Guild Wars 2

Coming back to fractals, I had a chance to witness the changes.

In my opinion the worst fractal, by far is the Swampland especially the part on Bloomhunger. It is quite an accomplishment, to take a bad but straightforward fractal and turn it into the mess that this design has accomplished.

Bravo, this is such a bad and inept fractal, completely illogical, with all these invulnerable creatures roaming around. To me anything that need invulnerable creatures to function, is poorly designed and game mechanics are not used, This is work done by the lazy and incompetent.

In short, it is so bad that I don’t want to do it again at any level.
I bet nobody else can find any Fractal worst then that.

The new swamp is, quite frankly, one of the best designed fractals in-game right now. The “invulnerable creatures” you’re complaining about lose invulnerability when you pull them into the green, expanding wells.

Anyway, the worst fractal right now, IMO, is Molten Furnace. It is time-gate after time-gate and the final boss encounter is a snoozefest followed by a ten second murderfest of the champion. Also I wouldn’t be mad if Molten Duo were made harder somehow.

I can find a worst fractal its the solid ocean the thing is so boring and uninteresting that the player character says kitten you to the giant squid and goes ooc mid fight coz nothing will hit/kill you there .Swamp land requires you to be awake to have reflects dodges on point and good dps to reduce the small chances now after the nerf to wipe and the wipe mechanic at 25% is just a great adition.

Aquatic is the worst fractal only because I hate underwater combat with a passion. And I find both paths annoying as hell

Gonna go with Aquatic/Ascalon.

Not because they are horribly designed but for aquatic because 1) underwater = less freedom of choice. 2) Ascalon lacks a real epic nature and is very anticlimactic.

Cliffside still, even with all the changes. Always has been, always will be. Dredge isn’t so bad now, since dredge lost their blind immunity.
Swamp is one of the best by far. They turned a boring snooze fest of a fight, into an on the edge of your seat fight. My favourite daily set would be Swamp, Nightmare and uncatagorised.

I think all the fractals are in a pretty good state right now, except for my favorite one, Thaumanova — it’s too long for the average PUG that isn’t able to solo/duo the individual rooms. They each have their hiccups and challenges, especially depending on the group’s ability to deal with Toxic Trails, Flux Bombs, and Social Awkwardness. Still, none of them require that much time (except getting to Anomaly, as noted), except when folks misunderstand the mechanics. And for those who do understand the mechanics, each of them can be done much more quickly.

My top two choices for them to work on next: Thauma and Cliffside (it’s a lot faster these days, but I think we can skip the first pair of seals on T3-4).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think all the fractals are in a pretty good state right now, except for my favorite one, Thaumanova — it’s too long for the average PUG that isn’t able to solo/duo the individual rooms. They each have their hiccups and challenges, especially depending on the group’s ability to deal with Toxic Trails, Flux Bombs, and Social Awkwardness. Still, none of them require that much time (except getting to Anomaly, as noted), except when folks misunderstand the mechanics. And for those who do understand the mechanics, each of them can be done much more quickly.

My top two choices for them to work on next: Thauma and Cliffside (it’s a lot faster these days, but I think we can skip the first pair of seals on T3-4).

Honestly, I personally think neither cliffside nor Thaumanova need major revisiting. Anomaly needs some changes such as a breakbar to interrupt attacks and less exploding fields starting at 50% (those two go pretty much hand in hand; add a cc bar to him when he starts blowing up tons of platforms, break him and they won’t be destroyed, don’t break him and they will. Either you play it safe and you go ranged without breaking him or you go all in and break for a lot more dps). Everything else in this fractal (not being able to split up and do the rooms at the same time) is a player-related issue and should be treated as such, aka the players having to improve and finding out how to do it best. I’d be cool with reducing the portal-pull range though and maybe finally fixing the bug where you get pulled and catapulted to the moon where death awaits.
Cliffside is fine as is, the first seal doesn’t take long anyway. Can’t say I’m fond of the hammer-mechanic, but there’s people who are and taking that away would pretty much destroy the whole fractal.

If you’re seeing Invulnerability in Swampland, you’re doing it wrong.

It’s definitely swampland for me as well, and this is entirely due to the drastic changes. Objectively, it’s well designed for the most part (I dislike the invulnerability phases that feel like a time-sink), but I cannot enjoy it knowing that it has replaced what used to be my favourite fractal.

