Guild Wars 2

I just got kicked from a fractal group for a reason that seems baffling to me. It was a pickup group doing the swampland fractal. And we were on the part where we had to return the three wisps to the clefts in the beginning. We tried and failed this part four times in a row. But I got a wisp back to the clefts on every attempt (actually starting from the clefts)… while the other four people couldn’t manage, between the four of them, to swing the other two. Then, all of a sudden, bang, bang bang… three votes to kick, and I’m standing in Lion’s arch.

I was literally like wtf?? So I sent the initiator a message asking for an explanation, and he told me that I was supposed to wait for everyone to say they’re ready before grabbing a wisp. If I’m wrong here, please let me know. But is this actually a thing?? Not only was most of the group in the top half of the mini-map on each attempt. But 30 seconds is enough time to get a wisp and bring it back from ANY starting location if you actually know the routes.

I’ve never heard of this before. And I’ve rarely been in a group that didn’t just get it done within two attempts. So please settle this for me. Was I being an idiot to just go grab wisps and bring them back? Because that’s the only way I’ve ever seen it done up to this point.

In PUGs, you shouldn’t assume anything about their experience, their habits, or even that they are ready to start. You seemed to have assumed that everyone approached the puzzle the same way you do.

There are just two important considerations to manage the wisps:

• knowing the route and how to avoid the hazards (or recover from dealing with them)
• coordinating when you start

The most experienced teams don’t need a ready check. I would assume that absolutely every PUG needs one. Mind you, after the first fail, I would have typed, “wait for everyone to type that they’re ready, please” rather than fail three more times.

tl;dr I agree with the initiator that you were hasty (even though I would have handled it differently)

ready checks are typical in pugs for that. There are all sorts of things you can be waiting on, such as swiftness cooldowns, etc.

The most experienced teams don’t need a ready check. I would assume that absolutely every PUG needs one.

I’m not the most experienced player. I’m working my way through the fractals. And I’m only in T3 at the moment. I was just taken completely by surprise honestly… since Ive never heard of this before; and it seemed like I was doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Ah well. Thanks for the info.

If this is not another sarcastic troll post I will answer seriously otherwise just ignore it:

Yes, you were mistaken and obviously kicked because not knowing the usual pug procedure.
In pugs you wait with running until every wips runner wrote an “r” for ready in the chat because not every wisp position is easy to run for every player. Of course in T4 everybody should know his/her class, maybe swap utility skills for this short encounter and to run properly but that’s best case. In the past I’ve already seen groups disbanding there due to failing the mechanics several times.
I mean, ok, they could have told you via chat after your first failure but hey, usually you expect everyone to know what to do if he goes straight into the direction of a wisp. You definitely didn’t from their point of view so they kicked you after the 4th attempt to be successful with somebody else.

r
r
go!

Not only in pugs. You don’t know if someone is trying to get rid of a mob, waiting for a skill cooldown or isn’t ready yet for some other reason (maybe Mossman made his infamous appearance?). At low level, you have plenty of time, but with 30 seconds, I rarely see success at the first attempt. They could have told you about the procedure, but I guess in their eyes, not knowing about it was a sign of being unexperienced in this fractal and they got fed up.

Communication is key.

Some people are too clumsy using chat to communicate and instead just do what they usually do or simply kick the behavior they don’t understand rather than communicating about it.

Sorry but yes you are wrong.
You cant just go and pick the wisp without asking if everyone is rdy.
Doesn’t matter if they are noobs or pros or qT guild.
In any swamp group you cant assume they are rdy just because they are at the location.
Sometimes I’m at the location but I’m in combat and I want to change a skill before running.
I’m surprised is the first time you get kicked for starting without asking if everyone rdy :P

Ready checks are the usual method especially once the timers get tighter in T3 and more so in T4.

Also remember, not all whisps are equally challenging. Many people have a hard time carrying the 2 northern ones in time to the trees.

Four small hints to make life easier on your pug group for this step. These are not gamebreakers but you’d be suprised how much they help with shaving off 2-3 seconds run time for T4 pugs:

- wait for all ready signs from everyone, especially if you are running one of the easier whisps

- learn to run the far whisps, it will make your life with pugs in fractals better

- leave the tree closest to the far(north) whisps unused. For the north-west one this would be the west tree (since usually the runner will run down on the left side of the map), for the north-east whisp you’ll want to leave the middle tree empty (since most runners take the center path down after picking it up)

- stay at the tree you turned in your whisps to make it easier for other runers to pick an empty tree.

