Guild Wars 2

Well, I found it challenging for a bit, and did have to brute force my way through after making a few mistakes, but even that was very manageable.

For the people complaining about a lack of direction and instruction on how to do things like this, I’m not sure I agree with what you seem to want. Personally, I don’t want to feel like I’m playing in a tutorial when I’m doing the new level 80 content, and I don’t want the game to just hand me a walkthrough or manual on this stuff.

I think the game gives us plenty of information and visual cues that someone with gaming experience, patience, and thought can figure out and work through. They do explain everything you need to do, just not in words. They do it in animations, targeting recticles, descriptions of buffs and debuffs when you target an enemy, etc… To me, that’s the right way to do things.

Schwarzseher.9873:

misterman.1530:

All I know is, it’s bugged…naturally. Am still stealth, so can’t fight any of the Asura. They are all just standing there. Awesome.

Same happened to me. Simply forget that stealthpart and cut your way trough all the asuras. Its faster and more effective.

Yup. That it was! Thanks for the tip. Died a couple of times, but way, way less aggravating.

Piecekeeper.4361:

Well, I found it challenging for a bit, and did have to brute force my way through after making a few mistakes, but even that was very manageable.

For the people complaining about a lack of direction and instruction on how to do things like this, I’m not sure I agree with what you seem to want. Personally, I don’t want to feel like I’m playing in a tutorial when I’m doing the new level 80 content, and I don’t want the game to just hand me a walkthrough or manual on this stuff.

I think the game gives us plenty of information and visual cues that someone with gaming experience, patience, and thought can figure out and work through. They do explain everything you need to do, just not in words. They do it in animations, targeting recticles, descriptions of buffs and debuffs when you target an enemy, etc… To me, that’s the right way to do things.

Problem is, when you “figure” something out – a pattern say – and something goes wrong, at this point it’s a crap shoot whether it was your mistake or a bug. THAT is what is so frustrating.

Couple new mechanics with bugs is a recipe for frustration.

ThRoG.4870:

I did not call him moronic I implied that expecting people to learn at their rate or know something because they do is moronic
which is true and it applies to any body not just that one individual!
and as for the training wheels you just did the same thing by saying just thatXD

Not even remotely. “Taking off the training wheels” has nothing to do with your intelligence, but your willingness to learn and advance. I’m finding your arguments to be more about assuming and twisting what other people are saying rather than actually addressing the issue at this point.

Guess it’s time I follow Crovax out of this one.

ThRoG.4870:

Crovax.7854:

ThRoG.4870:

DragonflyDusk.6582:

ThRoG.4870:

No the horror is ANET’s complete lack of direction for these event’s, yes long term players can figure it out but there should be some explanation on the part of ANET as WHAT you do. It has always been a problem of theirs and needs to be fixed. That is another reason they have a hard time keeping people playing!

I am a long term player and I think that it is just not nice at all for new players, People should not have to wait for someone to put out a guide so they know what to do but Most People HAVE TO! mainly because of the LACK of DIRECTIONS!

I really don’ think this is a “long-term”/veteran player thing, so much as take a moment and observe what’s going on around the area. I found the execution to be a bit tricky, but I had no problems figuring out what it was Anet intended for me to do during this Living Story. There is a fine line sometimes between “clear directions” and “hand-holding”, and I don’t envy the devs that have to make that call.

That may be but I am a guild leader and most ppl DO NOT KNOW what to do as new players, it has nothing to do with hand holding it has to do with experience this game has ALOT to learn if you want to play properly and MOST of the mechanics are not know by new player so they DO NOT KNOW WHAT to look for!

I am happy for you being able to complete it but that will not be the case for the MAJORITY of players XD

As I said, this was the first stealth mission ever in GW2. Veterans were as clueless as new players. It was new to all players.

Which is WHY ANET should provide more DIRECTIONS with thier new content, Thk you for backing up my point XD

I for one DO NOT WANT directions. Personally I enjoy figuring it out myself! It was not that difficult of a mission. It was fun and I enjoyed it.