In general though, I also dislike the ’let’s throw a bunch of kitten at everyone all at once!’ type of difficulty that characterizes the new fractals.

Timegate Furnace is the worst one at the moment followed by underwater one.

Lahmia.2193:

Dredge isn’t so bad now, since dredge lost their blind immunity.

They did? I don’t remember being able to blind them last time I did it. Maybe I am mistaken but will check next time it is a daily.

Anyway: I dislike Uncat and Cliffside, but love Aquatic, Nightmare and new Swamp. The rest are great too.

Warcry.1596:

Lahmia.2193:

Dredge isn’t so bad now, since dredge lost their blind immunity.

They did? I don’t remember being able to blind them last time I did it. Maybe I am mistaken but will check next time it is a daily.

Anyway: I dislike Uncat and Cliffside, but love Aquatic, Nightmare and new Swamp. The rest are great too.

Aye it was with the A crack in the ice patch.
-Underground Facility
The dredge in the Underground Facility have opened their eyes and can now be blinded.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think all the fractals are in a pretty good state right now, except for my favorite one, Thaumanova — it’s too long for the average PUG that isn’t able to solo/duo the individual rooms. They each have their hiccups and challenges, especially depending on the group’s ability to deal with Toxic Trails, Flux Bombs, and Social Awkwardness. Still, none of them require that much time (except getting to Anomaly, as noted), except when folks misunderstand the mechanics. And for those who do understand the mechanics, each of them can be done much more quickly.

My top two choices for them to work on next: Thauma and Cliffside (it’s a lot faster these days, but I think we can skip the first pair of seals on T3-4).

Honestly, I personally think neither cliffside nor Thaumanova need major revisiting. Anomaly needs some changes such as a breakbar to interrupt attacks and less exploding fields starting at 50% (those two go pretty much hand in hand; add a cc bar to him when he starts blowing up tons of platforms, break him and they won’t be destroyed, don’t break him and they will. Either you play it safe and you go ranged without breaking him or you go all in and break for a lot more dps). Everything else in this fractal (not being able to split up and do the rooms at the same time) is a player-related issue and should be treated as such, aka the players having to improve and finding out how to do it best. I’d be cool with reducing the portal-pull range though and maybe finally fixing the bug where you get pulled and catapulted to the moon where death awaits.
Cliffside is fine as is, the first seal doesn’t take long anyway. Can’t say I’m fond of the hammer-mechanic, but there’s people who are and taking that away would pretty much destroy the whole fractal.

The only reason I think thaumanova needs revisiting is because it actually gets longer as you go to higher tiers. I don’t mean it necessarily takes longer, but you have to clear more rooms at higher tiers than at lower tiers, and I think that’s just an outdated design. I would rather see ANet nerf some of the rooms at lower levels and expect everyone at all levels to clear all of the rooms (which would also help people learn the mechanics of each room better before getting to T3/4), or remove a room or two and make the remaining rooms harder. Also, adding a breakbar to the anomaly would be awesome

I found Chaos too long, plus the fact that it took elements from many fractals made it less unique than the others.

I think my other worst, now that Dredge has been improved, is the Aetherblade one. I just hate that last fight with the spinning forcefields etc. It’s not that’s it is badly mechanically, I simply don’t enjoy it even at low tier.

Cliffside will always be my fav though. It’s just such a cool scenario.

Always hated Underground and Ascalon. Swamp, on the other hand, is one of the best now.

For me its Underwater. ( Underwater Mechanics )

And then Ascalon especially with that bad Voice Over from the last boss ( You’ll never conquer Ascalon. huaaaahhhh ) He really sound like he is taking a dump while trying to fight us off.

The worst fractals by a huge margin are Solid Ocean and Molten Furnace.

The first section of Solid Ocean has you literally just walk past every enemy, the Jade Maw fight is ridiculously long and boring as you do the same thing repeatedly, the Jade Maw itself has only one attack that visually bugs about 25% of the time, and there is no element of teamwork at all besides the typically futile exercise of trying to get out of combat so your teammate that fell can respawn. It is truly sad that this is the only glimpse of Cantha we get in gw2.

Molten furnace is probably slightly better because fighting different enemies in the rooms is moderately not terrible. But spending the first half watching a drill move slowly is pretty stupid. However, the most offensive thing about this fractal is that after literal multiple years you can still stand in the corner of the boss room and ignore every mechanic. What’s even the point? They might as well just create an in-game reddit browser that pops up for 5 minutes and then you get the fractal rewards afterwards.

