Guild Wars 2

I haven’t posted nearly as much ever as now on this forum because currently, I’m AFK. Since the new bosses have been tuned to discourage large groups and scales them up to ridiculous levels, players are asking others to stay out of the fight, and wait in the center of the Pavilion until the event is completed. So this is what I’m doing, at this very moment, instead of having the ability to enjoy other parts of the game, or feel like I am taking an active part in the event, the most helpful I can be is by waiting, AFK. And the boss mechanics of the pavilion seem to encourage it, the ideal setup would be for each group fighting the bosses to complete them at the same time. But there is no way to monitor how all the other groups are doing without some other kind of communication.

This seems to be common in this update. At the Zephyr Sanctum, I wait AFK at the finish line of the dolyak race, since I can’t complete it again to feel like I am contributing, I just stand there, and ALT-Tab to the forums, or wherever waiting for the event to end. The same thing for the other event, once we get up to over 100, I just wait until the timer runs out. I haven’t yet done the gauntlet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it also required waiting, twiddling your thumbs until it is your turn.

This is not interactive and enticing gameplay. And I’m still sitting still in the pavilion, even now, AFK waiting on the end of the event.

Any thoughts?

You’ve done your boss and now doing your service to the community by not making the other bosses that much more difficult. No problems there. If you get anything better than bronze then Bam! you’re a winner.

I understand that, and am willing to comply to help out the team. But, it just seems with these new mechanics that they have traded one bad habit for another. Zerg players, for AFK players.

I would rather have a mindless zerg (because at least they are somewhat contributing) than a bunch of AFK players.

play the tp while you wait? .. it’s not like you have to wait for that long.

If it was subscription then I’d be right there with you. I still shudder at how I thought about “wasting time” whenever I was standing still in a sub game. But maybe cheer your fellow Pavilioneers on, or go do some Gauntlet.

I don’t really have any hard answers. I guess its just down to how an individual player feels about it. I also just stand around after the Flying Dollys when I could actually be hunting down more crystals. There’s players in this game that like to stand around and chat so….who knows?

One thing to consider:

If you’re in a bad run, it may be better (lootwise) to just leave the instance (and forgo your rewards) and play other content than to stick around AFK doing nothing.

And even if you’re in it for the achievements, not the loot, it may be better to try your luck guesting into another instance.

You can always go do a Gauntlet boss or kill some veterans while you wait, it’s not like you can only kill the boss or wait. There are some other options.

zenleto.6179:

If it was subscription then I’d be right there with you. I still shudder at how I thought about “wasting time” whenever I was standing still in a sub game. But maybe cheer your fellow Pavilioneers on, or go do some Gauntlet.

I don’t really have any hard answers. I guess its just down to how an individual player feels about it. I also just stand around after the Flying Dollys when I could actually be hunting down more crystals. There’s players in this game that like to stand around and chat so….who knows?

Doing the gauntlet reset my credit for the events as if I’d left the zone and I didn’t get a chest for it, so that’s a no-go. Also, time is wasted just as easily in a BTP game as it is in a sub game. Time as a currency is different than money. Related, but not exactly the same.

It’s flat out boring and bad design to discourage people from doing ANYTHING in a place devoted to one event. I mean, at least in Labyrinthine Cliffs there are other things to DO. Even getting too close to an event can scale up the boss fights in the Pavilion.

Guhracie.3419:

zenleto.6179:

If it was subscription then I’d be right there with you. I still shudder at how I thought about “wasting time” whenever I was standing still in a sub game. But maybe cheer your fellow Pavilioneers on, or go do some Gauntlet.

I don’t really have any hard answers. I guess its just down to how an individual player feels about it. I also just stand around after the Flying Dollys when I could actually be hunting down more crystals. There’s players in this game that like to stand around and chat so….who knows?

Doing the gauntlet reset my credit for the events as if I’d left the zone and I didn’t get a chest for it, so that’s a no-go. Also, time is wasted just as easily in a BTP game as it is in a sub game. Time as a currency is different than money. Related, but not exactly the same.

Well that sucks. I’d been planning on doing some a bit later today while waiting. Looks like housework between Pavilion events again. There always more of that!

I think as you said the idea of the Pavillion is that all 6 groups will work together to finish at almost the same time. Whenever I’ve done it in a coordinated group people will call out their group progress every so often, and if one is lagging behind the others slow down so they can catch up. It only needs 6 people (1 in each group) to take a few seconds to type something like ‘boom boom 50%’ so it’s not going to seriously affect the fight.

As for the dolyak race and crystal collection events you don’t have to be standing right at the finish line. They’re like any dynamic event – as long as you’re on the map when it ends you get credit. When I’ve finished I go back to hunting for crystals. Earlier today I was right over on the far side of the map by the crashed ship wreckage when the dolyak race ended and I still got credit.

Ideally with the pavilion there should be very little downtime, with at most three minutes between the first and last bosses going down. Just enough for a quick biobreak, grabbing a drink, getting up to stretch and reduce those inconvenient bone spur growths in your spine (no, seriously, if you game a lot get an x-ray of your lower back). If you’re twiddling your thumb for 15+ minutes, you’re either in a terribly organized pavilion or doing the labyrinthine events.

Personally I don’t mind having the breaks. GW2 has taken up a lot of my time, a few enforced breaks every now and then to let me pursue my other hobbies isn’t a terrible thing.

There’s two whole titles in GW1 based on paying in game gold to be AFK. The wiki included metrics on the fastest way to achieve them versus the cheapest.

if you’re afkng during dolly race… you can help other dollys get to the end by spamming them with speed buffs/condition cures ..

something to do anyway :P

Patience = virtue

I’m afk right now. Waiting for some event, starts in 3 min. You don’t have to be afk, but I find that is what I tend to do. Go afk and read the forums. Do next event, go afk. Come back, etc. It’s the waiting for the event to finish that leads to this I think. It’s like wait five minutes, then come back, do something else for 15? Or just go straight afk for 20…

Ideally, all the bosses should be dead within the span of 15 seconds when the kill order is given. If not, it gives people time to farm the “kill 50 of _” achievements. The only down time you should be experiencing is the time it takes to reorganize and donate to start the next encounter.