Guild Wars 2

Earlier this evening, I had the most obnoxious game experience which I can remember (I would say ever, but I have some years now and it’s possible that I forgot something): The Battle of Claw Island story instance.

My current character, Elementalist, is first which made it past level 30 (and first after a year’s break). I really enjoyed playing her until now, and also enjoyed the personal story progress (Sylvari, Durmand Priory) some of which was truly awesome. Well that seems to be over now.

(Spoilers from now on)

So, I started the mission. Beginning was OK, some initial battle, then a task to defeat a set amount of Risen Abominations. I actually enjoyed the part, rotating my cooldowns and taking the Abominations one or two at a time. After finishing it, next task was “Find and revive Deputy Mira”. That’s where it all broke.
On my way to the NPC, Risen mobs spawned and started to attack me. I naturally assumed I had deal with them, so I did … however, they kept coming. Again. And again. After cca 10 minutes of the purest definition of grind I had enough and just headed towards Mira.
(As an aside, after checking the web for it – kiting a train of mobs while ignoring them is apparently he correct way how to do the mission. That’s really an awesome design there).

Reviving the NPC (being already quite annoyed), next task was “Use trebuchets against the Dead Ship”. A cute minigame which seemed to put the mission back on track, which sadly wasn’t true. “Ignite the signal-beacons” was right back to “kite and ignore”. followed straight by “Help the Lionguard hold out against the Risen”. When I read the objective, I was desperate; and resigning to any actual effort (while losing the last bits of interest), I simply started to running circles around the objective area, dragging mobs behind me and hoping all I have to do is survive for some time (remember, I never did the mission before).

To my relief that hope has proven true. A cutscene with dragon played (no interest at this point), I got perma-feared running into wall and the train of mobs has beaten me to death.
The only luck was that after respawning the whole mission ended with another cutscene, alas I was so disgusted at this point that what could be a touching moment with my favorite NPC ended completely stomped to the ground of disinterest. I logged off thinking that it couldn’t be any worse than that.

How wrong I was.

Several hours later, I logged back hoping just to be done with the story. “The Ghost Rite”, is the next mission. Some initial cutscene, transformation into a warrior and “Gain Power through the slaughter of your enemies.”. Yay, another grindy grind objective. Oh well.
Oh well.

I killed a few initial mobs, then arrived to a place with invulnerable boss and about 10 minions. The boss despawned after a moment and the minions all swarmed on me, unsurprisingly killing me in a few moments. “Respawn on checkpoint”.
I respawn and am in the middle of the very swarm of mobs. I go down pretty fast again. In this moment I stop caring altogether; I keep dying and respawning while slowly working through the pack of mobs.
I have died at least 10 times, armor completely broken, before the cluster of mobs got thinned down to manageable level. Objective still says " Gain Power through the slaughter of your enemies". New mobs keep spawning, I kill them, die here and there as they are coming indefinitely. This goes on for several minutes without any change. After I eventually die again (15th+ time, stopped counting long ago) with the objective still " Gain Power through the slaughter of your enemies" and no boss or anything else in sight, I lose it and quit the game.

Since this is a rant, writing a conclusion is rather difficult. Maybe a question if anyone else got so disgusted and discouraged by this part of the personal story. Or maybe a question if I can delete the personal story, because I for sure don’t want to touch it ever again, and it will block other hints the game offers (like, when on a new map, “there’s an unexplored area in this direction”). Maybe a question if I , from the description, did something wrong. Or maybe … I don’t know.

Patience. Get some. Do other stuff for a while, then go do the personal story again. Frankly, with how old the personal story is, just wiki it for some tips on how to complete each step. Or ask some friends if they want to tag along.

Sorry to say but that is the way of the story line from then on. (b)Orr was awful beyond compare. I ground that out on two characters but now all my other characters are permanently (and this will never change) at claw island. On another note it isn’t even your personal story, it’s treherns )or whatever the muppet twig is called). You are just a bit player in a tedious npcs story.

And here is the real spoiler.

The problem with those two missions is that they’re supposed to be “no win” situations. In the first, you can’t win and are forced to do desperation measures, then retreat. In the second, you can only win if you can get the enemy to give you an opening.

Yes, they’re bad. The mechanics of this game don’t really support a “no win” fight being fun. This is a trick that’s used VERY rarely in the Personal Story, however, and it’s best to just push through them and get it over with.

