? If I am busy looking at my map instead of fighting :\ do i expect to run through the entire map without an issue. no, of course not.

Level 80 Guardian.

I’m a lvl 80 Ele and have solo’d about half the Orr map points. Some places, especially for some skill points I really needed help. Also, to get the temple POIs and WPs I joined a group that was taking the temple down (and people keep saying there are no raids in GW2.)
I finally managed to finish the Orr maps and never wanted to go back there again. Now I actually go there to do the events for my dailies cause the karma reward is higher than doing events in lower level zones. I also go there to mine ore and chop trees. But I’m thinking of camping out in the Lost Shores for this too.
The killing 100 mobs and getting at max 2 kill variety for the daily accomplishment is so true.
Also, the aesthetics of the place is really depressing.
I really hate Orr.

The only time i go to orr, is when its on my PS – else im staying away.
I can deal with a single monster, i can even deal with a small group – but each time u shoot 1 thing in that area – u got 100 in ure face…. ure clear ure way into a SP, or something else.. 2 min later when wanting to leave – its overrun again….

One of the MAJOR arguments that ANET put forward originally was “what u do matters” – well, i slauightered 3000 orr chimp’s, can i PLEAZE have it a little easier to walk around now ? – an army of undead’s respawning every 5 min is just a screaming “u can grind to u die, but u will grind, and u will die… and it wont matter – not the slightest”

Solution: Slower respawn, less monsters. And let WPs/other area’s remain in the hands of the takers somewhat longer… running the “ure under attack” every 5 min isnt “long”.. most cases its not even 5 min… i been at places, where i came with the event, cleared the place, walked over to the merchant to sell – started selling, and before i was even done, the place was under attack again (it had restarted).

Perhaps its me, but it seems to me, like there area’s which are completly or somewhat ignored – and ANET especially need to look into scaling mob spawns, and spawntimes.
The only time Orr was actually “traveble”, was in the beginning, when the game was young, and “everyone” was arriving at orr – but no longer. (Fireheart Risen has exact same problem with area’s of too much crap respawning way to fast).

It’s crazy to think about, but here’s how I roll in Orr:

I walk into Orr with a different mindset, because, guess what: You’re in the Elder Undead Dragon’s territory

It is a mine field of risen from the depths of the ocean. They all want to kill you, and there is nothing friendly about this area. Quite frankly, the fact that there are so many Pact outposts makes me think ANet was really worried about guys like some posting here who have trouble. They were watching out you for. I was expecting there to be nothing but swaths of undead and no friendlies for miles.

After getting used to it, I now run by basically everything, and if something pisses me off by CCing me when Stability is down or I get surrounded, I annihilate everything. I play a Necromancer, a Ranger, a Warrior, a Guardian, and most of the other classes, and do the same thing with all of them. I never die in Orr bar extreme situations like tanking Shades at Grenth with too few players or when the High Priest at the Gates of Arah decides I’m a good pincushion.

My verdict? I think this zone, for being an end-game zone, is a lot more forgiving than I was expecting, but still tough enough that I enjoy it. Waypoints are contested because people ignore the events to unlock them (or in many cases fail them), and honestly, most of the time enough waypoints are unlocked to still get where I need to go. I like these zones because they immerse me in a field of ruinous draconic corruption and make me feel like I am really in the hellhole of Tyria from a story-wise perspective. That said, as a player, I welcome the challenge, and thoroughly enjoy punching Risen in the face and having them give me T6 materials and other goodies. I want more zones like this, themed based on the appropriate dragons, for me to run around against impossible odds and win.

I agree totally about the Orr enemy placement, but it goes for practically all of Tyria. Enemy locations and placement are totally arbitrary, for the most part; I mean, are there grawl in a cave? Makes sense I guess, but why is the cave where it is? Why is it right next to a dozen different conflicting pointless geographical features that defy a nice, cohesive design? Why are the spawns like there was an explosion at the Acme Mob Co. Factory, and mobs were just strewn about the countryside like sparse debris?

As far as I can tell they didn’t organize this for gameplay OR realism in most places; I was actually satisfied that in Orr, the land and enemies were all perfectly thematic and related. So I guess the jury is permanently out

The waypoints being constantly contested does steer people away, and the same 9 mobs every 40-200 feet is also ANNOYING, not fun. Annoying. It’s not difficult or challenging. It’s annoying.

