Guild Wars 2

First off amazing update overall!! Loving it whole-heartedly and thrilling achievements!!! I really think we need more of these.

Echoes of the Past Story – Exposed Weakness: Redux achievement

This is quite an easy achievement, I didn’t see any bugs as people have been complaining about. They might just be confused or something so I decided to record the fight in between

A mini step-wise guide:

1. Look for the white shield on the floor, quickly grab it
2. Go near to the Vertex to transfer your 1 hp boon over it (i.e white shield buff)
3. Once the vertex has 1 hp boon, kill it immediately as it will damage the main boss
4. When a facet spawns in between, kill him first, it will give you a random color buff, take it to the vertex under same colour but before going to vertex don’t forget to take the white shield (because transferring 1 hp buff to the vertex is important)
5. Repeat all these steps until the boss is dead.

Important: You have to make sure you don’t use any kind of boons from either major/ minor traits, sigils, runes or utility skills, otherwise, vertexes would steal your boons and this achievement will fail.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ5BJUyQXSA

I hope it would be be helpful to some of you.

The hard part is eliminating every source of boons. The engineer for instance have at least two trait lines where minor traits will produce a boon of some sort under the right condition.

digiowl.9620:

The hard part is eliminating every source of boons. The engineer for instance have at least two trait lines where minor traits will produce a boon of some sort under the right condition.

You’re right, for example my mesmer friend had the same issue so finally she had to go 6,0,0,0,4 and had to avoid putting anymore trait points cause minor traits had boons in there.

Starter tip: Take all traits off and equip a weapon and set of utilities that won’t apply boons.

How to Proceed:

Kill minion to get Red/Blue/Green

Apply “Fragility” to yourself and walk to the Vortex.

Destroy Vortex after it has absorbed your “Fragility”.

Repeat.

/end

Diva.1476:

First off amazing update overall!! Loving it whole-heartedly and thrilling achievements!!! I really think we need more of these.

Echoes of the Past Story – Exposed Weakness: Redux achievement

This is quite an easy achievement, I didn’t see any bugs as people have been complaining about. They might just be confused or something so I decided to record the fight in between

A mini step-wise guide:

1. Look for the white shield on the floor, quickly grab it
2. Go near to the Vertex to transfer your 1 hp boon over it (i.e white shield buff)
3. Once the vertex has 1 hp boon, kill it immediately as it will damage the main boss
4. When a facet spawns in between, kill him first, it will give you a random color buff, take it to the vertex under same colour but before going to vertex don’t forget to take the white shield (because transferring 1 hp buff to the vertex is important)
5. Repeat all these steps until the boss is dead.

Important: You have to make sure you don’t use any kind of boons from either major/ minor traits, sigils, runes or utility skills, otherwise, vertexes would steal your boons and this achievement will fail.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ5BJUyQXSA

I hope it would be be helpful to some of you.

Sorry to tell you but some people were not confused but had bugs. This fight can be a royal pain in the you know what (had to remove the word or a kitten would been hurt) if you are unlucky. So maybe you can remove that part of your post. The fact that you didn’t encountered bugs does not mean other players are confused.

The known bug is that the vortex’s seem to stop spawning or spawn in the walls making it impossible to finish – still, look on the bright side we’ve just had a patch where ‘Some improperly placed shadows were removed from terrain.’ so I’m sure they’ll get round to sorting this too eventually.

Daroon.1736:

The known bug is that the vortex’s seem to stop spawning or spawn in the walls making it impossible to finish – still, look on the bright side we’ve just had a patch where ‘Some improperly placed shadows were removed from terrain.’ so I’m sure they’ll get round to sorting this too eventually.

Oh it’s not impossible it just takes 3 hours and 15 minutes of naked fighting to kill it with a rifle, you ask how I know this?

CMM.6712:

Daroon.1736:

The known bug is that the vortex’s seem to stop spawning or spawn in the walls making it impossible to finish – still, look on the bright side we’ve just had a patch where ‘Some improperly placed shadows were removed from terrain.’ so I’m sure they’ll get round to sorting this too eventually.

Oh it’s not impossible it just takes 3 hours and 15 minutes of naked fighting to kill it with a rifle, you ask how I know this?

I know it is very frustrating but wouldn’t it have been quicker to restart the instance? and at least after the last patch you won’t be having to deal with those pesky improperly placed shadows

Diva.1476:

This is quite an easy achievement, I didn’t see any bugs as people have been complaining about. They might just be confused or something so I decided to record the fight in between

There are three bugs i have noticed.
1. Sometimes vortexes stop stealing buffs, and thus you can’t apply fragility to them. Fortunately, in such a case they do seem to be killable normally.
2. sometimes vortexes spawn in some hard-to-reach place (i.e. in a wall…), which makes them harder to kill.
3. sometimes getting a normal (not fragility) boon stolen doesn’t seem to invalidate the achievement. It may be that some boons count, while some don’t (or it may be some random glitch).
4. Not sure if it counts as a bug, but sometimes fragility doritos appear within big aoe field. Since the shield doesn’t block 100% of damage, if the buff lands too deep within the field you can get downed trying to pick it. Fortunately all you need to do is just wait for a next buff to appear.

