Guild Wars 2

The insults given for peoples opinions on both sides are sad. I don’t care what others do let them play how they want to. There is a real problem that will hurt the game more than help it and it was even around at launch. Regardless of what happens at some point this game will see the same thing that happened last oct-nov and many people will leave. Some questions to think about.
How many people have already left?
How many people will leave after getting everything for character/s?
How many are just waiting for another mmo to come out?
I started with about 10 friends and another 50 or so from a guild I stopped for 8 months or so because of work/life but its been over a year that the other 59 people have even played.

ArchonWing.9480:

They just need to make more long chain events and trains in other zones.

Truth is, after the repeated Cursed Shore Nerfs before the train started, there was probably zero reason to play open world beyond leveling because there was nothing to be gained from it— oh good a rare after 15 minute world boss! And the only reason people are like that is because crap was nerfed elsewhere— so it’s pretty laughable to think that making the problem worse will solve the problem.

Bring back Cursed Shore or something… boost the loot greatly and revert it back to the old difficulty.

They nerfed Pen/Shelt in Orr repeatedly, first the timers and then by getting the scaling borked on champs for a long time. A lot of farmers had no problems doing the Caer Shadowfain / Pen / Shelt / etc and then hitting Plinx, but for some reason this was completely derailed. IMO, they should set them back to how they originally were. They insisted getting rid of this would make people scatter over the map, but it hasn’t. Taking a farm away doesn’t scatter folks through the game.

There IS a good event chain in Harathi, it’s good loot and XP and Ulgoth is at the end of it. It is arguably the best leveling chain from level 40 to level 80, if you can do it that long. It resets pretty quickly, but the downtime between the end and the start is long enough for some people to lose patience (ten, fifteen minutes). But if you get the time down right, you can pop out for whatever and then back as it restarts.

Pen/shelt and the surrounding bases was the best way to get from 70 to 80, as a couple hours pingponging between them would level you up very fast. But, nerfed.

Exxcalibur.6203:

I had to laugh.

You clearly have no idea what these terms mean.

I am afraid I didn’t make Paternalism up – is what it is.

And a ‘liberal’ ideology? O lordy…

Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty and equality. The tolerance and acceptance of diversity you advocate is ‘liberal’.

Perhaps you are on a journey of discovery to finding you actually vote ‘left’. If so, Congratulations.

:)

Being condescending like this only hinders your argument. Why should people listen to you when you just insult them or others?

My hope is that they keep this farm untouched. One big thing that keeps people interested in something is diversity. How many people left after they nerfed plinx? How many more left when they nerfed pent/shelt? I am hoping Anet learned from their mistakes and don’t do anything to this champ farm or others because after awhile of doing the same thing over and over again people tend to loose interest. If you get tired of leveling another character by pretty much soloing map after map this champ farm and others is a way to be with a group of people to level with and talk to rather than play by your lonesome, because even in a guild not always will there be anyone wanting to level up with you. It is possible that this is one reason why living story occurs every 2 weeks, to bring more into the game. To bring more diversity. To bring people together. The nightmare tower helped do that, the queens birthday festivities helped do that. We don’t need the champ farming in Queensdale to be wiped away. It’s another way to help level characters, to help get away from soloing a map waiting till you’re high enough to go level in a dungeon, if a group will have you as a lowbie. Sadly dungeons have become more of a 70+ only kinda thing. I rarely ever see anyone below that allowed into a group unless it’s your guild and even then it’s usually they ask if they can bring in their lowbie for the last boss rather than from start to finish but it is another way to level a character. Of course it is always fun for a group of level 35s to raid AC or kitten hit up CM, etc but it’s rare these days unlike the first few months of GW2s arrival.

People farm this champ train for something different than what they are doing. People stop farming this champ train to move on to something different than what they are doing. The big thing here is that they have the option to do it or not and should not have it taken away from them simply because it is something else they can do. Just as the next living story that comes up is something different they can do and the next one and the one after that. This helps keep people interested and I hope the devs don’t oblige you of your request so that we can keep the diversity that keeps people interested in the game. Of course it won’t surprise me when it does finally end. They could always beef it up a bit by allowing these champs to spawn mobs of their own to help it out like the Queen Bee does or Kholer in AC. If they do hopefully they won’t over do it like they did in pent/shelt. Either way I believe it is something that should be kept around.

