Guild Wars 2

I honestly think as far as dungeon design goes the Anet crew are getting stronger and stronger. More dungeons like this is a step in the right direction for this game. Hats off to you guys seriously, the encounters were fun to figure out and challenging without being ridiculous. Keep it coming!

I really enjoyed it. If I could say what most explorable paths in GW2 lack, in a word, I would say scope. MF, AR and now Twilight Assault are showing the level of scope that I first envisioned in the dungeons of GW2 back when they first released that teaser trailer years ago. It is clear that they put more production time into this and it was worth it. I would like to see Anet push the boundaries even further in future releases.

Twilight Assault is also more balanced and polished than AR and MF were, which had some really rough parts to them.

If I could give only one major critique, it would be in the theme of the combat puzzles. There was a lot of emphasis on aggro management. The fire room, Slick and Sparki, and the Clockheart were all about aggro management. The preoccupation was in dragging mobs into the right spot all the time. While not a bad mechanic, if overdone it can get tiresome, especially when the AI can sometimes be finicky.

I would like to see more focus on deadly combat mechanics in future releases. Only the Foreman fight was really 100% about combat. I liked all of his skills, though his whirl could be doing more damage.

I realize some people did not like it, and I do think there is valuable feedback in that, but I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. This is a big step in the right direction.

Thanks Anet!

I 100% agree this is the best designed dungeon to date. For example I love how the player encounters a hologram projector in the middle of the mission. This is a forshadow/training for a later encounter, where the players have to kill 8 hologram projectors at once. This is the right way to teach a player how to play.

Another thing I love about this dungeon: Zerker gears have a disadvantage. Finally, tanks have a place.

And the Spur part, which you have to pull mobs, were a flashback to the GW1 days.

Also having optional missions is a great idea. Another flash back to GW1 days. (e.g. remember Glint?)

I would have to agree that, in terms of mechanics, originality and variety this is the best dungeon so far. Finally a place where Zerker gear doesn’t mean you plow through endless streams of mobs with ease.

Suddenly you have to take situational awareness into account (location, kiting etc), have to target specific mobs in order to more efficiently reduce enemy forces and the power they bring to the table etc.

And of course since this dungeon is a permanent addition we’ll have all the time to get all the achievements so no stress

CHIPS.6018:

Another thing I love about this dungeon: Zerker gears have a disadvantage. Finally, tanks have a place.

Hmm?

haviz.1340:

CHIPS.6018:

Another thing I love about this dungeon: Zerker gears have a disadvantage. Finally, tanks have a place.

Hmm?

Yeah, he’s wrong. Tanks will still slow you down and make it harder. It’s still easier and faster to zerk things down. Take the final boss for example. In a tanky party you will have to remove his shield far more times than an optimised zerker party. I suspect zerkers could kill him after a single hologram.

The oozes at the beginning are harder with lower DPS groups because you are forced to use pulls otherwise you won’t kill them fast enough. Zerkers will probably just kill the oozes quickly removing any need to kite, block or pull them.

Personally I think the dungeon used far too much kiting. It’s my least favourite mechanic in GW2 (well the poison darts from SAB now take that crown). Jelly fish fractal, Dredge Fractal boss, AC path 2 (by far the least popular AC path) and now almost every encounter in the new TA path is basically all about kiting mobs. It’s one of those mechanics which makes pugging incredibly painful because a single bad player screws it up for everyone and all the other players are scrambling to use pull skills, of which some classes get a better deal. Kite the oozes to the door, kite the oozes onto the oil spills, kite the holograms onto the generators, kite the holograms to the door, kite the holograms to the boss. It’s the same mechanic used over and over and over.

I personally don’t play dungeon content (or MMOs in general) so I can kite mobs around. If this is the continuing trend in dungeon design I’ll need to find a new game. I personally really dislike this kind of mechanic and it seems to be the favoured one in all the new content. I guess the removal of the trinity and the uselessness of stuns pushed the devs into a corner when it comes to combat depth. This is their solution to it.

I enjoyed playing this dungeon path for the first time and without knowing most of its mechanics last night. I did play on a full zerker warrior, and only swapped out some utilities to get more survivability on parts we still needed to figure out.

I can see the odd mechanic in it becoming bothersome if wanting to re-run it on a regular basis, but then again people tend to figure out very efficient ways for all sorts of things. For now I am looking forward to doing it again.

I love the new dungeon. It’s challenging, it’s interesting, it’s new and not completly over the top. And the best is: You don’t need raw dmg to solve it, you need at least some little tactics (like tons of reflection/projectile block at ooze gate). It just makes fun.
But the achievements suck like hell.

Chipping in to say that this is, indeed, the best dungeon to date. It’s got some coordination puzzkitten sses that are more about tactics than health sponge, bonus stuff at the end, great looks.

I was even able to PUG this one on the first day. Sure, we had one or two ragequitters after wipes, but we used LFG tool and stuck to it until we beat it.

Also, as a ranger I’m very happy that I could be useful with my longbow, off-hand axe and good use of different skills, as well as not encountering any areas where my pet was a detriment to the team (i.e. no mine fields).