If you’re stuck trying the second one again, I’d suggest using any food and potions (Undead Slaying) you can get for a bonus. Boosters, too.

[Edit] And… Ditto what Sandpit said. NONE of my characters have done that last part yet.

If you are new to the game, I would suggest playing another class. Elementalist is probably the hardest class for new player.

As a different perspective, I recently came back and also did the claw island story on my new guardian. The key was really to listen to what the NPCs are saying and do that. I had no issues with the instance, and it really felt like an overwhelming battle that the Lionguard weren’t prepared for. It did not feel frustrating to me though.

I didn’t have to kite anything or just run around, I went from baddie to baddie and headed to the objectives the NPCs were telling me to do.

The followup mission isn’t the one I did (I’m Vigil), but in both cases it sounds like you might be trying to AoE everything down in the beginning and taking too much heat yourself. I know in the Claw Island one there are a ton of NPCs that help with the fight, and in the Vigil defense instance it was the same. Make sure if there are other NPCs near you that you let them get a piece of the action. You’re not supposed to be a massive one-man army taking on everything.

Some personal story missions are basically grinds.
You die over and over again until you complete whatever dumb objective you have to complete.

Elementalists are also one of the more punishing classes. Warriors, Rangers and Guardians are massively easier.

The storyline takes a turn for the worst around level 30 no matter which class you play. It wasn’t exactly great before that in my opinion but after level 30 it just goes from one type of ridiculous to another. I hope for your sake that you can stomach the next 50 levels because leveling up your character also gets more and more boring.

They probably should’ve stuck to 30 levels. It is true that elementalists are pretty tough to level up though but that has little to do with the actual story.

Some of the later story instances are a lot of fun for me, but I never really liked Claw Island. I don’t find it hard, I just didn’t enjoy it. Other later missions were quite fun for me, however.

I guess it’s just a matter of opinion.

The big issue is the way that the NPE rewrote the end of the story to make less sense. That really does need to be fixed.

I hate Claw Island. Not because of the mission itself. I really had no problem with it once I had it figured out.

No, I hate it because it made me cry.
I’m pretty sure whomever wrote the Claw Island scenario is a huge Joss Whedon fan. Yup. Cuz first they make you care, and then they break your heart.

::goes off to cuddle her Tybalt plushie:: (sniffle)

Reviving Deputy Mira used to be a real meat grinder for me. Then I figured out the trick is not to run straight to her, but to circle around to the left. At that point the most you have to deal with near her body is one or two Risen and occasional fish bombs; you can rez her with minimal combat if any.

Yeah, I’ve done Claw Island many many many times. It’s lost all emotional impact, so I cherish my first time there, when I had no idea what to expect, and the second round when glorious music swelled as I and an army charged a dragon. Now it’s just a quick checklist of events.

I literally cannot bring myself to do the personal story anymore. I’ve completed or only twice, and it’s just… So… Bad.

Someone must love it. I dunno.

The best thing I can say about it is that that story elements are good. Their presentation is rammed up the nostril left, right and center, it’s hurried along in ways that make me cringe just to look at and the narrative itself is, to my sense of what makes for a good narrative, a bizarre departure from everything I’ve ever liked about any narrative ever.

They’ve done increasingly better as time’s passed, but I’m still left avoidant in totality of looking at that ‘personal story’ ever again.

Terrible. Just not my cup of tea at all.

You died 15 times in The Ghost Rite? The mission where you get incredibly OP uber-damaging abilities? Just keep moving and do insane amounts of damage.

Seriously. That’s such a fun mission. You’ve just lost your mentor, everything’s sad, and you get to go nuts with wholesale slaughter of Risen as a pretty much unstoppable machine of destruction. I love it.

I feel your pain, OP! I remember how frustrating those instances were the first time I did them.

However! Take it as a learning experience. I tend to do the following, which may be of use to your later characters:

At Claw Island, speed buff yourself and leg it to Mira (as Donari says, go around on the left to her, not straight through the risen. I personally jump down the little wall that’s there). Fight nothing.

Make a report. Run for abominations along the wall, try to avoid fighting anything else.

