Guild Wars 2

Proposal Overview
Two or three unscrupulous players are able to enter an instance so that they ‘own’ it, create a Fractal group on the LFM, and then proceed to kick the rest of the party that has joined them once they have gotten to the boss fractal. This is done so that they can bring in friends that want the end reward without having to put in the time to go through the first three Fractals in the set. I propose that the vote-kick function be locked once the group has advanced most of the way through the instance.

Goal of Proposal
The goal of this proposal is to stop the abuse of public grouping on the LFM for the reward of small groups of unscrupulous players. A secondary goal would be to promote further use of the LFM system for mid to high level Fractals, because many players currently choose to only run this content in closed parties or not participate at all rather than have their time and efforts wasted by a few malignant players.

Proposal Functionality
Currently, only two players are required to kick another player from the instance, and they are able to do this at any point. Even right before the victory is achieved. I propose to lock this function at the start of the third Fractal in the set. This greatly reduces the payout for players looking to abuse this.

The first two Fractals in a set should give a sufficient amount of time for a party to recognize if any of their members do not belong in the party, either because they do not have sufficient AR or mastery of their character to contribute or because they are trolling the party that they have joined. Having to go through the Third Fractal and Boss Fractal makes the reward for abusing the vote-kick much less appealing than being able to just hop into a nearly finished run, do one fight, and collect your reward.

I suppose that this could be applied to non-Fractal dungeons as well, with the vote-kick being disabled as soon as the next to last boss is engaged. But the majority of this problem currently is in Fractals, where the instance is much longer and more difficult to get through.

Associated Risks
Under this proposal there would be no way to deal with players who go AFK just as you reach the end of your run, other than waiting for them to time out. The risk for abuse is there, however it is much less of one than exists in the current system.

I very much doubt I have anything additional to add to the discussion beyond wanting to see more fractals added, but I do want to pass on the team what an excellent idea I think Fractals have been as an addition to the game and the genre. It’s possible other games have done something similar, but FOTM to me as a dungeon concept;

- works better than other dungeons in length, rewards and mechanics/variety
- has the ability to utilise the franchise’s lore
- has a form of vertical progression in agony/infusions which doesn’t unbalance the rest of pve (that’s putting the ascended discussion aside of course).

More fractals and more lore can only enhance a really well thought out concept – great job designers!

Oh and like any dungeon, I’d support any changes to the fractals which would remove the ability to “skip” any section. Skipping seems contrary to every pillar in the game.

Topic Title: Add New Fractals to Fractals of the Mists.

Goal: Increase variety in fractals. Stay true to the original vision of fractals of the mists. Allow new users to experience past Living Stories events.

Proposal Overview: The living story has provided a lot of temporary content of high quality. We should relive these moments using the Fractal Technology. Adapt past living stories events into a fractal format, focusing the content to 5 players as it is currently design. Innovate game mechanics by adding a slightly different form of Fractals (see Bazaar of the Four Winds as an example).

• Escape from LA.
• The Tower of Nightmares.
• The Marionette.
• Bazaar of he Four Winds

Goal of Proposal: Increase diversity of fractals. Provide new users a way to revisit past living story contents. Incorporate new mechanics to increase player fun.

Nike.2631:

timmyf.1490:

Create “Practice Mode Fractals” which allow newer players to learn the encounters one Fractal at a time, making it easier for players to get started.

Would you consider some sort of written overview and/or miniature models of the fractals that can be viewed from the Mistlock Observatory map a working alternative? Maybe a second platform you can walk across a bridge to where you then have some in-game guidance you can browse without things trying to kill you?

I think that’s a possibility, but really, this is the scenario I’m thinking about:

I want to train my guildmates so if they PUG and get Dredge, they know what to do.

My guild members wear my guild tag and I feel some level of social responsibility that they are well-behaved and well-trained when they are representing my guild. You can always get an overview of how each Fractal works from gw2dungeons.net. I’d like to do more: I’d like to ensure they can clear the content.

And, to be honest, I think allowing the group to choose a Fractal and play just one at a time is less of an implementation effort than what you’re describing, though that’s just a guess.

Now, what you’ve suggested in addition to a Practice Mode would be even better!

Asia Skyly.7198:

• The Marionette.

How would you possibly make a world boss encounter that required an entire map to complete into a 5 men battle? I see other ones you listed as potentially fun levels, but Marionette? Not so much.

Proposal Overview

Apply the “unique difficulty based on fractals scale” to bosses.

Goal of Proposal

As probably everyone know, at scale 10 the harpies at uncategorized fractals gain a new ability (the knockback orb). While I don’t really like the harpie’s knockback, I definitely like the concept of enemies gaining new abilities as you progress through higher tiers. By giving fractal bosses (all bosses) new abilities per tier, you not only provide more challenge and make fights less monotonous and repetitive, but you also have a solution for designing higher tier difficulty without having to rely on the problematic “increase HP/damage” format.

I’m aware that we have instabilities for that, but since their release, I’ve always felt instabilities were too artificial and felt more like a handicap than an innate challenge (i.e lvl 43, 47 and 48 instabilities). In my opinion, the sign of a challenging content is when you can play your character to it’s full potential and still have a hard fight. By giving enemies new abilities (or even mechanisms) at each tier, you can give players challenge without the frustration of feeling limited.

Proposal Functionality

At a given tier, bosses could receive new abilities or mechanics, from just a new weapon ability to a dynamic change in the encounter. For example:

Starting from lvl X0, Mossman could have respawning net traps scattered around the fight area, immobilizing player. Captain Ashym could summon elite ascalonian soldiers during the fight to assist him. Shaman Lornarr from the snowblind fractals could receive some new Greatsword abilities. Imbued Grawl Shaman could flood 1/3 of the fight area with lava during the shield/grub stage. The lava that you drop from the bucket over the Dredge Mining Suit or Ice Elemental could also damage players who stay in the area etc.

Associated Risks
When coupled with instabilities, it might become too difficult for players to progress, specially when certain instabilities are already enough of a challenge (such as lvl 43). Would probably need to readjust certain instabilities first.

Topic Title: Updates to Fractal Currency and items

Goal: Make fractal currency viable again.

Proposal Overview: Allow fractal tokens to be used for a variety of ascended related items.

Proposal Details: Since launch, there have been no significant changes to what can be obtained from Buy-4373. At the same time, Ascended gear, arguably, has its main use in Fractals of the mists. Currently many of our hardcore fractal players are sitting on tens of thousands of relics and hundreds of rings. Thus, we should add support for the fractal currency to acquire new items from Buy-4373. In addition we should add a new vendor which would allow us to exchange items. The amounts listed below are for demonstration purposes:

Add New Items to the Fractal Vendor

• Amulets – 2000 fractal Relics
• Earrings/trinkets – 1900 Fractal Relics
• Dragonite ore – 5 Fractal Relics
• Bloodstone Dust – 5 Fractal Relics
• Empyreal Fragments – 5 Fractal Relics
• Add a simple white 20 slot bag to the vendor – 100 Fractal Relics
• Add Fractal Weapon Boxes to the vendor. – 5000 Fractal Relics
• Add the Fractal Tonic to the Vendor – 15000 Fractal Relics
• Add Fine infusions to the Vendor. – 3500 Fractal Relics

Add a Currency Exchange Vendor to Fractals.

