Guild Wars 2

So I was watching some videos of GW1, like DOA and such, and realized that the dungeons in GW2 are not actually explorable. Calling it an ‘explorable’ dungeon means its free world or open map, and you’re actually able to explore and run around to different areas; whereas in actuality, explorable dungeons in GW2 are just harder story dungeons, with linear paths and NPCs.

I would really like some more difficult, actually explorable dungeons or modes with no NPCs, no paths, and story.

No.
The reason why it is called explorable is simply because you are exploring what happened to the place after the story mode was concluded.

The terminology did throw off one of my friends. She got talked into doing a AC p3 as her very first GW2 dungeon experience. The term “Explorable Mode” conjured such enticing images that my warnings of difficulty fell on deaf ears. I think you can imaging the frustration and disappointment that quickly followed.

lordkrall.7241:

No.
The reason why it is called explorable is simply because you are exploring what happened to the place after the story mode was concluded.

still OP has a point, I’d like to see dungeons like this. uw, fow come to mind mostly

Difficulty?

15char

Player Character.9467:

Difficulty?

15char

I guess people used to farmville find this game hard or something?

pullnointer.1476:

still OP has a point, I’d like to see dungeons like this. uw, fow come to mind mostly

Of course, I simply stated that they still technically are explorable, since you actually explore stuff, even if they are not open-ended.

He’s not complaining that it’s too hard, he’s saying- look at the way you are expected to run the dungeon even your first time through. “Exploration” is not really a word that comes to mind. Going in with 0 knowledge of the dungeon in the hopes to have fun “exploring” is anything but that.

That said, the problem is with the term and not the dungeon. These “explorable” dungeons are designed to be grinded (just take a look at the number of runs it takes you to get even 2 pieces of armor, let alone a full set), and a dungeon that you could explore would be much to easy too be repeatable. “Experienced” mode would probably better inform new players what they should expect from the dungeon.

You could always just buy guild wars 1 and we can all go back. I’m certainly open to that idea.

Lots of people are back to gw1 already.

lordkrall.7241:

No.
The reason why it is called explorable is simply because you are exploring what happened to the place after the story mode was concluded.

I see what you’re saying, and I understand how they are ‘explorable’ in a sense, but I would still like to see some open-instance dungeons, or maybe a mode where every dungeon path is open?

rfdarko.4639:

These “explorable” dungeons are designed to be grinded (just take a look at the number of runs it takes you to get even 2 pieces of armor, let alone a full set)….

It’s funny you say the explorable dungeons are meant to be grinded, due to Anet’s strict no grinding policy, but I can see where you’re getting this from.

rfdarko.4639:

….and a dungeon that you could explore would be much to easy too be repeatable..

I’m confused by this statement, are you saying that a truly explorable dungeon would be too easy in difficulty? Or too easy to repeat multiple times per day? If you meant the first, as far as I’m aware the ‘dungeon’ instances in GW1 like DOA, UW, FOW were all extremely difficult, but also gave good rewards.

I meant the second. You could have a very challenging exploration experience, but for it too be fun your first time through with zero prior knowledge, it will end up being too easy your 5th 10th or 50th time through.

I agree though I would like to see the type of dungeon your describing – unfortunately i dont think the current rewards system could give the proper incentive for it. perhaps with the overhaul and the new champion daily chests, something like this would be possible.

I really wish the dungeons were actually explorable. The free roaming qualities of the original Underworld in GW1, or Sorrow’s Furnace, are both great examples of fun explorable dungeons.

I do agree, the UW and FOW in GW1 were actually “explorable” whereas the Dungeons in GW2 are just storyline paths in the same area. I would love to see more paths for each dungeon or maybe different ways to complete each path kind of like they have in FOTM (dredge fractal for example can have two different final bosses and two different ways to get to it)

MHE Tiger.4875:

I do agree, the UW and FOW in GW1 were actually “explorable” whereas the Dungeons in GW2 are just storyline paths in the same area. I would love to see more paths for each dungeon or maybe different ways to complete each path kind of like they have in FOTM (dredge fractal for example can have two different final bosses and two different ways to get to it)

doesn’t the dredge fractal has 2 different final bosses (machine and elemental), and 2 different ways to get to them(guns or bombs) but these ways are mostly luck…

That is correct. The Dredge Fractal has two randomized paths. But in GW1 we had very elaborate explorable dungeons. In the EotN expansion, the dungeon even had randomized bosses, doors and keys (for those doors), along with randomized bonus chests.

And Sorrow’s Furnace even allowed countless different paths, which all lead to different bosses, and the same final end boss. See map below, to give you an idea:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sorrow%27s_Furnace/Map
(The entrance is at the top left, final boss at the bottom right)

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

in GW1 we had very elaborate explorable dungeons. In the EotN expansion, the dungeon even had randomized bosses, doors and keys (for those doors), along with randomized bonus chests.

