Guild Wars 2

Allow me to start off by saying I am NOT opposed to the idea of a diminishing returns system, just to get that out of the way. I am, however curious about what ArenaNet is trying to incentivize or discourage through the implementation of this system.

To my knowledge there are two parts to this system (when working correctly):
1. DR upon running the same path twice in a row within a 24 hour span.
2. DR upon a well executed speed run.

1 seems to be encouraging players to learn and master all the paths if they want a full token reward. This discourages people from farming Magg’s path in CoF and Detha’s path in AC etc. I see no problem here, except in certain dungeons where other paths may be a tad overtuned. The only suggestion I can offer is that this DR resets upon a full completion of all explorable paths in a given day, allowing people to run 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3…etc until their heart’s content.

2 however, doesn’t really seem to encourage anything. For the life of me I can’t grasp what the goal of this device is. If people are adept at running a few paths then it only encourages idling near a final boss or even until people are reasonably sure they’ve passed the threshold.

For example, there was a video on here of a 3 man group running hodgin’s path in AC in 32 minutes with no wipes. With a very skilled group who knows the path extremely well and having 5 people, I see no reason that couldn’t be reduced to a sub 30 or even sub 20 minute run. After all, Kohler is cake when you know the mechanics, the graveling burrow event takes all of 90 seconds if you know how to do it. Recovering the scepter can be done with no combat minus popping survivability cooldowns and interrupts, and a good team could skip much of the trash on the way to the boss. The only thing left is having a flawless handle on the boss fight and not being downed all that often.

Detha’s path has less running around the dungeon, and only one constant time event (repair the cannons) so the same applies here.

Should very skilled and very prepared players be punished for their own competence? Especially when exploiters or whatnot are barely harmed by this aspect of the system?

In summary, the first part of the system encourages players to branch out and experience more content, the second seems to have no positive aspect except to delay and drag out content which could be completed swiftly.

The Daily +40 takes care of the incentive for people to run multiple paths. DR system offers nothing.
Best case scenario: It punished good players
Worst case scenario (currently active): It punishes good players and randomly punishes other players

You really ought to factor something in.

Before the DR system, dungeons were 30 a pop.

Now, you are complaining about getting 45 instead of 60?

If you run all of the paths twice, you are going to get way more than it was before DR.

I think its honestly fine.

Umm, who is complaining? Is your reading comprehension really so poor that you are incapable seeing that I was asking what ArenaNet was trying to accomplish with the second part of the DR algorithm? As it stands, your response is irrelevant because it doesn’t come close to addressing anything I wrote in the topic.

Ender.3508:

Umm, who is complaining? Is your reading comprehension really so poor that you are incapable seeing that I was asking what ArenaNet was trying to accomplish with the second part of the DR algorithm? As it stands, your response is irrelevant because it doesn’t come close to addressing anything I wrote in the topic.

Its fairly obvious isn’t it?

You’re acting as if this was imposed on you without explanation.
As if you are discovering the truth about some horrid conspiracy.

Here it is though:

Time punishment= for exploits.
Path punishment= for encouraging variety.

No, you are assuming quite a bit. Like I already explained, if 3 people can run a dungeon legit in just 2 minutes over the speed clear threshold, then 5 could do it drastically quicker. As, I gain mastery of the paths in a dungeon I want to see how fast my group and I could complete it, and I don’t think that speed running is something that should be punished, especially since it doesn’t punish exploiters, because they’ll just wait 10-20 minutes before triggering the final event.

So stop with the assumptions and re-read what I wrote with the intention of understanding it, or simply leave the thread.

Lyuben.2613:

Its fairly obvious isn’t it?

You’re acting as if this was imposed on you without explanation.
As if you are discovering the truth about some horrid conspiracy.

Here it is though:

Time punishment= for exploits.
Path punishment= for encouraging variety.

I think the big issue is that you are not encouraged to run multiple paths when trying to get a set of gear. Right now I am trying to get the SE gear for my Warrior (Power,Toughness, Precision) and it is the only set that has those stats. So, Naturally I want to run that 1 dungeon more than any others. This leads to lack of diversity even with DR.

TheOSC.7659:

Lyuben.2613:

Its fairly obvious isn’t it?

You’re acting as if this was imposed on you without explanation.
As if you are discovering the truth about some horrid conspiracy.

Here it is though:

Time punishment= for exploits.
Path punishment= for encouraging variety.

I think the big issue is that you are not encouraged to run multiple paths when trying to get a set of gear. Right now I am trying to get the SE gear for my Warrior (Power,Toughness, Precision) and it is the only set that has those stats. So, Naturally I want to run that 1 dungeon more than any others. This leads to lack of diversity even with DR.

IIRC Arah also has that gear.

And you aren’t really meant to get it THAT easily.

If you run all 3 paths, its 180.

1380 is the full for a set.

Should take you 7-8 days to get it.

Seems reasonable to me. And that’s if you only do the 3 a day.

Ender.3508:

No, you are assuming quite a bit. Like I already explained, if 3 people can run a dungeon legit in just 2 minutes over the speed clear threshold, then 5 could do it drastically quicker. As, I gain mastery of the paths in a dungeon I want to see how fast my group and I could complete it, and I don’t think that speed running is something that should be punished, especially since it doesn’t punish exploiters, because they’ll just wait 10-20 minutes before triggering the final event.

So stop with the assumptions and re-read what I wrote with the intention of understanding it, or simply leave the thread.

Question: Have you ever been affected by this or are you simply complaining about a myth?

Because I seem to recall them saying that if you do it fast it ought not to be an issue, just if you do it fast lots of times.

Ender.3508:

The only suggestion I can offer is that this DR resets upon a full completion of all explorable paths in a given day, allowing people to run 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3…etc until their heart’s content.

I absolutely love this idea. Some people just plain don’t like some dungeons or some dungeon armor so they shouldn’t have to run those. Of course then you could technically get a full set of armor in a day but it would be quite the day of playing.

As for your number 2, they have said that if 30 minutes is too long for some dungeons they will tune the DR system for those dungeons. Of course its not working now and there are many paths that can be done in under 30 minutes without skipping anything, AC path 2 is one of those.

@rickets Agreed, and AC path 1 arguably is too because there are no events with a minimum constant time to complete (i.e. Defend for Detha while she repairs the cannons) and the graveling zerg is done as soon as you down all 6 mounds.

The 3rd path would take the longest as it has the time constant defend event and the toughest boss to kill, but I could see that being done in around 40 minutes by a very skilled group.