I stay away from orr now that plinx isn’t available but once every blue moon.

Put a dragon event there, and get rid of 1/4th the mobs, and you got a renewed zone.

I have an idea for how to fix things over.

“Pre-events”

There should be dynamic events that allow players to prevent the major waypoints on Orr from being contested. These “pre-events” would allow you to go to defend a camp before the WP is compromised.

In-turn, this would increase Karma farming rates, and make Orr would be flocked with defenders like it should be.

Dynamic events really are a great idea, I think ANet should raise the variety (not the frequency) of events in Orr so that the island can be more enjoyable as a game experience.

Arrow.4619:

Cute piece of trolling there Fred. No, Fred, Orr is not so easy to go through you can watch something on one screen while playing on another.

I was actually being serious. That is what I do. I admit I do die occasionally (I am an elementalist squishy with MF gear after all) but Orr is pretty much free running around.

Arrow.4619:

I’ve completed it largely solo (94% world completion at this point) with my Thief. Difficult, challenging and occasionally very frustrating but an accomplishment. The only part of my personal story I have left is the very end in Arah and I finished my personal story to this point entirely solo. I only rarely go back to Orr and when I do its to grind for exp or maybe look for some partners for the final part of my personal story (no luck on that yet). Some of the Temple events are worth the trip for end loot, and it is a good for ancient wood and Ori but that is about it. You certainly can’t complete your dailies there. At this point I only really only go there to grind grind grind . . . because that is all the place is . . . one big grind.

Ah, I see why you find Orr challenging. You don’t spend quite as much time there as I do. My main doesn’t leave Orr. He’s there, running around making me a few gold coins. Every day, also, completing good part of dailies. (Just can’t find enough mob types to complete dailies in Orr alone.) 100% world completion, WvW was the hardest bit.

Arrow.4619:

The two major problems I see are are the same as other posters have noted:
1) The respawn rate is so ludicrously short/fast/quick; and
2) Nothing stays uncontested without at least 1 player standing continuous watch.

Yeah, everything is contested most of the time. But I don’t really understand where is the problem with the spawn rate? It’s good as it is. I don’t really mind stuff being contested, as I don’t try to get in Arah all that much.

Arrow.4619:

For players to be willing to return to the Cursed Shore/Orr generally in large numbers and stay for any length of time, the devs need to ratchet down the respawn rate to something slightly closer to sane and/or either crank up the AI on the “good guy” defenders or lower the undead counter assault rates on the waypoints. Players actions need to have an impact that lasts longer than 5-10 minutes.

Why not add a few carebears to Orr while you’re at it? Orr is supposed to be a very hostile place. It’s part of the lore. It is, in fact, too easy as it is now. And the places which need more players atm, are the lower level zones. So it’s only a good thing people are pushed away from Orr.

Arrow.4619:

I typically do my daily achievements and materials farming on the Cove (once I figured out which skill to use to neutralize the OP Karka range attack) and Frostgorge. Either are infinitely preferable to Orr for farming exp, mats, $ and karma.

Yeah, Cove’s difficulty needs to be cranked up a bit. It’s just producing cheap materials atm, and ruining the market for those.

Juts put some capable NPC to beat up group events or bosses when players are not doing it. In my server -FA- the Meleandru Boss is there for a few days now an no one is grouping for beating it. Its annoying just to log in everyday and see if that boss is till up and log off again because I cant get the armor from there.

It’s recognizable that orr was an attempt to make the end-game play epic, and actually engaging rather than press 1 2 3 kill this go here, etc. and conceptually that’s a great direction.

The idea’s execution fails when the player base has such an negative, and seemingly universal opinion about it.

I’m undoubtedly repeating previously stated issues and apologize for the redundancy, please consider any repeated quarrels as my agreeing with already known sentiments.

1.) The Events. It is fantastic that Guild Wars 2 attempts to bring its players together and truly utilize the fact that you play with other people in mmo’s; however, the constant group events and their difficulty make it impossible for anyone to party up and complete them. The barrages of events far too difficult for individual completion are incessant and drive off players long before there are enough to form a party capable of defeating avatar’s of the gods. The contested waypoints combined with the volume of group events make it impossible even after a party is formed to function, if someone dies they cannot rejoin without being assaulted by a different event while their party fails the first.