Nerfing the area that actually draws players together in a way that allows them to have fun and casually enjoy the game because you don’t agree with it, is a great idea!

/sarcasm eye roll

How about we try something that actually makes the rest of the game equally enticing/rewarding, less grindy and creates a daily spontaneous sense of community that isn’t forced upon us (Tower of Nightmares anyone?). I run the champ train because it is fun, casual and I can actually play the game with other players in the open world. The only other time I see that many people together is when I’m WP’ing through world boss areas searching for a group that is actually interested in fighting one during the daily reset.

When the game turns players into hamsters on a wheel that is when I tend to leave.

Queensdale embodies this type of mindless and unrewarding (unrewarding from a deeper sense) play. It also illustrates the lack of depth in the risk vs reward elements of the game.

Players are like electrons; they will always choose the path of least resistance to their goals/objectives.

When the path devolves into executing a mindless racetrack pattern with a zerg of other players to take down an unchallenging mob in order to achieve some semblence of reward; the game is broken.

You are not creating an element which encourages lower level zones to be full for new players; you are creating a zone where the most challenging mobs at a level become nothing more than footnotes; deny you a sense of accomplishment and place gamers of different levels in opposition to one another.

“play our way or be harrassed for breaking our hamster wheel”

They need to consider a mentoring system that permits players to apprentice to a higher level player (perhaps raising his hp to 1 level below the mentor but leaving him with the same skills that he has currently unlocked.

This would permit him to play with higher level fellows and still gain xp at the appropriate levelling curves. Rather than flood players into lower level zones who are not there to quest with them anyway.

Also consider changing the upper level zones to prepost Zhaitan’s defeat and let players select which zone to enter. Permit players to help one another complete their story or engage on a new set of level appropriate quests to reclaim the new “Orr.”

You people keep repeating “insults here, insults there” … I have done quite a lot champ farming and i barely see any insults. Well, i haven’t done much queensdale one, but still, i think you are all exaggerating with it. Besides, if anyone is alergic to some bad language then they chose wrong genre. Not genre, they shouldn’t be even playing mulitplayer games at all. Every multiplayer game with chat will have some idiots talking crap. So i think every new player who has played multiplayer game before should know to expect some idiots here and there.
So, if you still want to kill train for that reason, then i’m not sure what impression would empty starting area leave on new players.

mtpelion.4562:

I personally think that killing low level champions should reward low level loot (this would help with the Silver Doubloon problem, if done correctly). I am not opposed to trains, but I think they should be level appropriate. If you want level 80 loot, hit Frostgorge Sound or Orr.

I don’t agree with this at all. The whole point of having the loot be decent is to encourage higher level people to spread out and go into lower level zones instead of just hanging out in the high level zones. Makes the world feel a bit more alive.

I say leave the trains alone. If that’s how people want to play, let them play.

I think the arguing is not helping forge community strength here. Look, reverting back to the past is never a good way to fix something created to expand the game world. Lets not emphasize the past. The developers recognized champions should give better loot than a blue or nothing drop, so who are we to disagree with them? Please, lets be constructive with all of these comments. I believe increasing the number of champions in zones will allow for more chances to farm champions for good loot and allow people to chain farm in different areas that can bring additional enjoyment. I don’t think its the responsibility of chain farming to exist in noob areas to provide PR for new players, but hey, I can live with people telling me I am wrong there for XYZ reason. Personally, I think they should be combining some of the servers to increase player population so zones don’t feel so empty, but again I believe constructive ideas are how we should proceed with this topic. For instance, what are the cons, honestly, of adding champions to other maps?

Exxcalibur.6203:

Players will also gravitate towards these kinds of simple mindless loot opportunities when they are in the game.

Unfortunately, this leaves many other engaging group events in the world untouched and other zones desolate.

While I applaud the players resilience for staying with such a dull manifestation of the game, I feel Anet should take an approach akin to paternalism* and remove the Queens zerg, in order to force change and diversity.