For people with a low stress tolerance and who are bad at timing – this is an absolute nightmare. I’m shaking from trying to get this just right, it’s beyond my abilities to get the timing it seems and there is no “get good” when you have a disability that makes timed events nearly impossible.

Thanks, Anet. This is the exact reason I quit Skyward Sword too. The “one mess up and you’re kittened” crap has ruined so many games for me.

Conski Deshan.2057:

It is very clear what you have to do, the instances make use of the basic teach mechanic 1 teach mechanic 2 then implement both into the boss fight. Prior knowledge is not needed as they are two new mechanics. To elaborate:

First 2 guards: Oh we were detected because we were in the field of sight and they turned hostile:
Lesson 1: LOS breaks stealth allows killing of guards

Lone guard: Guards can be knocked out from behind, switches can be interacted with:
Lesson 2: Guards can be knocked out from behind without detection

Room 1 : Implementation of the first two mechanics

Room 2: Golem, you try to interact with a switch, golem comes towards it:
Lesson 3: Golems are attracted to switch noises, Golems can detect you.

Room 3: Implementation of the mechanics just taught.

Boss room:
Stage 1: Get behind and hit while avoiding as taught on guard 3.
Cutscene Explains shield, shows shield being knocked out by generator to clue you in.
bonus for people who played silverwastes it’s the same mechanic Gold and Silver use.
Stage 2: Destroy one ahead of him (If it weren’t enough to clue you in they also show an icon above the one you should destroy).
Stage 3: Switches are now intractable, golems have appeared….hmmm sounds like room2, interact with switch in front of the one ahead of him ,golem leaves post, blow up generator, hit target.

Even if you completely fail to understand all the mechanics you can still complete it easily because you can just kill him if you break stealth. So it is pretty fool proof.
There is currently one glitch that locks your skills out but that has nothing to do with the mechanics of the instance.

While I didn’t like this instance, I do agree with you.

Though I can understand why people are having trouble with the mechanics. Everything else in the game depends on action combat except this instance. Think it is taking folks by surprise.

Aerlen, I’m out of game for the evening now (always am on Tuesday evenings) but if you’re around during the day tomorrow I’d be glad to help out. I want to take alts through anyway! I can play Caithe and do the inquest KO’s. I have no idea if the mobs will pay attention to a second party member, though, so we’d have to find that out.

I should be available by noon Eastern. I just have to go by 5 pm Eastern to get ready for evening tabletop. Let me know if that works for you.

Donari.5237:

Aerlen, I’m out of game for the evening now (always am on Tuesday evenings) but if you’re around during the day tomorrow I’d be glad to help out. I want to take alts through anyway! I can play Caithe and do the inquest KO’s. I have no idea if the mobs will pay attention to a second party member, though, so we’d have to find that out.

I should be available by noon Eastern. I just have to go by 5 pm Eastern to get ready for evening tabletop. Let me know if that works for you.

To save you some time; secondary members can get detected but they can also knock Asura out and channel panels. They keep their own skills when stealth is broken much like the other instances, so for the aggressive achievements or a simple run-through I’d put the lowest (AoE) dps as the opener or who-ever feels the least comfortable playing Caithe.

Props to you for offering help!

PS: Secondary members also can’t pick up items or use items such as Frostbow, small unimportant detail, but still.

I personally also think this is a wonderful instance; it’s easy enough to go through the instance just for the story. Be it stealthy or aggressive, it gets done. Yet leaves a wonderful challenge for the achievements. But I can see how it frustrates people.

This is hilarious. It glitched out for me but Faolain kicked everyone’s butts while I sat in the shadows — forced stealth — and danced.

Hopefully some mod will come and clean up this thread of all the idiots.

I too have the bugged scenario of being in stealth with no ability to interact with anything in the room and the really helpful instruction of “Eliminate attackers to regain stealth”

Sandpit.3467:

Hopefully some mod will come and clean up this thread of all the idiots.

