Guild Wars 2

Hiya,

I know the rewards mean a lot to people here, and want to see them match dungeon rewards although I feel they need to work on other things first ( personalty I think the rewards are fine, apart from the rings at high levels and minor things like that. )

The biggest thing I would like to see is them working on AI.
I believe anet should take the meta strategies and throw them back at us!

we all know how devastating Captain Ashym is with his FGS, he needs this earlier on high levels ( something like 40+ ) and maybe give dulfy one too after she drops to half her hp.

Another spot that does this well is in Molten Furnace with the Molten Smoke Shaman, basically he blinds people. I mean even thief’s in WvW blind spam so adding one or two of them would make things harder.

I believe the Aetherblade’s have it right although I understand you can’t have everyone like that. I don’t think for the high levels ( 40+ ) and for future levels that you ( anet ) need to do a huge change to make them hard for us. What I do think though, is small changes to enemies and there AI will make it that way.

I would even go on to say, that you can use fractals as a testing ground for improved AI and with the future levels you can try new AI strategies against us and if it works, throw it into living story/where ever.

That’s my two cents for now, lets see where this takes us !!

Sarah

Fractals, their rewards, and the challenge (and lack thereof) associated with them, are a major topic that I plan to make a huge push on with this forum specialist position. Thank you for making this topic, and I will pull some of the things you’ve presented here into the report I provide to the ANet staff on the matter.

My plan is to create an initial report on what people have been saying up to now that I will present to the ANet staff, and then based on their feedback to that initial report I will have “mini CDI-like topics” where we discuss all of the issues regarding certain key topics for the community, like challenging instanced PvE content in Fractals, for example.

Rising Dusk.2408:

My plan is to create an initial report on what people have been saying up to now that I will present to the ANet staff, and then based on their feedback to that initial report I will have “mini CDI-like topics” where we discuss all of the issues regarding certain key topics for the community, like challenging instanced PvE content in Fractals, for example.

If they let you go ahead with your plan, i’ll be happy. Encounters like the marionette would be epic fun for a fractal of 5 players. I also hope they get a new dungeons developer team some day.

Grats on your position.

Is this thread meant for suggestions now or comments? Or is the representative planning on opening up a new one with specific goals and guidelines stated.

captainteemo.6537:

Is this thread meant for suggestions now or comments? Or is the representative planning on opening up a new one with specific goals and guidelines stated.

May as well talk now. I mean as long as it doesnt de-rail we should be fine

Feel free to chat now, but this is one of those topics I’m going to be opening a bigger thread about later, so don’t tire yourselves out.

Hi, just wanted to revisit this idea. Maybe you can setup a framework for us to provide structured opinions and actionable requests that you can bring back to the anet tab. Open discussion is fine, but with out structure it won’t get very far.

oooo buzzword abuse got called out

Gaile Gray.6029:

I think there may come a time when Chris or another dev revisits the topic of Dungeons and Fractals, whether that’s by starting a new CDI or reopening the old one. I cannot speak for the devs on this subject, but I feel I can say that right now they would not be able to engage on this subject, although I know it’s definitely on their radar.

It’s confirmed no new dungeons or fractals in HoT. Or that’s my takeaway in anycase :P

Gaile Gray.6029:

definitely on their radar.

you mean … table?

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Gaile Gray.6029:

definitely on their radar.

you mean … table?

Trashcan?

Dub.1273:

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Gaile Gray.6029:

definitely on their radar.

you mean … table?

Trashcan?

most likely^^

Gaile, will there be any new instanced group content in HoT either in the form of dungeons or raids or fractals?

While CDI being the Collaborative Development Initiative is what we hope for, I can understand reserving the term as to not confuse community initiatives with something directly related to the developers.

The decision to keep the dungeon running community happy is an internal matter and for now we can only hope that people like Gaile and our new forum representative can communicate our desires to the team over there.

But, if we want to see changes we’ll still need a new topic with some more structure to outline our goals. Either using the CDI framework or drawing from your own corporate experiences to start?

