Guild Wars 2

Zenith.7301:

If you run this fractal with pugs, just make sure you have a competent magi druid.

…

You have to do some colossal screw up like missing bombs/beach balls/eating Ark’s summoned balls to really die.

.

Outside of people stacking in the “fire fields” you can outheal all of the other screw ups, too.

Only thing annoying me (CM speaking) is the random patterns of the tiles mechanics post 40%. Some patterns are just much, much easier to deal with than others when you combine them with Arkk’s attacks. Doesn’t help that certain patterns make melee/ground casted abilities impossible to use.

I’ve finished the 100CM fractal over 10 times already.
People who gave up on it initially should give this fractal another try. Fixed bugs have made this fight much more easier. Also, what I’ve noticed – high DPS is extremely important, it makes bosses much more easier.

zoomborg.9462:

zealex.9410:

zoomborg.9462:

How did they make it easier? Well basically mechanics dont overlap as much anymore. B4 the bug fixes it was total chaos.The orbs in split phase dont get stuck either so wiping there is very unlikely. U can more or less expect what mechanic comes next. And with the change to Arkk’kittenbox the overall dps of the group has gone up massively which makes things easier.

I wouldnt count the orbs gettig stuck as something that made the encounter harder but ye. On the other hand the panel phase starts always from 40% so it got harder in some regards. As for the overlaping part idk.

One thing that i clearly remember was eye mechanic happening 2 times in succession, mb once in the whole fight but completely destroyed the group. Update: even though it is rare, orbs can still get stuck behind destroyed pillars in case u are dragging 2 of them.

eye was a bug ofc fix it would make it easier

I love the new fractal. I actually never liked fractals until the last 2 new fractals were added. Since they were added to the game I’ve been doing fractals everyday. I hope anet keeps up with it.

Grogba.6204:

Zenith.7301:

If you run this fractal with pugs, just make sure you have a competent magi druid.

…

You have to do some colossal screw up like missing bombs/beach balls/eating Ark’s summoned balls to really die.

.

Outside of people stacking in the “fire fields” you can outheal all of the other screw ups, too.

Only thing annoying me (CM speaking) is the random patterns of the tiles mechanics post 40%. Some patterns are just much, much easier to deal with than others when you combine them with Arkk’s attacks. Doesn’t help that certain patterns make melee/ground casted abilities impossible to use.

Playing as a condi revenant, mace 3 involves a lot of sound judgement since it will displace you from time to time. It can be flat out unusable against the anomaly in the Thaumanova fractal too ;(

I Hate the new Fractal….. Raids need their own set of mini Dungeon’s . Or lets put it this way HoT needs their own set of mini Dungeon’s they don"t belong in FRACTALS

Maybe you stop to produce multiple post and create one instead.

And next time stop posting when in a rant. Calm down and overthink your words.

Challenge Mode should be challenging, it’s possible that you are not good enough so take the usual 100 or T3 if you aren’t able to beat it. You can also create your own group and stop pugging if you feel left out!

Coffietire.2783:

I don’t see what the problem is. It’s like a raid except people won’t kick you for being unlucky enough to have all your best gear and playstyle knowledge attached to a profession that ended up not being part of the meta.

Raids are for Raids not Fractals as i said before if i wanted to go do Raids then i would but i don’t because don’t like them hahaha i just don’t like the raids I am happy you enjoy them or for anyone else that likes them but its not for me apparently but thanks anyways oh btw i do have all the top gear across all 9 charters which was very hard to do lol

we all heard you Rhapsody :P

anyway. My view is the CM 100 is fun. but unfortunately it is poooorly poooorly made as it does not consider people in the oceanic region. so basically.. Raids mechanic are at least oceanic tolerance friendly. the new 100cm ? no.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNL3FoFSFYM

being said, I done it 3 times and that’s it I wouldn’t enter cm unless I have to help a friend.. ppl pmed me to go and play with them and I avoided at all cost. I really really wanted lnhb title but its going to be not just challenging but frustrating with the oceanic lag. I managed to get no death all the way till last boss last phase.. how do I explain lag? … well u have all the effect that should happen the last 5 to 10 seconds, all occur at the same time.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

So Annet brought in a new guy to create new dungeons, but the jerk doesn’t realize that FRACTALS are NOT RAIDS…..

You really shouldn’t call Anet employees jerks on their official forums. Won’t be surprised at all if you get an infraction or two from this and your multiple rant posts.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

Nick.6972:

I’ve finished the 100CM fractal over 10 times already.
People who gave up on it initially should give this fractal another try. Fixed bugs have made this fight much more easier. Also, what I’ve noticed – high DPS is extremely important, it makes bosses much more easier.

