Guild Wars 2

I have no problem completing this fractal (the mid and end-bosses are some of my favorites because the mechanics are unique and interesting) but I wanted to mention how annoying the harpies’ knockback attack at level 10+ is. I think it’s a case of “false difficulty”—I don’t think it makes the fractal more challenging, just tedious, requiring patience instead of skill.

Here’s a list of the individual frustrations:
1. You cannot dodge-roll to avoid the attack because you will fall off the platform, period. The game mechanic all players are supposed to use to avoid attacks is not viable on those tiny platforms.

2. The AoE red circle is bigger than most of the platforms, making it very difficult or outright impossible to see depending on where you are standing.

3. Not all professions can give themselves or the party sufficient evasion, stability, aegis, or reflection/absorption to negate all the attacks. For instance, necros can do none of those things except for self-stability which is tied to a grandmaster trait or elite transformations—try doing a jumping puzzle in Lich Form sometime (hint: you don’t have feet.) Furthermore, the attack is so frequent that eventually even a guardian will have all skills on cooldown.

4. The reduced movement speed you have in combat makes jumping to the next/previous platform to avoid the attack more difficult. This is exacerbated by the fact the harpies have a cripple attack and seem to like hitting you with it while you’re in mid-air. I love jumping puzzles (completed Mad King’s Clocktower 8 times) and I still find this tricky—I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to jump puzzle haters.

5. The punishment for falling is simply a time-penalty (Bandage out of downed state, run back,) which I believe Robert has said he does not like and is not something he intentionally designs for.

From a mechanics perspective, the jumping sections do not work well within the existing combat system because of #1 and #2. From a balance perspective, it’s not fair that specific boons and defensive skills are pretty much required to get through these sections in a reasonable amount of time.

I think the encounters could be fixed by any one of the following:

• Remove the knockback attack entirely. (Don’t see this happening though)
• Redesign the terrain of the jumping sections so the platforms are big enough to allow dodging and for the red circles to be more visible.
• Reduce the knockback attack’s AoE radius so it’s fully visible on the existing small platforms.
• (hat tip to Dahkeus) Add an Environmental Weapon that allows the harpy attacks to be blocked or reflected, similar to the Air Rifles that reflect missiles in Caudecus’s Manor path 3.

Really, I think the best solution would be to just make the red circles more visible for this fractal – maybe the circle is shown off the terrain, in the air? Not sure how difficult that would be from a programming standpoint, but it would make the fractal less frustrating to run, similar to how they edited the Swamp fractal.

The knockback is annoying and tedious, but it’s not terribly hard to avoid when you can see the circles.

I don’t agree with any of this.

The only part I will sort of agree with is how being in combat makes your jumps shorter but that’s a blanket issue with combat and movement.

One complaint you didn’t list that I have with this instance is that, since you tend to be moving the camera around, it’s hard to actually see the hapries to tell when they’re about to use that attack. Either you’re angled up to look at the harpies and aim your attacks or you’re looking at your feet so you can see any red circles.

But I find it pretty simple to get through this part and even with getting knocked off, I find this is the most fun fractal for me. It’s light-hearted and less serious compared to much of the other ones. To protect yourself during the platform parts, just spread out. Don’t stand on the same platform as someone else and when one of them targets you, jump to another platform or use a defensive skill to protect yourself.

I usually use staff since Meteor Storm can be focused to have all the meteors hitting one tiny platform (doesn’t always work if another platform is nearly on the same level) and demolish a harpy quick, although Focus off-hand is the better defensive weapon as it has several skills to defend against the KB.

The issue isn’t that it’s hard to get past them—see the part where I said “I have no problem completing this fractal”? The issue is that it’s tedious due to mechanics and certain class comps.

I agree. This fractal is extremely easy but extremely annoying. You can’t watch the harpy and the ground at the same time. Let’s not even get into the harpies that drop a circle that you can’t even shoot yet.

