Guild Wars 2

Which server are you guys on? I’m on Crystal Desert and I’ve NEVER seen anything respawn faster than 30 seconds.

I agree.

I like clearing a area.

If stuff comes back after a bit, that would be fine with me but I like to clear a area. Besides I just slaughtered everything alive within sight and their glorious leader, no way they are going to repopulate that area so soon.

Thanks for the actual numbers Jeffery. I will note locations of any respawn issues and report them. I have had enemys respawn so quickly that I was still looting the previous body when the new one appeared. I will provide details if I can reproduce the effect. If I am positive I observed the problem once but can’t get the problem to repeat I will report it as an intermittent, and I know how much fun those are to debug.

mulch.2586:

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.

This is super legit. 2 minute respawn rates are a nonfactor when theres 5 things that spawn so closely together. This game pushed active combat in that you are always moving about, but punishes you for actually doing so because of the insane enemy density in some areas.

My experience with this comes from a necromancer point of view, so it might be extreme. I am constantly running around kiting enemies and winning the battle of attrition against an enemy, slowly. If during this time I aggro another enemy, the first enemy might be respawned by the time I kill the 2nd, or shortly after. I notice this most when tackling veterans with nearby regular enemies. If I pull the regular enemies and kill them, they will respawn before I even kill the veteran because I kill much slower than a warrior, for instance. Orr is also awful for this because anywhere I try to kite to, I end up pulling at least one other enemy. My solution in densely packed areas is just to auto-attack and spam cooldowns without moving or dodging and rely on my heal to keep me alive. This type of gameplay is not only incredibly boring and monotonous, but also goes against the game’s promise of active combat.

Edit for typo.

I’m wondering in case of many players killing monsters in certain places that it pushes monsters out to spawn faster so there are always a certain amount up and ready to be killed? I can’t remember any places on top of my head right now but I know I’ve had skritts spawn in the same place the second the old one died.
Was just a thought I had.

One map are for me springs to mind.. Timberline Falls (I think thats the map name )
Path leading up to the Lab Champion with two Golems in the Grawl area.
The path has ever spawning Grawl.. and were not even talking 10s for respawns.

Funny thing is there are 3 Bots farming the respawns constantly for materials and coin (reported them constantly for over a week now but they are still there)… and the grawl just keep on coming … does thiat constitute a bug and a bot issue all in one

Laufey.5129:

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.

As a player that only started playing GW2 recently, I fully agree with this. Up to now I was playing mostly on my own and it has bothered me a couple times as well. So pls ANet, have a look at this!

I occassionally have a bug where the mob I just killed respawns instantly right when I killed it. (another of the same one appears instantly right when the first one dies in the same leash location that I encountered the first one) now I haven’t had this happen with champions or veterans thank goodness but It can be quite frustrating to new players.

For me this has happened in areas that no one else is in, that all the mobs have been present the entire time, and when I pull a single mob away from an area where there is a high chance that I might aggro the rest if not more careful. This even happens with docile mobs (those that don’t aggro) like moas. It’s happened for me since launch, but less frequently of late.

(I know no one else is in the area because I tend not to have the culling problem most do, In pve zones I always see the other players even when they are far far away).

Ever cleared mobs before a veteran?
By the time the veteran is at 50% at least one mob will have respawned on top of you.
Usually sooner, and usually more than one…

Kill 3 normal mobs, kite the fourth = guarantee to run into the first mob you killed again.

Many other examples to be found.

I have to agree about clearing an area. Here are 2 specific examples I encountered yesterday in Blazeridge Steppes:

In the Northwestern-most corner, there is a skill point with a couple of branded ogres and their pets patrolling, and a veteran branded guarding. I killed the ogres+pets, fought the veteran, and before he was dead, one of the ogre/pet combos was up again. In this particular case it wasn’t a problem because I took the vet into a corner to fight him, so I was out of aggro range.

The other example:
In the Northeastern corner, there is a separatist camp. If you are at the campsite, you can take a short stone tunnel (I think it’s in the SE part of the camp) to a small area with 3-4 separatist mobs and veteran separatist stormcaller. I killed the mobs, started on the veteran, and the mobs started coming back up before he was down. I got downed a couple of times and only survived the mess because I’m a warrior using the trait for the 100% chance to revive after a ‘vengeance’ kill. Eventually I got them all, but I think I ended up having to rekill two of the original mobs while fighting the vet.

