Guild Wars 2

So this is bothering me for quite some time. As a person who basically works for himself i often have free time in mornings whichi spend playing guild wars 2. Thou most of events or even ‘hearts’ otherwise doable becomes either impossible to do or ridiculous in nature because of the rate enemy spawns and u wont find many players to team up with in morning.

Just today i was killing skritts AND i didint even need to enter their cave , i just stood by entrance and killed one same skritt over again because 2 seconds after he dies he is there again. This may sound as fun or easy until you actually need something in cave which becomes pretty impossible to reach if u are alone.

Attacking group of 3 or 4 enemies could be useless because by the time u have killed the last one first 3 appears again and u are stuck in same place without a chance to proceed futher to your destination.

It may be fun or ‘working’ then you have party or someone to help you out , thou this is real pain in kitten then you are alone. Concept of ’ noone will need to wait for mob respawn ’ is cool and i like it but this is taken too far in my opinion.

No arguement here. Res times measured in pico-seconds is laughable!!! I’m still wondering “how many times do I have to kill this ghost before it knows it’s dead?”

I think low respawn time is Guild Wars 2 answer for areas where you need to group with other players to progress through.

Guild Wars 2 masks group areas well by simply just upping the respawn rate.

In WoW or SWTOR for example. You’d just find a bunch of elites in an area and unlikely able to solo the first one.

I encounter the exact same scenario you describe above. Mob respawn rate in GW2 is beyond ridiculous. It has made me want to rage-quit the game on many occasions.

This is something weird I found of GW2. Sometimes mobs take a long time to respawn but like yesterday I was helping my girlfriend near Rata Sun and there was a cloud of mobs that was respawning almost as soon as we killed them. It was very annoying!

Agreed. The game really needs to have some logic built in to determine how many players are in the area to determine the respawn rate. For example if there are multiple players in proximity, keeping the respawn rate fast so that your gameplay experience isn’t impacted (made too easy) by someone trailblazing ahead of you is a good thing. However if you or your group are fairly isolated and other players aren’t in the area, the respawn rate should be slower so that you can actually work toward a goal without mobs respawning while you’re still working on dispatching their colleagues.

Anet should look to Ragnarok Online and their tried and true spawn timers. Yet RO used to Be P2P before the company behind it decided to license out free servers to people that could support their own server dues. It made them much more money that way. Anyways back to the point at hand, they had individual spawn timers per foe or individual multiple spawns (and timers) for each enemy type. Their biggest bosses had spawn timer of up to 24 hours depending on how powerful or how good the drops were.

Usually this method above is more for subscription games but Anet could find a balance. Champion Karka respawns not even a minute after its death if a team of people kills it, granted that a rich ori vein is there, (yet people can and will run past it or drag it out of harms way) and it will be menacing players again as usual. Event spawned bosses have their own built in timers akin to pay to play MMOs already. What is missing is dynamic spawns for normal critters based on population which RO has in place, yet wasn’t quite elaborated on and probably was quite primitive.

Also RO had a limit to how many foes can spawn (which I’m sure GW 2 has in place as well) and Like GW 2, as I noticed, has specific zones where only creature can live (which I like to call habitats).

Their biggest bosses were known as MVPs (when you killed one and did the highest % of damage, you became the MVP and got bonus rewards only for you). They were a cross between out champions here and the Dragons, Giant Jungle Wurm and Shadow Behemoth world bosses. They hit hard and killed in one hit if you didn’t use your abilities right or were not on par with their level. This MVP system was similar to our Bronze, Silver, Gold reward system but gave, gear and exp, not money exp and karma (Money was earned by direct selling to npc merchants and forming your own economy via a merchant class).

These had the longest spawn timers and for good reason and were camped by many to be the first one to kill it.

RO was like older mmos, “All for one and one for me!” No equal sharing of lootable corpses. No equal rewards for both making a kill, Yet there are some things gw2 can learn from older games.

We’ve being saying this for months now. In fact ever since release people have unanimously complained about the insane respawn rate in this game.

