Guild Wars 2

Garock.2854:

once I finished the storyline I avoid that zone completely, I feel bad for the developers, that zone had to be hard to design, yet its so hard to navigate and survive in its almost always empty. Next time focus on maps that are more open, the most “vertical” landscape I want to see is maybe up to the verdant brink level, and even that was a pain until you got all the masteries.

Has anyone actually enjoyed tangled depths?

I like Tangled Depths a lot, however it suffers from a lack of content.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the thing that lets HoT down the most for me is the lack of side-events in the HoT maps. There’s no side-story, it’s just all Meta-Meta-Meta. Tangled Depths suffers most from this because it’s so big that it’s very easy to think that there’s noone else on the map with you.

There are a myriad of caves in TD that noone ever has a reason to go to unless you’re doing Map Completion. There’s a whole underwater cave system you never have a reason to go to unless you’re doing world completion. It’s quite sad. There could be side story and lore snippets shoe-horned into these locations to make them feel more worthwhile, but there’s not.

Travelling around TD is not a problem once you know what you’re doing and where the shortcuts are – that does take some effort, but once you’ve got it down you can travel to… certainly any Meta event pretty quick.

Sarie.1630:

There are a myriad of caves in TD that noone ever has a reason to go to unless you’re doing Map Completion. There’s a whole underwater cave system you never have a reason to go to unless you’re doing world completion. It’s quite sad. There could be side story and lore snippets shoe-horned into these locations to make them feel more worthwhile, but there’s not..

100% agree with this. HoT overall was too narrow focussed and it suffered for it. I’d love to have more side events and TD especially need its the most.

Randulf.7614:

Sarie.1630:

There are a myriad of caves in TD that noone ever has a reason to go to unless you’re doing Map Completion. There’s a whole underwater cave system you never have a reason to go to unless you’re doing world completion. It’s quite sad. There could be side story and lore snippets shoe-horned into these locations to make them feel more worthwhile, but there’s not..

100% agree with this. HoT overall was too narrow focussed and it suffered for it. I’d love to have more side events and TD especially need its the most.

Yeah that’s a good point for the future too (especially future expansions), on busy maps it’s quite possible for various groups to “rush” through the various meta-preparation events in HoT zones and then they have to hang around waiting for the main meta-event to progress.

I think it’d be nice to have more sub-plot events in areas after the meta-preparation events. They added some more events in the April patch but they tend to be basic defend/destroy events some more lore/story based ones would be great (like “Escort Agent Zildi on her tour of the reactivated city” as she gives you a history lecture). Some more lore snippets scattered around would be nice too.

I don’t enjoy Tangled Depths at all. I want to be able to look at my map, head towards an objective, and actually get there. Tangled Depths is just frustrating trash. You head towards a point and end up somewhere else entirely. Sure, you can complete it all slowly circling around like a blind idiot in a haunted house, but I would say it is by far the least fun I’ve ever had in any map in the game. I think the most frustrating part is that I love all the other new maps, have no problems with the multiple layers at all, but I don’t just dislike Tangled Depths, I HATE it.

TD is probably my second favourite map in the entire game. It’s really interesting to explore, rather than just a straight line from point to point. The sense of “Oh wow!” when you find entire caverns (or the water underneath) that you had no idea were there is amazing. Only a few hidden JPs and mini-dungeons really come close to having that kind of impact.

I hope each expansion comes with one map like TD (more than that would annoy too many people).

Problem is that the nature of events makes the map frustrating. It’s easy to arrive late for an event.

I just wish waypoints were account bound.

I actually like TD a lot, as I do the Gilded Hollow and other similar subterranean areas. I like TD a bit more because my one character who is a “shade” of her main form in Skyrim can fly around TD in the outfit displayed in the attached image, which makes for an awesome glow-fest. Her “main form” also flies around a lot as a cloud of bats in Blackreach, so TD is the second closest to a familiar subterranean hangout [closest being Gilded Hollow] that my main character in GW2 has. So while I do agree that learning it is a bit trickier than the average map, I would like to actually see more maps like TD just because I’m an exploration/glider/wanderlust freak. xD

In other words, now that I’ve given my own opinion on this, rest assured that you will never see another TD-like map again. You’re welcome.

TD is actually my favorite zone, once you learn how to navigate in it its actually really awesome, just takes some time getting used to.

its alright once you learn your way around, but yeah the first time it really sucks.

I admire the effort the developers put in TD, but the map is not fun. Navigation is a major pain in the butt. It is very solo unfriendly on some classes, and the events are way too in frequent and the meta takes forever to complete.

TBH, difficulty aside (HoT content difficulty is about right), original GW2 maps design is better. There is no benefit in making navigation difficult. I admire VB (only after you have mushrooms and advanced gliding), but the rest of the maps are largely unrewarding with very long meta events. I generally find Ascalon, Shiverpeaks and Orr more interesting than Magma Jungle. Orr is also more rewarding.

If there is any thing learned from HoT, is to make navigation easier and meta events much shorter (20-25 minutes tops).

