Guild Wars 2

Ardid.7203:

DoctorDing.5890:

“Black Quaggan” – good name for a British real ale, or maybe an artisan cheese…

Imperial Stout, no doubt.

I am amazed that Anet has not partnered with a craft brewer to produce GW2 themed beers. Black Quaggan would be a wonderful name for an imperial stout! I believe there is one brewery producing some Game of Thrones beers. I would be interested in seeing a product like this…

I had no trouble killing it with a necro (no minions) on my first time. Later I used a guardian and partied up with hubby who was using a ranger. We had a horrible time trying to kill the Leyleecher and after reading posts about it I think it was continually healing off the ranger’s pet. We finally got it down but it was not pretty….

Amaimon.7823:

The idea is that you plan and prioritize your actions. Dont make the elixer without the intent of actually using it. If you aint got time to do the last instance, wait making the elixer for your next bout

I used a new character to go through a second time and made the elixir about 4 hours before reset so I only got 4 hours to get stuff done before it expired. The elixir should be on a 12 or 24 hour timer and not based on reset. I would have been really upset if I had done this just before reset only to find I had 5 minutes to get stuff done before I lost this buff.

Also it pays to figure out what all you need to do while having this buff so you can get it done in one go. I did the second character because I found out about the frozen cub you could thaw and get for your home instance. I had gotten the other achievements done on my first time around when I had 24 hours on the buff.

Off the top of my head the things you need to do while in that area are:

Take a torch and use thermal to get up to Mastery point area for the Mastery point and to thaw the cub.

Five chests for Thorough Sampling Achievement

Find the Quaggan for Quirky Quaggan Quest Achievement

Dive Master: Cold Feet Achievement

Story: Kill Champion Unstable Abomination

Aerinndis.2730:

I have an issue with the Elixir in regards to when you make and use it. I was going through the story again with another character and made the elixir this afternoon. It only showed 4 hours remaining (it was roughly 4 hours before reset). Not cool for this much effort to get a shorter time because I made and used it close to reset. Elixir should have a 12 or 24 hour timer. If I had not gotten the other Bitter Cold achieves done this might not have been enough time to get through stuff.

I would have been really upset to make this a half an hour before reset to find my efforts wasted…..

I can see going through this making it once but we should have another way to get the cold resistance if we would want to go back into that area. I wanted to go back in to get the frozen cub near the mastery point and finish the part of the story in there which is why I did this on a second character.

I have an issue with the Elixir in regards to when you make and use it. I was going through the story again with another character and made the elixir this afternoon. It only showed 4 hours remaining (it was roughly 4 hours before reset). Not cool for this much effort to get a shorter time because I made and used it close to reset. Elixir should have a 12 or 24 hour timer. If I had not gotten the other Bitter Cold achieves done this might not have been enough time to get through stuff.

I would have been really upset to make this a half an hour before reset to find my efforts wasted…..

Braham’s speech made me think he just bought a red shirt and wore it….

Don’t forget that 5 of the chests needed for the Thorough Sampling Achievement are in that cold resistance area so you want to make sure you get them while you have that buff and not have to work at getting it again.

Better yet, cats for the guild hall!

I always look forward to the Mad King and the Bloody Prince.

I especially enjoy the Mad King Says event and would love to see the dialogue on that expanded/changed each year for some more variety. Hopefully they will do this as it seems to be a very popular event.

I would also like to see new events with some additional lore involving these two characters and some more of their family like Estrella and Henrietta in future Halloween events.

Finally! The familiar looks exactly like my cat. He won’t let me put a hat on his head though, lol.

Ayrilana.1396:

How are those tokens required for progress? Have you done the LS2 ones that require some precise jumping? Any class can do the JP. Any race can do the JP.

It may not be so much “any class can do the JP. Any race can do the JP.” as it may be other issues that preclude one from doing some of the jumping puzzles. You do have to factor in folk’s computer issues/connection and personal factors such as real life handicaps that prevent them from accomplishing jumping puzzles. Folk should not have to delineate why they cannot do a JP especially if it involves a disability.