The circle is too big for most platforms. I only get knocked off a few times and that’s when I just used stability and don’t see another circle. Make the circle itself red and not just the outline and it would be no issue.

You forgot one point: sometimes, you get hit by the knockback and are immediatly defeated, not downed. That’s pretty frustrating, and can really be bad for your amor in the long run (well, now that we can repair in mid-run, it’s less of a problem, just a loss of time…)

Also, since the last patch, harpies often get invulnerability, which is really annoying.

Most often, especially at high levels, the group i am with try to completely dodge the harpies, to prevent some useless broken armor (mesmer portal with either thief stealth, or order of whispers kit).

It’s very easy to completely negate the knockback by just constantly stafing left then right, causing the projectile to shoot off to the side. It does however become very annoying.

Mr eX.3420:

1. You cannot dodge-roll to avoid the attack because you will fall off the platform, period. The game mechanic all players are supposed to use to avoid attacks is not viable on those tiny platforms.

That’s a valid complaint. It’s pretty easy to jump to another platform to dodge, although I’ve noticed sometimes you’ll collide with the projectile in midair doing so.

Mr eX.3420:

2. The AoE red circle is bigger than most of the platforms, making it very difficult or outright impossible to see depending on where you are standing.

This is one of the most obvious design flaws in FotM, and could be so easily fixed by just modifying the art asset for “red rings” (add “crosshair” lines, concentric circles, globe pattern, anything).
Until this gets fixed (if it ever does), a workaround is to stand on the extreme edge of a platform. This way, if the attack is targeting you, the ring should be partly visible on the platform.

Mr eX.3420:

3. Not all professions can give themselves or the party sufficient evasion, stability, aegis, or reflection/absorption to negate all the attacks. For instance, necros can do none of those things except for self-stability which is tied to a grandmaster trait or elite transformations—try doing a jumping puzzle in Lich Form sometime (hint: you don’t have feet.) Furthermore, the attack is so frequent that eventually even a guardian will have all skills on cooldown.

A valid concern. To my knowledge, only three classes have group projectile reflect/block, and most of the group skills in this regard are on the Guardian. I don’t see an easy way to resolve this without substantial rework of all classes. In other words, this is a problem of content “requiring” a specific class, in a game where the classes are ostensibly largely interchangeable.

Mr eX.3420:

4. The reduced movement speed you have in combat makes jumping to the next/previous platform to avoid the attack more difficult. This is exacerbated by the fact the harpies have a cripple attack and seem to like hitting you with it while you’re in mid-air. I love jumping puzzles (completed Mad King’s Clocktower 8 times) and I still find this tricky—I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to jump puzzle haters.

Yes, the gaps between platforms are no problem with out-of-combat speed, but in-combat speed makes some of these gaps just large enough to be scaled, and only barely. The cripple attack just feels like a developer troll here. If you get hit with it in midair, there’s nothing you can do. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever been hit with the cripple while trying to dodge the knockback attack. I can see how it would happen against multiple harpies at once, though.

Which leads to a severe problem with this section by my reckoning – the aggro range on the harpies. Especially true at the beginning of the Fractal, where harpies directly above you can aggro seemingly before they’re intended to. Then you’re dealing with too many targets, too many knockbacks, and too many cripples.

Mr eX.3420:

From a mechanics perspective, the jumping sections do not work well within the existing combat system because of #1 and #2. From a balance perspective, it’s not fair that specific boons and defensive skills are pretty much required to get through these sections in a reasonable amount of time.

I have to agree, your analysis is pretty solid. Effective completion of this segment currently is too reliant upon very specific, class-oriented mechanics.

Mr eX.3420:

3. Not all professions can give themselves or the party sufficient evasion, stability, aegis, or reflection/absorption to negate all the attacks. For instance, necros can do none of those things except for self-stability which is tied to a grandmaster trait or elite transformations—try doing a jumping puzzle in Lich Form sometime (hint: you don’t have feet.) Furthermore, the attack is so frequent that eventually even a guardian will have all skills on cooldown.

