Guild Wars 2

Something really has to be done regarding this. With the latest patch, boss chest loot was drastically improved, guaranteeing at least one rare per chest. This has lead to much more active partaking in the meta-events, often including people from the other servers too. This is causing several issues:

1. Overflows when the events are approaching. I’m fairly sure that many “native” people are left-out from the event due to people guesting for the servers where events are occurring.

2. Intolerable lag. Skills are not cast, causing people to miss the chest since they didn’t do enough damage. The lag I’m referring to is server-lag specifically, my computer handles the events well enough with 20-40fps. It’s just overall terrible experience with all the players

3. Related to the second point, the massive amount of players trivialize the encounter even more so than before. The fight is over in a few minutes, for example the shatterer takes like two to three minutes which is very anti-climatic.

It has now gotten to a point where people check for timers, join in a minute before, spend two minutes in hoping to get a few skills through, qualifying for the chest and then log off with one or two rare items.

IMO this has to be looked at. One obvious solution would be to limit the chest reward only to your own servers if that is technically easy to implement. Any other solutions?

I second this!

I agree this should be looked into. I’d rather the loot and system go back to the way it was prior to the patch just to make the fights a bit more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice getting the rares but having none of my abilities work 90% of the time gets annoying. Then on the flip side, last night on Jormag, I was attacking the boss but my attacks only occurred every other second because of server side lag and no damage was showing so it was one of those things of throwing my hands up in the air just wondering if I would even get credit. Each world boss is a flash back to the Karka event, I feel like a war vet getting flash backs and it gives me nightmares.

Please look into fixing this and possibly engine optimizations so that your servers can cope with having so many people at an event.

Agreed. Why do people farm every boss everyday and some with every character is beyond me.

GW2 is designed to be a somewhat different MMO – you mostly only need to farm skins and not equipment stats. It is not 99.99% of the farming MMO out there.

I second Chest only available in home server!

Other solutions I am willing to accept: 1 chest per boss per account.

My latency+ping remains the same but for the pass 2 days, after around 8-9pm server time, I am lagging to the extend of being unplayable – when resmon.exe and ping both shows that my latency+ping remains the same prior to the sudden lag.

The guesting system is being exploited ANET needs to investigate this and they will find who and how.

Another solution would be to revert the chest loot tables.

Now instead of standing in town LFG (gw2lfg helps with that), I find myself standing in zones waiting for bosses to spawn (have to be there about 45min early or get thrown into the overflow on my home server).

Guesting is meant to visit friends or maybe check out a new home. As it is guesting is being abused.

It’s one boss chest per character, so I could see people with 5 toons going guesting to get them all quickly. But exploited, don’t know about that.
I don’t agree with the 1 per account suggestion though. Home server only would be a good compromise.
It’s just a pinata type activity anyway.
BTW, the lag is mainly an ANET problem from my perspective and they should be addressing it more.(I am sure they are btw). It was noticeably worse after the latest big update, and it improved a little after it was patched.
If lag is on your end, well that’s another issue altogether and guesting/large group big events may add to it.

One of the coolest new features of the game is the ability to just randomly visit servers and talk to new people.

If it ends up getting some goofy cooldown, or requires an invite, or anything that adds hassle just because people can’t handle some more people being in the zone to kill a dragon (98% of which are from their own server, more people are out doing these events because the rewards are better)…I’m going to be kitten

You can only guest on 2 servers a day for your whole account, the events are just more popular now with the increased loot drops.

3 mil+ people, 51 servers – even if there was zero guesting it would be an issue.

I still don’t get how farming bosses and guesting is an exploit – or even a problem. Here’s why. I’ve got two level 80 characters. I sometimes do the big events with them in hopes of getting some way cool loot.

• Before the recent loot change I’d sometimes do the dragons and the shadow behemoth events with both characters and often do these events several times a day. Sometimes, depending on the timers, I’d guest on a different server. I’ve been to Crystal Desert (have some CoH friends there), Ferguson’s Crossing, and Tarnished Coast (which is where my mesmer finished up map completion of Orr because on my home server, Ehmry Bay, getting to some of the skill challenges wasn’t looking good). I was also on TC while everyone was searching for Final Rest, because people there were actually running the Catacombs thing.

