Guild Wars 2

I’d love to love the new jumping puzzle. The new map looks fantastic, and exploring caves in a cavern ceiling is pretty neat. But let’s be real; Searing Ascent is a mess. I’ve seen maybe half a dozen other players attempting the JP (a record low in my experience) due to issues like these:

1. It’s a monster of a headache to do even while following a guide. “Path markers” only exist in the latter half of the puzzle, and even then they often lead you in the wrong direction.
2. Using the Oakheart Essences in tiny, cramped nooks is a buggy nightmare. Aim wrong and you bounce off the ceiling, wasting a charge and you have to start over again. Aim wrong and you don’t even go as high as you should, and you have to start over again. The jumping puzzle elements in tight spaces has worked well, the new mechanic does not.
3. While the “Return to Checkpoint” skill is a good idea, apparently it’s pretty buggy because mine disappeared at some point after the third checkpoint. I didn’t even get the warning message that pops up before it happened. And I was in the caverns right at the end, so I couldn’t even jump out and go back to the checkpoint. Pretty peeved about that.
4. The absolute worst offender by far: the random bolts of lightning that knock you off your glider. WHY?!?!? The JP is already ridiculously frustrating enough trying to figure out where on earth you’re supposed to go. Why the hell is there random lightning that screws you over? That’s got to be the dumbest part in the whole puzzle. It’d be one thing if it were obvious where you needed to go, and it was just a matter of trial and error to figure out how to avoid this mechanic. But you can hardly tell from where this random garbage that can screw up your whole run shows up until it happens. Absolutely terrible.

I know what you’re thinking, “just don’t do it then.” Aside from the implication of discouraging people from doing in-game content, here’s the thing: if it were just confusing or challenging to navigate, that would be one thing. But bugs ruining the enjoyment of playing the game are a whole other issue, and that’s just not fun at all. Not to mention a BS mechanic that makes a frustrating experience even worse.

Please don’t do JP’s like Searing Ascent again.

I have to imagine the percentage of players that actually enjoys exploring and solving these type of puzzles is extremely low, but it doesn’t affect me in any way. I just ignore them and play the content I find enjoyable.

I do wish they would add more medium difficulty and less tedious puzzles though. There have been quite a few easy JPs added to the game, but many are so easy I finish them on the first try, like the one by the golem HP in Auric Basic or the one near the WP in Southsun.

Ideally there would be a middle ground between finishing on the first try or never making it past the starting area.

Since the lightning has no indicators about when or where it is going to hit, it definitely needs to go from the puzzle area.

The length of the JP was a bit too long in my opinion. It’s like Chalice of Tears in that regard. I’ve done Searing Ascent and Chalice of Tears only one or two times. As a point of comparison, I think the length of the JP under Noran’s cabin in Lake Doric is the perfect length. Whenever I’m in Lake Doric I usually do the JP there because I find it fun and it’s not too big a time commitment.