Guild Wars 2

One more attempt at focusing Slick. Of course, we lose.

And with that…things finally fall apart. My third attempt, over 10 tries at just the duo boss, the best group I’ve had yet for the path, and nothing to show for it except all of my armor and back items damaged at this point. Time to give up.

Oh, the Jungle Wurm’s out? Whatever…I don’t care…

Well…that’s it. I’m done. I’m just not good enough. And I never will be. No more. I have no desire to endure that garbage path ever again. Everyone who worked on that should’ve been sent back to the drawing board to fix everything wrong and make it fun…or be fired and replaced.

I only wanted to run it once to see the story, help Caithe out, and keep her from getting turned evil or whatever stupid plot Scarlet had in mind, as well as maybe learn something more about her. But apparently bad gimmicks and buggy content matter more than actually having fun and telling/experiencing a good story.

I’d go watch a video of it..except the closest things related to Twilight Assault is a WoodenPotatoes video where he talks about lore that anyone who cares will know about already…and the preview from September 30th..which showed nothing past the stupid ooze puzzle. And this talk of “Caithe’s secret” already is beginning to look like another awful retcon incoming.

And those “hardcore” players will continue to flame anyone who points out anything bad about the dungeon, just to bloat their own egos and feel superior. What happens if this bad, gimmicky, hard-for-all-the-wrong-reasons content is the only new content from now on? What if the other dungeons get hit like this.?

I don’t pretend to be the best of the best, but I’d like to think I can at least manage somewhat decently as long as I know what to do. I’ve managed to go through every dungeon with P.U.Gs, and as long as the group is good and we know what to do, we can handle it pretty quickly and without much trouble, except for COF Path 3 (which I’ve never done) and Arah explorable(have done a few, but they always take so long to do, and suck).

Now I don’t look forward to any more dungeon revamps, seems like they’ll just make them worse. TA f/u had it’s bad parts with the instant kill swarms and last boss, but even that is better than what we have now..and you could just do the other two paths instead, since the story is pretty much the same between them.

I no longer regard the Living Story with a “wait and see, it might be good”, but instead, “This will probably just suck.”

First impressions tend to be the most important ones, and this dungeon path has left a horrible one for me.

Never again.

There are many people around here that would not mind helping you out, myself included. I believe a few a bit further up offered as well.

You are talking to yourself

SynfulChaot.3169:

There are many people around here that would not mind helping you out, myself included. I believe a few a bit further up offered as well.

It wouldn’t feel the same. I’d basically have to be carried. I hate that so much. I’d hate having to put “experienced only, want to see the story” and being an utter liability the whole time, as even one or two people messing up can reduce the whole teams effort to nothing.

Correction: only one offered any help..and they were from EU, so no dice. The others are just more “hardcore” jerks who come here just to put people like me down even further.

It’s not worth it at all to go back there, since from what I’ve read, we don’t even get any good story, just more pointless hints. Sigh.. Living Story is dead on arrival again.

Nilkemia.8507:

SynfulChaot.3169:

There are many people around here that would not mind helping you out, myself included. I believe a few a bit further up offered as well.

It wouldn’t feel the same. I’d basically have to be carried. I hate that so much. I’d hate having to put “experienced only, want to see the story” and being an utter liability the whole time, as even one or two people messing up can reduce the whole teams effort to nothing.

Correction: only one offered any help..and they were from EU, so no dice. The others are just more “hardcore” jerks who come here just to put people like me down even further.

It’s not worth it at all to go back there, since from what I’ve read, we don’t even get any good story, just more pointless hints. Sigh.. Living Story is dead on arrival again.

Nah. It isn’t being carried. It’s going with a group that teaches as you go. Yesterday I ran with a group in which I was the only one that knew it. I described each encounter as we got to each. A couple hours later we successfully completed it with comparatively minimal issues.

In any decent group, so long as at least one person is willing to teach and the others willing to listen and learn then this dungeon is able to be completed.

So long as you let the others in a good group know that you don’t know it, they should be able to help you complete it so you carry your own weight and so you all can complete it successfully.