Highlord.7158:

Agemnon.4608:

Harper.4173:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

TD is a decent concept in theory, but failed in execution. It is a labyrinth that is tightly packed with extremely dangerous enemies, which make navigation hard, except there’s one big problem: You have no reason to go into those labyrinths.

The reality of Tangled Depths is that it is a fairly generic map structure with complicated labyrinths tacked on to the sides. Once you get to Ley-Line Confluence Waypoint the entire map is pretty linear. You just head down the labeled tunnel to get to the respective labeled waypoints. The hardest part from there is figuring out whether you go up or down to get to an event from that respective waypoint.

Oh, there are plenty of confusing paths and mazes in the map, but there’s no reason to go into them. All of the big and important events are usually tethered to Confluence Waypoint, or one of the respective main waypoints in the map, so if you find your bearings there, you’ve basically explored the whole map. The Nuhoch wallows trivialize pretty much everything else from there.

Exactly this – TD is a mess – and it’s a mess because of bad design.
Most of the times it’s not clear if you’re supposed to go up, down or in case you do know – how to get there.
The minimap doesn’t work with the layers well either.

If a player can’t figure out how to get to an event don’t you think the player deserves to miss out? Players need to get lost and die more often and I hope to see more in the next expansion.

I detest TD thus far. One wrong turn and boom, dead. One RIGHT turn, and boom, dead.

“Players need to get lost and die more often?”

I’ll put this simply. I don’t have tons of time to play or grind, or treat anything other than my job like a job. My time is more important that some else’s sense of digital accomplishment. I play GW2 because it’s fun, fast, flexible and accessible. If I wanted to blow hours of time on frustration, I’d be playing Allods.

Your time is more important than someone else’s sense of accomplishment? How do you figure? In case you hadn’t noticed, plenty of players in this thread give TD top marks for its creative design. I happen to agree with them. It’s easily the best map in the game (honorable mention to VB!) from an exploration standpoint.

I do agree with the complaints regarding event content. The boss meta is the best of all of the HoT maps, in my opinion. But there are large areas of the map that have no events at any point in the cycle and the events that are available are usually completed long before the boss timer comes up. I wish they would fix this. It would make this map even better.

TD have horrible layout, horrible to navigate and doesn’t feel fun at all, even after few full completions. Clearly worst map of expansion.

otto.5684:

Orr is also more rewarding.

Absolutely not. A single run of the AB meta will net you a bunch of rares. I took two toons round AB for map complete at the weekend, did several metas whilst I was there anyway, converted it all to ecto and made a lovely profit. Orr does not offer loot at that level for the time spent. And that’s outside the multi-AB thing which I don’t do but accidentally ended up doing when I left the squad I was in at the end of a run and joined a new squad to do a fresh run and they were on a different map so I looted twice.
And then of course there are all the new shinies that are HoT only like chak weapons, auric weapons, plated weapons. Orr didn’t get new rewards.

Zenith.7301:

Problem is that the nature of events makes the map frustrating. It’s easy to arrive late for an event.I just wish waypoints were account bound.

That could also describe going to Orr for the first time and seeing “Grenth starting” or “Defend Arah”.

It’s also easy to arrive on time or even early as there are timer sites so it’s just as easy to NOT arrive late. If you aren’t aware that there are timer sites.. google for one.

imsoenthused.1634:

I don’t enjoy Tangled Depths at all. I want to be able to look at my map, head towards an objective, and actually get there.

You can do that on nearly every other map. TD requires a bit of thought because as you say you head towards something and end up somewhere completely different. What I do now is look at Dulfy.net and then head towards an objective using the path shown on there. That way I actually get there and don’t feel frustrated.

imsoenthused.1634:

Tangled Depths is just frustrating trash.

See above to remove the frustration, it’s a million miles from being trash. It’s got some absolutely amazing experiences if you have the masteries to experience it.

imsoenthused.1634:

Sure, you can complete it all slowly circling around like a blind idiot in a haunted house, but I would say it is by far the least fun I’ve ever had in any map in the game.

I think that’s a shame but I totally understand your position. I love exploring so for me it was a joy to open the map. It didn’t get me any vistas and mastery points doing that, random exploration is unlikely to get you to somewhere designed to be a bit hard to gt to. But for that.. I used dulfys videos and via a combination of personal exploration and being shown around by someone who knows what they’re doing.. get map complete and all the secrets in no time.

I’m absolutely no expert but I’m happy to show people round TD. My advice apart from checking out youtube and dulfy.. is to do the map in bits. From the start just head towards confluence waypoint (hint don’t run straight there.. go left and down into nuhoch lane) and from there pick up scar. Do the scar corner. Head up to rata novus, do stuff there. Open the map in bits. Make sure you do the meta to get large chunks open safely. If you’re doing the meta, get there a bit early.

TD is awesome and I hope they’ll make maps more like this. Followed by VB which is an easy map to navigate. You get used to it if you do it a couple of times.