Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to complete the Skipping Stones geysers. I’m not complaining about them being too hard for me, as I’m sure I can eventually get there.

What’s annoying me is that after every time I fail I spend more time running back to the start and waiting for the geysers to start up again than I am trying to get through them and I can reliably get to the last of the geysers visible from the water level.
The wait is the frustrating part. Especially when I get back to the start just in time to see the rocks fall.

I can understand some waiting, since making the rocks stay up all the time would lessen the difficulty. But why do we have to wait so long ?

No.

I don’t want it to be any easier. You will know our pain.

What wait? It’s like just a few seconds…

The wait is there for a reason, the stones are timed so if you had less of a wait then you also have less time to do the jumps. Saving 3 seconds would make the puzzle incredibly hard, any more and it would be impossible. Plus, you just missing is because you fall off at the end, anyone falling off near the start gets to go strait back on.

I understand the frustration (when you’re standing there for the 30th time) but as has been said I don’t think it is possible to change the interval without messing the whole puzzle up. Believe me, it makes you that much more delighted when you finally get it right.

Small tip, use stability if you end up on a geyser that’s about to spout, you might (not always possible) find a way to continue from that point without having to start over.

My favorite thing is climbing up the busted ship at the very end of all the skipping stones and finishing the puzzle in ~10 jumps.

Leap game, keep play’n

You should try diving spot on top of the aetherblade jp. Then you will see how easy the skipping stone jp is.

Umut.5471:

You should try diving spot on top of the aetherblade jp. Then you will see how easy the skipping stone jp is.

This.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

I’m trying to complete the Skipping Stones geysers. I’m not complaining about them being too hard for me, as I’m sure I can eventually get there.

What’s annoying me is that after every time I fail I spend more time running back to the start and waiting for the geysers to start up again than I am trying to get through them and I can reliably get to the last of the geysers visible from the water level.
The wait is the frustrating part. Especially when I get back to the start just in time to see the rocks fall.

I can understand some waiting, since making the rocks stay up all the time would lessen the difficulty. But why do we have to wait so long ?

Let that be an incentive to you to not fall.

This is the jumping puzzle that made me head out on a Sunday to buy a £70 Steelseries mechanical keyboard and throw the bubble-sheet POS in the trash!

Sounds like it’s working as intended….

You fall, penalty is having to run back and wait for proper start time.

Definitely par for the course.

Maybe you should learn some patience, young Padawan.

runeblade.7514:

No.

I don’t want it to be any easier. You will know our pain.

I fail to see how reducing the time between the stones falling and rising again would make it any easier. If you miss a jump, you still have to run back to the start. If you’re on the stones when they fall you still have to run back to the start.

Draknar.5748:

You fall, penalty is having to run back and wait for proper start time.

How does delaying people after they fail contribute to a fun moment to moment gameplay ?
Or make the puzzle more difficult ?

Though at least skipping stones non-threatening enemies with immobilize to stop you on the way back to the start. Enemies which you only interact with after failing (Branded Mine). Or enemies that put you into combat mid-jump, causing you to fail the puzzle or pull you off the tiny platform (Chaos Crystal Cavern). Which feels like a failure because RNG says fail, not a failure because I screwed up. Griffonhook is the only jumping puzzle I’ve seen where the enemies add to the difficulty (if you carry the bomb), instead of just being something to slow you down with an easy fight or provide an RNG based failure.

Or the rock fall in branded mine, where doing anything but waiting for it to pass is a bad idea. But if you finish your jump when the screen shakes and take your hands off the keyboard till it has passed, you’ll be fine. There is no difficulty there. Just RNG says you must wait.

Or the various puzzles with a death drop and a long run back. ANET felt like it was a good idea to provide some res option in some puzzles. But no consistency in which ones have the res. Why does Coddler’s Cove have an NPC res you, while Branded Mine does not ?

What is so good about jumping puzzle mechanics that only exist to slow players down without adding anything to the difficulty of completing the puzzle ?

What is a Mesmer Portal?

Then again I guess I don’t remember that one too well.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

I can understand some waiting, since making the rocks stay up all the time would lessen the difficulty. But why do we have to wait so long ?

Because the geysers are timed. What do you propose they do to decrease the wait without breaking the timing of the sequence?

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

runeblade.7514:

No.

I don’t want it to be any easier. You will know our pain.

I fail to see how reducing the time between the stones falling and rising again would make it any easier. If you miss a jump, you still have to run back to the start. If you’re on the stones when they fall you still have to run back to the start.

Draknar.5748:

You fall, penalty is having to run back and wait for proper start time.

How does delaying people after they fail contribute to a fun moment to moment gameplay ?
Or make the puzzle more difficult ?

Though at least skipping stones non-threatening enemies with immobilize to stop you on the way back to the start. Enemies which you only interact with after failing (Branded Mine). Or enemies that put you into combat mid-jump, causing you to fail the puzzle or pull you off the tiny platform (Chaos Crystal Cavern). Which feels like a failure because RNG says fail, not a failure because I screwed up. Griffonhook is the only jumping puzzle I’ve seen where the enemies add to the difficulty (if you carry the bomb), instead of just being something to slow you down with an easy fight or provide an RNG based failure.

Or the rock fall in branded mine, where doing anything but waiting for it to pass is a bad idea. But if you finish your jump when the screen shakes and take your hands off the keyboard till it has passed, you’ll be fine. There is no difficulty there. Just RNG says you must wait.

Or the various puzzles with a death drop and a long run back. ANET felt like it was a good idea to provide some res option in some puzzles. But no consistency in which ones have the res. Why does Coddler’s Cove have an NPC res you, while Branded Mine does not ?

What is so good about jumping puzzle mechanics that only exist to slow players down without adding anything to the difficulty of completing the puzzle ?

Ahem. Don’t fall and you have an easier time. Anet isn’t “slowing down” players. It’s the players who keep failing that are slowing themselves down. Think about it. If you didn’t fall, you would have finished the JP so much sooner. That’s all part of the challenge. If you aren’t up for it, there are some easy ones in Lion’s Arch.

Like blaming the creator of Jenga when the game falls to pieces and isn’t instantly reset for another round.

What’s not working as intended, and a far greater issue is the fact that any offensive spell cast on the geysers will cause you to be locked in combat with it til you get out of range.

I found the puzzle annoying to do on my guardian because I couldn’t ever use symbol of swiftness outside of a few areas – doing so would cause me to be in combat.

This would also mean that almost all fall damage traits would cause you to enter combat as well, if you take fall damage on a geyser stone.

No, don’t nerf this puzzle.

I can get to the diving spot on the aetherblade easier than I can do this because timed puzzles psych me out. I did manage it once but it was hellish. However, one of these days I will get over this issue of mine and do it easily. I really look forward to that day.

The only thing doing this JP will do is give you a few achievement points. If it drives you nuts, skip it.

Do it on a mesmer.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

runeblade.7514:

No.

I don’t want it to be any easier. You will know our pain.

I fail to see how reducing the time between the stones falling and rising again would make it any easier. If you miss a jump, you still have to run back to the start. If you’re on the stones when they fall you still have to run back to the start.

Draknar.5748:

You fall, penalty is having to run back and wait for proper start time.

How does delaying people after they fail contribute to a fun moment to moment gameplay ?
Or make the puzzle more difficult ?

It doesn’t add difficulty in the sense of harder jumps, but a harsher penalty does make the experience a bit more stressful, which affects your motor skills, which does in fact add to the difficulty. It makes you slow down and time your jumps because you don’t want to have to start over. It is a basic concept which does make things harder. Like a standardized test. Timed versus not timed tests can yield very different results. The added stress affects you.