I’m assuming the representative is not just a figurehead? I’ve been impressed by the amount of development that’s been taken away from the community feedback and I have high hopes we can at least bring some light back into dungeons and instances.

captainteemo.6537:

While CDI being the Collaborative Development Initiative is what we hope for, I can understand reserving the term as to not confuse community initiatives with something directly related to the developers.

The decision to keep the dungeon running community happy is an internal matter and for now we can only hope that people like Gaile and our new forum representative can communicate our desires to the team over there.

But, if we want to see changes we’ll still need a new topic with some more structure to outline our goals. Either using the CDI framework or drawing from your own corporate experiences to start?

I’m assuming the representative is not just a figurehead? I’ve been impressed by the amount of development that’s been taken away from the community feedback and I have high hopes we can at least bring some light back into dungeons and instances.

for one thing, the whole cdi thing of “post in this concise format so i can mo’ betta digest yo sayins” is not whats being reserved. just the buzzword. pretty sure youve got implicit permission to post in the proposal format anywhere any time.

and for another.. well in short, no dont think hes just a figurehead. avoiding infractions here. >.>

Community Discussed Interest is what I’m sure was meant…

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Gaile, will there be any new instanced group content in HoT either in the form of dungeons or raids or fractals?

lol

One Note Chord.5031:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Gaile, will there be any new instanced group content in HoT either in the form of dungeons or raids or fractals?

lol

This will determine whether or not I buy the game.

If yes, I will buy, if no I will not.

I thought Rising clearly stated it was his “goal” to bring his findings back to Anet in hopes of starting a CDI…. Not that he was going to actually do it. I’m totally all for clarification for the sake of stupid people, I just don’t understand why Gaile had to spell it out quite as she did…. shrugs those kitten buzzwords….. Pfffft.

Going in line with the thread though; I personally think there is a call for MANY improvements to Fractals, both with rewards and the actual content. I’m excited to see where this thread goes!

-Sed

ourplague.7196:

I thought Rising clearly stated it was his “goal” to bring his findings back to Anet in hopes of starting a CDI…. Not that he was going to actually do it. I’m totally all for clarification for the sake of stupid people, I just don’t understand why Gaile had to spell it out quite as she did…. shrugs those kitten buzzwords….. Pfffft.

Going in line with the thread though; I personally think there is a call for MANY improvements to Fractals, both with rewards and the actual content. I’m excited to see where this thread goes!

-Sed

And who is this " stupid people " you are refering too??

You can start by asking them what the hell happened to fractal chests to choose a weapon instead of getting repeats, or why a fractal 40-50 rewards 1.5 gold while an Arah stealth spam run that’s a fraction of the time investment gives 3g (even if fractal 50 gave 3g it still takes more time than an Arah run, so it’d still be crap).

Or what we’re supposed to do with all these pristine fractal relics.

Or why agony exists to begin with, creating dumb gold gates (hello 70 AR, how nice to spend 200+ gold to get a toon to 70 AR for fractal 50) with no reason whatsoever as agony itself is a worthless mechanic that adds no gameplay value (especially those agony checks at the end bosses).

Or why molten brothers is still so dumb to ranger pets by spamming fire circles that not even drakes can live through (since pets love to position right outside the reflect walls).

Switch fractal rewards to dragonite ore instead of empyreal fragments. Empyreal fragments can stay in normal dungeons.

Look, a red post! The statement is as original and new as the new dungeon content we got the past few months.

Nothing is off the table.

oxtred.7658:

Look, a red post! The statement is as original and new as the new dungeon content we got the past few months.

Nothing is off the radar.

FTFY

I figure this is as good a place as any to share my thoughts on Fractals in general. I’ll repost and elaborate on these once an official discussion thread is created, but I figure I may as well get this out there for people to comment on. To start off…

“PUG Killer” Fractals
I feel that there are some fractals that are particularly complicated for pickup groups to run, particularly the Volcanic fractal. Obviously “get good” is the easiest answer, but I feel that can be difficult as the boss fight is particularly unforgiving even if you know the mechanics, and there is no way to practice it on a regular basis. It’s a bit out there, but what if we had something like this?