Everyone in the last group was willing to learn and try to figure out the mechanics, had a great deal of patience and perseverance and it made no difference. We still lost. After that, I don’t feel like ever going into Twilight Arbor again. And even if I did succeed, I’ll never want to do it ever again, so no point in trying to learn/remember it for later.

It’s just no good.

Nilkemia.8507:

Everyone in the last group was willing to learn and try to figure out the mechanics, had a great deal of patience and perseverance and it made no difference. We still lost. After that, I don’t feel like ever going into Twilight Arbor again. And even if I did succeed, I’ll never want to do it ever again, so no point in trying to learn/remember it for later.

It’s just no good.

Ah. Don’t give up. The dungeon, although quite difficult, is still doable for most groups that are willing to learn. I have found that it helps greatly to have at least one person that has some experience in the party for tips and tricks and so that that others can follow their lead.

It looks like you were having trouble on the Slick/Sparki fight. That fight, although not trivial, is decently easy if you have one person properly kiting the ooze and the rest DPSing the bosses one at a time. It took my first group … too many tries to get past them. I lost many, many silver to repairs on my first run. But once you figure it out the first time, subsequent runs are much, much easier.

I find it endlessly fascinating that people claiming the “casual player” tag are crying about how they can’t complete the dungeon within the first 48 hours of its release and calling for people to be fired. How horrendous of you, ArenaNet.

I don’t claim the “casual tag”.

I play just about whenever I can. In a good group, I can handle all the other dungeons without too much trouble(with the exception of Arah and a few paths like CoF P3, TA f/u, SE P2, etc.) And even when things go get messy, we don’t die over ten times in a row at the exact same fight over and over!

Except of course, Frizz in the Aetherblade Retreat. And now this. With the Super Adventure Box packed up, and Tequatl basically unbeatable with a small group now, there’s nothing else the Living Story has for me.

But of course, that’s clearly my fault, right? That’s what they’ll say…back to farming ore in Orr and doing the paths I’m used to once a day, because that’s clearly all I’m good for.

Nilkemia.8507:

I don’t claim the “casual tag”.

I play just about whenever I can. In a good group, I can handle all the other dungeons without too much trouble(with the exception of Arah and a few paths like CoF P3, TA f/u, SE P2, etc.) And even when things go get messy, we don’t die over ten times in a row at the exact same fight over and over!

Except of course, Frizz in the Aetherblade Retreat. And now this. With the Super Adventure Box packed up, and Tequatl basically unbeatable with a small group now, there’s nothing else the Living Story has for me.

But of course, that’s clearly my fault, right? That’s what they’ll say…

Despite what some may say, I put this new dungeon path as harder than any other current path short of Arah. If a group is refusing to learn from the encounter, then try to help them get better or politely bow out and find a group that will learn the encounter.

First time I fought those two I damaged/broke most of my gear at least once. Second time I did, with myself being the only one who had encountered it before, there were only 3-4 ‘learning’ party-wipes. Third time with a random group and that number was down to 2.

No, it’s not your fault per se. But it is the fault of the group as a whole.

Note: My offer to assist still stands.

The offer is appreciated, but as of right now, I have no desire to run that path (or even Twilight Arbor itself) anytime in the near future. My will to even just play the game has slowed down, like I’m stuck in sludge. Thanks, but it would just waste your time and mine.

This is in fact the best 5 man instance ive ever played (in any of the 30+ MMOs i played).

Why you ask?

Since it offers a nice balance of 3 key elements that imo make or break a dungeon:

- Mechanics based boss fights (instead of tank and spank/zergfests)
- Team based gameplay where you need everyone to do well.
- Enough challenge to make it memorable (but easy enough for any group to clear it)

The current generation of MMO gamers expect instant succes. They want to run in to instances and one shot everything that is in there. If they dont , they go to the forums and complain. Its a lot easier to complain than it is to improve. Sad thing is that developers quite often will listen and change their game due to these complaints.

I saw this happen in wow, which is one of the main reasons they lost millions of subs. Its all about rushing to the finish line instead of overcoming challenges nowadays. Its incredibly egocentrical since they dont realize that what theyre asking for is that all content should be centered around them and around them 1 or 2 shotting everything. Who cares about people who want challenging content right?