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

Daroon.1736:

CMM.6712:

Daroon.1736:

The known bug is that the vortex’s seem to stop spawning or spawn in the walls making it impossible to finish – still, look on the bright side we’ve just had a patch where ‘Some improperly placed shadows were removed from terrain.’ so I’m sure they’ll get round to sorting this too eventually.

Oh it’s not impossible it just takes 3 hours and 15 minutes of naked fighting to kill it with a rifle, you ask how I know this?

I know it is very frustrating but wouldn’t it have been quicker to restart the instance? and at least after the last patch you won’t be having to deal with those pesky improperly placed shadows

True, but I am stubborn and just wanted to see if I could do it. I was watching a movie at the time too and just kiting him around.

Mizuki Kusanagi.6584:

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

I did it incredibly easily on guardian. It requires you to remove the buff and make sure not to go to a vortex if the buff is about to come back. Not difficult.

I guess the biggest hairball is that you can’t pick up fragility after getting the shield and run back into the vortex. End result is that you have to be very careful about your sequence once the color pillars appear. Never mind that the vortex don’t pick up fragility instantly sometimes. I have found myself standing on top of the vortex for what seemed like seconds before anything happened. All while expecting the big bad to drop a massive hurt on me.

The vortex does the absorb skill at set intervals. That’s why it seems like you sometimes have to wait for seconds.

Ayrilana.1396:

Mizuki Kusanagi.6584:

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

I did it incredibly easily on guardian. It requires you to remove the buff and make sure not to go to a vortex if the buff is about to come back. Not difficult.

I’m about to start this chapter with my guardian. How can I remove one month, two weeks and 5 days of aegis?

Manu.6078:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mizuki Kusanagi.6584:

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

I did it incredibly easily on guardian. It requires you to remove the buff and make sure not to go to a vortex if the buff is about to come back. Not difficult.

I’m about to start this chapter with my guardian. How can I remove one month, two weeks and 5 days of aegis?

What I did was continuously use F3 and then intentionally get hit to remove Aegis.

Ayrilana.1396:

Manu.6078:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mizuki Kusanagi.6584:

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

I did it incredibly easily on guardian. It requires you to remove the buff and make sure not to go to a vortex if the buff is about to come back. Not difficult.

I’m about to start this chapter with my guardian. How can I remove one month, two weeks and 5 days of aegis?

What I did was continuously use F3 and then intentionally get hit to remove Aegis.

Thank you for hint, it works.

You were very fortunate that you did not encounter bugs. I DC’d over and over then decided to wait for the updated patch. I tried it again, and after getting to the end boss, the fragile shields keep spawning in his damage areas then disappears in phase 2. I got him down to 45%, but don’t have time for pointless running around. You cant see if his health is dropping because it hardly changes. Frustration is not a good thing in any MMO, as it removes the “fun” factor. At this point and hours of trying to do living story, I am getting past the “sell by date” Although I have enjoyed living story and all the new content, frustration and sanity prevail. Please let me know when you do a FIX on this, or not, thank you.

I have done the achievement now twice, once for myself and once for a friend, and also the normal story on three characters and have not encountered any bugs or problems.

Changing the nature of the game by forcing you to get rid of boons is just a poor design decision.

Blude.6812:

Changing the nature of the game by forcing you to get rid of boons is just a poor design decision.

They didn’t change the nature of the game and they don’t force you to remove your boons. Not having your boons absorbed by the vortex is an Achievement. It is not required to complete LS. You have to voluntary go back, after you have completed the story, to do the achievements.

I think what Blude means is that totally changing the mechanics of the game for a boss battle is not the best idea.

It happens a lot in single player games, and it often sucks. It implies that the main game was too easy, and rather than fix the main game to be challenging, they threw the normal mechanics out the window for the boss fight.

OP Boss fights also mean that every major villain has to be some sort of titanic monster – like the holographic Scarlet, which means the writers get painted into a corner with respect to character development.

They didn’t change the game mechanic and the boss is not OP in any possible way.
You can AFK during the fight and still win without a scratch. How is that OP?

Ayrilana.1396:

Manu.6078:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mizuki Kusanagi.6584:

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

I did it incredibly easily on guardian. It requires you to remove the buff and make sure not to go to a vortex if the buff is about to come back. Not difficult.

I’m about to start this chapter with my guardian. How can I remove one month, two weeks and 5 days of aegis?

What I did was continuously use F3 and then intentionally get hit to remove Aegis.

^ this

I did with a build not fully boon free, I went triple meditation sceptre and sword. Triple meditation has Might of the Protector, so any time my aegis went off I had to wait a few extra seconds for might to expire, plus all my armors have some kind of boon on hit from runes, so I had to wait for them to expire too. Besides of waiting and running around, I did it easily.