I Tried it today It’s not made for Ranger

What do you mean? Healer druids are always in demand and I just did a regular 100cm run yesterday with some sort of a power/Condi ranger.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

ButterPeanut.9746:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

ButterPeanut.9746:

One perfect example is the special action key. Take the new open world map that has really cool and interesting lore tidbits related to the gods when using the special action key. In combat it helps allies certain ways, and hurts enemies. I find it interesting and exciting to pair it up with other people in a larger meta event.

Where did this tech come from? Raids.

I love the special action key as a tool for design. It gives us a lot more freedom and it can give every fractal a unique “feel”. I find myself wishing I had nova launch in other content.

Exactly. Thank you for commenting on this.

While there are always going to be folks who don’t like content that requires anything more than the minimal amount of focus, you cannot continually design that type of content indefinitely. It is limiting in terms of content design (as a software developer in a different industry, this applies as well).

Think of all the amazing pieces we may not have had if nobody had thought “Hmmmm, we need another button to break out of eggs at Gorseval, or to throw the bomb at Sabetha?”

Another great example…player resetable checkpoint system inside of a JP without needing to die.

Whatever I don’t care for the special action key it does not help with how i play on my track ball or keyboard its more of a pain then anything and i cant hit the special action key fast enough so no its not good for most players i hear them complain all the time and more of my friends that i have played with for 15 years or more are leaving because of these changes so i am being forced to play with pugs which is challenging and i don’t like it they have changed the Mechanics to the game and its most of it is not natural game play they keep pushing for something that most of us cant do

Rebind the special action I use r for example.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

In all Honesty why does Raids not have it’s own dungeon why ruin Fractals with bringing in a Raid into it?

I am not sure if it is even technically possible to add raid to fractals. No idea what you are on about.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

I don’t see Fractals with Legendary armor either why is it only Raids, PvP, WvW has Legendary Armor and that Fractals don’t?

1 acquisition method per game mode. Raids and fractals are both pve.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

In all Honesty why does Raids not have it’s own dungeon why ruin Fractals with bringing in a Raid into it?

I am not sure if it is even technically possible to add raid to fractals. No idea what you are on about.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

I don’t see Fractals with Legendary armor either why is it only Raids, PvP, WvW has Legendary Armor and that Fractals don’t?

1 acquisition method per game mode. Raids and fractals are both pve.

But HoT came out later and they should have their own set of mini Dungeons

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

In all Honesty why does Raids not have it’s own dungeon why ruin Fractals with bringing in a Raid into it?

I am not sure if it is even technically possible to add raid to fractals. No idea what you are on about.

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

I don’t see Fractals with Legendary armor either why is it only Raids, PvP, WvW has Legendary Armor and that Fractals don’t?

1 acquisition method per game mode. Raids and fractals are both pve.

well they did they made a fractal the Shattered Observatory that is impossible to do and i have only ran into stuck up snobby people in fracs now, I feel the community is more divided then what it was beforehand i wished that they made Raids their own special mini dungeon instead i feel they have ruined fractals

T4 supposed to be difficult. And normal 100 is not that bad after bugfixes.

there were always “endbosses” in fractals.
see bloomhunger / mossman, molten duo and mai trin and solid ocean (which could get a bit of a facelift atm)…they are there since forever.

they simply added some more bossfractals, where the bossfight matters…and made them a bit more difficult (through more mechanics) then the old ones, since all the classes got a high powercreep through elite specs.

the dev’s simply go with time and standards.

there are 0 raids in fractals. just some fractals where the bossfight is in the foreground.
a raid would imply by gw2 standards that you go into them with 10 people and you have to organize the whole group on who does which mechanic.
also enrage timer.

you don’t find any raid in fractals. i have no idea where you see them.

Linken.6345:

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

ButterPeanut.9746:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

ButterPeanut.9746:

One perfect example is the special action key. Take the new open world map that has really cool and interesting lore tidbits related to the gods when using the special action key. In combat it helps allies certain ways, and hurts enemies. I find it interesting and exciting to pair it up with other people in a larger meta event.

Where did this tech come from? Raids.

I love the special action key as a tool for design. It gives us a lot more freedom and it can give every fractal a unique “feel”. I find myself wishing I had nova launch in other content.

Exactly. Thank you for commenting on this.

While there are always going to be folks who don’t like content that requires anything more than the minimal amount of focus, you cannot continually design that type of content indefinitely. It is limiting in terms of content design (as a software developer in a different industry, this applies as well).

