Guild Wars 2

As I anxiously logged in to begin the Halloween event, arguably, my favorite of the year, I was met with some familiar sights, the Clock Tower, the Labyrinth, Lunatic’s Inquisition, Mad King Says, Bloody Prince Thorne, etc. So, I excitedly started to do the various events only to realize all the rewards are the same as last year…REALLY? Would it have been too much to ask for to have a different armor piece, other than the gloves, as a reward from the Clock Tower? I can’t even salvage it or sell it and the recipes are useless as I don’t have time to pursue the Mad King weapons. Again…the exact same mask skin from Mad King Says as last year. I already have it from last year and can’t sell, so I have to destroy it…talk about a let down!! I suspect any rewards from Prince Thorne, if anything, will also be the same as last year. I didn’t have to get the elemental since I already had one from last year. I do enjoy running around the Labyrinth with a good group though and drops nearly every kill is fun, even if they’re usually porous bones.

IMO, this year’s event was not really well thought out and the rewards do not work well with the wardrobe where all unlocked skins are available to all characters all the time (Given the availability of transmutation charges).

The big difference between the event this year and last, is in introduction of more RNG via the “lottery”, which of course you can supplement through buying stuff through the gem store, and more farming for candy corn so one can buy cobs in order to buy other things and more collections. Having notoriously bad luck with the RNG in this game, these things do not excite me. It’s not unexpected though, given ANet’s direction and heavy focus on introducing adding more farming, farming and even more farming as of late. In one breath they say need DR to prevent farming while in the another breath they introduce so much stuff, legendaries, collections, ascended crafting, ultra rare skins such as the mad king skins, just to name a few, that requires an incredible massive amount of farming.

Here’s looking forward to Wintersday and hoping for a better effort on the part of ANet. C’Mon, at least try to change up the rewards so long time players have something to look forward to other than new ways to farm. It’s a terrible let down when you put in a bunch of effort to finish a goal, ultimately to get a useless reward because you already have it from the previous year. You’re really trying hard to drive long-term players away I think.

I’m not even asking for new content. Given the direction ANet has taken and focus on LS and farming, I know that’s not a reasonable request, but at least change the rewards from the previous years so those that already have them still get something potentially useful.

Actually, the rewards for other things are different, and you get to choose your rewards. I think it’s pretty cool. It’s very easy to save up for whatever you desire.

Just check out the Halloween Vendor, and the Achievements. Good luck.

meanwhile players that missed the last years haloween and a bunch of new players that never even heard of it fully enjoy todays content and are not making posts like this one about how “LS” and non permanent content is unfair

Vukorep.3081:

meanwhile players that missed the last years haloween and a bunch of new players that never even heard of it fully enjoy todays content and are not making posts like this one about how “LS” and non permanent content is unfair

I never said anything about it being unfair, those are your words. ;-) In fact, I was very careful to not call it unfair because that’s not what I think. If I were to call it anything, I’d call it annoying. In all reality they probably didn’t even think about how the wardrobe would affect it, for instance. I’m simply complaining to raise the attention so that hopefully in future events noobies AND veterans alike can get something useful other then more things to farm. I put a lot of time in to this game and would like to see ANet step up and put a little more effort in to their events rather than rehashing old content verbatim. To be clear, I like the living story and never said anything negative about it. I’ve done every one since last Halloween, when I started playing again after a lengthy break from the game. I’m a bit behind right now because of summer, but the story journal saves me there.

As for the vendor and chooseable rewards, yes, it’s there and fine for what it is. I wasn’t really complaining about the vendor, only the amount of farming and each event adds more and more things and collections to farm for…and the irony of ANet holding on to DR as an anti-farming thing….just let it go guys. Back in the day, when ANet was actually anti farming, it may have had a place and the DR used to be merciless. You’d get hit with it after not much more than 10 or 15 mobs in the same area and for some accounts it would take a long time to clear, even if you moved on to a different map. There was a lot of speculation at the time that it was bugged.

Gee, you can easily get ~200 ToT bags in an hour or so. And bags have up to 50 Candy Corn in them. It takes little time to get a stack. It seems, to me, anyway, that the Devs were very generous this year in enabling a pretty darn easy way to get rewards.

But, that’s just my opinion, a mere casual. /shrug

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Gee, you can easily get ~200 ToT bags in an hour or so. And bags have up to 50 Candy Corn in them. It takes little time to get a stack. It seems, to me, anyway, that the Devs were very generous this year in enabling a pretty darn easy way to get rewards.