And yet nothing has been done.

The respawn timers in this game are very primitive. In fact I say it makes a mockery of the game. No tactics are needed. for example. In the char first zone there is a little gully in the rocks with some rich copper nodes in and it is protected by three vet’s and some standard ghosts I tried using skill to pull them out in small groups. it was going great and I was enjoying myself until they start respawning behind me. So it occurred to me right then, this game is not about skill it is about running with a zerg.
WoW respawn timers are dynamic so we all know it can be done. The more times a mob is killed the faster the respawn. In new content when they release an expac the zones respawns are very fast because there are alot of players around, as the content gets older the timers slow down.

Same reason I don’t goto Orr at all.

yurtshone.7325:

The respawn timers in this game are very primitive. In fact I say it makes a mockery of the game. No tactics are needed. for example. In the char first zone there is a little gully in the rocks with some rich copper nodes in and it is protected by three vet’s and some standard ghosts I tried using skill to pull them out in small groups. it was going great and I was enjoying myself until they start respawning behind me. So it occurred to me right then, this game is not about skill it is about running with a zerg.
WoW respawn timers are dynamic so we all know it can be done. The more times a mob is killed the faster the respawn. In new content when they release an expac the zones respawns are very fast because there are alot of players around, as the content gets older the timers slow down.

Interesting I’ve been playing WoW for years and I never knew that about the respawn timer, but thinking on it now it makes a lot of sense. Great system.

I did spend a hour trying to get past two near instantly spawning wolves at a cave entrance. I gave up in the end.

Yes, for me this is the number one reason why I don’t enjoy the game. In GW1 it was so satisfying to clear a complete zone, and then just run around it, looking at all the sights. In GW2 you never have a moment’s rest to look at the beautiful art.

I know, it’s terrible if you’re on your own. It’s pretty much impossible to slowly work your way to where you want to be; either you can kill everything quickly or you run past it, there’s nothing in between.

Its only been two months..give it some time. They will fix it soon!!

;)

Mickey.4207:

Its only been two months..give it some time. They will fix it soon!!

;)

2 months since what? Because, in about a week, it’ll be 4 months since launch.

BrokenSymmetry.2593:

Yes, for me this is the number one reason why I don’t enjoy the game. In GW1 it was so satisfying to clear a complete zone, and then just run around it, looking at all the sights. In GW2 you never have a moment’s rest to look at the beautiful art.

^
This is one of the major things i miss from gw1, the sense of freedom one felt after vanquishing a map of being able to run around do mapping , or just enjoy the scenery knowing that as long as you stay in that map, there are no more enemies. It was really something quite special.
Granted you cannot have that setup in an open world, but I have to agree with the comments about fast respawn rate.
I noticed too that some things have been brought across from gw1…what we used to call pop-ups Ie: invisible enemies popping out of the ground or sky, or w/ever. So you see an enemy ahead, you target him and as soon as you engage him, or you move 1 step forward, suddenly 3-4 other enemies pop right under you, or in front of you, often mobbing you do death. In gw1, ppl got to know the pop up areas and always approached it with great caution, as the enemy always popped in the same areas. This was never an issue in Normal Mode, but in Hard Mode, it could easily result in a wipe. Death Penalty (DP) in gw1 was severe, where 1st death hit you for 20% max hp, 2nd 40% and if you hit 60%, you’ve sent back to the outpost. So, unless you had some kind DP removal you’ve in trouble especially if you were vanquishing the map, for it meant you had to start all over again. I remember 1 time, i was vanquishing a particularly difficult map, I had killed something like 220/230 enemies in the map, just had 1 or 2 small groups left and because of the 60% DP i was auto ported to back to town so i had to start from scratch, but not that day lol. But I digress.

But yea, aside from ultra fast respawn in gw2, you then unfortunately get mobbed by pop ups as well. I’m sure this will be balanced out eventually but I imagine these things take time. I know it don’t help those having to deal with this issues right now (myself included) but there really isn’t much you can do except be cautious when you’re alone and hope it gets adjusted soon.

