Guild Wars 2

With Siren’s Landing Team 3 has shown that they learned a lot from the feedback from Bitterfrost. While they still have issues with making map areas flow into one another, they are at least learning about enemy density. However, they need to go back and rearrange the spawn conditions on Bitterfrost so that map will be playable.

The current state of Bitterfrost is not sustainable. Adjustments need to be made so that every square inch of the map isn’t coverage in overlapping aggro from 5-10 high-difficulty level 80 monsters. Every gathering node is covered in masses of enemies, Travel around the map is a massive slog due to constant chills and constant deaths-due-to-swarming, and there really isn’t much interesting to do on the map. Of the S3 maps, it’s the only one I dread going to and the only one I haven’t map completed multiple times, because I can’t work up the will to go back and do it again.

Strange I haven’t found the mobs in Bitterfrost to be soo difficult. By far it’s my favorite map of the expansion. It’s the one I’ve replayed the most. There are a few issues with the map, not soo much that it ruins the experience. The map reward is the best of the LW stories. In fifteen minutes I get 47-50 berries, so doing it daily I can get an item in short order. The biggest draw back to the map is the elixir was a daily that requires traversing the entire map.

If you’re having trouble ask away, I’ve explored and done every part of the map many times and love going back there often.

The new map is OK not too much vertical. I don’t care for the mastery, it’s another highly situational not really necessary mastery (this would have been a good universal mastery, but tying them to maps limits their benefit). The Balthazaar area is just painful at least it can be completed without too much mob fighting.

I personally don’t find the mobs difficult – they’re just seemingly everywhere. Griffon + doge chill spam, that one BS move the vet trolls pull where it leaves you CCd and NOTHING can stunbreak you out of it, getting turned into a block of ice from 1k+ range away while gliding but sadly plummeting to the ground even though you just stealthed. And that one annoying drake that has to follow you over the ravine and smack your behind while you’re trying to node the berry bushes.

I only go there for the berry farm when I need to and I must admit… since they killed off the necro farm shenanigans the mobs are on you 24/7. I especially ‘love’ the aggro range of the doges when they’ll chase you for what seems like miles and just when you think they’ll go no further they apply their infamous leap chill only to stop and walk off like nothing happened leaving you in combat which is slow AF.

Anet can add some of these shrine waypoints to Bitterfrost.

I don’t see a problem with mobs in Bitterfrost. They are high in just one spot, and there’s little need to spend much time there.

In contrast, all of Lake Doric has problems with mob density, mob toughness, mob DPS, respawn times, heart scaling (many heart contributions are not account bound, so you compete with others to complete them), with respawn rates of collection-related bosses.

I’d love to see more maps like Bitterfrost, while Lake Doric feels like ANet put together the worst elements from every other map in the game.

tl;dr can’t agree OP.

Mobs can aggro on you from a long distance, but that’s the only complaint I have. I spend more time farming there than anywhere else.

In fact, I think it would do well to slightly nerf the loot there (which they may already have done, very recently — jury is still out on that).

I’ll grant that Veteran Corrupted Ice Elementals and Icebrood Wolves can hit harder than some other mobs, and they are often the ones patrolling in certain areas. I’ll grant that there are times when combat in BFF can be hectic. However, I’ve had very few experiences where 5 mobs aggroed at once, and never had 10 do so. I wonder what you are doing differently than I.

The map is playable. The mobs can certainly be dealt with if you choose to fight them. Players farm it constantly, hitting Winterberry nodes or Icebound Chests. Many do so while running through and completely ignoring the mobs. I question whether anything needs to be done.

The mobs wouldn’t be too difficult IF YOU WEREN’T CONSTANTLY FIGHTING 20 OF THEM. If the spawn rate were more reasonable then it would be fine. It’s just that as it stands you draw far far too much aggro due to the enemies being far too many in too small an area.

I think the most that I fight at once is about four regular mobs and a veteran. These are also only around a grouping of winterberry nodes. Hardly anywhere near 20, not constantly, and completely manageable. Oh, I forgot to mention that the spawn rate is the same as elsewhere in the game or at least close enough to it.

