Guild Wars 2

If there’s one thing I hate in MMOs is inconsistancy in quest/storylines.

In EQ2 and LotRO, I frequently started up a solo questline, only to end up needing a group to finish the questline at the end. Leaving me no choice but to either forget about the questline, or wait until I am vastly overleveled for it to stand a chance on finishing it solo (LotRO, at least, fixed this by making the entire Epic questline soloable in a later update and will keep it soloable from that point on).

Sometimes I would get lucky and find player or two working on the same step, but more often then not, I have to let it sit. Not to mention I do not like asking for help, as I only want to worry about myself. That’s not to say I won’t group at all, I just prefer not to….and I do want to do all the story mode dungeons eventually (done TA and AC so far). However, I want to do them for the story and I’ve heard of people getting kicked for watching cutscenes, so I am wary of attempting the others.

Anyway, my main point in this is that there should be consistancy in the ‘difficulty’ of quest/storylines, player number wise. If it starts solo (like…our personal story), it should stay solo throughout the whole quest/storyline! If you want it to be group required, make it group required the whole way through, not just at the end!

That said, I really do wish there was solo-option (lessened rewards are fine with me, as the story itself is reward enough) for story mode dungeons, Arah included. In fact, I refuse to do Arah Story Mode to finish what’s supposed to be my personal (read: solo) storyline until it has a solo option!

I had decided to do the gift gathering on my lowbie alt rather than my 80 warrior. Some high level (I think, I haven’t gotten close enough to see the individuals real level) is going around opening all the presents, spawning lv 69 skritt…which two shot myh lv 19 thief. Ouch!

If the scaling feature is malfunctioning with these presents, I am certainly not going to be ‘that’ jerk running around on my high level spawning mobs that will insta kill lowbies.

On Darkhaven he is bugged as well.

Some folks did the same here on Darkhaven.

I got some flak from players yesterday while attempting the puzzle on my main (a mid-sized Charr): mostly Asura players. When it was an Asura, I would quip along the lines of ‘Stop tripping me and I’ll get through this and won’t be in your way anymore.’.

Fortunately the complainers were only griping half-heartedly and usually laughed at my come back.

Beat it as:
Charr Warrior, no boost.

I finally completed this kitten thing and got the achievement (don’t care about the loot): I’m RELIEVED I don’t have to do it again.

AND I did it as a keyboard turner!

Despite my success, I ‘still’ think it should be tweeked a bit. As, ya know, I think of the other’s not as capable as I am, especially for a limited holiday event. I’m not saying everyone should be able to complete, just most….

Only 5% intended to complete this? Fine…if this was a perminent edition. It is NOT fine for a temporary, HOLIDAY event! Holiday events should be doable by most people….

Right now I can’t even get to the Clock Tower because all the pre-events for opening up the realm are bugged/stalled on my server (Darkhaven).

There’s a fine line between ‘challenge’ and ‘needless frustration’.

First off, I love the concept of this and I do like chatting up with the other players while waiting to try again. However! It’s a tad too hard for many people, myself included. After attempting it off and on yesterday, I still haven’t finished it. That there people blaming the larger character models for their problems is disheartening (though if the complainer is an Asura, I snap back that they need to stop tripping me).

Some background: My main is a charr, which is already a disadvanage as a some JPs are not charr friendly (hello Troll’s End…and any other JP that is in confined quarters). Despite that, I have completed most of the perminent PvE map JPs (one of the new ones and Dark Reverie I have yet to beat: the latter I have a special hate for but won’t get into here). I also have a minor completionist streak, and for limited time events I feel I have to get everything done (I even went into the PvP maps, and I hate PvP).

Now I don’t have camera issues on this particular JP, but all the other player models during the puzzle itself is distracting. Most of the time I fail shortly after the 2nd ‘start’ (who the heck thought that was a good idea in a TIMED puzzle?), like most people do. That part seems to be the determining factor of if you ultimately fail or not…as if you don’t get through it fast enough, you are kittened even if you do reach the top. That’s what happened to me: the ONE time I made it to the top (so far), I couldn’t proceed as the gas/acid/whatever had already consumed the platform I needed to jump down too.

That all said, here are my thoughts on ‘improving’ the chances of completion:

A: reduce the number of people jumping with you, if not make it a solo instance
B: Get rid of the ‘second start’ part. Have that part already up.
C: slow down the gas/acid/whatever just a tad (like 1%), to allow for ‘some’ mistakes.
D: or instead of C, have the gas/acid/whatever stop just below the second chest (the one you have to jump down too when you get to the top).