• Fractal tokens for laurels. 100 Fractal Relics for 1 Laurel
• Fractal tokens for Karma jugs. 1 Fractal Relics per 10 Karma Point. A Jug of 6000 Karma = 600 relics.
• Fractal tokens for Guild Influence. 1 Fractal Relic per 10 Influence pts.
• Ring Exchange: 3 Rings for 1.
• Ring Exchange: 1 Ring for 5 Pristine Fractal Relics.

Goal of the Proposal:
While other parts of the game have been updated, the fractal currency has fallen behind. Currently, and without much sense, you cannot acquire ascended related materials in the place where it matters most: Fractals of the Mists. We are in need of a change that will add support to our existing currency by expanding its base, while at the same time introducing a mechanism to exchange fractal currency into other types of in game currency.

Asia Skyly.7198:

Topic Title: Updates to Fractal Currency and items

Goal: Make fractal currency viable again.

Proposal Overview: Allow fractal tokens to be used for a variety of ascended related items.

Proposal Details: Since launch, there have been no significant changes to what can be obtained from Buy-4373. At the same time, Ascended gear, arguably, has its main use in Fractals of the mists. Currently many of our hardcore fractal players are sitting on tens of thousands of relics and hundreds of rings. Thus, we should add support for the fractal currency to acquire new items from Buy-4373. In addition we should add a new vendor which would allow us to exchange items. The amounts listed below are for demonstration purposes:

Add New Items to the Fractal Vendor

• Amulets – 2000 fractal Relics
• Earrings/trinkets – 1900 Fractal Relics
• Dragonite ore – 5 Fractal Relics
• Bloodstone Dust – 5 Fractal Relics
• Empyreal Fragments – 5 Fractal Relics
• Add a simple white 20 slot bag to the vendor – 100 Fractal Relics
• Add Fractal Weapon Boxes to the vendor. – 5000 Fractal Relics
• Add the Fractal Tonic to the Vendor – 15000 Fractal Relics
• Add Fine infusions to the Vendor. – 3500 Fractal Relics

Add a Currency Exchange Vendor to Fractals.

• Fractal tokens for laurels. 100 Fractal Relics for 1 Laurel
• Fractal tokens for Karma jugs. 1 Fractal Relics per 10 Karma Point. A Jug of 6000 Karma = 600 relics.
• Fractal tokens for Guild Influence. 1 Fractal Relic per 10 Influence pts.
• Ring Exchange: 3 Rings for 1.
• Ring Exchange: 1 Ring for 5 Pristine Fractal Relics.

Goal of the Proposal:
While other parts of the game have been updated, the fractal currency has fallen behind. Currently, and without much sense, you cannot acquire ascended related materials in the place where it matters most: Fractals of the Mists. We are in need of a change that will add support to our existing currency by expanding its base, while at the same time introducing a mechanism to exchange fractal currency into other types of in game currency.

Would like to say: +9000. This is wonderful.

Romo.3709:

Asia Skyly.7198:

• The Marionette.

How would you possibly make a world boss encounter that required an entire map to complete into a 5 men battle? I see other ones you listed as potentially fun levels, but Marionette? Not so much.

It would be adjusted. The bosses health lowered, and 1 party member per platform.
I am sure that the developers could come up with a solution. For example, perhaps if you get the marionette, you simply have to defend one lane, randomly, and then when the timer expires, your entire team is sent to destroy a single chain. Again, this can all be adjusted by the developers.

Finally, this is a request/proposal. Not a demand for implementation.

I simply feel that fractals are the perfect place to relive the greatest moments in Tyria’s History.

timmyf.1490:

Create “Practice Mode Fractals” which allow newer players to learn the encounters one Fractal at a time, making it easier for players to get started.

timmyf.1490:

…this is the scenario I’m thinking about:

I want to train my guildmates so if they PUG and get Dredge, they know what to do.

Ahh. Ok. Still going with a second platform for a moment just so regular/veteran users can ignore it. Put a second “well” over on the second platform and when you click it you see a menu of fractals & instabilities and A GIANT WARNING THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET LOOT FOR THIS RUN. Huge warning. Boldface even. Red letters if possible. Unfarmable.

Its a little strange, but it might be useful for training folks, particularly at higher dificulties. Or maybe as some sort of private lounge for role-players.

To answer the 3-point question, I think reward restructuring is the highest priority, followed by fixing the Underground Facility Fractal and then decreasing the reliance on AR that creates unnecessary gating. I have 2 main proposals that would fix Fractals for me. Dredge revision and reward revision. This is part one, Dredge.

Proposal Overview

Out of everyone I know, the Underground Facility Fractal is the sole reason we highly dislike partaking in Fractals of the Mists. This partially has to do with the design of the Fractal, but also to do with the nature of the mobs in the Fractal. I propose a re-distribution of the resources within the Fractal to reduce the tedium and disproportionate length and hence encourage the majority of players who feel sick of running Fractals just because of the possibility of rolling this particular instance.

Goal of Proposal

Ideally, the Underground Facility Fractal will fall in line with other Fractals in terms of length and relative difficulty without being overly nerfed. The updated version will encourage playing through it in a fairly regular manner rather than constantly searching for cheesy tactics like skipping with Stealth and portals, which is borderline necessary to complete it in an acceptable time frame at high levels.

Proposal Functionality

First, the problems with the mobs themselves need to be addressed. Infinite spawns are to be removed. The mob counts outside of the bomb door and the cannon door are to be reduced slightly and each group of mobs is to have a maximum of one Disaggregator to prevent uncontrollable boon spam. The cooldown of Disaggregator buffs needs to be increased by a substantial amount. The Disaggregator will then become the main source of damage for the groups, as base damage for all mobs will be reduced slightly (compensated by the Might stacks that are now preventable with proper play). Ratniks, Reverberants and Oscillators are to have substantial damage nerfs. The melee-based Dredge attacks should deal more damage than the ranged by a large margin.

The clown car is to have its progress bar removed completely and it is no longer an object that can be hit. Instead, it is part of the Champion’s boss mechanic (he will spawn mobs from the car at set percentages of health, ideally Veterans or Elites). Upon the Champion’s death, the car and the mobs immediately retreat.

The Champion is now the end of the Fractal. The Legendary Ice Elemental/Dredge Mining Suit section is now a boss Fractal, possibly with updated mechanics to increase difficulty. One option is to buff the Champion to Legendary status as it is now the end boss.

Associated Risks

None as far as I can see.

Reward update proposal
The current fractal rewards aren’t satisfying compared to the dungeon rewards.

Goal of proposal

• Increase the amount of reward obtained in fractals
• Lower the inducements for griefers

Prposal functionality

• Increase the amount of reward obtained per level
• Reward should depend on fractals finished
• Reward should depend on monsters killed
• Reward should depend on the fractals your teammates have finished
• Reward should depend on the fractal difficulty (from swamp – easy- to dredge – hard -)

Proposal Overview
The rewards should be higher to reflect the time and difficulty of the content compared to other content.