But, that’s just my opinion, a mere casual. /shrug

How are you able to get 200 bags without the rat farm thing? Im doing the Lab circle farm and get roughly about 120 bags per hour if Im lucky.

Vukorep.3081:

meanwhile players that missed the last years haloween and a bunch of new players that never even heard of it fully enjoy todays content and are not making posts like this one about how “LS” and non permanent content is unfair

Pretty much the case for me, even though I’ve been playing close to two years. Having a lot of fun doing the events, collecting loot & so forth.

I can see the OP’s point about being disappointed. But if they really didn’t change much, and they haven’t done living story in months, does anyone really still believe they’re not working on something bigger?

My guess is that Anet started working on the expansion late in the day, and once again, they’re playing catch up.

But I think there will be an expansion.

Vayne.8563:

I can see the OP’s point about being disappointed. But if they really didn’t change much, and they haven’t done living story in months, does anyone really still believe they’re not working on something bigger?

My guess is that Anet started working on the expansion late in the day, and once again, they’re playing catch up.

But I think there will be an expansion.

Given Anet’s policy on not speaking about releases until they’re near completion I wouldn’t expect an announcement for 7 months at least, assuming they started an expansion during the lull.

But here’s the thing: if they are working on an expansion then the LS is effectively done after these final episodes. Which in turn means we could be facing a total blackout period of 5-6 months. What do you think will happen to the remaining playerbase during that time?

Vix.6730:

Vayne.8563:

I can see the OP’s point about being disappointed. But if they really didn’t change much, and they haven’t done living story in months, does anyone really still believe they’re not working on something bigger?

My guess is that Anet started working on the expansion late in the day, and once again, they’re playing catch up.

But I think there will be an expansion.

Given Anet’s policy on not speaking about releases until they’re near completion I wouldn’t expect an announcement for 7 months at least, assuming they started an expansion during the lull.

But here’s the thing: if they are working on an expansion then the LS is effectively done after these final episodes. Which in turn means we could be facing a total blackout period of 5-6 months. What do you think will happen to the remaining playerbase during that time?

I think they started working on big projects before the lull, which they’re now saving for an expansion. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t affect the Living Story team, since that team is only 20 people.

i’m actually not disappointed at all, despite the same events………because the rewards in the labyrinth are incredible. they tweaked the drop ratios to make getting all of the unique “cob” rewards attainable even for casuals.

one or two hour with a decent group (knows how to pull and stack Lich) of 10-20 players nets you 150+ ToT bags (more if you get mostly “foes remaining” door events), 10-ish boss bags, tons of t-5 bones/venom, 10-20 t-6 bones/venom, etc. aside from the money you can make, you get about 2-3 cobs worth of candy corn.

plus, love the female Hex Outfit (just wish i could make that helmet as a separate head gear skin)

The drops are MUCH improved over last year’s event, and that makes me really happy. The one thing I miss about last year’s version? My server. I know I could taxi into a more populated instance of the labyrinth, but that wasn’t an issue last year. I can’t tell you how often I go into the lab and see 6 or more doors on the map and get no responses in map chat.

I’m disappointed by the labyrinth. I just couldn’t get into a populated shard, never more than a few other people. I tried ferrying over using the LFG tool and it was again, just myself, group and a couple others. I eventually gave up and probably won’t mess with it again.

you don’t need a populated instance for it to still be good/profitable…you only need 5 -10 players to efficiently run door events and a few more players to handle the non-Lich bosses (can even do lich if all know how to pull/stack it and to strip boons off skeleton adds).

and honestly anything much above 20 players becomes a lame zerg.

problem is…if no one sees a commander tag, they tend to leave the map.

yeah, I don’t know what it was, but not having an issue finding an instance with 10+ people today.

Vukorep.3081:

meanwhile players that missed the last years haloween and a bunch of new players that never even heard of it fully enjoy todays content and are not making posts like this one about how “LS” and non permanent content is unfair

I have to guess this is the biggest reason for the repeat. With China now playing, if we include them in the equation. Still, if that’s the case, why didn’t they repeat the first year instead? Too hard to solo?

Maybe it’s just the developers are busy with Living Story.

Hope so.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Vukorep.3081:

meanwhile players that missed the last years haloween and a bunch of new players that never even heard of it fully enjoy todays content and are not making posts like this one about how “LS” and non permanent content is unfair

I have to guess this is the biggest reason for the repeat. With China now playing, if we include them in the equation. Still, if that’s the case, why didn’t they repeat the first year instead? Too hard to solo?

Maybe it’s just the developers are busy with Living Story.

Hope so.