2.) The Spawn Rate. This seems especially significant in underwater zones even beyond orr. On the rare occasion someone can actually navigate successfully and manage to slice their way through a jungle of enemies, they are slowly ensnared within a circle of mobs which quite literally never ends. In the time it takes to kill even a weak mob another has spawned, and veteran or stronger monsters are simply out of the question without extremely careful planning about one’s surroundings.

3.) The Range/Placement of Hostiles. Orr is designed in such a way that it is impossible to avoid combat with enemies, this can be expected from any high-level zone in any game. My problem is that the enemy will lock onto you far beyond even a longbow’s range, and follow you for an even greater distance while you collect even more enemies which will do the same until you are immobilized, surrounded, and killed.

4.) In-Combat Locking. You’ve reached your destination, you’ve killed the 100’s of enemies following you. You’ve killed the 20 enemies occupying the location. You’ve suppressed the spawning. You’re still in combat and your health is not regenerating. You’re a sitting target praying that within the next 5 minutes you’ll leave combat before you are once again swarmed, or the spawns begin again. Too often this does not happen. It is not a matter of a slight delay between battles, I’ve remained in combat for several minutes after reaching “safety” in orr only to be sniped by some unknown foe and loosing my remaining 100 health.

5.) Compounding. As frustrating as these problems are, individually they can be managed. After avoiding the multiple epic events slaying balthazar, and grenth, and melandru, and dwayna, and lyssa, etc. simultaneously, I often find orr relatively manageable in my secure little hole of the map. But when any two of the previously listed problems occur in unison, it often means certain failure. What is worse is that it is rarely only 2 of the listed, quite often all 4 are involved in what seems to be a synchronized effort on the game’s part to annihilate the player.

I refuse to use my level 80 characters for anything other than helping friends and guild-mates mainly because I spend more time frantically running away from mobs and lose more money repairing armor or teleporting to waypoints than I do playing, and heaven forbid enjoying the game. I’ve been in parties with a friend from the real world and he is avoiding even reaching level 80 after seeing my constant demise while I played in orr with my guardian no less. Several more friends supply orr as a reason not to purchase guildwars2, stating that there is no enjoyable end-game play and that it is a short-burst game with no actual reward for their time.

I’d love to put in the effort training more characters to level 80 and exploring the world I’ve been awaiting so anxiously for so long. I’d love to see GW2 have the turnout it deserves and to play with more friends. I’d love to be able to assure them with security that they’re making a good investment in purchasing GW2 and that it is indeed a great game. It is to my great dismay that I, like many others, am considering returning to GW1 or moving on all together if something isn’t done. I love this game, this world, its characters, and its players and it pains me to see, and even worse provide commentary, on such a massive problem.

Zane Hosigawa.6359:

2.) The Spawn Rate. This seems especially significant in underwater zones even beyond orr. On the rare occasion someone can actually navigate successfully and manage to slice their way through a jungle of enemies, they are slowly ensnared within a circle of mobs which quite literally never ends. In the time it takes to kill even a weak mob another has spawned, and veteran or stronger monsters are simply out of the question without extremely careful planning about one’s surroundings.

So completely agree! It is beyond frustrating to fight your way into a zone killing everything in your path only to have the enemies you wiped out magically re-appear and attack you from behind. I’m starting to seriously regret investing money and time in this game, something I never did with City of Heroes. FIX THE SPAWN RATE!!!

Good job i don’t care about the flat , boring , generic, horribly voiced personal story, so I don’t need to suffer that crap to finish it. I’ll just probably give up on it at some point.

ouroboris.1048:

So completely agree! It is beyond frustrating to fight your way into a zone killing everything in your path only to have the enemies you wiped out magically re-appear and attack you from behind. I’m starting to seriously regret investing money and time in this game, something I never did with City of Heroes. FIX THE SPAWN RATE!!!

Seconded
FIX IT NOW please

I did not pay for a zombie game and neither did many others, I suspect.

I’d say that Southsun Cove needs more help than Orr does, but I agree that Orr needs work. I’ve seen it suggested that mob populations should be based on how many players are in the zone at the time. I’m sure something like this could be worked out.

I also third the lower respawn rate.