I guess I can’t complain, because this was actually fun on my warrior, but at a lower level or with a different class, I don’t know that I would have come out on top. In many cases I haven’t, and it makes me QQ. Then my wife tells me to shut up and enjoy the game. Thanks for paying attention and working to fix this stuff, Jeffrey.

Wow a dev response! Brilliant.
The respawn timers for me have been the single most annoying thing in this game.
We are playing a role playing game. Fast respawns of 120 seconds is to me immersion breaking. Especially for things like fighting your way into a cave/dead-end and you then have to fight your way back out.
Orr is the single most worst offender outside of events etc.
Thanks Jeffery for looking at this for us.
Can I ask is there any plans in the future to look at a more dynamic system than a simple timer? This really does seem like a primitive solution to me.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Which server are you guys on? I’m on Crystal Desert and I’ve NEVER seen anything respawn faster than 30 seconds.

I’m on Crystal Desert and I’ve seen karka immediately respawn literally on top of the one I’ve just killed.

I’ve seen this in orr and other zones too, it seems to occur more often when there are other people in the area. If I’m just killing them on my own, they don’t tend to do this.

There needs to be like a ‘safe’ radius around a recently killed mob for at least 30 seconds or so.

I can recall a karka from last night doing the insta-respawn… one in particular that sticks in my memory.

From Lion’s Point, you head out and come across the first karka ahead of you. When you take care of him, if you look a little to the right there’s the upslope that heads up to the floaty dudes… at the base of that, on a sandy area immediately across the water, are a couple karka. The closest one to you (from the perspective of the first karka) did an immediate respawn. I believe it was the third one I killed on the way to the upslope.

Hopefully that helps a little… I didn’t really mind and made it go dead as well.

VOLKON.1290:

I can recall a karka from last night doing the insta-respawn… one in particular that sticks in my memory.

From Lion’s Point, you head out and come across the first karka ahead of you. When you take care of him, if you look a little to the right there’s the upslope that heads up to the floaty dudes… at the base of that, on a sandy area immediately across the water, are a couple karka. The closest one to you (from the perspective of the first karka) did an immediate respawn. I believe it was the third one I killed on the way to the upslope.

Hopefully that helps a little… I didn’t really mind and made it go dead as well.

I was going to mention this as well, I’ve killed a karka and been attacked by the respawn literally before the 1st one’s death animation is complete. This has happened many many times, as I pretty much do a round of southsun every day hoping (futilely) to find some passion flowers.

I’ve solo’ed all of the level 80 maps and there is a big difference between the Orr maps and Frostgorge Sound (only non Orr level 80 map). The re-spawns and event spawns on the Orr maps are crazy. Some events on the Orr maps can’t be done if there are not enough players on the map. Why re-spawn events on a timer if there are few or no players in that area?

Think Dynamic spawning of events and number of enemies based on the number of players not just set on a timer.

Respawn time should be a function of the number of players on it’s hate list when it dies.

Base respawn of 2 minutes, and every person up to 5 takes 10 seconds off the respawn timer.

Kimbald.2697:

Ever cleared mobs before a veteran?
By the time the veteran is at 50% at least one mob will have respawned on top of you.
Usually sooner, and usually more than one…

Kill 3 normal mobs, kite the fourth = guarantee to run into the first mob you killed again.

Many other examples to be found.

I know I wanted to get in on this conversation but didn’t know how to approach it, your example is perfect.

Right now there seems to be a focus on the places where the re-spawns are below the 90-120 rule. But can the 90-120 be questioned as well? This example is one that does bother me, you kill the trash mobs, then get to the boss, usually Champion in my case but Vet can happen to. While fighting them, you have to fight the same trash mobs again (I feel ok calling them Trash, as they aren’t real I tell myself), that doesn’t feel right. Also like going into shallow caves, you fight your way in and way out the same thing. I get deep caves, but some are like 50 yards deep and you fight the same coming and going. That is where 1 minute and 30 seconds seems too fast even.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to test this out in the wild? For example if it’s deemed these respawns are a bit aggressive, then adjust to 100-130… Await feedback, if more is needed 110-140. Rinse and Repeat.