I fully agree with what you saying, expect i think it’s the easiest to do with necros
you have two things:
a, spectral walk: hit it before projectile lands and hit it when you are flying, and you are back on the platform
b, death shroud: falling while shrouded doesn’t get you downed

Some other classes truly having hard times with the platforms, so it slows the whole team down.
My solution is usually to take a mesmer who can (if he is skilled enough) jump up to the top, then portal the others up from Old Tom .
And yes hopefully the devs will look into this problem further

Yeah those things help as a necro, but like the other types of skills I mentioned, Spectral Walk will end up on cooldown for 48-60 seconds at a time and your life force will be completely drained after the first fall. You either need to wait for SW to recharge or just bash your head against the harpies and hope to avoid falling.

I have two problems with the harpies.

(1) Especially right after Old Tom the blue projectiles are hard to make out against the heavy blooming of the skybox. There needs to be more contrast, e.g. night time.

(2) The red circles on the ground need to be filled not outlined. So instead of searching for the tiny red line at the corner of the platform, you see the floor turn red and get moving.

Other than that, the encounter is fine. Usually, the higher level the group the less problems there will be. Apart from the occasional impossible to see ball.

I’m totally with the OP here.

I’ve done the Fractal dozens of times and it’s nothing but tedious. It’s kind of like the Squid Boss battle.

Repetitive and time consuming without a real challenge (because you can’t really fail).

The fact that much of the jumping part is simply unfair in design doesn’t help.

FourthVariety.5463:

(1) Especially right after Old Tom the blue projectiles are hard to make out against the heavy blooming of the skybox. There needs to be more contrast, e.g. night time.

Now that’s a neat idea, each of the appropriate fractals (all except the shaman, ascalon and dredge fractal) with an alternate night/day time theme, hopefully with some alternate content!

The best way to handle the Raving Asura fractal is to drink beer, and play with friends on TS. That way the constant falls are funny, not frustrating.

SlimGenre.6417:

The best way to handle the Raving Asura fractal is to drink beer, and play with friends on TS. That way the constant falls are funny, not frustrating.

I have a guildmate who tried that once (although it was Jack and Coke). The result was that he fell frequently on his own power, got hit by every single knockback, and made the whole process vastly more frustrating for us.

The problem there was, he didn’t provide alcohol for the rest of us.

I find that this fractals design is contrary to the no res-rushing policy they’re moving towards now. Res rushing is, in fact, how this fractal is handled.

SlimGenre.6417:

The best way to handle the Raving Asura fractal is to drink beer, and play with friends on TS. That way the constant falls are funny, not frustrating.

Exactly! I tried to make a drinking game out of it with my group. Every time you fall you gotta drink. By the time we reached the Raving Asura we were so full that we couldn’t even kill Mr Snuggles … ;-)

I’m personally in the “it’s hilarious watching someone’s name go flying by” camp. Yes, it can be tedious, but doing better means a faster clear, so that’s the reward for a well-coordinated team.

SteepledHat.1345:

I find that this fractals design is contrary to the no res-rushing policy they’re moving towards now. Res rushing is, in fact, how this fractal is handled.

The enemy is the pitfalls. If the pitfalls do kill you (i.e. you fall so frequently that the downed penalty gets you), then you have to wait until a party member flunks and falls down and gets you. If all team members flunk and fail at the same time then I’d say you do deserve to have the whole fractal reset and start over :P

The only problem I have is the bug where you fall and hit nothing on the way down and end up dead. There is also an animation bug where the harpies shoot the ball and it goes somewhere completely different than the red circle indicates. There is also a bug after the old Tom fight when falling you sometimes end up back at the start

Mr eX.3420:

1. You cannot dodge-roll to avoid the attack because you will fall off the platform, period. The game mechanic all players are supposed to use to avoid attacks is not viable on those tiny platforms.

