Guild Wars 2

A few suggestions to make Heart of Thorns a better experience for everyone.

General:

1A) The ideal way would be to keep participation when you swap map instances but if that can be abused in some way, then at the very least allow us to keep participation if we are FORCED to change a zone.

1B) Do not close zones without warning. I’ve seen this mostly in Tangled Depths but can happen at other places too, but never in Core Tyria. Why do zones close without any warning in Heart of Thorns zones?

1C) When you need to close a zone because of low population, close one that has low (or no) progress. It’s frustrating for players that progressed the meta to be swapped to a new instance that doesn’t have any progress at all. Or allow us to keep participation (see A)

1D) Reduce the “soft cap” for zones. SO more players can join a zone via taxi, playing with friends or community members should be very very high priority.

Verdant Brink:

2A) The Pile of Guano HP: do not allow the Vampire Beast to use its Vampiric Infection ability on pets, clones or summons. It makes the entire fight more annoying than it should be and punishes certain builds and play styles. VI should ALWAYS prioritize players.

2B) Coztic Itzel Belongings HP: remove the wasps, or at least the veteran wasps from the area you fight this HP, they are completely unneeded.

2C) Fix the “Extricate stranded nobles from vine chambers, and escort them to safety” so it doesn’t block progress anymore… some nobles do not respond if you destroy the vines stalling the event chain.

2D) Fix the “Rescue the captive sylvari from vigilantes” event, sometimes the vigilantes do not spawn blocking progress.

2E) Fix Maytl the Fierce so he does not spawn during the night, or while the Itzel village is occupied by Mordrem, make it like Potoni so he is available only after the Itzel outpost event chain progress.

2F) Make “Shooting Gallery” adventure an instance like Scrap Rifle Test. Also make Shooting Gallery available when you reach the pact camp, without the need to defend it or train Faren. Remove two obstructing bushes that can “hide” some targets to make it easier to “aim”.

2G) Reduce the amount of Airship Cargo spawns around VB, increase the amount of Large Airship Cargo points, making them available after you complete events, or when you sufficiently upgrade a camp during the Night. Night time should be more about working together and fighting Mordrem than running around looking for Airship Cargo to open. You did the same mistake in SW with the chest farm, but at least in SW you can choose to go for events or Airship Cargo farm, in VB you can’t. Increase the amount of Airship parts you earn from both normal airship cargo and the large airship cargo.

Auric Basin

3A) Remove all the walls that block map completion if the meta hasn’t progressed. There are mordrem there that can kill you, why have extra walls?

3B) Fix the Mordrem Rolling Devils, especially Champion versions (they first appear in AB). They take longer to kill than 3-4 other champions combined, their hit points can’t be THAT high. yes they have Protection while rolling but that’s not an excuse for the insane amount of time it takes to kill them.

3C) When you get a Golden Tarir armor make it so you don’t lose it if you don’t move or use a skill during the challenges. Once you get your armor there is no point to try a challenge, you can’t move away because you lose your armor, so if you get it early you must be moving around without any destination.

3D) Don’t allow the Champion Arrowhead HP to reach the North gate of Tarir… (really why is this a thing?)

3E) Fallen Masks Adventure: reduce RNG by spawning masks within a certain distance and not all over the place. Make the mask location more visible and show the blue/green up/down arrows when they spawn and not only when you go next to them.

3F) The Floor is Lava adventure: increase the time required for silver/gold on this one, it’s way too unforgiving.

Tangled Depths

4A) Buff the Gerent, he is currently way too easy. Don’t overdo it though.

4B) Fix the lane defense achievements so you get them if you defeat the Gerent, requiring players to stop DPSing so he can enter phase 3 shouldn’t be a thing. Either make the Gerent scale better (A) so he lasts longer, make him invincible every 33% of his health or just give us the achievements if we kill him, regardless of phase.

4C) Fix " Bring golem parts to Agent Zildi" event so it doesn’t get stuck and stall progress for the meta.

4D) Change the Mushroom Queen HP into a Mushroom King, Queens have too much persistent AoE which combined with the limited space make this HP way harder than most others. A King is a melee combatant (that has a pull) much more appropriate for the area. Alternatively make some changes to the area so the Queen cannot cover the ENTIRE area with her aoe.

4E) Although in the other maps it’s not very needed, Tangled Depths can easily use the Silverwastes system where the Gerent spawns when all outposts are complete. This will lead to a much faster cycle in TD and far less waiting time.

Dragon’s Stand

5A) Make the final DS merchant available at least to players who finished the story near the pact camp. We shouldn’t have to do the entire meta repeatedly in order to reach him.

5B) Reduce the amount of crystalline ore needed in recipes throughout the game.

