Guild Wars 2

Pardon the bad rhyming ;-)

So I’m at level 80 with my first build, an elementalist. Up until now the game has been captivating – one that has truly exceeded my expectations. Up until now, that is…..

I’m battling my way through Orr and the contested waypoints are killing me. I end up attempting a lot of events on my own or with just one other player as the place seems to be deserted, and if and when I die, I have to go to a waypoint that is clear on the other end of the map because all the others are contested. I’m in a well populated server but I swear there are way more people at the lowest level maps than the highest ones, hence my problem at completing group events. I doubt I will complete this area as an elementalist unless I can hook up with a group of players attempting to do what I’m doing, but for whatever reason this has been the most uncooperative area I’ve experienced so far. I’ve been down and people will run right by me without blinking an eye. Or I’ll ask for help with an event and am ignored. Frustrating…..

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Wait for MegaServer implementation, and try again? Use the LFG tool? Join a helpful Guild? Try a different character? Just some thoughts. Good luck. =)

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

I’m using knights exalted armor with superior rune of earth for toughness, but you are right about the food – I haven’t tried using that. Even if I did all that though, some of those bosses are pretty tough and I doubt that I can solo them. I did read about the new servers so I hope that helps.

Powerful Potion of Undead Slaying
Nourishment (1 h):
+10% damage vs undead
-10% damage from undead
+10 Experience from kills

Evalia.7103:

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

Megaserver system is only being implemented on low level zones, so orr won’t change for anyone.

Evalia.7103:

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

I thought gear didn’t matter in this game?

cranked.3812:

Evalia.7103:

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

Megaserver system is only being implemented on low level zones, so orr won’t change for anyone.

They’ve changed that plan. Now it will start in “lower population” zones first.

cranked.3812:

Evalia.7103:

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

Megaserver system is only being implemented on low level zones, so orr won’t change for anyone.

No, MegaServer is being implemented on low-population zones, not low-level. In fact, it will specifically not be implemented on low-level maps.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Evalia.7103:

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

I thought gear didn’t matter in this game?

No one said gear didn’t matter at all. Everyone has said gear has far less importance than it does in most MMOs. Guys first character, first time in Orr, on an ele, one of the hardest to play professions, sure gear is going to matter.

However, if he can’t beat it in exotic he won’t likely beat it in ascended either.

Had difficulty with Orr as well, specifically Malchor’s Leap. Even with all level 80 exotic weapons and armor, still had difficulty. Did a toughness minion master build with the dagger and focus, as well as the staff. Managed to get through in a good couple of hours. No one was there to help at the Statue of Dwayna, so my friend and I had to be smart about it. I used the necro to draw the attention of the enemies while she stealthed on her engineer, then went in and got the skill challenge. We did die once or twice and had to run back, but then she drew the attention of the enemies with her crate and turrets, and I got the skill challenge after she threw stealth on me.

We had to use a variety of tactics to get some of the skill challenges, such as the one guarded by the Champion worshipper, and the one with the Champion risen knight. Otherwise we just had a tough time figuring out how to get to some vistas. We were going for completion, not the group event stuff.

Tactic was everything when going for stuff with just the two of us.

Hopefully the megaserver will solve some of these issues, because I have a major problem with Orr not being covered at least with enough people to take on a boss (even five will do). I mean, I’m good against champions with just me, the minions, and my friend’s engineer. Cursed Shores? Not looking forward to on completion if it’s the same way. Straits of Devastation was easy compared to this.

Orr was supposed to be the end it all end game zone. But people prefer grinding Queensdale, Frostgorge, EotM zergs and dungeons because they actually give money.

All the timer events nerf, loot nerf, implementation of DR, the death of the Plinx event chain, champs such as rise spider champs spawning little veteran spiderlings that gives no loot and exp, champ chicken smashing you in the face with 30k+ damage etc killed the entire zone population.

You should have played in Orr before they drastically reduced the enemy population. You run away from one mob, and aggro another. There were very few safe places.

It was great! I say – bring back the high density!

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Evalia.7103:

First of all:
Try improving your character.
I’m so totally sure you aren’t using a potion of undead slaying, not to mention any food at all. Maybe even, your gear is lackluster, greens at level 60 when you are 75.
After that, Orr is going to become much more populated after April 15th(theoretically)…

I thought gear didn’t matter in this game?