Bitterfrost is still my least favorite map but for completely different reasons.

The challenging combat is fun but the map is little more than a loot farm.

Cave in the SW corner has terrible rewards, as does the frost damage area in the NE. The event chain is pretty simple, too. Also, the map has too much junk: disguise pieces, sticks, suet, shells, ice bits, etc.

Boogiepop Void.6473

There are a few spots where patrols cross, however if you keep that in mind you can plan your trek across the region without too much trouble. Since I’m not sure if you’re farming berries or your farming chests I can’t really give more specific help.

But to put the zone into perspective I’ve brought my Ele and theif here, the weakest of my toons and traveled in off peak hours still able to get the berry farm done and complete the map. I really can’t think of any mob, POI, task, or other to the map that can’t be done even with squishy toons. I would recommend you get a feel for the mobs, they really telegraph their moves and with a little planning I’m pretty sure the numbers won’t be a problem once you plan for them.

I know which bushes are most likely to trigger the griffins and depending on toon I either rush in to spawn them all and burst AOE or approach slowly triggering one or two at a time. Wolves are pretty much the same. Engineer turrets agro from a long way away so only use the turrets when it’s absolutely necessary. I know where every veteran ice ele is and exactly how to approach killing or avoiding them. The map takes a little patience at times and sometimes even I get killed even with the best planning when I’m playing a squishy class like the theif. This last time through was the first time I didn’t get downed on my theif and I run with pistols only. Each set has different sigils but it’s pure pistols which is mainly single target. Either way try to have fun with it and good luck.

My biggest complaints are the absurd aggro range of the ice elementals, the way the storms directly approach players, and getting “frozen.”

If I had to nail it down to a single beef with the entire zone, it’s the Frozen transformation. It’s not a condition, not a stun, so stunbreaks won’t work. The transformation makes you lose your torch, because it replaces your bundle/kit. Which reminds me that the Koda’s Flame mechanic is kinda shoddily executed.
The nigh-constant chill is equally irritating, but at least I can cleanse it.

Plan your trip using the mushrooms to go up the trees and glide down and you miss a lot of aggro.

Wait till you meet a magma elemental …

Tyria is a big place, enemy densities are going to vary from place to place. Why do you want a uniform world?

It’s not about uniformity. It’s about not constantly attracting 6+ enemies that take so long to kill that they have all respawned before even being downed (and keep this up till you die). That’s the kind of thing that not only can happen on this map, but happens frequently if you dare go anywhere alone.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

It’s not about uniformity. It’s about not constantly attracting 6+ enemies that take so long to kill that they have all respawned before even being downed (and keep this up till you die). That’s the kind of thing that not only can happen on this map, but happens frequently if you dare go anywhere alone.

It takes me maybe 20 seconds at most to kill them and they’re on a respawn of more than 60 seconds. Unless you’re hitting them with one of those foam pool noodles, I don’t see how you can take that long to kill them.

When you have 3 Icebrood hounds, a couple norns, a griffon or 2, maybe some spiders, and possibly an elemental, all of whom are aggroing you from there respective spawns because they are so close together, and all of whom are on very short spawn timers, then even with full ascended you have trouble. And this is NOT a rare occurrence or you dragging a train on this map. This kind of aggro density REGULARLY occurs almost anywhere on this map, especially around berry nodes.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

When you have 3 Icebrood hounds, a couple norns, a griffon or 2, maybe some spiders, and possibly an elemental, all of whom are aggroing you from there respective spawns because they are so close together, and all of whom are on very short spawn timers, then even with full ascended you have trouble. And this is NOT a rare occurrence or you dragging a train on this map. This kind of aggro density REGULARLY occurs almost anywhere on this map, especially around berry nodes.

I don’t remember any such spot like that. You had to have dragged them from multiple areas despite what you claimed. All of the spawns are decently spread apart and they have around a minute respawn. This is more than enough time to kill them all, gather berries, and move on to the next node.

Someone is playing in tanky armor if you’re “constantly” dying to the mobs in BF. Just kill them for dang’s sake. Takes like 15 seconds to clear a node. I agree they’re annoying, but not even CLOSE to dangerous.