This may upset some players, who feel they should be able to play how they want to play, but sometimes the world demands an authority or organization to guide us gently towards perfection.

Who is with me?

NB:

**"Paternalism" comes from the Latin pater, meaning to act like a father, or to treat another person like a child, limiting some person or group’s liberty or autonomy for their own good.

Some ppl just seem bent on destroying this game.

Funny i should come across this, yesterday there was 2 characters with that special anet icon on their names running the said Queens Champ train.

So thanks for destroying yet another way to make gold in this game by complaining about it. You all realize that for any new comers that arrive they will not see the likelihood of a legendary unless they farm non stop dung runs… TP is saturated and controlled, WvW slower than Dung to make $$, whats left?

every week theres someone complaining about something in the game, can we pull threads like this out of the discussion area and just put a new area called “my kitten for the day”

Freedan.1769:

I think the arguing is not helping forge community strength here. I believe constructive ideas are how we should proceed with this topic.

I agree with this. The problem is (in my opinion) that how the game was originally designed and from beta to now all the changes that have gone against that it has just become a mess. Parts of the game have become generic grind/farms while others have had no change. The problem with just adding more champs to other zones is that they are already there and the reason they are not farmed is because of the time it takes them to re-spawn or events that have to be done to get them to appear. Personally I don’t think anything will really change and that just means the game will become stagnate. After enough time people will become bored and move on to other games. The original design of this game is why I got interested in it but each change and addition has made it more bland and generic.

I am afraid now they will nerf this because of people complaining. I don’t do the trains all day long. I jump on do a few runs and go back and level my alt or go do world bosses. Sometimes I jump into WvW. The champ trains and world bosses are good for getting ascended mats. I don’t do dungeons so if they nerf these events that kind of screws my ability to get the mats as getting them through WvW would not be good enough. And it’s not like I can buy the mats off the AH because they made them account bound. >_<

xarallei.4279:

I am afraid now they will nerf this because of people complaining.

I’m not worried.

It’s brought up in a cycle every so often since the Queensdale Train got popular to be noticed. (It was done before champion loot for the karma and event credit, to be noted.)

I also don’t really do it all that much, I like to do my play elsewhere. When I do indulge, it’s until the Behemoth spawns, then I jump to the World Boss Tyrian Tour A lot more fun.

They don’t need to nerf it, they just need to change the spawn rates. They’re like clockwork now. Make them random. Sometimes it’ll respawn after 5 minutes, sometimes it’ll take 15 (or something like that).

Exxcalibur.6203:

Players will also gravitate towards these kinds of simple mindless loot opportunities when they are in the game.

Unfortunately, this leaves many other engaging group events in the world untouched and other zones desolate.

While I applaud the players resilience for staying with such a dull manifestation of the game, I feel Anet should take an approach akin to paternalism* and remove the Queens zerg, in order to force change and diversity.

This may upset some players, who feel they should be able to play how they want to play, but sometimes the world demands an authority or organization to guide us gently towards perfection.

Who is with me?

NB:

**"Paternalism" comes from the Latin pater, meaning to act like a father, or to treat another person like a child, limiting some person or group’s liberty or autonomy for their own good.

Lighten up pal and get a grip. If people are having fun then leave them be. If you want people to play in other areas of the game then provide some incentive so they will play in mid zones by their OWN CHOICE with certain special drops in each area because killing a level 1-10 train won’t fix the problem as people will just move somewhere else and do the same thing over again.

There is already some incentive to go to mid zones because the materials there are worth quite like trees/ores a bit but it’s not enough to catch many peoples attention and T1-4 mats are so cheap due to the sheer amount it takes to upgrade the materials to a higher tier in the forge there isn’t much incentive for white-rare bags except to level your characters from the event xp + karma.

Also with living story content always aimed in low areas, high places will never flourish again due to it constantly going on every two weeks.

People like queensdale to level characters because most of the champions are events, it’s a low area, they get good drops and can talk to a lot of people if they wish. That must stay or people will be unhappy. As I was saying before, if you want diversity there needs to be incentive to get people to spread out by their own choice in the level 20-70 zones and living story content doesn’t help that any as it isolates people in the same area till they move to the next living story. A good reason Orr died.