Gear not mattering for an Elementalist? They have almost no base stats. Even with triple stat gear they have a really rough time.. thats why so many go full zerk (might as well do some damage if you’re gonna die in 1 hit) or Celestial.

On-topic: Orr is supposed to be hard. Its the Ruins of Orr. I see no reason that content like this should not require a small party to complete.

That said, the mobs seem to mostly use Toughness (especially Risen Brutes), and Condition damage goes alot farther than full power builds there, at least on Ele. Burning things melts them very quickly and efficiently.

Try not to kill one mob at a time, this leaves you vulnerable to getting ambushed by other mobs that are nearby. Instead, pull them all into a pile and run around in circles using your skills such as Frozen Burst and Updraft to make them run around like headless chickens while you pummel them to death.

Practice by solo escorting the Historian to the Statue of Dwayna. This spawns alot of hard mobs such as a Veteran Risen Subjugator and teaches you how to handle these mobs properly solo as well as keep the historian alive.

I used to have trouble, but now I often start temple runs (pre-events, escorts, etc.) and other events on these maps on my Ele by myself.

Orr is great.

NOTE: Some skill points require two players, one to drag Champion aggro away. The worshiper skill point in Malchor’s Leap is especially brutal.

P.S. Don’t use staff outside of PvP/WvW, it attacks too slow and doesn’t have alot of good offensive spells as its mostly a support/control weapon.

Are you using Diamond Skin? Map completion in Orr is brutal on my ele without it. Your gonna need to trait for condi clearing and Diamond Skin and load up on condi clearing utilities.

Orr is kinda exhausting with it being dead most of the time. Back around release Cursed shore use to have a lot of people roaming but now most people hang around in the lower level areas. Certain classes/setups can solo almost the entire thing for mapping (warriors for example). Softer classes I found it was easier with one more person on the harder to reach areas. Condition damage definitely does better there then direct.

Not only does it bypass their toughness, but you are still damaging them even when you are avoiding hits. Be inventive and play differently then the berserk mentality, its over hyped anyways in many situations

I miss old Orr. It was brutal and you had to pay attention to your surroundings.

The Orr we have right now is a watered down version already, if it get’s any easier it will feel like a starter zone all over again.

The megaserver thingy will fix the zone for you. All those people on one map will make it doable even if there is no skill involved.

Why does everything that is not doable with just clicking 1, 1 and 1 again gotta be nerfed. When did this mindset, that everything has to be super easy to be enjoyable became the norm in MMOs.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

I miss old Orr. It was brutal and you had to pay attention to your surroundings.

The Orr we have right now is a watered down version already, if it get’s any easier it will feel like a starter zone all over again.

The megaserver thingy will fix the zone for you. All those people on one map will make it doable even if there is no skill involved.

Why does everything that is not doable with just clicking 1, 1 and 1 again gotta be nerfed. When did this mindset, that everything has to be super easy to be enjoyable became the norm in MMOs.

Modern MMO players are spoiled. Look at all these threads over the last year that complain about this game being hard to level in… (lol)

They have no idea how games were in the past, or how they should be.

I have run orr on 4 characters now, they where equiped with anything from greens/yellows to full exotics, never used food. It really, really does not make a huge difference. There are several places where I could not do it solo. I just went back on my ele after leaving it for a long time because of the temple of balthazar and the priestess up in the NW corner. Balthazar I saw someone else running towards it and the two of us cleared around the skill point and got it (the raining fire because the temple was not held was the most difficult part). The priestess I shouted out in chat and someone answered right away, the confusion etc is horrible but can be done.
So my advice is to do what you can, shout out for what you can’t and go back to it if you are frustrated.

I was on GW2 since before the launch and my 1st character was an Ele and I had no problems in Orr. Cursed Shore is a good example of how people that lack the effort can cause the devs to dumb down content to where it’s so easy it isn’t as fun as it once was. When I do map completion and/or level a character, I typically just go through the maps solo taking my time with no troubles at all which imo is just bad.

I think the difficulty across all maps should be increased greatly because if most of us can just go through maps solo and never even get in any real danger or dying then that’s just not as fun. It’d be so much more fun if more things were high risk and being killed here n there was just part of the game.

