First off, I would like to say that I think that at the core, the dungeon design in Guild Wars 2 is excellent. I admire the fact that Arenanet has added explorable dungeons to the game to help the more “motivated,” for lack of a better word, PvE players. I think dungeons should remain quite difficult, making teamwork and team coordination a necessity in the completion of an explorable dungeon.
However, I think there are a few changes that would make dungeons more enjoyable.
The first dungeon design on my list that I think needs to be changed is how the waypoint system works in dungeons.
My least favorite design in dungeons currently, is the fact that you can respawn if you die during battle, using a waypoint, and run back into the fight. This is teaching players that it’s okay if the player doesn’t want to properly learn the boss encounter. If you die, no big deal, just waypoint back into the battle.
How would I change this? The solution is simple. Place a waypoint before each boss room, and have it deactivated while any amount of party members are currently fighting enemies. If you and your whole party goes down, the waypoint is then usable and your team can figure out what you did wrong and practice another attempt. This may be unsatisfying at first, but once you get a boss down with no full deaths (down-state is not a full death) it will feel like you actually achieved something greater than just waypoint rushing.
The second nitpick on my list is the token system. This is issue is not a huge deal to me, but I will express how I think the token system needs to be changed, anyway.
My problem with dungeon tokens is that you acquire a group of 5 tokens per boss from the chest, and that it takes as many as 390 tokens for the most expensive weapons.
My solution to this problem is I think that a singular token should be randomly dropped from mobs and bosses in the dungeon, much like how Globs of Ectoplasm and Obsidian Shards were acquired in Guild Wars 1. Furthermore, with this singular token drop system, the cost of the dungeon armor, in tokens, should be lowered to 120-150 tokens for a full set.
My third issue with dungeons is that players do not see an large enough incentive to explore the more difficult paths. This is demonstrated with what players call “Citadel of Flames speed clears” and the solution to this issue is going to tie directly into my solution on tokens. I will thus provide a “what if” solution based on tokens being acquired randomly by mobs and bosses, and a solution based on how tokens are currently acquired by chests.
My “what if” solution:
If tokens were acquired randomly from mobs and bosses, in order to produce incentive for players to explore different paths, a system could be implemented that decreases the percentage of token drop rates on a certain path that has already been completed for the first time in a single day. If you complete the same path twice, the percentage keeps decreasing, and so on. However, if you explore a different path in the dungeon, the normal drop rate percentage is restored, but only on paths that you have not explored within that 24-hour period.
My solution based on how the token system is currently designed:
If you complete a certain path for the first time within a single day, you get the full 30 tokens. The second time you complete that path, you get four tokens per chest. The third time you complete that same path you get three tokens per chest. On your fourth run through the same path, you then get one token per chest. However, if you complete a different path your token amount is restored to 30, and the cycle is repeated. I think that this will give players that extra push to venture onto different paths and not just take the easy path every time.
Other Issues
-Some bosses mechanics seem broken and unintentional. For example, the fact that the Twilight Arbor explorable mode final boss on the “up” path and the “forward” -> “up” path are easily killed by standing in the hallfway before the main boss room and ranging from a distance. My party and I were able to kill both of these bosses without taking any damage. I actually ate dinner while auto attacking.
-Some enemies in dungeons and boss encounters are bugged, under tuned or over tuned. Balancing and bug fixes need to take place.
-The loot table (armor and weapons) seems out of whack. I have ran Twilight Arbor Explorable Mode about 10 to 15 times and I have seen only one rare drop, which was a level 53 bow (I am level 80). No one in my party has seen an exotic drop yet and I mostly get blues and greens. Maybe I am just unlucky?
Please go easy on me if you disagree with any of my issues or solutions and explain to me why I am wrong and help convince me otherwise.
(edited by Gempulse.9463)