I think OP just would like to get the tokens for that particular achieve not necessarily “progress.” I was not happy about those tokens buried in a JP. Thank goodness for the kindness of the incredible mesmers out there that help folk who cannot for varying reasons complete JPs and selflessly help some of us get things like these tokens.

I initially called him Larry but everyone was calling him Steve so I started calling him that. Maybe Larry is a good name for him since Steve was taken.

I also checked the vaults (at night) and I followed Evon Gnashblade on his rounds to see if a cat showed up anywhere on the route or if he said anything but nothing…. I also saw a lot more merchants in the sealed off room. I also rode my broomstick and that triggered nothing… I don’t have the witch’s outfit so I hope it isn’t tied to that like the home instance cat familiar is. Possibly someone with that could try to summon their familiar in the vault and see if anything unusual shows up?

Thank you so much for this! A nice Treat this year!

I saw several devs in the Labyrinth when the event first kicked off. I haven’t seen any in LA yet.

He is just past the Mystic Forge. Walk around the forge as if you are going to the Gendarran gate and you will see him in the area with gates to the labyrinth etc.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Plot twist: there’s only one historian. He keeps slipping, slipping into the future (and the past), as a result of studying the rifts a little too closely.

Look for the Tardis in the back of the room!

On IP 235 the Help U.N.I.T. find and destroy the Inquest event is broken. U.N.I.T. is standing there with Wistt and the merchant symbol is up but the Inquest holding cell is also still up. The event appears to have stalled and those of us trying to get Giant Slayer have been unable to get into a new map.

I have had the issue of swapping out weapons only to have something go willy-nilly into a random bag instead of my invisible bag that I keep the stuff I don’t want to lose. Even if I have plenty of room in that bag it seems to happen. There should be a way of earmarking something so it either cannot be salvaged or sold unless unlocked or it automatically goes into the invisible bag.

Possibly when you put something in a specialized box you get the ability to check it so that it always goes back there until you uncheck it.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Alas, I have neither the Grumble Cake for the Necromancer, nor the soup for the Guardian.

Some day…

There are thousands of grumble cakes on the TP – last I looked they were 40 copper but folk were bidding no where near that amount. The soup recipe can be gotten if you have high enough WvW Provisions Master to open up those on the Heroics Notary. Of course you have to have a chef able to make it as well. Bowl of Curry Mussel soup is account bound as well….

This shows what it looks like. From this Reddit thread. Absolutely hysterical!

Boysenberry.1869:

Each heart only takes 2 minutes or less to complete. As long as the number of hearts remains fairly low then it isn’t too big of a deal.

The only problem I have with it is that I have to redo the hearts in order to finish my map completion because I was mapping before and after reset. Sure they are quick but I find hearts to be boring and redoing boring content is…boring.

I had the same issue where I had to redo the hearts because I did not have the rest of the map done by reset. It really wasn’t that big of a deal to redo the hearts and finish map completion for that.

I would like, however to see a bit of variation on what we need to do for the hearts if they are going to be repeatable. For example, collect so many valuable eggs for one day, collect pearls another day or kill so many animals another day or even collect ember apples (not 50!!) and put them in a basket for the heart guy. Little variations would keep them fresh and the heart person could even have a special relevant reward for that event. Also if a running tally could be kept on these type of events completing so many could get you a choice of something nice.

Repeating hearts could have a lot of interesting things going for them and they could be a lot more fun to do rather than rinse and repeat stuff.

I found other things to do while this was down and frankly needed the break. I totally understand things like this happen. I have been in other metaverses where this is common and no compensation is given. Stuff happens. It happened here and Anet did what they needed to do and let us know. I am glad they fixed it.

I was tickled to see stuff back up when I got up this morning and it is business as usual. I have hungry cats to feed!

