Guild Wars 2

Spoiler alert.

I can’t being to express my disappointment with the last story dungeon in the game. How uneventful, clunky, and boring it feels compared to something like AC story mode.

First, let’s start off with the camera. While you are on these zeppelins, waiting for hours to get to an undetermined destination, the camera does nothing but raise blood pressure. You cant effectively look around at what is supposed to be the be-all-end-all dragon of Tyria. All I see is my camera stuck in walls, the ground, and bugging out when I attempt to use the funcannons.

Subject 2 is the funcannons. Awesome.. we get to shoot down dragons before we get to Zhaitan! Although not very fun to use at all, the cannons are .. OK.. I guess. Oh sweet here comes Zhaitan.. I can’t wait to stick my sword right through his neck….

Not in this boss. We are going to provide a very anti-climactic laser beam to first injure the dragon. Obviously we still need Destiny’s Edge to protect us from weak waves of dragon minions attacking the deck, but the high powered laser beam should take care of the rest. Now that he’s gripping the building…

You can only hit him with two cannons. Seriously did anyone at ANet play through this story mode and think “Yeah, this IS worthy of an ELDER DRAGON KILL”. Man, I spent literally 7 minutes on the deck watching two people spam button “2”. We’ve installed 5 cannons, but only two are able to actually shoot AT the dragon.

I was just deeply saddened by this entire slobfest of a dungeon.

TLDR; Arah Storymode is bad.

Hey

hey

hey

At least now he has minions and little dragon tentacles that fight back. He used to not fight back at all. God-tier bossfight status achieved

I actually felt sorry for Zhaitan when he finally fell, because he seemed really pathetic during the fight, clutching onto that pillar for dear life and staring at you helplessly, all puss-in-boots eyed for 7 min when you blasted him with cannons. All he could do was to tickle you with those tentacles.

Yeah I expected much more from an Elder Dragon

In all fairness you do spend like 10 levels “weakening” him through you personal story, did you really expect it to be and extremely difficult encounter? Sure it is a bit disappointing that all you really do to him is a fire a cannon at him, but after the mega laser and barrage of cannon fire (through the cutscenes) he was significantly weaken’d. I do think they could have approached the fight much differently but, I think their point was that this time destiny’s edge came well prepared to down him, with or without you to lead the way.

with or without you to lead the way.

I Fail to see how this is a good thing… And part of me is hoping he was only put to sleep again, as ugly as he is and as annoying as his minions are…

Looking at the art work for him I expected him to be as big as Lion’s Arch… :C

Yeah, he looked kinda small compared to artworks.

SPOILER ::: Dragons get larger with power, or Magic. You killed the poor things mouth, it cant eat after being woken up after years of sleep, much like your body eats away at muscle when you are starving. Poor thing had not eaten properly in a while, and was trying to get protein i mean mana, and YOU went and smashed its mouth it, so it could not eat anything. You even poked him in the eye a few times for good measure, and that is why he flew in to the side of the ship rather than just crushing it, because he didn’t go to speck savers!

I bet if people didn’t kill his creations that he spent time making, and trying to starve the poor thing to death no pun intended, I am sure we could have come to some kind of understanding, after all he stored most of his creations under the sea to try and be tidy.

Yeah you’re using the events of a crap story to justify a crap ending.
That’s all well and good. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s crap.

Don’t expect an Elder Dragon to be the size of their concept art, that size we see on paper will never happen ingame.

when I did it awhile ago there was no tentacles and no sound and you got 3 greens, but Im pretty sure all the cannons could be used, not sure who’s idea it was to press ‘2’ for several minutes for the final boss in the game was.

Well, during the fight I also thought that Zhaitan was rather small in comparrison of how I imagined it. First of all, there are gameplay reasons – so that you could actually see him in all his glory. And second…I just looked at some screens (I made a ton of them) and I realised – he actually was pretty big. At first sight, it´s not obvious, but you have to put it into scale – just look how big the airship was and he was no smaller than that…Also, as others have already said, he was severly weakened,so there is that…Plus, he fights back with the tentackle/dragon-head things…I can imagine it could be boring if you just spam attacku button but now you also have to kill those…

The cannons aren´t probably placed in the best way, none of us actually didn´t knew if they are actually hitting him, so maybe it would be good to make the skills so you can target him,not rotate the canon into 3 possible positions and pray that you are hitting him. Maybe he could also fire some stuff at you from time to time so you could also use the shield skill from previous encounter? (maybe not the best idea, but you´d at least have to focus on him)
But all in all, I had a great fun during the Arah story and since I´m trying to be immersed as best as I can and trying “to live” the character, I had pretty epic experience. I dare say Arah story was one of my most epic experiences in games so as far as I´m conserned, good job ANet! * standing ovation *

Nihilus.3015:

Don’t expect an Elder Dragon to be the size of their concept art, that size we see on paper will never happen ingame.

Source?