I too have the bugged scenario of being in stealth with no ability to interact with anything in the room and the really helpful instruction of “Eliminate attackers to regain stealth”

I haven’t encountered the bug after playing the instance quite a few time (we’re bad at being stealthy :p) but there’s a new build incoming, surely it has the fix. Don’t think we have to establish bugs are bad… Though it’s not permanently bugged and the OP does seem to mention both bugs and difficulty.

Ok, so I’ve read the arguments on both sides. Some of you are a bit mean. We don’t all have the same skill sets. (Not ig, irl.)

I’m also one of those, who has a slow (red: old) PC and am a casual gamer, and I can’t manage the room with the asura and 3 golems. I’ve observed for 5 minutes, timing it just right, but even then the golems always hear me tinkering with the lock. I’ve even tried to open the lock on one side, luring the golems away and trying to open the other lock. No luck.

And I can safely say it is bugged, as whenever I die I simply respawn – whether I want to or not. I’m not offered a choice between respawning/exiting.

So I’m hoping for a fix or someone making an easier option, because I am not good with jumping, learning a set of brand new skills while being attacked by every red dot on the map and their mother (without the option of reading through them first, for f’sake), and apparently stealth. Though we could argue about this being proper stealth or not.

I am not amused, and definitely did not wind down from the stress of my definitely stressful workday. I can count on one hand the times I ragequit, and today was one of them.

Thank you, Donari.

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out! I got spotted and killed while trying to position myself in a way that would make the option appear.

So thanks Anet, now your buggy garbage cheated me out of finishing this hell nightmare. Please PLEASE tell me I can skip LS chapters so I DO NOT half to do this on my alts, please for the love of the six.

I thought this instance was fun; didn’t need any more explanation and I enjoyed the stealth elements a lot. Only problem was I had to redo it 3 times, because in the Vorpp section, I had a bug with invisibility. If I got detected, the invisibility would stay on, and I only had the option to heal and dash; no attacks to break the buff. I would have to restart the instance because they would be stuck on alert, and I couldn’t kill them.
All in all though, I thought it was great! Love to see Arenanet’s direction with this patch.

Spawne.3128:

I completed it on the first run through with ease. Took me about 20 minutes.

Then I can only presume that you lucked out somewhat on the final section. I found that getting the timing right was an absolute swine, even once I’d worked out precisely what I had to do, and what the (admittedly fairly decent) graphics clues that the dev’s have programmed in are and mean. And twice, even when I got everything right, removed Voorp’s shield and got myself into exactly the right position unobserved, I didn’t get an option to knock him out. Then, to add insult to injury, when I finally completed it, all my armour was broken from the constant deaths and restarts. (Why mine, for pity’s sake!?!? That was Caithe’s memory!)

Could have been fun. Really, really wasn’t. I could doubtless do it a lot faster on a rerun, now that I understand it, but even so.

(Oh, plus this story had one of my least-favourite GW2 mechanisms in it – drop the player into a fight with a totally unfamiliar skill set and no prior opportunity to work out what the different skills do. Thanks, Anet – there’s nothing I like more than desperately trying to stay alive whilst effectively mashing random buttons and trying to work out what each one of them does. Please – if you’re going to make me fight with a new character, remember that that character would know what they’re capable of. Making me fight as Caithe, with absolutely no idea of what Caithe can do, simply shatters any feeling that you may have been trying to build that I’m reliving her memories. At least give me a chance to see the skills before the fight starts. Anything less is, frankly – and I’m being deliberately polite here, because I doubt that the wording I’d like to use would survive the forum censorship mechanism – simply being a pain in the posterior and making things tougher for me just because you can. A classic case of breaking Wheaton’s Law, in fact.)

Edit: Having now done this a couple of times more, I have to concede that, if you have any familiarity with “stealth” games, it’s probably near-trivial. The problem is that, if you haven’t (as I hadn’t), the learning curve is pretty steep, quite painful and (in my case at least) very frustrating. Hey ho.

Aerlen.5326:

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out!

I had that twice. Kept going and finally succeeded – with every bit of my armour, but for one piece, broken.

