Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,

I posted this on Reddit earlier today, and since the feedback was nice and some people even said to post it here, there it is! Hope you all like the idea as well, and participate with sugestions to make it better!

The idea would be as the title states: an endless fighting arena. It’s a place where enemies keep spawning in waves, getting more numerous and stronger after each wave you defeat. They just keep coming (as long as you can stand). Meant for groups or solo play. Could be within FotM (you’ll see why below).

MORE DETAILS

The way I picture it, it’s a small map. In the middle, ruins of a long lost stronghold. A small lake by the north wall is an entrance to a underwater cavern beneath the whole place. Your objective: survive.

Mechanics

• 2 types of arena:
  - Static Arena: Waves will always have the same foes. It’s predictable and allows practice;
  - Dynamic Arena: Each wave is made of enemies randomly selected from a pre-determined pool. Can respawn in different areas of the map.
• The start is easy and silly, 2-3 trash foes. As the waves progress, enemies get more numerous and stronger. You start fighting veterans, champions. At some point, attacks start to inflict agony.
• At first, the timer for the next wave will only start once you defeated the previous one. Later, it starts to countdown as a wave spawns. With increasing difficulty, that timer will seem to run faster and faster.
• The idea is that the content can be played by 1 up to 5 players.
• There could be also a scoring system in place. Players would score by defeating each wave and for acomplishing side objectives and milestones. This way, a leaderboard could be set up for each team composition (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 players teams).

Strategy

• At some point, a one-time mission will start, aimed to rescue a NPC from kidnappers. Shall you succeed, he’ll join your ranks from within the fallen walls and help you out (maybe not so much in the battle…). This NPC will have items for sale that can be acquired with a currency (Fractal Memories? Too cheesy?) solely exitent within the arena (as in: it gets destroyed when you leave the place). Once you save him, you get an item called “Fractal Memories Extractor”, that allows you to harness foes memories. These can include:
  - Cart arrows and other siege weapon that could prove itself useful;
  - Consumables that provide AR (this way people that don’t have the proper gear can enjoy the arena. However, keep in mind that if you REALLY wanna go far, you should get the gear, so you can use other powerful consumables that will boost your stats up to the challenge);
  - Revive orbs (?);
  - “NPC NAME” Memory Extractor (boost the amount of memories players can harness from each foe);
  - Other things.
• Knowing what to buy and when to use will be important, as “Memories” are not abundant and you can’t buy everything.
• Below the surface, in the water, there could be a Quaggan village. Helping the Quaggans to defend themselves would earn their trust, and they would temporarily help you out (until they get attacked again… :’( Foo!).

End

• The arena should have a max level at which it ends.
• Beating the final wave, or once everybody dies, you get to fight one of the fractal bosses. The rewards in this case would match that of the Arena level you got to.

Rewards

• Rewards scale up with difficulty. Players win loot bags for every wave defeated. Every set of 5 and 10 waves awards a special loot bag and chest, respectively. Drops can vary from fine and masterwork gear and some low tier mats at first waves to Ascended gear, infusions, skins and T6 mats at higher level waves’ chests and champ bags.
• All items acquired from the NPC are destroyed when leaving the arena, as are Fractal Memories (the currency).
• Top scoring players of the week/month could be rewarded with gold/loot
• Defeating the final wave should be an achievment, only meant for skilled players. This would also guarantee a “Master of the Arena” title, and a unique Arena Skin.

So, this is the basic layout just to show what the idea is about and how it could work. If you like it, I’m sure great suggestions will pop up and together we can improve every aspect of it.

A penny for your thoughts?

edit: some ideas and for clarity.

+1 I like the idea. Reminds me of Gears of War.

This type of content I always found enjoyable; “Barbarian Assault” in good old RuneScape, “Invasion” from Unreal Tournament, and of course as already mentioned, “Horde” in Gears of War.

I would love to see a similar form of mode for Guild Wars 2.

reminds me of “the last stand dawn of war 2”

Yes! this would be awesome! I love these types of games modes! Excellent concept OP

Horde arena. I recall there was one of those in GW1, but don’t remember it specifically.

In GW2, like the one in Plains of Ashford, held by the Charr (Odd, now noticed it’s not drawn into the map, map only displays the rockformation near the Ashford Forum where it’s located), but that is a Renown Heart, which doesn’t allow you to participate anymore once the heart is done. Another one in Gendarran Fields, held by Norn.

The same idea came to me yesterday when defending Fort Trinity from all the undead. I can imagine this being a great guild mission.

Please ANet, I really want to see that!

I like the idea.. I’ve seen similar modes like this in other games.

I disagree with the leader-boards.
This could be something as a side thing, to have fun with, testing out builds, test your skill with a class, etc.
Putting in leader-boards just brings competition to it that’ll be won by the person that plays the game 24/7.
Just put rewards/titles behind achievements instead.

Why are people so terrified of leaderboards? Too much everyone gets a participation trophy these days.

although these missions are not exactly a new concept:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Challenge_Mission
This one was an endless wave type: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Zos_Shivros_Channel

Kinda like the gauntlet they had in DR, but a permanent thing?

thehipone.6812:

Why are people so terrified of leaderboards?

To answer you.. Not wanting a leader-board doesn’t mean we’re terrified of it.

Question: Why does everything need to be a competition? Why can’t it just be a fun thing.

JBDanger.2603:

Yes! this would be awesome! I love these types of games modes! Excellent concept OP

Same! It`s a game mode that is present among different franchises, and I think that if applied here, with GW2 mechanics, it could be a great success!

I support you 75%

The reason? I think the concept is amazing and would be a lot of fun, if it scales that is for solo players. But I personally would not want it associated with fractals or agony in any way shape or form. I read adding consumables but armor needed to go all the way. Myself and many others do not do fractals. This should be something not associated in any way so every player can join in on this.

But the concept itself I do really really love! Plus would be a nice new daily that would be fun.

login and endorse for this concept, great to see this come to live in game server.

I would do this for HOURS at a time. Infinitely repeatable challenging and rewarding content? Where do I sign???

Sylent.3165:

I support you 75%

The reason? I think the concept is amazing and would be a lot of fun, if it scales that is for solo players. But I personally would not want it associated with fractals or agony in any way shape or form. I read adding consumables but armor needed to go all the way. Myself and many others do not do fractals. This should be something not associated in any way so every player can join in on this.

But the concept itself I do really really love! Plus would be a nice new daily that would be fun.

Yeah, some people have suggested that it should not be related to Fractals in any way!

LunarN even suggested this over on Reddit:

Let’s change it so the NPC doesn’t need to be rescued in the first place. Place the scenario in the crystal desert, the attacking forces are branded, the NPC is named Snaff… Maybe you get what I’m pointing at.
Snaff was a member of Destiny’s Edge, his death split up the group. It was pretty much an unwinnable fight in the first place. Glint attacking a much bigger foe in the air, Snaff using some Asura tricks getting right into Kralks mind, all while the rest of DE minus Logan hold of the hordes of minions.
Yeah, I think this could be a good match with your idea.

Gonna add this to the main post!
Edit: It’s not letting me edit the post. Maybe it’s already too long?