Think of all the amazing pieces we may not have had if nobody had thought “Hmmmm, we need another button to break out of eggs at Gorseval, or to throw the bomb at Sabetha?”

Another great example…player resetable checkpoint system inside of a JP without needing to die.

Whatever I don’t care for the special action key it does not help with how i play on my track ball or keyboard its more of a pain then anything and i cant hit the special action key fast enough so no its not good for most players i hear them complain all the time and more of my friends that i have played with for 15 years or more are leaving because of these changes so i am being forced to play with pugs which is challenging and i don’t like it they have changed the Mechanics to the game and its most of it is not natural game play they keep pushing for something that most of us cant do

Rebind the special action I use r for example.

i did do that i made it Q but it don’t help in any case it is a 2-3 second delay from the time i see it to the response it has in the game and to top it off its kind of to much for me to handle I play with a trackball in my right have my left hand has to use the split key borad ( because i have Dyslexia) for AWSD to move around V to dodge space bar to jump and in-between all of that im bashing 1234567890 for casting its a little to much for me thanks though

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

i did do that i made it Q but it don’t help in any case it is a 2-3 second delay from the time i see it to the response it has in the game and to top it off its kind of to much for me to handle I play with a trackball in my right have my left hand has to use AWSD to move around V to dodge space bar to jump and in-between all of that im bashing 1234567890 for casting its a little to much for me thanks though

If your problem is with the extra skill (the raid key) then you’ll soon have a much deeper problem when Path of Fire is released as most of the new elite specs require a ton of new buttons in order to play them correctly. And it won’t be just in fractals anymore.

Nick.6972:

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

Nick.6972:

I’ve finished the 100CM fractal over 10 times already.
People who gave up on it initially should give this fractal another try. Fixed bugs have made this fight much more easier. Also, what I’ve noticed – high DPS is extremely important, it makes bosses much more easier.

I Tried it today It’s not made for Ranger

What do you mean? Healer druids are always in demand and I just did a regular 100cm run yesterday with some sort of a power/Condi ranger.

i was dropped by 5 groups even though i had a complete set up food and all so idk you tell me why are they advertising in LFG and kicking peeps as soon as they join

maddoctor.2738:

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

i did do that i made it Q but it don’t help in any case it is a 2-3 second delay from the time i see it to the response it has in the game and to top it off its kind of to much for me to handle I play with a trackball in my right have my left hand has to use a split key board for my dyslexia so AWSD to move around V to dodge space bar to jump and in-between all of that im bashing 1234567890 for casting its a little to much for me thanks though

If your problem is with the extra skill (the raid key) then you’ll soon have a much deeper problem when Path of Fire is released as most of the new elite specs require a ton of new buttons in order to play them correctly. And it won’t be just in fractals anymore.

I was just talking to the guild about that today and i am afraid i will not be able to play it because that was one of my main concerns thank you for letting me know its greatly appreciated and that means ill most likely not by it

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

Nick.6972:

Rhapsody Dragonfly.5136:

Nick.6972:

I’ve finished the 100CM fractal over 10 times already.
People who gave up on it initially should give this fractal another try. Fixed bugs have made this fight much more easier. Also, what I’ve noticed – high DPS is extremely important, it makes bosses much more easier.

I Tried it today It’s not made for Ranger

What do you mean? Healer druids are always in demand and I just did a regular 100cm run yesterday with some sort of a power/Condi ranger.

i was dropped by 5 groups even though i had a complete set up food and all so idk you tell me why are they advertising in LFG and kicking peeps as soon as they join

And what build did you run?
What kind of a group did you join?
Do you know all the mechanics?

If you joined a team requiring experienced players without fully knowing the fractal and on top of it all dealing poor damage or heals, the blame is on you.

I gotta applaud anyone who can figure out the mechanics in the clusterkitten that is fractal 100. The first fellow’s alright, but the second boss just has way too much going on at once.

Even on normal mode, she’s actually a fair bit harder than many raid encounters.

I’ve carried several players through the usual T4 (Level 100) now, especially on Arkk and Viraastra. If your whole group is not able to bring them down, you should really take a step down and do T2 or T3 first. I mean, it’s the new 100 and you join to think it’s a cakewalk or what? Of course you have to deal with the mechanics first and that’s easier to learn on the lower ones. Go 100 afterwards and you will see there isn’t much difference, it’s just a little bit harder.
In my last dailies with pugs there we were 3 or 4 alive in the end and it was easily possible to get the boss(es) down. Only a real bad group with no knowledge of the mechanics will fail as a group.

