Guild Wars 2

Hopscotch.8037:

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.

ummm at 40+ fract. people do get 1 shotted by these harpies.

Some tips for the Rangers out there:

• Greatsword #4 (block)
• Rampage As One
• Shared Anguish (WS III)

I’m sure other proffessions have similiar skills / traits that make the run rather painless.

(Who said Rangers can’t be AWESOME in groups?!?)

@awe: forgot axe #5

It is actually pretty easy. However, most people don’t understand how standing on the edge of a platform and running to its other side saves them when “circles are bigger than platforms”…
After all why move when you can just revive, do 10 k damage and then revive again? -.-

If you have a guard and he’s not running wall of reflection, shield of the avenger, and stand your ground, he’s doing something wrong. You can cycle those almost infinitely.

Toast.6459:

If you have a guard and he’s not running wall of reflection, shield of the avenger, and stand your ground, he’s doing something wrong. You can cycle those almost infinitely.

Don’t forget Binding Chains. Standing in melee makes them not even do their knockback. Though, Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger at least reflect attacks, making the run faster.

The only really issue with harpies is the set right at the beginning of the fractal, where you have to climb spiral path up while they rain kitten down on you. Most of the time you have to pan your camera at pretty odd angles to see whats going on. By comparison the set of harpies right after Old Tom is totally manageable, even though there are more of them there.

Oh and while we at it… Dear ANet, please reduce health pools on prisoners (ettin and shaman mostly). They take just way too freakin long to kill (opinion based on 40+).

Trollhammer.7439:

The only really issue with harpies is the set right at the beginning of the fractal, where you have to climb spiral path up while they rain kitten down on you. Most of the time you have to pan your camera at pretty odd angles to see whats going on. By comparison the set of harpies right after Old Tom is totally manageable, even though there are more of them there.

Oh and while we at it… Dear ANet, please reduce health pools on prisoners (ettin and shaman mostly). They take just way too freakin long to kill (opinion based on 40+).

true, i want the rabbit chest but it near impossible to get

loseridoit.2756:

Trollhammer.7439:

The only really issue with harpies is the set right at the beginning of the fractal, where you have to climb spiral path up while they rain kitten down on you. Most of the time you have to pan your camera at pretty odd angles to see whats going on. By comparison the set of harpies right after Old Tom is totally manageable, even though there are more of them there.

Oh and while we at it… Dear ANet, please reduce health pools on prisoners (ettin and shaman mostly). They take just way too freakin long to kill (opinion based on 40+).

true, i want the rabbit chest but it near impossible to get

What Rabbit chest? If it’s leaving the rabbit alive until everything else is dead, hate to burst your bubble, but that doesn’t get you anything.

I managed to get a group that kept the rabbit alive until the end. Would be cool if you did get something for that. Or maybe the rabbit can’t take any damage at all until the end?

1 guardian and ele scepter focus is enough

Trollhammer.7439:

The only really issue with harpies is the set right at the beginning of the fractal, where you have to climb spiral path up while they rain kitten down on you. Most of the time you have to pan your camera at pretty odd angles to see whats going on. By comparison the set of harpies right after Old Tom is totally manageable, even though there are more of them there.

i find the first set far easier on my engi… grenade the hell out of them and let someone else run up to them, stay at the bottom and rez anyone who falls (ensuring their fail / cooldown timer doesnt actually cost you any time)

works even better when the party actually knows what theyre doing and you dont even need to rez people and you get your full grenade spam time.

any spammable ranged aoe can do the same… thief, ele… just need skills that dont require LOS to hit, although 1500 range certainly helps me stay on the starting platform for quick rezzing.

despit esome people find this fractal fun, they should just see that:

1) many professions (<== not build but professions) get oneshots from harpies shots
2) many professions lacks enough reflect/stability to just play this
3) many builds needs movement to work
4) not to speak of how buggy is*

*see harpies invulnerable, or just attacking you without line of sight while you cannot attack back or even sniping respawn area or worse Killing completely instead of putting downed.

Unfortunately other professions have plenty skills and cannot understand the issues…

LordByron.8369:

despit esome people find this fractal fun, they should just see that:

1) many professions (<== not build but professions) get oneshots from harpies shots
2) many professions lacks enough reflect/stability to just play this
3) many builds needs movement to work
4) not to speak of how buggy is*

*see harpies invulnerable, or just attacking you without line of sight while you cannot attack back or even sniping respawn area or worse Killing completely instead of putting downed.

Unfortunately other professions have plenty skills and cannot understand the issues…

1) “you have reflect(s), can you go first?” “can the p/t/v guy go first?” its not like people who play tanky do it because they dont like it. give them an ego boost, hide behind their fat kitten
2) hmm… warrior, engi, mesmer, guardian, ranger, ele, thief… that leaves… necro with probably insufficient reflect/stability. its a l2p issue. learn to swap utilities/weapons.
3) learn where to stand because the projectiles are slow as hell at long range and dont even happen in melee. platforms are big enough and gaps between are small enough. and dodging is unnecessary.
4) weird/buggy? yeah. valid. its really annoying when magnetic shield fails for me. the camera angles are bad in the beginning and spawn camping harpies are ridiculous.

Is it true that you always die if you fall when downed? This might explain a lot of the spurious looking deaths that happen in the harpy fractal.

insanemaniac.2456:

LordByron.8369:

despit esome people find this fractal fun, they should just see that:

1) many professions (<== not build but professions) get oneshots from harpies shots
2) many professions lacks enough reflect/stability to just play this
3) many builds needs movement to work
4) not to speak of how buggy is*

*see harpies invulnerable, or just attacking you without line of sight while you cannot attack back or even sniping respawn area or worse Killing completely instead of putting downed.

