Guild Wars 2

http://massivelyop.com/2016/11/15/guild-wars-2s-next-episode-a-crack-in-the-ice-drops-november-21/

It really sounds like they are bringing the Tower of Nightmares from Season One back as a fractal next Monday.

Can’t wait to see it.

Interesting. Hopefully it is as close as possible to the original tower. I’m looking forward to it a lot

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

I’m happy to have another fractal added but 4 months between islands is just too much, man.

Bird perspective of one of the areas

Enemy/Mini boss?

Another Enemy/Miniboss?

Old end boss is back

Now featuring more orange circles

Looking good so far, great to see this dungeon making a return.

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

Fractals is the best way to re-introduce LS1 content.

Personally I can’t wait for the Marionette boss fractal. I’m positive it is coming some time in the future, just like how now we get Tower of Nightmares now.

Ayrilana.1396:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

I’ve also asked for that but not Tower of Nightmare because it was the worst part out of all old stuff, in my opinion.

It’s fine that there is a new fractal, finally! But after Chaos again no real new stuff so it is not illegitimate to ask for what they are doing the whole time and why there hasn’t been any extraordinary new fractal when raids and LS3 are delivering.

Is this going to be a complete rehash of the Tower of nightmares? Or is it a new thing?

1. I never played season 1 (watched everything through all videos I could find) so I am excited

2. Wasn’t this one of those open world content releases? I am very curious since this could bring us closer to the battle of LA and Marionette fight

Would it be possible to implement Closing Ceremony and Scarlet’s playhouse? Would love to play those two and seem easier to make into a fractal

Vinceman.4572:

Ayrilana.1396:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

I’ve also asked for that but not Tower of Nightmare because it was the worst part out of all old stuff, in my opinion.

It’s fine that there is a new fractal, finally! But after Chaos again no real new stuff so it is not illegitimate to ask for what they are doing the whole time and why there hasn’t been any extraordinary new fractal when raids and LS3 are delivering.

Everyone has parts the loved and hate. You can please everyone. If it was another part, someone else wouldve made the comments you made. I for one welcome our toxic overlords

Ayrilana.1396:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

Re-purposed content is great, but this is the kind of thing we should have gotten bundled together (Chaos, Tower of Nightmares, Glint’s Lair etc) months ago, and have some brand new fractals to look forward to.

Jahroots.6791:

Ayrilana.1396:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

Re-purposed content is great, but this is the kind of thing we should have gotten bundled together (Chaos, Tower of Nightmares, Glint’s Lair etc) months ago, and have some brand new fractals to look forward to.

Absolutely agree.

Jahroots.6791:

Ayrilana.1396:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

Re-purposed content is great, but this is the kind of thing we should have gotten bundled together (Chaos, Tower of Nightmares, Glint’s Lair etc) months ago, and have some brand new fractals to look forward to.

Just because these share themes with previous content does not mean that they are not new. We don’t know what they’re doing with the new fractal, so it’s a bit presumptuous to assume a copy & paste. You’re also assuming that this fractal was ready when the Chaos ready months ago. I don’t know why you brought up Glint’s Lair as that was past of LS2.

the leggie shield looks ok i guess i wonder how you get the quaggan to stay in there xD the fractal is dope it might be from an old idea but im just glad we get more content

zealex.9410:

the leggie shield looks ok i guess i wonder how you get the quaggan to stay in there xD the fractal is dope it might be from an old idea but im just glad we get more content

Thats the best part, everytime you block an attack, a quaggan dies. The legendary shield automatically summons a new one to die for you in the next attack. If we all craft the shield and start fighting actively with them, we can erradicate all the quaggans!

Jahroots.6791:

I’m happy to have another fractal added but 4 months between islands is just too much, man.

4 months between fractal island releases doesn’t seem too bad to me considering there is also work being done updating other fractals. I think it only seems slow because the insanely long stretch of no content makes it feel like we are “owed” a lot now. But if we can consistently get 3 islands a year + updates to existing fractals, along with other pve releases like LS, raids, and current events, all while building towards the next expansion, I would say that is a pretty solid content output.

It’s frustrating – I just don’t think this is the right way to do this.