CM is different. If you can’t make it, you are too bad. Nothing to be ashamed for, you reached your limit. Try again and “git gud” or accept the the fate!

Where do people base the “t4 fractals are raid stepping stones” BS anyway? Fractal are fractals, they are supposed to be quick mini dungeons. This new fractal is anything but it. 3 bosses+ after every boss a gimmicky mini fight or mechanic to unlock progress . I think arenanet is trying too hard to cater to the “hardcore” playerbase. Im all about a bit of challenge but this is ridiculous. It also doesnt help that people start demanding “meta builds” and killproofs and titles and AP points all over again because of the difficulty curve of the new fractal and people being bad at the game. I had this ele who was the party leader, he asked for meta build, food + pots 15k AP title exp dps meter check or kick and guess what? He died within less of a minute 4 times in a row. THe boss would go to 97% and his portrait was already grayed out. These new fractals cultivate the elitism mentality, make people toxic and are not rewarding (gee non rewarding content in guild wars 2). At this point i gave up on doing shattered observatory whenever it is up as a tier or recommended frac because i spend way too much time on it and gain nothing

Mister Asdasd.6194:

Where do people base the “t4 fractals are raid stepping stones” BS anyway?

It’s because they officially stated that the harder ones in T4 should serve as a stepping stone into raids in their opinion!

Mister Asdasd.6194:

It also doesnt help that people start demanding “meta builds” and killproofs and titles and AP points all over again because of the difficulty curve of the new fractal and people being bad at the game. I had this ele who was the party leader, he asked for meta build, food + pots 15k AP title exp dps meter check or kick and guess what? He died within less of a minute 4 times in a row. THe boss would go to 97% and his portrait was already grayed out.

The first thing coming to my mind is: Why the hell on earth would you join such a group if you personally believe it’s toxic? And due to your joining you supported this player and you bowed yourself to his attitude. WTF?^
There’s only two reasons to join such LFG requirement: The first one you really want to avoid bad or average players to carry their corpse. In that case you are no different to the player who set the lfg and the other one: you need to be carried.

Must concur, except that I actually want to like 100 CM just because of the fact I like 100 and everything below. So far, I’ve only attempted it twice. The first time was before the bug fixes, and the second time was after. Now, being unable to beat it, one would expect me to come with a whole list of dislikes, but I actually only have a couple.

In the first fight, sub 33%, the meteors have a tendency to hit you at speeds faster than you can react to, and it seems like if you’re not at full health, these will down you immediately. Feels luck-based. Not a fan.

Also in the first fight, a minor peeve is the phases which turn into a DPS check to kill the four mini bosses. Despite disliking DPS checks since they tend to discourage build variety—max damage or die—and in a way encourage elitism, each boss cannot be CC’d while having an unconditional, uninterruptible “evade everything” ability. (Hah! You thought I’d gripe about the knockdown spam, didn’t you?). These could screw over your burst on whatever you happen to be running. Fortunately, they tend to use this move first.

Second fight… No issues. Oddly enough.

Third fight, I’ve yet to beat Arkk as previously established. And for something like having an achievement where no one can die, perhaps some of the mechanics he has could be toned down or included in, maybe, the first fight. Not like I’d be going for that title ever, but I’m sure people have some pretty bad horror stories about what it’s like to get all the way to Arkk and the Solar Bomb just so happened to miss a tower.

And hitting those towers, man that whole thing feels clunky. It’s doable, but it feels as if it’d be better if you could somehow get more control over the Solar Bombs than you have. Sometimes they fail to follow you. Sometimes they get stuck behind broken towers. And then you’ll get the PUGs who get desperate and will keep shooting it against the edge not knowing how to press ESC and disengage their auto-attack when it’s not even fixed on them in the first place.

Besides all that sidetracking, a dislike I have for it is that it’s timer-based, but the expanding square begins expanding BEFORE the Solar Bombs even appear. And then while that’s happening, the Anomaly can appear during that with a skull over someone’s head which now puts a timed wipe mechanic on top of a timed wipe mechanic… More anti-fun.

Finally, the potency of the flak from the big Red Orbs Arkk shoots is a bit much. You can get used to it, but once he enters Enraged, it can one shot you, and unless you’re Ele or Thief with a move-right-after-you’re-downed skill, you die. Not so great to deal with, but the icing on the cake during said Enraged duration is that the symbol above Arkk’s head is so huge and overriding that it’ll often block visibility of the appearing Red Orb above his head which is meant to telegraph it. If only I could pan my camera out further.