5C) Dragon’s Stand is another zone that could easily use the Silverwastes approach. Make it so it repeats and there is a “restart” timer after you fight the Mouth of Mordremoth. Much better than waiting and waiting and waiting for the meta to start again.

Magus Falls

6A) Increase the chance of the chests throughout Magus Falls to drop rare Reclaimed Weapons!

6B) Decrease the amount of currency needed to buy things in Magus Falls, including armors and collection rewards

6C) Add a “key-ring” item that can hold all Magus Falls types of keys

I can only comment on the VB suggestions as I’ve been moving at the speed of late through Magus Falls. Overall, these VB suggestions seem well-considered. I will point out, though, that downed players can and do rally off the wasps at the Coztic Itzel HC. Thus, I’m not sure that they serve no purpose. It saves someone the minute or so needed to wait to die, then port to the nearby WP and glide back.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I can only comment on the VB suggestions as I’ve been moving at the speed of late through Magus Falls. Overall, these VB suggestions seem well-considered. I will point out, though, that downed players can and do rally off the wasps at the Coztic Itzel HC. Thus, I’m not sure that they serve no purpose. It saves someone the minute or so needed to wait to die, then port to the nearby WP and glide back.

Yes the normal ones are probably good there because you can rally. But the veterans serve no purpose at all.

I agree with most of what you talked about (especially the fixes to bugs) and a few of them, I just don’t care. But here some of my point of view.

1A) I can agree, but I think that there is no real way to do so. Or at least I didn’t hear good solution yet. I think that a proper queue system for map and fixing issue with memory overload would do a better job at fixing that situation.

2G) Yes it’s really important that they fix that. In VB the best incentive is to run around opening airship cargo and not to do the meta. There is several ways to achieve that, some are better than other depending on everybody’s preferences. I don’t really care which one they choose, as long as they change that.

4B) Fix the achivement is really the only option. Even if they buff it, you can still have a lot more people in one lane and kill him in 2 shots and making is invulnerale at 33% would make it very very hard to complete because not all lane have the right amount of ppl. Some lane need to be able to finish early to help other lane. Especially if you buff it. If they make him invulnerable at 33% then they shouldn’t buff him at all.

4D) Sexist. Lol joke. I agree that the Queen is kind of op in that place, but it’ was a nice fight when you have ppl with you.

4E) I disagree that it’s not need on all maps. I think that all the maps should be progression driven, not time gated. But it’s true that it’s especially a problem at TD.

5C) Yup DS would also be especially improve with that system. Right now you get into the map during the first 10-20min or you wait 2 hours to get into the next round. You need to be able to enter a map at anytime and taxi ppl in to complete the meta. It’s the basic game design principle of entry and exist points. I can’t believe Anet kitten it up so badly on DS (and HoT in general).

Thaddeus.4891:

1A) I can agree, but I think that there is no real way to do so. Or at least I didn’t hear good solution yet. I think that a proper queue system for map and fixing issue with memory overload would do a better job at fixing that situation.

If they fix their map close algorithm then they can allow us to keep participation if our map is about to close. And by “fix” I mean it won’t shut down maps that progressed but shut down fresh maps without progress. There is nothing more annoying than having lots of participation then suddenly be ported to a new map and lose it all. If they fix map closing then participation can be “fixed” too.

2G) Yes it’s really important that they fix that. In VB the best incentive is to run around opening airship cargo and not to do the meta. There is several ways to achieve that, some are better than other depending on everybody’s preferences. I don’t really care which one they choose, as long as they change that.

Yep. If they don’t follow my suggestion of reducing airship cargo and making large airship cargo spawn if you progress camps, then they can do whatever they wish, but something needs to happen. VB is the worst map in that regard, the others do not have such problems.

4B) Fix the achivement is really the only option. Even if they buff it, you can still have a lot more people in one lane and kill him in 2 shots and making is invulnerale at 33% would make it very very hard to complete because not all lane have the right amount of ppl. Some lane need to be able to finish early to help other lane. Especially if you buff it. If they make him invulnerable at 33% then they shouldn’t buff him at all.

The only problem I can think off if they “fix” the achievement, is someone that kills Gerent quickly could run to all other lanes and get multiple achievements, or over-buff Gerent so it fails. It’s still a problem.

4E) I disagree that it’s not need on all maps. I think that all the maps should be progression driven, not time gated. But it’s true that it’s especially a problem at TD.

Maybe they should all be like SW but TD and DS are the BEST to change first.

maddoctor.2738:

The only problem I can think off if they “fix” the achievement, is someone that kills Gerent quickly could run to all other lanes and get multiple achievements, or over-buff Gerent so it fails. It’s still a problem.