Cursed Shore has been nerfed a lot compared to how it was originally which is very likely why fewer people go there aside from temples and t6 mat farming, probably mostly gathering. When there was a real benefit in farming things in Cursed Shore there would be a lot of people around all the time but then Anet continued to nerf the mobs, not just in difficulty but in loot as well and of course the events there.

This game is far easier today than it was at launch and far less rewarding. There are plenty of good ways to make lots of gold still but just fewer than originally. Anytime you can’t do something solo just use chat and as a last resort use LFG tool but really you should be in a guild and if you’re in a guild worth anything then you’ll be able to use guild chat to ask for help. This game is focused on guilds working together so why play a game called Guild Wars if you aren’t taking advantage of help that can be offered by being in a guild?

I just hate how every way point is always contested, that is annoying.

I haven’t run into the issue of contested wps because I don’t die down there terribly often but ill be kitten ed if all that CC doesn’t make it so I never want to return solo haha

Kaiyanwan.8521:

I miss old Orr. It was brutal and you had to pay attention to your surroundings.

The Orr we have right now is a watered down version already, if it get’s any easier it will feel like a starter zone all over again.

The megaserver thingy will fix the zone for you. All those people on one map will make it doable even if there is no skill involved.

Why does everything that is not doable with just clicking 1, 1 and 1 again gotta be nerfed. When did this mindset, that everything has to be super easy to be enjoyable became the norm in MMOs.

ahahah I was to post about the same thing when I read the title of this topic, you beat me on timing
Yep, the original Orr was beautiful and the only pve map I accepted to wander by; every step was a conquer but at least the whole place really felt like an endless horror, my Elementalist was really happy back then.
Now it has become a kiddy playground, it’s so easy I don’t bother going there anymore, the only acceptable pve map is Southsun Cove but unfortunately it’s not interesting as it used to be in the beginning because it has been nerfed and mobs are too easy.

Get better gear. Like others say, potions help. But do note the Ele is a really unforgiving class, if you haven’t already noticed. I’ve farmed Orr using literally all other classes and had no difficulty since the nerf.

Chris.8206:

Pardon the bad rhyming ;-)

So I’m at level 80 with my first build, an elementalist. Up until now the game has been captivating – one that has truly exceeded my expectations. Up until now, that is…..

I’m battling my way through Orr and the contested waypoints are killing me. I end up attempting a lot of events on my own or with just one other player as the place seems to be deserted, and if and when I die, I have to go to a waypoint that is clear on the other end of the map because all the others are contested. I’m in a well populated server but I swear there are way more people at the lowest level maps than the highest ones, hence my problem at completing group events. I doubt I will complete this area as an elementalist unless I can hook up with a group of players attempting to do what I’m doing, but for whatever reason this has been the most uncooperative area I’ve experienced so far. I’ve been down and people will run right by me without blinking an eye. Or I’ll ask for help with an event and am ignored. Frustrating…..

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Guest to Blackgate.

I do my runs for T6 mats daily with two characters, ranger and warrior, and I’ll always stray from my route to help with events or other players. Our server, Devona’s Rest, does regular planned temple runs and there’s always off shoot parties that work on map completion before or after the runs. I’m thinking that will be what life after Megaserver hits looks like. I can’t speak for the early days of running Orr but my two characters are traited and geared for the runs and when I bring my general PvE or WvW toons in they can have a difficult time too. I would say to treat Orr as different than your PvE journey and research gear and traits and good builds (I don’t have a capped Ele so I’m no help there).

look for people to do map completion with (map chat, guild, even lfm has some open world section). Also, there is a bit of a rennaisance of Orr farming on some servers right now, guest servers till you see a commander tag, that is a good indicator. Orr is fine, even if annoying at times, it is supposed to be the “end game map”, even if that concept doesn´t translate well into GW2 design.

Been playing since beta, and my first character was an elementalist. While ArenaNet has also made things easier in the zones, I do feel like I had the most difficulty in Orr on my ele. Gear made a difference, build made a difference, but even then I died a LOT in Orr.

