Guild Wars 2

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Lost City of Arah, Caudecus’s Manor and Twilight Arbor have been ditched upon death stuck behind large groups of mobs. If you haven’t successful gotten past the boss before the secondary waypoints are unavailable. Teq closest waypoint contested. Repair is a good distance off.

Don’t know when it changed or maybe I was unaware that items damaged aren’t penalized. So no there’s not anywhere I could name dying eight times.

Yeah it’s pointless.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

Got in a successful run, only broke the bar once. Had 20+ players and the damage was able to get him down fairly well.

Awesome, glad to hear it
Thanks for letting us know.

Any advice you care to offer those who are still finding this one daunting?

Yes actually the best advice I can offer is, park a toon in the cavern to the right side cavern that leads to Vinetooth Den. Safe spot to pop in and if you can see if the pylon event is progressing. So for me that almost always runs solo it made it so if VP is up I could hop down into the Den and fight it or run to the current pylon to assist with event leading up to VP.

Second stay as close as you can to the VP so more people can still lay into him after he leaps with little repositioning.

With some patience it should happen, just park a toon you can forget about for a week or two doing anything other than the East Meta in AB. So if you miss it there’s still some loot to be had.

Got in a successful run, only broke the bar once. Had 20+ players and the damage was able to get him down fairly well.

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Only time I’ve found this a problem is usually dungeons or maps that have real sparse waypoints. I don’t die often, but when a death means you miss out on boss loot or dungeon content since the group doesn’t want to come back to get you through respawning trash it’s problematic there.

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Same her I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 100+ of those. This is more an option to allow you to keep moving not so much make you backtrack from a waypoint.

I’m aware of it, that is why I wouldn’t want this to be instant, but an option that players could stock up on for dungeons or events where vendors are in short supply would be nice especially when you still have to repair after a rez.

I would like to see a purchasable repair kit that has a cast time or debuff to use. This would be a great option to allow repair vendors to sell something useful. It wouldn’t be an instant repair but it would give players a benefit in dungeons and so on where repair is sparse or really inconvenient. Given the sparse availability of repair vendors it would be nice to only have to waypoint once or not have to waypoint after being res’d instead of waypointing twice or needing to port to vendor in many instances.

Yes there are quite a few I found frustrating or more correctly infuriating when trying to achievements. If this is what you’re talking about I completely agree that it’s a bit too much for some professions. If it’s just the long drawn out fighting the boss over and over until you either complete the task or give up this is why I only ever play the story once most of the time since it’s no fun dying over and over for a story. Absolutely hated the fireworks shows of the final boss fight in Lake Doric. Actually had to get an mouse program so I could actually track my pointer. It’s made life significantly easier in game. Also Anet has a really bad habit of making aoe effects not very visual. And the fight in the Silverhand Mission to start Siren’s landing is utterly ridiculous. I had to go to the WIKI multiple times, this is a poor workaround to bad tutorials. Last fight in Draconis Mons let you work through each mechanic separately then added them together for the final fight making it more forgiving.

I would like to see no reflect added to the weapon (like the necro’s axe) with the trait. It would make sense to me that a ranger should be proficient enough with range that it could fire arrows with a LB in this way.

We should get a Mad King Mirror glider skin.

I have a mixture of both.

I found this build with staff has been pretty solid with good burst.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWhUMonhtMwkB0RMIAY1msJeGiAQB4BIXySQKA-TxBBQBwUJYe0B8Rlf4Q9HAcBACwDA4f7PAA-e

onevstheworld.2419

I like that plan of attack, hopefully I can get a group together to get it done. It was at 2% that last time when time ran out with about 7-8 players.

maddoctor.2738

That would actually make scaling the problem. You can’t expect 20 players to coordinate what five can, that’s not how bigger groups operate in large events. It also prohibits wanting more player coop which in HoT is usually a death sentence for events.