• After the loot change, I still do the dragons and the shadow behemoth events with them both, but now only once per day each (unless I get mixed up and forget who did what, which has happened). I think I’ve only guested once since the change, and that was to Ferguson’s Crossing when I was trying to get that crazy Crash Landing achievement and the event just happened to be running there at the time.

So, due to the recent loot changes, I’m actually hitting the events less often and not guesting near as much. Which, I would think, would be pretty much a common situation. And that’s why I don’t get why so many people are evidently doing so many boss events all the time on every server when you only get the big chests once per day per character.

What am I missing?

They need to just put all these events on completely random timers.

The players have made this a problem with the current working, because timers are easily accessable and so people feel that they can waltz into a zone just as one of these events are beginning… multiply that by 100 + players and sure, you will create overflow servers.. just as it’s intended to work.

Tachenon.5270:

What am I missing?

Due to the fact that these chest will drop a piece of rare minimum.

1. Many who do not camp for bosses before the update do now.

2. Most who do not hunt every boss everyday due to timing do now.

So, boss areas are now full of people all the time (during my playtime).

Jormag, the legendary lag fest of this generation.

Tachenon.5270:

I still don’t get how farming bosses and guesting is an exploit – or even a problem. Here’s why. I’ve got two level 80 characters. I sometimes do the big events with them in hopes of getting some way cool loot.

• Before the recent loot change I’d sometimes do the dragons and the shadow behemoth events with both characters and often do these events several times a day. Sometimes, depending on the timers, I’d guest on a different server. I’ve been to Crystal Desert (have some CoH friends there), Ferguson’s Crossing, and Tarnished Coast (which is where my mesmer finished up map completion of Orr because on my home server, Ehmry Bay, getting to some of the skill challenges wasn’t looking good). I was also on TC while everyone was searching for Final Rest, because people there were actually running the Catacombs thing.

• After the loot change, I still do the dragons and the shadow behemoth events with them both, but now only once per day each (unless I get mixed up and forget who did what, which has happened). I think I’ve only guested once since the change, and that was to Ferguson’s Crossing when I was trying to get that crazy Crash Landing achievement and the event just happened to be running there at the time.

So, due to the recent loot changes, I’m actually hitting the events less often and not guesting near as much. Which, I would think, would be pretty much a common situation. And that’s why I don’t get why so many people are evidently doing so many boss events all the time on every server when you only get the big chests once per day per character.

What am I missing?

This might be the case for you, but I don’t share the presumption that it’s the case for the majority.

Previously people did these events a few times for achievements/novelty and then moved on when they saw that they weren’t worth the time in terms of rewards. Now it’s one of the most profitable and fast ways to gain some coin and it attracts a lot of players that previously never bothered with it a second time (myself included). 30s-1g is almost guaranteed return for a few minutes of your time.

The guesting allows to maximize your rewards/playtime, since you can guest on servers that allow you to complete the event nearly right away with minimal time of waiting. For people with multiple lvl80 characters this might mean doing the same run multiple times a day, reaping those improved rewards.

make the world boss spawn on random timers.

anyway, people willing to endure crappy faceroll gameplay and lag tells a LOT about how the playerbase is simply there for the loot, and not the game, shame on the players, shame on the design.

If you’re anywhere near in the top 2 server tiers then it’s not a guesting issue for your server. It’s a “too crowded home server” problem. You’d have to be a couple straws short of a hay bale to guest to a high pop server for events……

I’ve seen this suggestion of making chests lootable only from your home server thrown out a few times now. This is really a stupid idea. Have friends in another server who want to do the events with you, or you want to go to theirs? Forget about it!

Assuming guesting is even the real issue here, far better solutions have been offered. Have locals get zone priority and throw guests into the overflows, making guesting invite only, revert chest loot to their previous state, make chests lootable once per account. These all work, imo, and don’t hurt one of the key features of this game (guesting).

^
make boss event start on randomized timers.

Reaver.9256:

If you’re anywhere near in the top 2 server tiers then it’s not a guesting issue for your server. It’s a “too crowded home server” problem. You’d have to be a couple straws short of a hay bale to guest to a high pop server for events……

I’m thinking it may be time to reintroduce server caps.

