Guild Wars 2

I have played everything in this game from world bosses, to dungeons, to fractals, to the raid. I have come to the conclusion that the Fractals of the Mists are the best content Anet have created in this game. Here’s why.

Fractals have unique and engaging sets of challenges. They are not too easy & not too hard, they are engaging to the player. Each fractal has its own unique mechanic from jumping in Uncategorized to dolphin swimming in Aquatic Ruins to moderate coordination in Solid Ocean. The mechanics aren’t that punishing, but they do engage you and encourage you to pay attention.

Fractals are just content anybody from pug to guild can just pick up, learn and play easily. As a matter of fact, its a kitten testament to their good design that experienced people, for example, STILL fail Cliffside sometimes! Myself included! It’s not that they’re bad players it’s because the content is well designed!

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids, which are complete POISON to an MMO. I highly encourage developers to not neglect fractals and dungeons and give them some love.

JTGuevara.9018:

I have played everything in this game from world bosses, to dungeons, to fractals, to the raid. I have come to the conclusion that the Fractals of the Mists are the best content Anet have created in this game. Here’s why.

Fractals have unique and engaging sets of challenges. They are not too easy & not too hard, they are engaging to the player. Each fractal has its own unique mechanic from jumping in Uncategorized to dolphin swimming in Aquatic Ruins to moderate coordination in Solid Ocean. The mechanics aren’t that punishing, but they do engage you and encourage you to pay attention.

Fractals are just content anybody from pug to guild can just pick up, learn and play easily. As a matter of fact, its a kitten testament to their good design that experienced people, for example, STILL fail Cliffside sometimes! Myself included! It’s not that they’re bad players it’s because the content is well designed!

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids, which are complete POISON to an MMO. I highly encourage developers to not neglect fractals and dungeons and give them some love.

Fractals were the best content in GW2 before HoT came and destroyed them.

Lendruil.9061:

JTGuevara.9018:

I have played everything in this game from world bosses, to dungeons, to fractals, to the raid. I have come to the conclusion that the Fractals of the Mists are the best content Anet have created in this game. Here’s why.

Fractals have unique and engaging sets of challenges. They are not too easy & not too hard, they are engaging to the player. Each fractal has its own unique mechanic from jumping in Uncategorized to dolphin swimming in Aquatic Ruins to moderate coordination in Solid Ocean. The mechanics aren’t that punishing, but they do engage you and encourage you to pay attention.

Fractals are just content anybody from pug to guild can just pick up, learn and play easily. As a matter of fact, its a kitten testament to their good design that experienced people, for example, STILL fail Cliffside sometimes! Myself included! It’s not that they’re bad players it’s because the content is well designed!

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids, which are complete POISON to an MMO. I highly encourage developers to not neglect fractals and dungeons and give them some love.

Fractals were the best content in GW2 before HoT came and destroyed them.

Yeah, fractals took a huge hit, but they’re still in better shape than dungeons. Dungeons are worse.

what was the hit they took?

reikken.4961:

what was the hit they took?

The rewards got greatly reduced, even at the higher levels.

JTGuevara.9018:

I have played everything in this game from world bosses, to dungeons, to fractals, to the raid. I have come to the conclusion that the Fractals of the Mists are the best content Anet have created in this game. Here’s why.

Fractals have unique and engaging sets of challenges. They are not too easy & not too hard, they are engaging to the player. Each fractal has its own unique mechanic from jumping in Uncategorized to dolphin swimming in Aquatic Ruins to moderate coordination in Solid Ocean. The mechanics aren’t that punishing, but they do engage you and encourage you to pay attention.

Fractals are just content anybody from pug to guild can just pick up, learn and play easily. As a matter of fact, its a kitten testament to their good design that experienced people, for example, STILL fail Cliffside sometimes! Myself included! It’s not that they’re bad players it’s because the content is well designed!

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids, which are complete POISON to an MMO. I highly encourage developers to not neglect fractals and dungeons and give them some love.

GW2 SHOULD focus on raids cause its the best content in pve. old random fractal system was way better, now ppl do only 56 67 77 and old dungeon rewards should be back

Problem with raid (at least right now) is you need a dedicated group. Set up a pug is a pain.
Also the problem with fractls is not the rewards but the instability system which is unfair and goes against proper gameplay.