My top 5 major things I think need to be refined in terms of this aspect of combat.

1) Mob density, especially under water, that restricts tactical movement. It leads to just sitting in one place and spamming abilities—not fun or interesting combat.

2) Invulnerability/reset

3) Extrasensory-aggro (Risen)

4) Respawn rate

5) Ability to apply continuous major CC

I won’t go into them as they’ve been discussed to death already. They are just aspects of combat that need to be refined for interesting, rewarding gameplay.

Jeffrey, thanks of the info. Good to have you reading and interacting. I think that tuning respawn rates may be in order as I have “noticed” it as being problematic. I will certainly report any I see that are less than 95. Thanks!

I think it would be a good addition to have mobs around a group event to have a higher respawn or not spawn at all until the group champion has been defeated.

The best scenario I can think of is the Spider Broodmother Gargantula in Harathi Hinterlands. The regular spiders in this cave will respawn at least 3 times during the killing of this champion (not the ones she spawns as a part of her fight) and more if you have a small group that is killing her slowly. I would think it’s just a matter of checking for the presence of the champion before these particular spiders respawn.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

The default respawn rate is 95-120 seconds …

I’m sorry to say, but: no way that respawn rate of normal mobs is 95-120 seconds at the moment. Typical respawn rate is MUCH higher. Often, they respawn as you kill them. This happens all over Tyria, from level four elementals in Norn starting area to level 80 bears in Frostgorge Sound. It doesn’t matter if you’re alone or with other players nearby. Sometimes, you can’t even type in guil chat before being jumped by a respawn. It’s just crazy.

I’ve reported many locations with extremely high respawn rates. I don’t bother anymore since nothing has been changed.

I wonder what’s intended respawn rate mobs in Orr.

Edit: I think respawn rate is set to 0-120 seconds. It’s possible that some mobs respawn in two minutes, but typically they respawn much faster.

Edit #2: thank you to communicate with us mr. Vaughn, much appreciated.

If they are respawning too fast its possible there is a bug or issue somewhere in the code that is causing this fast respawn issue. I have seen events recur also quite often. I take a location and achieve the objective only to see 15-20 minutes later that very same event occuring. Maybe this is intended, but if not then something is definitely off with the timers in the game.

Here is my experience…

1. Brisban Wildlands – Inquest Facility, north of Toxal Bog and west of Duskstruck Moors. Challenge point: Commune with Thaumacore Energy Source. The golems respawn approximately 10 – 30 seconds I take him out. Usually appears behind me when I am clearing the room of the inquest. The inquest themselves also respawn fairly fast.

2. Gendarren Fields – Hezran Outcrops, the cave where Prototype Ooze Concentrate Tincture is found. Trolls respawn rates are also almost 10 – 30 seconds as well. After I clear the entrance trolls and commence fight with the veteran troll. The entrance trolls spawn again right behind my back.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

The default respawn rate is 95-120 seconds, so if you’re seeing locations where they respawn much faster, please report it with specific info! Event creatures will often appear more quickly (so the event doesn’t look dead if players kill them immediately) and if players were killing things in the same area, they might respawn near you. (i.e. if a group ran through and cleared an area a minute ago, a lone player might be in the area when their respawn timer comes up.)

Well I thought about reporting it, but after being through every map at least 5 times, I’ve seen it happen so much and in every place I’ve been that I felt if I reported them all, I would be branded a spammer and wouldn’t be taken seriously.
Having said that, its not so much a location but rather the type of enemies that I see respawn really fast in any map you find them, particularly the following: Risen, Dredge, Krait, Centaurs, Ghosts, Grawl, Ogres, Flame Legion and all types of outlaws, such as Pirates, Bandits, Separatists. There are others, but those stand out to me the most. I hope this helps in some way.
Oh yes, and I forgot the Inquest.