Any event or mob creature that takes a long time to kill should be more rewarding then the opposite. The lack of rewards, lack of crafting resources, nodes, and new items is what the game needs more of to make it fun. But still i think the game as a whole is too restricting with strictly directed scenario based gameplay, and needs more sandbox player controlled gameplay (such as open world consentual pvp/guild battles, player/guild housing).

The lag can be fixed by other means then taking away the fun (rewards) that draws the crowd. And the gem store can be profitable by simply adding tons of items rather then taking away the little amount of items already in the world.

The major problem in GW2 is lack of enough items to play for….so people concentrate on few places that give few variety of items.

I hope they do not revert back to the previous system. I despised the way the you earned funds before. It was farming shelter or running fracs. With this new system and laurels I can actually earn funds without having to feel forced to farm dungeons/group of monsters. Sure the lag is bad and sometimes there are overflows, but I’m willing to deal with those for a bit with the new drop rates.

Avatar.1923:

^
make boss event start on randomized timers.

I love this suggestion. Maybe not completely random, but def. not as predictable as they are now. This would prevent the “event x is going to start at server y, let’s all join and wait there”.

How about they fix the lag issues (server side) and then no problem.
If they fix the dungeons, (ie – less ability to speed run) and scale events (ie – Penn/Shelter as it is now) I think the meta events are going to be even more crowded.

Honestly I don’t see a problem, other than the lag.
People have pointed out that to get an alt into ascended gear is going to take a very long time with the laurel system. If someone has alts then I see no issue with them getting a chest. For the record I have 2 lvl 80’s and have yet to take them to a dragon event as I don’t like the lag either. (edit: since the patch)
But it can’t be exploited since it is only 1 chest per character. Before the patch many people were guesting to servers to grab multi-chests per character but now that’s impossible.
Basically we are seeing that the actual servers can’t handle the populations if they are involved in the same event. I wonder if the massive guilds are seeing lag during events involving more than 40 members in the same place.

Maybe they could improve chest drops for all the world events that have a splendid or better chest. That could possibly move people from one specific timed event out into the world to complete the event chains that reward well.

People always follow the path of least resistance for the reward. It just seems sad that dragons and the like are the only path at the moment, other than CoF <— and I’m willing to bet that dungeon is on the list of big changes for scaling.

Where do people get this idea there’s a guaranteed rare?? Before the update I’d get a rare maybe 1 in 3 attempts, since the update I’ve done 8 dragons for 1 rare and a bunch of blue and green items……………

i agree 100% with the original poster. well said, and it pointed out all of the concerns i’ve had since this new loot system has been implemented.

getting put into overflow on your own server when going to a boss fight that spawns only every few hours is very frustrating- particularly for those who can’t be on for more than a few hours a day in the first place.

all of the other concerns aside, the one that can’t- and shouldn’t be overlooked is that of how it affects the game. i used to do the shadow behemoth every time i caught it, simply because it was an AWESOMELY cool boss and a FUN fight. it lasted a few minutes, and i would litterally giggle and crow with excitement, talking on vent with friends during the battle. it was FUN.

now, it’s not. last night, he was downed so fast he didn’t even get to his first air phase!

i have absolutely no reason to complain about lack of loot- i’ve gotten the rare staff twice now. however, i personally would trade both of them for being able to loot the chest every time i drop the boss. i feel bad for those who miss out completely on a chest. i miss the fun of getting a big chest with just blues and greens in it, and having to remind myself and my friends that at least it was more loot than we had five minutes ago!
i get frustrated with guesters. the lag makes baby jesus want to punch baby quaggans. it doesn’t HAVE to be this way. an unnecessary change that simply took away a major fun-factor from the game.

my suggestion for a fix would be simple: let the chest drop for every fight. limit each toon to one rare per day- if you get it, you don’t get another rare, but you can keep looting all the blues, greens, and shinies you please.

restrict guesters from rare drops on other servers. this WOULD be a sad thing for those legitimately guesting, but if they can get all the chests they like, and they’re actually guesting to be with friends, it could hardly be considered a tragedy.

just suggestions.

whatever happens, please fix it. i miss the fun of the Shadow Behemoth fight – the way it USED to be!

one further thing i’d like to mention:

the stated reason for the one-chest-per-day-per-toon system is that it’s to get people out, fighting other world bosses, rather than just camping the ones they’re comfortable with.

