Guild Wars 2

Hello all, this is a feedback submit for a Heart event in Plains of Ashford

This afternoon I made a new character and came upon the Heart event of: Help Paenula train troops, a lvl 9 Heart located at Charr’s Triumph in Plains of Ashford. (Charr starter area)
I recall never seeing anyone having problems with this one before but with the new design of it with new functionality, descriptions and rifle skills it became less intuitive?
The new skills of the Rifle offer 4 skills and a Locked Icon.
- Bleeding Shot
- Blunderbuss
- Riffle But
- Jump Shot
- LOCKED

All looks easy and Paenula tells you to “Just stun’em then net’em”. all clear. but the skill for capturing the target beast? where is it? well… it is there somewhere, but it appears to be locked, but also not really. The only way you figure out it is there is by hovering your mouse over the 5th Locked Skill. But why would a player do that over a locked skill? it is not intuitive.
New players have skills genuinely locked from usage until they hit certain levels, so why would they hover or it while they already know that a Lock on the icons means.
Why would a Veteran player hover over a locked skill? nothing is there, only a lock.

I have spoken with/followed around other players in the area about the Heart Event.
New people without a guild and walking around in basic armor and also people in full on dungeon armor and/or Legendary weapons.
Most of them didn’t seem to figure it out?

I myself also thought it was bugged for the entire afternoon until I was 95% done with the zone and only that heart event was left. I decided to shoot some more drakes with the rifle and then halfway the drake’s HP Skill nr. 5 suddenly “unlocked/flipped” for usage? why suddenly now?

Several people I whispered who stood next to the NPC/in the area with a rifle for a long period of time also said they were confused by it. some of the responses were:
- The 5th action was not appearing.
- the 5th skill is locked, it says I cannot use it while transformed? I’m not transformed.
- is it bugged? how do I catch stuff?
- There is no catching skill.
- This heart event is bugged, I cannot complete it.

And also people dropping the rifle and then just run off.

These were answers both new player and veterans gave me.

The second half of this event appears to not be working at all?
Speak to Bracctus Bloodsand in the Arena upstairs and spar with the monsters you captured.
I spoke to Bracctus, I also saw other people walk up to him and then walk away again.
Bracctus asks if you are ready for the pit? yes? good!
Player respond: I like the sound of that -> this closes the dialogue.
And then nothing happens… I have captured several Drake and Minotaur after finally figuring out the existence of the 5th skill, my % on the Heart is 70% or so. Have I still not caught enough monsters for the sparring? Is that it? Am I and other players still missing something? or is this one part a genuine bug?

Could someone of the development team maybe take a look at this Heart Event?

I think the not locking of the 5th skill, but making it visible from the start would make a world of difference on the intuitive flow for this heart. The 5th skills clearly says it should be used when the creature is below 50% and it doesn’t require anything like ground targeting so it is a super easy skill to use if payed attention to enemy health. It is just a massive problem that it is hidden/“locked”.

As for Bracctus at the sparring arena, I think he’s actually broken…?

Could other players share their stories if they have had the same issue with this Heart?

Thank you kindly for reading, I hope we can make this event better!

i did it yesterday, and yes the event is stupid.
it is not clear what you have to do.

I consider myself as a world exploration expert (I have 9 PvE world completion and a last character I need to work on but I don’t like her )

Two things :

• You’re right, it seems confusing. To be frank I haven’t captured beasts for this heart since my very first character but from what you said and what I remember it seems like you can use the capture skill as soon as the beast is weakened, looks like pokemon :p

• Never capture beast for this heart, fight in the pit. If I’m a new player and find the rifle part stupid then I’ll look at other objectives in the heart description et voilà You said it is broken but never a problem here ever : walk in, select any difficulty (doesn’t matter), kill stuff, get out, repeat.

Lyndis.4653:

I consider myself as a world exploration expert (I have 9 PvE world completion and a last character I need to work on but I don’t like her )

Two things :

• You’re right, it seems confusing. To be frank I haven’t captured beasts for this heart since my very first character but from what you said and what I remember it seems like you can use the capture skill as soon as the beast is weakened, looks like pokemon :p

• Never capture beast for this heart, fight in the pit. If I’m a new player and find the rifle part stupid then I’ll look at other objectives in the heart description et voilà You said it is broken but never a problem here ever : walk in, select any difficulty (doesn’t matter), kill stuff, get out, repeat.

Hello Lyndis,

The Heart Event used to be alot easier as the capture skill was a different skill that also was to be used when the creature was below X% HP.
I have done this heart event on other characters as well (alt-addict with exploration backpacks ready) and I also never chose the rifle option over the pit-fighting.

But as of the 9 September NPE patch the Pit Fighting has been broken. So the only way to actually finish this Heart Event now is with the rifle.

You are correct on how it was, exactly the same as it was back then, where you would walk into the pit, a message would pop up where you could choose Easy/Medium/Hard/Cancel and the chosen enemies would spawn for you to fight.

But with the new design you have to go to Bracctus in the back of the arena and tell him you are ready. But then when you say you are ready the cages do not open. No progress can be made towards the heart this way.

Have you tried this Heart Event out yourself with a character after it was redesigned on the 9 September update? If you don’t have any left you can walk into the pit and watch other players walk up to Bracctus only to see them leave after 10 seconds or so. No enemies will spawn.

Thank you for replying to this topic

Before you could press 5 to capture before the health was low enough so the mob was dead before cool down was over. Now you can’t. Don’t think either way is incredibly intuitive.
Usually did not fight in the pits so can’t comment.