Wanderer.3248:

I think what Blude means is that totally changing the mechanics of the game for a boss battle is not the best idea.

It happens a lot in single player games, and it often sucks. It implies that the main game was too easy, and rather than fix the main game to be challenging, they threw the normal mechanics out the window for the boss fight.

OP Boss fights also mean that every major villain has to be some sort of titanic monster – like the holographic Scarlet, which means the writers get painted into a corner with respect to character development.

You are talking nonsense.. Zelda has some of the most epic boss fights in the gaming world and its because of their dedication to creating unique encounters. Rewriting the rules for bosses is what makes them memorable and “bosses” (not just regular stuff with more hit points).
As for holographic Scarlet – THE WHOLE OF LIONS ARCH NEEDS TO FIGHT HER – you cannot have them all beating up a regular sized model. They even gave the small instance afterwards to deal with that.

tl:dr Yes to more good boss design! I can see the effort made to make it accessible for nonBiS gear and trying to be creative with effects – keep it up.

Wanderer.3248:

I think what Blude means is that totally changing the mechanics of the game for a boss battle is not the best idea.

It happens a lot in single player games, and it often sucks. It implies that the main game was too easy, and rather than fix the main game to be challenging, they threw the normal mechanics out the window for the boss fight.

OP Boss fights also mean that every major villain has to be some sort of titanic monster – like the holographic Scarlet, which means the writers get painted into a corner with respect to character development.

Yep—you got it!

Haishao.6851:

They didn’t change the game mechanic and the boss is not OP in any possible way.
You can AFK during the fight and still win without a scratch. How is that OP?

I am solo playing my story instance, and you say I can AFK and the final boss will be defeated.
Ya —right.

Haishao.6851:

They didn’t change the game mechanic and the boss is not OP in any possible way.

True, they didn’t change the game mechanics – what they did was to create fight mechanics that were meant to circumvent the normal combat engine. Basically, each boss fight except the first is not a normal combat, but rather a separate minigame.

Haishao.6851:

You can AFK during the fight and still win without a scratch.

Not very likely, unless your definition of AFK is very nonstandard.

Blude.6812:

Haishao.6851:

They didn’t change the game mechanic and the boss is not OP in any possible way.
You can AFK during the fight and still win without a scratch. How is that OP?

I am solo playing my story instance, and you say I can AFK and the final boss will be defeated.
Ya —right.

I meant you can go AFK during the fight, then come back unscratched and finish it.

I’d prefer that the normal mobs were moderately challenging, rather than being someone you mow down like blades of grass. Then you wouldn’t have to use different mechanics for the bosses. I think the Mordrem and the Toxic alliance are good examples.

There’s something wrong when you deliberately pull large numbers of mobs so you can kill them more efficiently.

Most instances (most of the game actually) seems to be like a cartoon, with thousands of expendable minions and a single super villain.

Haishao.6851:

Blude.6812:

Haishao.6851:

They didn’t change the game mechanic and the boss is not OP in any possible way.
You can AFK during the fight and still win without a scratch. How is that OP?

I am solo playing my story instance, and you say I can AFK and the final boss will be defeated.
Ya —right.

I meant you can go AFK during the fight, then come back unscratched and finish it.

If you go afk during the fight, Darkness will kill you. If you go afk within attack distance, Light will kill you (and if you go afk beyond its attack distance, it will reset to full hp after a while). Memory is different from light in this regard only by having two phases with different attack ranges (mobile or stationary within shield aoe).

So, basically, you are right only if you meant “you can respawn at full hp, and come back to start the fight again from the beginning”.
Unless, again, you have some very nonstandart definition of afking.

i did it with my ranger for easy buff management…

I did it with my guardian traited to an odd Sc/FC + GS build (6-6-0-0-0) where I even had 2 trait points left, then popped Aegis explicitly and let Summoned Facet hit me so it disappeared… then i could debuff the Vortex Crystal easy.

Took signet utilities that didn’t buff me either, and traited for inc damage + signet improval.

Worked like a charm, got the Redux achievement on first try.

Mizuki Kusanagi.6584:

Astralporing.1957:

Still, it’s a relatively easy achievement, unless you are a guardian. Don’t do that on a guardian. Aegis from Virtue of Courage unfortunately does count against the achievement.

Kudos to Anet for not thinking that one through terribly well :P

I completed it on my first try as a guardian in under 10 minutes. Just activate the virtue, get hit (to remove aegis), and you’re safe from it for 90 seconds.

Did this on my Warrior. Wore my extra tanky PVT gear with Runes of the Dolyak so even when Fragile, I was basically invulnerable to the little mobs (my health regenerated faster than they could hurt me). The only thing that could kill me was accidentally running into the colour fields when Fragile. From there, it was just a matter of time.