Guild Wars 2

“Guild Wars 2 claims to be unique with a dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilizing the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world.”
There lies the problems of the dungeon called fractals.

1. GW2 was supposed to be for casual players but fractals is proof is it not: a simple daily level 14 requires now over 2.5h to finish. Yes we were not the top players of the world, but we all played this dungeon to death over 100 times (in my case 230+ fractals) and knew what to do. But after the patch, Cliffside fractal took over 1h by itself only at level 14. Morever, as your dungeon level up, it is harder to find a group.

2. Grinding was not supposed to matter for gameplay but it does. As your dungeon level up, you need to grind just to win (not earn) a special equipment just to play the same dungeon. And the equipment you get has lower stats than what you used to have, but you are forced to carry agony resistance. When we play other dungeons (i.e. CM, CoE), we don’t need to grind for a unique and special equipment just to enjoy the game further. On the same token, I must be the unluckiest person on earth. I have run fractals over 230+ times and haven’t get a single ring drop.

3. Fractal is not balanced. Even before the patch, it was very clear that some locations are very painful. Personally, I find the hardest locations to be volcanic and cliff side before and after the patch. Volcanic has a boss too hard compared to other fractals. Cliff side is difficult to pass at the “arm seals” and now for the boss. Take the difficulty of these bosses vs Jade Maw and tell me which one you rather do.

4. Fractal does not “allow players to approach quests in different ways”. There is only one solution/way. For example, to beat just the boss in Cliffside fractal, or succeed in the underground facility, there is a very specific pattern you need to follow. If you don’t, you are not allowed to win.

5. GW2 interface is poorly written when it comes to kicking people. I was presented several times with the request to kick someone, and each time I didn’t know how to cancel. I even saw someone getting kicked out at the very last final boss of the fractal right before the chest appeared. All you need is just one “teammate”. And there is still no way for someone disconnected to join his team again.

Yes fractals was buggy, and we all abused the bugs. But we have our reasons: Fractals dungeon was too long and now takes even longer, and the reward was required in order to progress. If you don’t have over 15 in agony resistance, you cannot survive agony alone at level 20+. And at higher level, you are required to have these special +5 rings. And since you can’t buy them, you have to keep grinding until you get the special ones you want. And the game does not allowed you to carry them 2 identical rings with resistance to agony.

My first 2 cents

There will always be an excuse for people to cheat at a game... I wont use one because i dont cheat.. Yes this has gotten me ridiculed on the forums and kicked from groups in game. I know that I am right though and so will continue with my philosophy and not cheat. You dont have to do fractals, i find them fun and enjoyable when you do them how they are meant to be done.. But then im in no rush, theres no race here for me..

Oh and heres a no brainer for you, none of these fixes would have been implemented if people hadent taken advantage and tried to exploit in the first place..

Jezath.7395:

There will always be an excuse for people to cheat at a game… I wont use one because i dont cheat.. Yes this has gotten me ridiculed on the forums and kicked from groups in game. I know that I am right though and so will continue with my philosophy and not cheat. You dont have to do fractals, i find them fun and enjoyable when you do them how they are meant to be done.. But then im in no rush, theres no race here for me..

Oh and heres a no brainer for you, none of these fixes would have been implemented if people hadent taken advantage and tried to exploit in the first place..

Dude, no offence. But you are taking this way too personal with your righteous way of playing.

1. Just because a game is casual friendly doesn’t mean that everything in the game needs to be achievable by casual players.

2. Fractals were added into the game to appease non-casual players. Stop trying to complete non-casual content as a casual player.

3. Some things are harder than other things. If they made those 2 easier, you would be complaining about the next 2 hardest ones.

4. Fractals are not dynamic events or personal story quests.

5. You can’t differentiate between a green check mark meaning “I agree” and a red ‘X’ meaning “I don’t agree”?

The sooner you realize that you should do only the content that you have the time, and want, to accomplish, the sooner you will be better off. I no longer do my achievement daily (the one that gives a karma jug and mystic coin) or the WvW jumping puzzles because I only have enough play time to do a couple of fractals each day. (It also helps that I’m good at this game and able to complete fractals in an hour or so each)

Also, I’m able to survive level 30 with only 15 agony resist. So saying you can’t survive at level 20+ means you don’t know what you’re doing.

its not righteous, its just right.. I really see no point in cheating it takes all the fun out of a game.. I also dislike the fact that people who do cheat in this game are not punished in anyway which sets a precedent for others to cheat with little or no worry..

I definitely think the RNG for ascended gear is terrible and I’ve lost my motivation to play until it is changed, but the quest logic doesn’t apply to dungeons. Sure you can pick different paths in the other dungeons, but you still do essentially the same thing each time. This is an inevitability in any video game regardless of what you’re doing.