Kenyon.6150:

Lyndis.4653:

I consider myself as a world exploration expert (I have 9 PvE world completion and a last character I need to work on but I don’t like her )

Two things :

• You’re right, it seems confusing. To be frank I haven’t captured beasts for this heart since my very first character but from what you said and what I remember it seems like you can use the capture skill as soon as the beast is weakened, looks like pokemon :p

• Never capture beast for this heart, fight in the pit. If I’m a new player and find the rifle part stupid then I’ll look at other objectives in the heart description et voilà You said it is broken but never a problem here ever : walk in, select any difficulty (doesn’t matter), kill stuff, get out, repeat.

Hello Lyndis,

The Heart Event used to be alot easier as the capture skill was a different skill that also was to be used when the creature was below X% HP.
I have done this heart event on other characters as well (alt-addict with exploration backpacks ready) and I also never chose the rifle option over the pit-fighting.

But as of the 9 September NPE patch the Pit Fighting has been broken. So the only way to actually finish this Heart Event now is with the rifle.

You are correct on how it was, exactly the same as it was back then, where you would walk into the pit, a message would pop up where you could choose Easy/Medium/Hard/Cancel and the chosen enemies would spawn for you to fight.

But with the new design you have to go to Bracctus in the back of the arena and tell him you are ready. But then when you say you are ready the cages do not open. No progress can be made towards the heart this way.

Have you tried this Heart Event out yourself with a character after it was redesigned on the 9 September update? If you don’t have any left you can walk into the pit and watch other players walk up to Bracctus only to see them leave after 10 seconds or so. No enemies will spawn.

Thank you for replying to this topic

Hmm I see, all my characters have finished exploring this area so I didn’t test it myself :/

I have a spare slot so I could create a character to test this out but I assume you guys know what you are talking about.

I just checked this : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talk:Help_Paenula_train_the_troops_by_fighting_in_the_pit_and_capturing_creatures

It looks like there’s a specific bug for human and sylvari races (at least). This is most likely a matter of bugged heart rather than non-intuitive NPE. We should report this ingame IMO.

I wonder if the pit bug is also race specific and why it is not opening.

Lyndis.4653:

Kenyon.6150:

Lyndis.4653:

I consider myself as a world exploration expert (I have 9 PvE world completion and a last character I need to work on but I don’t like her )

Two things :

• You’re right, it seems confusing. To be frank I haven’t captured beasts for this heart since my very first character but from what you said and what I remember it seems like you can use the capture skill as soon as the beast is weakened, looks like pokemon :p

• Never capture beast for this heart, fight in the pit. If I’m a new player and find the rifle part stupid then I’ll look at other objectives in the heart description et voilà You said it is broken but never a problem here ever : walk in, select any difficulty (doesn’t matter), kill stuff, get out, repeat.

Hello Lyndis,

The Heart Event used to be alot easier as the capture skill was a different skill that also was to be used when the creature was below X% HP.
I have done this heart event on other characters as well (alt-addict with exploration backpacks ready) and I also never chose the rifle option over the pit-fighting.

But as of the 9 September NPE patch the Pit Fighting has been broken. So the only way to actually finish this Heart Event now is with the rifle.

You are correct on how it was, exactly the same as it was back then, where you would walk into the pit, a message would pop up where you could choose Easy/Medium/Hard/Cancel and the chosen enemies would spawn for you to fight.

But with the new design you have to go to Bracctus in the back of the arena and tell him you are ready. But then when you say you are ready the cages do not open. No progress can be made towards the heart this way.

Have you tried this Heart Event out yourself with a character after it was redesigned on the 9 September update? If you don’t have any left you can walk into the pit and watch other players walk up to Bracctus only to see them leave after 10 seconds or so. No enemies will spawn.

Thank you for replying to this topic

Hmm I see, all my characters have finished exploring this area so I didn’t test it myself :/

I have a spare slot so I could create a character to test this out but I assume you guys know what you are talking about.

I just checked this : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talk:Help_Paenula_train_the_troops_by_fighting_in_the_pit_and_capturing_creatures

It looks like there’s a specific bug for human and sylvari races (at least). This is most likely a matter of bugged heart rather than non-intuitive NPE. We should report this ingame IMO.

I wonder if the pit bug is also race specific and why it is not opening.

I went back on 3 characters to it.
date: 4th November 2014, before Living World Story update
test results:

Sylvari Thief, lvl 41
- obtain rifle from NPC: no problem, rifle obtained and working.
- pre capturing creatures: Bracctus does not release enemies to fight with.
- captured 3 Salamander Drakes, 3 Minotaurs, 60% Heart completed, still no pit fighting from Bracctus.

Human Necromancer, lvl 21
- obtain rifle from NPC: no problem, rifle obtained and working.
- pre capturing creatures: Bracctus does not release enemies to fight with.
- captured 4 Salamander Drakes, 4 Minotaurs, 90% Heart completed, still no pit fighting from Bracctus.

Asuran Ranger, lvl 8 (skill nr. 5 is still blocked by level 10 requirement when not having the rifle)
- obtain rifle from NPC: no problem, rifle obtained and working. (including Skill 5)
- pre capturing creatures: Bracctus does not release enemies to fight with.
- captured 10 Salamander Drakes, 95% Heart completed, still no pit fighting from Bracctus.

I think the Devs should send Bracctus Bloodsand back to the Farhar and teach him basic lever controls for pits. (I sent a bug report in-game)
Hope this post has been useful.

I think human and sylvari characters under lv10 could be an interesting test.

Sadly I don`t have any Human or Sylvari characters below lvl 10.
if anyone else wants to test it and post the results feel free to do so!