Guild Wars 2

Straits of devastation!

I mean up to this point the game has been great, i have loved every aspect of it.
Obviously i do miss some things, but i leave that for another thread.

When i came to this zone everything has changed. Nope, it’s not that it gets harder, it’s the fact that aggro range seem to be insain. You can’t move without aggroing and/Or taking dmg from mobs, which means you are pretty much WALKING through the zone.

Is this what i will have to face going forward? The last three zones are they like this one (I guess so).. I sure hope there are other level 80 zones cause this is just horrible :/

Anyone else that really dislikes the direction for this map, and the fact it’s packed with so much mobs everywhere that you just can’t move around. I love that it’s dark and gritty-ish. But everything else fell short xD.

Well you’re kinda on Zhaitan’s doorstep.

(It used to be worse before Anet nerfed it)

get a mob of friends and zerg through the zone

There’s Frostgorge Sound. Additionally, since your level scales down to match the zone you’re in, you can map complete anywhere you haven’t already been and still get the same loot/xp you would as a level appropriate character. But Orr can be entertaining in its own right- however, it is a completely different feel than the rest of the world. I rather enjoy that, myself.

There is Southsun, Dry Top and Silverwastes, as well. And, coming soon, all of Heart of Maguuma.

I did not venture into Orr, for quite awhile, as I thought it would be too difficult. Once I did, though, I found it easier than, say, Maguuma Wastes. It may just be a matter of getting used to L80 areas.

Good luck.

The level 80 maps are mostly group content. In order of solo-friendliness:
Frostgorge Sound > Orr maps > Southsun Cove > Dry Top > Silverwastes

The last few maps are almost completely revolving around group content and cannot really be soloed unless you just want to kill some mobs.

Trust me, don’t complain about this. You will be regretting it later on once you are fairly comfortable with the game, have multiple alts and hate how everything is actually relatively mediocre on the scale of difficulty.

A fully geared and traited level 80 tears through ten mobs in about ten seconds.

I like it as it is, although it used to be much worse and a lot more mobs to get aggroed by.
Being so close to the games primary enemy at that point, it needs to be pretty rough going otherwise it defeats the point.

The last zone, cursed shore is worse for this as well imo.

All the newer zones post orr like southson, dry top and silverwastes are different designs. Mobs are much harder for the new attacks and ai. Orr will prepare you well for those.

yes i agree that orr is quite annoying if you just want to run from 1 location to another one with all the mobs that cripple, chill and cc

if you are on warrior or thief its ok i guess

but it can be very annoying for other classes

I just explored the 3 Orr maps yesterday for the very first time to 100% .. lol

Else after my first 2-3 chars i very much ignored them, after the tunnel farming
that was popular in the beginning, was nerfed.

In the end, one of the beauties of this game is, that you are not forced to play anything
or anywhere that you don’t enjoy. You don’t even have to play in level 80 maps

Beside the mobs i also simply don’t like the depressing atmospheres there, and much
prefer the shiverpeaks, or something more sunny like Silverwastes.

The orr maps are a land being invaded by the pact.

Expect it NOT to be a walk in the park.

Yeah, it gets annoying if you want to go from point A to B. But you don’t go touring on zhaitan’s doorstep. You either kill your way through it, or you better bring a thief/warrior/elementalist/ranger/engineer

OP, if you are under the zones level, the mobs WILL aggressively aggro onto you. It’s done purposefully to keep players out of zones they aren’t ready for. I took a level 20’ish to Cursed Shore during last Christmas. Mobs would lock on from extreme ranges. Luckily I had a thief escort who plowed the road of all the mobs.

I believe that the mobs were reduced by about, or over, half, some time after game launch. We used to call it ‘Risen ping-pong’, you’d dodge from one right into another. You got overwhelmed quickly…

…and it was brilliant once you got used to it…

Now, once you find your feet you can get pretty much anywhere in Orr unmolested. Except for that gosh-darned skill point in the maze and the ridiculous one in King’s Passage. I still gather a mob for those ones.