Also please stop trying to enforce what people do on video games as it comes off wrong, the USA already has enough of that bullkitten going on with worthless politicians who think they know what’s best for people who are already happy and doing their own flick, let people have fun and as new things come out, people will change their habits by their own choice rather than your own.

Incentive must be there, without it, nothing changes or you just make people unhappy. A good picture of what happens in the real world.

I’ve leveled four Chars to 80 meanwhile and I’ve seen nearly every part of the game.

I used to be con Champ-Farms as they generate too much gold for little investment. This weekend I ended up following the champ zerg on my lowbie to level a bit though, so I guess I’m pro Champ-Zergs meanwhile.

I did level faster in WvW (EB) though …

What I always found more annoying than the Champ-Zerg are those who delibrately (try to) ruin the train. Ashame that people feel the need to do that.

IMO doing the same champ(s) over and over again should lead to a decrease of drops over time. At the same time drops of normal mobs shouldn’t have DR.

thefantasticg.3984:

People who call for things like champ trains to be nerfed need to be banned, at least for two weeks, because obviously they have a mental condition (parentalism) that needs to be cured.

Good try son, but champ farming has been already nerfed a few times, and will (hopefully) be nerfed more in the future.

With the possibility of more mats to grind due to vertical progression gear it is probably a bad idea to call for nerfing of any farming activity no matter where on the map it is or how it is done and whether you like the said farming activity or not.
As long as the champ train is considerate and non abusive to other players then it should continue.

I would say that champ trains are WAY BETTER than market flipping.

And i also bet that most people upset with champ trains are market flippers themselves……

And if its the case i feel its the most pointless complaints, after the one about people undercutting flippers -.- and i feel ashamed to read such threads….

IF ANYTHING: NERF to the ground market flip….only then we can think to balance other farming activities.

P.S: anyone has the rights to kill champs….if you get insulted for it there is the report button.

Ronah.2869:

Why “kill” the only fun and relaxing activity in this game? You think everyone wants hard mode content with brainstorming on strategies and attack plans? No sorry.

In order to not make end game loot acquisition trivial with easy dungeons they have to distribute token collection so that it takes excessive repetition of a dungeon to get the item you want. Increasing difficulty would mean you could lower the amount of needed repetitions to acquire an item without devaluing it. Less mindless repetition of the same areas equals less boring. There is nothing fun about running around the ugliest zone in the game and tagging champions a few times to receive dirt loot. If i want a brain dead relaxing experience I watch tv.

After years of playing MMOs, this topic is probably the silliest
thing I’ve seen yet. Allow me to elaborate:

1) Who cares what people do to waste their time

2) Is this a economy problem? What about the countless people who use
outside bots to work the auction house and make hundreds (if not thousands)
more gold than champ farming.

3) Way to many people have blinders on who are responding to this post. Claims
of “people leaving because of champ farming” is ridiculous. There are many other
ways that players enjoy playing the game. If none of them are for you, than stop
playing. Problem solved.

Thunderbrew.7034:

After years of playing MMOs, this topic is probably the silliest
thing I’ve seen yet. Allow me to elaborate:

1) Who cares what people do to waste their time

2) Is this a economy problem? What about the countless people who use
outside bots to work the auction house and make hundreds (if not thousands)
more gold than champ farming.

3) Way to many people have blinders on who are responding to this post. Claims
of “people leaving because of champ farming” is ridiculous. There are many other
ways that players enjoy playing the game. If none of them are for you, than stop
playing. Problem solved.

Hit the nail on the head there.

Outside of the occasional rude bore that thinks he’s been nominated to be the Dictator of Queensdale, I have no problem with it. However, the zerg needs to recognize that not everyone wants to be a part of it, and if tsomeone wants to kill champs on thier own shedule, they have the right to.

I’ve never understood the crying sound the zerg makes when someone kills out of order as the pace of the zerg is so fast, that any lose is neglible.

DarcShriek.5829:

Outside of the occasional rude bore that thinks he’s been nominated to be the Dictator of Queensdale, I have no problem with it. However, the zerg needs to recognize that not everyone wants to be a part of it, and if tsomeone wants to kill champs on thier own shedule, they have the right to.

