Straits of Devastation could use some rework

Straits of Devastation could use some rework

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Posted by: Ookamikun.6472

Ookamikun.6472

I guess the vanilla maps, Orr in particular, are abandoned or something when it comes to updating, but still I should bring this up.

Orr was hard to complete back then but now they eventually lessened the burden due to map population. I can safely do 100% Malchor’s Leap and Cursed Shore with more or less my typical adventuring gear (though there’s still that HP in Melandru Statue in Cursed Shore that is a pain to get unless you have nullified Grenth’s temple, yeah weird).

However, I feel SoD still has the problems of the original. For instance there’s still that one HP with Lyssa statue that craps out tons of condition and stun attacks, that it’d still take luck getting the HP even if they have sped up the channel. Getting the Balthazar HP too is insanely hard (neigh, impossible) due to the two Veteran Acolytes with somehow endless spawns of Thralls (for some odd reason I died there despite being well enough to regenerate most damage) and the two Balthazar statues. It’s the only Orr map that still requires certain events to be done to be able to clear so easily, unlike say in Malchor’s Leap where you could gain all PoIs and HPs there without much hassle.

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Posted by: Sartharina.3542

Sartharina.3542

And, its meta event (Temple of Balthazar) is an uncoordinated mess.

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Posted by: Menadena.7482

Menadena.7482

And, its meta event (Temple of Balthazar) is an uncoordinated mess.

My annoyance is that you pretty much need to wait for the meta in that zone to start exploring any of orr beyond the eastern bank of SD. Especially if you are on a sub-level character that is not wearing exotics yet.

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Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

I actually love that map. It was the first “difficult” map I came across. That escort event used to be intense.

That being said some of the HP, most notably the balthazar one is annoying to get. And the statues suck. I suppose it was planned for zergs in mind and….

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

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Posted by: penelopehannibal.8947

penelopehannibal.8947

You can complete all three Orrian maps without anyone doing any of the metas.

If you’re struggling with Hero Challenges, purchase [Ash Legion Spy Kit]s from Kyra Sharptracker, the Renown Hear NPC at Sharptail Encampment (Plains of Ashford). Buy a stack of about 25 of them for karma, and use them as you approach the hero challenges. They are particularly useful for the Statue of Balthazar hero challenge, and the one near Plaza of Lights in Malchor’s Leap.

As for Straits of Devastation, if the giant gate is currently closed, you can walk round to get in from the west, wade through the water and eventually you’ll come to a gap which you can enter and continue your exploration.

Blood & Merlot [Wine]

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Posted by: Amaimon.7823

Amaimon.7823

I think all of Orr should have a complete overhaul.. but that’s just me I guess

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Posted by: Lahmia.2193

Lahmia.2193

It would be nice to see the maps advance plot wise. Aka clearing up the undead and reconstructing Orr to its former glory.

Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death.

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Posted by: joneirikb.7506

joneirikb.7506

Personally I was late to the party of Orr, and avoided the maps for a good time because of the theme (undeads and wastelands, never been my faves). So once I went there they had already done the largest difficulty reductions. And I find myself really sad that I missed that, because the maps seems so obviously designed to be the first taste of harder maps in the game.

Personally I’d love to see them go the other way, and make the Orr maps harder, you can already solo all of it easy enough by either using class mechanics (stealth for some of the harder HP’s etc), or the karma stealth items as Penelope said above. But I really do miss a map that actually encourage you to party up. You can do all of those with a couple of people, I’ve done them with 2 players me included.

Heck if I was to go wild with ideas, I’d even love to see Orr maps incorporated into WvW, so enemy players appears as zombies you have to fight!

Elrik Noj (Norn Guardian, Kaineng [SIN][Owls])
“Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”
“The objective is to win. The goal is to have fun.”

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Posted by: Ookamikun.6472

Ookamikun.6472

You can complete all three Orrian maps without anyone doing any of the metas.

If you’re struggling with Hero Challenges, purchase [Ash Legion Spy Kit]s from Kyra Sharptracker, the Renown Hear NPC at Sharptail Encampment (Plains of Ashford). Buy a stack of about 25 of them for karma, and use them as you approach the hero challenges. They are particularly useful for the Statue of Balthazar hero challenge, and the one near Plaza of Lights in Malchor’s Leap.

As for Straits of Devastation, if the giant gate is currently closed, you can walk round to get in from the west, wade through the water and eventually you’ll come to a gap which you can enter and continue your exploration.