See https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Bloodstone-Crazed-Creatures-Event/first#post6281605

I suspect they are by map/IP which makes it nearly impossible to figure out where they have spawned/died without someone on that map telling you they already killed it. I had one guy in a squad who asked over good half an hour plus for links to a spawning moa and no one in the squad had one pretty much after the first few minutes…… I got a ping from a squad leader which took me to a map with no event but thank goodness I was able to join her in her instance and get the beastie before it died.

Event definitely needs tweaking.

• edit*** Saying oooh terrible design gives them nothing to go on. Say what you had issues with and if you have any ideas on what could have made it better for you put them out there…. Giving constructive criticism goes a lot further than UGH BAD DESIGN ME HATE.

See also this thread which should be merged: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Bloodstone-Crazed-Creatures-Event/first#post6281625

This is what I posted on Dulfy’s guide

“Ok. My take on it after I did eventually get all of the beasties for the achieves.

The nodes were easy enough to figure out and find. The beasties were dependent on on three maps in their cycles within various IPs. It looked like they spawned Moa/Devourer, Arctodus/Shark and then Wyvern. No idea of how the timing of the cycle between them works but I did see some overlaps. Some saw the Moa/Devourer up but could not find any maps where they had spawned. (this was over at least a half hour period possibly more after they showed on Levvi’s Device)

Lot of folk went to squads spread over the spawn maps but the spawns were IP based so if someone pinged a waypoint you potentially could still end up in an IP that either had not yet spawned a beast or one had already died – no way of telling. I got to one map a squad leader had pinged only to find she was on another instance and luckily I was able to get there before the beastie died.

I like that Anet is trying different things. I think it is their hallmark that they are not afraid to try something and see how it goes and kudos for that. This one definitely needs some tweaks though."

I sort of like the idea of having to ‘find’ the beasties but the execution makes it really hard to get to where (which map & IP) you have to be in time which is incredibly frustrating.

Down side is you really need to know what IP the event is spawning in to get there. Being in a squad and someone just pings the WP and you can still end up in a nada map… Not good.

Very frustrating for folk who have to wait to get the next round and I have heard some vocal ones…. This needs a better design for figuring out where these beasties might be. Good try, Anet, for trying to do something different but the waiting and trying to figure out which IP/map the event is in and then the challenge of getting there before it is over is a bit much. Needs some tweaking for sure. The beasties die way before a lot of folk can figure out which IP/map to get to.

The bloodstone node search was straight forward and pretty easy to find. I just happen to get one beastie because I was in the same map looking for the node when the beastie popped. The others I relied on being in a squad with folk spread over the possible spawn maps. Even that was a crap shoot as someone might be in a different IP than the one linked that I ended up in. Thank goodness for being able to join another squad member in another IP….

For some this will be the “too easy” for others this will be “too hard.” For me it was just right. Shades of Goldilocks!

The images spawn in a semi circle in this order: Arctodus, Wyvern, Moa, Shark and Devourer so at least if you see the red spot you can sort of figure out what is up but good luck finding where.

A lot of folk are going to squads and spreading folk across maps so they can figure out when the spawn is to get there in time. If you get to a map with a lot of folk ask if there is a squad up checking for spawns. Folk have been great about sharing info as we learn about when they spawn.

Yes. Bit of a pain though. I have to try again to see if it shows anything underwater. The first time I tried it did not seem to work. Definitely some issues with this.

The images fade so quickly it is hard to tell what you are looking at. Additionally the image is buried if you are on any sort of terrain that is not absolutely flat. I tried underwater and it does not appear to work there.

Djinn.9245:

Ardid.7203:

I hated the extra button. Was it really necesary to add a new input, when a single “F” activation would have been enough? Please don’t use it this way again.

Also, the bloodstone constructs fought too close to the shards, so it was not clear how I broke their armors. It costed me 2 deaths to understand I had to use the beam against the justicar.

I also didn’t like the introduction of an extra button. They introduce it and then “surprise! now use it in a boss fight!”

Since I haven’t done raids I did not know about the extra button prior to LS3. Once I saw it I checked Options to see that it was mapped to keyboard " – " so I mapped it to a mouse button and the fights became a whole lot easier.