I’ve never understood the crying sound the zerg makes when someone kills out of order as the pace of the zerg is so fast, that any lose is neglible.

+1 Love the ‘Dictator of Queensdale’ comment—op should add it to his tag line—lol
or maybe anet can add it to the achievement title menu.

It took about two posts before this entire thread went away from the original issue at hand, but that’s what happens when you get cute with your analogies. The question is whether it’s appropriate to have Champ trains in any level 1-15 area and if removing them might encourage players to do champ trains (or the like) in the other area of the world.

I can’t think of too many games where high level players are encouraged to come back and dwell in the learn to play area of a game. That said, there are probably some people still hanging out in Pre-Searing Ascalon who don’t even know GW2 was released last year. There was a reason you couldn’t go back. Last week I logged on with 15 minutes to go before reset and needed 4 Krytan Events to finish my daily. I went to Queensdale, where I know I can knock out any of the sub-level 5 events in less than 60 seconds each, with any of my full exotic lvl 80’s. Pressing ahead full speed, I did just that. It was only during the third one that someone finally whispered me and asked “if the rest of us could have a chance”. There had been 3 genuine on-level players behind me the entire time, but none of them could even land a blow before I wiped the mob, and they hadn’t gotten credit for any of the events. I was mortally embarrassed and will be more careful in the future, but it raises the question again as to whether it’s appropriate for elite players to rampage through the learn to play areas of the game.

I have been negative in the past towards champ trains because I have new friends in game and they are very baffled by the train.

On the other hand though- look at this pic- these guys are having a lot of fun and they are not harming anyone.

I did have a good laugh when the “self appointed dictator of Queensdale” told map to leave Shadow Behemoth because the train is at boar……

Players will also gravitate towards these kinds of simple mindless loot opportunities when they are in the game.

So what’s wrong with that?

Unfortunately, this leaves many other engaging group events in the world untouched and other zones desolate.

No, that’s because there’s nothing to do in most zones. Cursed Shore is dead mostly because Anet made pent/shelt undoable and nerfed Plinx.

While I applaud the players resilience for staying with such a dull manifestation of the game, I feel Anet should take an approach akin to paternalism* and remove the Queens zerg, in order to force change and diversity.

And what “change and diversity” would that be? Maybe to try out another MMO that dos’nt punish it’s playerbase for making in game gold?

This may upset some players, who feel they should be able to play how they want to play, but sometimes the world demands an authority or organization to guide us gently towards perfection.

We should be able to play the game as we wish as long as it’s within the game mechanics, that’s the whole idea of a MMO! And what’s “perfection”? Hanging around in Lion’s Arch styling in one’s town clothes?

Who is with me?

LOL!

**"Paternalism" comes from the Latin pater, meaning to act like a father, or to treat another person like a child, limiting some person or group’s liberty or autonomy for their own good.

Any MMO that limits what players can do “for their own good” aint going to have many players for long.

Oh please, let me pull out a thesaurus and give my point of view. Firstly, who made who and who are you? Live and let live, thrive and let thrive. Off to the Land of Orr if you want a real challenge. Leveling is a grind, point to point, it is a grind. Anyone recall the heralds who announced GW2 would not be endless grinding? Please, it is, the daily, the monthly, the very leveling process begs for grinding into the very pixelated dust we tread our little booties upon.

So many soothsayers wish to guide and gently push the game, off of the very reasons it is popular in the first place. I rally against this view and I ask others to join me and wrestle this game away from those who wish to control it and not just let it grow as the overall general populace grows with it.

Exxcalibur.6203:

Perhaps you are on a journey of discovery to finding you actually vote ‘left’. If so, Congratulations.
:)

Ew.

I’ll think about your “liberty” when I’m paying for “affordable” health insurance I didn’t want or need…or you know, I guess just pay the financial penalty if I “choose” not to. Nothing like making less money at the end of the year…

coglin.1867:

This is not the only zone with a champ train. Honestly, what do you care if players want to do champ trains? If you find it dull, just don’t do it.

If you find it dull kill a champ out of order is more like it. =)

watch people COMPLAIN about having to wait a few minutes for the easy mode train to get back on track.