Palador.2170:

ThRoG.4870:

as for the top right it does not explain to interact with wall panels to distract golems

Wait… what? If this is for the part I’m thinking of, then I failed that part trying to get it to work. I had no idea there was another way to go about it.

This one was not immediately clear to me as I happened to be in a spot where I could not see these panels at all. However, after figuring there was nothing to be done where I was standing I ran around a bit and saw an arrow popping up on my screen somewhere. Then again, I have been playing games long enough to know that usually something seems impossible only because you have missed something and need to look around a bit longer, but I guess people who only played certain genres of games, if any, up to this point might not have this reflex.

I ended up kiting them all through toxic caltrops

I kept hearing the solid snake stealth theme and alert sound in head when going through this mission XD

Doghouse.1562:

Aerlen.5326:

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out!

I had that twice. Kept going and finally succeeded – with every bit of my armour, but for one piece, broken.

I had a panic attack because my nerves cannot take unfair garbage like that =/

Aerlen.5326:

Doghouse.1562:

Aerlen.5326:

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out!

I had that twice. Kept going and finally succeeded – with every bit of my armour, but for one piece, broken.

I had a panic attack because my nerves cannot take unfair garbage like that =/

Not trying to be insensitive, but if a game gives you a panic attack (any game) maybe you should not be playing it/them.

Crovax.7854:

As I said, this was the first stealth mission ever in GW2. Veterans were as clueless as new players. It was new to all players.

Actually it’s the second (there’s a painful Ash Legion heart in eastern Ascalon), but this one is the first with its mechanics.

Being a fan of stealth games, I had no trouble whatsoever. Most of the stealth mechanics are a straight port of Metal Gear Solid/VR Missions, and it required all of the time it took me to approach the first enemy to figure out how to take him down unseen. If you encountered a bug or suffer terrible lag, I’d give you a pass; but really, I don’t see this one as that difficult to figure out.

Palador.2170:

ThRoG.4870:

as for the top right it does not explain to interact with wall panels to distract golems

Wait… what? If this is for the part I’m thinking of, then I failed that part trying to get it to work. I had no idea there was another way to go about it.

This is for the second part of the Vorpp encounter. You did use this tactic in the previous two rooms, but not as a distraction; I can see why people wouldn’t think to do it.

No bugs… got it

I took out all the asura but got caught by one of the bots. Attacked them, then for some reason Caithe stealthed again. I can’t get out of stealth, the other control thingy wont work, and I have to watch Faolain attack this dude two about half health before he magically goes back to full heath and they fight again. So… I have to start over… awesome

Best way I found for this part (at least taking out the asura) is to take out the ones at the nearest tables first. If you stand near the walls on the other side of the tables the bots can’t get to you… the rest is just waiting for the right time

I can’t even exit the instance to start over! All my armor is broken, no matter what I do I never have the knock out option for the second part – so I’m not sure what is going on in my game.

Any thoughts?

Mere.9352:

I can’t even exit the instance to start over! All my armor is broken, no matter what I do I never have the knock out option for the second part – so I’m not sure what is going on in my game.

Any thoughts?

Not sure what’s going on with the lack of a knock-out option, but if you want to leave any instance without completing it, simply go back to character select.

Random Wax Orc.7695:

The mechanic needed to do this properly seems to be impossible on slower computers. The Asura rotation and response speed leaves me with a window to act that is shorter than the time it takes to move-in and disable.

Caithe’s skills can also be infuriatingly erratic on slow computers… every freaking dodge, roll or tumble can lead to instant death when the timing of the action is +/- a second or two.

If something isn’t tweaked on this then I will have to forget the Living Story, just like those speed intensive holiday JPs.

The fault here isn’t really on ANet’s side…just saying. Caithe’s skills work great and as intended when played on a normal computer ._.

They gave you a free game (except for initial purchase) it’s your responsibility to see if you have the specifications to play it or not.

CMM.6712:

Aerlen.5326:

Doghouse.1562:

Aerlen.5326:

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out!

I had that twice. Kept going and finally succeeded – with every bit of my armour, but for one piece, broken.