Actually Orr is brilliant.

I’ve got 9x 80 and 9 world completions and another 3 characters in the process of levelling.

What I find when levelling, when I get to around 60+ I start to look forward to getting to Orr. I try to leave it to near the end of the levelling process (/world completion), kind of leave the best to last. But it never works as soon as I can start exploring and doing events (not much more to explore after 9 characters) I tend to start going there.

What’s good about Orr is that it’s all one theme not a mix of different ones that try to keep an area interesting. There’s no hearts, hearts mean grind, you don’t have to grind in Orr if you don’t want to.

As for it’s difficult I solo except when doing events Orr’s not difficult just takes a little while to get used to and is noticeable as the style of the game at that point is different to what you have got used to.

Orr doesn’t need changing, it’s the player that needs to adjust to Orr.

Be glad you weren’t there at release, it was muuuuch “worse” back then.

Orr is supposed to be a group-zone. You are at the heart of the enemy’s stronghold, of course there will be a high threat-level.

DeWolfe.2174:

OP, if you are under the zones level, the mobs WILL aggressively aggro onto you. It’s done purposefully to keep players out of zones they aren’t ready for. I took a level 20’ish to Cursed Shore during last Christmas. Mobs would lock on from extreme ranges. Luckily I had a thief escort who plowed the road of all the mobs.

Also Risen Acolytes have a gigantic aggro range regardless of your level, at least half again the range of any other enemy.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

DeWolfe.2174:

OP, if you are under the zones level, the mobs WILL aggressively aggro onto you. It’s done purposefully to keep players out of zones they aren’t ready for. I took a level 20’ish to Cursed Shore during last Christmas. Mobs would lock on from extreme ranges. Luckily I had a thief escort who plowed the road of all the mobs.

Also Risen Acolytes have a gigantic aggro range regardless of your level, at least half again the range of any other enemy.

Which adds to the fun, if they all had the same range they would be easy to avoid. You can still avoid them though once you have got used to the types of mobs.

Orr is fun for me. Straits is my least favorite, mostly because of the water mobs. There are huge holes in where mobs are and it is not really a problem if you are just running to outdistance anything even with their pulls.
Good luck, and if it is too frustrating go to a different zone and back after you have relaxed a bit.

Straits untill the temples is fine, after that it’s just a pain.

Not if you keep murdering everything that comes your way. (mind me, I only went there with heavy armor professions) Just don’t forget to log out/relog/swap characters every so often because diminishing returns.

I actually liked Orr for a bunch of reasons, one of which was the density of mobs.

As other have said, I’ll reiterate that it’s a paradise when compared to what it used to be.

For a band new character, assuming they’re not “fully” geared, it’s a nice introduction for learning to pick your fights, and which ones to skip.

Much like dungeons and fractals, you can clear and fight your way through, but in many instances, it’s gonna be a lot rougher(and at the least more time consuming) than avoiding/evading/skipping past.

Once you open up Way Points, it’ll no longer be an issue.

Mourningcry.9428:

Once you open up Way Points, it’ll no longer be an issue.

Not really, when most WPs are contested.

Beldin.5498:

Mourningcry.9428:

Once you open up Way Points, it’ll no longer be an issue.

Not really, when most WPs are contested.

This would be true if there were only a couple of WPs per zone, or if all of them could be contested. Neither of which is ever the case.

At the very worst, you get redirected to one that isn’t, perhaps even one you didn’t have. Further it shows you places you may want to avoid if solo and still uncomfortable in the zone. At best it’s an indicator of which events are likely to start soon which you can participate in. The useful ones never stay contested for long by they very nature (Balth, Grenth, Arah, etc. ).

Tirien.1326:

Straits of devastation!

I mean up to this point the game has been great, i have loved every aspect of it.
Obviously i do miss some things, but i leave that for another thread.

