Verdant Brink
Most of the lvl 80 pve’rs are on the 3 new living story maps. They give “currencies” which can be traded for ascended trinkets, rings, backpiece and even aquabreathers.
Not to mention the 3 new living story maps are better designed than the original 4 HOT maps.
It’s because of the time. Go there a little later in the day when people are off from work/school and it will be easier to get enough people to do the meta. I got T4 last night with no problem.
Every map has fewer people during certain times before|after|during holidays (in this case, US Thanksgiving), in the first 2-3 weeks after a new LS episode or major content update, etc.
Plus the ‘volunteer’ message you get suggests only that the map to which you are transferring used to have people; it doesn’t mean those people will remain (lots of folks leave right after night ends or when it starts).
Finally, these maps are big. Even in a high pop map, I can sometimes go 20 minutes without running into anyone, depending on what I’m doing and what they are doing.
I use LFG for all the original HoT maps, because the random maps are more often filled with random people; the ones I find in LFG have people working together on something, even if it’s just an HP run.
tl;dr it’s entirely possible that the map is more active than you think; try LFG
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Other than organized maps, in my experience VB is pretty bad at being filled with a bunch of people doing their own little thing (usually on their way to map completion)
Yeah… Running into the same problem myself, especially with tangled depths. Trying to get an achievement there (killing one of the meta bosses, towards the whispers backpack).
Basically, aside from AB, all the maps only have 1 instance of them where people do the meta. Meaning if you’re not exactly at the start of the meta (or a couple minutes before) and you don’t get into the instance that’s doing the meta… Well you’re kitten out of luck.
Seems like the longevity of these maps were never taking into consideration when they were designed. Especially when some of the achievements are tied to metas directly or indirectly have now become somewhat of feats strength to do.
This is coming from someone that stopped playing for a while and trying to get back in… Complete turn-off. They didn’t have these issues when HoT was first released, but now that it’s been a while… And the novelty wore off… It’s just horrible design.
Also, might help, a link to event timers:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers
Trying to get back into the game and enjoy it… But everything related to HoT, it seems, should be avoided like the plague, since it’s more of a headache than an enjoyable play time.
(edited by Zero Day.2594)
Not to mention the 3 new living story maps are better designed than the original 4 HOT maps.
Really???
Bitterfrost Frontier has only 2 waypoints, bad means of map traversal and an isolated southeastern area.
Seems like the longevity of these maps were never taking into consideration when they were designed. Especially when some of the achievements are tied to metas directly or indirectly have now become somewhat of feats strength to do.
That is not anything new or unique to HoT. There is very little that feels like they’ve thought thing through for the long term.
Not to mention the 3 new living story maps are better designed than the original 4 HOT maps.
Really???
Bitterfrost Frontier has only 2 waypoints, bad means of map traversal and an isolated southeastern area.
I heard there is a great farming route for berries. Berries can be turned into UM which can be converted to gold. If you only approach it from a profitability standpoint that is mostly true. Also for the berries you only need to deal with 1/2 or maybe even just 1/4 of the map since most of it is in the north west area.
(edited by Khisanth.2948)
Really???
Bitterfrost Frontier has only 2 waypoints, bad means of map traversal and an isolated southeastern area.
They’re toning down waypoints in favor of adding ways to travel around faster. They’ll probably add another method of travel with the next expansion, in the same way HoT added gliders. The problem with having too many waypoints is that they make the world feel smaller and emptier while making it easy to miss everything in between.
Not to mention the 3 new living story maps are better designed than the original 4 HOT maps.
Really???
Bitterfrost Frontier has only 2 waypoints, bad means of map traversal and an isolated southeastern area.
It’s a matter of personal preference. For example, I find the new map to be rather dull without the meta doing anything meaningful.
Really???
Bitterfrost Frontier has only 2 waypoints, bad means of map traversal and an isolated southeastern area.
They’re toning down waypoints in favor of adding ways to travel around faster. They’ll probably add another method of travel with the next expansion, in the same way HoT added gliders. The problem with having too many waypoints is that they make the world feel smaller and emptier while making it easy to miss everything in between.
That worked for Ember Bay but whoever did Bitterfrost Frontier didn’t get the memo apparently and did a terrible job of it.
BF also had a decent balance especially with the gliding skills.
(edited by Khisanth.2948)
Trying to get back into the game and enjoy it… But everything related to HoT, it seems, should be avoided like the plague, since it’s more of a headache than an enjoyable play time.
As far as the HoT maps go, I completely agree. I ragequit months ago right after buying the xpac because it was just pure frustration and GRIND. Something I wanted to leave WoW for, but it felt even worse here because I could not even do the rest of the story without some stupid grind gating.
I came back again and realized just doing pvp and old world content is far more enjoyable than anything that has to do with HoT. I have no opinion on the new LS zones cuz I haven’t tried them yet, like I said just got back. It’s funny I keep getting comments on my mastery lvl 11 yet I have 14k AP lol. I had so many HP from getting world complete years ago that thank the gods I did not have to do anything in HoT to get my elite specialization.
They really didn’t think those maps through imo, especially when talking about the longevity. Yeah let’s add meta events which would require many people to zerg but just let the maps die out.. seems legit. I thought we’ve been telling ANet for years to keep organized group content to instanced? Isn’t that why they finally released raids? Just stick to normal freaking events in open world, there isn’t always going to be enough players.
Other than organized maps, in my experience VB is pretty bad at being filled with a bunch of people doing their own little thing (usually on their way to map completion)
It is those kittening adventures. Recently I went there for a VB daily and almost everyone on it was doing the adventure daily. It was a slog for awhile (with people complaining about the adventure) but eventually we all started going to the same events so we could get our 4.
Adventures have to be among the worst thing that happened to HOT maps. Only surpassed by crashing after spending over an hour doing a meta.
Other than organized maps, in my experience VB is pretty bad at being filled with a bunch of people doing their own little thing (usually on their way to map completion)
It is those kittening adventures. Recently I went there for a VB daily and almost everyone on it was doing the adventure daily. It was a slog for awhile (with people complaining about the adventure) but eventually we all started going to the same events so we could get our 4.
Adventures have to be among the worst thing that happened to HOT maps. Only surpassed by crashing after spending over an hour doing a meta.
You’ll find that on any of those three maps when the daily is an adventure that isn’t instanced. You are more likely to have more random players doing map completion, including hero points, over those doing adventures.
I personally found the adventures to be enjoyable for the most part except for the mushroom one in AB with the buggy skills.