Jezath.7395:

its not righteous, its just right.. I really see no point in cheating it takes all the fun out of a game.. I also dislike the fact that people who do cheat in this game are not punished in anyway which sets a precedent for others to cheat with little or no worry..

Thank you for cherry picking the part that you care. I am going to assume you agree with the rest.
Yes, you don’t need to do fractals, but that’s a poor excuse if you ask me. Everything is optional in this game, but a casual player should be able to enjoy fractals. This is not fun anymore except for hardcore players who will find no flaw in Gw2 no matter what.

I agree gw2 has its flaws. In fact i was so dissapointed with the first 2 acts of the last patch that i dident turn up to the third, this was at a loss to myself i might add.

please dont assume i agree with the rest of your post just because i dont mention it.

RNG can suck i agree and there miust be better ways to do it which i think are already in... If rng doesent work u get enoyugb relics to vbuy what u need and use mystic forge to craft.

I like the way fractals are designed with that one way.. once yoyu know how to overcome it its almost easy.. with the right gear it is easy....

ive never had any trouble not kicking someone i felt needent be kicked..

yesfourme.8906:

Everything is optional in this game, but a casual player should be able to enjoy fractals. This is not fun anymore except for hardcore players who will find no flaw in Gw2 no matter what.

Casual players can enjoy fractals. Clearly you’ve already finished at least difficulties 1-13. If each difficulty level took you 2 hours (like you complained about in your first post) that means you’ve spent 26+ hours doing fractals over the past 2 weeks. That’s 1 hour per day that you, a casual player, have gotten to do brand new content from a free expansion in a game you’re not paying a monthly fee for.

Jezath.7395:

its not righteous, its just right.. I really see no point in cheating it takes all the fun out of a game.. I also dislike the fact that people who do cheat in this game are not punished in anyway which sets a precedent for others to cheat with little or no worry..

You claim it is not righteous but you want people who cheat punished. So be it. Btw, your voice is needed on the Godskull exploiters issue.

indeed if i had my way i would set a precedent..

TheRabbit.9478:

5. You can’t differentiate between a green check mark meaning “I agree” and a red ‘X’ meaning “I don’t agree”?

I searched for that red X for several minutes in fractal and couldn’t see it.

TheRabbit.9478:

Also, I’m able to survive level 30 with only 15 agony resist. So saying you can’t survive at level 20+ means you don’t know what you’re doing.

Have you thought you may have a different setup (class/gear) than I? I am full heath and cannot survive the agony alone at level 20-22 with 10 resistance even with healing. That’s a fact. That doesn’t mean I suck and you are amazing.

TheRabbit.9478:

Casual players can enjoy fractals.

If you haven’t done it so, please play fractal and do the Cliffside map at level 30 right now. And then, I like to hear how much you enjoy fractal.

surley you can respec if fractals is rly what u wanna do?

@OP: I already saw what matchmaking mechanics will do to the gamer base. It will diversify it. gw2lfg is great and really helps with making lfg requests consolidated and heard. However, I hope ANet will see that a good lfg tool will only help so much. The core of the problem is the progression system and sooner or later its effects will overwhelm the positive effect any lfg can possibly bring.

RNG on ascended items not a good idea. I agree. The rings are already accountbound which makes it unnecessary for it to be RNG on drop. I would accept RNG on stats tho. But impeding progress on agony resistance is just…. Btw I can avoid most if not all fractual boss agony attacks. Except for Jade Maw.

Jezath.7395:

surley you can respec if fractals is rly what u wanna do?

Have you even implemented whatever you are suggesting? Do you know how agony works?

All agony is dodgeable except for jade maw (possibly Dredge Ice elemental, i have no f’n clue how to avoid that other than outranging it). As far as everything else, its a dodging issue. Agony spoils, it keeps players alive for eating an attack that they shouldnt be even to begin with. Id rather see someone perfectly dodging agony and then die instantly at jade maw then see a player eat every agony attack just because they have AR.

I use a mesmer for Fotm and Dredge’s ground pound can be mitigated by Blurred Frenzy.

Jade Maw’s agony attack can’t be avoided. There are a few specs that can live through its attack depending on the fractual level. But up to a certain point, those specs will also need agony resist for survival and possibly rezzing the rest of the party.

Specced and geared properly, someone with 15 agony resist can survive T4 (30-39) Jade Maw. I assume the same holds true for someone with higher agony resist for T5, and from what I’ve heard there is no way to survive agony hits in T6 (but I’m not there yet).

mosspit.8936:

I use a mesmer for Fotm and Dredge’s ground pound can be mitigated by Blurred Frenzy.

Jade Maw’s agony attack can’t be avoided. There are a few specs that can live through its attack depending on the fractual level. But up to a certain point, those specs will also need agony resist for survival and possibly rezzing the rest of the party.

I was more referring to the ice elementals agony, i can easily avoid the dredge powersuit’s agony.