Varielle.9074:

Here is my experience…

1. Brisban Wildlands – Inquest Facility, north of Toxal Bog and west of Duskstruck Moors. Challenge point: Commune with Thaumacore Energy Source. The golems respawn approximately 10 – 30 seconds I take him out. Usually appears behind me when I am clearing the room of the inquest. The inquest themselves also respawn fairly fast.

2. Gendarren Fields – Hezran Outcrops, the cave where Prototype Ooze Concentrate Tincture is found. Trolls respawn rates are also almost 10 – 30 seconds as well. After I clear the entrance trolls and commence fight with the veteran troll. The entrance trolls spawn again right behind my back.

How many others were present when you did each of these things?

I think this is something that we as players can work with. What you end up learning is how to manage your character to avoid, run away from, run thru, or run and pull a bunch of them. With a lot of configurations, you can kill a dozen all at once in about the same amount of time as killing just two as single-targets. So pull the room, and kill them in a stack away from the spawn points. Something like that.

95-120 seconds? Maybe that’s for a specific critter at a specific spawn, but there’s overlapping critters at the same/adjacent spawns in crowded areas that makes it functionally a lot shorter than that.

Again, I think this is something we as players can either deal with or choose not to go there. We’ve seen that the devs collect extensive data on where/how people play GW2. If they see we players consistently avoid regions, maybe they can go back and adjust the risk/reward.

I’ve seen mobs respawn immediately after death, especially in higher level areas but also in lower areas. I can’t give you a specific area because I’ve seen it happen everywhere.

It’s nice to finally see a dev respond on this issue. Like others have said the rate is bugged everywhere, mobs can re-spawn instantly or very quickly anywhere, some areas seem worse than others though like all of Orr.

KWman.3012:

Same reason I don’t goto Orr at all.

Agreed this area and respawns are the reason i never bother with the areas either, plus the drop rates in open world don’t equate to the hassle the mobs give me.

I’m not buying the idea that the fast/instant respawns are an accident. Because they are never located in random locations but always near to a vista or skill point, in every zone I visited so far.

Even 30-60 seconds is too quick if mob density is such that mobs are respawning on top of you when you are combatting the next mob/s.

Instant respawns are my pet hate in GW2. There is never a good reason for instant respawns -

They are immersion breaking. Instant respawn mobs are effectively undefeatable and immortal. They break the accepted rationale for respawns, that mobs wander in from somewhere else – instead we have an infinite supply of mobs at one place or another. Where is the source for this infinite supply?

They cheat the character of his/her natural right to hold and own an area, for a limited time, after defeating the mobs there. Especially so for solo players who can’t rely on fellow players to engage respawning mobs while they interact with vistas or skill points.

I’ve bugged several instant respawns and seen none of them fixed. Clearly Anet is not in a hurry to fix them.

If a content/area/zone/mob/whatever is too hard, skip it and just do other stuff. Put it in your to-do list. Once you outlevel the content, it’s easy.

Unless of course it’s a Lv80 content, then you just have to play better. I mean, I have fought almost all Skritt (including those in the Wintersday event) and found none that hampers me from achieving my goal. And that was when my gears were still either blues/yellows (I am currently using Lv78 Exotic in full MF for everything I do including Fractals Lv1-10, the 10+/20+/etc needs better gear with agony resist).

Speaking this in PoV of Thief, Mesmer, and Necro btw…

p.s. insta-respawn is FTW! Endless farming till you drop!

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

The default respawn rate is 95-120 seconds, so if you’re seeing locations where they respawn much faster, please report it with specific info! Event creatures will often appear more quickly (so the event doesn’t look dead if players kill them immediately) and if players were killing things in the same area, they might respawn near you. (i.e. if a group ran through and cleared an area a minute ago, a lone player might be in the area when their respawn timer comes up.)

The problem is the respawn timer changes for that same mob with regards to killing it at differnt times.

Let me get this straight. The respawn timer on the mob(s) does not start counting down the moment you kill them? Or, It does?.