For things with Champs I could possibly even see them having their set trash mob and they don’t go back on the respawn timer until the Champion goes down. So perhaps an hour ago someone cleared the Champs henchies (I’m starting to feel bad calling them trash) but failed at the Champion, the team coming in at that point doesn’t have that Champs henchies to fight, just the Champ. I could see that.

Then when you kill the Champ the chest ALWAYS drops. I couldn’t resist. I’m also of the belief that really making a Champ drop a chest every time and that it can have ascended pieces as well, completely revitalizes the open world game. Such a little step could do so much good. Also have a 50/50 chest drop on vets or something like that.

mulch.2586:

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.

Yeah, I think this is actually the root of the issue/observation. It’s not that the same mob is respawning, it’s that thinning the enemies doesn’t always actually give you much breathing room when the mobs are densely packed, when the mobs have high durability, or when you’re working solo (or some combination of these,) because it’s not just the results of a single spawn you’re contending with but everything that might cumulatively respawn before you’re able to clear a path forward.

Hydrophidian.4319:

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.

I was there two days ago; it’s unchanged.

It did give me the opportunity to finish my Combat Healer title, though. Poor NPCs.

Kimbald.2697:

Ever cleared mobs before a veteran?
By the time the veteran is at 50% at least one mob will have respawned on top of you.
Usually sooner, and usually more than one…

Kill 3 normal mobs, kite the fourth = guarantee to run into the first mob you killed again.

Many other examples to be found.

This is what exactly happens to me. I forgot where but it has happened a few times.

Horrorscope.7632:

Then when you kill the Champ the chest ALWAYS drops. I couldn’t resist. I’m also of the belief that really making a Champ drop a chest every time and that it can have ascended pieces as well, completely revitalizes the open world game. Such a little step could do so much good. Also have a 50/50 chest drop on vets or something like that.

I wish that would happen. We killed the Champion Karka, and all I got was a mantle worth 74 copper. Super.

Hydrophidian.4319:

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.

I was running through there like 2 days ago on my Ranger to grab the skill point and figured I’d stop and help the couple people trying to dispatch the bandits and perhaps I’d get to sell some junk to the merchants once we cleared it. We ended up having to haul kitten outta there. The NPCs were useless against the wave after a wave of bandits, especially since they’re revived with half health. Passed through there again and it was the same thing, just relentless and seemingly broken.

Jeff,

Is there any chance of getting a dynamic respawn rate based on players in the area? If there is only one player the respawn rate doesn’t need to be that fast at all it could be minutes rather than seconds until a new player approaches the area.

It’s most probably perception. I can see this happening; say you are fighting three mobs, you take down one, now that respawn timer sets, then it takes another 30-60 seconds to kill the last 2 mobs and then boom, the first mob respawns again. This happens often to me. This is especially frustrating because I like to challenge myself by taking out mobs or groups of mobs that are hard to solo. I end up dying because mobs are re-spawning before you can finish off the existing ones.

I think it was in Brisban Wildlands recently that i had a hyena spawn right in front of me maybe 5-10 seconds after i had killed one in that exact spot. While it may be that someone else killed a hyena close by recently and it decided to spawn on my location, it still left me with 2 enemies in quick succession inside a very narrow gully…

I know I wanted to get in on this conversation but didn’t know how to approach it, your example is perfect.

Right now there seems to be a focus on the places where the re-spawns are below the 90-120 rule. But can the 90-120 be questioned as well? This example is one that does bother me, you kill the trash mobs, then get to the boss, usually Champion in my case but Vet can happen to. While fighting them, you have to fight the same trash mobs again (I feel ok calling them Trash, as they aren’t real I tell myself), that doesn’t feel right. Also like going into shallow caves, you fight your way in and way out the same thing. I get deep caves, but some are like 50 yards deep and you fight the same coming and going. That is where 1 minute and 30 seconds seems too fast even.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to test this out in the wild? For example if it’s deemed these respawns are a bit aggressive, then adjust to 100-130… Await feedback, if more is needed 110-140. Rinse and Repeat.

