I play a level 80 Mesmer on the Northern Shiver Peaks server. I’ve run the story and at least 1 explore path for every dungeon except for Arah’s explore mode. I have one full set of armor and several weapons from HotW and I still collect tokens.
Honor of the Waves is my favorite dungeon for many reasons, but is probably one of the most poorly designed dungeons in the game (from a mechanical standpoint). HotW has my favorite light armor skin and stat arrays for armor/weapons so I’ve learned the paths well and have seen their exploits and bugs first hand (though the exploits were covered in another thread) and the ease at which certain encounters and areas can fall apart and become boring or un-fun.
One of the largest issues to me is the lack of physical boundaries on the map itself. I’ve personally seen the Path 2 boss use his charge attack to slam through the walls or ceiling of his enclosure and then reset: regaining most or all of his HP (which forces another issue: the amount of HP bosses have, but we’ll get to that). As a Mesmer I’ve also ended up between maps and in various terrain features. I’ve come to expect that given my class of choice having a proclivity for such predicaments, but more often than not, when this happens in game, it happens in HotW. Perhaps it is due to the architecture of the ice terrain or how they were constructed (textures, skins etc) that creates this poor structural integrity, but it’s all too easy to get stuck between walls and paths.
This leads to the occasional boss reset or inability to participate in a combat encounter/boss fight. The other day I ended up inside a wall during Path 3’s final boss. I was unable to charge back out or use Way Points and all of my attacks were obstructed. This means the boss was taking 1/5th less damage, which adds a considerable amount of time to defeat the boss. After a few minutes I was able to be considered out of combat so I could WP back to the start. After a minute or two of running all the way back to the Path 3 boss, I was disheartened to see that almost no progress had been made on his health bar and took a further 15 minutes to kill the boss. While this was an example of a poorer dungeon run, it only fairs slightly differently than an efficient or optimal dungeon run, which manages to shave off a few minutes at each combat encounter. Either way, most bosses and champion here feel like a slog and a good number of them are less threatening than other enemies.
Take the veteran Icebrood Wolves or Icebrood Claymore waves that happen throughout each path. I’ve seen and been in parties that wipe against these waves more than every boss in every path combined. There large amount of HP and extreme damage output causes them to be a much greater threat than most bosses (who usually require a simple dodge to escape their AOE attack). This leads to the very common practice of skipping the first group of Icebrood Wolves in Path 1 (just before the first boss of that path) and for the need to attempt to pull just 1 or 2 away from any group (which isn’t always easy depending on party makeup) or risk getting his by a freight train of wolves or claymores.
Though these vicious non-boss enemies aren’t the only group of creatures to get ditched for the sake of having HotW take less time. In each path there is at least one group of enemies or a champion that gets commonly skipped. The amount of time it takes to kill the group or champion far outweighs the rewards for actually defeating them. Most players on dungeon runs are looking to spend the least amount of time for the highest reward (which is why everyone says “LFG AC 15min run” and no one does HotW). I’m truthfully not sure what the intent is. Were dungeons supposed to be quick, cash-grabs like AC or slow and plodding like HotW? HotW stands as quite a time sink for more or less similar rewards as other dungeons.
**I’d also like to note that I’m not going to comment on the fact that HotW has the most water based combat of any dungeon. All of the issues I’ve encountered in this dungeon are going to happen on land or in water. Those bosses are still going to feel like a slog. There will be large groups of enemies that you will bypass because the time you put into them just isn’t worth the reward. Personally I don’t mind water combat itself, but in HotW I find it very boring.
TL;DR- I know every dungeon has their fair amount of problems, exploits and glitches. This thread is not meant to take away your exploits (they’re gonna get those eventually & you’ll find new ones). It’s to draw attention to the developers that such an amazing creative effort is kind of being wasted due to incorrect balance, unpopular design features (intended or unintended) and bugs. I think players are missing out on a really cool environment (not to mention it’s hard to get a group going for this dungeon).
(edited by Neverfate.7095)