I LOVE the elementalist, I really do, but I will say I had to learn the class extremely well before I could survive in Orr.

multiplicity.4385:

…my friend and I had to be smart about it. I used the necro to draw the attention of the enemies while she stealthed on her engineer, then went in and got the skill challenge. We did die once or twice and had to run back, but then she drew the attention of the enemies with her crate and turrets, and I got the skill challenge after she threw stealth on me.

We had to use a variety of tactics to get some of the skill challenges, such as the one guarded by the Champion worshipper, and the one with the Champion risen knight.

Tactic was everything when going for stuff with just the two of us.

Ironically, what you just described above is what I love most about GW2. Pairing up two classes to use creative tactics to see if we can beat challenging content meant for more people. I’m afraid the megaserver is going to ruin this and that I’m never going to be able to find an unpopulated area to challenge myself. I really don’t want to see people in every area of the map, all the time. Sometimes I truly like exploring on my own.

Jeez dont nerf orr anymore. It’s the endgame area, it should be hard. Shame you have to be an elementalist for it to be a challenge.

I’ve gotten map completion on my elementalist. By the time I got to Orr I had done all of the other low level zones. I had been level 80 for a while. Long enough to have full exotic gear. And for me, being my first MMO, it was full Clerics. No where near a glass cannon. Glass sling shot is more like it. No longer full Clerics, but that’s only due to lucky drops in Fractals giving me a few Ascended items.

I did 90% of Orr solo. Of the 10% I did with others, 95% of it was in the personal story that I was tagging along with with some friends on a quest to do Arah Story mode. Friends who were fully aware I was in Clerics.

Yea, I died, a lot. But I got good at judging just how far aggro goes. I learned what I could take on and what I could not. And had to use some strategy to get to skill points that were in the middle of or blocked by group events.

And the most important thing:

I became a better player. Because I was out of my comfort zone. Out of things that I could mindlessly auto attack and kill faster than they could kill me.

One thing that also helped me was not spending all of my time in Orr. I’d do it until I became bored of running from or fighting Risen. Then I would hop onto one of my other lower level characters and level them up.

Chris.8206:

Pardon the bad rhyming ;-)

So I’m at level 80 with my first build, an elementalist. Up until now the game has been captivating – one that has truly exceeded my expectations. Up until now, that is…..

I’m battling my way through Orr and the contested waypoints are killing me. I end up attempting a lot of events on my own or with just one other player as the place seems to be deserted, and if and when I die, I have to go to a waypoint that is clear on the other end of the map because all the others are contested. I’m in a well populated server but I swear there are way more people at the lowest level maps than the highest ones, hence my problem at completing group events. I doubt I will complete this area as an elementalist unless I can hook up with a group of players attempting to do what I’m doing, but for whatever reason this has been the most uncooperative area I’ve experienced so far. I’ve been down and people will run right by me without blinking an eye. Or I’ll ask for help with an event and am ignored. Frustrating…..

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Not to insult you, but Orr has been dumbed down/nerfed to ground so much already. I solo champs, and I don’t even wear full ascended. It’s a simple case of L2P and being aware of your surroundings. I have done Orr with Ele as well, Thief, Ranger, Mesmer, Necro and Engineer (they are all Light and Medium) and have done it with Guardian and Warrior as well, in short, I have done all 3 Orr zones with all classes.

So I would say just play it like your life depends on it. Don’t take the mobs for granted, learn their “tells” and attacks. Some Vets summon minions that explode that can insta-down you. Some of them summon explosive “eyes”. If you don’t know how to fight them, you’ll be in for a surprise. So again, it’s L2P: know your enemies.

Orr was my favorite zone (what with cross-zone effects of temples). Good luck and have fun…

All the rewarding play has been taken out of Orr. People complained about farming events and farming in general, yet we have the trains running in other maps….
Anet is just slippin’ and slidin’…. Doing one thing and turning around and do the opposite….
Given all the updates to champion loot, Orr should be an even better place to be at but nope. Looking back retrospectively, all the updates to tone down Orr were pretty kitten pointless.

blakdoxa.7520:

-snip-
Given all the updates to champion loot, Orr should be an even better place to be at but nope. Looking back retrospectively, all the updates to tone down Orr were pretty kitten pointless.