Champion farming is a great way (IMO) for casuals, levelers, and farmers to have a chance at a rewarding experience from the game they play. This is an obviously popular activity and I think it would be a lot more constructive to improve on this rather than kill it.

With this in mind, I wouldn’t dislike seeing a farm rotation to different places. Let’s say that every week, a different area would be more profitable to farm for champions and events. That would give everyone an incentive to explore the world instead of being stuck in particular places. This would make players happy travelers instead of frustrated customers due to NERFING THINGS TO DEATH.

I had no idea what zerg meant until I just tried it the other day, then it made sense. Actually a very friendly player grouped with me so I could follow the train. It was fun, got a few levels.

I ran this train for the first time the other day. It was fun. Guess what made me decide to try it?

OK I won’t keep you in suspense.

I noticed while leveling an alt in Queensdale how collaborative everyone in map chat was being to those who wanted to participate in the train. Every five minutes (maybe even every two minutes) a newcomer to the map would ask about the location of the train, and someone would answer, to which the response would immediately be “thanks!” The helpfulness of train participants made me interested enough to try it.

I also saw lots of community fun as train participants waited for the boar champ to spawn – folks jumping around, dancing, having a few costume brawls, etc.

It is unfortunate if a rude individual yells at someone for killing a champ out of order, but I haven’t seen that, and any logical individual would know that you just jump to the next one and wait a minute longer. I don’t think that type of behavior is indicative of either the train or the community.

Rather, I think the train shows how creative our community can be. It highlights the (positive) difference between playing an MMO vs. a single player game. I doubt that train participants are, at any given time, high enough to truly detract from other activities in the world. But the train does give another option to players in the game. It also showed, to me at least, how welcoming and helpful the GW2 players still can be.

My vote would be that ArenaNet should not kill the train, but, as Amon suggested, try to improve on the idea, if they do anything about it at all.

Well, it looks like we have an official ArenaNet position on champ trains.

Given the fact that the latest Living World chapter, The Nightmare Is Over, IS a champ train, I think it’s fair to conclude they don’t have a problem with them.

Champ train haters, your nightmare is only beginning.

The only thing about the queensdale champ train that needs killing is this thread.

Most of the anti-train people come across as petty fun-spoilers,
go find another crusade.

as Majic points out, anet loves trains, deal with it.

Oh man, I can’t believe people want to remove one of the few things in this game that actually encourages social interaction and makes it feel like a multiplayer game instead of a huge SRPG.

Misery loves company.

As a new player, I have to say the following:

I was leveling my very first character, and I happened to be in the troll cave killing slugs. As I killed away (and died once or twice), I noticed that a crowd was moving into the cave, so I watched. One player whispered to me to tell me I should join in, so I did. I managed to hit the troll a few times, and I got to loot it. Nobody cared. Nobody gave me grief. It actually seemed like they were having a great time.

I think the train is just fine as it is. People are having fun, and that’s what the game should be about.

I’m fine with “trains” but IMO Queensdale (or any starting area) should not play host to them. If Anet is content to let these zerg trains grind away, the least they could do is keep their starting zones “clean” for brand new and entry-level players.

Also it would be more fun if the trains had to travel to new zones for new elite/champion chaining. Just officially incorporate this mindless farm into lore, such as energy fluctuation or pockets of dark energy disturbing the land and increasing hostile presence.

After a time, long champ respawn timers would kick in on Frostgorge, for example, as the “disturbance” moves to a new zone with new events and champs. Keeps things fresh, moves players throughout the world and clears the trains out of exhausted zones.

OrianZeta.1537:

Also it would be more fun if the trains had to travel to new zones for new elite/champion chaining. Just officially incorporate this mindless farm into lore, such as energy fluctuation or pockets of dark energy disturbing the land and increasing hostile presence.

After a time, long champ respawn timers would kick in on Frostgorge, for example, as the “disturbance” moves to a new zone with new events and champs. Keeps things fresh, moves players throughout the world and clears the trains out of exhausted zones.

This basically describes Scarlet’s Invasions, but since those events are unpredictable, don’t scale properly and now have absurdly low rewards for the effort, almost no one participates.

Personally, I see champ trains as symptoms of other, deeper problems with the game, rather than problems in themselves.