But hey on the plus side the two most recent fractals are both fantastic.

Solid Ocean and Molten Furnace is the two fractals most in need of improvement, but not made harder since its good to have fractals with variance in challenge and difficulties. The time gates aspect just need change into actually mechanics.

But to comment the orginal poster and mossman, the trouble with the fractal is that there is little to mechanic introduction such as those in cliffside. you are expected to learn on your feet the first time, which isn’t that great.

As invulnerable creatures, Underground Facility had the right idea of a boss which for all practical purposes is invulnerable but made vulnerable by mechanic. Since the onslaught mechanic already depend on X amount of killed creatures, I would prefer if they went that route and just gave the animals insane health/armor for which the green aura gives a crazy debuff.

OriOri.8724:

Aquatic is the worst fractal only because I hate underwater combat with a passion. And I find both paths annoying as hell

I’m with you.

Jahroots.6791:

In general though, I also dislike the ’let’s throw a bunch of kitten at everyone all at once!’ type of difficulty that characterizes the new fractals.

This, too.

I’ve been playing a lot of Fractals, before HoT, after the expansion and after the recent set of changes to the content.

I have to admit that everything has improved. I’m not saying this as a fanboy, I’m usually very skeptical and I’m used to seeing “both sides of the medal”, but the changes they made to Fractals, starting from the new lobby, to changes in desing of the encounters or the instabilities, have fully improved at least my experience of the content.

Sure, you can’t faceroll t4 swamp anymore, but you can still learn the encounter, get better at it, and eventually pug it in a reasonable amount of time. As I see it, the changes were made to keep things challenging in higher tiers while culling on all the “swampland-level” boring and mind numbing button mashing. And they did quite well imho.

They fine tuned the instabilities to still offer an added challenge but without beeing overly frustrating. They removed movement impending stuff from “Afflicted”, removed stability from “No pain, no gain” and all the other little things they chamged to make it challenging but enjoyable.

However. Worst Fractal at the moment would be Underground Facility. The part with the doors still depends too much on what classes you have in your team. From a mechanical perspective the Fractal is quite good and imaginative, so I wouldn’t want to change that. And I would add a closed door to the boss room which opens after you killed the mobs in the hallway leading up to the room. Just for added loot and because the ice elemtals follow your team a long way into the boss room.

Aquatic.

Facepalm …what? It’s really frustrating when people complain without fundamentally understanding how an encounter works. Those “invulnerable creatures roaming around” you need to get them into the “wisp clefts” / tree stumps / whatever you want to call them – only then you can dps them down.

Also acquatic is the worst fractal, but that’s because the underwater mechanic is not in par with the land skills. I recognize that this is a difficult area for Anet so I try not to think too much about it.

For me it’s Aetherblade, i just hate those waves of mobs after mobs and the “puzzles” inbetween sometimes take too long with a bad group.

I like the bossfight though, but the rest is boring.

OriOri.8724:

The only reason I think thaumanova needs revisiting is because it actually gets longer as you go to higher tiers. I don’t mean it necessarily takes longer, but you have to clear more rooms at higher tiers than at lower tiers, and I think that’s just an outdated design. I would rather see ANet nerf some of the rooms at lower levels and expect everyone at all levels to clear all of the rooms (which would also help people learn the mechanics of each room better before getting to T3/4), or remove a room or two and make the remaining rooms harder. Also, adding a breakbar to the anomaly would be awesome

+1 I wanna do the heat room as grp but it’s too ez as is. I dun wanna be able to solo it in few secs.. what’s the point? is it utility check cos that wat it is

So make heat room harder. Idc how u do it but it must req teamwork, not rest of team ignoring it and running off ahead. Like dun leav me alone wtf. Come here and port me halfway or somthin cos the dmg ticks are like twice as brutal

Similar deal with thos laser room. The shields should insta kill after 3 use, and double the number of golems and have them chase whole grp rather then gang up on one dude. Reprogram their ai or somthin jeez

Also y I dun wanna be force to run t4 chaos or snoblind with toxic trail. pugs try to force me to do toxic trail when I dun wanna. It’s like they’re slowly killing me as a grp when I dunno y that’s fair of em

nagr.1593:

OriOri.8724:

The only reason I think thaumanova needs revisiting is because it actually gets longer as you go to higher tiers. I don’t mean it necessarily takes longer, but you have to clear more rooms at higher tiers than at lower tiers, and I think that’s just an outdated design. I would rather see ANet nerf some of the rooms at lower levels and expect everyone at all levels to clear all of the rooms (which would also help people learn the mechanics of each room better before getting to T3/4), or remove a room or two and make the remaining rooms harder. Also, adding a breakbar to the anomaly would be awesome

+1 I wanna do the heat room as grp but it’s too ez as is. I dun wanna be able to solo it in few secs.. what’s the point? is it utility check cos that wat it is

So make heat room harder. Idc how u do it but it must req teamwork, not rest of team ignoring it and running off ahead. Like dun leav me alone wtf. Come here and port me halfway or somthin cos the dmg ticks are like twice as brutal

Similar deal with thos laser room. The shields should insta kill after 3 use, and double the number of golems and have them chase whole grp rather then gang up on one dude. Reprogram their ai or somthin jeez

Also y I dun wanna be force to run t4 chaos or snoblind with toxic trail. pugs try to force me to do toxic trail when I dun wanna. It’s like they’re slowly killing me as a grp when I dunno y that’s fair of em

That’s not at all what I had in mind

Solid Ocean needs a major revamp in the worst way. I dunno how you could make a Jade Sea area so boring but they did it. Every time I do it we just bypass all the mobs without fear and then suddenly a boss.

For the worst fractal ever: I nominate> Uncatagorized
Why? because the raving asura is a priority target for [TAB] and autotargetting. The bane of my existence. The curse of this world. The one thing that proves anet absolutely hates its playerbase with a deep seething grudge

The worst fractal is the one you do with a party that has no idea about what they’re running. Everything else is doable.

Most challenging is Nightmare at the moment because it came out recently. Uncategorized can be annoying if your party doesn’t have reflects for the Harpies part but I really enjoy the boss fights and overall ambientation.

Lahmia.2193:

Warcry.1596:

Lahmia.2193:

Dredge isn’t so bad now, since dredge lost their blind immunity.

They did? I don’t remember being able to blind them last time I did it. Maybe I am mistaken but will check next time it is a daily.

Anyway: I dislike Uncat and Cliffside, but love Aquatic, Nightmare and new Swamp. The rest are great too.

Aye it was with the A crack in the ice patch.
-Underground Facility
The dredge in the Underground Facility have opened their eyes and can now be blinded.

it is sad tho that still under their hp bar it says “cannot be blinded”

@Amaimon – Yea, that is especially annoying about that fractal. Would be nice if ANet could change it so that he always has lowest priority

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

I love getting feedback like this. It helps inform our decisions about what changes to make and when to make them, and for the record we agree with a lot of the assessments you have all given here. Keep it coming!

Our assessments are all over the map; I wonder which you guys agree with

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

I love getting feedback like this. It helps inform our decisions about what changes to make and when to make them, and for the record we agree with a lot of the assessments you have all given here. Keep it coming!

Our assessments are all over the map; I wonder which you guys agree with

That Molten Furnace and Solid Ocean are time-gated to hell and desperately need to be revamped.

I think the endboss of the underwater fractal needs to be revamped. It is a very boring and uninspired fight at the moment. The electricity fields get ignored by almost every group.

Malediktus.3740:

I think the endboss of the underwater fractal needs to be revamped. It is a very boring and uninspired fight at the moment. The electricity fields get ignored by almost every group.

I would agree that the boss sucks, but given that support for underwater combat has pretty much vanished (not a complaint, just a fact) I would put this very low on the list of priorities for fractal updates. And to be fair, the rest of that fractal is actually decent, so I don’t mind that the boss is boring and easy…otherwise I might actually have to make underwater gear lol.

zealex.9410:

Lahmia.2193:

Warcry.1596:

Lahmia.2193:

Dredge isn’t so bad now, since dredge lost their blind immunity.

They did? I don’t remember being able to blind them last time I did it. Maybe I am mistaken but will check next time it is a daily.

Anyway: I dislike Uncat and Cliffside, but love Aquatic, Nightmare and new Swamp. The rest are great too.

Aye it was with the A crack in the ice patch.
-Underground Facility
The dredge in the Underground Facility have opened their eyes and can now be blinded.

it is sad tho that still under their hp bar it says “cannot be blinded”

I actually really liked that they couldn’t be blinded, I wish that would come back. So many times I came in on engineer and launched a mortar 4 or something and see “immune” and think “oh kitten they’re moles, I’m stupid”, and even though it was annoying I though it was good flavor.