I had a panic attack because my nerves cannot take unfair garbage like that =/

Not trying to be insensitive, but if a game gives you a panic attack (any game) maybe you should not be playing it/them.

Maybe anet should have a game that works then and isn’t a bug fest? An unfair, buggy mission is crap.

Aerlen.5326:

CMM.6712:

Aerlen.5326:

Doghouse.1562:

Aerlen.5326:

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out!

I had that twice. Kept going and finally succeeded – with every bit of my armour, but for one piece, broken.

I had a panic attack because my nerves cannot take unfair garbage like that =/

Not trying to be insensitive, but if a game gives you a panic attack (any game) maybe you should not be playing it/them.

Maybe anet should have a game that works then and isn’t a bug fest? An unfair, buggy mission is crap.

I don’t agree with the bug fest statement. They are usually really quick about getting a fix out for bugs. So let’s hear your example of what a non-buggy fair mission is.

I enjoyed the new mechanics/tactics and I hope there are more to come. Just because a player can’t make it through a mission doesn’t mean the mission is bugged or unfair, perhaps it is an indicator that player needs more practice. Just a thought, and again not trying to be insensitive in any way.

ainekitten.9517:

Between the bugs and the obscene AOE stealth breaks, there’s basically no way to complete this.

I think you’re doing something wrong. Note that the white vision fields can’t see you in stealth, but the orange ones can. Also, keep in mind that you break stealth for a second when you knock someone out. Golems move slowly and have circular vision fields that can detect you even in stealth. Disabling a panel will attract any nearby golems to come fix it. Most importantly, pay attention to the text on-screen. Between the green story text in the top right, the white pop-up text that tells you what’s going on, and NPC dialogue, you are told everything you need to know.

Engelsstaub.4356:

I had trouble when I needed to sabotage the fields “once more” (first time is easy). Whenever I was on 4th one, bots have already repaired the 1st. Couldn’t do it fast enough and there seemed to be nothing to prevent those mobs from repairing the shield.

But… this part had a second option – combat. Just reveal yourself. It’s a very easy fight and when it’s done, this part is complete.

You don’t need to disable all 4 panels at once. Disabling the panels distracts the golems that protect the generators, allowing you to sabotage a generator to deactivate the boss’s shield.

Aerlen.5326:

Maybe anet should have a game that works then and isn’t a bug fest? An unfair, buggy mission is crap.

I didn’t experience any bugs when I played it.

If anything, it was lengthy. As far as difficult? not at all. It did bug out during the boss room only once however – then restarting a 2nd time fixed it.

The invisible achievement was a bit tedious than the others, but only if you failed to take correct steps/actions and had bad timing. It took me roughly 5 tries to get all the mechanics of each fight down.

At the aggressive achievement, it was straight forward then. Before each fight, reduce numbers by knocking out the asuras via stealth, then raise <hades> and break the golems.

And I noticed pretty much zero difference with the challenge mote on, but failed the invis achievment during the same instance, so w/e.

The final fight could have been a bit better explained. I thought that you had to disable the batteries in order to lower Vorpp’s shield. When this didn’t work, I tried disabling 2, but that didn’t work either.

I eventually figured out through pure chance that you have to disable the battery shortly before Vorpp teleports to it. If you do it too early, it doesn’t strip his shield when he lands in it. Having Faolain give a hint on what needed to be done would have been helpful.

The first time I did this I was a bit confused on hitting the two side wall buttons before the golem turn the first one back on, stealth was easy I quickly found out about where I should be standing to knock out targets.

Then again I have play a few stealth games before so this living story was right up my alley. The only bug I can think of is that on my second character alt run I was standing too long (had to go to the restroom) where the boss rebuilt a generator on me causing me to get stuck in the generator, but yes it took a bit of thinking I won’t lie but I honestly did not have any issues after I understood what I had to do..

As for those that have slow computers I would suggest your turn your settings way down to give you more time to react, as I was able to with plenty of time between asura turning was able to knock out most of my target with plenty of time to spare. So if you were to turn your graphics down a bit it might help with lag.