Indeed, in my post here, I mentioned

3rd Month: A few bots remain, then the loot was nerfed down to the ground. Plinxx zerg is far and few, and FotM was introduced. Anet’s decision back then was that “griding those areas are not intended”. Would have been good, but Anet only replaced the grinding/farming with FotM. Events takes way longer to spawn, and lot of wait time happens. I mean, what gives?

I mentioned that ANet only replaced Orr farming with FotM farming (back then). Of course now, Orr has been replaced by L.S. farming, Queensdale Farming, Frostgorge Farming, Dungeon Speed Runs…

But I got too much off topic so I’ll stop =)

Orr died when Anet killed the Pent/Shelt karma train. There was always lots of players in Orr then and when someone asked for help on events lots of folks would help them, myself included.

So there’s a big reason why Orr is almost deserted.

Hannelore.8153:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

I miss old Orr. It was brutal and you had to pay attention to your surroundings.

The Orr we have right now is a watered down version already, if it get’s any easier it will feel like a starter zone all over again.

The megaserver thingy will fix the zone for you. All those people on one map will make it doable even if there is no skill involved.

Why does everything that is not doable with just clicking 1, 1 and 1 again gotta be nerfed. When did this mindset, that everything has to be super easy to be enjoyable became the norm in MMOs.

Modern MMO players are spoiled. Look at all these threads over the last year that complain about this game being hard to level in… (lol)

They have no idea how games were in the past, or how they should be.

Your average MMO player knows if they whine enough the content will get nerf. Instead of looking for solutions they rush to the forums to cry nerf

Orr should have the best champ train, instead we have it in the starting zone….

also, another suggestion to make Orr more alive
1- split orr to internal zones around each temple.
2- all t6 nodes in the internal zone spawn only if the temple is under player control.
3- more people playing together doing the objectives.

or: for each temple under player control the whole map receive 10% magic find.

old ORR is dead and will never come back

Hannelore.8153:

or how they should be.

That would depend on what people like.
but imo, people spend enough time working they dont come to a game…just to work some more.

Taygus.4571:

Hannelore.8153:

or how they should be.

That would depend on what people like.
but imo, people spend enough time working they dont come to a game…just to work some more.

It is not work, it is playing a game with a challenge to give you satisfaction when you actually achieve a goal. For some people it is why they play games. That is what keeps other MMOs with vertical progression alive. An ever new challenge you can succeed.
Getting everything on a silver plate is boring as kitten, why would I play a game, that virtually plays itself? If I do not get punished for bad play, why would I try to get better? If I wanted a point-and-click adventure I would have better options out there.

If you do not want any challenge when playing GW2, just go to all other zones besides Orr or Southsun. Everything there is a cakewalk.

Yeah, I miss Orr when it was populated with event farms everywhere. Anet should realize that people like farming. We want to farm and grind and get gold/karma/loot. And has that solved the problem? No. Instead there are champ trains in Frostgorge.

Orr which was supposed to be the toughest content in the game is now deserted. Why? No loot. Without loot, no one cares. People play content to get rewards and loot. Intrinsic motivation is a cool concept, but I don’t care. I want my shinies.

The Curse Shore of Orr is a chore, a grief galore, full of gore, but the lore isn’t a bore, wish there were more…

Have you tried guesting to a more populated server?
There’s also websites that tell you which temples are uncontested and in what servers. That should help with map completion.

While Orr is nowhere near as hard as it was back then (I still have fond memories of clearing it on my first Guardian, advancing bit for bit, always checking for nearby enemies and planning my routes and battles – I do miss it), it’s still one of the most challenging PvE areas, simply because every trashmob uses some form of CC and condi spam.
As it was said, try to learn your enemies’ patterns. Try different weapons/abilities/traits/builds. Don’t rush into battle to be overwhelmed. Don’t try to solo a champion. Use buffs. Plan your route a bit and look around to see where the mobs are so you may stay clear from them. Or just try to party up with a friend/guildie, I always help guildies with difficult skill points and the likes in Orr.

Orr can still be fun if you approach it like you being overwhelmed by the undead in opposite to you slaying your way through tons of defenseless PvE trash and play accordingly and carefully, I find. That is, if you don’t already slaughter yourself through Orr as well.

Wow! I never anticipated that my original post would garner so many responses – thank you to each and every one who contributed. Looking through what many of you wrote, I realize that I should have better articulated what it is that is frustrating me with Orr…..