Cliffside with flux bombs gets my vote …

Also when the Thaumanova platform turns into a donut but that is not the whole fractal.

@Dinosaurs it was definitely good flavor, but with the long channel time on opening the gate it was just a pain to not be able to blind them. It was a mechanic that didn’t make that fractal more enjoyable

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

I love getting feedback like this. It helps inform our decisions about what changes to make and when to make them, and for the record we agree with a lot of the assessments you have all given here. Keep it coming!

And here I was thinking you guys only liked positive comments.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

I love getting feedback like this. It helps inform our decisions about what changes to make and when to make them, and for the record we agree with a lot of the assessments you have all given here. Keep it coming!

Our assessments are all over the map; I wonder which you guys agree with

That is for me to know, and you to find out

What’s your stance on immortal bosses draining tab and autotargeting? like the
shield-mode golem in Chaos Fractal and the Raving Asura in Uncategorized? There’s no need for auto/tab-targetting to target a creature that can’t take damage anyway

My vote is for few things:

ABOVE ALL: constant lag spikes that are your fault anet. I performed a test with another computer connected to the web and during spike in game it performed well.. When i changed computers to that one and i still got lag spikes and the one i had just played on was working fine. Besides all other games seem to work fine while gw2 experiences lag spikes: on level 75-100 lag spike = death. So….start taking players seriously cause you are turning a piece of art into unplayable waste of time.

Bloomhunger knocking ppl down with his jump and then performing multiple bangs to the floor- doesnt even give chance to stand up ( even some kd breakers dont work here). Above level 75 if you have just dodged his rush and hits from his minions or suddenly appearng fractal instabilities ( flux bomb ) you are out of dodge and dead… and it takes a while … you just watch for 5 sec you char unable to stand up and just die there….
I have nothing against changing this fractal but this set of boss skills is not good

Hammer Slam Pounce performed by cliff final boss: nigh undodgeable and so random. After repating this fractal dozens of times, ppl i know still dont know who is targeted by this skill.

Laser cannons in south room of thaumanova reactor: if u get his once u just lay there unable to stand up getting hit more and more until dead. No kd breakers seem to work efficiently there too.

Fractal instabilities:
flux bomb itself is not so dangerous although it becomes annoying while you try to ascend harpy platforms in uncategorized and jt-12 golem platforms in chaos isles.
Although due to its wide radius its almost impossible to avoid getting hit by it even when u dodge it((

The same is with jade maw tentacle, although is far easier to avoid anywhere else apart from those platforms.

The Rabbit of Caerbannog itself is easy to avoid except when it gets mixed into textures of some large sized bosses or multiple mobs. Then even its sign is sometimes hard to spot. Example: i got hit by it while it was hidden in one of molten bosses legs

Nightmare boss: the push aoe + hallucinations hit are pretty avoidable.
But for suck-in aoe im still not sure if i should dodge at the beginning of suck-in or the moment the wave of dust reaches me. I tried both with success and fail even amount of times in both cases.

And now the red , blue ball sequences: either you are nintendo addicts or u want to create next Mushihimesama. The balls themselves are even ok but the kb during that phase… seriously….

And now the icing on the cake: damage and health of enemy.

For last few years while playing fotm multiple times have i measured the time it took to put down the bosses, or mid fractal larger enemies for example the rabbit, bandit, ettin, charr group in uncategorized. Even with highest dps which above 75 lvl is condi damage it takes lots of time. And the thing is after every fotm update it seems to take longer , longer and longer. And even fractal pots dont help much.

And the grand finally: the damage. I dont know who came to the idea that every mob must one or two-hit a player, but that person is a sadist and needs to be fired.
The amount of damage that team takes until reaching Dulfy on urban battleground even with dodges, blocks and kd-brakers is astounding, the same goes with damage from molten duo, and the archdiviner. Damege itself is hard but put together with immence increase and scaling of monster hp.. seriously…

Its not only me: i saw and heard some people expressing same concerns.
Seems like you want to turn fotm into semi raid or some dark-souls-like feature.

I would like too see you anet devs and other gw2 ppl to form a party (with fractal pots, food, utility effects and enough ar of course) and on yt or any other platform show us how to go through highest level of each fractal without single player death.