Am i an elitist hardcore dungeonrunner that plays full zerker warrior parties? Really far from it in fact. Im a random pvp specced and geared engineer that started doing GW2 instances like 1-2 weeks ago (eventho i played GW2 since the beta). I think i finished 5-6 paths in the entire game.

So how did i do this instance you may ask? I just kept queueing and trying even after failed attempts. Allong the way i added 2 nice guys to me friendslist. After the 5 th group i asked those 2 guys that met earler to make a new group + added two guys i knew from before that.

Result is that we completed it, i learned everything about that place, enjoyed it a lot and made two new friends.

Good for you. I get it already. I suck.

I’m clearly not who this Living Story was made for, so I’ll just stick to farming nodes and running the same dungeon paths I can do. That’s a better use of my time.

Nilkemia.8507:

Good for you. I get it already. I suck.

I’m clearly not who this Living Story was made for, so I’ll just stick to farming nodes and running the same dungeon paths I can do. That’s a better use of my time.

I probably wiped as least as much as you did. Should i stick to ore farming aswell?

Difference between you and me is that i experienced the older days of MMOs. Where it took weeks before bosses got downed. I remember vashj in wow. It took 8 weeks before the best guild in the world got to her and killed her the first time.

It took us a month of 20-30 wipes a day 3 days a week once we reached her and every single 10% extra we got off her was considered an achievement.

You tried a new dungeon with a pug on the first day it got released. You first puggroup failed and you gave up.

The dumb thing is….if you just tried it with another group you probably wouldve made it. Just like i did, while im even more casual than you are.

Um..just to be clear, I tried twice on the first day, then the third attempt on the second day. The first two tries went around 5 failures at the boss before too many started to leave, and as I pointed out, the third group held out until after 10 consecutive losses at those two, with no end in sight, even with us knowing the mechanics. Were we not geared well enough, not coordinated enough, not fast enough? No idea. So the answer is that I/they just suck.

So, three consecutive P.U.G failures, at least 20 failures at just the duo boss, and never getting past them to see what other stupid gimmicks would be in store for us. Not enduring any more of that.

http://www.twitch.tv/ostricheggs

A group of random pvpers who hate doing dungeons doing this purely for the backpack skin. They hate it but keep going. Its their first time and they dont know tactics just randomly run in and try to zerg everything. They are at the 3rd boss now :P

Killed 3rd boss on 2nd try (they pulled the entire room first try).

And….they did it.

Well, I missed it. And the video isn’t on their channel, so I can’t even see the story bits. I’ll just wait until one pops up somewhere. If one ever does.

Lol don’t feel bad, I went with a few friends, all of us first timers, and we ended up taking about 2+ hours to complete the dungeon. It was 5am for half of us and we were just way too tired to comprehend strategies.

Talindra.4958:

ping me in game I am in EU server, if i have the time i will try to come along. <3

I’m on an NA server, no dice. And I don’t want to go back anymore.

Nilkemia.8507:

Well, I missed it. And the video isn’t on their channel, so I can’t even see the story bits. I’ll just wait until one pops up somewhere. If one ever does.

It is in his “past broadcasts”.

http://www.twitch.tv/ostricheggs/c/3030057

Its a group of 2 pugs, 1 viewer and 2 pvpers that never PvE. Dont mind the trolling or turn the sound down if you dont like it.

As you can see they dont have an ideal setup and dont spec or gear for PvE dungeon running or whatever. He even switched to perplexity runed gear a few wipes in since he forgot to repair and couldnt be kitten d to repair at the starting area.

They have nfc about tactics besides a few random tips i gave them in twitch chat (usually after a few wipes).

It took them 2.5 hours as you can see on the vod.

Well, thanks. At least I should get to see what little story there is….

Well, not quite. turns out they skipped a cutscene or two, and I didn’t get to see the confrontation between Holo-Scarlet and Caithe, which was supposed to be of that new cutscene style like the Faren and Marjory ones, or so was my impression. Still, at least Caithe didn’t get turned evil or have something awful done to her by Scarlet.

It’s clear to me now that I’m just second rate at even PVE. Can’t do PvP or WvW well, so I thought I’d at least gotten good at this. I’ll just stick to what I can do.