Khisanth.2948:

Wait till you meet a magma elemental …

Ha ha! Indeed.

Ayrilana.1396:

Boogiepop Void.6473:

When you have 3 Icebrood hounds, a couple norns, a griffon or 2, maybe some spiders, and possibly an elemental, all of whom are aggroing you from there respective spawns because they are so close together, and all of whom are on very short spawn timers, then even with full ascended you have trouble. And this is NOT a rare occurrence or you dragging a train on this map. This kind of aggro density REGULARLY occurs almost anywhere on this map, especially around berry nodes.

I don’t remember any such spot like that. You had to have dragged them from multiple areas despite what you claimed. All of the spawns are decently spread apart and they have around a minute respawn. This is more than enough time to kill them all, gather berries, and move on to the next node.

Agreed. Unless you run blindly from spawn to spawn, it’s pretty unusual to be soloing more than 4 regulars plus a vet at once. With the increased attention on the zone for Aurora, it’s less likely that you’ll be alone (you can fight together or be able to escape more easily). If/when that interest dies down with new zones, then it will be even easier to avoid over-aggroing.

tl;dr be more careful when you run around.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

It’s not about uniformity. It’s about not constantly attracting 6+ enemies that take so long to kill that they have all respawned before even being downed (and keep this up till you die). That’s the kind of thing that not only can happen on this map, but happens frequently if you dare go anywhere alone.

At least it’s dropped from 20 earlier in the thread down to 6+ now, I guess they are listening after all. :P

I think they should lower the aggro range for those ice elementals at the least though.

Pifil.5193:

I think they should lower the aggro range for those ice elementals at the least though.

Yeeaah.. getting the freeze transformation from range “trebuchet” is really irritating.

Though, really, the firebear mastery wasn’t well designed for the zone in the first place. It should have been tied to the special action key, included more passives and on-use abilities (immune to frostbite while off cooldown, use to do a bunch of burning damage and unseal chests, etc). Because no one uses beartorch 3, and having to carry the torch is a big nuisance.

Rauderi.8706:

Pifil.5193:

I think they should lower the aggro range for those ice elementals at the least though.

Yeeaah.. getting the freeze transformation from range “trebuchet” is really irritating.

Though, really, the firebear mastery wasn’t well designed for the zone in the first place. It should have been tied to the special action key, included more passives and on-use abilities (immune to frostbite while off cooldown, use to do a bunch of burning damage and unseal chests, etc). Because no one uses beartorch 3, and having to carry the torch is a big nuisance.

Yeah. I think the only use that mastery got was for the chests.

For being frozen spamming F works much better than using the 1 skill.

The mastery should have gave you the warmth buff while holding the torch or being around it if you put it down.

I don’t think I’ve ever had trouble with this map. So long as you can keep up the dps, the mobs will drop like flies. The areas where you tend to die are probably the areas you tend to learn to avoid (and are where npc’s paths colide).

If your build can’t burst, I’d suggest taking to the trees, or else you’re going to get REAL popular (I learned this the hard way when I accidentially used my magi ranger). But this map certainly isn’t all that challenging after a few good runs and condi cleanse (or quickness).

Westenev.5289:

I don’t think I’ve ever had trouble with this map. So long as you can keep up the dps, the mobs will drop like flies. The areas where you tend to die are probably the areas you tend to learn to avoid (and are where npc’s paths colide).

If your build can’t burst, I’d suggest taking to the trees, or else you’re going to get REAL popular (I learned this the hard way when I accidentially used my magi ranger). But this map certainly isn’t all that challenging after a few good runs and condi cleanse (or quickness).

Oh right I keep forgetting about those too but you can avoid a lot of the fighting with the bouncing mushroom/thermal tubes/gliding but that is only if you are just trying to get from A to B. If you are gathering berries there will be a bit more fighting but the optimal path for berry farming doesn’t have that much mob either besides the oens that spawn on the nodes.

To be fair, my berry runs often include hearts. So long as I kill everything between point a and point b, I get some karma, maybe some t6 claws and 20 extra berries for very little effort. What’s there to complain about?

Depends on what you are killing since they removed drops from the mobs guarding the berries. :/