First of all, let me say that I love Fractals. Ever since I started running them, they’ve been my favorite piece of end-game content, followed closely by WvW. However, ArenaNet consistently pokes their nose into Fractals, making it less and less fun to play. Why?
Let’s start off with one of the catalysts to this change in attitude towards Fractals not just from myself, but from much of the Fractal players I’ve talked to. Fractured. Fractured was a very hyped update that ended up shafting Fractal runners more than helping them. The most glaring issue (that to my knowledge still hasn’t been addressed officially) is the deletion of effort pre-Fractured. I’m talking about the Fractal level reset guys. Now let me be clear here. I understand why dropping it down to 30 was necessary, it allowed Fractal players to experience the new Mistlock Instability content. Fine, cool, I get it. But what about those players (like myself and countless others) who had reward levels far above 30? We got nothing. No recognition, no compensation, nothing. This was the first of the problems. Then, we have the revamping of the Fractal selections. While at first, this may seem nice, but it made Fractals that much more painful. For one, there are 12 Fractals. By cutting down the selection for the third Fractal, there’s now a 20% chance at the dreaded Dredge fractal than the normal 10% chance (12-2 already completed).
Speaking of the Dredge Fractal, why? Why why why why why do you not listen to the players who must suffer through this content and instead “fix” the very things that make the fractal manageable? I would much rather pull my own teeth out with safety scissors. You ask for player feedback regarding this Fractal, then completely ignore it and make it even worse. There’s been countless suggestions from your players to make the Underground Torture Chamber Facility fractal much more reasonable, why don’t you poke your head around in those topics and take notes.
But what really kills me is the absolute global nerf to the rewards from Fractals. Cool, you added a shiny new tonic and a rune/sigil combination. Neat. But you made weapon skins almost non-existant, and lets not forget about the ascended chests of legend. Pre-Fractured, I could reasonably expect a weapon skin every 4-7 runs of a 20+ and an ascended chest was actually fairly rare while still being obtainable. Now, ever since Fractured, I haven’t seen a SINGLE Fractal skin drop in any of my parties, ever. And I can count on one hand the number of ascended chests I’ve seen. Not to mention, doing 49/50 every day and I’m still getting UNINFUSED RINGS?! WHY?! I’d rather get no reward than an UNINFUSED RING after a level 50 Fractal. And the gold added to the end of Fractals? A joke. A single run if CoF p1 gives 66% of the gold that a level 50 Fractal completion gives, and takes literally a fraction of the time and effort. I’m not saying that you should have to compare the two, but at least make it reasonable? My suggestion? (MIN Reward level or Fractal Level) * 10s, so a level 50 Fractal with a Reward level of 50 would reward 5g. That’s fair for the time and effort sent getting that high.
So to summarize: Fractals need to be re-evaluated by ArenaNet. They got hit hard by the Fractured update, both FotM itself AND the people who enjoyed Fractals. Dredge sucks more with every “fix”, and the rewards are absolute garbage. I’d really appreciate a Dev reply regarding this, but I won’t hold my breath. Anywho, I’d like to hear the thoughts of my other victims fellow Fractal players. Thanks for reading my wall of text
Whitney Lionheart (Guardian)
I have never seen ascended weapon chest anyway … got “useful” unfused rings
