Fractals of the Mist - New Info

Fractals of the Mist - New Info

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Posted by: Chackan.2813

Chackan.2813

Don’t know if this is already posted elsewhere:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/leah-rivera-on-the-new-fractals-of-the-mist-dungeon/

This dungeon is unlike anything you’ve played in Guild Wars 2. It’s built of an array of mini-dungeons, which we call fractals. These fractals are slices of the Mists, fragments of time that have been stabilized by the intrepid asura researcher Dessa. Some of these vignettes from history may be familiar to original Guild Wars players, while others will represent previously unseen events. Because of their eclectic origin, each fractal is built as a distinct, separate experience with themes, mechanics, and art specific to that fractal.

You access the Fractals of the Mist by gathering your party of five in Lion’s Arch and entering a new asura gate (seen below).

Unlike the other dungeons, your party can be any level. We’ve employed World vs. World-style sidekicking to make this dungeon accessible to all players. But keep in mind, our aim was to challenge level 80 players. Going in at low levels is not for the faint of heart!

Once you enter the portal you’ll be taken to the Mistlock Observatory, a safe haven created by Dessa within the Mists. From there you’ll start your first round of fractals. You’ll be sent to three randomly chosen destinations and once you’ve vanquished all three of these fractals, you’ll be brought back to the Mistlock Observatory hub to rest and regroup. On top of that, every other round before you return to the hub you’ll be faced with a bonus “boss fractal.” Here, you will face an encounter akin to our big world bosses!

Seems simple, right? Well, there’s one last mechanic that makes this dungeon unique.

To make Fractals of the Mist even more challenging, every time you re-visit the hub, the dungeon scales up in difficulty. That’s right, a scaling dungeon! The dungeon will remember your progress, and will poll the party’s levels when you enter, scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level. It’s a true challenge, but as you hit higher and higher scales, the dungeon will get more and more rewarding. You’ll have to have some serious skills and solid tactics to make it through these Fractals. After a certain point, our new Ascended items and Infusions become crucial tools for survival.

This sounds freaking AMAZING!

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Posted by: alanis.6094

alanis.6094

This sounds freaking AMAZING!

…right up until the last line.

Drusilla Ina Alanis
<The Undead Lords>
Since 1994 – undeadlords.net

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Posted by: Noviere.7309

Noviere.7309

I love that it is going to reveal points in history that we have seen in GW1 as well as ones we’ve missed. Cannot wait

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Posted by: Norb.4253

Norb.4253

Sounds good to me, looking forward to it.

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Posted by: Darknass.1903

Darknass.1903

“…scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level.”

This sounds to me like it will scale based on a mean of the group so that if one or two of the players haven’t been deep enough to attain infusions, the dungeon will automatically be set to a difficulty not requiring the infusions. That way people without them can still run with people that have them and thus will not hinder the groups progress, that’s my thought anyway.

HoD – Ranger, Ele, Guard, Engie.

“The best defense is a strong offense.”

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Posted by: Vexrm.6134

Vexrm.6134

What does “Highest Common attained level” mean?

For example we have five players P1, P2, P3, P4, P5.
P1 hasn’t done any.
P2 and P3 got to LVL3
P4 is on LVL2
and P5 is on LVL6

Will the dungeon be LVL1 (since P1 hasn’t done it yet) or LVL 2 (Four players have either completed it or done it, thus a vast majority) LVL3? (3 players, a majority, have done it or ready to do it).

I think I can rule out LVL6, but I’m not sure.

This isn’t a huge deal, I’m just curious how it will work.

Edit:
Also, if I’m P5 in this situation and run it with this group on LVL1 do I count as LVL7 or do I count as LVL6 still? Either way there are issues I see, but both ways can be worked around.

(edited by Vexrm.6134)

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Posted by: vvp.8512

vvp.8512

By the time you hit the very high difficulty levels of the dungeon you will have the gear available to do it. Those very high levels will drop better infusions to allow higher levels. If there wasn’t the stat increase involved in the gear (just infusions for agony) it would be a perfectly infinite gear grind with no impact on those who choose not to participate. The fractal element means that they can add new content without without major changes. It’s a very pleasing system outside of the stat increase (again, why do that?).

If there were a leader board for who has progressed deepest that would be just fantastic.