Maybe you answered your own question. With so many new people they don’t want to continue the story this year. Next year will continue it after people see the beginning.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

I have to guess this is the biggest reason for the repeat. With China now playing, if we include them in the equation. Still, if that’s the case, why didn’t they repeat the first year instead? Too hard to solo?

It wasn’t meant to be soloed was it? The biggest problem with that first event and that dungeonsesque instance was that it was horribly buggy and lag ridden and when you got to the end, quite often the chest would not open. I would have liked to see them fix it and bring it back because it was a lot a of fun.

Vayne.8563:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Vukorep.3081:

meanwhile players that missed the last years haloween and a bunch of new players that never even heard of it fully enjoy todays content and are not making posts like this one about how “LS” and non permanent content is unfair

I have to guess this is the biggest reason for the repeat. With China now playing, if we include them in the equation. Still, if that’s the case, why didn’t they repeat the first year instead? Too hard to solo?

Maybe it’s just the developers are busy with Living Story.

Hope so.

Maybe you answered your own question. With so many new people they don’t want to continue the story this year. Next year will continue it after people see the beginning.

Yeah, I begin all my books, movies and TV shows in the second chapter/season. Great logic.

Before you complain about this games halloween event…Have you seen the events from another mmo…Like Archeage ? Please take a look and realize how well anet is actually handling this game,and its events.

Personally I’m not disappointed. It would have been nice to get a new skin for Mad King Says, but I do know several people that didn’t get it last year, or weren’t even playing last year, that are happy that it came back (personally don’t care much either way, haven’t used the skin in the first place either). The clocktower still haven’t managed to finish, but doing it for the fun, since the skins aren’t unique so I don’t really care much about them.

So basically whoever didn’t get the rewards last year has another chance this year (not that the clock), I already got the ones I was interested in, but I have plenty to get this time around, my necro got a new outfit (hexed one… though I’d have liked it if it had the option of the hat the female version gets, but I guess it’s fair considering that females are the ones that usually complain that the male armor is cooler), a new 20 slots bag, and several minis.

At least when it comes to rewards, no complains this year. Now if they only did the same thing next year, but also unlock the Mad King mini-dungeon and the scavenger hunt (I got the basic back piece, but not the upgraded one), I would have no complains at all for the halloween event..

Vayne.8563:

I can see the OP’s point about being disappointed. But if they really didn’t change much, and they haven’t done living story in months, does anyone really still believe they’re not working on something bigger?

My guess is that Anet started working on the expansion late in the day, and once again, they’re playing catch up.

But I think there will be an expansion.

Or maybe Anet took that bold and beautiful step into another world where they will be the guiding light on the edge of night in the young and restless search for tomorrow, and are at last working on…

Days of Our Lives Online!

As much as I hate how everything was recycled, anet did about as good as they could have.

The skritt lottery, while being a really sleazy form of cash shop, is propping up the price of bags, which in turn is making Halloween activities feel rewarding. They were always fun, and this year they are rewarding too.

Megaservers and LFG allow players to find groups, so the content didnt die this year.

I just wonder why Descent into Madness was removed. I didn’t have the game yet first Halloween, but I’ve seen a video of the instance. It looked neat.

Schwarzseher.9873:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Gee, you can easily get ~200 ToT bags in an hour or so. And bags have up to 50 Candy Corn in them. It takes little time to get a stack. It seems, to me, anyway, that the Devs were very generous this year in enabling a pretty darn easy way to get rewards.

But, that’s just my opinion, a mere casual. /shrug

How are you able to get 200 bags without the rat farm thing? Im doing the Lab circle farm and get roughly about 120 bags per hour if Im lucky.

You need to find an attack that tags well. (Mostly guardian staff, but a sigil of fire helps as well). More dps and partying up helps too, so you get credit for as many kills as possible.

Also, some zergs are just better than others.

I’m happy they brought back the phantom’s hood, I was finally able to buy it this time. I’m really enjoying it so far, even though most of it is similar than last year, it brings a change of pace and provides something different to do.

Also will the achievements we get now reset next year?

Akrib.4297:

I’m happy they brought back the phantom’s hood, I was finally able to buy it this time. I’m really enjoying it so far, even though most of it is similar than last year, it brings a change of pace and provides something different to do.

Also will the achievements we get now reset next year?