I’ve been in small and large successful DS meta, they are a blast and the more you have the easier the content gets. This should be the same for the Vinetooth Prime given that the Revenants Ascended shield and a mastery point is tied to this particular boss.

I will have to keep trying, but given the scaling problem this may be a catch 22 since activating the beacons to start the Vinetooth Prime require a group.

If scaling is the problem then Anet should tone down the scaling to make the event better for many players not just a handful. I mean HoT is about grouping up?

First off why is it’s defiance bar soo difficult to break?

For this being necessary to control the fight this mechanic doesn’t scale well, nor does it give time to break compared to practically most fights.

Instant down attack, there’s not evasion or avoidance of this attack that downs any player of any health gear or abilities without any attempt to fight back. Second because the leap is soo far it takes players out of the fight to break the breakbar. I have yet to see this event defeated…

Two changes that should happen, one increase break bar uptime. Limit damage of attack not to auto down player. You can bind them and kill them, but auto downing means the players loses all their cc to assist in breaking the bar.

I’m not sure which will actually be best. I have one for condi and one for power, figure after some play I’ll get it figured out. For condi I found the axe during the demo the better weapon than the dagger. In it’s current state the dagger isn’t going to get much play.

Nightmare is better, but takes time to collect. Krait is a good stand in until you get the Nightmare runes.

I think world bosses are fine in their current state. The lower teirs are designed for players of lesser levels, traits, specs, experience, and gear. So they do need to be somewhat less than the end all be all. So for comparison I’ve seen wipes on world bosses when populations were way low even with HoT. Most require about ten or more players and that’s not terribly too far off, and they scale up as more players enter the fight so they aren’t too weak either. I’ve seen quite a few wipes on Teq even with 20-30 players. So as the level increases so does their difficulty, if anything I would like to see at least one per map this would allow players to face a short time world event instead of long drawn out meta that can consume a lot of time.

The gyro should have never been a pet/ minion. They should have been buffs the tiny gyro around the scrapper gave you, instead they just turned out to be a mindless minions you summon.

From playtesting the demo axe was a better mainhand than dagger both for stacking conditions, damage, and versatility. Axe/torch was very strong. My guess is that most will drop the dagger for an axe unless there’s a lot of projectile hate. For power I’m not sure but almost willing to bet the greatsword will outshine the dagger.

I probably would have agreed with you a few months ago, but since that time I’ve gotten all but the ascended shields from HoT in about a months time which I should have the shields done within a week. Not to mention three or four ascended weapons from Teq. LS maps make back, pendant, accessories, and rings to get to ascended easy. Also would add I’m super excited for Soulbeast as my ranger has really suffered in HoT. If anything I’m happy that PoF looks like it’s not the mastery grindfest of HoT with overpowered mobs.

There’s a lot to do, join a guild if you need help getting there. Many are recruiting and active.

It’s a remnant from when armor repair was both a WP and paying for repair. I’m not against the idea of repair making sense, but given how spread out most repairs are it can be infuriating to spend a half hour to reach a spot on the map with no nearby repairs so you have to WP repair and WP to get near your location. So what if the trade off was a repair skill needing you to buy a kit but instead of instant repair you’re required to spend a certain debuff repairing gear to fix it. This would make it so you still wouldn’t want to die, but it wouldn’t make you travel to multiple waypoints to get back to Meta’s and events which if you lose out cause you WP’d to get back in the fight will ruin your day. I’ve lost out on events and loot making the mistake or being teleported to a different server same map and losing out on all earned content.

Without knowing which actual map you’re missing the POI on I couldn’t advise you on where to find it. Look at the map and check to see which map you’re missing the POI from there you can narrow it down.

There are a few that easily get lost behind WP’s and other icons on the map.

Given HoT’s current state and some of the effects of both mobs and maps, here are some suggestions to prevent HoT from pushing the newer player base away.

