Guild Wars 2

Just started paying this today and I already can tell you this timer is a seriously bad idea.
It’s bad enough that DS is full of op mobs that make exploring needlessly annoying,
on top of that every time the meta fails,which btw is always in a empty map,you die and have to restart exploring from the base camp?
Who on earth play tested this and gave the ok?
Can you at least take in account the player numbers in order to decide when to start the countdown?
What is the point of counting down in a mostly empty map filled with just a few players going on about the map completion and exploring?
You can’t tune a map so that it’ll be playable only when it’s full of players actively engaged in the meta events.
And this goes for all the HoT maps.
You need to monitor the population in each map in real time,and open objectives
accordingly,so even less populated maps will have a chance to success,and in
DS’s case,the timer countdown won’t begin before enough players are in the map.

Basically the HOT zone meta format and the Megaservers simply don’t work well together, having to use ‘taxis’ as the only way to get enough people together to be able to even attempt the map is just ludicrous .. whatever happened to the concept of SCALING Anet?

They should split the design of open world maps and metas. DS was almost done that way, being a meta map, they just need to take it a little further. The basic DS should be a regular open world explorable map, while a new map, which is restricted much a like personal story instance, is offered solely for the meta event. While the meta is active or about to start, anyone in the regular map should be given an option to join the battle against mordremoth. This design will split the players between those who actually want to participate in the meta and everyone else. With HoT’s meta design of wanting 20+ people minimum, though players expect at least 50+, this really needs to happen in order to make it easier to participate.

Kerin.9125:

whatever happened to the concept of SCALING Anet?

They do scale. Despite people expecting that zergs are required, you really only need 3-5 people per objective. The problem ArenaNet created by splitting up the zerg is that instead of needing 1 group, you need 4. Original world bosses for example were designed for 10 people, but possible with as few as 3. Now, world bosses are designed for 20+. Furthermore, with the increase in difficulty, many can’t handle the content, so not many people can handle doing it with only 3, and since scaling isn’t 1:1, it only gets easier with more people, further misleading them.

The other problem, which you may considering to be a scaling issue, is that everything was designed to be group content when it simply shouldn’t have been. HoT will no doubt get nerfed eventually, and I expect to see all chains made into regular events, just like the rest of the game.

I’m think that this may be the direction that they’re moving towards. If they do make the maps for like SW, I do hope that they spread out the rewards so players are encouraged to participate for the duration of the meta rather than hop on at the last second to gain participation and then look for the next near completed map.

i agree, I’d say 19 out of 20 times i enter DS it’s empty, and I get these spam messages about how the dragon is going to shut down the map when I’m exploring an area that I just got to….

I play solo most of the time, and I’m just looking for masteries …..some of the areas are blocked until the meta event is completed ….so that’s as casual unfriendly as it gets, especially with maps that are empty where you simply can’t trigger anything without a minimum number of players.

BTW – a minion necro with viper’s stats is king of the jungle in DS, I was taking on 4-5 npcs at a time with it without breaking a sweat, I was solo roaming like a boss, to a point that it seemed like some npcs would avoid me lol….heck, i wish i could trigger an event solo to open some areas…..Highly recommended if you want to roam without constantly having to hide. – i think i died once because i got a little too brave and took on a fairly large mob lol

focus on a build where minions raise your toughness and each hit heals you for a small amount, the amount of hits you get with a big minion adds up to major healing, major toughness, and lots of distractions to keep the npcs off of you while you do major damage from 1200 feet away – which also helps revive you when you are downed. makes a big difference in ds. = do it as a reaper….the reaper mode alone can take on npcs with ease in ds = you can even solo some ( not all because of the timers ) but you can definitely solo a few champs with the build. my fav pve build of the moment, rev sword/axe/hammer assassin dwarf berserker being my current fav pvp build. (actually good in pve too, but not as deadly as the reaper )

not saying they are the best builds, but they are a ton of fun to play. Made hot worth it for me :p ( make sure you have at least ascended weapons, i’m still using mostly exotics though in necro, leaning more to vipers – black diamonds can get expensive so i have mixed stats – mostly vipers though , the magic in the build is vipers, lots of minions and yassith ascended weapons – zoljas for pvp )

Interesting, when I show up for a DS meta at least a minute before the timer resets the map I find a map doing the meta… 20/20 times to align with the stats given above. The HoT maps run off timers. Show up early you’re good to go. Show up on time or a bit late and it’s a maybe. Show up 30-60 minutes late… You have nothing to blame but yourself.

Pre-exploring to get all the poi’s and such? This takes like twenty minutes. My advice? Dulfy’s HoT timers. Google that, show up on time.

nah, that doesn’t work, it’s wishful thinking. You have to be aggressive with the looking for group panel and taxing people to an active map, and getting people to tag up. It happens, though, it’s just not often, and more often than not i get booted out of maps that are organized in lfg panel because they fill up quick.

when I’m in DS, i’m not always there for meta, sometimes I’m just adventuring and looking for pods and masteries, fact remains that some areas are shut out unless there is an event. I don’t want to have to go through the drama of getting into a big event just to explore.

Avarice.2791:

Interesting, when I show up for a DS meta at least a minute before the timer resets the map I find a map doing the meta… 20/20 times to align with the stats given above. The HoT maps run off timers. Show up early you’re good to go. Show up on time or a bit late and it’s a maybe. Show up 30-60 minutes late… You have nothing to blame but yourself.

Pre-exploring to get all the poi’s and such? This takes like twenty minutes. My advice? Dulfy’s HoT timers. Google that, show up on time.

I’m sure that if you are looking to do the meta you will eventually find a taxi to take you to a map,but there is no reason to close less populated maps on a timer that makes sense only for close to full or full maps.
Adjusting the map content according to the population would be one way to greatly improve the gameplay experience for a lot of players,and reduce the “closed beta” feeling that one gets from interacting with the megaserver/map system as it is now. It’s just a suggestion and some feedback.
I’ll ignore the 20 min comment since this has nothing to do with anything.
it takes you 20,it takes me 200,and it takes someone else 100.It’s irrelevant.

Thanks for the Dulffy tip though.Didn’t know there were timers for GW2 events.
Total life saver.Do they also have cookie recipes there?

I wish they had cookie recipes, but yes… This was the tool that eventually made me understand HoT fully… a week or so in. I took a break from this game a year ago and decided to buy HoT about 2-3 weeks ago now.

I understand that it may be annoying if you are exploring and the map resets but this is simply because every map aligns up with each other. It makes sense to me. What I can tell you is once you get exploration done this will be so little of an issue to you that you will look back on this post and laugh. I would advise doing the Meta three times. One in each lane and take all the poi’s you can. Once you clear the meta there are three HP’s you need to get which two of them have giant red arrows on the map pointing to them. Another requires increased glider endurance at least and is the one right by where you fight Mordy. Some poi’s require poison lore too btw but are easily gotten while participating in the Meta. This may take you a few times but trust me, you will get everything. I believe in you!!!

To get in the meta, just look at those timers and arrive in DS 5-10 minutes early. If theres a squad join up on it and wait. Most of the time when the map resets you’ll be ported in with the majority of the squad, or a well populated map. If not, quickly look at the LFG panel and search for a taxi, you have a few minutes to find one. I’ve had to do this once out of about 30 times. I’ve never missed a DS meta I showed up to on time.