I have a blast open world, some fun in pvp, none in dungeons.
On its own, I think a bunch of the dungeons need more work. The devs are checking on here frequently for our feedback, so eventually, I’m expecting it to improve.
Given that, I enjoy dungeons because I mainly play with a team of friends. We have a set time that we meet up everyday, and we discuss what dungeons we want to do. We’ve helped a lot of our friends obtain their dungeon token armor, so now, we’re on a mission to get dungeon master (patiently waiting on Arah fixes). We also want to improve our efficiency at some of the dungeons we run outside of AC.
For me, being able to make a reliable group in a short period of time eliminates a LOT of stress that comes from random PuG groups. I just look up the first 4 friends that want to do a dungeon and “bam!” group is made. My friends and I are always looking to improve our run efficiency by experimenting with different builds and strategies. Sometimes, we play other professions to learn more about them. Every time we do a run, we give each other constructive criticism if something could be done more efficiently. For us, dungeon running is a process of refining our knowledge of the dungeon, improving our use of our professions in the dungeon environment, making income (coin/karma), obtaining dungeon token gear, and most of all, having fun playing together.
On its own, I think a bunch of the dungeons need more work. The devs are checking on here frequently for our feedback, so eventually, I’m expecting it to improve.
Given that, I enjoy dungeons because I mainly play with a team of friends. We have a set time that we meet up everyday, and we discuss what dungeons we want to do. We’ve helped a lot of our friends obtain their dungeon token armor, so now, we’re on a mission to get dungeon master (patiently waiting on Arah fixes). We also want to improve our efficiency at some of the dungeons we run outside of AC.
For me, being able to make a reliable group in a short period of time eliminates a LOT of stress that comes from random PuG groups. I just look up the first 4 friends that want to do a dungeon and “bam!” group is made. My friends and I are always looking to improve our run efficiency by experimenting with different builds and strategies. Sometimes, we play other professions to learn more about them. Every time we do a run, we give each other constructive criticism if something could be done more efficiently. For us, dungeon running is a process of refining our knowledge of the dungeon, improving our use of our professions in the dungeon environment, making income (coin/karma), obtaining dungeon token gear, and most of all, having fun playing together.
i see from your post that you are organized and have friends to beat dungeons with but the question remains… are you having fun? are they as fun as other mmos dungeons?
I agree, their dungeon mechanics are down right horrible i’m sorry. As are most of the people leading them. Just came out of AC exp where he just ran through all the mobs, ran in to a room full of them looking for sceptor pieces while we all died repeatedly. And when i questioned him about his methods i got told to just go back to WoW and quit complaining. How am i supposed to enjoy a dungeon or learn about my character when we just run randomly through mobs, die, rez, to get to final boss? I’m sorry but while i agree WoW has gone downhill bigtime, at least their dungeons of old were a lot of fun. GW2 is mass chaos it seems to me. “wow what just killed me?” “WHO just attacked me with what spell?” are questions i ask a lot.
YES i know of the little red circles of death, but honestly…really? just avoid red circles? And when i calmly try to discuss this with people in the game they just thrash me and pretend their game is perfect and that i’m a wow fanboy which i am not. Haven’t played in years. The only thing i get in dungeons is loot i most of the time can’t use, horrible exp, and a nasty repair bill because apparently it’s ok to die over and over.
Don’t get me wrong i love the rest of this game, well except for the lackluster travel options in wvw but that’s another point. But i have always enjoyed a good dungeon system over almost anything going all the way to the original Zelda. This game sadly does not have it.
I have a blast in dungeons, some fun in open world, and none in PvP.
Just who the hell do you think I am!?
I do most of the dungeons per day. I find them repetitive and boring at this stage, and starting to think about cutting back on them since now that I have more tokens than I will ever need and my bank is full of them which takes up alot of space. Even making those tokens into Greatswords and putting the forge doesn’t quite cut it for me as my RNG is terrible XD.
When I first did dungeons they were exciting and a challenge, and upon completion I would feel awesome. Now it’s just a daily routine. P1,P2,P3.. Next dungeon P1,P2,P3, next dungeon…
I do these with guildies and we steamroll through them quite fast. But for fun is not why we do them. It’s for the 26 silver at the end + usually around 16 silver off (some) end bosses and whatever drops we hope to encounter, if lucky get a rare as tokens have no value to us anymore. For me, I go because I just cannot stand hanging around cursed shore in the zerg hoping for a drop there/event farming/gathering. Motivation to do dungeon is to make money for legendary precursor, even if it’s an extremely long and painful process. I refuse to be forced into playing the TP to make money so my choices are limited I guess.
Hoping in the future they are more rewarding for people who already have all the tokens, or they add a hard mode option which offers something different / more exiting. I would say at this stage the only dungeon that provides mild enjoyment (for me) is Arah simply because the boss mechanics of lupicus makes me pay attention… and I have a little challenge each day to see if I can go whole fight without getting downed.
If you are new to dungeons I can say you will have alot of fun, and when they start becoming boring for you ways to spice it up are setting personal goals to improve your game play, and switch up your traits/builds. With all those extra tokens you can buy a bunch of different dungeon gear sets with different stats and play around with those. On my Guardian I decided I wanted a pure condition set (TA set), a pure heals set(AC Set), a pure tanks set(SE Set) and a pure DPS Set (CoF set). Once I had the ugly AC set I went ahead and got an Arah set and re skinned it onto the AC set. So yeh you can focus on making a bunch of different sets which will take up some time there and they certainly make a dungeon more exciting ( Fun) when you switch them up, and get the skins from Arah which look great. Something else to remember is that doing a dungeon while in vent/TS/mumble with your friends certainly makes it go alot quicker and will add to the entertainment value.
