Guild Wars 2

Anyone else seing the true gem of this game playing through events again? Or playing with alts?

I started playing on release, and everywhere was packed. All events had a mass zerg of 40+ players all beating on one mini boss, and individual effort was hard to see. Drops from big events were rare (especially for a support build like myself).

Now its completely different.

I dont tend to spend much time in Cursed Shore as I hate the mass of folks stood in one gateway spamming aoe on charging hordes, over and over, what I do is spend most of my time in different areas playing events.

What I have found now that areas are levelled out better is the mechanics of the game are actually really good, and the fights are exciting.
Things like wave 4 of 8, are challenging as you wait on cool downs for your much needed skills. Final mini boss, whose attacks may knock down 5 people, in a zerg of 40 means nothing, now in a 1v5 fight, if 3 or 4 of you go down, its tough on the solo to stand and fight. Res’ing now requires good judgement and timing.

Found a new love for the game now things have settled down

I totally agree. It’s also really nice to be able to actually see events and stories play out through the event chains, and play them as intended. I like the slightly higher level of challenge (even when I’m being down-leveled) and I haven’t had any issues getting some friendly folks together when there was a boss to take down.

I think we’ll see even more spreading out and normalization of zone populations as the long-term players settle in. There’s so much to see and do…you very rarely ever have to repeat anything if you utilize the whole world.

Agreed. Fighting dragons with 5-10 people provides a better experience. I read somewhere that the DE’s are supposed to scale in difficulty? If that actually worked properly when there are 20+ people doing DE’s, CS would be pretty fun and exciting. I also read somewhere that DE’s are supposed have an element of randomness? Not really seeing that in CS atm.

This is exactly why I can’t stand the zergs in Orr.

Just don’t see how anybody thinks those are fun.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Like others, Ive started spending less time at 80 in Cursed Shore and more in the lower level zones.

This past week, a group of 4 guild members (myself included) spent hours in Fireheart Rise, Bloodtide Coast and Mount Maelstrom. We never once lacked for an event and they were definitely challenging. Excepting some of the temple fights, fights like the Pirate in Bloodtide or the boss/defend against effigies chain in southern Fireheart are just as epic as anything in Orr. As far as rewards, Karma gains were close to the rate in Cursed Shore and level appropriate drops were common. The only thing we didnt have access to were the harvestable nodes. We’ve even had fun in the entry level zones, but anything short of a champion there is not challenging in any way for 80s (which is understandable).

As people realize that “end game” isn’t just Cursed Shore/Orr and start to spread more, they will see that there is a lot of fun to be had at level 80 in the actualy PVE map world. It just takes breaking old habits of focusing only on the zone that has a specific number in it.

Agree. I solo my way through different areas harvesting as I go, coming up on the occasional duo or small group fighting their tails off against a veteran mob or so…jump right in and help…rez..whatever. Everyone says.."Hey, thanks…and go on my way again or hang with the group for awhile. Whatever.

Just feels right though. Like taking a few minutes actually contributed something. I’m liking the lesser population right now. Or perhaps, the more spread out population.

Truth is, these are all just symptoms of a problem people have been complaining about since beta. What you’re all saying (and I agree with it) is that the content in this game is much more fun when there are fewer people around. The problem being that the combat in events because far too easy and mindless when a lot of players are involved in the mix.

The NPC scaling for larger crowds is just balanced poorly and the design isn’t holding up. More players come in, and more mobs are added and their levels increased as a counter. The problem is, that only really equates to more danger (and often instant and unpleasantly surprising death) for the front-line fighters. It’s pretty hard to survive when a dozen NPCs 3 levels over you decide to use you as their pincushion all at the same time.

Meanwhile, the ranged players in the back don’t notice a change in the difficulty because whether it’s 2 mobs parked under their AoE ranged bombardment or 20, they’re all dying at the same rate anyway (especially since the latter is paired with more players performing ranged AoE attacks).

The game desperately needs to handle large battles better. Otherwise they literally feel like a mindless zerg.

I agree 100% plus i still have lots of dungeons and dungeon paths to do

Edge.4180:

Truth is, these are all just symptoms of a problem people have been complaining about since beta. What you’re all saying (and I agree with it) is that the content in this game is much more fun when there are fewer people around.

I have an addendum to this the mechanics of the game breakdown when more than 40 players show up to an event. I can’t fault the game for that this is primarily a symptom of the launch wave making it’s way through the game for the first time.

This game actually plays best when you have between 15 to 25 players working on events in the general area, less than that and the pace of the game slows down, more and the big events start to feel trivial.

Unlike other MMO’s where 90% of the open world content can become trivial with just 2 players working on it.

As the OP pointed out now that the population of the game is more fanned out the early zones play much better the second time round.

Hey people!

No way near lvl 80 but i see what you all are saying and i can agree. It’s indeed a sad thing when a huge group off players attack a DE and all you can do is ‘try’ to tag a few mobs in the hope you get some loot. It’s nothing about tactics or organized fighting, it’s just spamming AoE’s and hope the frontline can hold there ground

I often wander in the lower lvl area’s just for gathering resources and try to help out people that are struggling to get a mini boss down or have just attracted to many mobs to handle. It’s a fun way to spend time in Tyria, i get the feeling that i’m able to help out others and in the end i even get loot, exp and karma (and even some coin) for my time spent.