Goal of Proposal
Fractals is a grind in hopes you get the weapon skin you want and unrewarding in the process. Other dungeons let you spend tokens on the items you want and give you a good amount of gold for time spent.

Proposal Functionality
The trader should be updated to add the weapon skins in exchange for relics. An armor set should be added as well like all the other dungeons. The skin drop rate should be higher at higher levels and the ring rate should be lower since no one needs them anymore if they are high up. Fractal weapon skin boxes should be in the loot table as well in some way. Recycling unwanted rings in some way should be introduced. The gold reward should scale better. The higher levels should give as much or more as dungeons given the time and difficulty is greater.

Associated Risks
Some people may have deleted rings or spent all their relics up since no change has been made. They might get a bit mad but this would be a great change going forward and would get a lot more people interested in doing them again and be a rewarding experience.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I would like us to start of by listing the top three things we would like to see evolved in Fractal Design. Idea proposals can come after this stage.

Chris

1) Fractal diversity
2) AR requirements
3) Reward structure

Romo.3709:

Asia Skyly.7198:

• The Marionette.

How would you possibly make a world boss encounter that required an entire map to complete into a 5 men battle? I see other ones you listed as potentially fun levels, but Marionette? Not so much.

That would be the easiest one to do since there are actual boss mechanics in the fight.

Could just make it so group fights X number of waves in a single lane then everyone gets teleported to one platform (without the time limit) to fight the champ. The other platforms could have Braham/Rox/etc solo fighting on the other platforms (but set up so they are invincible and win after your champ is killed). This would then either repeat or could go right to the next champ.

Would be harder to make Tower of Nightmares a fractal because what you would assume would be the final boss (Toxic Hybrid) does not have any real boss mechanics so they would need to make a whole new boss fight.

That said I’m hoping Marionette and Tower of Nightmares make a return as fractals.

Stable fractals to show stories and lost history with the added possibility to create hardcore endgame content

Proposal Overview
Add “stable fractals” to Fractals of the Mists.
These fractals can work as a history book for players.
The stable fractals would be slightly modified copies of lost Living Story and interesting lore events in the past.
Having a story mode and explorable mode, both with the same content but different difficulty gives the possibility to incorporate hardcore endgame content and the possibility to regenerate lost living story rewards and to generate new unique rewards and still keep the story accessible for casual players.
Not all of the content has an explorable mode and not all need to have a story mode, thus players aren’t too spread out.
The unique rewards are very very rare drops and can also be bought with (many of) much less rare ticket scraps that are guaranteed loot on completion.

Goal of Proposal

• Retell lost living story to players who weren’t there.
• Tell interesting stories about the lore of GW2 ingame.
• Give hardcore players hard endgame content with unique rewards á la Underworld from gw1.
• Introduce a hardcore lootfarm that gives much loot but requires a lot of skill as opposed to frostgorge farm.
• Reintroduce unique rewards from past Living Story that barely exist anymore.
• Introduce new unique rewards.

Associated Risks

• It doesn’t change anything, it adds new things, so there is no risk in terms of changing old things and making them imbalanced.
• A risk could be that “hardcore” players stop doing normal dungeons and stop farming in frostgorge and go here instead, making the other areas a bit drained of people. LFG tool and multi-server parties counter this as well as the skill gate of the content.
• Another risk is that people will complain if Living Story rewards are regenerated, but in this case it’s done by replaying the actual living story and with much higher difficulty, which justifies it.

Proposal Overview

Offer more lore specific fractals that have a more defined narrative such as events out of the original Guild Wars series or events in-between GW1 and GW2.

Goal of Proposal

While I find many of the fractals mysterious and entertaining, I always wish I knew more about them, where they fit in history (if they even happened at all). I believe that players would be more willing to run fractals if they got to experience a vignette in Tyria’s (the world) history. Things like the Ascalonian Fractal, Thaumanova Reactor, Aetherblade Retreat, and Molten Facility do just that. They sell nostalgia or just a very interesting story.

Proposal Functionality

I imagine it as something akin to the Bonus Mission Pack from the original games. Small but important chapters of lore with a narrator (probably Dessa). Of course, these stories would have to be built around a five-person team rather than a solo experience.

Associated Risks

New fractals would mean that new art, voice/sound, and design assets and resources would have to be created and diverted to the project.

Romo.3709:

Asia Skyly.7198:

• The Marionette.

How would you possibly make a world boss encounter that required an entire map to complete into a 5 men battle? I see other ones you listed as potentially fun levels, but Marionette? Not so much.

I’ve envisioned it as a boss fractal with~

90 seconds in lane 1 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden I, then…

90 seconds in lane 2 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden II, then…

90 seconds in lane 3 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden III, then…

90 seconds in lane 4 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden IV, then…

90 seconds in lane 5 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden V, then… Loot!

Possibly with fake adventurer NPCs on the other platforms who automatically win or fail along with you just to maintain that sense of scale. It uses everything about the fight, just in smaller doses.

Fail to kill a Warden in time, letting enough enemies slip by to charge the Marionette, or any party wipe at any point resets everything. Basically 12-15 minutes of kicking butt .

Proposal Overview
Revamp the Dredge Fractal, splitting it into two separate fractals

Goal of Proposal
To address the most hated, longest fractal.

Proposal Functionality
Part 1: Leave the first part of the fractal the same. Possibly lower the number of dredge that spawn. The fractal would end at rabsovich, he would need some new abilities. Example: Instead of the dredge carrier, Rabsovich would spawn a certain number of dredge every 1/4 life. Remove the dredge carrier completely.
Part 2: Revamp the end boss to something more unique and make it a 4th tier fractal.

Associated Risks
People would still complain about the dredge’s mechanics. Without completely redesigning the monsters, I would swap out more melee dredge than the majority of ranged attacking ones. The biggest risk is that you would design it to be longer than it currently is

Top 3 Low Hanging Fruit
1 – Revamp the LFG sections to reflect the daily level break down (1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50)
2 – Make weapon chests purchasable from P. Relics
3 – Up the gold reward at the end = 10s per level after lv 10.

Top 3 Tougher Implementations
1 – Remove if the party owner leaves then all leave
2 – More health on monsters doesn’t mean they are harder, just more annoying. Need to develop more abilities at higher levels
3 – Fractal Armor for relics, similar to dungeon tokens. Also, similar to the new LS backpiece, being able to upgrade the armor. Replace blades with fractal relics to upgrade your armor.

Nike.2631:

About All Those Rings…

Something to keep in mind with the pink Rings that drop in the Fractals – these were the first Ascended Gear offered and the time scale/commitment required to get pink BiS gear has been refined considerably since then. They simply are NOT on the same scale of value with most other Ascended gear. They still drop with stunning regularity and you can even buy your exact preferred choice with a very modest number of runs. The fact any Fractal Frequenter player has so many should tell you they aren’t worth much. Moreover, ArenaNet can’t just go back and lower the drop rate to give them some value – the horse has left the barn and it took multiple bank-tabs worth of rings with it before it left.