Grandmaster Forum Mind Brain
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
|-Swiftpaw Sharpclaw [DnT]-|
(edited by swiftpaw.6397)
@Anders
Yes, I have fun, in general. I answered the way I did because you asked us to tell you how to enjoy it better — play with a group of dedicated and coordinated friends.
The PuG experience has mostly been stressful for me, no matter what MMO I’ve played, and I highly doubt there will be a way to improve the experience, since developers can only provide the game and not the ideal player base. Sometimes, it was stressful playing with friends because I would have to run whatever was the PvE meta for the dungeon, and we’d need the Tank/Healer/DPS trinity, which usually required rerolls of characters we probably would not want to play on our own. With the Control/Support/DPS trinity, it’s only a matter of tweaking skills/major traits that are necessary to deal with any given situation.
I like how there are less restrictions on group compositions required for dungeons because now, I’m making alts just to learn more about the capabilities of other professions rather than making them because it is “required”. However, there’s a bunch of dungeons out there that I dislike because of its design (boss has too much HP, boss doesn’t do anything scary, paths are bugged, etc.), but again, the devs are reading these forums for constructive criticism, so I’m expecting the dungeon “fun” to improve eventually.
The main reason I’m enjoying dungeons is because it involves a lot of focused team gameplay (IF you’re playing with a reliable team) in comparison to the open world PvE zerging. My skills have more value on a team level, and I feel accomplished when I figure out how to use my skills/traits best against any given dungeon scenario. The faceroll spam that you can do in open world PvE makes it boring for me. Dungeon mastery eventually leads to faster clears, less repair bills, and helps you master your profession. This, in turn, nets you faster tokens/coin.
To reiterate, the dungeon mechanics need a lot of tweaks, so for me, it’s only fun when I’m playing with my friends. The team mechanics are more interesting than the dungeon mechanics. At the very least, my team can clear a majority of runs in 20-30 minutes minimum. At this point, we run the dungeons (alternating paths) for quick coin, karma, and tokens (for stuff to throw in the forge). Any good loot we actually find is a bonus (occasional cores/lodestones/salvageable rares/t5-t6 salvage mats). Essentially, we’re farming together because we need money to buy stuff and because we enjoy the team playstyle over solo/zerg open world playstyle.
I can cooperatively farm several dimensions of game income with a team of friends, using a profession I absolutely enjoy and finishing in 30 minutes or less. For me, these things are feasible for the temporary lack of “fun” dungeon mechanics. These are most of my minimal expectations of fun for dungeons. Fun dungeon mechanics are next on the list, which I will patiently wait for by providing constructive criticism if it has not already been made on the forums.
@Otter
Ouch, you just proved my point about some PuGs. Sorry you had to experience a dungeon with rude people like that. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy the experience more with a coordinated group that is willing to teach you. If not, then I guess dungeons will just be something to put on hold for updates or an area of PvE to avoid.
Lightrayne you stat that you do not have fun in pugs but do when you play with close online friends.
I would say its safe to assume the large large majority of groups formed are pugs. If you can’t have fun in most pugs then the system is horribly broken in my mind. I’m not saying all pugs but 6 outta ten or more pugs groups should find enjoyment in their run.
Well, the explorable dungeons were advertised to be done by a coordinated group (at least according to an article that was released prior to launch).
Some of the article’s content is on the GW2 wiki now:
“Explorable mode deals with the aftermath of the events in story mode. The explorable dungeon story is told with fewer cutscenes and little exposition, and is no longer related to Destiny’s Edge. The player is presented with at least three different paths to play through for each dungeon. The party votes on the option they will take through the dungeon and the majority determines the dungeon version seen. The explorable mode dungeon is designed to be repeated, with player actions and decisions determining the occurrence of hidden or random events along with the related changes to the dungeon. This mode requires significantly more coordination between team members and so is far more difficult than story mode. It takes a significantly longer period of time than story mode.” http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon
The problem is they expected PuGs to coordinate for content with more team-focused dynamics, which I think is really difficult (if not impossible) to do unless you are a good leader or are part of a group of people you know. The ad-hoc nature of joining people in the open world works very well in comparison to dungeons as there are no capability expectations.
The majority of players in the game will PuG for sure, but I still question whether or not Anet intended the dungeons to be accessible to PuGs. In most other games I’ve played, most of this is remedied by some kind of build/strategies/etc meta. Maybe PuG group coordination will get better as guides to these dungeons and guides to professions become more available/accessible. There’s quite a few people in these forums that take pride in doing successful PuG runs. Perhaps they led the group? Perhaps they got lucky several times and found civilized individuals who were willing to coordinate?
As it stands, these dungeons have such a high learning curve that anyone who does not do their research or has not been taught by a good group will possibly sabotage the experience for others. My first few times in AC were rough (I PuG’d a lot in beta), but eventually, I became familiar with the mechanics and it became easy. I had some fun successful runs with PuGs in beta by leading the groups.
On another note, I don’t know if you’ve played the exploration dungeons yet, but those seem pretty accessible to random PuG groups as it focuses more on exploring than the actual combat (there are boss fights, though). There’s one in Fireheart Rise and Dredgehaunt Cliffs. Perhaps, if they improve the loot/rewards to those kinds of dungeons, more PuGs would probably want to do that. The dungeons are short and the combat feels very similar to regular PvE. I found those dungeon mechanics more fun. One of them involves finding stuff in the dark using a torch.