Anyway, that’s just my two cents on it. It’s become a Fractal I just can’t beat and don’t really desire to, which is fine. But it’s also a Fractal that has to be dealt with differently than all the others. Instead of just a leisurely pass time like all the rest (yes, even 99 CM) and just with random PUGs, both awesome and carried alike, I feel this one will require the whole nine: organization, specific build comps, Discord, etc.

Also, the Vale Guardian green circle mechanic combined with Social Awkwardness … Contradictory elements that must be healed through.

I hate social awkwardness, it’s such an awful instability, since it makes you resent others for running over you as you cannot control their movement and even if you control yours there is always some smart guy who decides to use a leap in your trajectory or a necromancer chooses to hug the boss even after RS4.

A healer takes care of all the damage from social awkwardness.

Why would you complain about the difficulty of 100CM if you’ve only done it twice?
It took me about a week of daily 2 hour 100CM to learn and master all mechanics.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Jahroots.6791:

I gotta applaud anyone who can figure out the mechanics in the clusterkitten that is fractal 100. The first fellow’s alright, but the second boss just has way too much going on at once.

Even on normal mode, she’s actually a fair bit harder than many raid encounters.

Viirastra has 2 core mechanics:
1. Stand in the bubble when you have the skull
2. Bounce the marble on your head (only 1 person needed, backup helpful)

If you do these two mechanics correctly, the rest of the fight is pretty easy. Failing these two mechanics quickly snowballs the fight to failure.

There are also two minor mechanics:
1. Don’t stand in the AoEs (You can jump over many of them)
2. Kill the big clones, then drag the little ones to the boss.

Doing these two mechanics reduces the damage pressure to almost nothing.

Theres a bit more to the fight, but this is the core that will allow you to succeed in non CM.

If you are failing the marble, try lower tiers. The marble pattern is significantly easier. Also note that when the marble bounces on your head, it refreshes your SAS. Your SAS is OP and you should use it to move around.

Edit: If your group is learning, try having everyone do the marble at once. There is no time pressure on non CM, and doing the marble gives you lots of aegis and invulnerability so you can stay alive.

Dont forget the dozens of adds that spawn and make your life a living hell while trying to avoid aoe attacks and balance the ball. A problem with a lot of recent content imo is the obsession of adding as much aoe damaging circles and bullethell style mechanics. Take the nightmare fractal for example of bulethell. Every 33% of the final boss p drop you have to stand in a circle while tons of damage balls hit you and also aoe circles that damage spawn and the boss throws out a knockback ring. These action need a lot of precision but since this is an online game latency, lag and other issues will cause the mechanics to feel very badly optimized. A lot of times while it seems that i avoid the balls i still take damage because hitbox detection is off. Also the slightly reworked aetherblade fractal while i agree it needed a fix to prevent the stacking at the corner to avoid the aoe attacks it turned into another of your patented generic “dodge as much aoe as possible”.

I kinda feel bad now, but I really like the new 100 fractal. I like how it incorporates jumping as a dodge mechanic, the special action key, the pace of it.

If I had to pick something that annoys me, its the randomness of some attacks. Theres no clear cooldown on Arkks aoe-orb attack, and no real explanation why some reflect/destroy skills work and others dont. (Cant be only height because guardian shield bubble is high enough, cant be only width because feedback and cpc are the same-ish radius and still they work differently).

And the social awkwardness debuff is just badly designed – period. It punishes one of the main gamestyle mechanics in gw2 (stacking) by forcing you to range. No matter how Anet changes that, in its core, it stays a bad, chaotic and very counter-intuitve design. But that has nothing to do with the new fractal itself.

Yasi.9065:

And the social awkwardness debuff is just badly designed – period. It punishes one of the main gamestyle mechanics in gw2 (stacking) by forcing you to range. No matter how Anet changes that, in its core, it stays a bad, chaotic and very counter-intuitve design. But that has nothing to do with the new fractal itself.

Actually it’s intention is to make players paying more attention to their positioning and to punish stacking, afaik. Look at speed running dungeons etc. You always stack in a corner and kill everything there. It’s really easy.
I agree with you that social awkwardness can be annoying, yes, but I like the change it aims for.
Toxic trails aims for quite the same but is far more counter-intuitve, especially regarding the underground fractal where you need to stay on the pressure plates to keep the doors open.
Unfortunately all the dredge come close to you and you find yourself getting a lot of damage because you are standing in the toxic trails.