The way they will handle “deep” players doing it with “shallow” ones is concerning. However, there are other elements at play. When you go deeper things like potions and foods will become more relevant. Using team builds that rely on teamwork will become more important. This is something you do with a set group of people after a certain point because there will be no pubbing at that time if this is done correctly.

However, there will be a bunch of people still complaining (Even without the stat increase involved) that they can’t go into the deepest levels at level 1 because of a gear gate or whatever. I have no axioms in common with such a player and thereby we can never have a discussion on the matter.

Plainview (80 Engineer) SoR

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Posted by: Clobimon.9652

Clobimon.9652

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Posted by: Caedmon.6798

Caedmon.6798

This sounds freaking AMAZING!

…right up until the last line.

Why ? it says After a certain point,i think this is the point where you reach max difficulty after having it done several times and enter the most difficult version of the dungeon where you need to be infused if you don’t want to die ( being infused does not have an impact on the rest of the game for now),like in gw1 with that mursaat mission if im correct, just a tad different.Being infused in gw1 only was for that missions and did not surve any purpose in the rest of the game.

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Posted by: Norb.4253

Norb.4253

What does “Highest Common attained level” mean?

For example we have five players P1, P2, P3, P4, P5.
P1 hasn’t done any.
P2 and P3 got to LVL3
P4 is on LVL2
and P5 is on LVL6

Will the dungeon be LVL1 (since P1 hasn’t done it yet) or LVL 2 (Four players have either completed it or done it, thus a vast majority) LVL3? (3 players, a majority, have done it or ready to do it).

I think I can rule out LVL6, but I’m not sure.

This isn’t a huge deal, I’m just curious how it will work.

Edit:
Also, if I’m P5 in this situation and run it with this group on LVL1 do I count as LVL7 or do I count as LVL6 still? Either way there are issues I see, but both ways can be worked around.

“Highest Common attained level” means exactly that, the highest level everyone shares, not a simple majority, everyone.

You could think of it as scaling to the lowest common denominator if that helps.

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Posted by: Naoko.7096

Naoko.7096

It sounds very exciting.

This dungeon mechanic is a genius. It records players who finish it each round and becomes harder. The difficulty equalise by the players’ number of rounds in the dungeon. With this mechanic, this encourages players to recruit first-timer into party for this dungeons. No first-timer are being biased against.

I love the sound of randomness in this dungeon too.
Well done anet. ^^

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Posted by: Hunterdan.4921

Hunterdan.4921

I very much like the sound of this. Should be fun!

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Posted by: Nurse.1085

Nurse.1085

Ahh! This looks exciting.

The only part I’m iffy about is the underwater cutscene. Good God, please don’t have an underwater fractal.

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Posted by: FourthVariety.5463

FourthVariety.5463

“highest common level” is just another way of saying “lowest level” of any in the group.

lfm 80 ascended only, must be rank 9.

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Posted by: Vexrm.6134

Vexrm.6134

“Highest Common attained level” means exactly that, the highest level everyone shares, not a simple majority, everyone.

You could think of it as scaling to the lowest common denominator if that helps.

Technically, it can mean both “everyone” and “majority”. Don’t you love English and communication?

As I said, I wasn’t too worried, but was just curious. Either way we are going to have people who insist you’ve ran it X number of times to run with them.

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Posted by: Noviere.7309

Noviere.7309

Ahh! This looks exciting.

The only part I’m iffy about is the underwater cutscene. Good God, please don’t have an underwater fractal.

I had a similar reaction to that scene as well… It’s gorgeous, but I hate underwater combat.

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Posted by: Joiry.2504

Joiry.2504

So, how long does the difficulty scaling persist? Is it just the time the party is together or is it a permanent record on your character?

If its the latter, Anet will end up fracturing the player base considerably. Oh, sure, you can say the dungeon will poll the progress of all the players – but players that have gone deep won’t want to be scaled back by less progressed players.

And is there anyway to choose not to go as far as your progress allows? So if I don’t want to deal with ascended armors and infusion – I’ll progress to the point I can’t go any farther, and then never be able to run the dungeon again unless I get enough unprogressed friends to scale me back?