It isn’t so much the difficulty of it as it is the long slog back to where I want to fight after dying due to the contested waypoints. Yes, if I was more highly skilled as some of you obviously are, I could solo this area and dying wouldn’t be an issue, hence contested waypoints (and the dearth of people playing in Orr) would be a moot point. Because I’m not as good as many of you are, I die. When I die, I have to respawn at a waypoint far away. I appreciate the fact that it is meant to be difficult, as do I appreciate the fact that this is an MMO and ideally one can rely on help for the group events. But because the waypoints are contested, and because the vast majority of high level players seem to be hanging out in other areas, it just gets to be a chore trying to complete this area. I know the obvious answer is “you suck – get better and stop complaining”, and I am getting better with time and the beautiful thing about this game (and being an ele in particular) is the incredible depth and breadth of how one can approach playing it.

Reading the responses here is going to make me redouble my efforts to get better, solicit help from my guild mates, experiment with different builds, and be more patient with my approach. Thank you once again for the responses – much appreciated!

Taygus.4571:

Hannelore.8153:

or how they should be.

That would depend on what people like.
but imo, people spend enough time working they dont come to a game…just to work some more.

and easy faceroll content is nothing more than time invested without any excitement – sounds a lot like being at the office to me. Games need to be exciting and thrilling, if I´d like autowin at the pc, I could as well put together some PP presentations for work at home.

Chris.8206:

Wow! I never anticipated that my original post would garner so many responses – thank you to each and every one who contributed. Looking through what many of you wrote, I realize that I should have better articulated what it is that is frustrating me with Orr…..

It isn’t so much the difficulty of it as it is the long slog back to where I want to fight after dying due to the contested waypoints. Yes, if I was more highly skilled as some of you obviously are, I could solo this area and dying wouldn’t be an issue, hence contested waypoints (and the dearth of people playing in Orr) would be a moot point. Because I’m not as good as many of you are, I die. When I die, I have to respawn at a waypoint far away. I appreciate the fact that it is meant to be difficult, as do I appreciate the fact that this is an MMO and ideally one can rely on help for the group events. But because the waypoints are contested, and because the vast majority of high level players seem to be hanging out in other areas, it just gets to be a chore trying to complete this area. I know the obvious answer is “you suck – get better and stop complaining”, and I am getting better with time and the beautiful thing about this game (and being an ele in particular) is the incredible depth and breadth of how one can approach playing it.

Reading the responses here is going to make me redouble my efforts to get better, solicit help from my guild mates, experiment with different builds, and be more patient with my approach. Thank you once again for the responses – much appreciated!

There are about 3 non-contestable wp’s in each map. If you just run to each of these and then do your filling in you are very close to any place you want to be on each map. Dying becomes less of a slog.

EDIT: also remember that a wp just inside the next zone can be used to get to running distance of the zone you are trying to complete exploration of.

I think I used potions, buff foods, a lot of watermagic and patience. I now run orr in zerk/scholar with a 30/10/10/10/10 staff, but when levelling I was running a 0/10/0/30/30 if I remember correctly I also used a lot off D/D…. It used to heal self, but if I remember that was nerfed a little later because of “invincible builds”. with the new server it should be more alive there anyways.. and ppl will hopefully love protecting water staff ele’s for their own personal continued survival… I know my staff ele can heal quite well… using arane brilliance and arcane wave and it’s 2 ater fields, regen and auto attack with heals (also works on self when in just further then melee range)

Oh and a “you suck , just get better” will be the worst most uninterested reply imaginable IMHO. Getting better in your proffession will never happen without experience, pointers and just trying out everything, ele is and will stay squishy… And everybody needs to learn. Good ele’s are very usefull in the end.

blakdoxa.7520:

All the rewarding play has been taken out of Orr. People complained about farming events and farming in general, yet we have the trains running in other maps….
Anet is just slippin’ and slidin’…. Doing one thing and turning around and do the opposite….
Given all the updates to champion loot, Orr should be an even better place to be at but nope. Looking back retrospectively, all the updates to tone down Orr were pretty kitten pointless.