Second, the Economics Team fights a non-stop battle with the many, many gold faucets in the game, and turning left over rings and all future extra rings into coin is basically the least desirable of all possible transactions.

What I would suggest is allowing them to be exchanged for something of value, but NOT coin. Perhaps swap them for one of the random Fine Materials boxes currently available from the Laurel Vendors. Or maybe 1, 2, or 3 unidentified dyes per ring. This way the player can then sell the reward for coin if they choose, but they aren’t putting more coin into the system by doing so.

fractal rings are actually one of the better designed ascended pieces, the reason SOME people have so many is because they have been doing fractals for a year. I agree coin isnt the way to go though, because any coin reward they would put on it would have to suck im guessing. They dont like giving gold.
Best bet, make em tradeable for fractal relics, and make fractal relics have more items available from it.

Topic Title: Randomize Instabilities per tiered stage at 70+

Goal: Make higher level fractals truly daunting.

Proposal Overview:
At 70+ FOTM, the instability, per fractal tier, is completely randomized.

Proposal Details:
Instabilities were a great and fun addition to fractals. Unfortunately, their implementation in game has been poor. Since they were originally implemented, only a handful of players experienced the joy of doing FOTM 43 and savor its instability: Bloodlust. Currently no player I know of does FOTM 43 for fun, or even need. They simply find someone who has a higher instability unlocked and do that instead. Currently 38 and 49 are common levels to do in their tier, due to their instability minimal impact on the team.

To add some flavor into fractals, the instabilities should be completely randomized at levels higher than 50. In the past, ANET listed that they already had about 20 other instabilities ready for players in levels 50+. At some point, perhaps 70+ which instability you get should be completely randomized, not per run, but per tiered fractal stage.

In this scenario a Fractal level 78 might have a different instability in swamp, a new one in Cliffside, and a completely new one in dredge.

The pool of instabilities that are applicable can also be tiered, saving some of the most difficult instabilities for FOTM 80+.

Associated Risks
Random instabilities would create havoc in the competitive arena, as two similar teams, even if they get the exact same tiered stages, could face completely different instabilities.

Nike.2631:

Fail to kill a Warden in time, letting enough enemies slip by to charge the Marionette, or any party wipe at any point resets everything. Basically 12-15 minutes of kicking butt .

A new dredge is born!! I can already taste the tears of Filthy Casuals everywhere

Asia Skyly.7198:

Topic Title: Randomize Instabilities per tiered stage at 70+

Goal: Make higher level fractals truly daunting.

Proposal Overview:
At 70+ FOTM, the instability, per fractal tier, is completely randomized.

Proposal Details:
Instabilities were a great and fun addition to fractals. Unfortunately, their implementation in game has been poor. Since they were originally implemented, only a handful of players experienced the joy of doing FOTM 43 and savor its instability: Bloodlust. Currently no player I know of does FOTM 43 for fun, or even need. They simply find someone who has a higher instability unlocked and do that instead. Currently 38 and 49 are common levels to do in their tier, due to their instability minimal impact on the team.

To add some flavor into fractals, the instabilities should be completely randomized at levels higher than 50. In the past, ANET listed that they already had about 20 other instabilities ready for players in levels 50+. At some point, perhaps 70+ which instability you get should be completely randomized, not per run, but per tiered fractal stage.

In this scenario a Fractal level 78 might have a different instability in swamp, a new one in Cliffside, and a completely new one in dredge.

The pool of instabilities that are applicable can also be tiered, saving some of the most difficult instabilities for FOTM 80+.

Associated Risks
Random instabilities would create havoc in the competitive arena, as two similar teams, even if they get the exact same tiered stages, could face completely different instabilities.

Wont people just do what they do now with swamp and just reroll until they get an easy Mistlock?

Edit: If you took the proposed random each fractal level this problem would be fixed. It would be a decent solution, though they really should remove some of the mistlocks if this became the case (regardless of how much you want people to die at 43 that honestly shouldn’t be a mistlock).

Other potential problems would be how the mistlocks unlock (is it 40-49 always have the same potential mistlocks? If this is the case won’t lvl 40 and lvl 49 essentially be the same difficulty(since the damage scaling difference doesn’t increase much until you reach a multiples of ten)?

You can’t easily prepare for Mistlocks beforehand. Should I bring crit gear since I’m going to have 50% less crit or should I bring Soldiers since crit is going to hurt me?

This is part 2, reward re-structure.

Proposal Overview

A revamp of Fractal rewards.

Goal of Proposal

To reduce the massively disparate RNG and lower coin/loot reward per time spent in comparison to regular, simpler dungeons.

Proposal Functionality

Ascended items are to become salvageable. The new item in their loot tables apart from all of the exotic-grade stuff (and higher amounts of guaranteed Dark Matter and Ectoplasms) is to be a new grade of Mist Essence. A set number of these will be tradeable to a vendor in the Fractal lobby for a ring/accessory/amulet of your choice (with appropriate costs).

Fractal Weapons should also be purchasable with Fractal Relics/Pristine Fractal Relics. A few thousand regular relics and something like 50 Pristines should be enough.

The Fractal Weapon boxes we were promised should be implemented in place of ALL weapon drops at every level. This way, the drop rate can remain fairly low, but you can always get the one you want when you strike lucky.

The Mystic Forge gains 2 new recipes. 4 unwanted Fractal Weapon skins returns a Fractal Weapon box. The new grade of Mist Essence + 500 crafting weapon components (eg. Deldrimor Steel Sword Hilt + Deldrimor Steel Sword Blade) + some Dark Matter returns a Fractal Weapon of your creation.

The drop chance of Ascended and Fractal items should be increased more at higher levels.

Coin reward is to be increased substantially, beyond normal dungeons. Each level should grant 10 silver. This means that a run at level 50 will award 5g.

Associated Risks

Discontent with players who have already destroyed/vendored Ascended items and skins they had no use for. If this proposal is to bear any fruit, a long period of notice should be given so players know not to get rid of anything they find.

Proposal Overview
Make Fractals shorter from entry to exit.

Goal of Proposal
I do not enjoy spending an hour or more running a single type of content, in which leaving prematurely would result in abandoning my rewards and disappointing other people. I want some sort of change that would allow me to get in and out in under a half hour, while still progressing meaningfully towards Fractal goals.

Proposal Functionality
Since the idea of the current Fractals seems to be that you need to complete three fractals to reach a boss, and beat the boss to get the core reward, and part of the challenge is in not being able to pick the fractals you get, here is my concept for shortening the runs:

1. You can run as many Fractals as you like, 1, 3, or 10, whatever. For each Fractal you complete, you get a unique key (ie Key of the Colossus, Key of the Snowblind, etc.).

2. You combine three different keys to get a Boss Key, which you need to access the boss fractals. If necessary, it could require specific tiers of key, for example the easiest fractals would be coded green, the longest coded red, and you need a red, a blue, and a green to make a boss key, preventing people just doing the easiest ones.

