Guild Wars 2

I wonder why I can not find any mention about Dragon Stand Main Event. Seems like either no one wants to show up or every one gives up because of the difficulty of the event. I am trying to complete the Dark Harvest which needs the completion of the event and it is very hard trying to find a group that will be able to complete the event. What gives? I am very frustrated in this. I have every thing I need except the completion of the event and it seems that no one is committed to the completion.

Are you using the event timers found in the Wiki and the LFG tool?

Good luck.

I’d strongly suggest aiming for US peak times — EST 5PM through to PST midnight — and being on the map around ten or fifteen minutes before the previous round closes and new maps open.

That is the best time to find a “taxi” squad which will bring people together for the next round of the meta events, and optimal for getting through it.

US weekends are also pretty solid, often having events through the day.

Dragon Stand completions are common, the issue is if you don’t get onto the map at reset or taxi into a lfg map, you will never see it running and the map will be empty.

Use the /wiki event timer to coordinate when you enter the map

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers

Show up about 10-15 minutes before DS is going to start. If you see a commander tag on the map, join their squad. If there is no commander tag, look in the LFG section under Dragon’s Stand and join a group there. When the map resets and everyone dies, right click on the commander in squad and join their map.

A good map will have 3 commanders with squads for each lane. You have to show up before the map starts- this is when people are grouping up to do the event. If the map starts at 2:30 and you show up at 3:30, everyone who wanted to do the meta is already on a map somewhere. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a late LFG, but that is rare and the maps are usually full at that time.

I do DS at all different times- mornings, weekends, evenings and as long as you show up early, it’s usually successful.

Two or three days ago I was working on Chupa&Champawat 3, which among other things requires a successful DS. I did a couple other collection things, then noticed DS was due to start in three minutes. (I both use the timers and know that until the spring time change DS is always half past the even hour my time, eastern).

So I wp’d into DS, checked LFG, found a taxi with 30+ people in it, joined, and joined the commander’s map shortly before the mass reset. We were a bit short of tag volunteers so I tagged to lead north and since we had a couple of new folks in the squad I took a little time to explain the must-know mechanics of each section.

And proceeded to happily chant to myself “I love this squad!” as everything melted in our path. Every event was done with time to spare. The whole map moved along smooth as I’d ever seen. No problems at the towers, the first burn on the Mouth took 75% of its health and it was finished second burn.

The key here was: I went to the map just before reset, I joined a squad, I moved to that squad’s map. I don’t recall ever getting in a failed map while following those steps, though sometimes I have found myself unable to join my squad due to full maps, which is why I endeavor to be in the commander’s map even before reset. That increases my chances of being in his/her map as things get started.

And the advice is exactly the same if you’re on EU servers, you just need to aim for EU peak times instead of US ones.

I did it last night and I got fairly lucky, I entered the map about 10 minutes after the event started, and I was in an empty map. So I checked the LFG tool, saw 2 groups, joined the first one and got in on my first try.

Apparently it was a secondary map and it never completed filled up, but we had about 15-20 people in each lane which was plenty to complete the event.

The main issue for me is making sure I have enough uninterrupted time for the event and to use up machete’s and do some map completion afterwards (about 2.5 – 3 hours). But yesterday my husband was playing Skyrim so I knew we wouldn’t be doing anything for at least a few hours.

It’s simple, just take a week off work and spend every waking moment trying to get into a successful map. Maybe take another week off to make sure. Honestly, it’s almost as if you are not prepared to go that extra mile to play the game…

DoctorDing.5890:

It’s simple, just take a week off work and spend every waking moment trying to get into a successful map. Maybe take another week off to make sure. Honestly, it’s almost as if you are not prepared to go that extra mile to play the game…

Except the two people posting just before you didn’t do anything of the sort: they arrived right before the event and things went fine. The only “going out of your way” bit is that we have to use LFG; we are not able to just show up on the map. (That’s true of a number of other umbrella/meta events too, not just DS; it’s just most obvious with DS.)

Its the only map that has 1 looong chain event that spreads troughout the map from start to end with a timer on top.

The gameplay is great, but the accessibility is rather bad. Its the only map where you cant enter and make progress with at any time of the day. It excludes certain types of people.

I don’t think it completely excludes many people. I’m one of the people who finds it difficult because it’s rare that I have 2 hours uninterrupted to play, even rarer that I know in advance I’ll have that long and rarer still that those 2 hours match up with when the event is running.

So if I want to do it I don’t wait for it to happen – I organise it. Scheduling time for a video game does sound silly, until you think of it like any other hobby. I don’t go swimming because I just happen to be passing the pool with my gear and realise I have enough time to go in. I don’t go to the cinema because I was wandering around town and saw a movie was about to start. And I don’t do Dragon’s Stand by dropping into the map and suddenly finding myself in an organised map as the event is about to start.

I find a day when I will be home for several hours and don’t have any specific plans (usually a Sunday for me), then I check what times the event will start on the Wiki, pick the one I want to do and let my husband know I will want the computer for that time. Honestly the hardest part is often remembering that’s what I’m meant to be doing and not getting wrapped up in something else and missing the start.

I’ve never bothered getting there half an hour before or whatever else. Maybe 5 minutes before, but I’ve also done up to 15 minutes after the start and I’ve been able to get a group. The main reason I don’t bother with doing it after that is I’d have missed too much – if I’m going to do a long event chain I want to do the whole thing, not drop in 1/2 way through.

But if the length of the event is a problem that might be an option, depending on what you want from it. For example for legendary collections that require completing the event it might be possible to drop into a map close to the end (replacing someone who left, which always happens) and get credit without having to do the entire thing.