They need to prioritize getting season 1 properly into the game (yes, it can be done, they just won’t make it a priority), and remove these fractals and replace them with new unique stuff that matches the themes of the original fractals.

it really fits the theme of fractals tho since fractals are a way for adventurers to face importand encounters in key moments in the lore

Ayrilana.1396:

Just because these share themes with previous content does not mean that they are not new. We don’t know what they’re doing with the new fractal, so it’s a bit presumptuous to assume a copy & paste. You’re also assuming that this fractal was ready when the Chaos ready months ago. I don’t know why you brought up Glint’s Lair as that was past of LS2.

Yeah, it won’t be a copy and paste but it might seem a bit…. stale to a veteran player. It’ll probably be good fun regardless, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that pristine toxic spores drop frequently enough to lower the prices of those toxic utility consumables a bit.

I mentioned Glint’s lair because it was a story episode that felt like it would make a good fractal, and I see no reason to stick to one season when re-purposing story content into fractals.

Dinosaurs.8674:

4 months between fractal island releases doesn’t seem too bad to me considering there is also work being done updating other fractals. I think it only seems slow because the insanely long stretch of no content makes it feel like we are “owed” a lot now. But if we can consistently get 3 islands a year + updates to existing fractals, along with other pve releases like LS, raids, and current events, all while building towards the next expansion, I would say that is a pretty solid content output.

It seems slow because they’ve released entire raid wings at once, and fractal islands don’t make for good individual releases. Now, I can appreciate the constraints they are working with and have absolutely no knowledge of the industry at all, but individual fractals tend to be pretty short, thus they work better in bundles.

Jahroots.6791:

Ayrilana.1396:

Just because these share themes with previous content does not mean that they are not new. We don’t know what they’re doing with the new fractal, so it’s a bit presumptuous to assume a copy & paste. You’re also assuming that this fractal was ready when the Chaos ready months ago. I don’t know why you brought up Glint’s Lair as that was past of LS2.

Yeah, it won’t be a copy and paste but it might seem a bit…. stale to a veteran player. It’ll probably be good fun regardless, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that pristine toxic spores drop frequently enough to lower the prices of those toxic utility consumables a bit.

I mentioned Glint’s lair because it was a story episode that felt like it would make a good fractal, and I see no reason to stick to one season when re-purposing story content into fractals.

Dinosaurs.8674:

4 months between fractal island releases doesn’t seem too bad to me considering there is also work being done updating other fractals. I think it only seems slow because the insanely long stretch of no content makes it feel like we are “owed” a lot now. But if we can consistently get 3 islands a year + updates to existing fractals, along with other pve releases like LS, raids, and current events, all while building towards the next expansion, I would say that is a pretty solid content output.

It seems slow because they’ve released entire raid wings at once, and fractal islands don’t make for good individual releases. Now, I can appreciate the constraints they are working with and have absolutely no knowledge of the industry at all, but individual fractals tend to be pretty short, thus they work better in bundles.

they have that many ppl working on fractals and that much money to invest on new fractals

Jahroots.6791:

Ayrilana.1396:

Just because these share themes with previous content does not mean that they are not new. We don’t know what they’re doing with the new fractal, so it’s a bit presumptuous to assume a copy & paste. You’re also assuming that this fractal was ready when the Chaos ready months ago. I don’t know why you brought up Glint’s Lair as that was past of LS2.

Yeah, it won’t be a copy and paste but it might seem a bit…. stale to a veteran player. It’ll probably be good fun regardless, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that pristine toxic spores drop frequently enough to lower the prices of those toxic utility consumables a bit.

I mentioned Glint’s lair because it was a story episode that felt like it would make a good fractal, and I see no reason to stick to one season when re-purposing story content into fractals.

The only thing about this is that we still have access to Glints Lair in LWS2. We don’t have access to Tower of Nightmares anymore. So even though it is re-hashed content, its not identical content to something already in the game.

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

To be fair, fractals are all about things that have happened in tyria’s past. I mean of course it gives them space to do almost whatever, but this is much easier to just give us something at least.

That being said, not too fond of the tower either, lets see though.

also: Scarlet Hologram fractal when, that kitten was absolutely amazing and would easily be a good encounter to rework as a stepping stone for raids with the mechanics it had. On top of that the music and whatnot.