sooo… what’s wrong with being COMFORTABLE with something? one of my favorite things about gw2 is that it’s so very player-driven as far as content. i can play the game the way i like to, and have fun doing it- still getting the rewards others would get for doing the game THEIR way.
as i explore more of the world, and have access and familiarity with more of the zones with other world bosses, CERTAINLY i’ll get out there and start fighting them, as well! as it was, each boss had its own cadre of followers- people who enjoyed that fight, and had FUN downing that boss.

to say that all of a sudden, people could STILL loot multiple chests each day, just from each boss- that’s just plain false. i, and i know many others, don’t HAVE jormag opened up, yet. heck, til yesterday, i didn’t even KNOW there was a shatterer! at some point, as i quest through Tyria, i’d find these things out- but until now, i hadn’t felt PRESSURED to hurry up and DO it. and- you know what? i LIKED feeling like i could take my time exploring the world. poking my nose into every nook and cranny, and knowing that the bosses were out there, and yes.. they certainly couldn’t hide from ME! >:D

now… now i feel like if i want those chests every day- more than just the two i have currently got access to- then by GOLLY i had better GET TO IT and start rushing through zones i haven’t reached yet! Storyline and lore – and hidden bits of epicness- be hung!
~sigh~
was it really such a bad thing to have a chest drop at the end of each fight- for EVERYONE?

It’s awful – massive lag, getting stuck in overflow – bosses dropped before you can get near. Awful.

Maylojager.1307:

Another solution would be to revert the chest loot tables.

brilliant. truly!

still want that exotic to drop from that fight? well… what if, and this is just a thought- but what if, for those few random people who WOULD be looting that rare/exotic item- what if THEY ALONE saw a SPECIAL chest drop- something pretty and shiny and big, right next to the regular chest? ADD a chest for the exotics, rather than CHANGING the regular chest?
~claps hands~

Oh stop pretending like the boss fights were any fun, you can still spam keys and collect your loots. Lag or guests arent stopping you from that. Whats the real problem?

^

lol
kind of true.

dont you think that having them on randomized timer would create more “oh kitten, hes here now!” type of sudden gameplay/grouping and make things a bit spicier ?

they just feel bad right now, major reason they are getting fought, its for the chest.

so; make the rewards very good,
but make them spawn more randomly.

Quite honestly, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, there’s no point in doing these events now.

Massive lag, no fun, and still just greens and blues. I didn’t mind greens and blues when I could enjoy the boss fights, but with the lag fests its just not worth it

Simple solution is to not allow guesting on any server of High pop or above.

bigtime.7410:

Oh stop pretending like the boss fights were any fun, you can still spam keys and collect your loots. Lag or guests arent stopping you from that. Whats the real problem?

I liked boss fights. I mean, I preferred them when I could see, & when the lag didn’t inspire a migraine – and when I could get there before the boss died. If you’re lucky enough to be on a class with burst damage, you might get in a hit… I also liked it when I wasn’t stuck in an overflow because guests are on my server’s boss.

Lag is unacceptable, and guesting has become stunningly selfish.

I can’t believe what I see here, lol… Why do you want to make this even worse? Do you want maps full of campers waiting for random-timed dragons? Now it’s about few minutes and back to normal. Anet should improve servers for this situations, we, players are doing what we want to do, because we paid for this game! This is not a fault of players but devs who didn’t predict this.

Just a few points:
1 – I do feel sorry for those people’s home server’s being over-run by guesters and causing them issues.

2 – ANet spent a lot of time on this feature so it’s quite unlikely that they’ll just nip it at the bud because of this.

3 – You’ll probably see things changed on the loot side. Mostly account bound DR will be cranked up.

The problem with point 3 is, this will turtle players into not doing events at all if it becomes worthless, then you’ll have a sharp decline of players that want to do the events at all. People will jump back onto fractals or dungeons depending on if the loot in those areas are good and you’ll have the same empty zone areas we had a few months back.

Just thinking aloud here, so it might be a terrible idea…but hows this: revert the dragon chests to how they were. But implement an account based ‘daily chest’ for each major world boss. Like in fractals. These daily chests would give you, like, 2 guarenteed rares or above.

