Guild Wars 2

First a little rant (skip the first section if you want to get to the point),

I’ve done Arah several times, even before the recent boost to marks earned (in this case called ‘Shards of Zhaitan’). After my last run I now have 328 ‘Shards of Zhaitan’, meaning I still need the two shards to get the chest piece I really want. But, since the latest reform to dungeon awards you don’t get any marks unless the last boss is killed. Meaning, I have to run the whole dungeon before I can get the two shards I need for my chest piece (which I btw, REALLY want). Okay, okay… it’s doable I think. But after several attempts at finding a group dedicated enough to put in the time needed, my spirit is quite broken. Ie. people leaving after pulling a pack and getting the whole group killed (this happened a lot). I finally find a group with the patience to do the whole ting.

After downing the 3rd boss in Arah, ‘Giganticus Lupicus’, our group leader (in this case I’m defining the group leader as the person entering the dungeon) decides to go afk. Without telling us. We decide to push forward a bit while we wait for him to come back. He doesn’t. We wait still. Nothing. We decide to keep trying to kill the pack of spiders. It’s not possible with 4 people. Even after a good deal of attempts, no progress. “We need a full party to take down the last boss. We need to replace him”. says the guy who started the party. So he votes to kick him. The group leader is kicked. Everyone’s thrown out of the dungeon, and 3 hours (or more?) of progressing goes down the drain. No shards, nothing. No reward, unless you’re counting random masterwork and rare quality item drops. We’re all speechless.

How is this justified? What are we supposed to do when something completely out of our hands ruins 3 hours of dedication? (He entered the dungeon before the guy who organized the group could).

I apologize if this is sounds harsh, but you must understand how frustrated I am. I just wanted the two marks. And mind you, the “group leader” wasn’t paying attention or following any directions or tactics the whole dungeon. Constantly going “afk” without telling us, especially when the trash needed to be dealt with. After a 15 minute long period of apparently going afk the majority of the group felt he needed to be kicked. It was pretty justified.

First of all, I want to point out you most likely do not deserve the tokens you currently have. Let me explain this to you.

Arah is designed to be difficult, even for highly geared and talented players. The encounters can be brutal and the utmost attention must be made during travel, pulling and fighting for just about the whole dungeon. It is not impossible to do, far from it, but it is meant to stress even veteran, highly geared static group players.

You mention that you have 300-some odd tokens that you got before the change. If I had to guess, since you’re spending 3+ hours in a single path and failing, that you earned those tokens via running 1 or 2 “easy bosses” and resetting the instance before the change….. Oh goody, so you want the armor skin to the dungeon you can’t even finish?

The arah armor was supposed to be a badge of honor for good players. It’s not statistically any better then the gear you can get from the much easier dungeons like TA or CoF, it’s just for the skin. A skin that was supposed to symbolize the ability to handle difficult content. A symbol lost due to people “speed running” the first or 2nd “easy bosses”.

The fact of the matter is you shouldn’t have even gotten the tokens that you currently have. I suggest you gear up in another dungeon, get a solid static group of dedicated players, practice together in other dungeons. Then actually learn how to do Arah. Use a VOIP program and some mics. Coordinate fields, assist each other, perfect your dungeon build.

When you do this, the tokens will start flowing, and you won’t have anything to complain about.

As far as the whole “kicking leader disbands group”. I had this happen today in CM exp mode. He disconnected and didn’t come back, and we ended up having to restart the dungeon. It is a slight annoyance, but it’s not something I see them fixing very fast, or at all. It’s just something that shouldn’t be a problem but maybe once out of 50 runs at worst. This is something that’s coded into their instance code. The instance belongs to the leader, if the leader drops it resets the instance. I’m almost positive this is how it’s coded to ensure that the dungeon itself resets after a path is completed, along with other technical things. I hope they can find a work around to prevent this from being an issue in the future, but it’s something that shouldn’t really be an issue 99% of the time. There are bigger fish to fry atm for Anet.

In any case… goodluck learning how to do Arah correctly. You’re gunna need it.

I’ve always wondered if the instance host kicking would be a problem eventually, and this is a good example. Suddenly, I’m more appreciative that I only do these things with my friends/guildies, though in the event of a disconnect, I’d still get hit with this problem. I certainly hope they eventually develop a workaround that does not rely on a single instance host.

@Bigbeef.7354
I’ll refrain from replying in the same manner, but let me say this. I do understand that the tokens are privileges to talented players. I have among Arah done several other dungeons in exploration mode. Before the latest patch (wednesday) I wasn’t able to enter the same dungeon as other players, due to an unknown bug. Therefore I haven’t had the chance to do Arah until recently (I’ve been able to do whole runs after the dungeon reform, maybe I wasn’t clear enough about this). Though I admit I’ve participated in one or two runs doing only te first two bosses for easy tokens, this isn’t however the source of the majority of my tokens . I do however recognize that most players (especially those with the full set). But it’s quite uneccassary to accuse me for something I did not do, and it most certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the problem I’m presenting. Currently I haven’t bought any gear with tokens from Arah for those exact reasons. However I am NOT undergeared, as I’ve mostly rare or exotic quality items (about 50 % each).

Neither gear nor skill is a problem for me. What is however a problem for me is the possibility of joining a group of random players (of which players without four level 80 friends with descent gear have to do) and having hours of effort gone to waste.

And yes, it does take up to three hours when your fellow partymembers refuse to listen to boss tactics, strategies and pulling monsters wihout warning. But this however was not the main problem as the title clearly states. The problem is the mentioned host-based dungeon system, leaving no room for situations like the one explained. And even though it might not represent a big problem, it’s still an uneccassary problem.

Let’s consider your little estimation. If it happens once every fifty dungeon runs, it’s certainly not a large problem for you as an individual. But let’s consider that you’re not the only one that plays GW2, the problem grows! (Oh dear!) This is a problem that could as a whole cause a lot of wasted time, and a lot of frustration. Again, I realize it’s not the biggest problem. But it’s a problem that should be assessed nonetheless. Making a note of bugs or problems is one of the key purposes of the forum.

Bigbeef.7354:

post too long to quote

Obviously you didn’t even read his post.

And yes, I agree that this needs to be fixed. Partyleader leaving the party shouldn’t reset the dungeon, that’s just stupid design.

Don’t care of people posting their funny L2P. Who post in pug threads about it, is just people who must knee and thanks their god to be enough lucky to have found a guild dedicated to arah, organizing runs appropriately knowing the content too. Alone, those guys, are just funny losers.
Block leavers, and start to make a list of the best players you met on pugs, calling them for future runs. Repay, days later.

Agree 100% about the leader resetting the dungeon, but i’ll tell you something strange.. Yesterday i was on arah, at half 1 without a reason left the group, one more went afk then offline. The guy who left, was one of the idiot you described, but attempting to destroy the entire run (he was the leader). Guess what, we wasn’t kicked. Sadly we didn’t found a replace,so 3rd left. Still we was inside the dungeon. I left, the 5th got kicked. Without a reason i became the group leader, the one who leaving reset the dungeon.
This system is not meant to be like this, it’s just bad programming, trash who must be fixed.