You don’t receive more reward from doing more than one lane. I tested it. You receive more reward if you do several sides at Tarir, participate at several bosses at DS or by doing several bosses at VB, but TD is the only good map on that regard. It doesn’t reward leeching several bosses.

And the Over-scale problem at TD was fixed long time ago. The more people you get at the Gerent the faster you can kill him so you can go help other lane without risking of making it actually longer to kill.

So both problems will not occur.

1D) I’d prefer them to raise the hard cap since the caps are less than that of the core maps.

2B) Just the vet(s) as the others are nice to rally off of.

3B) I haven’t had any issues killing the normal ones on all classes although I don’t remember killing the champ version.

3E) I agree with the visibility part.

3F) By no more than 5 secs.

4A) Definitely agree!

4B) More worried about players that tag and run. May not be an issue if the buff Gerent as you suggested.

4E) Only if they balance out the rewards kitten they’re not evenly spread across the meta checkpoints rather than a large amount at the end. Consideration should also be taken into how much is rewarded now that people can farm a particular part nonstop.

5C) Same as I said for 4E.

6B) Depends on by how much or if they add another incentive for people to participate in the maps. Otherwise reducing currency needed will shorten the timespan that players spend on the maps for those interested in the collections and/or legendaries.

Thaddeus.4891:

So both problems will not occur.

Nice I didn’t know that

Overall, I +1 this list.
There needs to be a [DEVS LOOK AT THIS] button somewhere.

Ayrilana.1396:

1D) I’d prefer them to raise the hard cap since the caps are less than that of the core maps.

Increasing the hard cap would also be nice. Are you sure the hard caps for HoT maps are lower than on other maps?

3B) I haven’t had any issues killing the normal ones on all classes although I don’t remember killing the champ version.

You can find a Rolling Veteran (not champ) in the last story instance. You can pull all mobs near the end of the first part, kill everything else and that one would still be above 50% health. Just takes too long to kill. They DO have more HP than other mobs.

6B) Depends on by how much or if they add another incentive for people to participate in the maps. Otherwise reducing currency needed will shorten the timespan that players spend on the maps for those interested in the collections and/or legendaries.

Of course. I believe they should be adding new things to get from all 4 maps on a regular basis, to keep them important for a long time. But we can all be sure you will need something for all the new legendary weapons. The worst offender is DS at the moment, too much Crystalline Ore is needed for various things (especially scribing)

I think the zones should be fun and players play them for the experience more than for the map rewards. Maybe all 4 zones need more regular rewards, I mean who runs Dry Top or Silverwastes just for Geodes/Crests, they do it because they earn other rewards too. If the general rewards of the zones are good they players will run them for more than just their own currency.

maddoctor.2738:

Ayrilana.1396:

1D) I’d prefer them to raise the hard cap since the caps are less than that of the core maps.

Increasing the hard cap would also be nice. Are you sure the hard caps for HoT maps are lower than on other maps?

3B) I haven’t had any issues killing the normal ones on all classes although I don’t remember killing the champ version.

You can find a Rolling Veteran (not champ) in the last story instance. You can pull all mobs near the end of the first part, kill everything else and that one would still be above 50% health. Just takes too long to kill. They DO have more HP than other mobs.

6B) Depends on by how much or if they add another incentive for people to participate in the maps. Otherwise reducing currency needed will shorten the timespan that players spend on the maps for those interested in the collections and/or legendaries.

Of course. I believe they should be adding new things to get from all 4 maps on a regular basis, to keep them important for a long time. But we can all be sure you will need something for all the new legendary weapons. The worst offender is DS at the moment, too much Crystalline Ore is needed for various things (especially scribing)

I think the zones should be fun and players play them for the experience more than for the map rewards. Maybe all 4 zones need more regular rewards, I mean who runs Dry Top or Silverwastes just for Geodes/Crests, they do it because they earn other rewards too. If the general rewards of the zones are good they players will run them for more than just their own currency.

Yes. We’ve tested it several times as the cap seems to be somewhere around 90-100 whereas it’s closer to 120 on other maps. I believe one of the TD guilds tested it as well when the camped on a map for several cycles.

Are all of the other mobs vets too? I’ll have to check that out sometime. All that I have seen is that I can kill the regular ones just as quickly as everything else. Actually, when doing the story instance where you can spawn one of them to get a saurian bone, I kill them faster than the bristlebacks.

Some more suggestions:

General

1E) Add a Breakbar tutorial. Much like the dodge tutorial that exist at the starting zones, a breakbar tutorial needs to be added somewhere to teach players what that blue bar is. Probably not at a starting zone because at that point players won’t have CC skills, or they could use an environmental weapon with CC skills to demonstrate what a breakbar is and how to defeat it.