When i came to this zone everything has changed. Nope, it’s not that it gets harder, it’s the fact that aggro range seem to be insain. You can’t move without aggroing and/Or taking dmg from mobs, which means you are pretty much WALKING through the zone.

Is this what i will have to face going forward? The last three zones are they like this one (I guess so).. I sure hope there are other level 80 zones cause this is just horrible :/

Anyone else that really dislikes the direction for this map, and the fact it’s packed with so much mobs everywhere that you just can’t move around. I love that it’s dark and gritty-ish. But everything else fell short xD.

When I was leveling my first character, just after release, Orr came as a RUDE shock. Especially since I was wearing greens, which had been completely adequate till that point. Not so much in Orr, though.

All I can tell you is that it actually gets easier. Straits of devastation does a lot of funneling, has a lot of chokepoints. That gradually gets less. And as you level more classes, you WILL find each can survive Orr in its own way.

You do need to control your agro, though.
if you’re a necro, ditch all pets
if you’re a ranger, LEARN TO KEEP YOUR PET ON A LEASH
if you’re an engineer, don’t use turrets
if you’re a mesmer, be careful what phantasms you use. some run all over the place and drag in new agro.

Basically: move with care, use yellow gear or better, and don’t think you can run through things while trailing a mob. You’ll get snared and have 20 NPCs eating your brains.

The same thing you hate, I love. In other games, difficulty sometimes scales up too gradually for me. In this game, when you get to the “warzones” — it really is war. It’s harder to find safespots, foes chase you farther, and do more things that can be annoying.

But.

You’ll figure out how to handle it and fairly quickly, you won’t have the trouble you (think you) are having now. And imo, that’s a fun part of the game too, to be able to learn and grow as a player.

yeah the orr zones are irritating. if you stop to open your map/check inventory/change skills-you get attacked…every step of the way. it’s like if you went in the woods and every 3 ft a bear would jump out.

i get that it’s a warzone but the orr zones are just ludicrous…what enemy or army would space soldiers out individually to cover every inch of land?

pet peeve #1-if it’s not the endless mobs …then it’s the trebuchets. which in gw2 have been converted into incredibly accurate and fast range weapons against individual players . not exactly sure this is how trebuchets worked in the middle ages.

pet peeve #2-the sentimental attachment mobs have towards the moldy old stumps/rocks/plant life (nodes) that litter orr. this actually goes for all of gw2…why do these creatures place importance on nodes?

The first time I did Orr was with my ele, she was rather breakable so I soon learnt I had to sneak or sprint and try not to get tagged

Now I’ve got a necro 80 it’s a blast, don’t really have to do much avoiding, apart from one or two champs I can’t take down alone (and those kittening chickens in ML… that way lies madness lol). Got more ghost peppers than I know what to do with now lol

I think Orr really teaches you how to play your class, in a way that other maps don’t so much. You can get away with it in most maps just by being a few levels above the map level – but in Orr you really have to learn your craft

I honestly love the Orr maps, for the most part. Why? NO HEARTS! They take so much less time to complete because of that, especially once you have run through the zones a few times. The only things I hate are the labyrinth skill point in Cursed Shore, the (often) bugged Melandru statue skill point outside of the Grenth temple, and those two skill points in Malchor’s Leap that are usually guarded by champions.

I miss old Orr. Orr as it is right now is already a walk in the park.
You are invading the core territory of an elder dragon. Sure, let’s do some fun heart quests here like feeding cows…

You as a pact commander are a threat to Zhaitan, expect him to send his minions to destroy you and make you a member of his undead army.

I was sad when they nerfed Orr. And I was running it solo with just the random people that I met on the way. God forbid that you cannot just run past all and every mob around, skipping all stuff. Some people enjoy it if it actually feels like you are really fighting your way through.

I have great hopes for the expansion, content might be challenging at first at least.

Straits :/
Yeah I know the feeling, one mob fight turns into fight 3 more mobs. It gets better in Malchor’s Leap though, just have to push through… which I guess was the feeling ANet wanted from the zone.