• Players would be able to receive a buff for the final boss that reduces their outgoing damage by 50%, but makes them immune to fire damage.

This would obviously make the fight drag out much longer, but it would give an alternative to groups simply giving up on the third fractal after running into this boss. Additionally not everyone would have to take the buff, so it would open up new strategies such as having a dedicated healer.

Fractal Weapon skins
To start off with, I’d like to point out that these are extremely polished skins. They have high polygon counts, particle effects, and there are even trails on many of the weapons. This makes them of higher quality than even most of the Black Lion skins which sell for 50g at an absolute minimum. Because of this, I do not feel that there should be an easy way to obtain them. If anything, I would see these changes:

• Fractal weapon boxes drop at tier 51-60, and have an increased chance to drop over the 41-50 tier. I believe the devs are already planning on this change, but if there is no tier increase I would like to see fractal weapon boxes begin to drop at 41-50.
• Give people a freebie, but don’t make it easy. You could get ONE skin (weapon box) per account by completing all of the achievements. An achievement would be added to complete a fractal daily at reward level 50 (or current max) to prevent players from getting them solely at lower levels.

This would alleviate much of the frustration of people who want to complete their collection, or want one skin in particular that they’ve been playing for years for, without giving them away like ascended rings candy.

Training
As of now, there’s no way to practice an individual encounter. I would like to see something like this:

• A training/replay mode for fractals could be introduced where parties would be able to play an individual fractal for reduced/no rewards. This would be a great asset for guild groups who would like to help players with particularly troublesome encounters. Rewards would depend on game balance, but given the farmability of swamp they would probably be removed altogether.

Ascended Rings
This is another hot topic as myself and many other players have a growing inventory of rings that can’t be salvaged or used as anything else outside of vendor trash. I believe that this is mainly due to a lack of salvaging for ascended equipment and may be rectified in the future, but in the short term I think that these changes would help:

• Ascended rings should be given a vendor value of 1g, similar to ascended weapons.
• To balance this, ascended rings would cost 1g in addition to 10 pristine relics from the vendor. This is still extremely cheap for ascended tier equipment and would prevent relics > gold conversion.

If nothing is going to change, I would like to hear a definitive response from the developers confirming this so I can retire my inventory in peace.

Fluff
There are a few things that I would like to see that don’t necessarily effect the game balance overall. For instance:

• Why on earth don’t we have a Baron von Scrufflebutt mini yet?

I would like to see this, and other fractal specific items drop from the boss chests. It would liven things up and give us some flair to carry around to the rest of the game.

Makes sense. It isn’t really “collaborative” when it’s just us talking at a wall anyway.

Is FDI ok? Futile Discussion Initiative?

dlonie.6547:

Makes sense. It isn’t really “collaborative” when it’s just us talking at a wall anyway.

Is FDI ok? Futile Discussion Initiative?

Or TIAD?

This is absolutely doable

I agree with Slacker’s post for the most part. Though I would like the ability to buy fractal skins with pristine relics. I don’t care if its 25 or even 50 for 1 skin, as long as it is EVENTUALLY attainable. That would still keep the skins rare but not purely rely on rng which after 2 years can still leave you lacking the one weapon skin you actually want.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

dlonie.6547:

Makes sense. It isn’t really “collaborative” when it’s just us talking at a wall anyway.

Is FDI ok? Futile Discussion Initiative?

Or TIAD?

This is absolutely doable

“thread is already doomed”?

Kronos.2560:

I agree with Slacker’s post for the most part. Though I would like the ability to buy fractal skins with pristine relics. I don’t care if its 25 or even 50 for 1 skin, as long as it is EVENTUALLY attainable. That would still keep the skins rare but not purely rely on rng which after 2 years can still leave you lacking the one weapon skin you actually want.

I feel that if a dedicated method to obtain skins were to be introduced, that 25 or 50 pristine relics would be far too cheap. In order to keep things balanced I would favor something like this:

• Fractal weapons skins can be purchased for 100 Pristine Relics + 10g and require a personal reward level of 50 or higher to purchase.