Ive started to play Fractals the last month, enjoyed it at first but rapidly started to burn out on it. -INCREDIBLY- static, and people will always take the path of least resistance, hence mainly doing 56-67-77 for the best reward box. So many in my guild laments the disappearance of the first incarnation of Fractals with its random setup. And while Ive never played the original fractals, I can only agree that it would have been far more preferable to have random maps.

Also, it was an absurd pain to get 51-75 done for the achievement. Ive resolved to ignore 76-100, its simply not worth the effort. Instabilities are too punishing and annoying, ontop of overinflated mob health and damage. Cliffside I am looking at -YOU!-

I am going to play Fractals for 6 days more to finish getting the fractal skin for greatsword and longbow, starting a dragonhunter. Then I dont think ill bother with them, getting too boring and repetitive.

Anet, bring back the older fractals system, or least introduce a random element in the daily maps.

Bartosz.2013:

GW2 SHOULD focus on raids cause its the best content in pve. old random fractal system was way better, now ppl do only 56 67 77 and old dungeon rewards should be back

This here is a problem, the highest level ive been able to get a party for is level 83,

The rewards are indeed not there at higher levels, infact ive seen better rewards at lvl 5 than lvl 83 ( excluding the relics )

This is something that should have been addressed from the get go, its typical of Anet though, they will happily come in with the nerf bat and hammer the fractals that people run all the time, instead of making it more attractive to run higher levels.

I can see fractals going the same way as dungeons this year, I know Anet say they want to move forward with fractals and raids, but I don’t see it happening, improving rewards goes against everything they have done over the last 3 years, nerfing/removing rewards is more the style,

So enjoy what you get at the moment, as its almost certain that an update this year will lower the rewards to make it less attractive to run certain fractals.

The only part that is good right now is the 1 level per fractal, I do enjoy this aspect, as I did not enjoy running fractals for an hour only for my team not to have the skill to beat a certain fractal, and I am not a fan of kicking people from the party, at least now I can leave and ive only lost 10 mins of my time vs the hour.

There isn’t a single fight or encounter in the fractals that is even close to as fun, challenging or interesting as the worst of the 3 raid bosses.

JTGuevara.9018:

reikken.4961:

what was the hit they took?

The rewards got greatly reduced, even at the higher levels.

They fixed the rewards though; even if you aren’t lucky to get ascended, you get very decent gold from encryptions now. Not sure what you on about. Rewards are actually better than they used to be.

NikeEU.7690:

There isn’t a single fight or encounter in the fractals that is even close to as fun, challenging or interesting as the worst of the 3 raid bosses.

And why on earth would you compare a raid boss fight to a fractal fight? If every fight in the game was as challenging/fun/engaging as raid boss, game would be the size of a walnut and population of 10.

This is becoming yet again ‘oh I ran fractals 4000 times and the fight isn’t challenging now’ type of complaint. Once you learn it, yes it’s easy.

I went through every fractal from 1 to 100 recently, some of them were very challenging. But now when I run dailies yeah I feel good about myself, I feel like I know what I’m doing.

I still find fights fun though and am still learning new things about the bosses, if you have the eyes to see and willingness to learn. Sometimes you get into a group with low dps, and you have to learn tells (for instance Molten Duo => Jump over wave, no jump over horizontal burst kinda sound explosion thing => I learned that recently on 99, and now I’m enjoy the hell out of fights where the Minotaur doesn’t go down instantly).

People whine too much, as usual. Really looking forward to fractal updates too, and I think current fractal daily and rewards are in great shape. Run dailies every day, takes me just over an hour, great stuff. Decent time put in, decent reward, and I can still play the rest of the game each day.

I like the way they are now. Reward increases would always be cool but as it stands it is a nice low time investment mode that can get you decent rewards. Much like Dungeons before except this time it is contributing less to inflation because not everybody does fractals.

Risk/Reward is fairly well balanced right now. If changes were made to make them harder I would want more rewards since sometimes I just don’t have the time to sit through an extremely long fractal (looking at you thaumanova).

Gimli.9461:

NikeEU.7690:

There isn’t a single fight or encounter in the fractals that is even close to as fun, challenging or interesting as the worst of the 3 raid bosses.

