Guild Wars 2

Just spent a frustrating evening trying to progress – with limited success – through the Malchor’s Leap map. The main problems I had: the excessively high density and rapid respawn rates of enemies, and the large number of uncontested events, primarily Group Events, that lie in close proximity to landmarks needed for map completion. As a warrior, I resorted on several occasions to just popping swiftness buffs and Endure Pain to collect points of interest and then run for my life. There were several landmarks that I simply could not reach on my own. I think with the post-launch attrition in player numbers, and the seeming unpopularity of this zone, A-Net should consider re-balancing the content, because at the moment, I honestly don’t see how people will be able to complete this map.

For the record, I was able to complete Straits of Devastation because on my server, there is a near constant zerg that cycles through the middle of the map to clear the way. It would have been difficult, otherwise. I am yet to enter Cursed Shore, but if my experience with Malchor’s Leap is anything to go by, I am not looking forward to it.

Cursed Shore is worse. Grab a greatsword and use skills like Whirlwind Attack, Rush, Bull’s Charge and Signet of Rage if you want to skip foes so badly.

But, as always, the best solution is to group up with others.

I also hated exploring Orr to a point where I pretty much wanted to quit, but it was the last thing standing in my way for world completion, so I stuck with it. In the end I only needed just one friend to help me with 2 skill points in Cursed Shore.

Now that I have everything explored, Orr isn’t such a bad place anymore (from a grinder’s perspective). The mob density is actually a plus for that.

A few things that helped me were:
-Rushing into a pack of enemies is a bad idea (unless you have a group, of course). Chances of shaking them off are very low because the amount of control abilities they have is insane.
-Taking the sneaky approach usually has much better results. Try to avoid aggro as much as you can, and keep it to a minimum if you can’t avoid it.
-If you really can’t avoid a big pack of enemies, kill them in sets of 2 (or as many as you can handle) until it has been thinned out enough for you to run through and shake them off. This takes a bit of speed, though, since enemies in Orr respawn quite fast.
-Having just one other person exploring along with you makes things ten times easier (but more is always better, of course).

And sadly I must tell you that Cursed Shore is by far the worst of all maps.

As an Engineer with over 3.4k armor and 3.3k damage and with the bomb kit, I have a really fun time. I can easily aggro about 5-10 enemies and kill them all in about 15-20 seconds. But it substantially harder as a Mesmer (also with full Exotics), so I understand this point. But at least on my server (Gandara in Europe) many players are on the map and I almost always run into groups doing the eventes (especially the Lyssa and Dwayna ones).

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

But, as always, the best solution is to group up with others.

I agree. But this is the main problem: there are very few other players in the zone. Not one of the group events that I encountered in 5-6 hours of playtime tonight were even being attempted. No amount of clever skill choice and use is going to enable me, for example, to solo the skill challenge in Cathedral of Zephyrs when the Defeat the Risen Priestess of Dwayna Group Event is spawned right on top of the landmark.

Another example: I tried to two-man the group event at Union Waypoint (the one where you need to destroy the barrier) with a random player who was after the same landmarks as me, but the surrounding enemies spawn so quickly, we were unable to create any openings to actually attack the barrier, and ended up having to retreat.

Cursed Shore is worse?!

Heh, I share Moose’s opinion about Malchor’s Leap. It’s mostly just that I was conditioned by all other zones to either be able to sneak or outright attack the zone completion solo if I wanted. Malchor’s though has some group-required areas though, notably anywhere near Cathedral.

Down to the last Skillpoint (need a group to barrel through a long ramp of mobs) and waypoint (need a group to bust into that area in the northwest).

Glad you all warned about Cursed Shore.

malchor’s leap is hands down the worse area in the game. nothing else in orr even comes remotely close to it. just finish it and leave so you never have to go back.

There’s more people in Cursed Shore though, so it’s much easier to find a group there. If still having trouble, hit me up ingame/send me a pm and maybe I can help out a bit. That is, if you’re on Gandara (or when guesting is implemented).

Personally, i think Malchor’s Leap is fine apart for maybe one area mentioned by delmarqo.5038 which is the SP on NW of map.
My main “issue” with this SP is actually the field effects that dazes constantly with mobs in the way which can render player defenseless while being attacked. i did this SP the first time with another player on my thief and we took the hard route – the ramp. But i managed to solo this SP later with my guardian and engineer – there are easier ways to reach SP other than the ramp.

Other than that, i didn’t/don’t usually have problems with any of Orr and i run around solo alot. I wont deny i die there sometimes but nothing to worry me more than the deaths i had up to Orr. Most of those times are due to my lack of awareness and acting accordingly. Besides, Orr is supposed to be end game area – difficulty is to be expected.

The lack of ppl around to get through some events can inflate the difficulty though – depending on what the player is trying to accomplish.