It is weird because for exmaple:

Mob A: respawn counter every 90 seconds and starts at 9:00:00am
Mob B: respawn counter every 90 seconds and starts at 9:01:00am

Kill Mob A by 8:59:50, ten seconds later it respawns while youre tackling Mob B. Kill both of them just past 9:01:00 and neither will spawn untill 9:01:30 (Mob A) and 9:02:30. By that time you turn around and see Mob A again respawn at 9:01:30 so you decide to move on.

Is this how the respawn timers work? Or the moment you kill it the timer starts ticking – because to me it sounds like the prior.

DeathMetal.8264:

If a content/area/zone/mob/whatever is too hard, skip it and just do other stuff. Put it in your to-do list. Once you outlevel the content, it’s easy.

p.s. insta-respawn is FTW! Endless farming till you drop!

There are various techniques for making content “hard”. Some are legitimate. Instant respawning is not, for the reasons I gave above.

Furthermore, content should be playable at level & should not require returning with a max level fully geared character.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Again, I really need specifics. I’ve never into this issue on the live server, or while testing, so I’d need to look at the exact spawn to see if anything odd is going on.

Hi, Jeffrey.

Thanks for actually checking in on this.

A place that seemed very broken to me was the camp in Brisban Wildlands, Hidden Lake region, just west of the Seraph Observers waypoint. The spawn rate there just didn’t seem right at all. Every time I went through there, all the NPCs—merchants and such—would be dead due to the bandits constantly overrunning the area.

Trying to keep up with them, and keep the NPCs alive, was impossible alone, and even a party of 5 (in the zone’s level range) was hard pressed.

This was not due to an event. This was normal spawn that I dealt with many times over the course of several weeks. Haven’t been there lately, but last time I was there it was still crazy, and way out of line with the rest of the zone.

FYI. Thanks for looking into it.

Well it realy depends on how the spawn happens.

If it is actually a global timer (as oppoesed to individual), then it is quite possible to have them spawn in less time, especially if you happen to kill the previous spawn just before the sweap occurs.

That said I’ve had in many places enemies spawn ontop of their own corpse (ones without loot) before it degrades. I have no idea what the time is like on corpse degrading, but it indicates a very rapid respawn rate.

Maybe the timers just need some tweaking, to a timer where a typical players can kill that creature then add to that 60-120s (as in most cases even a 120s respawn is faster than you can kill a veteran).

Even at 120s that is also quite fast for soloing (leaving no room to breath) and simply promotes people to just run past combats rather than engage them.

Twoknights.3596:

DeathMetal.8264:

If a content/area/zone/mob/whatever is too hard, skip it and just do other stuff. Put it in your to-do list. Once you outlevel the content, it’s easy.

p.s. insta-respawn is FTW! Endless farming till you drop!

There are various techniques for making content “hard”. Some are legitimate. Instant respawning is not, for the reasons I gave above.

Furthermore, content should be playable at level & should not require returning with a max level fully geared character.

I agree, and one technique is to outlevel them. Who says something is legitimate and something is not, is up to each and everyone of us. It is not legit for you, but legit for me. Instant respawn is legit to me, and again, because as I have said, I have tried them using any of my 3 chars (Thief, Mesmer, or Necro).

Sometimes, you don’t even need to kill mobs to achieve certain goals. A good example, Rich Ori in Southsun Cove is guarded by Champ Karka. Can you outlevel it? Nope. Can you avoid or “achieve your goal” using different techniques? Yes.

Not because I have provided one suggestion doesn’t mean it’s the only answer. I provided one, and you might like it, or in this case, you might not. “Hard” definition is different for everyone, I don’t find Skritt, those that I fought before, hard. I don’t even find them annoying. But that’s me, using any of my 3 chars (Thief, Mesmer, or Necro).

So something is hard to you, I gave a suggestion. Whether that works for you or not, is up to you.

p.s.
If you think instant respawn is hard, wait till you run into mobs that spawns “adds” even before you finish their minions. And if you fail to “work around” that kind of challenge, many mobs will cause you frustration on higher level areas…

Im 70% positive you guys kill to slow. Farm sparks at cursed shore i wished they spawned faster.