For things with Champs I could possibly even see them having their set trash mob and they don’t go back on the respawn timer until the Champion goes down. So perhaps an hour ago someone cleared the Champs henchies (I’m starting to feel bad calling them trash) but failed at the Champion, the team coming in at that point doesn’t have that Champs henchies to fight, just the Champ. I could see that.

Then when you kill the Champ the chest ALWAYS drops. I couldn’t resist. I’m also of the belief that really making a Champ drop a chest every time and that it can have ascended pieces as well, completely revitalizes the open world game. Such a little step could do so much good. Also have a 50/50 chest drop on vets or something like that.

Anet, you guys should hire this person.

It’s especially noticeable in caves, I recall one where I had to fight 3 or 4 mobs while making my way in then a mob inside and I read a book or something and it spawned an elite. I killed it and by the time I was done, which only took me a minute at most, every one of those mobs were respawned.

This is the typical spawning in GW2.

Ah, I wish I had seen this thread earlier. There are numerous locations where mob spawns are noticably faster than the 90-120 seconds. As an example, just last night in Blazeridge Steppes, near Monument Grounds, a friend an I were clearing to the vista point when we ran into a mob that would not stay dead. Literally seconds after we killed it, it respawned. Just a normal generic ascalonian ghost mob, not a champ or veteran, and it didn’t take us long to kill (certainly not 90-120 seconds), and it respawned 3 cycles in a row within seconds of killing it. We eventually just killed it and immediately ran out of aggro range so we wouldn’t be stuck there (and yes, I watched as it respawned yet again). No events in the area.

This is not an unusual occurrence.

There’s definitely some issues with mob spawn timing all over. Orr is certainly one of the worst examples, but by no means the only one.

Zepour.4965:

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.

I agree completely with this. Maybe they have a decimal point in the wrong place? Because mobs in pretty much every area respawn way more quickly than 95 seconds.

In my experience, outside of DEs respawns do seem to take some time, but often enough you get multiple mobs close to eachother. After you killed the third, the first respawns (and since you likely move a lot, you’ll likely agro a few quickly).

Easiest way through it, if your build can handle it, is getting a few mobs together and AoEing them down at once. Thus all the timers activate about the same moment and you have plenty of time to move on. Not that easy for some classes/builds though…

Edit: a few of the places mentioned below I do recognize for insane respawn rates.

At skill point in Temple of Balthazar in Straits of Devastation area, there is a skill point. When I went there to get it, I spent more than half an hour just to get from stairway to the skill point. Then I had to use Sanctuary to be able to complete communing at skill point, otherwise something would always spawn and attack me before I completed channeling. It was actually fun, but spawn there is definitely insane. Lots of risen around and they respawn maybe a couple seconds after getting killed.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Genthar.4029:

As an example, just last night in Blazeridge Steppes, near Monument Grounds, a friend an I were clearing to the vista point when we ran into a mob that would not stay dead. Literally seconds after we killed it, it respawned. Just a normal generic ascalonian ghost mob, not a champ or veteran, and it didn’t take us long to kill (certainly not 90-120 seconds), and it respawned 3 cycles in a row within seconds of killing it. We eventually just killed it and immediately ran out of aggro range so we wouldn’t be stuck there (and yes, I watched as it respawned yet again).

I just checked all the ghost spawns in the map, and this particular area, and they’re all using the default respawn times. (95-120). So my above comment applies: is it possible that a ghost was killed nearby, and happened to respawn near your location?

I don’t think that was the case. Maybe for the first kill as we first entered the area. However, the subsequent spawns, I could see it respawning right in the same spot we killed the first mob. It was more than one respawn cycle as well. When we ran off after the third kill or so, I turned around out of curiosity to see the mob reappear right in the spot we had killed the others. It may have been some kind of transient glitch for that location, as I don’t know if the problem occurs there regularly.

I’m not sure if I can pinpoint the exact spot, but I can probably get you close. It’s on the ground, next to the wall on the north side of the archway that leads towards the vista point there. The mob spawns next to a small tree.