Mordrem Tormentors: Their torment shouldn’t follow you it’s a projectile no turning in mid air to hit you at the last second which is both frustrating and incompatible with game mechanics. This leads into a second problem even on successful dodges with a successful evade showing up on screen still getting hit by their torment condition as though you never dodged it.

Mordrem Snipers: Their ground effect needs to be greatly reduced in damage for basic mobs. It not only hits when it’s not visible on the ground (yes this happens a lot all over HoT) it also defies elevation.

Mushroom bombers: Treating their bombs as projectiles reflect, block, and other defenses should work meaning no AOE at your location like all normal projectile AOE’s when blocked.

Beetle’s charge in VB: This again works just like the Tormentor where even when you’ve moved clearly out of the path the beetle drastically and quickly hits you no matter where you are related to the charge. I’ve been hit even when behind the beetle.

Pocket raptors: Their ability needs a range limiter, I have been killed in both Draconis Mons and AB when the raptors are farther away than 1200. It should be a close combat attack meaning you can’t get hit if there’s more that close combat range between you and where the raptor lands. Second their numbers or health needs a retweak as they take mass amounts of damage to kill in AB.

Rolling Devils: Basic mob needs a smaller defiance bar similar to what it is in Draconis Mons.

Chak Lobbers: Needs to be a limit on stacks of their acid, mastery can’t be the only measure of dealing with it.

Lastly if they are to act as though they have berserker gear then their health in general needs to be cut to be more in line with that type of gear. Basic mobs shouldn’t be massive health sinks artificially dragging out content. High damage or high health not both for a basic mob.

This has a lot to do with your play preference. I like ranged and to hang back in a fight vs rushing in. Depending on the class some are very strong at range others are better suited for the up close and personal. Mainly gear/stats and build matters on what your toon will be good at, though Anet’s focus on Meta building is taking away from this. The major difference with GW2 melee vs many other MMO’s melee is that other games are more passively driven on defense. For instance WOW my tank would parry, block, and dodge all without active input, but this also meant my defenses weren’t something I had to time so combat felt less active and more static. I was just watching for cooldowns and threat meters. It really doesn’t feel as interactive as GW2, but that is the trade off. More interactive combat or less interactive combat.

Strangely I had forgotten about the passage through the southwest corner.

I’m still of the opinion that meta limiting access to crafting materials, especially in DS where it’s the only way to get map currency was a bad design decision. The event require lots of time and LFG is basically the only way to get into one that succeeds, which is never explained even on the WIKI I didn’t find anything about LFG’s needed for Meta in DS.

This is more a pet peeve than anything else, if the Meta of HoT maps is going to rely soo heavily on LFG then Anet needs to put map full tags on groups. The players shouldn’t be expected to monitor this like they could really know when the map their on is full or that it should be something they monitor. It would significantly improve LFG for Meta events if you could by looking at the group know when their map is full instead of playing musical LFG’s trying to find one that isn’t full.

onevstheworld.2419

In my experience with this mastery, I’ve seen no change in fighting chak mobs. The classes that lack a damage sink (minions or pets) to soak up the acid attacks are still torn down quickly. Simply put, by tying it to evasion it limits the benefit of mastery.

The veteran lobbers have both a large area of effect knockdown and quickly stacking acid in addition to insane lifebars. Ambushers have massive damage attacks that without evasion will tear down most classes.

I get that Anet doesn’t think it’s worth their time to balance HoT content, but every time they add balance changes to the game they’re unintentionally buffing this content.

I’m of the opinion HoT maps would have been fun if Anet hadn’t made the map exploration group mandatory. If you have to avoid a champion here, or use a backway in there the maps would have been fun. Instead they tied the exploration to the Meta. To even make it to Dragon Stand you must make the Meta event of Tangled Depths. And then to further lock stats behind the maps unique items and currency further limiting players access to needed stats Viper, Trailblazer, Wanderer’s, and so on. So why is Trailblazer’s soo expensive, because the Maguuma Lilly is extremely rare and it also requires a charged crystal that can only be made one per day and the Quartz Crystals have very few locations that can be farmed. These are never or extremely rare to gain from salvage. They could control prices by not severly limiting mats but like with Hardened Leather which is now accessible by way of Meta. Basically everything is tied to long drawn out events that limit accessibility and play.