And why on earth would you compare a raid boss fight to a fractal fight? If every fight in the game was as challenging/fun/engaging as raid boss, game would be the size of a walnut and population of 10.

Someone said that fractals is the best content anet made. I countered by suggesting that raids are better. Don’t read any more into it than that.

I agree, fractals is great. Good gold, easy to do even with casuals and drops are awesome too. It has so much more rewards than dungeons and raids atm and for people who don’t care about reward>effort like myself, it’s the best content in-game right now.
Raids honestly are a waste of time and gold for the majority of the playerbase. It’s just something for “elites” to bolster their egos, and it’s not even that hard. Go in, kill the first 2 bosses and capped shards for the week in 2h or so and you’re done. Fractals is a daily thing, you get atleast a nice 10-10g just doing dailies + opening boxes with ascended chances every day.
Dungeons are still somewhat “ok” gold, pick fastest ones, do them, buy rares and sell/salvage.
Yeah Fractals might seem boring and repetitive, but so is the rest of the game at this point. The positives though, is you make good gold, karma and spirit shards for your next legendary, and it doesn’t require a set team to finish.

Gimli.9461:

NikeEU.7690:

There isn’t a single fight or encounter in the fractals that is even close to as fun, challenging or interesting as the worst of the 3 raid bosses.

And why on earth would you compare a raid boss fight to a fractal fight? If every fight in the game was as challenging/fun/engaging as raid boss, game would be the size of a walnut and population of 10.

This is becoming yet again ‘oh I ran fractals 4000 times and the fight isn’t challenging now’ type of complaint. Once you learn it, yes it’s easy.

I went through every fractal from 1 to 100 recently, some of them were very challenging. But now when I run dailies yeah I feel good about myself, I feel like I know what I’m doing.

I still find fights fun though and am still learning new things about the bosses, if you have the eyes to see and willingness to learn. Sometimes you get into a group with low dps, and you have to learn tells (for instance Molten Duo => Jump over wave, no jump over horizontal burst kinda sound explosion thing => I learned that recently on 99, and now I’m enjoy the hell out of fights where the Minotaur doesn’t go down instantly).

People whine too much, as usual. Really looking forward to fractal updates too, and I think current fractal daily and rewards are in great shape. Run dailies every day, takes me just over an hour, great stuff. Decent time put in, decent reward, and I can still play the rest of the game each day.

You’re absolutely right. Go in, kill stuff, collect rewards, get out and enjoy the REST of the game on a daily basis or do IRL stuff. Good rewards, Consistent rewards, less of a time waste as old fractals which took 1-2h to complete all dailies cause 4 stages (ugh)

JTGuevara.9018:

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids

They hired a separate team of coders for raids, in order to throw a bone to the 1% that had enough of far too easy PvE. Even so, raids are moderate difficulty at most

TL;DR Please do some research before kittenposting

Bartosz.2013:

JTGuevara.9018:

I have played everything in this game from world bosses, to dungeons, to fractals, to the raid. I have come to the conclusion that the Fractals of the Mists are the best content Anet have created in this game. Here’s why.

Fractals have unique and engaging sets of challenges. They are not too easy & not too hard, they are engaging to the player. Each fractal has its own unique mechanic from jumping in Uncategorized to dolphin swimming in Aquatic Ruins to moderate coordination in Solid Ocean. The mechanics aren’t that punishing, but they do engage you and encourage you to pay attention.

Fractals are just content anybody from pug to guild can just pick up, learn and play easily. As a matter of fact, its a kitten testament to their good design that experienced people, for example, STILL fail Cliffside sometimes! Myself included! It’s not that they’re bad players it’s because the content is well designed!

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids, which are complete POISON to an MMO. I highly encourage developers to not neglect fractals and dungeons and give them some love.

GW2 SHOULD focus on raids cause its the best content in pve. old random fractal system was way better, now ppl do only 56 67 77 and old dungeon rewards should be back

Raids are the “best” content right now because the other stuff got worse, not because raids are any good. A crucial requirement for raids to function properly is the trinity, which this game does not have. How do people actually expect it to work? It’s nothing more than the next carrot on a stick.