I’m probably not as clear as I should be in my previous message, I don’t mean to say that it spawned 3 mobs immediately after killing it. We killed it, it respawned within seconds. Rinse and repeat for a few cycles before we ran off.

The communication with you is great, Jeffrey Vaughn. I wish we would see this kind of talk with players more commonly on the forums.

I remember one area in particular that was extra-frustrating. It was in Orr, but even for Orr it was very tedious to make progress. Just north of the Blighted Arch in Malchor’s Leap is a hill leading upwards from the water (you have to swim to get here, i think) with a skill point and POI at the top. The hill is littered with enemies, with an unhealthy mix of veterans and normal ones. Running through was not an option because they kill quickly, so you have to fight your way through. Because of the vets, progression up this hill is at a snail’s pace, and hitting respawns is very likely. Also, because it is easy accidentally pull more than 1 vet at a time along with other normal enemies, I died a few times trying to get up this thing. When I got back, EVERYTHING was already respawned, and I had to restart.

Thank you Jeffrey Vaughn for your feedback on this discussion – much appreciated! I wanted to respectfully inquire if a simple timer for determining if a particular mob should respawn is not the best method? Clearly some form of respawn is required in a non-instanced world, however the 95-120 second range of a simple timer means that small groups or solo players will fight three or four enemies near each other and the first enemy will be respawned before the last one is defeated. This is especially true if one of the mobs is veteran or high HP and takes longer to defeat.

What I wanted to suggest for a possible future enhancement is some additional logic to make the respawn determination a bit more sophisticated. The suggestion involves every mob having a “respawn range”. For enemies out in the open, this range would be fairly large and in all directions. For enemies in a cave or tunnel, the range would be limited to the directions the cave or tunnel extends to.

Whenever a mob is defeated, a check would be made to see all Players that are within that mob’s respawn range. For 95-120 seconds, things operate as they normally would. However at the end of the time, a check should be made to see if any new Players have entered that mob’s respawn range. If new players are within range, (and the normal timer is expired), then have the mob respawn. If new players are not within respawn range, then the mob should not respawn. At such a point as any new player enters respawn range, then the mob would respawn.

This would greatly help solo or group players to take down tough foes or larger groups of foes without the first enemies respawning while the fight is still going on.

It also should not have a negative impact on other Players exploring the world since if another Player has cleared the area ahead of them, as soon as the second Player enters respawn range which would be at least as far or farther than visual range for most areas, the mobs would respawn and the Player would enjoy a normal gaming experience.

Another example where this would help is for example if a solo player enters a cave, kills the mobs at the entrance, kills the mobs in the cave, and collects a skill point or whatever was needed in the cave, under today’s logic the mobs at the cave’s entrance would have already respawned by the time the Player was moving back out of the cave. This gets old pretty quickly. Under the suggested logic, as long as no new Player had entered respawn range of the cave yet, the mobs at the entrance would still be defeated.

Agreed, Orion.

That’s a better put and more detailed way of what I was attempting to ask. A dynamic re-spawn rate would be preferable if possible.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Genthar.4029:

As an example, just last night in Blazeridge Steppes, near Monument Grounds, a friend an I were clearing to the vista point when we ran into a mob that would not stay dead. Literally seconds after we killed it, it respawned. Just a normal generic ascalonian ghost mob, not a champ or veteran, and it didn’t take us long to kill (certainly not 90-120 seconds), and it respawned 3 cycles in a row within seconds of killing it. We eventually just killed it and immediately ran out of aggro range so we wouldn’t be stuck there (and yes, I watched as it respawned yet again).

I just checked all the ghost spawns in the map, and this particular area, and they’re all using the default respawn times. (95-120). So my above comment applies: is it possible that a ghost was killed nearby, and happened to respawn near your location?

Hi Jeffrey

you’ve said that you have checked the respawn times, but have you actually logged in using the game client and tried to kill something manually in the problematic locations mentioned in this post ?

Just log in find a 4 man group and start killing underwater mobs at the entrance of the cave where Sea Witch group event happens (Kessex Hills)

Start killing them when the event triggers and good luck to you all. You will see what the real respawn rate is there.

I have also seen this happening all over the game and I don’t event bother reporting it because the scale of it is just too big.