Either A check your build.
Or B Upgrade your gear.

Mr. Vaughn, if you want specifics, have a look near Martyr’s Tomb point of interest at Ruins of Holy Demetra in Harathi Hinterlands. All Ascalonian ghosts have insane respawn times where sometimes they will respawn as soon as they are killed. That’s just one example; the ghosts in Diessa Plateau(northen area), Plains of Ashford(The Breached Wall) and anywhere else in the entire Tyria map exhibit the same super fast respawns.

Also, this.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Having said that, its not so much a location but rather the type of enemies that I see respawn really fast in any map you find them, particularly the following: Risen, Dredge, Krait, Centaurs, Ghosts, Grawl, Ogres, Flame Legion and all types of outlaws, such as Pirates, Bandits, Separatists. There are others, but those stand out to me the most. I hope this helps in some way.
Oh yes, and I forgot the Inquest.

Thank you Jeff, taking time to respond and check these spawn timers on the eve of the end of the world. :P

I’ll just add to this that in certain areas where the spawn rate is outta hand it seems like it’s not a constant thing. At least from my experience, you kill a mob and it re-spawns almost immediately (even if you down it in say 10-15 seconds), this goes on for like 3-5 more spawns then stops and seems to go back to the 95-120 second spawn time you’re saying it’s set too.

As far as examples I can give the Troll Cave in Lornar’ Pass as one example (and there was no event going on at the time). The pirate island in Gendarren Fields as another example, and this one happened just as I described in the paragraph above.

Also, the spawn rates in cities are obviously busted. I never see hostile mobs spawn in them at all.

>.>

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Just checked, the Inquest in that area are on a shorter respawn timer (30-60s) but there’s nothing that respawns in 10s. I checked all of the troll spawns in Hezran Outcrops, and they’re using the 95-120s respawn timer, so my above comment applies. (Could another player have run through and killed them before you got there, so they respawned after you go there? Could trolls in a different area have been killed, so when they respawned and randomly picked a new position, they ended up appearing near you?) I couldn’t find anything that respawns in 10-30s, and nothing forces them to respawn.

In Kessex hills the under water area where the Sea Witch group event happens, the mobs seem to respawn way to fast in and around that cave the Sea Witch is in. Literally feels like it takes a big raid to take her down because of the respawn timers seem extremely to fast.

Reading JV’s comments, he’s thinking about specific creatures respawning, whereas what players are seeing are continual multiple mobs in the same area.

So fine, your monsters are on a 100 second respawn, but when there’s 4 mobs that all spawn in the same place, it’s the equivalent of 25 seconds. Add in some adjacent spawns and wanderers, a slow-kill-speed character, and the player experience is that of instant respawns.

Again, I’d have to say in my opinion this is just a feature to watch. The way the game is now, respawn timers are something we can either adapt to or hunt somewhere else. I include it with things like risen mobs that run faster than you even after you’ve crippled them. A bother, but not necessarily broken, especially in a game where there’s not a lot of pve challenge.

It’s not like losing chests cuz of party bugs, not being able to play with your friends, traits that only sometimes work as advertised, etc.

Here’s two specific locations in Dredgehaunt Cliffs, both involving Sons of Svanir that happened to me tonight.

Between the “Assist Daphne” heart and the Leaning Grade PoI, there’s a cave. I attacked and killed a Son of Svanir standing at the entrance, and he immediately respawned.

In the corrupted ice area north of Falooaloo, there was another Son of Svanir that respawned immediately after death.

I was thinking about this and I wondered if
anyone else saw this problem.
I started playing the game the past few days and it is obvious
that they really need to reduce respawn rates.
It is too fast.You say 90 -120 sec.
It feels more like 20-30 secs.
And it is not just the mobs.
The events respawn times are also beyond belief.
This is a game that is supposed to give the player
the impression that in game actions have some impact
on the world,and because of mob and event respawn rates,
I’ve never felt my actions have so little effect before.
It’s as if the game ignores you completely.
Slow down a bit GW2.