So basically you have to give up evasion and dodge to control the acid? That doesn’t make sense for a mastery. Usually a mastery is something you gain not a tit for tat choice.

They really don’t want to introduce flying, it not only makes maps less populated than they already are. It also would ruin Meta events and other map specifics that are intended to prevent mindless travel. Flying mounts in WOW forced Blizzard to force players to play all the maps without flying before obtaining the flying in those maps. It became a gold sink and really detracted from gameplay. Waypoints solve the long travel issue that flying mounts covered in WOW.

Exactly what is this supposed to do? So far nothing! The acid still stacks crazily and does tons of damage. So if it’s supposed to control this condition, so far the mastery is pointless and costly.

I can give you two scenarios that mounts are always helpful. Farming nodes and map exploration. In both you’re not really Waypointing around and the mount will increase efficiency. So they have a place for people who do both.

Cool. Thanks, that will help with future groups still need the Bo and Torch.

Vayne.8563

Yes there’s a lot of info that is missing from ingame messages or training.

I forgot to add it also took two Port to Friends to get on the right server for the DS map I was in group with. If I hadn’t had those I wouldn’t have been able to get to the right DS map.

I was playing the PoF demo hoping to test the new specs or at the very least play them a little. I can’t try the new elite? The HP aren’t awarding points and the path isn’t open on my demo toon. Is this by design or is there something I’m missing?

Zet.9130

Even though I’m disappointed with the system, I still bought the Ultimate since it’s the same cost as the normal with the cost of buying 4000 gems which you get. It’s worth it if you buy gems, otherwise I wouldn’t wait too long, HoT actually got worse over time. It will be the most fun to play early vs late.

Ashantara.8731

Yes that had already been brought up. And yes got my Dark Harvester in my first LFG through there. I still think Anet should provide a tooltip about LFG for DS so players that go there hoping to get started on the area aren’t put off by the lack of people.

After further investigation in the Demo, not only is this terrible it’s a gold sink. You get gear worth less than the identification process. So unless they’re going to up vendor loot reward or reduce the cost of ID this system is really bad for players.

Unidentified item worth 1s 6c and identified for 1s 68c, you’re already cost wise in 2s 74c. Now to get a 68c item (which is what happened in demo) you lose 2s 6c.

They either need to make Identification a 3c option making it line up with scrapping, or these items need a quality marker. I would be OK with a white, blue, green, exotic, and ascended (if they’re possible through this loot) that stack up, it’s still max five slots for 250 items of each quality.

For me this currents system is going to greatly reduce daily income and scrapping.

I kind of have to agree that compounding rng on rng is really going to reduce chances of better loot unless the loot is tagged at it’s rarity before the second rng.

The Meta was fine, it’s the hard reset that limits player interaction that is a problem.

I’ve done the Meta and used to just pop in there and could at least hit a populated map doing progression. With the reliance on LFG to fix issues with both the mega server and the hard reset. It’s actually reduced players being able to play the meta. You can be in a meta and then die and to port to a WP if you’re not grouped it removes you from the meta just like a dungeon would. Second problem is catching up with the mass can be nigh impossible after a death even if you’re still on the map. The central gate that opens is never unpopulated by powerful mobs, there’s even an elite at the opening. There is no WP or shortcut to catch up, except for port to friend.

So now it’s a Dungeon? Needing LFG…

It’s a map with vistas, POI, rewards for map completion, and so on.

This isn’t normal structure anywhere else in the game. Then it relies on 3rd party to actually do the map? That makes the game incomplete.