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Posted by: Iason Evan.3806

Iason Evan.3806

This is EXACTLY the kind of content I wanted to see and didn’t even know I wanted in GW2. They struck a chord with me when I was watching this video and reading the description. Are we going to see what became of Livia and the Scepter of Orr? Some more info on the Tome of the Rubicon? What about Evennia? I can NOT wait to play this!

Leader of The Guernsey Milking Coalition [MiLk] Sanctum of Rall

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Posted by: xtorma.1283

xtorma.1283

“…scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level.”

This sounds to me like it will scale based on a mean of the group so that if one or two of the players haven’t been deep enough to attain infusions, the dungeon will automatically be set to a difficulty not requiring the infusions. That way people without them can still run with people that have them and thus will not hinder the groups progress, that’s my thought anyway.

Except for the fact that rewards scale, so there will be some of the standard….lfm 10 fractals completed minimum.

Baron Irongut – Warrior-

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Posted by: Vasham.2408

Vasham.2408

So it’s not restricted to 80’s and scales based on the overall level of the group? So much for cries of casuals being cut out and gear treadmills preventing access. I’m laughing at the people who panicked right now.

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Posted by: vvp.8512

vvp.8512

And is there anyway to choose not to go as far as your progress allows? So if I don’t want to deal with ascended armors and infusion – I’ll progress to the point I can’t go any farther, and then never be able to run the dungeon again unless I get enough unprogressed friends to scale me back?

There are three ascended items coming out this patch. You will get them by running the dungeons. You will get infusions by running the dungeons. By “not wanting to deal wtih” do you mean you will trash all the ascended gear/infusions you get?

If yes, then you want to play with shallower and you will be fine.

Plainview (80 Engineer) SoR

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Posted by: Fungalfoot.7213

Fungalfoot.7213

The dungeon does sound fun.

Too bad it comes bundled with what will destroy this game.

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Posted by: ASB.4295

ASB.4295

ANet content artist = old school awesomeness
ANet Game designer = new age krapfest

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Posted by: Joiry.2504

Joiry.2504

So it’s not restricted to 80’s and scales based on the overall level of the group? So much for cries of casuals being cut out and gear treadmills preventing access. I’m laughing at the people who panicked right now.

Right, and there won’t be any “need X rounds of progress” to join a group.

There are three ascended items coming out this patch. You will get them by running the dungeons. You will get infusions by running the dungeons. By “not wanting to deal wtih” do you mean you will trash all the ascended gear/infusions you get?

You mean, do I want to keep repeating over and over when I hit the agony threshold, hoping to get the random ascended gear drops?

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Posted by: ShiningSquirrel.3751

ShiningSquirrel.3751

“Highest Common attained level” means exactly that, the highest level everyone shares, not a simple majority, everyone.

You could think of it as scaling to the lowest common denominator if that helps.

Technically, it can mean both “everyone” and “majority”. Don’t you love English and communication?

As I said, I wasn’t too worried, but was just curious. Either way we are going to have people who insist you’ve ran it X number of times to run with them.

It depends on how the dungeon actually scales. It says it gets harder when you return to the hub, not when you leave the dungeon altogether and start a new session. They could do it each time you return to the hub and go to another 3 fractuls, it gets harder, as long as you do not leave the dungeon. That would mean it would not make any differance how hard it was the last time you did it, you would have to start over. I am betting on this mechanic as it would fit in with other things they have done in the past. As to level, I think they are refering to the players level, not what level of the dungeon they have reached.

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Posted by: Sirge.8934

Sirge.8934

I’m looking forward to the dungeon!

Don’t really see the point of Agony though. Seems like its just a thing to ensure a guild doesn’t run it to fractal 300 or something. Since they’re only releasing one or two Ascended items for now, there is probably a max depth that you can reasonably go before Agony leaves you with close to no HP.

But it looks strange, and fun! It’ll be interesting to see what lies in it deep.

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Posted by: HawkMeister.4758

HawkMeister.4758

The art is as always gorgeous and the idea sounds intriguing. We´ll see how many actual different maps it will contain.

Pity we didn´t get some more in-depth technical info, just yet another fluffy teaser.
And teasers are about the last thing we need right now.

Because in the mean time these guys are just running like hell with this frikken ring.

Too bad it comes bundled with what will destroy this game.