Those weren’t random…

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Those weren’t random…

Sure, if you want to nitpick. Okay, they were fixed locations, randomly selected every time you entered the dungeon. -_-

No, you’re still wrong. They were set locations, set bosses, set doors and set keys. There are two cases I can think of which would follow your claim; and that is Frostmaw level 2 and Bogroots. Bogroots was not random, you had a choice of two different 2nd floor instances based on which of the two quests you chose outside of the dungeon.

Frostmaw level 2 had two doors that would open, and depending on which big wurm you killed first a swarm of stormclouds would spawn at one door or the other.

I’m not sure where you get these random key locations and door locations from, they were set everytime. So were the important bosses needed for path progression. The only thing that was random in dungeons were that certain patrols could vary in their composition and/or positioning and boss spawns were set within a certain area, however it was never a case of “oh I have to go check the other place for this boss”; it was “oh I have to walk 5 steps deeper into this mob”.

EDIT: I thought of a 3rd one. Darkrime Delves had the chance for lvl1 to let you get to the door via 1 of 2 places. Ooohhh the variety is giving me the chills. Dungeons were not as elaborate as you seem to think they were. They were essentially as straight forward as GW2 dungeons without some minor variances in consistency. I guess you weren’t ‘wrong’, but there was a lot less ‘random’ in GW1 dungeons than you seem to suggest. There’s a good reason why the GW1 SC community laughed at dungeon records, while had a lot of respect for UW/DoA/FoW records. Dungeons were faceroll and easy; ‘elite’ areas were more difficult.

Note: When you referred to areas in GW1; you had ‘Elite Areas’ which included DoA/FoW/UW/Deep/Urgoz, and ‘Dungeons’, which were instances around EOTN which were quite literally called dungeons. There were also Tomes and Sorrow’s Furnace, but those were mostly food for casuals.

Um, the dungeons are called explorable since they give multiple paths. That is all and it isn’t difficult to understand. Lets focus on real problems, k?

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

No, you’re still wrong. They were set locations, set bosses, set doors and set keys. There are two cases I can think of which would follow your claim; and that is Frostmaw level 2 and Bogroots. Bogroots was not random, you had a choice of two different 2nd floor instances based on which of the two quests you chose outside of the dungeon.

Frostmaw level 2 had two doors that would open, and depending on which big wurm you killed first a swarm of stormclouds would spawn at one door or the other.

I’m not sure where you get these random key locations and door locations from, they were set everytime. So were the important bosses needed for path progression. The only thing that was random in dungeons were that certain patrols could vary in their composition and/or positioning and boss spawns were set within a certain area, however it was never a case of “oh I have to go check the other place for this boss”; it was “oh I have to walk 5 steps deeper into this mob”.

EDIT: I thought of a 3rd one. Darkrime Delves had the chance for lvl1 to let you get to the door via 1 of 2 places. Ooohhh the variety is giving me the chills. Dungeons were not as elaborate as you seem to think they were. They were essentially as straight forward as GW2 dungeons without some minor variances in consistency. I guess you weren’t ‘wrong’, but there was a lot less ‘random’ in GW1 dungeons than you seem to suggest. There’s a good reason why the GW1 SC community laughed at dungeon records, while had a lot of respect for UW/DoA/FoW records. Dungeons were faceroll and easy; ‘elite’ areas were more difficult.

Note: When you referred to areas in GW1; you had ‘Elite Areas’ which included DoA/FoW/UW/Deep/Urgoz, and ‘Dungeons’, which were instances around EOTN which were quite literally called dungeons. There were also Tomes and Sorrow’s Furnace, but those were mostly food for casuals.

Maybe the Mad Queen is misremembering because GW EotN Dungeons could be done with a greater variety of builds and tactics than “stack in melee and DPS, while popping Inv frames.” >.>

IndigoSundown.5419:

Maybe the Mad Queen is misremembering because GW EotN Dungeons could be done with a greater variety of builds and tactics than “stack in melee and DPS, while popping Inv frames.” >.>

Not at top efficiency , just as you can do every dungeon in GW2 with a great variety of builds but need specific builds to get the top efficiency.

Solution? Change the name from Explorable to Token.

Supposedly, explorable mode dungeons were going to have several optional parts and bonus / surprise bosses. I distinctly remember the developers saying this during the pre-purchase / pre-beta period (“Players will have to adapt quickly when one of these random events triggers, and there will be several of them, making each path totally different each time you play it.” – yeah, right).

In practical terms, that ended up being limited to Ascalonian Catacombs’ giant troll. Even the spider (also in AC), which was supposed to have been an optional boss (and still says “bonus encounter” or something along those lines , IINM), was changed before release to spawn every time. If there ever were other optional bosses planned for AC, we never saw them.

And the other dungeons don’t even have that. Overall, I’d say dungeons were (along with Orr and some user interface issues), the most disappointing thing about GW2 at release, and they haven’t really improved significantly since then.