Run for trebuchet, and find the sweet point (IIRC somewhere around a three-quarters of the way, probably a little more, of the bar), and fire. Enjoy watching the bombardment.

Report.

Speed buff, run for beacon, try not to fight anything (you’ll just get weighed down).
Run back down to the courtyard (do not use the way you came, run over the hill a jump a little down).

Now it’s time to troll the risen. Except they’ll still win. Stay near the gate for a smoother exit.

Exit the gate at the appropriate time - and yes, sometimes it does take time.
Ignore everything and leg it back to the ship. All the NPCs will be fine, except for the (spoiler) obvious.

For the Ghost Rite, take a moment before doing anything to check those abilities when you first transform. Then go and burninate, and as Olvendred says, you keep moving (make like a shark. A big, overpowered, burninating shark). Once you get the hang of this, it’s actually really good fun.

You’ll be going back to Claw Island, by the way, if you haven’t already. Pop a reply or PM me if you want tips.

I do remember (vague memory) having to fight a particularly big foe in that area where all I had to do was sit down and let the npc’s do the work.

Made a nice cup of coffee and watched the screen sitting back. Oh… was that what you were referring to Ceridwen?

Gehenna.3625:

I do remember (vague memory) having to fight a particularly big foe in that area where all I had to do was sit down and let the npc’s do the work.

Made a nice cup of coffee and watched the screen sitting back. Oh… was that what you were referring to Ceridwen?

Heehee. That’s round two, about halfway through.

Ceridwen.6703:

Gehenna.3625:

I do remember (vague memory) having to fight a particularly big foe in that area where all I had to do was sit down and let the npc’s do the work.

Made a nice cup of coffee and watched the screen sitting back. Oh… was that what you were referring to Ceridwen?

Heehee. That’s round two, about halfway through.

lol, that was hilarious. The reason I found out is because I was frustrated with the fight as I’d failed it a couple of times and just decided to make coffee and let my character die for this round. When I got back she was still sitting there and the fight was progressing just fine. It was funny and sad at the same time I guess hehe.

I get feared, run half a mile away, fall off a wall, and then spend an eon getting back up to the top because I take the least expedient route possible, and find it’s all finished up top regardless. This takes skill, you know.

XD

Others may indeed choose to brew up instead of that last step with the running round the long way.

Which makes me think it should be necessary in some way for us to be up top to deliver a killing blow and get a nice Skyrim/Dragon Age style cinematic of our awesomeness. Then someone should hand around tea and cake. Huzzah!

Ceridwen.6703:

I get feared, run half a mile away, fall off a wall, and then spend an eon getting back up to the top because I take the least expedient route possible, and find it’s all finished up top regardless. This takes skill, you know.

XD

Others may indeed choose to brew up instead of that last step with the running round the long way.

Which makes me think it should be necessary in some way for us to be up top to deliver a killing blow and get a nice Skyrim/Dragon Age style cinematic of our awesomeness. Then someone should hand around tea and cake. Huzzah!

I like this idea. Good thinking there

Funny enough, my girlfriend did this mission for the first time recently (this is her first real mmo) and somehow beat that mission faster than me. Her instinct is always to avoid fighting, and so many parts of this mission get done faster running past mobs. When she told me she finished and I remembered the mission taking my like 30 minutes and she finished in 10, I was shocked.

Moral of the story, the mission is only hard if you are someone like myself or the OP who try to defeat everything that comes your way in-game. If you simply read the objective and try to accomplish it as swiftly as possible, its actually an easy mission. Fun too.

Good luck in the future, and hopefully you can understand to read each objective carefully and learn moderation of battle. Only fight the battles that must be fought. I’m sure I could quote Sun Tzu, but that would take me too long. Some people are just naturally wise. Not me.

Loboling.5293:

Funny enough, my girlfriend did this mission for the first time recently (this is her first real mmo) and somehow beat that mission faster than me. Her instinct is always to avoid fighting, and so many parts of this mission get done faster running past mobs. When she told me she finished and I remembered the mission taking my like 30 minutes and she finished in 10, I was shocked.

Moral of the story, the mission is only hard if you are someone like myself or the OP who try to defeat everything that comes your way in-game. If you simply read the objective and try to accomplish it as swiftly as possible, its actually an easy mission. Fun too.