The one pink ring to ruin them all .. Cheezus.

Polish > hype

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Posted by: Dracones.9105

Dracones.9105

Except for the fact that rewards scale, so there will be some of the standard….lfm 10 fractals completed minimum.

I don’t see why this should be an issue. Players that’ve gone 10 fractals deep should be able to form deep fractal groups that are specialized for the harder content.

And for us casuals we can pull in players from all level ranges to run the shallow fractals. I ran the mad king dungeon at level 35 with a group of level 20’s at one point. It was a lot of fun and kudos to Anet for creating a dungeon system that’s both shallow(easy for newbies to get into) and deep(hard core players).

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Posted by: Fungalfoot.7213

Fungalfoot.7213

The one pink ring to ruin them all .. Cheezus.

It has already successfully ruined the community. Never before have I witnessed so many belittling and downright vicious posts. You can’t possibly oppose the gear grind without being a filthy casual crybaby.

Face it, we’re WoW now and it’s only going to get worse from here on out unless ArenaNet stems the tide.

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Posted by: Celesica.5790

Celesica.5790

There are always players who assume negatively, aka doomsayers. :/
Why can’t be happy we got new content and it looks awesome. Play it first, before judging. If you think everything about it has a problem because you experienced it hands-on, then you have the right to complain. :/
Not disappointed with ANet (yet), but with those kind of players. I thought GW2 has the most awesome MATURE community. It turned out to be different.

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Posted by: Loumy.7841

Loumy.7841

The one pink ring to ruin them all .. Cheezus.

It has already successfully ruined the community. Never before have I witnessed so many belittling and downright vicious posts. You can’t possibly oppose the gear grind without being a filthy casual crybaby.

Face it, we’re WoW now and it’s only going to get worse from here on out unless ArenaNet stems the tide.

I agree, it’s amazing so many hostile posts there are towards people constructively criticizing this new patch. I’ve seen so many good threads where OP spend a great deal of time to make a constructive and well written post – just being thrown into the “trash can” sorry merged thread.

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Posted by: Tosha Daydreamer.9251

Tosha Daydreamer.9251

I really love the idea of this dungeon. Hopefully, the combat will offer something different from the current dungeons…

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Posted by: penatbater.4710

penatbater.4710

what i wonder is, if you’ve done, say lvl 5, can you still do level 5 or are you required to do level 6 instead?

Don’t disturb me, I have a cat in me at the moment.

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Posted by: Grumwulf.9602

Grumwulf.9602

Very excited about this dungeon. Such great combination of awe inspiring vistas, lore, and a progression mechanic that seems hardcore and casual friendly both. Can’t wait for it!

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Posted by: DoctorOverlord.8620

DoctorOverlord.8620

Looks really cool. I’m particularly interested in the fractal that looks like a flashback to the charr wars!

The mechanic sounds intriguing too. Nice that you don’t need infusions to see the fractuals or even the bosses, you just need them to get really deep into the cycle.

“…scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level.”

This sounds to me like it will scale based on a mean of the group so that if one or two of the players haven’t been deep enough to attain infusions, the dungeon will automatically be set to a difficulty not requiring the infusions. That way people without them can still run with people that have them and thus will not hinder the groups progress, that’s my thought anyway.

I hope that is how the scaling will work. I’m sure that would help guilds that want to help all their members get infusions.

Check my GW2 Comic Dynamic Events http://goo.gl/JyB3J (Short Google Link to Fan Content Forum here)

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Posted by: MrDmajor.7084

MrDmajor.7084

After a certain point, our new Ascended items and Infusions become crucial tools for survival.

…and scene.

ArenaNet does NOT play Guild Wars 2. This can’t be.

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Posted by: vvp.8512

vvp.8512

You mean, do I want to keep repeating over and over when I hit the agony threshold, hoping to get the random ascended gear drops?

To get to the higher levels in order to need the equipment you need to run the dungeon, which will give you that gear. You can’t magically appear in a higher level than you belong unless you run with a party where the majority are above you.

I don’t understand what you are saying.

Plainview (80 Engineer) SoR

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Posted by: ilr.9675

ilr.9675

“Vanquishing” ?