3. The boss you get from a boss fractal is random and while you can abandon it, you’d lose the key you spent.

4. You can only get a reward chest from a boss fractal once per day, same as currently, but you can collect as many keys as you like.

Associated Risks
It would give players slightly more control over the order of the Fractals, and would allow them to recover between rounds, but each Fractal would be left alone internally, and it would make doing fractals far more convenient for people who just want to kill 10-30 minutes and then move on to a different activity.

Nike.2631:

Romo.3709:

Asia Skyly.7198:

• The Marionette.

How would you possibly make a world boss encounter that required an entire map to complete into a 5 men battle? I see other ones you listed as potentially fun levels, but Marionette? Not so much.

I’ve envisioned it as a boss fractal with~

90 seconds in lane 1 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden I, then…

90 seconds in lane 2 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden II, then…

90 seconds in lane 3 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden III, then…

90 seconds in lane 4 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden IV, then…

90 seconds in lane 5 then your whole party on the matching platform with 60 seconds to fight Warden V, then… Loot!

Possibly with fake adventurer NPCs on the other platforms who automatically win or fail along with you just to maintain that sense of scale. It uses everything about the fight, just in smaller doses.

Fail to kill a Warden in time, letting enough enemies slip by to charge the Marionette, or any party wipe at any point resets everything. Basically 12-15 minutes of kicking butt .

Erm…I like the idea of having the marionette changed but not like this. I’d like to see it again but if another time gated mechanic is added, I would be very disappointed.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I would like us to start of by listing the top three things we would like to see evolved in Fractal Design. Idea proposals can come after this stage.

Chris

1) Better Rewards including previously advertised rewards actually being in the game (eg Fractal Weapon Chests)
2) More Ascended Gear purchasable from the fractal vendor
3) Complete removal of respawning enemies

Title: New Fractal Achievements

Goal: Bring some of our rabid achievement hunters into the fractals of the mists.

Proposal: Add new achievements to Fractals of the mists, including associated new titles.

Proposal Details: Since fractured, there have been no new achievements added to fractals of the mists. In addition, due to the Randomness of the fractal stages some people missed some of the Fractured achievements. We can resolve both of these issues by bringing a new set of achievements to fractals of the mists. The following is a small sample of possible achievements and titles that can be added:

• 1000, 2000, 10000, etc. fractal runs.
• Achievements based on instabilities. For example never get downed while under Bloodlust or do not get hit by the randomly spawning Mossman.
• Fractal Collector: Collected all Fractal weapon skins.
• Fractal hoarder: Collected 10000, 20000, 30000, etc. rel
• Title: Fractal Master of the Mists (FOTM 50)
• Title: I haz Skillz (FOTM 70)
• Title: I did Fractals and all I got was this lousy title (FOTM 100)

Associated Risks
Some of the more hardcore achievement hunters will probably cringe at the idea of having to revisit fractals of the mists for any achievement related tasks. Some of these would complain loudly about the new achievements.

Some of the current achievements appeared bugged, and need to be resolved and or explained. Adding new ones to the mix, would only complicate the tasks for the developers.

More Details to my Proposals

PS: My Top 3 brief said:

1) Improve the overall rewards and accessibility of Fractals by adding Quick Access like SPvP/WvW
2) Add constantly new Fractals (Abaddon, Seasonal Fractals for Halloween ect.)
3) Improve FotM as a general Feature with things like my suggested Heroic Fractals/Tome of History and Time Portals to give players an option to change the Fractal, if the group heavily dislikes a random outcome and with whatever else for intersting ideas which people might come up with to keep Fractals interesting over time (especially also for Solo Players!)

RedShipRaider.9560:

Proposal Overview
I propose that the vote-kick function be locked once the group has advanced most of the way through the instance.

While I agree with you that there’s a problem with people kicking to invite their friends at the end, I don’t think your solution is the right one. It just has too many problems which aren’t solved.
For example, if some people in your groups get disconnected or rage-quit and don’t come back, you’re just stuck with no way to replace them. Trolls or AFK would also be able to abuse this in complete impunity. To avoid that, we need some ability to kick, but we also need incentives not to do so, so that the system isn’t abused.

I’d suggest rather a long time after a kick where you can’t invite anyone else. That way, people would think twice before kicking other players, and use it only when they’re forced to do so.

Nike.2631:

timmyf.1490:

Create “Practice Mode Fractals” which allow newer players to learn the encounters one Fractal at a time, making it easier for players to get started.

timmyf.1490:

…this is the scenario I’m thinking about:
I want to train my guildmates so if they PUG and get Dredge, they know what to do.

Ahh. Ok. Still going with a second platform for a moment just so regular/veteran users can ignore it. Put a second “well” over on the second platform and when you click it you see a menu of fractals & instabilities and A GIANT WARNING THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET LOOT FOR THIS RUN. Huge warning. Boldface even. Red letters if possible. Unfarmable.

That could be an easy addition, won’t be used often, but it could be nice for learning/teaching a specific map to friends, or testing fun builds/solo attempts.

I really don’t like the idea of the living story being brought into fractals. It’s too random.

If / when I want to replay the awesomeness of the marionette (espacially the 5 man version a few posters are describing) I don’t want to rely on random chance. If / when I want to replay living story elements I want to replay them right then and there, not hope I get a lucky roll for it.

I was dissappointed that the molten facillity & aetherblade dungones came back this way. They could have been made permanent through some sort of interface in the home instance or something and replayed in all their glory on demand.

tl;dr
5 man marionette instance battles – good!
replayable living story in fractals only, based on random level roll – bad.

Title: Reward for not rolling for Fractals

Goal: Encourage the player-base to experience all of the fractals.

Proposal: Add a Magic find, money, or karma reward bonus if all players start a fractal stage at once.

Proposal detail:
Currently, the Underwater Fractal is seldomly done. Swamp is the preferred tier one fractal of the fractal community. To encourage exploration of all that Fractals have to offer, I propose a bonus when the entire party selects a stage together, and completes that stage together.

If the team leaves the fractal stage by going back to the Fractal home base, The bonus is permanently lost and a timed penalty of 30 minutes is implemented. The penalty will prevent people for getting the bonus again for a minimum of 30 minutes.

The bonus can be something simple like a Magic Find Bonus, Karma Bonus at the end, or Money Bonus at the end of the fractal run. The bonus should be good enough to encourage people to stay with their first fractal.

To complete this proposal the tier system needs to be revisited.

Associated Risks:
Player community might dislike the penalty for rolling for a specific fractal.

My top three fractal concerns:
1. Enduring Value for Local Currencies
Too many of the rewards at the fractals vendors are “Got it, I’m done now” items – several BiS options and even 20-slot bags do not have enough replay value for an environment built around a “bottomless dungeon”. Skill point tomes and Obsidian Shards help, but Fine Crafting Material boxes as seen at the Laurel vendors would create huge outlets for fractal relics. Offer +1 agony infusions & possibly Thermocatalytic Reagents directly from the vendor with Fractal Relics. Consumables is another long lasting approach, such as Fractal Slaying potions with rapidly escalating prices as the bonuses increase and something that occupies the food buff slot, giving +5 AR for a hour. These would give players more ways to expend their currency while pressing on to the highest difficulty levels. Finally, recognize that there are FIVE fractal specific currencies including the Vials, Globs, and Crystallized Mist Essences. With those last three being highly dependent on difficulty level, its possible to gate the most prestigious rewards/purchases like Fractal Weapon Skins behind a mix of fractal relics and Mist Essence, allowing low difficulty players to advance very slowly, while high difficulty players can amass sufficient “funds” in a fractal-er, fraction of the time .