That’s how I got the Balthazar HP. Still hate the Lyssa statue HP though. Seriously, it’s not fun. Unlike the Balthazar statues that only spawn meteors with good breathing time, Lyssa statues spawn stun/dazing chaos fields eratically.

My main problem with SoD’s meta is that it requires three far off events to converge to a single location before actually getting the main meta to go. Compare that to the Grenth, Melandru, Dwayna or Lyssa metas, which are fairly straightforward and the starting points aren’t far from the temple.

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Posted by: Anchoku.8142

Anchoku.8142

There is a guild that runs all of the temples every day.

I used to spend an enormous amount of time in Orr, farming, and still do map completion and personal story on alts. Take your time and keep at it. There are plenty of players more than happy to join events or help you get a vista.

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Posted by: OriOri.8724

OriOri.8724

You can complete all three Orrian maps without anyone doing any of the metas.

I’m fairly certain that cursed shore has 1 HP that still requires you to complete the grenth temple to commune there. I’ve tried on several characters and was just unable to fully channel that HP before the stupid environmental effects from that statue hit me, interrupting the channel.

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Posted by: Zaraki.5784

Zaraki.5784

Orr is just like dungeons, it’s old stuff and it’ll be left as it is now and forgotten…

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Posted by: nosleepdemon.1368

nosleepdemon.1368

Oor used to be so epic around launch. When I got there on my Warrior I had to actually learn to play my class. I soloed most of the HPs back in the day. That took a lot of planning and plenty of deaths. Then it got nerfed. At least HoT brought some of that old difficulty back, I loved having to experiment with new builds and learning enemy weaknesses.

You’re right, SoD and Oor should have a quality pass done on them, and the difficulty restored to pre-nerf levels.

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Posted by: Ookamikun.6472

Ookamikun.6472

You can complete all three Orrian maps without anyone doing any of the metas.

I’m fairly certain that cursed shore has 1 HP that still requires you to complete the grenth temple to commune there. I’ve tried on several characters and was just unable to fully channel that HP before the stupid environmental effects from that statue hit me, interrupting the channel.

iirc Grenth statue doesn’t interrupt your channel since it’s just passive damage

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

You can complete all three Orrian maps without anyone doing any of the metas.

I’m fairly certain that cursed shore has 1 HP that still requires you to complete the grenth temple to commune there. I’ve tried on several characters and was just unable to fully channel that HP before the stupid environmental effects from that statue hit me, interrupting the channel.

iirc Grenth statue doesn’t interrupt your channel since it’s just passive damage

Not the one in the temple but the one outside in the middle of the island certainly does. We tried everything to get it, and eventually just took the temple, when we could.

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Posted by: OriOri.8724

OriOri.8724

Yup, I was referring to the same one as Vayne. Its not passive damage, but something like vines that will actively attack you. Unlike the firestorms near balthazaar statues, they aren’t random, they do seem to follow you and deliberately attack you, so as long as that statue is contested, you can’t get that HP.

Its not a problem, because I’ve never had trouble finding a group to do Grenth (never even had to look for a group honestly), but it is not possible to solo that map in my experience.

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Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

Any hit will interrupt the channel. The only way to bypass it would be people rotating blocks/invul around you But if you have that, you might as well take the temple. . On a ele, you can use mist form, but it doesn’t last long enough to get you through the whole channel. So ,you have to begin the channel in between pulses, and then hit mist form. Then you pray it lasts long enough. Maybe engineers can do it with Elixir S; never tried. Basically, it’s close to impossible for a select class and literally impossible for everyone else.

I’d also like to take the opportunity to rant about a similar thing involving the Balthazar point in Auric Basin. Previously I recall you could stealth in and channel the hero point. Recently I noticed they added a patch of fire that makes it impossible for you to do that without killing the champion.

Fortunately Cursed Shore is a pretty active map. Except you notice when it’s not, very badly.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

(edited by ArchonWing.9480)

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Posted by: penelopehannibal.8947

penelopehannibal.8947

Yup, I was referring to the same one as Vayne. Its not passive damage, but something like vines that will actively attack you. Unlike the firestorms near balthazaar statues, they aren’t random, they do seem to follow you and deliberately attack you, so as long as that statue is contested, you can’t get that HP.

Its not a problem, because I’ve never had trouble finding a group to do Grenth (never even had to look for a group honestly), but it is not possible to solo that map in my experience.