The problem would be knowing when to look for that, since progress depends on how well the group does – you can’t say 15 minutes in they will be doing X event, 30 minutes in it’s Y and at 45 minutes it’s Z. You might have to keep an eye on the LFG tool for a group that is at the right stage to join.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

DoctorDing.5890:

It’s simple, just take a week off work and spend every waking moment trying to get into a successful map. Maybe take another week off to make sure. Honestly, it’s almost as if you are not prepared to go that extra mile to play the game…

Except the two people posting just before you didn’t do anything of the sort: they arrived right before the event and things went fine. The only “going out of your way” bit is that we have to use LFG; we are not able to just show up on the map. (That’s true of a number of other umbrella/meta events too, not just DS; it’s just most obvious with DS.)

Well, yes, obviously my tongue was firmly in my cheek for that one but I would observe that if you post any sort of complaint/question/problem/issue on a gaming forum you always get responses from folks keen to tell you how easy it is. Quite often the same folks each time too. JPs – easy . Adventures – easy. Mastery points – easy. Anyboss™ – easy.

The DS question keeps coming up again and again because it’s not easy to many players, even if they know about the timers and LFG. The timers don’t tell you where and when to turn up. They tell you when the event starts which is too late, unless you get really lucky with LFG. It’s a map meta that attracts smugness.

DoctorDing.5890:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

DoctorDing.5890:

It’s simple, just take a week off work and spend every waking moment trying to get into a successful map. Maybe take another week off to make sure. Honestly, it’s almost as if you are not prepared to go that extra mile to play the game…

Except the two people posting just before you didn’t do anything of the sort: they arrived right before the event and things went fine. The only “going out of your way” bit is that we have to use LFG; we are not able to just show up on the map. (That’s true of a number of other umbrella/meta events too, not just DS; it’s just most obvious with DS.)

Well, yes, obviously my tongue was firmly in my cheek for that one but I would observe that if you post any sort of complaint/question/problem/issue on a gaming forum you always get responses from folks keen to tell you how easy it is. Quite often the same folks each time too. JPs – easy . Adventures – easy. Mastery points – easy. Anyboss™ – easy.

The DS question keeps coming up again and again because it’s not easy to many players, even if they know about the timers and LFG. The timers don’t tell you where and when to turn up. They tell you when the event starts which is too late, unless you get really lucky with LFG. It’s a map meta that attracts smugness.

What would you prefer we say?

I know when I’m having a problem I’d much prefer to hear what the people who find it easy do to make it easy for themselves so I can figure out if that’s going to work for me (or maybe adapt it into a solution that does work for me).

That’s far more helpful than just being told that yes it is a problem, not for everyone of course but clearly it is for you and you’ll just have to accept that unless Anet choose to re-work the entire map (again).

DoctorDing.5890:

The DS question keeps coming up again and again because it’s not easy to many players, even if they know about the timers and LFG. The timers don’t tell you where and when to turn up. They tell you when the event starts which is too late, unless you get really lucky with LFG. It’s a map meta that attracts smugness.

The Orr question keeps coming up and again and again because it’s not easy to many players, because there is no timer, even if they know about LFG. There’s nothing obvious that tells you where to go.

Heck, Verdant Brink is far worse than anything else because following the zerg — the way many of us learn how the chains work — makes things worse. Unless you get in a map in which someone is explaining how it works, you are very unlikely to reach level 4.

In other words, there’s nothing all that special about Dragon’s Stand as far as learning curve. The sole unique aspect is that it lasts so freakin’ long. As Danikat said, it is a 2-hour commitment (compared to Triple Trouble at ~70 minutes max, TD ~35 min max, AB ~60 min max, but more likely <30 min).

For the record, I’m not at all in favor of ANet’s push towards scheduling umbrella chains to start at the same time. I prefer the Silverwastes mechanics: any time of day, you can usually find a map making progress towards the main event(s). That said, scheduling makes things more accessible for a lot of people with limited amounts of time, because they know when to appear (or at least, when it’s too late).

DoctorDing.5890:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

DoctorDing.5890:

It’s simple, just take a week off work and spend every waking moment trying to get into a successful map. Maybe take another week off to make sure. Honestly, it’s almost as if you are not prepared to go that extra mile to play the game…

Except the two people posting just before you didn’t do anything of the sort: they arrived right before the event and things went fine. The only “going out of your way” bit is that we have to use LFG; we are not able to just show up on the map. (That’s true of a number of other umbrella/meta events too, not just DS; it’s just most obvious with DS.)

Well, yes, obviously my tongue was firmly in my cheek for that one but I would observe that if you post any sort of complaint/question/problem/issue on a gaming forum you always get responses from folks keen to tell you how easy it is. Quite often the same folks each time too. JPs – easy . Adventures – easy. Mastery points – easy. Anyboss™ – easy.

The DS question keeps coming up again and again because it’s not easy to many players, even if they know about the timers and LFG. The timers don’t tell you where and when to turn up. They tell you when the event starts which is too late, unless you get really lucky with LFG. It’s a map meta that attracts smugness.

Uhhh it seemed to me like the OP was completely confused about how to get into a successful DS map. So naturally people are going to respond by explaining how to do it. If someone posts a problem, people will try to give a solution. I don’t think anyone is saying it’s easy, in fact, it probably really sucks for people who can’t set aside a solid two hours or just aren’t online at times when the event starts.

The timers are a great tool. /wiki ET shows me the start time with waypoint links, as well as a link to the event’s wiki page. We learned way back during the Tequatl revamp that when you have to organize a large amount of players, you have to show up early. That’s just something new players have to catch on to with experience.

If OP was actually complaining about not having adequate in-game tips, well I could go on and on about that… Starting with how many new players don’t know the /wiki command exists.