Guild Wars 2

In my five years of playing Guild Wars 2, I would have to say Siren’s Landing is a truly unique experience where I absolutely despise the sight of another player. This feeling is specific to areas around the Grenth and Lyssa Reliquaries. Let me explain.

At the Grenth Reliquary, one of the core mechanics for the Renown (Heart) Quest is to use the “Reclaim” skill from the Ley Organ bundle on Unchained Wraiths (alive or dead) and Reclaimed Wraiths; successfully reclaiming Wraiths awards approximately 20% completion of the Renown track. However, more often than I would care to count, during the course of the 4-second cast time of Reclaim, other players would displace the Wraiths around me either by drawing aggro and running away, or using knockbacks/pulls. To add insult to injury, the Ley Organ would be consumed the moment I used it. So not only would my Renown progression be “stolen,” I would have to go hunt down another Scavenger and another Wraith, and pray I don’t get trolled, again.

Similarly, at the Lyssa Reliquary, a core mechanic involves using Reclaim on one of the Corrupted Fountains. Successfully Reclaiming a fountain also awards 20% towards the completion of the Renown Quest. However, since some of the Horrid Illusions have stuns or dazes that will interrupt the 4-second cast time of Reclaim, and thereby wasting it, the “safer” strategy would be to quickly dispatch any nearby Illusions first. The problem is, while I’m fighting, not only do I have to contend with the enemies, I do not have access to the Ley Organ abilities, which then allows for some other player to waltz right by me and Reclaim the Corrupted Fountain I was fighting for. The kicker to this? Once Reclaimed, nobody else can get credit by using Reclaim on the same fountain.

These flawed mechanics run absolutely counter to the Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto. Not only am I incentivized to solo these areas, but I would go out of my way to avoid other players, lest they “steal my kill,” so to speak. Considering the proximity of the launch of Path of Fire, I can only hope ArenaNet will consider fixing these two Renown quests, or at least take a second look at future mechanics.

Cheers.

I can add to this.

While doing the Reclaim the undead thing, I’d take down some bodies, then go in search of a ley organ. Well, during that time, I’ll see another player just sweep in and Reclaim it. Pretty rude, honestly.

I’m surprised you don’t have the same problem around Melandru’s reliquary as you do at Grenth’s, considering the Risen has to be killed before it can be reclaimed. Seems kind of like the same principle to me.

One solution to both of those is, instead of reclaiming, you could use the skill 4 (I forget what it’s called) on the devices found by every reliquary vault. I don’t know if it offers the same 20% completion, but it’s guaranteed no one will steal that from you unless they purposefully send an enemy to hit you.

Rauderi.8706:

I can add to this.

While doing the Reclaim the undead thing, I’d take down some bodies, then go in search of a ley organ. Well, during that time, I’ll see another player just sweep in and Reclaim it. Pretty rude, honestly.

You can still reclaim them after someone else does if you’re referring to the melandru shrine heart.

I was feeling the same way, until someone showed me that I didn’t have to reclaim. Instead use the ley line organ #4 skill from a “safe spot” and let it complete its channeling. If you stand in the right spots, you can finish each heart with as few as two organs, regardless of what anyone else is going.

tl;dr I agree with the OP that the mechanic for reclaiming undermines ANet’s goal of cooperative PvE & I would like to see it changed. In the meantime, I use Transfer Magic.

Grab organ
Get aggro from a few risen
Pull them to champs that will one shot them
Use 3 skill on multiple risen bodies at once
Heart done in seconds

Seriously this map has the easiest hearts in the game and can all be completed very quickly. Blaming other people is ridiculous in all honesty.

Serenity.6135:

Grab organ
Get aggro from a few risen
Pull them to champs that will one shot them
Use 3 skill on multiple risen bodies at once
Heart done in seconds

Seriously this map has the easiest hearts in the game and can all be completed very quickly. Blaming other people is ridiculous in all honesty.

However your workaround (specifically for the Grenth Reliquary) is still, first and foremost, a workaround. Secondly, it only works within a limited area of the Renown Quest area, meaning the same issue still holds true for the other two-thirds of the Renown Quest area. Thirdly, other nearby players can still displace your gathered mobs.

And I absolutely agree that this zone has the easiest Renown Quests in the game, but that’s besides the point. The fact of the matter is that these mechanics are still terribly flawed.

Ojimaru.8970:

The fact of the matter is that these mechanics are still terribly flawed.

The way I phrase it is that they run counter to ANet’s cooperative philosophy about PvE. Anyone can pick up a ley organ from the relevant scavengers — that fits ANet’s themes better. But everyone competes for corpses and that works against cooperation.

So it’s not so much that it’s “flawed” as that it discourages people from teaming up, the opposite of what ANet has done with most other hearts, all nodes, event rewards, and most of the rest of PvE generally.

I just grab a ley organ, find a safe spot and use #4 to channel into a shrine. If you’re far enough from the shrine you can easily get 50% completion with just one organ. I don’t even bother with the other stuff. Just channel 2 ley organs and done. :P

I agree with the OP that it’s annoying and unnecessary. Even though there is a workaround most players won’t know it and thus many will end up frustrated. It’s simply bad design.