Djinn.9245:

FrostDraco.8306:

Ronin.7381:

I’m just getting sick of artificial difficulty in the form of chaining Knock Downs and Knock Backs. It isn’t challenging – it’s annoying.

You do know you can literally kite the justicar in a circle with a ranged wep without ever getting hit by her cc right?

It is very difficult to continually stay out of reach for the entire fight. I know, I know, L2P, whatever – some people don’t have skills as good as others obviously.

I certainly understand having difficulty staying out of reach especially if the fight gets drawn out. Some may not have the focus to do that and it is not always a L2P issue. Some fights are very challenging for me especially if they get drawn out. The last living story was a nightmare because of the endurance gauntlet it was. I simply do not have the focus for the extended period of those fights. Sometimes it is just having to learn the mechanics first and I won’t get it the first time or even the second time I try. This one I got lucky because I was able to figure out the mechanics on the first go round.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Aerinndis.2730:

I am just happy to get a birthday present. After all it is the thought that counts.

As long as it’s not another Queen Jennah!

Only if it is a Mystic Forge-able Queen Jennah!

I am just happy to get a birthday present. After all it is the thought that counts.

Menadena.7482:

You mean I have to get to the airship with everybody? I have only tried with one character so far but just assumed it was like HOT where only one character needed to do the pre.

Hmm, one idea: buy the scroll and have each character open up a waypoint there. It still seems like a waste though.

If that is the way you want to do it. You can easily get the unbound magic needed for the portal scroll which would get all your other characters in without having to replay the story on each character (at least up to the point of getting on the airship).

I did the story on 6 of mine because I did get nice rewards once I got each character to the airship and I did the exploration bit as well up to where you go back to the airship to talk to the Admiral. Only one character actually completed the full story line. I got BL keys and always got a rare for the stuff I completed. The only pita is the dialogue you have to go through to get there that you can’t cancel. So, yes the portal is probably worth it since you can collect that amount of unbound magic very quickly.

Library for books we have opened. Either in a Durmand Priory instance or in our home instance in a bookshelf so we don’t have those books lingering in inventory. I love going over lore or going back to reference something that pops up in the newer living story but hate having to keep stuff clogging up inventory to do so.

Portal Scrolls should have their own tab once you get them, again saving on inventory space. I suspect more folk would try to get those portals if they did not have to sacrifice the inventory space to have them.

Tonic tab. Definitely…. I would want/use a lot more tonics if I had a tab I could keep them in. Additionally we should have some way to convert some tonics into endless ones. Again saving on inventory space.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Regardless of the details in the fight, it’s the final battle of the new chapter. It’s designed to be slightly challenging for 5 people, not to be easy for one. If you are having trouble, use LFG to play with others or try a different profession and/or build to change the dynamics.

Lots of people have soloed it and lots won’t ever be able to. By itself, that suggests that it’s neither “too easy” nor “too hard”. It’s certainly less troublesome than similar parts of LS2.

I was surprised to find I was able to solo this one. There were issues with learning what to do especially towards the final battle. I agree not everyone might be able to solo this. Overall this one was oh so much better than the last living story. It was broken up into chunks I could handle before going on to the next bit. Maybe I was lucky or maybe this one was finally geared towards what I am able to do. I have no idea. I really liked how this story played out for me though I realize it might be too easy for some or too difficult for others. For once Anet got it exactly right for me.

I had one guildie who had all kinds of trouble soloing this so two of us helped him out for the final bits. Definitely say what area you are having difficulties in. A lot of folk are usually more than willing to finish the story with you.

Since recipes became account bound with this patch I would assume that is why your new character now knows all the recipes now. I can see with consumed recipes knowing those on other characters but I am not sure with the discovered ones. It sounds like it applies to those as well from what you are saying. If that does apply that does put a new spin on trying to level another character in crafting via discovery…. You might want to submit a ticket about that and see what reply you get. Sounds like crafting needs some tweaks.