Final thought. If this was going to be in the world perminently, I wouldn’t bother making such suggestions. However, this is a limited time events and in my STRONG opinion, limit time events should be fully completable by MOST people with a little bit of time and effort. This JP requires more time and effort then I feel is necessary for a limited time event.

For the first time I definatelly noticed the DR during ‘normal’ gameplay.

I logged in earlier in time to do the Siege Weapon parts pre-event for the Shatter, then helped kill the Shatter. After that I went to Sparkfly and did the Krait and Tequatl events (for perspective, Teq spawned 20 mins after Shatter’s death). I don’t remember if I did another Krait event after that, most likley though, considering how often that one happens.

I then did three PS missions (Under Siege, Retribution and Forging the Pact). While doing those missions, I definately noticed the DR. I got some loot bags during ‘Under Siege’, but by ‘Forging the Pact’ I was pretty much getting nothing but porous bones, if I got loot at all.

PS missions were done over three hours, as by the time I was done with ‘Forging’ it was close to dragon time again. Since Shatty and Teq were due to spawn agian so close that time around, I chose Teq to pick on. While waiting I did do another Krait event (which Teq spawned right at the end of), but pretty much got nothing from it, loot wise. I didn’t take notice of the xp/karma amount for that or Teq (I didn’t think of it at the time), but I DID notice I got nothing but blues from the chest.

Now, I don’t go ‘hunting’ for events, but I do usually do them if I am in the area at the time (like if I am waiting for a dragon to pop), depending on the event. I do farm for fine mats, but I didn’t do any of that this time (when I do, I move around a lot, hitting different types of mobs in different zones). Kind of funny how I got hit with this the one time in a while I ’wasn’t’ farming….

I was wondering why I was getting a ‘this contect is disabled’ message on any Risen Grub I killed while working on hearts…

…in Caledon Forest.

Seriously? I get they need to fix a problem like this, but why do a loot lock down on mobs in a completley different zone than where the event this was targeting took place? There’s no need to punish those killing grubs that are not even connected to that event.

Still not able to get on: will keep trying…

Just says it cannot access the log-in server here.

It did say it lost network connection when I was initially booted. I was on Darkhaven.

Yep, at least the login server is down (likely game server as well, as I was just traving into a town when I got kicked). Please no roleback…..

I’ve had some difficulty in PS missions myself, though I have (so far) managed to get through them iwth only a few deaths in the more ‘difficult’ ones. (Charr Warrior, Vigil and very overleveled (in the fifties: not that it matters since you are scaled down…and I was a little undergeared for my ‘actual’ level))

“Set to Blow”
First part just had too many enemies, with respawns too quick and of course most of the NPC help died too easily (save for Forgal, he lasted quite a while). I was eventually over whelmed and had to respawn. I guess a bleed killed the last enemy needed to trigger the next part (the queen), but now I had the queen AND a bunch of minions to deal with. Fortunately, destoryers are not very social…and I was able to single pull the minions one by one with proper positioning. I still had Forgal by the time I had the queen by herself, though I ended up kiting her (dropping mines behind me as I ran), due to the AOE patches she liked to drop. Won in the end.

“Forewarned is Forearmed”
I did nearly bite it with the bats at the start, but I can chalk it up to not allowing Forgal to take his ‘share’ of the mobs. Having two jellyfish on you HURT, even with condition removing abilities, but that’s a flub on me for not guaging distance correctly to single pull with the one spear ability. No, the big issue I had was the mobs at the end: argoed on me before I was ready and would not break when I had to flee. Even after they killed me and I respawned, they came right after me again before I had even barely started to head back! I did eventually get all three mobs down…by grave zerging….(though I admit it was funny to see two Risen Sharks essentually out of water trying to kill me…in fact…I don’t think they were attacking at all…don’t remember).

“Killing Fields”
I spent much of my time either rezzing vigil NPCs, or kiting abominations. Then when I won…I saw the arrow cart I could have used that was sitting next to the Vigil commander (I forget her name atm) the whole time. Do’h…observation fail.

I have yet to get ‘far’ on my PS with my other toons to compare difficulty on other classes (though my norn Ranger did die once with the Jotan spirit battle). Not sure how ‘eager’ I am to find out with the squisher classes….