Yes, you’re wrong. You are supposed to wait for everyone to be in position, because on higher tiers the time limit is too short to reach the cleft and make it back in time. It is customary to say “r” in chat when you’re in position at the cleft, wait to have 3 “r”-s and then someone say “go” in order to sync the effort.

Feanor.2358:

It is customary to say “r” in chat when you’re in position at the cleft, wait to have 3 “r”-s and then someone say “go” in order to sync the effort.

Apparently, there are different versions of custom

Just saying, it can happen that the others start at the third “r” because the last “r” means everybody is ready to go. If you then wait for someone to write “go”, it might be a problem.

I’ve only encountered

r
r
go

Honestly, the last I did swamp I had a different experience. I assumed everyone in my group would use the “ready check”. And yet, everyone had already reached the trees while I was waiting at my position for the “r” to be appearing in group chat. So imo, it would be better to ask your team members how you are going to proceed at the beginning of the fractal. I was in tier 1 in EU…….

In T1 it doesn’t matter, the time is enough. In T3/4 you simply have to coordinate your efforts or it would be literally impossible to do the puzzle.

Since we’re talking about wisp running: am I crazy, or do the mobs have weird AI regarding ranger pets? They relentlessly attack mine even when I put it on passive, stow it, and make it to a hiding rock – I can be on the rock, but once they start milling around my pet comes out and starts getting attacked. They will also attack it when it’s “dead”. This all keeps me in combat and makes it very very hard to run the wisps, which I’m not good at anyway. Is there some secret I’m missing?

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

It’s a courtesy, but generally I’ve always allowed for the person who is furthest away to grab first. Once that person does then we’re all set.

It makes sense to ready up. However, I don’t see why they didn’t just ask you to do that in chat instead of kicking.

They most likely did, but s/he continued another 3 times hence the kick.

So hard to communicate. ROFL…

You need to wait for others to be ready. You may not see it but there might be Mossman attacking them before they can even grab orb or they are stuck with skelks or a trap. In low levels it is not an issue but in t4 you barely have any time, there are JPs everywhere and traps moving after you.

Let’s assume they didn’t tell you why they kicked you but frankly you also did the same – you didn’t tell them that you are ready and didn’t wait for other to get ready. From their perspective it probably looked like you were trolling hence why they kicked you.

It gets even worse later, when you have to return the wisps at the 25% boss phase. You have people not way pointing their corner and running around blindly trying to grab a wisp but you got all of them going to the same wisp. Then someone stops to argue that that was their wisp but no one marked their corner remember, but the person says they called at the start which was about 30 minutes ago because people don’t know how to get out of AOE circles so you spend more time reviving everyone. So no one remembers what’s what and then time runs out and everyone dies and you want to cry. Oh and it’s T4.

I never see anyone pointing out corners at T4 Swamps and it almost never fails. Once someone didn’t return the wisp, but that was because a stupid Ice bow dropped right at it and the player picked it up without noticing the difference. That can happen even if you plan the corners.

Maybe it’s because most people in T4 fractals use mobility pots and there’s plenty of time to get the job done. With Thief and other classes that have short ports, one person can do 2 wisps. When I turn to a wisp and someone is closer, I pick another one. Even if two people already stand at the same wisp for some reason and try to grab it, the one who didn’t pick it can get to another one on the opposite of the instance in time.

Eh, you don’t all have white mantle portal devices in shared inventory slots to easy mode this?

Scrubs!

apharma.3741:

Eh, you don’t all have white mantle portal devices in shared inventory slots to easy mode this?

Scrubs!

What the…!

I didn’t know this exists. 1000 Magnetite Shards :S

Only 964 more to go for me then!

This is a nice gizmo, despite 30 minutes cooldown time. Would use it for the starting wisps at T4 rather than at Bloomhunger though.

Faaris.8013:

apharma.3741:

Eh, you don’t all have white mantle portal devices in shared inventory slots to easy mode this?

Scrubs!

What the…!

I didn’t know this exists. 1000 Magnetite Shards :S

Only 964 more to go for me then!

This is a nice gizmo, despite 30 minutes cooldown time. Would use it for the starting wisps at T4 rather than at Bloomhunger though.

Remember, Adrenal Mushrooms reduce cooldown of skills and use items like the WMPD by 20 minutes. A great way to reduce that 30 minutes cooldown when running around in HoT areas.

apharma.3741:

Eh, you don’t all have white mantle portal devices in shared inventory slots to easy mode this?

Scrubs!

Who needs that when you have shadowstep and dash on short cd.