2. The AoE red circle is bigger than most of the platforms, making it very difficult or outright impossible to see depending on where you are standing.

3. Not all professions can give themselves or the party sufficient evasion, stability, aegis, or reflection/absorption to negate all the attacks. For instance, necros can do none of those things except for self-stability which is tied to a grandmaster trait or elite transformations—try doing a jumping puzzle in Lich Form sometime (hint: you don’t have feet.) Furthermore, the attack is so frequent that eventually even a guardian will have all skills on cooldown.

4. The reduced movement speed you have in combat makes jumping to the next/previous platform to avoid the attack more difficult. This is exacerbated by the fact the harpies have a cripple attack and seem to like hitting you with it while you’re in mid-air. I love jumping puzzles (completed Mad King’s Clocktower 8 times) and I still find this tricky—I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to jump puzzle haters.

5. The punishment for falling is simply a time-penalty (Bandage out of downed state, run back,) which I believe Robert has said he does not like and is not something he intentionally designs for.

1. false. yes you can. some adjacent platforms are big enough to dodge roll from one to another. a.k.a. find right places to stand
2. false. if standing on edge of a platform you will see red circle on the next platform. so you can see it if you want. a.k.a. find right places to stand
3. agree. you go on cooldowns sooner or later.
4. agree. but somehow we deal with it.
5. agree. but from my point of view any mistake in game is time penalty. and even more so for jumping puzzles.

Healix.5819:

It’s very easy to completely negate the knockback by just constantly stafing left then right, causing the projectile to shoot off to the side.

Only if every party member does the same. If someone else jumps onto your platform and a harpy aims at him, you’ll still get hit by it (often without any warning, because the circle is larger than the platform, and the circumference doesn’t render at all).

IMO that is the real issue; the circles should always be visible. How they achieve that is irrelevant (make the impact circle smaller or render the line “floating” on the air), but causing players to waste time by hitting them with attacks that they can’t see is not good design.

Another improvement would be to fix the camera (allow FoV and target height adjustment), so players don’t have to look down so much, and slow down the projectiles a bit. You can actually see the ball of lightning being shot by the harpies, but only if you tilt your camera so far up that you can’t see the platforms (because the camera target is too low).

Saulius.8430:

1. false. yes you can. some adjacent platforms are big enough to dodge roll from one to another. a.k.a. find right places to stand
2. false. if standing on edge of a platform you will see red circle on the next platform. so you can see it if you want. a.k.a. find right places to stand

You definitely can’t dodge-roll from one platform to another—you will fall straight down. If you think it’s possible, post a video to prove it. Equating “find the right places to stand” with working around red circles not appearing is just ridiculous.

Mr eX.3420:

You definitely can’t dodge-roll from one platform to another—you will fall straight down. If you think it’s possible, post a video to prove it. Equating “find the right places to stand” with working around red circles not appearing is just ridiculous.

do i get a cookie if i go though all that trouble? by trouble i mean making video and finding out how to upload it part. never done any videos before.
because rolling between platforms that are nearly touching each other, or from elevated one to lower one is not rocket science.

i was trolled 1 time and used Withdraw (a thief heal) because i was low on hp.
bad ideea ^^
or using s/d flaking strike on the harpies
funny times…

The circles cannot be drawn at all on top of the yellow forcefield type platforms anyway. Making them solid red wouldn’t help there.

The biggest issue I have with them is how they can fire their attack at near point blank range when you jump to their platform to melee them and you get hit 0.02s after the ball is displayed in your screen for the first time.

Either way, the harpy knockback took my favorite fractal and made it my least. It’s not challenging or hard it’s just annoying.

You know the dev that built this had to intend it to troll us just a little.