WHAT??

not_sure_if_want :\
(especially if certain maps have too many pop-up mobs that also count in that tally)

… I prefer “running”.
…It has its own challenges and is almost always more exciting

(edited by ilr.9675)

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Posted by: Joiry.2504

Joiry.2504

You mean, do I want to keep repeating over and over when I hit the agony threshold, hoping to get the random ascended gear drops?

To get to the higher levels in order to need the equipment you need to run the dungeon, which will give you that gear. You can’t magically appear in a higher level than you belong unless you run with a party where the majority are above you.

I don’t understand what you are saying.

Say there is some level X at which Agony mitigation is necessary. Say I have run up to X depth, and been on the unlucky end of the probability distribution and not gotten what I need to complete level X (or, I suppose, be too much of a drag on my team).

I have to keep repeating X-1 until I get lucky with the drop. For that, I’ll need to find players of less than X depth to play with instead. I’ll have to keep repeating until I do.

Here’s the thing about drops, if the chance is 5%, that doesn’t mean you’ll get it in 20 runs. You may get it the first time, you may get it the 100th. Most people will get it in approximately 20, but the probability curve tails out in each direction.

Maybe there are tokens for runs. Great, why not just call them keys then, and once you have enough keys, you unlock the next higher difficulty…

Also, think about it – how many different Fractals do you think they’ll release? 6, 8, maybe 10 at the most I’d guess. Not sure on the combinatorics, but a rough calculation suggests even with 10 you’ve got a 1 in 3 chance of seeing one of the fractals you got in the first run in the second.

This all seems very grindy to me.

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Posted by: Dracones.9105

Dracones.9105

what i wonder is, if you’ve done, say lvl 5, can you still do level 5 or are you required to do level 6 instead?

One way would be to find another player doing level 5 and join his group. But it’d be nice if you could downlevel yourself.

I could see where you might be in a really good group that carries you, get to level 6 but then be sort of stuck because you should really be on level 3 until your gear gets better.

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Posted by: Tinni.4351

Tinni.4351

So… this is mini-diablo III? I can live with that.

My brain is shagging under the weight of changes… having six characters was not a good idea!

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Posted by: glacialphoenix.3160

glacialphoenix.3160

Mainly – I’d like to know how long the difficulty scaling lasts and if there’s the option to down-level yourself without having to find people who haven’t run Fractals to the same level you have. I’d rather not be stuck in a predicament where I need Ascended gear to complete the level, but can’t complete the level because I’ve had no luck with Ascended gear. And of course, sometimes you just want a quick and easy run.

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Posted by: JBleezz.2697

JBleezz.2697

All they need to do is remove the whole Agony mechanic and I would Love it. I REALLY don’t see the point of having such an obvious and pointless gating mechanic in the dungeon.

Why not just make it a dungeon that gets harder the further in you go but you get better loot drops the further you go and just have it reset when you leave.

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Posted by: Chackan.2813

Chackan.2813

I just hope for some Pre-Searing Catacombs!! This might be the long awaited day!

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Posted by: Tinni.4351

Tinni.4351

Mainly – I’d like to know how long the difficulty scaling lasts and if there’s the option to down-level yourself without having to find people who haven’t run Fractals to the same level you have. I’d rather not be stuck in a predicament where I need Ascended gear to complete the level, but can’t complete the level because I’ve had no luck with Ascended gear. And of course, sometimes you just want a quick and easy run.

I don’t think Ascended gear “drops”. I think you get tokens like every other dungeons. So if you get to X tier, you will have enough tokens for Ascended gear. Of course if you screw-up you purchase or make the wrong gear choice, that’s an entirely different matter.

But no, I don’t think you will ever be able to have a “easy run” with Fractals. It is a “challenge dungeon”. If you want an easy run, you’ll have to do normal dungeons with a group that can do it on cruise control.

My brain is shagging under the weight of changes… having six characters was not a good idea!

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Posted by: zallis.2138

zallis.2138

So it’s not restricted to 80’s and scales based on the overall level of the group? So much for cries of casuals being cut out and gear treadmills preventing access. I’m laughing at the people who panicked right now.