There were plenty of people farming Cursed Shore champs when the boxes were first added. No idea why people stopped or at least it seems like they stopped since I don’t see anything on map chat. If I had to guess it’s probably because the the FQS champs are either easier or the pathing is better.

Khisanth.2948:

blakdoxa.7520:

All the rewarding play has been taken out of Orr. People complained about farming events and farming in general, yet we have the trains running in other maps….
Anet is just slippin’ and slidin’…. Doing one thing and turning around and do the opposite….
Given all the updates to champion loot, Orr should be an even better place to be at but nope. Looking back retrospectively, all the updates to tone down Orr were pretty kitten pointless.

There were plenty of people farming Cursed Shore champs when the boxes were first added. No idea why people stopped or at least it seems like they stopped since I don’t see anything on map chat. If I had to guess it’s probably because the the FQS champs are either easier or the pathing is better.

tl;dr
Players who likes profits choose path of least resistance to gain loots
Players who likes challenges, are spread all over, trying to find challenging content, or just quit

FGS is easier to do than Orr and for the same rewards, players flock for path of least resistance.

I am not really sure, but I am one (if not the only one) of those who noticed how Orr went downhill for the first time in November’12 when the first patch hits. For me, and those I played with at Orr during the time, it’s not about the Champ boxes. It was the pride that we’re able to play at the harshest condition, and even strive. Orr was the place where many players complained how hard it was, and for me, it should be hard: it was a “Lv80 only” zone (Cursed Shore specifically) which compared to FGS is a Lv70-Lv80 zone.

Players band together, completing events, both for loot and karma and coin (yep, a lot of coin drops from mobs back then till it was nerfed too). When the first champ boxes loot was implemented, players flock to Orr to farm a single champ: Embers, doing other champs if ever the Embers ended (accidentally or thru bugged or by some player who wants to complete the event). A lot have complained for this, and this was nerfed too! Meanwhile, other champ trains are still on-going (FGS, and Queensdale). And players who loves the challenge that Orr poses back then, they now have to either join trains themselves, run and solo some champs, jump the world boss bandwagon, do other odd things, or just quit.

I understand Anet would like to make “all” zones “end game zones”, but it makes the most sense to make Orr the “best end game zone” because it was one of the last areas that players can explore normally thru inter-zone connection (Southsun Cove is via portal/ship/gate). And yeah, when Southsun became profitable too, the answer from Anet is to simply: nerf shark, skale, vets, drops, kqueen, etc. And again, meanwhile, the other champ trains are still on-going.

So yeah, that’s why people only do trains at Queensdale, and Frostgorge. There’s one now too at Gendarran, because it is easier to rally PuGs because Gendarran is (temporarily) the new “hub”.

tl;dr
Players who likes profits choose path of least resistance to gain loots
Players who likes challenges, are spread all over, trying to find challenging content, or just quit

Some suggestions:

1. Don’t try and get the vistas, poi’s, etc. as you go through the first time. Instead, run as fast as you can down the safest roads and unlock as many waypoints as you can. The first time through, your goal is to unlock waypoints through all orr maps. The reason for this is that you are more likely to have a useable waypoint later when you go back to get poi’s, sp, and vistas. Also, you may just level up to 80 doing this (if you aren’t already) and find a temple open where you can use karma to get the level 80 exotic armor (if you need it).

2. Now that you have cleared the maps and made waypoints visible, it will be easier to head toward groups if they are there. Look for commander tag and run with groups doing events if possible. That way you can finish part of your mapping in a group.

3. I had a stack of revive orbs and repair canisters in the bank as I got them from chests, etc and never used them. If you have these, be sure and take them with you. For skill points guarded by a champion with no group to help you out, make sure you die right at the skill point. Use the revive orb and immediately commune with the skill point.

4. Sometimes you will see others who seem to be mapping also. Ask in /say or whisper if they want to work with you for mapping. It works well for one of you to pull mobs while other communes at skill point, and then swap.

5. Make sure you load your skill bar up with skills that will help you with surviving, escaping, running, etc.

6. Watch the mob animations and which type mobs cause you the most problem. Eventually you will learn how to time your dodge for maximum escaping the evil undead ones that pull you.

7. Mutter to yourself…if death is so good, why don’t you stay dead already as you run past the mobs.

8. Try not to get frustrated.