DavidGX.1723:

Nihilus.3015:

Don’t expect an Elder Dragon to be the size of their concept art, that size we see on paper will never happen ingame.

Source?

It’s more a matter of being able to put it in the actual level and not have it blow up computers from the need to render such a massive, moving creature. Even WoW when confronted with rendering a beast of equal size (Deathwing) resorted to shrinking him down and using only partial models (Madness fight) or having him be an unmoving set piece (Spine fight). The most practical route is to use perspective rather than a straight up massive model. Though Zhaitan model itself is rather large, since the dragon head that spits the phase 3 adds at you is at least the size of Claw of Jormag’s head.

Asagi.1405:

Yeah you’re using the events of a crap story to justify a crap ending.
That’s all well and good. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s crap.

I’ll take “Subjective Opinions” for $500.

Seriously though, have yet to meet someone in game who disliked the story or ending.

Lol, at least I was one of the people spamming #2 on him. I only attempted this dungeon tree times, and that is because the first time the server went off right before Zhaitan. But I agree, destiny’s edge participation made me hate them even more. The holy city itself feels like a crappy ride WoW Death Wing raid style… First time I was about to kill Zhaitan I was like kitten this will be awesome. Second time kitten why isn’t the kitten zeppelin scene happening….oh it bugged. 3rd and only succulence time. "Heh same as deathwing…well at least they didn’t shoot him with a kitteny plate…

The dragon looks awesome…the fight made me want to cry with how horrible it was. It was as if Zhaitan was saying: “Come at me bro” While ignoring he was getting his chest filled with holes…I thought I would fight not just sit there and lol at him…hell even lvl 1 mobs were more challenging.

The over all dungeon wasn’t even a dungeon….it wasn’t even Arah the holy city just a lame ride with many Logan showing he is worth something…and D.E. behaving like if they were some kind of heroes. With me and my group enduring the bugs, the waves of undeath…which honestly I am so sick about….

I was expecting to face some of Zhaitans minions and artifacts and secrets and I dunno, have a lore rich experience…? Else I got a horrible imitation of Death wing, which in his own was horrible to begin with…

Vasham.2408:

Seriously though, have yet to meet someone in game who disliked the story or ending.

you have yet to meet someone who disliked the ending? WHAT?!

i have yet to meet someone other than you that LIKED the kitten thing. the entire dungeon leading up to it is amazing, and even now that he has dragon tentacle thingies, those things can be easily killed by the NPCs while you ignore them.

behold, the climax of a 100 hours worth of story:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Vasham.2408:

Seriously though, have yet to meet someone in game who disliked the story or ending.

you have yet to meet someone who disliked the ending? WHAT?!

i have yet to meet someone other than you that LIKED the kitten thing. the entire dungeon leading up to it is amazing, and even now that he has dragon tentacle thingies, those things can be easily killed by the NPCs while you ignore them.

behold, the climax of a 100 hours worth of story:

That’s nice and all, but one personal experience does not override another just because yours if more favorable to your viewpoint. I’d love to say I’ve run the place with a group who left it screaming “WORST FIGHT EVER OMG ARENANET WTF,” but I haven’t. I’m sorry if that’s hard for you to accept.

That said they still could have done better by making Zhaitan more involved with the fight. But there’s still four (maybe five) Elder Dragons to go. I’m certain Arenanet will learn from this fight’s flaws and improve on the next one.

^ i present to you, 390 posts of people hating the zhaitan fight.

EDIT: and another 30

Bruno, I think you don’t quite understand what I’m saying here. “I have yet to meet someone in game who disliked the Zhaitan encounter” does not mean “I’ve never seen people complain about it on the forums.” I’m assuming we both speak english and such a simple concept isn’t outside your realm of understanding.

I’ve run Arah story many times, either to help people complete the personal story quest, get some easy silver/karma, or just cause I feel like it. My personal experiences in game do not mirror the forums one bit.

Meanwhile, look up the term “opinion myopia.” I think you’re suffering from it.

Aside from the pointless arguments concerning subjective opinions, MY subjective opinion is that the fight blew.

I dont care how someone wants to justify it.

Shooting a dragon with a cannon, however crippled he was, is NOT worthy of being the death of an elder dragon.

More shouldve been done. I gladly wouldve waited if it required more dev time. They couldve released it in a manner similar to how WoW might roll out a raid.

Heres to hoping that future Elder dragon encounters have DEPTH instead of having us play whack a mole with cannons.

I just don’t think the fight was even 10% of what it could have been. ANets biggest mistake (I think) was trying to rush and release the content in time for the release date. The fight simply does not represent some of the quality shown in the game, and for the FINAL BOSS and the END ALL BE ALL of Tyria, is very much underwhelming. Very disappointing.

I’ve done AC story probably 10 times (it’s so kitten awesome) but will unfortunately never do Arah story again.