Low levels can go, but they will probably not be accepted into most groups. A level 80 is still more powerful than a level 66 that was scaled to 80, because of gear stats and traits. They said in an article that “The dungeon is meant to challenge level 80 players, so entering the Fractals of the Mist at a level lower than 80 is not for the faint of heart.” meaning that you can enter but it will be very difficult

Information about New Outriders
en.guildwars2.com/forum/guilds/recruitment/New-OutRiders-NOR-Recruitment-Post/first#post2721974

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Posted by: Mucro.4268

Mucro.4268

I’m not sure I like this… if they make the gear from this dungeon the best available this is going to be a grind… literally… rising difficulty on the dungeons containing the best gear in the game, gear you will need to have to do well in anything at level 80, is a bad idea. I hate grinding dungeons, it’s why I quit WoW, please don’t bring that here especially if you are going to increase the difficulty each time I try to get the gear I’m grinding for.

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Posted by: glacialphoenix.3160

glacialphoenix.3160

Tinni.4351

I don’t think Ascended gear “drops”. I think you get tokens like every other dungeons. So if you get to X tier, you will have enough tokens for Ascended gear

I’m completely fine with that option. Actually, I’m happy as long as I don’t get stuck in that Catch-22.

Tinni.4351

I don’t think you will ever be able to have a “easy run” with Fractals

Ill-phrased on my part, perhaps. The dungeon was meant to scale in difficulty as you progressed further. I love this mechanic; I like the idea of a continuous challenge; I don’t want to go in and simply faceroll content. What I mean is this: it would be nice to be able to go back to an earlier difficulty level just for the fun of it, without having to seek out people who haven’t reached the same difficulty level you have (especially if the only PUGs turn out to be people looking to delve deeper and deeper into the Fractals dungeon.)

So I guess it’s a question of whether the difficulty scaling is permanent, or whether it resets when you log out / leave the dungeon etc. and whether you can choose to down-level yourself if you don’t feel like playing the hardest content you’ve currently accessed.

Whatever the answer to that is, though; I’m looking forward to the new dungeon. It should be fun.

(edited by glacialphoenix.3160)

Fractals of the Mist - New Info

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Ninth Requiem.3250

Ninth Requiem.3250

You mean, do I want to keep repeating over and over when I hit the agony threshold, hoping to get the random ascended gear drops?

To get to the higher levels in order to need the equipment you need to run the dungeon, which will give you that gear. You can’t magically appear in a higher level than you belong unless you run with a party where the majority are above you.

I don’t understand what you are saying.

Say there is some level X at which Agony mitigation is necessary. Say I have run up to X depth, and been on the unlucky end of the probability distribution and not gotten what I need to complete level X (or, I suppose, be too much of a drag on my team).

I have to keep repeating X-1 until I get lucky with the drop. For that, I’ll need to find players of less than X depth to play with instead. I’ll have to keep repeating until I do.

Here’s the thing about drops, if the chance is 5%, that doesn’t mean you’ll get it in 20 runs. You may get it the first time, you may get it the 100th. Most people will get it in approximately 20, but the probability curve tails out in each direction.

Maybe there are tokens for runs. Great, why not just call them keys then, and once you have enough keys, you unlock the next higher difficulty…

Also, think about it – how many different Fractals do you think they’ll release? 6, 8, maybe 10 at the most I’d guess. Not sure on the combinatorics, but a rough calculation suggests even with 10 you’ve got a 1 in 3 chance of seeing one of the fractals you got in the first run in the second.

This all seems very grindy to me.

I’m concerned about this too. Thing is, you couldn’t repeat X-1, since you’ve finished it. If you hit X, and can’t do it without Ascended gear, you’ll need to repeatedly try X (and fail) till some drops.
Or option 2 would be to find someone with a low highest-level, and use them to let you repeat the easier sections hoping for a drop.
Bear in mind that these are more powerful than exotics, and are meant for long-term gear progression – they can’t be all that common, otherwise they lose their entire point.

On top of that, you can take people less than level 80. If they get Ascended drops, are they scaled to the character level (in which case would mean they’re worse than exotics by the time you level up)?

There’s 9 fractals btw. Not sure how many bi-level bosses there are. Grindiness all depends on how big the fractals are – if large enough, then this could be considered as grindy as 3 separate dungeons, if small enough it could be like repeating a single path on 1 dungeon.

Fractals of the Mist - New Info

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Agaetis.4518

Agaetis.4518

Looks great!!