Guild Wars 2

In an attempt to collate good information together to report up to the team, and as groups finally clear all of the bosses, I am creating this topic so we can see what people liked about the wing and what people didn’t like about the wing. Some questions I’d like to see answered by the community:

• Was it too easy? Too hard? Just right?
• What did you think of the mechanics?
• Did they add new boss fight mechanics compared to Wing 1 that pleased you? This might be things like mandating projectile management.
• What things would you like to see mechanics-wise in Wing 3 now that you’ve seen the other 2?
• Which wing did you like more and why?

I, personally, won’t get to play it until Friday night, but I will chime in my thoughts once I get there.

• I think all 3 encounters are tuned well, maybe apart from last Matthias’ phase which was easier than the second one. It’s hard to say much about the Fort fight because of it’s nature though.

• Great, though Matthias could still use sacrafice mechanic in the last phase with ghosts changed a bit.
  I think Fort lacked some final “omg” moment compared to two other fights that would be memorable. It felt kinda random and disconnected.

• Without a doubt. Most mechanics were on par or superior. Friendly-fire, bunch of Baron Geddon-like “bombs” every player has to pay attention to, messing with movement, using evironment to your advantage, random fixates that bring hillarious memories from one specific The Burning Crusade heroic dungeon Ogre boss. Interesting “heroic mode” fight options that remind me of Ulduar Heroic in their activation.

• Messing with players’ movement, maybe perception, fixates, fights that use both vast open areas and environment, rotating phases, friendly fire (!) or something equally hillarious, Council encounters.

• Wing 2. More story, more mechanics, better aestethics, focus on looking what’s going on the screen rather than trying to execute perfect rotations against a boss that stands still doing barely anything for half of an encounter and eats damage like a dummy.

Was it too easy? Too hard? Just right?

I believe just right, the mechanics are unique compared to wing 1 and bring plenty of change. The raid was just completed faster because players got better because of wing 1

• What did you think of the mechanics?*

Mechanics work well, I remember the complaints of "no one wants guard’, Looks like anet listened and provided a main mechanic of reflects, and the needing of good party wide stab

Did they add new boss fight mechanics compared to Wing 1 that pleased you? This might be things like mandating projectile management.

The notank/ rotating tank mechanic is by far one of the best! No one can be caught offguard / be carried as hard

Which wing did you like more and why?

Wing 2, It’s new and shiny

• Was it too easy? Too hard? Just right?

Timer and bosses attack were really forgiving, so even with the mechanicaly heavy fights (slothasor and matthias) they felt very easy, it wasn’t punishing enough

• What did you think of the mechanics?

Very nice overall, except for the lack of dedicated aggro for matthias. I liked that for slothasor, clearing the poison too fast or even too slow would cause wipe, you had to find the right pace. Projectile management was well done and extremely fun to deal with. Switching aggro on sloth was amazing as well!

• Did they add new boss fight mechanics compared to Wing 1 that pleased you? This might be things like mandating projectile management.

I like that when the person turn into grub to clear the poison he become hostile to everyone else, same goes for matthias where you have to cc the person getting sacrificed.

• What things would you like to see mechanics-wise in Wing 3 now that you’ve seen the other 2?

Definitely projectile management but less “forcing” the group to spread around.

• Which wing did you like more and why?

Boss wise, wing 1 but overall wing 2, the ambience and scenary as well as lore were much better.

Was it too easy? Too hard? Just right?

Difficulty level mechanics wise was a lot lower for Slothasar.
Bandit trio out of place as a boss. Crystal mentioned that the encounter was balanced around the no environmental achievement which may have been why.
Matthias seems fine. Difficulty could probably be increased a bit.

What did you think of the mechanics?

Punishing good gameplay mechanics like timing reflects for his attacks gives him buffs is kind of annoying though. Same as how the lose boons on dodge instability punishes good gameplay and one of the reasons why so many hates those tiers.

Did they add new boss fight mechanics compared to Wing 1 that pleased you? This might be things like mandating projectile management.

Different mechanics is always nice.
There’s probably some mechanic inspiration that they could draw from dungeons and fractals as well and then be able to mix them up together.

What things would you like to see mechanics-wise in Wing 3 now that you’ve seen the other 2?
Which wing did you like more and why?

Fix the spawn points. We had the same problem initially with Sabetha where if you leave the instance, you respawn really far back. This was eventually fixed. Somehow, they have the same problem with Matthias.

Move spawn points to before the boss.
Look at Gorseval’s spawn point for what’s good about that.

There’s no reason for Slothazaur’s respawn to be so far back beyond just making people take an extra 30 seconds to get back to the fight.

During the look in to Sabetha design, they mentioned that they took out the cannon running part because it ended up that some people almost didn’t get to fight. Mechanics like that could be fine if rekeyed.

More punishing enrage timers. The timers as they are are pretty loose for all of the raid bosses so far.
Bandit Trio timers were excessive since the champs respawn at set times. You end up waiting for almost a minute doing nothing between each.

Different or more creative enrage timers than just double damage. Either more mechanics or just speed up the mechanics.
Instead of a corruption every 30 seconds, make it every 25 seconds, then 20 seconds, then 15, etc if the fight keeps going.
Have damage continue to increase over time. Enrage timer hits, 10% damage buff, every 15 more seconds the fight goes on, an additional 10% damage buff, etc.
Have the mechanics change or the boss goes on a rampage or something.

Could the challenge mote coding from fractals be used for achievements here? For the bandit trio no environmental achievement, you could activate a challenge mote which would just disable them. This could also mean that the timer can be modified to fit the individual challenge.

Circular arenas are getting a bid old. Something where during phases we have to chase the boss down to another room or have to use some kind of stealth mechanic/running quickly (ie see old dungeon records).

Hard mode.

Going only based off what i’ve experienced until i raid again Fri/Sat.

• So far i feel the encounters are really well balanced, and are far more open / make use of more mechanics allowing a greater breadth of skill usage.
• Mechanics are hit and miss – Could be due to some bugs / but as an example Volatile Poison should have a special interact to drop it early once the player is in a position to drop it.
  *Use of stealth/reflects etc. to control mobs/ai was a good change of pace and i am grateful for it. I am glad the Raid team is taking a look at lesser used or forsaken tools in the game.
• More of the Rock / Paper / Scissors that is player skills that can counteract environmental effects. I think this was a neat introduction and could be expanded upon. Think like portals and mirroring domains.
• Two so far, but i think that ultimately comes down to production value, as it feels they had more time to evolve the design of raids which leaves me really hopeful for 3.

Can we have a WP at the entrance of any future raid wings? As well as a ley rift at each boss/encounter area that unlocks after the kill so we can port to the correct place even if there is a bug with respawn location.