Yasi.9065:

…

As per the first point, I feel the special action is a bit stilted in its presentation and usage. I dislike that i can’t use it for 1st boss, in fact i once wiped at sub 10% health for him on cm (I did all other boss in cm and had title to show) as i was kinda reliant on having it, then the group being your typical elitist pug asked me to leave for my mistake. Not just to whine, but I do feel special action need to be toned down in cm just the same. For last boss its cooldown is very short so it basically OP, allowing you to invuln/stun break every other major attack he throw at you.

Like this dude above did said, jumping is the way to go for mechanics avoidance in last boss for cm. if you time the jump you shuld completely avoid the charged orb shot so its kinda ridiculous thats pugs complain over this when they don’t see the similarity to those like 90 molten for example. Its completely jump to win and if you fail you have an instant to special action and go invuln, kinda makes the fight kinda cheap imo.

I only kill last boss on cm once and that was on a fluke methinks, so it was kinda sorta maybe anti-climactic when the kill did happen. Like ours group was just sorta stunned for a moment, we didn’t know what to make of it. Repeating it with similar pugs i tend to see a pattern: Usually their DPS will be atrocious, or some of them will be faking exp and die to various mechanics (either simple ones or below 20%-ish health when the boss pulls the whole fireworks out). I think the latter kinda stems from the former too.. with better dps it would seem we can punch through his punishing mechanics especially when he hit enrage time.

On the whole I think the fractal is not as well designed as could be expected (taking 99cm as the bar). There seem more replay value to 99 as compared to 100 imo, and even more so now — the normal mode 100 has been nerfed to all hell that its like a child’s plaything now, a broken watered-down shadow of what its cm has to offer. The first boss is not as engaging as i would have wanted, the 66% and 33% phases are identical and boring as kitten. The anomalies you fight in the interim are little more then punching bags that annoy you with their persistent interrupts and knockbacks, feels pointless when you do complete it. The boss moving at lightspeed like some Flash superhero (even on CM) is kinda laughable and pathetic as he barely does any damage to you even if you do get hit squarely by his fast charge attack. His only two decapacitating attacks are his pizza attacks and his clockwise death spin which is kinda annoying but manageable once you learn the rhythm of it. The filler events to get from boss to boss is just annoying as hell, becomes boring and tedious with each repetition of cm — there’s nothing for you to do, little (or little digestible) lore for you to plumb and areas to explore. It seem kinda two dimensional, worse is it that wading through the trash mobs is not challenging or interesting at all, even on arah paths i remember the trash run was part of the fun bc either you had a thief to cheese it (not everyones cup of tea) or you were expected to dodge mechanics and solo run through mobs. It was kinda exhilarating that way, as mcuh as these things can be. I dislike the fact they tried to ‘force’ bits and pieces of story mode or whatever into cm, in fact it kills repeat value bc its like that deimos cutscene, no one wants to watch that dude make an entrance every time. I dunno maybe just me, the only relatively fun parts for me in cm for 100 were just the last 2 end bosses, their fights were kinda interesting but i feel they the only thing with any real repeat value.

also the last encounter just particularly seems to promote more frustration and elitism than anything before it, you have people (sometimes me) consistently faulting others for same old things, fail to watch the skull on your head or keep dying or failing the dps check or not prioritizing dps, etc etc. I just feel its promote a very pro-raid environemnt where everyone is hostile and leery of newcomers, like 9/10 times i see groups in lfg posting for specific niche classes like LF 1 chrono/healer, blah blah. Imo you shouldn’t need specific team comp for fractals, even cm. Also maybe it just me but i lately come across hostile and antagonistic pugs that generally take everything as an insult and act out verbally for little things, like one person going afk and others starting fight etc. I also been instigator in some of these, like more then once I got angry at my group because I was top dps (as a utility), i see most running no food, thief running toughness food and dps always just awful, so i tend to trash talk them and leave then bc of how much importance is place on those dps checks during the fight.

By the way, this might come across an isolated instance but I joined at cm last boss, most of the group left so me and another dude reposted, this new guy joins and invites his buddy and kicks us both out of group, invites his guildies probably to fill the spots. Ofc this is at last boss but it was not my instance either (i was secondhand owner) so it didn’t upset me that much, but then I found out this dude was whispering every newcomer in the group to get their votes to kick me for some reason (I never knew him). So he just ousted us both and stole our instance on the last boss, i feel it was kinda cheap and sleazy and told him as much. Ofc he acted shocked and played dumb as expected, but o well didn’t really affect me at all since i always been cynical of cm groups for raids and now 100 fractal. Just would appreciate a way to tone down the elitism/hostility in general though. Kicking someone for dying once on one boss is not something I seem should be introduce to fractals, this sort of behavior should be isolated to just raids and not spill over into other related content (but that just imo).