PopeUrban.2578:

To be fair, the whole map exists within the, what, hour or two directly after a bloodstone exploded. There’s not enough depth in that space to pad out stories aside from the central plot.

Remember, the whole area was a hidden white mantle base which just recently exploded. That doesn’t lend itself to to depth of event storytelling you’d find in magumma, with its ages old native civilizations, or queensdale, with the daily lives of normal people going on.

The only things that make sense are a hasty pact camp, and crazed mantle directly affected by the bloodstone explosion running around.

Could we have used a little more variety in the floor events? Yeah. I thing the cleric shield event is a little overused. However, the narrative element is largely served by the state the map is in. It’s not a living slice of the world at this point. It’s the aftermath of a bloodstone explosion.

I’d imagine an Ascalon city in the hours after leoric’s shattering of Maghder would feel very much the same. A few lucky charr in a camp or two, and lots of kittened off ghosts running around everywhere for no apparent reason other than they happened to be there.

I have yet to see a successful cleric shield event. Most just wait until the timer expires and then kill the cleric. Usually there are not enough people to take out the seekers to drop the shield in the required time Mostly it seems they are otherwise occupied in the other ground events going on at the same time in the vicinity.

Overall, I do like this map. For me it is just enough within the story progression. I got a nice bit of lore and have some things to mull over in regards to the next story progression. What I had to do within the map/story is challenging enough for me and satisfying as I got it in manageable bits. I realize for the hard core players this may not have been what they wanted but for an average joe/jane player it might have been just right. Possibly a hard mode can be added for those who want even more challenge to the story.

The biggest plus for this map for me was it challenged my flying skills especially having to avoid the shooters and the balls of energy while trying to get at the unbound magic motes floating around. I really improved my flying tremendously. The other day when Verdant Brink was one of the dailies I was by the area with Bugs in the Branches and said what the heck and went in and did it. I got gold on first try! I definitely feel it was all the practice flying in Bloodstone Fen and really trying out my flying skills to a degree not afforded before. So for me the new map was a big win/win.

I am looking forward to the next story. I wish though we could get access to the Durmand Priory Basement without having to replay the story so we can get a look at the books down there as well as the Special Collections section again. I so feel there were/are some clues down there…..

cakemonkey.6347:

There really should be an easier way to get in once unlocked. Since the portal in Rata Sum that takes us to Rata Novus is now established as part of the living story should be easy enough to give an option to go to BF. Like the selectable portal in Divinity’s reach.

An item that requires map currency and then takes up an inventory spot is not my ideal way to handle porting in there and we don’t want to tolerate this because how long until we get more? People are already asking for better inventory management options like keyrings and toyboxes and tonic management.

Replaying those stories also isn’t appealing since we can’t skip dialogue and have to stand around watching them talk. As others have said earlier.

Since according to the story line you cannot get to Bloodstone Fen other than via airship, I can see why they did it the way they did. Eventually putting in a portal would make sense once things stabilized, I guess. I have to assume the current bloodstone instabilities create issues with portals though why they don’t with waypoints I don’t know – only an asuran could explain that one.

We should have a portal tab on our inventory that only portals we have acquired can go in so they won’t clog up usable inventory spots. I would assume most people are putting them in one of the shared slots so all their characters could use it. I would prefer not to clog that up with airship passes, portals etc. I got the portal for convenience but it is inconvenient in that it takes up one more inventory space.

This is the stuff I love in the game. Even if there is no intended use yet or ever, having areas like this to find are a real treat.

First post on finding the area.

Second Reddit post with pictures.

I really enjoyed this scavenger hunt which made me explore the map carefully. I did find the bulk of the papers on my own and only consulted Dulfy’s guide for the one or two out of each book that I could not seem to find. I had everything on one character so I did destroy the “unfinished” books and kept the completed ones.

I went back and read them in order and wow….. interesting info in those journals.

There was another thread about giving us a bookcase in our home instance so we could put the books there and re-read them when we wanted to which I really liked. That or once we had a completed book we could just go to an instanced section of the priory library and read them there.