1F) Add new entries on the LFG tool, one for each raid wing and one for each Magus Falls map

1G) Fix linking waypoints in party chat while in a squad…

Verdant Brink

2H) Add a separate mini-instance at the Raid entrance so players going for raids gather there and not mess up the VB meta nor flood VB map chat. It has been asked since the Raid first appeared, it’s time to add it.

Tangled Depths

4F) Change the mini-map, again. The current version is too bright and it’s very hard to see party/squad members on the TD map.

Some suggestions for other types of content:

Shatterer

7A) Make his Shard Storm attack deal a lot of damage, or even destroy siege weapons so it’s more important to break his bar. Currently the main problem with the breakbar isn’t that it’s hard to break, but it’s useless to break it.

Fractals

8A) Return the 3-fractal system for rewards only. Before you rage, let me explain:
The current system has a serious flaw, players are running the fastest ones only for their daily. Of course it’s not player fault, if the longer/harder fractals have the same rewards as the easy/fast ones then there is little reason to run the harder ones.

One solution would be to give higher rewards for the harder ones, but then comes the big question: how much higher? it would be hard to find the sweet spot for each player, so I propose a different system. Give more rewards if you do 3 fractals in a row, so let’s say the daily is 5. If you run 2/5/10 you will get A amount of rewards. If you run 3/4/5 or 4/5/6 or 5/6/7 will get B amount of rewards where B is greater than A.

The system would still allow you to run any fractal you want at any time however running the easy ones + daily each day won’t be optimal. Thoughts? Am I missing something on this?

maddoctor.2738:

Fractals

8A) Return the 3-fractal system for rewards only. Before you rage, let me explain:
The current system has a serious flaw, players are running the fastest ones only for their daily. Of course it’s not player fault, if the longer/harder fractals have the same rewards as the easy/fast ones then there is little reason to run the harder ones.

One solution would be to give higher rewards for the harder ones, but then comes the big question: how much higher? it would be hard to find the sweet spot for each player, so I propose a different system. Give more rewards if you do 3 fractals in a row, so let’s say the daily is 5. If you run 2/5/10 you will get A amount of rewards. If you run 3/4/5 or 4/5/6 or 5/6/7 will get B amount of rewards where B is greater than A.

The system would still allow you to run any fractal you want at any time however running the easy ones + daily each day won’t be optimal. Thoughts? Am I missing something on this?

That’s a big one. I don’t think you should have added that one to your list. I think that the vast majority of what you listed so far, most people could get on board with. This one will spark a lot of discussion if you ask me.

There is definitively thing that need to be done with fractal. Their idea of 1 islands per level is a good one, but at the same time, this created a lot of problem. The worst part is that all the community saw it coming. The second they announced it, the first thing we said, I hope they balance it so that people won’t be doing swamp over and over. We all know Anet answer to that right. They just said that don’t worry high level swamp won’t be easy so it won’t be a problem. Well guess what anet, you were wrong and it felt like you didn’t think of that problem that much.

As for your idea. I don’t see how this will improve thing much. People will find the easiest 3 fractal in a row and farm them instead. It slight improvement as we gonna play 3 differents fractal, instead of one, but not really a solutions if you ask me.

Here my solutions

1) Make 5 daily. Level 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-100

2) Remove all ascended chest drops from the dailies. Make fractal focus on fractal skins (blue and gold) and add ascended amulet and earings (to a lower droprate if they want). That would give other option for people to gear up alts. You can keep ascended chest droprate, but at a very low change in higher level.

3) For the 3 highest daily level range, make a repeatable achievement that will give you a reward when you complete them all. And that’s where you gonna get your ascended drop.

- 41-60 : Each time you complete all 20 levels you get either 1 ascended armor or weapon chest. Equivalent of about a droprate of 5%.

- 61-80 : Each time you complete all 20 levels you get 2 chest, either armors or weapons. Equivalent of about a droprate of 10%.

- 81-100 : Each time you complete all 20 levels you get 3 chests, either armor or weapons. Equivalent of about a droprate of 15%

4) Complete redesign of the instability system. That’s pure garbade if you ask me. The difficulty come from random instability with little to no counter. There is no fun, in getting feared randomly, make them put condition on agony attack so we can dodge, block do something. There is no fun when we just lose all our buff, that just make a bit part of the game useless. There is no fun when the mobs can have all the boons in the world, make them so we want to corrupt/strip them of their boons. Now they get boons faster than we remove them, making that mechanics useless. There is no fun in having the same instability for 20-40 levels. Even a instability that used to be fun (mobs explode on death) is now just frustrating when you have to dealt with it so much.

Tbh. I would love so much if they transform instability into that : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld-geUCvebE

That’s a video from WP for dungeon, but we know that won’t happen, but they could use that system for instability. But maybe that’s just me dreaming.