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

A healer takes care of all the damage from social awkwardness.

Not while the agony is up.

I just want these kitten necros, who play on a kitten ranged weapon, to take a step back and let specs who are locked into short range melee weapons have a melee spot without running over them.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Jahroots.6791:

I gotta applaud anyone who can figure out the mechanics in the clusterkitten that is fractal 100. The first fellow’s alright, but the second boss just has way too much going on at once.

Even on normal mode, she’s actually a fair bit harder than many raid encounters.

Viirastra has 2 core mechanics:
1. Stand in the bubble when you have the skull
2. Bounce the marble on your head (only 1 person needed, backup helpful)

If you do these two mechanics correctly, the rest of the fight is pretty easy. Failing these two mechanics quickly snowballs the fight to failure.

There are also two minor mechanics:
1. Don’t stand in the AoEs (You can jump over many of them)
2. Kill the big clones, then drag the little ones to the boss.

Doing these two mechanics reduces the damage pressure to almost nothing.

Theres a bit more to the fight, but this is the core that will allow you to succeed in non CM.

If you are failing the marble, try lower tiers. The marble pattern is significantly easier. Also note that when the marble bounces on your head, it refreshes your SAS. Your SAS is OP and you should use it to move around.

Edit: If your group is learning, try having everyone do the marble at once. There is no time pressure on non CM, and doing the marble gives you lots of aegis and invulnerability so you can stay alive.

Seems to me you have turned fractals into 5 man raids, I quit wow because I did not want to raid any longer, I do not do 10 man raids for same reason, and now I will also give fractals a miss.

Oh, boy. Chain lightning elite mobs. AOE explosions everywhere. Expanding rings that knock you down! Little mobs that come from the big mobs once they’re defeated and swarm you! Sun Flare attack. Triple beams! A map-wide death blast at the end of the phases. Insta-wipe mechanic with the Anomaly and death orbs above players heads! So much, so much, so MUCH!

… And yet it all feels fair once you get the hang of it. Again, the second boss is the only boss of the three where I had zero unsatisfactory issues with. Now I do understand that it’s not for everyone, but it’s hardly a luck fight, and beyond a lack of ability to keep up and/ or a bad internet connection, fault feels entirely on the side of the player(s).

Nonetheless, it’s a vast and highly negative overreaction to quit all of Fractals just because of 100 CM—just because of one chosen level out of so many others, but people are free to do whatever they wish of course. I’d just rather you’d reconsider.

Nick.6972:

Why would you complain about the difficulty of 100CM if you’ve only done it twice?
It took me about a week of daily 2 hour 100CM to learn and master all mechanics.

Maybe I spam Fractals too much. Who knows? It literally took me only about an hour and a half to grasp the mechanics and form a deduction. For what it’s worth, we got Arkk to 10%, but eventually the group disbanded anyway. I took a look at the possible rewards for doing the Fractal and came to the conclusion that beating it wasn’t worth it for me since I Fashion War—maybe a bit more than what is healthy—and didn’t find the Celestial Infusion appearance able to complement anything.

A sign of a great PvE encounter is when there is an obligation to explain how it works in forums with a lecture on how easy the mobs are.

Xernth.8561:

A sign of a great PvE encounter is when there is an obligation to explain how it works in forums with a lecture on how easy the mobs are.

You say that, but nothing needed to be explained.

We have a very very stubborn vocal minority who refuse to utilize the tools available to them to learn.

People ask for a “Learning Mode for Raids”….a “Tier System” if you will.
Well here in fractals we have said system, where in as you progress more mechanics get introduced to you. Had said players who complained taken a step back and done that they wouldn’t be complaining now.

If they were anywhere near the caliber of player they think believe themselves to be they also would have been able to do this all on T4 with very minimal issues as the encounter quite literally tells you how to handle it. The bomb mechanic tells the player to go to the containment field. The attacks as superbly telegraphed and patterned. The marble phases even have arrows telling you where the orb is bouncing to next with the ground having a giant white stand here circle.

This is hardly a situation where the fight is obtuse, but rather the people complaining without taking a step back and evaluating are.

Zenith.7301:

Not while the agony is up.

Don’t stand in the fire.

Absolutely Dislike the old forum bug.

I really appreciate, Benjamin, that you try to explain the design of that boss fight, but that doesn’t make me like that fight. It’s strange that a developer has to step in to explain how to use the mechanics.

I respect your work, and the countless hours you spent, but I as the consumer must be able to say that I really dislike that fractal on many levels.
I already said the combat is overloaded with mechanics. It’s convoluted.