Scaling debacles and reward missteps like Scarlet’s Invasions and Tequatl suggest a strong need for the various development teams to get together and work out a more consistent vision for the “meta game” and bring it to the players.

As things stand, GW2 is something of a monument of lost potential. But with a clear vision (hint: they got it right the first time with the Manifesto) and a steady hand at the helm (that is also willing to change course when headed for the rocks), I’m hopeful my favorite game will finally get on a more even keel in 2014.

Lettuce prey.

Nah, I love killing oak while the train is doing troll/boar.

Dat juicy drama.

mtpelion.4562:

I personally think that killing low level champions should reward low level loot (this would help with the Silver Doubloon problem, if done correctly). I am not opposed to trains, but I think they should be level appropriate. If you want level 80 loot, hit Frostgorge Sound or Orr.

If they were level appropriate then you would see nobody in low level areas. As it stands there are still players in both Harathi and Queensdale because of the current loot scaling to your level.

What ANet needs to do is to make the other zones equally profitable so players can split between multiple zones and Champ farm.

Spiuk.8421:

Nah, I love killing oak while the train is doing troll/boar.

Dat juicy drama.

Kill Oak then 2-3 man Spider while telling zerg that Oak is at 50%.

you will like this clip. It is WHY people like the train

Ronah.2869:

Why “kill” the only fun and relaxing activity in this game? You think everyone wants hard mode content with brainstorming on strategies and attack plans? No sorry.

Fun?

Relaxing?

You must be playing a different game than me. xD Champ farming is:
- mindless
- boring
- frustrating
- stressful

Headache hits from thinking too long of champ farming

Sirendor.1394:

Ronah.2869:

Why “kill” the only fun and relaxing activity in this game? You think everyone wants hard mode content with brainstorming on strategies and attack plans? No sorry.

Fun?

Relaxing?

You must be playing a different game than me. xD Champ farming is:
- mindless
- boring
- frustrating
- stressful

Headache hits from thinking too long of champ farming

For you it is mindless, boring, frustrating, and stressful.

For others it is fun and relaxing.

For me it’s boring because it isn’t a challenge. However when I’m 2 champs away from monthly champ slayer mostly earned through fractal dungeon champs, it’s a quick way to just be done with the monthly.

Or when I’ve 4 out of 5 daily achievements and there’s nothing really in the area of what I’m working on but Krytan Event or Event mentor is up. Queensdale Champ Train is a quick way to just be done with it so that I can get on with what I’m working toward and still make progress towards the achievement chests. And declutter my side bar which on my main only has the Wintersday stuff when I’ve finished the monthly and daily.

The champ train ISN’T the problem. It’s a symptom of the problem. There’s nothing really in other zones that’s worth doing when people need gold and mats for the various things they want/need to craft.

If other zones and activities were buffed to be more fun, more productive, etc, the zerg would split off or take a lot longer to return to the beginning.

Sirendor.1394:

Ronah.2869:

Why “kill” the only fun and relaxing activity in this game? You think everyone wants hard mode content with brainstorming on strategies and attack plans? No sorry.

Fun?

Relaxing?

You must be playing a different game than me. xD Champ farming is:
- mindless
- boring
- frustrating
- stressful

Headache hits from thinking too long of champ farming

We must be playing a different game because we don’t share the same feelings. Dat logic.

lol

Sarcasm aside, different players, different mindset. If I’m on the mood, I find the champ trains fun. Gives me stuff/money. Usually, 1 hour later, I am bored to death. I get off the train.

I actually kind of like the Queensdale Champ train for a number of reasons.
-It brings higher level players into a lower level/starting zone who can answer questions for newer players
-It’s a good way for guilds to advertise themselves and bring in new members.
-It’s a good way to grind EXP/Karma
-It’s a good way to finish off your Monthly.
-You can get some exotic gear that can either help you earn some gold or for yourself.
-The community that runs the train (at least on FA) is usually rather nice and fun to talk/joke with, even if you’re not running the train.