Not to mention how overpowered the underwater mobs are because this is just a pure insanity.

I just performed a test. I killed several dozens of normal open world mobs without any players in the vicinity and without any events going on. Place: Trionic Lattice in Frostgorge Sound, mob type: level 80 Arctodus. I measured when the mob was killed and when it respawned.

Respawn time varied from 20 seconds to 265 seconds. Around 20% of all respawns happened within 40 seconds of the kill and around 10% of all respawns within 20 seconds. Average respawn rate was 103 seconds.

The average respawn rate sits rather nicely in the middle of the default respawn rate of 95 – 120 seconds. However, the mobs sometimes reappeared within 20 seconds of the kill and sometimes it took them more than for minutes.

I think one of the problems lies with minimum respawn rate. 20 seconds is way below of 95 – 120 seconds default window, and I can imagine it only gets worse with other players around. Maybe the respawn algorithm on the servers is too aggresive?

Hydrophidian.4319:

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.

This one is definitely broken, I know the camp you mean, the one where the Sergeant + Dolyak finishes the delivery run. The bandit spawn rate was bananas. My exotic equipped L80 elementalist couldn’t meteor storm them down fast enough, they just keep pouring out in endless waves.

Next time I see a few people standing on a location and continuously killing the same respawning mob I will try and Fraps it.

I’ve seen it multiple times in Orr, a handful of people just sitting around re-killing the same mob over and over and over for 15 minutes at a time.

Centaurs near Beetletun, the entrance to one of their camps – they continuously respawn in under 30 seconds, I will try and get that too – some of this is bad level design, as the spawning locations for special event mobs aren’t actually inside the area of the event – so you’re just tootling along and then there’s a massive uptick in mob respawn in a place you’re just trying to get through, then once you give up and run or get killed, you encounter the ‘defend the X against the Y!’ event – and you never knew the respawns were supposed to be feeding that event.

Zepour.4965:

I just performed a test. I killed several dozens of normal open world mobs without any players in the vicinity and without any events going on. Place: Trionic Lattice in Frostgorge Sound, mob type: level 80 Arctodus. I measured when the mob was killed and when it respawned.

Respawn time varied from 20 seconds to 265 seconds. Around 20% of all respawns happened within 40 seconds of the kill and around 10% of all respawns within 20 seconds. Average respawn rate was 103 seconds.

The average respawn rate sits rather nicely in the middle of the default respawn rate of 95 – 120 seconds. However, the mobs sometimes reappeared within 20 seconds of the kill and sometimes it took them more than for minutes.

I think one of the problems lies with minimum respawn rate. 20 seconds is way below of 95 – 120 seconds default window, and I can imagine it only gets worse with other players around. Maybe the respawn algorithm on the servers is too aggresive?

This is exactly the problem I and many players have; the erratic respawn behaviour at times. What factors influence this? This Is what I would like to know. If ANet could disclose this then perhaps it would help us all out. IMO, it is not just a simple respawn timer. There must be other variables…

undouble.1472:

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?”

Just adding to my previous comment———the Troll cave vista (Human’s Lament) in Old Ashford is guarded by (2) Veteran and 3-4 regular Trolls. By the time you’ve “killed” the first (2) (a Veteran and a regular), and move against the next—you’ve already got at least (1) of the originals climbing up your back————it makes even reaching the vista a highly improbable result for a soloist. The same holds true for the Ascalonian ghosts at the nearby Skill Challenge. The Veteran guard at the point is tough enough without having your back exposed immediately on engaging it.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

I just checked all the ghost spawns in the map, and this particular area, and they’re all using the default respawn times. (95-120). So my above comment applies: is it possible that a ghost was killed nearby, and happened to respawn near your location?

My experience is there are TONS of locations where there is a second layer of critters “held in reserve”. You kill what you see in the area intially and the is a spawn (NOT a respawn) on a new critter almost on top of where you were fighting. If you kill that, you get the remainign time before the intial critter completes is 2m cooldown. The second layer of critters is also on its cooldown though, ready to spring out litterally the second the primary resident is down a second time.

If people aren’t successfully killing the reserves (either dead or running), they won’t see that after the second wave is down the area is quiet for a brief period.