Mr eX.3420:

You definitely can’t dodge-roll from one platform to another—you will fall straight down. If you think it’s possible, post a video to prove it. Equating “find the right places to stand” with working around red circles not appearing is just ridiculous.

sorry for terrible quality both video and audio, my first attempt after all. but it proves that you can dodge between some platforms.

EDIT: turns out you can choose video quality on youtube. on 1920×1200 looks fine :}

EDIT2: can someone please pm me some nub-friendly video editing tool names, so that i can avoid uploading crap on youtube in future.

Mr eX.3420:

I have no problem completing this fractal (the mid and end-bosses are some of my favorites because the mechanics are unique and interesting) but I wanted to mention how annoying the harpies’ knockback attack at level 10+ is. I think it’s a case of “false difficulty”—I don’t think it makes the fractal more challenging, just tedious, requiring patience instead of skill.

Here’s a list of the individual frustrations:
1. You cannot dodge-roll to avoid the attack because you will fall off the platform, period. The game mechanic all players are supposed to use to avoid attacks is not viable on those tiny platforms.

2. The AoE red circle is bigger than most of the platforms, making it very difficult or outright impossible to see depending on where you are standing.

3. Not all professions can give themselves or the party sufficient evasion, stability, aegis, or reflection/absorption to negate all the attacks. For instance, necros can do none of those things except for self-stability which is tied to a grandmaster trait or elite transformations—try doing a jumping puzzle in Lich Form sometime (hint: you don’t have feet.) Furthermore, the attack is so frequent that eventually even a guardian will have all skills on cooldown.

4. The reduced movement speed you have in combat makes jumping to the next/previous platform to avoid the attack more difficult. This is exacerbated by the fact the harpies have a cripple attack and seem to like hitting you with it while you’re in mid-air. I love jumping puzzles (completed Mad King’s Clocktower 8 times) and I still find this tricky—I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to jump puzzle haters.

5. The punishment for falling is simply a time-penalty (Bandage out of downed state, run back,) which I believe Robert has said he does not like and is not something he intentionally designs for.

From a mechanics perspective, the jumping sections do not work well within the existing combat system because of #1 and #2. From a balance perspective, it’s not fair that specific boons and defensive skills are pretty much required to get through these sections in a reasonable amount of time.

I think the encounters could be fixed by any one of the following:

• Remove the knockback attack entirely. (Don’t see this happening though)
• Redesign the terrain of the jumping sections so the platforms are big enough to allow dodging and for the red circles to be more visible.
• Reduce the knockback attack’s AoE radius so it’s fully visible on the existing small platforms.

Eh this part of the fractal isn’t that rough, just keep an eye on the harpy’s and watch for a lightning attack and then jump to another platform nearby. No dodge really required. That tactic is actually hardest in the beginning since the platforms are very vertical, but the second set of platforms have a lot of nearby platforms you can even jump too while crippled. Really all you need is a good amount of condition removal to get rid of cripple while you jump out of the way, some stability doesn’t hurt if you need a safety net.

Saulius.8430:

-snip-

Boss platforming skillz there

I’m never comfortable messing around on them. I usually just jump to another platform instead.

Aggro with melee and the harpies don’t use knockback. If more than 1 harpy is aggro’d, someone just needs to get to it and melee. I get through this part without falling once all the time. It’s really pretty quick and painless if you do it right.

You’re angry with knockback? Try it when the harpies at lv83 or lv84. Without a guardian you will die so kitten often since 1 burst from harpy = instant down. You’re pretty left with just sniping them from the starter platform. Overall the harpy sections are just absolutely the worst fractal design atm.

They’ve take the the biggest peeve of players and put it in there. JP with harpies that knocks u down or instantly downs u from full health with arrows that only few classes can mitigate.