CMM.6712:

Aerlen.5326:

CMM.6712:

Aerlen.5326:

Doghouse.1562:

Aerlen.5326:

I did try again after I’d calmed and after 30 minutes of failures and waiting, the RNG luck gods blessed me with knocking out Vorpp’s shielding a second time. I moved behind Vorpp to knock him out… and no action ever appeared, pressing F did nothing, no option to knock him out!

I had that twice. Kept going and finally succeeded – with every bit of my armour, but for one piece, broken.

I had a panic attack because my nerves cannot take unfair garbage like that =/

Not trying to be insensitive, but if a game gives you a panic attack (any game) maybe you should not be playing it/them.

Maybe anet should have a game that works then and isn’t a bug fest? An unfair, buggy mission is crap.

I don’t agree with the bug fest statement. They are usually really quick about getting a fix out for bugs. So let’s hear your example of what a non-buggy fair mission is.

I enjoyed the new mechanics/tactics and I hope there are more to come. Just because a player can’t make it through a mission doesn’t mean the mission is bugged or unfair, perhaps it is an indicator that player needs more practice. Just a thought, and again not trying to be insensitive in any way.

No Refuge. Which wasn’t easy but it was do-able. I didn’t encounter mission breaking bugs and mechanics worked as described. It was a challenge for me but one that I could adapt and succeed at. I actually enjoyed it so that’s what I’d call fair and not bugged.

So, the fact the “Knock Out” option didn’t appear for me near Vorpp when his shield was down was NOT a bug despite the fact it should have and hasn’t popped up for others when it should? The people who got stuck in stealth after being spotted were not experiencing a bug? The Golem AOEs being bigger than they appear isn’t slightly unfair? The fact there’s been a fix for one of those since this post says that yes, that mission had bugs. I haven’t tried it since the fixes though.

Also, I said before, I’m disabled – “get better scrub” doesn’t work in some situations. No amount of practice is going to fix my damaged reflexes. Having bugs on top of an impairment is insult to injury. I had to be carried through that mission. Usually I only have to resort to that in jps =/

Conski Deshan.2057:

It is very clear what you have to do, the instances make use of the basic teach mechanic 1 teach mechanic 2 then implement both into the boss fight. Prior knowledge is not needed as they are two new mechanics. To elaborate:

First 2 guards: Oh we were detected because we were in the field of sight and they turned hostile:
Lesson 1: LOS breaks stealth allows killing of guards

Lone guard: Guards can be knocked out from behind, switches can be interacted with:
Lesson 2: Guards can be knocked out from behind without detection

Room 1 : Implementation of the first two mechanics

Room 2: Golem, you try to interact with a switch, golem comes towards it:
Lesson 3: Golems are attracted to switch noises, Golems can detect you.

Room 3: Implementation of the mechanics just taught.

Boss room:
Stage 1: Get behind and hit while avoiding as taught on guard 3.
Cutscene Explains shield, shows shield being knocked out by generator to clue you in.
bonus for people who played silverwastes it’s the same mechanic Gold and Silver use.
Stage 2: Destroy one ahead of him (If it weren’t enough to clue you in they also show an icon above the one you should destroy).
Stage 3: Switches are now intractable, golems have appeared….hmmm sounds like room2, interact with switch in front of the one ahead of him ,golem leaves post, blow up generator, hit target.

Even if you completely fail to understand all the mechanics you can still complete it easily because you can just kill him if you break stealth. So it is pretty fool proof.
There is currently one glitch that locks your skills out but that has nothing to do with the mechanics of the instance.

This.

Stop crying and pay attention.

Aerlen.5326:

So, the fact the “Knock Out” option didn’t appear for me near Vorpp when his shield was down was NOT a bug despite the fact it should have and hasn’t popped up for others when it should?

Thats a bug. 4 times after I disabled his shield I got no “press F option” and it appeared only on my 5th try.

I think the bug has to do with character position detection and/or lagg. Because I have experienced this behaviour sometimes in other locations in the game, that the “press F option” does not appear and then it helped me to run away a few meters and then come back to the exact same position and then it appears.

Greetings.