So everybody should wander around a bit and see if there’s something else they could do beside farming Orr or what ever lvl 80 area.
This is not WoW people, this is GW2 and the rules have been changed.

As for the scaling off events, i guess that they do scale, but there is a limit to what can be done to match the number off players and the balance is indeed sometimes pretty off.

That’s all i have for now, so enjoy your stay in Tyria, and try to be open minded, the game gets better when you play that way

i follow the Orr-Zerg when needed, because it’s better traveling for the auto-protection than by myself. some outposts have bots – which is okay i suppose for the extra protection when the Risen try to overtake the outpost. i find myself making more gold in Orr than i had previously – alone and weak – because i am not downed as much with the extra protection. i am still alone and weak, but the extra player trains and botted outposts protect me from the mess that is Orr.

also, game should not scale down for 70+ to 80 levels. only less than 70 zones. survivability may then be up some percentage.

It’s nice to see a (mostly) positive thread about what there is to do at 80…

I’m nowhere near level 80 zones yet, my main is level 63. My husband and I are running through the zones in level order, making sure we experience everything, and are currently in a level 40ish zone. I imagine I will get to 80 long before I get to level 80 zones, so the game won’t really change for me, it will still be just as fun as now with plenty to keep me busy. And I have 6 alts to get too… :-)

OP depends. Yes it is awesome when there is a smaller group and not some huge zerg. However at the sametime it sucks donkey balls when you go to do an event and cannot complete it AT ALL because there are two few players. The latter seems to be happening a lot more in some zones.

Mog.1589:

OP depends. Yes it is awesome when there is a smaller group and not some huge zerg. However at the sametime it sucks donkey balls when you go to do an event and cannot complete it AT ALL because there are two few players. The latter seems to be happening a lot more in some zones.

I think we’ve all been in this situation and can relate.

On the one hand, I find it frustrating, but on the other, I am glad to see it. It gives guilds something to do together.

If I find one of these events when I am soloing, I usually make a mental note of it and bring guildees back with me to tackle it. Lately, my guild has been forming small groups to do this alot. It is really fun taking organized groups in and finding the fights actually challenging.

Mog.1589:

OP depends. Yes it is awesome when there is a smaller group and not some huge zerg. However at the sametime it sucks donkey balls when you go to do an event and cannot complete it AT ALL because there are two few players. The latter seems to be happening a lot more in some zones.

This. Don’t get me wrong, not being part of the zerg lets you appreciate the environment and the zone flavor more, but the zones seem to be designed with a minimum level of player activity in mind, and when it gets below that, it’s hard to get anything done.

It’s really apparent in the two Orr zones that aren’t Cursed Shore when it’s not peak hours. They go to crap, and there’s untouched group events and overrun outposts everywhere and one player can’t do much about any of them.

I agree completely but the BIG issue with playing like that is waypoint fees.
Event loots barely make up for the fees paid for porting between them.

Hopefully Anet will realize that such high WP costs lead to emptied earlygame zones because very few players are willing to go through those costs.

Totally true travel costs vs what you get at your destination are not balanced very well. The 70+ zones you can easily make what you spent and more but not so if you travel to lower level zones.

The events PERIOD are lackluster in their rewards. The only rewarding events are the ones were you can spam AoE on huge packs of mobs to get more chances at rare drops and mats.

I was actually shocked the first time I completed an event chain and got a bunch of crap from the splendid chest. I was like WTF! That is part of the issue, no incentive really to go back and partake in these epic event chains. Hell you can earn better karma per hr in WvW.

Logun.2349:

Edge.4180:

Truth is, these are all just symptoms of a problem people have been complaining about since beta. What you’re all saying (and I agree with it) is that the content in this game is much more fun when there are fewer people around.

I have an addendum to this the mechanics of the game breakdown when more than 40 players show up to an event. I can’t fault the game for that this is primarily a symptom of the launch wave making it’s way through the game for the first time.

This game actually plays best when you have between 15 to 25 players working on events in the general area, less than that and the pace of the game slows down, more and the big events start to feel trivial.

Unlike other MMO’s where 90% of the open world content can become trivial with just 2 players working on it.

As the OP pointed out now that the population of the game is more fanned out the early zones play much better the second time round.

I honestly think events are at their best when no more than 5 or so players are present. The higher you go over that, the more elements like combo fields and players shifting into specific roles as needed go out the window in favor for damage, damage, damage, and the mindless “if it’s a target, AoE it” zerg. A tactic that, sadly, works all too well.

Yes Xericor. I also am enjoying the game even more since I have reached lvl 80. I have two alts but find myself still playing my lvl 80 more. I have started my return journey back to Divinity’s Reach with my lvl 80. I am walking from Orr back through the human zones. It is really fun replaying many of the DEs.

For me, I am also surprised how different the racial zones are. I thought I would get bored with my alts but each of their experiences feels completely different to me.