I did not get this on my first try either but I did the second time. The first time I did not know how to utilize the green circles that he spawned but the second time I did. I have no idea if that is what helped me get the achieve.

I have heard others say they completed all the prior events as well as this one and did not get it and others have said it took several tries before they got it. Definitely seems hit or miss.

Either a bookshelf in our home instance so we can review the books when we want or an instanced spot in the Priory Library would be nice. That way we can read the books again when we want rather than having to keep them in inventory. If you opened the book in the story you can open it in the instance.

There is so little information to tell who Windall is aligned with. I am kind of hoping he surprises us once we find out what he is really up to. He could be a nice twist to the story.

From what I have seen the Asurans seem to love stealing each other’s ideas and work on a pretty regular basis. Since Taimi specifically mentions Windall over anyone else I think he has been more underfoot than the others.

I finding small things like this in the game. Windall may stay a minor character but it was fun to figure who he was and think about what he is up to. Hopefully we will get more clues soon.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I for one am thankful they added new Mastery points that I can get just by playing and doing things that I enjoy. I really disliked having Masteries in the adventures. Getting them meant I had to stop doing what I liked to go off and find something I didn’t like and do it instead. I’m not playing a game for entertainment to do things I don’t like to get points to finish up mastery lines that aren’t particularly useful to me.

Thank you ANet for adding Mastery points for simply playing your game.

I agree with this. I am glad for the additional Mastery points though I haven’t used them on the last two masteries I need because I wasn’t sure if we had any new masteries coming up that I would need them for. I liked how this one was done and it was very easy to get the unbound magic to get the flying skills opened up. I had that done the first day. This worked well for me.

Since there is no other portal to the area from any adjacent map and you have to pay the way point fee each time if you go into Bloodstone Fen. I usually go to my guild hall and way point from there as it is one of the cheapest options. So having the portal is probably a good idea. You can farm the 1000 unbound magic fairly quickly just doing a couple rounds of events and flying to collect the unbound magic in the air. Killing NPCs also gets a good amount of the magic as well.

JayMack.8295:

It’s in the first post. You don’t need to blow up the bloodstone. If you walk next to it, you’ll become ‘tethered’ to it.

Once ‘tethered’ to the bloodstone, use your special action key (the skill above 5) and then walk past her so that Adrienne is between YOU and the bloodstone (i.e. in the middle). The line of magic between yourself and the bloodstone is what you use to break her shield so keep her between yourself and the stone.

Hope that helps.

That special action key is actually – on your keyboard which you can map to a mouse button in the control options tab. I did that and it was a lot easier to trigger when it appears or I heard the sound it makes when it becomes available.

Yeah, he just might have a red shirt on him, lol.

I enjoyed the story a lot. For me it was just the right size to get through and feel like I had done something. The story was spaced out enough for me to not feel like I was going through a non stop gauntlet and I had time to figure things out.

I think my flying has greatly improved on this map as well. It has made me really pay attention to my skills and I feel I learned more flying here catching unbound magic than any other place I have been able to fly.

I enjoyed the exploration of this map and really like the event progression. For an average jane player this map really did it for me. The vertical areas are great to explore and I was able to get to the lower areas fairly readily. My only issue is the masses of shooters who can shoot you down half the map away. That needs to be changed.

The account bound recipes – major winner. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The infusions that were mailed back were an issue. I could still use those infusions on other characters who did not have any but my hubby has no spare spaces on any of his characters and is pretty ticked that he is out the laurels and has infusions clogging up his inventory that he can’t put anywhere because all his character’s have full slots. There should be a way to either trade them back for the laurels or trade some for the enrichment infusions.

He is definitely up to no good. I stuck around after the general offered transport to Bloodstone Fen and listened to conversations and the guided tour being given to the Councillors and at one point Windall suddenly says, “Nothing to report.” No one was around him at the time.

I am looking forward to whatever role he has to play! Could he be keeping an eye on Taimi for Phlunt or possibly Zojja? Or does he have more nefarious connections?

I got better pics of him while he was up and walking around.