Orr IS particularly bad for this behavior.

Even if the 90-120 seconds respawn rate works correctly, I still think that it’s much too short. Why is ArenaNet so afraid of giving the players a few minutes’ rest? Why not make the respawn time 5-10 minutes, or even longer, so you never fight the same mobs twice, and have some time to look around? Would it be so bad to occasionally run into an area where a previous player has killed all enemies?

I actually like the super fast respawns in certain areas. The spawns in Grenth’s temple for example are quick enough for continuous multi-mob combat without breaks (provided that I’m alone, which is usually always except when the event triggers), which makes my necro’s loot bags happy.

Holy frijoles. I’m trying to do this Centaur camp event in Gendarran Fields… I have to break a gate down to fight Rock Dogs.

Had to kill two guard Centaurs 1st – then beat the gate down. Then attacked one Rock Dog – by the time I’d killed the single Rock Dog… the GUARDS AND THE GATE RESPAWNED.

WHAT THE HELL KIND OF DESIGN IS THIS?

After a few weeks of playing, I’ve realized how many times I’ve just been able to ‘cheese’ the events and fufill the requirements for many many many of the Heart event by doing what feels like glitching the thing. No reason to actually GO INTO any cave, or camp, or whatever, when you can just hang on the edge and kill the same mobs over and over (meaning all your level designers work is worthless because no one ever sees or interacts with 75% of it).

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.)

Sucks when you have so many mobs packed together that by the time you kill the last few, the first few are already respawning. This is why I won’t go to Orr on my Ranger anymore. The pet running in random crazy directions pulling everything didn’t help either.

PolarApe.9351:

Holy frijoles. I’m trying to do this Centaur camp event in Gendarran Fields… I have to break a gate down to fight Rock Dogs.

Had to kill two guard Centaurs 1st – then beat the gate down. Then attacked one Rock Dog – by the time I’d killed the single Rock Dog… the GUARDS AND THE GATE RESPAWNED.

WHAT THE HELL KIND OF DESIGN IS THIS?

Welcome to the headache of this games respawn. Seems they just don’t understand how bad it is.

Why don’t you guys record your gameplay, upload it on Youtube and post the link here?

That way, the dev will actually see what you are saying. Personally, I haven’t experienced too much instant respawns in Orr (And Orr, particularly CS is my default farm spot). Sure, I may have seen 1 or 2 per week, but that’s not alarming in my opinion.

:)

I think the issue is the spawn timer should be slightly increased, because certain classes are not able to kill monsters very quickly. A Mesmer for example may take a few more moments compared to a ranger.

There’s an event in the water in kessix hills that involved killing krait that was pretty much impossible to do alone because every time I got to 1 krait left, they respawned again.

I’ve also had troubles with certain events, much like the rock dog event that the respawn timer and the amount of monsters was just too high and make it really difficult.

Agree.

The also other aspect of the issue here is not only do the mobs respawn faster than one could clear an area (hence allowing us to “move on” without being disturbed/immobilize)… but that they respawn in the SAME LOCATION.

I believe (and I’ve seen in it other games) that it is possible to introduce a controlled element of randomness where mobs will respawn (within a stipulated area) but not where they died, previously spawned or near a player currently present in the area.

IF spawning on same location, 120 seconds spawn rate is ridiculous, man! Anyone can also notice this effect in other games. Where mobs spawn in about the same location, the typical approach is to give it long a respawn time (relative to the average time it takes to kill said monster) -although this is commonly done to discourage camping on the location and farming the mob.

Orion Templar.4589:

If new players are within range, (and the normal timer is expired), then have the mob respawn. If new players are not within respawn range, then the mob should not respawn. At such a point as any new player enters respawn range, then the mob would respawn.

as soon as the second Player enters respawn range which would be at least as far or farther than visual range for most areas, the mobs would respawn and the Player would enjoy a normal gaming experience.

I love the idea! really, post it in suggestions, man! This sounds clever, makes it better for people killing and does not affect anyone who have not killed it yet.

But I think you should add to it a longer timer to “checked” players too. so that mobs respawns to people who did kill them already, but at much much longer timer. Because otherwise if one clears an area which is not too populated, he would be forever walking on a desert land.