I am utterly and totally horrible at platforming. I never practiced that sort of game. I am afraid of heights in real life. I get dizzy from fast camera movements. And my reactions are not what they used to be when I was a member of that age group labeled “young”. For that reason, I disliked the Giant and Uncategorized fractals for their platforming bits even before reaching L10. They always gave me the not-so fuzzy feeling to be useless there and having to be carried by my team. I have to concentrate so hard on not missing a jump that I can’t participate in the fights going on at the same time, and I am utterly slow on top of it. Even at below-L10, these two Fractals made me uncomfortable of joining a Fractals team and embarrass myself time and again. But after having tried L10, I am outright scared of them. I wish so hard that I could uncheck the platforming fractals somewhere and be guaranteed to never see them again, but I can’t. I just wish they’d keep platforming of any kind to the jumping puzzles that people who like that sort of gameplay can enter, but nobody really has to.

The harpy fractal always makes me groan, it’s the trying to evade knockback attacks on tiny spaces that’s frustrating. I play a thief character and am not very experienced, but I find most helpful is equipping two pistols for skills #4 Headshot and #5 Black Powder, as well as Smokescreen in utility.
Blinds from Black Powder and Smokescreen mitigates damage, and when as I see a red circle appear, using Headshot will interrupt the cast. I always try to stand on a platform with a suitable backup platform behind, so if I don’t interrupt in time, hopefully I’ll land on a platform instead of flying away. Don’t always get the right distance and angle all the time though. >.<
Reading from the above suggestions, it’s probably easier to just move out of the way instead of trying to control a position. Or maybe rush past with stealth.
Thanks for the ideas.

they also camp your spawn. i’ve already been knocked off and i’m trying to revive myself, why are you still shooting at me?

Huechi.2658:

The harpy fractal always makes me groan, it’s the trying to evade knockback attacks on tiny spaces that’s frustrating. I play a thief character and am not very experienced, but I find most helpful is equipping two pistols for skills #4 Headshot and #5 Black Powder, as well as Smokescreen in utility.
Blinds from Black Powder and Smokescreen mitigates damage, and when as I see a red circle appear, using Headshot will interrupt the cast. I always try to stand on a platform with a suitable backup platform behind, so if I don’t interrupt in time, hopefully I’ll land on a platform instead of flying away. Don’t always get the right distance and angle all the time though. >.<
Reading from the above suggestions, it’s probably easier to just move out of the way instead of trying to control a position. Or maybe rush past with stealth.
Thanks for the ideas.

If there is a harpy that is aggro’d, then someone just needs to melee him. If you see everyone hitting on one harpy, but the next harpy is shooting at people, run to him and melee.

Yes it’s harder to do in a pug because people tend to try and range them. My team rarely ever falls because the harpies do not use knockback on us. They also don’t do the ridiculously powerful arrow shots. They just stand there and duke it out with you and they lose.

can the a-net guys tell me HOW i can do a Leaping Death Blossom on 1 harpy without falling to my death ?
or a flanking strike ? how about the healing with withdraw ?

DanH.5879:

can the a-net guys tell me HOW i can do a Leaping Death Blossom on 1 harpy without falling to my death ?
or a flanking strike ? how about the healing with withdraw ?

Arena Net seems to have falls a bit bass-ackwards.

Player character: Your own skills make you fall off ledges and platforms.

Enemy creature: Even when you hit them with a knockback, an invisible wall prevents them from falling off ledges.

I guess the designers / programmers consider that protecting the mobs’ right to have fun is their main priority…

u guys are complaining about the knockback in harpies?

:O

IF you guys want to complain… how about the fact that at lvl40 even with 30AR your DEAD at Maw.

Meh the harpies is fine as it is…
At the higher lvl fotm’s its not the knockback ur scared of, its there rapid fire which can take a tank from 100% → 20% in one volley.

Naekuh.7925:

u guys are complaining about the knockback in harpies?

The thread title might be a clue.

Naekuh.7925:

IF you guys want to complain… how about […]

If you want to complain about something else, nothing prevents you from posting in a thread about that issue (or starting a thread about it, if there isn’t one).