The fractal as a whole does not have a soul. It does not fit an RPG. It’s just 3 bare boss fights pasted together. The first in the standard “S” size round arena, the second in the “XL” sqare arena, and the third in the “S” square arena. You apparently did not have many assets availabe, so you just did the arenas as floating platforms in the void connected by jumps and portals. The story is cramped. Arkk and Dessa as alibi motivation for the fractal is not convincing. The 3 bosses have nothing in common. Just 3 random jerks we want dead. I don’t know why we fight them. It’s just an arcade-game-like environment, where you push in a coin and are put in a fight. It’s just a skill game, no RPG. It could happen on bare blank textures and would be no different emotionally.

Please try to design something more fitting the beautiful open world and story we have everywhere else. I, for my part, really don’t like a SAB-like mod on stereoids in the fractals.

Until now, I thought there is enough backstory in the GW universe that can be used in the fractals. Why don’t you use that backstory and design fights that are not only bare boss fights but also tell something about Tyria? That chaos and shifting dimension thing, that enables the use of every hilarious combat mechanic that is constrained in every real fantasy world, is not convincing and not entertaining.

The whole point of fractals is that they can be a random mishmash of stuff. They can make a fractal where you charge a megalaser to kill mordremoth and it will make perfect sense in the lore.

i love the Shattered Observatory. i played it only once, but i was blown away from the boss design and mechanics. I come from WoW and played a lot of m+ over there. i love boss fights with a lot of different mechanics and different phases.
currently i’m playing a lot solo and only play my daily fractals. But i’m happy when i can play it again. the other fractals are good, but this shines. and i hope new fractals will be like this.

Xernth.8561:

A sign of a great PvE encounter is when there is an obligation to explain how it works in forums with a lecture on how easy the mobs are.

so everything you can not zerg down is in your opinion bad design?
i think it is the other way arround.

That was a longtime a major problem with guild wars 2. Bring enough players and you can zerg everything. But that design is not working in 5 or 10man content. You have to make some mechanics to make good and interesting encounters.

as i said above. i’m coming from WoW and played a lot of hc/m raids and dungeons. a lot of the bosses we need to learn. Nobody from Blizzard explained us the bosses in their forum . Now they have the dungeon compenium. Maybe an idea for Arena.net.

Silmar Alech.4305:

It’s strange that a developer has to step in to explain how to use the mechanics.

Because you refuse to step into the Fractal yourself and learn mechanics on your own.

Literally had 24 minute 100CM run yesterday. I’m not a great player, I haven’t done raids yet and I don’t have the most optimal armor or build, or DPS rotation. With that said, I was willing to learn the mechanics – which is 95% of the fractal.

Regarding the statement that 100cm in its current form promotes elitism.

Ive seen the trend of “spam XX kp” going down the past week, not up anymore. While there is usually one or two lfgs up on reset demanding 60+ essences, it seems to settle down at around 20 essences, which is a very reasonable amount to expect people to know the boss mechanics and only do one or two mistakes that are easily fixed by everyone else.

And tbh, in my experience, those groups demanding 60+ essences spammed, are usually the worst groups anyway. Not dodging a thing, facetanking aoe fields at 2nd boss, not focusing the big mob and instead mindlessly spamming rotation at boss… dieing to red ball and yelling in group chat for heals and how bad everyone is for not doing their job!!11

So all in all, I can understand why people want experienced people on 100cm, if they themself are experienced already. But I cant really see how thats elitism. Especially with the trend of increasing kp spam being broken already.

Now if you are one of those that think experienced people are there to teach someone unexperienced – or carry him to his loot – then you might view 20 essences (around a week worth of daily 100cm) as “elite”.

All in all, 100cm isnt something you HAVE to do. Tbh, the loot isnt really worth it for most anyway. And thats perfect. So everybody that doesnt like the challenge mode, can just avoid it. And the normal mode on 100 is just plain easy. You might not like it, but you can easily muddle your way through when its up in the daily rotation. Or you can skip it. Its not gonna break you if you dont get that one chest.
Thats exactly how it should be in a casual mmo. And Im really glad, the fractal team didnt do the same mistake as the pvp team did with the start of the pvp seasons.

@Nick, you don’t understand that I simply express my dislike of the fractal. This has nothing to do with my ability to understand or not understand mechanics. If we would casually meet on a lfg for 100, you would most certainly not detect any lack of understanding in comparison to the other team members, and we would probably have a good run if the other team members have the same understanding than me. It’s only… well, that fractal is simply not fun. It’s not in the line of the other fractals. It’s a skill game, it’s not Guild Wars 2 RPG.