2. Bragging Rights and Broader Promotion
High level fractal delvers need more choices for visual distinction. Rewards based on specific accomplishments, not RNG. Titles, armor, unique mini-pets and a second round of weapons exclusive to the greatest depths. Like Liadri, Fractal players need challenges that they can prove they’ve beaten to other player via in-game evidence rather than just making claims in chat. These players should be walking bill-boards advertising that the Fractals both exist and are something cool that all players should at least try out.

3. Reliable Release Cadence
Fractals Deserve to have a similar commitment to steady development as seen in the Living Story. Be it 4 times a year, 3 times a year, or even twice a year, set calendar dates for Fractal-oriented releases and stick to them. Build both confidence and excitement as players begin to murmur “Oooo, new wave of fractals coming up, I wonder what it’ll be this time?” Use the release to both polish existing fractals and tune the support mechanisms along with the center-stage offering of additional scenarios and/or new difficulty bands opening up.

Fractal weapon trade

3 fractal weapon for 1 fractal weapon of your choice

Old, untransmuted fractal weapon trader

Trade old fractal weapon for it’s skin form.

Proposal Overview
Rewards that scale with the difficulty

Goal of Proposal
Right now, it is almost not worth going into higher level fractals if you are not going with experienced players. The rewards obtained in lower tier fractals are already good, but as you climb up on the lvl, the difficulty increases, but the net reward you obtain is not increasing. Hence no incentive to go to higher level fractal for lesser reward (taking into consideration time spent in fractals, difficulty)

Proposal Functionality
It is simple, make the reward scale for the difficulty of the fractal.

Associated Risks
The associated risk is that people will be so happy about having good reward for the work they did that they will keep on playing fractals and actually have a goal to climb up to higher lvl for better rewards.

Make the sought after Fractal rewards always viable:

Duplicate rings and weapons, or items with a stat set that the player cannot use, currently have no value; they are meaningless drops. If Fractal specific rewards are to remain account bound then making the rings and weapons eligible for salvage or forging gives some measure of value back to the drops.

Now about harmonizing/fixing maps :

1) Tiered maps
This one was a very good idea and does not have that many problems. My only problem with it is having the Cliffside map on both Tier 2 and Tier 3 while it’s a (very ?) long map, depending on your group. The difficulty is pretty high so this map has nothing to do at Tier 2.

2) Swamp
Pretty much fine map. Still some problems with boss encounters : the bug on visual (red circles) for the AOE of Bloomhunger : clearly a bug.
Also the physical attacks and throw axe from Mossman while he’s stealthed. Don’t know if this is intended or bug. I’m ok with physical attack, but throw axe is definitely lame …

3) Uncategorized (Asura)
Very good map too. A bit long for Tier 1 though but nobody would run it anyway.The fix to harpies is pretty good. Now the major problem is the encounter with 4 adds. It’s very, very long and really too long. Especially the etin which has waaaay too much HP and toughness AND high uptime of protection … so lame. Reduced HP/toughness of the etin and remove protection and we’re fine.

4) Underwater
The change to the boss is very very good. Map is perfect now.

5) Ascalon
Very good map especially since the change for agony on NPCs. The only problem is the NPCs that sometimes refuse to follow you, losing themselves somewhere. You should be able to get them to you everytime you are all out of combat and move a bit.

*6) Svanir *
Map is pretty fine too. There’s only that elemental boss which is pretty boring with tons of HP, uncrittable and insane number of bumps. Could use a reduction of the HP.

7) Molten
Well, this map is also good. The only boring thing is the path where you get constantly KD if you are a bit laggy or what. Maybe the progression of the digging should stop while you’re fighting in a room to get a rock on the plate and change it so that when it ends digging, there’s no more KD in that path. This way you still have the KD to make progress but then you’re relieved of that.

8) Aetherblade
Well, gotta admit this map is very good too. Decent challenge and length. I don’t have many problems with it, except that I’m bad with the laser room but I am the problem here

9) Thaumanova
Well honestly I love this map. It’s very well designed and the ideas are very good. Waiting to know how it will evolve (what will be the other objectives on higher levels ?) but it’s a great map.

10) Volcanic/Shaman
Very good map too, well designed, both difficult and very short if done properly. Only gripe is that terribad camera which won’t zoom out (has been happening for a few weeks already)

11) Cliffside
Now, problems incoming ! This map has many flaws. First there’s that gamebreaking bug on arms seal with the chanters not despawning when you fail.
Then, other major gripe is you have 2 VERY long encounters of that hammer guy, tons of HP, very long to kill aaaaand he doesnt’ give anything. Seriously, no loot juste because he doesn’t actually die ? Honestly, give us loot as if he died (just like Alpha in CoE 2d encounter) for the 1st and last encounter, that’s the minimum you can do …
Then, it’s always the same thing : take hammer, charge hammer, destroy seal, kill mobs, get no loot. Either mobs give loot or better : destroyed seals give loot (you would not feel like you’re wasting your time anymore).

Proposal Overview
End of Fractal rewards (chest)

Goal of Proposal
Lack of diversity in the reward obtained from the chests

Proposal Functionality
The chest now gives diverse loot in addition to what was already given. Fractal token are already fine, ascended rings also. But at some point it just feels to linear. I mean that each time I go in fractal, I will end up at the end with x token, maybe a ring or not and pristine fractal relics. This feels redundent. By adding new rewards or chances to obtain some ’’Unique’’ loot it helps to remove the feeling of linearity. For example a end chest could have the following reward : x fractal token, x pristine fractal relix, a possible ascended ring, fractal material, x number of rare/ exotic weapons with a chance of ‘’unique reward’’, x gold and x karma. The variable x depends on the level of the fractal

Associated Risks
Happy players, that want to go to higher level to obtain better loot and feel that the time spent in fractal ‘’was worth it’’.

following here :

12) Dredge
Hummm there’s so much to say about that map … at least for most players. I’m pretty much OK globally but it’s more the accumulation of everything. The first step with the control pannel is fine, except that crazy “veteran” that has much more HP than neeeded, just like a legendary mob, seriously ? O_o
Then there’s the 2d step : turrets or bomb path. Both are pretty long, bomb path is just broken. Being forced to run stealt is so lame. Of course, You can do without stealth : suicide way or way over the top difficulty to stay alive there. Both options suck.
Then you have the boss part, you pull it with adds, you kill it, okay with that.
Then you have that insanely long clown car. What’s good is that you get tons of loot. What’s bad is that there’s an insane number of them even at lv 48-50. Can’t imagine how it would be on higher levels. It’s also incredibly unfair that they spawn with a good uptime of invulnerability while they can destroy your kitten .
Either remove the invulnerable buff (which could cause the problem of spam massive AOE and they spawn half dead yeah) or make it so that they lose invulnerability as soon as they move/start to attack.
Even given that, either the turret/bomb event or the clown car event has to go. Both are OK but the two combines is way too long. I would vote to remove the bomb/turret and apply the changes I suggested to the clown car.
Then the adds to the boss are pretty useless, people skil them anyway.
The boss is fine, it’s pretty interesting except the problem of conditions not being boosted vy the heating on boss, which makes condition users pretty useless against this boss.