Just wondering…how you imagined to kill an ELDER dragon, if not with canons or something similar? I think it would be more silly if you just stand at his feet and swinging your sword at his claws…I´m not saying the fight was flawless but I think the general idea of it is great…
Also, you want him to be really involved in the fight, but – he uses minions for everything! I know that “we don´t know how Elder Dragons really work” is a huge clishe, but here it is. If they wanted, all of Tyria is already devastated…Kralkatorrik just flew by and created Brand! They are one of the most powerfull things on the planet and they are just sitting there and leting their minions to do the job…Irracional? Yes! But thats just how things are, so it´s just logical that at final fight he threw all what he got on us (in terms of minions)…Besides, I don´t know if you´ve heard Zojjas technical babble about the canon (I hadn´t the chance, really) but as much as I understanded it was build specifically to weaken an Elder Dragon so it was not just “a canon”, it was “the canon”.
But really, how you imagined the last fight? And don´t say clashing at his claw like every other boss, it´d be sad if 5 people (10 if you count Destiny´s Edge) would kill Zhaitan, who is threatening all of Tyria, just with swords and fireballs…

DavidGX.1723:

Nihilus.3015:

Don’t expect an Elder Dragon to be the size of their concept art, that size we see on paper will never happen ingame.

Source?

Zhaitan

Illi.3647:

Just wondering…how you imagined to kill an ELDER dragon, if not with canons or something similar? I think it would be more silly if you just stand at his feet and swinging your sword at his claws…I´m not saying the fight was flawless but I think the general idea of it is great…
Also, you want him to be really involved in the fight, but – he uses minions for everything! I know that “we don´t know how Elder Dragons really work” is a huge clishe, but here it is. If they wanted, all of Tyria is already devastated…Kralkatorrik just flew by and created Brand! They are one of the most powerfull things on the planet and they are just sitting there and leting their minions to do the job…Irracional? Yes! But thats just how things are, so it´s just logical that at final fight he threw all what he got on us (in terms of minions)…Besides, I don´t know if you´ve heard Zojjas technical babble about the canon (I hadn´t the chance, really) but as much as I understanded it was build specifically to weaken an Elder Dragon so it was not just “a canon”, it was “the canon”.
But really, how you imagined the last fight? And don´t say clashing at his claw like every other boss, it´d be sad if 5 people (10 if you count Destiny´s Edge) would kill Zhaitan, who is threatening all of Tyria, just with swords and fireballs…

the problem isn’t using cannons to kill him, the problem is that you spend 10 minutes pressing 2 without any reason to do anything else, without even seeing if you’re actually hitting him (the game doesn’t even consider you in-combat while you’re firing at him), and without any enthusiasm because he just stays there, still.

this is an example of a fight that uses similar mechanics to the dragon champion fights that take place before zhaitan, can be easily done on GW2, and is far more engaging than zhaitan.

you have to fire cannons, avoid invoming damage, attack occasional mobs that make it inside the ship, time the attack from the rope darts (in GW2’s case, those pink lasers) that hold him still temporarily, allowing you to jump on it for a few seconds to hit specific weakspots, and time the attack of the super OP lance of doom (or in GW2’s case, the asuran megalaser) to deal massive damage and prevent the ship from being struck. and you can fall by accident, which prompts a rope rescue that forces you out of battle while your character climbs it (in GW2’s case, waypoints replace that).

in fact, i’d be happy if what we got was only a larger scale version of the dragon champion fights we had before zhaitan himself. they were amazing, had a great atmosphere, and involved fighting minions as well as manning cannons to kill the dragon. i actually thought the zhaitan fight would be more of that, and i was hyped for more of that.

Lol Vasham. People who are on the forums play in the game. There are tons of people in game that do not like the ending, me being one of them. It’s not something that is openly discussed in game, as it is on the forums. That would be the reason you have “yet to meet somebody in game that doesn’t like the ending”. There isn’t exactly a title that you wear under your character’s name that says “Disappointed with Zhaitan Fight”

I have to say, Zhaitan should have gone down faster than the current. Spamming the cannon attack button was boring. Although the serpent tentacles was a good aside, I think he should have taken more damage from each cannons.

It was cool to see him clutching on to the pillar, and it was great that I have to shoot him down! But it took too long.

I think Okami has the best final boss fight. <Spoiler Ahead for Okami> You get the final boss down, but then comes back for the final phase. The final phase was the best since he was going down fast, and each hit was a big in-your-face! feeling as you mowed him down.

All in all, good dungeon though. But it dragged for me.

I just did this for the first time. Overall, most of the pre-Zhaitan encounters were fun. The on-zeppelin stuff was a combination of boring and annoying, between only some of the party being on cannons while the rest were on trash duty and the parts where you are the ball in the game of ping pong between mobs pulling you from behind into the AoE knock areas. Yes, this stuff is dodge-able but not when 7-8 knocks/pulls happen in a row.

As far as it goes, I’d give the overall story a B-, which puts it worse than EotN, Prophecies and Nightfall, but above Factions.