As for the issue of “sniping” certain champs along the train, I’ve seen mixed reactions from the train itself on the matter. Most of the time they don’t mind too much, but if the person starts gloating about it, tempers do flair. If the person doesn’t repeatedly do it and brag about it, most of the time the train just shrugs and moves along (though you do get the occasional “Dictator of Queensdale” like those mentioned earlier that likes to rage in chat).
Should a group of players ever feel like they would like to down a champ without the train, I’ve found the train to be very responsive/supportive of these groups as well. Most of the time they’ll say go ahead to the groups and just skip that champ, though sometimes they would actually crowd around the edge of the champ area and /cheer on the group.

declan.3968:

mtpelion.4562:

I personally think that killing low level champions should reward low level loot (this would help with the Silver Doubloon problem, if done correctly). I am not opposed to trains, but I think they should be level appropriate. If you want level 80 loot, hit Frostgorge Sound or Orr.

If they were level appropriate then you would see nobody in low level areas. As it stands there are still players in both Harathi and Queensdale because of the current loot scaling to your level.

What ANet needs to do is to make the other zones equally profitable so players can split between multiple zones and Champ farm.

That might not be true actually. With the release of Ascended Armor crafting, the cost of the lower tier textiles used to craft Damask have skyrocketed. None more so than Linen. Even the lvl 46-60 light armor that you can salvage to get linen scraps has seen a huge increase in cost. Having champ trains in various level ranges give appropriately leveled drops would be great if Anet introduces a need for those ingredients.

Exxcalibur.6203:

Galtrix.7369:

It may be a terrible first impression, but it’s an honest first impression. You can expect the rest of the game to be terrible if you don’t like the champ trains in Queensdale.

I disagree.

I think the Queensdale Champions reduce the game to its worst level. There are many fantastic and diverse areas and events out in the world.

People want to be rewarded for their time instead 90% of events are like paying $27 at an Italian restaurant for a can of cold Chef Boyardee.

They should not kill it.

They should simply cap it.

Right now, if you ask for help with a champion in most places, you will be lucky if anybody comes.

You can’t keep doing the same dungeon path, mining the same node, doing the same fractal level range, fighting the same world boss over and over and expect full rewards every time. All guaranteed rewards have caps.

But Champions have guaranteed rewards, and no caps. And that results in people gathering in less places, and other places becoming emptier.

Each standalone champion, event that may spawn champions and meta-event that may spawn champions should get a flag like nodes.

Same as every other single thing that has guaranteed rewards.

Based on difficulty, the flag will have more ‘uses’ the harder the content is.
When the uses run out, the guaranteed bag is gone. Champions wil still drop usual monster drops and may still drop a bag, but that’ll be just luck. To get more guaranteed bags, you go to another champion.

With champions spawned in events, the bags would be given at the end of the event, and only upon success, as a reward for a “bonus” objective of the event that appears along the champion. With more people, more champions could spawn, but there would still be a cap.

With meta events, rewards should be given at the end, and incremental for those who participated in more events of the meta-event.
Got to Barradin’s Vaults, and you will get a bag from each event, and one extra bag at the end for each previous event you did.

Try again on the same day? No more bags. Come back tomorrow or fin other champions.

But what if you go to a harder spot, such as orr?
Harder events would get more ‘uses’, so players would be able to complete successfully more times before guaranteed rewards stop.

This would still allow groups to form, but once they are done in one map, they move to another map, while another group forms in this map, as people join the game with different schedules.

So instead one big army of zombies mindlessly coasting on each other and fighting with autoattacks, we’ll get smaller smarter commandos doing guerrilla war on them champions all over the world.
A commander pops in a map and annouces a champion run. After the champions of one map, they put a waypoint for another map.
This would not really affect those doing the runs that much, as they still go champion after champion, but those all over the world exploring would get help more often as champion farmers have to travel and spread.

Morrigan.2809:

I have been negative in the past towards champ trains because I have new friends in game and they are very baffled by the train.

On the other hand though- look at this pic- these guys are having a lot of fun and they are not harming anyone.

I did have a good laugh when the “self appointed dictator of Queensdale” told map to leave Shadow Behemoth because the train is at boar……

lol, that’s weird. On JQ the train derails when SB is called out in map and the zerg comes rushing to SB. Then of course they run off and start the champ train again.