13 ) Maw and Molten boss
No problem with them. They’re fine.

14 ) Mai Trin boss
Well, the mechanics and all are pretty good but I think this map is a bit too long for the amount of effort you have to put (must be always focused not to die) The stacks could be removed a bit faster or P2 could be a little shorter than they are currently.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I would like us to start of by listing the top three things we would like to see evolved in Fractal Design. Idea proposals can come after this stage.

Chris

1. Lore to go along with the Fractals.
2. Sellable/Salvageable Ascended Rewards
3. Successful forms of punishment for Kickers/Quitters

Asia Skyly.7198:

Topic Title: Updates to Fractal Currency and items
…
Add New Items to the Fractal Vendor

• Amulets – 2000 fractal Relics
• Earrings/trinkets – 1900 Fractal Relics
• Dragonite ore – 5 Fractal Relics
• Bloodstone Dust – 5 Fractal Relics
• Empyreal Fragments – 5 Fractal Relics
• Add a simple white 20 slot bag to the vendor – 100 Fractal Relics
• Add Fractal Weapon Boxes to the vendor. – 5000 Fractal Relics
• Add the Fractal Tonic to the Vendor – 15000 Fractal Relics
• Add Fine infusions to the Vendor. – 3500 Fractal Relics

Add a Currency Exchange Vendor to Fractals.

• Fractal tokens for laurels. 100 Fractal Relics for 1 Laurel
• Fractal tokens for Karma jugs. 1 Fractal Relics per 10 Karma Point. A Jug of 6000 Karma = 600 relics.
• Fractal tokens for Guild Influence. 1 Fractal Relic per 10 Influence pts.
• Ring Exchange: 3 Rings for 1.
• Ring Exchange: 1 Ring for 5 Pristine Fractal Relics.

A TON of good thoughts there. I’d quibble over a few of the selected ratios (and I actively don’t want to see fractals be a one stop shopping center for all three components of Vision Crystals…) but the direction of your proposal is excellent.

I’d just mention that you could make more tier-influenced rewards by mixing fractal relics and a certain number of Vials, Globs, or Crystalized Essence in the same way that some Ascended Gear is bought with a mix of Laurels AND Ectoplasm. For example you might reduce the number of relics needed for a Fractal Weapon Box but add that you also need 3 Crystalized Essences. Plodding along at low difficulty levels will still get you there… eventually, but really you should spend some time in the higher difficulty bands to get the requisite essence.

1. Add all dungeons story mode into FOTM.
2. Separate dredge fractal into 2 fractals: from start to bomb event: Legendary suit\Ice elem like the last fractal boss fight.
3. Add some new stuff that we can buy with fractal relics and pristine relics.

Asia Skyly.7198:

Topic Title: Updates to Fractal Currency and items

Goal: Make fractal currency viable again.

Proposal Overview: Allow fractal tokens to be used for a variety of ascended related items.

Proposal Details: Since launch, there have been no significant changes to what can be obtained from Buy-4373. At the same time, Ascended gear, arguably, has its main use in Fractals of the mists. Currently many of our hardcore fractal players are sitting on tens of thousands of relics and hundreds of rings. Thus, we should add support for the fractal currency to acquire new items from Buy-4373. In addition we should add a new vendor which would allow us to exchange items. The amounts listed below are for demonstration purposes:

Add New Items to the Fractal Vendor

• Amulets – 2000 fractal Relics
• Earrings/trinkets – 1900 Fractal Relics
• Dragonite ore – 5 Fractal Relics
• Bloodstone Dust – 5 Fractal Relics
• Empyreal Fragments – 5 Fractal Relics
• Add a simple white 20 slot bag to the vendor – 100 Fractal Relics
• Add Fractal Weapon Boxes to the vendor. – 5000 Fractal Relics
• Add the Fractal Tonic to the Vendor – 15000 Fractal Relics
• Add Fine infusions to the Vendor. – 3500 Fractal Relics

Add a Currency Exchange Vendor to Fractals.

• Fractal tokens for laurels. 100 Fractal Relics for 1 Laurel
• Fractal tokens for Karma jugs. 1 Fractal Relics per 10 Karma Point. A Jug of 6000 Karma = 600 relics.
• Fractal tokens for Guild Influence. 1 Fractal Relic per 10 Influence pts.
• Ring Exchange: 3 Rings for 1.
• Ring Exchange: 1 Ring for 5 Pristine Fractal Relics.

Goal of the Proposal:
While other parts of the game have been updated, the fractal currency has fallen behind. Currently, and without much sense, you cannot acquire ascended related materials in the place where it matters most: Fractals of the Mists. We are in need of a change that will add support to our existing currency by expanding its base, while at the same time introducing a mechanism to exchange fractal currency into other types of in game currency.

i really dont want fractal weapons become legendary grind fest, instead of relics, 3 fotm weapon for a weapon box would be better

Proposal Overview
Additional Ascended-type rewards.

Goal of Proposal
There is a distinct lack of Ascended drops in the Fractals aside from the rings, especially considering all the Ascended gear that was introduced after the Fractal release.

Honestly, most normal players do not need Ascended gear… but people wishing to succeed in the Fractals do.

Proposal Functionality

• Fractal Weapon drops are no longer skins, but Ascended-quality weapons with selectable stats.
• Ascended trinket drops from the Boss chest.
• Ascended amulet drops from the Boss chest.
• Reduce/replace the 250 Ecto requirement for “infusing” backpieces.
  * Infusions now just give you an empty slot rather than a +5 infusion.
  * The 250 Ecto cost is just too high. Perhaps consider replacing it with a Fractal-specific drop. Like Mists Essence?

Associated Risks
This proposal would add other sources of Ascended gear to the game.
However, I think most people have probably stopped spending laurels and guild commendations on Ascended gear. (Does anyone still do guild missions?)

obal.3218:

Proposal Overview
The rewards should be higher to reflect the time and difficulty of the content compared to other content.

Goal of Proposal
Fractals is a grind in hopes you get the weapon skin you want and unrewarding in the process. Other dungeons let you spend tokens on the items you want and give you a good amount of gold for time spent.

Proposal Functionality
The trader should be updated to add the weapon skins in exchange for relics. An armor set should be added as well like all the other dungeons. The skin drop rate should be higher at higher levels and the ring rate should be lower since no one needs them anymore if they are high up. Fractal weapon skin boxes should be in the loot table as well in some way. Recycling unwanted rings in some way should be introduced. The gold reward should scale better. The higher levels should give as much or more as dungeons given the time and difficulty is greater.