I don’t care if it’s rehashed or whatnot, I am extremely excited for the new Fractal because the ambiance is unique and it offers us a chance to see more S1 LW content that we would (realistically) never see otherwise.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

also: Scarlet Hologram fractal when, that kitten was absolutely amazing and would easily be a good encounter to rework as a stepping stone for raids with the mechanics it had. On top of that the music and whatnot.

Scarlet Hologram boss Fractal would be pretty much amazing.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I don’t care if it’s rehashed or whatnot, I am extremely excited for the new Fractal because the ambiance is unique and it offers us a chance to see more S1 LW content that we would (realistically) never see otherwise.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

also: Scarlet Hologram fractal when, that kitten was absolutely amazing and would easily be a good encounter to rework as a stepping stone for raids with the mechanics it had. On top of that the music and whatnot.

Scarlet Hologram boss Fractal would be pretty much amazing.

They could replace the mai trin 100 boss lvl with the scarlet hologram as nai trin really isnt worthy of being the last boss fractal its easier than many of the previous ones.

Well, it is not that so many people are left who know what Tower of Nightmares was all about. Some people think that it was just a glorified open world dungeon with a myriad of trash mobs and some fancy winning conditions, other thought it was the best content ever.

I am pretty much satisfied with any new fractal that is not just a mish-mash of former fractals, but when pressed what I want more, a ls1 fractal or a new one, I would have to go with the ls1. although I would also be very interested in the origin of the blue titan of cliffside fractal.

this isnt simply rehashed, this is upgraded.

tower of nightmares didnt have any orange circles around, and the extent of the danger in progressing to the top was merely racing thru poison from 1 safe spot to the next and praying either no mobs looked at you funny or that youd be able to kill them at the safe spot. all the champs were just trash without special mechanics (only a couple new moves were added, like on the toxic hybrid [the boss at the end of the facebook trailer] which was only in a story instance).

with the fractal we can at least expect mechanics throughout the whole island, whether simple or not, thanks to what chaos fractal and the other reworks (swamp in particular) have shown us.

cant wait. might make me put down pokemon.

I didn’t do the nightmare tower when it was out. Is there anything I should look out for? Or would it just be better to go to open world and fight the ones still around?

Sarahfull.4930:

I didn’t do the nightmare tower when it was out. Is there anything I should look out for? Or would it just be better to go to open world and fight the ones still around?

It is highly unlikely that they will keep all of the content from the original. The Tower of Nightmares was essentially a large vertical map – and most of the content was open world style for large groups. Within that, there were a series of 5-person instances where we fought corrupted versions of Pact heroes (Tybalt, etc) and members of Destiny’s Edge (Rytlock, etc). At the very top, there was a short instance where we fought a toxic kraitlike creature. That instance is likely to make up the majority of this fractal – and that is good. The last fight was interesting.

The large non scale bosses were interesting – and there were some pretty challenging mazes that had to be navigated, but I’m not sure how they would translate that to 5 person content.

The big thing will be the toxic krait fight – which I suspect they will update and add to. Not a tremendous amount of story – but interesting nonetheless.

Ayrilana.1396:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Fractals based on LS1 events have been requested by players. If you don’t like it then you don’t have to play it.

Yeah and even more people have wanted Living Story Season 1 in some form in the story journal. Having fractals just puts a damper on the whole thing it really inform people of the story they missed because its just a fractal. Furthermore if it’s not a raid plowing through the tower I don’t see the point.

Fractals do no justice to what the content originally was. We would be better off seeing actually historical figures like Turai Ossa, Lord Ordran and Abbadon; it would also push for the creation of many new assets (that could then be used elsewhere to make new maps more diverse). With what is going on right now, we might never, ever get a proper filling to the gap in our story journal left by LS1, and this is very serious in a game where progression is firstly done through means of story like GW2.

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Wasn’t that point of fractals, though? To reuse content and refresh it at the same time?

I hope it’s broken up into at least 2 different fractals, one being a boss fractal.

TheFantasticGuy.7206:

Vinceman.4572:

Sad. Again refurbished and rewarmed stuff.

Wasn’t that point of fractals, though? To reuse content and refresh it at the same time?

Nah, not rly.