Probably. This year is essentially the same achievements as last year with 3 extras and the rewards for each ach are different. Last year you had to complete the Blood and Madness achievement meta in order to get the Candy Corn Elemental in order to complete Prince Thorne. Granted, this did not make sense this year since many already had the elemental from last year, though they could have chosen a new mini. This year you buy the elemental for one candy corn cob, if you need it, which you get for finishing the meta or by farming 1000 candy corn, which lets Thorne progress in parallel to the Blood and Madness Meta. Last year you got the Gift of Candy Corn for helping Tassi put Thorne back in the box, which puts a permanent candy corn node in your home instance as one of the achievement rewards. This year you get 2 cobs for this, which is arguably much better since you won’t farm 2000 candy corn off a single node over the year. New achievements this year, “Lunatic Inquisition Regular”, “Pumpkin Carving”, “A Stomping Good Time”. The Pumpkin carving ach gives you a title of “Master Carver”. Also last year, most of the achievements did not give you a little chest of trick or treat bags.

ArchonWing.9480:

Schwarzseher.9873:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Gee, you can easily get ~200 ToT bags in an hour or so. And bags have up to 50 Candy Corn in them. It takes little time to get a stack. It seems, to me, anyway, that the Devs were very generous this year in enabling a pretty darn easy way to get rewards.

But, that’s just my opinion, a mere casual. /shrug

How are you able to get 200 bags without the rat farm thing? Im doing the Lab circle farm and get roughly about 120 bags per hour if Im lucky.

You need to find an attack that tags well. (Mostly guardian staff, but a sigil of fire helps as well). More dps and partying up helps too, so you get credit for as many kills as possible.

Also, some zergs are just better than others.

Yes, if your zerg looks wimpy, just leave for Lion’s Arch, then jump back in. With Megaservers you will likely get a good one quickly.

On the other hand, I was in a pug zerg of about 20 or so, and we cleared the whole labyrinth with very few downs or deaths.

My guardian did well, but tbh I found that SB, double Axe ranger did twice as well loot wise.

Was nice to see a group of Anet players roaming around the labyrinth during the weekend. Only ever encountered Anet people when there has been an issue with events being farmed.

A hint for the ones having trouble getting bags. Use a flame thrower engi, staff guardian or axe ranger. They will hit multiple targets. Even a greatsword mesmer.

johnnymiller.5968:

Was nice to see a group of Anet players roaming around the labyrinth during the weekend. Only ever encountered Anet people when there has been an issue with events being farmed.

A hint for the ones having trouble getting bags. Use a flame thrower engi, staff guardian or axe ranger. They will hit multiple targets. Even a greatsword mesmer.

I use staff necro on the door events

MrPersons.1560:

johnnymiller.5968:

Was nice to see a group of Anet players roaming around the labyrinth during the weekend. Only ever encountered Anet people when there has been an issue with events being farmed.

A hint for the ones having trouble getting bags. Use a flame thrower engi, staff guardian or axe ranger. They will hit multiple targets. Even a greatsword mesmer.

I use staff necro on the door events

Not tried running the labyrinth with my necro. Was using my mesmer until yesterday. Swapped to flame thrower engineer and the difference in loot drops was astounding. 500 bags in 4 hours vs say 200 from my mesmer.

I am also trying to level alts while doing this, which works pretty well, but yea using guard or engineer probably would get me more bags.

Leamas.5803:

Akrib.4297:

I’m happy they brought back the phantom’s hood, I was finally able to buy it this time. I’m really enjoying it so far, even though most of it is similar than last year, it brings a change of pace and provides something different to do.

Also will the achievements we get now reset next year?

Probably. This year is essentially the same achievements as last year with 3 extras and the rewards for each ach are different. Last year you had to complete the Blood and Madness achievement meta in order to get the Candy Corn Elemental in order to complete Prince Thorne. Granted, this did not make sense this year since many already had the elemental from last year, though they could have chosen a new mini. This year you buy the elemental for one candy corn cob, if you need it, which you get for finishing the meta or by farming 1000 candy corn, which lets Thorne progress in parallel to the Blood and Madness Meta. Last year you got the Gift of Candy Corn for helping Tassi put Thorne back in the box, which puts a permanent candy corn node in your home instance as one of the achievement rewards. This year you get 2 cobs for this, which is arguably much better since you won’t farm 2000 candy corn off a single node over the year. New achievements this year, “Lunatic Inquisition Regular”, “Pumpkin Carving”, “A Stomping Good Time”. The Pumpkin carving ach gives you a title of “Master Carver”. Also last year, most of the achievements did not give you a little chest of trick or treat bags.

Oh, that’s disappointing to hear. Spent a lot of time on some of the achievements to complete them all the way. Would hate to see them go back to zero next year.

At least you get to keep the AP

MrPersons.1560:

At least you get to keep the AP

Yeah, that’s true.