Blurred Frenzy is still my answer. It mitigates the agony tick dmg.

mosspit.8936:

Blurred Frenzy is still my answer. It mitigates the agony tick dmg.

Ill try it on my mesmer once i get the map on my mesmer. That still doesnt solve my issue if you were to play a class that doesnt have invuln skills. (For the record, it seaps through guardian aegis, and focus #5 skills). Unless of course you and I are talkin about 2 completely different encounters, then I dont even know.

Heliox.8632:

mosspit.8936:

Blurred Frenzy is still my answer. It mitigates the agony tick dmg.

Ill try it on my mesmer once i get the map on my mesmer. That still doesnt solve my issue if you were to play a class that doesnt have invuln skills. (For the record, it seaps through guardian aegis, and focus #5 skills). Unless of course you and I are talkin about 2 completely different encounters, then I dont even know.

I didn’t mean for it to solve the issue where you were playing a class with no invuln skills. I mean it specifically for the following:

Heliox.8632:

All agony is dodgeable except for jade maw (possibly Dredge Ice elemental, i have no f’n clue how to avoid that other than outranging it).

I am giving you what I did to avoid taking dmg from the agony ticks from Ice Elemental (which happen to be the same as Dredge boss). Feel free to test it out. I used it enough times to know that it works. That is all.

mosspit.8936:

Heliox.8632:

mosspit.8936:

Blurred Frenzy is still my answer. It mitigates the agony tick dmg.

Ill try it on my mesmer once i get the map on my mesmer. That still doesnt solve my issue if you were to play a class that doesnt have invuln skills. (For the record, it seaps through guardian aegis, and focus #5 skills). Unless of course you and I are talkin about 2 completely different encounters, then I dont even know.

I didn’t mean for it to solve the issue where you were playing a class with no invuln skills. I mean it specifically for the following:

Heliox.8632:

All agony is dodgeable except for jade maw (possibly Dredge Ice elemental, i have no f’n clue how to avoid that other than outranging it).

I am giving you what I did to avoid taking dmg from the agony ticks from Ice Elemental (which happen to be the same as Dredge boss). Feel free to test it out. I used it enough times to know that it works. That is all.

I get the reason behind jade maw needing a certain number of AR to progress as a means to deter people w/o any agony resist, but it is a bit silly of a mechanic if the only way to avoid it is to count in “invuln” skills seeing as the ice elemental will still inflict agony even if you are dodge rolling.

@Heliox: I am NOT arguing the applicability or practicality of using an invulnerable skill to dodge Ice Elemental attack. It was NEVER to argue that point.

You mentioned you had no idea “how to how to avoid that other than outranging it”. I AM merely giving you what I did as an alternative or as a suggestion. There is NO argument to begin with.

yesfourme.8906:

“I must be the unluckiest person on earth. I have run fractals over 230+ times and haven’t get a single ring drop.

May I suggest you that apart from running with the PTV set or Healing/Knight set of the armor, try to put some MF rune in it and have some MF food buf on?

It should at least give u one ring in every 10 daily chest….

For some class I think it’s viable with even more aggressive MF stats but it depend on your group. Bottom line is, you need some MF to boost up the process if you are after it.

I don’t know if MF rune works, but after many painful Fotm dailies with nothing, I finally got two rings when I made three knight gears with rune of pirates.

Just don’t tell your group buddy you wear MF gear. Some of them are very sensitive. One even ask me to change my weapon since I have increase MF stack on me.

Jericho.5940:

yesfourme.8906:

“I must be the unluckiest person on earth. I have run fractals over 230+ times and haven’t get a single ring drop.

May I suggest you that apart from running with the PTV set or Healing/Knight set of the armor, try to put some MF rune in it and have some MF food buf on?

It should at least give u one ring in every 10 daily chest….

For some class I think it’s viable with even more aggressive MF stats but it depend on your group. Bottom line is, you need some MF to boost up the process if you are after it.

Magic find doesn’t affect chests.

TheRabbit.9478:

Magic find doesn’t affect chests.

This needs to be written in really big letters on the login screen, the character select screen, the inventory screen and all dungeon entry dialogs. The fewer people wearing mf gear for anything except pve farming, the better.

mosspit.8936:

Jezath.7395:

surley you can respec if fractals is rly what u wanna do?

Have you even implemented whatever you are suggesting? Do you know how agony works?

yeh i know how it works, respeccing works as well for many conditions in there a cond removal is handy as well as speed and regen.

Jezath.7395:

mosspit.8936:

Jezath.7395:

surley you can respec if fractals is rly what u wanna do?

Have you even implemented whatever you are suggesting? Do you know how agony works?

yeh i know how it works, respeccing works as well for many conditions in there a cond removal is handy as well as speed and regen.

Cond Removal?! And you claim you know how agony works? Sorry. Condition removal is not the answer. Please try again.