Since you’d only get it once per account per day, people who are just in it for the rewards wouldn’t feel obliged to rush around to every event on every single lvl 80 toon they have, so the events would have fewer people, so there’d be less lag, a longer duration, and so on. But the people who previously did like farming dragons could continue to do so, with the same chances they had before.

I think the issue is two fold:
1) They’re basically giving out FREE rares. 1 free rare basically for like 5+ events, so lots of people are now going to get their free rares.
2) The guesting issue is mostly on already populated servers. If a server is full, then guesting only adds to the issue. However, guesting to lower population servers causes no issues. In fact, I guested to Anvil Rock from TC because for once I could actually use my skills.

The frustration I can see is this: If you’ve spent your entire time on one server, the last thing you want is to get thrown into an overflow, or not be able to play the material on your OWN server because people are guesting to it from other servers. I think guesting is a great way to play PvE content with your friends, but you must remember, many of the people guesting to kill the dragons are probably there because the timers are up..not to see a friend.

Since I think the biggest issue with guesting for the dragons is that it’s making servers which are already really full, even fuller. SO many there are a couple easy ways to fix this, which don’t get rid of guesting, like:
1. If there is an overflow, the home server players get priority over guesting people. This should allow people who are friends to keep playing together, since you can join an overflow, and they’ll still be allowed to guest. It will also stop a lot of the griping, and then if they get thrown in an overflow, it’s 100% because of their server filling it, not guesting, so people can stop complaining. I don’t see any downside to this, but I am quite tired
2. Make the availability of guesting dependent on the population of the server. I’m not sure if this is already done, but I know there is a lot of guesting on TC, when you normally can’t get in the server when you make an account.

But the anti-guesting derogatory talk is kinda saddening. Guesting is a great idea in concept, but when they’re giving away free rares, of course it’ll overload the areas and cause lots of problems. I’m just not sure the people at anet really thought it through 100% of the way…

Olvendred.3027:

Just thinking aloud here, so it might be a terrible idea…but hows this: revert the dragon chests to how they were. But implement an account based ‘daily chest’ for each major world boss. Like in fractals. These daily chests would give you, like, 2 guarenteed rares or above.

+1gazillion

I really don’t know why they didn’t do this. It seems the most beneficial for everyone. Give rare on first, and lame loot afterwards, that way people would Still. Do. Events. after completing one.

The crazy thing is, like you mentioned. It’s already a system in place now. Also, kills of big world event participation/daily completion are being tracked, so this isn’t all new tech, or tech limitations to resolve the issue.

Niila Nuppunen.9875:

IMO this has to be looked at. One obvious solution would be to limit the chest reward only to your own servers if that is technically easy to implement. Any other solutions?

It would be wonderful idea… Then maybe we could enjoy the event again… W/o the nightmare like the Karka event…

I love the peoples when they pretend they are just “guesting” and they don’t care the loots, and in fact they are guesting for the loot too…

stobie.2134:

bigtime.7410:

Oh stop pretending like the boss fights were any fun, you can still spam keys and collect your loots. Lag or guests arent stopping you from that. Whats the real problem?

I liked boss fights. I mean, I preferred them when I could see, & when the lag didn’t inspire a migraine – and when I could get there before the boss died. If you’re lucky enough to be on a class with burst damage, you might get in a hit… I also liked it when I wasn’t stuck in an overflow because guests are on my server’s boss.

Lag is unacceptable, and guesting has become stunningly selfish.

How do you know they’re guests? Could all just be people on your server being concentrated to one area. How do you know?

Make guesting only possible on servers where you have a friend that is currently online. That would cut down on event guests.

bigtime.7410:

stobie.2134:

bigtime.7410:

Oh stop pretending like the boss fights were any fun, you can still spam keys and collect your loots. Lag or guests arent stopping you from that. Whats the real problem?

I liked boss fights. I mean, I preferred them when I could see, & when the lag didn’t inspire a migraine – and when I could get there before the boss died. If you’re lucky enough to be on a class with burst damage, you might get in a hit… I also liked it when I wasn’t stuck in an overflow because guests are on my server’s boss.

Lag is unacceptable, and guesting has become stunningly selfish.

How do you know they’re guests? Could all just be people on your server being concentrated to one area. How do you know?

