Guild Wars 2

When I first got into this game, I explored every nook and cranny in every map I entered. I still explore, just not with the “check under every rock and beneath every fallen leaf” level of thoroughness I once did. I would often find Veteran Enemies in secluded areas; a veteran wolf with a pack in a den carved into the side of a mountain, a veteran griffon atop a high peak, a veteran cave troll deep underground at the end of an isolated tunnel.

I always made it a point to fight these enemies. But as time went on, I realized they didn’t drop anything I couldn’t get from any other enemy of the same type. There was no special loot. There was no guarded chest nearby. There was nothing. Now I’m not the type of player who needs a carrot dangled in front of me to get me to do something. Far from it.

But with a little care I think the developers could use these enemies to lure players back into lower-level zones. Perhaps they could be replaced by named versions of the same type (or made to be placeholders for random and/or timed spawns of named versions) that drop special/rare loots or give points/faction rewards for some kind of karma vendor (bounty hunters? hunting lodges?), then people would feel more inclined to spend the time hunting these enemies down.

Just a thought. What do you guys think of the Veterans you come across in out of the way locations (not ones near renown hearts or dynamic events)? Do you take the time to carve your way to and slay them? Or do you simply continue on your way without a second thought? If the latter, what would you like to see done to make them worthwhile prey (if anything)?

I still explore the maps in every corner, every cave, and every water, even though I still have 100% map completion, because new things seems always to appear.

I attack anything that looks like a challenge to me. I have started to hunt down Champions in every zone from level 2 to level 80, to see if I can solo them. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I need to change my weapon sets and utlities, sometimes it’s just standing still and auto-attack.

It’s pretty easy overall though since I play a really, really tanked Guardian.

ArenaNet said in a patch that Champions and such will start giving loot, but I have yet to find nothing when killing them.

What I miss from original Guild Wars was the collectors. You could go and farm a special kind of mob for a special kind of loot, the collectors wanted these items and you could trade it in for almost anything.

Some collector’s gave drinks, food, or even special armour items, like the chaos gloves everyone loved.

I think ArenaNet needs to add collectors.

I did some exploration yesterday with a character that has 100% map completion, realised I could jump onto a ledge (with the help of sprint) and explore an area near some ruins I didn’t even know existed. Still didn’t find a way onto the ruins but it was a nice change from the grind.

I mostly ignore Veterans unless i’m forced into fighting them or i attack one thinking its normal, generally found veterans to be pointless as they drop the same crap as the rest but for a lot more (wasted) effort..

I usually hunt them down when I see them, but I’ve also felt the declining inspiration to see what they drop.
I do love finding a chest in their caves and lair, although the gains aren’t that spectacular, either.
I know that foes that haven’t been killed in a long time award bonus xp, but that’s not something to lure people back to the fields.

The promised loot drops would be nice and none of this “RNG that’s your bad luck” mess either were talkin full on rare loot 90% of the time. Same for champs.

They should do what WoW did here. First of all, give the NPC’s unique names, and secondly, make drop loot relevant to the NPC.

I mean, certain NPC’s in WoW like the elusive Broken Tooth have become actual legends among the population. Seeing him (or taming him on a hunter) was a feat reserved for only the most dedicated of the dedicated.

And remove the stupid “Veteran”, “Champion” tags etc. They are stupid and out of place.

Gab Superstar.4059:

They should do what WoW did here. First of all, give the NPC’s unique names, and secondly, make drop loot relevant to the NPC.

I mean, certain NPC’s in WoW like the elusive Broken Tooth have become actual legends among the population. Seeing him (or taming him on a hunter) was a feat reserved for only the most dedicated of the dedicated.

And remove the stupid “Veteran”, “Champion” tags etc. They are stupid and out of place.

Generally all Champions do have unique names, don’t they? They’re not always proper nouns, often the regular name with an adjective before it, but something still a bit flavourful.

Could you imagine what it’d be like if Champions got tagged somehow after they interacted with a player? For example, if a Champion downs and kills a player, the Champion gets a subtitle such as “Slayer of <playername>” until it is killed and respawns. It could keep a list that shows on mouseover or on the edge of the screen when targeted, and give extra experience bonuses per player killed this way. Some players might become so determined to get off the list that they might organise their guild or friends to get retribution on it and end it once and for all.

Of course, such bonuses shouldn’t gamed in a way that people could sacrifice themselves, alts, or low level characters just to build up the bonus, but the bonus should still be a nice stipend for the heroics.

I alway find veteran novice, cliffside fotm to be funny caz the name contradict each other.

When I see a veteran (and, except for Orr/Frostgorge, a Champion) I always rush for the kill, then get disappointed at the rewards I get for my trouble. It’s very silly that Veterans/Champions don’t reward at least 2-3 times (Vets) and 4-5 times (Champs) the loot of normal mobs.

Just take a look at events, the events that most people do, like the 99% of the population, involves a hundred normal mobs, those that involve vets/champs are ignored for the obvious reason that they give far less rewards, given the amount of time needed to kill them and their higher difficulty. It’s even worse with random bosses out in the world that you find while exploring, they serve no real purpose, even when there is a chest nearby, just run, press F twice, take the loot and leave…

The game that handled this kind of bosses the best (imo) was Guild Wars 1, each boss had a chance of dropping some unique loot (greens) AND they used very specific elite skills that players needed to overcome in order to capture. That elite skill capturing (not like the useless elites we get in GW2) combined with the unique skin/stat rewards made bosses very valuable.

It’s funny how a cooperative online RPG gave more incentive for people to go out and “hunt” for tough encounters/bosses than a “real” massively multiplayer online RPG with a persistent world…

Gab Superstar.4059:

They should do what WoW did here. First of all, give the NPC’s unique names, and secondly, make drop loot relevant to the NPC.

I mean, certain NPC’s in WoW like the elusive Broken Tooth have become actual legends among the population. Seeing him (or taming him on a hunter) was a feat reserved for only the most dedicated of the dedicated.

And remove the stupid “Veteran”, “Champion” tags etc. They are stupid and out of place.

They did the same with GW1 – boss-level enemies all had a name, and (after the SF update; about 3 months after launch) each had a chance to drop “Green” weapons – named items, that you couldn’t alter, but were an easy way of getting top-stat weapons, some of which had modifier combinations you couldn’t find anywhere else (at the time). Something like that would be awesome.

Personally, I do fight Vets, but not champions. Risk&Time vs Reward in either case is extremely poor, but champions much more so. Last night, for example, my and a friend took down a champion, and all I got from it was a grey junk item… Not exactly worth the time it took.