Well, Vince… Hate to break it to you but that’s what Fractals are for now.

And, Ben, a dodge key? What’s that?

TheFantasticGuy.7206:

Well, Vince… Hate to break it to you but that’s what Fractals are for now.

Swamp, Uncategorized, Underground Facility, Aquatic Ruins, Cliffside, Volcanic, Solid Ocean…nuff said.

They should work on new stuff after releasing the Tower on monday, marionette and I don’t mind Scarlet fight.

Oh, I agree they should work on new content, but that takes more time and money than rehashing the old, dusting it off, and putting it in as new content (it seems that way anyway)… so… I’m willing to bet will get more content that is refurb’d than new content.

I don’t think so. Old dungeons are falling in the same category of content and they were never touched again.
It’s more that they are serving to a players wish: having ls1 content back in the game. Since the raid team has brought us new, unique stuff in a short amount of time I bet the people developing fractals can do as well.

Well, here’s to hoping for new fractal content in the future then.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

We have the capacity to make new content that doesn’t use as many old assets, and we will be doing that. We just really liked the idea of ToN as a fractal and had the added bonus of needing less prop + texture support, which meant Jeff had more bandwidth to do new effects and map art as well as work for the next fractal.

Since we have 16 different fractals with nightmare included, and only 3 daily fractals which are completed in less than 30min with an experienced group, can we please get more dailies?

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

We have the capacity to make new content that doesn’t use as many old assets, and we will be doing that. We just really liked the idea of ToN as a fractal and had the added bonus of needing less prop + texture support, which meant Jeff had more bandwidth to do new effects and map art as well as work for the next fractal.

Here’s hyping up for a fresh new fractal, but thank you again for bringing back the nostalgia of the Tower of Nightmares!

Lendruil.9061:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

We have the capacity to make new content that doesn’t use as many old assets, and we will be doing that. We just really liked the idea of ToN as a fractal and had the added bonus of needing less prop + texture support, which meant Jeff had more bandwidth to do new effects and map art as well as work for the next fractal.

Since we have 16 different fractals with nightmare included, and only 3 daily fractals which are completed in less than 30min with an experienced group, can we please get more dailies?

Those aren’t the only dailies in the game, and there is nothing that says you can’t do any more fractals after you finish your dailies. The number of fractal dailies is fine as it is.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Happy to see so much discussion here! I can give a little more non spoilery info.

It is going to be a single fractal, not two like the other ep 1 fractals.

Mechanically and story wise it is almost nothing like the original. You will get tinges of nostalgia but we very much wanted this to be a completely unique experience for both players who played the original and new players. The prime focus is on the encounters and the combat, so expect some fun challenges

Warm up your dodge keys folks!

Also… don’t neglect the protection boon!

Sounds good.

And while I know you guys don’t wanna answer with yes/no if you’re not 100% certain, others and I brought up the idea of the Breachmaker-battle against Scarlet’s hologram as boss fractal, in this thread too. Is this something you guys ever considered or could see actually getting implemented into fractals?

Are you going to remove an old fractal and replace it with this one? Or you are you going to play with the order (position on the list) of fractals?

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Mechanically and story wise it is almost nothing like the original. You will get tinges of nostalgia but we very much wanted this to be a completely unique experience for both players who played the original and new players. The prime focus is on the encounters and the combat, so expect some fun challenges

That’s at least something. I remember almost nothing of the original tower, which means that it must have been pretty boring.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Lendruil.9061:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

We have the capacity to make new content that doesn’t use as many old assets, and we will be doing that. We just really liked the idea of ToN as a fractal and had the added bonus of needing less prop + texture support, which meant Jeff had more bandwidth to do new effects and map art as well as work for the next fractal.

Since we have 16 different fractals with nightmare included, and only 3 daily fractals which are completed in less than 30min with an experienced group, can we please get more dailies?

We do actually like keeping the dailies somewhat short, since lots of dailies means that groups feel they have to play for hours per day which contributes to burnout, especially if you don’t clear the fractals on the first try. Adding a tier 3 daily recommended is not out of the question however.

Tier 3 daily recommended would certainly help with completing the 51-75 achievement by growing the pool of people willing to do them. So… yes please!

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Adding a tier 3 daily recommended is not out of the question however.

please do