I’m fairly sure of it when I see massive amount of familiar tags of large guilds I have fought against in wpvp. And why wouldn’t they? Why wait 2h on your own server when the other server is already on the spawn window and guesting enables you to complete it near instantly. Don’t hate the player, hate the game I guess.

Niila Nuppunen.9875:

bigtime.7410:

stobie.2134:

bigtime.7410:

Oh stop pretending like the boss fights were any fun, you can still spam keys and collect your loots. Lag or guests arent stopping you from that. Whats the real problem?

I liked boss fights. I mean, I preferred them when I could see, & when the lag didn’t inspire a migraine – and when I could get there before the boss died. If you’re lucky enough to be on a class with burst damage, you might get in a hit… I also liked it when I wasn’t stuck in an overflow because guests are on my server’s boss.

Lag is unacceptable, and guesting has become stunningly selfish.

How do you know they’re guests? Could all just be people on your server being concentrated to one area. How do you know?

I’m fairly sure of it when I see massive amount of familiar tags of large guilds I have fought against in wpvp. And why wouldn’t they? Why wait 2h on your own server when the other server is already on the spawn window and guesting enables you to complete it near instantly. Don’t hate the player, hate the game I guess.

You people make me sick.

put the world event respaw on random timers.
+/- 30 mins.

voila, no more campers, no more people who check timers.

im that smart.

I don’t see the problem here except the ridiculous amount of QQing over new game impovements.

Guesting is working great. I have many friends on different servers. It’s not possible to exploit something when you only get 1 chest per day…

Some servers are relatively more empty so they guest. If you get into overflow so what?

Some people will always find something to cry about but to respond to the OP’s points:

1. Overflows? SO WHAT? The only difference about an overflow is less people (which is directly opposed to your second point)… That said, I’ve never once seen an instance for any of these meta events and I guest to other servers for them too.

2. Lag is from your PC settings the majority of the time. Turn them down or guest to another server.

3. Again, guest to another server or try to get into an overflow. The ‘problem’ is actually the solution.

Zephyrus.9680:

I don’t see the problem here except the ridiculous amount of QQing over new game impovements.

Guesting is working great. I have many friends on different servers. It’s not possible to exploit something when you only get 1 chest per day…

Some servers are relatively more empty so they guest. If you get into overflow so what?

Some people will always find something to cry about but to respond to the OP’s points:

1. Overflows? SO WHAT? The only difference about an overflow is less people (which is directly opposed to your second point)… That said, I’ve never once seen an instance for any of these meta events and I guest to other servers for them too.

2. Lag is from your PC settings the majority of the time. Turn them down or guest to another server.

3. Again, guest to another server or try to get into an overflow. The ‘problem’ is actually the solution.

You fail to see the problem in a gameplay experience where you can’t move and have control over what of your skills are being cast and if you are even able to do damage to the boss? Ignorance ftw.

1. The only difference with the overflow is that the meta-event does not happen in there, thus you are missing the rewards.

2. Meta-event lag is not caused by my pc. My 2500k and 670 runs it at ~40fps which is not perfect but playable for such a short period of time. What is happening is that I can’t move, skills are not cast and ultimately dc’s have occurred. I have 100m/100m Internet so it’s definitely not me. Shatterer is being called laggerer nowadays.

3. Guest to another server? Your solution is actually the problem.

People need to remember that it is one chest per character per day. People with eleventybillion 80s can easily cycle through their roster and pretty much camp every event every time. I have three eighties and can pretty much do the same thing, if I wanted to.

On TC we already had pretty bad lag on dragon events. Now it is unbearable with guesting. I don’t have a problem with guests, I have a problem with people being able to overload servers that were already overfull to begin with.

Keep Guesting but change it twofold- No guesting on High pop or above servers unless they have someone on their friends list on that server.

Niila Nuppunen.9875:

One obvious solution would be to limit the chest reward only to your own servers if that is technically easy to implement.

^This. ANet…just do this.

Alternatively:
1) Scale the dragons up to the amount of players there by HP and Damage. – 100 players = guaranteed wipes for not dodging or 75% minimums
2) Randomly have the dragon spray its spawn area with a high-level AoE (up to 10m before event starts) that forces players to leave or die and WP out
3) Increase level of spawned minions to Veteran or Champion class if X players are in the event. (Normal → Veteran, Veteran → Champion class). Turn off the loot drops for spawns.