Nilkemia.8507:

It’s clear to me now that I’m just second rate at even PVE. Can’t do PvP or WvW well, so I thought I’d at least gotten good at this. I’ll just stick to what I can do.

No i am second rate in PvE. People who like challenging content that evolves around mechanics should just F off since the content needs to be designed around Nilkemia one or two shotting it.

Right?

I think you dont realize how much harm this would do to GW2. Adding challenging content that evolves around mechanics and teamplay is the best thing for GW2 itself.

You know why an MMO like wow lost millions of its subs during the last year alone? Its not because its outdated or it lacks content

They made everything oneshotttable for everyone and the game whent on a downhill slope eversince (losing almost 30% of their subs in a few months).

But i guess you dont care about GW2 as long as you have your short term fun right?

I give up. This is a waste of time. You misinterpret and twist my words, seemingly on purpose. I try to humble myself and you insult me further.

If a moderator is actually out there, by all means close this thread now. There’s nothing further to gain from this rambling.

Nilkemia.8507:

I do care. Which is why I fear that if the content keeps going this way, I might as well stop bothering with the Living Story, since I probably won’t be able to get past it, along with many others. Then they’ll probably get sick of it and leave the game soon after. But I clearly don’t know a thing.

Short term fun is better than no fun at all, to me anyway.

You might care, but due to your lack of experience in other MMOs you are unaware of what dumbing down instances can do to an MMO. Ive seen this happen before and i know what happened after they decided to tone them down.

I started playing with around 12 guys and i’m the only one that is left playing GW2. Our “guild” literally has 1 person in it….me. Every single one of them left due to a lack of challenging instance content.

The general opinion about GW2 dungeons:

- Lack of challenge and risk (and proper reward). If you happen to die you will get ressed almost instantly.
- Very zergy since you dont need to play by the rules of the encounter (no need to follow mechanics). Just stand in a corner and dps the kitten out of the boss or mobpack.
- No teambased gameplay due to lack of holy trinity and lack of team mechanics.

So what youre saying is: scr*w them i want my content that i will clear withh little to no effort. Even if that means it will drag the game down.

Time to get my necromancer to revive this thread, at least for a little longer.

Managed to find a party that was at the last boss and helped them beat that. The Lionguard decides to drop in and finally do something, and I go off with Caithe to Scarlet’s inner sanctum, hoping to get something worth finding out of this place.

“Could she have learned about me from Faolain? Or maybe the Dream itself?”

Well, since Scarlet already said she knew something that Faolain didn’t, so this seems to imply that Scarlet found a way to look through the memories contained within the Dream itself (while apparently being able to hide her own, no less), something that only the Pale Tree was said to be capable of before. (told to us by Trehearne, no less)

Anyway, a “Box of Fun” and another hologram.

The “reward” being a knockback and a Veteran Twisted Nightmare. Close quarters area plus flamethrowers and focused projectiles equals a dead necromancer. (Sigh)

Okay, I’ll just waypoint back and..no..I have to run all the way there, since waypoints in this path are not unlocked for everyone when at least one of the group has passed them (like in every other dungeon path) but individually among the players.

And it gets better. The door apparently closes when the Veteran Twisted Nightmare is spawned (or after you enter) and doesn’t reopen, so I can’t get back in to kill it. Sorry Caithe, you’re on your own. Even after the final boss is dead, this path still finds ways to irritate me.

Well, according to the wiki, all I missed was a little more dialogue, but nothing really important. We don’t learn anything new at all concerning any bigger plots at hand, and seeing as the Nightmare Court aren’t in this at all, I’m wondering why this had to be in Twilight Arbor and why the original forward/up path had to be blocked off for good in place of this garbage.

And from what I’ve read, it seems that most will just do this for the achievements and just not run it again. I still don’t get why they couldn’t have just added this as an extra path instead of removing the previous path (Arah has 4 paths, why can’t others?) The rewards are hardly worth it either.

Well, it is what it is. By this point, the next big thing, Bloody Madness, is coming. But after Tequatl and this, I can’t say I’m excited for any future Living Stories now, or any more dungeon revamps.