This thread is about harpy knockback (as the title suggests), and about how the red circle sometimes fails to render, etc..

Saulius.8430:

Mr eX.3420:

You definitely can’t dodge-roll from one platform to another—you will fall straight down. If you think it’s possible, post a video to prove it. Equating “find the right places to stand” with working around red circles not appearing is just ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWJNLIvfU-U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeOO8aBexAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIHZtVZTaEk

sorry for terrible quality both video and audio, my first attempt after all. but it proves that you can dodge between some platforms.

EDIT: turns out you can choose video quality on youtube. on 1920×1200 looks fine :}

EDIT2: can someone please pm me some nub-friendly video editing tool names, so that i can avoid uploading crap on youtube in future.

Well how ‘bout that. Thanks for showing! To be fair though, I don’t think the average player will ever become aware this is possible, let alone be able to do it.

Account.9832:

Naekuh.7925:

u guys are complaining about the knockback in harpies?

The thread title might be a clue.

Naekuh.7925:

IF you guys want to complain… how about […]

If you want to complain about something else, nothing prevents you from posting in a thread about that issue (or starting a thread about it, if there isn’t one).

This thread is about harpy knockback (as the title suggests), and about how the red circle sometimes fails to render, etc..

this is the issue…
Some players cannot get the difference between annoying/unfun and difficult

Are harpies difficult? no
Are they FUN? ………just ask your average Group

LordByron.8369:

Account.9832:

Naekuh.7925:

u guys are complaining about the knockback in harpies?

The thread title might be a clue.

Naekuh.7925:

IF you guys want to complain… how about […]

If you want to complain about something else, nothing prevents you from posting in a thread about that issue (or starting a thread about it, if there isn’t one).

This thread is about harpy knockback (as the title suggests), and about how the red circle sometimes fails to render, etc..

this is the issue…
Some players cannot get the difference between annoying/unfun and difficult

Are harpies difficult? no
Are they FUN? ………just ask your average Group

I think they’re pretty fun, I like a little bit of platforming. It just takes an ounce of strategy to make the harpies not do knockback. Just a little bit of thought instead of button mashing from a distance and voilà, no one ever has to fall.

I have done this fractal many times. To the point that I actually have a place to stand for all harpies. I can see the circles and I am at max range for my rifle. I target the harpy and then turn my attention to where I am standing. I never look at the harpy until his life total reaches 0, jumping back and forth between 2 platforms to avoid knockback. Where I have trouble is with the harpy shots. Sometimes my healing is on cooldown and I know I am about to die so I jump off the edge to avoid the armor damage. I honestly hated the knockback but I adjusted to it. I dont think it needs to be changed.

I love the platforming, but the knockback is an unnecessary time waster. It doesn’t make it harder just makes it take more time.

Here’s an idea:
Make the area a gauntlet and give everyone a weapon that they can pick up which allows them to block. This could be something similar to the weapon that knocks back rockets in Caudecus’ Manor Explorable (don’t remember the path number).

SteepledHat.1345:

I love the platforming, but the knockback is an unnecessary time waster. It doesn’t make it harder just makes it take more time.

So just don’t let them do knockback…

Apparently guardians running fotm 17 and below haven’t discovered there reflections skills yet. But taking a 2 hander and swatting at things makes up for it.

Actually I’m liking harpies as a mesmer. Its a bit of a challenge for me to work my reflections. And its pretty non-stop laughter watching people who ran in front of me get punted by harpies. I dont think they realize I’m reflecting sparkly things.

How about just removing the knockback? Maybe increase the damage a little to make it dangerous to get hit, but that knockback has to go, it’s only a source of frustration.

Dahkeus.8243:

Here’s an idea:
Make the area a gauntlet and give everyone a weapon that they can pick up which allows them to block. This could be something similar to the weapon that knocks back rockets in Caudecus’ Manor Explorable (don’t remember the path number).

Ooh, this idea is awesome!