JTGuevara.9018:

They are not too easy

Yeah about that…

JTGuevara.9018:

Bartosz.2013:

JTGuevara.9018:

I have played everything in this game from world bosses, to dungeons, to fractals, to the raid. I have come to the conclusion that the Fractals of the Mists are the best content Anet have created in this game. Here’s why.

Fractals have unique and engaging sets of challenges. They are not too easy & not too hard, they are engaging to the player. Each fractal has its own unique mechanic from jumping in Uncategorized to dolphin swimming in Aquatic Ruins to moderate coordination in Solid Ocean. The mechanics aren’t that punishing, but they do engage you and encourage you to pay attention.

Fractals are just content anybody from pug to guild can just pick up, learn and play easily. As a matter of fact, its a kitten testament to their good design that experienced people, for example, STILL fail Cliffside sometimes! Myself included! It’s not that they’re bad players it’s because the content is well designed!

Unfortunately, gw2 is now going to focus on raids, which are complete POISON to an MMO. I highly encourage developers to not neglect fractals and dungeons and give them some love.

GW2 SHOULD focus on raids cause its the best content in pve. old random fractal system was way better, now ppl do only 56 67 77 and old dungeon rewards should be back

Raids are the “best” content right now because the other stuff got worse, not because raids are any good. A crucial requirement for raids to function properly is the trinity, which this game does not have. How do people actually expect it to work? It’s nothing more than the next carrot on a stick.

Why do raids need the trinity for it to work? I much prefer raids without the trinity.

Bartosz.2013:

old random fractal system was way better

The words of someone who didn’t get Cliffside Fractal in almost every single fractal set they ever did.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Bartosz.2013:

old random fractal system was way better

The words of someone who didn’t get Cliffside Fractal in almost every single fractal set they ever did.

Actually i had cliffside quite often, so what?

Bartosz.2013:

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Bartosz.2013:

old random fractal system was way better

The words of someone who didn’t get Cliffside Fractal in almost every single fractal set they ever did.

Actually i had cliffside quite often, so what?

Bartosz is so right with his statement about the old fractal system, and tbh cliffside always was one of my favourites.

I actually think current system is better bar the poorly implemented rewards and dailies and the instabilities.

Being able to pick is great. We just need the dailies to not encourage swamp spam. More specific dailies would help.

The biggest issue with fractals is the fact that players are picking the path of least resistance to get their daily chest.

This, however is just a symptom which has several underlying causes.
1) Time. It is simply the fastest way to be done with your daily fractal.
2) Reward. Most people do 50+ daily for the chest reward, NOT for the encryption boxes (which do drop more from non-swam fractals).
3) Ease. Simply put the exploited Mossman (which will hopefully get fixed) provides little to no challenge even for the really poor PuGs.

I see two ways to address this.

One is a brute force method (make the daily to be a set of 3 specific fractals). This method has the advantage of immediately negating all the above issues. Simply put this will roll things back to pre-HoT method with advantage of people not being locked in the same group for all fractals.

The drawback is the randomly generated fractal system. If the previous system is used (draw of an easy, medium and long fractals, from same pools as pre-HoT), I will likely not dare to PuG the days when you end up with PuG hell combos like 59+64.

Alternatively, you can actually try balancing the fractals. This method will be a real pain, but theoretically could result in much better results. Add unique (and desired) drops to ‘bad’ fractals. Make time differences for fractal completions less severe. Work over large number of instabilities that make some of the fractals unnecessary punishing.

This way people who are interested in knocking out the daily fast will still have the ability to do so (likely new choices past Mossman fix will be something like Bloomhunger + mawx2), and people who are willing to spend more time and get better rewards can do the longer fractals for them. It won’t change the speed-daily meta but it will push part of the population to the currently less-desired fractals.

Ryn.6459:

Problem with raid (at least right now) is you need a dedicated group. Set up a pug is a pain.
Also the problem with fractls is not the rewards but the instability system which is unfair and goes against proper gameplay.

Maybe the intention was to shake up the… proper gameplay.

Are you kidding, OP? It’s so much better now. Rewards are better, you don’t have to do it in one run (1h or even more). The complaints were huge and now you come along and tell the old system was better…

There’s always a certain group of players which isn’t happy with something. Don’t push it as if it is the opinion of all. Most people enjoy it when I meet them online.