I like the map and the idea behind cleaning up Orr, but agree that this could have been implemented better in the spirit of cooperation— especially considering that using the ley organ gives much more progression that just killing things. It’s all a bit inconsistent, too: those fountains at Lyssa’s have a universal “cleased/corrupted” state, but the pollution clouds at Dwayna’s do not.

meanwhile i longbow all mobs around scavenger then i 100blades them on top of each other. heart done

Chadramar.8156:

I like the map and the idea behind cleaning up Orr, but agree that this could have been implemented better in the spirit of cooperation— especially considering that using the ley organ gives much more progression that just killing things. It’s all a bit inconsistent, too: those fountains at Lyssa’s have a universal “cleased/corrupted” state, but the pollution clouds at Dwayna’s do not.

Inconsistent is the word, right! At Melandru’s the enemy corpses despawn at a much slower rate than usual, whereas enemies at corpses at Grenth despawn very quickly. At Lyssa, I’m competing with other players to cleanse the fountains, but my completion of Reliquary nodes do not affect other players.

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

I can add to this.

While doing the Reclaim the undead thing, I’d take down some bodies, then go in search of a ley organ. Well, during that time, I’ll see another player just sweep in and Reclaim it. Pretty rude, honestly.

You can still reclaim them after someone else does if you’re referring to the melandru shrine heart.

This. In fact, it’s my typical way of getting through it. One person gets the kill, others reclaim, hopefully the person who did the killing gets the opportunity to reclaim the corpse as well before it disappears. Next up, someone else does the killing.

Frankly, I’m more worried about getting the story step at Melandru done once PoF hits and Siren’s is no longer the newest, shiniest map. Losing most if not all of your offensive capability when carrying an organ makes it a PITA to get the kill and manage to reclaim it before the body disappears, and the story step requires you to reclaim bodies (where at most other reliquaries, I mostly complete the heart by channeling ley energy.

draxynnic.3719:

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

I can add to this.

While doing the Reclaim the undead thing, I’d take down some bodies, then go in search of a ley organ. Well, during that time, I’ll see another player just sweep in and Reclaim it. Pretty rude, honestly.

You can still reclaim them after someone else does if you’re referring to the melandru shrine heart.

This. In fact, it’s my typical way of getting through it. One person gets the kill, others reclaim, hopefully the person who did the killing gets the opportunity to reclaim the corpse as well before it disappears. Next up, someone else does the killing.

Frankly, I’m more worried about getting the story step at Melandru done once PoF hits and Siren’s is no longer the newest, shiniest map. Losing most if not all of your offensive capability when carrying an organ makes it a PITA to get the kill and manage to reclaim it before the body disappears, and the story step requires you to reclaim bodies (where at most other reliquaries, I mostly complete the heart by channeling ley energy.

There’s are two spots where you can aggro a bunch on top of the scavenger. I’ve completed the heart a few times in single reclaim this way.

draxynnic.3719:

Losing most if not all of your offensive capability when carrying an organ makes it a PITA to get the kill and manage to reclaim it before the body disappears, and the story step requires you to reclaim bodies (where at most other reliquaries, I mostly complete the heart by channeling ley energy.

Using Skill #1 (Ley Line Blast) will temporarily unequip the Ley Organ bundle, thereby returning full weapon functionality. The bundle will be re-equipped shortly after leaving combat state.

Hope that helps!

Ojimaru.8970:

draxynnic.3719:

Losing most if not all of your offensive capability when carrying an organ makes it a PITA to get the kill and manage to reclaim it before the body disappears, and the story step requires you to reclaim bodies (where at most other reliquaries, I mostly complete the heart by channeling ley energy.

Using Skill #1 (Ley Line Blast) will temporarily unequip the Ley Organ bundle, thereby returning full weapon functionality. The bundle will be re-equipped shortly after leaving combat state.

Hope that helps!

That does make a big difference – I thought skill #1 expended the bundle like the other skills do.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I was feeling the same way, until someone showed me that I didn’t have to reclaim. Instead use the ley line organ #4 skill from a “safe spot” and let it complete its channeling. If you stand in the right spots, you can finish each heart with as few as two organs, regardless of what anyone else is going.

tl;dr I agree with the OP that the mechanic for reclaiming undermines ANet’s goal of cooperative PvE & I would like to see it changed. In the meantime, I use Transfer Magic.

This. Since Illconceived Was Na gave me that tip a couple of weeks ago when I posted a similar thread (thanks again for that!), this has been the only way I’ve done the Grenth renown heart. Stand within the circle of Champion wraiths, and you’re safe from interruptions during the channel. Also, reclaiming wraiths only works on living ones but not their corpses in my experience (in contrast to the Melandru heart and in spite of the description text for the Grenth heart).

As for Lyssa, I’ve never seen the place busy enough to run into this particular problem. But then, I generally just try to cleanse the fountain even while being attacked by an illusion. In my experience, the chance of getting dazed during the channel is low enough (and there are enough ley line scavengers around for the next try) that this is still a better strategy than the alternative of killing the illusions first and having someone else snatch the fountain away.

Re: Melandru – you can claim a corpse even when someone else has already claimed it. Still, I wish people would finally learn not to use knockbacks when someone has grouped up a bunch of mobs to AoE them down. :-(

Gudy.3607

Also, reclaiming wraiths only works on living ones but not their corpses in my experience (in contrast to the Melandru heart and in spite of the description text for the Grenth heart).

In regards to Wraiths at the Grenth Reliquary, you can reclaim

• Live, hostile Unchained Wraiths
• Live, friendly Reclaimed Wraiths
• Corpses of Unchained Wraiths

However, the enemy corpses in the area despawn very quickly (approximately 5-6 seconds, compared to the 4-second cast of Reclaim).