At one point, shortly after launch, I remember all three Orr zones being heavily populated with mobs. At one point, mob density was reduced in Malchor’s and Cursed Shore, but if that happened in Straits, it certainly did not happen everywhere. What I did on my last few alts was to run through Straits asap and finish leveling in Malchor’s. Then if I wanted to explore Straits I did it as an 80 with exotic gear and full traits.

Tirien.1326:

Straits of Devastation!

I mean up to this point the game has been great, i have loved every aspect of it.
Obviously i do miss some things, but i leave that for another thread.

When i came to this zone everything has changed. Nope, it’s not that it gets harder, it’s the fact that aggro range seem to be insane. You can’t move without aggroing and/Or taking dmg from mobs, which means you are pretty much WALKING through the zone.

Is this what i will have to face going forward? The last three zones are they like this one (I guess so).. I sure hope there are other level 80 zones cause this is just horrible :/

Anyone else that really dislikes the direction for this map, and the fact it’s packed with so much mobs everywhere that you just can’t move around. I love that it’s dark and gritty-ish. But everything else fell short xD.

Others have already pointed out some other Level 80 zones, but I’m going to give you a little history lesson on the Orr zones. You think it’s difficult now(I promise you it’s not, you can really run through the zones today without aggroing a single enemy, if you pick your path correctly), try and imagine the zones with 5 times the amount of enemies as you’re facing now. Yes, the number of mobs in the Orr zones was drastically reduced from what it was at launch(not sure what the number was, but it used to be you couldn’t walk anywhere without encountering multiple enemies…now it’s usually just one at a time(unless during an event). Honestly though, the aggro range isn’t any greater than that in the lower level zones, I think you just notice it more now.

Personally I enjoyed the Orr zones prior to the nerf as compared to now, because it felt more like I was encroaching on Zhaitan’s doorstep and not a walk in the park.

IndigoSundown.5419:

At one point, shortly after launch, I remember all three Orr zones being heavily populated with mobs. At one point, mob density was reduced in Malchor’s and Cursed Shore, but if that happened in Straits, it certainly did not happen everywhere. What I did on my last few alts was to run through Straits asap and finish leveling in Malchor’s. Then if I wanted to explore Straits I did it as an 80 with exotic gear and full traits.

All Orr zones had the number of mobs reduced, including Straits, it’s just that the number of mobs were reduced by much greater numbers in Malchor and Cursed vs. Straits…the cut was across the entire zone in all 3 cases, just less in Straits, that might be why you perceive there to not have been cuts made there. You can literally run from portal to portal in all 3 zones without once aggroing a single enemy, that was never the case at launch(you couldn’t go from PoI to PoI without aggroing at least 3 or 4 mobs…memories, those were the best days).

Zaklex.6308:

All Orr zones had the number of mobs reduced, including Straits, it’s just that the number of mobs were reduced by much greater numbers in Malchor and Cursed vs. Straits…the cut was across the entire zone in all 3 cases, just less in Straits, that might be why you perceive there to not have been cuts made there.

So, you’re saying that there used to be more mobs in the Ship of Sorrows?

IndigoSundown.5419:

Zaklex.6308:

All Orr zones had the number of mobs reduced, including Straits, it’s just that the number of mobs were reduced by much greater numbers in Malchor and Cursed vs. Straits…the cut was across the entire zone in all 3 cases, just less in Straits, that might be why you perceive there to not have been cuts made there.

So, you’re saying that there used to be more mobs in the Ship of Sorrows?

There were more risen all across Orr before their numbers were reduced, their crowd control skills were reduced and they added uncontested waypoints. Previous to that, if you died there might not be any nearby uncontested waypoints.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2013-01-28
“The Risen creatures all across Orr have had their population density adjusted.
Various Risen creatures have had their skills adjusted to use fewer crowd-control skills.
Uncontested waypoints have been added to Cursed Shore and Straits of Devastation”