The amounts required could increase depending on balance as desired by the devs, but I think a minimum of these three factors should be required.

Slacker.2679:

Kronos.2560:

I agree with Slacker’s post for the most part. Though I would like the ability to buy fractal skins with pristine relics. I don’t care if its 25 or even 50 for 1 skin, as long as it is EVENTUALLY attainable. That would still keep the skins rare but not purely rely on rng which after 2 years can still leave you lacking the one weapon skin you actually want.

I feel that if a dedicated method to obtain skins were to be introduced, that 25 or 50 pristine relics would be far too cheap. In order to keep things balanced I would favor something like this:

• Fractal weapons skins can be purchased for 100 Pristine Relics + 10g and require a personal reward level of 50 or higher to purchase.

The amounts required could increase depending on balance as desired by the devs, but I think a minimum of these three factors should be required.

i think 100 is overkill

phys.7689:

Slacker.2679:

Kronos.2560:

I agree with Slacker’s post for the most part. Though I would like the ability to buy fractal skins with pristine relics. I don’t care if its 25 or even 50 for 1 skin, as long as it is EVENTUALLY attainable. That would still keep the skins rare but not purely rely on rng which after 2 years can still leave you lacking the one weapon skin you actually want.

I feel that if a dedicated method to obtain skins were to be introduced, that 25 or 50 pristine relics would be far too cheap. In order to keep things balanced I would favor something like this:

• Fractal weapons skins can be purchased for 100 Pristine Relics + 10g and require a personal reward level of 50 or higher to purchase.

The amounts required could increase depending on balance as desired by the devs, but I think a minimum of these three factors should be required.

i think 100 is overkill

I think 100 is about right. Your odds of getting the skin you WANT, on scale 50, are 1/19 * 10% or .5%. Thus, in theory, it should take you ~200 runs to get the particular skin you WANT, or 200 relics.

BUT the drop rate was 1 in 4 prepatch, or 25%. That math turns out to be around a 1.3% chance on any given run, or about 100 runs to get the skin you want.

100 relics is a good number.

With the recent daily fractal (get extra pristine) I would understand if they made it 50. But I also agree that 100 +10 gold is overkill. The skins aren’t that elite, I’ve seen plenty of first timers get the skin i want in 11-19 fractals. Rng just happens to not be my friend. And just curious if its only 10 for a ring why would it need to be 100 for a skin? I mean they aren’t that elite of skins, it just sucks to try and get the last one you need (opposed to just duplicate warhorns/tridents).

Awesome! It Is great to know that our concerns are getting through! Excited for the day when we can purchase fractal skins with relics and salvage ascended rings (or do something with them). Thanks Gaile!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Update: We got two very solid reports from RisingDusk, to whom we want to extend a huge note of thanks. Each report has been routed to the development team.

You can rest assured that RD understands your concerns and is expressing them very well, including tasty quotes from some of you. (I use that comment with a freely-confessed goal: to inspire more and better “tasty quotes!” )

Please keep your constructive comments and suggestions coming — they are very valuable to the process!

Thank you very much for the update!

Kronos.2560:

With the recent daily fractal (get extra pristine) I would understand if they made it 50. But I also agree that 100 +10 gold is overkill. The skins aren’t that elite, I’ve seen plenty of first timers get the skin i want in 11-19 fractals. Rng just happens to not be my friend. And just curious if its only 10 for a ring why would it need to be 100 for a skin? I mean they aren’t that elite of skins, it just sucks to try and get the last one you need (opposed to just duplicate warhorns/tridents).

All of my suggestions are essentially structured around maintaining the current balance in Fractals. The developers already went through a major rebalancing of rewards with Fractured, and because of this I don’t believe it is likely that they will significantly change the balance again in the future. Therefore, I believe it is the most productive to discuss changes that would minimally impact the current balance of things, while resolving headaches for players wherever possible.