Medrayled.8237:

Seems like you want to turn fotm into semi raid or some dark-souls-like feature.

T4 fractals should be the most difficult content in pve, after raids. The default shouldn’t be to go straight to t4 fractals. There is different tiered difficulty for a reason, don’t like the challenge in t4, go down to t3, and so and so forth. New new/revamped fractals are fitting into this model of tiered difficulty very well, and I hope that they continue.

As for least favorite fractals, I would have to say solid ocean and Aquatic.

Fatalyz.7168:

Medrayled.8237:

Seems like you want to turn fotm into semi raid or some dark-souls-like feature.

T4 fractals should be the most difficult content in pve, after raids. The default shouldn’t be to go straight to t4 fractals. There is different tiered difficulty for a reason, don’t like the challenge in t4, go down to t3, and so and so forth. New new/revamped fractals are fitting into this model of tiered difficulty very well, and I hope that they continue.

As for least favorite fractals, I would have to say solid ocean and Aquatic.

Exactly. I’m getting pretty tired of people complaining about the difficulty of T4 fractals when they can easily go down to T3 for more practice. T4 fractals aren’t supposed to be easy

OriOri.8724:

Fatalyz.7168:

Medrayled.8237:

Seems like you want to turn fotm into semi raid or some dark-souls-like feature.

T4 fractals should be the most difficult content in pve, after raids. The default shouldn’t be to go straight to t4 fractals. There is different tiered difficulty for a reason, don’t like the challenge in t4, go down to t3, and so and so forth. New new/revamped fractals are fitting into this model of tiered difficulty very well, and I hope that they continue.

As for least favorite fractals, I would have to say solid ocean and Aquatic.

Exactly. I’m getting pretty tired of people complaining about the difficulty of T4 fractals when they can easily go down to T3 for more practice. T4 fractals aren’t supposed to be easy

I’m wondering if a lot of the flak is coming from people who got used to running T4’s because they were easy money, and realizing that the game no longer considers this content for them, I can understand being upset with that. They just have to realize that just because t4’s are not for them any longer, that there is still other things that are designed around their skill level or the level of effort that they want to invest. You can be the most skilled player in the world, but if you don’t want to invest effort, it doesn’t mean jack.

I agree with the (growing) crowd in disliking Aquatic. Both secondary paths, darkness/dolphin, while interesting in theory simply aren’t fun to play. Most groups I end up with wait dead until one of us (usually me) finishes the path so that we can all checkpoint straight to the boring boss.

And while I enjoy most of Solid Ocean, the lack of incentive to do anything along the way (unless farming essence/clear achievement) and the fact that the boss can and usually does target downed players both severely detract from an otherwise great map.

And as a sidenote, I enjoyed the Swamp alternate bosses. I like the current Bloomhunger, but Mossman being demoted to a miniboss saddens me. It feels kinda like Mossman got turned into a loot pinata to make up for the fact that Bloomhunger is no longer a loot pinata.

I like the design. But it is not very fun. Just takes way to long, and the rewards are meh at best. I would be willing to run more fractals, but it seems to me the rewards are just not as good as they use to be. Sure you get more gold. But it seems(and maybe it is just me) that the ascended chest drops, and gold fractal weapons are much,much less frequent than they use to be.

Fatalyz.7168:

I’m wondering if a lot of the flak is coming from people who got used to running T4’s because they were easy money, and realizing that the game no longer considers this content for them, I can understand being upset with that. They just have to realize that just because t4’s are not for them any longer, that there is still other things that are designed around their skill level or the level of effort that they want to invest. You can be the most skilled player in the world, but if you don’t want to invest effort, it doesn’t mean jack.

It’s exactly this. After the dungeon reward nerf a lot of people expected fractals to replace them as their daily go-to instanced PVE. Low to moderate effort for moderate to high rewards.

Sadly, putting the same effort in for fewer rewards just isn’t going to cut it for most of us. I’d stop playing entirely before I settled for T3 fractals.

Personally, I disagree that there is any inherent value in personal skill or the amount of effort required to beat video game content, but that’s another matter altogether.

It just occurred to me that the worst fractal is: Abaddon’s, since it will never be made (at least, not according to the last dev who commented on it).

(Personally, I always preferred learning about how Thaumanova went splodey than seeing a few new details about a deposed god. However, I know plenty of people were hoping for the vote to go the other way around.)