Unfortunately other professions have plenty skills and cannot understand the issues…

1) “you have reflect(s), can you go first?” “can the p/t/v guy go first?” its not like people who play tanky do it because they dont like it. give them an ego boost, hide behind their fat kitten
2) hmm… warrior, engi, mesmer, guardian, ranger, ele, thief… that leaves… necro with probably insufficient reflect/stability. its a l2p issue. learn to swap utilities/weapons.
3) learn where to stand because the projectiles are slow as hell at long range and dont even happen in melee. platforms are big enough and gaps between are small enough. and dodging is unnecessary.
4) weird/buggy? yeah. valid. its really annoying when magnetic shield fails for me. the camera angles are bad in the beginning and spawn camping harpies are ridiculous.

1) great idea lets play just some professions while the other just wait them..,.

2) u are quite wrong (reading wiki is not enough sometimes)…in game just 1-2 professions can cover enough time WHILE dishing enough dps to be of any help….
Skill/CD really few can i.e. mesmer, guardian and maybe warriors, only 2 will be able tp survive Arrow hits unfortunately….
Also reflect won t work if you don t take the hit directly.

Lets add the fact you cannot use any skill aside absorb and sability…you see how just 2 classes are good in this fractal.
The long as hell only stability ele has for example won t make you survive the damage despite the damage reduction unless you are PvT, in that case you won t be dealing almost any damage to matter.

Also ele has just 1 skill on scepter that can be useful to the party, all Others are small auras that won t work most of the time (see 4 <==)

3) again, you cannot place in the first part, and you cannot survive FAST Attacks….also when they just put 2 circles near you cannot do anything and moreover standing OUT f circle often is not even enough…..
While reaching the 4th harpy you cannot really evade aoes….
You can only if you are attacking…but that part will oten catch you midjump or worse…

4) ….your L2P reply was really fast, yet you think this is a random bug?

Stooperdale.3560:

Is it true that you always die if you fall when downed? This might explain a lot of the spurious looking deaths that happen in the harpy fractal.

yes

You die if you get hit by the lightning Arrow while downed
You die if you lose all your hp from that aoe
You die if you take too much damage falling on a Platform.
You die if while falling you collide with/bounce on any Platform without remaining on it (<=== bug)
You randomly die for many other collision glitches

workaround for ele:
You can use mistform to suicide if you get downed….
If you manage to die while in mistform you’ll get to the checkpoint downed
If you die after there are chances you will save your armor

the funny thing i died& got teleported without even falling or loosing my hp
i was bounced on the platform behind me … stupid mechanic…

LordByron.8369:

Lets add the fact you cannot use any skill aside absorb and sability…you see how just 2 classes are good in this fractal.
The long as hell only stability ele has for example won t make you survive the damage despite the damage reduction unless you are PvT, in that case you won t be dealing almost any damage to matter.

All the professions but warrior and necromancer have skills to block projectiles. sure it don’t last as long as mesmer/guardian but it all adds up its just a matter of if they use them or not and in most cases they don’t.

Positioning can be useful too. If you get yourself centered right on certain platforms you’ll just end up bouncing back to the very edge of the platform behind you instead of falling off.

To those of you who are giving tactics advice and saying that it’s fine: I want to reiterate that my problem is not that the harpies are difficult, it’s that they’re merely annoying and time-consuming without any real challenge to them.

Good post OP. Agree 100%

What about some sort of indicator over your characters head when you are being targeted with this attack, a la what is done with the Jade Maw’s attack? Also, this coupled with reducing the AOE range to the range of one platform should give you enough time to either jump to another platform or use a block ability of some sort to negate it.

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned in here, when bringing up how buggy the harpies are, is that sometimes projectile blockers/reflectors don’t work with them.

I normally play a mesmer, but I’ve done fractals on my guardian and my ele before. I use a focus on my mesmer, and I have the Warden’s Feedback trait. I have no problems with Feedback working properly, but I have seen projectiles sail right over my Temporal Curtain without being reflected at all. Watching my Warden reflect stuff is amazing (and hilarious), but it only works if they’re targeting the Warden and not anyone else.

And with my ele…I use Magnetic Aura, and it doesn’t reflect anything in there! I’ll have it up, be right in the middle of the duration, and still get hit and knocked off. Arcane Shield works just fine, but Magnetic Aura fails on me every single time.

There’s also some weirdness between going downed and going defeated – usually if you get knocked off you’re downed. Annoying, but ultimately not a big deal, just a waste of time. There are times though where I’ve seen people get knocked off at full health and instantly defeat – and they say they had no death penalty. I’ve had that happen where I’ve gone to an instant defeat when I was at full health with no penalty.

I love this fractal, it’s my favorite (which is saying something, as I do not like fractals), but playing it at 10+ has relegated it to the garbage that the rest of them lie in for me.

Mr eX.3420:

To those of you who are giving tactics advice and saying that it’s fine: I want to reiterate that my problem is not that the harpies are difficult, it’s that they’re merely annoying and time-consuming without any real challenge to them.

What most of the people listing tactics are trying to say is that this fractal doesn’t have to be annoying and time consuming if you correctly use the tactics. This is the challenging part, employing tactics to get through the harpies quickly and easily. Trust me, teams do get through this fractal without a single fall.

Iaharl: I’m well aware that it’s possible to do a no-fall run, but I’m just going to say to re-read my OP post about all the reasons why I think it should be improved.

this is what i do:
1) jump to another platform (always towards the enemy)
2) dodge to another platform(always away from the enemy)
3) use the help of skills like said earlier.

easiest is just jump to another platform. if you cant see the red circle and miss the orb coming toward you…train you self. lol.