In regards to Fractal Weapon skins, I believe it is important to look at what goes into the skins, versus whether or not they’re desirable overall. As I mentioned before they are designed with a high polygon count, have free-floating and moving parts, have very detailed particle effects, and some of the weapons leave trails. In terms of quality these are nicer than ascended skins, and somewhere in between ascended and legendary. This is my reasoning as to why they should not be easy to obtain.

If skins were readily available for 25-50 relics, I feel that would also be very frustrating to many long time players as it would significantly devalue all of the time invested in running high level Fractals for skins. I feel that the best solution for everyone would be to make it so players could reasonably expect to get no more than 1-2 skins in a dedicated manner, be it either from achievements or relics, which is where I got the 100 and 10g figure from. I still believe that one skin from achievements is all that should be guaranteed, but if a purchasing system were introduced then the costs should be proportionally high.

In addition, it’s never a good idea to balance rewards around the luckiest of players. Saying skins should be easy to obtain because some people were lucky enough to get them at 11-20, would be akin to saying that precursors should have a 50% drop chance because some people throw a handful exotics into the forge and get Dusk.

You can drop uninfused rings at 40 and 50, and rings at ALL at 50, with like a 40% chance.
I don’t care if you think rewards are good and balanced: this is just unacceptable. I will not take anything they do seriously until they fix this.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Update: We got two very solid reports from RisingDusk, to whom we want to extend a huge note of thanks. Each report has been routed to the development team.

You can rest assured that RD understands your concerns and is expressing them very well, including tasty quotes from some of you. (I use that comment with a freely-confessed goal: to inspire more and better “tasty quotes!” )

Hooray! Glad to hear it!

For everyone else here, my first report included as one of the discussed topics Fractal Rewards. There have been a number of discussions lately about it, and I feel I have captured the community’s feelings on them (as well as all possible solutions to the issue) sufficiently.

One topic I have not yet addressed to the developers, however, is the idea of Fractals progression and difficulty. My goal for fractals progression discussion was to do a “mini-CDI”-like thread where we discuss different aspects of the progression system and what we like and don’t like, and then I report it all to ANet. Some people in this thread seemed to have taken that as my hosting a CDI, so sorry for any miscommunication there! CDIs will only be happening at the discretion of Chris Whiteside and other ANet game designers.

As for fractals progression, the first thing we have to discuss is what we have right now. What does everyone think about the Mistlock Instability system? Does it feel challenging enough or does it feel gimmicky? Would you prefer a system more like the the Queen’s Gauntlet where you add gambits and the rewards increase proportionally? Any other ideas?

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

phys.7689:

Slacker.2679:

Kronos.2560:

I agree with Slacker’s post for the most part. Though I would like the ability to buy fractal skins with pristine relics. I don’t care if its 25 or even 50 for 1 skin, as long as it is EVENTUALLY attainable. That would still keep the skins rare but not purely rely on rng which after 2 years can still leave you lacking the one weapon skin you actually want.

I feel that if a dedicated method to obtain skins were to be introduced, that 25 or 50 pristine relics would be far too cheap. In order to keep things balanced I would favor something like this:

• Fractal weapons skins can be purchased for 100 Pristine Relics + 10g and require a personal reward level of 50 or higher to purchase.

The amounts required could increase depending on balance as desired by the devs, but I think a minimum of these three factors should be required.

i think 100 is overkill

I think 100 is about right. Your odds of getting the skin you WANT, on scale 50, are 1/19 * 10% or .5%. Thus, in theory, it should take you ~200 runs to get the particular skin you WANT, or 200 relics.

BUT the drop rate was 1 in 4 prepatch, or 25%. That math turns out to be around a 1.3% chance on any given run, or about 100 runs to get the skin you want.

100 relics is a good number.

50 runs, requires you be up to level 50.

getting to level 50 should be the main hurdle. getting the drop you want randomly saves you 50 runs.

your essentially talking about at least 50 hours per weapon. Thats not a bad number. 100 hours per weapon is overkill. imo

I wasn’t ever trying to say fractal skins should be “easy to obtain”. Personally I could and would easily pay 100 pristines for the last skin i need. But the 25-50 was for the sake of new players. 100 pristines seem like very little to me. But so does 100g but I have also played since gw2 first came out. To someone that just started it is a seemingly exorbitant amount.