I’m not against shifting to LFG, but given Anet doesn’t explain any of this in game is really an issue. There needs to be an option to work on map completion not just Meta, but as pointed out 305 players means two playable zones and five players that can’t play as they go, which if I remember correctly is what GW2 is about?

VB, AB, and Tangled Depths don’t prevent exploration and content collection to this degree. It should be scaled down to a small group, this would also open up organic map progression with players able to work on map material without needing a huge mass of players in one place.

I’ve beaten world bosses with 20 or less. So why must this map be soo restrictive?

I have been to Dragon Stand on and off this entire week and yet every time I arrive the maps are empty and nobody is even there except maybe a couple at the first camp. Once in a while I see another player running solo. Here’s the problem the Meta isn’t being done at all…

What use is a map that you can’t even accomplish events when you’re sitting there all alone. It may be necessary that at the hour left to reset mark to change the mobs to something a solo/ small group can handle it. I would prefer the solo be in the works so events can start early, it would also encourage people to just to start doing events. There will be an influx of players in the expansion that bought HoT but that isn’t going to be their focus with new material.

There is recipies, gear, and other goals to complete there, can we please get a playable upgrade to the map. The other HoT zones so far haven’t been so far gone with small pops but they could use a scale down to LS3 material to prevent the areas from becoming dead zones.

I have a few achievements that should have been doable over my week off. But a dead map is a dead map.

There are Legendaries that are easier than champions. There are Champions that are easier than veterans. There is elite mobs that are more powerful than all three!!

Tags should gage damage and difficulty, yet there’s zero balance in game on this.

For example the Champion necessary for the Ascended warrior torch is significantly more difficult vs Drathor the Drill or Pirates all over Tyria which are needed for equal Ascended weapons.

There shouldn’t be such a drastic hamstringing of item quests for some professions vs others. The elemental needs to be normalized on damage. In the third stage it’s literally doing 50% or greater damage per hit and you don’t regain dodges fast enough. The group of charr that are there are pitiful at best or completely useless. A necro can singlehandly wipe the floor with Draithor with decent evasion skills. And seeing the massive damage and swing of the shaman explains why hardly anyone ever kills it.

Now the shaman may have been far more manageable early on in HoT but the PVE balance changes to minimize healing and damage mitigation has made the boss drastically more powerful.

Iceman.9074

Best bet is to hit the Wiki and cross check maps. I had to do this a lot since some points are not always shown even when the map is opened up.

There does need to be more info in the game, not just a reliance on Wiki. For instance getting your first Ascended weapon should give you access to a tooltip or even a page that gives you info on changing stats and whatnot for weapons, armor, rings, amulets, and accessories. They could make each one a separate page or note that is either mailed or picked up with the item. You could even do an ingame manual that gives players access to this. Or even an NPC in the city that explains these that sends you a letter to visit them. Would make the world a little less confusing.

FogLeg.9354

Small correction, three LS3 maps actually did this. The ley line charge of the glider in Bloodstone Fen and Lake Doric also wiped minions.

They’ve already used this mechanic with a few items and I absolutely can’t stand any of them. They’re too different from normal toon play. If they were more fluid like your toon it would be alright, but most are painfully slow to react and control. This is the reason I never use the golum suit elite for asura.

It’s all about timing. One or two of the updrafts are backdropped by the waterfall which does make them hard to see it gets easier each time I do it. But if you use a leyline boost it can get you high enough to get up there.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT3fnUqAVsgNsA2CCctgh9gyD+jP53bPAO7vDK3KokpNG-TBSBwAo0NQ5gAcV5nZlgPuAA3U/55+DAeCAAA-e

Axe is for groups and the longbow for single target. According to the tooltips the new elite is condi based, heavily condi based. So I’m going to work on Viper or Trailblazer gear, just not sure which will be best that and get used to a short bow again.

Power build do open world mostly. Liked the new zone it was fun just playing a ranger without the projectile hate.