Good luck in the future, and hopefully you can understand to read each objective carefully and learn moderation of battle. Only fight the battles that must be fought. I’m sure I could quote Sun Tzu, but that would take me too long. Some people are just naturally wise. Not me.

I have read Sun Tzu so I know what you mean, but an MMO which is set up to be a place where you can spend time would arguably not be the best place to create situations where running away and skipping things is the best way to do something….

It also doesn’t fit with this idea about the player being the hero…which in this game the player really isn’t. As of this part of the game in fact the player’s character is an npc in a story that he/she just gets to be part of, sort of on the side line.

That never felt right for me.

Dunno, it was so fast and easy that I didn’t have enough time to give a kitten.
—DarkSouls fan

Elementalist is a very punishing profession for your 1st character. If you don’t realize what you’re getting into at the start, it can be a real drag. And what you’re getting into is “very squishy, skills aren’t that potent”. You have to either learn which skills ‘link’ to deal with situations well or gear for some extra Vitality so your heals have an opportunity to be used. Don’t be afraid to swap to a staff to range/kite stuff.

That said, I tend to stop the personal story just before ‘Clawr Island’ to save myself. It’s odd, the story up to that point was actually quite nice but after that, so many NPCs, concepts and objectives are flung at you only to be forgotten in the next couple instances, it’s hard to care much. What they really should have done is expand the PS over many more missions, take their time telling the story and develop the characters more. I bet it was the limitations on the voice acting that did it though. Having 20 to 50+ more missions added to PS to fully tell the tale would have required a massive ton of voice acting.

You’re not alone, OP. The PS is rather hit-or-miss with the community. I enjoyed it for various reasons on my first character (elementalist) and only finished it on 2 other characters after. I consider my Ele to be the Pact 2nd-in-command while my other characters are just high ranks among others. I don’t really try to play past Clawr Island anymore…

Thanks for the replies so far.

A few points I’d like to address:
- Elementalist is tough class for new players
I agree, however I actually tried most of the other classes (all but Guardian and Necromancer) and Elementalist was the only one I could stick with for more than 10 levels (also I did this year ago when you could unlock all weapon skills almost immediately). Problem is that GW2 is not exactly the game for me – I prefer rotating multiple abilities over action combat (lot of movement and lot of autoattacks, only occasional use of cooldowns). “Turn-based over Real time”. And Elementalist is the only class that comes somewhat close to it.

- The mission is fine when you know what to do
Agreed as well. However, I did the mission for very first time. As far as I can tell, all Personal Story mission until that one required me to clear the mobs, then do something. Here it was the first time when I encountered an endless respawn mechanics where the only solution is to ignore the mobs/ drag or kite them while carrying out the objectives. I had to learn it the hard way, and I definitely did not enjoy the learning process – quite the reverse.

-“You died 15 times in The Ghost Rite?”
Yup. In my partial defense, I watched some youtube videos after that, and they were different from my experience. On the videos, after killing the initial group of mobs the character arrived to the place with fountain (Mystic Forge?) where Lionguard were fighting Risen, and joined the battle. When I killed the initial pack of Risen and arrived to the fountain, the Lionguards were idling there with no enemy in sight, and the main boss was floating further to the right. I ran to the boss, 10+ Risen spawned right behind him as I arrived there and I got instantly overwhelmed.

Anyway. Despite my promise to never touch the personal story again, I tried The Ghost Rite today and succeeded, after developing a heroic tactics – spamming the nr.2 ability (roll + burning trail) back and forth endlessly, while the Risen going after me slowly burned to death. It took me 10+ minutes and needless to say, I felt really epic (/sarcasm).

The rest of the arc wasn’t that bad to my surprise, there were still grinding moments in each mission which frustrated me immensely, but it could be overcame. The final “Retake the Island” mission was – to my genuine shock – most enjoyable in the whole arc. Maybe because I had a group of useful NPCs this time instead of Traeharne (who in previous mission either stood there watching the sky and then said “good work” after the fight was over, or performed combat animations without doing any actual damage). The final fight with the dragon I wached from safe distance while the NPC horde killed the boss all by itself.

So! Back to open world PVE which I enjoy (as long as I avoid certain random events). I may be back later however, when my Elementalist reaches level 70 and new Personal Story unlocks …

P.S. Special thanks to GuzziHero for the friendly PM and the offer of help ingame!