I’m a little surprised a report went in but a new discussion thread was never really created? Though since there’s a back log of hot topics I’m sure there was plenty to provide them.

@Rising Dusk. Maybe a brief summary of what was addressed?

@Slacker. Great that you posted this, but I would like to add my opinion and comments as well.

1) I think ‘Pug Killers’ are fine, in the sense that FoTM are meant to be challenging and co-ordinated. To assist a group into transitioning to that level, perhaps lower tiers would act as a training ground with either additional help or reduced damage.

2) I’ve also heard the rumors about the secret Fractal weapon skin boxes and I would also like to see some additional avenues for obtaining the desired skins. Your idea of a collection is great! It goes in line with the system that anet has been currently developing and I would like to suggest a NEW collection (again starting everyone off on the same foot) where if you complete a fractals 30-50 (every single one) then that would reward you with either a fractal skin box, or a token that would eventually allow you to forge the skin of your choosing. Currently most people and I suspect most new people rising in the ranks of fractals skip the often difficult instabilities. They haven’t gone through the adventures/pains of the people who went through the ‘Fractured’ update and had to challenge themselves going through all or at least most of the instabilities. This is one way to bring those often unvisited instabilities back and to reward people who challenge themselves through all of them.

I also hinted towards another possible token system. Not that I desire more tokens but, if there was a collection method mixed in with the current RNG system then perhaps there would be another way that wouldn’t break the current system. If players could say salvage a) ascended rings for a mat, b) combine it with a weapon frame purchased using relics or pristine relics (100 pristine sounds fine, I’m even fine with 250 since I have more than enough and I’m sure others do as well) c) Shards and d) something else (4 part mystic forge recipe) which could be something anet introduces that controls the rate in which people can forge skins to not flood the market.

3) A training system would take away resources to develop other content. I would rather they just tune lower levels and move on. I would be nice if they had more of a tutorial session for fractal beginners, but since there are a lot of tutorial videos out there I’m sure we’ll be fine.

4) Rings… should be addressed. Vendoring for 1g seems a little too much. Even salvaging for shards would be preferable right now to vendoring.

5) Minis, yes give us these minis. Though if they were announced with the next (hopefully soon) Fractals update that would be fine as well.

I certainly hope fractals and dungeons get more developer time. The skins still need to be prestigious and difficult to aquire, but not so much that we (maybe that’s just me) sit here thinking it will never happen.

I suggested this in another post, basically I have a similar idea to yours:

All ascended stuff ( rings, armor, weapons etc ) can be salvaged but they all salvage down into like a fractal metal ( while the armor and weapons would salvage for normal stuff as well ). This would pull all ascended stuff into one material, and now that its just one material you can make alternate recipes for all ascended recipes using this new material, so you could loop them back into ascended things that you needed.

Can we not have this “buy skins for X relics” mechanic? Thanks.

serenke.4806:

Can we not have this “buy skins for X relics” mechanic? Thanks.

I’m not sure if there’s a solution to that. If you have a recommendation that isn’t entirely bound to rng? How do you validate the time and effort people put into fractals while keeping items prestigious and uncommon relative to the general masses?

As an addition to the recommendations about salvaging Ascended items. What if they give dark matter? People who run dungeons are basically pushed to gear in Ascended. Why not make it so items like rings at least assist in thier goals to progress in fractals?

Id certainly prefer not to have instabilities which people just try to rush past for progression. I would also prefer a gambit system which gave increased rewards based on the gambits. That would certainly be more interesting in my opinion.

captainteemo.6537:

serenke.4806:

Can we not have this “buy skins for X relics” mechanic? Thanks.

I’m not sure if there’s a solution to that. If you have a recommendation that isn’t entirely bound to rng? How do you validate the time and effort people put into fractals while keeping items prestigious and uncommon relative to the general masses?