Associated Risks
Some people may have deleted rings or spent all their relics up since no change has been made. They might get a bit mad but this would be a great change going forward and would get a lot more people interested in doing them again and be a rewarding experience.

Do this. I’ll be happy.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I would like us to start of by listing the top three things we would like to see evolved in Fractal Design. Idea proposals can come after this stage.

Chris

I’ll start with my contribution in this vein. A lot of people have already submitted proposals along the lines of what my foci are, but I want to list the three most important things to me with regards to Fractals evolution based on what Chris asked.

1. Fractals rewards must be improved substantially
2. Fractal length / difficulty equality
3. New fractals

1) Fractal rewards must be improved substantially

Fractals are the hardest content in the game when you get high enough, but the rewards do not even come close to being appropriate for that difficulty. You spend an entire fractal chain on the hardest available difficulty and have a significant chance to get absolutely nothing. The gold reward is negligibly increased compared to lower fractals, and the RNG completely removes the feeling of actually rewarding rewards.

• Fractal Weapons drop too infrequently and rely too heavily on RNG to acquire

They should go to a fractal currency. Consider the following:
Fractal weapon skins remain account bound and the ones you want can be purchased from a vendor in exchange for 250 pristine fractal relics. You are awarded more pristine fractal relics for each difficulty tier you go up, so…

1. Level 0-9: 0 Pristine Relics
2. Level 10-19: 1 Pristine Relic
3. Level 20-29: 2 Pristine Relics
4. Level 30-39: 3 Pristine Relics
5. Level 40-49: 4 Pristine Relics
6. Level 50: 5 Pristine Relics

In addition to this, they should also drop randomly so that players can still get random awesome rewards, but can always make progress. Given the difficulty of the higher levels, I don’t think ascended ring costs would need to be rebalanced at all.

• Gold rewards for completing fractals are not difficulty-appropriate and need to be increased

This one is easy, in my opinion. You earn (1g + 5s / level), which is 1.05g at level 1 all the way up to 3.50g at L50, which is without a doubt harder than the hardest Arah path and totally worthy of that level of gold reward.

2) Fractal length / difficulty equality

This isn’t to say that every Fractal must be treated equally, but this totally encompasses the fact that the Dredge fractal, for instance, is terribly long and painful compared to every other fractal in that slot. There must be some measure of balance between the difficulty and actual time investment required for all third fractals, all second fractals, and all first fractals. For instance, Cliffside should absolutely be a third fractal only, not a second fractal. I would be happy to go over which I think belongs where and which should be updated (Dredge, absolutely) when this topic is decided.

For the record, every fractal should be equally rewarding in loot if at all possible. Cliffside is a terrible fractal because so few mobs provide loot, and you kill two legendary bosses and don’t even get champion bags from them. Meanwhile some fractals have incredibly good loot, such as the molten facility fractal.

3) New fractals

New fractals are key to keeping fractals interesting in the long term and are ideally suited for capturing awesome events in the Living Story that are otherwise temporary content. Events like a modified Marionette, a modified Lion’s Arch Siege, and so forth are perfect candidates for this down the road.

3 areas of improvement:

1. Better rewards. I have thousands of fractal relics that I don’t have a reason to spend. Similarly I have nearly 50 pristine relics that I don’t have a reason to spend. Give us more options here like the laurel vendor. I like the idea that fractal weapons are prestigious/rare and you can’t just purchase them, but something like an exchange for a fractal weapon you own + 20 pristine fractal relics for a fractal weapon of your choice would be great. This choice would also be great for ascended weapon/armor chests. Let us trade in one with stats we don’t want + some amount of pristine/normal fractal relics for stats we do want. Also fractal 50 should really be rewarding just as much gold as a path in Arah if not more.

2. Fix Dredge. The reasons this fractal is terrible are already all over this thread, so I won’t go too much into that. I do think that the actual Dredge mob type has some questionable design decisions as well. They have way too many difficult mechanics implemented. Massive damage (can’t reflect the ground wave attacks that come so fast either), massive health, CC, boons (that there’s no point in even stripping), immune to blind. Individually these are good mechanics to up the difficulty of PvE mobs. In practice putting all these together makes for encounters that are less than fun. There’s no counterplay to Dredge, and in addition to tweaking the Dredge fractal I hope the design behind dredge is also looked at.

3. Ascended rings. This is similar to rewards, but I don’t like selling these for just 5 silver every time I get one. I understand the decision that ascended gear cannot be sold or traded so I don’t expect these to be able to go on the TP, but we should be able to salvage them for ascended materials. It doubles the amount of level 50 fractal runs where you feel you get nothing. When you actually get nothing, and when you get a ring. I think we should be able to do something with the rings so it doesn’t feel like we got nothing. In fact at the highest fractal difficulty level I don’t think you should ever walk away with no additional loot. I think you should always get at least a ring as a baseline for level 50.

Topic Title: Dredge Fix should occur separately from this CDI.

Proposed Solution: This Fractal is at the top of everyone’s lists for things to fix. The problem is that it seems a waste of what players want out of the Fractals. We shouldn’t have to waste a suggestion on something that was said to be too long by devs and was said was going to be addressed and then wasn’t.

I want us to be able to focus on getting something out of the CDI besides a fix that should happen regardless. Fixing the Dredge Fractal should already be in the works.

Things I want to see change:

1.) Ability to get Fractal Weapon skins with Pristine Fractal Relics at the vendor the same way we can get dungeon stuff at a dungeon vendor.

2.) Lore based Fractals set from before GW1/during GW1/after GW1/during GW2/beyond GW2.

3.) Ascended weapon and Armor boxes that drop in Fractals should be Fractal skins. Fractal Armor will be added along with a way to purchase it with Pristine Fractal Relics.

Proposal Overview
Add a chance at previous living story items tied to specific fractals.

Goal of Proposal
Adding another reward tier for future of fractals and making less desirable/harder fractals more desirable. Allows a way for people to customize their characters with items that are no longer attainable and were tied behind limited-time RnG drops.

Proposal Functionality
At very high level fractals there is a rare chance of getting previous living story items (depending on the fractal rolled). The item would be in the bosses chest at the end of that fractal. Boss fractals would contain the more sought after rewards.

Example of standard fractal rewards:
- Molten Fractal: Chance at Azurite Orbs and Molten Berserker Tonic Recipe
- Aetherblade Fractal: Chance of the Aetherized Tonic Recipe and Oil/Crystal/Stone Recipes.

Example of boss fractal rewards:
- Molten Champs: Chance at Jetpack (if you kill Firestorm first), Chance at Mini Firestorm (if you kill Berserker first).
- Mai Trin: Chance at Monocle

Could also add items that currently don’t exist such as a chance at a Mini Colossus after completing the Colossus fractal.

Associated Risks
Lowers desirability/price of past living story items.

Puts an RnG drop inside an RnG fractal. Can solve this by making the items purchasable for a large amount of fractal relics. The purchased version should be account bound. You should only be able to buy certain items after you pass a certain personal fractal level threshold.