Guild Wars 2

Then I went away for the holidays. I come back, I’ve barely managed to get to level 5 in this new fractal dungeon. Everyone seems to be in the teens.

Over 2 days I’ve tried to get fractal groups now for level 5, and every single time the swamp pops up and people log, crash, quit, or whatever. I have never been so frustrated at spending hours to find a group only to get the same RNG map every time that completely screws me over with walls. None of these are l2p issues, they are RNG and terrible system issues.

Fractals was the worst thing to happen to this game. I’m just so unbelievable frustrated at trying to enjoy it, only to get crapped on over and over by things out of my control and a massive fracturing of the dungeon running population.

I thought I could take a break in this game and then come back and feel like I’m progressing. Coming back and spending hours and hours just to find a group and then having the same unenjoyable terrible map make that experience horrible? No thank you. I thought I’d be able to handle the terrible treadmill, but if I wanted that, there are TONS of games that do it better. I so hate this game right now.

Congratulations on making it to lvl 5 on the dungeon. Personally I only played it long enough to get the required monthly 7 fracments. I found the dungeon itself fun and challenging, but people disconnecting and not being able to get back was a problem even then. I am also glad that I did it in the first couple of days, when people were still open and accepting of casual adventurers. The most fun run was with a PUG that included people under level 60. We laughed and worked at it for about three hours before having to give up due to second person disconnecting. Now I leave it to the ‘pros’ that seem to do nothing else these days.

While it may feel that way, Fractals is not the the whole game. Isn’t there anything else you like to do in the game? It is not yet mandatory to get those backpacks/rings, so I try to get playtime before that happens. All the content you liked about the game before your holiday is still there. The only problem is that a lot of people are ignoring everything to just grind that one dungeon.

I’m sorry to ask this, but has anyone found a really good way of handling the Swamp? It seems that one is really hated.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I’m sorry to ask this, but has anyone found a really good way of handling the Swamp? It seems that one is really hated.

Well I don’t know if this is a proper answer but I usually just take the furthest wisp and use Portal to instantly get it back, while the other two easily return their wisps. Spamming jump also helps to avoid most of the traps, but you also need to visually avoid them.

Swamp is one of the faster dungeons to me, but then again not every group has a mesmer :S

The idea at the swamp is to not go via the gates but jump via the trees next to the gates.

-For the furthest runs use ele or thief (endless speedbuff and teleport help) and one of the other classes for the others. (not sure mesmer portals work I never tried/needed)
-If you have an annoying combo (the 3 far ones), pick up and drop the orb and you ll get a new one.
-Make sure you know where the traps are and avoid them.
-If the mossman/champion is on the route get one of the 2 spare players to distract him.
-Let the 2 spare players help with clearing out mobs that might be in the way.
-Make sure the runners have condition remove and stability or teleport skills to get up from traps you accidently hit
-The most important thing is to know where the mini jumps are to get over the walls. Every wall has 1 or 2 jumps you can use to get over so you dont have to get lucky with a gate not closing.

Swamp is not that hard. It’s annoying, but as people are learning things I find a mixture of guildies and PuG’s to be fine. Nothing is insurmountable, and I do enjoy how Arena Net like to make hard things.

Jakar.3685:

The idea at the swamp is to not go via the gates but jump via the trees next to the gates.

-For the furthest runs use ele or thief (endless speedbuff and teleport help) and one of the other classes for the others. (not sure mesmer portals work I never tried/needed)
-If you have an annoying combo (the 3 far ones), pick up and drop the orb and you ll get a new one.
-Make sure you know where the traps are and avoid them.
-If the mossman/champion is on the route get one of the 2 spare players to distract him.
-Let the 2 spare players help with clearing out mobs that might be in the way.
-Make sure the runners have condition remove and stability or teleport skills to get up from traps you accidently hit
-The most important thing is to know where the mini jumps are to get over the walls. Every wall has 1 or 2 jumps you can use to get over so you dont have to get lucky with a gate not closing.

Thanks much Jakar. As a ranger I found Signet of Renewal and Rampage As One both pretty much make the far left (Trap-ridden) much easier to deal with. You can’t be immobilized by the bear traps and Signet reduces the effects to 10 seconds . . . or you hit a tripwire (with no knockdown) and immediately trigger it to dump it to your pet.

The problem was the gates and trying to get an idea of the others. The skelk never stop spawning and usually would overwhelm me soon as I started running . . . the center-top one with the mosquitoes was always apparently too far.

Dungin.2983:

Swamp is not that hard. It’s annoying, but as people are learning things I find a mixture of guildies and PuG’s to be fine. Nothing is insurmountable, and I do enjoy how Arena Net like to make hard things.

I like the design of the swampland one, and I like that it’s meant to be one you can’t just bully with power. It still is heckuva frustrating one.

Others I like are the Urban Battleground (Flame Legion, to arms!) and the Snowblind Fractal. Haven’t gotten to do more yet.

Each time I’ve done Swamp I’ve happened to have a Mesmer in the group (and been with guildies on Mumble, not PuGging). What seemed to work was getting everyone in position, fastest runners nabbing the wisps, and the Mesmer putting a portal in the middle and booking to the vents to drop the other end of it. Wisp runners gather on the portal, hop through, fling the wisps into the vents.

Make sure the destination portal isn’t -right- next to the vents or someone might find themselves porting back to the middle of the map instead of interacting with the vent.

Mitlandir.8306:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I’m sorry to ask this, but has anyone found a really good way of handling the Swamp? It seems that one is really hated.

Well I don’t know if this is a proper answer but I usually just take the furthest wisp and use Portal to instantly get it back, while the other two easily return their wisps. Spamming jump also helps to avoid most of the traps, but you also need to visually avoid them.

Swamp is one of the faster dungeons to me, but then again not every group has a mesmer :S

Another possibility (if you have a mesmer in the group) is to try and get the 3 wisps to spawn close to each other, get the mesmer to put a portal near the area where you need to put the wisps back, and walk over to a point where everyone with wisps can quickly get to – then open a portal for them.

If no one’s a mesmer or traited for speed (happened in a group I was in)… then it becomes more painful to do.