As an addition to the recommendations about salvaging Ascended items. What if they give dark matter? People who run dungeons are basically pushed to gear in Ascended. Why not make it so items like rings at least assist in thier goals to progress in fractals?

Dedicated fractal runners have no problems with dark matter since they get it from the account bound exotics that have a relatively high drop rate. Only reasonable salvage product from rings/armor pieces would be dragonite so people wouldn’t be pushed to do SW or snore fest world bosses for their gear.

Also Gaile since you seem to be following this topic may I ask what happened to fixing the broken collections? Namely the champion bag collection and fractal weapon collection? It’s been several months now since we last heard about them and only 1 or 2 of the broken collections were fixed.

captainteemo.6537:

I’m a little surprised a report went in but a new discussion thread was never really created? Though since there’s a back log of hot topics I’m sure there was plenty to provide them.

@Rising Dusk. Maybe a brief summary of what was addressed?

Topics I’ve covered with Anet are as follows.

• The Party Kick System
• Fractal Rewards
• New, Instanced PvE Content
• LFG Filters
• Community’s Response to HoT Changes

I’ve also addressed the topic of Ascended Rings being a problem as part of Fractal Rewards (either allow them to be merched for higher value, salvaged, or both, possibly with a collection), and so forth.

As for progression, what would everyone like to see from higher levels? I recognize everyone wants new fractals already, but what else besides that? We all know of the mechanic shift from levels 1-9 and levels 10+, and also the new mechanics we see at level 50 for some fractals. Are those changes things you like? Would you prefer more things like that, or another avenue for that sort of thing?

Gambits had a fair bit of discussion a long time ago and had some positive support, but it’s been awhile. I sort of like them because it allows you to tailor your own difficulty. What if the current instabilities became the gambits? Would that work, or would you prefer something else?

Additional skills/attacks/phases à la lupi on faptal bosses. Not dumb attacks like “everyone gets pummeled by 20k unblockable/unreflectable/homing projectiles because we hate zerkers” if possible, even though I know anet started loving those. I enjoyed some of the new skills on mordrem foes. Not anti-melee, but you can’t fall asleep while fighting them.
Like, why are archie the diviner’s phases (the ones with the chanters) all the same?
Changes in the environment would be nice too. Small things like more traps on the floor, perhaps. I have a harder time with traps than with anything else so I shot myself in the foot there <.< I’m an idiot.

I’d like to see less I-hate-you-zergburgers gambits and more choices, as in: selectable gambits with scaling difficulty and maybe, toh, rewards.. I know, I know.
(God, all of this was already said A HUNDRED TIMES in 200 different threads, there’s nothing original…. how long ’til the message penetrates?)

I wouldn’t want to see more boring hp/damage increase unless necessary… but whatevs, that is obvious.

P.S. Not that I’m under the delusion my opinion on the matter… matters. I was just bored. Waiting for the bread to bake.

I don’t think there should be multiple ways to get the same thing. That always leads one being favored unless they are carefully balanced which requires lots of participation from developers.

What I’m saying that current instability system doesn’t work because people can just choose the path of least resistance and skip them. Similar gambit system wouldn’t also work because people would just pick the best gambits.

Personally I think we need fractals 3.0 with active community involvement during development. We have here lots of experienced players who can point out any problems before any development even begins. At least for me it was pretty obvious that instabilities wouldn’t work as planned.

I have few times mentioned my idea and can expand it if needed but here is a summary:

• Create separate progression for every map (split up RNG paths)
• Connect different instabilities directly to specific maps
• Intensify / add effects further you progress
• At end of progression open up a new scale with numerically stronger enemies
• Add daily which requires doing specific level (= path & progression combination)
• Give a fractal weapon / tonic / etc. at end of progression
• Add fractal weapon sets with different colors for higher scales

This would:

• Shorten minimum time needed to progress
• Allow playing / practicing any maps
• Remove RNG from progression
• Allow more interesting and meaningful instabilities
• Allow near infinite progression while keeping it expandable
• Give lots “meaningful” of content with different instability combinations