If you mean the one where the earth elementals are, you can still do this, again with Ash Legion Spy Kits (if you’re not a thief). I’ve done it on a couple of characters when the vines attack you. It’s a matter of timing it, the vines attack in five, maybe six pulses.

Blood & Merlot [Wine]

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Posted by: Ookamikun.6472

Ookamikun.6472

You can complete all three Orrian maps without anyone doing any of the metas.

I’m fairly certain that cursed shore has 1 HP that still requires you to complete the grenth temple to commune there. I’ve tried on several characters and was just unable to fully channel that HP before the stupid environmental effects from that statue hit me, interrupting the channel.

iirc Grenth statue doesn’t interrupt your channel since it’s just passive damage

Not the one in the temple but the one outside in the middle of the island certainly does. We tried everything to get it, and eventually just took the temple, when we could.

Yeah that one is weird. It’s a Melandru statue (so vines) yet somehow it is linked to the Grenth event. It was why I was wondering why despite Melandru’s temple being clear, it was active.

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Posted by: OriOri.8724

OriOri.8724

Yup, I was referring to the same one as Vayne. Its not passive damage, but something like vines that will actively attack you. Unlike the firestorms near balthazaar statues, they aren’t random, they do seem to follow you and deliberately attack you, so as long as that statue is contested, you can’t get that HP.

Its not a problem, because I’ve never had trouble finding a group to do Grenth (never even had to look for a group honestly), but it is not possible to solo that map in my experience.

If you mean the one where the earth elementals are, you can still do this, again with Ash Legion Spy Kits (if you’re not a thief). I’ve done it on a couple of characters when the vines attack you. It’s a matter of timing it, the vines attack in five, maybe six pulses.

No, we aren’t talking about that one.

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Posted by: penelopehannibal.8947

penelopehannibal.8947

No, we aren’t talking about that one.

Could you tell me which one you mean then so I can try and help?

As I said, any with vines that come from the ground can be done solo as long as you’ve got an [Ash Legion Spy Kit], wait after the five or six pulses, then use the kit as you’re at the Hero Challenge. A little tricky to time but not impossible to achieve.

Out of the 21 characters I’ve done 100% map completion on, I’ve had to use that trick maybe three times, and those have always been the one at Graven Cay in Cursed Shore.

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Posted by: azureai.9764

azureai.9764

So once I went there they had already done the largest difficulty reductions. And I find myself really sad that I missed that, because the maps seems so obviously designed to be the first taste of harder maps in the game.

A lot of those changes were definitely necessary. Attacking a group of Risen was suicide – they’d just spam CCs non-stop. No one had the CC breaks capable of dealing that much spam. And even if you did kill a Risen, the respawn time was a matter of a second (not plural).

You couldn’t take time to explore the map. And that’s antithetical to the game. Orr mobs weren’t smartly designed, they weren’t satisfying to defeat, they were just annoying.

It would be nice to see the maps advance plot wise. Aka clearing up the undead and reconstructing Orr to its former glory.

Even if there was a plot advancement, there’d still be Risen everywhere. Zhaitan’s minions didn’t die or deactivate with his death. They’re still trying to accomplish the Elder Dragon’s mission.

(edited by azureai.9764)

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Posted by: Moonyeti.3296

Moonyeti.3296

So once I went there they had already done the largest difficulty reductions. And I find myself really sad that I missed that, because the maps seems so obviously designed to be the first taste of harder maps in the game.

A lot of those changes were definitely necessary. Attacking a group of Risen was suicide – they’d just spam CCs non-stop. No one had the CC breaks capable of dealing that much spam. And even if you did kill a Risen, the respawn time was a matter of a second (not plural).

You couldn’t take time to explore the map. And that’s antithetical to the game. Orr mobs weren’t smartly designed, they weren’t satisfying to defeat, they were just annoying.

It would be nice to see the maps advance plot wise. Aka clearing up the undead and reconstructing Orr to its former glory.

Even if there was a plot advancement, there’d still be Risen everywhere. Zhaitan’s minions didn’t die or deactivate with his death. They’re still trying to accomplish the Elder Dragon’s mission.

If you do the Caladbolg quest line they do point out that there has been some progress made on clearing out the risen after the defeat of Zhaitan, but there is still a lot of work to do. So there should be less risen everywhere, even if they aren’t gone yet.